The next day…
After driving from Busan all the way to their house, Ohjin poured out the starstones that were inside the sack in the storage room.
"Wow, looking at it like this, there really is a lot," exclaimed Ha-eun as she looked at the starstones that gave off a subtle blue light.
"Oh, right. I'll use these starstones independently."
"Hm? You aren't going to exchange them for money?"
"I have a use for them."
"Alright." Ha-eun shrugged without much interest.
"Most of them are what you earned from the bet anyway, do whatever you want."
"Thanks."
"Yawn. I'm still a bit hungover, so I'll go take a nap."
Ha-eun yawned and turned around to head to their room.
Click—
While she was in the middle of entering the room, she glanced at him with a mischievous smile.
"Do you want to sleep with me?"
"I have a lot of work to do."
"Heh. Damn eunuch."
"Hey."
Ha-eun puffed out air from her nose and closed the door.
A serene silence settled down in the living room, but moments later…
[U-uuuuuh… My child…]
A groan like that from a zombie who wandered around in search of meat in an apocalyptic world entered his ears.
[I… feel sick…]
A celestial suffering from a hangover…
Ohjin wondered if there would have been a single other person amongst the millions of Awakeners who witnessed such a spectacle.
"You should have drank in moderation."
Ohjin supported Vega, who was staggering on his shoulder, with his hand. Vega leaned her body on his palm as if she was going to collapse.
He rubbed on her back so that she would feel better.
[Hwa.]
"Hm? Does it feel bad?"
[N-No.]
Vega quickly shook her head.
[Uuh. For my head to feel this dizzy… It truly is a scary, poisonous drink. How are humans able to drink this like it's nothing?]
"Haha, it's fine if you drink in moderation."
[Ugh.]
Vega laid flat on top of Ohjin’s palm.
[Fufu, it feels snug.]
"Are you feeling better?"
[I’m still tired.]
Vega pouted and soon pulled his index finger over to her stomach.
[This lady shall give you the honor of stroking her belly.]
‘Vega’s starting to talk like Ha-eun. Did she get influenced by staying with her?’
“Yeah, yeah.”
Ohjin followed her orders and gently stroked her belly.
[…Did you spend time like this with the Vega from your past life?]
Vega asked suddenly.
“No. You didn’t stay in this small form back then.”
Ohjin put on a faint smile and continued naturally.
“We mostly met at the sanctum.”
He looked up as if reminiscing on old memories.
“You patted me often as you do now. Though you didn’t call me ‘my child’… you took care of me like one.”
[…]
He displayed false memories like it was nothing.
[Then what did I call you?]
“You called me ‘Ohjin’ from the start,” he replied calmly.
[From the start… How was my first encounter with you?]
“Our first encounter…”
He imagined it.
—The time he had never spent, and the memories of them that didn’t exist.
“I got beaten to a pulp while fighting against the Heavenly Demon’s forces and escaped to the sanctum. I bled too much and thought I was going to die soon… but then, Vega, you appeared and saved me.”
[…I see.]
“Haha. I came by to see you often from that occasion, and we became closer.”
Vega, who was quietly listening to his story, avoided his gaze.
[…I’m having complicated feelings.]
She mumbled with a deeply sunken voice.
“About what?”
[When I imagine how the Vega from your past life was with you… my chest throbs for some reason.]
Was it because the story of the memories she didn’t have felt strange? Vega looked up at Ohjin with a nervous expression.
[The Vega from back then and the Vega now… are they the same?]
“They’re different.”
[…!]
Ohjin smiled as he looked at the wide-eyed Vega.
“You're prettier now.”
[K-Khm! Buttering up a celestial! H-How impertinent!]
Despite saying those words, the edges of her lips ascended.
[…Anyways. So the Vega from your past life didn’t call you ‘my child’?]
“Yeah.”
[Fufu.]
Vega lightly flew up.
[Then I shall continue to call you ‘my child’ in the future.]
She reached out her hand and patted his head.
[Hmm~ My child’s hair really is soft. It’s fun to pat.]
Vega hummed in high spirits.
“Oh right, Vega. Do you know what ‘Lightning God Physique’ is by any chance?”
Ohjin recalled how his legs turned into ‘lightning’ during the fight with the Hydra. He wasn’t able to pay close attention due to the situation back then, but he vividly remembered how his body shot forward with explosive momentum.
[As per the skill’s name, ‘Lightning God Physique’ allows your body itself to transform into lightning. A body consisting of lightning can transcend the laws of physics and can display various miracles.]
“Hm? from the explanation, it sounds like a really powerful skill .”
[It is a very powerful skill in reality. There is the weakness of consuming extreme amounts of mana, but as it displays that amount of power, it is one of top-ranked skills of the stigma of Lyra.]
“I didn’t know it was that powerful.”
All he had obtained was a clue. He wasn’t able to use it freely yet. However, if it performed as well as Vega explained it, it appeared that it would be worth investing time into.
[Naturally, it absolutely isn’t a skill you can learn in your current… state.]
Vega chuckled briefly and continued.
[Though I can’t be certain with you.]
“What Star rank does one usually have to be to learn it?”
[You must be a minimum of a 9-Star.]
“…”
This time, Ohjin was the one who couldn’t help but chuckle.
‘9-Star?’
