My Two Status Windows

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 109: Oath of the God King

"Did it finally happen?"

[Yes, the gods of India have decided to make contact. Indra has agreed to negotiate with you.]

Indian gods?

Hinduism?

Well, as long as I get the skill, it doesn't matter which god it is.

"So, how do we make this deal?"

[Enter the dungeon. Once you do, I’ll open a portal where you are.]

Following my father's words, I walked toward the dungeon.

On my way, I invested the 20 million SP I’d gathered to upgrade Soul Mediation to level 9.

[Soul Mediation LV.9]

[Mediates the absorption of the gods' souls. Provides 180% efficiency, and the user can take up to a 50% commission. Can mediate up to 28 guardian gods. Soul smuggling is possible.]

[The commission rate cannot exceed 50%.]

So I can’t increase the commission any further?

Too bad.

The number of slots increased to 28, so now I have 8 empty slots.

Once I mediate a few more deals for the upcoming skills, I’ll have more free space.

Time to prepare.

For now, without increasing the number of clients, I stepped into an A-rank dungeon portal.

Once inside the dungeon, I sent a message to my father, and a white portal opened immediately.

Entering the portal, I arrived in the same round-table space I had seen before.

“You’ve arrived.”

My father appeared, not wearing a mask this time, and showing his bare face.

His skin looked younger than I remembered, but his features were identical to my memories of him.

“It took a while, didn’t it?”

“That Pollux is quite strong. He’s been watching me like a hawk, burning with some sort of grudge.”

Father clicked his tongue, complaining about the delay caused by Pollux.

Come to think of it, wasn’t he supposed to be waking up Asura to deal with Pollux?

“What’s Asura up to?”

“He’s taking extra precautions to overpower Pollux in one shot. He knows that fighting with only low-tier divine power won’t lead to an easy victory.”

“True. If they keep fighting too long, Olympus will send reinforcements.”

“Exactly. That’s why he plans to act only after recovering at least SS-tier strength.”

“But nothing’s happened yet, so how did the gods show up?”

“Do you know Indian mythology?”

Why would I?

I shrugged, and my father gave me a knowing look.

“You wouldn’t have had the chance. In India, there’s a god named Indra. He’s the king of gods, though above him are three supreme deities—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.”

“I’ve heard of the last two names somewhere before.”

“That makes sense. Anyway, those three supreme deities aren’t in the seal. The one trapped in the seal is Indra, the king of Hindu gods. He went to great lengths to secretly create an avatar behind Pollux’s back.”

With a flick of his finger, my father reopened the white portal I had entered through.

Out of the portal walked a man with brown skin, a shaved head, and a muscular build.

His face was covered by a mask, but it was clear he was male because he was shirtless.

“Are you the soul mediator?”

The man addressed me immediately—the avatar of Indra.

Some kind of translation magic must be at work.

He wasn’t speaking Korean, yet I understood everything.

“And you must be Indra’s avatar?”

“Yes, I’ve brought the skill per Michael’s suggestion…”

Indra’s avatar gave me a skeptical look.

“It’s hard to believe. A soul awakener is a rare and extraordinary hero even in the universe…”

He kept glancing around nervously behind his mask.

Annoyed by his hesitation, I said,

“Even my father and Avalokiteshvara’s avatar use my soul mediation service. Are you still suspicious? Fine, forget it. I have plenty of other clients.”

“Hmph, I’m not doubting you…”

“Are you doing this or not?”

“…Fine. I’ll do it.”

We finalized the contract under the supervision of my father, Michael’s avatar.

I mediated a soul contract with two Indian gods, agreeing to a 25% commission.

In return, I would receive a skill that allowed me to control apostles.

“Can you deliver the skill first?”

Indra’s avatar demanded payment up front.

What a stingy god…

No problem.

I had a plan for this.

“Then let’s make a deal. I want the ability to cancel the contract at any time.”

“Cancel the contract? Is that even possible?”

Indra looked startled.

