Chapter 1962

"Our people have once again received His Majesty's favor."

The king of the water clan bowed as the cheering crowd watched. He was ready to bow even deeper, but Grid stopped him.

"How much are you going to humble yourself in front of your people?"

The eyes of the king of the water clan were dark. He smiled and said, "Does being humble count when one is courteous to a great person?"

It was a shame that Siren was still dependent on the empire despite receiving their support for so many years. He even felt guilty toward Grid.

"I am sorry to be indebted to Your Majesty every time."

Grid shook his head. "The enemy who invaded your clan this time was too high level. Had they targeted the empire's cities, they would've done a lot of damage. Siren was just unlucky."

The waters around Siren were inhabited by a large number of powerful monsters. Grid had always been grateful to the king and people of Siren for thoroughly protecting the kingdom from those monsters and supplying the empire with specialties that couldn't be obtained on land.

Noticing Grid's approval, the king and his people bowed deeply. "I'm just grateful to Your Majesty."

Grid realized just how high these people regarded him, and how influential of a figure he was to them. He carefully considered what to say before speaking up.

"Why don't you take this opportunity to send talented clan members to the capital to study? As you know, the capitol is home to the Magic Tower and the Sword Tower. Recently, the great sage Sticks has been systematically researching new training methods, and he's planning to offer a course on them at the academy."

"If you are talking about new ways of training..." the king trailed off. His face paled. The techniques used by the woman who had sacrificed her fingers to the silver sword adorned with skulls seemed to flash through his mind.

Sensing the king's confusion, Grid explained the concept of spiritual roots and cultivators. He added that he would send troops to protect Siren to replace the dead fighters, and also ask Euphemina to build stronger barriers.

The king thought about it for a while before nodding.

"The young people of the kingdom will gladly accept the precious opportunity Your Majesty has given them. Attendant, prepare the talent screening test right away. We must make thorough preparations so that His Majesty won't be disappointed."

"There is no need for that."

Grid pulled out the Emperor's Sword. He activated Barbatos' Vision to quickly review the status windows of the hundreds of thousands of water clan members. It took a lot of time, but Grid was patient.

The God Hands pointed fingers at thousands of young clan members. There were cries of surprise from everywhere. Many of those pointed out were famous for their talent.

Siren's nobles looked at Grid with disbelief and admiration. They were shocked because of what they'd just witnessed. "You have a very discerning eye."

Apparently, all those people that Grid pointed out were very talented—about eight thousand water clan members in total. The people had no idea that there were so many talented members within the nation with the potential of becoming equals.

The young people, who had been born as commoners and hadn't had the opportunity to show off their talents, were also impressed. The emperor of the empire personally recognized their talents, which the nation didn't know about. They felt like main characters in a fairy tale.

"The empire will be responsible for dealing with any obstacles that may arise when the water clan members operate on land. You shouldn't worry and instead devote yourself to studying."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The young people of the water clan tribe and their families smiled from ear to ear. The hope and enthusiasm in their eyes made Grid happy.

'This is it. I want to keep seeing sights like this.'

Grid remembered the days when he would fight to the death and felt very rewarded.

***

The king of the water clan held a banquet for Grid and the young clan members. Since Grid was in a good mood, he didn't refuse the king's offer. For the sake of the young clan members who were leaving their hometown, they sat down and livened up the atmosphere of the banquet.

'I think Lord will be happy when I tell him what I've experienced today.'

The banquet was in full swing. The drunken king wept bitterly because he missed the princess. The nobles, who were from different factions, threw their glasses and got into a fight. The youths cheered enthusiastically. Maybe they were lightweights, or maybe their emotions were different from humans. The water clan members were very loud, as if they had forgotten Grid was at the head table.

'Alcohol will always be a problem.'

Grid snapped out of his thoughts and went out to get some air.

The city was situated at the bottom of the sea, where neither sunlight nor moonlight reached. There was something distinct and enigmatic about this city. Pink and blue sparkling seaweed softly illuminated the deep seawater, making Siren quite a dreamy landscape.

Grid curiously observed the lumpy, round roofs of the low houses. He rummaged through his inventory. He took a look at the loot from the cultivator.

[Spirit Stone]

A stone that holds spiritual energy, used as consumable when activating certain formations or bans, or when refining and activating treasures.

Cultivators can absorb spiritual energy from spirit stones, gradually recovering a total of 50,000 spiritual energy.]

'It's a magic stone belonging to the cultivators.'

Grid expected that this small, transparent stone wasn't worthless. It had many uses, and it restored quite a considerable amount of spiritual energy. Given that Grid's spiritual energy was only 8,000, cultivators with a low level like Grid would treat it as a precious treasure. He got over 5,000 of them, so he was very satisfied.

Grid's gaze drifted to the clothes that the dead woman had been wearing.

[Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing]

Defense: 0

This is a robe made from the thread of a silkworm endowed with fire spirit.

The more you infuse spiritual energy into it and train it, the higher your fire resistance and defense will be.

It repairs itself when damaged.]

'I think it was because of this outfit that her defense was so high.'

The purple ceremonial robe was beautiful, even though it appeared old-fashioned. This particular style was uncommon even on the East Continent and the item itself performed quite well. Grid contemplated gifting it to Irene, only to change his mind. Giving his wife clothes previously worn by the dead was grounds for divorce.

The performance was also worse than expected, but at least the item was capable of self-repairing. As an experiment, he injected all of his 8,000 spiritual energy and the defense only increased to 80.

'...Wait, there's more to it?'

