< chapter 65: Connections are Power (3) >
I had a good talk with Maiden.
This will increase the density of my plan.
It’s amazing how things went so smoothly.
I had prepared a lot of things to persuade Maiden, but I didn’t expect him to say okay in one shot.
“Did Yu Hwa tell you something in advance?”
I wondered if they had talked to each other before, after hearing that I wanted to meet Maiden.
“…No.”
She seemed to hear about Doppelganger, Kim Shinwoo, and Vagabond for the first time.
So, they didn’t have any prior conversation.
“Then what is it?”
I pondered with my chin in my hand.
Maiden Critines.
A fairly important supporting character in the original work, a superhuman with a unique trait of creating dungeons.
She had also made a fortune from the shelter-type dungeon she created with her trait.
The only thing that was peculiar about the character of Maiden was her affection for the protagonist.
It wasn’t a ‘love’ between men and women, but a parental affection. Something like ‘maternal love’.
“It was strange.”
The process of Maiden becoming the protagonist’s ally was without any ‘logic’.
She just appeared at some point and started to favor the protagonist at some point. There was no reason.
At that time, I just thought it was a setting to make an ally for the protagonist.
But now that the novel has become a reality, there won’t be such an artificial change of heart.
“Then there must be a reason why he favored the protagonist.”
A reason that was not described in the novel.
A story that would have been told from Maiden’s point of view.
There was a high probability that there was such a thing.
“Meow.”
“Oh. Did you wake up?”
Maybe it was because I kept groaning.
Goldie, who was sleeping in my arms, woke up. He looked at me with sleepy eyes.
“Sorry. Go back to sleep.”
I gently stroked Goldie’s head. He soon nodded off and fell asleep again.
Today is Thursday.
It’s been four days since I saw him on Monday morning, and I missed him so much.
Goldie felt the same way, as he almost went crazy when he saw me.
Thanks to that, I played with him for over an hour, and now we’re lying on the bed together.
I brushed Goldie’s fur and finished my thoughts.
…Well, let’s move on from Maiden’s matter.
There are still questions, but what matters now is the result rather than the cause.
The result that Maiden agreed to help me with my plan is important.
Plus, I got Yu Hwa’s help too.
It worked out well in many ways.
What do I have to do next?
I decided to review what I had to prepare for next.
First of all, I don’t have to do anything right away for the national war terror prevention, as Maiden and Yu Hwa agreed to take care of it.
Second, the practical exam.
The practical exam itself was suspended and postponed due to the Poseidon rampage incident, so there will surely be a retest.
I have to prepare for that practical exam.
…Well, this too, I agreed to get extra points as a reward for solving this case, so there won’t be much problem in reaching the rank I aimed for.
I can’t even prepare for it anyway, since I don’t know what kind of retest it will be.
This is also a pass.
Third, dealing with the villains affiliated with the Saviors of Truth who came to investigate Korea due to the Vagabond incident.
There hasn’t been any movement so far, so it seems that the executives are not moving either.
The general affiliated villains are likely to be moving.
Of course, this too is not something to worry about much. As long as my information doesn’t reach their ears, they can’t harm me directly.
The only thing I’m worried about is the safety of Shinwa Group and Bihon Guild, who took care of Vagabond themselves.
But this too is not something to worry about unless the executives move directly.
So this is also a pass.
The next episode will happen within the academy, so I just have to act accordingly then.
“…Hmm.”
I came to the conclusion that there was nothing I had to do urgently for now.
Did I miss anything?
I reviewed my thoughts again.
And I came to the same conclusion.
“That’s good?”
This is a golden opportunity for growth.
If there are no variables, about a month.
That month is the gap between episodes.
During this period, let’s focus on getting stronger.
The course of action was decided.
“Ah.”
Right.
The course of action is one thing.
There was something I had to sort out.
I gently put Goldie down next to the bed and got up.
I sat at the desk and opened a new notebook.
What should I name the notebook?
Yeah. Let’s go with this.
[The thoughts of the people around me.]
