Why Did I Have to Enroll

Just as a caterpillar that has consumed sufficient nutrients metamorphoses through its chrysalis stage into a butterfly, the final form that a beast-person reaches after accumulating their wild nature is the beast transformation.

The form Luciel showed now, was it perhaps the half-beast state, a transition between human and beast?

Whether it was because the giant concept that Ban Yu-won had injected into her successfully stimulated her wild nature, the power Luciel displayed in that moment was truly overwhelming.

"Master!"

Luciel threw the mechanical giant's heart she had pulled from Erecto to Ban Yu-won.

A grotesque heart, half-consumed by metal and spewing poison.

Just then, Parel burst out of the wind prison with bulging eyes and thrust his sword forward―but by then, Ban Yu-won had already absorbed all the concepts that made up the heart.

[Obtained Giant 50, Life 20, Magic Power 10, Super Strength 20, Judgment 3, Star Trace 0.2.]

There was no time to organize the concepts right there.

Ban Yu-won completely separated the level 50 'Giant' concept and injected it into Luciel (as his servant, he could easily inject concepts into her from a distance) before launching himself away.

―KWAAANG!

A massive crater formed.

Astonishingly, Parel, who had torn through the wind, released dark magic power from his sword tip and completely demolished the spot where Ban Yu-won had been just moments ago.

"Now I understand, you're using forbidden arts. A mana eater who steals others' magic power to strengthen yourself...! This is a serious violation of Dimensional Protection Article 12!"

"What's that supposed to mean, you nerd!"

It was pathetically ridiculous to see someone from a dimensional pirate group going on about violations and rules.

However, Parel's imposing figure as he charged forward swinging his massive blade, filled with rage, was terrifying enough to make even Ban Yu-won, who sparred with Dokgo-yeon daily, flinch.

―Block it, first fix everything in the same form and split the attributes for multiple manifestation! Concentrate the magic power!

―CRACK, BOOM! CRACKLE! KUWAA!

Though he had become quite familiar with handling elemental magic by now, creating successive barriers of wind, fire, lightning, and ice attributes, none of them could withstand even a moment before being completely shattered.

Even then, if it weren't for Celon's support, his head would have already been split by the thick blade.

"You tower-eating vermin! I'll reconstruct you myself!"

The aura Parel was emitting grew increasingly vicious.

But just before his blade could break through the barrier and pierce Ban Yu-won's body.

"HAAAH!"

Perhaps due to receiving additional giant concept from Ban Yu-won, Luciel, who had grown as large as the rampaging Erecto had been, blocked his path.

―Now! Pour everything you've got!

"I know!"

Magic power concentrated around Ban Yu-won's outstretched staff.

The elemental magic he could most reliably manifest was none other than volcanic eruption.

First imagining the image of lava erupting, then visualizing it being compressed and extending in a straight line.

'It won't work on its own, I need to add language magic. Compression (壓縮), and Linear (直線)!'

Beyond the staff, a mass of undulating red energy gathered to form a sphere about the size of a melon.

The two magic words that Ban Yu-won had crafted settled within it, fixing the magic's form.

―Volcano Shot!

'Don't shout technique names, Celon...!'

―This is important, you fool!

Since magic names were considered quite important elements in magic arts that require imagination, he couldn't entirely deny Celon's words.

A miniature volcano formed at the staff's tip, with lava extending in a straight line from its end.

Wouldn't you say the name Volcano Shot suits it perfectly?

But just before it was fired, something unexpected happened that Ban Yu-won hadn't anticipated.

The internal concept of 'Judgment' that had increased to 4 after consuming Erecto's heart resonated with the magic power, turning the lava white!

"What is this..."

Before he could investigate its meaning, the Volcano Shot was fired.

The infinitely compressed lava bullet struck Parel directly.

A dazzling light condensed and exploded, visibly amplifying the magic's depth in that instant.

"GYAAAAAAH!"

It was certain.

The concept of judgment had strengthened the magic!

Only then could Ban Yu-won fully grasp the nature of this concept.

'Just like with the Orc Captain before, and now with Erecto, I could only obtain judgment from those deemed sinners.'

Judgment because they punished sinners. Simple logic.

But it didn't end there; the judgment concept obtained this way in turn helped punish sinners.

A concept that deepens as you punish sinners, and as it deepens, makes it easier to punish sinners.

Isn't this a concept with as firm a disposition and character as a game class!

'Well, having eaten something similar to the biblical fruit of knowledge, I suppose this level of effect is to be expected.'

"You, by what means did you use such magic..."

Indeed, the power of the Volcano Shot enhanced by the judgment concept was truly extraordinary, leaving terrible wounds on Parel's body despite him being far stronger than Ban Yu-won.

"GYAK?!"

"But, even so!"

What was truly shocking was that even in this state, he didn't yield and swung his blade-armed limb―finally driving his edge into the giant's body that was blocking him.

A distorted smile spread across Parel's face as he succeeded in delivering the fatal blow.

