I Raided the Demon’s Treasury

Chapter 2

– Zeus’s Lightning Bolt strikes.

Boom!

“Gah—!”

Without hesitation, Se-Woon hurled Astrape toward the Outer that had broken through the ceiling.

Ignoring the usual trajectory of lightning striking from the sky to the ground, the sharp bolt of thunder ascended from below and pierced the creature’s head.

Thunder filled the treasury, and the Outer shrieked just as loudly.

“That works quite well.”

Where Se-Woon stood, deep within the treasury where he had come to find Chronos’s Hourglass, the greatest treasures rivaling the hourglass itself were abundant.

Not only Astrape, which he had just used

[ Thunderbolt that Summons Storms, Vajra ]

– A weapon used by the Thunder God Indra to subdue the Asuras, able to cut and pierce anything.

The highest weapons, said to be used by the Constellations of the highest rank, were scattered everywhere.

“Since I can’t take them with me anyway!”

Boom—!!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Se-Woon threw the Vajra at the Outer. Even Indra, the Constellation to whom the Vajra belonged, cherished it dearly.

A spear throw.

He was using the godly relics as if it was a disposable item.

If Indra, had seen this scene, he might have been furious enough to tear Se-Woon apart, even if it meant defying the laws of causality.

Of course, now that all the Constellations had been devoured by the Outers, such worries were meaningless.

“Gah—!”

The Outer’s screams grew louder.

Even the tough skin, capable of breaking the gold of Pandemonium, showed signs of being pierced by Vajra.

Using godly weapons dealt sufficient damage, even to the remnants of an Outer.

Although it was a shame to throw away weapons that could each be called supreme godly relics, there was no other choice.

Due to the power of Chronos’s Hourglass, he wouldn’t be able to take these items into the past.

However—

‘How did they manage to gather all these?’

While energetically hurling the godly relics, a curiosity arose.

While it was one thing for weapons like the cursed sword and relics seen at the entrance, how had they obtained these godly relics at the far end of the treasury?

Astrape, for instance, was known to be the major weapon of Zeus, the Ruler of the Sky.

Stealing such a weapon and casually storing it in a treasury? And doing so despite having the power to lose the Divine-Demonic War?

No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

In the midst of this—

‘They aren’t real.’

Se-Woon realized the true nature of the countless treasures in the treasury.

It made sense. If these relics were genuine, Se-Woon, a mere human and not a transcendent being, wouldn’t have been able to use them so casually, even for one-time use.

For such high-level relics, it would take at least a disciple-level player of that particular god to barely, and only partially, harness the relic’s power.

However, just because they’re not real doesn’t mean they’re outright fakes.

‘They probably recreated them based on traces.’

Taking Astrape as an example, it was likely recreated by amplifying the power based on the traces left by Zeus using the original Astrape.

The same applied to other weapons.

Simply put, they’re a form of replicas.

‘Imitations,’ in essence.

The Demon God of Greed’s obsession must have been immense to the point of creating replicas just to store them in his treasury.

Seeing this, it was clear how colossal the dedication of the Constellation known as the Demon God of Greed was.

“Well, it doesn’t matter to me!”

[ Sword of Destruction, Lævateinn]

– A weapon created by Loki in Niflheim using runes, originally belonging to the fiery giant Surtur, who exists to set the world ablaze.

Fwoosh!

This time, it was a flaming sword.

Though it didn’t have the piercing ability of the weapons thrown earlier, the moment Laevatein pierced the Outer’s body, scorching flames erupted.

The heat was so intense that Se-Woon could even feel his skin prickling.

“Gah—!”

Bang, boom!

The Outer thrashed wildly.

Chunks of gold that made up the ceiling tumbled down, burying and erasing the treasures that the Demon God of Greed had spent a lifetime gathering.

Though the wounds on its body healed at an unnaturally fast rate, Se-Woon was even quicker at throwing one weapon after another.

“Finally, revealing your true form, huh?”

Outers don’t have a fixed shape. Because their bodies are like gooey slime, they usually envelop other living beings to form a shell.

The creature slithering between the collapsed ceiling sections was no different.

With each attack, the squirming liquid on its surface peeled away, gradually revealing the core.

“A boar?”

Although it’s not entirely clear, the Outer’s power increases according to the strength of the beings it devours.

Judging by its ability to break through Pandemonium’s ceiling, the core’s power must be immensely formidable.

– Time remaining until the sand runs out: 28 seconds…

Time had already dwindled to less than thirty seconds.

In just ten minutes, Se-Woon had used more than ten weapons, and yet he’d only managed to peel away the surface.

To think that such a creature is not even a true Outer, but just a fragment that flowed from the Outer’s body. I can’t even imagine where such a being could have come from

[ Spear of Radiance, Brionac ]

– Known as the spear of the god of light, ‘Lugh Lámhfhada,’ it moves on its own, never misses, and pierces everything.

Was it a form of venting frustration?

