< Chapter 102: Dream (2) >
There was no practical training, only theoretical lessons.
“Oh. How’s the house?”
Today is Sunday.
It’s the day to move into the house that Maiden had gifted.
“What’s with the reaction for the house that Maiden herself contracted?”
“It’s my first time seeing it too. I just looked at the price, the photos, the construction date, and bought it after confirming with my subordinates.”
“…I see.”
Considering Maiden’s busy schedule, it was only natural.
“Can I ask how much you paid for it?”
A house located within the military academy grounds. It’s likely to be expensive given its location, and it’s a single-family house at that. I hear it’s over 40 pyeong (approximately 132 square meters).
It seems like a newly built building as well.
“It’s cheaper than a thousandfold. Don’t ask for details.”
“…Yes.”
The comparison being a thousandfold.
I’m too scared to ask.
…I’ll just accept it.
“Anyway, why isn’t that girl coming?”
“Ah. White Tiger’s throwing a tantrum, so she’s a little late.”
“That rude white thing?”
Maiden clicked her tongue.
Since being utterly ignored by White Tiger a while ago when she visited Yu Hwa’s house, the nickname has changed from ‘white thing’ to ‘rude white thing.’
“She said she left a while ago, so she’ll probably arrive soon.”
At that moment, Yu Hwa’s red sports car appeared in the distance. It smoothly moved and parked.
“Are you a saint? You’re disgustingly late.”
“I’m sorry. Preparation took a bit longer.”
Yu Hwa smiled apologetically as she got out of the car. When she opened the back door, Goldie and White Tiger jumped out.
Scanning around.
Upon noticing me, Goldie dashed towards me at lightning speed.
Bang-
“Nyaang!”
I perfectly caught Goldie, who jumped into my chest and petted its head vigorously.
“Did Goldie sleep well?”
“Nyang!”
As I petted Goldie for a while, I felt a strange sensation on my right foot.
“White Tiger?”
White Tiger was clinging to my ankle. Keeping a slight distance, it turned its back to me in a standoffish posture.
“Ahaha.”
I guess it’s happy to see me, but too proud to show it?
What’s up with this guy?
I squatted down and touched White Tiger’s fur.
“Oh.”
This is my first time petting White Tiger.
It feels slightly different from Goldie.
While Goldie’s fur is fluffy, White Tiger’s is short and simply soft.
It feels nice anyway.
After petting it for about 10 seconds, White Tiger shivered, escaped from my hand, and looked up at me from a distance.
“You’re not allowed to do any more than that. Is that it?”
White Tiger nodded with a stern face.
“White Tiger, aren’t you being too haughty?”
White Tiger quickly turned its head.
Well, that’s fine.
It’s opening up to me.
It’s a great stride forward.
I put Goldie down and stood up.
“….”
“?”
Feeling a strange gaze, I looked to find Yu Hwa staring at me with a defeated expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“…I’ve never been able to touch her.”
“What?”
She bit her lower lip with an expression that seemed jealous beyond belief.
“Don’t overdo it, you wench.”
“Ouch.”
Maiden slapped Yu Hwa’s back of the head.
“Just because you couldn’t touch the cat… No, the tiger, why make such a fuss? Anyone looking would think the world is ending tomorrow.”
At Maiden’s words, Yu Hwa pouted her lips.
“Put that lip away? Before I cut it off.”
Yu Hwa quickly closed her mouth.
Looking at her, Maiden sighed.
“Does she never change as she grows older? People call this wench a cold and competent guild leader, oh well.”
A look of disdain for the world.
“…”
Yu Hwa turned her head slightly.
Seems like she had no retort.
No, she had something to say, but she seemed to be holding back on purpose.
Anyway, it seemed like Maiden was more irritated than usual today.
So was that why Yu Hwa was holding back her words?
“Then I’ll be going now.”
“You’re not even having a housewarming party?”
Leaving right away?
“Yeah. I’ll make time to come next time. Today is…”
Maiden gritted her teeth.
“I have some business to take care of.”
A look like she’d chew everything but her gold teeth. Scary.
“See you next time, then.”
“Yes. Take care.”
After Maiden left.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, um.”
Yu Hwa scratched her cheek.
“Well, it seems oppa made a somewhat forceful request.”
