Chapter 774: Package Tour (3)
Another place in the inner world.
Seo Ye-in and mirror-image Seo Ye-in were also facing “strong seniors.”
There was no way to know where the others were, or what kind of seniors were teaching them, but if a comparison had been possible, everyone would likely have been surprised.
Because this room alone was unusually crowded.
The seniors seemed to focus their gazes on Seo Ye-in and say one thing each.
One senior rolled up their sleeves with great confidence and stepped forward, only to be immediately stopped by the others.
And so the senior who had stepped forward first was dragged back in.
The rest began putting their heads together and discussing.
Seo Ye-in felt a little bored and slowly looked around.
In the middle of that, she spotted a familiar shape.
……Bad-Eyes Guy.
It was Cha Jongmyeong, the S+-rank archer Kim Ho had summoned not long ago with [Manifestation].
He had not said anything insulting, but his gaze was so fierce that she had given him the nickname Bad-Eyes.
Sure enough, the moment Cha Jongmyeong felt Seo Ye-in’s gaze, his eyes turned fierce just as they had back then.
And immediately, the other seniors scolded him one by one.
Cha Jongmyeong quietly shrank into a corner.
It seemed there was a hierarchy even among the strong seniors.
Super strong seniors.
∴ Super-duper strong seniors.
After that, more discussion passed back and forth.
Finally, two small figures hopped forward and landed in front of Seo Ye-in.
Two girls who looked around ten years old.
Their appearances were almost copy-pasted, so they seemed to be twins.
The difference was that one held a bright, warm aura like the sun, while the other held a dark, cool aura like a crescent moon.
Seo Ye-in also felt something familiar from the two of them.
Grandmother, Godfather.
It was the distinctive feeling she got when she was with dragons like the Meteor Dragon and the Dark Dragon Lord.
Putting that together, the twins in front of her were probably something like sun-and-moon dragons.
In any case, the fact that they were strong seniors did not change, and Seo Ye-in had come here to receive teaching as well.
She loaded her mana gun and took a battle stance.
She was even ready to use a super finisher if needed.
But the twins slowly waved their hands as if saying,
“……That makes sense.”
Seo Ye-in slowly nodded.
Normally, it was one gunner and one dragon as a pair, but today there were only two dragons.
Then what they taught her would also be different from usual.
When she put away her mana gun, the twins slowly lifted both hands upward.
As if supporting something enormous.
The next moment, immense energy gathered above them, creating a sun and a crescent moon.
Blazing heat and chilling cold poured out at the same time.
Then the twins focused and put strength into both hands.
The sun and crescent moon gradually shrank until, in the end, they were almost the size of a palm.
Seo Ye-in’s eyes rose slightly when she saw that.
“……Finichip.”
There were differences in attribute and form, but the principle itself was similar to [Meteor Shot].
Of course, she could already do that much, and the important part started now.
When the twins brought the compressed sun and moon close together, a slight repulsion seemed to occur.
Then they combined into one mass.
Heat and cold coexisted and swirled together.
The twins’ demonstration did not stop there.
They grabbed the energy mass and pulled in different directions.
It separated back into the sun and moon.
Only then did Seo Ye-in and mirror-image Seo Ye-in seem to understand what they were trying to show.
“Combining Finichips.”
∴ Dividing Finichips.
Because “super finishers” were far too powerful, in most situations they felt like a waste of firepower.
There was also the penalty of her luck disappearing for over a week.
A “Finichip,” meaning [Meteor Shot], fired only one shot and had less than half the penalty, but the inability to adjust its firepower had still remained a regret.
However, if things worked as the twins had just demonstrated, she might be able to eliminate that regret.
Seo Ye-in focused her mind.
Her gray hair turned white, and a faint light surrounded her entire body.
Soon, all that light gathered above her hand and took the form of a bullet.
“Chip-damage finisher.”
∴ Finichip.
Mirror-image Seo Ye-in slowly placed her hand on the completed [Meteor Shot].
Then, when she focused,
The bullet of light split in two and came to rest in the hands of both Seo Ye-ins.
Judging by the dimmer brightness, the power seemed to have been halved as well, but either way, they had succeeded in splitting it.
“Finichip chip damage.”
∴ Finichipchip.
At that, a stir ran through the strong seniors.
However, it was still too early to be surprised.
Seo Ye-in and mirror-image Seo Ye-in focused again.
Each floated a [Meteor Shot] above her hand.
Then, when the two brought them close together,
They combined into one with a clear flash.
After dividing, they had succeeded in combining as well.
Inwardly satisfied, Seo Ye-in decided to give the new skill a nickname.
“……Two Finichips combined.”
∴ Finifinichip.
“……What about three Finichips?”
∴ ……Finifinifinichip?
“?”
∴ ?
The two Seo Ye-ins tilted their heads.
It seemed they would be better off thinking about the nickname a little longer.
*****
I looked around at the group and thought,
They’re taking a while today.
