episode_0025

Staggering-

“Ugh….”

Upon arriving in the divine realm, I stumbled with the help of Jang Cheonsu and managed to safely reach my room, where I could throw myself onto the bed.

“Cheonsu-ssi.”

“Please speak.”

“Could you tell Heeseon that I might not be able to find my way to the room tonight and that it might be difficult to meet for a while? Please apologize on my behalf.”

I watched him, smiling awkwardly at my request, scratching his head, and eventually accepting it.

“Haha… It’s a difficult request. But if it’s what the Heavenly Will commands…”

Expressing my gratitude to him for accepting, I objectively confirmed my growth by checking my information, only to find that my magical and divine powers had merged into one source.

The fact that my sacred corruption had evolved into a power was something I could only feel internally, unable to confirm with just my eyes.

“Is this ability truly integrated within me?”

As I settled into the soft bed, I made a mental note to learn more about this ability when I woke up the next day.

“Huh…?”

Lying on the bed with closed eyes, Cheonsu found himself in a strange, vast, dark space with no visible end, reminiscent of the universe.

“A dream? Lucid dreaming?”

Experimenting with everything he had been curious about but had never attempted in this lucid dream for the first time.

Poke-

He had heard that if you poke your palm with your finger and it goes through, it’s a dream, but that was a complete lie. Trying to hold his breath and keep his eyes open to find something only possible in dreams, he found no success.

“Ugh… But where am I really?”

Although it was a dream, if it was very similar or identical to reality, could he use his abilities to find out?

*Clink…!*

Attempting to explore the unknown space with his abilities at maximum output, he was abruptly stopped by something like a firewall, and a searing pain surged from deep within his body.

Despite his abilities being partially blocked, he could glean some information, realizing that this space was the world within his own mind.

Thud-

Amazed by the fact that it was his inner world, he was exploring when something in the darkness expelled a hazy substance.

Thud-

“A messenger…?”

The entity that fell with a dull sound had a pointed head, no visible face, and a large scythe, with only its hands visible, reminiscent of a messenger.

Swish!

“Wait…!”

Taken aback by the sudden attack, he briefly dodged before entering a combat stance, focusing on the battle with the messenger.

Though a bewildering situation, one thing was clear – if he were to die at the hands of this creature, it wouldn’t bode well for him.

“I don’t know what you are, but let’s take you down first…!”

Using the will of the divine, he grabbed the air and brought the messenger down.

Swish!

However, the messenger effortlessly nullified his attack by simply swinging its scythe, then swiftly approached him, making eerie sounds as it monotonously swung the scythe.

Swish- Swish- Swish!

“Damn… Ugh!”

Evading the messenger’s attacks several times, I tried to corrupt it slightly, hoping to gain control over it, but to my surprise, my corruption vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving me in a state of shock.

Preventing further contamination may be possible, but erasing the already contaminated was deemed impossible by the current me.

‘Unless the opponent possesses the same power of contamination as me, it might be possible.’

Aware that this place is his inner self, Cheonsangil quickly concluded that the opponent possessed the same power of contamination and swiftly contaminated the opponent to steal a bit of information.

The information revealed that the opponent was not a being with physical stamina, but a monster that drew power from this infinite space to sustain itself.

Thus, while the monster’s power was thought to be infinite, just moving to attack me was causing its power to deplete faster than it could recover, leading to its self-destruction.

Thwack!

“Nice.”

Dodging the scythe swinging diagonally towards him, Cheonsangil forcefully struck the armor on the opponent’s ribs and then stepped back with a satisfied smile.

“You’re using your power to block all the attacks directed at you?”

Confirming that the opponent’s power was depleting as he attacked, Cheonsangil began to formulate a strategy against the opponent.

“Looks like this will end more easily than I thought.”

Muttering these words under his breath, Cheonsangil dodged a scythe strike aimed at his head and then struck the opponent’s ribs, dodging to the side right before swinging the scythe towards the opponent’s abdomen.

After three rapid strikes, Cheonsangil stepped back, observing the opponent’s depleted power and feeling his own energy drain.

If those three strikes had depleted 120 units of the opponent’s power, then the opponent had 1 billion units of power remaining.

To deliver the same three strikes, he would need to repeat them over 830,000 times.

Realizing how ignorant the monster was, Cheonsangil muttered, “Attacking a high-stamina opponent with regular strikes would be suicidal. Ugh!”

However, with no other way to overcome the situation, Cheonsangil continued to cautiously attack the opponent, avoiding the threatening scythe strikes.

His thoughts drifted to the fact that his own power would deplete before the opponent’s during more than 1 million attacks.

He could maintain his full power for 20 minutes, fight with over 60% of his power for 30 minutes, evade attacks with less than 50% power with an 80% chance, and had less than a 10^-10% chance of defeating the opponent.

“Darn it!”

Realizing the despairingly low odds of victory, Cheonsangil tried to think of another strategy to break through.

However, distracted by the ongoing battle and unable to come up with a viable plan, he felt his movements becoming sluggish and erratic.

Swish-

“Ugh!”

Caught off guard, Cheonsangil failed to completely evade the scythe’s reach, resulting in a slight cut on his forearm. He attempted to heal the wound using his abilities before the blood could flow, but the healing process was slower than expected, leading to a deep gash on his chest from the opponent’s scythe.

“Ugh…”

Clutching his bleeding chest, Cheonsangil tried his best to dodge the opponent’s scythe and heal the wound, but the slow healing process made him realize that the opponent’s contamination ability was the cause.

Realizing this, Cheonsangil mimicked the opponent’s method of contamination to heal his slightly contaminated arm and chest, hoping to recover.

In an instant, I was restored to my original form, forgetting the previous appearance.

“Huh?”

While contaminating my body, I naturally acquired new information and new ways to utilize my body.

Although it’s still a guess, contaminating my body would transform it into something completely mine, increasing the efficiency of the abilities manifested by my body by at least 20% and even boosting basic physical abilities by 20%.

Furthermore, the speed of recovering the source would increase by 50%.

With that conclusion, I immediately focused on contaminating myself to achieve an instant power increase, dodging the ruthless swing of the scythe from the creature. However, due to my contamination resistance and resistance to contaminating myself, my plan was slightly disrupted.

Swish-

Distracted elsewhere, I momentarily lost sight of the creature in front of me. It had approached me and swung its large scythe. Dodging the scythe and thinking of a way to penetrate the contamination resistance, I realized that it was crucial to not perceive the power of contamination negatively.

I needed to make sure that the power of contamination I possessed was perceived as a force that cleanses rather than taints.

“But that’s too difficult…!”

Having never deeply thought about or used the skill of contamination resistance in a passive form, the celestial being, who was exceptional in looking towards higher places and stepping towards them, felt a great difficulty in penetrating the contamination resistance and contaminating.

Nevertheless, with a talent for looking towards higher places and stepping towards them better than anyone else, the celestial being slowly moved to find the gaps in the contamination resistance.

I could even ask if it was possible to slightly modify the power, and instinctively, I knew that it was indeed possible.