"Even so, in the end, you'll both die by my hand...! In the name of Exodus!"

"Wh-what..."

The giant's body, pierced through with no chance to counterattack, trembled.

Coughing up purple blood, he cried out in a trembling voice.

"Why me, Professor...!"

"...?!"

It was a deep, low male voice.

Finally, Parel's eyes flew wide open.

He realized he had been caught in an illusion.

The one pierced by his thrust sword was not Luciel, but...

"Erec...to?"

"Ughk, why did you do this!"

Erecto, who had somehow remained alive until now, groaned in agony as he was run through by Parel's sword.

His vitality, surviving even with his heart torn out, was astonishing, but now it seemed to have reached its limit.

"Where's that woman... Kuhk!"

"Hup!"

Just as he was spouting nonsense, unable to grasp the situation.

The 'real' Luciel revealed herself behind Parel.

Her long, sharp beast claws pierced through his chest from behind!

"Kuhak! How, what...!"

Rage and confusion filled Parel's eyes as he suffered a fatal ambush on top of definitively finishing off his comrade.

It was at that moment that a snow-white snake gliding through the air entered his vision.

"Sheek, shiiik!"

A snake emanating golden magic power from its entire body.

Unbelievable as it was, this was a high-level spiritual beast... a phantom beast that Parel had never seen in his entire life!

"Could it be that I fell for a phantom beast's illusion...? Me, Parel!"

"Shiiit."

Having accomplished its purpose, the phantom beast, Eve, smoothly coiled around Ban Yu-won's arm.

The magnificently evolved creature had broken out of its egg and completed its splendid debut.

Until now, it could only transform its own appearance, but upon evolving into a phantom beast, it had developed its power of transformation to a completely different dimension!

Eve[Phantom Beast(幻獸) 100, Life 100, Evil Power(妖力) 90, Soul 70, Ever-Changing(萬變) 50]

'Though it looks the same on the outside, its internal concepts have changed dramatically... All the miscellaneous concepts have disappeared and been integrated into higher concepts like phantom beast and Ever-Changing. Looking at how Ever-Changing went from level 1 to 50, I'd say the evolution was quite successful.'

There were no traces left of its time as a simple weapon, with concepts like demonic energy or transformation.

It had abandoned its core concept as a weapon and successfully taken the form of a mystic beast, no, it had gone one step further to become a phantom beast.

Only after examining its possessed concepts did Ban Yu-won feel relieved and pat its head.

"Well done, Eve."

"Shhh, sissit."

"...Since when!"

Realizing the phantom beast belonged to Ban Yu-won, Parel coughed up blood and shouted.

"When did you cast the illusion on me, I'm asking!"

"Then let me ask you something too."

Ban Yu-won struck a pose like a manga character and said.

"Just when exactly did you think I wasn't using illusions?"

"What...!"

In truth, even Ban Yu-won didn't know.

All the illusions that had just occurred in this space were the work of Eve, who had completed her evolution and slipped out of Ban Yu-won's inventory without anyone noticing.

Concealing Luciel's form, and disguising Erecto, who hadn't died despite having his heart torn out, as Luciel.

It was even easier to show Ban Yu-won's illusion to Erecto, who was barely recovering from severe injuries and disoriented, making him charge at Parel recklessly.

"But how did you know about it, Luciel? How?"

"Because we're both Master's servants."

"Kuhek!"

Luciel answered with a bright smile and twisted her arm with force.

The magic power contained in her claws went berserk and tore Parel's body to shreds.

―Swoosh

Perhaps the power of the 'Giant' had finally run its course, as her body shrank back to normal size and the ears and tail that had sprouted from her head and behind disappeared.

However, since the concept of giant had firmly settled within her body, she would be able to transform into a half-beast form as much as she wanted from now on.

"Then... shall I finish him off, Master?"

Luciel's clear eyes, having regained their composure as her wild nature receded, reflected Ban Yu-won.

She probably had no particular intention―no, she likely said it purely out of consideration for him, but to Ban Yu-won, it felt like she was testing him.

Asking if he could kill someone.

That's what her eyes seemed to be asking.

'It must be an inferiority complex. But the problem is that I'm having such thoughts myself. It means there's still a bit of hesitation left in my heart.'

Naturally, Ban Yu-won would face many such situations in the future.

Moreover, since he had already killed an intruder at the previous tower, albeit inadvertently, it was rather foolish to hesitate now.

"No, Luciel. I'll do it."

After a brief thought, he firmly replied and drew the executioner's greatsword he hadn't unsheathed throughout the battle.

His resolve was firm, but his steps toward the enemy were light.

"You, Exodus will, you―"

"I've heard that once before."

Slash―. He cut off the dying Erecto's neck and then pierced Parel's throat.

Both Erecto's poison-laden blood and Parel's blackened blood were completely absorbed into the executioner's greatsword.

Just as he squeezed his eyes shut at the indescribably eerie feeling, an unexpected power notification appeared.

