Chapter 4
“Amusement…?”
I stared blankly at Katarina.
I heard the YouTuber on the screen was a pretty high-tier A-Rank Class Awakener.
It’s wrong to call it an amusement while watching such a strong person get beaten to a bloody pulp by an Orc Boss.
“Katarina, does that look like a joke to you?”
“Yes. I do not understand why you, Master, would go out of your way to watch the struggles of such lowly bugs.”
She tilted her head as if she genuinely couldn’t understand.
Her eyes remained perfectly calm and emotionless.
It didn’t feel like a bluff, but like she truly didn’t know.
“Huh? Really?”
Then again, she’s the first Retainer with an EX-Rank Class Skill I pulled.
Could it be, Katarina? Is she strong enough to easily clear that Nightmare Difficulty?
“S-still… doesn’t that orc guy seem pretty strong?”
“Hmm. To me, it looks extremely weak. But my experience is still shallow compared to yours, Master, so it might just be my ignorance.”
Katarina focused on my words and stared intently at the video again.
“…”
Just what does she think my level is?
I’m a level 1 Awakener who just awakened, you know!
I don’t even have a proper Combat Skill.
I checked the Skills [Vampirism] and [Embrace] in the Stat Window earlier, but they weren’t exactly Combat Skills that had direct destructive power.
In other words, my class, “Lord of Blood”, was a complete Summoner-type class.
It was safe to say that my main body’s combat power was incredibly insignificant.
[Strength: 3]
[Agility: 4]
[Stamina: 3]
I thought of my pathetic Stat Window and seriously pondered.
Honestly, at this rate, haven’t I become even weaker than Before Awakening?
Right around the time I was inwardly swallowing my tears.
“I apologize, Master.”
Katarina, who had been staring at the screen, bowed her head.
“No matter how much I look, I simply cannot find any strength there… could you, Master, bestow your teachings upon this foolish Servant?”
Uh…
Umm.
W-well. You see. Actually, I think my stats are pretty trash.
I opened my mouth to confess the truth to Katarina.
I wasn’t in a position to build up my pride anyway, so I just wanted to be honest and play it safe.
But the body of this silver-haired little kid felt like it was stubbornly rejecting my weakness.
Those pathetic words simply wouldn’t leave my mouth.
“A-ahem. I was merely testing your eye. Of course they are nothing but weaklings!”
In the end, these were the words that popped out without my realizing it.
At that, Katarina’s eyes sparkled.
“Ah…! Such a profound intention…! Then has my eye passed the test?”
“Uh… Indeed.”
“Master, it is truly an honor!!”
She immediately stood up from her spot and gave me a 90-degree bow.
No, what do I do about this crazy bluff?
My insides churned with mortification.
“Haa, this damn [Exalted Dignity] Skill really…”
In this state, it felt like it would forever be impossible to confess the truth to Katarina.
I let out an inward sigh of resignation and returned to the main topic.
“Then you can clear Nightmare Difficulty.”
“Of course! Just give the order.”
Fortunately, Katarina was overflowing with confidence.
I searched through the announcements on the Hunter Gallery with my Smartphone. Just in case, I double-checked the rules of the Tower of Trials system.
Fortunately, the tower allowed the entry of accompanied “summons or Retainers perfectly bound to oneself”.
“Legal carry available!”
On the outside, I still haughtily raised my chin and spoke with my arms crossed.
“Hmph. Good. I suppose I should check if My Servant is useful.”
But the height difference between Katarina and me was so huge that it couldn’t be helped that I ended up looking way up at her.
Ugh, my neck hurts.
I took a deep breath and shouted inwardly at the empty air.
“Tower of Trials: Enter.”
Ring!
A translucent System Window popped up in the air.
[Would you like to enter the Tower of Trials?]
[This is your first entry. Please set a nickname.]
“A nickname…”
I recalled the information I had picked up over people’s shoulders on Heon-gael.
I heard that Nickname Change had a strict limit on the number of times it could be done, so it had to be chosen very carefully.
“They said it could be set to private too.”
Of course, later on when you become a Named Hunter, it’s advantageous in many ways to reveal your nickname and be active, but they said it was fine to keep it private at first if it felt burdensome.
I reached out my small hand to tap the virtual keyboard on the System Window.
However, before my fingers could even touch it, my lips moved on their own.
“This body’s name is Jinjo (True Ancestor). It is a Great Source of Blood.”
[Your nickname has been set to “Jinjo (True Ancestor)”.]
“…Crazy?!”
No. I thought the [Exalted Dignity] Skill only changed my way of speaking to be rude, but I didn’t know it would even give me a nickname on its own!
What do you mean, Jinjo!
