When he heard yet another mechanical beep.
Jongryeo reflexively raised his head.
[You’ve exceeded the expected time limit!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
Bonus points, it said. But, that was rather obvious, wasn’t it?
‘Not sure how long was the expected time, but well, I did endure for quite a long time, didn’t I?’
He began smirking in satisfaction, and then all of a sudden, several messages inundated his vision.
[You did not use Immediate Return Stone!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
[Your remaining HP is over 50%!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
[You eliminated all the enemies!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
[Total advancement points tally has exceeded the Class-specific point limit.]
[According to the Contract, you will be given a special reward.]
‘What’s this?’
His ears hurt from all the beepings, but Jongryeo’s focus was fixed elsewhere, and didn’t care anymore. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t even hear those beeps now.
‘A special reward?’
Those words jumped right up at him.
A reward.
Not only that, it was ‘special’, too.
His stares were now firmly fixed on it.
Soon, follow-up messages popped up.
[Your Class has been upgraded from ‘Alchemist’ to ‘Geo Lord’.]
[You have acquired Class-specific skills.]
[You have acquired bonus Stats.]
[You have acquired the title, ‘The One Who Scatters Worries’.]
‘Geo Lord?’
Hearing that strange term, Jongryeo hurriedly summoned his Status Window.
[Name: Park Jongryeo]
[Level: 51]
[Class: Geo Lord]
Indeed, there was a new term added to his Class column.
‘It’s not Alchemist anymore?’
The System definitely said that he’d be able to get a higher-ranked version of his Class according to the amount of advancement points he had earned. And also, mentioned that the point tally had exceeded the limits of the Class itself, too.
The end result from all that was this ‘Geo Lord’.
“So, is this….”
….The special reward the System was talking about?
The thing was, though, Jongryeo couldn’t continue with what he wanted to say.
“……??”
Right in front of his disbelieving eyes, a truly bizarre and hard-to-explain phenomenon began unfolding.
Behind the hologram-like messages….
Unknown sandy smoke was slowly and eerily leaking out from the knights strewn about on the floor like scrap metal.
No such thing happened prior to him getting his Class.
These bits of scrap metal were nothing more than ownerless junk, only until a minute ago.
However.
Jongryeo closed the Status Window and swept his gaze around the interior of the boss room once. It wasn’t just one or two now.
That beige smoke was rising from every single knight on the ground.
[It is possible to perform Transfiguration on the selected target.]
[It is possible to perform Transfiguration on the selected target.]
[It is possible to perform Transfiguration on the selected target.]
Whenever his eyes landed on ‘targets’ with golden smoke oozing out from them, the words with hard-to-fathom meanings ‘possible to perform transfiguration’ popped up into his view.
‘Transfiguration?’
He couldn’t understand why, but to Jongryeo, those rising smokes looked like they were writhing in pain.
As a matter of fact, it felt like they were reaching out to him, begging him to save them.
Would it be strange if he said that…. he could hear their screams?
‘But…..’
He was sure of one thing.
He was sure of him being able to free them from their pain.
[Please set the command phrase to activate the Transfiguration skill.]
‘I gotta set an activation phrase for this skill?’
Jongryeo pondered for a bit, before muttering out almost instinctively.
“Awaken.”
When he did….
Wuuaaahhhh….
Thick, heavy moans resounded out from somewhere and at the same time, the dust of the fallen knights began wiggling as if they were still alive.
Jongryeo scanned his surroundings once more.
All the dust found near him was beginning to move.
Soon enough, a hand rose up from one of the dust. It pressed down on the ground hard, and slowly, the arm attached to it rose up.
“..!”
Jongryeo’s eyes opened wider and wider.
Those things were…. people.
No, soldiers possess the outer appearance of a person!
Soldiers kitted out head to toe in golden brown armour climbed out of the dust one by one.
‘This is my new skill??’
By the time Jongryeo recovered his wits, a couple of dozen soldiers were standing by his side, waiting.
[Transfiguration was a success.]
Tens of soldiers were now surrounding him.
‘What the hell is this….?’
Jongryeo approached the nearest soldier.
The first thing he did was to touch it. When he placed his hand on it, he felt something metallic.
As it turned out, the metal-looking armours weren’t just for show.
