Jongryeo let out a cry of happiness.
“Yes!!”
He tightly clenched his fists. The taste of success was so much sweeter since he had to go through two failures to get here.
However, the good news didn’t end there.
[The sovereign’s voice had awakened the illuminated beast.]
[You have succeeded in strengthening your illuminated soldier.]
[The illuminated’s level will now start at 7.]
‘I succeeded in strengthening? What?’
A soldier’s starting level could be higher than 1?
Jongryeo’s eyes widened once more. Just as the message said, the soldier emerging from the golden dust carried ‘level 7’ in its status.
“What the!!”
Jongryeo spat out a short gasp.
The newly-emerged soldier looked different than it was in his memories.
The Essence Stone came from a magic beast he killed, the Golden-Winged King, Alatus. Jongryeo had a difficult time defeating the monster. Mainly cause the beast possesses tremendous quickness.
The fact that it can fly and move extremely fast is the toughest monster he ever encountered. Jongryeo didn’t have long-range skills at that time.
Nevertheless, he was the victor at the end.
The figure in front of him doesn’t resemble the magic beast, at all.
A tall man with dark medium-length hair with teal undertones, pale skin, golden irises with avian pupils, and red eyeshadow.
Donning a white sleeveless shirt with subtle cloud patterns. It has a high black collar with golden accents, with its left side extending further to cover his shoulder. He wears baggy dark purple pants, and wears dark purple boots overtop. He has black and dark turquoise gloves with gold decals and a necklace. Around his left arm, he wears a white and gold sleeve with a red lining.
Aside from the amazing transmogrification. The newly-born Alatus didn’t display a single hint of animosity towards him. No, it just stood there quietly, waiting for Jongryeo to give it a new order.
Thump, thump.
Jongryeo’s heart began pounding in excitement as he stared at Alatus. And there was a big grin etched on his face. Even though his heart was palpitating, there was something he was curious about.
Jongryeo’s gaze shifted just above Alatus’s head.
‘Why doesn’t this guy have a name?’
[?? Lv. 7]
Knight grade
For some strange reason, there were a couple of question marks instead of its name.
‘And its grade is also different.’
He understood that its level was high because of that strengthening thing, but still, this guy exhibited quite a few differences from the regular infantrymen.
Perhaps it read Jongryeo’s mind because the System sent him a new message with excellent timing.
[You can bestow a name to a knight-grade soldier.]
[The bestowed name will be maintained until the illuminated soldier is dismissed.]
[Please set the soldier’s name.]
‘A name, is it?’
At first, he was at a loss with this unexpected demand, but soon enough, he recalled that this ‘guy’ already had a name and a smile crept up on his face. There should be no problem calling it by its original name, no?
[Please set the soldier’s name.]
The message blinked as if to urge him on with the naming already.
Jongryeo opened his mouth.
“Alatus, the Golden-Win….”
No, hang on a minute.
When the System asked him to set the name, it meant that he’d have to use that name to call this guy from here onwards. So, didn’t that also mean that he’d have to call it Alatus the blah-blah all the time from now on?
Just thinking about that gave him a nasty case of goosebumps.
‘…..That’s way too cringey.’
In the end, he decided to change the name somewhat.
“Xiao.”
[Will you set the name as ‘Xiao’?]
“Yes.”
As soon as Jongryeo spoke, the question marks on the guy’s head disappeared and the name Xiao appeared there.
[Xiao Lv. 7]
Knight grade
All he did was give it a new name, yet Jongryeo still felt like he had accomplished something pretty amazing. He was filled with contentment, knowing that this guy was his loyal soldier now.
‘My own loyal soldier, eh….’
Jongryeo took a look behind him.
29 illuminated soldiers were still there, waiting for his orders.
For now, the number was too small.
‘Only 30, huh….’
Either this was because the skill level of ‘Transfiguration’ was too low, or because his Intelligence Stat hadn’t been raised high enough yet.
But, he was sure of one thing, and that was the number of his soldiers would gradually swell up.
‘Yup, I really have myself a new army.’
Now, there was only one problem remaining.
