Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 536

[ You are using Umbra’s Rune. ]

Just like last time, I didn’t do anything special to prepare.

Nothing much had happened with Girad’s rune, either.

And this was a rune given by a Constellation who’d bet on me.

'He’s staking everything on this. There’s no way he’d give me something that hurts.'

So I just used it.

Right after that, a system notice rose.

[ Umbra’s Rune is being absorbed. ]

Shuaaaaa!

Along with the notice, an enormous amount of energy began forcing its way into my body.

Tremendous power.

Comparable to Girad’s... no—more than that.

But it didn’t feel painful or difficult.

If Girad’s rune had felt like getting caught in a raging current, this felt like being wrapped in clouds under heavy pressure.

It was less like enduring it and more like sensing it.

And in that moment, certain memories began playing inside my head.

[ From this point on, the Great Cataclysm begins. ]

A familiar voice, and a guidance window floating in my view.

It belonged to the system.

More precisely, it was the effects that occur when the Great Cataclysm begins for the very first time.

The place in the memory wasn’t Earth.

It was the spirit realm.

“What is this?”

“Save us!!”

“Gaaaaaah!!”

The world fell into chaos.

Gates formed, monsters poured out, and people started dying fast.

Of course, there were those who resisted.

Just like when the Great Cataclysm first began on Earth—when humanity fought back armed with heavy weapons—the spirit realm’s people resisted with cold steel and magic and the like.

Because the spirit realm’s world was a Western fantasy setting modeled after what people usually imagine: medieval Europe.

But their strength didn’t work well against what the system had made.

In the end, the only way to defeat them was with power grounded in what the system provided.

It was a world of confusion and carnage.

The scale of the damage was even worse than on Earth.

Because unlike Earth’s people, who were used to games, the spirit realm’s people weren’t familiar with game systems and couldn’t adapt to being Players.

And that wasn’t all.

This was a society with a rigid class system.

'...Even if the world is ending, the people on top shoving those beneath them into a death pit is the same everywhere.'

The spirit realm shown by the replayed memories was horrifying.

Because terrified royalty and nobles shoved slaves and commoners into the gates as human shields.

And that wasn’t all. To increase the efficiency of black mages who’d been treated like trash—or necromancers whose skills on Earth are restricted for ethical reasons—they casually ground up the lives of the lower class as fuel.

That was when the savior appeared.

Umbra.

Surprisingly, Umbra hadn’t been a mage from the start.

He was an artificial mage—someone who became a Player and then chose the mage class.

But Umbra adapted to the system’s rules quickly, grew faster than anyone, and eventually grew to a scale beyond any other Player in the spirit realm—achieving the feat of becoming the spirit realm’s first to reach the SS-grade realm.

In the process, I could see him developing shadow magic, birthing countless divine beasts, and, in the end, creating Hollow Jack.

'The first SS-grade Player, and the guardian deity....'

Then the memory cut off for a moment.

A black field of view.

And after that, flickering into view like a blink, I saw Umbra—crushed in despair.

[ You have failed all three challenges. ]

A system notice.

Ah. This was that moment.

The moment right before he lost everything after failing the Independence Game challenge.

Umbra wept bitter tears.

Shuaaaaa!

Cold air surged, seeping into my body.

It was so cold my bones ached.

With Girad’s rune, it had felt like my body was about to burst, scorching hot beyond belief—but this time it was unbelievably cold.

And yet, even though the texture was cold, inside that stinging chill, a strangely hot sensation came through.

I realized what that feeling was right away.

It was rage.

Umbra’s rage toward the system.

Rage that was vicious, cold, and hot all at once.

'Rage that goes past a certain point turns cold as ice.'

Thanks to that, I could tell.

Just how much Umbra was enduring.

That was the end of the memory replay.

[ You have succeeded in fully absorbing Umbra’s Rune. ]

The absorption completion notice rose at the same time the replay ended.

[ You have mastered Umbra’s Shadow Legacy (S++). ]

[ By obtaining Umbra’s Shadow Legacy, you have acquired the “Spirit Energy” stat. ]

[ You have used an S++-grade rune for the first time. ]

[ You have achieved a great feat, and the system gifts you 10 bonus stats. ]

I’d thought I’d only mastered a skill, but I’d gained a stat, too.

So without meaning to, I frowned.

Because Spirit Energy was a kind of stat I’d never seen before, and I couldn’t help thinking that if it wasn’t an N-grade stat like Command, it might be a bit awkward to use.

'Getting bonus stats is nice, but this is kind of iffy.'

Bonus Stats : 81

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