The Power of the Link

Finally, the day to use this has come.

Of all the abilities I gained the moment I hit 100% synchronization with my senior, this one had stunned me the most. The second I first heard the word “synchronization,” a hopeful thought had flickered through my mind—but big expectations usually mean bigger disappointments, so I’d forced myself to ignore it.

And yet here it was, exactly as I’d imagined.

That was right. I could now perfectly copy and use the abilities of anyone I’d reached 100% synchronization with. There was a restriction—it was locked to whatever they had at the moment of last contact—and I could only link three people at once, but still. With this alone I was basically an Awoken myself. I could be a healer. I could be a mage.

Right now the only person at 100% was my senior, but that number would grow. And if things somehow worked out so I could copy a Transcendent’s power…

I swallowed hard just imagining it.

Lightning Sword Park Yuri. Just wait a little longer—I’m coming for you. And who else were the female Transcendents in this country…

I took the bow that had been handed to me and strapped on the quiver. Because it was borrowed power, I still couldn’t feel any mana of my own in my body, but I should be able to use every bit of the mana amount my senior possessed.

I rechecked the information on the senior I was currently synchronized with.

The points limited to a single person maxed out at 100. They never went higher. But that didn’t matter in the slightest. Awakening my senior and then raising her mana all the way to B-10 had cost a total of 50 points. I still had 50 left. On top of that, she only had one potential left, so even if I had points there wasn’t much left to spend them on. Another 10 points would push her mana to the absolute limit of her potential. That was a little disappointing, but Baek Hwayeon existed—an archer with higher potential than my senior—so there was nothing to worry about.

More importantly, in this dungeon the mana I had right now was more than enough.

Last Sunday I’d gone to an archery range with my senior and practiced shooting, but I hadn’t been able to test the skills. So first I wanted to try them out on ordinary monsters instead of the boss. Why now instead of yesterday? Because I wanted to shock them. Yesterday the Sky Rays had been more than enough of a demonstration; today I planned to make their eyes pop with something new.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Sorry. I’m an attention whore.

The moment I aimed the bow at the rays floating in the sky, every teammate’s gaze locked onto me. I was a little drunk on those stares. Yeah… after dreaming of becoming an Awoken for so long, I wanted them to be even more surprised, to look up to me, to respect me.

I started with the skill I expected to be the most ordinary: Penetrating Arrow. One reason only—it had existed ever since my senior was still F-rank mana. An initial skill, so it should be the weakest.

I drew the bowstring. At the same time another message shimmered in front of my eyes.

Since I couldn’t sense mana myself, it helpfully told me how much was left. What a thoughtful little system.

As I drew the string fully, the mana ratio began to drop. 99.9%… 99.8%… 99.7%… I’d expected it to plummet by one or two percent at a time, but it didn’t. I planned to use only 1% of the mana for Penetrating Arrow. The light of mana flared so brightly in front of my eyes it was almost dazzling. Timing it carefully, I aimed first at the snout of a nearby female Sky Ray and loosed.

I still couldn’t risk the Sky Blowfish. If I missed or even grazed it and the poison sac burst, it would be chaos. The thing I was most worried about was my own accuracy.

—Thoo-kwang! Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—!

What… what the hell?

A roar completely incomparable to anything Kim Isol or Baek Hwayeon could produce exploded outward, and a gale whipped up. The strap of the pack slung over my shoulder slapped loudly against my side. I’d forgotten to take the bag off before shooting. But… did I really fire that?

“No way…”

“As expected… as expected, Hyung-nim is a Transcendent…”

“Whoa…”

While I was still fretting over the bag strap, everyone else had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their heads tilted to the sky, mouths hanging open. A moment later, fragments of the ray’s corpse rained down onto the ground with a series of wet thuds. I’d only shot one arrow, yet two-thirds of the ray’s body had simply vanished. And it hadn’t been just one. The arrow that punched through it had kept going, skewering several more rays above it before disappearing into the sky. It felt less like an arrow and more like some overpowered energy beam out of a comic.

