SFRW-Chapter 140

Ch. 140 Sword God From The Ruined World

“I made it as you requested, but…”  

Choi Cheol-gwan trailed off as he laid out the prototypes, unable to hide his dissatisfied expression.  

Seo Do-jun began carefully examining the identical prototypes Choi Cheol-gwan had placed before him.  

They were roughly the size of an adult’s palm, oval in shape, and even had a safety pin—making them look almost like grenades.  

Very old-fashioned grenades, at that.  

“As you suggested, pulling the safety pin causes two explosive beans inside to collide, detonating the magic stone. It’s a very simple mechanism. If I’d had more time, I could’ve made the design more convincing and tried different approaches, but as you can see, it’s not much to look at.”  

Choi Cheol-gwan’s expression made it clear he wasn’t pleased with the crude design and lackluster appearance.  

But Seo Do-jun didn’t need something flashy or impressive.  

In fact, he preferred that it was simple and intuitive enough for anyone to use easily.  

“It’s perfect.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s words, Choi Cheol-gwan gave a noncommittal nod, his expression still conflicted.  

He had succeeded in developing the first weapon using magic stones, yet the design was so plain and basic that, while it felt like a significant achievement, something about it left him unsatisfied.  

“We haven’t tested its explosive power yet, but even just the design could use some refinement. This structure is just too…”  

He almost called it archaic, but since he was the one who had made it from scratch, criticizing it would be like spitting on his own face.  

No matter how much he excused it by saying there hadn’t been enough time, he couldn’t accept it himself.  

“This is more than enough.”  

However, Seo Do-jun shook his head firmly, as if to say there was no time left to spare for Choi Cheol-gwan.  

Appearance and structure didn’t matter—what was important was its effectiveness as a weapon.  

“Then we should test its power.”  

“Can I come along?”  

Choi Cheol-gwan was also intensely curious about the destructive capability of humanity’s first magic stone weapon.  

“Of course. You’re the developer—you should see it for yourself.”  

Seo Do-jun immediately got into a car with Choi Cheol-gwan and headed for Gwanak Mountain.  

Upon arriving, Seo Do-jun found a secluded spot and took out the magic stone grenade.  

“Let’s begin.”  

At his words, Choi Cheol-gwan swallowed hard, his face tense.  

Despite its simple structure, it was still a prototype—there was always the risk of defects.  

He had prepared multiple prototypes just in case, but he couldn’t shake the worry that it might fail to detonate properly or prove weaker than he had anticipated.  

Ignoring Choi Cheol-gwan’s nervous expression, Seo Do-jun pulled the safety pin and hurled the grenade toward a spot 100 meters ahead.  

The magic stone grenade landed precisely where he had aimed.  

One second, two seconds, three seconds…  

“T-This can’t be…!”  

BOOOOM!  

A tremendous pressure erupted, completely obliterating everything within a 20-meter radius of the grenade.  

“…Incredible.”  

Even though he had made it himself, Choi Cheol-gwan’s jaw dropped at the sheer destructive power.  

With that level of force, most monsters would be vaporized without a trace.  

‘About four seconds until detonation… The power is more than enough. Finding those explosive beans really was a stroke of luck.’  

Even in the ruined world, no one had succeeded in weaponizing magic stones.  

At best, mages could extract magic from them to amplify their spells.  

But then, Seo Do-jun encountered a tribe of savages who used magic stones to fight monsters.  

The key to detonating magic stones was the explosive beans.  

Tiny as grains of rice, the beans were practically useless on their own. At most, children would toss them underfoot for the fun of hearing them pop.  

Yet, when these beans detonated against each other, they stimulated the magic stones—which otherwise reacted to nothing—and caused them to explode.  

No great scholar or archmage had ever discovered this. It was a tribe of savages, living without the benefits of civilization, who had stumbled upon it.  

Of course, their method was purely accidental and dangerously primitive.  

‘They wrapped magic stones in leather pouches or leaves, tossed in two explosive beans, and shook them.’  

