Chapter 63: The Noble’s Restriction

[The Noble Existence’s Command Restricts You.]

“Wh-What is this?!”

The enemy that had approached, aiming for Jaeho, was instantly engulfed by a curse.

At the same time, Jaeho’s Mana began draining at a terrifying rate.

<Pulling Ginseng>!

Pyo Bo Bok—!!

“Con?!”

Needing to manage his Mana, Jaeho hurriedly finished off his opponent and dug through his inventory.

“Moon Flower, Blue Flame Grass, Mintia…”

He pulled out everything related to Mana and magic—flowers, every last one!

“Wansik! Be my meat shield!!!”

“What are you doing at a time like this?!”

Sasa sak—

With swift fingers, he quickly fashioned a Floral Wreath!

Jaeho put it on his head.

[Your Mana Recovery Rate increases greatly.]

[Half of the Mana you used is restored.]

[The power of your magic………]

Amidst all sorts of Buff Notifications, a fierce blue flame suddenly burst from Jaeho’s eyes.

Not a Word Command, but a laser from his eyeballs!

“Ugh!! XX!! What’s happening? Why are you like that?!”

Wansik, seeing this, felt true fear from Jaeho for the first time in ages.

Utter dread itself!

A visual straight out of the underworld’s beasts!

Still, the result was positive.

The power and duration of his Word Command had exploded.

“Uwaaah!”

This scream came from the enemies suffering under Jaeho’s Word Command Curse.

“Whaaaa?!”

And that was Jaeho’s own startled scream.

***

“E-Emergency!! Send the guild members to the underground Gold Vault right now!!!! A monster has appeared!!”

The urgent call for help made the Bulgeom Guild spring into action, but already, nearly twenty members had been turned to ash and logged out.

To face Tina, you’d need to be at least Level 300, but everyone present was just mid- to low-level regular guild members and NPCs.

“No way!!! The balance is totally broken! Aaaagh!!!”

Pash!

And thus, everyone left behind the same last words.

If Elda had filled the enemy with fear through monstrous skill, Jaeho himself was an actual monster—pure terror.

“Uwaaaaah!”

His head wreathed in flowers, firing eye lasers…

“Ugh! I-I can’t dodge!”

“What is this?! I can’t even fight back!”

Dodging the beams was impossible.

With one hundred percent accuracy, constant damage, and a curse that slowed the body.

—Hey, this isn’t enough! Support! Send down the Rankers!!! Dispatch the officers!!!

—Where? Didn’t Bet and Clark already go there?

—No way! Clark’s already dead!!!

—What?

Only upon hearing this shocking news did the leadership snap out of it.

And finally, Bulgeom Guild’s elite arrived!

“What the hell, what a mess…”

“How did things get so bad that we had to be called in… Huh?!”

The Rankers, grumbling irritably, moved forward.

Among them, a few went pale when they saw Tina raging out of control.

“W-What? An elf? Why is there an elf here…?”

“What are you talking about?! I told you! Alicia must’ve launched an attack from this side!”

“Ugh…”

Some of these Rankers had taken part in the Elysia Garden battle in the past.

The horrific and brutal memories from then still haunted them as trauma.

Just seeing pointed ears made their stomachs turn and their knees shake…

“What are you waiting for?! Attack!”

“D-Damn it!! Right! There’s only a few of them!!! Charge!!!”

At last, the Rankers mustered their courage, drew their weapons, and began their assault.

The Rankers were certainly different.

Their movements were far above the rest, and even Tina started showing signs of distress on her face.

“Ugh!”

Eventually, wounds began to appear on her body!

“Huh?! W-We’re finally dealing damage! The damage is—kugh!”

One got too excited, failed to defend, and was incinerated.

But it was enough to give others courage.

“Elves aren’t invincible! If you keep hitting, you’ll get through! Attack!”

Emboldened, their attacks grew fiercer.

