NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 5
Chapter 5
The Hungry Prince.
There was no need to guess. Having blatantly used the Power of Gluttony, the identity of the Constellation was obvious.
‘The Demon God of Gluttony, Beelzebub.’
One of the seven Demon Gods, also known as the Seven Deadly Sins, like Mammon.
‘Attracting the attention of two Constellations as soon as the tutorial starts, and Demon Gods, no less.’
Gaining the attention of a Constellation is extremely rare.
Typically, only a very select few players who achieve extraordinary feats or display overwhelming power during the tutorial attract their interest.
Moreover, receiving attention and being chosen are two entirely different things.
Even if a player is fortunate enough to catch their eye, if they fail to meet their expectations, the Constellations quickly lose interest and move on.
Yet, Se-woon has garnered the attention of two Constellations from the very start. Moreover, these are two of the most powerful Demon Gods from the forces of evil.
‘What should I do this time?’
While he managed to get a pass from Mammon by luck… would Beelzebub, the Demon God of Gluttony, be as forgiving for using his power without permission?
Even as he pondered, Beelzebub’s gaze remained unyielding.
– The Constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ opens his mouth as if to say something but then stuffs the meat in front of him into his mouth.
And then, Se-woon understood.
He figured out how to deal with this Demon God.
‘The Power of Gluttony.’
Crack!
Crunch!
Se-woon continued to use the Power of Gluttony on the wolves he had defeated in quick succession.
Each time, sharp-fanged jaws materialized, voraciously devouring the wolf corpses.
– The ‘Brown Wolf’ has been devoured.
– Absorbing its nutrients increases Strength by 0.1 and Agility by 0.5.
Unfortunately, after the initial boost, the increase in stats was reduced to decimal points.
But boosting his stats wasn’t his primary goal right now.
– The Constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ cheers at the sudden feast.
‘Perfect.’
As expected of the Demon God of Gluttony.
Even though it was only the corpses of low-tier Brown Wolves, he seemed immensely pleased.
While Se-woon would have liked to keep feeding him endlessly to prevent him from speaking, there weren’t many wolves in the first monster wave.
Moreover, half of them were being dealt with by the other people.
– This is not a valid target.
As he suspected, the power couldn’t be used on monsters he hadn’t personally defeated.
The wolf corpses surrounding him vanished quickly, ending Beelzebub’s meal time.
Se-woon looked up at the empty space where he felt the gaze and murmured softly,
“Surely, this isn’t enough to satisfy you, is it?”
– The Constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ drools, saying that this was just an appetizer.
With that, the taming—no, the negotiations were complete.
* * *
“Yelp!”
“Huff, huff!”
Shortly after Se-woon tamed—no, negotiated with the Demon God of Gluttony, the others also succeeded in defeating all the wolves.
Of course, only a few, including Kang Han-cheol, actually fought the wolves. The rest either hid behind them, screaming or trembling.
“We won!”
“We defeated all the wolves!”
“We did it! Haha!”
Ironically, the cheers were louder from those who had been hiding.
Those who actually fought the wolves were catching their breath and clutching their trembling hands.
‘Not a single injury. Well, I did handle more than half of the wolves myself.’
In his previous life, when Se-woon faced the first monster wave, there had been many injuries.
The office worker who first grabbed Se-woon’s sleeve had died horribly, his throat torn out.
Even now, seeing them trembling among the cheering crowd, it was doubtful they would last long.
[ Tutorial Chapter One – Adaptation ]
– Successfully cleared the first wave.
– All participants in the wave are awarded 50 points.
The announcement signaled the success of the wave and the rewards were distributed. Fifty points—barely enough to buy a lowest-rank potion from the shop..
But this wasn’t what Se-woon was aiming for.
– Calculating individual merit points…
[ 1st: Jung Se-woon – 220 points ]
[ 2nd: Kang Han-cheol – 80 points ]
[ 3rd: Yoo Seo-ah – 40 points ]
…
‘220 points, huh. Not bad.’
