Chapter 719: Manifestation
The main quest had appeared during the raid on the ruins.
So the settlement seemed to be using that point as its starting line.
[You have foiled the evil cultists’ plan.]
[The rewards are greatly enhanced.]
The Blood Cult might have been the first to make a move, but it looked like the evil cultists had been the ones who handled the finer details of the plan.
They had covered the whole area in something like black fog and cut off outside support.
It had been pierced pathetically easily by a single [CAW—!], though.
[You have made a major contribution to defeating the evil cult branch leader.]
[You have made a major contribution to defeating the Ironblood War Demon Commander.]
[The rewards are greatly enhanced.]
While we were breaking the enemy totems, Fast-Luckless had dealt massive damage to the evil cultists with a [Fickle Trap] tap dance, and the scrawny bastard had also gone down to the debuff chain.
I hadn’t directly dealt damage to the War Demon Commander, but I had restored Oh Sehun, Kang Daesan, and the others who had been facing him by [Grant]ing [Retrocovery].
As a result, for a place that had been hit by a Blood Cult strike force and evil cultists, the number of casualties was almost nonexistent.
The next item in the settlement was what had almost become a direct clash between Meteor Dragon and the Blood Demon.
[You have driven back the Blood Cult Leader.]
[The rewards are greatly enhanced.]
Even one use of [Invitation] had seemed to inflict enough internal damage on the Blood Demon, but then [Déjà Vu] unexpectedly triggered and shoved him into deviation.
[You have greatly interfered with Meteor Dragon’s fate.]
[You have slightly delayed the destruction of the world.]
[The rewards are greatly enhanced.]
Meteor Dragon was one of the handful of strongest among the S-ranks, and also one of the very few dragons friendly to humans.
If she had clashed head-on with the Blood Cult Leader, she would have been forced into a long sleep cycle, leaving a massive hole in our side’s strength.
Hyeseong, stripped of its guardian dragon, would have become far more vulnerable to enemy attacks too.
I had stopped all of that cleanly, so of course the system’s evaluation was going to be favorable.
And then came the long-awaited reward.
[You have learned ‘Manifestation(F)’.]
Another skill I’ve never seen before.
Just like [Invitation], it looked like this had been newly added when EX-rank opened up.
And even the name sounded significant.
Manifestation. Something that had possessed no physical substance clearly revealing itself.
I was wondering why I’d had an inner-world dream on the way here.
So this means I can call out my subordinates?
But it was still too early to break into the joyous Kim Ho dance.
There was no way this thing didn’t have restrictions plastered all over it.
So I checked the detailed effect.
[Manifestation(F)]
▷Manifests one target from the inner world.
▷Charge: 1.00
▷Duration: 1 second
▷Cooldown: 100 days
▷The same target cannot be summoned again
At least that part is pretty much what I expected.
Whether for combat, crafting, or receiving insight, I’d be able to call out an S+-rank hero.
The problem was the duration.
A ridiculously broken effect naturally came with a short time limit, but—
Isn’t one second way too suffocating?
That was practically at the level of calling them out and immediately sending them back.
A melee class like a swordsman could probably manage one slash.
But classes with long cast times, like mages, would be unusable.
And it uses charges too.
Like [Time Leap] on the [Golden Pocket Watch(S)].
That said, there was no guarantee the charging condition would be the same.
If I had to guess, it would probably go up when I did things related to the inner world.
The 100-day cooldown isn’t that bad, at least.
I could cut a huge chunk off it with [Swift Second Hand], and if I really needed to, I could just reset it with [Time Leap].
The last restriction was that the same hero couldn’t be resummoned.
So after 1,000 uses, it’s over.
Not that I could imagine charging and spending all of those anytime soon, but I’d still need to be careful.
Wouldn’t it be a waste to drag out the strongest heroes just to make them swing once and leave?
What happens if the rank goes up?
The moment that question occurred to me, I went straight into testing.
[You have used ‘Amplification’.]
[The rank of ‘Manifestation’ increases. (F→D)]
▷Duration: 1 second → 3 seconds
Thank god, the duration goes up.
With three seconds, at least you could breathe.
The lower [Rank Up] items weren’t that hard to get, so reaching D or C shouldn’t take long.
After that, if I used [Amplification] again and pushed it up to B or A, I figured it would probably hit ten seconds.
There are other ways to increase it too.
Like using a [Skill Tuning Scroll].
I added “duration-related” to the list of items I needed to get in the future.
“Which dungeon should I try first?”
While I was mulling that over—
Meteor Dragon approached me with the guardians and spoke in a voice full of sincerity.
“You truly did well. You carved out a result completely different from the future that had been foreseen.”
“It was only possible because all of you helped.”
That wasn’t empty politeness. It was just the truth.
The [Invitation] plan, and even the follow-up extortion for items, had only worked because the dragons had stood there solidly and lent weight to everything.
If I had been alone, the Cult Leader or the Chief Protector would have just barged in head-on.
And then I might have died, or had [Martial Soul] stolen from me.
Meteor Dragon obviously had to know that too, but her attitude didn’t change.
“Just because we helped does not lessen your achievement. Thanks to you, I may continue seeing him—and my granddaughter as well. I do not even know how I should repay you.”
Dark Dragon Lord, Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter, and Neptune all followed suit in showing proper courtesy.
For dragons, their attitude toward a human was overflowing with extreme respect.
So I answered just as politely.
“I didn’t do this expecting repayment. My [Bond] partner’s home and family were in danger. Of course I had to help.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
A warm smile touched Meteor Dragon’s lips.
Of course, there was no way this was where it ended.
She looked straight at me and continued.
“Even so, this is time you earned for us. I would like to spend it for your sake. I intend to help as much as I am able.”
“I won’t refuse.”
