Chapter 2
“Fucking hell.”
It was so absurd that even with <Iron-Blood Heart>, I was struggling to keep my expression in check.
I thought maybe I’d missed something or misread the text, so I checked the system window again—but unfortunately, there was no mistake whatsoever.
‘All the unique skills of every playable character in Soden have been dumped onto me.’
Black Radiance Divine Sword, Shadowless Chant, Ki Bullet Creation… every single one of them was practically the identity of its respective class.
Naturally, it was impossible for one character to use the unique skills of another class.
As someone who’d sunk 9,000 hours into the game as a veteran, I could swear I’d never once seen such a thing happen.
And yet, this unprecedented situation had occurred to me—the one who’d possessed into the Blood Mage inside the game.
Not just one character’s skills, but all six.
‘Wait a minute.’
I hadn’t confirmed it yet, but I was already about 80% convinced that the original six hero characters didn’t exist in this version of the “Soden” world I’d entered.
Looking at this unheard-of <Blood Link> system, it felt like the remaining 20% was filling in too.
‘There are no six heroes, but instead, all of their skills have come to me. That has to be it, given the circumstances.’
For a moment I wasn’t sure whether to rejoice or despair—then I quickly realized this was an utterly fucked-up situation.
The six main characters of 《Soden》 were fated to unite their powers and stand against the Demon King to save the continent.
Because the unique skills they possessed were the only hard counters capable of opposing the Demon King and the demon race.
But now those six were gone, and only their unique skills had been crammed into me?
In other words, the job that was supposed to be done by six people working together now fell squarely on my shoulders alone.
What the fuck is this, some group project bullshit?
Just thinking about it gave me a splitting headache that felt like my skull was cracking—
Swoosh!
“Die, you bastard!”
…It almost literally cracked.
I hurriedly snapped out of my thoughts and twisted my body to dodge the axe blade whistling toward me with a chilling wind.
Right after, as the attacker faltered from missing, I drew the Blood Sword diagonally across his throat.
“Ghk…!”
The leading cultist sprayed a fountain of blood from his neck and died on the spot.
The rest of the rabble didn’t care; they kept charging at me regardless.
“Damn it, just surround him all at once!”
“There’s only one of him! Don’t get scared—push him, you stupid fucks!”
Yeah, future worries could wait. Right now, dealing with these assholes was the top priority.
The moment the real fight began in earnest—
Ding!
<Main Quest – 1>
Objective: Eliminate the evil god worshippers and rescue the abducted people.
Reward: 1500 XP, 300 BP
A quest notification appeared in my field of view at an angle that didn’t obstruct anything.
The exact same UI, the exact same content as the quest windows I’d seen to death while playing the game.
Even though I’d possessed into a character in the story, it seemed that—at its core—this was still the same 《Soden》 I’d played.
…But why the hell is the single most necessary element—the six heroes—missing? Goddamn it.
Still, this wasn’t the time to leisurely complain.
Shwaaaak—!!
The instant they closed in and completely surrounded me from all sides, a barrage of blades rained down like a storm.
Sure, in terms of sheer numbers, I was at a hundredfold, thousandfold disadvantage.
But these guys—who were nothing more than game entities—had no idea.
That in 《Soden》, nothing was as meaningless as raw numbers.
[Absorbing all ambient blood ki in the vicinity!]
[Temporary drastic increase in physical abilities!]
And especially for a Blood Mage, the true value shone brightest in battles against large groups.
“Additional Blood Sword summon.”
The moment a whirlwind of blood surged into my empty left hand—
Slaaash—!
“GYAAAAAAAA—!!”
“Guh…!?”
The two blood-red short swords traced intricate trajectories, and dying screams erupted from all directions at once.
The upper bodies of the cultists—who had so confidently charged to kill me—were carved with gruesome sword wounds; blood sprayed everywhere.
[Absorbing blood ki!]
[Absorbing blood ki!]
[Physical abilities…….]
Even that spilled blood became nourishment that made me stronger.
My senses sharpened razor-sharp thanks to the blood ki; my dynamic vision became as precise as a pair of tweezers.
Shwaaaak……!!
I casually evaded the daggers and spear tips thrust at me by the few who had barely survived the previous exchange—
Schlick—!
“Mon—monster… bastard.”
—and severed their lifelines with a single stroke.
Obviously, for someone who used to be just an ordinary reclusive gamer shut-in, this was my first real life-or-death battle.
And yet—an unbelievable thought flashed through my mind.
It felt… too easy.
‘The Blood Mage is a character who can wield any weapon made by clumping blood ki—’
Which meant they were born with innate talent for “weapon mastery.”
Even the pure “Swordsman” class, when judged solely on sword-handling talent, was actually a step below the Blood Mage.
So what more needed to be said?
