One of the powerful seniors was at a glance a marksman.
He wore modern clothing and was armed with an assortment of firearms.
The other was dressed plainly with nothing more than a robe draped over his clothes, but a reptilian tail hung behind his legs.
It wasn’t particularly surprising to Seo Ye-in.
…Godfather.
The Underworld Dragon King and the Meteor Dragon would occasionally let their tails show as well.
Just like them, the second powerful senior was probably a dragon.
The two seniors stepped forward at the same time, then paused when they noticed each other.
Apparently, they hadn’t decided beforehand who would take the lead.
They immediately began discussing it among themselves, and it seemed to go something like this.
– You can yield this time.
– No. You get lost.
Neither side looked remotely willing to back down.
Maybe they simply didn’t get along very well. Maybe they both wanted the chance to teach the junior who had finally come to visit. Or maybe it was both.
“……”
Growing bored, Seo Ye-in turned her head.
The other powerful seniors surrounding them were all watching her with great interest.
Judging from the atmosphere, they seemed to be saying things like,
– What dazzling talent!
– Truly magnificent.
– It’s not my field, but I’d love to teach her.
– Why don’t we let those two keep arguing and take her ourselves?
Perhaps sensing the crisis, the first and second powerful seniors stopped bickering and stood side by side.
It seemed they had given up on monopolizing her and decided to teach her together instead.
One of them casually beckoned with a hand, apparently asking to see what she could do.
Following the gesture, Seo Ye-in raised her magic gun and prepared to fire.
But something seemed to displease the two seniors. They simultaneously shook their heads and stopped her.
“……?”
The dragon senior then raised one hand high above his head.
Only then did Seo Ye-in realize what the two of them wanted to see.
“…Ultimate technique.”
– Nod.
– Nod.
This time, however, Seo Ye-in shook her head.
“My luck will get worse.”
And it’ll make me sad too.
If she used it, she’d end up as a gloomy bundle of misfortune for a week, or perhaps even longer.
Not only would she suffer herself, but the people around her would have a hard time as well.
Kim Ho, in particular, would end up carrying much of the burden.
For that reason, she had no intention of using it unless absolutely necessary.
Even so, the powerful seniors simply waved their hands as if it were nothing.
– It’s fine, it’s fine.
– You have nothing to worry about.
“……?”
Seo Ye-in tilted her head, then decided to give it a try.
She had no real reason to trust them, but somehow she had a feeling everything would be fine.
Sssssss…….
As she raised a hand above her head, her hair that was once nearly ash gray gradually turned white, and her entire body became enveloped in a radiant white glow.
The next moment, a huge pillar of light shot skyward.
Whooooooooooosh—!
It pierced straight through the ceiling.
Perhaps it had opened at precisely the moment she unleashed her ultimate technique.
The pillar of light soon dissolved into a shower of stars that rained down around her, and as Seo Ye-in received them, she took aim with her magic gun.
Fwaaaaaaaah—!
Dozens and hundreds of shining stars burst from the muzzle.
At the sight, Senior One and Senior Two were visibly startled.
The attack was astonishingly powerful for someone so vastly their junior.
They immediately abandoned their plan of casually blocking it with a flick of the hand and darted to either side.
Seo Ye-in tracked them with the barrel of her gun, continuing to unleash wave after wave of stars.
Fwaaaaaaaah—!
Still, they were powerful seniors for a reason.
They seemed every bit as capable as Kim Ho had confidently claimed.
Each dealt with the ultimate technique in their own way.
The marksman returned fire, while the dragon swept out an immense surge of power to neutralize the incoming stars.
Ratatatatatatatata!
Fwaaaaaaaah—!
Not long after the exchange began, Seo Ye-in’s hair gradually returned to its gray color.
The duration of her ultimate technique had come to an end.
“…….”
The powerful seniors gestured to the blankly standing Seo Ye-in, encouraging her with signs that she’d done well.