Startled by the nickname overflowing with eighth-grader syndrome, I immediately tried to change it.
[The set nickname cannot be changed yet.]
“Haa…”
There were no take-backs.
'Jinjo,' seriously.
If my nickname gets revealed later, how am I supposed to walk around with my head held high from embarrassment?
‘Argh, whatever! Let’s just make some money first.’
I’ll have to try to change it somehow later.
[The floor you can currently enter is the 1st Floor.]
[Please select the difficulty for the Tower of Trials 1st Floor.]
[Easy / Normal / Hard / Nightmare]
I glanced at Katarina and then firmly pressed the red button at the very end.
[Nightmare].
Honestly, I was a little scared. No, I was very scared, but Katarina was so confident that I decided to trust her and go for it.
Because you can only visit the tower exactly once a week, if I started on Easy, it would take a really long time.
[Entering 1st Floor Trial, Nightmare Difficulty.]
[Wait Time: 1 minute]
After I waited 1 minute, the scenery of my cozy Studio Apartment disappeared and I was moved to a new space.
A massive colosseum-shaped Circular Arena.
It was the background I had seen on YouTube earlier.
“Tower of Trials 1st Floor”.
This place is what you’d call a combat Tutorial for hunters, where only [Awakeners level 10 or below] can enter.
Of course, even if it’s called a Tutorial, Nightmare Difficulty boasts such a terrible level of difficulty that even active A-rank hunters would find it hard to clear if they came with their level 10 specs.
To clear it smoothly, you had to be an Upper A-rank or higher.
“Chweeeeeek!”
An angry roar echoed loudly through the arena.
In front of me, an Orc Boss a hundred times more gruesome and massive than what I saw on the YouTube screen was flashing its Blood-red Eyes.
‘C-crazy! It’s way bigger than what I saw on the screen earlier!’
It was obvious that if I even got grazed by that huge club the bastard was holding, my frail body would literally turn into a puddle of blood in 1 second.
[The trial will begin in 10 seconds.]
10.
9.
8…
The countdown started immediately.
I was feeling extremely anxious inside.
Katarina, you can beat that guy, right? Really?
Please do something about it!
“Katarina, show your Master a level of Skill worthy of me.”
However, because of the [Exalted Dignity] effect, I couldn’t even hide behind Katarina, and could only stand up straight and say this.
“Understood.”
Katarina bowed her head politely to me, then glared toward the orc.
“…How dare you.”
The voice of Katarina standing beside me grew chillingly cold.
It was a voice imbued with a creepy murderous intent, on a completely different level from the gentle voice she had used to speak to me just moments ago.
The aura exuding from her body was no joke.
What I felt when she was first summoned in the Studio Apartment wasn’t even murderous intent.
This was true murderous intent.
It was to the point where even I, standing next to her, wanted to surrender.
“A trivial creature like you dares to scream so loudly at my Master.”
3,
2,
1.
[The trial begins!]
“Pay for that sin. With your death.”
Katarina slowly raised her right hand.
I squinted and watched the sight.
I thought she was going to use some kind of flashy Magic.
But she merely flicked her finger lightly once.
Snap!
Booooooom!!!
“…Huh?”
I doubted my eyes.
The moment I blinked, it was over.
The entire upper half of the Giant Orc Boss had been blown away.
The massive lower half, left vainly without its owner, collapsed to its knees with a thud.
A massive amount of the orc’s disgusting green blood splattered on the floor, but not a single drop splashed our way.
I blankly opened my mouth.
What? What just happened?
I didn’t even see it at all.
Did Katarina move? Or was it Magic?
“Master.”
Without a single drop of blood on her and her neat attire completely unruffled, Katarina knelt at my feet.
“I have disposed of the trash that dared to oppose my Master.”
“Uh… how did you do that?”
“I turned blood into hundreds of bullets and fired them at high speed.”
So what that means is this.
She just shot several drops of blood.
But it produced enough physical Force to grind away that huge upper body without a trace?
I barely calmed my pounding heart and looked up at the translucent System Window floating in the air.
[Trial 1st Floor (Nightmare) Cleared!]
[Clear Time: 00 minutes 01 seconds]
1 second.
Truly, the boss of Nightmare Difficulty was deleted in exactly 1 second.
“Ha… haha…”
Ring! Ring!
[You have cleared the trial.]
[Level Up.]
[Rewards will be distributed.]
[Clear Time is under 1 minute.]
[Additional Reward will be distributed!]
[You have achieved a World Record!]
[Your achievement has been recorded in the system!]
I stared blankly at the system windows popping up wildly before my eyes and thought.
It seems that I.
I might have obtained a retainer who is way more freaking awesome than I thought.