[We’re sampling new trantors here’s a chapter as a cer and announcement for those waiting. We’re orienting and finalizing the new team; I deeply apologize for the wait. I can’t say much about the circumstances of the previous trantor, however, please take care guys, COVID is no joke. Thanks for the patience. (4/3)]
Episode #118.
“Hyeong, I think this sensation won’t work.”
“Well, I guess it won’t work until we have all five sensations beforehand…”
Jung Si-woo acquired the vision skill at the Shrine of Rhea, so he was eager to obtain every sensation. As the vision level improved, he was able to urately perceive mana. So, it was an absurd idea for him to stop looking for another sensation. Yong Se-ha, on the other hand, had no intuition whatever. Si-woo tried to teach him all the tips and tricks and force them into Se-ha’s body. Hisbat skills made fast improvements except for the sensation-rted ones. They never blossomed in him.
“I think I’ve be very strong, Hyeong!”
“Yes, you have. But…”
From Si-woo’s perspective, Se-ha had a long way to go. But he was well aware the amount of Se-ha’s effort had never beencking. It might work if Si-woo roasted him a bit more, but he had other things to do. Just as he was about to go out for a meal, someone slightly opened the training center door.
[Master.]
“Oh, Caina.”
Facing Caina’s aura out of nowhere gave Si-woo acute goosebumps after spending hours only with Se-ha. His dragon’s sense, awakening from its dormancy, fiercely gnashed. Si-woo was busy analyzing Caina’s information to intuitively find her weakness, using his entire physique as the medium.
[You’re creepy, master.]
“Sorry about that. But you are too strong to let my instinct loose…”
Training the dragon’s sense with Se-ha, at least, was working so well that he was able to calm himself down. While Se-ha was feeling defeated for no reason, Caina, sighing with relief, walked closer to them. It became pretty clear that she wasn’t just an undead. A magical creature vivified by magic was the right way to describe her.
[Beto feels better now. It won’t be a problem to let him stay alone for a while.]
“How about you?”
[…I feel better, too. Thank you for waiting for me, master.]
Beto was Beto, but Beache’s mental state, which had spent countless years in a dead bodyguarding the ck coffin, wasn’t expected. Although twisted and distorted, she got a new name and a new rtionship, but now she seemed pretty stable. Beto would live his life. But for Beache, who had spent an eternity imprisoned in a dead body to protect the coffin, staying sane must have been impossible. Her mind was indeed all tangled and twisted, but a new name and new life seemed to help her.
‘The other ghosts I rule over might have their own issues to deal with like her.’
Now that he had learned about the soul, maybe he could give them more freedom. Vowing to do so whenever he got a chance, he left the training camp with his party.
“So it’s all over?”
“Yep.”
Soo Ah-rin greeted them while training mana. Jung Si-woo took out the perfectly repaired equipment from a drawer and checked them before turning to her with a grin of satisfaction.
“Have you had any work these days?”
“I feel like there is a lot to work on. And your phone, too.”
For a week, Jung Si-woo was mentally and physically disconnected from the outer world. He, of course, didn’t care about his phone. As soon as he got it back from Soo Ah-rin, the notifications of Seria’s missed calls and texts were the first things he noticed. Marina came next, and his parents had checked in on him. On the other hand, Lee Seo-hee, who only left two messages, seemed both caring and considerate.
“I guess she finally moved on from you, Oppa. I hope she goes out to meet some nice gentlemen out there as soon as possible.”
“Okay, I get it.”
Slightly pushing away Soo Ah-rin, the goddess of jealousy, Si-woo checked his phone. Actually, there was an influx of notifications and voice mails besides the ones he instantly noticed. There were some random numbers and some numbers registered in his phone contacts. He couldn’t check them all one by one since there were thousands of texts along with thousands of trashy spam texts.
He deleted all the texts from old acquaintances who had never texted him until now and from those interested in his business altogether. The real acquaintances’ messages were what mattered to him enough to read. It would be fun for Jung Si-woo to beat up some annoying brats one by one. Still, he wasn’t the type of person who would narcissistically brag about his abilities. Strength was only a goal to pursue, not a gift to waste for nothing.
“Wow, it’s surprising to hear that you three still hang out.”
Seria prioritized supporting Lee Seo-hee as the first and thest mission appointed by Jung Si-woo since he never called her for long. Besides the work rted to WPRC, Marina was already fueled by the thought of training Lee Seo-hee. As a result, the three were destined to cooperate. Then, what more should be said here? He texted all of them to keep up the excellent coboration. That was it. As if he had done something rewarding, Jung Si-woo’s face was full of fulfillment. Soo Ah-rin was pretty annoyed just by looking at that expression.
“Okey, dokey. Let’s watch some news, then.”
“There’s nothing new going on. The world is still suffering from the Luinos Lizard.”
Soo Ah-rin was right. The news about the Lizard destroying everything around the UN headquarters in New York City was still the hottest issue of the day. People also talked about Jung Si-Woo a lot as well. This fame was obviously because he slew that monster. The strongest man on Earth. This was how people would describe today’s Jung Si-woo.
“That means Kim Ha-ryong’s n was a total failure.”
“He wanted to brag about the power of God, but this is how it ended.”
Kim Ha-ryong’s n was pretty convincing. With the blessed humans on the side of humanity triumphing on the frontier, he would have shut off the voices against the power of God and confused the humans’ dichotomy of right and wrong…
“You did all the work, Oppa.”
“You also denied the power of God, Hyeong. Things are going crazy.”