[The executioner's greatsword's Blood Poison depth has increased to 30, Murder depth to 75, and Magic Sword depth to 50.]

His closed eyes flew open.

He had somewhat suspected it, but... this artifact from Earth was truly a magic sword that grew stronger by cutting people!

As it absorbed both men's blood completely, the blade grew slightly longer, became sharper, and most notably, the power dwelling within the sword was clearly felt strengthening.

Though it had grown slightly from killing monsters until now, this was undoubtedly the most dramatic growth it had ever achieved.

The enemy's strength must have influenced this sudden rapid growth.

[Obtained Giant= 100, Life 62, Magic Power 66, Body 59, Super Strength 50, Blade Transformation(刃化) 50, Judgment 6, Star Trace 0.6.]

The amount of concepts obtained from the two corpses was truly vast.

Of course, the reduction when Ban Yu-won actually absorbed this into his body would be enormous, so he shouldn't be too happy about it straightaway.

In fact, including what came from Erecto's heart earlier, he had gained a total of 82 Life, but it took 32 of that just to raise Ban Yu-won's Life from 392 to 400, an increase of only 8.

Others might curse his growth rate as cheating even now, but still!

"Shh, shiit."

"Right. You performed well in battle, so you deserve this."

So Ban Yu-won decided to give all the remaining 50 Life to Eve.

Its Life was only 100.

Since it was much lower compared to Ban Yu-won, its Life absorption efficiency would be much higher.

The problem was that Life couldn't exceed the depth of its core concept of phantom beast, but fortunately, with the addition of the accumulated Beast concept and the Blade Transformation, ability to transform into bladed weapons) concept obtained from Parel, the phantom beast grew to 150.

"Luciel, you too."

"Master...!"

To Luciel, he granted both the giant concept obtained this time and the Super Strength that reached 50.

This was partly because Super Strength was originally a set with giant, and partly because Ban Yu-won couldn't absorb any more 'Super Strength' even if he wanted to.

Currently, Ban Yu-won also had Super Strength reaching 50 latent within his body, and perhaps his body couldn't handle any more than that yet.

So after distributing and organizing all the concepts:

[Core]

Life 400

Body 270[Currently Transforming ― ???(???) 100+]

Mysterious Qi 220

Soul 530

[Passive]

Martial Arts 348 [Swordsmanship 80, Mysterious Body Technique 40, Shadow Step 20, Assassination 65, Pierce 37, Cut 36, Flow 39, Counter 31]

Leadership 10

Charm 35

Star Trace 0.9

Judgment 10

[Active]

Super Strength 50

Acceleration 4

Space Control 5

Elemental Magic 100

Just listing the changed concepts came to this much.

It was natural for martial arts to grow after fighting, but he had no idea why leadership and charm had increased.

Space Control, which had felt vague in terms of how to handle it, was surprisingly growing bit by bit every time he used magic, and the time to handle this ability independently might come sooner than expected.

Meanwhile, seeing how the Star Trace jumped to 0.8 from the two combined, it seemed Parel had also contracted with a constellation, but it was still disappointing that it hadn't even reached 1 yet.

'Not that anything special will happen when it reaches 1, but still...'

Finally, judgment, which had greatly helped in finishing off Parel, cleanly reached 10.

If it had shown such power with just a depth of 4, even greater effects could be expected in the future.

...Though truthfully, it would be better if this concept didn't need to be used at all.

After perfectly organizing his internal concepts, Ban Yu-won sighed deeply and turned his head.

"Luciel, are you okay? Can you move?"

Though they seemed to have won easily, it was a battle that could have gone badly wrong if not for Luciel's dedication and Eve's quick thinking.

In fact, Luciel had even managed to break the protective artifact Yumina had made for her while wrestling with Erecto.

He truly was a monster worthy of the name giant.

"I'm fine, Master."

But Luciel shook her head vigorously at Ban Yu-won's worried gaze and replied energetically.

"I'm more worried about the other members..."

"Right. There might be other Exodus members hiding in the dungeon. Sorry, but we need to move right away."

Though the flower ornament showed that both their locations could be detected, suggesting neither had sustained major injuries, there was no telling what might happen when.

"No choice then, let's eat some candy and move right away."

"Yes!"

"Eve, say ah~"

"Shishit."

They ate the candy they had made and distributed for times like this―life elixir made from the Fruit of Eden, solidified into a mass―to recover their stamina.

The effect was beyond words.

With only slight exaggeration, their bodies felt as refreshed as if they had just woken from a deep sleep, and all their wounds, known and unknown, had completely vanished!!

"When I find that bastard Ortima, I'm going to iron his face."

"I'll hold him down for you. Now then, let's move... huh?"

But just as the two people (+ one creature) who had perfectly recovered their strength were about to move to find the other members.

―Kuwung!

"What's this tremor..."

"Oh, this is, could it be."

"Shishit?!"

Suddenly, a great tremor began in the dungeon.

...The dungeon had been cleared!

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