Leveling with the Gods

"We will meet again..."

Urano's words echoed clearly in his mind.

The encounter was brief, but the impression was intense.

What did Danpung look like in his eyes?

Why had he left his heart behind?

Why did Zeus have a piece of his heart?

And why and on what basis did he say they would meet again?...

A lot of unanswered questions filled his head.

At that moment...

Swoosh-.

A touch on the cheek brought him back to reality.

"Eh?"

Pandora's hand.

The touch of her hand on his cheek startled YuWon, and Pandora opened her eyes and spoke.

"Awaken."

It was a short word, but not difficult to understand.

Wake up.

YuWon nodded. He was overthinking things.

'Let's not dwell on it for now.'

Anyway, if he thought about it at this moment, there was nothing he could know.

If Urano was right and he saw him again, it would be something to consider.

He would find out about Danpung later. If he grew again, like the first time he hatched, he might find his true form.

'At this moment, what I can do now.'

His thoughts quickly organized.

YuWon looked at the Uranus Heart he held in his hand.

An object that appeared to be a translucent glove.

[Uranus Heart]

The heart of an ancient High Ranker that devoured countless Rankers.

The power stored in the heart can be harnessed.

The descriptions were simple and unremarkable.

In this case, it was one of two things.

'Either the object was insignificant, or the system is incapable of specifically characterizing the effect of the object.'

The latter is rare. Most items with brief descriptions fall into the first category.

Of course, this didn't mean the second possibility didn't occur.

'Odin's Gungnir is like this.'

The strongest spear in the Tower.

The Gungnir was an object whose effects couldn't be fully understood through the system; it could only be fully realized by holding the spear in your hands, and even then, only in the hands of Odin.

'So this is an object comparable to the Gungnir?'

In any case, he was very excited.

YuWon carefully examined the description.

As simple as the description was, there were clues about the object.

"It's some kind of energy source."

He could utilize the energy stored in the heart.

The heart belonged to no one else but Urano, a High Rank player who had waged a war against a Great Guild solo in ancient times.

Being able to unleash the power possessed by Urano also meant he could surpass his own stats with just one item.

"There's only one way to know the effect."

YuWon's gaze turned to Hercules.

Then, naturally, Hercules, who was looking at YuWon, met his gaze.

"Is something the matter?"

"Hercules."

Kwok-.

Yuyuan clenched his fist as if he was about to punch him.

"Can you handle it?"

In the past month, YuWon had had several fights with Hercules.

Actually, they were more like one-sided assaults. A few punches from Hercules would instantly knock him out, and his punches hadn't even left a scratch on Hercules.

But now...

"Whatever."

Things might be different now.

Hercules stood with his chest wide open, as if saying, come on.

As if saying, if you're going to hit me, hit me.

Just as YuWon was about to reach for the hand holding the Uranus Heart...

"Do you want to wreck my workshop?"

Hephaestus' gruff voice interrupted.

"Go outside and fight. This is a sacred workshop."

YuWon, who was momentarily flustered by those words, realized he had made a mistake.

Under normal circumstances, the Uranus Heart was an item he had just acquired.

With such unknown power, he could go overboard.

And if he did, he might damage Hephaestus' workshop.

Tap, tap, tap-.

Hephaestus turned around and left the warehouse.

Having not been able to rest for a long time while making the Uranus Heart, he left first.

And then.

"What are you guys doing?"

Hephaestus' voice came from outside the warehouse.

"Aren't you going to continue doing what you're doing?"

Apparently, he was curious about the performance of the item he had made.

There was a lot of empty space on the first floor of the Tower.

Obviously, it was the most developed floor, but it was also the floor with the most empty land.

A small mountain quite a distance away from the city...

On the slope of that mountain, YuWon and Hercules stood facing each other.

"Here is fine."

Hercules looked at the city in the distance.

The distance was enough to make it appear so small. There was no point in causing a commotion so close to the city and getting into trouble for it.

Especially now, when YuWon was being pursued by the Three Precious Children.

"Go ahead."

Thump-.

Hercules taunted YuWon by pounding his chest wide open.

Hephaestus and Pandora watched the situation from behind Hercules. Among them, YuWon looked at Hephaestus.

"I don't need to worry about Pandora, but just in case..."

Pandora, who was quite high in the ranks of the High Ranks, was not the one he was worried about.

The problem was Hephaestus.

"What are you worried about?"

At that moment, the corner of Hercules' lips lifted as he noticed YuWon's concern.

"Don't worry, as long as they're behind me, there won't be any danger."

It was a confident statement.

Hercules extended his arms.

It was an attitude of never letting harm reach the back.