“Hey, we’re screwed! That’s why I said we should just fight and toss the items!”

Wansik shouted desperately to Jaeho.

“Don’t talk nonsense! You want to just leave all this treasure right in front of us?!”

“What?! You used to act like you’d live with flowers forever!!!”

Even as they bickered, the two kept fighting.

Thanks to the Rankers holding off Tina, they only had to deal with the lesser enemies.

“If we can just get a chance to escape through the secret passage…”

Jaeho was racking his brain to find a way out of this crisis.

At that moment.

[Due to use of Word Command beyond your limits, Mana stat increases by 50!]

[The power of Word Command increases.]

“Wait, then what’s my current Mana stat?!”

[Lv.132 Alicia]

[Regent of Spirits (Heir Apparent Rank)]

[Strength: 436]

[Intelligence: 137]

[Agility: 303]

[Stamina: 313]

[Mana: 304]

Mana had just barely broken through 300!

“S-So, then?”

Jaeho immediately stopped Word Command and Illusion Soldier Summon, and began to recover Mana.

“Wansik! Hold on a little longer!! I have to check something!”

“Gah! Ack!”

The pained groans meant Wansik was still hanging in there!

Chk—

Once he refilled his Mana, Jaeho took out the Sand Hourglass again.

And now, he used a different bound skill he’d never tried before.

“<Summon Golden Golem>!!!”

***

The enormous golden sand golem Jaeho had once fought against Brejal.

“That thing was over Level 200.”

Jaeho was certain—if he could summon it, it would help them survive this crisis.

If only he could summon it…!

[You are summoning Cofei’s Guardian Deity .]

“It worked.”

Jaeho finally used the skill that his low Mana had prevented until now!

[Please select an offering to summon .]

“??”

An offering?

[Gold forms the body of . The more you use, the higher its durability and attack power.]

[If you use offerings with special properties, their effects will be applied to the golem.]

[When the summon ends, only 50% of the offering is returned.]

“So that’s how it works?!”

He’d thought it would just appear like the Mirage Soldiers…

[Would you like to cancel the summon?]

He couldn’t do that.

If he didn’t, he’d die here or end up imprisoned alongside Wansik.

“But do I have enough offerings to summon the golem…?”

Then, Jaeho’s eyes turned to the Gold Vault.

“That—that’s it!!!”

He dashed toward Piso, who was hiding behind a pillar at the vault entrance.

“Open the vault!”

“W-What do you mean by that?!”

“We need to survive first, don’t we? If we’re caught here, you know we won’t end up well!”

“A-All right!”

You could see from his eyes that there was no time to argue.

“O-Open, now!!”

Kurururu—

“???”

A much simpler Word Command than before.

“K-Khm……”

Piso looked sheepish under Jaeho’s glare.

“A Word Command is, at its core, the power of words. How you manifest it doesn’t really matter.”

In other words, he’d been putting on airs earlier just to look cool.

“At least you’ve got some sense.”

If he’d had to chant that long incantation again, things would’ve gotten dangerous.

“Wansik! Tina!!!”

At Jaeho’s call, the two hurriedly dashed inside the vault.

“They’re going into the vault!!!”

“What? How did they open that?!”

“There’s a prince in there!”

“Block them!”

Enemies rushed inside in a hurry.

Boom—

But the entrance closed again soon after, and only about ten enemies made it in.

“Uh… Can we leave now?”

They’d managed to rush inside, but now that the entrance was shut, their minds went blank.

“It’s easy to get in, not so easy to get out.”

“Ugh, ugh aaah!!!”

Those left outside heard their screams and clutched their chests in relief.

“Thank goodness… that wasn’t me.”

***

After quickly dispatching the enemies who followed them into the vault, the party could finally breathe.

Since no one outside could open the vault, time was on their side.

“So what now?”

Wansik asked, eyeing the piles of treasure stacked inside.

“We need to get to work and prepare for another fight.”