Was he planning to lock me into the contract from the start?

If I had agreed without this condition, he could have refused to give me the skill, leaving me with nothing.

This guy was trying to pull a fast one.

“Stop scheming and just decide if you’re going to sign or not. I’m not even asking for a skill stone, am I? Besides, you hand out SS-tier skills to your apostles without much effort.”

“That’s only when I’m at full power. Right now, I only have the strength of a low-tier god. Giving out an SS-tier skill is a heavy burden.”

“Burden or not, I’m not mediating this deal for free. You guys want to reclaim your stolen territories quickly, don’t you? Indra, you’re supposed to be the king of the gods, right? Meanwhile, Zeus and Odin are stealing all the SP from your followers.”

“Hmph…”

Indra’s avatar clenched his fists in frustration.

My father chimed in.

“Indra’s avatar, I understand your caution, but without his soul mediation service, you won’t have a way to regain your followers. Make a wise decision.”

After hearing how much profit they could gain from the mediation, Indra’s avatar finally made up his mind.

“Fine… I’ll give you the skill.”

[Oath of the God King]

[Skill Rank: SS]

[Allows the user and a target to make a mutual oath. The oath is unbreakable by any entity. If the user is stronger than the target, the oath lasts indefinitely. Each target can be sworn to three times. Punishment can be added to the oath.]

A simple description.

It’s just a promise skill?

What’s this punishment about?

“Is this for keeping secrets? And this is ranked SS just for being a promise skill?”

“What nonsense! The fact that no one can interfere with the oath is the key. And with punishment added, SS is more than fair.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Do you know how many deceitful apostles there are? With an ordinary promise skill, they’d just interfere and change the terms. But Oath of the God King is different—they can’t touch it.”

Indra explained further.

“The more oaths you stack, the stronger they become. If you want to ensure secrecy, stack the oath three times: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this. If you reveal it, punishment will befall you.’”

“Huh? Punishment?”

“Yes. If you stack it three times, the system will enforce it. You’ll see just how terrifying it can be…”

Indra’s avatar shivered as he explained that the system’s punishment could destroy a soul, making it a terrifying force.

“Isn’t that too harsh?”

“We’re going against the gods ruling Earth. If one of us gets captured and spills everything, we’ll be wiped out. We have to be as cautious as possible.”

My father warned me.

Ugh, expanding power is tough.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

“But couldn’t the enemy gods extract memories from someone they capture? Isn’t there a way to erase memories instead?”

"Hmm, that's possible too. It would also reduce SP consumption from the oath."

"SP consumption too?"

"Of course. Nothing in the world is free. The system is handling it for you."

So I should just seal it with a contract to erase memories if any secret leaks out, instead of invoking divine punishment.

That way, I can expand my apostles one by one with this skill.

"By the way, what is this system? It even handles things like this?"

At this, my father looked displeased.

"Talking about the system is a taboo for representatives. You'd have to reach one rank higher to discuss it..."

"Just think of it as the order of the universe."

It was clear neither of them wanted to talk much about the system.

They obviously knew something, though.

Well, that's not what's important right now.

"Okay, I'll give you two spots for soul representation. Who do you want?"

"Indra and Ganesha, please."

"Got it."

After mediating for the two, there were six spots left out of the 28.

I decided to fill these remaining spots through smuggling.

After smuggling Drakia and Elprian—who gave lots of SP, second only to Odin—there were only two spots left.

I kept those two as backups.

"Hmm... I can’t believe such a skill exists. SP—I’m looking forward to it."

Indra waved and left.

Left alone with my father, I told him what had happened recently.

When I mentioned Hercules had sworn an oath on his very existence, my father jumped for joy.

"Hercules said that himself? That’s great news. Now we just need to oust them."

"Hmm. Will it be possible once all the gods are released from their seals?"

"I thought it would be easy once the seals were undone, but you mentioned the Soul Barrier. That makes sense. Our attacks didn’t work at all on the enemy representatives."

