Chapter 72: The lecture on fantasy this Hero speaks of

▷Fright: Please wait! I will look into it!

Professor Morals left as if fleeing.

One day I would slowly crush underfoot those teaching staff trying to stealthily take credit despite having done nothing. It wasn’t at the level of simply being unhelpful—they had made me waste a whole 11 years of my life with their faulty education. When adding the mental stress and other losses I’d suffered during this time to the equation, they wouldn’t even be able to compensate for it in money.

In any case…

“Your Majesty. As long as this golem is completed, the world will be ours.”

I was in the middle of business right now. There couldn’t be anything more important than reviving my beloved steed that was destroyed by that sneaky woman’s attack while it was combining.

‘Wait just a little bit, Captain Fantasy! We’re gonna cruise the continent together again.’

“Hahah, O divine Hero. Yours is a proposal beyond my imagination, so please give me a little time to think.”

The king, who had talked like he was going to listen to anything I said, responded with feeble words, but the Triple A Hero magnanimously granted concession. Triple A, Triple A, Triple A… Why did I feel so good? Uhihihi. I could already vaguely picture my return to Earth; I saw a flashback of the “Earth Plan” I had designed over the 11 to 17 years of fantasy life.

I temporarily put those thoughts on hold, however; carelessness was a lethal poison! After all, there was no guarantee whatsoever that I would achieve a triple A grade again. The priority was to build up a favorable reputation here in the Magic Kingdom, and to do so it was necessary to grow closer to the king. Dark Energy and Divinity… didn’t work on the man, like it didn’t on the Dumpling King. It seemed that the Job called “King” came with a mental barrier or the like.

“I look forward to working with you.”

Therefore, I went with being unconditionally making concessions on my side in the negotiations. It was slightly frustrating in truth—needing time to think when the matter concerned creating a super robot that could dominate this fantasy world? Nevertheless, I didn’t press the king and firmly endured.

I seemed like a sucker even to myself! However, since I was going to be a sucker, I decided to be a sucker until the end; I gave an SSS-rank reassuring smile which contained my 17 years of know-how as a bonus.

‘Everybody smile~!’

“I-I shall give you my answer as quickly as possible!”

The king of the Magic Kingdom responded positively to my smile. He didn’t give an evasive reply with the excuse of state affairs, saying that he would be late in giving an answer due to having to discuss the proposal with the nobles and high-ranking officials. I was satisfied with this for the time being.

The king of the Magic Kingdom… while it was our first meeting today, I found him quite the likeable sponsor.

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The Magic Kingdom was called the loser of Fantasia’s northern continent. There was a time in the far gone past when they were an empire that had unified the northern continent, and it seemed their influence from back then still remained to this day. The best example for this?

When the northern continent came to mind, you would also think of magic, and when magic came to mind, you would think of the northern continent—and the Magic Kingdom was the reason why this mental formula came to be established. While part of the reason lay in the kingdom’s promising children, who were born with the spiritual energy of Snowy Mountain M, having superior affinity towards magic than children of other continents, the amount of knowledge and wisdom accumulated over the ages as these superior Magicians made progress in magic had a far bigger influence. That was just how amazing the magic technical skills of the Magic Kingdom were, and their golem manufacturing skills were no exception.

“O divine Hero. The result of our conference is that we have decided to immediately begin manufacturing that golem. We have judged that once it is safely completed, it will not be a dream to even recover our past glory of having unified the northern continent. We plan to enlist the help of a large number of Palace Magicians along with our chief engineers.”

The king of the Magic Kingdom gave his reply with a face filled with ambition.

His complexion had become bright in but a single day, and this could be called the strong point of this fantasy world that ran on Levels; recovering health at the cost of Levels. When you were royalty, you would have plenty of ways to raise your Level within a short period of time, after all.

“A brilliant decision.”

In any case, this was extremely joyous news for me. The day when I could roam the continents together with my beloved steed, Captain Fantasy, wasn’t far away.

“3 years will suffice to create it.”

“…”

Not even 3 days, but 3 years…?

“Haha! You also seem surprised that it is too quick, O Hero. Because this golem possesses a unique function of transforming and combining, we cannot use any of the existing golem components. That is why it is necessary to newly build an exclusive manufacturing factory to create every component from scratch, but our country harbors far greater resources than it is known to the outside. You may look forward to it.”

“Ah, yes.”

