Chapter 70: Her Traces

It was absurd enough when Baek-ryong asked to be his disciple, but now his father and family head, Jin Soo-hyun, was asking the same.

“I’m… still a student, and I’m the same age as your son, Uncle.”

He first tried to point out the obvious, from a common-sense perspective.

“Does age matter when seeking a master? Anyone can be a master if they have something to teach.”

The other party was also being quite sensible. Honestly, having lived for 137 years, he also believed that age didn’t really matter.

Weren’t they getting along just fine with 17-year-olds? Well, honestly, since he’d already accepted Jin Baek-ryong as a disciple, was there any reason he couldn’t accept his uncle?

‘In return, I’ll just have to get something of equal value.’

“My services are quite expensive, you know.”

He’d received a divine-grade elixir for accepting Jin Baek-ryong as a disciple, so shouldn’t there be some sort of balance if he accepted his uncle?

“I heard from the school sparring match that you also have a knack for spears. Would a spear-related divine relic be enough to accept me as your disciple?”

“Co…”

A divine relic was more than enough; it was overflowing. Even excluding the special abilities contained within the divine relic itself, the simple stat boosts would be a great help to him.

While one couldn’t equip more than four divine relics at a time, he currently didn’t possess a single one, so anything he could get was fine.

“Then I’ll bring it.”

“Alright.”

Though his appearance was that of a 17-year-old, his inner self was 137, so speaking informally to Jin Soo-hyun didn’t feel awkward.

The nearby servants, however, looked completely bewildered by the situation.

As Jin Soo-hyun brought a spear into the training hall, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

An item that shouldn’t be here, an item that couldn’t be here, was in his hands.

A golden spear of a form he knew well.

He checked its information.

[Gungnir (Mythical): Weapon of Odin, the god of madness and war, and possessor of countless other titles, a supreme god.

*Strength +40, Agility +40, Intelligence +40

*Sure Hit: Unconditionally hits the target.

*Recall: Returns to the owner at will.

*Indestructible: Will never break against weapons of lower grade.

*Self-Repair: Repairs itself if broken.

*Transformation: Can switch between spear and bracelet forms.

*Owner: None]

‘This shouldn’t be here.’

Only one of each divine relic could exist.

Unless they were made as a pair, identical divine relics couldn’t exist, and Gungnir was an item that had already been discovered in Estelle’s world.

There was only one reason it could be on Earth.

The person who possessed Gungnir had transitioned to Earth. And the last person to possess Gungnir was her.

‘Ruina.’

She who loved him, whom he’d had to hurt to prevent greater pain.

Of course, she might have sold Gungnir, and the buyer might have come to Earth.

But his intuition told him that Ruina was on Earth.

And it made sense, as a faint trace of Ruina’s energy remained on Gungnir.

The fact that the energy trace still remained meant it hadn’t been separated from her for more than two weeks.

Wasn’t it a much more natural assumption that she herself had come to Earth, rather than someone buying Gungnir from Ruina and transitioning to Earth within two weeks?

However, he would have to find out why Gungnir was separated from Ruina now.

“This weapon. Where did you get it?”

The first person he could get information from was Jin Soo-hyun, who had brought the weapon.

“I got it from the Black Market.”

“Divine-grade items rarely appear on the Black Market, do they?”

The Black Market had the significant advantage of completely concealing the identities of sellers and buyers, but since it took a 25% commission, extremely expensive items were rarely listed.

“That’s right. It was probably listed by someone who couldn’t sell it through a public auction.”

People listed divine-grade items on the Black Market when they lacked the power to protect the item in a public auction, when their identity was uncertain, or when they needed to dispose of the item quickly.

Jin Soo-hyun had luckily bought it, which meant there was only one way to find out who the seller was.

‘I have no choice but to ask the owner of the Black Market directly…’

Since the Black Market was a space created based on the S-rank trait of its owner, only that owner could know the identities of those who listed items.

Because information had never been leaked, people used it despite the high commission, so there was absolutely no other way to find out the seller’s identity.

‘But is it right for me to be looking for Ruina?’

He was now a worldwide celebrity. If Ruina had wanted to find him, she could have done so at any time.

The fact that she hadn’t even tried might mean she didn’t want to see him.

But another problem here was why Ruina had come to Earth. If she’d come to meet him, she would have already found him.

The same applied if she’d come to meet Estelle.

He might even have to consider the possibility that Ruina wasn’t the one who brought Gungnir to Earth.

“Is there any way to find out the seller’s information from the owner of the Black Market?”

He couldn’t find an answer by myself alone.

He first asked Jin Soo-hyun, the person closest to him who had the ability to help.

If the seller wasn’t Ruina, he could go find them immediately and ask how they obtained the item. If it was Ruina, he could just observe the situation for now.

“You seem to know this item..?”

“Yes. A friend of mine used to use it, but I lost contact with them a long time ago. So I wanted to ask how they got it.”

He looked like he was contemplating.

“Ludwig… To get the seller’s information from him, you need something that will pique his interest. He’s not tempted by mere divine relics or divine-grade elixirs, so ordinary things won’t work.”

As one of the Top 10 Families, he seemed to maintain some connection with the Black Market seller, but it appeared his status alone wasn’t enough to obtain anything.

“Even Nidhogg’s corpse wouldn’t be enough, would it?”

Nidhogg’s corpse was currently being dismantled by the Jin family. He’d readily agreed when they offered to handle all the processing for a 10% cut, but he had no idea how much it was worth.

“A dragon corpse of Nidhogg’s caliber is extremely rare, but someone like him can obtain dragon corpses relatively easily. It might be enough to build a relationship, but getting the seller’s information is out of the question.”

The most valuable thing he possessed. Let’s think about what that was.

The Ink Lightning Divine Art and Blood Sky Dance were highly valued in the martial arts world, but on Earth, they weren’t as favored as other skills.

Yu-won Sword was also created on the premise of using martial arts, and it was a sword style that could only be used with his level of enlightenment, so it wouldn’t be recognized as having great value.

The Universal Spear Technique might be recognized as having very high value, but wouldn’t it still be treated as similar to or only slightly above Gungnir? Even with this, getting the seller’s information would be impossible.

His combat power was exceptionally outstanding for his age, even including adults, but the forces the owner of the Black Market could deploy would naturally be superior to his, so appealing with force was also impossible.

He could ask him to bet on his future, but there were many who reached the Master realm in their teens but failed to reach the Grand Master realm even in their 80s.

As long as his peak potential was unknown, betting on his potential was an impossible choice for a merchant.

‘Was I really this insignificant?’

Even after searching through all his skills, he couldn’t see an answer.

Considering all his connections, possessions, everything, he couldn’t see anything to appeal with.

The moment he checked the list of traits he possessed, grasping at straws…

‘If it’s this…?’

The answer… appeared.

[Primordial Giant (SS)]

He’d been thinking about it wrong all along.

Among all the things he possessed, the most valuable thing at this point was not an item, skill, connection, or combat power, but his body itself. A transcendent being, standing at the pinnacle of all species.

Beings evaluated as having the best materials among living creatures.

However, his body was a step further, a physique with the potential to stand at the pinnacle of transcendent beings.

His blood, muscles, bones, and even saliva possessed the value to become the best materials among all those discovered so far. He could be considered a walking golden goblin.

If this fact became known, it would become quite tiresome, but he would only say that he could supply this material periodically and had no intention of revealing how he obtained it, so he wasn’t too worried.

“Uncle. Can you call the owner of the Black Market?”

The material was secured.

So now was the time to try to converse to get the information he needed.