“Work?”

Jaeho sat down and began taking out all sorts of flowers.

“Oh, and Wansik, empty your inventory. You’ll need to fight properly.”

“Why are you telling me to empty it now?”

“We don’t have to worry about carrying things ourselves anymore. And take this. It’s just something I whipped up, so it’s not that durable, but it’ll help us escape.”

Wansik took the item, eyeing Jaeho like he’d lost his mind.

“…You crazy bastard. You want me to wear this?”

What he held was a gorgeous flower wreath.

“What, are we running a marathon or something? Why give me this?”

“You, of all people, know how amazing this item is. If you want to survive, put it on.”

“…Damn it. I was already going crazy with Flower Rings, and now it’s wreaths…”

Wansik looked like he was about to cry.

“Don’t just stand there posing. Tina, you wear this too.”

“Is there one for me too?!”

Tina looked on the verge of tears—but for a different reason.

“I’ll treasure it forever!”

“…Well, as long as you keep it forever, that’s fine. And take this, too.”

Jaeho handed Piso a luxurious Flower Necklace, woven from vines.

“Wh-What even is this thing?”

Piso was at a loss.

He’d fled desperately, only to return to the vault and see these madmen at work.

Two hulking muscle men decked out in flowers, and even the crazy elf woman with a flower headband—it was insanity.

“If you wear that, your survival rate goes up. So put it on.”

“I-I can’t! As royalty, I have my dignity…”

“Your royal house is already ruined. If you care about your dignity, you’ll ruin your life too.”

“But… ngh…”

[Piso of Edelan’s Favor has slightly decreased.]

Jaeho forcibly shoved the item into Piso’s hands and then took out the Sand Hourglass again.

“Oh, Fonda, Jingjing-i. You guys can unload your stuff, too.”

—All right.

Only Kkundae replied.

“That guy ran off somewhere again.”

—Isn’t it obvious? Looks like he couldn’t get in here.

“Phew… Fine. Well, if he’s alive, we’ll meet again.”

—Spirits can’t die anyway, so there’s nothing to worry about.

Jaeho, sharing words that would’ve made Jingjing-i cry, stepped up to the treasure.

“<Summon Golden Golem>!”

He lifted the Sand Hourglass and shouted.

[Please select an offering to summon .]

Jaeho selected every treasure from his inventory.

Saaaaa—

Gold light poured from Jaeho’s body and flowed rapidly into the Sand Hourglass.

[Would you like to summon ?]

“No.”

Not yet.

Pop pop pop—

Jaeho began shoveling treasures from the vault as quickly as he could!

He immediately started converting them into materials for the golem.

“Stop, enough already!!!”

Seeing this, Piso shouted in horror.

He didn’t know what Jaeho was up to… but his instincts screamed danger.

But Jaeho didn’t stop—he moved even faster, so fast that you could see the treasure pile shrinking before your eyes.

“You! Isn’t this too much greed? If you go this far, you won’t even be able to fight properly!”

“Ah, it’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m more worried about the treasure than you…”

No matter what Piso said, Jaeho didn’t stop.

The treasure dwindled and dwindled.

Eventually, compared to the start, it had been reduced to a fraction.

“Stop!!! Enough already!”

Unable to take it anymore, Piso lunged at Jaeho.

“You lunatic! Are you trying to clean out the nation’s entire Gold Vault?!”

Tap—

“Don’t interfere with Alicia-nim!”

Tina grabbed onto Piso tightly.

“N-No! You cruel humans! Are you going to take every last bit of the kingdom’s inheritance?!”

He wailed, but Jaeho didn’t hear a thing.

“I’m still hungry…”

There is no end to greed.

“Uwaaaaaaah!!! Uwaaaaaaah!!!”

Piso’s terrible wails echoed out of the vault and…

“S-So scary! They must be torturing him in there…!”

The Bulgeom Guild was struck with fear.