“This is bullshit… this is pure cheating. And they call this B-rank? Fucking Awoken.”

The curse slipped out before I could stop it. I’d heard about high-rank Awoken abilities until my ears bled. There weren’t many public videos, but I’d rewatched the ones that existed hundreds of times until my eyes nearly fell out. I’d just never seen one in person. And I’d never used one myself. Then what the hell was a Transcendent like?

I was dying to know. Looking at it, I probably wouldn’t be letting my teammates sleep tonight. I needed to raise those synchronization rates fast.

Baek Hwayeon and Kim Isol, who’d overheard my swearing, were staring at me with dumbfounded faces. Lee Donggeul and Jang Yong were down in the pit so I couldn’t see them—especially the short Lee Donggeul, whose hair wasn’t even visible—but from the continuous “whoa— whoa—” sounds, they’d clearly seen the arrow too.

“You… that… how did you do that…”

“It’s a secret.”

“Um… is it a secret from me as well?”

“Yes.”

Baek Hwayeon’s expression had flickered with hope before her eyes drooped and she wilted.

“That’s ridiculous! Have you been hiding this the whole time or what!?”

“I told you yesterday, didn’t I? That I’d grown. And all of you can grow just as much as I have. Your potential is more than enough… of course, as long as you follow my orders…”

“Whatever, just kill the boss already. At that level you could solo it!”

“Kim Isol. I’ve gotten used to the informal speech, but can we do something about that ‘you’?”

“…Fine!”

Kim Isol spun her head away. I couldn’t see her face, so I had no idea whether she was angry or what.

The flock of Sky Rays overhead seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a little startled by the arrow I’d fired. They began circling faster around the central Blowfish. If they picked up just a bit more speed it looked like they might form a tornado.

“Then I’ll attack. All three of us at once. I’ll tone mine down a little. It’d be a problem if I blew the whole thing apart.”

“Show-off…”

Whatever Kim Isol muttered didn’t reach my ears. Damn, even though it was my own ability, actually using it felt ridiculously good. I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from lifting. Focus. Boss monster first.

I had no intention of using any other skills. They seemed unnecessary for attacking the boss, and this particular boss was especially delicate—too much uncertainty. The other skills didn’t look all that useful right now. I could save them for the next time I wanted to shock these kids.

Mana swirled at the fingertips of the two women and me. This time I loaded only half of before—0.5%. Then I shouted.

“Fire!”

Three arrows left our hands at the same instant and locked perfectly onto the Sky Blowfish’s head. Thanks to the mana, accuracy wasn’t something I needed to worry about. Whether it was some kind of correction or not, from my perspective it was pure gravy. The three arrows flew almost stacked on top of each other and struck the Sky Blowfish’s head dead-on. The creature that had been drifting as slowly as a balloon lost its head in an instant and plummeted to the ground, dead.

At the same moment, hundreds—thousands—of Sky Rays all wheeled toward us at once. Normally it would have been chaos, but every preparation was already finished.

“Run, hurry!”

The three of us sprinted for the pit and jumped in. Once everyone was inside, Jang Yong lifted the male Sky Ray and sealed the hole tight. Darkness fell.

“Just wait a second. The LED flashlight is in the left pocket of the bag… ah, found it.”

When the flashlight beam came on we could finally make out one another’s silhouettes. Lee Donggeul spoke, sounding uneasy.

“Will we be okay?”

“Nothing to worry about. A male Sky Ray should be more than enough to block their mana shots, and the blood scent will keep them from finding us in the first place. You’ve fought them—you know they’re not exactly geniuses.”

“Hyung-nim. More importantly, what was that attack? Have you been hiding that kind of strength this whole time?”

“It’s a secret.”

This was awkward. We were all huddled together in a tight space and every pair of eyes was on me. A barrage of questions poured out and the only answer I had was “secret.” Well, one more thing…

“This is absolutely not to be spoken of. I’ll strip your mana if you talk, so keep your mouths shut.”

“Don’t worry, Hyung-nim.”

