Leveling with the Gods

Chapter 80

After Hephaestus’s proud introduction, YuWon stared at the black glove that was in the middle of the room.

The glove had a simple shape with a plain black color. It looked more like a fabric glove rather than a steel glove.

‘This is Kyneē?’ YuWon thought.

He was surprised by the introduction. He knew that Hephaestus was the one that had named the original 「Kyneē,」 but he didn’t think the same name would be given to a different type of item.

‘Fascinating,’ he thought to himself.

YuWon approached the new 「Kyneē」 that was different from the one he knew.

The glove was floating in mid-air, and it was radiating black mana.

“Like you asked, I made it in the form of a glove. The crystal is imbued on the outside, but it shouldn’t be visible,” Hephaestus explained.

YuWon took a look at the shape of 「Kyneē.」 To the naked eye, it really was an ordinary glove, which was characteristic of the 「Kyneē」 in his memories.

The 「Kyneē」 that Hades used to use was also a plain black helm with no special patterns.

“Can I try it on?” YuWon asked.

“Of course. That’s what I made it for,” Hephaestus said with joy. He was eager to explain the item he made. These were always the times that Hephaestus looked the happiest.

Rustle—

It had a strange feel to it. Despite appearing like smooth fabric, the sensation that YuWon felt at the tips of his fingers was something in between metal and fabric. He had never felt anything like it.

Its texture wasn’t the only thing that was bizarre.

“It’s quite hefty,” YuWon noted.

「Kyneē」 wasn’t as light on his hand as it appeared. Even a fully steel gauntlet wouldn’t weigh this much.

“It’s very thin, isn’t it?” Hephaestus asked.

“Yes. To the point that I can’t believe that it’s made with adamantium.”

“I used everything you brought.”

Hephaestus’s explanation made YuWon look at 「Kyneē」 with eyes full of surprise.

The glove was at best only one millimeter thick, nor was it particularly big, so naturally YuWon assumed that Hephaestus might not have used all the adamantium he gave him. But after being told that it was made with all the adamantium, its heavy weight made sense.

‘He must have decreased the volume somehow.’

The glove was still lighter than the adamantium YuWon gave him originally. It was just that it was much heavier than it looked.

YuWon was once again surprised by Hephaestus’s skills as he equipped 「Kyneē」 onto his hand.

And in that moment…

Fwoosh—!

His vision changed in an instant.

The already dark storage room now appeared pitch black.

YuWon felt like he was caught in Hypnos’s skill again.

‘No. This might be even darker than that.’

YuWon was not taken aback by the sudden change in scenery, nor did he take off 「Kyneē.」

This was a test from 「Kyneē.」

Split—

A space opened up in front of him, and a large yellow eye appeared.

The eye was far taller in height than YuWon, and this eye blinked a few times while it stared at YuWon.

“ᐷ You. Who?”

The eye asked YuWon the question that he wanted to ask it.

“Kim YuWon.”

“ᐷ Other time. From. Strange.”

YuWon, who wasn’t phased when the giant eye appeared, was shocked. He couldn’t fully understand because it spoke in broken segments, but one thing it said caught YuWon off guard.

‘Other time.’

‘What is this thing?’ YuWon wondered.

Including 「Kyneē,」 which was made from the 「Dark Divine Crystal,」 not much was known about the Three Sacred Treasures of Olympus.

They disappeared in the invasion of the Outers, and the only information YuWon knew were the bits and pieces he had heard from Chronos.

“Who are you?” YuWon asked.

“ᐷ I’m. Eye. Mouth. No. Speak…”

“Are you saying that you can’t speak because you’re an eye and not the mouth?”

It did not answer.

It was quite a frustrating conversation partner.

‘I don’t think a proper conversation is going to be possible.’

YuWon wanted to find out if this guy was something sealed inside the 「Dark Divine Crystal,」 or if it was a medium that drew out the Crystal’s power, or if it was the Crystal itself.

