Ch.1919. The Divine Weapon of the Chosen One

The interior of the cave was incredibly mystical.

Beautiful, self-luminous minerals of various colors were embedded throughout the walls, and vines growing throughout the cave bore glowing yellow and blue fruits, making it possible to see without any additional lighting.

The floor was covered with well-maintained grass, and a small stream—too modest to even call a brook—trickled along the side of the cave. Most strikingly, lights floated through the air like fireflies.

It was a dreamlike landscape that reminded Bjorn of the legendary ancient fairy forests he had heard about from the shaman who had educated him in his childhood.

After briefly indulging in nostalgia, Bjorn soon came to his senses, shook his head, and began to follow the cave path.

‘……..!’

Before long, he reached the edge of an enormous cavern with a lake covering its floor.

The lake, with its deep, dark color suggesting considerable depth and roughly the size of a soccer field, was a strange place devoid of any visible life forms.

Water poured from several points in the cavern ceiling, apparently forming this natural lake, but…

Bjorn didn’t notice any of that.

His attention was completely captivated by the rocky island in the middle of the lake.

The island, a circular rocky mound with a radius of about 5 meters, might have seemed like an ordinary rock formation, but…

In its center was a sword deeply embedded in the stone, radiating a splendor that seemed straight out of legend.

Above the rocky island, holes in the ceiling allowed light to pour down onto the rock, giving both the island and the sword embedded in it a sacred aura.

The moment he saw it, Bjorn knew.

That sword was the reward for this trial.

As soon as he realized this, the perfectly still lake—its surface showing not even the slightest ripple—parted in half, revealing a small boat just large enough for one person.

Bjorn had been considering removing his armor to cross the lake and felt a slight embarrassment at this, but it quickly passed.

Under the honor of receiving a divine weapon rightfully bestowed upon him, his embarrassment soon vanished. Without hesitation, Bjorn boarded the boat—and it began to move slowly.

Though Bjorn was quite heavy in his full plate armor and would have easily capsized an ordinary small boat, this mysterious vessel was clearly different.

The boat traversed the considerable distance in mere tens of seconds before stopping right in front of the rocky island. Bjorn carefully disembarked and began climbing the island.

Though the slope was quite steep, it was nothing for a superhuman like Bjorn who could manipulate aura.

He could have jumped to the top in one leap, but not wanting to disturb the silence of this mysterious place, Bjorn slowly climbed the rocky island until he reached the summit.

‘…This is truly a divine weapon. Oh God of Vengeance…’

He couldn’t take his eyes off the sword that appeared to be a divine weapon bestowed upon him by his god.

The blade gleamed with a red hue as if forged from solidified blood.

The body of the sword had numerous strange runes glowing red against a texture like obsidian.

The cross guard, with its intricate engravings and decorations, gave the impression of a work of art.

The hilt was made of metal lighter than wood yet stronger than steel, wrapped with red leather straps.

And finally, the pommel was set with a red gem that radiated the divinity of Him (Ma-Duk).

Completely enchanted by the beauty of the weapon—a beauty that would captivate any warrior beyond mere desire—Bjorn offered endless prayers to Ma-Duk as he carefully grasped the hilt and drew the sword.

Shhhhink……..

The rock that had seemed determined never to release the blade opened up as he grasped the sword, allowing it to be drawn with little effort, almost as if it were pushing itself up from within.

And as Bjorn stood there, staring at the beautiful sword he had drawn with dreamlike eyes…

‘The wrist guard is……..?!’

The armor on the wrist of his sword hand emitted a red light, and in an instant, his old wrist guard made of bear hide and melted bronze transformed into an ornate gauntlet—decorated almost as elaborately as the sword’s cross guard.

The back of the hand was protected by red metal plates, while the joints, which would normally lack protection, were covered with something closer to scales or chain mail than leather. The back of the hand was engraved with hymns praising its master, and the inside of the wrist had three holes that looked designed to hold beads.

Though naturally inferior to the divine weapon bestowed by his god, this equipment was of higher quality than anything he had used even during his time as a tribal chief.

And the moment the gauntlet fully settled on his arm, Bjorn instinctively understood how to use it.

This was a gift from his god, designed to hide the sword from the trash of the Rom Empire.

When he clenched his fist around the sword, the divine longsword instantly melted into the gauntlet, entering through the holes at the wrist and transforming into red beads. Simultaneously, the gauntlet contracted as if being rolled up, shrinking to the size of a bracelet.

Perhaps because he intuitively realized that this bracelet could be transformed into a tattoo-like mark on his wrist, just like his necklace? After briefly staring at the bracelet, Bjorn suddenly had a good idea and descended from the rocky island.

‘…It’s possible.’

He stored the small boat he had ridden to the rocky island inside the bracelet on his wrist.

At first, he tried to store water or fragments of the rocky island, but when that failed, it became clear that this bracelet had limitations on what it could store.

Thus, judging that the small boat that could be stored must be another gift from Ma-Duk, Bjorn retrieved it.

《Correct.》

With a voice that seemed to resonate in his soul, he suddenly found himself back in the underground of the Colosseum.

That mystical and dreamlike experience felt like a dream, but the new runes etched on his body and the bracelet tattoo on his wrist proved it had been real.

※ ※ ※

“He’s gone……”

Shortly after, from a secluded spot by the lake where Bjorn had disappeared.

I, having summoned a ‘Revenge Hound’ to use as an avatar to directly observe these events, lay down in the form of a red-haired wolf girl.

Partly because the wolf girl’s mind felt some fatigue, but… more significantly because I had used up a lot of the faith I had been gradually accumulating for Bjorn’s enhancement event.

I spent considerable faith acquiring the dungeon creation skill from the ‘Evil God’ job class, and the trial and error of creating a mid-level dungeon with low proficiency and no auxiliary skills also took its toll.

But since dungeon creation was something I would have needed to invest in anyway as part of the Evil God path, I didn’t regret spending the faith at all.

After all, using the Evil God’s dungeon creation skill to strengthen apostles like this is precisely what it’s for.

The developers seem to have included the dungeon-making element to enhance the “evil” god feeling, but… actually creating dungeons and killing people to earn faith is inefficient.

It’s far more efficient to use it like this—providing equipment or experience to one’s followers.

The sword, a new divine weapon I created with my expanded slot as a lesser god, was simply placed there, but the magical gauntlet and boat I indirectly provided him were different.

The gauntlet was created using most of the reward resources and given to him to hide the sword, while the boat was a mobile shield with auto-repair function that I created because I didn’t want to waste the remaining reward resources.

Well, he probably won’t need it for a while.

Anyway, with Bjorn’s Enhancement Plan (1) successfully completed, I was about to discard this girl’s body that I had been using as an avatar and return to my original state when a good idea occurred to me.

‘Maybe I should visit Lisa in this form?’

Since I hadn’t been able to pay much attention to Lisa lately due to focusing on Bjorn and the secret cult of Gracchus, and since I had something to give her…

I used my power to teleport from the collapsing dungeon that had been cleared—moving to the entrance of the Blood Sanctuary.