< Chapter 146: Dilemma (1) >
I was able to quickly realize the traits I had acquired.
Long live the trait encyclopedia.
“Blood Substitution.”
A vampire trait that allows the conversion of the blood in one’s possession into ‘magical power.’
“It doesn’t have much significance.”
It would only be helpful for a vampire who absorbs and utilizes blood to convert blood into magical power. For me, who only has the amount of blood in my own body, it doesn’t hold much meaning.
“The cost-effectiveness is really bad.”
Considering the risk of excessive bleeding, being able to convert 1L to 1.5L of blood into magical power isn’t of much help. It might be a different story if I acquire a trait that allows for blood collection in the future…
“Right now, it’s almost a useless trait.”
Anyway, it’s a useless trait for now.
“It’s okay since the other one is a jackpot.”
I checked the angel race Mark on my chest.
“I haven’t seen the black color in a while.”
Since acquiring the Wind’s Path and having the elf race Mark dyed black, this must be the first time.
“I got a battle angel here.”
trait, battle angel.
A common trait amongst Valkyries, enhancing physical abilities – a passive enhancement, not active.
“Simple is the best.”
Although it’s a bit disappointing that it’s not a rank increase like 1 rank up but an absolute increase, it doesn’t matter.
“The important thing is that all my physical abilities have now reached B rank.”
When I unfold Heavenly Wings, my magical power will also increase to B rank, so effectively all my combat abilities have become equivalent to B rank.
“Furthermore…”
That’s not all.
“Finally activated after a long wait.”
The giant race trait ‘Overwhelming Strength’ that I mentioned earlier has finally activated with the achievement of B rank strength.
“My strength is at A rank.”
Wow.
It feels new.
Starting from being weaker than an F rank, and reaching A rank in just 4 months.
The rising excitement drove away all my sleep. I sat down at the desk with my eyes wide open.
“I should update this before going to bed.”
I took out one of the notebooks on the shelf.
[Manual Status Window]
It was a notebook where I had recorded the changes in the traits and abilities I had acquired so far.
“Let’s go, manual status window…”
I recorded my current status in the notebook.
[Battle Ability Overview]
[Strength A Rank]
[Agility B Rank]
[Stamina B Rank]
[Magic Power C Rank (limited to A Rank when Heavenly Wings and resonance are activated)]
[Sense (undetermined)]
As for the sense, I didn’t have any idea how to check it, so I excluded it for now.
The same goes for non-combat abilities.
There wasn’t a way to measure it anyway.
[Trait Summary]
Next is the important trait summary.
[Elf race traits]
[Guardian’s Bow (Fully Integrated)]
[Path of the Wind (Fully Integrated)]
[Wind’s Path]
[Elf’s Eye]
[Adam’s Mark: Red]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Increased charm.]
“The Wind’s Path seems to be nearing the time for full integration.”
[Beast Race traits]
[Boiling Pure Blood (Fully Integrated)]
[Predator’s Flesh (Fully Integrated)]
[Rabbit’s Jumping Ability (Fully Integrated)]
[Adam’s Mark: X]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Increase in (strength, agility, stamina).]
“I should acquire the Beast race’s relic.”
The full integration effects are excellent, and there are many traits related to physical abilities.
To maximize the immediate potential, it seems best to make full use of the Beast race’s traits.
[Elemental race traits (Fire)]
[Flame of the Elemental (Fully Integrated)]
[Soul’s Light]
[Adam’s Mark: Green]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Increased affinity for the respective trait.]
I do want to obtain the traits of other elemental spirits besides fire, but I wonder if I can.
[Angel race traits]
[Heavenly Wings (Fully Integrated)]
[Heavenly Punishment]
[Divine Power]
[Battle Angel]
[Adam’s Mark: Black]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Increase in resistance to mental attacks]
“…I won’t be able to use the Angel race artifact for a while.”
That’s why I tried so hard not to create it with the black Mark. Because an unpredictable situation might occur.
[Dragon race traits]
[Guardian’s Contract (Fully Integrated)]
[Dragon’s Eye]
[Adam’s Mark: Green]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Magic Talent]
Dragon race artifacts or traits are always good. The problem is not being able to acquire them.
[Dwarf race traits]
[Artisan’s Portable Forge (Fully Integrated)]
[Adam’s Mark: X]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Increase in dexterity and sense. Further effects need to be verified.]
“There seem to be some production-related buffs for sure.”
I’ll have to check on that later.
