I didn’t wear the casket.
The casket of succession is raw power, and it conjures too many feelings from the past.
Above all, I’ve already destroyed the casket, so forcing it to regenerate again could lead to unknown consequences.
“……”
“Uuuuu…”
Instead, I used Sacred Transformation.
Sacred Transformation is the last bastion and the ultimate secret used for the sake of communion.
Nothing fills the gap of insufficient power like Sacred Transformation does.
I still haven’t found most of the powers from the past, and in the current situation, this was the only way to catch the Kraken.
In fact, the Annihilation Spear I used alongside Sacred Transformation obliterated all the legs and pierced the seventh eye.
‘More useful than I thought.’
I had simply thought of it as a shield, but breaking down the shield the raccoon gave and firing it through the spear displayed unimaginable might.
It was enough to bring down a Kraken with upper rank.
Even now, I am in a third state, not even a fourth, for the sake of attacking.
Should I be thankful for this, or angry that I didn’t manage it properly?
“Don’t do that…”
Beside me, Sre is sprawled, shedding tears while sleep-talking.
Now that I think about it, I had poured all my strength into this, so I wasn’t exactly in my right mind either.
After using the power to summon Lasty to send her back to the Space, I crammed all my strength into the Annihilation Spear.
While the attack worked, my body was left vulnerable…
“Where is this…?”
When I regained consciousness, I found myself in a strange place.
Massive rocks covered in seaweed piled up like mountains, and the sky was a shade of purple, but it didn’t look ominous.
A very thin current of water flowed across the ground, and the depth wasn’t that great.
I wasn’t sure of my body’s condition, but I sensed many familiar powers.
The most pronounced was the power of the raccoons and…
‘Time.’
“…Did Jafell move me?”
The sorcerer who was a key figure of the seaweed dungeon and had helped me using the power of time.
He said his world was destroyed by the Kraken and that he helped users on behalf of the raccoons.
He must have helped me again this time.
“Uuuuuuu…”
“…It’s not the time to use power right now.”
If anything, I’d want to be sent back to the Space of Despair, but I didn’t have enough strength left to open the Space.
In the end, I activated the Miniaturization Magic that was originally cast on Sre and climbed the rocky mountain with her in my arms.
I climbed the rocky mountain.
Splash!
Splash!
“…Hah.”
It’s quite high.
No matter how high it is, normally I would have made it in one step, but with all my strength exhausted now, I couldn’t do that.
I just continued to climb like an ordinary person.
The higher I went, the more the surrounding scenery revealed itself.
I could see another small rocky mountain over here and several giant seaweeds. I even spotted crustaceans clicking away.
What should I say?
“Feels like someone just pulled a part of the sea out and drained the water?”
Even I, who had never seen such a sight, found it special, but I couldn’t figure out what this place was made for.
Splash!
How much longer had I been climbing?
Finally, I reached the peak.
And then I let out a hollow laugh.
“…I didn’t expect to see this again.”
“Uhh?”
I briefly set Sre down.
Sre opened her eyelids hazily, but she must have struggled to get me out of danger.
“Phew…”
Not long after, her eyes closed again.
With both hands free, I approached a single spear buried at the peak.
The violet spear embedded at the summit of the towering rocky mountain, covered in seaweed.
“Kraken.”
The spear, containing the soul of the Kraken, was right there.
“Well, there’s no way I could annihilate it in that state.”
Even if I gathered all the Sacred Transformation’s power and the raccoon’s strength, the Kraken is an upper existence.
I might be able to kill the body, but annihilating the soul is definitely impossible.
I never intended to annihilate it in the first place.
“Having a spear here is definitely thanks to the raccoons…”
“Wait a minute!”
Something yellow was flying from afar.
Something with yellow fur, a raccoon spun in mid-air and landed in front of me.
Thud!
“Raccoon?”
“Get out now! How did you even get in here?”
“I just woke up and found myself here?”
“…Why?”
“Beats me?”
It seems like Jafell sent me, but I was just here when I regained my senses.
The raccoon clutched its head where a blue ring was floating and turned away.
“What is it? It was chaotic earlier… Wait a moment, hold on.”
“Yes.”
While the raccoon opened dozens of system windows in the air, trying to understand the situation in a frenzy, I examined the shape of the spear.
The tip was smooth and sharp, gleaming with violet, and a few small suction cups were climbing up towards the spear shaft.
‘At least mythical… no, it must be transcendent.’
There’s a power contained that could be compared to the transcendent rank of the White Guardian.
Of course, that’s to be expected since it houses the soul of the Kraken.
“What! No way, is this crazy guy for real?!!”