The defense of 80 given by the 8,000 spiritual energy was semi-permanent. Just as the description of the ceremonial clothing explained, it wasn't known how much the performance would soar if he constantly injected spiritual energy into it.

'No. There will be a limit to how much defense it can have. Seeing as it had 0 defense when it was dropped, the amount of defense must be consumed every time the wearer takes damage in battle.'

In any case, what was certain was that even the armor of the cultivators couldn't be looked down upon. Grid's expression became a bit serious as he injected mana, not spiritual energy, into the robe.

[Injected 8,000 mana into the 'Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing' to train it. The defense power of the 'Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing' has increased by 58.]

It was less efficient than spiritual energy, but it had a definite effect. It meant that the clothing of cultivators could also be classified as a treasure. Of course, not all cultivators would be able to wear this type of clothing. The woman that Grid killed today had once been a soul transformation cultivator, making her a legend in the cultivation world.

'This clothing must be a rare treasure for cultivators.'

[Injected 8,000 Annihilation energy into the 'Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing' to train it. The defense power of the 'Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing' has increased by 300.]

'Annihilation energy works best.'

The only problem was that the total amount of Annihilation energy was only 100,000. The amount consumed by injecting it normally was only a few dozen, but the recovery speed was slower than that of mana. This meant that he had to plan ahead if he were to use it in this way.

In particular, if he used a skill requiring a lot of power, then Annihilation energy would drain rapidly. He'd been surprised when he saw just how much Annihilation energy had been consumed when he massacred the monsters called Trauka's Grudge.

[Injected 20,000 Annihilation energy into the 'Hwajamsa Ceremonial Clothing' to train it.]

[The training has failed.]

[The robe was damaged because it couldn't cope with the excessive spiritual energy.]

"Um..."

It seemed that he had to give the clothes enough time to be properly trained.

Grid placed the recovering piece of clothing aside. Then he examined the four silver swords.

[Ten Thousand Death Swords]

[A sword made by killing nine thousand worshipers of a divine tree in a most brutal way and sprinkling their blood on the tree to corrupt it, turning it into a cursed tree before being smelted.

Then a thousand demon beast offspring belonging to the bloodline of the Four Auspicious Beasts were forced into solitude to kill each other.

The last four surviving beasts had their heads cut off while they were still alive, and their heads now adorn the hilts of these swords.

Thanks to the melted silver of the Demon World, which contain human souls, they are still alive.

In order to wake them up and unleash the 'Four Auspicious Directions Blood Flames,' the user's flesh and blood must be offered as a sacrifice. As the amount of sacrifices increases, the power of the Four Auspicious Directions Blood Flames will increase.

Spiritual energy alone can't fully utilize the power of Ten Thousand Death Swords.]

"......"

Grid frowned.

He remembered what the woman had said to him—that the cultivation world was a society where the law of the jungle reigned.

'Their society must be swarming with crazy people...'

Turns out he would have to strengthen the defense of each city and town so they could have a chance of standing their ground against these cultivators.

Grid tried to inject spiritual energy into the Ten Thousand Death Swords. If he didn't cast the skill of Four Auspicious Directions Blood Flames, they really were just ordinary swords. Lauel was familiarized with treasures that flew and slashed at targets.

'I have no use for these. I will give it to Khan and Hexetia to research them. Anyway, what is the Demon World?'

Grid took out the fist-sized pavilion that had been cut in half.

[Nameless Pavilion of Dohwa Sect]

One of the buildings that symbolizes the extinct 'Dohwa Sect.' It was recovered by the survivors of the sect and refined into a treasure.

Once injected with spiritual energy, it will regain its original size and protect the caster.

If a window is opened on the second floor, the target will be absorbed. Defense, durability and absorption are affected by the amount of spiritual energy infused.]

'So buildings can be smelted into treasures.'

Grid recalled the buildings that he had researched and developed. They had special functions and were actually similar to treasures. There had been many hints about the update from the moment he raided Judar.

"Hmm."

He tried injecting spiritual energy into the broken pavilion, but it was completely damaged and unresponsive. He tried Item Repair but, just as expected, it didn't work. This was because the S.A. Group classified items and treasures as separate concepts.

'I won't throw it away. It can act as a hidden piece in relation to the Dohwa Sect.'

Grid organized his things and admired Siren's scenery once again. A smile spread across his face. He was able to grasp and control Reinhardt's situation in real time through his consciousness implanted in his second body. In fact, he felt at ease because he had two bodies. It was regrettable that he could only separate his consciousness only once.

'But I have to make another body and give it to Randy.'

Originally, he'd planned to make a second body right away. Judar's method of making a body was to put a 'soul' into a created body, not a consciousness. This meant it could be replaced by Randy's 'core.' However, Randy said that Irene called him 'daughter' and was reluctant to look exactly the same as Grid.

At first, Grid didn't know what to say. Then he remembered how Randy and Lord often acted like siblings. She had been living in a form resembling the appearance of the 'girl' who was Randy's first friend for quite some time, so Randy gradually became more like a real girl.

After all, Randy was now by Picasso's side. Grid planned to refine a body once ten portraits of Randy were completed.

'She is small and compact, so it will be a lot easier to craft a body this time.'

The next day, Grid returned to Reinhardt with eight thousand young people of the water clan.

***

[Is this update correct?]

Morpheus' voice sounded off today.

Chairman Lim Cheolho was a bit embarrassed and didn't reply. He wasn't allowing Morpheus to speak.

Morpheus had started to express opinions of his own. Chairman Lim Cheolho felt like he was talking to a human being.