“Of course, his confident entrance would be enough to make people feel anxious about the power of God…but would he never imagine it to end like this?”
“Oppa.”
Soo Ah-rin’s steady eyes were still on the tiny phone ying the video of Jung Si-woo slicing the head off a baby Luinos Lizard.
“No one ever imagined that you would exceed Kim Ha-ryong with the power of God of fire. Even if you manipted the monster’s appearance behind the scenes.”
[A baby Luinos Lizard. They existed in our world, too.]
Caina added.
[An adult Luinos Lizard is the monster of monsters whose minimum level is 300. It is so massive that it would quickly bring a chaotic end to a small nation. Compared to their gigantic bodies, their health is minimal, so the strategy is to distract its focus and breaking through its defense to cut its skin. I once have hunted an adolescent Lizard with my teammates in the past.]
“That’s true. It’s just massive with no strength whatsoever.”
“You guys are so…”
Jung Si-woo was basically a frat-like annoying guy. With Caina, they made one hell of a team: the Bermuda Triangle of Deception. Don’t dare to try to survive it. It would result in the utter copse of your pride and self-esteem.
“We should head to the dungeon.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Caina guaranteed that it was okay to leave Beto alone. Yong Se-ha had almost finished the basics, too. They should move forward to clear out all the new ant cave dungeons around the as soon as possible! Of course, those dungeons would be full of monsters that weren’t enough for Si-woo to improve his heavy weapon battle skill. But if he imposed himself some handicaps, such as a speed limit, then training wouldn’t be awful.
“What do you want to do with improving your power more and more when you are already the strongest man on Earth?”
“Dreaming to be stronger more and more is the manifestation of desire that is driven by human nature. If I really need one more reason…well, the stronger you are, the less annoying things to deal with.”
Kim Ha-ryong was an example of a strong man. If Jung Si-woo were weak, he could have failed to protect Soo Ah-rin and Yong Se-ha in the worst-case scenario. Jung Si-woo, thankfully, was generous enough to beat him in person. So that’s why he would never directly attack them in front of Si-woo.
“ording to the same logic, if I get much stronger than now, those gods who mess up the Earth little by little would be afraid of me, too…wait, what?”
When Jung Si-woo put his hand on the doorknob to leave the resting area, a message that he had never expected popped up to his eyes.
[You can upgrade the door into Level 4 by satisfying several conditions simultaneously.]
[You will be qualified if you use 85% of the remaining beads.]
“Is it okay to just upgrade nothing but only the door level…?”
However, Jung Si-woo wasn’t a man who missed the right timing. He was pretty worried since there weren’t many beads left, but he was about to go explore the dungeons and farm the beads, so there was no point in being worried. He immediately reinforced the door. Just a few minutester, an antique European door popped up, which was simr to the door to the residential area next to it. But this door had some gold decorations that were added. It looked like a door from medieval Europe.
“Great, so can this be a door to anywhere…?”
“You seem to have too many expectations, Oppa…”
Soon there was a message in front of him: the upgrade notification. The upgraded door, however, was growing in a far different direction than he expected.
[The door has be Level 4.]
[The door can create an integrated dungeon based on two dungeons with simr difficulty among the ones you have already cleared. This service consumes a few beads.]
“What the…?”
If the entrance to a dungeon was a Walmart, does this mean that from now on, it would be a Costco?! He already knew that the dungeon entrances at the resting area had ovee the concept of physical distance. Still, he never knew it would also create a dungeon! Based on the abilities that Jung Si-woo had recently awakened, he should know how to exin it. However, Jung Si-woo wasn’t encouraged enough to use his head. He only wanted to experience this awesome door right now!
“That’s what I heard.”
[I will follow my master.]
“You’ve already passed the stage of defeating any dungeon you enter. Do as you please, Oppa.”
“I’ll try my best.”
“Alright.”
As Jung Si-woo grabbed the doorknob again with his heart pounding, the options for difficulty appeared in his retina.
[Difficulty – Very Low]
[Difficulty – Low]
“You’re saying there’s no Normal difficulty at all?! Like, there’s not even a Little Low!”
“Or that could possibly mean that you haven’t cleared any Normal or Little Low difficulty dungeons yet.”
It was pretty disappointing that there were only two options, but there was nothing he could do about it. Jung eventually chose a very low difficulty dungeon to deal with this problem step by step. Suddenly…
[There are currently 375,307 ant cave dungeons on Earth that correspond to Difficulty – Very Low.]
[It is possible to integrate at least two to 375,307 dungeons at maximum.]
[How many dungeons do you want to consolidate?]
“Oh.”
Jung Si-woo chuckled while checking out this absurd number of dungeons. As soon as Soo Ah-rin saw that grin, she already knew what would happen. This was a typical Jung Si-woo pattern. As if he was an innocent, reckless child with a button forunching a nuclear bomb, it was no matter for him to do it right away.
“I’m gonna integrate all 375,307 dungeons.”
“I freaking knew it.”
At the end of Si-woo’s deration with Soo Ah-rin’s heavy sigh, the door began to move.
[All remaining beads were used to create a dungeon.]
[Dungeon of Difficulty – Normal has been created. Would you like to enter?]
“Hehe.”
“You’re a pervert.”
“I’ll be one, then.”
What made this new dungeon a Normal one from that many Very Low ones? Would Ah-rin’s sighing ever end? Nothing stopped Jung Si-woo from opening the door and taking the first step into the unknown. A limitless, ungraspable void weed them.