Chapter 704: To Hyeseong
I accepted the potion bottle and asked,
“You already made it? I figured it would take longer.”
“It’s still got a long way to go. This one was specially! Just one! Made ahead of time.”
Shin Byeongcheol grinned and said he’d asked his “business partner” for a favor.
Then he scratched the back of his head and went on.
“Well, you know, I’ve had a lot to feel bad about lately, haven’t I? Interrupting you while you were having a nice time with that Dang junior. Getting caught by Miss Song underground too.”
“Why are you still hanging onto that? It’s all been dealt with.”
“It’s been dealt with, yeah, but it kept bothering me in the back of my mind. As a man, I figured I ought to uphold loyalty.”
I slowly nodded.
“In that case, I’ll gratefully accept your sincerity.”
“Now chug the whole thing in one go.”
“After I read the product description first.”
He kept denying it, but there was a 99.99% chance the maker was that particular Dang somebody.
And the previous version, 001, had already earned notoriety for its side effects.
So I checked the item effect.
[T.E.B - 002]
▷Has a high probability of increasing the rank of a random skill/trait by one stage.
▷The effect does not apply if taken repeatedly.
▷Caution: There may be minor temporary side effects.
“Not a huge difference.”
“Yeah, looks pretty much the same, doesn’t it?”
Except the side effect had changed from “mild” to “minor.”
My guess was that it would just add a different variety of black-mark memory.
Of course, I didn’t really have anything to worry about.
Any poison could be rejected by ★All-Poison Immunity★, and any mental debuff could be bounced off with the mental barrier of [Sovereign].
The real concern lay elsewhere.
“001 failed last time.”
“It did.”
“If it fails again, I feel like I might be consumed by uncontrollable rage.”
Like I’d want to take it out on somebody for no reason.
Shin Byeongcheol looked dumbfounded.
“Hey, how’s that my fault? Then give it back if you hate it so much.”
“Sorry, but I don’t spit out what’s already in my hands.”
“Then quit being difficult and drink it already. The odds are high. No way it fails twice in a row.”
“Very well.”
I hadn’t actually planned to blame him no matter what happened.
I was just messing with him because I could.
A somewhat tense atmosphere settled over us as I stared at [T.E.B - 002] for a while.
Then I pulled the stopper and knocked it back in one shot.
“......”
“......”
For a while, we just stared blankly at each other.
Shin Byeongcheol had apparently been hoping it would work, because the tension on his face was obvious.
Then he saw my expression go stiff and hurried to console me.
“Hey, hey, well, it can fail twice in a row. I fail all the time too. Just think of it as getting the bad luck out of the way, and next time it’ll—”
“It went up.”
“Huh?”
“I said it went up.”
[The rank of ‘Sovereign’ increases. (A→S)]
The reason my face had gone rigid wasn’t because it had failed again.
It was because I’d hit a jackpot way beyond anything I expected.
Suddenly, the conversation I’d had with the crow seamstress at flashed through my mind.
— CAW, perhaps next time you won’t be a young sovereign!
They’d probably just said it after seeing how fast I was growing, but I hadn’t expected that moment to be now.
Now I really am a sovereign.
Normally, once you reached S-rank, you had to fulfill various conditions—including quests—to obtain the [Sovereign] trait.
I’d started with it thanks to the reincarnation-quest bonus, so I’d been able to skip that entire process, but because the rank was lower, the stature attached to it had been lower too.
Now I was standing shoulder to shoulder with other sovereigns.
And of course, it wasn’t just the stature. The trait’s actual effects had risen sharply too.
The mental barrier goes without saying.
It was far stronger than ordinary resistance traits, to the point that it was basically safe to say it would never be broken.
If the enemy specialized in mental-type effects and was S-rank, maybe they could penetrate it by one or two ranks, but even then the effect would be extremely slight.
And anything related to sovereigns should get a boost too.
[Bond] and [Invitation] would grow stronger, and the odds of getting a new slot or a new skill as a quest reward would probably increase as well.
There were also hidden pieces in dungeons and other places that only sovereigns could claim.
There was absolutely nothing to throw away here.
So I placed a hand on Shin Byeongcheol’s shoulder with a wide smile on my face.
Then, in the tone of a martial-arts hero, I said,
“I truly thank you. Without you, this success would not have been possible.”
“No, no. It was only possible because you trusted me enough to leave it to me.”
“In that case, what do you say to calling this a victory of loyalty?”
“A victory of loyalty. I like the sound of that!”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Kuh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
We burst into wild laughter at each other.
Didn’t matter if the students passing by looked at us like we were insane.
[Sovereign] had just risen to S. Who cared what anyone around us thought?
“Kim-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Shin-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
“Ho-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!”
“Cheol-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!”
We laughed like lunatics for quite a while, and then Shin Byeongcheol suddenly froze and shut his mouth.
I followed his gaze and saw Song Cheonhye standing a short distance away, looking at us.
“......”
That same pathetic stare she always sent us whenever we acted like idiots.
But there was a hint of gloom mixed into it too, so I asked,
“Something happen?”
“......No. Nothing.”
“Looks like it’s definitely something. Want to talk about it? We can go grab coffee for a minute.”
“......!”
For a moment, emotion surged up across Song Cheonhye’s face.
But she held it down and forced a smile.
“......Thanks. I appreciate you worrying about me. But I think I want to be alone right now.”
“Is that so. If there’s something you want to say, send me a message later.”
“Okay. You said you were leaving for that outside request, right?”
“Starting today.”
“Travel safe.”
“Thanks. See you next week.”
