My Two Status Windows

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 86: The Second Apostle (2)

Quest Progress: 10%?

Does that mean the Dragon God's awakening has progressed by 10%?

Or is that just the escaped Gold Dragon's percentage?

Well, I guess I should hope it keeps running and reaches 100%.

I've been so focused on completing the quest since I got here.

Now what?

I already completed the quest to destroy Drakina's Dragon Heart, but there's no next step?

Just as I was wondering about that, a thunderous sound echoed again.

Kwarurururu!

Then, a bolt of lightning struck near me.

When the lightning subsided, a Valkyrie stood in its place.

Dressed in pure white armor, silver hair flickering with lightning—

"I'm Valkyrie Claire, a servant of Thor."

"Yeah. Did Thor send you to check on my quest completion? How annoying. I kill Drakina, and I’m still treated like a criminal."

I decided to strike first before they started investigating me.

So, how exactly are they going to investigate?

Thor is one of my soul mediation clients.

Maybe I should just cancel our contract and switch to someone else.

Surprisingly, Claire responded more submissively than I expected.

"Ah... no. The quest was cleared so quickly that this is just a formal procedure. Now that it’s been confirmed that the Dragon God devoured his daughter to revive himself, we understand why Drakina died prematurely. I will now deliver your promised rewards."

A message window appeared immediately.

[You have obtained 300,000 SP.]

[You have obtained an S-rank Random Skill Box.]

"But there was also a Dragon Heart..."

"I have prepared one separately."

Claire extended her hand, and a concentrated mass of mana formed in her palm, materializing into a star-shaped red gem.

It was smaller than Drakina’s, but the mana flowing through it was immeasurable.

"You can absorb it immediately by breaking it now. Or would you prefer to absorb it later?"

I considered breaking it right then and there but figured that the Dragon God or Drakina might know a more efficient way to absorb Dragon Hearts.

"Hmm. I’ll just hold onto it for now. There’s no rush."

"Understood."

Claire handed me the Dragon Heart.

Placing it in my inventory gave me a sense of satisfaction.

Still, I kept my expression firm in front of Claire and asked,

"But why is the quest reward so generous?"

"Sigh. It’s all thanks to you, Kim Jiho."

"Me?"

"Yes. The space-teleportation barrier over Drakina’s lair... Normally, even a god-tier entity wouldn’t be able to break through it so easily."

Was she talking about when Drakina was celebrating becoming a Dragon before eventually escaping?

"Was breaking it a problem?"

"Yes. It was supposed to be impossible... But someone used a special skill to break through, which caused complications."

Claire sighed and explained the original quest scenario.

Drakina successfully ascends to a Dragon but is ultimately captured by the hero’s party.

She is then taken to the Holy Empire, where she is burned alive in sacred flames.

But—this was all a scheme by the Emperor of the Holy Empire, who had fallen into chaos.

He intended to use Drakina, a descendant of the Dragon God, as a sacrifice to open the Chaos Gate.

If Drakina had been captured as planned, the next quest would have been for an Awakened One to stop the ritual.

"So, she had to be captured?"

"Yes. Under normal circumstances, that was the plan."

"But the hero who attacked before Drakina became a Dragon wiped everyone out instead of capturing her."

"That hero had suspicions about the Emperor’s intentions. To stop the opening of the Chaos Gate, he decided to eliminate Drakina rather than let her become a sacrifice."

Ah.

So, that hero sensed something fishy about the Emperor.

That’s why he acted preemptively and used a finishing move without any questions.

"What was supposed to happen originally? If that hero had shown up, wouldn't he have wiped them out then too, preventing the sacrifice?"

"The heroes are summoned randomly. If a hero aligned with the Emperor appeared, Drakina would have been captured."

"So what happens now?"

"The course of history has been completely altered... The Broken World was created through an agreement between the forces of Chaos and our side. If they agree, we could reset everything and start over from the beginning, but..."

"Do two warring factions ever actually agree on something like that?"

