29. My Way

After three months of being an Awakened, I felt like I accomplished something.

I wondered if I ever came back home br.i.m.m.i.n.g with this much confidence before.

Within seconds of ringing the bell, mother opened the door hastily.

Guess she was worried for her one and only son.

“I’m back.”

“… Are you okay, son?”

With a look of worry, she checked for injuries.

You wouldn’t know how touched I was from her expression of worry.

I purposefully raised my tone of voice and answered.

“Mrs. Bak. Have you forgotten our promise at the hospital? That I will not get hurt or die.”

“Thank you. Thank you.”

“It’s all over now. That entire headache inducing interest and even the original debt is gone from this time onward. Before when you were dealing with those three goons, you were amazing. Pulling up your sleeves! Looking straight at them.”

“What are you saying. When did I do that.”

“It was the most beautiful side of you that I have seen. It all starts from here. I’ll get you all the money in the world! Let’s spend lots of money! How about we change our family motto to ‘splurging and living!’ How about it?”

With my expression and tone filled with playfulness, mother smiled brightly.

Her eyes were wet, not with sadness and despair like before, but with happiness and affection.

‘Yes. This is what I wanted most after becoming Awakened.’

A young age of 18.

The Awakened status that found me. And the incredible ability of having infinite mana.

If I put in the effort, no one could stand against me.

I dare anyone to block my path.

I’ll give you the answer to if the afterlife exists or not.

There was only one hour left before I had to attend school. After eating breakfast with mother, I quickly went to my room.

It wasn’t because I was looking forward to the skill books in the shoulder bag. 1

The kelvacore dropped the decent Eye of the Storm support skill last time.

Repressing my expectations, I scanned the skill book.

Personally, I was hoping for an attack skill A rank or above.

After the scan finished, the skill information popped up on the phone.

-Reflect Shield-

Usable Cla.s.s: Bagi Warrior. Paladin. (If obtained by other cla.s.ses, mana cost increases ten fold.)

Mana Cost: 200 (For every 10 skill levels, mana cost increases by 10%.)

Skill Introduction:

* After casting, you are protected by an invisible shield.

* Absorbs physical attacks aimed at the caster.

* With a 10% chance, returns 50% of the damage taken. (For every 10 skill levels, reflection chance increases by 2%, and reflected damage by 1%.)

Cooldown: 30 min.

Duration: 5 min. (For every 10 skill levels, duration increases by 10%.)

Additional Explanation: Can be used simultaneously with other shields.

Skill Book Price: 3.5 million.

I thought it wasn’t a bad skill.

With this, I had 3 defensive shields.

Unlike other shields, Reflect Shield had the ability to deflect damage.

A skill like this compliments a tank cla.s.s.

To tanks that had a low attack capability, it was skill that allowed a chance to reflect physical attacks back to the monsters at a fixed rate.

No matter what, I was going to Awaken all shield type spells, but I was not fan of how the level of the skill affected the reflect chance as well as the amount of damage reflected.

If I was able to master it after Awakening it, the reflection chance would increase by 50%. It was a spell that only reflected physical attacks, but this made me realize there must be skills out there that protect me against magic attacks.

If it wasn’t anything that raised my mana stats, whether equipment or skill, I thought it was the correct decision to obtain it.

As my skill rose, I became more disappointed of the higher ups.

Anyone who had fun leveling would know.

With quick leveling and physical growth as my basis, I thought that I could clear the level 28 dungeon in a single attempt for the first time like ‘Choi So-Hyeon’, the one Tae-Seong could not stop fanboying about.

As if to laugh at all the decades of effort they showed.

My interest for the skill book was brief.

I was distressed about n.o.blesse Park Hyun’s text message.

Today at 6, round two of the guild war would began against Empire.

I planned to head to the n.o.blesse guild’s building today.

In the building of n.o.blesse, 60th floor where Park Hyun’s office room was located, there I was.

5 in the afternoon. Roughly 1 hour before the guild war began.

With the guidance from the intern secretary, I entered the office and dropped the Dark Sword on the conference table.

Wondering what my actions meant, with a small nod, Park Hyun sent all the secretaries out and asked me a question.

“Mr. Min-Cheol. What is it? I was about to move because the guild war was about to begin.”

“I think it’s time to return this sword.”

Hearing my words, she could not hide her confusion any longer and spoke.

“What are you saying…? Do you not like the weapon?”

“No.”

Taking a moment to relax my breathing, I continued.

“I’m quitting the guild.”

“…..”

As I finished my sentence, Park Hyun"s face became cold for a split second.