When I waved, Song Cheonhye gave a faint smile and trudged away.
Watching her go, Shin Byeongcheol said,
“What’s with her? Did somebody beat her up or something?”
“Probably.”
At this hour, the only thing to do in the arena was PvP.
But normally, no matter how many losses she racked up or how rough things got, she always pretended she was fine on the surface.
So who had beaten her badly enough that she couldn’t even keep up the bravado?
That question got answered almost immediately.
Seo Ye-in walked up and said,
“I scolded her.”
“Her? You did?”
Shake-shake.
Seo Ye-in shook her head, then flicked her eyes to the side.
Hong Yeonhwa was standing there.
Apparently the two of them really had paired up, just as I’d expected.
At that point, it was easy enough to guess what had happened.
“So Miss Hong and Miss Song went up against each other?”
“Yeah.”
“And of course Hong won.”
“One-sided.”
“Overwhelming.”
Fast-Luckless chimed in from beside her.
Well, with [Elemental Resistance], it made sense that it would be overwhelming.
If it was Song Cheonhye, she’d probably also guessed that the source of it was me.
No wonder it knocked the wind out of her.
Her head was probably a mess right now too.
Especially after the conversation we’d had not long ago.
— Usually, other people come first.
— What do I have to do? To become one of those... “firsts,” too?
— If I told you to leave the Discipline Committee and come to dungeons with me, would you?
She might even be regretting it.
That the reason she’d fallen behind Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa was ultimately her own fault.
That she kept circling around me from the outside, and whenever it really mattered, she couldn’t make a decision and only hesitated.
There’s nothing I can do for her right now.
And there was no need to, either.
I did feel a little bad for her, but it was also true that Song Cheonhye still hadn’t clearly chosen a path.
In that state, I couldn’t exactly place [Bond] on her, and I wasn’t about to move her up the [Austerity] order over something this personal.
And even if I did her a favor, would she even like it?
More likely, she’d just feel like I was pitying her.
So for now, the best thing to do was exactly what she wanted—give her time to think on her own.
“......”
Meanwhile, Hong Yeonhwa was shifting her eyes around awkwardly, and it looked like she was thinking, Was I too harsh?
So I said to her,
“Why are you watching your step like that? You won.”
“I know, but......”
“Because of [Elemental Resistance]?”
“A little...?”
Apparently she couldn’t help feeling like she’d steamrolled Song Cheonhye partly on raw specs.
I just shrugged.
“You know it too. You’d have won even without the shared trait.”
“Yeah... I told Song Cheonhye that too......”
“Then that’s enough. Don’t worry about it too much. Do you really think she’ll stay broken like this?”
Given Song Cheonhye’s personality, she’d get back up soon enough.
Hong Yeonhwa seemed to think that was reasonable too, because her expression relaxed.
Then she asked me,
“You’re leaving today... right?”
“Yeah. I was just about to get ready.”
The instant I finished speaking, Seo Ye-in and Fast-Luckless moved to either side of me and grabbed my arms.
“No preparation needed.”
“Leave immediately.”
“Just bring yourself.”
“We’ll do everything.”
Two pairs of gray eyes looked up at me, bright and shining.
I smiled helplessly and dropped a hand on each Seo Ye-in’s head.
“What’s the rush? The train comes at a fixed time anyway.”
“Wait in advance.”
“If that’s how it is, then let’s leave now.”
“Let’s.”
They took turns tugging at my sleeves.
Watching that, Hong Yeonhwa said,
“Have a... good trip! Be careful...!”
“Thanks. See you later.”
The two Seo Ye-ins also waved lightly and said,
“We’ll bring you a gift.”
“Something spicy.”
Judging by the fact that they were saying things like that now, they really had gotten closer.
Soon, we split up to our respective dorms, packed light, and headed for the platform.
Needless to say, it would still be a long while before the train arrived.
“Didn’t we come way too early?”
“The fun is in waiting.”
“It’s enjoyable.”
At least for now, the two Seo Ye-ins were showing an even more positive mindset than Go Hyeonwoo.
It didn’t seem worth ruining their good mood, so I decided to wait while serving as both cushion and pillow.
While I was at it, I also pulled up the notification message I’d been thinking about earlier.
[Sub Quest: Week 8 PvP] (Complete)
▷Condition 1: Proceed with a teammate whose score is 500 or lower
▷Note: You will be matched against opponents above the average score.
▷Condition 2: Teammate possesses all crystals
▷Win 3 PvP matches (3/3)
▷Reward: [Fixed Pin], [Rank Up(C)]
Perfect timing. I needed this.
Once I got to Hyeseong New City this time, I’d be meeting Meteor Dragon, and there was a good chance I’d also end up seeing other guardians and dragons in the process.
If I built good relationships with them, I might be able to copy some useful skills or traits.
So the more open slots I secured in advance, the better.
I’d also decided a long time ago where [Rank Up(C)] was going.
[Use ‘Rank Up(C)’.]
[The rank of ‘Diamond Freeze’ increases. (C→B)]
▷The next freeze effect applied becomes ‘irremovable’ for 30→40 seconds.
▷Cooldown: 8→5 minutes
Its growth difficulty was unusually high compared to my other skills, so using an item on it was the best call.
That was exactly why the payoff for raising it was so overwhelming.
Just then, Seo Ye-in, who had been dozing with her head against me, suddenly sprang to her feet.
“......!”
“It’s here?”
“Arrived...!”
Sure enough, when I looked past the lake, a train was cutting through the water and coming in.
The train that would take us outside Dungeon Island.