Chapter 11

< Chapter 11: True Power (2) >

I was stunned by the sudden change in my vision.

Why was the tattoo glowing red, and what was this wind surrounding me?

I couldn’t understand it at all.

And more than anything.

I was shocked by the landscape that had changed 180 degrees.

“What is this?”

I saw something.

Something that was spinning around me.

Something that filled the magic field.

Strange energies were swirling around.

As a result, I couldn’t see anything.

Choi Ji-hoon and Pi Jin Ho had completely disappeared from my sight.

All I could see were the alien energies that filled the surroundings.

“Did you lose your mind? How boring.”

“Kang Seo-yul, cadet. Are you giving up?”

The most annoying thing was, I was the only one who could see this spectacle.

“Kang Seo-yul, cadet. If you don’t answer within 5 seconds, I’ll consider it as giving up.”

What is this?

It was alien but familiar.

I raised my hand and touched them.

I couldn’t touch them.

“5, 4…”

I couldn’t grab them.

They seemed to exist but had no substance.

Like the wind.

They freely passed through my fingers and played with me.

“3. 2. 1. Duel over! This duel is Choi Ji-hoon’s…”

“We can’t end it like this.”

“Choi Ji-hoon! Stop! The duel is…”

The landscape changed again.

The wind that had been spinning freely began to split apart as if it was affected by something.

Whoosh-

Something was coming.

I didn’t know what it was.

I just knew that it was approaching me,

and that it had hostility towards me.

“Hmph!”

I had to block it.

The moment I thought that,

Whoosh! Zing!

A distortion appeared in my sight.

From the tip of the dagger,

a long red line appeared diagonally upward.

It seemed like a command to swing the dagger along that line.

I swung the dagger as if I was possessed by something.

Clang!

With a fierce friction sound, a metal collision sound was heard.

My muscles hurt, and my palms tingled.

“Blocked it!”

“Wow!”

“Awesome!”

My sight became more alien.

The red line that had been one, split into three,

“You bastard!”

The density of the strange energies increased.

I swung the sword unconsciously.

Diagonally.

Clang!

Horizontally.

Shing!

Obliquely.

Clang!

I swung the sword in the order that the line indicated.

Thump, thump.

My heart pounded like crazy.

My whole body hurt.

I felt moisture in my palm holding the dagger.

A sour smell.

Blood.

Was it torn?

Fortunately, it was bearable.

“You trash! How dare you!”

I heard Choi Ji-hoon’s angry voice clearly.

“Ah.”

Only then did I realize what I was doing.

I had blocked Choi Ji-hoon’s sword.

Maybe four times.

As many times as I swung the sword.

My whole body hurt and my palm was torn,

but it must have been a perfect defense.

“That’s it! Duel over!”

* * *

After the duel was over.

The indoor auditorium was filled with silence.

“Wow.”

“That was crazy. Really.”

Everyone had goosebumps on their bodies.

“I can’t believe it. Wow. I’m speechless.”

In fact, it wasn’t that amazing of a duel.

At best, it was a duel between a C-rank and an F-rank superhuman. How impressive could it be?

“How could he do that?”

The cadets, who had seen countless videos of regular superhumans, shouldn’t have been impressed by their duel.

But still, the auditorium was full of excitement and thrill.

Everyone was amazed by Kang Seo-yul’s movements.

They were refined, elegant, and lethal.

“Cadet Kang Seo-yul. He is not just good at shooting arrows. His dagger skills are amazing too.”

The assistant instructor asked Pi Jin Ho discreetly.

“Yeah.”

“Do you think he hid his abilities?”

“No. His muscle movements are clearly F-rank. His reflexes, strength, and even vision. Kang Seo-yul couldn’t even see Choi Ji-hoon’s movements.”

“He couldn’t see them? Then how did he move like that?”

“A natural sense.”

Pi Jin Ho was shivering.

“He just knows. Where the sword will come from. How to dodge it. How to deflect the sword with his own strength. Where the enemy’s defense is weakest.”

He had another reason to be shocked, besides being awed by Kang Seo-yul’s movements.

“Could he have a genius trait?”

“No. That’s not it. That trait also applies to the growth of abilities. Rather, that’s…”

Pi Jin Ho smiled inwardly.

‘The master of weapons.’

A non-standard trait that allows you to use any weapon freely [The master of weapons].

Pi Jin Ho was sure that Kang Seo-yul had that trait.

That’s why he shivered.

“Why did you stop talking? You make me curious. What is it?”

“Just. I couldn’t think of anything appropriate.”

“Hey.”

The assistant instructor pouted his lips with a disappointed face.

“But it’s really a pity.”

“What is?”

The assistant instructor pointed at Kang Seo-yul, who had collapsed and fainted.

“He lost in the end.”

“Yeah.”

Pi Jin Ho smiled bitterly.

At the end of the duel,

Kang Seo-yul showed a movement that completely neutralized Choi Ji-hoon’s barrage and launched a fatal counterattack.

He aimed for the heart and stabbed his dagger precisely.

“It’s really a pity. If he had D-rank strength, he would have won.”

