---

The battle between the warriors of Plymouth who had risen from the ground and the revived Giant Soldiers from the remnants of an ancient era was showcasing a war scenario reminiscent of the Hundred Years’ War.

To be honest, in terms of overall and average combat power, humans were no match for the Giant Soldiers. These soldiers were members of a high civilization that had once marked the end of an era. Moreover, the disciplined and coordinated movements of the Giant Soldiers, who outnumbered the people of Plymouth, were overwhelming.

What turned the tide against this average combat power were the heroes. Hildegard, the Nun Knight Paladin, and Esiocles, the Clergy, were formidable, but even Alexander Dean, the manager of Plymouth’s Spell Tower, and Mr. Gordon Goodman, the head of the Plymouth branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, were figures who could easily claim to be the best in any other region.

They utilized their individual skills and the influence of their positions to effectively counter the Giant Soldiers, leveraging Plymouth’s forces to the fullest.

Of course, the decisive factor enabling all this lay with just two individuals. Alexander Dean, well aware of this, cast memorized spells at opportune moments and, in between, glanced at the two clergy members.

“Oh, Strength of Surraz! You who wield thunder and shatter glaciers! The power to fell giants comes solely from your belt. Grant the fragments of your strength to those who praise you!”

The Pantheon displayed by Nun Knight Hildegard Ritter von Wolfstein, aided by the spirit Ariel, was an unprecedented and shocking miracle. Within this divine sanctuary, the people of Plymouth received blessings and protections they had never experienced before, while the Giant Soldiers suffered under severe restrictions and curses.

The fact that the Blessing of the Gods could manifest on earth without any reduction or limitation was nothing short of absurd. At this moment, within this incomprehensible sanctuary, each person from Plymouth was receiving support akin to becoming a divine warrior.

This single act alone was enough to tip the balance of power between the Giant Soldiers and the dungeon assault support forces. Yet, Hildegard didn’t stop there, continuously chanting various hymns to support her allies and disrupt the enemy’s movements.

Moreover, her halberd skills, which had surpassed mastery and entered the realm of legend, were a sight to behold.

Alexander Dean finally understood why Paladin Knights were so highly regarded after witnessing Hildegard in action.

In that sense, the strength of Clergy Esiocles Emanuele was beyond his comprehension.

Despite not being a combat specialist like the Knight Templars, Esiocles stood on the front lines, enduring the wrath and assaults of the Giant Soldiers with his bare body, without any weapons or spells.

‘Are muscles really that incredible?’

The Spell Tower manager’s gaze lingered on the Clergy’s massive muscles. His vision was filled with the dynamic curves of biological power, flexing and moving.

‘Wow, they certainly look big and strong.’

Though it was a somewhat skewed perception for a grandmaster spellcaster and manager of the Spell Tower, the impact of Esiocles’ prowess was too overwhelming to notice the skewed perception. Mr. Gordon Goodman, who was showcasing the might of a top-tier adventurer with his trident and wire, felt the same.

‘Indeed, the Church’s capabilities are unmatched. It seems we adventurers still have a long way to go to catch up.’

Observing Hildegard’s ‘Pantheon Declaration’ and Esiocles’ ‘Strange Provocation,’ followed by a series of combat maneuvers, Mr. Gordon Goodman quietly measured the gap between the Church and the Adventurer’s Guild.

He coldly and objectively acknowledged that the adventurers of the continent still fell short of the Church’s capabilities.

Over the years, adventurers hadn’t been idle. In terms of quantity, the Adventurer’s Guild had grown enough to handle areas beyond the Church’s reach across the vast continent. Thanks to the accumulation of knowledge and open sharing, the average quality of adventurers had also steadily improved.

It was no exaggeration to say that the Church began sharing part of its mission to protect the human world with the Adventurer’s Guild due to this quantitative and qualitative growth.

However, in terms of the number and level of top-tier powerhouses, the Adventurer’s Guild still couldn’t catch up to the Church.

‘Accumulated history and tradition aren’t something you can catch up to overnight. The fact that we’ve come this far is solely due to the collective intelligence gained through sheer numbers and open knowledge sharing. But it’s still not enough.’

If there was another group lacking the history and tradition that the Adventurer’s Guild lacked, it would be the noble families. Unlike the Adventurer’s Guild, noble families tended to value the preservation and concealment of knowledge.

Well, it made sense. The idea of handing over the history, tradition, and hard-earned know-how accumulated over generations to outsiders was not something one could easily entertain.

Thus, the Adventurer’s Guild had been targeting talents from so-called ‘fallen noble families.’ Those who had left their families due to various circumstances and sought refuge in the guild, or those whose families had fallen and had no choice but to live as adventurers.

Expanding their knowledge network in this way, the Adventurer’s Guild still realized, upon seeing the Nun Knight Paladin Hildegard and the Clergy Esiocles, who displayed unparalleled skills, that the adventurer industry still had a long way to go.

That said, the head of the Plymouth branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, Mr. Gordon Goodman, didn’t feel particularly inferior to Hildegard and Esiocles. He simply observed their feats with a clear eye, gauging the direction and distance they needed to go.

