Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 346

Unfortunately, Ion was still in Korea.

And he said it would take a little time to prepare the meteoric iron and pure gold Su-ho had requested.

Understandably so—meteoric iron wasn't something in regular use, so they had to start sourcing it from scratch. And the pure gold? Su-ho had asked for not 1 kg, but a staggering 111 kg.

111 kilograms of pure gold. That alone, in monetary terms, amounted to roughly 33.3 billion won.

'Even scraping together 33 billion won in cash is hard enough—imagine trying to get that much in actual gold.'

So Su-ho told him to send it over as soon as it was ready.

Of course, he didn’t expect to receive °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° it for free.

He fully intended to offer a fair exchange in return.

Ion also mentioned that preparing for a meeting regarding the Japanese raid operation approval would take a bit of time as well.

So for now, Su-ho had some downtime.

Quite a lot of it, actually.

Which is why he decided to take some time to regroup.

He didn’t inform Jeong Cheol-min of his return.

There was no rush—it could wait until the time was right.

First, Su-ho opened up his status window.

[An Su-ho]

Level: 236

Class: Rage Crusader

Traits▲: <New Blood> <Hercules Candidate> <King of Nationfall> <Sealed Power of the Moon> <Power of the Sun> <Power of the Moon>

Strength (B): 78

Magic (B): 76

Perception (G): 72

Leadership (N): 55

Bonus Stats: 0

Su-ho nodded in satisfaction as he reviewed his status.

Level 236.

Overwhelming.

Two of his stats had reached Blue Grade.

That alone was insane.

The highest record humanity had ever reached in his previous life had been Purple Grade—and that was Su-ho’s own record, achieved only during the final phase of the Great Cataclysm, and only for Strength.

'To already have Blue Grade stats before even hitting mid-Cataclysm... that says it all, doesn’t it?'

He was pleased.

With this level of specs, even after the mid-Cataclysm events began, he’d be able to solo sweep through the world and fast-track his progress.

'Actually, I might not even need to wait for the next Cataclysm season.'

Those “mid” or “late” Cataclysm phases were just cyclical events triggered when certain conditions were met and enough time passed.

When those seasonal changes hit, the world only got harder—there was no benefit.

So rather than wait, it was better to clear out as many Gates as possible before the difficulty spike hit, and level up as much as he could now.

'Leveling up... right. That reminds me—'

There was something he'd completely forgotten about.

Su-ho opened his subspace house and stepped inside.

Then he entered one of the buildings set up inside the subspace—

Clatterrrr—

The mechanical sounds from within.

It was Pi Seong-yeol, operating the [Mega Crusher].

He looked completely emaciated.

But he didn’t look unhappy.

It was like a junkie constantly getting supplied with drugs.

Even as they wither away, as long as they have their fix, addicts look like the happiest people in the world.

'Of course, they also tend to suddenly drop dead.'

But in Pi Seong-yeol’s case, that wasn’t likely.

Extended use of the [Mega Crusher] did induce bouts of mania from item destruction, but that was it.

It messed with the mind—not the body.

So Pi Seong-yeol hadn’t even noticed Su-ho entering.

Vrrrrr—

The room was still full of cursed items Su-ho had dumped there.

He’d transferred them over by the warehouse-load, and even after all this time, there were still plenty left to be processed.

Su-ho was pleased.

Because all of those would turn into stat shards.

He turned his gaze to the pile of stat shards Pi Seong-yeol had stacked nearby.

'That’s quite a lot.'

As Su-ho approached the mound of shards, Pi Seong-yeol finally flinched.

“O-oh... y-you’re here...”

He looked timid and hunched.

Gone was the arrogant air of the man who always thought he was the smartest in the room.

'Yeah. That look suits you best.'

Su-ho picked up one of the shards and checked its info.

“You’ve gathered quite a bit, huh?”

“Y-yes, sir...”

“You’ve been working diligently.”

“Th-thank you...”

“You didn’t skim off the top, right?”

“N-no! You recorded my status window, remember? You can check if you want!”

“Is that so?”

His voice was full of fear.

And the black aura around him—soaked in negative energy—said it all.

He wasn’t lying.

Su-ho nodded.

“What about the Mega Crusher? Any changes?”

“Changes? What kind of changes...”

“The one you’re using right now—it’s Grade A, isn’t it? Did the grade go up?”

“Ah, no... not yet.”

“I see.”

Bit of a letdown.

Just how many items had he crushed, and it still hadn’t upgraded?

'Maybe you need to grind through two or three warehouses’ worth.'

Unfortunate.

But not a big deal.

He had time to spare.

Su-ho looked toward a nearby cardboard box.

It was full of food—bread, water, long-shelf-life energy bars and the like.

Oddly, the supply inside the box looked almost untouched.

Su-ho asked,

“You haven’t been eating that stuff?”

“Huh? N-no, sir...”

“Why not?”

“Uh, I... didn’t really need to?”

“Nutritionally, is that even possible?”

“I-I’m not sure...”

Vrrrrrr—

As he answered, Pi Seong-yeol shoved another cursed item into the Mega Crusher embedded in his stomach.

That’s when Su-ho saw something interesting.

Thanks to his [Mana Perception], he could clearly observe the mana flow between the Mega Crusher, Pi Seong-yeol, and the cursed items.

