Chapter 142 (1/2)

77th Floor → 95th Floor

The sacred beast compressed its body and laid its dozens of tentacles low. It bowed deeply in that manner. It was hard to find a more polite posture than that. It was a rare experience to discover how polite a tentacle monster could be. Nate and Hibiki had their jaws dropped with shock, and Euclid looked at me with a gaze that seemed to ask me, ‘what the hell are you?’ Genograche also leaked telepathy, meaning ‘Huh…’, as if he had never expected that kind of situation to occur. A heavy silence broke out. There was no reply because of everyone’s bafflement, but the tentacles seemed to misunderstand it as unpleasant. It flattened its body wider on the floor like an octopus, minimized the space it occupied, and then delivered an apologetic mental wave.

– Once again, I apologize with all due respect. I didn’t, for a moment, recognize your grace.

‘All sort of things can happen here, huh.’

I couldn’t simply pass its words off with a simple remark like, ‘Alright, you better do your job properly from now on!’ There was a thing that bothered me, too.

“One thing…”

The word to follow that phrase was ‘I have a question,’ but the tentacle monster replied in a hurry, its body trembling as it did so.

– Do thou require anything?! Just name it. I will provide everything with sincerity. Are you running out of food? Then!

Rattle!

“… Gasp!”

Hibiki swallowed her breath, appalled. It happened in the blink of an eye. Dozens of chopped-up tentacles rolled on the floor. It used the same speed that cut the locks and chains off of the door. Like a lizard that cut off its tail, the sacred beast cut off parts of its own body. The tentacle immediately regrew from the smoothly sliced surface.

– It’s not much… But if you would like to take this to eat…!

Genograche looked serious.

– No, thanks! Why would we take such sacred power clumps? You’re even a higher class entity than the sacred beast buried under that pond!

While I was about to reply that I didn’t need it either…

“Wait! Wait! I’ll take this then!”

Euclid hastily gathered all of the tentacles into a subspace bag. Well, a sacred beast’s body was not an easy ingredient to get, even if one didn’t necessarily eat it. I shook my head and continued my thoughts.

“Well… I think she wants it, so I’ll take it, I guess… But that’s not what I was going to ask. It’s just a simple question.” – Yes, ask me anything! “Is it because of the holy wound that you became aware of me? Or did information about a particular individual, called me, spread to all of those who serve the magical god?”

I had an ominous feeling that it might be the latter. What if the spider god had gathered believers and the sacred beasts and gave them an oracle?

‘There is a man named Seo Jin-Wook on Earth. He will be my incarnation in the future, so pay your respect in front of him!’

… I really didn’t want that kind of fame.

– Oh, that’s…

However, I didn’t think that was the case, considering the answer he replied to my query with.

– I’ve never received any particular oracle about your existence. However, I can see from the traces left on you that you are the one who has received the deep interest and affection of the great being.

It was the former. Thinking that that was at least a relief, I asked one more question, though I could already guess what its answer would be.

“Then, in the future, any other party can recognize me in a similar situation, right?” – I should have noticed it sooner… I am ashamed that I didn’t recognize you immediately.

Since it realized that I had a connection with the god of magic, his replies seemed to have begun to start with apologies. Well, I didn’t particularly mean to… nag it about it. I looked down at my finger. On it were the remaining two sacred scars given to me by the spider god. After the tutorial, I was going to erase it anyway, but there was some unexpected use for it as well. The tentacles continued to explain itself.

– For me, since the divine trace is from the one that I closely serve, I can detect the fact that there were originally three sacred wounds. In addition to that, those who serve it at lower levels, such as priests, can also sense the holy wound. They will show you the utmost respect that can be offered to the beings of Earth as I have now, regardless of how many holy scars there are left on your finger.

Nate spoke with admiration in his voice.

“Woah, so in the end, you will be treated like VVIP by the people in that religion? That’s awesome…”

Still, it was unknown how often such things would happen after entering the main quest. Anyway…

“That means that the holy scar isn’t that common.” – That’s right. I will put it in a way that would perhaps help you understand it quickly. There is only one holy scar on the archbishop of the dimension that the faith serving the great being was most widespread, and it was received in return for hundreds of years of sacrifice and service. Not to mention, its size and divine power are also shabby compared to what the great individual in front of me has received. “…”

Was it that bad?

– Huh, seriously.

The devil’s sword sent a sarcastic mental wave.

– After starting the main quest, all you’ll have to do is go to an adequate level and raise your fingers for everyone to see. After that, then you would already have a status as a religious order leader reserved for you.

Nate’s eyes got bigger.

“Then, will Jin-Wook become something like a pope?!”

I dismissed that idea.

“That will never happen.”

I remember what the Albanos babbled about. They said that if an ordinary mortal were to receive three holy wounds… his entire body would’ve been turned into a mucus-like substance. And the reason why they didn’t believe me was exactly due to that reasoning. I mumble internally.

‘This is strange.’

Listening to the story of everyone made me feel convinced. There had never been a case in which a divine being had shown such favor to only one human being. I was the first. Was it because I was special or because I was the successor? The spider god also said the following at the second possession:

‘I see your soul is still as strong as ever. How long must you have spent refining it? How many times did you hone and hammer yourself to become this hard? If you’re a mortal, even if you don’t remember, it should have been enough for you to go mad…’

The god also talked about my soul being tough and firm during the first encounter. The reason for speaking in that way seemed to be that the successor’s soul repeated the cycles and the regressions countless times. Just like steel becoming tough by hammering it, did the same thing happen to my soul?

‘Did it give me three because it was sure that I could handle it? Perhaps the reason it showed affability towards me is that my soul was of that kind.’

While I was immersed in my thoughts, the tentacle monster hesitated and spoke again.

– Well, with all due respect, if thou are not in a hurry, may I offer you a suggestion?

I asked bluntly.

“What is it?”

– From what I heard, the ‘crow that sings of the apocalypse’ was observed in the dimension where this Tower was summoned and connected…

My eyes narrowed as I replied.