Indeed, these guys were all outfitted in real sandy gold armour and real weapons.
‘At first glance, they look like people, don’t they?’
However, they weren’t people. He senses artificial life from them. They didn’t breathe, and there were no heartbeats he could hear.
On top of this….
“…”
Jongryeo swallowed down his shocked gasp.
He sneaked a glance inside the helmet through the eye holes and found nothing but pure golden dust in there. Jongryeo slowly took several steps back after feeling like he was being sucked in.
‘These things came out from the dust??’
He immediately checked his Skill Window.
Just as the System informed him, new Class-specific skills could be found there now.
[Class-specific skills]
Active skills
– Transfiguration Lv. 1
– Realm Within Lv. 1
He checked the details of the first skill.
[Skill: Transfiguration Lv. 1]
Class-specific skill.
Required Mana to activate: None
An illuminated soldier is created by transmuting Mana to artificial life from the recently deceased lifeform.
The odds of transfiguration failure will rise higher depending on the target’s original Stat values, as well as the length of time since its death.
Number of mana that can be transfigured: 30/30
Only after reading the explanation on the Skill did he realize the identity of these sandy gold soldiers.
‘…….They are all fabricated.’
Illuminated soldiers – monsters, from the fabricated mana.
‘If these things are really my soldiers, then….’
Jongryeo raised his arm and pointed to his right.
And the soldiers all uniformly shifted their bodies to the right.
The end of his hand slowly moved to his front.
And the soldiers too followed after his hand and slowly faced their front.
Jongryeo stood in the middle of them.
He did his best to calm his pounding heart and lowered his hand.
And at the same time….
Every single soldier knelt down before him.
They were moving according to his will.
“Hah…..”
Jongryeo let out a soft gasp of admiration as the ends of his lips arched up.
‘Isn’t this so cool?’
A thought flashed by in Jongryeo’s head.
‘I shouldn’t be wasting time like this.’
He had witnessed the power of his new skill. He could now turn the defeated monsters into his soldiers.
If that was the case, then maybe..
Jongryeo glances at the teal-colored Essence Stone in his hand. He was planning to transfigure the mana from the Essence Stone.
He swallowed dry saliva.
It might have been a fearsome enemy that threatened to kill him only a few hours ago, but now, it was probably the best ingredient he could find. Fortunately enough, he saw the sandy gold smoke slowly oozing out from the Essence Stone, just like how it was with other fallen knights.
[It is possible to perform Transfiguration on the selected target.]
Jongryeo’s expression brightened.
‘Nice.’
He already knew the drill. Jongryeo took a short but deep breath and spoke out the command phrase.
“Awaken.”
He spoke the activation phrase for the skill However, the skill didn’t activate.
‘……..??’
Jongryeo tilted his head this way and that way and was about to say the command phrase again. But then, following a ‘tti-ring’, several warning messages popped up.
[You have exceeded the number of mana that can be transfigured.]
[If you wish to perform Transfiguration, you must return a portion, or all, of your soldiers back to the world of nothingness via ‘Transfiguration Cancellation’.]
[Once returned to nothingness, the dust soldiers can’t be summoned back.]
‘Oh, yeah. There was something like that, wasn’t there?’
At the end of the skill’s explanation, there was something he should’ve taken note of.
[Number of mana that can be transfigured: 30/30]
The maximum number of transfigurations he could perform was 30. Which meant the number of his soldiers was currently 30….
Jongryeo looked behind him.
Whatever the case might have been, if he wanted to awaken the creature from the Essence Stone, he had to get rid of one of these guys, just as the System had alluded to.
‘But….’
It had only been a short while, yet when he thought about them being his soldiers, he kind of didn’t want to dismiss any one of them.
Did he get attached to them already?
With a rueful, unwilling expression, Jongryeo slowly scanned each and every one of his illuminated soldiers. As his eyes swept past the soldiers, their names and levels appeared before his view.
[illuminated Infantryman Lv. 1]
Regular grade
[illuminated Infantryman Lv. 1]
Regular grade
Everyone possessed the same name and level.
‘Oh well, their origins were exactly the same, so…’
But then, he discovered three somewhat different-colored soldiers right at the back of the infantrymen.
