Chapter 17
I headed to the school playground again for another experiment.
It was still the early dawn, too early for people to be awake. No need to worry about being seen.
I habitually climbed over the wall and read the skill description again.
[Passive Skill : Open Eyes]
[Description : Open your eyes.]
I blinked.
The description didn't change.
I shook my head and denied reality.
No. There was no way this was a dud. This was the first Platinum-rank skill I'd ever gotten.
“…Truly powerful skills are supposed to have short, concise descriptions.”
Like drawing two cards,
or throwing a spear to deal physical damage.
Simple descriptions like that are proof they're the real deal.
This skill was surely an insanely powerful one, too. It had to be.
I suppressed my unease and focused my mind.
The skill was already active.
I focused on the third eye the skill had opened.
[The user opens their eyes.]
In that instant, a shock hit me, as if my entire body's senses were explosively expanding.
The world looked different.
The flow of mana, which had only ever been a faint sensation before, now appeared in clear form before my eyes.
It wasn't just visual information. I could feel the mana all through my body.
I closed my eyes.
I no longer needed to rely on my eyeballs.
The feel of mana particles floating in the air brushing against my skin.
The energy of the leylines surging up from deep underground like a massive river.
And the strange sense of oneness, as if all of it was connected to me.
Following my intuition, I sat cross-legged and breathed in, then out.
I could feel the tiny god within me, writhing and trembling.
I drew up the endless mana flowing through the air and the ground.
I grew the god with the mana I'd drawn up.
The god, which had been the size of a finger, grew to the size of a fist.
I half-opened my eyes and held out my hand.
“Sand Totem.”
The surroundings darkened.
I slowly raised my head from within the shadows.
A sand giant shaped like me stood there.
“…This won't do.”
The roughly 3-meter-tall sand giant wasn't wearing clothes or anything.
No matter that it's sand, I didn't want to fight while staring up at my own ass.
And especially not show it to other people.
With a sigh, I dismissed the giant sand clone.
The crumbling sand fell back to the ground.
I climbed over the school wall again and headed home.
Familiar dawn streets. But to me, after opening my eyes, everything looked new.
“Hm?”
Then I felt something small moving under the wall.
It was a pigeon. A fat pigeon that looked like it couldn't even fly was bobbing its head stupidly.
In this city, it felt like there were no animals other than cats and pigeons.
“Shoo, shoo.”
As expected, the chicken-pigeon didn't budge even when I pretended to kick it.
It was infuriating that it didn't even pretend to fly away.
If this had been before, I would have just passed it by.
But now I could see something else.
“Is this the pigeon’s mana flow…?”
Inside the chicken-pigeon's body, something small and warm, like a candle flame, was flickering.
A flame that circulated slowly through the chicken-pigeon's body, neither fierce nor strong.
I instinctively understood that this was the source that kept life alive and moving.
It was an astonishing experience.
I stopped for a moment and met the pigeon’s eyes. It felt like I was being sucked into its stupid gaze.
As if under a spell, I reached out my hand.
A small sand bird formed before my eyes.
Slowly, very carefully, I manipulated my mana.
I mimicked the natural breathing of the pigeon before me.
Twitch.
Very slightly, the bird’s head moved.
“Just a little more….”
I focused even more on the living pigeon before me. I had a feeling I could definitely do it now.
That was when it happened.
Flap -
The chicken-pigeon suddenly flapped its wings and flew off into the distance.
At the same time, my concentration broke and the sand bird's shape crumbled.
“No, why is a chicken-pigeon flying through the sky….”
I stood there in a daze, staring at where the pigeon had flown off.
I was so disappointed.
I had been right on the verge of some kind of insight....
Just in case, I looked around the area.
Sure enough, there was another chicken-pigeon.
I tried making a sand bird again.
“Damn….”
It was a failure. No matter how hard I focused, the sand bird wouldn't budge.
I let out a deep sigh of disappointment.
It seemed I'd just been lucky a moment ago.
“At least I confirmed it was possible.”
I decided to think positively.
After stretching once, I went inside the house.
It was time to brag about today's achievement on the gallery.
***
Meanwhile, at that same time, Busan.
Crash-!
The sound of an expensive piece of porcelain shattering echoed through the spacious guild leader’s office.
“Those bastards…! They’re still refusing to cooperate?!”
An enraged woman's voice burst out.
Her name was Jeong Taeyeon.
The guild leader of Hwa-yeon, and one of only nine A-rank Hunters in South Korea.
And one of only five mages.
Unlike her flowing blonde hair, the left side of her face was covered in horrific burn scars.
“...”
The vice guild leader standing before her said nothing, simply looking down at the floor.
“There are less than two weeks left until the tower collapses—what are we supposed to do?
Should I just drag them there by force? Want to taste my fire fist?!”
“The healers are the ones resisting the hardest, so there’s no answer, guild leader.”
“Hah….”
Jeong Taeyeon ran a hand over her face and swallowed her curse.
Healers. The most important position, responsible for the party's survival.
With them at the forefront of the strike, it was impossible to resume the raid by force.
“Figures—cowards who cleared it on Easy Mode.... So, what's the situation with the other towers? Is it the same there?”
“Yes. All guilds nationwide are still suspending their raids.
