Seed of Divinity

Seed of Divinity.

If his memory wasn’t wrong, there was definitely an item with that name among this quest’s rewards.

“Do you happen to have any of the things you just mentioned?”

“I’ve only heard of them.”

“If you get any of the three, contact me immediately.”

Bruce suddenly threw out a question after noticing the subtle atmosphere, but Yuseong answered calmly without his expression changing at all.

“Since it seems the important talk is mostly done, can I rest now? As I said earlier, I’m quite mentally exhausted and would like to get some proper sleep.”

“Sorry for disturbing your rest. We’ll be going now.”

“I’ll explain things well to people. Get some good rest.”

“……”

After confirming the three people had disappeared from view and no one was around, Yuseong immediately pulled the covers over himself and took out the Seed of Divinity from his inventory.

Inside a transparent crystal about the size of a thumbnail, countless lights flickered like the Milky Way in the night sky.

After staring blankly at the Seed of Divinity that looked like a compressed universe, Yuseong barely collected his thoughts and first tried appraising it.

‘Why is the description so empty? Consumable? Is it something you eat?’

Besides the name Seed of Divinity and its classification as a consumable, everything else was blank.

Even observing it with Eye of Truth, he couldn’t even properly perceive it before interpretation, like when seeing goddesses or Outer Gods.

“What should I do with this.”

There were two options.

Take it himself, or hand it over to Bruce.

If this was an item that could make him transcendent immediately upon use, he would have chosen the former without hesitation.

The problem was that becoming transcendent required sufficient qualifications, and even if used, the Seed of Divinity only offered the possibility of gaining enlightenment, with no guarantee of definitely becoming transcendent.

‘In contrast, giving it to Bruce would definitely bring rewards and benefit Earth’s defense, but… it just feels too wasteful.’

It was a rare item that even users who had been active for years or decades hadn’t obtained.

Though Bruce said he would pay any price in return, conversely that meant nothing he could offer would match the value of even one Divine Fragment or seed.

Too troublesome to consume but too precious to give away.

It was truly like a stray dog you’ve fed – can’t keep it but can’t abandon it either.

‘I’ll put it in subspace for now and think about it lat-‘

“Han Yuseong! Han Yuseong!”

“Ack!”

Startled by the sudden call, Yuseong accidentally dropped the Seed of Divinity he was holding, and the crystal fell directly into his mouth as if magnetized.

The panicked Yuseong quickly tried to spit out the Seed of Divinity but there was already nothing left in his mouth.

“We didn’t actually discuss anything important when I think about it! Forget about the floating fortress, but what’s the deal with that Alice kid? Wasn’t she just a girl with special sensing abilities? She suddenly appeared and stopped us from approaching the city, what kind of magic power…”

“……”

“What’s wrong? Why that expression? Are you sick?”

Yuseong got off the bed and started stretching after putting on Thousand Hands.

Heavy air and subtle killing intent.

Only then did Kang Changseok sense something was off and tried to leave his seat, but it was too late.

“Die!”

The next morning, news broadcasts reported that there had been a big commotion due to a monster attack at the hospital where Yuseong was admitted.

* * *

[…Thus concluding the purchase contract for ability awakening potions for 30,000 people. The goods will be delivered in three installments, and the French government announced they will distribute the first batch to academies and provide full support to build independent monster defense capabilities as quickly as possible. The ability awakening potion that has heated up the whole world for the past two weeks was…]

The young man watching TV irritably downed the amber liquid he was holding in one gulp.

Though his nose stung from the strong alcohol scent and his throat and stomach felt like they were burning, as if unsatisfied with just that, he picked up the whiskey bottle beside him and started drinking straight from it.

“Hoho, you seem to be alone, would you like to have a drink together?”

A seductive voice.

Its owner was a woman of unrealistically beautiful appearance.

The young man who had been staring at the woman for a moment put down his bottle and looked around.

Pure white marble floors and walls decorated with gold and jewels.

Majestic and intricate statues and various exotic flowers and plants.

Women of unrealistic beauty either dancing to exciting music or splashing around in the pool.

It was a sight that would captivate any man regardless of age for even a moment, but the young man just snorted and lifted the bottle again.

“My, are you ignoring me right n-”

The woman couldn’t finish her words.

Because the young man had ripped out her throat.

The music stopped instantly and everyone around simultaneously turned their heads to look at the young man.

It was like a scene from a horror movie, but the young man threw away the woman’s head that was dripping oil instead of blood with trailing wires, and said with an arrogant expression:

“How long are you going to keep me waiting? It would be better to come out while my patience remains.”

Woong.

A whirlwind rose around the young man.

A storm of such mighty energy that space itself seemed to distort.

Just before the young man’s energy completely dominated the hall, a chilling voice rang out.

“Enough.”

How long had he been there?

A person was standing right beside the young man.

A middle-aged man with strong features wearing a golden dragon robe and crown.

After sending the women outside with just a gesture, the middle-aged man looked at the young man and clapped.