A notebook to sort out the perception of me by the surrounding characters.
I felt the need to sort it out. It was getting too complicated, and the interactions between the surrounding characters began to happen, so there was a possibility that my identity would be exposed.
I wanted to prepare for that time.
[Shin Jia: Half-elf (Angel+Elf), Savior of the World.]
First of all, Jia is nothing to worry about.
She would believe me even if I said I made soy sauce with bean paste, so as long as I don’t get caught that I’m not an elf, this relationship will continue.
[Yu Hwa : A cadet who hides his power. Well-informed about the Saviors of Truth. Has a grudge against the Saviors of Truth.]
Yu Hwa is a bit complicated.
But well, it’s all true in a way.
He’s perfect in hiding that he has ‘no power’.
[Ha Si-yeon: Angel. Master. Savior of the World.]
Ha Si-yeon is somewhat similar to Jia in perception. It’s just a matter of whether he knows me as an Angel or an Angel+elf.
[Pi Jin Ho: The second Weapon Master who possesses the Master of Weapons.]
This is no problem at all.
As long as I have ‘the Extreme of Weapons’, it’s true that I have ‘the Master of Weapons’.
[Choi Ji-hoon: Sunshine orphanage experiment site. System transcendence project survivor.]
This is also the same.
It’s not a misunderstanding, but a fact.
It really happened.
[Hermit: Great Spirit, Unknown’s enemy.]
Hermit has ‘the Oath of the Great Spirit’ on him. He’s bound by the prohibition not to reveal my information, so there’s nothing to worry about.
[Maiden: Probably similar to Yu Hwa in perception.]
Maiden is just sharing thoughts with Yu Hwa.
[Ail Chris: A fun and unique kid.]
Collector.
I honestly don’t know about this guy.
He’s just a guy who likes anything fun, and anyone who gives him dragon artifacts is on his side! He also has such thoughts.
[Unknown: Not recognized.]
This is not relevant yet, but I decided to write down Unknown too.
“…Wow.”
Looking at what I wrote, it’s really a big party.
It was just to hide that I had no system.
How did it come to this?
“Sigh.”
But there’s no way to fix this.
I can’t just say ‘Actually, I’m nothing and I’m a loser with a system error!’ now.
“…Would it have been better if I had been honest and told everything from the beginning?”
When Jia first came to me.
If I had told her everything honestly then…
“No.”
That’s not it.
In this world, having a system is natural.
It’s not 99.99% probability, but 100%.
There are no exceptions.
Only monsters and beasts don’t have systems.
So, saying ‘I don’t have a system.’ means ‘I’m not human.’ ‘I’m a beast or a monster.’
That’s why I couldn’t tell the truth.
…There was also a reason why it would be ‘the end of my life’ if the Saviors of Truth heard that I didn’t have a system.
“Sigh.”
I can’t help it.
I’ve already crossed a river that I can’t go back.
“I have no choice but to push through with this.”
* * *
Friday morning.
I headed to the personal training room as usual.
“Good morning.”
Pi Jin Ho, who was exercising, put down the equipment and got up from his seat.
“Good morning.”
He came to me with a light greeting. Then he carefully examined my body parts.
“I don’t see anything related to the lightning attribute on your body.”
I thought he was checking my physical condition, but he was checking the lightning attribute?
“Your physical condition is fine. You can train without any problem.”
Ah. He checked my physical condition too.
“Okay. Let’s hear some stories about the lightning attribute.”
Pi Jin Ho smiled with a happy expression.
“It’s a new skill I acquired. The name is ‘Thunderbolt’. It’s a skill that converts the magic condensed in the air into lightning, rather than changing the nature of the magic inside the body.”
Thunderbolt is different from the Flame of Engraving.
‘The Flame of Engraving’ literally changes the attribute of the body,
Thunderbolt is simply a skill that drops lightning using magic.
“Is it a special skill that doesn’t affect the magic vessels?”
“Yes.”
There was no change in the body, so he couldn’t confirm it with his eyes of mystery.
