Chapter 104

Chapter 23

“This should be about right.”

Jaeha tilted his head as he looked at what he had found. After thinking for a moment, he called for Sia.

“What is it?”

Jaeha asked Sia, who came up to the room while wiping her wet hands on the apron wrapped around her.

“What do you think when you see this?”

At that, Sia looked at the monitor Jaeha was pointing at, and after about three seconds, she spoke.

“A saint…… or an angel, I suppose?”

“Oh, really?”

“……Yes. But did you call me up here just to ask for my thoughts on that?”

“Yeah.”

“……”

Sia didn’t say anything more, but she looked at Jaeha with a very peculiar gaze.

“You want to get scolded?”

“No. But it’s already been two days now—are you actually making progress on something?”

“Of course. If things go well, it’ll be done within a few days.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Yeah.”

As he said that, Jaeha opened his Inventory and took out the fox bead.

“What’s that?”

“Apparently it’s a fox bead.”

“A fox bead?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll be going then.”

“Alright…… I should just try it right away. Ah, but if it doesn’t work, I’ll have to grind it out.”

As he said that, Jaeha swallowed the fox bead without shifting his gaze from the monitor. After a brief moment, a window appeared before his eyes.

[A new trait has been unlocked.]

After confirming the window, Jaeha turned his gaze away and took a deep breath. Then he opened his status window.

[Na Jaeha]

[Traits: Ranged Dealer, Knight, ?]

[LV: 81]

[Total Ability: 3024]

[Skills: MuTube, Grant Me Power, Half Recovery, Divine Physician Hua Tuo’s Secret Art, Bow Mastery, Shadow Walk, Shadow Eye, Metallurgy, Rapid Fire, High-Speed Rapid Fire, Clone Technique, Indestructible Vajra Body, Five Elements Art, Throwing Arts, Enchant, Mana Conduction, Magic (Circles 1–9), Spirit Arts, Alchemy, Taiji Divine Art, Dragon Blood, Taiji Sword, Skill Conduction, Corpse Puppet Arts, Michael’s Blessing, Martial Arts, Taming, Bayonet Arts, Poison Arts, Cheonbugyeong, Lightning Divine Art, Blue Dragon Crescent Blade, Architecture, Silver Tongue, Butchery, Recipe, Metatron’s Blessing]

“Check trait.”

Swallowing his saliva, Jaeha immediately checked his trait.

[Na Jaeha]

[Traits: Ranged Dealer, Knight, Seraphim]

“Seraphim?”

The word sounded familiar, and Jaeha thought for a moment. But he couldn’t fully grasp the meaning, so he eventually searched the internet for information on Seraphim.

Seraphim was a term referring to the highest order of angels. The Seraphim order was the highest rank among angels.

“So Michael is a Seraphim who also holds the title of Archangel Commander, and Metatron holds the title of leader of those Seraphim.”

As he looked into Seraphim, Jaeha was able to learn that much as well. Perhaps the fact that he had acquired the Seraphim trait was influenced by his skills.

Thinking along those lines, Jaeha checked the information on his trait.

[Seraphim: A trait that existed in the past among saints and popes, advanced by more than 3 stages beyond them.]

“Hm?”

After thinking for a moment, Jaeha nodded.

‘In other words, traits like Saint and Pope actually existed? The meaning of Seraphim can ultimately be understood as the leader of angels. So if Saint and Pope are traits of the same level, then a trait higher than Saint and Pope would be something like an angel. And there’s one more above that—and the Seraphim trait that’s been unlocked for me now is a trait that’s advanced one step further from there.’

After quietly thinking it over, Jaeha reached a rough conclusion and immediately checked the advantages of the Seraphim trait.

[Seraphim: Possesses absolute talent for holy magic. Additionally, upon receiving God’s choice, may ascend to the position of Pope. The majesty of a highest-ranking angel is maintained at all times, and when using Divine Power, six pairs of wings are manifested. Deals 500% increased fixed damage to evil-attribute or undead enemies.]