But she changed her expression again, and in silence, fiddled her thumbs about.

Contemplating for a while, she opened her mouth.

“Hm….. What is it? Is it the requirement to join the guild war?”

“There is no reason. I’m losing my own time.”

“If that’s the reason, instead of making a hasty decision, we can solve it by talking…”

In the middle of her sentence, I cut her off.

And after bowing politely, I spoke.

“I am very thankful that you saved me. I feel a grat.i.tude that I cannot forget for the rest of my life. However, I don’t think that n.o.blesse is where I belong.”

“You won’t even tell me the reason?”

“…..”

She looked straight at me, who remained silent, and asked.

“Is there a scouting offer from another guild? What deal are they offering?”

“No. I just dislike situations where I am underneath another, being ordered around.”

Park Hyun. She was a guild master, taking command over hundreds of Awakened.

It was an incredible display of a poker face.

She was a woman who became scarier the more you learned about her.

My prediction stated that she was going to cling onto me till the end.

But I could not help but be surprised at her next words.

“Well… Okay, sure. Looking at your expression, I don’t think I can hold you no matter what I say. If that’s the case, it can’t be helped. Contracts are contracts. According to the contract we’ve created before, you are free to leave. Without any penalties of course.”

With her words, I could not help but be confused.

“…Yes. I am aware since I searched thoroughly in the contract.”

“If you do not need a guild, then do as you please. But you don’t know how life will turn out. If we meet again and you return, then I sincerely hope that we are together once more.”

Her cryptic words ended, and I was left with both relief and yet felt unsettled.

Was it because my weapon was gone? No.

It must be the doubt I feel towards Park Hyun.

The feeling of confusion was brief. With that, I left the n.o.blesse guild.

“Must I raise my rose knife again?” 2

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30. My Way (2)

The last night of August.

It was the last day of attending school.

The next 3 months! I could focus completely on hunting.

Starting with a month of summer break, and 2 months of hunting in between schooling was what it took to achieve growth like this.

Looking at the full moon of the night sky, it felt like it was foreshadowing that my growth would raise leaps and beyond.

After quitting the guild, different from the usual, I continued to hunt.

I informed Jong Ho about the situation.

At this moment, all my doubts about him vanished, as if all the worrying was a waste of time.

For many days, we met and shared many conversations.

Jong Ho focused mostly on the topic of ‘taking care of oneself’.

His argument was this.

Since it has only been a few days since you left the guild, if they attacked me now, the blame would natural shift to the n.o.blesse guild. So for now, they were lying in wait.

It could be that we’re suspecting them without any solid evidence. 1

But better safe than sorry. I obtained the habit of keep my shields up by rotating through cooldowns after leaving the guild.

‘For joining the wrong guild once, I might develop a phobia.’

In front of the relator building Jong Ho decided to meet at, I gave a call.

It was to find out about the contract involving the safe house.

I was going to reveal the surprise present to mother in 5 days.

“Hyung. Where are you?”

“I’m waiting for the left turn signal. Wait a bit.”

“Okay.”

It didn’t take long for Jong Ho to arrive, sporting a fashion that made me astonished once more.

“Wow….. Even today hyung, that’s something.”

“Since I was coming back from an important meeting, I took the extra effort.”

“Perhaps you do cosplay? You went to a meeting with these clothes? I know I say this constantly, but please stop wearing tight white shirts that stick to your body! Hyung, you look like a raisin… Ha….. Let’s just go.”

“What are you saying kid. White shirts and blue jeans are the symbol of manliness.”

‘If it’s only the white shirt, I’d leave it alone, but what are you going to do about the skull ring on your finger and the chain shackles on your jeans. Sigh.’ I tightly kept a hold of these words and resisted the urge to blurt it out.

Inside the relator building, I checked at the office if there are any listed for sale.

Thankfully there was one that was at an affordable price, near the current location we lived at.

For now, I left after informing them that I will be contacting them within a week.

“Hyung. Did you know I’ve been hunting with a rose knife for almost a week?”

“Right. You said that as you left there, you returned the sword?”

“Yes. Now I’m left with one jewel that was embedded before. Hyung, since we’re here together already, can you come along and help me select a good weapon?”

“Weapon? If that’s the case… allow me the white shirt!”

‘Are you trying to repeat the disaster once more!’ With a straight face, I turned around and waved at him.

“Be careful on the way back hyung. See you later!”

“That’s cruel! How much are you willing to spend?”

“Since I’m buying a new house, the leftover money I have is 200,000 or so. Ah! With the Manticore’s Soulstone, it should be 300,000.”

