Chapter 99 – Farming Mythical Weapons

The objective was clear: collect as many mythical weapons from Irish mythology as possible.

Well, ideally it would have been great to pick up some proper English mythological weapons too, but considering that Evandel already had Excalibur and the Holy Grail, it was kind of moot.

There were some other mythical weapons and artifacts that could be around, but none of them really gave Lee the advantage he needed in fights.

As for that advantage...

Well, *technically* if he just leveled up his [Mana Manipulation] more it would be sufficient.

The fight with Dracula had proven that his main flaw was against enemies who had constant regeneration or conceptual immortality.

Considering the guy that Boss wanted Lee to kill definitely operated on the same vein, Lee needed upgrades.

And while [Mana Manipulation] in conjunction with [No Second Strike (Rederived)] would definitely get him there in the long run...

Since the first semester of Cube wasn't even over yet and Lee was getting hammered with definitely endgame level enemies, he wasn't about to take any more chances.

Which was why, on this Sunday morning, Lee was sailing on a boat along with Rachel and Evandel to the Island of Man to see if his suspicions about the Dungeon phenomena were correct.

Evandel stared at the glittering sea with wide eyes and said, "Wow! It's sparkling water!"

Rachel nodded. "Mmhm. But it's not magical water like last time."

Evandel nodded sagely. "No mana water or monster. No rawr."

Lee leaned against the side of the boat, feeling the sea breeze against his face. "Mm... I guess we all have a bit of an affinity for the sea and water, huh? Me with fishing, Evandel with Excalibur, and now you with Gae Bulg, Rachel."

Rachel teased. "Maybe we should go exploring Jeju island when we head back to Korea next time?"

Evandel gasped. "Juju island? That sounds funny!"

"Jeju island, Eva." Lee corrected her. And then he said, "Also, I'll pass. For some reason, I have a feeling that monsters might suddenly rise up and form an Ant King that'll try to take over the world."

Rachel tilted her head. "A monster king? Is that even possible?"

"Theoretically, yes. Probability-wise... Non-zero?" Lee paused. "And knowing my luck, along with the things that happen around Hajin, probably guaranteed. It's a matter of when, not if..."

Evandel let out a bright smile and said, "It's 'kay! Kerny and Richy biiiig Monster Kings! Rawr! They fight!"

Lee laughed and patted Evandel's head. "Even so, we should leave Kerny and Richy to being your toys and not fighting monsters, okay, Eva?"

Evandel tilted her head, thinking. Then she nodded. "Kay~"

"Good girl."

Rachel chuckled and then looked out at the Isle of Man. "So we're heading to the Isle of Man on a private charter... Are you sure that there will be something useful here?"

"I'm not 'sure.' But considering Dracula showed up in France, might as well check the main sources of the myths. I'm hoping to just get the Spear of Lugh, Fragarach, or Gae Buidhe from here. All of those would be good to complement my fighting style..." Lee paused. "Well, I'd also like a few Chinese polearms, but I've got a feeling the moment I step foot in China is the moment something ridiculous happens like the Monkey King being born from a stone or the descent of the Jade Emperor..."

Lee wasn't too sure about it. But something in his gut was telling him that China was a no-go for him unless he wanted to set off a giant boss rush and pure chaos.

...Probably because he had rederived [No Second Strike] instead of learning it properly.

It wouldn't surprise Lee if his appearance there resulted in a Dungeon where an immortal Qin Shi Huang who had mastered martial arts over thousands of years showed up...

In short, better to not tempt fate and raise flags when he didn't have to. At least, not ones he couldn't handle.

Now, as for why Lee was heading towards Irish mythology to grab items instead of anywhere else...

Magic.

Strictly magic.

Dracula had been proof that 'other' energy types existed.

And Lee, for better or worse, was only immune to mana. Potentially divinity, if that was derived from mana, and also reality hax, since [Maverick] was a thing.

But stuff like real ki/qi, spiritual energy, vampiric energy apparently, and things like that...

