Ch.6363. Raising a Bjorn Apostle (1)

Thus, it had been about 6 months since I reorganized the military structure based on the newly completed military specializations.

During that time, neither too long nor too short.

I had been handling various detailed matters and adjusting specific plans for the future.

Of course, I didn’t forget my routine tasks—creating incidents in the capital to overload the security forces, and abducting Bjorn through dreams every day to train him.

And then one day.

(Great God of Blood and Vengeance… I’m informed that blacksmith Grumhil has completed his work.)

Through a special prayer ritual that could be performed at the temple, I received news from a priest of the underground city that what I had requested from Grumhil was complete.

Since this message was delivered through a method that carried the risk of preventing an intermediate priest from using magic for a day, I judged the information to be true and immediately began preparations to move my wolf avatar for the first time in 6 months.

Although the parts consumed during the creation of the “Mobile City Super Moskvawolf Unit 1” hadn’t fully recovered yet…

It was still functional enough to move around and use the remaining features without issue.

Moreover, since my combat power had recovered to an intermediate level, I determined there wouldn’t be any problems. I quickly moved my wolf avatar, disguised as a priest, to Grumhil’s workshop and—

“Is this the finished product, Blacksmith Grumhil?”

“Yes, it is, messenger of the Great One. As requested, the armor has been perfectly crafted.”

There, I encountered the magnificent armor whose outstanding quality made me understand why Grumhil had confidently described it as perfect.

The plate sections made of black iron, also called adamantium—the hardest metal in the world—had a matte finish giving it a weighty feel, and even these parts alone were completely sealed from the outside.

Thanks to this, the wearer would be protected from external contaminants or poison gas attacks.

And due to the blacksmith’s skill alone, without any additional enchantments, it was sturdier than ordinary adamantium armor.

Considering all these conditions, its ergonomic structure distributed the weight of the heavy black iron effectively, and even naturally corrected the wearer’s posture through its design.

It was a masterpiece that well represented the pinnacle of dwarven technology.

The inner armor connected to the plate sections was also first-class, not at all inferior to the adamantium plate components.

The material was mythril—true silver with high resistance and affinity to magic while being lightweight yet treating ordinary steel as inferior.

The inner armor consisted of three layers of chain mail made with generous amounts of mythril, so intricately crafted it almost looked like cloth.

The innermost layer was lined with drake leather tanned by dwarven craftsmen.

Thanks to mythril’s properties, it offered excellent resistance to external magical energy while allowing aura to flow well, yet weighed only as much as wearing three layers of clothing…

Despite being so thin, it boasted defensive capabilities similar to drake leather.

With no special functions other than durability, focusing solely on defense, it was comparable to drake leather which is tougher than most armors. Its defensive capabilities would likely be top-tier among level 3 equipment.

And the crowning glory of dwarven equipment—the runes—were engraved on the inside of the plate components corresponding to their functions.

Strengthening on the breastplate, magic resistance on the back of the head.

Bone reinforcement on the back, superhuman strength divided between both arms.

Swift movement on the legs, and perception on the crown of the helmet.

Truly satisfied with this armor that deserved to be called perfect, I—

《Excellent work, Grumhil. You’ve done very well.》

“…?!! I-I am honored!”

After briefly praising him through my wolf avatar, eager to deliver this armor as quickly as possible, I transferred both the armor and my wolf avatar using my divine power.

※ ※ ※

And so, the next morning at dawn.

《Receive this, my first apostle.》

“This, this armor…”

《It is now yours. I hope you will cherish it.》

Having contacted Bjorn in his dream, I handed him the custom rune armor made exclusively for him.

Perhaps because he was a warrior familiar with weapons, Bjorn stared at the magnificent and beautiful structure and capabilities of the rune armor in a daze.

After three minutes of intense scrutiny,

Bjorn, as if suddenly struck by a thought, looked at my form and asked:

“But, my lord. Isn’t this a dream?”

《Indeed it is.》

“Then how can armor received in a dream…”

《Fear not, my apostle.》

What I had given him was, strictly speaking, a kind of armor summoning skill.

Thanks to this skill, created by processing Grumhil’s work, even if the armor were destroyed or damaged, it would be stored in skill form and could be restored to its original state when summoned again.

After reassuring him of this, I immediately expelled him from the dream to maintain an air of mystique.

‘Isn’t it about time for Bjorn to reach advanced rank?’

At the same time, I harbored such thoughts.

Bjorn was currently a 4th-rank warrior, specifically a War Master, a rather standard warrior class.

Rather than specializing in one direction, War Masters learn a wide variety of skills, allowing for quite flexible combat based on their broad skill range, meaning their area of expertise can vary significantly depending on how they’re developed.

And the direction in which I’m currently guiding Bjorn’s development is close to an extreme technique type.

Let me digress for a moment.

Among the characteristics of being a god’s apostle is the infinite MP supplied by the god. Looking at this alone, one might occasionally think:

Since warrior skills hardly use MP anyway, does this characteristic really matter for warriors?

At first glance, this doesn’t seem wrong… but it’s a misunderstanding of the concept of MP.

Aura is essentially magical power fixed in a specific form, meaning infinite MP is essentially the same as infinite aura.

Of course, it’s true that warriors benefit less from infinite MP compared to mages.

The amount of aura a warrior can release at once is not related to their total MP but solely to their achievement level (rank), but even with minimal MP, they can use it liberally for at least 10 hours without running out.

Therefore, the most effective way to leverage this advantage of infinite aura usage is through the combination with the technical class line that I’m currently guiding Bjorn toward.

Among the advanced warrior classes that exist as upper tiers of War Master is the Lord of War, commonly called Warlord.

It has the characteristic of being able to use knight-class skills that are often tank-oriented, as well as skills specific to certain weapon specialization jobs, or even some skills from other job branches.

The most famous example is the continuous skill “Sword of Courage” from the job “Brave,” a type of magic warrior.

This skill, from a job considered exclusive to divine apostles due to its excessive MP consumption despite being warrior-based, continuously increases attack power without limit as long as MP (aura) is poured into it—naturally making it a perfect match for a divine apostle.

And in this state of inflated attack power,

they can use skills that, while low in power, have overpowered additional effects like 100% 1T action incapacitation, meaning the combination of divine apostle and Lord of War simply complements each other’s weaknesses.

To use an analogy from a famous turn-based monster-catching game, it’s like a glass cannon that hits painfully hard.

Since I won’t be able to surpass the raw damage output of the original Bjorn no matter what I do, I might as well change direction and take an independent route.

Anyway, under this policy of raising Bjorn, I felt it was time to make a decision.

Even if stretched out, it would take at most 5 years.

Within this period, neither too long nor too short, evil gods will surely be born or awaken one by one, so I must raise Bjorn to at least 1st rank by then.

Therefore, after serious and grave consideration,

I made the harsh but necessary decision to subject Bjorn to hardships of a different density than before to accelerate his growth.

And thus, Bjorn’s ordeal began.