‘Nice.’

“Nice!”

The voice gave me goosebumps, but I was happy. It would be difficult to fix the situation afterwards, but taking care of the task in front of us first was the right thing to do. After all, I would fix it later was one of my favorite sentences.

“My Juliena! You have finally awakened! You have no idea how long I have been waiting for you,” I said.

- Gedric! My Gedric. I’ve also wanted to be with you for such a long time.

“Juliena!”

- Gedric!

It was kind of scary looking at the sword that was making strange noises as it floated around me. It was because I was kind of scared that the sword was going to pierce through my neck after saying, “You’re not Gedric.”

But…

‘It’s okay.’

There weren’t any signs of that yet. Juliena still thought I was Gedric and was moving to protect me.

‘It’s a good thing I have been wearing it.’

[Gedric’s Proposal Ring - Epic Rank]

[Resistant to Juliena’s curse.]

I found Gedric’s Proposal Ring at the Cursed Shrine, and naturally, I thought it was a good thing that I had been wearing this on my pinky finger, even though it had no other functions. It was the lower middle-class way of thinking to always react to approaching threats. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Juliena! My Juliena! We don’t have time for this, Juliena!” I told her.

- Gedric… Ahh! My love, Gedric! Please kiss me. Hold me until this body crumbles!

‘But you’re a sword...’

“Juliena! I need your power. We need to break the seal of the evil Rift Guardians who have been holding the Ancient God against its will,” I informed her.

- Ahh! My love, Gedric! Speak words of love to me a bit more. Gedric! My hope! My light!

‘This crazy bitch!’

From the start, I thought it would be difficult to control her, but I couldn’t help but realize that she was even crazier than I thought. I wasn’t sure what this Gedric guy liked so much about this woman that he had spent a long time looking for her, but I guarantee that it could be a type of Stockholm Syndrome. It was possible that he had been captured, and for some reason, that thought was embedded in one part of my head.

“Help me! Juliena! I need your love,” I begged.

- Gedric! My Gedric!

“Juliena! The world is in danger!” I shouted.

- Ahh…

‘Shit!’

I couldn’t delay any longer. If I continued to talk to Juliena like this, the entire party would get annihilated, and that was only when she would start moving, so I had no choice but to take Juliena and run toward the monster. I didn’t know how to use a sword, but when I infused my mana into the sword while running, I felt a difference.

- Gedric! I can feel your warm mana flowing in! Your mana is flowing into my body! Ahh! My love, Gedric! Ahh!

‘Just shut up!’

I wanted her to be quiet, but the effect was better than I had imagined.

‘Huh?’

- A little more! Just a little bit more! Gedric! A little more of your love!

‘C-Crazy bitch!’

[One of Juliena, the Cursed Sword’s dormant skills has been unlocked.]

[Tentacle of A.S.][1]

‘Nice!’

Up until now, the only skill Juliena had was cursing people, and that alone made her very valuable. She could curse the opponent just by injuring them, and if she consumed a large amount of mana, she could cast a wide-area curse. Those skills were enough to make her a legendary-ranked weapon, and she even protected me autonomously, which made her even more valuable. However, those weren’t the only skills Juliena had. Aside from those useful skills, this weapon possessed different types of power, and I had seen that skill when she and Kim Hyun-Sung fought.

“Nice!”

Of course, she had used the black magic of A.S. before, but the magic that was flowing out of the sword right now was different from before. If the skill she used before was like the closed-beta version, then the skill I was seeing right now was a skill that had been upgraded a few times. The black magic tentacles Juliena had used before started to bloom around the sword. What made me kind of nervous was the fact that the tentacles kept tying themselves around me, but I knew she wasn’t going to hurt me. To make things worse, the black magic tentacles shooting up from the ground were trying to crawl under my clothes, which gave me goosebumps. Luckily, the tentacles weren’t limiting my movements, but obviously, I thought about how these tentacles could bind me at any moment. Based on appearance alone, these tentacles were intimidating, but they weren’t the problem. Actually, the problem actually was…

- More… more! Ahh! Gedric, your love! More of your love!

‘Stop draining my mana!’

Juliena was draining my mana like crazy, and of course, I felt burdened by it because my magic stat was low. The goosebumps were there as well, as it felt like she was sucking out my life along with my mana, but the result I was seeing was better than what I had imagined.

‘Eat just a little bit more!!!’

I already knew that the energy inside the sword was something I couldn’t release, and obviously, I didn’t have the power to control that energy. The black tentacles stretching out in all directions had long been out of my control, but I didn’t have the power to control them anyway. All I had to do was attack the chains with the overflowing energy.

“Deok-Gu!” I shouted.

“Ah… got it!” Park Deok-Gu replied.

