Chapter 66
Chapter 66
10. Starting Line -1
On Earth, when a person is affected by a Gate, there is a certain probability they awaken an ability. Those who awaken are called hunters, and their rank is determined by the grade of that ability. And that rank never changes until the day they die.
Because awakened abilities cannot be grown by any means whatsoever. A D-rank is a D-rank forever, and a B-rank hunter never goes up or down.
Just look at Hyejin, the flame-type ability user under my command. She trained every day until the hem of her school uniform practically scorched off, but while her control improved, her firepower itself didn't increase by so much as a fingernail.
I don't know why that is.
But before that, the phenomenon of "hunter awakening" itself is worth thinking about at least once. Because this phenomenon on Earth was an unusual case with no precedent even within the System. At least, as far as I knew.
From what I'd observed during my System life—short as it was, half a year—there was no planet like Earth anywhere in the universe. The Glass Sword Lord said he'd never heard of one either. Maybe there was one among the B-ranks.
This peculiarity becomes glaringly obvious when compared to the people I'd encountered. Let's think about it.
First, that Sergios guy.
He seemed to have been born in a world where martial arts existed as a method of acquiring skills after the fact, and had lived his whole life fighting. Naturally, he'd never gone through a process like awakening as a hunter after a Gate opened and gaining a spear technique ability⋯⋯ something like that.
Next, Elijah.
She has no contact with skills themselves at all. Doesn't she fight by swapping out prosthetic arms and the like using the advanced scientific technology of her home planet?
Beyond those two, the countless System-affiliated hunters I'd encountered were all cases unlike Earth. Either their planet already had methods of growing stronger—like magic power manipulation or martial arts—before they received the System, or they obtained skills after receiving the System. One of the two.
And here's a case worth adding: Sohye.
Sohye's world also had a profession called hunter, just like Earth. I hadn't investigated that side in detail, but isn't it quite significant that "hunters" exist only on planets similar to Earth?
Now that I roughly understood the context of what a 『Skill』 was, Earth was definitely⋯⋯ "Earth-type planets" were strange.
An ordinary person just living a normal life suddenly obtains a 『Skill』 one day. And not just one person, but an unspecified multitude across the entire planet.
I know something most similar to this phenomenon. I've experienced it.
『Bestowal (下賜)』.
Things granted by higher-ranked hunters⋯⋯ like my 『Azure Wind Wanderer』, or the 『Degradation (劣化): Puppet Whip (傀儡鞭)』 that Hori used.
These came into being without any effort to obtain them (because they were given), and even without learning or knowing how to handle them—even without training—they can be used passably well.
In the case of Azure Wind Wanderer, it has a structure that allows self-growth, but if 『Sky Roamer』 had wanted, she could have bestowed a version that couldn't grow.
Then we can also think about it this way.
The peculiar "hunter awakening" and "growth restriction" that occur only on Earth.
Could it be that some higher 『Someone』 of great standing,
with an intention that can't even be guessed at right now—performed a "mass bestowal" of random 『Skill』 upon countless unspecified people on Earth? Along with a sturdy cage.
Just as I was about to feel some spine-chilling horror at that fact.
Whoooosh——!!
"⋯⋯Achoo."
With torrential rain pounding relentlessly on the top of my head.
A very rational and clear realization rises from deep within my core: what I should be doing right now isn't useless worrying like that—it's praying to the heavens and earth for just one damn lightning strike.
So this is why ascetics stand under waterfalls. I'm freezing and aching to death, so where would I find the time to think about worldly troubles? I want to go home.
So please, just one bolt of lightning so I can go inside, dry my feet, and sleep. I've been out here in the open like this for three hours now, looking pathetic.
"You fucking sky, you bastard."
I sniffled and shivered, hanging onto the lightning rod.
Five hours in, and it's been nothing but rain with no sign of lightning. To kill time, I continue my train of thought a bit further.
I said hunters can't grow their abilities, right?
