My Very Own Skillbook – Chapter 58
Chapter 58
Hwajin faced the Tyrant Guild Hunters staring at him.
Suddenly, Hwajin vanished.
"What the—!?"
The four Hunters hurriedly surveyed their surroundings, but Hwajin was nowhere to be seen.
"Don't panic! Look at the ground!"
An Ji-uk shouted.
"Even if he uses a transparency skill, walking leaves traces on the ground!"
At his words, the Hunters lowered their gazes.
"Ugh!"
The Hunters shielded their eyes.
A fierce wind blew.
In that brief instant, something grazed their backs, but no one noticed.
"Okay."
As the wind died down, a voice rang out. The Tyrant Guild Hunters opened their eyes and turned their heads.
Hwajin had reappeared, holding a book.
"Hmm. I've roughly figured them out. The first one to eliminate is……"
Hwajin's gaze turned toward the Hunter holding a staff, Jo Chang-gi.
"Jo Chang-gi! Dodge!"
An Ji-uk screamed, but Hwajin was already standing before Jo Chang-gi.
Hwajin's spear pierced Jo Chang-gi's stomach. Jo Chang-gi's body was engulfed in pillars of flame and lightning.
A moment later, Jo Chang-gi collapsed to the ground without even letting out a scream.
"Healers are annoying. And the ability to cancel skills is scary, too. Next……"
Hwajin disappeared again, then appeared before Yi Yong-min, who held a shuriken.
"Kuk!"
Yi Yong-min gripped his shuriken and swung it wildly.
Clang!
However, Hwajin slightly shifted his spear to deflect the shuriken and then stabbed Yi Yong-min's body.
"Aaack!"
Yi Yong-min, too, was swallowed by rising pillars of fire and lightning and downed, just like Jo Chang-gi.
"A skill that lets you freely control thrown weapons. Seems like it'd be annoying to deal with."
Hwajin said, shaking the blood off his spear.
"Urg……"
Just then, Gwon In-won, whose wounds had recovered, slowly rose to his feet.
"Lie back down."
"Gaaack!"
Gwon In-won was charred black once more and fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
"What the… What is he……"
Hong Ju-hyeon, holding a war hammer, trembled violently.
An Ji-uk was also tasting fear.
"You… Can you see other Hunters' abilities?"
An Ji-uk glared at Hwajin.
"Roughly?"
Hwajin answered nonchalantly, then gripped his spear with both hands and vanished again.
"Kuk!"
An Ji-uk created a hand of mana to block the front. With a bang, flames erupted from the palm.
"As expected, when the Sense stat is close to 40, approaching isn't easy."
Hwajin muttered, dropping right in front of the palm. There was a small hole in the mana-formed hand.
"An attack, no. Was it a mana absorption ability? A skill chain where you absorb mana to recharge your own, then use that mana to create or reinforce another hand."
An Ji-uk's face stiffened.
The mana transmitted through the palm just now was greater than all the mana he had absorbed during today's battle.
"Must be convenient. I'll have to take notes for later."
"Hong Ju-hyeon. We attack together."
An Ji-uk whispered.
"Against something like that!?"
"With my stats and skills, I can at least block him. I'll draw his attention; you charge your mana as much as possible and cover Gwon In-won. He should still have resurrection stock left."
"……Got it."
As Hong Ju-hyeon released his mana, a blue light enveloped the war hammer.
An Ji-uk restored the pierced palm and glared at Hwajin. He had no intention of letting his movements slip by.
The palm reinforced with the newly absorbed mana was as red as blood.
An Ji-uk judged that at this level, he could block the earlier attack as many times as needed.
Hwajin looked at the watch on his wrist.
'Five minutes left, huh. Time to stop playing around and finish this.'
He gripped his spear and took a stance.
'He's coming…… Kuh!?'
An Ji-uk's body broke out in goosebumps.
Sense stat of 38, achieved through steady mana stone absorption.
The Hunter's senses, enhanced to superhuman levels, warned An Ji-uk.
Blocking was useless.
They would all die here.
"Hong Ju-hyeon! Change of plans! Dodge!!"