And that was how he’d walk around with these guys. Now that gave him a bit of a headache.
It’d be way too eye-catching if these guys freely walked around in the streets.
Would that be all?
This skill was already way past regular people accepting it as one of the many awakened abilities a Hunter could possess.
Either he’d be under the constant surveillance, or worse, someone might even demand him to dismiss the summoning, too.
‘Woo Jinchul hyung-nim.’
Thinking about how stuffy-looking guys like that man would come around every day and annoy him to no end in the future, Jongryeo felt like he’d die from frustration already.
That was precisely why the next skill existed, probably.
‘Skills.’
Jongryeo summoned his Skill Window.
[Class-specific skills]
Active skills:
– Transfiguration Lv. 1
– Realm Within Lv. 1
The skill he only checked its name and nothing else until now.
The ‘Realm Within’.
That name alone made him think that this skill would help him out in these sorts of situations.
[Skill: Realm Within Lv. 1]
Class-specific skill.
Mana required to activate: None.
Stores the illuminated soldiers inside the summoner’s autonomous pocket world.
The stored soldiers can be summoned back into the open or absorbed back at any time the summoner chooses to.
Number of stored illuminated soldiers: 0/20
‘I knew it.’
Jongryeo nodded his head.
Since the skill’s name had the word ‘Realm’ in it, he expected it to have something to do with storing away the soldiers. Unfortunately, there was a part that proved to be completely out of his expectations.
‘How come the number is….’
The number of soldiers he could store was noticeably lower than those he could create.
Indeed, he could create 30, yet he could only store 20. Meaning, he had to unsummon 10 more.
‘Now this sucks.’
Just which finger out of the ten in your hands wouldn’t hurt when you bite them? Just discarding one made his heart bleed, but now, he had to discard ten??
Jongryeo stared at the soldiers with a rather lonely expression on his face.
Obviously, the knight-grade Xiao was excluded.
Three ‘magic soldiers’ were also excluded, since they would be harder to replace and also fewer in numbers.
At the end of the day, the most disposable remained the infantrymen. Last time, he chose the one closest to him, so this time, he chose the ten that were furthest away from him and cancelled their summoning.
‘Sorry.’
He prayed for their happiness in the afterlife, and then….
Poof…
In the blink, those ten soldiers turned into dust and disappeared from this world.
Thankfully, his heart didn’t ache as badly as the first time. Did the wise old ‘they’ mean this by saying that the first time was always the hardest?
In any case…
Jongryeo took one last look at the soldiers and activated the Realm Within.
When he did that, all the illuminated soldiers, including Xiao, all returned to being golden dust, as if they were crushed into fine powder and swiped by the breeze. Those golden dust all gathered in a small portal appeared on the ground.
It was as the label said; the illuminated soldiers were absorbed into Jongryeo’s autonomous pocket world. It happened so quickly, too.
All of his soldiers disappeared without a trace in less than a blink of an eye.
‘….I’m the one who did it, yet I can hardly believe it myself.’
Utterly amazed now, Jongryeo continued to stare at the small rippling portal.
‘I wonder what it looks like in there.’
It was then.
As if it was waiting for this, the mechanical beeps resounded out one after the other.
[You have experimented with all the class-specific skills.]
[Class Change has been now concluded.]
[Exit Gate will now be generated.]
‘So, it’s finally over, huh….’
What a long and difficult road this was.
Jongryeo scanned the interior of the boss room, his eyes full of reminiscence. The evidence of fierce battle could be seen everywhere.
Jin woo is nowhere to be seen. He guessed that the hunter might have already left.
Broken-down knights; walls with cracks on them; a shattered stone pillar. And the Iron Golem responsible for shattering that very pillar, now nothing more than a scrap heap.
However, as the compensation for his struggles, he was now walking away with so much profit.
A new Class and skills, several other important things besides those, as well as powerful new allies.
Jongryeo opened his messages and sent something before a wide grin naturally floated up on his lips.
Without hesitation, Jongryeo turned around. The Gate connecting to the outside world was quietly waiting for him as if to congratulate him on his successful adventure.
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