Chapter 42
Chapter 42
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: The Black Hole Mystery
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t remember it exactly.
All that came to mind was the excruciating pain of my entire body being crushed.
Even amid that horrific agony, Baek Si-woo had squeezed out every last drop of mana to protect his friends.
Yet it still hadn’t been enough to block the attacks from that monstrous Dark Elf.
In the end, he’d lost his limbs and been pushed right to the brink of death.
‘I saw it then.’
I’m not sure exactly what it was.
Baek Si-woo’s condition hadn’t been good enough to take in the full situation.
But right before he lost consciousness.
He could definitely tell that Seo Woo-jin had done something.
And that it was thanks to him they’d survived.
“What the hell was that?”
According to Ronaine, captain of the White Silver Knights, whom he’d heard from later, some kind of unidentified black hole had appeared.
The things that burst out from it had bought them time, and during that window, Sword Sage Dariel had arrived to save them.
In Baek Si-woo’s mind, the one who’d created that black hole was none other than Seo Woo-jin.
It was hard to be certain, but given the circumstances, it was a reasonable suspicion.
That’s why he’d come out in person, even though his body hadn’t fully recovered.
To see Seo Woo-jin’s face and ask him directly.
“…What do you mean?”
But Seo Woo-jin just looked baffled.
“You know exactly what I’m asking, don’t you?”
“No, I really have no idea. For real.”
He stared into Seo Woo-jin’s eyes as the man kept playing dumb.
Unlike his expression, there was a slight tremble in his gaze.
‘He’s hiding something.’
Baek Si-woo had no idea what it was, but he decided not to press further.
After all, wasn’t Seo Woo-jin the one who’d saved him and his friends—their lifesaver?
He couldn’t bring himself to interrogate him relentlessly just to satisfy his curiosity, not when it went against his nature.
“Understood. If you don’t know, there’s nothing to be done.”
Baek Si-woo bowed his head to Seo Woo-jin in thanks, then gave a glance backward.
His attendant promptly turned the wheelchair around.
But he hadn’t given up.
He just planned to watch more closely from now on, unlike before.
What exactly had Seo Woo-jin done that day to let him survive.
And what kind of power he possessed.
Baek Si-woo was so curious about it that he felt like he might go mad.
* * *
‘Damn, that startled me.’
Once Baek Si-woo was gone, Seo Woo-jin let out a quiet sigh of relief.
His question had made his heart sink.
‘Thought he’d seen it.’
But it didn’t seem like he’d witnessed everything directly.
If he’d seen Seo Woo-jin using ‘Abyss,’ things wouldn’t have played out like this.
‘And that senile old geezer wouldn’t have let it go at that either.’
Seo Woo-jin touched the cut on his cheek as Dariel came to mind.
The more he thought about him, the more infuriating the man became.
“What was that supposed to mean? ‘What did you do?’ Uncle, what happened?”
“Uh…….”
He’d forgotten Lee Ji-ah was there.
The moment Baek Si-woo left, she unleashed a torrent of questions like she’d been holding them back.
“Hell if I know what he was talking about.”
“That CS grandpa and now this slick guy. Why is everyone so curious about you, Uncle?”
Lee Ji-ah put on a mock-serious face and rested her hand on her chin.
“This is my intuition speaking.”
She stroked her chin like a detective, then jabbed her finger out dramatically.
“Uncle, you’re hiding something!”
He was hiding plenty.
His job, his rank.
All the skills he’d acquired so far.
Every single one could put his life in danger if exposed.
Secrets he couldn’t reveal to anyone.
Not even to his closest ally, Ailin.
“So what is it? Isn’t a detective supposed to reveal what you’re hiding, not just the fact that you are?”
Seo Woo-jin chuckled back.
Her words were probably just her killing time anyway.
“That’s what I’m gonna uncover from now on! I stake my grandfather’s honor on it!”
“What does your grandfather do?”
Seo Woo-jin asked, half-expecting.
“…He runs a braised monkfish restaurant.”
It was just as he’d suspected.
* * *
Training at the academy was postponed for a while.
Too many heroes had been injured, making it unavoidable.
Most were just light wounds from goblins, but some elites like his friends had suffered critical injuries.
The Empire decided to give them a break until the chaos settled.
“This is ridiculous. Nothing’s running properly. At this rate, wouldn’t staying back at Massive Guardian be better for growing stronger?”
Seo Woo-jin was a bit dissatisfied.
He’d come all the way to the Empire with high hopes, but he couldn’t even get proper training.
‘My level went up a bit, sure.’
That was it.
