When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 178



Only Noblemtl

178. Summoning the Spirit King is Not a Foul
2024.04.26.

When I asked if he would step forward himself, Kalox laughed.

“There’s no need for me, the chieftain, to step forward to deal with the little dwarves.”

He then spoke to a large giant standing next to me.

“Durik, you deal with it.”

“Yes, chieftain.”

The giant named Durik soon came and stood in front of me.

He was a particularly large giant.

Thanks to that, I had to tilt my head up to look at him in the eye, but the gaze he gave me was quite fierce.

It was as if he wanted to immediately chop me down with the giant axe he had on his back.

‘I told you they are a tribe that doesn’t care about the means and methods. We need to be careful.’

Judging from his gaze, it seemed like he wouldn’t do anything strange.

I clenched my fists, determined not to get caught up in his tricks.

In the meantime, Karox shouted,

“Okay, players, stand in front of the cliff.”

Upon hearing that, Durik and I stood in front of the cliff.

Then, when the starting signal was given, we grabbed the protruding rocks of the cliff so that we could climb up immediately.

While we were waiting like that—

“Let’s go!”

Karox shouted.

At the same time, Durik and I began to climb up the cliff.

At first, of course, Durik overtook me.

With his huge body, he quickly passed me and moved forward.

However, after climbing a little, the situation changed.

‘It looks like there’s nowhere to grab onto.’

With my hands smaller than his, I could easily grab onto the protruding parts of the cliff and climb up, but he couldn’t.

The cliff was too smooth for the giants’ huge hands and feet.

While Durik hesitated, I quickly passed him.

“I’ll go first!”

As expected, I heard Durik gnashing his teeth after throwing that simple provocation.

I enjoyed the sound and continued to climb up.

No, to be exact, I tried to climb up… but I couldn’t.

“Where!”

Durik shouted, grabbing the axe he had on his back.

He then threw it towards me with all his might.

Crunch!

The axe that Durik threw landed right in front of me and sank.

His axe was obviously much larger than a normal axe, and I was blocked by it and couldn’t go any further.

“Wait! Using items is against the rules!”

Durik sneered at my shout.

“That axe isn’t an item. It’s a normal axe.”

“… … !”

As he spoke, he picked up speed.

While I was hesitating, blocked by the axe, he eventually overtook me.

‘Damn it, you’re going to come out like this… … ?’

I gritted my teeth once, and started climbing the cliff again, going around the axe that he had stuck into the cliff.

In the meantime, he had already overtook me and was already a considerable distance away from me.

Unable to stay still, I concentrated all my divine power on my fingers.

After that―

slam!

I stuck my fingers, which had become as hard as steel, into the cliff.

As I pushed my fingers, which had become stronger, with all my might, the rocks of the cliff felt as soft as sand.

As I used my fingers as hooks and climbed into the rocks, I gained much more speed than before.

I quickly climbed the cliff that way and was almost able to catch up with Durik.

Durik shouted at my fingers, which were shining with concentrated divine power.

“Did you use a skill?! Using skills is against the rules!”

“It’s not a skill? I just concentrated divine power into my fingers and strengthened them. It’s a completely different technique from a skill.”

A skill is something that indirectly causes mysterious phenomena by using energy such as divine power or magic power as a material.

In comparison, the physical strengthening technique I was using was a technique that used the divine power, which was the material, wrapped around my body directly.

Therefore, it wasn’t a skill.

After hearing my explanation, Durik shouted from behind.

“Cowardly… !!”

“Who used a weapon first?”

I ignored Durik’s protest and continued climbing the cliff.

That was when.

“Hey, try to stop this too!”

Along with Durik’s shout, a strong gust of wind started to blow from somewhere.

Because of this, he couldn’t move forward at all.

Anyway, the gust of wind must have been caused by using a skill or item, so I immediately shouted.

“Using a skill is clearly against the rules-!!”

“It’s not a skill. Look straight ahead.”

After hearing Durik’s words, I took a close look at the wind swirling around me.

Only then could I realize what this wind was.

“A spirit… …?”

“Yes. A low-level wind spirit that I contracted with. It’s not against the rules to receive help from a contracted spirit.”

I was angry, but the guy was right.

I might have used a skill when I first summoned the spirit, but I didn’t need a skill to summon the spirits I contracted with after that. I

just had to call their names.

Durik seemed to have a premonition of his victory and overtook me, moving far ahead.

I was almost at the top of the cliff now.

The flower was just a little further up, and he could reach it.

However, I didn’t feel any sense of crisis that I might lose.

I still had one secret weapon left.

“Yes… … . “Summoning spirits isn’t against the rules, right?”

“What?”

Durik asked me stupidly, but I didn’t intend to explain it at length.

Instead of explaining it in detail, I shouted,

“Valeria! Come out!”

Durik flinched at the name I shouted.

Then he muttered to himself.

