“Pardon?”
Embarrassment began dyeing Jongryeo’s expression beet red as he took a look around where they were. Jin Woo’s own expression hardened as well.
‘How come all the buildings around here are so….’
Indeed, they were now in a location where everything around them was ill-suited for a pair of young people to casually walk in.
Before this awkward situation could get any worse, Jin Woo quickly came up with a solution.
“Why don’t we go back to our Guild office?”
“Ah, yes.”
Nod, nod.
He briefly thought that Jongryeo nodding like that with a reddened face was rather adorable to look at. But still, he quickly turned around in the direction of the office.
“Shall we?”
“Right.”
Jin Woo began retracing the path he and Jongryeo took and was reminded of the fact that he was indeed an S-rank Hunter like him.
‘Wow, we really did run far, didn’t we?’
Although it felt like only a brief moment for him, they needed ten minutes of regular walking just get back to his office.
The Guild office was located on the third floor. Jin Woo placed his thumb on the electronic lock, and the door clicked open to allow them inside.
He was about to head straight into the conference room, but then, he had to stop in his treks and take a look behind him, at Jongryeo still standing by the doorway.
“…..?”
Jin-Woo stared at his with eyes asking “Aren’t you coming in?” which prompted Jongryeo to ask back at him, instead.
“Isn’t it too dark inside?”
“….Ah.”
Only then did Jin-Woo realise that the interior of the office was pitch-black.
His vision wasn’t hindered by regular levels of darkness, so stuff like this would happen every once in a while. As for Jongryeo, maybe he wasn’t as good with darkness as he was.
Click.
He flipped the switch and the interior was brightly lit up. Jongryeo took a look inside the illuminated interior and cautiously asked him again.
“There is no one in the office?”
“The Vice-Chair wanted to remain behind in the Gate’s location, you see.”
“Could there be only two people in this Gui…”
Jongryeo stopped his words there and quickly shook his head when he saw Jin Woo and his expression that said, “So, what’s the problem with that?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Jongryeo was very quickly coming to an understanding that the common sense of the world didn’t seem to apply to the man in front of his eyes.
‘Hold on.’
His steps taking him into the Guild office suddenly came to an abrupt halt.
‘Doesn’t that mean there are only me and Jin Woo inside this Guild building?’
The light of tension quickly filled up Jongryeo’s eyes. At the same time, he also realised that it’d been a while since he felt this tense as well.
‘Maybe, it’s my first time being in a room with an alpha….’
How many alpha out there in this world were capable of making him feel this tense? Especially when he was acknowledged to be one of the highest levelled among the S-rank Hunters before Jin Woo came along, at that?
For some reason, the words of ‘somewhere private’ kept repeating in his head and he became even more conscious of himself because of that. His heart was palpitating faster and faster.
He began giggling then, suddenly thinking that he was no longer acting like a S-rank Hunter, but like a regular omega now.
“Keuk, keuk.”
Jin Woo gazed at Jongryeo trying hard to suppress his giggles and tilted his head.
‘Is it that funny to have only two employees in a Guild?’
Jin Woo stopped paying any mind to that and entered the conference suite. He made him sit close by and settled down on the opposing chair.
He started talking only after the air in the conference suite felt a bit more familiar to both of them.
“Please tell me. What happened?”
Just those simple words were enough to change the atmosphere within the suite completely.
“How is it possible for Hunter Min Byung-Gyu to leave you with messages for me?”
Jin Woo’s expression was serious and the same goes for Jongryeo.
“…”
Either Jongryeo needed some time to recall his sleeping memories, or didn’t know where to begin, because he needed a bit of time before he was ready to open lips.
“That day…..”
Jongryeo finally raised his head and looked deeply into his eyes. His stoic eyes were now filled to the brim. When Jin Woo saw his expression, he thought he could more or less tell where he’d start his story.
He quietly spoke.
“I heard his voice.”
…..
“….”
Jongryeo told everything he witness in his dream.
That was as far as Jongryeo could remember. His memories had become faint and indistinct like a fading dream, but they somehow managed to return to his not too long ago.
Jin Woo’s expression was understandably heavy after hearing his tale.
‘Jongryeo consciousness seconds before dying met with that of Hunter Min Byung-Gyu’s, who actually did die and became a Shadow Soldier?’
It was a truly hard-to-believe story.
Was it possible that his subconscious mind created a false memory with the stuff he picked up from the surroundings, all because he received a heavy mental trauma after facing the imminent threat of death?
Jin Woo raised this point with him, and he replied with these following words.
“Yes, I also thought that could be a possibility.”
Why wouldn’t Jongryeo consider such a possibility? That was why he found himself in a deep dilemma over the last few days, before he finally worked up enough courage to tell him about the message.
Jin Woo nodded his head in understanding. He then pushed forward his phone towards him.
“We haven’t actually shared our contacts. Let me give you my number. In case you remember anything else, please, can you give me a call right away?”
Jongryeo nodded his head.
“Yes. If I do, I’ll contact you immediately.”
Jongryeo complexion seemed to have brightened now.
……
The first thing Jongryeo did after he got home was to bring up his status window.
‘Status Window.’
What he wanted to check out was the newly updated info on his Skills. His gaze scrolled past his current level, his Class and Title, and eventually arrived at the Skill Window.
[Skills]
Passive Skills
– (Unknown) Lv. MAX
– Dragon Wrath Lv. 1
– Master of Weapons Lv. MAX
Active Skills
– Dragon Mobility Lv. MAX
– Intimidation Lv. 2
– Rain of Stone Lv. MAX
– Ceremonial Crystalshot Lv. MAX
– Dominus Lapidis Lv. Max
– Dominator’s Touch Lv. MAX
Almost all of his bountiful skills displayed in the Skill Window had reached their level limit and evolved into their ultimate forms, or were about to evolve into one.
