When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 188



Only Noblemtl

188. A trap hidden in the Jewel of Eternal Life
2024.05.06.

The first to start the attack was Luciana.

First, Luciana tightly bound Romun’s entire body with her persistent thorns.

Then, the combined Dionique and Elodie used their punishment skills to tear Romun apart while he was still bound. Then, it was Dian’s turn.

Dian used the Berserker skill she had shown when she fought me and used her final blow skill to strike Romun, who was already hardened.

After that, Karina used her beast summoning skill to bite off the rest of Romun’s tattered body, and finally, Karox struck Romun with his huge hammer.

Boom!

A series of splendid skills.

Thanks to this, Romun was crushed even more than when I had ground him with the 4th form of the Moonlight Sword Technique earlier.

I tried to seal the guy using the power of sealing during that gap, but his super regenerative ability was not something to be underestimated.

“It’s no use.”

Romun, whose vitality was stronger than that of a cockroach, managed to activate his skill even in a situation where his entire body was crushed.

This time, it was a new skill that even I had never seen before.

“What kind of skill is this…? It’s suddenly become difficult to breathe.”

It seemed to be a wide-area skill, and the other party members were also gasping for breath.

Everyone seemed bewildered by the sudden sensation of the air disappearing.

I looked back at the party members and informed them.

“It seems to be a skill that makes the air… gasp, gasp… thin. We have to hurry!”

Kalox responded after hearing me.

“Hurry…? We’ve been rushing and attacking since a while ago, but he keeps regenerating. I think we need another way besides simply hurrying.”

“I just happened to think of a good… method. Let’s just turn him into dust like before.”

“Are you sure…?”

“I’m not sure. But we should try something.”

While we were talking, Romun was slowly taking shape.

His body, which had been torn to pieces and turned into a lump of meat, recovered completely in less than 30 seconds. It was truly hopeless.

Fortunately, the group believed in my words that there was a good way, and held onto their weapons despite the lack of oxygen.

Dionique and Elodie, who were in a fused state, were the first to swing their sharp claws at Romun.

【【Die soon!!】】

Romun’s body, which was slowly recovering, was cut off again.

Then, Luciana summoned sharp rose petals with her North Wind skill that swept through the garden.

Slicing—

The cutting petals chopped Romun’s body into small pieces again.

However, everyone knew that cutting it like that wasn’t enough, so they continued to attack.

After Luciana activated her skill, Dian struck the chopped flesh with her sledgehammer, and Kalox used his hammer to crush it again.

Kalox wiped the blood off his hammer and spoke to me.

“Now, that good method is… gasp, gasp… what is it? If we continue like this, he’ll revive like before without any problems.”

Kalox was right.

We had already confirmed that Romun would revive like that even if he was made to that degree.

Furthermore, the air was thinning due to Romun’s activated area skill.

If we just sat there and did nothing like before, we would all end up suffocating to death.

Fortunately, what I said earlier about a good method wasn’t a lie.

I immediately opened my inventory and took out the item I had in mind.

[Jewel of Eternal Life (??)]

– Whoever swallows this will have a body that can never die.

The item I took out was the Jewel of Eternal Life.

It was an item that would grant eternal life to whoever swallowed it.

When I took out the item, the sleepwalkers asked me.

【【What item is it? Does it explode?】】

“No, it’s called the Jewel of Eternal Life. If you swallow it, you’ll gain eternal life.”

【【… … ? It seems like a great item… But why would you… … ? We need to stop Romun’s regeneration right now!】】

The sleepwalkers seemed to find it absurd that I took out the Jewel of Eternal Life in this situation.

It seemed like they wanted to ask if I was thinking of giving Romun eternal life.

If I was as clueless as they were, I would have found the situation absurd as well.

Fortunately, I was barely able to recall. The reason why this item kept making me feel uneasy.

“This item, at first glance, looks like a really cool item. If you swallow it… gasp, gasp… It says it will grant you eternal life. But there’s a trap here.”

“A trap?”

I nodded to Carlox, who asked me that question.

“Look carefully.”

After saying that, I approached Romun, who was still slowly regenerating.

The guy had already regenerated all his body parts except his limbs.

His mouth, tongue, and lungs had also regenerated, so he asked me as I approached him.

“When on earth are you going to realize that this is a futile effort? Even if you cut me off, burn me, and even rot me, it won’t work. I will continuously regenerate, and you will slowly suffocate with the power of my skill—”

“Shut up and swallow this.”

Since the guy’s limbs hadn’t regenerated yet, I was able to easily feed him the Jewel of Eternal Life.

When I fed Romun the Jewel of Eternal Life, the group shouted in surprise from behind.

“What are you doing! He’s already like an immortal, and you’re feeding him that item… …!!”

Dian shouted, and then Kalox asked calmly.

“Are you out of your mind because you can’t breathe properly?”

Instead of responding to them, I stepped back.

Then I said this.

“Watch carefully.”

In the meantime, the Jewel of Eternal Life swallowed by Romun’s stomach seemed to have started working.

A bright light flowed out from Romun’s entire body.

Romun shouted in an excited voice as if the energy of eternal life had begun to flow

around him. “You gave me a good item! My whole body feels overflowing with power! It feels like I’ll never die!!”

The group looked in despair upon hearing that shout.