Yeah. Lee needed to do brainstorming on it.

But for now, he had a clear way of getting stronger at least.

Rachel hummed and said, "That is true." She smiled at Lee and said, "You do seem to have the air of someone who strong people like to challenge. Suho, Lancaster, Jonghak, Yeonha's father..."

Lee sighed. "Yeah. Which is why I need proper equipment to do so. Skill only goes so far if the thing just won't let you cut it."

Evandel nodded and said, "Daddy Strongest. But people cheating."

Lee patted Evandel's head. "You get it, Eva."

Evandel beamed. "It's 'kay, Daddy! I bestest cheater!"

Lee started to sweat. "...You aren't wrong. But let's not cheat too much, Eva..."

The Holy Grail, Excalibur, potentially the immortality granting sheath of Excalibur too...

Evandel was definitely a walking, talking Deus Ex Machina level main character.

But right now she was just a cute toddler, and Lee would very much want to keep her that way.

"Kay~"

Rachel idly combed Evandel's hair and then glanced over at Lee. "The captain said he can take us ashore to the isle. But he said that the return trip might be complicated. The seas get rough near the end of April. It's possible that they might be too harsh to return in time if we spend too long here..."

Lee waved his hand. "Oh, don't worry about that. In a pinch, Khalifa can come pick us up."

Evandel's eyes widened. "Uncle Chocobar!?"

Lee laughed. "That's how you know him, huh?"

Evandel nodded and then reached into thin air before pulling out a literal chocolate Excalibur. "Chocobar!"

Lee slowly blinked.

Rachel stared blankly at Evandel. "Eva... is that... a chocolate sword?"

"Mmhm!" Evandel let out a toothy grin. "Chocobar! Best choco sword! Swoosh, swoosh!" After that, she swung it around a bit, squirming in Rachel's arms as she did it.

Rachel laughed. "Well... As long as you aren't eating it all, I guess it's fine?"

Lee chuckled and let Evandel have fun. In the mean time...

'Let's grind up these Arts. CLEARLY I'm waaay too underleveled...'

Holding the broken Dark Saber hilt in his hand, Lee quietly started molding the mana from the mana crystals into various shapes.

Maybe if he managed to get to fine enough control where he could use it to repair the electronic components, it would be enough to finally cut through these cheating bastards who kept no-selling his techniques...

===

While Lee, Rachel, and Evandel were off on their treasure hunt, Nayun was deep in a pile of dusty esoteric tomes and doing a sort of treasure hunt of her own.

Specifically, a treasure hunt on the name of the devil who had dared to turn her Oppa into an incubator and living vessel.

"Lee said that if we knew the name, he could create a rune to control it," Nayun murmured. "Hajin said it's impossible, but he's only knowledgable, not intelligent..."

Although Nayun was curious about how Hajin knew about it since his academics weren't that great in the Agent Military Academy, since Lee verified it and asked first, it must be accurate.

Which meant that it all began from Operation Fireflake, Oppa's last mission. The Djinn suppression operation.

Ironically enough, right now, Nayun was in France at the Chateau de Chenonceau, one of the many castles that her grandfather had bought in his strange hobby of collecting castles.

However, she hadn't heard about the recent events since she had cooped herself up in the basement with ancient tomes and various reports that both her father and grandfather had left her.

And speaking of those reports...

"Oppa's operation was to suppress the Djinns and rescue comrades who had been captured. If he had succeeded, he would have been promoted to an intermediate rank Hero..."

Nayun flipped through the pages of the old mission reports on Operation Fireflake.

And as she did, she saw it.

A brief mention from one of her Oppa's teammates.

*One of the Djinn rushed Jinyoon and pressed something against his arm. I wasn't sure what it was, but after that he collapsed. The scanners and healers couldn't detect anything though.*

"I remember that," Nayun murmured.

It was back in the early days just after the mess when Oppa was taken in for treatment.

Nayun's father and grandfather thought that the Djinn had used some sort of spell or curse to try and kill Jinyoon. Then they thought that it had failed since Jinyoon was such a talented Hero, and it just left him in a coma instead.