On the contrary, they're pressuring us to delay the raid as much as possible.”
“What?”
“They say the Busan Hwa-yeon Guild needs to join this strike in order to gain the upper hand in negotiations with the government….”
“Damn them….”
Crack.
Jeong Taeyeon crushed the wooden chair's armrest with her bare hands.
“…Get out.”
The vice guild leader gave a brief nod and hurried out of the guild leader's office.
Left alone, Jeong Taeyeon took rough breaths and suppressed her emotions.
“Hoo….”
She needed something to calm her down.
She opened her desk drawer and was about to take out a comic she'd collected since childhood when she hesitated.
When her emotions got the better of her, parts of her body sometimes turned into flames without her consent.
She couldn't burn a precious comic that had gone out of print and had only a few copies left in the world. That would be a loss for all humanity.
Instead, she turned on her computer and casually logged into the gallery.
The gallery she'd log into today was the Hunter Gallery.
She poured the boiling frustration in her chest into words.
[Title : Are you all seriously out of your minds?]
Author : 마법은화력
Do you seriously think it makes sense to go on strike for better rewards when the tower collapse is right around the corner?
If the tower collapses and the country goes under because of this, we'll all die together.
You need a country before you can even have Hunters.
Look at the soldiers saving your lives right now. Do you think they're risking their lives on the 38th parallel because the rewards are good?
I can only sigh, really.
Stop striking and let's all take part in this raid.
The moment she posted her long criticism, comments began to appear.
ㄴ What kind of template is this?
ㄴ(Severe Punishment meme)
ㄴ You reek of that patriotic boomer stench.
ㄴ If you're so upset, go by yourself lol. Who's forcing you?
“These fucking unpatriotic traitors…!”
Her anger didn't subside; it blazed like an active volcano.
Jeong Taeyeon opened the Mage Gallery to vent her frustration.
[Title : Hah, this strike is seriously pissing me off]
Author : 마법은화력
The tower is about to blow, and you're going on strike over a few pennies. Pathetic bastards.
Because of these guys, the country is on the verge of collapse.
You guys aren't joining the strike too, right?
The moment she posted, p깟쮸 left a comment as if they'd been waiting for it.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : You posted in Hunter Gallery and got roasted, so now you're in Mage Gallery? Waaah, Mage Gallery-mon~ Help me~~ So pathetic.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : Hey, that's a bit harsh.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : And if you're an A-rank mage too, you should be out on the battlefield helping clear the tower—what have you been doing locked away at home for months?
ㄴ p깟쮸 : Not my problem.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : Fine. I'll be coming to Incheon soon.
ㄴ 냉장고 : You two, cut it out already. Jeez. You fight every day;
With Refrigerator's mediating comment as the last word, the gallery fell silent.
A gallery with only four members. If just two people start fighting, the conversation dies and only silence remains.
This was the normal state of the Mage Gallery.
Until recently, before the newbie joined.
“Huh…? It's the newbie?”
A new post broke the silence.
As always, it was a post that changed the gallery's mood.
[Title : The newbie finally got a Platinum-rank skill book]
Author : ㅇㅇ(F4F.444)
[Cleared Floor 6, leveled up, and got a skill.
Got the Extreme clear and rank 1 bonus, so my Silver changed to Platinum lol. Sweet as hell
This skill is a passive called [Open Eyes], apparently
The description literally just had one line—“Open your eyes.”—so I was dumbfounded.
I couldn't find any info on the internet either. Anyone know about it?]
ㄴ 냉장고 : Higher ranks usually have less information. If there's no internal community like this, you're out of luck.
Seeing the nickname 마법은화력, Jeong Taeyeon stared blankly at the post.
Strangely enough, she felt the boiling anger subside as if by magic.
Before she knew it, she was smiling as she typed.
ㄴ 마법은화력 : You got something good. Congrats. That's a super rare skill. I bet our S-rank guy probably has it too, right?
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : Hey, you can't just casually spill state secrets like that....
ㄴ 마법은화력 : You were going to explain it anyway, weren't you?
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : ...Well, yes, but I wanted to be the one to explain it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : So what does it do?
ㄴ 마법은화력 : Mana increase and MP increase. But the boost is ridiculous.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : Hey, let me explain. About that skill—the extra stats keep increasing. It's basically a growth-type skill.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : I still don't know what the trigger for the increase is. But I had the feeling it jumped a lot whenever the field changed in the tower.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Ah, I think you can just absorb mana by breathing. Thanks, thanks.
ㄴ 풍뎅이 : Breathing? What's that supposed to mean now?
The likable newbie who had suddenly appeared one day and kept typing incomprehensible stuff.
The newbie was also more diligent than anyone else about climbing the tower.
Above all, it seemed like the newbie somehow shared her hobby.
What's more, the difficulty level they were taking on was an unknown realm no one had ever been to: Extreme.
By the time they broke through Floor 20 and registered as an official Hunter, they'd surely be a strong enough expert to easily outclass most A-ranks.
Maybe they'd even become stronger than her.
“They might become the second S-rank….”
But Jeong Taeyeon didn't find that fact unpleasant at all.
If anything, her heart raced.
She needed this newbie—no, Korea needed this newbie.
Someone who would help her conquer the tower and put an end to this frustrating situation.