Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Chapter 44
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Divine Charge and Ultimate Synergy
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I immediately charged at the freshly spawned slimes.
Testing Divine Charge on these slimes would be pointless. They're one-shot monsters no matter what attack you use.
I burst their jelly-like bodies open, only occasionally using my new Wave Strike skill.
This Wave Strike skill I'd just acquired worked like this:
By consuming mana, your next attack becomes a Wave Strike.
Checking the skill details confirmed it: Wave Strike's power scaled with Strength and Mana stats.
After testing Wave Strike out,
I pondered for a bit before forming my assessment.
The cooldown is incredibly short. Short enough to use it on nearly every slime.
As for its power...
The impact spreads beyond the struck area due to the wave's force, amplifying the destruction.
Not bad at all.
Wave Strike's performance exceeded my expectations.
But since we were still in Zone 1,
I hadn't yet tested its synergy with Shockwave, the most crucial part.
As the slime hunt wrapped up, I glanced toward the village.
I pictured the village square, where the new recruits' training was in full swing.
Now that I thought about it, if as many people showed up as yesterday...
Running out of wolves was only a matter of time.
Even killing just the minimum wolves needed to clear quests would inevitably lead to a monster shortage.
In the end, to make better use of them, I needed to throw more people into goblin hunts as soon as possible.
I should mention it to Siron.
I finished hunting in Zone 1 and headed straight to Zone 3, skipping Zone 2 entirely.
The wolves could wait—I'd handle whatever Siron's group left behind on the way back after Zone 3. No point fussing over a few wolves anymore.
The dirt path leading to Zone 3's goblin outpost.
Siron and the other overseers had left just enough goblins to clear quests.
As I walked the path, I mentally sorted out what to test today.
Divine Charge.
Then, Wave Strike's synergy with Domain.
Finally, the new limited skill I'd acquired.
Today would be even busier than yesterday.
Finally reaching the outpost, I caught my breath for a moment.
My first test subject: Divine Charge.
Without hesitation, I activated the skill.
"Divine Charge."
⟨ Divine Charge ⟩
In that instant, my body shot forward.
It was explosive acceleration beyond anything I'd experienced before.
No, it wasn't even acceleration.
Divine Charge propelled me forward at maximum speed the moment it activated—a sudden velocity shift that defied the laws of physics.
The surrounding scenery blurred into streaks.
I hurtled toward the massive wooden gate ahead, with enough momentum to punch straight through the outpost.
KABOOM──!!!
With a deafening roar, the heavy gate shredded like paper.
But my charge didn't stop there.
Divine Charge bulldozed through everything in the outpost—smashing, piercing, crushing as it went.
Goblin screams, collapsing buildings—everything blurred faintly past my ears.
The speed was unreal.
And the range was beyond imagination.
It pierced clean through the outpost and toppled dozens of trees in the forest beyond.
Mid-charge, I tried to control it, but this was my first time using the skill. Its power far exceeded my expectations.
A bit flustered, I failed to rein it in.
Divine Charge finally halted at its maximum range.
I pulled myself up from the dust pile, replaying the charge in my mind.
Messed up the distance control. Was that the max range?
Looking back, I saw the toppled trees and half-destroyed outpost in my wake.
Divine Charge's speed and destructive power were beyond imagination.
But I flubbed the distance. This skill needed more practice.
...Wait a second...
Then I noticed something else astonishing about the charge.
The "temporary extreme defense" from the skill description was still active even after it ended.
And that wasn't all.
That extreme defense had converted directly into my Demi-God Power, surging wildly through my body.
An overwhelming amount, incomparable to normal.
As I marveled and tried to channel the Demi-God Power, the effect faded, returning the amplified strength to baseline.
The duration was way too short.
But I grasped the skill's true value.
The post-charge amplification lingered for a brief window.
What if I chained another attack during that time?
Divine Charge.
This skill wasn't just a burst of insane destructive power—it was the ultimate buff skill too.
I waited out the 10-minute cooldown, cleaning up around the ruined outpost.
Then I activated Divine Charge again.
This time, I consciously tried to control my speed.
The result: I stopped dead center in the outpost ruins.
Just like before, the amplified Demi-God Power enveloped me.
I immediately poured it into my magic sword.
And swung at the empty air.
SHWOOOOOSH──!
A massive golden sword beam erupted from the blade's tip, cleaving the outpost in half.
The first pure Demi-God Power sword beam I'd ever created.
I tried firing another, but the amplification buff had expired.
Still, I was convinced.
With practice, I could fire two—maybe even three.
Divine Charge had given me a whole new attack option.
Defense, offense, speed.
It was perfect in every way.
The only flaw was the cooldown—not too long, not too short.
Basking in the joy of growth, I headed underground.
Next up: testing Wave Strike's synergy with Domain.
The underground outpost predictably held the goblin shaman and his guards, waiting for me.
Against them, I first activated Domain.
Then unleashed Wave Strike alongside Domain's Shockwave.
Wave Strike scaled with Strength and Mana, and pairing it with Shockwave doubled the power.
With both wave-related forces merging,
the two skills felt like one seamless whole, not separate abilities.
Confirming the synergy between them, I decided on one more test.
