My Skill Book - Chapter 64
Chapter 64
'Where is this place?'
My surroundings were completely white. No matter how hard I stared, there was nothing but me.
'I remember falling asleep after tinkering with various skills to prepare for the second assault... Could this be a lucid dream?'
I imagined creating an object. But nothing appeared.
"Hello."
"!?"
Startled by the sudden voice, I turned around.
A woman clad in blue stood there. She wore clothes reminiscent of draped curtains, the kind Roman nobility might wear.
In this world that had been nothing but white, the blue stood out immensely.
But the color of her clothes became irrelevant the moment I saw the woman's face.
The woman standing before me was beauty itself.
"Who... are you?"
Her goddess-like bearing made me speak formally without even realizing it.
"Please call me E."
The woman said with a smile.
"Huh? E?"
"The letter E."
"Ah, yes."
She was beautiful, but her name was strange.
Well, it was a dream anyway, so it was bound to be strange. Why did my subconscious conjure up someone like this?
"Hwajin."
"Yes?"
"I have been watching you among many Listeners."
I never thought I'd hear the word "Listener."
"Are you perhaps the one who revived me and changed my skill to be editable?"
E nodded at my question.
As if that could be true.
The voice and tone I heard when I was killed by Jang Soyu's Mantis were completely different.
"I can take on many forms."
E spoke as if reading my mind.
"Right now, I've taken on a form that makes it easier to talk to you. What do you think?"
"This is definitely better."
E laughed at my answer.
"Do you remember that the reward for defeating the Overlord last time came with a little something extra?"
I nodded.
"This meeting is that extra. Under normal circumstances, it's impossible to make contact with you except under special cases, so I'm expending a tremendous amount of power right now."
What kind of setting is this? What kind of dream am I having?
"Hwajin. You possess power that transcends humanity, yet you haven't given up on what you consider 'human.' I wish to place my hope in that."
E wiped the smile from her face and assumed a serious expression.
"The world you currently inhabit is facing a crisis of destruction."
E seemed to be talking about the Overflow and the monster assaults.
"Hwajin. Please somehow fend off the monster attacks. If even one city survives the next assault, this Special Raid will end."
"How in the world do you know that, E?"
E didn't answer.
"I'm asking you. If it's you, Hwajin, you can do it."
E's figure began to fade.
"Wait a minute. You can't just say your piece and leave. If this is supposed to be a reward, shouldn't I at least have the right to ask questions? Wait! Don't fade away! E!"
I shouted, but E disappeared just like that.
***
"What kind of dream is this."
When I woke up, I was on the bed in my room.
[A new objective has been assigned.]
Startled by the voice, I summoned the book.
--------------------
-Objective Setting-
[Main] Survival
Survive the Special Raid.
Reward: Unique Skill Rank-up
--------------------
I stared at the book, lost for words.
'Could it be that it wasn't a dream, but real?'
After a moment of thought, I found my phone nearby.
I wasn't the only one who had defeated the Overlord and received a reward.
"Hello? Oh Seyeon. Did you perhaps—"
[Perfect timing. Hwajin, did you have a strange dream by any chance? A dream with a man named E.]
Oh Seyeon asked me what I was about to ask first.
'It was real...'
Atlas Guild Hall.
It was still early morning, so only Oh Seyeon and I had shown up.
I showed Oh Seyeon my book.
After seeing the objective written in the book, Oh Seyeon said she had been assigned the same objective.
"I was told to help you as much as possible."
Oh Seyeon said.
"Just what is E?"
When I spoke, Oh Seyeon fell silent as if lost in thought.
An existence with the power to resurrect the dead and alter skills, who also seemed to know future events.
"A god...?"
Oh Seyeon said in a voice devoid of certainty.
I hadn't believed in religion from the day I was born until now.
If a god did exist, I had always believed they must be a truly rotten bastard.
For being all-powerful, yet leaving the world in this state.
"Maybe being called a god doesn't mean being omnipotent."
I said, recalling E's words about expending a great deal of power to meet us and about placing hope in me.
"Even if not a god, it's a being different from humans."
I added.
"E said this situation would end if we stopped the next assault. That only one city needed to survive."
I nodded at Oh Seyeon's words.
"Let's go see the Guild Master later."
When it turned 9 o'clock, the Guild Master came in alone. We approached him and told him we had something to say.
The Guild Master looked at Oh Seyeon and me with a puzzled expression.
After we went to his office and told him about the dream, the Guild Master's face grew complicated.
"I know that the two of you are existences different from us, so I believe that dream surely holds meaning. However, it's uncertain whether the government or other guilds will accept this story."
I figured the Guild Master was right.
Gather all the Hunters and defend Seoul!
If we defend just one city, the monster assaults will end!
If asked for proof, I'd say it was a dream I had!
The answer I'd get back would be "Don't talk nonsense."
