Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 538

Even while I was away in the spirit realm, the world kept turning just fine on its own.

The moment Su-ho left the Subspace House, he summoned Cheolma and flew straight to Africa.

Jack spoke.

- There’s sky here too, and an ocean and all that.

“Told you it wouldn’t be anything special.”

- Still, it’s another world. If I said I wasn’t curious, I’d be lying.

“Is that so?”

Well, fair enough.

It wasn’t just “somewhere else”—an otherworld was an entirely different world. Not being curious would be weirder.

When I first entered the fairy realm and the spirit realm, my heart had been pounding like crazy, too, hadn’t it?

After flying for a long time, Su-ho arrived in Africa and swept his gaze around.

'It’s been a while here too.'

The vast, endless African continent.

But this place had become land where humans no longer lived.

'The first land to be swallowed by monsters and Gates.'

That was why it had been abandoned to the end.

Originally, once the work in Madagascar was finished, the plan had been to unleash a massive monster army—led by Grand General Il-yong—and wipe it clean.

'And then deploy the Save the World team members to exterminate the Gates.'

That way, we could clear as many Gates as possible with minimal damage.

But now, we didn’t have to.

No—more precisely, we could drastically reduce the sacrifices of other monsters as well, starting with the lizards.

“Start.”

- As you command.

[ Umbra’s Shadow Legacy is activated. ]

[ The king of shadow divine beasts, Hollow Jack, summons the Black Army. ]

Reading Su-ho’s intent, Jack raised the Black Army.

A chunk of mana was siphoned out of Su-ho’s body, and the countless shadow knights he’d seen inside the Subspace House appeared again, radiating red eyes.

“You guys too. Come out.”

“Yes!”

At Su-ho’s nod, the vampire quartet—starting with Roynan—burst out.

Su-ho said to Jack and the vampires,

“The objective is to eliminate every monster on the African continent, excluding the Gates. Can you do it?”

“Yes!”

“Leave it to us!”

“We will carry out the order!”

“We will obey your command!”

The vampires answered bravely.

And then—

- It’s been a while since we had a proper shadow charge! Go raise hell! My faithful shadow knights!

Jack, happier than anyone, shouted as he deployed the shadow knights.

Kwaaaaaaang!!

At Su-ho’s command, every being under him surged out like a storm.

***

[ You have slain Melgarin’s Orc. ]

[ You have slain the Gray One-Eyed Mugari. ]

[ You have slain Aujikvelung. ]

[ You have slain Melgarin’s Goblin. ]

[ You have slain the Vengeful Elephant. ]

[ You have slain the Continental Rhinogwi. ]

......

Notices pouring down without end.

Their names were all different, but they shared one very clear common trait.

They were field-type monsters occupying the African continent.

Umbra’s Black Army was even stronger than expected.

Because it wasn’t just about numbers. Having gone through countless battlefields alongside Umbra, every one of them had capabilities on par with veteran warriors—so it wasn’t simply a mindless numbers rush.

'They really live up to the name—knight-class skill.'

If you judged by pure swordsmanship alone, modern humanity wouldn’t even be able to compete.

But among them, the one I thought was the most impressive was Jack.

- Krahahaha! Good! Good! Kill them all!!

A laugh soaked in madness.

But it didn’t take long after the African landing operation began for me to realize that this was just Jack’s normal laughter.

Jack’s momentum never broke even once.

And that fierce momentum always drove the shadow knights’ morale to the absolute limit, and somehow—how he even saw it—I don’t know, but he intervened in almost every battlefield, minimizing the shadow knights’ losses.

And that wasn’t all.

Just like I’d predicted from the start, Jack didn’t just run the shadow knights like an all-purpose AI assistant—he also efficiently collected the monsters’ shadows on his own.

- What are you staring at?

“Just thinking you’re impressive.”

- Hmph. I am pretty impressive. You think I would’ve come out as the final trump card when I tested you for no reason?

“I’ll give you that. But considering how you fought me back then, it feels like you’re better suited to being a manager who runs the troops than someone who actually throws hands.”

- What? Seriously—how absurd. How many beings do you think could go toe-to-toe with me in my complete form? And back then you showed me a martial art you’d never used in your life!

That was true.

I’d slapped an unhealable debuff on Jack, then used boxing in barehanded combat.

So what?

“Then you should’ve used fistfighting too. Don’t tell me the spirit realm doesn’t even have something as common as fist techniques or boxing?”

- Ugh. If you can’t talk, don’t. Guiyeong, is your master always like this?

“Woof!”

At Jack’s question, Guiyeong barked loudly.

Honestly, this was the most surprising part of Jack’s abilities.

His ability to handle Guiyeong.

Jack would summon my Guiyeong on his own and control it freely like a subordinate.

At first, I couldn’t understand it.

Guiyeong had signed a loyalty contract with me—and yet all of a sudden it was wagging its tail at Jack.

Later, I found out it was because he was the king of the shadow divine beasts.

'If you really get down to it, Jack is basically Guiyeong’s workplace boss.'

Which meant he had command authority almost on par with mine.

Shaking his head, Su-ho asked,

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