Woohyuk encountered many people until he reached the resting place of the White Ghost King.

But he did not let them walk away alive.

During the day, they were taken as prisoners, and at Harvest Night, they were sacrificed and offered to the White Ghost King.

Thanks to this, Woohyuk was able to get several perks.

[You have made your 100th offering.]

[You have received the protection of the White Ghost King. All stats increased by 50 until the end of the next night.]

[You have acquired the second skill, Immortal Spirit.]

[If you use Immortal Spirit, you will not take any damage for 5 minutes.]

[However, you can't do anything for 5 minutes starting from the moment you activate the Immortal Spirit.]

The first skill was Magic Blade.

An attack spell that shaped magic power into the form of a sharp blade and shot it at the opponent.

Both skills would be helpful if used properly, but they weren’t very practical at most times.

'The skills here are given randomly.'

Obviously, a stronger skill would be granted in proportion to the higher number of offerings.

But whether that skill would be useful in the current situation was purely up to luck.

In Woohyuk’s case, lady luck wasn’t on his side.

In the past, he had received better combinations of skills than his current ones.

'Well, it can't be helped.'

The world would not always grant his wishes on a silver platter.

He just had to wait for Eteria Rodinus to arrive and not pay attention to the skills.

Only a single party could clear the Golden Desert on a first-come, first-served basis, but there was no time limit like the previous stages.

Woohyuk positioned the three demon kings and his undead troops around the pyramid and sat on the stairs that lead to the shaded entrance.

'I haven't eaten a single meal until now.'

The only time the Golden Desert got dark was when the Harvest Night arrived.

However, the Harvest Night’s cycle was irregular, and when it came, he had to offer many sacrifices, and then advance to the pyramid without rest.

The privileges granted by the White Ghost King were only given to people who made sacrifices, and he also had to be the first to reach the pyramid.

Therefore, he didn't have any time to rest until now because if he closed his eyes for even a short while or ate during the day, he would fall behind the other compet.i.tors.

Feeling hungry and tired at the same time, Woohyuk took out a pack of rations from the sage's pocket.

Rations didn’t need to be cooked, so it was the optimal energy replenishment food in this situation since he needed to save as much time as possible.

That was why Woohyuk had gathered as many rations as possible in the Primordial Forest and Adventurer's Canyon.

Thanks to these, even though it had been quite a while since he had arrived on the Eeth Continent, there wouldn’t be any lack of food for him for the next few months.

'There is a limit to the stamina I can replenish with Grandia and the Vampiric Dagger.'

Unlike vampires or kazaks, humans needed a variety of energy sources.

Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals... and many others.

Moreover, humans needed the food to be tasty to stimulate their desire for survival, but Woohyuk was more than satisfied with the rations already.

'Compared to these, Leifina's cooking was absolutely disgusting.'

In the past, he couldn't afford to cook because he was exploring countless ruins and waging war with many different enemies.

That was why he had let Leifina continue to cook despite her terrible cooking skills.

At first, despite her mistakes, he believed that she would get better over time since she was a woman.

'Since I vehemently told her not to learn how to cook this time, she won’t be making anything… I hope.’

She had shown a little interest in cooking before, so Woohyuk had stopped her a few times.

In any case, once he returned after this journey, he would be able to enjoy Hans' special dishes at Leifina’s estate.

Woohyuk happily imagined the delicacy of Hans’ cooking as he ate the vegetable bibimbap mixed with some spicy sauce.

Then,a  system message suddenly popped up before his eyes.

[The White Ghost King calls for you.]

[Lower the food in your hands and enter his sanctuary.]

[The current mission in progress is temporarily suspended.]

Clack.

He heard the sound of the door unlocking at the top of the stairs.

Woohyuk turned around with a puzzled expression as he stopped munching on his meal.

'He’s calling me?'

There had never been an event like this in the Golden Desert in the past.

After fighting fiercely against his compet.i.tors, he had entered the pyramid, and the White Ghost King was sitting on the throne, waiting for him.

Woohyuk stood up from his seat, feeling slightly nervous.

'It would be a waste to throw this away though...’

It was painful to give up on half of the remaining bibimbap.

Eventually, Woohyuk continued to eat his meal with a plastic spoon as he entered the pyramid.

“I can’t waste valuable energy sources.”

He was talking to the White Ghost King.

It appeared that he had been slightly influenced by Helena.

Soon, Woohyuk reached the large stone chamber, and a pure white ghost sitting on the throne with golden armor greeted him.

“Welcome, Ascetic. I have been observing you for a while.”

“Why did you suddenly call me? Did you change your mind about something?”

Since the mission was suddenly interrupted, something unexpected must have happened.

So Woohyuk had deliberately left more troops by the entrance to the pyramid.

He needed people to protect Eteria Rodinus from other compet.i.tors if they reached the location while he was absent.

Sensing that Woohyuk cared about Eteria Rodinus, the White Ghost King struck the floor with his sword in its sheath.

Bang!

Then, a large pillar of light erupted between the White Ghost King and Woohyuk.

As the light slowly faded away, Eteria Rodinus and Catsy stood at the center.

"Huh? What just happened? Our team was just about to win the siege battle...”