“But how long do we have to stay like this? It stinks…”

Blue blood was dripping steadily from the male Sky Ray, and the smell was foul. Holding out for even a few minutes would be rough.

“It doesn’t seem like attacks are raining down on the corpse. Shouldn’t it be fine?”

“Hmm… then carefully move the ray aside and, Jang Yong, check outside with your shield up front.”

“Understood!”

He hadn’t gotten much of a chance to shine today and was full of motivation. His mana had risen one rank since yesterday—tiny as it was—so he probably just wanted to do something.

Kim Isol lifted the male Sky Ray’s corpse and shifted it to the side. Bright light poured into the pit. Jang Yong moved into the gap with his shield raised and poked his head out.

“Looks like they’ve all gone.”

Only then did we clear the ray corpse and climb out. The ones that had gathered in the sky had scattered in every direction. There were still plenty of them, but they weren’t clustered the way they had been earlier.

“Let’s head straight to the boss corpse. We have to collect the loot, don’t we!”

I’d heard the auction for the Lycan’s claws we’d gotten after clearing the previous Haeundae dungeon boss was coming up soon. On top of that there were the ray whiskers and venom, plus the Sky Blowfish’s poison sac and tail scales. This month’s haul was going to be pretty sweet. But I couldn’t be satisfied. Not after how much stronger I’d become. First I’d push my senior’s mana—already at 100% sync—to its absolute limit, and then I’d get stronger myself. After actually using mana and skills today, I decided that was the better path.

At this rate I could skip founding a new company and just follow my senior around pretending to be an Awoken and join a major corporation… then again, those places take a ridiculous cut too. Better to set up my own shop and do whatever I want. Higher gates naturally make more money, and how much would a company skim off selling those high-value items? I walked toward the spot where the Sky Blowfish had fallen, imagining the future with my teammates.

Except, of all things…

—Kraaak!

—Kueek!

There were already guests. And not the kind anyone had ever reported coming out of this dungeon. At first I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, but I identified them soon enough.

They were Gnolls.

“Team Leader…”

“Everyone, shh!”

I dropped my voice and hurriedly quieted the team. We could not be discovered. Even if those hyena bastards were currently devouring the Sky Blowfish’s corpse, even if it looked like our loot was about to be completely stolen, we absolutely could not be found.

They were monsters from a different dungeon—C-rank difficulty, two full ranks above Pink Land. Somewhere inside this dungeon another gate must have opened.

We had come a fair distance inward from the gate entrance in order to target the Sky Blowfish. But the travel distance was only about ten minutes on foot, so there was no way we could have grasped the full state of the dungeon. Pink Land was one of the largest E-rank dungeons in terms of scale. The area we’d explored was less than 5% of the total. There was no way we could know what was happening deep inside—like another gate opening and monsters from a different dungeon flooding in, for example.

We tried to head back toward the gate entrance while avoiding the Gnolls that were busy with the Blowfish and ray corpses. This was no time to worry about loot. One wrong move and we could die, so we were in a hurry. We needed to report this to the government immediately. A gate right in the middle of Daejeon. If it overflowed it wouldn’t be on the scale of Cheonji-dong in Seoul, but it could still cause massive casualties.

But they were hyena-type monsters from a C-rank dungeon. I’d underestimated those filthy snouts and ears that had been further enhanced by mana. We ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had already been spotted long ago, and even though we ran we were surrounded in an instant.

“Fuck… this situation is shit.”

“Hyung-nim. What do we do? There are too many…”

“I’m out of mana now…”

“Team Leader…”

All those Sky Rays and now Gnolls on top of them. In a situation like this the odds of this gate overflowing soon were high.

“Everyone get behind me. Jang Yong, handle anything coming from the sides or rear. The rest of you conserve mana and focus on defense. I’ll deal with them.”

Yeah. That boss floating dumbly in the sky had been way too boring. Now was the time to show the true face of my power. Brace yourselves, you snout-faced bastards.

“Today, I’ll protect all of you.”