Unsurprisingly, bad luck sometimes meant the stones detonated before they could even be thrown at monsters.  

Regardless, Seo Do-jun had discovered the explosive beans—the only known catalyst for magic stone detonation—during his mission to close the dimensional rifts and stop Italy’s monster waves.  

Finding a massive wild growth of explosive beans, he had immediately stored them in his subspace.  

‘If low-grade magic stones have that much power, higher grades will be even more devastating.’  

It was clear that grenades made with intermediate or high-grade magic stones would unleash destructive force even Seo Do-jun couldn’t ignore.  

The problem was…  

“How long does it take to fragment a magic stone?”  

Understanding exactly what Seo Do-jun was asking, Choi Cheol-gwan answered immediately.  

“Fragmenting an intermediate-grade magic stone to the size of a low-grade one takes at least ten days. For high-grade or above, it’d easily take a month.”  

Time was the issue.  

But they couldn’t afford to give up just because it took long.  

“Please produce as many as possible.”  

Choi Cheol-gwan nodded in agreement.  

Magic stone grenades.  

They would be a major headache for those trying to destroy the world—and a tremendous asset for their side.  

***

“All the rift entrances have changed like this. Other nations’ Hero Associations reported the same.”  

Seo Do-jun silently watched the footage of a pitch-black, charred rift entrance.  

Since dimensional rifts and Gates were phenomena unique to Earth, even he had no knowledge of this kind of transformation.  

“Could it be something like dark magic?”  

In response to Jung In-joo’s question, Seo Do-jun couldn’t say for sure without seeing it in person.  

“I’ll go take a look.”  

Not trusting the footage alone, Seo Do-jun decided to investigate firsthand.  

Jung In-joo, Hyun Joo-yeon, and Gloria joined him.  

The closest rift to Seoul was in Chuncheon—a place they had visited just two days prior.  

“It’s definitely not dark magic.”  

Gloria confirmed that not only the rift entrance’s condition but even the magic emanating from it differed from dark magic.  

“It’s almost like… it’s solidifying, don’t you think?”  

Hyun Joo-yeon ran her hand along the entrance as she spoke.  

“Solidifying?”  

Jung In-joo also touched the scorched entrance. The rough, uneven texture was unlike before.  

Previously, rift entrances had a gaseous quality—some even described them as holograms hovering in midair.  

Now, they seem to be turning solid.  

Seo Do-jun touched the entrance as well and couldn’t help but agree with Hyun Joo-yeon.  

“Please tell me these hideous things won’t be left behind even if we close the rifts?”  

Jung In-joo frowned, disgusted at the thought.  

“But at this size, most large monsters wouldn’t even fit through.”  

At Gloria’s remark, Jung In-joo nodded, conceding that wasn’t so bad.  

Then, a photo sent to Seo Do-jun’s phone rendered Gloria’s point moot.  

The sender was Na Tae-hwang, the Association Chairman, showing a rift entrance in Russia.  

It was the size of a seven-story apartment building—and even more alarming, it was still growing.  

“Good grief… What is this?”  

Jung In-joo looked to Seo Do-jun for answers, but he was just as puzzled.  

“Kassal, look at this.”  

Gloria handed Seo Do-jun her phone.  

This time, it was a photo from her brother Patrick—a rift entrance in the U.S.  

Though not as large as Russia’s, a similar membrane was forming over the entrance.  

“Don’t tell me… this is a door?”  

Jung In-joo’s eyes widened as she zoomed in. Now that she mentioned it, the shape did resemble a door.  

“Patrick says it’s starting to block the entrance. He also thinks it might be a door.”  

“First Gates, now doors? Next thing you know, monsters will just waltz right through!”  

Jung In-joo tried to laugh it off as absurd, but no one else joined in.  

“W-What’s with the faces? I was just joking! You think monsters are really gonna open doors and stroll out?”  

The tense atmosphere made her awkwardly chuckle.  

The second change since the rift lockdown.  