“I was fighting a succubus at the Colosseum…”

Helena and Ibn Rusud looked around with confused expressions.

The White Ghost King ignored them and spoke to Boetius.

“Old man, are you the one who succeeded the will of the Sage Ptolemy?”

“Yes, White Ghost King. Do you have Sangreal Chronicles stored here?”

"Indeed. Ptolemy has once helped me out a long time ago, and in return, I decided to pay back the debt by listening to a request.”

To hand over the Sangreal Chronicles’ ma.n.u.script to his successor if he were to come searching for it.

That was Ptolemy's request.

He was told to determine if the person in front of him was the actual successor or not by looking for the token of Eteria Rodinus and his crystal staff.

And Boetius was satisfying both conditions.

At the words of the White Ghost King, Boetius unfolded the Nameless Tome that Helena had given him.

“We must rebuild the Ark of Knowledge that was partially destroyed during the War of G.o.ds and Demons. In order to do that, the Sangreal Chronicles is essential.”

If they had the ma.n.u.script, the Sangreal Chronicles could easily be restored.

The White Ghost King nodded and raised his hand in the air.

Then, with a bluish glow, a bundle of old parchments emerged.

“Take it if you need it. It was part of the contract in the first place. But apart from this, I wish to make one suggestion.”

“What is it? I will listen to the contents first before accepting.”

Boetius accepted the ma.n.u.script of the Sangreal Chronicles and stared at White Ghost King.

Instead of responding immediately, the White Ghost King raised his finger to the screen in the air.

On the screen, the entrance to the White Ghost King’s Sand Temple was being shown like a security camera but with better pixelations.

“Hm? Isn’t that man…?”

Woohyuk frowned as he saw the appearance of a certain man on the screen.

It was Demon King Astaroth.

He had come here with his men after searching through all the other ruins.

He must have determined that something about these ruins was special because he had lost contact with the scouts sent in advance.

The members of Eteria Rodinus reacted to the appearance of the demon king.

“This is bad. It’s the 29th Demon King.”

“The demon kings in the same circle as Astaroth might also come.”

“If it’s a Demon King, he will reach this stage in no time.”

“We need to take measures…”

As the surroundings became noisy, the White Ghost King struck the sheath on the floor three times to draw everyone’s attention.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

He then spoke to everyone in the stone chamber.

“I have been observing everyone’s abilities. In truth, I was planning on summoning everyone sooner than this, but I was curious about that black-haired man, so I delayed my plans a tad bit.”

“…You should compensate us for that! Do you know how much trouble I went through in the lower stages?!”

Helena turned towards Woohyuk and pouted at him.

Her supply of lemon jelly was slowly becoming scarce.

Woohyuk realized her intentions, but acted ignorant for a while before asking the White Ghost King a question.

“What do you want to know about me?”

“I wanted to know why you were chosen by the former Demon G.o.d. That was why I calibrated the system for the others so that they wouldn’t die, and observed you all this time.”

The White Ghost King was aware of Demon G.o.d Asura.

Woohyuk was interested in his knowledge, so he brought out Verserios and showed it to the White Ghost King.

“I met Asura on the last floor of some mysterious ruins called the Twilight Tower. I pa.s.sed his test and inherited this.”

“…That is surprising. In many ways.”

“But how do you know of Asura? I don't think he's ever visited this place in recent years.”

Asura was sealed in a dimension connected to the 100th floor of the Twilight Tower.

If the two of them had met, it would have been back when he was active as the Demon G.o.d.

At Woohyuk's question, the White Ghost King raised his head as he recalled the past.

“Now that I think of it, it was a very, very long time ago. Even before I was trapped in here.”

The White Ghost King was originally Demon G.o.d Asura’s va.s.sal.

The White Ghost King had been cursed by the heavenly G.o.ds and roamed around as a white spirit.

Then, Asura took him under his wing.

Afterwards, he became the king of the white ghosts after growing ceaselessly, and gained the authority to manage a new dimension accordingly.

But when Asura was sealed, he also came here alone in exile.

Unlike the other va.s.sals, he was a dimension manager, and he had judged that he could act as a variable in the future.

Woohyuk showed great interest at the White Ghost King’s explanation.

“Is that why you were organizing these survival games? To kill time and erase your boredom.”

“It was in a certain way my means of protection. This dimension is relatively small and its rank is low, making it vulnerable to attacks by intruders.”

In addition, the Creator kept connecting this dimension with other worlds for unknown reasons.

That was why Woohyuk and the White Ghost King had met.

The White Ghost King was sending away those who visited him by rewarding them and kicking them out.

He could have just killed them, but he was messing around with them because he hadn’t met a particularly threatening opponent so far.

But the current situation was worrying the White Ghost King.

“I heard about the 72 Demon Kings and Lilith from Ptolemy before. Apparently, they have some secret schemes all the time.”

The White Ghost King had no intention of neglecting those who were trying to abuse the power of the demon he had once served.

Therefore, he was planning on teaming up with Eteria Rodinus and Woohyuk to defeat them.

Having learned of the White Ghost King's true intention, Woohyuk nodded and spoke aloud.

“If so, become my va.s.sal. I am the one who inherited the name of the former Demon G.o.d, Asura.”