So there had been countless efforts to break through that. Someone suggested that since a hunter's brain is the source of their ability, maybe running electricity through it would work. Someone else suggested that rubbing a person against a Gate might raise their rank.
Naturally, every single one failed.
When a tunnel won't go through, you look for a detour. The relevant departments of each country changed their methodology from growing a hunter's ability itself to compensating for the lacking ability through other means.
The shield made by the Republic of Korea's scholars, now shoved into a warehouse, was part of such attempts. They tried to break through the limit using the scientific technology route.
Thinking back to Elijah's case, the attempt itself was good. It's just that the country blew up before it could bloom.
The Noah Won faction of our city-state Seoul⋯⋯ had neither technology nor resources. So we tried to get even a little stronger by developing our utilization and physical abilities.
But as long as the fundamental cause remains stagnant, there's bound to be a limit.
'Then why are you hugging a lightning rod and being all dramatic again? If you've got free time, come do some paperwork.'
That Minsik guy thinks I'm doing something pointless, but no. All this effort of waiting for lightning in the wind and rain has meaning.
This was work to surpass that limit.
"Cough, cough⋯⋯ sniff. Just wait⋯⋯"
[-> Download Slot 1: 『Rain』 (Download Complete / 100%)]
[-> Download Slot 2: 『Wind』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 63%)]
I'm planning to create skills and bestow them upon the hunters under my command. If possible.
Skill bestowal, something only B-rank hunters—those monsters—can do⋯⋯ and a plan to attempt it by creating skills from scratch might sound absurd. Whether I, stuck at D-rank, could even do it.
But theoretically, it's perfect.
In the first place⋯⋯ what is a skill?
First, I should think about why those abilities are called 『Skills』. The reason is very simple. Because the System says so. Because the System calls them that.
Techniques created by honing martial arts are registered by the System as skills, things received are also called skills, and things obtained from the System Shop are also labeled as skills.
At first, I thought the 『System』 was just lazy.
I suspected that maybe it just didn't have a function to classify things separately and lumped them all together under "skill"⋯⋯ But thinking about it now, that might not be the case.
Perhaps.
The 『Fragments of the World』 that Sergios described the plant bastards absorbing.
The 『degraded skills』 bestowed by higher-ranked hunters.
The 『Martial Arts』 that build up power in the body piece by piece.
Could it be that those three concepts are fundamentally the same thing, and that's why the System calls them all by the same name—『Skill』?
This isn't just a theoretical hypothesis. I felt it while using 『Download -2』. I've experienced downloading things used by plants, bestowed items, and martial arts—each at least once. So⋯⋯ I can feel it.
The raw material is the same.
Those three concepts have slight differences from each other, but⋯⋯ it's just a matter of compatibility. Looking only at the fundamentals, I judged that they're composed of the same core.
Then they should also share each other's characteristics. In other words.
You could organize a 『Skill』 into a manual and turn it into 『Martial Arts』.
Or bestow what was obtained through 『Martial Arts』 to other people.
Or extract a 『Fragment of the World』 and turn it into a 『Skill』.
Do you get it?
And my Download, which copies any and all skills, can even store natural phenomena—lightning, for example.
After properly receiving the System, copying other System hunters' skills was far stronger, so I hadn't bothered storing natural phenomena with relatively weak power. But now, that's actually a good thing.
Weak power means it's also easy to handle.
So what I'm about to try is.
Flash—
"Ah, that stings. Wait, did it strike?!"
Rumble——!!
The work of getting struck by lightning to my heart's content, storing it, then processing that lightning to turn it into a 『Skill』.
The gauge fills up quickly and 『Lightning』 is registered. I closed my eyes and focused. I forget the raindrops striking my skin, forget the chill slowly rising from my toes that had long gone cold.
『Rain』 had finished downloading a while ago. But the reason I still waited for lightning was because the most perfect form of lightning exists within me.
The S-rank hunter who arrived through the System's Support Request. A strand of White Lightning she left behind.
It was still stored in my 『Download -2』, and I had witnessed it with my own two eyes before, when I looked around the wasteland in my unconscious. That pure white pillar. An indescribable aura. It was pure and pristine without a single speck of dust.
