Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 444

BANG!!

The enraged Su-ho smashed Girard’s Finger with a heavy blow.

He couldn’t help it.

Every skill being restricted was one of his main skills.

And that wasn’t all.

Judging from the pattern, he could more or less predict what would be restricted next.

‘No, don’t get worked up. I need to calm down and prepare.’

From the time Rage Mode was restricted, he had destroyed a total of two fingers.

Since the system did not say how many of Girard’s Fingers remained, he could only assume, counting the one in front of him, that the maximum possible remaining number was seven.

‘In other words, up to six more skills could be restricted from here on.’

He needed a meticulous strategy.

Shaaah!

Sand poured down.

There was no time to dawdle.

At this extreme final stage, Girard’s trial was dumping sand in massive heaps.

If he didn’t keep his wits about him, the room would fill up in no time.

After agonizing for a moment, Su-ho decided to try his first strategy.

[ Memorize is activated. ]

What he activated was Memorize.

Naturally, it was packed full of nothing but Weakening.

Among Su-ho’s skills, Weakening was the one that required the most mana.

Su-ho immediately tried using the Weakening stored in Memorize.

[ Activating the skills stored in Memorize. ]

[ Weakening is activated. ]

“Got it!”

Weakening activated.

Seeing the system notification, Su-ho grinned.

How about that, you dumb bastard.

You never thought I’d be able to use Weakening again like this, did you?

Using the activated Weakening as a base, Su-ho went to town beating the hell out of Girard’s Finger.

Slash! KWA-BOOM!

At last, he managed to destroy Girard’s Finger once again.

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

System notifications.

Swallowing dryly, Su-ho waited for the next notification.

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Enhancement’. ]

“Nice... huh?”

It was Enhancement that got restricted, not Memorize.

So he was happy for a split second, then stopped.

“Damn.”

It wasn’t as bad as losing Weakening, but Enhancement was still an important skill.

But what could he do?

What was done was done.

Biting his lip, Su-ho raised his sword again.

And just as he was about to use a skill, a thought occurred to him.

‘Wait a second.’

Since he had the rice cake in front of him, he might as well hold the ancestral rite—on that whim, Su-ho activated Memorize just in case.

[ Memorize is activated. ]

Then he tried designating Enhancement in an empty slot.

[ Recording ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) ‘Enhancement’ in Memorize. ]

‘Huh?’

It worked.

He’d managed to store Enhancement, even though it had been restricted from use.

‘So this works.’

Su-ho grinned and immediately used his skills.

[ Weakening is activated. ]

[ Enhancement is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ The power of Steel Severance grows stronger. ]

Su-ho went on relentlessly pounding Girard’s Finger.

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

He succeeded in destroying Girard’s Finger yet again.

“Ha-ha! How do you like that, you damn bastard!”

He raised his middle finger toward the sky.

He had no idea whether Girard would see it or not, but he flipped him off anyway.

At the very least, Hera had gotten riled up when he’d communicated like this.

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

Soon, additional notifications popped up.

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Memorize’. ]

This time, it was unfortunately Memorize that was restricted.

“Well, would you look at that?”

Had he provoked it for nothing?

No.

That was a beating he would’ve had to take sooner or later anyway.

Shaaah!

The sand waterfall poured down again.

There were five fingers left.

Looking at the new finger that had appeared along with the sealing of Memorize, Su-ho prayed.

‘Please let the remaining number be under five.’

Weakening, Yeouhwabul, Rage Mode, Enhancement—everything had been sealed.

Even Memorize, his brilliant trick.

Now, the only things he could practically use were Blessing and Steel Severance.

‘I do have Giantification, but the rebound risk after using it is way too big.’

So Giantification was out.

Activating Blessing, Su-ho began pounding Girard’s fifth finger.

Crack!

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

After he pelted it for a while with a barrage of Steel Severance, Girard’s Finger broke.

It wasn’t sliced—it broke.

Even though his blade was in blood-forged state.

‘So from here on, it really is just a stupid contest of brute strength.’

Tensing, Su-ho kept his eyes on the system notifications.

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

Gulp.

And then—

[ The power being limited is ‘Blessing’. ]

“Ah, this is fucking insane...!”

Seeing which skill had been restricted, Su-ho couldn’t help but raise his voice.

He was about ready to lose his mind.

This was bad.

Of all things, it had to be Blessing.

Of course, he’d more or less expected this to happen.

The damn Girard was deliberately picking out and restricting nothing but core skills, as if to show off.

‘Ha, seriously... what now?’

Almost all of his surefire strategies for dealing with Girard’s Fingers, those ultimate shields, had been restricted.

The only thing that had managed to survive was Steel Severance.

Because of that, Su-ho naturally had no choice but to review the skills he had left once more.

Shaaah!

Sand poured down.

The volume had increased too.

Meaning, he couldn’t afford to take too long to think.

‘I’ll have to approach this a bit more strategically.’

After turning things over in his head for a moment, Su-ho used another skill.

[ Eye of the Blacksmith is activated. ]

When Eye of the Blacksmith activated, a lattice pattern appeared on Girard’s Finger. But...

‘Nothing?’

He couldn’t see any weak spots.

Damn.

In that case, Eye of the Blacksmith was useless.

‘Next!’

[ Yeolhwageom is activated. ]

KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!!

