Chapter 41
Chapter 41
6. Tutorial and Status Window -5
"Why is this happening?"
"As I ■■ before, the System ■■ ■ ■■■ ■■■■ not ■■ properly to me⋯⋯."
This was a lost cause. Glass Sword Lord must have felt it too, because he shut his mouth.
"Hm⋯⋯."
Thunk—!
Glass Sword Lord crouched down and drove his finger into the marble floor. Then he began carving characters. It was so natural that anyone watching would have thought he was writing in sand. Even if marble is on the softer side, that thing is still stone.
He didn't even seem to be using magic power. Could he pierce it with pure physical strength alone?
[■]
But the string of characters written on the ground wasn't translated either, so it just looked like strange pictographs. I opened the foreign language study book I had on hand and fumbled through it, searching for words.
After struggling for about five minutes, I was able to make out one character Glass Sword Lord was trying to convey.
[Debt]
Debt?
"This is⋯⋯ because of debt?"
Glass Sword Lord nodded.
If he meant debt, he was probably talking about the debt I owed the System. Could it be that delinquent debtors got hit with a penalty that locked System functions one by one?
No, the timing was too strange for that. It was too much of a coincidence that the translation function happened to break down the moment I met Glass Sword Lord through the telescope.
But Glass Sword Lord had no reason to lie either.
In the first place⋯⋯ it was strange that Glass Sword Lord even knew about my debt. If so, maybe Glass Sword Lord had some kind of function related to debt. I should ask about that⋯⋯.
Right, even if he answered, it would all sound like alien gibberish, so I wouldn't understand it anyway.
"⋯⋯Hoo."
I never expected something like this to happen.
If we couldn't communicate, we couldn't make deals or negotiate. I couldn't even receive information. At this rate, even after using the Hidden Piece, I'd be leaving with nothing. It was wasted.
The only harvest was this foreign language study book.
Just as I was frowning at the bitter taste in my mouth, Glass Sword Lord placed both hands on his hips and tilted his helmet.
"Hm! I can't ■ you ■ empty-handed! There ■ one way, ■ you ■ to try it?"
"Excuse me?"
"Because the 'Gong' in Glass Sword Lord ■ ■■ classified as ■■, ■■ ■ ■■■ I can ■ quite ■ ■■ of ■■, ■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■!"
"I'm sorry, but I genuinely can't understand a single word."
Something that seemed like quite important information had just passed by, and not being able to understand it was driving me crazy. Glass Sword Lord himself must have been frustrated too, because in the end he also gave up on communicating through language. Instead, he began actively using non-verbal expressions.
And so an untimely game of charades began.
"Hm!"
"Me. No, to me. To me?"
"Hm hm, hm!"
"You're giving me something? What more are you giving me that I should accept? No? It's a little different? Then give me a bit more of a hint on this part. If what I said is right, nod your head⋯⋯ no, please don't raise your fist just because you're frustrated. I'll do better."
About thirty minutes passed as we played this unintended full-body mini-game.
I carefully submitted my answer.
"To summarize, you're going to pass on some kind of rite to me. Because it has the effect of strengthening the connection with the 『System』. If I perform the rite, I'll be able to contact you about once a week even without a Hidden Piece⋯⋯."
"Yes."
"This rite is universal, so I don't need to worry about traps being planted in it. You'll explain the details once I study the common language, so for now I should just lay the foundations of the rite. That's the correct answer, right?"
"Yes! Yes!! This ■■■■ ■■ ■■■■ finally ■■ I've ■■! Hahaha! You ■■ too!"
Crush—!
"Gah⋯⋯!!"
Glass Sword Lord scooped me up in a hug and spun me around about five times. It felt like my torso was being caught in the pincers of a giant stag beetle. I seriously thought about what I'd do if I got cut in half.
Glass Sword Lord set me down on the ground, glanced up at the sky once, read something, and then spoke.
"You ■■ head back now, Noah Won."
Go back?
"Isn't there still some time left?"
"With ■■ ■■ communication ■■, there's no ■ in it, and ■■ leaving room at ■■ point ■■ avoid ■■ of unnecessary suspicion⋯⋯ ■■, just do as you're ■."
"Yep."
It seemed like he was telling me to do as I was told, so I nodded. It was time to return.
At first I thought I'd be going back with nothing⋯⋯.
Fortunately, even if it had a cooldown, I'd gotten my hands on a direct line of contact to a C-rank hunter. This might actually be more useful than receiving a skill.