But Kang Seo-yul’s dagger couldn’t pierce through Choi Ji-hoon’s skin.

His durability.

The dagger only penetrated slightly into Choi Ji-hoon’s skin after piercing through the armor.

“That’s not enough. If this was a real fight, and Kang Seo-yul’s dagger wasn’t a training dagger but a better one…”

But in the end, Kang Seo-yul couldn’t overcome the absolute wall of ‘abilities’.

“It’s still promising, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“Kang Seo-yul’s future. He’s F-rank at 20 years old, so his growth potential must be very low.”

The assistant instructor said with excited eyes.

“But if his abilities grow to at least B. No, C or B…”

He rubbed his arms vigorously.

“He might even aim for the top 100 in the world ranking.”

Pi Jin Ho smiled.

“100? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, is that too much? I guess I overdid it. Hahaha.”

The assistant instructor scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Watching him, Pi Jin Ho laughed inwardly.

‘100? What are you talking about? If [The master of weapons] blooms safely, he can easily reach the top 10 in the world ranking.’

* * *

I was dreaming.

A dream of the original world before I entered the novel.

I shed tears without knowing it as I looked at the scene.

-Seo-yul. Only the protagonist can remove the status window. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

But those were not tears of longing.

Rather, they were the opposite.

Tears of anger.

I wanted to flip over the scene in front of me, but I couldn’t do that. It was tears of blood from the frustration of not being able to do so.

-Yeah. I got the feeling. Remake. Let’s do it anyway.

It was the dream of that day.

A dream about the drinking party where I lost my memory while drunk.

The day that caused me to be in this situation.

-But then it becomes just a potato novel, doesn’t it?

-Huh? Does it?

I became the third person in my dream and watched Shin Hyung and my drunken conversation.

-Well, if you’re going to remove the protagonist’s status window, you have to give him some benefits.

-Benefits. Yeah, that’s necessary. How about this? There’s a setting in my novel that there’s an equipment restriction, right? Only the protagonist can ignore that restriction because he doesn’t have a status window. How about that? Not bad, right?

Yeah. I think that’s great.

Please do it with that setting.

-Weak! The concept is too simple!

-Uh. That’s true.

That’s right!

Our brother Shin is good!

Don’t lose to the past me!

-Ah. But it would be fun. Ignoring the equipment restriction is like a kind of bug. The system puts a brake on it. Not bad.

-Right?

You two are crazy.

The result of that conversation is the defective ability I have now.

I suddenly felt depressed.

-But, no matter how I think about it, it’s too potato. Hmm… Ah! How about this?

I wanted to see myself reborn as a munchkin protagonist even in my dreams. But it ended like this.

-The protagonist’s ability is like a bug, right? Because of that, the system causes an Unknown Error and reversely, the traits of the corresponding race flow back to the protagonist.

I wanted to see Kang Seo-yul become a munchkin even in my dreams.

But I couldn’t achieve my dream, so I dreamed…

Huh?

Wait a minute. What did you say?

-Oh! So the system misidentifies him as that race? And while fixing the bug, the unique trait of that race randomly flows back to the protagonist? Wow. You’re a genius, bro?

I lost my words for a moment.

-Ah! Then how about this as proof that the trait has flowed back? The system engraves a tattoo on the protagonist’s body.

What am I listening to right now?

-That’s good. He needs some other visible symbol without a status window.

I laughed without knowing it.

-Then we have the remake concept! The protagonist doesn’t have a status window. Collects ancient relics and gathers unique traits of different races to become stronger! The bonus ability is an item-free use ticket for 1 minute!

Everything started to fit in my head.

I was able to use the bow freely thanks to the elf’s racial trait ‘Guardian of the Bow’.

The alien scene I saw earlier was also the elf’s racial trait ‘Wind’s Path’.

They must have been traits I got from [World Tree’s Blessing] and [Forest’s Tranquility].

My chest swelled up.

It felt like my chest that had been blocked by something was cleared.

-Bro! This is good!

Each of them must have been traits I got from [World Tree’s Blessing] and [Forest’s Tranquility].

My chest swelled up.

It felt like my chest that had been blocked by something was cleared.

-Bro! This is really good! If you need any help, just let me know.

As I shouted that in the past, the surroundings began to blur.

As if the color was fading, as if the letters were slowly erased from an old book.

Soon, my sight turned into complete blackness.

The next moment.

“Ancestor?”

My sight was filled with Shin Jia’s face.

I must have woken up from the dream.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah.”

My lips curled up to the sky.

“Aaaaaah!”

I screamed with joy.

My ability is not trash!

My ability is awesome!

Wham!

“Kyaa!”

I hugged Shin Jia on the spot. I did it without knowing it because I was so happy.

“Hahaha!”

“An, ancestor?”

I heard her confused voice.

I didn’t care and asked her casually while hugging her.

“Jia.”

“Yes, yes?”

“Do you know the master of mana?”

“Of, of course, I do. It’s a dragon’s racial trait, right? The ability to control mana freely. But why do you suddenly…”

I smiled broadly.

“Just!”

With the happiest smile in the world.

“I wanted to ask!”

Please! I am sleepy so…