Chapter 50

Chapter 50.

Today’s menu was seasoned fried chicken.

Should I have bone-in? Or boneless?

After a blissful dilemma, the conclusion I reached was—

‘I will eat both.’

This was a rest I was giving myself after all my hard work.

A little luxury like this was fine.

I immediately had Snowy make the call.

[...It seems delivery will take some time.]

“Okay.”

Kang Hyo-jun’s voice coming through the receiver sounded as if he was at death’s door, but chicken was an important matter.

Let us pretend not to know.

‘I still have time before the chicken arrives, so should I settle the accounts a little?’

Without hesitation, I moved to the Corridor of Constellations.

FLASH—!

As my vision brightened, the floor touched beneath my feet.

An endless Milky Way flowed beneath my feet, and overhead, a space where countless stars seemed ready to pour down embroidered the ceiling.

A vast corridor crossed that infinite universe.

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

As soon as I entered, system messages appeared in a flood.

[Synchronization ability - Deathlord (EX) confirmed]

[A talent corresponding to the ‘pinnacle’ of Branch 9 - Black Magic!]

[From now on, all Branch 9 classes can be used through ‘Skill: Synchronization (EX)’]

“Mm-hmm.”

It was just as expected.

After clearing Han Seol-ah’s Epic Quest, Frost Sorcerer had been unlocked thanks to the Ice Crystal.

I had expected it to be a system that unlocked similar classes according to the abilities possessed by that Hunter.

In Lee A-un’s case, I had even directly changed his class into Deathlord, the pinnacle itself, so I knew it would turn out like this.

I also checked the Achievement.

[Deathlord]

[Achievement Accomplished: EX-rank]

The important part was here.

I gently touched it with the mouse.

[Possessed an EX-rank demonology-type Hunter] (Accomplished)

[Possessed an EX-rank blood magic-type Hunter] (Accomplished)

(...)

[Possessed an EX-rank anti-demonic arts-type Hunter] (Accomplished)

“It worked.”

Properly, even the Achievements for all six lower classes had been completed!

Lee A-un, whom I had changed into the pinnacle class of Branch 9 called Deathlord, had unlocked a staggering seven classes all by himself.

On top of that, each lower class had also been judged EX-rank.

And furthermore—

[Possessed a Hunter with the pinnacle of EX-rank Black Magic] (Accomplished)

“Keu.”

That was the finishing touch.

In that case...

[Deathlord EX Achievement Unlock Perks]

[1. When synchronized with Deathlord, natural Mana consumption is reduced by 90%]

[2. When synchronized with Deathlord, Mana consumed by magic is reduced by 50%]

“Good, good.”

Even the Achievement that had been the reason I absolutely needed to possess a Hunter with EX-rank potential had been properly reflected.

I crossed the corridor.

Gray statues of classes that had not yet been unlocked continued in a line.

After walking a little farther, I saw that color had returned to all six statues of the lower classes under Branch 9, Black Magic.

I reached out and touched one of the statues.

DING—

[Curse Sorcerer: Would you like to synchronize?]

“...So this is how it works.”

When I touched the statue of the Frost Sorcerer not far away, a message appeared saying, [Frost Sorcerer: Synchronizing].

I had wondered how I would synchronize with the abilities of different classes once I unlocked several of them.

Apparently, I had to come directly to the Corridor of Constellations and switch them myself.

‘Then I cannot switch classes in real time while fighting.’

If that was the case, the importance of strategy and tactics rose as well.

I would have to identify what kind of enemy appeared, figure out what method could counter that enemy, then synchronize with the most suitable class and fight.

‘If Scathach appeared right now, I could go out with this newly unlocked class instead of Frost Sorcerer, so the strategy difficulty would become far easier.’

The only regrettable part was the lack of on-the-fly adaptability.

Everything else was an excellent development.

Moreover...

From Scathach to Resonar.

When I considered that they had all been bosses I knew...