I probably can't imitate even a fingernail's worth of it. But having a reference sample for imitation makes a huge difference in the quality of the finished work. That's why I chose 『Lightning』.
I gather the flowing current with magic power and move it. I hold it close so it doesn't escape with my exhale, and make it spin around and around in my body. And from that rotation, I begin my understanding of lightning.
"Haaaa——"
Based on that understanding, I change its form and properties. I compress it. A lot of lightning shot out in all directions as if refusing control, scattering sparks and vanishing through the gaps between my fingers. But I managed to grab a handful.
My senses sharpen. Like a blade honed to a blue edge, like an awl ground down hundreds of millions of times. With that kind of delicacy, I sculpt the lightning.
I don't even hope for perfection. But I hope it resembles it as much as possible.
I hope to capture even the reflected light on concrete of that flash that saved the Earth with a single gesture. So that I—may come to hold the hope that someday I can reproduce it.
At the end of a concentration that felt like my eyes and ears had gone blind and deaf.
Ding!
└ Lightning Wick (F)
Progress: 100%
I had obtained a single strand of lightning, thin as a needle.
After obtaining a skill by processing 『Lightning』, encouraged by the success, I charged into skillifying 『Rain』 and 『Wind』 with that momentum, but⋯⋯
Pop! Fwoosh-bang!
[Stored 『Rain』 has been damaged.]
[Stored 『Wind』 has been damaged.]
"Ah, shit!"
The single-use skills I'd painstakingly stored with 『Download -2』 exploded the moment I touched them, along with my insides. This was not something a person should do. My body and head both felt like they were going to burst.
To put it in perspective, it felt like trying to squeeze bone-dry sand into a rock. Naturally, without a single drop of water, there was no way it would hold together.
And it wasn't like I only tried once. While waiting for lightning, about three 『Rain』 had accumulated, and 『Wind』 had reached about two. I'd burned through all of them and still failed.
But lightning worked.
⋯⋯『Lightning』 was a case where my focus was strangely good, even to my own perception. Beginner's luck, or something like that. Or maybe the S-rank hunter's white lightning really did help.
So what happened as a result?
Skill List
└ Unidentified Skill 1 (F): B07#@R2e8
-> Download Slot 1:
-> Download Slot 2:
Storage List: 『A01#@47E'b』, 『Flame Goat Gauntlet: Flame Emission』, 『Bullseye』, 『Overgrowth』, 『Moso Bamboo』, 『Damaged Rain x3』, 『Damaged Wind x2』
(Reappraisal required due to an error of unknown cause)
That's what it looked like.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
I briefly considered trying to permanently skillify Overgrowth, Moso Bamboo, Bullseye, and the others too.
But when even natural phenomena that were weak as hell had barely succeeded, skillifying powerful things like those would obviously explode a hundred times out of a hundred, so I held back.
Good.
Still, I'd managed to create a new skill, even if it was F-rank. Wasn't that something on its own? If I looked for a better method, I could raise the success rate too⋯⋯ then I could really mine skills from bare ground.
I pulled up my soaking wet coat and left the rooftop. As I was about to go down looking like a drowned rat, Minsik was waiting below with a stove lit.
"You done?"
"Yeah, I'm done."
"If you've got meditating to do, why not do it indoors⋯⋯ That's just you being extra, man. Back in the day, they meditated under waterfalls because they didn't have technology, but nowadays you could just play some white noise indoors and it'd be about the same."
"⋯⋯Shut up."
Splash.
I sat down in a chair and lifted a mug of cocoa that had been warmed on the stove. Even though Seoul had become fairly prosperous thanks to the resources I'd been hauling in, luxury items like this were still precious. He must have prepared it on purpose.
Slurp—
I took a sip. The sweet liquid swept through my mouth as it went down, and energy returned to my body. I swallowed my disappointment with sweetness.