“Instructor Pi Jin Ho?”
“Yes. She said she’s going to repair the training room within the facility.”
Could she be talking about the training room I broke?
“Ah. Right.”
Suddenly Yu Hwa ran towards the car she had parked.
She opened the trunk and pulled out two carriers.
“Here. They arrived this morning.”
She handed the carriers to me with a familiar expression, without much excitement.
‘It’s about time.’
Those were the carriers containing ancient relics sent by Ail Chris, the Collector.
* * *
That night.
I was lying in my bedroom, having tidied up roughly.
The newly acquired ancient relics were stored in the “Artisan’s Portable Forge.” I plan to keep both since they can be useful in battle.
Since I obtained the feature called “Artisan’s Portable Forge,” the advantage of acquiring traits in advance has practically disappeared. Now, it’s better to collect the relics if possible.
“Gathering a lot of relics seems to be the answer.”
As the number of owned relics increases, the 1-minute time limit becomes not a disadvantage but an advantage.
No, it can even become a benefit.
There will be few opponents who can adapt to a changing combat style every minute.
“…Magic.”
However, I couldn’t find any way to use magic. I asked Maiden for help and exchanged contacts with a few superhumans whose specialty was magic, but all results were failures.
Instead, I gained only the certainty that there was no answer. The modern magic system and the ancient magic system were too different.
“What should I do?”
A pearl necklace on a pig. What use is a talent for magic if there’s no way to use it?
I sighed deeply.
“I don’t care.”
I just need to sleep for now. I closed my eyes.
Slowly, my mind started to drift away.
···
···
···
I had a dream.
“Seo-yul-ah. Removing the status window only for the main character. The more I think about it, the better it seems.”
A dear dream. The last memory before the incarnation into this novel’s world. The dream was about the conversation at the drinking party that led to the loss of the system.
“Yeah, let’s do it. It’s just a remake. Let’s try it.”
I was annoyed by Shin’s bright voice. I was suffering here now!
“Ah, but it will be fun. Ignoring the wearing limit is a kind of bug. It feels like the system is restraining. Not bad.”
They were tossing ideas back and forth, laughing, and adjusting opinions. I remember it as a pleasant drinking party.
“Oh! Making the system mistake the species, leading to the bug being fixed and one of the species’ traits randomly backflowing to the protagonist? Wow. You’re a genius, hyung?”
I remember when I had this dream. I had just realized the duplicate wearing and time constraints and was in despair. I then fought with Choi Ji-hoon using the Wind’s Path and lost.
And then I had this dream.
I was thrilled.
The dream continued to flow. Just as I remembered it. Even seeing it again, it’s unbelievable. The result of this conversation was incarnating into a novel.
“Hyung! This is really feeling good! If you need help with anything, just tell me.”
That’s how the last conversation I remember ended.
But the dream didn’t end.
“…Haha.”
Hyung suddenly smiled a bitter smile.
“Why didn’t I think of this method?”
Shin’s voice was trembling.
“Seo-yul-ah.”
His eyes were filled with sorrow and regret.
“I have a favor to ask of you.”
···
···
···
“Heok! Heok!”
I woke up from sleep, breathing heavily, cold sweat on my forehead. I was panting as if I had been pressed by scissors.
“…What was that dream?”
The last image of Shin’s eyes was vivid in my mind.
It felt different. A serious expression, entirely unlike the playful Shin I knew.
“He asked a favor. He clearly said that.”
He said he had a favor to ask me at the end.
“…Could it be.”
My thoughts accelerated.
Centering on the last part of the recent dream, one hypothesis led to another.
“Is the incarnation into a novel, not a phenomenon forcibly carried out by Shin, but rather….”
And I reached a conclusion.
“The result of me accepting Hyung’s request… Could it be?”
My eyes trembled like an acacia tree.
* * *
A week went by quickly.
Every early morning, I received training from Instructor Pi Jin Ho.
Then I went to school for classes.
In the afternoon, I practiced real combat with Shin Jia and Ha Si-yeon.
I exchanged business contacts with Meiden and Yu Hwa in between.
By the time I played a bit with Goldie-White Tiger duo in bed, it was already midnight.
From Monday to Friday, it was a repetition of this.