It was even better in the long term. If I could build a positive relationship like this, then even after I ranked up to C-rank, I'd be able to adapt quickly with Glass Sword Lord's help.
There was just one source of unease.
Why was Glass Sword Lord so warm toward me? I was curious about the reason. Before declaring my return, I asked Glass Sword Lord one last thing.
"⋯⋯Um, you seem awfully friendly toward me. Is there a reason—?"
"A mentor ■ watch the tuto■ stage. You ■■ too."
Ah.
Right, as a mentor, I had been able to observe the participants' movements through something like a screen provided by the System. So higher-ranked hunters connected through the telescope were also granted that kind of authority.
If so, then both Glass Sword Lord and Sky Roamer had been watching everything I did in the tutorial stage.
"Protecting the weak. That ■ a knight's virtue."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
"So I liked it!"
Flash—! The light of return wrapped around my body.
Through my blurring vision, I could see the Glass Sword Lord, who seemed to be grinning broadly inside his helmet.
A knight's virtue⋯⋯.
The first tutorial. Stepping in front of Sohye and driving out R-11. That seemed to be what he was pointing at.
That first action had snowballed all the way here. A small kindness had led to a Hidden Piece, and further still, to the favor of a higher-ranked hunter. It was easy to say in hindsight, but I was glad I had stepped forward back then.
But⋯⋯ suddenly, a question flickered through my mind.
Was that really something worth showing this much favor over?
Stepping forward on someone's behalf is a fine thing, but it wasn't something to be moved by. Unless Glass Sword Lord was the kind of person who got emotionally swayed like a middle school girl, this was⋯⋯ something more than that.
For example── maybe he had seen my entire journey so far. Maybe he had seen me save Sohye's world.
Shh.
Glass Sword Lord quietly raised his index finger and pressed it to where his lips would be. Then he spoke in a low voice.
"Hurry ■ come up, Noah Won. I'll ■ waiting one step ■."
Glass Sword Lord's final farewell reverberated.
I returned, carrying the two books I'd received from Glass Sword Lord and a strange feeling that was hard to put into words.
And so the second Hidden Piece came to an end.
Afterward, I obtained the 『Rite of Order (制度禮)』 from the book the 『Glass Sword Lord』 had given me. After carefully dissecting it on my own, this was⋯⋯ a promotion method on the same level as the 『Battle-Demon Ascension (鬪鬼昇格)』 rite Sergios had given me.
Right. Rite of Order was also a First-Realm Ladder Ascension Method (一界登梯法) that reconstructed the body and heightened its effects.
The difference was where it acted. If the Battle-Demon Ascension rite reassembled the entire musculature of the body, Rite of Order acted on the brain and the pathways. In martial arts terms, it was like developing the upper dantian.
By widening and cleansing the pathway descending from the sky, it ultimately had the effect of strengthening the connection with the 『System』.
⋯⋯I consulted Sergios, wondering if this might have the side effect of increasing the System's overall dominance over skills.
[Silver-Traced Spear: Letting a wolf into the mountain is dangerous, but letting a mountain god into the mountain is a different story. If the System's influence grows, it would rather suppress other skills. And even if such a side effect occurred── is there an alternative?]
So he said. Indeed, there was no alternative to the System. And there was also a definite return worth enduring the unease for.
What's good about strengthening the connection with the System?
Apparently, since the System also influences hunters through some kind of power, a considerable amount of power is wasted in the interference process. So if the connection is strengthened, the waste decreases, and the System can support the target more efficiently.
Specifically, the System provides a bit more information in the Status Window, various functions get unlocked, and the amount of Credits received apparently increases slightly.
Now that I've organized it, I'm getting a hunch. The rites of 『Rite of Order (制度禮)』 and 『Battle-Demon Ascension (鬪鬼昇格)』. The two First-Realm Ladder Ascension Methods (一界登梯法) that reconstruct the body.
"This⋯⋯ doesn't seem like I necessarily have to choose just one."
The rites on both sides didn't act in ways that interfered with each other. It seemed like I could learn both.
The tutorial monk had spoken of the five paths of 『Martial Arts』.
Classifying them by that system, the Battle-Demon Ascension rite belonged to the Asura Path, and Rite of Order was a promotion method belonging to the Heaven Path. I had thought that since the paths were divided, I'd have to choose one and walk it.
But if each path existed independently⋯⋯ couldn't I walk all five paths simultaneously?