"Understood. I just wanted you to know, Guild Master."
I said and left the office with Oh Seyeon.
"What are you going to do?"
Oh Seyeon asked.
"No matter how hard you and I run around, we can't cover all of Seoul."
"You're right."
I fell into thought.
"Oh Seyeon. There's an experiment I want to try. Will you help?"
Oh Seyeon nodded.
***
The place I took Oh Seyeon was the closest dungeon still remaining in Seoul.
"Hold onto this."
I handed her a bottle containing Crook's Elixir.
"Why this?"
"Just in case."
I replied, summoning the book.
'
After paying the required experience, a new 6-Word Skill was created.
"Wait here for a second."
I knocked out a few monsters and placed them beside Oh Seyeon.
Oh Seyeon made a strange face.
"What the hell are you trying to do?"
"An experiment."
I gripped the Flame Thunder Spear like a staff.
"The skill description came out the way I expected, but you never know. If you feel anything strange, drink that immediately."
"Hey, wait—"
I used the newly created skill. Liquid flew toward the monsters and Oh Seyeon.
"Ah, it's cold!"
Oh Seyeon made a displeased face after being splashed, while the monsters vomited blood and died.
Oh Seyeon freaked out.
"What did you splash on me!?"
"How is it? Anything wrong?"
Oh Seyeon checked her body.
"Nothing... seems wrong."
I smiled inwardly.
"Thanks for participating in the experiment. Because of you, I'm confident I can use the skill without worry now. Dry."
Holding the spear, I used the skill I normally used to dry laundry at home to dry Oh Seyeon's clothes.
"Aren't you using skills too frivolously? Just like when you made that drinking glass before."
Oh Seyeon glared at me.
"So what? Good is good."
I shrugged.
"Let's get out quickly. We have packaging to do."
"Packaging?"
Oh Seyeon looked at me with widened eyes as if asking what I was talking about.
***
10 AM the next day.
The sky turned red once more, and simultaneously, a countdown appeared in the air.
This time, they were given 24 hours as well.
"Oppa. Is it really okay to just stay like this?"
Jinhui asked anxiously.
Seono also seemed unable to calm down, looking at me then outside the school gates.
The place we were in was the same shelter as last time.
Thanks to government guidance and orders, people had flocked to the shelter the moment the monster assault began, and as a result, the school was packed with people.
The monsters targeted the gathered people and swarmed outside the school gates.
They couldn't get inside because of my mana barrier.
"Don't worry. Even those monsters can't easily break through this wall. Still, we can't just watch forever, so I have to go out, right?"
I raised my spear.
"I'll be right back. Swift."
"Oppa!?"
I made a small hole in the dome's ceiling and went outside through it.
A few monsters glared my way.
"Shall we get started?"
I took out a bottle of BakXus from inside my clothes and threw it at the monsters.
"Kyaak!"
The glass bottle struck a monster and shattered. After seeing the contents touch the monster, I returned inside the dome.
"Hyung, what did you do?"
Seono asked.
"Watch closely."
I pointed at the monsters with my finger.
"Ah!"
Seono shouted.
The monsters gathered outside the gates were collapsing.
Notifications of acquiring experience rang out without pause.
Time rewound to yesterday evening.
Atlas Guild Hall was filled with all kinds of empty bottles, regardless of type or brand.
Even though it was evening, all guild members were out filling those bottles with transparent liquid.
I kept creating the liquid for the bottles using my skill.
"You said this was called Demon Poison, right?"
Oh Seyeon, sitting next to me, asked as she poured liquid into a bottle.
"Yeah, Demon Poison (魔毒). It's the name of my new skill."
I handed a bucket full of Demon Poison to a waiting guild member and picked up a new bucket.
"It's a skill made by using
"Your explanation is too long. It's a poison that only kills monsters, right?"
"...Right."
The bottles of Demon Poison we were now diligently making were scheduled to be delivered to the Seoul-affiliated guilds that had joined the coalition to defeat the Overlord.
After that, the plan was for each guild to take charge of a region and spread this poison once the Special Raid began.
The Guild Master was contacting each guild.
'If things go according to plan, we can endure the assault with minimal manpower.'
With that thought in mind, I filled the bucket with poison again and again.
"Wow......"
Seono's voice of admiration was heard.
The monsters outside the gates were now all collapsed on the ground, motionless.
Like cockroaches that had died from poison.
The thought that we could achieve the greatest efficiency by using it after luring as many monsters as possible to the shelter, exploiting their tendency to target humans, had proven correct.
I took out my phone. I planned to call other regions to ask how things were going.
[You have acquired 3030 EXP.]
[You have acquired 23600 EXP.]
[You have acquired 17020 EXP.]
"Huh?"
I lowered the phone from my ear.
Even though all the monsters in front of the school gates had collapsed, the notifications saying I had acquired experience continued to ring out.