As the tutorial progresses, individual merit points accumulate, as shown above.
While the current ranking reflects only this camp’s performance, eventually all participants in the tutorial will have their rankings combined.
The more points one earns and the higher their ranking, the better the rewards for passing the tutorial and the higher the chance of being chosen by a Constellation.
Naturally, Se-woon’s goal is—
‘First place.’
Se-woon aimed to dominate all participants in the tutorial.
Although the interest of other Constellations didn’t matter much since he had already attracted the attention of two Demon Gods, the first-place reward in the tutorial was something he couldn’t ignore.
‘Time to head out.’
The first wave had taught him many things.
One of them was the necessity of a weapon.
Even with Mammon’s treasury, there were limits to what he could manage with stats below that of an average person.
So, he intended to use weapons to cover those gaps.
‘I also need to find more prey.’
While it was a promise to the Demon God of Gluttony, Beelzebub, the Power of Gluttony was also highly beneficial to him.
Stats were the essence of a player’s strength.
As his stats increased, so would the quality of the treasures he could use from Mammon’s treasury.
Just as Se-woon turned away from the people and started toward the forest—
“Wait a moment.”
Tap.
Someone grabbed his wrist.
He turned to see a woman with long, flowing hair and a serious expression.
She must have rushed over as soon as Se-woon turned his back.
Though they hadn’t formally introduced themselves, Se-woon knew her name.
‘Yoo Seo-ah.’
Se-woon didn’t remember everyone’s names here, but Yoo Seo-ah was unforgettable.
She was one of the rankers who had made a name for herself in the upper floors of the tower alongside Kang Han-cheol.
‘Her alias was… Whirlwind (旋風), right?’
She earned the alias “Whirlwind” for the way she swept through enemy lines with her dual swords, resembling a gust of wind.
“Where are you going?”
“Just checking out the area. Staying here isn’t going to improve anything.”
Crack.
Yoo Seo-ah’s eyes narrowed at Se-woon’s curt response.
However, Se-woon had no intention of raising his voice or elaborating on his plans.
With the tutorial already in progress, every minute and second was precious. If he had to explain his plans or justify his actions every time something happened, it would waste invaluable time.
What he needed now was charisma.
He needed to prove himself solely through skill and action.
He required people who were strong and determined enough to follow his lead.
“Instead of checking the area, we should gather everyone and discuss our next steps first.”
“What will that change?”
“Yes, it will. At the very least, it’ll alleviate people’s anxiety.”
“And what will they do after reducing their anxiety? They’ll just hide behind others when the second wave starts again.”
He had no intentions of dragging along those who wouldn’t or couldn’t follow.
Se-woon was no saint.
Even if he managed to drag unwilling people through the tutorial, they would crumble the moment they stepped into the tower.
The tower was a wild domain, a world of survival of the fittest.
“Still, you shouldn’t leave us alone when those wolves might reappear at any moment!”
“Three hours.”
“…What?”
Se-woon pointed to the system message displayed above.
“You should start paying attention to those system messages from now on.”
[ Tutorial Chapter One – Adaptation ]
– Time remaining until the second monster wave: 2 hours 57 minutes.
“I’ll be back before the wave starts, so have your discussions to your heart’s content.”
“But still…”
“Honestly, it might be better to spend that time finding a sturdy branch or something.”
With those final words, Se-woon shook off Yoo Seo-ah’s hand and stepped into the forest from which the wolves had emerged.
* * *
“Yelp!”
The forest was teeming with wolves. It seemed as if a wolf appeared every few trees he passed.
They not only ambushed but also attacked in packs, but they were just Brown Wolves.
With his pre-regression memories and experience, combined with his growing familiarity with the ‘Ten Path Leg Technique’ retrieved from Mammon’s treasury, they posed no significant challenge.
– The ‘Brown Wolf’ has been devoured.
