Chapter 24

Chapter. 24

I claimed the reward at once.

FLASH!

At the same time, my vision flickered, and in an instant the place where I had been standing changed.

From a single cramped corner of my room to the center of a colossal corridor stretching across the infinite cosmos…

It was that place I had briefly visited when I first experienced the moment of Awakening.

[Welcome to the ‘Corridor of Constellations,’ Savior]

The Corridor of Constellations.

A mysterious place lined with statues of the ninety-nine classes I had raised so far.

“It still looks incredible.”

[New Feature: ‘Achievement’ has been unlocked]

“Let us have a look.”

Flash.

The moment I wanted to see it, it kindly displayed it right in front of me.

[Achievement]

Antique letters engraved in gold.

Below them, countless classes were listed in a long row.

‘It is probably related to classes I have not unlocked yet, right?’

I pressed down with my finger and dragged the list downward as if I were operating a touch pad.

“Oh.”

There were unlocked entries.

[8. Great Sage] (Locked)

[8-1. Frost Sorcerer] (Unlocked) (new!)

[8-2. Flame Sorcerer] (Locked)

[8-3. Lightning Sorcerer] (Locked)

(…)

“Hmm….”

‘Where is Void Knight?’

I scrolled all the way back up.

[0. Void Knight] (Locked)

[1. Sword Saint] (Locked)

[1-1. Sword Master] (Locked)

(…)

“Damn. It is number zero.”

Still, there was something strange about it.

There were exactly ninety-nine classes in Lost Honor.

If each class had its own Achievement, then there should have been ninety-nine Achievement slots as well.

But… when I counted them all the way through,there were one hundred slots.

And the very last Achievement was marked as

[???]

‘Oh?’

In a case like this, there was only one correct answer.

“So it is hidden.”

Heh heh.

They even made a hidden element here?

They really do know exactly what drives me crazy.

“I approve.”

‘Does that mean there is a zeroth class I do not know about beyond the ninety-nine? Or perhaps a hundredth?’

Interesting.

Very interesting.

I had thought there was nothing in this game I did not know.

‘…I will look into the details later.’

I touched the [Frost Sorcerer] entry glowing in gold.

[Frost Sorcerer]

[Achievement Attained: EX-rank]

“Oh?”

‘Achievement Attained’ was glowing as well, so I touched it once more.

[Possessed an EX-rank Frost Type Hunter] (Achieved)

[Possessed an S-rank Frost Type Hunter] (Achieved)

[Possessed an A-rank Frost Type Hunter] (Achieved)

(…)

Han Seol-ah had entered at S-rank and come out at EX-rank.

Which meant that by possessing a Hunter who had reached the exalted realm of EX-rank, all the lower-rank Achievements had automatically been cleared as well.

“So what is the reward?”

Achievements were supposed to give more generous rewards the harder they were to earn.

Filled with anticipation, I touched the [EX-rank Achieved] entry.

[Frost Sorcerer EX Achievement Unlock Bonus]

[1. While synchronized with Frost Sorcerer, naturally consumed Mana is reduced by 90%]

“…What?”

Right now, even if I merely kept Synchronization active, Nebula’s Mana would run completely dry in ten minutes, forcing it to shut off automatically.

That was where my ten-minute activity limit came from.

But ninety percent less?

“That means one tenth.”

Which meant I could now maintain Synchronization for a full one hundred minutes!

‘The limit on how long I could maintain Synchronization had been a greater obstacle than I expected. I had thought there would be some way to overcome it… but I obtained it far sooner than expected.’

That was how game developers always were.

They forced inconvenience on you.

Then they showed you a way to overcome that inconvenience.

And then players threw themselves into clearing that condition with everything they had…

until the moment they finally broke free of that inconvenience and felt an overwhelming sense of liberation.

And they accepted that feeling as ‘tremendous fun.’

‘This is absurdly good.’

Just like I was doing now!

How much had I struggled because of the usage limit on Synchronization?

If this had been a game, I could have simply said, ‘Then I will not play.’

But this was reality. If I said, ‘Then I will not do it,’ the answer would be, ‘Then die.’

At this moment, as that inconvenience was drastically reduced,

I felt an immense sense of release.

‘If it is like this….’

If so, then I would have far more freedom in what I did from here on out.

“Heh, heh heh.”

A grin kept slipping out.

Out of curiosity, I checked the lower-rank rewards as well.

[Reward for Achieving S-rank: Mana consumption reduced by 50%]

[Reward for Achieving A-rank: Mana consumption reduced by 40%]

[Reward for Achieving B-rank: Mana consumption reduced by 30%]

“…….”

The difference was severe.