‘Are those….?’
Unlike the regular infantrymen, these guys were wearing robes.
[illuminated Magician Soldier Lv. 1]
Elite grade
“Oh.”
He quickly figured out what they were.
The three mages that were controlling the Iron Golem must’ve been revived as synthetic as well when he gave out his ‘Awaken’ command just now.
…
‘So, 27 infantrymen and three mages, eh?’
This was why being ‘rare’ was a good thing. He excluded the low-numbered mages and selected the closest infantryman from him to cancel the transfiguration.
….And he was really sorry about this.
“Cancel Transfiguration.”
Phush….
The soldier turned into sandy smoke and scattered in the air. Not even a trace remained of it.
‘……..’
Jongryeo gazed at the spot of the disappeared soldier for a little while with an apologetic expression, before shifting his attention back to the Essence Stone.
His preparation was complete.
He even had to sacrifice one of his wonderful soldiers just so he could awaken the Essence Stone. So, he simply had to see some results here.
Time to act while the sun still shone.
…
Jongryeo tried the transfiguration right away.
“Awaken.”
When he did that, the sandy gold smoke engulfing the Essence Stone began to wiggle as if it came to life. It was the same reaction as when he transfigured the mana from the knights just now.
‘Okay, good!’
Jongryeo clenched his fists tightly. He had a good feeling about this.
[Transfiguration has commenced.]
[Attempting to transmute….]
What would the Essence Stone look like after its transmogrification? Jongryeo’s hands became slick with the sweat of anticipation.
Unfortunately…
[Transfiguration has failed.]
“What?!”
[Two more attempts remaining.]
“Whew-woo….”
Hearing that he still had more chances remaining, Jongryeo spat out a long sigh of relief.
‘Hang on, now that I think about it….’
The skill’s explanation definitely said that the odds of transfiguration failure would rise up depending on the target’s Stats.
But having experienced it personally, he couldn’t help but be dumbfounded. It felt like he got slapped in the back of his head, this taste of his first failure.
Not only that, there was a restriction on the number of attempts he could try, too.
‘So, I have two more attempts remaining….’
If he failed in both attempts, does that mean the Essence Stone’s mana would disappear into that ‘nothingness’, just as the sacrificed infantryman did?
Imagining the worst possible scenario, he felt dizzy for a second. Jongryeo quickly shook his head to clear his mind.
‘Let’s stop thinking negatively about this.’
Indeed, only positive thoughts…
Didn’t someone say that if you believed earnestly enough, the universe would find a way to help you out?
While stewing in anxiety and anticipation, Jongryeo attempted the extraction for the second time.
“Awaken.”
Too bad, his expectation was shot down grandly once more.
[Transfiguration has failed.]
[One more attempt remaining]
‘…..’
This guy gave him so much trouble while it was still alive, and even in death, it was managing to give him some serious headaches.
And here he was, hoping against hope.
Now that he had failed twice in a row, his vision seemed to have blurred, everything looking a bit bleak.
“Fuu…..”
Jongryeo deeply inhaled and exhaled his breath.
There were no more attempts remaining after this. He had only one more shot left. Jongryeo closed his eyes and reorganized his thoughts.
‘Well, it could be nothing more than percentages and odds, but….’
But, it was possible that his desire to awaken the essence stone wasn’t earnest or strong enough.
Jongryeo slowly reopened his eyes.
He sensed the sandy gold smoke rising up from the essence stone reaching out to him, pleading with him to save it. Jongryeo became a lot more serious than before.
And he reached out with his right hand as if to grab that pleading hand of the smoke.
“It’s time to awaken.”
He didn’t do it deliberately; he himself didn’t quite realize it then, but Jongryeo’s voice sounded much heavier and graver than ever before and it reverberated throughout the boss room.
A deep scream could be heard coming from somewhere, and chilling, eerie wind swept by the boss room.
‘Is this it…?’
Jongryeo’s expression brightened.
He remembered encountering a similar situation like this one before.
….Back when his infantrymen first popped out from the dust.
Just as he hoped for, as the lengthy scream came to an end, a hand emerged out from the golden dust. And when that hand pressed down on the ground, a new message popped up in his view.
[Transfiguration was a success.]
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