“Oho, hey. With that much, it won’t be as good as your previous sword, but you should be able to get something usable? 100 strength stat ones should be possible.”

“Is there any weapons or armor that gives me cooldown reduction?”

“Are you playing an online game? Is being an Awakened a joke to you! Argh!?”

Who can stop this energetic man.

As if he saw it from a movie, or perhaps from a trend, he yelled at me with an ugly and awkward expression.

“That expression!”

“Let’s just go for now.”

“But it’s seems really wasteful to buy a sword when I was using one for free. Feels like I’m wasting money.”

“If it seems that wasteful, you can make it all up with hunting.”

“Is there a sword that can match up to Heugdo?”

“Plenty! Swords that cannot even be compared to man stat wise, as well as the shapes that are just killer. But the prices are just too much. They do drop from higher level dungeons though.”

“How much does the decent strength increasing weapons cost? If you say it’s 10 or 20 million, I will punch you in the gut.”

Hearing my words, Jong Ho tried to contain his smile and spoke.

“Million? … You know that the limit of mankind for crafting is an S rank? A sword of that stat can be bought with money. But weapons and items dropped form monsters have an M in front of the rank. An abbreviation for monster. Thus a monster drop M/S weapon cannot be bought even with millions. Even I wouldn’t sell it.”

Previously, I went to the store in front of the manticore dungeon and purchased SA ranking goods.

One of them was the ‘Lich King’s Staff’. The staff that I was holding onto despite being at death’s door.

If the mana stat was replaced with strength, it was a weapon similar to Heugdo.

It was only an M/B ranking weapon, but the prices were from millions to tens of millions.

The Heugdo that I returned as I left the guild probably had the same price.

‘d.a.m.n it… Why did I listen to Jong Ho hyung. Even if a widow bought land, it wouldn’t give me this much of a stomache.’ (TL: Expression for complaint of waste of money.)

Throwing away my regrets with resolve, I asked Jong Ho.

“Where does M/B and M/A rank weapons drop?”

“Level 18 dungeons, but not from ordinary mobs. If you defeat the hidden boss, there is a small drop rate.”

‘What?’

Lv18 dungeons can be easily conquered by someone like me.

But hidden bosses similar to the ‘kelvacore’, and the drop rate is low?

Picking up the regret I’ve tossed away, I wanted to shout ‘Judge….. Please return my Dark Sword. I’m without blame.’

It was almost to the point where I even had stupid thoughts like ‘Park Hyun was really a good person…..’

Picking up my broken mental resolve, I asked more seriously.

“Lv 18 dungeons, the required entry level is 150, right?”

“Of course. Above level 150, and 5 to 6 people. What? Why are you so serious. Are you planning to go there now or something. Hurry up and let’s go buy C or M/D ranking weapons with that 300k.”

“For now, let’s hold off on that. I’ll go first. Hyun! Let’s go have dinner with my mother sometime at a nice restaurant sometime. My treat.”

“Hey. Min-Cheol. I’m saying this just in case, but don’t think about going there recklessly. Do take care.”

“Yes, hyung.”

Level 18 dungeon.

Level 13 to 15 dungeons are immune to magic attacks. Level 16 to 18 dungeons are immune to physical attacks.

Thus, what I need to do now is…

The money that I was going to spend on weapons must be invested in skill books.

With infinite mana, I could cast spells without limit, so my skill levels would probably rise insanely?

My main offensive spells ‘Gravity Laser’ and the ‘Fire Shock’ I ordered from the midget a couple days ago, I planned to Awaken both skills and destroy the level 18 dungeon.

That was the gist of it.

It was fortunate that I did not use the Awakened Essence on Piercing Sword.

A skill that I had #1 priority to Awaken, but to go to the level 18 dungeon where physical attacks do not work, Gravity Laser rose past the ranks of importance.

Maybe I’ll be lucky and get the M/B weapon Jong Ho was talking about.

The rose knife that I thought I would be holding on for the last time, I tightened my grip around it.

‘At least for a week….. I don’t think you’ll be cutting carrots. Sorry.’

The goal is the level 18 dungeon. And to Awaken two magic skills!

“It won’t take long. Let’s go!”

From the small fry, I obtained Bind and Fire Shock spell books.

The three couldn’t look at me in the eyes till the end, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

In the future, if I had more uses for using the underground channels, I’m sure I’ll see them again.

[Will you obtain the Fire Shock skill?]

The sound of narration always excited me.

Without hesitation, I used all the skill books in my hand.