Above 9-Star was said to be the realm where you transcended the human race. Though it was nothing but a clue, he had still managed to get a taste of it as a 5-Star.
“I guess it’ll be incredible once I’m able to use it freely.”
[Don’t be in a rush. This is also the case with Exceed. Using skills that don’t fit your standard will end up ruining your body.]
As she said, when using Exceed alone made the insides of his body tattered, it was possible that irreversible damage would be dealt to his body if he used Lightning God Physique as well.
‘I should start training this in earnest after I raise my Star rank.’
Like how one must cut their coat according to their cloth, nothing good would come from recklessly learning skills that didn’t match the ‘Star’.
“Alright, I’ll take this slowly.”
[Fufu. You are a strange child.]
Vega patted his head once again.
[Hmm.]
Whilst patting his head, she rubbed her eyes like she was tired.
[It appears that this lady must now go and rest.]
“Is it because you’re hungover?”
[There’s that, but I also materialized for too long yesterday.]
“Ah.”
‘She was materialized for over six hours yesterday, after all.’
“Alright, you should go inside and rest.”
[You should rest comfortably today as well.]
Vega went inside the pendant.
* * *
* * *
“Well, then.”
‘Now that Vega’s gone, let’s proceed with the quest.’
Ohjin went into the storage room and reached his hand out towards the sack filled with starstones.
‘Black Heaven.’
The black clouds that flowed out of his palm started to cover up the starstones.
‘I wonder how many it’ll need.’
Owooong!—
Ohjin could feel mana flowing into his body as the Black Heaven absorbed the blue light within the starstones.
It was in a much smaller quantity than when he absorbed the stigma of Awakeners, but…
‘I should still be thankful.’
With him using Lightning Flames so much recently, no matter how much mana he had, it still felt lacking.
-Ring!
[According to the starstone absorption, Quest ‘Star-Devouring Devil of the Sky①’ will proceed.] [Completion Rate: 2.7%] [Completion Rate: 8.4%]
The completion rate went up every time starstones were absorbed.
‘Jesus, how much is it gobbling up?’
When it had absorbed approximately 300 starstones, the completion rate was 32%.
‘It looks like I’ll need to use all 1,000 of them to complete it.’
Ohjin wondered how long it would have taken if it wasn't for Jerry Kim and the strange phenomenon where two starstones appeared from monsters at once.
“It’s fine as long as it’s completed.”
An ancient constellation…
His curiosity rose from thinking about what kind of ability it would carry.
Owooong!—
When it had just about consumed 500 starstones…
-Ring!
[The star’s power within the starstones is insufficient!]
[Progress will no longer continue.]
[Completion Rate: 50%]
[Starstones with higher quality are required to resume progress.]
“Huh?”
When the completion rate reached 50%, its progress suddenly ceased.
“I need starstones with higher quality?”
Ohjin furrowed his brow and took out a soccer-ball-sized starstone from his backpack.
—The two starstones obtained from the Hydra.
‘Will I be able to fill up 100% with this?’
He used Black Heaven and absorbed the mana within the starstones.
[Completion Rate: 61.2%] [Completion Rate: 72.4%]
“Goddammit.”
Ohjin swore involuntarily.
‘It isn’t completable with sheer quantity.’
He needed starstones that came out of a monster that was at least stronger than the Hydra.
‘Then does that mean I’ll have to hunt 8-Star monsters?’
As the Hydra was a 7-Star boss, the monsters had to be at minimum an 8-Star monster to obtain starstones with the appropriate quality.
No, even if it was an 8-Star monster, unless it was a boss or elite monster, it was highly likely that the quality of starstone dropped would be lower than the one from the Hydra.
‘So do I need to hunt elite 8-Star monsters and above?’
As Korea was rather clean of monsters, it was hard to find gates where monsters that powerful appeared, and even if he could, particular guilds held a monopoly over them most of the time.
“Ugh.”
Ohjin, who was in the midst of his thoughts, suddenly snapped his fingers.
‘Now that I think of it, I still haven’t received my reward from the Valhalla guild.’
As the remuneration for contacting Jang Sukho in the Valhalla guild’s stead, he would simply have to ask for high-quality starstones. Next, he had to feed the information he received every now and then to the Valhalla guild to pressure the Black Star Organization.
“They should have just about recovered by now.”
It appeared that it was time to give the Valhalla guild a visit.
“Hyup.”
Ohjin packed up the remaining starstones and got up.
When he raised up his phone in order to contact the Valhalla guild—
Bzzt—
“Ah.”
His vision shook.
With an intense pain, he felt something flowing into his head.
‘This is…’
Ohjin opened his eyes wide.
It was now quite a familiar phenomenon.
[Part of Awakener Lee Shinhyuk was successfully recovered.]
Lee Shinhyuk’s memories unfolded in front of his eyes.
* * *
Fwooosh!!—
-Ahhh!!
-S-Save me!!!
It was a city engulfed by Fire Demons.
The thick, fishy smell of blood stung his nose, and the horrifying sound of screams filled up the city.
Ohjin looked around and observed the surroundings.
The western-styled buildings that collapsed into debris weren’t ones that could be found commonly in Korea.
‘This is…’
In the distance, he could see the Colosseum engulfed in flames and starting to collapse.
‘Italy?’
The identity of the city in ruins was Italy’s capital, Rome.