Far too severe.

EX was ninety percent, while S-rank, the very next tier below it, was a mere fifty percent.

Numerically, that was a difference of forty percent, but when converted into actual maintenance time, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

“EX is one hundred minutes. S-rank is twenty.”

A full fivefold gap.

It was not a matter of being simply ‘a little worse.’ It was a completely different level of efficiency.

“As if I could be satisfied with S-rank. Ridiculous.”

I was not going to go through all that hell just to operate for a mere twenty minutes.

The answer was obvious.

“It has to be EX, no matter what.”

Just like Han Seol-ah, I would find a promising talent and possess them.

Then I would drench them in all the precious elixirs and items Nebula possessed and forcibly rebuild them into EX-rank.

“I can do it. If it is me. And if it is Nebula!”

Now I would show exactly how far the capabilities of a gamer who had marinated and rotted for ten long years could go.

‘Though finding a promising talent is going to be the problem.’

For that… I would either have to use Min Ji-hee,

or use the Black Market.

‘…I should think more carefully about that.’

I had a feeling that the task of finding promising talent was going to become a very large obstacle.

The Achievement rewards did not end there.

[2. While synchronized with Frost Sorcerer, Mana consumed by magic is reduced by 50%]

“Wow.”

This was also enormous.

Even if the time before it naturally shut off had increased from ten minutes to one hundred, it would still have been terribly inconvenient if casting just a few spells made it shut down anyway.

But this cut that cost in half?

In simple terms, it meant I could use far more magic.

And.

“That is not even the important part.”

The truly crucial point of this entry was…

that it doubled my ‘survival line.’

If I used too much magic while Synchronization was active, then the backlash hit me the moment I turned it off.

It was a horrifying penalty severe enough to kill me.

By my estimate, the limit at which that backlash would not kill me—my survival threshold—was 50,000 MP.

To put it simply,

under the old standard, copying even one use of Han Seol-ah’s Permafrost would have forced me into retirement.

But now I could use Permafrost twice.

And Frost Sorcerer’s spells consumed far less MP than Han Seol-ah’s own magic.

“How much stronger is this making me…?”

And this still was not the end!

[Reward for First EX Achievement]

[You may now use ‘Overload’]

Overload!

Rare for Lost Honor, it even came with an explanation.

[Synchronization Skill: Overload]

It was classified, no less, as a Synchronization Skill.

And the description was…

[When using magic while synchronized, designate a Mana multiplier to increase the spell’s power by that amount]

Simple.

That meant if I cast Permafrost—which after the Achievement bonuses now cost 25,000 MP—with twofold Overload, it would consume 50,000 MP instead, but its power would double.

“This could be used strategically.”

Instinctively… I felt this would be more useful against humans than against Demonic Beasts.

‘The feeling of mixing feints with killing blows.’

With that, I was done claiming and checking the first reward: [Corridor of Constellations - ‘Achievement’ Unlocked].

Next… the [Possession Ticket] was already safely in my pocket.

And last.

The hidden reward.

[Corridor of Constellations - ‘Compendium’ Unlocked]

“Now then, what exactly are you?”

Flash!

[Compendium]

[Han Seol-ah]

[Jin Cheon-jin]

[Min Ji-hee]

“Oh?”

There were familiar names written there.

So the Compendium’s ability was to organize information on Hunters I had already encountered?

[Min Ji-hee]

“….”

My eyes went to her name first.

There was too much about her I wanted to know.

Min Ji-hee’s Awakening Ability was one of the greatest secrets of all, something even the Black Market information team had failed to uncover.

All people knew was something vague along the lines of, Her eyes shine, and then she becomes smarter.

‘Will I find out if I press this?’

I pressed it.

[Min Ji-hee]

[Awakening Ability: Cat’s Eye (B)]

[Current Ability: S]

[Potential Ability: S]

‘…Cat’s Eye? B-rank?’

That was unexpected.

As far as I knew, Cat’s Eye was… exactly what it sounded like, a cat’s eyes.

And it had only two effects.

Enhanced dynamic vision. And improved sight in the dark.

That was all.

It did not make you smarter, or make words come more easily to your lips, or anything of the sort.

‘…Then what was that ability Min Ji-hee had shown?’

[Stats]

[Strength] D

[Endurance] E

[Agility] C

[Mana] B

[Luck] C

‘Even her Stats… look ordinary?’

It was a small pentagon, with only Mana jutting out a little more than the rest.

[Talents]

[Unique Trait: Abyss of Truth] (EX)

└[Genius: Memory] (EX)

└[Calculation] (S)

└[Coolheadedness] (S)

└(Unavailable)

└(Unavailable)

└(Sealed)

[General Traits]

[Charisma] (S)

[Acting] (S)

[Eloquence] (S)

[Heavy Drinker] (D)

‘…Oh.’