[Succubus race traits]
[Sympathy (Fully Integrated) – Ha Si-yeon]
[Adam’s Mark: X]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Increase in magic power]
There aren’t many good traits of the Succubus race, but the full integration effect is great.
I feel it would be good to acquire it somehow.
[Giant race traits]
[Overwhelming Power]
[Adam’s Mark: Green]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Not verified]
“Looking at them, their full integration effect seems clearly to be an increase in physical strength.”
But it is too early to assert.
[Demon race traits]
[Evil Detection]
[Adam’s Green Mark]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Not verified]
[Vampire race traits]
[Blood Substitution]
[Adam’s Mark: Green]
[Fully Integrated Effect – Not verified]
It’s the same with demons and vampires.
I can’t assert anything yet as I haven’t acquired anything.
“…There are quite a lot.”
Upon organizing everything, there really is a monstrous amount.
“It’s going to increase even more in the future.”
Once the Museum of Mysteries is completed, acquiring tribal traits will not be a problem at all.
The issue is that there is a limit to the traits I can acquire.
Once Adam’s Mark becomes black, acquiring additional traits is impossible.
“In the end, the key is how to fully integrate the traits I have now.”
I continued to jot down the tasks I needed to do in the future.
* * *
Next day.
Sunday lunchtime.
I visited Yu Hwa’s house.
“Hello.”
“…”
Yu Hwa, with an utterly fatigued expression, greeted me with eyes squinted to their fullest. A slightly scruffy set of training clothes, slightly disheveled hair, and sullen eyes.
She must have been sleeping.
Those squinted eyes were probably like low-pressure fronts filled with anger toward me for disturbing her sleep.
“… Should I come back later?”
“No. It’s okay.”
Yu Hwa answered, rubbing her eyes.
“Still, you look very tired.”
It’s clear that she is overworked.
Perhaps she should sleep a bit more.
“… It’s okay. It was about time to wake up anyway.”
She tries hard to wake up fully. But no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like she slept deeply.
“What time did you go to bed yesterday?”
Did she get about 3 hours of sleep?
“Around 11:30.”
“11.30 then…”
The current time is 12:13 p.m.
Doesn’t that mean she slept for over 12 hours?
“… not night, it was 11:30 in the morning.”
“Ah.”
So she’s saying she hasn’t even slept for an hour.
“Then, shouldn’t you rest more?”
“It’s okay. I told you on Friday, didn’t I?”
Yu Hwa grinned.
“People… won’t die if they don’t sleep for about 5 days.”
“…”
It was a smile that was indescribably pitiful.
“…Hang in there.”
“Yes. I have to. Please sit for a while. I will freshen up a bit and come.”
“Yes.”
After sneaking a glance at Yu Hwa heading to the bathroom, I headed to the living room.
“Should I have come when things were a bit settled?”
The reason I visited Yu Hwa’s house today was to return Michael’s Holy Spear and the Bloody Sword of Intra-Species Slaughter.
I remembered her saying that there would be an audit later, so I thought I should return it first. Since I had finished using them and couldn’t use them anymore, I decided to return them promptly.
While I was at it, I intended to hand over all the ancient relics that I had finished using.
Especially clearing out the space of the Artisan’s Portable Forge.
So, I dropped by the Golden Sanctuary and gathered all the ancient artifacts I had stored there, including the Gauntlet of the Fierce Tiger.
After handing these over, I planned to ask if there were any other relics and, if possible, borrow them temporarily.
It bothered me that I had no usable ancient artifact at hand. In unpredictable situations, having at least one ancient relic isn’t a choice, it’s essential.
“Did you wait long?”
In less than 3 minutes, Yu Hwa reappeared. Perhaps because she washed her face with cold water, her face looked a bit refreshed.
“What brings you here? You came all the way to our house without even contacting.”
“It’s nothing big. I thought of returning the ancient relics I borrowed last time.”
“Ah, you said you used them for handling the Mephisto incident, right?”
“Yes.”
I had informed the four of them that I could use the ancient relic only once and that too for only a minute.
“Then, I should prepare another relic for you.”
Yu Hwa looked around me, seemingly searching for something.
“But where are the relics you brought?”
Ah, she was looking for the carrier.
“I didn’t bring a carrier, specifically.”
“Then?”
I stretched out my hand.
“?”
Looking at my empty hand, Yu Hwa tilted her head slightly.
“What are you doing?”
“Just watch.”
At that moment, the Bloody Sword of Intra-Species Slaughter revealed itself on the table. Well, needless to say, it was the ability of the Dwarven trait ‘Artisan’s Portable Forge’ that I had been using very well.