Park Deok-Gu stretched his hand toward me as if I looked interesting, but he seemed to have understood what was going on without any explanation, which made me proud. Even if the tentacles were wrapped around my body, throwing myself into the explosion was impossible for me. I felt kind of bad, but I needed Park Deok-Gu’s help.

‘I need you to get hurt for me.’

As expected, a transparent and faint shield appeared on my body. Park Deok-Gu’s attribute allowed him to take the damage the target would receive. When I touched the ground with my crackling hand, a dragon’s tail shot up from the ground and lifted me up to where the chains were. It was kind of scary, but even if I fell, Park Deok-Gu would take the damage for me. So, right now, swinging my sword was the priority.

The seal that looked like it was about to break was still firmly in place. Obviously, the shockwave of the explosion didn’t deal any damage to me, as I neither felt hot nor was my skin peeling.

‘Hang in there, Deok-Gu!’

“Mr. Ki-Young?”

I guess Kim Hyun-Sung was surprised to see me break through the wave because he spoke as if he was asking, “Why are you here, hyung?” but I ignored him. I didn’t have the energy to answer, and I couldn’t really hear him due to the explosion.

“Break already! Shit!”

Obviously, I used the sword filled with energy and struck the area that looked the weakest. The magic tentacles wrapped around my body, and the tentacles all over the place fell toward the chains as my remaining mana was consumed in an instant.

- Gedric! Gedric! Gedriic! Ahh! Ah!

“Break! Break!”

If one hit weren’t enough, then I would hit it again and again. Even though an amateur was swinging the sword, I was sure I would improve in the midst. It may look like I was hitting it with a club, but I knew the seal was at its limit because I saw a crack in the chains of the seal. The crack was very fine, but the chains were breaking.

‘Alright!’

That was when Kim Hyun-Sung, who had jumped from out of nowhere and through the smoke, started swinging his sword toward the area I was hitting. I was surprised but relieved.

‘I was at my limit.’

Juliena had taken too much of my mana, and because I didn’t have the energy to keep hitting the chain, I was thankful for his arrival. There was definitely a difference between hitting it randomly and hitting it while knowing how to use a sword. The moment our lovely regressor’s sword struck the cracked part of the chains, a blue chain broke, and it started to emit light.

“Nice!”

I felt Kim Hyun-Sung’s hand around my waist, and my body started to get further and further away from the chains against my will, and that was when I saw the Fragment of the Ancient God once again.

‘I’m sure we… did the right thing.’

What we broke was one of the chains wrapped around the monster, and since the balance of the seal holding down the mythical being was broken, the other chains started to break as well. Actually, it was more like the monster was breaking them apart. It was truly remarkable how the monster had used an unknown skill to break the chains apart when we had to use everything we had to break one chain.

‘It looks really strong…’

That was when I started to realize what we had released into the world, and my body started to tremble in response. I had a hard time walking, but that much was easy to understand.

[The Fragment of the Ancient God has been released from the seal.]

[Warning.]

[The Rift Museum’s protection program will now activate.]

[Warning.]

[The program isn’t working properly.]

[Warning.]

[Activating the backup program.]

[Warning.]

[The Fragment of the Ancient God has fully awakened.]

“Rooooooooooooar!!!”

- Ahh… ahhhhh… No!!!

I heard Max’s cry and the Fragment of the Ancient God’s roar at the same time.

‘A backup program?’

I didn’t know what that was, but I guess the Rift Museum had some sort of program that could fix situations like this. Of course, I didn’t know whether that backup program actually had the ability to fix this or not, but the die was cast.

‘Let’s see you try to fix this.’

It was now up to Manager Max. Cheating someone was a lot better than getting cheated on, but I couldn’t smile in this situation.

Even if we broke the monster’s chains, we were still in danger, and we might die before the monster became a threat to the world.

It seemed like that fragment didn’t have the ability to think, so there was no point in showing respect to the Ancient God and doing three cheers for them. However…

“Let’s cheer! For the A-Ancient God!” I shouted.

“...”

“The Ancient God has awakened! For the Fragment of the Ancient God!”

To shout first was the lower middle-class way of thinking. I wasn’t sure if my cheering had reached the monster, but its struggle started to create big results. The outer walls of the museum that looked unbreakable were starting to crumble, and the impenetrable exhibition hall was crumbling as well.

‘I knew it.’

The monster could resist the system.

“Rooooooooooooar!!!”

When the main large tentacle started swinging, the museum started to break apart.

- N-Nooooooo!!!

Max screamed, and during all of this, I spoke to the expedition party.

“Let’s… Let’s go to the area that crumbled down and grab some of the items for now. I’m sure that there are a few exhibition halls that have been affected by the Ancient God as well.”

Author's Comment:

Lee Ki-Young: You fix it. I’ll take what I need… Hehehe

1. Pending clarification ☜