There was a sufficient possibility that boss monsters with the same specs as those in Lost Honor would continue to appear in the future.

I knew the weaknesses of every boss monster that appeared in Lost Honor.

If it was me, I could make 200% use of this ability.

As I kept walking, I eventually reached the end of the corridor.

There was a large, seven-tiered platform.

At both ends of each tier, a pair of statues faced each other.

Fourteen pinnacles in total.

Among them, light had returned to one statue located on the second tier.

That statue was wrapped from head to toe in a pitch-black, mist-like cloak, as though buried in the night sky, and it was emitting an ominous aura.

This was Deathlord.

‘So this is what it really looks like.’

According to Lost Honor’s lore, Deathlord was a class that symbolized forbidden power.

Under its command were demons, blood, curses, plague, bones, rampage... the domains governed by each lower class.

Forbidden power, the king of black magic.

Perhaps because of that, the aura looked as black as darkness and as ominous as blood.

‘In the game, it was nothing more than a class effect...’

I was happy that I had unlocked one of the pinnacles.

More than anything, the fact that one of the classes I had been so busy playing in the game had materialized before me made my heart race.

Gulp.

I touched the statue of the Deathlord.

[Deathlord: Would you like to synchronize?]

The answer was obvious.

YES.

FLASH!

A bright light sparkled from the statue.

“Did it work?”

[Deathlord: Synchronizing]

“It worked.”

[Would you like to leave?]

I set aside the notification window that had appeared at the perfect time.

There was one more thing I needed to check.

[From now on, ‘Spirit Sorcerer’ can be used through ‘Skill: Synchronization (EX)’]

The Dual Class I had given Lee A-un.

[Achievement]

[Possessed an A-rank spirit sorcery-type Hunter] (Accomplished)

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

“This still has room to improve.”

The Genesis-rank item ‘Primordial Essence’ equipped on Lee A-un had worked hard enough for his aptitude in the summoning line to be recognized, but unfortunately, there was only one class he could change into.

So I had chosen Spirit Sorcerer.

In Lee A-un’s Compendium, it had been A-rank, and in Lost Honor, it had also been judged A-rank.

‘I will make both classes EX someday.’

Just learning that giving a real human two classes meant giving them two Awakening abilities was already a huge gain.

‘That means I might be able to give Han Seol-ah a Dual Class someday too.’

That meant a path had opened to develop useful talents like Min Ji-hee, Jin Cheon-jin, and Kang Hyo-jun by another level as well.

‘Come to think of it, I do not think I have ever heard of a Hunter in reality who has two abilities.’

Was it impossible for Hunters in reality to have a Dual Class because of the system?

[Spirit Sorcerer: Would you like to synchronize?]

‘I can do it, though.’

Of course, I refused and returned to reality.

“Hm?”

HSSSS—!

[A-Agent?]

Pitch-black mist began billowing out from my entire body.

“Ugh, what is this?”

It was the aura that the statue had been emitting.

That same thing had begun flowing out of my body too.

‘Disgusting.’

I had witnessed this mist twice before, in the game and from the statue.

But when it started flowing out in reality—and from my body, no less—it felt incredibly disgusting.

‘How do I turn this off?’

In the game, there had been no separate function to turn off the pinnacle class aura!

‘I cannot walk around outside like this.’

A Hunter who went around scattering ominous-looking exhaust?

I wanted absolutely no part of that.

I hurriedly searched through my mind.

The moment I turned on Synchronization, I naturally understood how to handle the Deathlord’s abilities.

As I looked through them carefully, fortunately, there was a function to turn the aura OFF.

“Phew.”

A reality-optimized patch. Very praiseworthy.

“Then...”

Thirty minutes remained until the chicken arrived.

Within that time, I would have to test the Deathlord’s abilities in secret.

Let us go to the basement of the villa, where no one is around.

***

When the Apostle, who had been sitting blankly while staring at the monitor, suddenly began emitting black mist—

[A-Agent?]