An Ji-uk screamed like a shriek and threw his body to the side.
Hong Ju-hyeon, not understanding why, rolled his body following An Ji-uk's order.
Hwajin's lips parted.
"Extreme Light: One Flash."
Everything was devoured by light.
Even though Seyeon had witnessed the spectacle with her own two eyes, she couldn't comprehend what had happened.
What she saw was light.
Hwajin, holding his spear, was enveloped in blinding light, and a massive pillar of light stretched forward.
No, it seemed to have stretched forward.
When she came to her senses, all that remained in her eyes was an afterimage of light soaring into the sky.
Seyeon looked to where the pillar of light had passed.
An Ji-uk and Hong Ju-hyeon lay on the ground, each having lost an arm and a leg.
"Whew."
Hwajin sighed and canceled his skills. The flames and sparks surrounding his body disappeared.
"What just happened?"
At the voice from behind, Hwajin turned his body. Seyeon was approaching.
"How did you suddenly become that strong?"
"You want me to tell you for free?"
When Hwajin spoke playfully, Seyeon frowned.
"I'm joking. I'll tell you later. For now, let's clean up this mess."
Hwajin said, looking around.
The fallen Tyrant Guild Hunters.
Likewise downed Atlas and Evergreen Hunters.
And the hunters on the anti-Tyrant side, stunned in shock.
Even though the battle was over, a chaos of silence filled the area in front of Evergreen Guild.
***
"Mana stone?"
"Yes."
The Evergreen Guild Leader's office.
I was surrounded by our guild members and Evergreen's Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader.
Everyone, having recovered their HP and come to their senses, were horrified after hearing from Oh Seyeon that I arrived and cleaned up the situation.
They all asked in unison just what I had done to become strong enough to beat all five of them in a single day.
I looked at the Hunters around me and said it was a story I couldn't tell others. At that, the Evergreen Guild Leader brought me here.
"You know that strange world connected to dungeons?"
The Vice Guild Leader who went with me, Uncle Gang Il, Ms. Hye-ri, and of course, the others nodded their heads.
As Overflow incidents occurred in succession, everyone must have gone to or heard of that world at least once.
"I went there and hunted every field monster that dropped mana-related mana stones."
Field monsters have much higher drop rates and quality for mana stones and items than ordinary monsters.
That is the reason Hunter guilds are eager to participate in raids with fire in their eyes.
Having borrowed a bound item from Oh Seyeon that allowed me to travel around that place, I spent the entire night hunting monsters, refining the acquired mana stones, and absorbing them.
The goal was to raise my bracelet's MP capacity to its maximum of 1200.
And to raise my mana stat, which I hadn't been able to raise because I'd invested everything into the bracelet so far, to its limit—49.
"But no matter how much you raise mana with mana stones, that alone……"
"The rest is a trade secret. My apologies, but as a Hunter, there are things I must protect."
I declared confidently that it was a secret.
In our guild, only the Guild Leader, Vice Guild Leader, Uncle, and Ms. Hye-ri—who have been with me since long ago—know about mana stone refining.
I want to avoid unnecessarily bringing it up only for Evergreen or other guild Hunters to come looking for mana stones.
"That's true. Hunters who reveal all their cards have short lifespans."
The Evergreen Guild Leader smiled bitterly.
"We truly owe you our lives today. If it weren't for you, the anti-Tyrant coalition would have been finished. Thank you."
The Evergreen Guild Leader bowed his head to me, who was much younger.
"You didn't become that strong just from raising your mana stat, did you? What did you do?"
In Evergreen's reception room, Oh Seyeon asked.
Since the Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader were discussing the aftermath with Evergreen, we remained in the reception room.
For reference, Oh Seyeon and I had already exchanged our bound items again.
At Oh Seyeon's question, Uncle and Ms. Hye-ri also showed interest. Everyone seemed quite curious.
'Raising mana to 49 was the primary goal, and the real purpose was to gather enough mana to use the 9 Word Skill—it's easy to answer that, but……'
"The sword."
"What?"
Oh Seyeon looked puzzled.
