My Self-Made Skillbook - Chapter 61
Chapter 61
[Instant Recovery]
A messy skill made by cramming nothing but
Its skill effect was 'Extremely fast recovery and recovery power enhancement,' and its rank was 'Rare'—low for a 9-Word Skill.
But against an opponent with regenerative abilities like the Tyrant, there was nothing better than this.
"Kuaaaargh!"
The Tyrant was still screaming.
Because the recovery speed exceeded the norm, his body repeated unnecessary regeneration and twisted out of shape.
A few minutes later, the first-floor hall of Evergreen fell silent.
The Tyrant, who had been shrieking in agony, had become something no longer recognizable as human and lay still.
I kept my eyes on the lump before me, remaining tense.
[You have achieved the objective 'Eliminate the Enemy.']
[You have acquired 250,000 Exp.]
[Your Unique Skill will be upgraded as a reward for achieving the objective!]
[A new Bookmark function has been added!]
After hearing the succession of messages, I finally relaxed.
With this, the fight against the Tyrant Guild was completely over.
[You have defeated an opponent into whom a Bookmark was inserted.]
[Analyzing the opponent's skill.]
'Hm?'
I heard words I had never heard before.
[Analysis complete. You have newly obtained the Modifier Word .]
'A Word!'
I checked the book.
A Modifier Word had truly been added.
I immediately checked my Unique Skill. I saw that [Edit]'s level had changed to 4.
'About the Bookmark's new function.'
When I asked the book inwardly, the page turned.
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-Q&A-
About the Bookmark's New Function
- An 'Analysis' function has been added to the Bookmark.
- If you defeat an opponent into whom a Bookmark has been inserted, it analyzes the opponent's skill and extracts Words.
- You can randomly acquire one of the extracted Words. Words you already possess are excluded.
--------------------
In other words, another path to obtain Words had opened up.
***
"Waaah!"
Splashing sounds echoed all around.
"Puhah!"
"Seono, it's dangerous to jump in."
Jinhui made a worried expression.
"It's fine. It's just us here anyway."
I said, looking at the completely empty swimming pool.
"That's not it—I'm saying Seono is in danger."
"That's exactly a useless worry. She's a Hunter too. Her physical abilities aren't even comparable to a normal person's. Look."
Seono was swimming back and forth across the pool as if she had become a fish.
Eventually, Jinhui stopped saying anything and went into the pool herself.
Several days had passed since the fight with the Tyrant Guild.
The aftermath of the fight and the inter-guild politics had mostly been handled by the Guild Master, Vice Guild Master, and Evergreen, so I had nothing to do.
So I asked the Guild Master for the vacation I couldn't take last time, thinking I'd rest, and he told me to rest well while booking a resort with a swimming pool for me.
The reason there were no guests besides us was that the Guild Master had rented out the entire resort.
'I feel like it's a bit over the top. Well, when will I get to experience something like this again? Let's enjoy it to the fullest.'
I lay on a long chair and quietly watched Seono and Jinhui swim.
"Yawn..."
My eyelids grew heavier and heavier until I couldn't think anymore.
"Jinhui. Come back in after playing. I'm going to take a nap in the room."
"Okay, Oppa."
I wonder how much time had passed.
I heard someone calling my name.
When I opened my eyes, I wondered if I was still dreaming.
O Seyeon stood before me, holding a long sword in her hand and with bloodstains on her clothes.
Realizing the situation was reality, I shot up.
"Wh-What!?"
O Seyeon moved her empty hand to her inventory and pulled out mana stones, holding them out.
"Refine these for me."
"..."
I brought my hand to my forehead. My head throbbed.
"Hey, O Seyeon. I'm on vacation right now."
"I know. I heard from the Guild Master."
"Didn't the Guild Master tell you to ask me later?"
"...I told him I was going on a trip."
"How did you get into the room?"
"I said I was in the same guild, so they gave me the card key."
I couldn't believe they'd hand over a key for something like that.
But I figured a regular person couldn't exactly refuse a Hunter covered in blood and holding a long sword, so I decided to let it go.
"Sigh. Fine. Give them here."
I took the mana stones, refined them, and handed them back. O Seyeon immediately absorbed the mana stones.
"Why are you still gathering mana stones when even the Tyrant is dead?"
O Seyeon's expression darkened.
"You're the one who killed the Tyrant. Not me."
"But the objective was achieved for you too. Your Unique Skill level went up as well."
"...I was the one who should have killed the Tyrant."
Having said that, O Seyeon bit her lip as if frustrated. I looked at her quietly and spoke.
"If it weren't for you, I couldn't have won either."
"Huh?"
O Seyeon made a puzzled expression.
"When I was being beaten by the Tyrant, you swung your sword and drew his attention. I took that chance to recover my stamina and try attacking again. So we caught the Tyrant together."
O Seyeon's lips twitched as if she wanted to say something.
"Since you came all the way here, stay and have some fun too. The Guild Master rented the whole place. If you tell them you're an Atlas guild member, they'll give you a room right away."
"..."
"And you told the Guild Master you were coming here to hang out. If there isn't even a trace of you staying over, he'll find it strange, won't he?"
At my words, O Seyeon let out an 'Ah.'