The level cap for a skill was 3. And when a skill reached the level cap, the number would change to ‘MAX’ and stopped rising any further than that. However, if he continued to increase his proficiency with the skills, they would eventually evolve into their ultimate versions. The gap between the skill’s effectiveness before and after its evolution was noticeably huge.
The skill ‘Sprint’ had evolved into ‘Dragon Mobility’.
The skill ‘Star Jades’ had evolved into ‘Ceremonial Crystalshot’.
And ‘Earth’s Core’ had morphed into ‘Dominus Lapidis’.
Even the passive skill that aided with handling swords, spears, bow, and claymore, ‘High-Grade Weapon Wielder Technique’, had evolved into ‘Master of Weapons’.
The result of that last evolution was something like this. Jongryeo summoned ‘Vortex Vanquisher’ and ‘Verdict’ and began manipulating it this way and that on his hand.
He spun the two weapons seamlessly around his index finger before letting it glide up to the palm of his hand. It then smoothly slithered around to the back of his hand.
The near-acrobatic silky movements continued on for a little while, before he lightly tossed the weapon over his head and snatched it back in his grip. Jongryeo slowly smacked his lips afterwards.
‘What a pity that there is no one here to appreciate this.’
The weapons felt like an extension of his own limb, and that was all due to the passive skill, ‘Master of Weapons’.
Jongryeo shifted his gaze over to the Skill Window while repeatedly tossing the axe up and down.
‘So, ‘Intimidation’ and ‘Dragon Wrath’ are the only two with realistic chances of getting stronger, huh.’
Regretfully, there didn’t seem to be much room for the ‘Dragon Wrath’ skill to improve beyond level 1, where it had been stuck ever since he got the skill. But, that was inevitable, really.
[Skill: Dragon Wrath Lv.1]
Passive Skill.
Mana required to activate: None.
You possess untiring perseverance. When your stamina and health drops below 30%, this skill will automatically activate and reduce all damage received by 50% and temporary boost all your stats by 60%.
Because, ‘Dragon Wrath’ was a skill that only activated when his stamina and health dropped below 30%. Obviously, he wouldn’t endanger his own life just to level up one of his skills, now would he?
Also, Jongryeo had experienced a fair number of close shaves after that passive skill became part of his arsenal. Even then, it hadn’t changed from being level 1, so that could only mean he’d need to go through an extraordinary situation just for a chance to upgrade this skill.
Besides, Jongryeo becoming far too strong also played a factor here. Just how many enemies out there could realistically drive him to a desperate corner now?
All things considered, he had no choice but to forget about upgrading ‘Dragon Wrath’ altogether.
He then decided to increase his proficiency with both ‘Dragon Mobility’ and ‘Intimidation’, the latter of which he hadn’t had a lot of chances to utilise until now and was stuck at level 2 as a result.
Unlike ‘Intimidation’, which was rather difficult to activate willy-nilly anywhere as he pleased, he could activate ‘Dragon Mobility’ even when he was going through his daily routines.
But, right now, Jongryeo’s gaze was fixed to a spot up above those skills.
‘Just what could this guy be?’
He was looking at the skill simply labelled as ‘Unknown’ found within the passive skill list.
This skill had been with him ever since he became the ‘Player’. But up until now, not even its basic information had been revealed to him.
‘I thought it’d eventually disclose its secrets after a while, but….’
Did this skill also require him to meet some kind of a condition to be unlocked as well? Because it was labelled ‘MAX’ from the very beginning, he was really looking forward to finding out just what kind of skill it was, but this….
A lot of time had passed since those days, but his curiosity only managed to grow larger and larger in the meantime.
‘……..’
Jongryeo continued to stare at the ‘Unknown’ skill until he almost bore a hole right through it, but in the end, he shook his head in defeat. Besides, what he really wanted to confirm couldn’t be found within the regular Skill Window, anyway.
No, they were right below it.
Indeed, he wanted to check his Class-specific skills that had all gone up a level earlier in the day.
[Class-specific Skills]
Active Skill
– Transfiguration Lv. 2
– Realm Within Lv. 2
– Monarch’s Domain Lv. 2
…
– Sentinel Switch Lv. 2
‘So, what changed, and by how much?’
Jongryeo took a closer look at the information on the skills, excluding ‘Sentinel Switch’, which he had already taken a gander before.
[Skill: Transfiguration]
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: 590/1,300
Level 2 effect ‘Boost’: Increases the odds of enhancing the Stats of the illuminated soldier.
Perhaps as a reward for such a tough levelling up process, the number of soldiers he could create had shot up to a shocking degree.
…
‘The maximum number of soldiers is now 1,300?!’
As long as his surroundings were filled with mana for transfiguration, he’d be able to increase the number of his allies by well over double the current size. Not only that, there was the special added effect to consider as well, which raised the odds of the soldiers starting off at higher levels.
‘So, that’s what it was….’
The reason ‘Wriothesley’ start from level 13 was most likely due to this ‘Boost’ effect. It wasn’t a coincidence at all.
‘What would’ve happened if I possessed this Boost effect before I made Childe into an Illuminated Soldier?’
Without a doubt, he might have gotten his hands on an even more terrifying monster.
‘Heh, and the wise old ‘they’ say that a man’s greed knows no bounds, didn’t they?’
Jongryeo smirked softly to himself and confirmed the details of his other Class-specific skills one by one. The other two skills had also received a lot of enhancements, and a new, never-before-seen effect was added to each of them, as well.
A wide grin settled on Jongryeo’s lips as he read the explanations of his upgraded skills, ‘Realm Within’ and ‘Monarch’s Domain’.
‘This is great.’
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