My anticipation deflated completely. 3 years to create it despite there being a perfect blueprint. It was safe to declare that there was no country or organization that could manufacture the golem faster than the Magic Kingdom in all of Fantasia’s continents, and the Sage was no exception to this either. 3 years was time enough to kill Demon King Pedonar a thousand more times—I couldn’t wait that long for them. And thus, I resolutely gave up having a super robot.

But the Magic Kingdom appeared intent on creating one even if I said no. Still, I didn’t give them the blueprint, but gave them time to make a copy. It wouldn’t do to easily give up on a dream, as you never knew when you would run across an unforeseen opportunity.

Since we were on the topic of golems, I asked the king about Golem D as well.

“The inventor of this golem is a genius sent by a god…”

The king intently looked through Golem D’s blueprint before handing it over to a chief engineer, and moments later informed me the result of their examination.

“Haha! The required materials for this one is absurd, every single one of them nothing but rarities. Fortunately the golem is of an extremely small size and the manufacturing process itself is not difficult as it is explained simply on the blueprint. Five days to gather the rare materials, and another five days to manufacture it. Even at most it will not take longer than ten days. Only, the socket component through which a soul is to be infused into the golem is a variable, and as for where this is to be procured…”

I knew well how to get a hold of it—Holy Sword 3, which contained the soul of a materialistic old maid Hero that was starved for men. It was sealed in the pond of a certain forest inhabited by a freshwater mermaid.

“Then I ask that this golem be created at least, Your Majesty.”

Golem D’s performance was already verified in the 6th Playthrough; it was great enough for it to be called the Goddess of War. Although it was thanks to being upgraded by me granting it Divinity, that the golem’s weapon was a ‘Holy Sword’ and the soul it contained was that of a ‘Hero’ couldn’t be overlooked either. Its capability had greatly increased with a soul than without, and this was what I was aiming for.

A Hero could possess only one Holy Sword. That being the case, what if the Holy Sword was equipped on a golem?

A top-grade golem had a summoning function. After linking the golem’s core with the owner’s soul like making a contract, it could be stored in a four-dimensional space during ordinary times.

Wouldn’t it be possible to possess multiple Holy Swords in this manner? I planned on experimenting this hypothesis using Golem D. I originally had no mind to use this sort of lame method to gain power, but after being pushed back by the Demon King’s sneaky daughter, and suffering defeat at the hands of the powered-up Demon King himself, I keenly felt the need to grow stronger than I was now—grow noticeably stronger and within a short time at that.

“I understand.”

The king of the Magic Kingdom accepted my proposal with pleasure. Despite knowing that the manufacturing costs for Golem D wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at, he was already looking 3 years into the future. But in exchange for accepting my proposal, I was requested to keep this matter a secret.

Wasn’t it only natural to do so in this line of business?

“Of course. I will pray that now you have recovered your health, you will unify the northern continent with Captain Fantasy, Your Majesty.”

Naturally, by the time that happened, I would be living in grand style on Earth. I had no interest in the likes of a fantasy world’s future.

“I thank you, O Hero.”

“Haha!”

“Hahah!”

It was a mutually satisfying trade.

Peek: Hello? Student Kang Han Soo. I strongly smelled the stink of a conspiracy the moment I came here, but there’s no problem, right?

‘There’s no way there could be, Miss Trainee. I’m a little glad to meet you again.’

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Ten days remained until the manufacturing of Golem D, which the Magic Kingdom had begun working on right after I handed over its blueprint, would be completed. I had no intention of idling about in the royal palace until then. 6 years had already vanished into thin air due to having become a frozen human in the confusion of the moment; I didn’t want to waste any more time at this point.

Of course, I had packed my schedule full of plans. Using the experiences and knowledge I gained in the 6th Playthrough as the foundation, I intended on moving swiftly along optimal routes only without losing my way.

And at the same time I thought of this, I put it into action.

“Sir Hero~ Where are you going?”

“You’re really unneeded and don’t need to follow, Lanuvel.”

A burden latched onto me.

“But Lanuvel is Sir Hero’s companion!”

“Says who?”

“Lanuvel promises that she will never bother you, Sir Hero. And it’ll be convenient in various ways if I come along. Cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, camping, being a conversational partner, cooking, exploring, obtaining information, so on and so forth! There are really lots I can do!”

“Ugh!”

Vexing though it was, I couldn’t refute her. In exchange for lacking combat ability due to having mainly learnt auxiliary magic, Lanuvel’s ability to carry a livelihood was overall extremely superior. She was a hundred times better than the other companions I had who didn’t even contribute in battle and caused nothing but trouble and accidents.