“Hm…. Bind and Hold, I’ll raise later. For now, it’s Fire Shock!”

Fire Shock send out ma.s.sive amounts of flames around me.

It wasn’t a skill that continuously used up mana. Thus, it had a cooldown.

A whole 3 minutes.

It could be considered exaggerating to call 3 minutes that.

However, the skill’s duration was only 10 seconds. Waiting 3 min for 10 seconds, it was a skill far less efficient than Eye of the Storm.

And even if the skill level rises, the duration did not. Only the damage did.

Of course, you really can’t compare a main offensive skill and a support skill.

Range was 15 meters from the caster. Both range and duration was pathetic for the price.

So why did I purchase such a trash-like skill, paying with all that money?

The answer to that is the ma.s.sive increase of damage as it gets closer to lv 100.

There is almost n.o.body who would spend the time and effort to raise a skill like this.

After casting, Fire Shock spewed out enough flames to melt all opponents nearby within 10 seconds.

There was no shape to the flames.

As if from ‘Love and Soul’, the dead’s soul piercing through a person.

The flames would flow deep into the target’s bodies, causing severe lethal harm internally.

Unfortunately, it didn’t reach a satisfying amount of damage until it reaches near lv 100, so most didn’t attempt to raise it. And the skill book didn’t drop easily either. It was a ghost like skill. (TL: Pipe dream. Raise the unraisable, do the impossible, row row fight the power!)

I was planning to Awaken this ghost like skill as well!

“Seems I’ll need a lot of Awakened Essences….. Guess I’ll be seeing the midget and two goons often?”

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31. My Way (3)

I had decided on my current goal.

I needed an M/B or M/A ranking weapon.

The reason I needed a weapon was for the dungeons that were resistant to magic.

For mana stat, no matter how much you raised it, it wouldn’t affect the magic’s damage.

Only the total mana and the recovery rate.

Even the Awakened’s level did not affect the skill’s damage.

No matter how high leveled you were.

If you had the same skill and skill level, you’d do the same damage.

If there is a difference between a low level Awakened and higher leveled Awakened…

Increasing the mana stat to improve your overall mana pool and mana regen, allowing you to continuously cast the strongest skills.

Thus, the important thing to a magician cla.s.s is the ‘skill level’.

That’s why they would be entering the level 18 dungeon.

If you think about it, it’s a hunt for weapons, but I’m skipping from the level 13 dungeon to the level 18 dungeon all at once.

For the average Awakened, the level 13 dungeon’s requirements was a 5 to 6 man party of level 65 minimum.

However, for the level 18 dungeon, you’d have to be a party of 5 to 6 members, all 85 levels higher than before, a group of lv 150s.

It took a minimum of 4 to 5 years of effort to make it possible.

And if you take account of the experience points and equipment befitting these members, there was a huge gap between me and them.

The amount of experience points you could earn would be on a different level.

The experience you could earn from the manticore dungeon would be 12 million or so.

By clearing the succubi dungeon once, you could receive up to 80 million experience. Just by the dungeon level increasing by 1, there was this much of a difference.

Of course, it’s biased since I was able to defeat the revival succubi as well in the level 13 dungeon.

My current level is 95.

I was able to achieve what would’ve taken others 3 years in only 3 months.

Roughly speaking, I had 12 times the growth speed of others.

A regular Awakened’s year would be only a month to me. But this isn’t the end.

Because the gap will only increase from here on out.

The skill and level growth rate only being 12 times higher?

No. I was sure that at the minimum, it would be 50 times.

It was like hitting the cheat key in BattleNet and casting ‘Psionic Storm’ that a ‘High Templar’ uses?

I didn’t think of stupid thoughts like ‘I’ll go to the level 18 dungeon when my level meets the requirements.’

Raising my main attack skill and shield to level 100! That was my requirement for entering the level 18 dungeon.

It was the time of year that nights became longer than day, and cold winds from morning till evening blew.

Time had pa.s.sed to the point where I had to flip the calendar past October.

The safe house Jong Ho and I looked for before, we were able to match the timing of moving in with her birthday.

After the move, I went around to my neighbors to giving welcoming rice cakes around, and most reacted like this. 1

‘There are people who still do this?’ or ‘They are coming in because they won the lottery,’ was the general response.

I was a little disappointed.

But I really liked the home that was going to give peace and rea.s.surance to my mother and my heart.

Since I was earning a lot more than what I thought, it was time for me to whip myself back into shape from a period of relaxation.

Happiness I obtained through difficulties.

I cannot have it stolen.

I cannot have it crushed.