"Show me that long sword you have. Then I'll tell you how I got stronger."
"Ugh."
"If you want to see my cards, you have to show me yours too."
I said that and looked toward Uncle and Ms. Hye-ri.
"I'll tell you two later when she's not here."
Then Oh Seyeon pulled a longsword from her inventory and glared at me.
'Don't tell me she's going to pull a knife on me over a joke?'
Her expression was incredibly fierce.
"Here."
Instead of brandishing her sword, Oh Seyeon held it out to me. She seemed quite eager to know the reason.
Well, it was natural to be curious since someone became stronger than her in just a day.
I accepted the sword Oh Seyeon held out.
An item description window appeared before my eyes.
--------------------
[Carrot +7] (125,000 RP)
Its strength and sharpness work even on 12-star monsters. If you mess up, it'll cut your own body clean off. If you aren't confident in your sword skills, don't use it.
- Usage Restriction
: Strength 30 / Stamina 30 / Mana 30 / Spirit 30 / Sense 30
--------------------
Having read the item description, I was confused about where to start.
"First of all… where did you get this?"
"I picked it up."
I stared at Oh Seyeon intently.
"I'm serious."
Oh Seyeon said curtly, as if annoyed.
"It was lying around in that world."
I looked at the item description window again.
The symbol and number '+7' attached to the name.
The RP inside the parentheses.
The item description that sounded like a joke, and the usage restriction stats that defied common sense.
It wasn't a common drop item, nor was it a bound item.
"How did you bypass the usage restriction?"
I asked, recalling Oh Seyeon's stats I had seen before. She definitely didn't have a single stat over 30.
"You know my unique skill."
So that was it, [Divine Sword Unity].
'So if she holds a restricted sword, her stats go up. Better than I thought.'
I returned the sword to Oh Seyeon.
What I found out was that holding that sword raised all of Oh Seyeon's stats over 30, and that the sword was a new type of item.
"Alright, now tell me how you got stronger."
I nodded and pulled a mana stone out of my inventory, tossing it to Oh Seyeon.
"What is this… There was a mana stone like this?"
What I gave Oh Seyeon was a refined mana stone I had created. I had made extra to test whether stats truly wouldn't rise above 49.
When I tried to absorb it with my mana stat at 49, truly nothing happened.
"No penalty, and the increase is high. But no matter how much I hunted in that world, I never saw a mana stone like this."
"Well, of course. I made it."
Oh Seyeon's eyes widened.
"…You can make mana stones?"
"I have to use lower-grade mana stones as materials. Ah, bring that here."
"Really!? Ah."
Oh Seyeon, who had shouted, clamped her mouth shut. I let out a snicker.
"It's a reward for helping me fight those guys today. From now on, if you acquire mana stones, bring them to me. I'll refine them for you at a reasonable price."
Oh Seyeon's face brightened.
"Hwajin. What about ours?"
"Well, it's because I wasn't much help."
"Ugh. Ms. Hye-ri's words really pierce the heart."
I looked at Uncle and Ms. Hye-ri. Uncle was smiling bitterly, and Ms. Hye-ri had a sullen expression.
"I'm sorry. I rushed over as soon as I saw the message, so that's the only spare one I have left. Instead, let's all go hunting in that world together next time. Is that okay?"
I asked, looking at Oh Seyeon.
"…It's not like you can make those mana stones without being there anyway."
'Geez, she could've just simply said okay.'
Anyway, I got her consent, so that was settled.
"But what we saw today were new skills. Did you make those too?"
At Uncle's words, I mentally cursed. Oh Seyeon glared at me.
"…Are you hiding something else?"
"No. I wasn't hiding it on purpose. I was going to tell you. Really."
I shot Uncle a look. He turned his gaze away with an awkward expression.
Then the reception room door opened, and the Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader entered. The Evergreen Guild's Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader were with them.
A nervous light showed on their faces.
"Did something happen?"
Ms. Hye-ri asked.
"We received contact from the Tyrant Guild."
At the Vice Guild Leader's words, everyone in the reception room held their breath.
"Their guild leader said he would come here."
I doubted my own ears.