‘As things stand, it’s hard to expect a dramatic expansion of our internal network. Then, perhaps we should consider expanding externally? At the upcoming guild executive meeting, I should propose exploring intellectual and personnel exchanges with the Church.’

At least, if the Adventurer’s Guild collectively proposed such exchanges to the Church, the Church wouldn’t outright refuse, Mr. Gordon Goodman thought. Although, on the surface and in reality, it seemed the Adventurer’s Guild had little to offer the Church, as mentioned earlier, the guild had something the Church lacked.

The sheer number of adventurers and the system’s know-how to manage and connect these adventurers to the field was that something.

Though the specifics of such exchanges and the mutual benefits they could bring were still vague in his mind, perhaps until they took a clearer form, they would remain mere fleeting thoughts.

‘No, now is not the time to think about such things.’

In the midst of battle, it was too urgent to dwell on such thoughts. Regardless, with movements ingrained in his body, Mr. Gordon Goodman swung his trident, entangling the unknown Bronze Age weapons of the approaching Giant Soldiers, and with a natural follow-up, flicked his other hand.

In the next moment, ultra-fine wires surrounding the Giant Soldiers’ blind spots sprang up, wrapping around their necks and tightening mercilessly.

The Giant Soldiers, horrified and struggling, found the wires around their necks to be artifact-grade weapons. Moreover, their opponent was a specialist in trap manipulation, confident in controlling the situation even if overpowered.

The more one resisted, the more pressure was applied to the others, creating a situation where everyone’s strength was strangling everyone else.

The Giant Soldiers, struggling against the wires imbued with a faint aura, gradually slowed down, their eyes rolling back until their necks snapped, and they died.

Meanwhile, Hildegard and Esiocles, who had been actively fighting at the forefront, suddenly smiled.

“The little one finally made it in.”

With a swing of her axe, a thrust of her spear, a slash and pull of her beak, and even the shaft of her halberd, Hildegard showcased a masterful technique, severing the breath or subduing the movements of multiple giants in a single breath.

Sensing Conra’s entry into the final tower through Qi Sense, Hildegard expressed relief at achieving their initial goal.

‘It seems Sophia intends to leave this dungeon assault entirely to Conra. Then, shall we trust and leave it to him as well?’

Esiocles, using the insight provided by his Qi Sense and Ethereal Muscles, also nodded in satisfaction at Conra’s condition.

‘Judging by his Qi, he has grown remarkably in such a short time. I must strive not to fall behind.’

Conra’s method of harmonizing his body with will and energy manipulation was the polar opposite of Esiocles’ approach of harmonizing his will and energy with his body. However, this didn’t mean one method was inferior to the other.

Mind, technique, and body—none could exist in isolation. No matter the path, the ultimate goal was the unity of mind, technique, and body, leaving no gaps in response.

Esiocles, as a clergy, chose to govern his body as a means to perfect his mind, while Conra, as a spearman, had no choice but to control everything through will to optimize his body and technique.

With hearts cheering for the growth of a new prodigy, Hildegard and Esiocles supported the boy who had entered the tower.

However, even if they left the most crucial part of the dungeon assault to Conra, they couldn’t neglect their own tasks. Hildegard and Esiocles simultaneously called out the names of their contracted spirits.

“{Ariel!}”

“{Saraswati!}”

Soon, two glowing spirits, one white, embraced the Nun Knight and the Clergy.

+++++

Although the dungeon assault’s progress somewhat mitigated the dungeon’s manifestation phenomenon, it couldn’t completely suppress the movements of the Giant Soldiers.

Moreover, as leaders of the dungeon entry team, they had a duty to minimize sacrifices as much as possible. Even though bloodshed and sacrifices were inevitable on the battlefield, the thought of taking such sacrifices lightly was something they, as leaders, couldn’t entertain.

After all, once a life was lost, it couldn’t be brought back.

In essence, the reason the clash between the dungeon’s Giant Soldiers and Plymouth’s dungeon entry team remained balanced stemmed from this.

Fundamentally, the Giant Soldiers, being mere results of the dungeon’s manifestation phenomenon, could respawn or regenerate endlessly, unlike the dungeon entry team, who were living humans with their own lives and histories.

There was no need for the dungeon entry team to recklessly throw away lives like consumables, as the Giant Soldiers did.

Despite Hildegard’s Pantheon Declaration reversing the power gap and Esiocles’ divine training techniques thoroughly controlling the enemy’s will to attack and actions, they couldn’t achieve overwhelming superiority for this very reason.

However, they didn’t rush. After all, merely keeping the Giant Soldiers’ movements in check was enough to fulfill their expected responsibilities.

How long had Hildegard, Esiocles, Alexander Dean, and Mr. Gordon Goodman been leading the dungeon entry team in this back-and-forth battle against the Giant Soldiers?

In the midst of busily maneuvering his trident and artifact-grade wires to coordinate the confrontation between the Giant Soldiers and the dungeon entry team, Mr. Gordon Goodman suddenly heard Alexander Dean’s voice, sounding as if he had lost his mind.

 

---