Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant

Chapter 520

At first, it felt a little slow, but then the entire second floor began freezing over at a terrifying speed.

Watching the seawater freeze, Su-ho smiled in satisfaction.

‘Yeah. If even this didn’t work, it’d be a problem.’

Then the balance would collapse, wouldn’t it?

Of course, there were other methods besides this.

For example, using Breath or a Heat Storm to evaporate the entire seawater, or going back to the entrance of the second floor and pumping the water up into the first floor—methods like that.

But out of those, Su-ho chose to partially freeze the second floor.

Because among them, this seemed the easiest.

His prediction hit.

After freezing the entire plane around the exit, Su-ho stood near the exit and used Heat Storm.

[ Heat Storm is activated. ]

Hwa-hwa-hwa-hwa-hwa!

The Heat Storm packed with true demonic power quickly melted the seawater he’d obtained through Eclipse, and the melted water began pooling slowly from beneath his feet—but just as expected, that was all it amounted to.

Slap.

Stepping through the water pooled at his feet, Su-ho succeeded in securing space, and only then did he raise his blood sword again.

Then he swung his sword toward the lone grid-patterned cell that was glowing red.

[ Enhance is activated. ]

[ Diamond Cut is activated. ]

[ Enhance is applied. ]

[ The power of Diamond Cut becomes even stronger. ]

Skrrt! Ku-gwa-gwa-gwa!!

Diamond Cut and the shock wave activated at the same time.

Maybe because of that, the second-floor exit couldn’t hold out for long either—cracks formed, and then with a pa-kang! the entire door collapsed.

Whooooo!

The passage revealed beyond the shattered door was extremely dark inside.

Su-ho immediately called Roynan.

“Hey, mutt.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Go scout.”

“...Yes, Master.”

This time, it was a door found on the side rather than the floor, so there was no water visible.

If nothing else, that was fortunate.

With his lips pressed tight, Roynan began walking into the corridor inside the door.

After waiting a bit, Roynan contacted him through thought.

- Master.

- Yeah?

- I came as far as I can, but... I think you need to come see this yourself.

- Is it safe?

- For now, yes.

- Got it.

What was it?

He went over with the thought that if it turned out to be nothing, he’d go and chew him out.

The corridor was narrow and deep.

A height where maybe one more human head could fit in?

Following it all the way in, he saw Roynan waiting ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ for him.

“What is it?”

“Would you take a look here?”

When Roynan turned his body, a dead end came into view.

“A wall?”

“It isn’t a wall.”

As he said that and touched it, chulbang!—with that sound, the surface rippled.

What he’d thought was a wall turned out to be water.

“What is this?”

“It seems to be water.”

“I can see that. I’m asking why it suddenly shows up.”

“I’m not sure either....”

“Go in.”

“Pardon?”

“So you thought you’d show me this and I’d go, ‘Ah, there’s water here, guess we can’t,’ and stop?”

“......”

Roynan’s lips jutted out in a sulk.

Then, resigned, he started walking inside.

Splash.

As he stepped into the “wall,” the characteristic sound of entering water rang out.

The corridor was still deep and narrow.

After going in for quite a while, a reply came back from Roynan.

- Master, I think you can come in as you are.

At those words, Su-ho didn’t hesitate and went right in.

Splash.

The thing he’d thought was a wall was, as expected, water.

But it was far denser and colder than what he’d experienced on the second floor.

‘The density just keeps getting tighter... at this rate, is mud going to show up later or something?’

On top of that, the width was so narrow that he couldn’t even bring out Cheolma.

After following the path for a while, a small room appeared, one that looked like it was about five meters across and five meters long.

Of course, that place was filled with water too—and there, another door was waiting for Su-ho together with Roynan.

‘This isn’t even a maze—how many paths and doors are there supposed to be?’

Su-ho frowned and asked.

“A door?”

“Yes, it’s a door. When I checked, mana was converging into it.”

So he had to break this too?

When he used Night Captain’s Eyes, the door in front of him was painted red.

Su-ho looked around.

‘At this scale, I feel like I could evaporate it with Breath or Heat Storm.’

Seeing is believing.

Su-ho immediately unsummoned Roynan and prepared to blow the water away.

He started with Heat Storm.

[ You cannot use Heat Storm. ]

But suddenly, a notice popped up saying it couldn’t be used.

What?

Had he seen it wrong?

No.

He’d seen it right.

It just couldn’t be used.

With confusion, he tried again.

[ You cannot use Heat Storm. ]

No matter how many times he tried, it was the same.

‘What is this now?’

Now even Heat Storm was unusable?

In a sudden wave of unease, he tested other skills one by one.

[ You cannot enter the Subspace House. ]

[ You cannot use Mini Breath. ]

[ You cannot use Eclipse. ]

[ You cannot use Yeolhwageom. ]

[ You cannot use Earthquake tsunami. ]

[ You cannot use Wavebreaker. ]

[ You cannot use Lightning. ]

All skills unusable.

Could it be that only skills that caused external alterations couldn’t be used?

[ Blessing is activated. ]

That was the answer.

Buff-type skills like Blessing were usable.

‘What do I do....’

After thinking briefly, Su-ho pressed his hand to the door and used another skill.

[ Corruption Sorcery is activated. ]

What he used was Corruption Sorcery.

Corruption Sorcery, which brought a target close to death, was said to drive something into the worst possible condition—even if it wasn’t a living thing.

If it was iron, it would be corrosion. If it was wood, it would rot.

