The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2

Chapter 535

The Hall of Swords, where Kim Jihun had moved after transforming into a blue sword.

There...

'There are so many.'

Blue swords were densely stuck on the floor.

Among them, Kim Jihun's position was near the center.

It was not exactly in the center but very close to it.

'Hmm.'

Seong Jihan, hiding his presence like a ghost, came out of Kim Jihun, who had become a blue sword, and looked around.

The blue swords towards the center had more manifestation of Blue ability,

While those on the outskirts were faint, suggesting they were probably arranged by compatibility.

'But they're just stuck there, not doing anything.'

Swords neatly stuck in the ground, looking good.

The Hall of Swords, despite its grand name, was just a small building made entirely of wood - floors, walls, and all.

As Seong Jihan was looking for anything unusual about this place,

Flash...!

A green portal opened in mid-air.

And High Elves began to appear from it.

They moved to the outskirts with familiar steps,

And began pulling out swords one by one.

"We will carry out the absorption mission."

Then, the group of High Elves left the Hall of Swords.

As over hundreds of them took blue swords and left,

Seong Jihan followed them.

As soon as he went outside the hall, the scenery that appeared was familiar to Seong Jihan.

'This is... Namsan, isn't it?'

A familiar landscape, perhaps because he had recently visited the Colonial Government.

Except for the large World Tree in place of the Hall of Swords,

The surrounding scenery was similar to Namsan.

'The Colonial Government and the Hall of Swords seem deeply related.'

If he could go there later, he should search inside.

Thinking this, Seong Jihan watched the actions of the High Elves.

At the entrance of Namsan,

The High Elves who lined up in a circle at the very bottom outskirts,

"We begin."

They stuck their blue swords into the ground all at once.

Then,

Whoosh...!

World Tree emblems began to appear from the ground one by one,

And they all started glowing blue.

Swish...

Instantly, the World Tree emblem expanded from the boundary of Namsan to the outside world.

And soon,

Blue energy began to gather here.

'So that's what the absorption mission meant, it was about Blue.'

The male half-elves who turned into swords,

Do they also function as mediums to absorb Blue?

As Seong Jihan was looking at the World Tree emblem, trying to figure out how it worked,

Swoosh!

More High Elves poured out of the Hall of Swords carrying swords.

Unlike the previous elves, these stuck their swords closer to the mountain.

Their mission positions were similar to where the swords were stuck in the Hall of Swords.

'It should be about my turn now.'

Realizing it would soon be Kim Jihun's turn, Seong Jihan returned to the Hall of Swords.

As he arrived,

Flash!

Another green portal opened in mid-air.

But this time, what appeared wasn't High Elves.

'Those are...'

Wearing white half-masks,

Elves with diverse and unique appearances.

'Ancient Elves.'

Ancient Elves, each said to be at the level of a constellation.

* * *

Elves who all looked clearly different from the factory-produced-like regular elves.

They had nothing in common except for wearing half-masks.

"Nice to meet you, senior. You've been dispatched to Earth, too, I see."

"This is Yggdrasil's most important project, isn't it? I volunteered. Was the sword in the middle the best one?"

"Yes, but all the swords in the central area have similar performance."

Unlike the High Elves, the Ancient Elves chatted comfortably while evaluating the swords.

They didn't move briskly when pulling out the swords.

Rather,

"Can't we just take these and slash humans?"

"If our Council of Elders took action, it would be over in an hour, I think."

"Exactly. Wouldn't directly killing them be more effective?"

They were talking about simply wiping out humanity while holding the blue swords.

'They could do it.'

Each Ancient Elf was at the level of a constellation.

If dozens or hundreds of them burst out and started massacring humanity,

The human species would quickly go extinct on Earth.

But fortunately,

"According to experiments on human subjects in the lab, the Blue obtained that way isn't significant."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. We conducted large-scale live experiments on 100,000 subjects, but this absorption method proved most efficient compared to direct killing. Of course, if the situation changes..."

"I see? Then we'll stick to this method for now."

Based on the experiment results, the World Tree Alliance concluded that the current method was still the most efficient.

'Is this also a kind of BattleNet map... But it seems 100,000 were sacrificed for live experiments.'

So, these things were happening behind the seemingly peaceful colony.

As Seong Jihan was listening to the Ancient Elves' conversation,

"This sword has been designated as a special management target by the Colonial Government."

"Oh? It must have some unique qualities. I'll take it."

"Yes, senior."

An Ancient Elf, called senior by everyone, pulled Kim Jihun's blue sword out.

"Hmm... I can't tell why it's a special management target just by looking at it."

The Ancient Elf examining the sword like this,

Took a step forward.

Then,

Whoosh!

His figure was suddenly near the Hall of Swords,

Having reached the top of Namsan.

"Hmm."

He looked around at the World Tree emblem manifested by the High Elves for a moment,

Then,

Stab!

He stuck the blue sword directly into the ground.

Immediately, the World Tree emblem manifested clearly across the entire Namsan.

This was much more powerful than the emblem hundreds of High Elves created.

'At this level, he must be a top-tier constellation.'

Definitely superior to the Shadow Queen, who was level 7.

Roughly around constellation level 9, he guessed.

And besides him,

The other Ancient Elves who came to pull swords were all formidable too.