That Traits section was interesting.

There was no explanation describing exactly what each one meant.

Still, the combination was clear enough that I could roughly infer it.

‘So she was simply absurdly brilliant?’

Everyone had been fooled.

They believed the source of Min Ji-hee’s intelligence was her Awakening Ability.

Because every time she showed something extraordinary, her eyes flashed.

But the Awakening Ability she actually possessed was nothing more than Cat’s Eye, an utterly ordinary B-rank ability.

Which meant her brilliance came simply from Min Ji-hee herself being extraordinary.

‘More precisely, from the ridiculous power of the Unique Trait she possesses.’

And yet Min Ji-hee had been spreading false information that made everyone think it was her Awakening Ability that was exceptional.

‘I do not know why.’

…All I had done was press the Compendium once.

And I had already learned that Min Ji-hee was deceiving everyone.

Next, I pressed [Han Seol-ah].

[Han Seol-ah]

[Awakening Ability: Ice Crystal (EX)]

[Current Ability: EX]

[Potential Ability: S]

[Stats]

[Strength] C

[Endurance] D

[Agility] C

[Mana] EX

[Luck] S

[Talents]

[Unique Trait: Nine Yin Severed Meridians] (EX)

└[Genius: Frost] (EX)

└[Genius: Pure Yin] (EX)

└[Genius: Ice Blossom] (EX)

└[Heaven’s Curse: Numbness] (Cured)

└[Heaven’s Curse: Short Life] (Overcome)

[General Traits]

[Indomitable] (EX)

[Limit Break] (S)

[Guardian] (S)

[Addiction to Sweets] (B)

‘Nine Yin Severed Meridians? Is that not the sort of thing that only appears in old martial arts novels?’

The string of Traits listed beneath Nine Yin Severed Meridians…

it seemed to mean that the genius Han Seol-ah had shown came from this Trait called Nine Yin Severed Meridians.

‘So there were penalties too.’

[Heaven’s Curse: Short Life] (Cured)

A curse in which her body would freeze to death because her affinity for Mana was too high.

And I had solved it by breaking open her Mana capacity.

‘If it had not been for me, she really had been fated to die young.’

Once again, my connection with Han Seol-ah felt strangely fateful.

Even the names of her personal Traits, and the fact that every last one of them carried EX, somehow… felt very much like her.

Of course, there were no detailed descriptions for the Traits.

But even with only as much as I could infer, they still felt like keywords that suited Han Seol-ah perfectly as a Hunter.

‘…Which means.’

Even with a Hunter I did not know well, if I looked at their Traits, I could probably figure out what kind of Hunter they were.

“Compendium, you lunatic thing.”

Now that I had checked Han Seol-ah’s entry too, I knew for certain.

This ability was insane.

I had heard that what the Hunter Association possessed amounted to nothing more than basic personal information and Awakening Abilities.

There was no other way to learn a Hunter’s information in this much detail.

And beyond that…

astonishingly, this was not even the most important part.

[Min Ji-hee]

[Current Ability: S]

[Potential Ability: S]

[Han Seol-ah]

[Current Ability: EX]

[Potential Ability: S]

This was the real core of it.

The alpha and omega of the Compendium’s ability.

The fact that I could see a Hunter’s potential.

Why was that important?

Because if I wanted to exploit the newly unlocked Achievement system to one hundred and twenty percent, EX-rank possession was absolutely necessary.

But what expert in the world could ever say with certainty, This one will definitely become EX-rank?

What if I poured all kinds of precious elixirs into someone thinking they would reach EX, only to find that S-rank was their limit?

The moment that happened, all of it would become a waste of resources and a waste of time.

It would simply be over.

But with this ‘Compendium,’ the story changed.

Because I could pick out only the ones whose Potential Ability was EX.

Which meant it was now possible to invest with a zero percent chance of failure.

“This is incredible….”

Of course, someone might worry about one thing.

What if their potential was high, but their current ability was pathetic? When would I ever finish raising them?

[Current Ability: F]

[Potential Ability: S]

Suppose I found someone like that.

An ordinary guild would not even spare them a glance.

They would click their tongues and say, When are we supposed to raise them, and when are we supposed to use them?

But.

“That does not matter at all.”

Whether they were A-rank, F-rank, or even an ordinary civilian,it made no difference to me.

Why?

Because with Nebula’s resources, I could push them all the way up to EX.

“All I need is talent. Nothing but talent.”

I will take responsibility for the rest.