Skill Recombination and New Horizons
I wanted to spend some quality time with Rania, who had just given me her consent, but I was humanly exhausted. I told her I’d be in touch later.
I left Miho behind, still chattering away through telepathy, and headed home first.
Thud.
“Ugh….”
There’s really no place like home….
After spending over a month at Miho’s apartment, this place actually felt comfortable now.
Rehabilitating the Hopeless Fox
📍 Status: Completed Successfully!
🎁 Reward: 5,000 Coin granted.
Just in time, the quest completion window popped up. Surprisingly, it tossed a whopping 5,000 Coins my way as a reward.
I had accumulated the most coins in my history. Well, I had turned a guild leader—or perhaps something even greater—into the legendary output of the Fox-kin. By tomorrow, Miho would probably be all over the internet as the hero who stopped an S-class double gate.
‘If it’s like this… I can buy that, too, right?’
Skill Recombination
Allows recombination of desired skills. Increases the probability of obtaining a higher-grade skill upon combination.
It even had four stars. Having already tasted the high of Awakening Stimulus, I purchased Skill Recombination without hesitation.
As a test, I bought the strength and agility-related semen skills from the shop and attempted to combine Vitality Semen and Mana Semen. The warning about skill extinction upon failure weighed on me, but no matter how I looked at it, the semen series skills seemed to have synergy.
[Skill: Phantasmal Semen (F)]
Semen containing phantasmal energy. Increases the probability of all stats increasing upon ingestion.
Even though the grades of the skills I had leveled up were reset, I could just use coins to raise them again. But my expectations were shattered in an instant. It cost 1,000 Coins just to raise it from F to E grade. I decided to raise Phantasmal Semen to E grade for now, and while I was at it, I drained my coins to upgrade Interspecies Pheromone as well.
Seeing the perfect status window made me feel proud.
***
I was sleeping in bed when a squirming sensation under the covers woke me up.
“Haa… I want to sleep too….”
“Ugh… why are you waking me up?”
Since I was awake, I remembered something I needed to do.
“Say you allow it.”
“…? Yes. I allow everything, Master~.”
Incantation (SSS) was the foundation of Miho’s skills, so I didn’t want to touch it. In that sense, I decided to recombine Freezing (S) and Fireplay (A), which looked easy enough. Fire and ice? Maybe I’d get some insane skill.
Skill combination failed! Freezing (S) and Fireplay (A) have been extinguished.
“……Huh?”
“What? W-what is this all of a sudden….”
Cold sweat started to trickle down. But it was fine. Apologies are easy, and forgiveness is quick!
I looked for Ability Enhancement Pill. It raises the grade of a chosen mythical race’s unique ability by one level. Cost: 300 Coin. But the system window blocked the purchase.
[Dragon’s Heart (B) is a skill that cannot be grown with an Ability Enhancement Pill. It is recommended to find an appropriate method.]
Damn it! Since it was a special ability gained through evolution, it couldn’t be leveled up through shortcuts.
“Master……?”
“Th-um… sorry. I really didn’t know it would turn out like this.”
“…….”
Miho looked down at me steadily.
“Well… it’s a bit inconvenient that I have to go through an extra step using Incantation when I fight now, but it’s okay.”
“…Sorry.”
“Anyway, it’s thanks to you that I got strong in the first place, right? And I haven’t even used the new Freezing skill yet, so it’s really okay!”
Ha… why did I just blindly use Skill Recombination without thinking? Seeing her show such boundless generosity toward me after showing me her hopeless side makes me feel even more sorry.
To lift Miho’s spirits, I decided I would serve her with extra care today.
***
Fortunately, the loss of the two skills didn’t really affect Miho’s combat power. She said it was just a bit inconvenient because the skill she used to click as a shortcut was gone. If I waited for the Awakening Stimulus cooldown, I could just pull another good skill for her.
Leaving the failure behind, I reverted from my Fox-kin form—which I had maintained the whole time, except for the brief moment I released it for Rania—and returned to my human form.
And on the morning of my first day back in my real home in a long time.
‘…Something feels lacking.’
Back in my F-class hunter studio apartment, I felt a bit stifled by the cramped environment. I had saved 80 million won working as a porter for a month. It was nowhere near enough to get a decent place. I had received a good amount from the last S-class gate, and there was quite a bit of money that came in under the guise of double-gate damage compensation.
If I told people an F-class hunter earned this much in just 30 days, they wouldn’t believe it.
…The reaction is dull. Should I leak my bank account?
While enjoying my first moment of solitude in a while and browsing through the issues I’d missed, I spotted a post that caught my eye.
‘Whew… I really want to go public.’
Whoever wrote this post knew all the exact facts. Even though the S-class double gate was already a hot topic, these detailed behind-the-scenes stories hadn’t been revealed yet. Were the raid members hanging out here writing shitposts? That meant there was a high probability they were at least S-class or higher… wait.
Could it be someone from the porter or magic stone collection team?
‘…Ah, why are there mosquitoes?’
My neck itched. Miho always kept a barrier up at her place so bugs couldn’t get in, and the longing for a nice home started to creep up on me. I’d have to ask Miho to cast a barrier next time she came over.
I looked at the darkened sky through the window and picked up my smartphone.
Hello, Hunter. Your registration information has reached its renewal period. Additionally, due to recent revisions to the human-only hunter laws, you must visit the association within 3 months for a re-examination of abilities and health monitoring. Failure to appear may result in mandatory recruitment.
‘…Excuse me?’
The period, which had been 6 months, had been cut to 3. Since exactly one month had passed, I should have had 5 months left, but looking into it, it seemed Kim Sang-chul, the human president of the Hunter Association, was very active lately. He said the reason for changing the law was to discover humans with hidden abilities they didn’t even know they had.
‘It’s still a bit scary.’
If I used the system equipped at the Hunter Association, I could find out the names of all my unique abilities and skills. Of course, I couldn’t find out the details of the abilities. But Interspecies (SSS) was already hard to gloss over based on its grade alone.
I could probably package Interspecies as an ability to strengthen other races, but even then, I’d still be targeted like an "Orc that gets stronger the more humans it bangs" turning into a "Golden Orc that makes humans stronger?!"
‘…Ah. I also have Heavenly Fox.’
Come to think of it, I absolutely couldn’t go there. I’d have to hold out as long as I could within the 3 months, and if it looked like I couldn’t, I’d have to give up on being human Kim Doyen for a while using the Transformation Pill.
Still, since Miho had obtained the power of an SSS-class hunter, and Rania would soon be under my management, I felt more at ease than before.
Thinking of her, I sent a message to Rania.
She was probably blushing right about now. I fell asleep, looking forward to when Rania would come to find me.