Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 248

Su-ho immediately stepped back.

Kwaaaang!!

As expected.

Right after the notification appeared, the Fire Dwarves, as if they had made a pact, lifted their hammers and slammed them down onto the anvil with all their might.

In that process, the four hammerheads shattered, and once the dust settled, Su-ho could see a flame standing tall at the center of the anvil.

But this flame was far larger than the ones he'd seen in the previous three gates.

And its color was different too.

A golden hue.

Whereas the previous flames had been orange, this one was an incomparable shade of gold.

Once again, Su-ho created a bridge with his Blood Weapon and approached the golden flame.

The golden flame was also encased in a transparent bubble, and when Su-ho touched it, it flared brilliantly before being absorbed into him.

Then, an intriguing notification appeared.

[ You have acquired the final fragment of ???. ]

[ You have successfully obtained the qualification. ]

[ ■■■■ is observing you. ]

‘Uh... what’s with the name display?’

??? had changed to ■■■■.

That alone meant a lot.

Usually, ??? appeared when someone didn’t even meet the minimum qualification—when the security level was at its highest.

So for the question marks to change into black boxes meant the security level had dropped... in other words, that the being beyond had acknowledged the player.

‘Black boxes... we used to call them Transcendents.’

The reason they were called Transcendents wasn’t that complicated.

Despite countless players trying to uncover the secrets of the black boxes, no one had succeeded.

And judging from the system’s behavior, it was assumed that black boxes were beings as high up as the system itself—thus, the name Transcendent.

Sure, some people called them gods. But honestly?

That felt off.

Since no one knew their true name or form, calling them gods seemed too ambiguous. So eventually, people settled on the term Transcendent.

‘And there were lots of religious folks who opposed the god label too.’

Su-ho himself was already associated with one Transcendent.

The one who owned the Heo-gong Style swordsmanship he used.

Of course, he didn’t know the name.

It was a connection that had continued since his past life, yet even now, he still had no idea who that being really was.

So Su-ho didn’t particularly care.

Not just because of that specific Transcendent—no one knew the true name of any of them.

But now, a new Transcendent had begun showing interest in him.

For Su-ho, this was a first in his entire Hunter life.

Then it happened.

[ ■■ expresses displeasure. ]

[ ■■■■ doesn’t care. ]

[ ■■■■ continues to observe you. ]

‘......?’

Su-ho tilted his head after reading the system messages.

‘What is this?’

Was this kind of notification even possible?

It was the first time something like this had ever appeared.

‘Could it be that the Transcendents are fighting among themselves?’

That’s what it looked like, no matter how he saw it.

But come to think of it, it wasn’t so far-fetched.

When he first learned the First Form of the Heo-gong Style—

[ ■■ nods at your growth and blesses you. ]

—he had received a message like that. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He hadn’t misread it.

It was clearly recorded in the Library of Memory.

‘Yeah, now that I think about it, the system has been describing the actions of the Transcendents to me.’

Almost like a monitoring device.

So maybe the system and the Transcendents weren’t on the same level?

‘Could it be that they’re just in different positions?’

Either way, it was something he’d need to observe further.

At that moment, the previously paused system messages resumed.

[ ■■■■ shows great interest in you. ]

[ ■■ frowns in disbelief. ]

[ ■■■■ doesn’t care. ]

[ ■■■■ bestows a blessing upon you. ]

[ The preservation of ■■■■ is imbued within you. ]

[ Manryu-Gwijong has been activated. ]

[ Congratulations! You now qualify to become the successor of ■■■■. ]

[ Will you accept succession from ■■■■? ]

A flood of notifications appeared before his eyes.

Su-ho’s eyes widened as he read them.

‘Succession?’

He was already the successor of the Heo-gong Style.

And now there was another succession offer?

That had never happened before.

‘Isn’t a player only supposed to have one succession?’

Getting a succession proposal wasn’t in itself rare.

Su-ho wasn’t the only one who had received such a proposal.

‘Those bastard traitors were all successors too.’

The traitors who had stabbed Su-ho in the back.

Regardless of their character, they had been some of Earth’s most powerful individuals.

But even those bastards had never been offered succession twice.

Yet Su-ho was getting it a second time.

It was certainly strange.

‘Could succession be like traits now?’

Exactly.

People used to think Awakened could only have one trait.

But eventually, some had two or even three traits, shattering that assumption.

And so, the saying was born: