Chapter 40
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Secret of the World (6)
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[The Player says the Celestial Sorcery, which uses soul and mana, requires a soul stronger than any other and an unyielding will.]
"...Ugh."
A drop of sweat trickled down her forehead.
Cha Ji-yeon, wearing only a tank top, had her entire body glowing with a blue light.
[You possess a magnificent soul and mental fortitude. That is why you were chosen.]
The blue pattern, drawn like a tattoo on her pale back, was already creeping over her shoulder and down one arm.
This was the method she had learned from her Player to maximize her abilities.
The secret of Step-Up Hunters like her, bound together as a 'race', was to combine sorcery and their abilities using the racial trait [Status Window] to strengthen themselves.
Among them, she was exceptionally talented.
She had demonstrated combat prowess beyond what she had been taught.
[Therefore, the Player has also shown interest in him.]
"But he's the subordinate of another Player."
[What does that matter? It's not as if he's our enemy.]
Her Player was always cold and calculating.
To the Player, she was ultimately just a pawn.
However, it was the nature of the Player who had her as a Unit to invest boldly even in a mere pawn, if it was necessary and useful.
"Then... you really want me to teach him the Celestial Sorcery."
[Correct. The Player has determined that he possesses a powerful soul. A presence of that magnitude is something a mere human could never possess. It is the soul of a hero, a rarity indeed.]
The Player was firm.
Cha Ji-yeon slowly opened her eyes.
Her faintly glowing blue eyes gazed at him, standing bewildered at the entrance.
"Are you... okay?"
Shin-woo, for his part, flinched at her gaze as he sat in the living room, lightly dressed, watching her enveloped in light.
"Pfft..."
"It's true."
I barely managed not to spit out the coffee I had just received.
I'd come home without knowing what was going on, only to see her engaged in some mystical training.
Just as I calmed down and was about to drink my coffee, I heard the shocking news.
"My Player said that you have a very strong soul, Shin-woo."
"That's... hard to believe."
I scratched my head. Strong? Me?
Words that didn't suit me at all.
But in that moment, something crossed my mind.
I wasn't entirely alone right now.
The soul bond, the String.
They had said the String between me and the Legion was special.
Perhaps the powerful soul her Player saw in me was actually the soul of the Legion, connected by that single String.
If so, it made sense. The soul of the Legion.
"You need to learn it to handle mana stones anyway."
She suddenly placed a glowing red mana stone on her palm.
It was the one she had used to find the Player, Oh Yoon-ah.
"Sounds pretty amazing. Can't I learn it too?"
For now, there was no problem.
Another Player, Park Joon-seok, was with us.
I swallowed dryly as she put the stone away and turned her back.
I had prepared an excuse for a just-in-case scenario, but it seemed I had luckily avoided a crisis this time.
"What do you think?"
"Of course, I'll learn."
Managing my expression, I accepted the blue ore she offered.
And with that, I accepted her proposal.
If I can learn it, the Legion can learn it too.
This is a chance to teach the Legion a new skill.
And a chance for me to grow stronger as well.
"However, I have no intention of being bound by any constraints."
"...I suppose not."
I felt sorry for her, but I drew a clear line.
Cha Ji-yeon smiled bitterly and nodded.
It seemed her Player had given permission.
It was quite amazing. To think they'd lend their power to someone who wasn't even their Unit.
"But I'm not even a Hunter. Is it really possible for me to learn this?"
"I only use it in combination with my ability. The sorcery, Cheonhonsul, was learned separately."
She began the lesson immediately.
I've always tried to live by the words, "An opportunity only has meaning when you seize it," so I listened with all my might.
This wasn't just for me.
If I live, the Legion lives.
"Ahem, well then, I'll be on my way."
Park Joon-seok, now a third wheel, cleared his throat and disappeared into his room.
Suddenly left alone in the living room, I sat facing her.
...Looking at her like this, I didn't quite know where to put my eyes.
"Learn well. Grow stronger. And please, survive that day."
But the moment she spoke those words with such sincerity,
I had no choice but to look her straight in the eye.
*
"Are you sure he's not watching?"
[Correct. And he is busy right now. The sorcery, Cheonhonsul, is said to be practiced by a special class of beings called the Karkos, who live in a world called Sehansha.]
"Soul, spirit... they throw around grandiose terms, but at its core, it's just brainwaves—a powerful... psionic energy, maximized."
In the Cavern, having confirmed that Shin-woo was not looking at his phone, the Legion sat askew on a throne modified from the flesh walls, concentrating its entire mind.
Its focus, of course, was the otherworldly sorcery that Shin-woo was currently learning through Cha Ji-yeon.
The Legion mobilized its transcendent processing power, absorbing every lesson in real time like a sponge soaking up water.
"Not bad."
Having instantly grasped the true nature of Cheonhonsul, the Legion tapped its foot.
From its initial analysis, Cheonhonsul and the Legion were a good match.
After all, the requirement of Cheonhonsul—maximizing mental power through spiritual energy—was incredibly easy for the Legion, which freely controlled a brain with a volume comparable to its massive Cavern.
[You have found a way to become stronger. Is this not the gluttony for knowledge you desired?]
"That's right. Simply strengthening the body isn't enough."
The Legion's lips curved.
Smiling had become somewhat natural for it now.
But soon, the smile vanished, and its expression hardened.
"But why, right now, is my chest... my emotions... pounding like this?"
The Legion analyzed the phenomenon.
The emotional stimulus was, of course, due to the String.
This was familiar by now, but what irked the Legion was the content of the emotion.
Especially since it had learned about this from Kang Do-yeon.
[Was his happiness not your goal?]
"It is, but... this is uncomfortable."
It wanted him to be comfortable and happy.
But it wanted to be the sole provider of that happiness.
In the past, he had always been pleased when it won wars and grew stronger.
It was an emotion it hadn't considered until now.
[...A conflict has broken out on the 39th Floor.]
"Prey."
Just then, targets were detected on the 39th Floor.
The entire Legion focused its attention there.
Fueled by a peculiar rage its opponents would find utterly perplexing.
"What the hell?"
The 39th Floor.
The Legion had finally pushed back the infected by force.
Kang Do-yeon, commanding the Legion's soldiers on the front lines of a battlefield that stretched from the 38th Floor, furrowed her brow.
A strange tickle in her chest, and her blood ran hot.
For her, a human, it was a familiar emotion: anger.
As part of the Legion, she too could feel this simmering rage, synchronized with the whole.
"Kyaaa...kik!"
An infected Moonlight Fairy charging at her was struck by the foreleg of a nearby assault-type Legion soldier, its limbs torn asunder.
Even that strike was tinged with a strange emotion.
Anger was power.
The Legion was already adept at using emotions in battle.
"Again. These tracks... definitely survivors."
Kang Do-yeon analyzed a corpse brought by a Legion soldier.
It was the body of an infected creature with an arrow in its back.
The corpse of a Red-Shelled Cave Centipede, no less, which had a hard carapace.
The arrow embedded in it was quite well-made.
Her eyes turned toward a passage extending from one corner.
This place, the 39th Floor, was a Stem Floor.
A Stem Floor connected to anywhere from one to as many as five or six Grand Floors.
This labyrinth was like an inverted tree; the higher one went, the larger the stem's scale became.
The Grand Floors, comparable to branches, were as large as the Stem Floors of the lower levels.
In other words, there was no telling what might be living there.
'Scout, but to do it quickly, we will attempt a large-scale reconnaissance.'
Kang Do-yeon received the Legion's command.
Until now, the Legion's reconnaissance had always been carried out by its smallest scouts, based on bees, to make concealment easy.
But in a situation like this, stealth was pointless.
Thus, mobile flying types and beast-based assault-type Legion soldiers rushed out, beginning to spread into the surrounding passages.
"Ngh."
She winced, deciphering the information pouring into her brain like a waterfall.
The Legion performed the initial filtering, then borrowed her brain—a mere fraction of its own—to process the calculations even faster.
'More tracks found. Many of them. And... a path that looks like it was intentionally cleared.'
With the large-scale reconnaissance, the Legion instantly found the trail.
The Legion's eyes spotted a stone wall that shifted with a minute difference before sliding shut.
In any case, something was definitely there.
'The stone is too thick and heavy. The passage is also narrow, making it difficult to move large Legion soldiers.'
The Legion concluded that it had to break down that stone wall.
The problem was how. And just then.
A flying type, carrying a glowing blue gem in its jaws, flew swiftly through the air toward Kang Do-yeon.
"Use this."
She accepted it with a complicated expression.
Faced with a dead end, the Legion had instantly reached a conclusion.
What she had been given was the blue ore that had been embedded in the Moonlight Fairy Chieftain's vajra.