Overgeared

In the first battle, he won in 35 exchanges of blows.

The one who inherited the Matchless Sword like himself—he understood the fact that this person was the Sword Saint of the current era. This person was a distant junior. There was no great inspiration other than the fact that the sword contained the characteristic of an orange sunset.

The second time, they exchanged 48 blows before he won. He was a bit surprised by the momentum of the sword that pierced through the space in a manner similar to a spear. He also admired the orange sunset, which was someone else's divinity fused with the sword energy. He considered the efforts of his junior who would've tried in various ways to fill the gap over the years.

The third time, he won after 71 exchanges. He was aiming to win within 20 exchanges, but it became surprisingly long.

'I thought I understood everything.'

This wasn't the case at all. For the Sword Saint of the present day, the Matchless Sword was just an additional branch, not the foundation.

The fourth time, he won after 82 exchanges. From then on, the dimensional gap couldn't withstand the waves from the battle and started to collapse. The fragments of the chaos dimension defied the providence of the existing world and produced monsters.

"I can see your intentions."

Sword Saint Muller—the most powerful Sword Saint of all time. He was praised as one of the greatest heroes of the past by the humans of that time. His impression after living alone for hundreds of years was very different from Kraugel's expectations.

Straightforward, clear eyes. A confident expression. An unwavering voice. He was born to enforce 'justice,' just like the hero of a manhwa. It was like seeing the embodiment of goodness that would never be broken. The expectation that he would've collapsed after living alone for a long time was spectacularly wrong.

"Eventually, the dimensional gap will break and the surface will be in crisis… then I will have no choice but to return to the world."

Why was he born with such great talent? Muller deliberated on it for a long time before deciding to live for others. He saved countless lives by harnessing a talent that was too much for one individual to handle. He believed it to be the responsibility and duty of the strong.

His accomplishments weren't just sealing the great demons. The wars and plunder suppressed by Muller's mere existence were simply incalculable. It was just that the kingdoms, forced to abandon their greed out of fear of a single human being, didn't record it due to their pride.

"Okay. I'll do as you want for now. Let's hurry and return to the surface before the monsters born from the shards of the dimension gaps hurt people."

"……"

The Sword Saint of the present day was very reticent. It was unusual.

'It is hard for a Sword Saint to be reticent, right?'

A sword contained many intentions. Swords were sometimes wielded to take thousands of lives and sometimes to save only one. It was easy to wander if they didn't consider it endlessly. A Sword Saint had to see, hear, and experience many different types of lives. It was only by understanding and empathizing with more lives that the intentions put into the sword increased and the paths of the sword would increase.

Biban, whom he once happened to see from a distance, proved it. He never stopped chatting. Thanks to this, Muller discovered that the person was Biban. Muller thought that his mouth would naturally be busy if he reflected on the connections with people that he had built up to increase his sword skills one by one. He worried in his heart that he would one day become like Biban.

"…It is fine."

"Huh?"

The unusually reticent Sword Saint of the present day finally opened his mouth. He flustered his senior by saying something contrary to expectations.

"The surface will be safe even if you don't come. Monsters of that caliber can't touch a single human hair."

"This is a real disaster. Your time as a Sword Saint is much shorter than I thought, right? Is it less than 20 years?"

"Yes."

"Somehow, I felt like you were trying to save face by running away repeatedly. You've never been in a situation where you were on the verge of dying before."

The Sword Saint of the present day didn't comply and ran away after every defeat. It was only after fully recovering that he reappeared and challenged it again. It was nothing to be ashamed of. It was proof that he wasn't ready to accept defeat and death.

"I will make it clear. Your belief is just the fallacy of a genius. You might believe that other humans are as strong as you are, but reality is quite different. The vast majority of humans can't easily handle such monsters."

"You seem to have misunderstood something… I'm not being arrogant. I've experienced great crises thousands of times."

"How can such a person make the foolish claim that the surface is safe? Could it be that… you don't care about the lives of others?"

Muller's eyes, which were as large and clear as a calf's, turned sharp for the first time. He even released a bit of killing intent. For a moment, Kraugel felt a sharp pain in his heart.

[The aura of 'Heart Killing Intent' has fixed your health to a minimum.]

[You can't resist.]

'Isn't he a monster beyond imagination?'

A sword forged with killing intent—it killed the target as soon as there was the intention. Did Muller really achieve the ultimate in the Heart Sword? At this point, wasn't it far beyond the realm of legends and transcendents?

Kraugel was agitated to the point that his face turned white, but he soon regained his composure. He was a Sword Saint. There was no way that a meeting with Muller wouldn't be beneficial. Grid knew this, so he entrusted Muller to Kraugel.

Kraugel believed it. It was his 'qualifications,' not his talent and skills. He believed in Grid's judgment and trust in sending him here.

"…You didn't shake." Muller saw Kraugel's determination. A person who stood aloof even when death approached him. At the very least, he seemed worth talking to. "I'll change the question."

[You are free from the effects of 'Heart Killing Intent.' Your health can be restored.]

"Is the surface really safe when these monsters go on a rampage?"

"Yes, the surface is now guarded by a 'god.'"

Additionally—

"Also, humans aren't as weak as you think."

"……"

A strange light flashed in Muller's eyes. He realized it—the objective of his distant junior, the Sword Saint of the present day, wasn't Muller personally.

"Come back to the world and fight together for humans… I thought you came here to ask for that."

Muller shrugged and took back his sword energy, which had taken the form of a sword. He pulled out the real sword that had been sealed for hundreds of years and grabbed it. It was a treasured sword that was reborn as a divine sword due to accumulated achievements and years alongside the strongest Sword Saint in history.