'The core strength of the World Tree Alliance is the Council of Elders composed of Ancient Elves...'

Seong Jihan simulated a battle based on the current information.

Considering just the Council of Elders, they were no match for him, as he possessed both Blue and Red power.

But it could be quite troublesome if they supported Yggdrasil from the side.

'I'll have to defeat them one by one.'

There was no need to fight them all at once unnecessarily.

As Seong Jihan was watching the Ancient Elf,

"Hooh..."

The Ancient Elf who had stuck the sword at the top of Namsan looked at Kim Jihun's blue sword with interested eyes. 

Then,

He spoke to another Ancient Elf who approached him.

"This sword... I can see why it's a special management target."

"Why is that?"

"Unlike other swords, it's growing."

"Growing... you say?"

[Translator - Asura]

[Proofreader - Gun]

"The compatibility is increasing, even if slightly."

"A growing sword... It certainly deserves special management."

"We should give this one more reward."

The Ancient Elf who highly evaluated Kim Jihun's blue sword,

After finishing the Blue absorption, returned to the Hall of Swords and stuck it right in the center.

Unlike before, Kim Jihun's blue sword was now placed in the most important position.

"I'll give you the first-place position, so grow well."

What did first place have to do with growth?

Seong Jihan was puzzled at first, not knowing what value this had.

Clank. Clank.

As swords were stuck back one by one,

All positions were filled again, and he understood why.

"Well then, let's end today's mission."

"Good work, senior."

"Everyone, good work!"

As the elf who used Kim Jihun's sword declared the end of the mission,

[Daily mission 'Sword Dream' has been cleared.]

Along with a message saying the sword dream had ended,

[You have taken the first-place position.]

[You receive the first-place reward.]

He received the first-place reward simply for having his sword stuck in the center.

And as the sword-transformed body disappeared,

His consciousness was gradually returning to reality.

* * *

Upon waking up,

[Level increases by 3.]

A level-up message appeared before Kim Jihun's eyes.

'So this is why they said you grow just by sleeping.'

Leveling up by 3 at once,

It must be because he was assigned the first-place position in the Hall of Swords.

'When they said they'd call me to the Hall of Swords, I didn't expect to actually be used as a sword.'

And to think they'd use it as a medium to absorb the Blue stat from humanity.

Seong Jihan frowned.

He wondered how they were going to take Blue from all of humanity, but they were operating on quite a large scale.

'I haven't heard any news about elves appearing in such large numbers on Namsan... Are they hiding their identities?'

Ancient Elves and High Elves could easily hide their identities if they wanted to.

Seong Jihan roughly grasped their process of absorbing Blue and thought,

'But if they're going to use us as swords like this, why did they show that unpleasant scene?'

There was no need to tell that absurd lie about Seong Jihan being Yggdrasil's gardener.

Seong Jihan frowned, recalling the content on the screen that gave him goosebumps just thinking about it.

'Even though all of this content has been erased from Kim Jihun's memory.'

The perfectly deleted memory of the sword dream.

If they were going to erase it anyway, why bother showing such things?

Seong Jihan was puzzled at first, but,

After continuing to analyze Kim Jihun's state,

'Ah.'

He realized why they showed such an intro.

-Follow the cosmic tree.

-You must resemble the former gardener in every way. Only then can you become the next gardener.

For Kim Jihun who went through the intro,

These two goals were deeply rooted in his subconscious.

Of course, he pledged loyalty upon seeing the image of the cosmic tree Yggdrasil for the first time.

And he now had the goal of resembling 'him', the gardener of that great cosmic tree,

Believing that's how he could reach that position himself.

'So they set both the loyalty oath and the goal of resembling Seong Jihan simultaneously in the intro.'

They erased the memory of being used as a sword in the sword dream for now,

But subconsciously, they had already completed the setting.

Seong Jihan grasped Yggdrasil's intention like this and thought about future actions.

'The Council of Elders, was it? I need to defeat the Ancient Elves one by one first.'

The Ancient Elves who appeared from the portals wearing half-masks.

While he could easily sweep away tens of thousands of High Elves,

These were different.

Depending on how Yggdrasil used them,

They could become quite troublesome.

'From the conversation I overheard earlier, it seems they each have their own assigned planet...'

Then if he blew up all the World Tree Alliance planet list he scraped from the bulletin board before,

He should be able to encounter the Ancient Elves too.

'The Alliance forces are so large that they didn't even notice my terrorism... This time, I'll have to sweep away more thoroughly.'

Perhaps because he was called a gardener by that Yggdrasil bitch,

Seong Jihan was burning with even more fighting spirit than when he first committed terrorism.

He really wanted to show them the sight of a gardener setting fire to the garden.

As Seong Jihan was thinking about which coordinates to invade first,

Hiss...

Above the bed,

The ceiling of his house began to turn purple.

Then,

"Ta-da!"

Yoon Seah's face popped out from there.

"Uncle! I finished my test!"

"...Already?"

"What do you mean, already? Didn't you miss me? I worked really hard!"

Pouting her lips as if disappointed by Seong Jihan's response, she said,

"After passing the test, I even met the Black Administrator!"

"Oh... really?"

Seong Jihan, who had been wondering what she had been up to all this time,

Yoon Seah mentioned the 'Black Administrator'.

[Translator - Asura]

[Proofreader - Gun]