Father frowned, imagining a disaster if the enemy representatives could use Hercules’ Spirit Emission and Soul Barrier skills too.

"That’s why I plan to gather as much power as possible, even if it takes multiple trips back in time."

"But how would I time-travel? Last time, they sent me back, but what if they abandon me?"

I was worried they’d cut me off and go back in time if I caused too much trouble, especially after they’d officially warned me.

My father, however, answered casually.

"Given the SP you’re earning, I doubt they’ll abandon you. But you should still prepare. You’ll need Chronos’ Fragment."

"Will this do?"

I pulled Chronos’ Fragment from my inventory, and my father examined it.

The fragment shone with a bright white light.

"With this in your possession, you’ll be carried back in time along with the others."

"That’s simple."

"There’s a complicated process involving divine energy infusion, but do you really want to know?"

"No, I’m good."

Michael is still Michael.

The fragment started glowing just by touching his hand, enabling time travel.

"Alright, go ahead. Try out the skill."

"Got it."

At my father’s words, I left through the portal I had entered.

After easily clearing an A-rank dungeon, a system message suddenly popped up.

[You have fulfilled a condition to reach divinity.]

[The ‘Earn 1 million SP in a day’ condition has been cleared.]

Already a million?

I knew I earned a lot from Indra, Ganesha, and the smuggling deals with those two gods, but this much?

It must also be because the skill level rose to 9, making everything more efficient.

Still, this growth rate was incredible.

The required SP for Soul Mediation Level 10 was 40 million—double the previous 20 million.

But at this rate, earning a million a day, it wouldn’t take long.

Feeling good, I sent a message to Jinseong.

[Hey, want to help me test a skill?]

[Ugh, I’m in a dungeon. Guardian, I’m level 98 now.]

[How’d you level up so fast?]

[I realized the gods were scamming me all this time. Experience points increase like crazy, and my stats rise just by fighting. Plus, I get four points per level-up. But what’s the skill?]

Rapid growth, huh.

I explained the skill I’d obtained, and Jinseong seemed interested.

[Hey, try it out on me.]

[How?]

[We’ll make a vow for me to lose my memory if I reveal a secret. Then we’ll see what penalty kicks in.]

[Won’t you have to hear the secret again if you lose your memory?]

[I’ll deal with that.]

He was willing to be the test subject, so I had to agree.

Jinseong came out of the dungeon and teleported to me at the mountain peak.

"Shall we start the test?"

"Oath of the God-King."

We made a vow of confidentiality and memory loss regarding the secret.

As soon as the oath was sealed, Jinseong spoke to me.

"Alright, so about going back in ti—"

Suddenly, the light faded from his eyes, and his expression turned blank.

[Target ‘Jinseong’ has violated the God-King’s Oath. He will lose all memory of the secret.]

[1,200 SP has been consumed.]

"Hey, Jiho, where am I?"

"You don’t remember?"

No matter what I asked, he gave me confused looks.

After explaining the situation from the beginning, Jinseong finally opened his status window.

When he saw my name listed, he nodded in understanding.

He then described what had happened to him.

"My memory was erased and reassembled. I was told I’d spoken to you a month ago, but my mind replaced that with meeting a girl."

It even filled the memory gap automatically.

"But can’t I talk about it in front of you? We’ll need to discuss things moving forward."

"True. We’ll have to change the vow to make allies an exception."

"Also, instead of just losing memory, it might be better to expel the apostle altogether. It’s obvious if you look at the status window."

"Good point."

We realized we needed to add a lot of conditions to the vow.

All I wanted was to expand my apostles, but there was so much to deal with.

While cursing Olympus and Asgard under my breath and thinking about new vow clauses, a communication screen suddenly popped up in front of me.

[Kim Jiho, how have you been? Seems you’re having quite a bit of fun lately. Breaking your guardian contract and all...]

A black-haired, handsome man smiled at me with mischievous eyes.

Loki was looking at me with a grin.

[Translator - Night]

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