Then they adopted unusually serious stances, as though they intended to demonstrate something themselves.
…Ultimate techniques.
The entire area grew heavy with an overwhelming pressure.
The marksman moved first.
His body and magic gun shifted slowly, and for a moment it seemed as though they had split into dozens, then hundreds.
But it wasn’t merely an afterimage.
Countless gun barrels erupted with blue flames all at once.
Ratatatatatatatata—!
Magic bullets streaked outward in brilliant blue trails, spreading in every direction.
Like a peacock fanning its magnificent tail.
The curtain of bullets then converged, aimed solely at Seo Ye-in.
At nearly the same moment, the dragon made his move as well.
Floating about an inch above the ground, he raised one hand over his head.
Whooooooooooooosh—
An immense surge of power whirled through the air, warping the surrounding space.
It soon gathered together and compressed into a sphere no larger than a small ball.
Then it flew straight toward Seo Ye-in.
“…So strong.”
Her gray eyes sparkled as they shifted between the two ultimate techniques.
Boooooooom—!
***
After accepting the invitation, Seo Ye-in had remained with her eyes closed for quite a while.
Why is this taking so long?
Grandpa Moyong and Father-in-law and Mother-in-law No. 3 hadn’t taken nearly this long.
And it wasn’t like she’d drag things out herself.
I quietly studied Seo Ye-in’s face.
Then, all of a sudden, I had a suspicious feeling and spoke up.
“Hey. You’re back, aren’t you?”
“……”
“You are. So why are you still keeping your eyes closed?”
“…Sleepy.”
“You’re not seriously planning to sleep here, are you?”
Apparently thinking I had a point, Seo Ye-in gave a slight nod.
She tugged on my sleeve and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“The special training room.”
“So because you can’t sleep here, you’re going there to sleep?”
– Nod.
“It’s still the middle of the day, though.”
“…Sleepy.”
Her eyelids were already beginning to droop.
From experience, I knew that if she got to this point, trying to force her awake would only result in her falling asleep on her feet.
So I offered a compromise.
“If you’re going to sleep, at least finish what you were doing first. What happened in there that made you so sleepy?”
“I used my ultimate technique.”
“Your ultimate technique?”
– Nod.
“Tell me everything. Start from the beginning.”
“Two of them came out.”
“The powerful seniors?”
Seo Ye-in gave another small nod, then repeated exactly what she’d said before receiving the invitation.
“Why did you lie?”
“I didn’t.”
“No trying to weasel out of it.”
“I really didn’t know.”
Up until now, only one had ever appeared at a time.
Before she could continue pressing the issue, I quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, who showed up?”
“……”
Seo Ye-in described their appearances in broad terms.
Just as I’d expected. A marksman and a dragon.
For the record, I’ve raised quite a few dragons myself.
I also had a pretty good idea why those two had appeared.
When you think about it, she’s basically a hybrid class.
Since she could wield at least part of the Meteor Dragon’s power, it wasn’t quite right to call her a pure gunslinger.
Both paths were open to her at once.
“So you even used your ultimate technique to show them?”
“Mhmm.”
“I’d say it was worth it, but you’ll have to be careful for a while. Your luck’s going to tank.”
At that, Seo Ye-in tilted her head slightly.
“…It’s okay.”
“What do you mean, it’s okay?”
“My luck is good.”
“Really?”
To make sure, we decided to settle it with a game of rock-paper-scissors.
“Rock, paper—”
“—Scissors.”
“Rock, paper—”
“—Scissors.”
As a result, Seo Ye-in won most of the games.
It really seemed like the ultimate technique’s penalty didn’t apply.
Looks like the inner world is treated separately.
Come to think of it, that had been true of every previous case.
Everyone who entered after receiving an invitation had been thoroughly beaten up by S-rank heroes, yet none of them had suffered any lasting harm.
Elder Moyong coughing up blood had been due to the shock and the enlightenment he gained.
The same probably applied to ultimate techniques.