“Wait, Valeria… ? That’s the spirit lord’s name—”

Before Durik could finish speaking,

a familiar light green halo gathered nearby .

The halo soon began to sway and form a small human figure.

Valeria, who had formed like that, shouted in a cheerful voice.

“Contractor! You finally called me! But what’s the situation now? Why are you hanging off the cliff?”

“Valeria! Help me right now!”

I shouted urgently, because I had to hurry before Durik picked the flower.

“First, get rid of this low-level spirit that’s hovering around me!”

“That’s easy!”

Valeria answered confidently and immediately glared at the low-level wind spirit that was creating a gust of wind around me.

I could sense that the low-level spirit hesitated as if it was a little scared.

Valeria ordered the low-level spirit that was so scared.

“You, stop and go back.”

There was no need to wait long.

The low-level spirit was immediately de-summoned and disappeared as soon as Valeria gave the order.

It seemed that the spirit prioritized the spirit lord’s orders over its contractor.

Anyway, thanks to that, the gust of wind that was swirling around me stopped.

Durik, who was hanging on the cliff in front of me and watching, asked stammeringly.

“Did you just… just summon the spirit lord?!”

“Yes, you idiot. I summoned the spirit lord. And summoning the spirit lord is not against the rules.”

After saying that, I asked Valeria again.

“Valeria, make a gust of wind blow around him. He can’t go up any higher.”

“Yeah!”

Valeria answered in a cheerful voice again and created a gust of wind near Durik.

“Eww!”

The wind speed was much faster than the gust of wind that had been blowing near me earlier, so Durik couldn’t go any further.

In the meantime, I was able to quickly climb up the cliff and pick the flower.

“That’s it!”

After that, I packed the flower in my pocket to go down the cliff.

Of course, I didn’t have to climb down the cliff with my body.

“Valeria, use the wind to lift me up and then lower me to the ground.”

Valeria lifted me up again without saying a word and lowered me to the ground.

As I landed with the flower in my hands, where the giants and my party were waiting, my party immediately rushed to me.

“Hyung, are you okay!? That guy even threw his weapon!”

“I’m okay. You’re not hurt. And I brought the flower safely.”

I approached Kalocs, who was watching me, and handed him the flower I had picked from the cliff.

“Now, I just had to pick this, right?”

Kallox took the flower I gave him and examined it carefully.

As if to confirm whether I had tricked him.

While he was examining the flower, I said,

“I didn’t use any skills or items, as you said. I summoned the spirit, but there was no rule that said you couldn’t summon the spirit, right?”

“Hmm… … .”

Kallox stroked his chin as if lost in thought, and then answered me.

“This flower only blooms on cliffs. You didn’t cheat. Summoning the Spirit King wasn’t against the rules either… so you win.”

When Kalax declared my victory, there was a small commotion among the giants watching.

Judging from the way they were murmuring, it seemed like they weren’t happy with the outcome of this match.

Still, no one came forward to openly object, as if they didn’t think about talking back to their chieftain.

Even so, I was worried that someone would find fault later, so I quickly spoke to Kalax.

“Okay. Then, as promised, I want you to support the three giant warriors. And release our envoys who were captured as slaves.”

“Okay. But—”

Kalax, who had been needlessly dragging out his words, suddenly smiled at me.

“Isn’t that a bit disappointing?”

“What?”

“I mean, isn’t it a shame to end the match like this?”

Hearing his words, I felt a sense of foreboding for a moment, so I lowered my voice and asked.

“… … What are you talking about? Are you suggesting that we fight again? “You can’t admit defeat?”

“No, I admit that we lost the fight just now. Even if we end it like this, I will release those we captured as slaves, and I will send three of our warriors to you. I promised.”

“Then… … .”

“I would like to propose a new fight to you separately.”

I kept silent as if to tell him to continue.

In that silence, Kalax continued to speak.

“Originally, we were going to send you three regular warriors.”

“… … But?”

“If you accept the new fight and defeat us, I will send you the three strongest warriors from our tribe. And I am one of those strongest warriors.”

“Are you going to help us yourself?”

Kalax nodded at my question.

His face was quite confident.

As if he was sure that I would accept the fight just for his help. I

felt sorry for him, but I had no intention of doing that.

“It doesn’t sound very appealing. “I had a rough idea that you’d be quite strong as a chieftain, but I’ve never actually seen your skills. I don’t know if taking you with me would be helpful or not, right?”

As soon as I finished speaking, one of the giants standing next to Karox got angry and grabbed his sword.

“That insolent… …!!”

Perhaps, if I had left him alone, he would have drawn his sword.

Before that could happen, Karox reached out and stopped the giant. After

calming the situation down, Karox spoke in a calm voice.

“You’ve never seen your skills, so you don’t trust me… …? Then I’ll show you.”

As he said that, Karox suddenly grabbed the giant hammer he had been carrying on his back with one hand.

Then, he activated his skill and slammed it down on the ground with all his might.