At this rate, the feasibility of my plan to mass-produce skills and bestow them was plummeting. I'd thought maybe I could manage it by manipulating things with 『Download -2』, but if even this basic conversion was this hard, then.
I guess there's no choice but to rise to C-rank and learn a bit more. Since Heaven Path seems to specialize in this kind of give-and-take, if I ask the 『Glass Sword Lord』 for information⋯⋯
"So, didn't go well?"
"A little."
"Judging by your face⋯⋯ you were trying to prepare a gift or something? Forget it, man. How much have you already done for Seoul? We went from two meals a day to three, and now we can crack open a can of tuna every other week. That's enough."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
For Earth's hunters, growth is a kind of long-cherished wish.
Having to live exactly as you were first determined, never able to change no matter how hard you try—that inevitably troubles a person's heart. How many people had that clear brand disappointed?
Kim Minsik in front of me was the same. Before, in front of a dead teammate's grave, I'd seen him grieving, saying that if only he'd awakened as an A-rank hunter instead of B-rank, he could have saved them.
Me too.
What if I'd been an S-rank hunter? If I'd possessed mighty power like Max Owen, wouldn't this Seoul have been a little better off? I'd thought that countless times.
So⋯⋯ I wanted to break through that. I did.
Maybe it wouldn't help much in saving the Earth. If instead of investing in my people, I monopolized all growth for myself, that might be the more efficient choice. But I couldn't bring myself to do that.
Just because some damn rank is low, how could scattered effort be meaningless?
"Hey, fix your face and smile a little, you bastard. I went to the trouble of opening the cocoa powder and you don't even appreciate it, huh? Let's do a toast. Cheers."
"⋯⋯Yeah, man."
I raised my cup at Kim Minsik's rough consolation. The mug of cocoa and a plastic water bottle clunked together in the middle. It was a toast that didn't suit the world at all.
But at that moment.
Whooosh——!!
[『Damaged Wind』 has been lost.]
"Whoa, what the fuck?!"
A stream of wind burst out of my body, burrowed into Kim Minsik's body like a snake, and disappeared. Minsik froze in surprise, staring at me—then got pissed.
"Hey, you bastard! If your friend came to comfort you, you should be grateful, you fuck, just because you're embarrassed you blow wind at me as a joke⋯⋯!! I told you I hate jump scares, you son of a—"
"No, no. It's not that, so hold still."
What is this?
Why is the wreckage from the failed skillification reacting now⋯⋯?
"You little shit!"
Whoosh—!
Kim Minsik chugged the water bottle as if frustrated, then crumpled the empty bottle and threw it at my feet.
B-rank hunter Kim Minsik's ability is 『Bullseye』, and it applies to all projectile-type attacks. It naturally activates even for actions like throwing objects.
The effect is simple. Even if you throw a baseball like a dog, the trajectory bends on its own mid-flight, and the projectile hits its target⋯⋯
Whirrrr—!!
"Huh?"
"Wha?"
The moment the crumpled water bottle touched the ground, a stream of wind rose up and spun it around in circles.
I stared at that sight⋯⋯ then, recalling the sensation from earlier, I pulled out the damaged rain from my storage slot and released it toward Kim Minsik as if scattering it.
[『Damaged Rain』 has been lost.]
Then, as if puzzle pieces were being sucked into empty space, the damaged rain was also absorbed into Kim Minsik. I immediately urged Minsik.
"Again, throw it again."
"What, what. Throw what. Where."
"Anything, anywhere!"
"No, where⋯⋯ ugh, fine."
Minsik picked up the crumpled water bottle and threw it at a nearby wall again.
Whirrrr— Splash!
This time, a handful of water burst out simultaneously with the wind.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
The awakened ability.
That awakened ability that couldn't increase in power, couldn't gain new abilities⋯⋯ had been strengthened!
I recalled the fact that while lumpy roasted grain powder doesn't dissolve well, finely ground roasted grain powder dissolves quickly—and snapped my fingers.
It wasn't intentional at all. But the damaged something left over from breaking a 『Skill』⋯⋯ could be absorbed by Earth's hunters!