And as Pi Seong-yeol shredded the item using the stomach-mounted Mega Crusher, a small amount of mana from the item was absorbed into his body.

So that’s why he didn’t need to eat much.

Mystery solved.

Players could survive far longer than normal humans without food or water as long as they had mana.

Perfect.

That meant he could keep using Pi Seong-yeol for even longer.

With the small talk out of the way, Su-ho sat down and began reviewing the stat shards in earnest.

“Hmm.”

There were a lot.

It would take some time, but he had to sort through them.

Focusing, he began organizing the shards.

Then, narrowing his eyes, he used [Army Tactics] to summon clone soldiers.

“Sort them by effect. If it has a minus effect, group it separately regardless of type.”

The clones quickly got to work.

Before long, the piles were sorted.

Su-ho checked them over and dismissed the clones.

Alright, let’s see what we’ve got.

He picked up a shard from one of the nearby piles and checked its info.

[Stat Shard from the Mega Crusher]

Grade: B

Description: A crystallized shard formed from destroyed items via the Mega Crusher.

Attribute: Strength

Effect: Increases Strength by 1 when consumed.

As expected—it was a Strength shard.

He checked others too.

“Hmm.”

The options were varied.

But for the most part, they stuck to the core four stats: Strength, Constitution, Magic, and Perception.

Some came with bonus effects, some with penalties.

[Effect]: Increases Strength by 1, decreases Magic by 1.

Like this, for instance.

Some shards had mixed positive/negative effects; others were purely negative.

He had hoped that maybe one of them might have a skill attached or something—but no luck.

After some thought, Su-ho picked up a Strength shard and popped it into his mouth.

It had no taste.

Not in the sense of tasting bad—just literally no taste at all.

In fact, it dissolved the moment it touched his tongue, like cotton candy.

Then came the system message:

[You have consumed a Stat Shard from the Mega Crusher.]

[Nothing happens.]

“...Hmm?”

Su-ho narrowed his eyes at the notification.

'Nothing happens?'

'Why?'

Would it be the same for the others?

Just in case, he tried a Magic shard.

[You have consumed a Stat Shard from the Mega Crusher.]

[Magic increases by 1.]

This time, it worked.

So that was it.

Even if it was a high-quality shard, it would only boost stats the player already possessed.

Once he understood the logic, Su-ho gave a wry smile.

His [Strength] stat was actually a fusion of Strength and Constitution—so it made sense he couldn’t boost them individually.

'It’s disappointing, but rules are rules.'

Then, a thought struck him.

'If I don’t have the corresponding stat... do negative effects not apply either?'

Time to test that theory.

[You have consumed a Stat Shard from the Mega Crusher.]

[Magic increases by 1.]

[Strength decreases by 1.]

He immediately pulled up his status window to confirm the change.

And smiled.

Just as expected—because he didn’t have a separate Strength stat, the negative effect didn’t apply.

“Then I need to reorganize everything.”

He reshuffled the shards again.

Even ones with negative effects could be used—as long as the penalties affected Strength or Constitution.

With this new filter, the number of usable shards increased significantly.

Still, there were a lot of Strength and Constitution shards he couldn’t use at all.

'Consuming usable shards isn’t a problem. The real issue is what to do with the useless ones.'

No need to worry about the fish already caught.

Those he could use however he wanted.

The problem was the ones still flopping around.

Strength and Constitution shards—and those with pure negative effects.

'So what do I do with these?'

Just incinerate them?

Feeding them into the Mega Crusher again was pointless.

He'd heard that putting stat shards back into the Crusher just turned them into dust.

But simply burning them felt like a waste.

Where else could you find an item that raised stats outside of the Color System?

Should he give them to someone else?

To an ally?

Su-ho shook his head.

'Now that would be truly stupid.'

Su-ho had no intention of sharing future growth info, no matter how close someone was.

The moment even one other person knew, the secret would start to leak—and the honey pot he’d been enjoying would gain an expiration date.

Take Gi Seung-hwan, for example.

'Why do you think I personally collected all the materials and handled the final synthesis?'

It was all for security.

As he rolled the shards between his fingers, a thought came to him.

'If they’re still items... maybe I can synthesize them?'

A plausible theory.

He even had Intermediate Synthesis as a skill.

Su-ho immediately tried synthesizing two shards.

[Intermediate Synthesis is activating.]

[Synthesizing Stat Shards from the Mega Crusher...]

[Synthesis failed.]

“Hm?”

Failure.

What was the issue?

Su-ho increased the number of shards bit by bit and kept trying until it worked.

[Intermediate Synthesis is activating.]

[Synthesizing Stat Shards from the Mega Crusher...]

[Synthesis successful.]

[You have obtained: Colorless Stat Shard (A) from the Mega Crusher.]

Success.

Finally, a win.

But the item info looked... different.

'Colorless Stat Shard?'

Su-ho checked the item immediately.

[Colorless Stat Shard from the Mega Crusher]

Grade: A

Description: A crystallized shard formed from destroyed items via the Mega Crusher.

Attribute: Colorless

Effect: Increases any one stat of your choice by 1 upon consumption.

“...Whoa.” 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Su-ho’s eyes widened as he read the description.