Thanks to that, right now I felt like an unparalleled swordsmanship genius who had devoted all 9,000 hours not to Soden, but solely to the art of the sword.
At that moment.
“Brothers! Please, with my sacrifice, slay this monster and accomplish our sacred great cause!”
Thud—!
Suddenly, one of the cultists at the very back shouted something and plunged a dagger into his own chest.
I stood there stunned—what the hell is this idiot doing?—when
Slaaaash—!!
A sinister energy flowed out from the corpse of the man who had taken his own life, then began to seep into the bodies of the others.
The rest were briefly as bewildered as I was.
Then, veins bulged grotesquely across the bodies of the cultists who had accepted the energy; overwhelming killing intent poured out of them.
I frowned.
‘Damn it, <Life Spread>.’
A skill that amplified allies’ power at the cost of the user’s own life force and vitality.
“Kuhahaha! Power is overflowing! I will never forget your sacrifice, brother!”
“You’ve been running wild quite nicely until now, you son of a bitch. How dare you touch our brothers? I’ll chew your spine and swallow it.”
The cultists—bodies swollen to nearly twice their original size as if they’d been pumped full of steroids—growled and closed in on me.
Having absorbed the life energy of one whole human, the pressure they exuded was on a completely different level from before.
‘Thank god for <Iron-Blood Heart> keeping my head cool.’
If not for that, I would’ve charged in relying solely on my newfound talent and gotten my bones crushed by these guys by now.
My cold, rational mind whispered to me.
It was time to use that.
“<Black Radiance Divine Sword>.”
[Blood Link skill, ‘Black Radiance Divine Sword’ has been invoked!]
[The great dignity that loses no light even in darkness descends upon your blade!]
[Blood ki is being consumed!]
The signature unique skill of the Swordsman character, “Demian.”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every supreme technique he created on his path to reaching the realm of the Sword God had its roots in this <Black Radiance Divine Sword>.
Demian was the one who shone most brilliantly in the darkness.
Therefore, his sword grew even stronger in unfavorable situations.
That was the nature of <Black Radiance Divine Sword>.
Hwarrrrr—!
Black aura intertwined with the blood-red short swords gripped in both hands.
Originally the effect was golden light mixed with black… but since it was consuming blood ki instead of aura, had the visual changed?
“Just as you wished…….”
Well, whatever.
“Come at me all at once.”
***
“W-What the hell are we even looking at…….”
“That swordsmanship is insane…….”
“Why was a monster like that captured together with us in the first place?”
Meanwhile.
The expressions on the faces of the people bound in iron chains were uniformly stunned.
And for good reason: the young man they had all assumed was destined to be sacrificed just like them
Had suddenly begun carving through the villains with otherworldly swordsmanship.
To people who had sunk into despair, convinced they were going to die helplessly, this was nothing short of a miracle.
“M-Maybe he’s some knight who was hiding his identity and infiltrated……? It’s like seeing a ghost.”
“Who cares about that! We’re alive! We’re alive!!”
Amid the crowd shedding tears of joy and rejoicing,
At the very end of the line—
“Ah…….”
A short-haired brunette girl, her limbs bound just like the others, was also unable to close her mouth.
Part of it was surely relief at the realization that she might actually survive.
But the true reason the girl wore such a dazed, almost possessed expression was something else entirely.
“<Black Radiance Divine Sword>.”
Hwarrrrr—!!
The moment the four syllables left the lips of Lee Seong-hoon—no, Ruth Fried—
And the instant black flames wrapped around the strange blood-red short swords he gripped—
A memory struck the girl’s mind like a bolt of lightning.
—Child. If, during your travels, you ever encounter a swordsman who wields the black sword, you must bring him to me without fail.
—The <Black Radiance Divine Sword> has long since faded into history, but the continent is vast. Surely at least one successor remains somewhere out there.
—Understood? You have to bring him. Our Steel & Anvil family must repay that old kindness.
“I think I’ve found him, Grandfather…….”
The Steel & Anvil family—one of the three great master blacksmith clans on the continent.
The girl was the granddaughter of the current head, Jackson Steel & Anvil.
***
Thud!
The head of the very last cultist rolled across the floor.
[Main Quest-1 has been completed!]
[You have received 1500 XP and 500 BP as rewards!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
Finally, the notification rang out, declaring the end of this wretched battle.
Thanks to absorbing an enormous amount of blood ki and the level-ups, even though the fight had dragged on for quite a while, I didn’t feel particularly exhausted.
‘Physically, at least.’
Mentally, I was beyond tired—I was on the verge of mental collapse.
If not for <Iron-Blood Heart>, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep a poker face and would’ve lost my mind.
‘Still, if I want to survive safely in this damn game world from now on, I need to check the rewards thoroughly.’
I opened my status window.
