Chapter 17

<Chapter 17: The Warrior Who Regressed to Level 2>

Throne.

They are the absolute rulers representing a single star, and the divine beings reigning over BattleNet.

‘Not much was known about the Thrones in my previous life, either.’

After the tutorial period of BattleNet ended, a Throne slot was added to all players' status windows.

However, players receiving sponsorship from a Throne were virtually non-existent.

Only those with outstanding abilities among players at the Diamond League level or higher were chosen by the Thrones.

‘The reason Earthlings didn't receive sponsorship was simple.’

The Space League, which opened after the tutorial period ended in 2020, saw Earthlings perform terribly.

‘They were considered a star destined to fail and be demoted repeatedly.’

Even if someone managed to get a Throne's sponsorship, it wasn't of high quality.

The penalties they imposed were as severe as the abilities they granted, causing many to suffer greatly from the Thrones' machinations.

Sponsorship from a Throne was truly a double-edged sword.

But Seong Jihan was prepared to handle a double-edged sword.

The more Thrones sponsoring him, the better.

‘I already have an idea for one Throne, but… it’s certain that the achievement store will also sell items to increase Throne slots.’

Recalling the items in the achievement store, the possibility seemed very high.

In that case, the reward of the Throne 'Shadow Queen's' interest was worth pursuing.

‘However, the conditions are strict.’

The number of spectators in the Colosseum was the problem.

Even though the Colosseum was large and most people were seated sparsely, there were still over 1,000 people.

Seong Jihan recalled the elves sitting in the audience.

‘The white elves were being served by the black elves.’

On the surface, the hierarchy was clear.

But the name 'Shadow Queen' was troubling.

The queen might be hiding among the black elves.

‘And I have to provoke an elf in the audience.’

At the end of the survival map, the boundary of the Colosseum was surrounded by a powerful barrier.

With Bronze-level strength, it was impossible to break through the barrier and provoke an elf in the audience.

This constraint applied even to Seong Jihan, who possessed martial power.

“Hmm.”

While Seong Jihan was deep in thought after logging out and returning home,

“Uncle! Congratulations on setting a new record!”

His niece, Yun Seo-a, came out of her room to congratulate him.

“New record?”

“Survival 10 kills! It was really impressive!”

Yun Seo-a was jumping around excitedly as if it were her own achievement.

“Ah. You were watching.”

“Of course! Wow, there were so many people. I thought there wouldn’t be any viewers, so I tried to be the first one, but over 1,000 people were already watching.”

“Really? More people than I thought.”

“Yeah. Later, the number kept increasing, and it went over 3,000!”

3,000 viewers for a Bronze broadcast.

Considering that the average number of viewers for a Gold-level broadcast was about 2,000, it was a significant number, enough for Yun Seo-a to be excited, but Seong Jihan's reaction was calm.

Compared to his previous life's records, this number was nothing.

“But people want to sponsor with GP. They were disappointed because Uncle completely blocked it.”

“Really?”

Perhaps because he had changed the broadcast settings out of habit from before.

It seemed he had completely blocked sponsorships.

In his previous life, with plenty of GP, he found the constant sponsorship messages during battles annoying and turned them off.

‘The situation is different now.’

Currently, every bit of GP was important.

Moreover, in the lower leagues, a few more messages wouldn’t affect the outcome of a battle.

“I need to change the settings.”

“Yeah. But it might interfere with Uncle’s battles… How about making donations under 10,000 GP invisible to players? Oh, is 10,000 too low? In real money, 10 million won is cheap, right? Or is it expensive?”

Yun Seo-a tilted her head, deep in thought.

As the daughter of the Sword King, she had lived a wealthy life without worrying about money, so her financial sense was underdeveloped.

“10,000 GP… Yeah, it’s Bronze, so it can’t be helped.”

Seong Jihan, on the other hand, had a better financial sense.

But his common sense was off in other areas.

‘To be able to post a sponsorship message on my channel for just 10,000 GP… It’s too cheap.’

He knew intellectually that he was currently Bronze.

But emotionally, he hadn’t completely let go of the standards from when he was ranked 7th in the world.

“Too many messages can be distracting.”

“Yeah… How about 50,000?”

“No, let’s start modestly. We can be more ambitious later.”

Uncle and niece, worrying unnecessarily.

Yun Seo-a, who had been watching Seong Jihan change the BattleNet channel settings, asked with a sudden look of realization.

“Uncle, what were you thinking about just now? You had a worried look on your face.”

“Oh, that? I have a quest to find the Shadow Queen among the audience elves.”

“Quest? BattleNet has quests like that?”

“They appeared after I got 10 kills.”

Seong Jihan answered naturally, as if it were nothing.

Since BattleNet had many unexplored aspects, Yun Seo-a accepted it without question.

“Hmm~ The Shadow Queen.”

“There are about a thousand elves in the audience. I was thinking about how to find her.”

“Uncle, can I help? I have nothing to do anyway.”

“What about school?”

“My homeroom teacher called. Because of this incident, I can take a week off.”

Perhaps because the issue of Sword King Yun Sejin’s naturalization in Japan had shaken the nation, the teacher had shown special consideration.

“Sure. If Seo-a helps, it would be great.”

While at home, it’s better to have something to focus on rather than idle and have negative thoughts.

Seong Jihan accepted his niece’s offer without much expectation.

“Great, Uncle. I’ll definitely find the Shadow Queen. Just do one favor for me later.”

“Favor? What is it? Tell me now, and I’ll do it right away.”

