As soon as she heard the news of the Magical Beast raid on the Shandong Peninsula, the very first thing Eliya did was activate a communication spell to try and contact U-jin.
Putting everything else aside, her first duty as an Acolyte Priest was to confirm the 'safety' of the Hero she was serving.
But what on earth was he doing?
Contrary to her hopes, U-jin didn't even receive her repeated calls, let alone send a reply.
Around that ti, feeling a chilling premonition, Eliya hurried her preparations and imdiately headed for U-jin's Lair.
Since the communication spell had failed, she intended to check the system data left in the Lair to confirm U-jin's well-being.
It was also to find out U-jin's exact location before heading to the Shandong Peninsula herself.
After all, there was no faster or more accurate way to check U-jin's status than the system data.
And so, upon arriving at the Lair, Eliya checked U-jin's system data.
The mont she saw his history, she froze on the spot.
The reason was simple.
‘Oh, my god….’
Despite having moved as quickly as she could, the system data already showed that U-jin had been caught up in that Magical Beast raid.
[You have urgently accepted the quest ‘ Defend the Peninsula (★☆☆☆☆)’.]
Of course.
So might have tilted their heads at Eliya's reaction.
The very reason for a Hero's existence was to carry out quests from the Constellations.
It might have been understandable for soone who didn't know U-jin well. But for Eliya, who had witnessed his extraordinary nature closer than anyone, it was strange for her to react this way to him undertaking a slightly higher-level quest.
…However, the problem was the word 'urgent' attached to the acceptance notification.
[QUEST: Defend the Peninsula]
Classification: Defence
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
Client:
Quest Details: The Shandong Peninsula is in crisis due to the sudden appearance of a horde of Magical Beasts. Defend the Shandong Peninsula by any ans necessary.
Quest Reward: 1,000 Guardian Coins, 2x rit Points based on contribution.
‘……’
Unlike a typical War against Demons participation quest, the one U-jin had accepted from the Constellation, the 'Sword Saint,' listed neither the 'scale of the attacking Magical Beast horde,' the 'type and quality of the Magical Beasts,' nor even the nurical balance between allies and enemies.
It was, in short, a slapdash quest.
Although it was rated as a 1-star (★) quest, that was rely a rating hastily assigned in a situation where various pieces of information hadn't been confird.
From Eliya's perspective, who knew that the Shandong Peninsula was the most underdeveloped region among Murim's frontlines in the War against Demons and that the number of stationed imperial soldiers was practically zero (0), the rating could only be seen as abnormal.
…And U-jin's action of accepting such a quest without a second thought seed even more abnormal.
However.
That part was relatively trivial.
Of course, the fact that U-jin had accepted the quest was, objectively speaking, not sothing that could be dismissed as 'trivial'.
Tiring-!
…At least, it was true that it paled in comparison to U-jin's 'Quest Performance Summary' that appeared right after.
■Temporary blossoming of .
■Temporary blossoming of Subordinate, Shim Cheong's .
■1,819 'Hunched Deep Sea People' killed.
-[Hits: 4,401]
-[Hits Taken: 22]
-[Dodges: 1,295]
-[Primary Cause of Kills: Simple Strikes]
-[Combat Ti: 6 hours 21 minutes 03 seconds]
■Suffered comprehensive physical damage including fractures, bruises, and lacerations, but fully recovered via .
■Final Contribution [92.3%]
Putting aside the fact that he had participated in such a ridiculous quest without her knowledge.
Just what in the world had happened in that short ti?
With the appearance of unknown Traits and the feast of stars before her eyes, Eliya couldn't help but doubt what she was seeing.
Seeing even a single high-star Trait was hard enough to comprehend.
But U-jin's summary list had not just 1-star, but 2-star Traits.
It even showed a 3-star Trait, albeit with the word 'temporary' attached.
All during the short ti she was away for her 'retraining'.
"Does this even make any..."
From her perspective, who thought she had sowhat adapted to U-jin's extraordinariness, this was simply incomprehensible.
She had tried to convince herself that the Hero candidate she served was simply more outstanding than others.
But this was a story on a completely different level.
Eliya had already acknowledged that U-jin was very different from other Hero candidates, but this showed a gap so vast that it could no longer be contained within the fra of the word 'different'.
No.
Now, it was a level that made no sense even when compared not to Hero candidates, but to already ordained Heroes.
The star-studded Traits were one thing, but what caught Eliya's eye even more was the 'Final Contribution' at the very bottom of the 'Summary'.
[92.3%]
The mont she saw that number, the word 'bullshit' involuntarily flashed through her mind.
…She couldn't help it.
Receiving a final contribution of over 90 percent in a War against Demons quest ant that, literally, almost all the credit for winning the battle belonged to U-jin.
Of course, looking at the summary's information, the absence of Nad-grade Magical Beasts or Titled Demon-grade Magical Beasts suggested that the incident on the Shandong Peninsula was a bit different from a typical War against Demons.
Strictly speaking, it was a 'lower-class' battle.
Even so.
No matter how outstanding U-jin's individual abilities were.
It was nonsensical for the victory in a battle involving clashes in the 'thousands', let alone tens or hundreds, to be the work of a single person.