With world peace on the line, I wasn’t in any position to be picky about what I accepted.
Especially not now, with the Blood Cult Leader turned into a ticking time bomb.
A moment later, Meteor Dragon held out her hand.
“Would you show me that again?”
“Yes.”
I handed over the [Starmascus(??)].
Even the dimensional crows and the dragons had found the S+-rank alloy of two meteoric irons difficult to handle.
Meteor Dragon, though, had said she could not only work it, but even perform [Consecration] on it.
That had been put on hold for the moment, but—
“I had needed to conserve my strength for the clash with the Cult Leader. But now, I no longer think that will be necessary.”
With not just the Blood Demon, but every armed unit gone from Hyeseong, it was safe to say there was no major danger for the time being.
As for the smaller fry—the evil cultists, the gangs, that sort of thing—Chairman Grandfather could step in if needed, and realistically, it probably wouldn’t even come to that.
FWOOOOSH—
Meteor Dragon’s entire body was suddenly wrapped in pure white light, and a gigantic magic circle spread out.
It covered such a vast area it practically resembled an athletic field.
And at key points within it stood Dark Dragon Lord, Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter, and Neptune, clearly assisting to make [Consecration] easier.
FWOOOOSH—
Next, the magic circle expanded upward three-dimensionally, as though towers were being stacked on top of each other.
It rose endlessly, so high the top couldn’t even be seen.
At the same time, the [Starmascus(??)] ingot floated up into the air and took its place above the tower of magic circles.
Then Meteor Dragon began another chant.
FWOOOOSH—
Countless stars, large and small, fell from the sky and gathered into the tower of magic circles, then were absorbed into the ingot.
*****
Late evening.
I had returned to Hyeseong and was enjoying a rare stretch of peace.
When I sat out on the hotel balcony and looked outside, the tower of magic circles was still shining clearly in the far distance.
Stars were still falling without pause, which meant the [Consecration] was still in progress.
Even now, after it had already been going for about half a day.
She said it would take at least a few days, no matter how little.
Well, of course it would.
She was imbuing power into an S+-rank item.
It meant I’d miss midterms, but there wasn’t really any other choice.
All I could do was wait and collect it when it was done.
At this point, I might as well relax.
So I watched the [Consecration] the way someone might watch fireworks.
Seo Ye-in was doing the same.
As always, she had claimed my lap as her seat and was staring at the pillar of light with me.
“......”
After a long time like that, she turned her head toward me, burrowed fully into my arms, and spoke.
“......I was worried.”
“About what?”
“All of it.”
What if she lost the chance to see her grandmother, her Godfather, and her Godmother again?
And what if I got hurt too while trying to help them?
I slowly stroked her gray hair.
“But it all turned out fine, didn’t it? Have you ever seen me fail?”
“......I was still anxious.”
“It’ll keep turning out fine. If your grandmother or your Godfather are ever in danger again, we’ll go help them again. Next time, with your own strength too.”
“......! Yeah.”
“Trust me. Total trust, right?”
“Total trust.”
Only then did the anxiety fully vanish from Seo Ye-in’s face.
Something else seemed to take its place, because she stared fixedly at me, then leaned closer and kissed my cheek.
“......”
Next, as she had been doing pretty often lately, she fixed her gaze on my lips.
She stayed like that for a while, then said,
“......I think I get it.”
“Get what?”
“The kiss homework.”
In other words, she’d figured out what that feeling was when she kissed someone.
Maybe because she’d finally found the answer she had been searching for so long, her gray eyes were sparkling.
So I grinned and asked back,
“Then let’s hear the correct answer.”
“Revealing correct answer.”
“And what is the feeling you get when you kiss?”
“I want to do it.”
“What is it that you want to do?”
“Get married.”
“What?”
Her gray eyes sparkled even harder.
“Total marriage angle.”
“Little Sloth, who exactly has been feeding you nonsense?”
And why was your word choice like that?
Of course, the answer had been obvious from the start.
It had to be that dragon, the one who was always tossing around trendy phrases.
Whether I liked it or not, Seo Ye-in grabbed the hem of my clothes.
“When’s the ceremony?”
“You’re skipping way too many steps there.”
Running hard is great, but you can’t suddenly jump all the way to Mars.
In a calm tone, I explained exactly what was wrong with that line of thinking.
Even so, Seo Ye-in kept looking at me with bright, shining eyes.
“I mean it.”
“The marriage part?”
“All of it.”
Meaning her word choice might have been a little off, but the sincerity was real.
And honestly, at this point, she was pretty close to the correct answer.
Seo Ye-in looked at me with challenging eyes.
“......Today is possible.”
“What is?”
“Lip kiss.”
At that point, I was honestly a little curious.
She said she had failed every time she tried to do it in secret. Could she really pull it off today?
So, just like I had with the Blood Demon, I spoke in the arrogant tone of a Sovereign.
“Then come and try.”
“......Challenge.”
In an atmosphere with absolutely zero romance in it, Seo Ye-in slowly leaned toward me.
Her expressionless face kept coming closer, and at the same time a blush spread across it, growing redder and redder.
Before long, there was only a fingernail’s-width of distance left between our lips.
“......!”
There, Seo Ye-in froze and couldn’t come any closer.
Her face had gone so red it almost seemed impossible for a human face to get that red.
But then, as if she had made up her mind, she leaned in further.
And the instant our lips barely brushed—
“......!”
Seo Ye-in jerked back violently and retreated a good distance away.
I looked at her and said,
“You actually succeeded.”
“......Success.”
It wasn’t what you’d call a real proper kiss, but the point was that she had succeeded at all.
So I was just about to say something with a grin when, out of nowhere, mirror-image Seo Ye-in poked her head out.
Am I next?“......”
Without a word, Seo Ye-in reverse-summoned the [Mirror Image].