***
That evening, we ate at the restaurant inside the resort.
I suggested eating dinner together, but O Seyeon refused, saying she'd eat alone.
After dinner, Seono headed to the VR arcade, and Jinhui said she'd rest in her room, perhaps tired from swimming.
'Then what should I do?'
While looking around the resort facilities, I stopped in front of the bar.
'Should I have a drink?'
Since there were no guests, I felt bad making them open just for me, so I asked for a bottle and glasses.
Then the bartender said he would send the necessary things to the garden.
When I went to the garden and waited, the bartender personally brought alcohol, glasses, an ice bucket, and some snacks.
At a table under a parasol outside, I tasted the alcohol the bartender recommended and enjoyed the breeze.
Since summer was almost over and it was transitioning into autumn, the night wind was quite cool.
'Now that the Tyrant is gone and the Tyrant Guild issue is resolved, things should quiet down.'
There were still five members of the Tyrant Guild held captive at Evergreen.
When they were informed that the Tyrant was dead, they didn't believe it at first.
But when the Tyrant Guild announced they would disband on their own—the condition having been presented to the Tyrant Guild that if they disbanded, the guild members would not be touched—they too declared their surrender.
And so, the Tyrant Guild without its Tyrant vanished into nothingness.
Whether because of the alcohol or something else, feeling drained, I was blankly staring at one corner of the garden when—
"Huh?"
I saw O Seyeon walking. Hearing my voice, O Seyeon looked this way.
"What are you doing?"
"Just taking a walk."
"If you have nothing to do, want to have a drink?"
I held up a bottle with a brownish hue.
O Seyeon looked at me for a moment, then approached.
"There's no glass. Wait a moment."
I took out my staff from my inventory and used the skill [Mana Barrier].
O Seyeon watched as I put ice into the glass made of mana and poured alcohol.
"That skill is handy."
"Sure is useful."
I pushed the glass of alcohol toward O Seyeon.
O Seyeon stared at the drink for a while, then brought it to her lips.
"Urk."
She scrunched up her face tightly. I panicked at the sight.
"What, you can't drink?"
"..."
O Seyeon didn't answer. However, her face was still scrunched up.
"You should've said something. You just came and sat down, so I thought you could obviously drink."
"I can handle beer. But this is too... *hic!*"
O Seyeon's cheeks turned bright red as she hiccupped. Feeling things were going from bad to worse, I dumped the alcohol and poured her some water instead.
I watched O Seyeon drink the water and calm down, then spoke.
"It's all over now."
"...Indeed."
O Seyeon replied while holding the glass of water, then continued from her side.
"The Tyrant is dead, and there's no one targeting me anymore. I also achieved the objective I received before."
After saying that and keeping silent for a while, O Seyeon lowered her head.
"The Tyrant..."
"Huh?"
"I wanted to finish the Tyrant with my own hands."
'That again.'
I said nothing and waited for O Seyeon to speak.
"...The Tyrant killed the first comrade I made after becoming a Listener."
Come to think of it, she had mentioned before that the Tyrant killed her comrade.
"Tricked us by saying he'd let us into the Tyrant Guild... When we learned of his intentions, we resisted, but it didn't work on the Tyrant at all. The Tyrant said the law of the jungle was the truth of the world."
In front of me too, the Tyrant had said things like power is the law and that he would stand at the pinnacle of the world.
"In the end... my comrade died, and I barely escaped. I was the one who suggested joining the Tyrant Guild back then. I thought entering a large guild would make things easier. But it was the wrong choice. If it weren't for me, Jiseon wouldn't have died."
Was that why she couldn't easily trust others and hadn't let go of her suspicions even after entering the guild?
But O Seyeon's thinking was wrong.
"That's not true."
"...Huh?"
"Refusing an invitation from a large guild when you don't know the Tyrant's intentions is a strange thing to do, common-sense-wise. And even if you had refused the Tyrant Guild's invitation, there's no way they would have just left you and your comrade alone."
"..."
"Don't blame yourself too much. The bad one is the Tyrant, not you."
I said that and drank the rest of the alcohol in my glass.
Then O Seyeon suddenly grabbed the bottle, poured it into the mana glass, and downed it in one shot.
"Huh? Hey! You can't even drink, what are you doing?"
"Leave me. I want to drink."
I tried to snatch the bottle, but O Seyeon turned her body to avoid me and drank another glass.
Only after emptying half the bottle did O Seyeon set it down.
Her face completely flushed, her eyes glazed over, O Seyeon glared at me and opened her mouth.
"Damn..."
And then she bashed her head onto the table. Listening to her breathing, she seemed to have fallen asleep.
"...I can't believe this."
It was an action I simply couldn't understand.
I hoisted the sleeping O Seyeon onto my back.
I went straight to O Seyeon's room and threw the burden on my back onto the bed.
'Should I drink the rest in my room?'
Thinking that, I tried to leave the room when I heard O Seyeon's voice from behind.
"Thank you."
When I turned around, O Seyeon was lying with her eyes closed.
"Talking in your sleep?"
I let out a hollow laugh and left the room.
"Thank you. Yi Hwajin."
Lying in bed, O Seyeon muttered once more with her eyes slightly open.