Usually, after receiving [Invitation], they opened their eyes within a few seconds, but right now, everyone still had their eyes closed.
Considering that time flowed differently here and in the inner world, that meant they had stayed in there for quite a while.
Did the teaching method change?
Until now, whenever I sent someone in, they got beaten up and thrown back out.
There was a direction and purpose to it in its own way, but it had felt a little short for teaching anything.
This time, on the other hand, they seemed to be taking their time.
Is it because I said something last time?
I had asked them to go easy when my kids came in, so maybe that was being reflected.
Still, they should be coming out soon.
Even if they were being taught slowly, a significant amount of time must have passed.
No sooner had I thought that than the group began opening their eyes one by one.
“……Ah.”
“……!”
“Mm.”
Song Cheonhye looked regretful when she realized she was back.
It seemed she had wanted to learn even a little more.
Go Hyeonwoo looked as though he was seriously reviewing what he had seen.
Han Somi also let out an impressed “Ooh~”
So I asked them,
“What did you all do in there?”
“I went! Whoosh-whoosh! Shak-shak!”
“Swordsmanship training?”
“Yeah! From the king super-duper teacher!”
“You mean your grandmaster, yes?”
“That’s it! Grandmaster!”
Han Somi giggled as if that was exactly the word she had meant.
It seemed the Sword Empress I had raised had appeared as her opponent.
Next, Hong Yeonhwa opened her mouth.
“Mine was……. similar. To usual.”
“With the same person?”
“Yeah.”
Well, for her, being taught by Hong Hyeona really was the best option.
However, instead of sparring, they had spent the time inspecting her fire magic overall.
So she could use it more efficiently.
Song Cheonhye, similarly, had learned from the inner-world Thunder Lord how to use [Lightning Rod] and [Thunder Jump].
Go Hyeonwoo said he had watched masters spar and seen the scene of hardness and softness pushing back and forth.
Seo Ye-in had learned how to divide and combine Finichips, and finally, Dang Gyu-ri had begun learning [Uniformity].
I nodded, feeling satisfied.
“You all worked hard. Now let’s keep pushing forward.”
Their direction had been set clearly enough, and the seniors had even given concrete demonstrations.
All that was left was to reach out, grab it, and make it their own.
[Using ‘Octopus Arms.’]
[Using ‘Austerity.’]*6
[‘Stage 1 Austerity’ has been granted to ‘Han Somi.’]
[‘Stage 3 Austerity’ has been granted to ‘Song Cheonhye’…….]
[To ‘Hong Yeonhwa’…….]
…….
[Reuse waiting time: 3 years 6 months 21 days]
[Manifestation(C)]
?Charge: 0.23→0.57
Next, I handed the group the [Challenge Book].
“Use these too.”
“Thank you.”
Not only Go Hyeonwoo, but everyone’s faces were full of motivation.
To begin with, [Austerity] alone was highly difficult, and if additional constraints were added on top of that, it really felt like death, so normally, most people either hated it or hesitated.
It seemed what they experienced in the inner world had stimulated them quite a bit.
The red book made one full round through the group that way.
Finally, Dang Gyu-ri added a challenge and handed it back to me.
They added a casual remark.
“It feels like it’s gotten really thin. It used to be thick.”
“It’s a consumable.”
Book-type items were dozens of magic scrolls bound together.
If you kept using them bit by bit, they were bound to run out eventually.
And I haven’t been using it bit by bit. I’ve been spending it like crazy.
I had used it every single time a sub quest appeared without fail, and I kept lending it to the group whenever they received [Austerity].
It was only natural that it had thinned out quickly.
“We should get another one soon~”
“We should.”
These days, even when I made plans, I mostly took the additional rewards and growth from challenge quests into account.
Losing it would be a big blow, so getting a new one before this one ran out was the best move.
Soon, Dang Gyu-ri asked as if in passing,
“By the way, where did the [Challenge Book] come from again~?”
“Lucky Charm pulled it for us from a [Mystery Book].”
It was the book version of a random box, where the type was decided the moment you opened the first page.
A skillbook or a bundle of magic scrolls.
However, there was a way to raise the appearance rate of a specific book: inserting magic scrolls you already possessed.
Since we had the [Challenge Book] for now, getting it again should be relatively easy.
Dang Gyu-ri asked again, still as if in passing.
“And how did we get the [Mystery Book]~?”
“As a game center prize.”
I had cleared , a mini game at the time, with the Sloth-Gyu-Sho trio.
There was no way they had forgotten that, so the fact that they were asking on purpose likely meant they had another intention.
Sure enough, the moment the words “game center” came out, the atmosphere changed sharply.
Dang Gyu-ri, Seo Ye-in, Hong Yeonhwa, and even Song Cheonhye focused their gazes on me.
Their eyes brimmed with expectation.
Soon, Dang Gyu-ri slowly raised the corners of their mouth.
“We’ll have to go to the entertainment district……. again, won’t we?”