Soon, the corruptive sorcery energy infused with Su-ho’s mana began eating into the door at a terrifying speed, and before long it spread over the entire door like mold. But—

Zzzzzzt— Paang!!

Around the moment the sorcery energy peaked, astonishingly, the door reflected all of the corruptive sorcery energy as if bouncing it off, and returned to its familiar smooth appearance.

With stress surging up, his eyes closed tightly.

‘This is ridiculous, seriously.’

He’d had a bad feeling, but for sorcery energy not to work too...

Without stopping, Su-ho summoned one of his last remaining options—Guiyeong.

“Bite it apart.”

Kwach!

At Su-ho’s command, Guiyeong lunged at the door without the slightest hesitation.

But compared to the heavy sound of destruction, the damage it dealt was minimal.

More than anything, the shadow penetration effect he’d been counting on most didn’t activate.

‘I thought the condition would fit since it’s dark in here, but... so this doesn’t work either.’

Well, if an approach like this had been possible, the other methods would’ve been possible from the start too.

In the end, Su-ho had no choice but to step back for a moment.

‘Is there really no way?’

Judging by the gate’s structure, the deeper you went inside, the more restrictions it imposed on the player.

But he hadn’t expected it to be this severe.

It reminded him of Girard’s finger, whose required destruction strength had kept rising and rising.

Su-ho calmly looked around once more.

A space that looked about five meters wide, five meters long, five meters high.

Inside, it was packed with the highest-density water he’d seen so far, without a single pocket of space to even catch a breath.

The skill-ban option was a bonus.

The one saving grace, if anything, was that through Night Captain’s Eyes, the door had been revealed as the weak point.

‘Yeah. Simple, if it’s simple.’

There were countless environmental restrictions, but in the end, he only had to destroy this.

Fortunately, the blood sword could still be summoned.

Su-ho raised the sword and swung it broadly once.

Thanks to the ample space, there was no great problem in swinging the blade.

But the water’s density had become so tightly packed it couldn’t even be compared to the first floor, making it impossible to draw out even 10% of his original power.

‘Attack skills are impossible, and I can’t change the environment to pull out my original form.’

Nothing worked.

Was this a coincidence?

No. Absolutely not.

This was the second Big Gate, but strictly speaking, it was a gate only I could enter, and only I could clear—my exclusive gate.

Meaning it had been made to fit me.

Not a good thing.

From a gate perspective, “exclusive to a specific player” meant it had built the gate by considering every element of that player.

If so, then in the end, there was only one method.

‘I have to break through this situation based on something the system hasn’t seen from me yet.’

Given that it had imposed all sorts of skill restrictions in a cramped space and even filled it with water, it was probably aiming for that.

Su-ho slowly examined the blood sword he held.

Then he grinned.

‘How kind. To think you’d go as far as trying to train me, in every way.’

Su-ho’s smile.

It wasn’t bluff.

It was genuinely a relaxed smile.

Because even though it looked like a near-checkmate situation, Su-ho still had a card he hadn’t played yet.

Ppogeul—

Bubbles leaked from his mouth.

I didn’t expect I’d end up pulling this out here.

If it’s a chance, it’s a chance.

I can’t keep putting it off forever.

The only thing I don’t like is that I can’t breathe here.

But in front of what I’m trying to do, that’s all just an excuse.

In the end, everything meets at one point.

‘Hoo.’

Su-ho steadied his breath inside.

All he needed was a single sword.

Gripping the sword in both hands, Su-ho slowly swung it in a straight line and drew it down the door from top to bottom.

Ggeu-geu-geu-geu-geu-geulk—

The door was scratched like by fingernails.

The heavy, solid sensation unique to an iron door traveled up the blade and into his grip.

After the blade swept down to the bottom of the door and fell away, he raised the sword again.

And again, from top to bottom, he slowly thrust the blade down as if in slow motion.

That was the whole process and result.

But Su-ho’s expression was dead serious.

Ggeu-geu-geu-geu-geu-geulk—

Su-ho’s sword swung once more.

*

How much time had passed?

Su-ho hadn’t checked either, so he didn’t know the details.

No—he hadn’t even thought to care.

During that time, Su-ho did only two things.

When his breathing grew tight, he went out of the water, took enough rest, then returned to the door located deep underwater and swung his sword.

There was no other routine.

Like a machine, Su-ho endlessly repeated only those two actions.

At that bizarre behavior, the spear arts master, the owner of the Night Captain Style, and even the Great Demon Grid all voiced questions.

- Partner.

“Yeah?”

- I’ve been watching the whole time, but what are you even doing underwater?

“Can’t you tell just by looking? I’m breaking the door.”

- I mean, yeah, that’s what it looks like, but... can you really cut the door by swinging that slowly?

“I can.”

- You can?

“Just shut up and watch. Once the world of the sword gets profound, normal people can never understand it.”

- ...I really can’t understand it.

“Then want to try breaking this door yourself? I’ll give you the Great Demon’s rune that’s left over.”

- That is... impossible.

“Then just watch.”

He’d figured even Grid wouldn’t be able to solve it.

That was why he hadn’t even asked in the first place.

After that, Su-ho silently went back to swinging his sword and coming out to breathe.

And again, how much time passed?

In a pseudo-eternity where sleeping and eating had no meaning, at last a new change occurred.

Zgeok—

It was that a tiny nick—only the size of a fingernail—appeared on the door that seemed like it would never take even a scratch.

Sssirk—

Seeing it, Su-ho’s mouth curled upward.

‘It’s here.’

Eyes shining, Su-ho began swinging his sword again.