"Rarely. But when their interests align, agreements do happen. However, the ‘Smiling-Faced Devil,’ who was supposed to be summoned, refused to approve a time reversal because he finds this irregular situation interesting."

‘Smiling-Faced Devil’?

That name sounded familiar—Oh.

It was mentioned when I mediated three soul contracts with Hades.

There was that devil and another entity called the Lone God.

"So what happens now?"

"If we capture the Dragon God, the Smiling-Faced Devil will lose interest and agree to revert the world to its original state."

"If the Dragon God keeps running and the Chaos Gate doesn’t open, won’t Kalvine Planet recover on its own?"

"That won’t happen. The Emperor of the Holy Empire will find a way to open the Chaos Gate. Meanwhile, we must capture the Dragon God."

Claire spoke firmly.

I thought about asking why, but I got the feeling she wouldn’t answer anyway.

I let it go.

There were too many hidden details.

It was best to just deal with situations as they arose.

"So, does everything restart from Drakina’s lair?"

"No. That would cause similar side effects again... We won’t repeat the same mistake. We’ll start from the next phase instead."

Claire looked at me with a smirk—

No, not a real smile.

She was trying to smile, but it was obvious she didn’t mean it.

It was a smirk.

"If the Dragon God keeps running?"

"Then the Emperor of the Holy Empire will start hunting dragons to open the Chaos Gate. The dragons of the Dragon’s Land will resist. And Earth’s Awakened Ones will side with the dragons."

"Earth’s Awakened Ones? Getting involved in a war between heroes and dragons?"

"Yes... They won’t be able to gain experience points. They’ll just get caught in the crossfire."

If an all-out war broke out between A-rank heroes and dragons, no one on Earth would survive.

This was basically a ‘Don’t enter’ difficulty level.

D- and C-rank Awakened Ones should not come here.

"Well then, I’ve delivered your rewards, so I’ll be taking my leave now."

"Sure. But is it okay for gods to intervene in a Broken World? That didn’t seem to happen in Kevrian."

Even Hades suffered severe penalties when he intervened.

A 95% power reduction made him barely manageable.

"Normally, no. But the Dragon God’s resurrection is a major issue... Lord Thor has accepted a complete penalty to intervene. Well then..."

Claire’s body glowed before vanishing in a flash of lightning.

Now I was left alone in the Dragon’s Land.

The only main quest left was the Dragon God’s awakening.

There were no new quests after removing Drakina’s Dragon Heart.

I looked around the scorched remains of Drakina’s final moments.

Maybe some dragon bones or scales remained?

But after searching for ten minutes, I found nothing.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

"Can’t even return yet."

I had to wait at least ten days before I could teleport back.

Wow.

What do I do now?

No quests, no monsters.

Just an endless stretch of red land.

Dragon’s Land, huh?

Aside from the red soil, it wasn’t particularly special.

This felt like being stranded in a desert.

"Summon Flame Chariot."

I hopped onto my chariot and rode straight in one direction.

The same scenery kept passing by.

A desolate red land.

Having nothing to do, I tried calling Drakia to absorb a Dragon Heart, but there was no response.

Is he recovering?

If Drakia is unavailable, should I ask Drakina instead?

She’s in the Apostle’s Garden, but I’m not sure if that would work.

"Apostle’s Garden."

I tried using the Apostle’s Garden skill.

Then, a large screen appeared.

At the top of the screen, "Apostle’s Garden" was written, along with a message stating that three slots were remaining.

Below that, there were two spaces: Diana’s subspace and Drakina’s subspace.

Diana’s subspace was blacked out with a message saying, [The user’s rank is too low to access this area.]

However, Drakina’s was different.

Before I knew it, Drakina was standing there in her humanoid form, wearing the same ragged clothes from my past days as Arik.

She stood there with a dissatisfied expression.

The background around her was black, but unlike Diana, Drakina’s figure was clearly visible.

I guess I can’t see Diana because her rank is A, but since Drakina is rank C, I can?

"Hey."

I tried calling out to her, but she didn’t seem to hear me and continued standing there with an annoyed expression.