I'd have to think about this again if I got my hands on another promotion rite.
Anyway.
If what the Battle-Demon Ascension rite required was a sparring partner, what Rite of Order required was wealth. The method of practice was simple and couldn't have been easier.
The method was this: gather as much tribute as you wanted and offer it to the System through a specific rite. And the most efficient tribute in the world was Credits.
So normally people completed it instantly by consuming Credits, and paying roughly ten thousand Credits would finish it perfectly.
"Fuck."
It was an impossible method for a debtor.
Still, it wasn't completely impossible to proceed. The rite could also be performed with physical assets, but it was written that the efficiency dropped considerably compared to Credits. It was about twice as costly, which meant I'd have to offer physical goods worth twenty thousand Credits.
That amount could buy two pieces of skill-equipped gear from the D-rank Shop.
It was enough money to buy food that a group of a thousand people could survive on for three years if they rationed it!
I should contact the Saintess and Camp Ace. Ask if they need any resources, and if I can get valuables from them, get them. I needed to earn diligently.
Physical goods, physical goods⋯⋯.
I spoke to Minsik, who was working the new hunters we'd caught in the subway the other day to the bone.
"Minsik."
"Yeah."
"Do you have any gold you're not using?"
"⋯⋯You starting a gold drive? Those Hunter Monarchy bastards had gold teeth. Want me to tell them to go pull those out for you?"
That was about all I got from the Hidden Piece.
Of the two harvests from the tutorial, the other one. Elijah.
I've been keeping in touch with Elijah since then. Specifically, we exchange brief messages about twice a day.
But she's a bit⋯⋯ bubbly, I guess? She bounces around.
[Elijah: Today's dinner menu was fresh rat meat (crying)]
[Noah Won: How did you do an emoticon?]
[Elijah: Precise key input! ^.~ I can do fancier ones, but it takes about 10 minutes of concentration, so I won't show you]
[Noah Won: If you're not going to show me, don't bring it up in the first place]
[Elijah: (nyah)]
It's roughly that kind of vibe. Maybe because she's an android, she's absurdly good at chatting. She doesn't even have a keyboard, so she has to input through her thoughts—how does she do that?
[Andersen: I want to place an order for additional supplies]
[Noah Won: For firearm-related supply orders, you can contact Sohye, whom I introduced you to last time.]
[Noah Won: Or have you become interested in the matter I mentioned before?]
[Andersen: I contacted Sohe]
[Andersen: Why are you the one answering]
[Noah Won: ???]
The Saintess, who is still astonishingly bad at typing, is like night and day compared to Elijah.
Also, we weren't just chatting.
Elijah was a motivated student, and I was a motivated teacher. When our schedules aligned, we met briefly to exchange information and have academic exchanges. Mostly I was the one teaching.
She absorbed my tips in an instant and grew rapidly.
"It really is comfortable now that I know how to handle plants. I don't get yelled at for touching the wrong thing in stages anymore."
"The reason you got yelled at⋯⋯ was probably because you were weirdly ignorant about plant creatures. You didn't even know things you'd naturally learn if you'd encountered them before."
"Yeah. I've rarely encountered them."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯?"
Could it be that she's of noble status and has never been out on the battlefield? But she had quite a bit of grit for that.
Right, grit.
People who have struggled at the bottom have a particular tenacious grit. That decisiveness of gritting their teeth and shouting "one more time" even at moments when ordinary people would rest and move on.
A few days later, something happened that confirmed Elijah's decisiveness.
While teaching her various things, I also warned her about the [Hunter Alliance]. The unpleasant things I had encountered, the assassin dispatched to me, that sort of thing.
"So don't hang around them if you can help it, and don't even approach them in the first place. They seem like people who bring nothing good if you get tangled up with them."
The point was that, contrary to their public statements, the Hunter Alliance seemed to have shady ulterior motives, so I brought it up to tell her not to get close carelessly.
"Hmm⋯⋯."
When she heard that they squeezed Credits out of newbies both in the open and in the shadows, her eyes flashed a bit dangerously.
A few days later.
[Elijah: I made it to the Hunter Alliance V ^-^ V]
[Elijah: In a membership consultation right now]
[Noah Won: Hey]
[Elijah: If I learn any inside info, I'll share it with you (wink)]
I didn't know what she was thinking, but she had gone and thrown herself into the snake pit.
Fortunately, nothing happened right away, and my relationship with Elijah continued smoothly. And so quite a bit of time passed.