“It’s just a hard counter.”

In truth, it wasn’t that impressive of an effect.

‘If I weren’t me, this would have been an incredible power. After all, a Pope is essentially the strongest figure in a religion. An individual becoming the head of such an organization is fundamentally a huge advantage, that’s true.’

Of course, from Jaeha’s position, he already had his own faction, and his personal power was already at the world’s highest level. From that standpoint, becoming the Pope wouldn’t change much for him.

“Anyway, does getting a trait change anything else?”

Just then, a window appeared before Jaeha’s eyes.

[Your Skill is evolving.]

[We are in awe. You have obtained a skill that will go down in history for the first time.]

[Archangel’s Blessing]

[Rank: Ancient]

[Your abilities increase in proportion to the number of people you have blessed.]

[Additionally, those who receive your blessing gain effects based on their numbers.]

[‘Holy Power’ unlocked]

[Upon reaching 5 recipients: acquire 30,000 ethers]

[Upon reaching 50 recipients: all blessed individuals acquire ‘Holy Power’]

[Upon reaching 500 recipients: ‘Na Jaeha’’s own Total Ability +200%]

[Upon reaching 5,000 recipients: all blessed individuals acquire 500 ethers]

[Upon reaching 50,000 recipients: ‘Guardian Angel’ selection becomes available among the blessed]

[Upon reaching 500,000 recipients: ‘Angel’ trait can be unlocked (Guardian Angel restricted)]

[Upon reaching 5,000,000 recipients: ‘Archangel’ can be selected (requires ‘Angel’ trait)]

“That’s a long one.”

Jaeha quietly read through the skill description.

‘In other words…… I really could become the Pope, huh?’

Additional rewards were granted when the number of blessed recipients reached up to 500,000. The problem was that he couldn’t predict how strong the other abilities would be.

‘I can roughly guess what the Angel trait is about. But I can’t accurately predict how strong a Guardian Angel would be, or how strong a Saint would be. Well, either way, I just need to round up the people I know, gather 5 of them, and get 30,000 ethers.’

Having reached that conclusion, Jaeha rose from his seat.

‘But wait, I already obtained Holy Power before. Why am I getting it again?’

[‘Holy Power’ unlocked]

As that window appeared, a powerful energy suddenly began radiating from Jaeha. Startled, Seungho, Sia, and even Gersia came into Jaeha’s room.

“……”

They felt Jaeha’s energy, and upon spotting the six pairs of wings behind his back, they had nothing to say.

“What happened?”

Gersia, who had more immunity to divine presence than the others, was the one to ask Jaeha.

“What happened is what happened. As you can see, this is how it turned out.”

“Hmm. The energy I feel from you right now is holy power. And such pure, intense holy power—I’ve never felt anything like it.”

“Holy power?”

“Indeed. It seems the god of this world has bestowed holy power upon you.”

Jaeha smiled and spoke.

“Who knows. Whether a god really exists or not. But one thing’s for sure.”

With that, Jaeha spread his wings.

“I’ve become a real, living angel.”

“So it seems.”

“Anyway.”

Smiling, Jaeha slowly withdrew his holy power, and the wings behind his back folded as well. After mulling over the wings for a moment, Jaeha muttered.

“They’re not going to just not disappear or something, right?”

Then, as all the holy power faded, the wings behind his back vanished too.

“Nice.”

Jaeha then turned to Seungho, who was beside him, and spoke.

“You want to be blessed?”

“Wha—…… blessed with what?”

“I can bestow blessings now.”

“Like, system-wise?”

“Yeah. Once I get 5 people, it says I get 30,000 ethers. So let’s at least get that far.”

“Hmm. What do I get out of it?”

“Whether you get anything or not, just do it if I tell you to.”

“*Ahem.*”

With that, Seungho nodded and walked over to Jaeha. Jaeha looked at Seungho and spoke.

“Blessing.”

Seungho seemed to look at a window that appeared before him.

[You have bestowed a blessing upon ‘Lee Seungho’.]