Regardless of what happened when time rewound, Se-Woon wanted to take down at least one Outer with his own hands.

This was also a declaration that he would face the Outers head-on after returning through Chronos’s Hourglass.

“Hup!”

Shing!

Planting his feet firmly, and twisting his waist, he thrust his arm forward with all his might. Squeezing out every bit of mana and strength he had, his entire body’s muscles twisted painfully.

A distant pain surged through him, and he could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, but he had no regrets.

Thud!

A blinding flash, brighter than gold, pierced through the Outer’s body, creating a new hole.

The Outer’s movements stopped as if frozen.

But Se-Woon’s attack was far from over.

Flash!!

From the depths of the Outer’s body, Brionac radiated beams of light.

The light burst forth from the holes across the Outer’s body, causing it to swell and turn bright red.

“Gah—!”

Sensing its impending end, the Outer let out a wretched scream.

As the light from Brionac intensified to the point of being blinding—

Bang!

The Outer’s body exploded like a bursting water balloon.

While it’s challenging to kill the Outer’s main body, a creature-infused Outer dies the moment its host perishes, like a parasite.

With this, Se-Woon became the first player to defeat an Outer.

– You are the first player to defeat an Outer.

– Earned a great achievement.

– Earned 500,000,000 points as a reward.

An unimaginable amount of merit points poured in, but they were inconsequential.

They would be reset the moment the hourglass activated anyway.

And just as the Outer died, the last grains of sand within the hourglass fell.

– Chronos’s Hourglass is activated.

– Player ‘Jung Se-Woon’s’ causality is reversed.

– All possessed skills are erased.

– All stats gained within the tower are reset.

The light from the hourglass filled Se-Woon’s vision entirely.

All the strength he had painstakingly amassed while struggling to survive in the tower disappeared.

From the various achievements and hidden pieces he had gathered, to his ultimate unique skill, ‘Journey’s Guideline.’

All of it vanished just to turn back time.

Despite having grown to prove his competence, the draining of his accumulated power left him feeling utterly powerless.

‘But I can do this.’

Se-Woon resolved.

Even without Journey’s Guideline, he was confident in his unparalleled knowledge among the players of the tower.

The knowledge he had gained thanks to Journey’s Guideline and the countless hidden pieces he had learned of but couldn’t obtain due to his lack of power.

He vowed to monopolize all those things and grow strong enough to chew up these damn Outers.

Just as he made this vow, a new message unexpectedly filled his vision.

– The ‘Treasury of Greed’ has collapsed.

– There is no current owner of the treasury.

– Player ‘Jung Se-Woon,’ currently inside the treasury and in possession of the Golden Key, is recognized as the owner of the Treasury of Greed

– The ‘Treasury of Greed’ has been absorbed as a demonic power.

“What?”

Even as the hourglass activated and his strength drained away, one thing became clear.

He had become the owner of this treasury.

But what use was that? When he returned to the past, he wouldn’t be able to take the treasury with him.

And yet, the messages weren’t finished.

– You have defeated the Beast of Gluttony.

– ‘Power of Gluttony’ has lost its owner.

– ‘Power of Gluttony’ is bestowed upon player ‘Jung Se-Woon,’ who defeated the Beast of Gluttony.

“What is this now?”

The Beast of Gluttony? Was the monster that the Outer had used as its host the Beast of Gluttony? More importantly, if it’s the Power of Gluttony, isn’t that one of the powers possessed by the seven Demon Gods?

In the brief moment that Chronos’s Hourglass was activated, myriad thoughts swirled in Se-Woon’s mind.

He wanted to re-read the messages to organize the information, but time was no longer on his side.

Zap!

The radiant light that had bathed his surroundings turned off in an instant, plunging everything into darkness.

A dull impact was felt, as if he’d been struck on the back of the head with a baseball bat.

All senses vanished, and with the pain of his insides twisting, his sense of balance crumbled, and nausea surged up.

He felt as if he was abandoned in the middle of the universe.

‘I must not lose consciousness!’

Se-Woon clung to the pain tormenting him like a lifeline, keeping his mind anchored.

Swallowing the nausea, he clenched his fists. To maintain his sense of self, he endlessly repeated his name, Jung Se-Woon.

Chronos’s Hourglass.

Whether it was because it was a replica or the side effects of reversing causality, he couldn’t tell.

But he felt that losing consciousness now would mean being eternally lost in the rift of time.

How many hundreds of times had he repeated his name?

Finally—

Through the numbed skin that felt nearly frozen, warmth seeped in.

Through his tightly shut eyelids, he sensed a bright light. A fragrant smell of grass wafted in through his previously blocked nose.

As he slowly inhaled a breath he had been holding, he cautiously opened his eyes to see a scene that, though it had been a long time, he could never forget.

Welcome to the Tutorial.

The outskirts of the tower.

A test to determine if one is qualified to enter the tower as a player.

It was the moment the tutorial began.