“Since it turned out this way, you should use it every time you go in. Think of it as practice.”
“Good idea……”
“Anyway, what happened after you used your ultimate technique?”
“I showed them.”
“The powerful seniors? Showed them what?”
“A powerful ultimate technique.”
As if recalling what she’d witnessed back then, Seo Ye-in’s sleepy eyes lit up with excitement.
Curious about what they had used to get that reaction, I asked.
“I think the marksman used Fire Web.”
“Fire Web……!”
It was a skill that unleashed an overwhelming barrage of magic bullets all at once.
Depending on the situation, it could blanket a wide area or focus everything on a single point.
“Do you want it?”
“I do.”
“Sorry, but not yet.”
Seo Ye-in looked visibly dissatisfied.
“…Why?”
“Because you’re not ready yet.”
There were far too many prerequisite skills and traits she still had to learn.
Her rank was also nowhere near high enough.
Naturally, her excitement vanished in an instant.
Then I added,
“Even so, you’re actually in a great position.”
“……?”
“You’ll be learning your unique skill before long.”
“……?”
As if asking whether that was what I meant, Seo Ye-in pulled an item out of her inventory.
[Legendary Unique Skill Book Fragment C]
We had collected all three fragments by clearing three Challenge Hardship stages at the Dang Clan.
Based on the quests we’d gone through up to this point, I could already make a good guess as to which unique skill she would receive.
“It has incredible synergy with Fire Web.”
“……”
Seo Ye-in didn’t say anything for a while.
The sheer sense of reluctance practically dripped from her gray eyes.
Just collecting the three fragments had been a tremendous ordeal, and now she had to do it all over again.
Unique skill or not, she probably just wanted to go to sleep.
But she was already too invested to back out now.
The only option was to see it through to the end.
Seeing that powerful ultimate technique seemed to have rekindled at least a little of her motivation.
In the end, she answered reluctantly.
“…I’ll do it.”
“Excellent. Let me check something first.”
For the time being, Go Hyeon-woo’s Hardship quest took top priority.
He needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible before attempting the Sacred Relic challenge.
Still, if he hadn’t cleared his quest yet, there was no harm in assigning one to Seo Ye-in while we waited.
So I sent him a message.
[Kim Ho: How’s it going?]
[Go Hyeon-woo: It hasn’t been easy.]
[Go Hyeon-woo: Still, thanks to Miss Han’s help, I’ve made quite a bit of progress.]
[Kim Ho: How far along do you think you are?]
[Kim Ho: If you had to put a number on it.]
[Go Hyeon-woo: I’d say about sixty percent.]
[Kim Ho: I see.]
[Kim Ho: Keep it up.]
Ordinary Hardship quests usually took anywhere from a few days to a week at most, but the Challenge Hardship one seemed to be slowing things down considerably.
If he was already at sixty percent, he would probably clear it sometime next week, which meant we had plenty of time.
After losing the message window, I turned to Seo Ye-in.
“Looks like we’re good to assign it.”
“…I don’t want to.”
“So you’ve already changed your mind?”
“…A change of heart.”
Seo Ye-in quietly started backing away.
Still wearing a benevolent smile, I grabbed hold of her.
“Now, now. You can’t go back on your word. You said you’d do it, so you have to.”
“Later……”
“If you’re going to do it, now’s the time. Let’s go.”
[‘Stage 16 Hardship’ has been assigned to the target.]
Then, still smiling, I took out the Red Book.
“How about we add the Challenge too?”
“Stop……”
Of course, Seo Ye-in didn’t really have a choice.
There was a good chance ordinary Hardship quests wouldn’t drop Skill Book Fragments.
The newly updated quest read:
[Side Quest: Stage 16 Hardship] (In Progress…)
▷Cooperate with your mirror version to clear a B-rank dungeon.
Just as expected. It was tailor-made.
With the strategy battle week just around the corner, the objective ended up being to clear a dungeon.
Leave a Reply