“? Why?”
“No. No way! Just stay still!”
The Raccoon, having a fit, flails his short arms, trying to hush his voice.
What could this be about?
Curiosity got the better of me, and I gathered the remaining strength to pierce through a part of the system.
I thought it wouldn’t work, but whether it’s due to Jafell’s influence or because this place is inherently unstable, I could hear their conversation.
A system window invisible to ordinary users.
Inside the system window, the Raccoon is sweating bullets while whining.
─“Are you insane? Giving admin rights to an NPC?”
─“No, I had no choice! It was barely surviving, and I had to report before disposing of it. But what if I get flagged…”
─“Flagged or whatever. You should have recovered your powers once the job was done! How could you just leave it?”
─“…I was busy.”
─“Ugh, this is maddening. On top of that, the raid has already failed, and we’re in emergency mode.”
‘Raid? Emergency?’
So, the unsealing and the upgrade to transcendent rank became a problem, huh?
─“…But the raid was something you Raccoons did.”
─“What? Not me!”
─“One of you must have. No, was it two? You guys let loose a disaster-level threat without properly classifying it, didn’t you?”
─“Those idiots are going to get demoted. They’re so obsessed with promotion that they can’t even report properly.”
Promotion, huh.
Looks like even Raccoons have a corporate-like structure.
I never expected it to be this blatant, but it’s quite interesting.
─“…Does anyone know about this?”
─“Well, the two of them were called to HQ. Hwanggwak’s line is all in emergency mode, so I’m the only one available right now. But why?”
─“Save me.”
─“What?”
─“I can’t! I just barely got onto Hwanggwak’s line. I don’t want to go back to being a warehouse manager.”
─“Why should I?”
─“Oh please, for real. If you just keep quiet, it will all be blamed on those two.”
─“Don’t you know I’m the manager of Kraken’s Spear? If an investigation comes, it’ll all come out anyway. You want me to die too?”
─“That User!”
Thud! The Raccoon on the screen points at me.
I’m still looking at Kraken’s Spear.
─“That User was the final attacker in the raid. He’s got 80% share. We can solve it by just giving him the reward directly.”
─“…You fool. Originally, this is a place only managers can enter, you know?”
─“It’s an emergency. Just say the dimensions got a little tangled. Besides, with the Demon Race around, spatial cracks are a common occurrence.”
─“I don’t want to deal with the Cheongsu guys.”
─“The Cheongsu are managing the New Continent right now, so they’re probably just low-tier. You’re more than enough to smooth things over.”
There’s nothing but a lowly position. For someone like you, it’s enough to smooth things over.
─So why should I do that?
─I’ll vote for you as this year’s recommended employee.
─Stop with the nonsense.
─I’ll give you my share. 10%.
─30%.
─Hey! 30% is outrageous. I got that much a year ago just by riding the line…
─If you don’t like it, just go be a warehouse keeper. I have nothing to lose.
─…Damn raccoon.
Zzzz.
The system window closes, and the raccoon sighs as he turns to me.
“You’re the one who cleared the raid, right? I have a special offer for you—”
“Who are Hwanggwak and Cheongsu?”
“…Did you hear that?”
“I did hear that.”
Thud.
The raccoon sits down, holding his head again.
He looks really exhausted.
“…I need to get 40%.”
“What are you going to do with the shares?”
“Mind your own business. It’s not something the users need to know.”
“And Hwanggwak and Cheongsu?”
“Just the higher-ups. One of them is a total jerk, though.”
Ding!
[■■ □□□ ■■]
[Your level has increased.]
[LV. 119]
“You just didn’t hear that.”
“Is this a bribe?”
“No. It’s a clear reward. Please don’t talk about what just happened anywhere else, okay?”
The raccoon squints his left eye.
Normally, I would have tried to dig for information, but… unfortunately, my condition is a mess, so I decided to let it slide.
But if I had to ask…
“What did they ask about?”
“Those stupid guys got blinded by results and resurrected the disaster early. That’s when everything went wrong.”
“…The disaster.”
“Oh, by the way, we didn’t really interfere with anything. Our purpose is management, and the disaster was set to resurrect anyway without us touching it.”
This is a real mess, a real mess.
Swish!
With his small hand, the raccoon pulls out Kraken’s Spear and wraps it in a pretty cloth, sending it soaring into the air.
Fizz! With a golden spark, the spear disappears somewhere.
“Thank you for your efforts in exterminating the disaster. That was a gift, so you can do whatever you want with it, cook it or whatever. You’ll be able to receive it when you return.”
“Who exactly are you?”
“What do you think we are?”
Sigh.
“Just a servant.”
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