No one had yet noticed that something ‘abnormal’ was happening to Romun’s body.

I waited silently, receiving worried looks from the group.

Until someone noticed the abnormality.

After waiting like that, the Mongma siblings finally seemed to sense something.

【【Huh… … ? But that guy’s body has been the same since a while ago? Doesn’t it seem like he’s not regenerating?】】

Then Karina added.

“I see. Normally, all of his limbs should have regenerated by now… … .”

While listening, Kalocs looked at me and slowly asked.

“Regeneration… Stopped… …?”

I nodded in agreement.

Then I explained. The trap hidden in the Jewel of Eternal Life item I had used.

“The Jewel of Eternal Life is an item that literally grants eternal life. If you swallow it, you will exist ‘in that form’ forever.”

When I explained up to that point, some of them seemed to have figured out the situation.

For those who still didn’t understand, I added.

“You won’t age, you won’t get sick. Even the wounds you’ve received once won’t heal, and your condition will be fixed forever.”

That was the trap hidden in the Jewel of Eternal Life.

For example, if you had a small wound on your finger and ate the Jewel of Eternal Life, that finger would never heal.

The Jewel of Eternal Life was an item that preserved the current state of the person who swallowed it forever.

That’s why from the moment you swallowed the jewel, you wouldn’t age or get sick, but on the contrary, your wounds wouldn’t heal and would remain fixed.

‘I felt an uneasy feeling ever since I got the item, so I thought it was strange… I had completely forgotten. Before I became possessed, I saw in the game settings that it was one of the items that I ‘should never touch.’

It was famous among users as an item that you should never touch because once you swallow it, the state of the character you were raising would be fixed. I

had completely forgotten.

It was truly a stroke of luck that I remembered the effect of the Jewel of Eternal Life item at that moment.

“The flesh… won’t regenerate…?”

Romun muttered, finally realizing his condition.

I added to him.

“It’s not just that the regeneration of the flesh has stopped. You won’t be able to use skills for a while either?”

“… …!”

“If you swallow the Jewel of Eternal Life… gasp, gasp… all of your energy will be used to ‘maintain’ your state. So you won’t be able to use skills for about 5 minutes. You’ll be able to use them again after 5 minutes… but it doesn’t matter.”

I approached Romun and placed my hand on his forehead.

Then I continued my interrupted conversation.

“You’ll be sealed in five minutes anyway.”

I opened my mouth while placing my hand on Romun’s forehead.

Then I recited the spell to use the power of the seal.

“Go to sleep.”

As soon as I recited the spell, a bright light flowed out from my hand.

The golden light soon began to surround Romun’s regenerated body.

Romun’s body was completely engulfed in light and gradually shrank in size.

The mass of light that had once been Romun continued to shrink until it was contained in a small wooden box created in the air.

Thud.

The sealed box of Romun fell to the floor.

Seeing that, Luciana muttered quietly.

“It’s over… huh.”

At Luciana’s words, everyone in the group took a deep breath.

The thin air had returned as if the skill Romun had used had been released.

After that, we put away our weapons.

Dionique and Elodie also released their combined skills, and among them, Dionique came straight to me and examined the box I was holding.

“Is it really sealed inside here? It’s more trivial than I thought?”

“Trivial. If it weren’t for the Jewel of Eternal Life, we would have been defeated without a fight. We were really lucky.”

If the Jewel of Eternal Life hadn’t stopped Romun’s regeneration and temporarily stopped his skill, we probably would have lost.

That amazing super regeneration ability would have continuously regenerated Romun.

I let out a deep sigh of relief and asked Dionique,

“What did the other palace soldiers do?”

“How can we do that? We’ve already fought them all off. There won’t be any more troops coming.”

“Then it’s really over. Romun is in this state, and most of the palace soldiers should be taken care of… …”

But for some reason, I couldn’t easily feel happy.

It was because I kept feeling strangely uneasy.

Maybe it was because Romun was sealed so ‘trivially’, as Dionik said. I

still couldn’t quite believe that Romun, the culprit of everything, the one who had even looked down on the throne of God, had been sealed so easily.

It was while I was feeling so uneasy, holding the box in which Romun was sealed.

“Nike! I found the dimensional prison item!”

I heard Rubin’s shout from afar.

Rubin and Cheong-gwang had found the dimensional prison item that had been blown away by the wind. Rubin and Cheong-

gwang, who still didn’t know that Romun had been sealed, landed in front of us with somewhat serious expressions on their faces.

After that, they showed me the dimensional prison item they had come to find, and only then did I realize why their expressions were so stiff.

“It’s broken?”

As I said, the dimensional prison item Rubin and Cheonggwang had held out was broken in half.

I thought it had probably been blown away by the wind and shattered by the impact.

Rubin said with a sullen expression.

“Yeah, it seems broken. What should I do now? I can’t seal Romun without this. Huh? By the way, where is Romun?”

I showed Rubin, who was looking for Romun, the wooden box I was holding.

“It’s sealed here. It’s safe now.”

“Sealed…? Is it really sealed?”

For some reason, Rubin didn’t seem to believe me.

Soon, Rubin told me the reason himself.

“Romun is an Awakened being of an out-of-spec grade. To seal a Romun like that, you have to use a skill or item of the same out-of-spec grade, right?”