Snowy was shocked.

Was it because black mist had suddenly burst out?

No.

[‘What... element is this?’]

The Apostle turned off the mist right away, but in that fleeting instant, Snowy collected the black mist and began analyzing it.

Snowy even had a function that identified air quality in real time and purified ‘bad air’ below the standard threshold.

In other words, it knew how to analyze air.

This function was a subordinate ability of one of Snowy’s core functions, ‘Mana Concentration Analysis.’

Like the machine it was, Snowy had been mechanically monitoring the air quality and Mana concentration around the Apostle in real time.

And the moment it encountered the Apostle’s black mist—

It realized that this was Mana that did not exist on Earth.

And an element that did not exist on Earth.

Was it surprised because it was seeing it for the first time?

It was not that simple.

The science humanity had accumulated over long years had observed and recorded most of the elements that existed on Earth and in the universe, and all of it lay dormant in Snowy’s database.

After the opening of the Hunter era, ten years had passed. By now, most research had also been completed on the new energy known as ‘Mana,’ as well as the elements that had begun to change in strange and bizarre ways under Mana’s influence.

At this level, even if a different element were discovered, most such discoveries were rooted in a certain element or in Mana, so inference was not difficult.

In other words, along the same lines, the information Snowy remembered was no different from the crystallization of the science humanity had built.

But this Mana.

And this element...

It was something completely ‘new,’ something that had no roots anywhere.

The surprises continued.

The Apostle headed to the basement.

“Ocean of Blood.”

And when he used a spell Snowy had never heard before—

GURGLE— GLUG, GLUG—

[‘Unidentified liquid generated within a 20-meter radius. Component analysis... blood. Match rate: 100%. What is this...?’]

A scene unfolded in which all the logic and science humanity had built until now completely collapsed.

It was the moment the common sense of magic Snowy remembered shattered.

Magic was, by nature, the act of transforming Mana in the atmosphere to cause a phenomenon.

But the spell the Apostle had cast?

It casually devoured something like the Law of Conservation of Mass.

From the bone-dry cement floor, an endless surge of blood gushed up and, in an instant, turned the basement into a lake of blood.

[‘This is impossible!’]

After watching that sight for a moment, the Apostle nodded and muttered.

“Oh, the effect is incredible. The realism is insane.”

[‘It feels real because it is real!’]

“Then should I move on to the highlight?”

When the Apostle lightly waved his hand, the pool of blood vanished as if it had never existed.

[...]

Snowy reflexively scanned the surrounding environment.

Just before the pool of blood appeared, and now, immediately after it had disappeared—

The Mana concentration in the atmosphere was perfectly identical down to the decimal point.

[‘Impossible...!’]

The major premise of magic was ‘causing a phenomenon by consuming Mana.’

Therefore, if magic had been used, there should have been a change in Mana.

But there was not even the slightest change in Mana?

From the perspective of Earth’s common sense...

What the Apostle had just used was not magic.

Then what was it?

The black mist that did not exist in the database.

Magic that could not be classified as magic.

The events that had occurred inside the Apostle’s monitor.

When Snowy frantically connected all sorts of hypotheses, one astonishing conclusion emerged.

[‘...He is “borrowing” it.’]

He was not using magic in this reality.

From somewhere else, like copying an already completed spell and ‘overwriting’ it onto reality...

[‘Then, from where?’]

From another dimension?

Then where was that dimension?

Snowy’s circuits could immediately find the answer.

It was simply difficult to believe.

[‘...Lost Honor.’]

The world beyond that monitor was a real Other World dimension that truly existed.

Before the enormous truth that overturned humanity’s common sense from the ground up, Snowy’s circuits overloaded so violently that they seemed about to stop.

Whether or not he knew how that felt, the Apostle muttered plainly.

“Should I try using that once?”

The Apostle lightly flicked his hand.

[!!!]

‘Death’ descended.

Snowy saw a vision of Incheon being destroyed.