“But seriously, there’s really no effect at all?”

“That’s not true. Later, when the total number of people I’ve blessed reaches 50, you’ll be able to gain holy power too.”

“Holy power, you say?”

“This.”

Jaeha shot a stream of holy power toward Seungho, and Seungho smiled calmly.

“That’s a pleasant energy.”

“And there’s another good thing about gaining holy power. Your base mana efficiency increases by 5 times.”

“So?”

“Yeah. You can do the work of 5 ethers with just 1 ether.”

“Oh, that’s fucking great.”

“I’m not going to attract people right now. I just need to bring in the Alchemists who can be considered my subordinates. There are 225 of them. It should be easy enough to grant them holy power.”

“Oh. So just by joining, you get 5 times the ether you have. That’s a fucking steal.”

“We’ll do that a bit later. Right now, I need to do the broadcast.”

With that, Jaeha stood up from his seat. Then he bestowed a blessing upon Sia.

“I’ll go get ready now.”

“Okay.”

“Yes.”

Jaeha nodded and left the room.

* * *

After leaving the room, Jaeha went down to the sparring ground. Then he walked over to the magic circle he had prepared earlier. Arriving in front of the magic circle, Jaeha checked its condition once. Seeing no problems, Jaeha activated the magic circle immediately.

He then reached his hand into the magic circle and infused it with energy.

“It works.”

Jaeha nodded and smiled. However, there was a problem.

“But the efficiency is complete garbage.”

Since he was simply releasing energy, not much mana remained inside the magic circle.

‘I need to find a similar skill.’

With that, Jaeha immediately used his cell phone to search for similar skills, and before long, he was able to obtain a suitable one.

[Mana Mist]

[Rank: Advanced]

[Converts held mana into mist and disperses it forward]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 2]

[Proficiency: 100%]

“Hmm.”

After obtaining the skill, Jaeha tried using it right away. His mana scattered into the magic circle, and like fog, it blurred the view.

“Oh, this is very satisfying for broadcast purposes.”

Smiling, Jaeha used Mana Mist until 5 gapja of mana filled the magic circle. Once 5 gapja—that is, 300 ethers of mana—filled the circle, Jaeha checked the amount of ether he had consumed.

‘About 30 ethers consumed.’

According to Jaeha’s expectations, 60 ethers should have been used. But only 30 were consumed, and Jaeha quickly figured out why.

‘So Mana Mist’s mechanism lets me create 2 ethers of mist with 1 ether.’

It was possible because it was a skill by nature. If it weren’t, 60 ethers would have been used.

‘Either way, this is good. 30 ethers per person. With 40 people, that’s 1,200 ethers. In gapja terms, that’s 20 gapja. First, I’ll have 5 people receive blessings to get 30,000 ethers.’

With that, Jaeha checked the number of blessed people.

[Blessed People: 2]

“So 2 people. That means I need to make 3 more. Wait. But the Corpse Puppets are also affected by the System, right? Wouldn’t that work?”

With that, Jaeha called over the Corpse Puppets who were amusing themselves in the corner and tried using the Archangel’s Blessing skill on them.

[You have bestowed a blessing upon ‘Sia Amy’.]

After blessing Amy, Jaeha paused to think as her full name surfaced.

“Ah, right. She’s Ferencia’s mother.”

Ferencia’s full name was ‘Sia Ferencia,’ and since she had said Sia was the family name, Amy’s full name was indeed ‘Sia Amy.’

“Anyway, it works. Fucking sweet.”

Saying that, Jaeha spread the blessing to the other Corpse Puppets as well. By blessing a total of 9 Corpse Puppets, a window appeared before Jaeha.

[You have obtained 30,000 ethers.]

Whoosh—

A not-insignificant wind blew around Jaeha, and from obtaining the ether, wings sprouted from his back.

“Ah…….”

Watching that, Amy let out a small gasp of admiration.

“Very nice.”

Smiling, Jaeha sensed that his preparations were complete.