“I thought you looked familiar, you must be Lucifer?”

The young man.

No, the fallen morning star Lucifer calmed his energy and said.

“Chinese Hero. Changwei.”

The hero of China.

Unlike other consistently active heroes, he was at the center of various controversies for rarely showing himself and having an extremely irregular activity cycle.

If he had been from any other country he would have had his title revoked long ago, but he maintained his position as hero through China’s active support.

The moment he faced Chinese Hero Changwei, Lucifer bit his lip slightly.

‘Too strong.’

Secretly gathering people and building forces to recover from the wounds inflicted by Bruce, only to be discovered multiple times.

Realizing there was no hope in Korea and going abroad, but his wounds had progressed to a dangerous level and he needed to recover his strength as soon as possible.

After much deliberation, coming up with the strategy of joining hands with heroes who had great influence in the world seemed good, but he didn’t know the one he chose would be this strong.

‘One of the two heroes who didn’t cooperate during the undead rampage incident. Unlike those guys, he seems like there might be room for dialogue but… Should I have chosen that Carlos guy? No, there’s no guarantee he’d be weaker than this guy. And considering the numbers and influence of their people, there was no choice but this guy anyway.’

While Lucifer was calculating internally, Changwei opened his mouth.

“I don’t understand. Seeing how you called me, you didn’t come here without knowing where this is, so what were you thinking coming here?”

“I came to make a proposal to join hands.”

“…Hmm. Sorry to say this, but are you perhaps not right in the head?”

Changwei put his finger to his temple and spun it around.

He couldn’t help it.

While it wasn’t particularly rare for monsters to attempt negotiations, it was unprecedented for one to come directly to a hero in the middle of a human city like this to propose negotiations.

Moreover, Lucifer was designated as a special threat that had to be eliminated immediately without room for dialogue due to his danger level.

Objectively speaking, Lucifer’s actions could only be seen as a death wish.

However, living up to his name, Lucifer lifted his chin arrogantly and declared.

“I am not crazy. I’ll say it again. I want to join hands with you.”

Changwei’s eyes narrowed as he was about to attack Lucifer.

Though it sounded similar at first glance to the previous proposal, just adding “with you” completely changed its meaning.

After contemplating for a while, Changwei withdrew his energy and opened his mouth.

“I’d like to hear more details. What do you want and what can you offer me?”

“What I want is human life force and faith. In return, I’ll give you this world.”

“What use would I have for a world that’s going to be destroyed?”

“If we join forces, this world can avoid destruction.”

“You don’t seem like you’d be that much help.”

Lucifer lifted his shirt.

There was a hole the size of a fist in his chest.

“My current state isn’t normal. My essence was struck so my body is crumbling, and I’ve lost almost all my divinity and peak powers. But if I can obtain human life force and faith, I can recover my wounds and gain enough power to protect this world.”

“How can I believe you’ll keep your promise?”

“I’ll make a contract. All I want is human life force and faith, if those two things are provided, I will become a shield protecting this world from dimensional drifters and help you obtain the world.”

“……”

Changwei stared at Lucifer pensively.

It would be simple to capture and kill Lucifer here.

But what then?

Looking at just the recent undead rampage incident, it was a crisis that could barely be overcome even with eight users combining their strength.

Not even a year had passed since monsters first appeared yet it was already this bad, how much longer could humanity endure the crises to come?

‘The others seem to want to try stopping this situation by creating a transcendent but…’

All users knew that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Despite searching countless dimensions over the past decades, they couldn’t find Divine Fragments.

The chances of humanity lasting until Divine Fragments were found were extremely low.

Even if they miraculously found Divine Fragments and one of the users was reborn as a transcendent, the future would still be bleak.

Though a user becoming transcendent would certainly be stronger than an ordinary transcendent, it would still be impossible to protect Earth from the endless flood of enemies.

Then what about Lucifer?

‘Obviously he’d be much stronger than an ordinary transcendent.’

Unlike unknown transcendents, Lucifer was a famous transcendent whose name was known across most dimensions.

Of course, since he was also a loser, he wouldn’t be able to perfectly protect Earth, but he should at least live up to his reputation somewhat.

Though sacrificing human life force and faith seemed like it could be problematic…

‘That’s by ordinary people’s standards.’

People who would die anyway if the world was destroyed.

Thousands, tens of thousands, even if it reached billions, if you could save the world by sacrificing people who would die anyway, wasn’t that more than worth it?

Changwei genuinely thought so.

“Fine. Let’s make the contract.”

“Uh, what?”

Not expecting such ready agreement, Lucifer couldn’t help being momentarily flustered.

“Ah, wait, come to think of it there’s one more condition.”

Lucifer thought “I knew it” and put on a serious expression again.

“What is it?”

“Compensate for the gynoid you destroyed. Do you know how much that cost? I can’t even get more since the creator won’t take requests. Why did you break a perfectly good item? Really having bad luck since morning.”

“……”