– You can no longer absorb nutrients from the same type of entity.
Unfortunately, even the incremental stat boosts eventually hit their limit.
At first, Se-woon couldn’t grasp the principles behind the Power of Gluttony, but thanks to Beelzebub’s reactions, he got a rough idea.
– The Constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ says he’s tired of this meat and sucks the remaining flesh off the wolf’s rib bones.
The key lay in Beelzebub’s responses, the entity behind the power.
However, he couldn’t just conjure monsters out of thin air.
“Please be patient a little longer. I’m on my way to find something tastier.”
– The Constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ swallows the rib bones whole and eagerly brightens up.
Aside from the limitations of the Power of Gluttony, Se-woon discovered new information about Mammon’s Treasury.
First, the treasures of the treasury could only be summoned as intangible “powers.”
‘Most likely, the physical forms are destroyed, and only the essence of the treasures is bound to me.’
Although it was a bit disappointing, it wasn’t a major problem.
For example, if he obtained a suitable item, he could imbue it with the power of a legendary sword from Mammon’s Treasury, essentially creating that very sword.
Of course, there was one limitation to this as well.
– Opened the Treasury of Greed.
[ The Chosen One’s Sword, Gram ]
– The furious sword wielded by Sigmund, the slayer of dragons. With this sword, Sigmund defeated the great dragon ‘Fafnir.’
Swoosh—
As the power of Gram seeped into a fairly solid-looking branch, the branch crumbled into dust and scattered with the wind.
It vanished, unable to withstand the immense power of the legendary sword.
This not only applied to objects but also to Se-woon himself.
The martial arts book ‘Ten Path Leg Technique’ he had first summoned contained a basic Shaolin technique; thus, he could manage to adapt to it.
However, if he were to suddenly use something like the ‘Breath of the Fire Dragon,’ he would end up like the disintegrated branch.
To avoid such a fate.
‘I need to increase my stats first.’
To a level where he could handle the items from Mammon’s Treasury.
Otherwise, all the numerous treasures within Mammon’s Treasury would be of no use to him.
In that sense, the Power of Gluttony was the perfect ability for Se-woon at the moment.
Secondly—
– Opened the Treasury of Greed.
[ Goblin Saliva ]
– Goblin saliva with a faint trace of toxicity. It can be used to paralyze an enemy, often applied to fingernails or poison darts for attacking.
– The target is not valid.
– The Constellation, ‘Bowed Raven,’ frowns upon seeing you recklessly use his treasures.
The Power of Greed couldn’t be used on anyone other than Se-woon himself.
He had guessed this by testing an insignificant treasure on a wolf, just in case he could use it on the people at the camp.
With this simple experiment done, he had his conclusions.
‘This means the number of usable treasures is quite limited.’
He couldn’t bring forth the actual forms and could only extract the powers.
Martial arts manuals, spell books, and monster abilities could be summoned, but only within what Se-woon’s body could handle.
Moreover, the numerous equipment-type treasures in the treasury were unusable unless there was equipment capable of withstanding their power.
For Se-woon, who wanted to utilize the treasury more efficiently, this was frustrating.
“First, I need a weapon.”
Even if he didn’t use a treasure, having a weapon would reduce the burden on his body and allow him to deal with monsters more efficiently.
Even so, finding a weapon in these woods might seem odd.
It might seem peculiar, but Se-woon had found a sword in this place before his regression.
Although he no longer had the ‘Guidepost of the Journey’ skill that had guided him to the weapon’s location back then.
– Opened the Treasury of Greed.
[ Gnoll’s Snout ]
– A low-rank monster with a hyena’s head. It uses its exceptional sense of smell to locate prey.
Despite being crude, Mammon’s treasury had plenty of treasures that could substitute for the ‘Guidepost of the Journey.’
“There it is.”
Shortly after, Se-woon quickly moved through the forest upon detecting the scent of rusted metal.