And today is Saturday.
In the morning, I lightly completed a physical ability measurement using a private training ground I had reserved.
“Good, good.”
As a result, I found that my physical ability is at a D rank, infinitely close to a C rank.
Roughly a D rank (95/99).
Definitely, after fully embodying the elf race, my body’s potential has increased, and the growth in ability is rapidly rising.
I’m quite satisfied with the speed.
Of course, as I approach higher ranks, the growth rate is diminishing, so I can’t be complacent, but the growth is faster than expected anyway.
I should be happy for now.
I took off my training suit and headed to the shower room.
As I stood in front of the shower, numerous tattoos engraved all over my body caught my eye.
“A real tattoo freak.”
But I’m relieved that many have disappeared since full embodiment.
Especially since the dragon tattoo on my back is gone, I don’t know how relieved I am.
“Hmm.”
As I was looking at the tattoos, a thought suddenly struck me.
“The traits of the Angel race and the spirit race are slow to embody, huh?”
It’s natural for Heavenly Wings and Thunder Bolt to be slow since I don’t use them much, but the slow trait of the spirit race is surprising.
Considering how much I’ve used the Spirit’s Flame.
“Is it because it’s a high-rank trait?”
Or am I not using the Spirit’s Flame properly?
In the original, the spirit race used the Spirit’s Flame like magic.
The pinnacle among them was the combined magic of 10 people, ‘The Sanctuary of Spirits.’
Anyway, there was no case like mine, where I cracked it into qi. Is that why it’s slow to embody?
I sneakily tried using the Spirit’s Flame.
“Hmm.”
As expected, I can only radiate it. All I can do is adjust the range.
Otherwise, I can only add the function of burning mana by inserting it into qi.
“…I really used it loosely.”
Thinking about it calmly, I understand why it hasn’t been embodied.
But what can I do?
I want to use the Spirit’s Flame properly, but there’s no way to use it.
Without a way to use magic, there’s nothing I can do.
“Ah. Annoying.”
For two weeks already, I haven’t found any clues.
“…Isn’t this something I can only end up learning from the Dragon Lord later?”
I even had this thought.
No matter how much I think about it, there’s no answer.
“Sigh.”
I let out a small sigh.
* * *
That day at lunch.
I traveled to Gangneung with Goldie and White Tiger.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Ms. Yu Hwa’s secretary personally took us there.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Yes. Have a safe trip up.”
What’s more, they said they would come to pick us up again if we contacted them tomorrow. I’m so grateful.
After the limousine left, we immediately moved on. Our destination was Chilseongsan Mountain. More precisely, it was a ruin somewhere in the middle of Chilseongsan Mountain, the “The Report of Nature Ascending.”
“Will we be able to find it today?”
It was the historical site that we failed to find last time when we searched with Si-yeon and Jia.
We didn’t find the site but instead discovered a gift from Shin (a racial trait encyclopedia).
Today, I didn’t call Jia and Si-yeon.
I have become quite strong in the meantime. With the stronger Goldie, and now White Tiger, I judged that there was no need to call them unnecessarily.
“You two, let me know if you notice anything strange with the magical energy around here.”
At my words, Goldie nodded.
“……”
However, White Tiger, as if ignoring my words, was intently staring in one direction.
“White Tiger?”
Something seemed off.
It was difficult to think that White Tiger had merely turned its head to ignore me. White Tiger’s eyes were firmly fixed on one spot.
“Is there something over there?”
White Tiger ignored me again this time. Instead, it started walking slowly.
In the very direction it was staring at.
“?”
I was tilting my head, wondering why it was behaving that way…when it happened.
Thump-
White Tiger brought its front paw to mid-air.
At that moment,
Whoosh-!
“Whoa!”
Magic energy radiated from White Tiger’s front paw. It was so intense it made my head reel.
“Ugh!”
I closed my eyes and held my head.
A moment later, I shook my head a few times and opened my eyes. White Tiger was looking at me, smiling triumphantly.
“Wow…”
Behind White Tiger was a massive tree, towering as if it were about to pierce the sky like the World Tree.
“So our White Tiger is a cat that performs when it wants to?”
It was the entrance to the “The Report of Nature Ascending.”
< Chapter 102 Dream (2) > End