Although it varied greatly depending on the scale of the quest, the general consensus was that a Hero's contribution was considered quite excellent if it exceeded 1% in a brigade-scale War against Demons.
Based on that standard, even considering it was a relatively low-class battle without any Titled Demons or Nad-grade beings, the figure of 92.3% was utterly unbelievable.
It ant that if U-jin had done just a little better, he could have stopped the Magical Beast raid all by himself.
‘……’
Of course, this figure was slightly distorted.
This was because the 'Heavenly Demon, Shim Cheong', who had exerted a similar, or perhaps even more overwhelming, influence than U-jin, had not undertaken a separate quest from a Constellation.
Based on the subordinate contract of the , her achievents were added to U-jin's, to whom she was bound.
But even taking that into account, two people.
The fact that this was too small a number to have played the absolute role in achieving victory in the War against Demons did not change.
‘……’
It couldn't be a system error.
The achievent point calculation system was a field the Order had poured the most effort into, based on several intricately designed criteria, Constellation comnts, and accumulated data.
Even if an error occurred, a certain degree of correction value would inevitably be applied to compensate for its precision.
…If the 92.3% figure was the result after applying a correction value, that would be even more terrifying.
‘……’
It was like this from the beginning.
U-jin always gave the impression that the 'chain of causality' was broken.
He brought about impossible results from unbelievable situations without ever providing a plausible reason.
Results, results, results.
A list of inexplicable results that far surpassed the normal level.
This list of results had soon entered a realm that could no longer be described by words like 'outstanding' or 'genius'.
And with this final point made on the Shandong Peninsula.
[You have successfully completed the quest, ‘Defend the Peninsula (★☆☆☆☆)’.]
[A reward is given from the Constellation, ‘Sword Saint’.]
Tiring-!
[1,000 Guardian Coins will be transferred to the Lair.]
[Achievent points will be awarded based on contribution. (Will be applied at 2x according to reward conditions.)]
…it had reached a level that was simply 'indescribable'.
.
.
.
[Hero candidate, ‘Seo U-jin’'s achievent points are reaching the threshold.]
[The conditions for ordination as a full-fledged Hero have been t.]
* * *
"…Is this a dream, perhaps?"
As the term 'Hero candidate' itself implied.
The primary goal of every Hero candidate was, without a doubt, to beco a 'full-fledged Hero'.
Of course, so were content with the various benefits received as a Hero candidate and chose to remain in that position.
But the vast majority of Hero candidates who had even a slight understanding of the Upper Plane's principle that 'to be eliminated is to die' had no choice but to move upwards, whether by their own will or not.
So, what was the thod to beco a full-fledged Hero?
…It was to 'accumulate achievent points' by carrying out quests in various regions of the continent.
Traversing the continent, a place entangled with endless diversity and interests, to build up lacking combat experience and achievents, and to grow one's reputation as a Hero, however small.
Most existing Hero candidates were stuck in this 'achievent point accumulation' phase.
Just as a hundred people have a hundred different faces, there were many exceptional cases, so it was difficult to uniformly judge the ti it took.
'Three to ten years.'
On average, that was how long it took for a Hero candidate to accumulate the 'achievent points' needed for ordination.
In terms of quests, it was the ti it took to complete about 100 starless quests targeted at Hero candidates.
…Therefore, from the perspective of Eliya, who had just begun her service to a Hero candidate, it was sothing she thought she would only have to worry about in the distant future.
She had thought that no matter how extraordinary U-jin was, accumulating that many achievent points would require a certain amount of ti.
But as always.
U-jin shattered Eliya's expectations once again.
[Hero candidate, ‘Seo U-jin’'s achievent points are reaching the threshold.]
[The conditions for ordination as a full-fledged Hero have been t.]
Those sentences left in U-jin's data clearly ant that he had satisfied the achievent point requirent in one fell swoop.
A requirent others t through 100 quests, he did in a single one.
"…Haha."
It was a record that prompted an empty laugh.
Even if you gathered all the legendary Hero candidates from history, there had never been one who t the conditions for ordination as a full-fledged Hero in less than ten days.
The fastest one on record still took a 'long'(?) period of over 100 days.
Without a doubt, U-jin was bound to beco the 'case of the fastest Hero in history'.
Considering that the ti spent as a Hero candidate was usually inversely proportional to that Hero's potential, the significance of this could not be understated.
Therefore, as she left the Lair and moved towards the Shandong Peninsula, Eliya began to make a plan.
Until now, she had been dragged around by U-jin, unable to get a grip on herself.
So that after U-jin was ordained as a full-fledged Hero, she could truly fulfill her role as an Acolyte Priest.
"First… I'll decide in advance the type of Artifact he can choose from so he doesn't pick sothing weird like last ti, and since it's such an overwhelming record, The Order might not be stingy with additional rewards…"
However.
Her plan was, once again, already going awry from the very beginning.
Of course, it wasn't Eliya's fault.
It was just that Eliya was completely unaware of the 'divergence' occurring on the Shandong Peninsula at that mont.
And the fact that this small 'divergence' would cause U-jin's 'Hero Ordination' to be postponed for a long ti...
…was not sothing she could have known in advance.
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