How wonderful would it be if only she didn’t play cute…

“So where are you heading to?”

“There.”

I pointed towards the summit of Snowy Mountain M. Although ultimate goal in the 7th Playthrough was to achieve a triple A-grade and smoothly defeat the Demon King as well before graduating, I planned on growing stronger as a secondary objective along the way. The first step towards attaining strength was the limit breakthrough of Dark Energy which had reached MAX-rank.

▷Type: Skill
▷Name: Dark Energy
▷Rank: MAX
Z: Become royalty of demons. (0%)
▷SSS: Resist Divinity.

▷SS: Employ false magic power.
▷S: Become a noble of demons.
▷A: Employ sinister defense.
▷B: Curse target.
▷C: Employ sinister attack.
▷D: Corrupt target.
▷E: Employ false life.
▷F: Become a slave of demons.

The Skill had reached the maximum rank in a single breath as I was exposed to the Dark Energy of Demon King Pedonar, who had disemboweled himself out of nowhere in the final moments of the 6th Playthrough. I had already experienced the limit breakthrough of the Skill Divinity in the previous Playthrough, which was why I also knew extremely well how many Skills needed to be sacrificed as offerings.

And the conclusion?

“It’s not enough.”

I needed much more Skills to sacrifice.

“What’s not enough?”

“Just something on my end. And Lanuvel, instead of disturbing the great Hero, walk this much apart from me.”

“Aww…”

“Keep playing cute if you’d like a pummeling.”

“What if I don’t?!”

At that moment, I got the feeling of hearing the urgent voice of a woman crying out “Somebody please help~!” from afar.

“Sir Hero, I heard a scream from over there…!”

“What? I didn’t hear anything though? I totally know you’re trying to change the subject by playing a dirty trick, Lanuvel.”

“Lanuvel heard it clearly! Really!”

“That’s just your imagination.”

“Aww…”

While it would have been nice if some powerful monster snatched away Lanuvel, the wild monsters shrinking away from my Divinity showed no signs of attacking. That wasn’t all a bad thing though, since my goal in the 7th Playthrough was to keep my Level as low as possible. I had no other choice but to do so if I wanted to smoothly defeat Demon King Pedonar; I would obviously lose if I were to fight against him after raising my Level a bunch again. That’s how strong the 6th Playthrough Demon King was.

I soon barged inside the log cabin of a suspicious hunter who lived nearby Village Q. As I had expected, a man and woman who had gone naked in broad daylight came into sight.

“Gasp! Who are—Guegh?!”

“Master?!”

Ignoring the shock and fear of the pretty Elf woman, who was covering her flat LCD monitor with a blanket, I dragged the hunter youth outside by his neck. The following development played out the same as it had in the 6th Playthrough.

“It’s a dragon!”

“Gasp! A dragon appeared!”

“Could that white dragon be…!”

“Quickly wake up the heroes!”

The enraged hunter youth reverted to his original form of a pure-white dragon, and became prey to my Oblivion.

“Look into my eyes.”

“Quuu…?!”

The white dragon’s expression turned dumb, and I confirmed the growth changes in my Status.

Taming(B)→Taming(A)
Rearing(D)→Rearing(B)
Empathy(E)→Empathy(C)

As I had expected, the Skills that were hard to improve normally underwent an increase in rank. The reason why I didn’t immediately climb Snowy Mountain M but chose to use this kind of lame method was all to limit breakthrough Dark Energy(MAX); I needed a great number of high-ranked Skills.

“I leave the slavery-inured Elf to you, Lanuvel.”

“Aww… Okay.”

Lanuvel expressed discontent while pouting her lips, but she didn’t insist on continuing to tag along; if she did so, the Elf would be left alone. Like I had in the 6th Playthrough, I entrusted Baekgu’s Elf wife to Lanuvel. This was the reason why I hadn’t bothered stopping her from following me from the royal palace. The aftermath was perfectly settled with this, and since I had gotten the irksome Lanuvel off my back as well, it was like killing two birds with one stone.

“Let’s go, Baekgu!”

“Quuuuu-!”

Carrying me on his back, Baekgu immediately flew towards the fortress on the summit of Snowy Mountain M.

“Just you wait, you shitty white cat.”

‘I may forget favors, but I never forget grudges.’

Entreaty: Please cherish favors too…