Having half-slain foes meant levels didn’t mean much to him anymore, so life at the academy couldn’t satisfy him.
“Sparring with Ailin…….”
Honestly, it wasn’t much help now.
Not that he was belittling her, but they’d sparred so much that they knew each other’s moves inside out.
If her skills had been overwhelmingly superior, it might’ve been different, but they weren’t.
Sparring with her just wasn’t the best way for Seo Woo-jin to grow anymore.
Things were a little different with Lee Ji-ah and Kim Da-hye.
Their styles were new to him, so it was fun, and their unexpected strikes sometimes caught him off guard.
But that was all.
They weren’t enough to elevate his true skill.
‘I need to find a way.’
Not just leveling up, but a way to raise his real abilities.
“Should I look for a new sparring partner?”
This was the Empire.
The strongest and vastest nation on the continent.
It had to be full of powerhouses.
Sion had its share of strong knights, but nothing compared to the Empire.
There were surely plenty stronger than him.
“The problem is I don’t know any of them.”
Seo Woo-jin’s social circle was tiny.
Aside from Lee Ji-ah and Kim Da-hye, he barely interacted with the other heroes, let alone the knights.
“Nope, nothing.”
No options.
In the end, he had only one choice.
“Let’s get familiar with the new skills I got.”
Skill: ??? [Passive], [Black Flame], [Heavy Strike], [Rampage], [Acceleration], [Aura], [Abyss], [Punishment], [Brand], [Madness], [Twilight], [Muspelheim], [Uranus’s Sword].
Excluding the ones he already had, that was a whopping six new skills.
“Can’t test them all…….”
‘Punishment,’ ‘Brand,’ ‘Madness,’ and ‘Muspelheim’ reeked of Demon King vibes just from their descriptions.
Even if he used them in secret, the risk of getting caught was too high.
Especially after the aura he’d felt when using ‘Abyss.’
“Using them in the heart of the capital would summon the knights for sure.”
It’d be suicide.
“That leaves just two I can use.”
‘Twilight’ and ‘Uranus’s Sword.’
Luckily, both involved swordplay.
Sure, they were far too powerful for a mere ‘Sword Soldier’…….
“Eh, I can play dumb.”
He was the only Sword Soldier around.
No one could call him out on it.
“Alright, let’s give them a try.”
Seo Woo-jin headed to the training grounds.
* * *
The sunset fell.
Or at least, it looked that way.
Thanks to Seo Woo-jin’s skill ‘Twilight’ activating.
The moment he used it, the area around his sword dimmed into dusk.
“…Touch this and you die, huh?”
Not just instant death—it rotted you away slowly.
Like fast-forwarding time, the wound festered and decayed until it crumbled to dust.
“I was just picturing a gentle evening glow.”
Twilight apparently didn’t mean that kind of twilight.
“Looks usable.”
It was an odd effect for swordsmanship, but it still involved a sword.
Plus, plenty of other jobs had even weirder skills.
A blade that rapidly rotted flesh wasn’t that strange.
The others were different.
They went beyond strange into grotesque or outright terrifying, like ‘Abyss.’
He absolutely couldn’t use them lightly unless his life hung in the balance.
Especially not around other heroes or knights.
One slip-up and he’d be marked for execution.
“Next up, this one?”
Excluding the unusable ones, just one remained.
‘Uranus’s Sword.’
Uranus was the Greek god of the sky.
Sky god and sword.
The name alone gave a good hint.
“‘Summons a sword in midair and drops it.’ Simple description.”
The number of swords scaled with level, but he didn’t need to worry about that now.
He was still a puny level 16.
“‘Uranus’s Sword.’”
Seo Woo-jin activated the skill.
Whoosh—a massive chunk of mana drained away.
So much that he felt symptoms of mana exhaustion.
“What the—why does it cost so much mana?”
Seo Woo-jin looked up in shock.
Exhausted to the point he could barely lift a finger from the mana drain, but the pressure from above drew his eyes anyway.
“Uh…….”
A single sword had formed overhead.
Just one sword.
But Seo Woo-jin couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
And not just because of the mana drain.
“It’s too damn big.”
The sword was enormous.
How could a single blade rival Drakeas in size?
A colossal ten-meter sword.
It began plummeting toward the ground.
“Hey? They didn’t mention this!”
If he’d known it’d be this huge, he never would’ve used it in the training grounds.
Visibility was one issue, but……
“Son of a bitch!”
The grounds were too cramped—Seo Woo-jin was within the impact radius.
Cursing, he scrambled backward.
And then……
RUMBLE-!