Chapter 86
The warrior—gatekeeper of the palace—immediately objected.
Fighting on equal footing simply didn’t sit well with him.
‘How dare they speak of battle before a warrior of Valhalla!’
It was absurd.
The warriors of Valhalla were all exceptional.
Each one could take on a hundred, honed through countless wars.
If it was solely about “combat,” they could proudly say they surpassed any other species.
The challengers who dared speak so casually of battle seemed utterly worthless.
‘Even other warriors can’t meet my gaze.’
Let alone someone like him.
An unmatched being—Khan!
And he was the gatekeeper guarding the entrance to the palace that served Khan.
Naturally, not just anyone could become the gatekeeper of the palace.
It was proof he possessed strength that set him apart from other warriors.
And it wasn’t just about level.
His raw power had been refined to an absurd degree.
He had been trained to handle any situation.
A superior soldier who had crossed countless battlefields and escaped death time and again.
And above all, his ability to “see” his opponents.
He also possessed the observational skill to grasp every facet of those who approached the palace.
The insight and observation required of a gatekeeper.
“I’d like to lower it even further, but your levels don’t look that high to begin with.”
The gatekeeper smacked his lips.
His tone suggested that lowering his level by only 10 for this fight was disappointing.
It had been ages since his last battle, after all.
Since Khan had been sealed by the Master of the Moon, Ahheta, the gatekeeper had spent eons here.
But all Valhalla warriors were battle-mad.
Guarding the palace in silence had been incredibly boring and dull.
…The problem was the gap in class.
‘Tch. After all that time, the challenger who appears is this pathetic?’
The gatekeeper alternated his gaze between Park Chan-woo and Lee Hyuk-soo.
He analyzed everything—the visible muscle mass and quality, flexibility, stance, the faint mana leaking out, their attitude, and their presence.
Taking into account both the visible and invisible, he pierced into their essence.
The result was disastrous.
The gatekeeper came to a conclusion after observing the two humans.
Though their spirit was decent, the scale of power he identified—specifically, their level—wasn’t very high.
‘Looks like they barely passed level 20.’
At most, around level 20.
And that only applied to Lee Hyuk-soo.
Lee Hyuk-soo seemed to have some talent as a warrior.
He stabilized his breathing and suppressed his emotions in an instant.
He faced the gatekeeper with the sharpness of a finely honed sword.
He erased all fear and replaced it with faint [killing intent].
Even knowing the vast difference in class, he didn’t back down.
He wasn’t afraid of death—instead, he sought out an opening.
A proper warrior’s demeanor.
More importantly—
The ‘essence’ emanating from Lee Hyuk-soo wasn’t just that of a warrior.
‘…There’s a strange air of death around him. Did he inherit the name of the Reaper?’
Many beings called themselves the [King of Death].
There were no shortage of arrogant ones who claimed to be death itself.
Fakes.
Bluffers who didn’t even know what real death was.
Was he carrying the name of one of those monsters?
The gatekeeper’s gaze soon turned toward Lee Hyuk-soo’s shadow.
And at that moment—
‘Ah…’
The gatekeeper’s eyes trembled.
He understood.
The name Lee Hyuk-soo had inherited—
It was no fake.
‘The Immortal King. Or the one once called the King of Shadows…!’
The gatekeeper knew that name well.
The Immortal King was an “ancient existence” like Khan.
‘I see. That explains how he made it this far.’
The true core wasn’t Park Chan-woo standing in front of him—it was Lee Hyuk-soo.
His level was definitely higher.
Not that it mattered—he still wasn’t even level 30.
The gatekeeper, on the other hand, was level 99.
It was truly a gap as vast as heaven and earth.
The difference in class was enough to blow someone away with a single breath.
‘If only he had grown a little more before coming… this could have been a fun fight.’
Right now, he was too fragile.
Even if he’d inherited the name of the true Immortal King, he was still in the early stages of growth.
If they were to fight properly, he would have to match their class to some extent.
The offer to fight with his level lowered by 10 was only to match that “class.”
He wanted to lower it even more, but going below level 1 could result in an automatic defeat, so he settled at the safe threshold.
Levels below 1 didn’t exist.
Now, what about Park Chan-woo?
‘There’s no need to look further.’
He had never seen someone this pathetic.
A body on par with a newborn infant.
No calluses at all.
His squishy muscles seemed purely decorative.
He was like someone who should be bedridden, forced to move using bizarre and haphazard gear like rags.
He could feel a decent amount of mana, but even mana needed a certain amount of physical support to be used.
Mana was the essence of being—the power of the [Abyss].
What could be done with a body whose balance of [Stamina], [Intelligence], and [Magic] was broken?
It looked like this guy had simply thrown down a challenge relying solely on the warrior beside him.
“I pledge upon my heart in the ‘Abyss.’ For this battle only, I shall fight at a level 10 below your average. Furthermore, if I am defeated, I will follow you within this palace.”
The gatekeeper spoke.
He accepted the challenge.
He even added the condition that he would follow them if defeated.
Of course, the idea of actually losing never crossed his mind.