“No way. It won’t feel like an achievement if you do it right away. Do it after I find her!”

What favor she wanted to make.

Seong Jihan was curious but nodded calmly.

“Alright. I’ll do anything if you find the Shadow Queen.”

“Great, I’ll find her right away!”

With that, Yun Seo-a ran back to her room.

‘It’s good to see her so energetic.’

Seong Jihan smiled and went to his room.

Putting aside the epic quest that wouldn’t be easy to solve.

There was something more urgent to do.

‘Unique stat.’

Barron’s unique stat, which he needed to obtain.

‘Force.’

* * *

The next day.

[You have absorbed divine power from the alien artifact.]

[Your divine power is now 10.]

[From now on, you can only absorb divine power from C-grade or higher artifacts.]

Seong Jihan got up from the pile of artifacts.

The message that he could only absorb divine power from C-grade artifacts didn’t matter.

He had finally reached true divine power 10, excluding the title effect.

He went to the training room located on the outskirts of the penthouse.

Since it was where Sword King Yun Sejin experimented with his sword techniques, the entire space was made of a special metal that absorbed shock.

“Fire.”

The basic magic Fire, which he had never used even after awakening as a Mage.

Seong Jihan used it for the first time in reality, not in the game.

A small flame, like a candle, rose from the center of his palm.

The flame was so weak that it could be blown out by a child.

‘I’m not cut out to be a mage, after all.’

With a magic power of 5 and the penalty of only half the ability being effective in reality, the output of the basic magic was worse than a lighter.

‘I’ll add divine power to it.’

Seong Jihan recalled Barron’s words.

-When I was Bronze, I had a sudden thought while killing zombies. What if I infused magic with divine power?

-That’s only possible because you’re a Master.

Divine power is a stat given only to those who awaken as a Supporter.

Magic can only be used by Mages.

The idea of infusing magic with divine power could be thought of by anyone, but only Barron, with his ‘two status windows’ gift, could implement it.

-Yeah. My great gift, the two status windows, immediately made this idea a reality. I dominated the defense maps every time. And while evenly distributing my stats between divine power and magic…

Barron’s blurry eyes, drunk, were unusually bright at that moment.

-And the moment my divine power reached 10! Oh my god! I got a unique stat! That’s right… my trademark, ‘Force’!

Force.

A new unique stat that appeared when magic power and divine power combined.

It was an absolute power that dominated ‘space.’

Even now, thinking about it, Barron’s Force was incredibly powerful.

‘If Barron had better control, he would have shown a true number one ranking performance.’

However, his severe addiction to Valcon was a misfortune for humanity.

In emergencies, he would panic easily and fail to control his power, causing damage to allies.

‘Force… I’ll obtain it and show its true potential, Barron.’

Force, with its countless possibilities.

Seong Jihan planned to use it alongside his martial power, like a tandem carriage.

‘…But it’s not easy.’

However, ‘Force’ didn’t come easily to Seong Jihan.

He had increased his divine power to 10 and was using it in his magic, as Barron had said.

‘But it doesn’t mix well yet.’

While using divine power was quite free, he was still clumsy with magic.

Often, the Fire spell would disappear when he tried to add divine power.

Even when he succeeded, it wouldn’t last long, and the flame would go out.

“Hmm. Maybe I need to increase my magic power.”

His magic power stat was 5.

It was the lowest possible for a player, and it seemed his magic wasn’t manifesting properly.

He had leveled up to 2 from yesterday’s survival, so he could increase it if he wanted to.

‘Let’s try to make progress first.’

Directly investing in the unique stat Force might be different, but it would be a waste to use the remaining points on magic power.

‘I’ll take a break from the game today.’

Seong Jihan steeled himself and started practicing again.

* * *

“Phew…”

From morning until night.

Seong Jihan continued to try to combine divine power and magic, but there were no significant results.

‘But there was an unexpected outcome.’

Due to his low magic power, his heart’s magic power would quickly deplete, making practice impossible.

-Should I try using my inner energy?

While waiting for his magic power to recover, Seong Jihan thought about drawing energy from his lower dantian, the source of martial power.

It wasn’t a method possible at the Bronze level, but with his rich experience, he managed to use the energy.

Drawing energy from the lower dantian to convert it into magic power in the heart was showing some success.

‘The loss of energy is significant, but…’

Since using magic was important now.

Seong Jihan used his energy to supplement his magic power and mechanically cast the spell again.

“Fire.”

And if he could just mix in the divine power without it dispersing.

As he added the divine power, the candle flame wavered again, perhaps due to insufficient magic power.

‘Let’s add more inner energy one last time.’

His inner energy was almost depleted.

Seong Jihan decided that if he failed this time, he would try a different method and drew energy from his lower dantian.

The energy from the lower dantian, the magic power from the heart, and the divine power from the head converged on the Fire spell in a delicate balance.

At that moment.

[You have successfully combined the energies of the three dantians temporarily.]

[The divine power in the upper dantian, the magic power in the middle dantian, and the inner energy in the lower dantian are different forces, but they have the potential to merge into one.]

A completely unexpected system message appeared, different from the Force he originally intended to obtain.

[Do you want to attempt to integrate the three dantians?]

[Warning: This is a dangerous attempt due to your low level. It may endanger your life.]

Seong Jihan had never seen a warning message about life-threatening danger during the tutorial period of BattleNet.

Seeing this, he smiled.

If the attempt was dangerous enough to trigger such a warning…

‘The reward for success must be significant.’

He said with confidence.

“I will integrate the three dantians.”