I only hope that it’ll stay this way.

Finally today. I was able to reach level 100 in all skills with the exception of "Frost Orb’, ‘Heal’, ‘Hold’, and ‘Bind’.

For ‘Eye of the Storm’, since the increase in level didn’t do much, I leveled it up on to 70 and stopped it there.

I only hunted to level my skills, but ended up naturally leveling to 108.

If Jong Ho heard about this, he would probably fall over backwards and faint.

The only reason I was able to achieve such a satisfying result was diligence.

I could get rid of fatigue and physical wounds with Heal.

However, there was the hindrance known as ‘sleep’.

This was something that Heal couldn’t cure.

But I found even time used for sleep a waste. I wanted to grow even quicker.

I even searched for magic that would get rid of sleep.

The time I allowed myself was 6 hours.

This period of time did not only include sleep, but also for eating and taking care of myself.

Other than that, I only focused on hunting. 18 hours a day succubi hunting.

It was a brutal training. However on Sundays, I would take a break no matter what happened.

I was growing stronger for happiness, so I wouldn’t skip time with my mother.

Returning from the hunting grounds, I opened a safe in the corner of my room to retrieve the Awakened Essence.

And without hesitation, Awakened Gravity Laser.

I held the skill book against my chest and thought about Awakening the Gravity Laser.

Then.

[Would you like to Awaken Gravity Laser?]

Look at this kind narration provided by this noona.

I know this would be impossible, but I wanted to meet her someday and take her out for dinner.

“This is great.”

After Awakening the spell, the status window that showed Gravity Laser had a star in front of it, and the skill’s level became 1.

The required experience to level was 98 million.

Before Awakening, the experience required to level up the skill from level 1 was 100. It felt like the difference was too steep.

Finishing the Awakening, all preparations to enter the level 18 dungeon was perfect.

I arrived in front of the dungeon entrance, located in Nowon. 2

Guri, where I was currently living at, was 30 min away from the entrance. 3

Since I could not find any level 18 dungeons nearby, I was forced to waste 1 hour a day traversing.

Preparation was complete, and I could see the dungeon entrance before my eyes.

“Is there a need to hesitate?”

Dungeon is being activated.

The interior of the dungeon was something completely different from what I’ve seen so far.

A narrow rural road of 5m wide.

Each side of the road was accompanied by darkness that seemed to swallow light itself, which I found to be cliffs.

If felt as though if I fell, I would go straight down to h.e.l.l.

Not only were the cliffs, but the ceiling and everywhere else was covered in complete darkness.

The only thing that had color in my sights was the rural road.

‘If there was a road the grim reaper would guide people through, would it be like this?’ was what I was considering.

Sightseeing ends here.

Without hesitation, I started to run.

I wonder how much time has pa.s.sed.

When the entrance seemed smaller than a fingernail.

I heard the cries of the monsters ahead.

When I looked at where the sound came from, the first one I noticed was the ‘Poison Naga.’

The owner of the sharp piercing cry was the ‘Griffon.’

And next to it, there was a ghastly faded form.

It was exactly as I learned.

Until now, all dungeons had a single type of monster.

However, from level 16 and beyond had 2 to 5 different types of monsters mixed in.

For the level 18 dungeon that I’ve entered, it featured 3 different types of monsters.

If the variety of monsters increase, the different defense and attack become difficult to deal with.

Melee and ranged monsters, as well as monsters that use special abilities.

The reason why 5 to 6 members enter together as a party was to execute the correct strategies that work against the different monsters.

Even if physical attacks didn’t work, this was why tanks such as Paladins and Dragonite Warriors are needed. 4

Amongst the warrior cla.s.s, the tank was treated like royalty.

Without being carried, it could keep growing.

But is that really important.

‘Even today, I’ll do it by myself!’

As the Griffons Fear 5 rang out, I casted the ‘Awakened Gravity Laser’ to max range and ran full speed.

It was an attack skill that attacked anything within 100m without discrimination, regardless of what monsters and life forms they were.

The attack had begun the moment I could tell their shapes clearly.

All lasers within range were firing out in all directions.

I could not help but be surprised as I closed the distance between me and them.

“Huh? What the?”

Awakened Gravity Laser had a different thickness and color.

The thickness and clearness could not be compared to the previous version before Awakening.

Even when it got near level 100, it never showed crushing force like this.

It was as 3 times as thick, a mixture of red and blue powerful laser that poured out.

Through Awakening, the skill’s increase in power had increased to eye opening levels.

“Guess this is the reason why everyone focuses so much on money. Let’s kill!”

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