And his gaze was fixed only on Lee Hyuk-soo—not Park Chan-woo.
A warrior entrusted with the name of an ancient being.
He hadn’t expected anything at first, but now his hands were itching.
He wanted to fight.
He wanted to clash like a madman!
And so, the gatekeeper imposed restrictions on himself.
He didn’t bother asking the two humans for their levels.
He trusted his own eyes and observation.
It was a fight he couldn’t possibly lose—asking would’ve been disgraceful.
Sssssssssssshhh.
Soon, the [Reaper of the Oath] appeared before him.
One of the Reapers who governed the Abyss, holding scales.
They judged the fairness of oaths, but were also used to seal power like this.
There was no need for Park Chan-woo or Lee Hyuk-soo to swear an oath.
If they lost, death was the only outcome anyway.
Gulp!
Lee Hyuk-soo swallowed dryly as he stared at the massive Reaper.
‘This scene… surely…’
An intense sense of déjà vu overtook him.
He had seen this before.
A scene just like this, maybe even identical.
The first night.
In the fight between the Prophet and the [Game Master] Andariel.
Didn’t the Reaper of the Oath appear and slice through Andariel’s heart?
Creeeaaaak!
…The scale began to move.
It tilted toward the gatekeeper’s direction.
Whoooosh!
All kinds of energy began to drain from the gatekeeper’s body.
That drained power was collected onto the scale.
According to the oath, he was sealing a portion of his strength.
And then—
‘He’s smiling?’ (T/N: Of course! He is a fking scammer!!!)
The gatekeeper’s face briefly stiffened.
Park Chan-woo was smiling as he looked at the scale.
A confident smile he had never shown before!
Why?
What had given him that confidence?
Whoooosh! Whoooooooooosh!
[Execution by ‘Reaper of the Oath’ begins.]
[According to the oath, your level will decrease.]
[According to the oath, your level will decrease.]
[According to the oath, your level will decrease.]
……
His level was rapidly dropping.
As expected.
The two had such low levels—this was inevitable.
The gatekeeper leisurely looked at the Reaper.
‘It’s been a while since I last saw a Reaper.’
The Abyss was a world.
An endlessly expanding universe.
And Reapers were the unconscious, egoless enforcers of its rules.
You could call them operators, of a sort.
And the Reaper of the Oath was one of the most powerful among them.
Summoning a Reaper meant one thing—the palace’s seal had truly been broken.
It meant Khan could once again reign over the world.
That he could fulfill his duty as a warrior.
“Hm?”
At that moment, the gatekeeper tilted his head.
His level was still falling.
He didn’t mind when it dropped to around level 20, but now it had clearly plunged below level 10.
Did that mean the average level of the two challengers was under 20?
‘It must be that guy.’
The one with warrior instincts—Lee Hyuk-soo—was clearly above level 20.
But the owner of that pathetic body—Park Chan-woo—was definitely below that.
‘Level 8.’
His vision was filled with messages saying his level had decreased.
So many overlapped that he could no longer count, but the gatekeeper roughly gauged it from his condition.
His body was getting heavy.
Still manageable, though.
‘Level 7.’
It dropped further.
Just standing still made it feel hard to breathe.
‘Level 6.’
Even holding a spear wasn’t easy.
But it didn’t matter.
He could fight barehanded.
‘…Level 5.’
The drop began to feel steep.
Every level lost felt like a chunk of flesh being torn off.
Had he lowered more than 10 levels, it would’ve been disastrous.
The gatekeeper looked at Park Chan-woo.
How low was this guy’s level?
Even so…
‘Wait. It’s still dropping?’
That couldn’t be.
Before he knew it, the gatekeeper had reached level 4.
That was probably accurate.
The issue was the trap of “average level.”
Think about it.
If Lee Hyuk-soo was level 20, and Park Chan-woo was level 10, their average would be 15.
Lowering 10 from that would fix the gatekeeper at level 5.
But he had dropped further.
Lee Hyuk-soo was definitely over 20.
So the mage’s level must not even be 10.
There was no other explanation.
‘Level 3…!’
The gatekeeper’s eyes widened.
Was that why he had smiled?
“You… what the hell is your level…!”
How low was it?
No matter how he thought about it, it made no sense.
A single-digit-level being shouldn’t be able to withstand his presence.
They shouldn’t even have been able to enter Khan’s palace.
‘Level 2.’
Lower.
His level kept falling.
‘Level 1.’
Thud!
The gatekeeper dropped to his knees.
His massive body couldn’t withstand such a low level.
He had no strength left.
He couldn’t even move a finger.
Not even speak.
But—
That was just the beginning.
He couldn’t believe it.
For the first time, true horror entered the gatekeeper’s eyes.
Not just shock.
Terror.
Utter, incomprehensible terror!
He had experienced countless things and had the heart of a warrior stronger than anyone.
Yet this was a first.
Because—
‘It’s still… falling?’
…Level 1 wasn’t the end.
He was now falling into an unknown realm.
Level 0.
A realm that should not—and could not—exist beneath that.
(T/N: HAHAHAHA. I had a very good laugh at this chapter. LoL)