"Your objective was simply to devour me."

The world doesn't need me.

His junior's attitude seemed to be sincerely saying this. It was the blessing that Muller had been long hoping for. A world that could survive only if a few strong people supported it—the surface was a precarious world. It could be overthrown at any time by the whims of the dragons or the needs of the gods. There wasn't much that Muller could do in such a world. He endured a lot of pressure alone.

Thus, he ran away. In the end, he wanted death. He rejected life because it was meaningless, not because he was bored. Then he caught a glimpse of the truth of hell and realized that death wasn't the end. He realized he couldn't even die and felt extremely desperate. He abandoned all his burdens and slipped into the dimensional gap.

He was a coward. He wanted to help his junior, if only to relieve his guilt.

"I'll do my best to feed you. I'll show you everything, even if it means killing you hundreds of times."

Muller took a proper posture. It was very slowly, as if telling Kraugel to watch and learn. "Come."

A god protecting the surface? Such a thing was impossible. Perhaps his junior misunderstood a mere human god. He could've mistaken Garion, the God of the Earth who reacted every time he split apart the land and mountains, as equivalent to the heavenly gods.

Nevertheless, Muller didn't deny Kraugel's words. It was because he sympathized with the argument that 'human beings aren't weak.' If many legends and transcendents were born in this era, the surface would definitely be safer than it was in Muller's days.

After hundreds of years, he felt relieved.

A sword power that made a cracking sound like a thunderbolt smashed toward Kraugel. It tore apart the dimensional gap.

Everything was an inspiration to Kraugel. It wasn't just at the level of improving his mood or senses. He received the system's help. Every time he exchanged sword strikes with Muller, the level of his swordsmanship related skills started to grow at an incredible rate. In particular, the skills related to the Matchless Swordsmanship exceeded the master level. It was a class effect caused by his encounter with the former generation Sword Saint.

Kraugel, who had taken a hard path so far, grew up normally for the first time. It was thanks to Grid's favor. It was a debt that must be repaid someday.

[The skill 'Matchless Swordsmanship' has transcended to reach level 11. A special function is created.]

[The skill 'Matchless Heart Technique' has transcended and reached level 11. A special function is created.]

It was around 20 days after he met Muller. On the surface, Grid's No Offspring Tomb expedition was in full swing.

"…Who would dare? Is this the 'god' you talked about?"

Muller's face hardened in the middle of teaching Kraugel.

The last worry left on the surface—he realized there was an anomaly in the No Offspring Tomb. It was possible because he had connected strands of sword energy to the No Offspring Tomb and his senses.

Muller had blamed himself for being a coward, but in reality, he was still a hero who cared about the world. He couldn't turn a blind eye to the moment when he had to step up. He put surveillance on the No Offspring Tomb in the first place because he wasn't prepared to turn a blind eye.

"This isn't the time to do this. We have to go back quickly. At this rate, the boundaries of all dimensions will be broken around the No Offspring Tomb."

"……"

Grid left everything related to Muller to Kraugel and Kraugel had no intention of taking Muller to the surface. It was because he thought it would be impossible to convince Muller. No matter the reason, this was a person who had been alone for hundreds of years. It wouldn't be easy to bring him back to the world. He thought it would be a waste of his heart and time to persuade them.

This was why he fought silently. It was in the hope of gaining even the smallest instructions. He hoped to appease Muller, who was bored because he couldn't meet a strong person other than himself.

Then the result? Far from a small lesson, he got huge gains. Additionally, Muller offered to go to the surface on his own.

It was the moment when Grid's advice that sometimes it was best to fight without saying anything matched the situation.

***

"There are so many things in the world."

"It isn't for nothing that people say they don't believe it, even if it is a novel."

They just need to watch the news for an hour to tell. It was a fact that there were more movie-like things in the world than in movies. In modern society, laws and ethics took precedence. Meanwhile, ancient humans were ignorant of even basic morals and did terrible things casually. Iwata's case was like this.𝚏𝘳e𝘦𝙬𝑒𝙗𝙣𝘰v𝒆l.𝒄o𝑚

"I think I know why the Specter gave the residents of this place a new name like Staff or Sword. It must've been in the hopes of completely erasing the terrible past."

Skunk used the words 'resident.' The death knights and liches who inhabited the No Offspring Tomb couldn't be regarded as mere undead. From Iwata to Gajanara. It was the aftermath of peeking at the past of a total of eight executives. People who could've been ordinary if they had been born in the right world—Skunk sympathized with the ignorant victims who unintentionally became heroes and were forced to degenerate into villains.

It was the same with Grid. He didn't feel very comfortable.

Chreshler's thoughts were different.

-It is right to see the No Offspring Tomb as a huge prison. It is a collection of irredeemable garbage.

Chreshler didn't sympathize with the inhabitants of the No Offspring Tomb. Regardless of the reason, he interpreted it as a well-deserved punishment because they had accumulated sins. It was from the perspective of a religious person who was as devoted as a fanatic.

Grid and Skunk clicked their tongues.

'Did he forget that his body is buried here?'

'He might be trying to ignore it…'

Grid stopped walking.

A small room guarded by three executives—the perfect pincer attack between transcendents in such a narrow space was somewhat difficult even for Grid. After quite a hard fight, he broke through and moved along the passage. However, an unexpected object blocked his way.

Duguen! Duguen!

A huge, red lump of flesh that was beating like a heart. The same thing he had seen in hell was deep underground in the No Offspring Tomb.