“Ah, a subspace? Did you use a subspace just now?”
Yu Hwa’s eyes widened as big as lanterns.
“It’s something similar.”
“My goodness…”
She half-opened her mouth and stared at the Bloody Sword of Intra-Species Slaughter.
“Is this the power you obtained from that ancient relic?”
“Yes. It’s a Dwarven trait.”
“That’s amazing.”
It was a sincerely admiring expression. It felt somewhat gratifying.
“Are all the relics stored in that subspace?”
“Yep. Everything I’ve received starting from the Gauntlet of the Fierce Tiger is all in there.”
“How big is the interior?”
“Hmm. It’s reasonably spacious. The largest thing in there is a stone sword that is 10 meters long.”
“… That’s an enormous capacity.”
She let out a hollow laugh as if there was nothing more to be surprised about.
“Then are you going to hand over all the relics in that subspace to me?”
“Yes, that’s the plan.”
As expected, it’s Yu Hwa.
Since we both had the same information, she quickly grasped my intentions.
“You’ll probably hand over roughly 10 items. Then, using those relics to substitute for the documents, manipulate the paperwork… and then take out the original relics…”
Yu Hwa murmured sharply, seemingly organizing her thoughts in her head.
“I can give you about two relics right now.”
“Oh, right away?”
That’s incredibly fast.
“Yes. Fortunately, a negotiation ended yesterday and we received two relics.”
“Good timing.”
“The others that are under negotiation aren’t ready with the paperwork yet, so it will be a bit difficult to hand them over right now. We haven’t received the items yet either.”
“Is the negotiation not going well?”
“No, that’s practically over. It’s just the damn govern—ahem.”
Yu Hwa abruptly stopped her harsh words with a cough.
“The government officials keep delaying. They say it will take at least a week.”
“…I, I see”
She seems to have accumulated a lot of frustrations.
Indeed. If I were in Yu Hwa’s position, I would be infuriated too.
“Well, if you need more relics, try contacting unnie. I heard there are a few good items on the underground route. She would gladly buy them for you, right?”
“Yes, I’ll contact her later.”
The more, the merrier. The more ancient relics, the better.
“Then, just lay all the relics here, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Won’t it be bothersome?”
“It would be, but what can we do? I can’t personally take you to the project site, Seo-yul. It’s fine, I can order the subordinate employees to do it.”
“Ah, I see.”
In that case.
“Can I take them out right away?”
“Yes.”
I emptied all the relics that were inside the Artisan’s Portable Forge.
Bang! Thud! Clang!
Various metal sounds resounded, filling Yu Hwa’s living room.
“The stone sword might be too big to keep here. What should we do?”
“…”
Yu Hwa alternately looked at me and the sight of the living room with a deeply regretful expression.
* * *
Early Monday morning.
Having arrived at school as usual, I started my morning training following my regular routine.
Well, I was about to start.
“…I just can’t understand this body.”
Instructor Pi Jin Ho let out a despondent laugh as he looked at my body.
“Can you grow this much in just two days?”
“…Exactly. I was surprised myself.”
“Agility and stamina are B-rank. Muscle strength is at least A-rank.”
Instructor Pi cast a dubious glance at me.
“Don’t tell me you used bonus points?”
“No.”
I don’t have anything like bonus points.
“Then is it another awakening of abilities?”
“Yes. I have acquired a passive ability that increases physical stats.”
“I didn’t know such an ability existed.”
It’s rare to see the instructor showing a surprised expression.
Well, given that I came back transformed within two days, it’s inevitable to be surprised.
“With muscle strength at A-rank, it means you’ve surpassed the stage where you can increase your stats through basic training…”
Instructor Pi immersed himself in deep thought.
The emotions flickering in his eyes are quite complex and diverse.
Regret, hesitation, anticipation…
I wonder what he’s thinking about.
“It might feel a bit early, but we have no choice.”
Finishing organizing his thoughts, he looked at me with determined eyes.
“Kang Seo-yul. You know the summer vacation is starting soon, right?”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
The summer vacation starts next week.
Why is he asking about that?
“During that time, spend about 2 weeks in Japan.”
“…Japan?”
“Yes, Japan.”
“…?”
This is quite out of the blue.
Seeing me tilting my head, the instructor gave a slight smile.
“To be precise, I want you to go to Japan’s ‘Winding Ordeal.'”
“…Excuse me?”
Winding Ordeal.
Winding… Ordeal?
“The Winding Ordeal!?”
Can I go there?
< Chapter 146: Dilemma (1) > End
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