Seo Do-jun’s stern expression showed no signs of easing.  

That evening.  

Seo Do-jun returned alone to the Chuncheon rift.  

“It’s definitely bigger.”  

Surprisingly, the entrance had grown since daytime—expanding roughly one meter in width and height.  

Seo Do-jun gripped the entrance tightly.  

CRACK.  

Applying significant force caused fragments to break off.  

“Can it be destroyed?”  

He immediately drew his sword from his subspace, stepped back, and swung.  

KABOOM!  

A deafening blast shattered the night’s silence as fragments of the entrance scattered everywhere.  

But the entrance itself remained intact.  

In fact—  

ZZZZZT!  

Magic currents surged out, rapidly repairing the damaged edges.  

It was as if the rift was taunting him—No matter how hard you hit, you can’t break me.  

Seeing that even his strongest strike only chipped off fragments, Seo Do-jun deemed further attacks pointless.  

“A door… If monsters—and they—can come and go as they please…”  

His expression hardened.  

And what if only they could use it?  

Seo Do-jun shook his head.  

“That can’t be.”  

A door that only works one way? That’d be too unfair.  

In the end, he left without achieving anything.  

***

The rift entrances continued changing daily.  

Their sizes varied—some as small as four-story buildings, others as massive as 20-story skyscrapers.  

The ‘door’ phenomenon first observed in the U.S. soon appeared in all rifts worldwide.  

As fear spread, Hero Associations—previously stalled by political infighting—began accelerating Gate closures.  

A month passed in the blink of an eye.  

Thanks to Seo Do-jun’s brutal training, the Casserian Guild members had grown strong enough to hold their own against Death Knights.  

With recruitment difficult, they focused on internal growth while Choi Cheol-gwan worked tirelessly to mass-produce magic stone grenades.  

“Shouldn’t Choi Kang Soo be back by now?”  

At Hyun Joo-yeon’s question, Seo Do-jun replied that he planned to visit Choi Kang-soo that very day.  

“I wonder how our Choi Kang Soo’s been doing. He wasn’t just counting the days till the Guild Master arrived, was he?”  

Hyun Joo-yeon laughed off Jung In-joo’s teasing, saying they should trust him.  

As Seo Do-jun flew to Guam on the Casserian, the guild members eagerly awaited his return.  

“He must’ve given up. Three months of solo training on a deserted island? No way.”  

“You never know. He looked dead serious when he left. I bet he trained hard. I believe in him!”  

“Not just because of the money, right?”  

“Since when was a measly 100 million won real money to us? This is about trust! Guildmate trust!”  

“We’ll see.”  

The betting guild members waited impatiently for Seo Do-jun’s return.  

Not for the money—but to see just how much Choi Kang-soo had changed.  

“There he is!”  

Spotting the Casserian in the distance, the guild members strained their eyes to see who was aboard.  

“Huh? The Guild Master’s alone.”  

“Right? There’s no one else.”  

“Why’s he by himself?”  

The moment the Casserian landed, the guild swarmed him.  

When asked about Choi Kang-soo’s absence, Seo Do-jun replied simply.  

“He said he needs more time.”  

“What? More time?”  

“He claims he’s not strong enough to face you all yet. Said he’ll leave Guam on his own and not to come back for him.”  

“…Seriously?”  

Stunned, the guild members stared at Seo Do-jun until he added meaningfully:  

“It wouldn’t feel great to be surpassed by the weakest link, would it?”  

“……!”  

His implication—that Choi Kang-soo wasn’t just training hard but succeeding—froze them in place.  

Choi Kang-soo, who had relied entirely on gear…  

Was about to surpass them through sheer skill?  

Without a word, the Casserian Guild members rushed to the training room.  

“No way I’m getting outdone by someone who hasn’t even awakened as a Hero!”  

“After all the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve shed? This can’t happen!”  

“What the hell is he doing to make the Guild Master say that?!”  

“This is about pride now! Pride!”  

Watching their burning determination, Seo Do-jun allowed himself a faint smile.