“It’s a sloppy skill that I’m embarrassed to call a dual attribute.”
The cheat of attribute magic is versatility.
As Ha Si-yeon’s Ice Queen does, most of the attribute magic boasts insane performance.
But my ‘Thunderbolt’ is just dropping lightning.
It’s a versatility that I’m embarrassed to call attribute magic.
…Of course, depending on the amount of magic, it’s also a cheat skill that can deal powerful damage enough to beat other attribute magic.
“No. That’s a clear dual attribute.”
Pi Jin Ho smiled faintly.
“The versatility of attribute magic is definitely important. But more important than that is ‘the damage amplification due to the attribute compatibility’.”
Attribute compatibility.
As in the case of Poseidon, the water guardian who took a lot of damage from lightning, there is a clear ‘compatibility’ in the attributes of this world.
To summarize, it’s like Pokemon.
“What if the versatility is low? You have fire attribute magic, which has the best versatility. Thunderbolt is just a trump card that you can save.”
Pi Jin Ho lifted his lips.
“I think I’ll see a lot of your merit when underwater monsters rampage in Korea in the future.”
“…Haha. Then I’ll have to increase my magic power a lot.”
Thunderbolt can only be used twice even if I wear [Mana’s Grace] and activate magic sensitivity.
Even then, I’m sure I’ll collapse like this time.
“Okay. There’s still plenty of time. Don’t be too impatient.”
“Yes.”
Pi Jin Ho patted my back lightly.
“I’m a little late. I’ll start with morning training right away. I can’t do anything about your magic, but leave your body to me. I’ll make you A-rank for sure.”
“Yes.”
I decided to exercise with joy.
A little later.
“…Kheuk. Heup.”
“You still have three left. Don’t lose strength in your arms!”
If it’s not hard, it’s not training.
Pi Jin Ho’s motto.
“Two more!”
“Kkeueuueup!”
I think I heard that my physical ability stats have risen overall to E-rank (70/99).
It’s harder than when I was F-rank.
“Last!”
The magic word last.
I squeezed out the remaining strength.
“Rest!”
“Kheukeuk.”
I immediately fell to the floor with a thud. Then I lay down flat.
“Heup··· Heoheup.”
I thought I would hear the Arabic version of last, Morse code, or the C language version.
Fortunately, it was really last.
“That’s it for today’s training. Good job.”
“Tha, thank you, sir….”
I had no strength to speak.
The instructor looked at me sharply.
“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”
I asked if he was going to make me exercise more.
“I’m amazed by your amazing speed of physical recovery. It got even faster after your skeleton changed last time.”
He was talking about the change in my body structure due to complete elfization.
“It’s amazing that it’s natural recovery.”
The instructor smiled proudly and nodded his head repeatedly.
“At this rate, I think it won’t be too hard to reach D-rank by next week before the tournament starts.”
“…Tournament?”
Suddenly, what tournament?
“Oh. It was supposed to be announced this morning. I was too hasty.”
Pi Jin Ho cleared his throat.
“Well, you’ll find out in an hour anyway. It doesn’t matter if I tell you in advance.”
Ah. Is it that?
“The retest is scheduled for next Wednesday.”
Sure.
That’s right.
“The test method is a tournament. A personal tournament that will last for three days.”
“That’s a very basic way of doing it.”
Tournament.
A traditional and very basic test method.
“Yeah. Until 13 years ago, the practical test was always a tournament. You know that.”
I roughly knew it from the research I did in the test preparation stage.
“Then, is the winner’s benefit revived?”
“Did you know that too?”
Winner’s benefit.
If that benefit was revived, this test would be a great opportunity for me.
“Yeah. The benefit was revived too.”
The instructor smiled.
“The tournament winner will be given the right to participate in the national war.”
He saw a sparkle in my eyes.
“That’s nice.”
I had a reason to win.
“You have a lot of energy in your eyes.”
“Of course.”
“Then let’s start the second part of the exercise.”
please …