Since Eye of the Blacksmith didn’t work, he began using the offensive skills he had that could put out some power.

First up was Yeolhwageom. However—

“.......”

Unfortunately, Yeolhwageom barely managed to deal any damage.

Su-ho frowned as he looked at Girard’s Finger, only slightly scratched.

“Next. Huuup!”

[ Mini Breath is activated. ]

Fwooooooosh!!

Fire spewed from Su-ho’s mouth.

Among his offensive skills that weren’t based on the sword, this was the strongest technique.

Crackle!

Fortunately, it was effective.

But—

“Haaah...!”

Mini Breath was a skill that could only be used while he was exhaling.

Even if Su-ho’s lung capacity had long since departed the human realm, he could not use it infinitely.

“Damn.”

He thought about using it one more time, but his mouth was burning. On top of that—

Shaaah!

Because of the damned sand pouring straight down onto Girard’s Finger, the Breath’s damage wasn’t getting through at a full 100%, and the sand, being cold, quickly cooled the heated finger.

‘I still have a few more cards left, but...’

Those were things he couldn’t use carelessly.

They were cards he was saving because he felt like they would really succeed.

‘Counting the one right in front of me, there are at most four fingers left.’

But the number of trump cards he had left was less than four.

So he had to be careful.

‘For now, I’ll have to smash the current Number 4 purely with physicals.’

He couldn’t use Blessing or any other stat-boost, but there was no way he couldn’t destroy this one finger in front of him, whose durability had already dropped.

Su-ho immediately raised his blood-forged blade and began swinging his sword in earnest.

[ Steel Severance is activated. ] 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

......

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

Fortunately, thanks to Steel Severance, the blade itself was biting in.

Su-ho focused and focused again.

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

[ The accumulated sand disappears. ]

After pounding on it for a long time, he managed to destroy Girard’s Number 4 Finger.

“Phew, done.”

[ Girard extends a new finger. ]

[ Girard begins to send out new sand. ]

[ Girard’s Finger is strengthened. ]

The finger was strengthened again.

Now there were three left.

How hard would the Number 3 Finger be?

Su-ho prayed.

‘Please, just not Steel Severance...!’

Soon, a system notification popped up like a death sentence.

[ Girard restricts your power. ]

[ The power being limited is ‘Mini Breath’. ]

“Nice... no, wait.”

He was going to lose it.

Steel Severance had survived, but Mini Breath had died.

They were really scraping him clean.

Seeing the system notification, Su-ho smacked his forehead.

“I figured this would happen, but this is too much.”

Shaaah!

The sand waterfall poured down.

The sound of it almost seemed like an urging to stop complaining and hurry up and come up with an answer.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

Su-ho raised his sword again.

‘Assuming the worst case, there are three fingers left.’

That just happened to match the number of cards he had prepared.

But he didn’t think of these as guaranteed-win strategies.

No, they were closer to gambles.

‘Even so, I’ll definitely pull this off.’

“Cheolma.”

“Neighhh!”

Su-ho summoned Cheolma.

Then he stood in front of Girard’s Finger and ordered Cheolma to use its wings to block the sand falling down on his head.

“Bear with it for a bit.”

“Neigh!”

Truly an intelligent steed.

At Su-ho’s command, Cheolma spread its wings wide and scattered the sand in all directions, and Su-ho let out a deep breath and once more raised his blood-forged blade.

“Here we go.”

He settled his stance. And then—

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

[ Steel Severance is activated. ]

......

Su-ho unleashed the remaining Steel Severance in rapid succession, swinging his sword like a madman.

Then, from Girard’s Finger taking the hits, a booming sound unlike any he had heard until now began to ring out.

KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!!

Su-ho’s expression was endlessly cold and serious.

Sand was pouring down over his head like crazy, but thanks to Cheolma, he could focus on hacking away.

KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!! KWA-GAK!!

Quite a bit of time passed.

He had been hacking away for a long while, but since he was in a state with no buffs at all, he ultimately failed to destroy Girard’s Finger.

But that didn’t mean there were no results at all.

The Number 3 Finger was nearly in tatters.

If he just put in more time, he could probably destroy it.

However, so much sand had now piled up in the chamber that he could no longer continue.

“Damn.”

On top of that, from pounding such a hard target for so long, Su-ho’s hands were as ragged as Girard’s Finger.

It was fine.

He could just heal them.

After healing his palms, Su-ho, in the dim chamber darkened by the piled-up sand, took out one of the surefire trump cards he had prepared.

“Come out, Guiyeong.”

Shhhk!

Guiyeong was summoned.

“Go tear it apart.”

At Su-ho’s command, the summoned Guiyeong rushed at Girard’s Number 3 Finger.

And the moment it sprang at Girard’s Finger, the options of the Guiyeong Spear activated.

[ Shadow Pierce is activated. ]

[ Shadow Shackles is activated. ]

[ Shadow Bleed is activated. ]

Thanks to the piled-up sand, the chamber was shrouded in darkness.

That was why the piercing worked.

Guiyeong pierced through Girard’s Finger and opened a large hole.

Seeing that, Su-ho’s lips curled upward.

“Tear it all up!”

Receiving its master’s command, the shadow divine beast unleashed a frenzy of piercing attacks in rapid succession. As a result—

[ You have successfully destroyed Girard’s Finger. ]

Su-ho was finally able to destroy the Number 3 Finger.