YuWon nodded.

"Right, with him as the guardian, I shouldn't worry."

YuWon remembered once again the adjective attached to Hercules' name.

The strongest body in the Tower.

Piercing through his body was no easy task, even if Zeus were here. Moreover, Hercules had endured multiple lightning strikes in his battles with Zeus and came out unscathed.

"Here we go."

Kwaaaak-.

[You have used the 'Uranus Heart'.]

Passt-.

Arcane Power began to emanate from YuWon's hand. The three separate pieces fused into one, and their properties unified.

He began to use the item in earnest.

Despite everything, YuWon could feel what the system couldn't tell him.

"It's no wonder he's the best blacksmith in the Tower."

Hephaestus used three items as materials to complete this item.

The Lightning, Kyneē, and Triaina.

They were all elements that became materials to create the Uranus Heart.

However, even before the Heart formed, Hephaestus had already crafted it from different elements.

This heart contained Hephaestus' regrets.

"The 'Blessing of the Sea' dwells within your body."

This heart contained all the characteristics of the items that Hephaestus had created.

No, not just three items in one.

"Summoning the 'Tartarus'."

The name 'Inferno' contained within Kyneē had been renamed.

Deeper than Inferno.

A place that excluded only those who needed extreme punishment among the dead, it was a place of greater power than Inferno as it contained the most dangerous ones.

The deep and dark sea into which YuWon fell on the 42nd floor.

That place was Tartarus.

Pajak, zuzuz-!

YuWon's expression wrinkled at the Arcane Power that sprouted from his hands.

The amount of Mana emanating from the Uranus Heart was beyond what he could handle. Naturally, the uncontrolled Mana would cause damage to himself.

[State Anomaly: Corrosion begins]

He hadn't expected it to go beyond his control so quickly.

Once again, he realized that his stats were very low.

He couldn't even handle a single item, so he felt stuck.

"No, that's good."

On the contrary, it also meant that the power of the Uranus Heart was great.

That's because the power that could draw out the inherent Mana from the Heart and the power of Tartarus connected through the heart were significant.

In his current state, he was unable to utilize the full value of the item.

[State Anomaly: Corrosion rises to level 2]

The unpleasant sensation and pain in his hand were worsening.

He didn't have much time now.

"Now."

Pajik-!

A bright ray of light sprouted from his right hand.

It consumed all the Arcane Power that YuWon had emitted at once.

And in the next moment...

Flash...!

YuWon's figure disappeared from sight.

Thud-!

Kururureung-.

The sound of thunder resonated in the sky.

The lightning that erupted from the ground rose up into the sky, creating a phenomenon where lightning scattered from the ground to the sky.

Among the shattered pale yellow lightning, there was a hint of black.

It was the power of two incompatible attributes that were fused together.

Hephaestus' eyes widened as he saw the lightning that had dispersed in the air and turned into mist-like fog.

"This is... Uranus?"

He wanted to see for himself the power of the object he had crafted.

That's why he had traveled here with his weary body.

What kind of power could the three objects produce when combined into one?

He wanted to see how his greatest masterpiece would shine when it met its owner.

And now Hephaestus was seeing with his own eyes what he had been waiting for so long.

"Did the Lightning have such power?"

It was an enormous power.

For a moment, Hephaestus thought that Zeus himself was scattering the lightning.

Naturally, Hephaestus's gaze turned towards Hercules.

"And yet, the power didn't reach that far."

He extended his arms, and his whole body caught the lightning.

Hercules stood still, his posture unaffected.

It was for Hephaestus and Pandora behind him.

"That guy is a true monster too."

Hercules.

He was said to be the strongest among Zeus's children, one of the top 20 Rankers.

Once again, Hephaestus marveled at the strength of high-level High Rankers.

To be able to deflect such an attack with his bare body.

Pagit-.

Hercules looked up, the tingling sensation of the explosion still present in his body.

It should hurt a little, he thought.

Because YuWon had already grown enough to leave him with small scars.

Not to mention that he had now acquired an even better item than the Lightning.

So Hercules didn't relax.

Unlike in previous duels, he tensed his body as if it were a real battle, his body hardened by Mana, harder than any shield in the world.

But no.

"I made the decision to stop him... I never thought he would actually hurt me."

A scar appeared on his chest.

A burn on his flesh caused by the Lightning.

He had prided himself on having the toughest body in the Tower. Not even Athena's Aegis would be tougher than his own body.

And now, a wound had appeared.

Hercules clenched his fists and looked at YuWon in front of him.

"Like..."

And then he looked at his face.

"How did you do that?"

For a moment, Hercules saw the image of Zeus superimposed.

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