Now that I looked at it, it felt like a character selection screen in a game—she was just standing there with that same dissatisfied look.

She probably wasn’t actually standing like that in reality—it was more like a display of her current state.

Hmm.

Should I try pressing it?

When I touched Drakina, an additional window popped up beside her.

[Send Message]

[Summon]

[Check Stats]

[Enhance]

[Retrieve SP]

[Revoke Apostleship]

Huh?

There are functions like these?

I didn’t know because I couldn’t see Diana’s, but...

Sending messages and summoning are self-explanatory, but Enhance and Retrieve SP...?

Before sending a message, I checked her status window, and it displayed:

[Name - Drakina]

[Class - Red Dragon (Humanoid Form)]

[Guardian Deity - Kim Jiho]

[Title - ]

[Level - 67]

[Physical - A]

[Magic - A]

[Skill - C]

[Luck - E]

[Retrievable SP - 281]

Wait, I’m her guardian deity?

Her status window was similar to mine, except for the retrievable SP.

Is it because I’m viewing it as her guardian deity?

Hmm… As expected of a dragon, her stats were impressive.

Even though she was only level 67, she had A-ranked stats.

Her luck was low, which was a bit unfortunate, but everything else was strong, so it balanced out.

When I clicked Enhance, the status window remained, but a + sign appeared next to each stat.

I selected her Luck, and a message popped up:

[Would you like to spend SP to increase the Apostle’s stats?]

So I can use my SP to improve her?

Wow, if I had known about this, I could have enhanced Earthlings too...

I regretted not trying it before the world fell apart.

"And SP retrieval..."

Speaking of which, Retrievable SP...

It looks like I can take back the retrievable SP if I use that function.

Does that mean my guardian deities can also see my status window and SP reserves like this?

Or is SP reserve different from retrievable SP?

I should ask Drakina.

Summoning her right now would be a hassle, so I decided to send a message instead.

[How are you holding up? How much SP do you have?]

She must have been bored because she replied immediately.

[Kim Jiho? Why are you asking about SP? Where even is this? It looks exactly like my Dragon Lair.]

[Just checking something. Do you have 281?]

[281? Who do you think you’re talking to? A descendant of the Dragon God! I have 28,100. My heart was shattered, and I became humanoid, so I lost a lot of SP…]

28,100?

So only 1% is retrievable?

Not too bad.

[How long do you plan to keep me locked up here? I need to recover, but the mana in this space is too slow.]

[It’s a bit complicated right now, but I’ll summon you on Earth soon. Oh, by the way, tell me the most efficient way to absorb a Dragon Heart.]

[A Dragon Heart?! Where did you get that?! No—give it to me! If I have it, I can recover quickly!]

[I need to eat it first. My Dragon Heart skill is incomplete. Once I fully develop it, I might give you some, so teach me the most efficient way to absorb it.]

I wasn’t really planning to give her any, but a little hope would make her more willing to help.

[…As you’ve seen, a Dragon Heart is a hexagonal star shape. Cut it into six pieces and eat one at a time.]

[Like eating cake?]

[How dare you compare a Dragon Heart to cake?!]

[So basically, I just have to eat it without breaking it?]

[Yes. You must eat it whole for proper absorption. It may look like a gem and seem hard to chew, but it will melt in your mouth.]

[I’m only B-rank. What if I turn into a dragon?]

[If you’re B-rank, you should be fine… Wait, no. You might turn into a dragon. If you’re worried, just give it to me. Please.]

[Okay, thanks.]

Nice.

I had been aimlessly riding the Flame Chariot, but now I had something to do.

I took out the Dragon Heart from my inventory and started slicing it into equal pieces.

By coating my sword with mana, I was able to cut it smoothly.

Thanks to my high skill stat, I could neatly divide the hexagonal star into six pieces.

Then, I took one piece and brought it to my mouth.

As soon as I put it in, it melted instantly.

The moment the Dragon Heart dissolved, I could feel the mana in the atmosphere rapidly converging toward me.

And then, a message appeared.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]