And YuWon was also hoping that this would be the moment he’d be able to properly utilize the powers of 「Kyneē.」

Around the time that YuWon had mostly given up on talking to it…

“ᐷ Egg…”

The Eye spoke again.

‘‘Egg’?’ YuWon thought.

“ᐷ Who Egg? Where?”

Another string of words to interpret, but YuWon managed to get the gist of it.

‘Is it asking whose egg it is? And where it came from?’

YuWon thought back to the Egg inside his inventory.

The Egg had remained dormant since he had obtained the [Holy Fire,] and it had been a while since it had sent YuWon a message.

That was when…

Vrrr—

A small movement was felt inside his inventory.

[?’s Egg rises up.]

[?’s Egg lets out a scream.]

The Egg moved for the first time on its own in months.

Fss, fssss—

An ominous black mana started flowing out. It was much thicker and denser than the mana YuWon had been wielding through the 「Dark Divine Crystal.」

‘This is dangerous,’ YuWon thought, evading it instinctively.

Dark-attribute mana of this level could easily decompose part of a body on contact.

‘I have to evade it…’

Whoosh—

The mana was already spreading out, and there was nowhere he could escape to.

The mana was moving towards YuWon to swallow him whole.

‘It’s too late.’

Fwoosh—

YuWon shot out [Holy Fire] with all his strength. There was no way for him to figure out right now how to control 「Kyneē,」 and with no way to avoid it, his only option was to resist it.

That was when…

Vzzt, vzzt—!

The dark-attribute mana that was rippling out, rather than attacking YuWon, plunged inside the inventory on his waist.

YuWon, who was going to resist with his [Holy Fire,] ended up momentarily frozen.

The mana flowing out from the Eye apparently had no intention of attacking him.

‘Then why did I…?’

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[?’s Egg’s incubation rate increases.]

[Incubation rate: 14.12%]

[Incubation rate: 15.23%]

[Incubation rate: 17.97%]

[Incubation rate…]

A flurry of messages.

YuWon’s eyes widened.

The Egg’s incubation rate was increasing, its incubation rate growing higher the more black mana it consumed from the Eye.

The reason it woke up from its sleep was likely that it had found a delicious target while it was famished.

[Incubation rate: 41.29%]

The final incubation rate it reached was 41%.

It was quite a high percentage, especially considering how it had only managed to rise 13% after eating Orochi’s corpse.

“Do you know what this is?” YuWon asked the Eye that had managed to cause the Egg’s incubation rate to shoot up.

The nameless Egg that YuWon possessed had come from the Outers. YuWon got the idea that perhaps this Eye would know something about where they came from.

Fss, fsss—

The shade of the Eye started to get faint, and the darkness that enveloped him broke away. YuWon felt the chilling energy that had filled the air dissipating.

“ᐷ Will. Watch…”

Its speech started to sound clearer as it faded away.

And with the darkness lifting, sounds from the outside rushed in.

The heavy sound of a hammer.

YuWon felt the shock of the air shaking, and he saw the hammer falling on his head.

Fwoosh—

“Ahjussi!” YuWon shouted in a hurry, seeing whose hammer it was.

He was even ready to draw his sword if necessary.

“Huh?”

The hammer stopped halfway, and Hephaestus’s face became visible as the darkness fully dissipated.

Hephaestus looked shaken.

“Are you okay?” he asked YuWon.

There were various hammer marks on the ground.

It appeared that he thought something bad had happened to YuWon and had been furiously swinging his hammer.

YuWon couldn’t answer the question right away because he had just encountered near-death. Had he been hit by Hephaestus’s full swing of his hammer, it wouldn’t have ended with just an injury.

‘Well, whatever the case is, it’s over now,’ YuWon thought to himself while looking at the black glove he now wore on his hand.

It felt pretty good, with a smooth and soft texture. If it weren’t for the weight, he could have forgotten about it and think that it was just a part of his body.

「Kyneē.」 An item that symbolized Hades, one of the three great gods of Olympus.