Last time, I'd verified the potent synergy between 3rd Grade Domain and Precision Enhancement.
What if I combined that with Wave Strike and Shockwave synergy?
Domain, Precision Enhancement, and Wave Strike.
This three-skill combo.
Just imagining it sent shivers through my body. I resolved to test it underground.
The result...
...
Behind me lay only the traces of the surface outpost—now buried underground as a massive dirt mound.
The aftermath of unimaginable power.
I stood at the center of the deeply gouged pit, panting heavily.
My entire arm was numb, my hands trembling.
The sheer force had recoil even for me, the caster.
This...
Isn't just synergy. It's absolute power.
An ultimate technique.
The moment I'd completed my first true ultimate technique.
Born from the harmony of countless skills.
This combination was practically a brand-new skill.
And casting the ultimate technique had granted me some insight.
Checking the skills' proficiency, sure enough, it had risen from the enlightenment.
So that's how you gain enlightenment.
Plus,
this ultimate technique didn't include Divine Charge's buff.
If I could properly fuse those two...
...
After some time calming my excitement, I considered my next task.
Checking my new limited skill, [Origin Extraction 1st Grade].
This skill let me gain 1 EXP per Soul Origin I owned, once per day.
It cost a whopping 25 Soul Origins,
but as one of the rare growth-related skills in the Soul Shop,
its long-term potential was clearly massive.
Couldn't pass this up.
With that thought, I immediately triggered Origin Extraction.
[Origin Extraction 1st Grade]
Grants EXP based on Soul Origins owned (1/day)
As expected, the EXP gain was minimal.
But,
proficiency shot up. A lot.
Normally, non-job skills leveled up glacially.
Yet Origin Extraction's proficiency had already surpassed 50%.
And I'd only used 8 Soul Origins.
The system rates Soul Origins higher than I thought.
Probably...
I'll need to harvest more soon.
On the way back to the village,
I reorganized my future plans.
Especially centering on one item.
The Monster 100 Summon Scroll.
I'd bumped it back to the top of my list because I no longer needed to prioritize limited skills—and levels were paramount, after all.
Today, I'd only leveled up once,
and that was barely at the end of hunting.
At this rate, I might not level tomorrow.
...
First time, huh.
Not even gaining a single level in a day.
The solution? Opening Zone 4.
Buying 7 scrolls would provide a full day's worth of monsters,
and squeezing in one more Zone 4 hunt before the tournament would help a ton.
Plus, it'd permanently speed up all future zone unlocks.
Later, I'd need dozens of scrolls just to keep pace—so buying now was smart.
The items I'd bought from the Soul Shop this time
were all limited ones.
Limited skills had restrictions, so they weren't top priority anymore. But limited items had no such limits.
Still, they were tournament aces or trump cards, so no using them today.
I didn't need AoE attack skills yet.
Grasp Complete was too effective for hunting, and massive stat gaps let Domain handle that role.
And today's synergy effect and ultimate technique? I couldn't use them often, but they were as good as any AoE skill.
Near the forest entrance.
Far off, Siron's group was resting after their hunt.
Spotting me approach, they rose as one and bowed deeply.
Siron stepped forward and began his report.
While listening, I scanned their faces.
Mixed with fear, their eyes now held a spark that hadn't been there before.
Probably because becoming overseers guaranteed their lives.
Once Siron's report ended, I specified tomorrow's goblin hunt manpower.
It was far more than Siron had anticipated—a sudden surge—but he replied without complaint.
Finishing my orders, I turned and left.
Siron and the rest kept their heads bowed until my back vanished.
Only after I was gone did the tension break, murmurs rising.
"He's scary every time I see him..."
"Have we earned his approval?"
"Only Siron has. Not us."
Siron clenched his fist quietly as he listened.
'I haven't earned his approval either. I just chose the only path to survival.'
Siron hadn't explained the heavy responsibilities of being overseers to them—just that it was the sole way to secure their lives.
The path of the slaughterer's dogs.
That was an overseer's essence.
But Siron didn't think he'd deceived them.
The future sins of overseers would come, but
evil deeds become familiar in time.
Oh Heon returned to the village, dragging his sore body to his lodging.
After a brief rest, he opened the community window.
The community had moved beyond the two pinned posts to others with ranking restrictions.
Anyone in the top 100 or 50 would have seen those two anyway, so debating elsewhere was fine.
Their competition had been pointless.
Now people discussed jobs more freely.
Job pros and cons were gradually emerging.
He clicked on one of the popular posts.
After browsing several such posts, Oh Heon got a rough sense of the mood around jobs.
Basic jobs got mostly positive reviews, perhaps due to more people picking them.
Complex jobs rarely featured in discussions.
Even so, a few posts popped up about chosen complex jobs.
One caught Oh Heon's eye.
It was about his job.
Oh Heon read the post with a faint smile.
Divine Aspirant.
Definitely an awkward job at level 10.
No, straight-up bad.
If facing monsters with equal stats, any other job would outperform it.
But now, at level 30 with main skills at 3rd Grade?
No regrets at all.
Just as I'd hoped, the ceiling was sky-high.
As he thought that and moved to close the window, a new post caught his eye at the top of the board.
Its title was enough to halt Oh Heon's thoughts entirely.
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