<Player Information>
Name: Ruth Fried
Level: 3
Class: Blood Mage
Strength: 21 Stamina: 21 Charm: 21 Wisdom: 21 Agility: 21
<Held Skills>
Blood Absorption, Blood Sword Summon, Iron-Blood Heart
! You can unlock a new skill (Required BP: 300)
As expected of a Blood Mage.
Starting stats far superior to other classes, and the growth curve was absurdly steep.
The problem was that the drawbacks devoured all the advantages.
At the very bottom, the line about a new skill being unlockable caught my eye.
“Hmm.”
If my memory was correct, the skill that would unlock this time was that one.
For a Blood Mage, it was practically a lifeline—an essential skill.
But strictly speaking, in this world I wasn’t really a Blood Mage—I was some horrifying hybrid monstrosity.
I didn’t have to stubbornly follow the shitty Blood Mage progression tree; other options existed.
“<Blood Link>.”
Ding—!
[Blood Link Skill List]
Swordsman: Black Radiance Divine Sword, ??, ?? ……
Having personally felt the overwhelming power of <Black Radiance Divine Sword> with my entire body, I decided to prioritize unlocking Swordsman skills first.
It also seemed like the safest and most straightforward path.
However……
[Activating this Blood Link skill requires 10,000 BP!]
“Goddamn it.”
The points I currently had were laughably insufficient.
10,000 BP? It felt like I’d need to clear several hefty main quests just to scrape that together.
‘Looks like all the other class skills cost 10,000 BP too.’
For the time being, I had no choice but to walk the Blood Mage skill tree.
I couldn’t afford to stubbornly sit on my hands and do nothing until I somehow gathered 10,000 BP.
Smacking my lips in resignation, I was about to invest my BP into the newly unlocked Blood Mage skill when…
“…….”
…until I suddenly felt the heavy, concentrated stares directed at me.
I turned my head and saw people flinching the instant our eyes met, shoulders jumping.
Ah, right—I forgot.
These were just pitiful NPCs who’d been quietly going about their lives before getting kidnapped by evil god worshippers.
There was no reason not to free them.
Thud—.
The moment I took a step closer, their bodies flinched even more violently.
Well, yeah—of course they’d be terrified. A blood-soaked man walking toward them with a blank expression would scare anyone.
I raised one hand and spoke in the calmest voice I could manage to reassure them.
“It’s all right. I’m just here to set you all free—”
That was when it happened.
Rumble rumble—!!
A sudden, deafening roar erupted from the altar at the center of the cavern.
‘Ah. There was still this part left.’
Memories from when I played as Bismarck flashed through my mind like a panorama.
In the original game, after wiping out all the worshippers and completing the quest, an event cutscene would trigger.
What kind of cutscene?
<You filthy mortal worm!>
A voice filled with incandescent rage boomed.
Above the altar, still drenched in vivid red blood, a translucent spectral entity began to rise.
A head sprouting chaotic thorn-like horns. A bloated body where flesh had rotted away in patches, exposing bone and entrails here and there.
It was so grotesquely repulsive that it was hard to look at directly, but unbelievably—
—this thing was a Constellation.
The evil Constellation these worshippers had been trying to summon.
<The descent was right at hand, and you ruined everything! You! Because you slaughtered every last worshipper who was about to offer the sacrifices…!>
The reason this nameless Constellation had appeared in such a hideous, incomplete form was simple: the summoning ritual had been imperfect.
But whether incomplete or not—
It was still a “Constellation.” In 《Soden》, that meant a being on the level of a god.
There was no way the current me could fight and defeat it.
‘Damn it, in the game this part just gets auto-resolved in the event cutscene…….’
When playing as Bismarck and the other Paladins, they would deploy a special formation that forcibly returned the entity to the netherworld.
The entire sequence was an automatic event, so players could just sit back and watch it unfold like a movie scene.
But this wasn’t a game anymore. This was real-time reality.
Moreover, there was no way I could single-handedly activate a formation that required multiple Paladins working in unison.
While I bit my lower lip in a situation with no apparent solution—
Pzzzt!
Suddenly, I noticed the crimson currents drifting around the Constellation in my field of view.
……Blood ki.
“…….”
Let’s think about this.
The worshippers had tried to summon this thing using the blood of innocent humans as offerings.
In short, the very foundation of this Constellation’s current physical form was blood—blood ki.
The blood ki had given it bones and flesh, allowing it to manifest in the human world.
So then…?
<Since things have come to this, I shall rip out your soul and hunt the humans of this land myself to complete my descent! Even if this vessel is unstable, taking over your body should be as easy as—>
“Blood Absorption.”
Shwaaaaaak—!!
Like dust being sucked into a vacuum cleaner, the blood ki streams were drawn straight into me.
And with that, the Constellation vanished without a trace.