But what if it wasn't?

Lee had mentioned that he knew the corresponding sigils that would allow controlling a devil as long as the name was found.

But if Lee knew that while not being a Djinn and mostly from inferring it based on Djinn activity as well as magic circle formations...

Then the Djinn definitely knew it.

"...A brand, maybe?" Nayun murmured, rubbing her chin. "A devil's brand? Christians have a saying like 'the mark of the devil' right? Then... did they use something like that on Oppa?"

It made sense.

If it was a brand, then it likely slowly corroded away at the magic core and threaded it through with the devil's energy.

That was why Hajin believed it was impossible to heal or fix.

That was also why Lee had focused on containing it instead and cautioned on trying to forcibly remove it. At least, not without sufficient countermeasures.

Since Evandel had the Holy Grail, that would... probably work. Especially if she wished for Jinyoon to be healed.

...But if the Devil's Seed in Jinyoon had turned his very body into that of a Devil's, then it was also possible that such a pure divine energy would burn him to ash.

...Well, unless Evandel's Holy Grail also allowed her to revive someone.

But putting all of that in the hands of a toddler...

"No. We'll find another way." Nayun murmured.

The parameters were clear. It wasn't a complete mystery anymore.

And the first step was identifying the bastard of a devil trying to steal her Oppa's body.

"Operation Fireflake..." Nayun murmured and looked through it again. "...The name has meaning, right?"

It was an odd name. Snowflakes were a thing, but fireflakes...

"Is it a translation issue?" Nayun murmured.

Nayun wanted to think that, but the report was in Korean. And 'fire' and 'flake' were two separate words.

"It's not just to sound cool... Some Heroes did that, but Oppa wasn't like that."

That meant that the operation name was a code. A name that left enough meaning in it without revealing everything.

Fireflake... Fire and Flake... a piece of fire?

Unless it was meant to be a combination of fire and snowflake. But then that would be worthless, wouldn't it-

Nayun felt like a jolt of lightning swept through her spine. A realization and epiphany.

"Fireflake... fire meeting snowflake. A worthless resistance... Worthless. I saw that word earlier, right?" Nayun quickly flipped through the list of demons in the fragmented copy of Ars Goetia that her grandfather had recovered from somewhere.

And then after scanning through the descriptions of the demons, she saw it.

"Belial."

Nayun breathed the name in shock, the pieces all clicking together at once.

Operation Fireflake. Djinn who had been strangely powerful but also gave up too easily. Djinn who let themselves be killed after Oppa fell unconscious.

And with the report about the branding as well...

Nayun flipped open to the entry and read the details on that demon. "One of the four crowned princes of Hell. A name meaning 'worthless' and represents the personification of the devil. A malevolent demon who is still considered an angel because he was given control of demons by God..."

It wasn't too clear.

The entries on demons and the scattered information about those 72 in Solomon's notes were contradictory at worst and incomplete at best.

But her intuition was telling her: this was the name of the devil in her Oppa. This was the one who was trying to take Oppa's body as his own.

And it made sense, didn't it?

Nayun's Oppa was heroic. Handsome. One of the kindest Heroes alive at the time.

For a demon who was also said to be an angel... a malevolent being who looked the part of a saint...

Nayun's Oppa, Chae Jinyoon, was the perfect candidate.

But...

"Isn't this bad?"

Nayun wasn't too sure about how strong all the demons were. And she wasn't too sure what the difference was between a 'devil' and a 'demon.'

But it seemed like this Belial was one of the important ones in the rankings. Even though he was listed at 68, from the descriptions alone...

"No. It's enough."

Nayun had faith.

She had found it. The weapon that they could use to save her Oppa. Or at least, the raw material for it.

So...

With a deep breath, she opened her phone and sent a text in their group chat. The one with herself, Lee, Rachel, Yeonha, and Hajin.

===

> I think I know the name of the devil/demon in Oppa.

> It's Belial.