‘It said it would watch me…’

Those were the final words the Eye of 「Kyneē」 said before disappearing.

‘But it did manage to say something proper before it disappeared.’

It was hard to make out the other things it said, but the final part was clear.

Clench—

YuWon tightened his fist.

‘The Dark Divine Crystal…’

It was an item that was also called a fragment of 「Kyneē.」

Who would have thought such a secret hid in this item.

‘There are two fragments left.’

There were three total fragments in YuWon’s memory.

‘I’ll need to gather the rest to figure out what’s what.’

His next objective was now the Trident’s fragment.

* * *

* * *

The workshop shook.

Hargaan, who was lost in thought, jolted up and ran in the direction that YuWon and Hephaestus had gone off in.

Hephaestus and YuWon were exiting the storage room.

Hargaan could see an unfamiliar glove on YuWon’s hand. He guessed that it must have been a new item that YuWon had obtained.

“Who knows,” Hephaestus said.

The answer he got just made Hargaan more confused.

“I don’t know either,” YuWon reponsded.

“Wha—?” Hargaan said, dumbfounded.

“Just ask him, though he might actually not know anything,” Hephaestus said as he walked away.

Hargaan presumed that the noise earlier must have been from Hephaestus swinging his hammer since he was wielding it in his hand.

“So what did he mean?” Hargaan asked YuWon.

“Who knows?”

“You’re also going on about that?”

“No. I’m saying that because I really don’t know.”

YuWon genuinely didn’t know what the fragment of 「Kyneē」 was, and the commotion was from Hephaestus trying to save YuWon, sensing that the fragment was too dangerous.

“You guys didn’t fight?”

Not knowing a thing, the only assumption Hargaan could make was that Hephaestus and YuWon had gotten into a spontaneous fight.

“No,” YuWon answered.

“That’s good then.”

“Did you manage to think things over?”

“I’m still conflicted,” Hargaan said while scratching his head.

It wasn’t that Hargaan didn’t trust Hephaestus’s words. There were people who hadn’t had a good opinion of the Gigantomachy for a long time.

“I think I need to first go meet my older brother and sister,” Hargaan told YuWon.

“And who would those be? It’s not like you have just one or two siblings.”

“Big brother Apollo and big sister Artemis.”

They were two children that Zeus had with someone other than Hera, just like Hargaan.

It appeared to YuWon that they were closer to each other than their other siblings as they were in the same situation.

“They must know something,” Hargaan said.

Apollo and Artemis were two of the top ten High Rankers within Olympus, and as they had directly participated in the Gigantomachy, they should have a lot of information.

It seemed that Hargaan was being very thoughtful and careful about this ordeal.

“Though I’m honestly not sure. For now, I should just focus on the Grand Martial Arts Tournament. I need to make my name better known for my influence within Olympus to grow.”

“I’m surprised that you care about things like that so much.”

“It can’t be helped. I’m different from big brother Ares. In order to create a faction that follows me, I have to keep proving my worth,” Hargaan said with a voice filled with resolve.

YuWon couldn’t know how Hargaan felt growing up and the current state of his emotions.

“There’s no better stage for that than this tournament. I heard that there are more Rankers spectating this tournament than ever before,” Hargaan continued.

The Grand Martial Arts Tournament was always an event that people paid a lot of attention to, but the scale of it changed every time because the number of Rankers watching (as well as the fame of said Rankers) depended on the quality of the players participating.

In that regard, this Grand Martial Arts Tournament was being watched by the greatest number of people in its history, and there was a simple reason for this—the quality of the players was outstanding.

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Of course, about half of them were primarily interested in YuWon.

Hargaan listed the Rankers and guilds that came to watch the tournament, “… And I heard that a few wandering Rankers were also present. Oh, right, also…”

There was also another reason why this tournament was so greatly in contention.

“I heard that the vice-lord of the Heavenly Demonic Cult is going to be there this time around,” Hargaan continued.

The sleeping tiger had left its den.