Scout Rejection?

Ordinarily, the moment you acquire a skill, a matching visual effect blooms around you. A Fireball skill, for instance, might send little embers drifting up through the air. So what did it mean when someone like me started pouring brilliant light from every pore of his body?

"Oh my, look — that man just awakened a skill!"

"Hurry, take a picture!"

Whatever the case, one thing was certain: I had drawn every last scrap of aggro in the vicinity. The middle-aged women who'd been gossiping over lunch at the café all rose as one and started photographing me.

What kind of skill-acquisition effect is this supposed to be…!

From my perspective, of course, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment. If the system was going to humiliate me this thoroughly, the skill had better perform — or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠else.

I ground my teeth and cursed the system under my breath. Slowly the radiance faded, and a skill window rose before my eyes.

…Not bad?

Reading the skill's effects took the edge off my anger. Thunder Dragon Torrent — it was a name stuffed with every Chinese character a man could possibly love. And if it was a secret art created by the First Under Heaven himself, the performance ought to be worth looking forward to. "No one lived to see the next sunrise" could only mean that everyone hit by this skill had died.

"Hey! You just—"

Right. This guy was still here. Better explain before I got stuck listening to another lecture.

"Ah, Manager, about that…"

"You awakened, you little punk!"

"Huh?"

"You pay off your debt with Tower clear rewards too? You bastard — you've hit the jackpot!"

To my surprise, he congratulated me with genuine warmth. I'd always known he was a decent man, but this was almost touching.

"That just now was a skill awakening? Rare thing to witness."

"Haha… I accidentally used a skill selection ticket."

"What?! You're serious?!"

After that he offered me all sorts of advice, the way a senior Awakened would. Don't get cocky. Climb the Tower diligently. That sort ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of thing. About ten minutes later we both had places to be, so we wrapped up and stepped out of the café.

"Seeing you doing well puts my mind at ease."

"All thanks to you, Manager."

"Haha! Don't butter me up."

It wasn't flattery. Back when I was drowning in debt, he was the one who'd helped me the most. Kim Hyunwoong, deputy at Gold Capital — he was as good as a benefactor to me.

"Ah, right. What skill did you just awaken?"

"Something lightning-attribute, I think. I haven't used it yet, so I don't know the details."

"That so?"

He listened, thought for a moment, then spoke again.

"Want to try it out?"

"What?"

"The first time you use a skill in a real fight, you never know what might happen."

"So…?"

"So you practice it beforehand. If anything goes wrong, I'll cover you."

He thumped his own chest and told me not to worry. Use a skill in the middle of a street in broad daylight?

"Fire it at the sky and nobody gets hurt."

"Even so…"

"Hey, hyung here's an A-class hunter. You think I can't handle one of you? Just use it."

Hmm… the more I listened, the more the argument started to make sense. If I fired the skill into the sky, no one would get hurt. And practicing under the guidance of an A-class hunter might actually be a huge win.

"…Just in case, I'll fire it a little weakly?"

"Sure. Don't worry about it — just go."

I took a deep breath and tipped my head back toward the sky. No one nearby. No birds or planes overhead. Should be fine.

I slowly brought both hands together and aimed them at the sun.

Thunder Dragon Torrent.

The moment I whispered the name, I felt a thick chunk of mana tear free from my body, and blue sparks leapt across my hands. Then current erupted from my palms, and a colossal dragon of blue lightning took shape.

Except it was far, far larger than I'd expected.

"…Is it supposed to be this big?"

"…I wouldn't know."

"Oh, for the love of—! Get down!!"

Even at a glance the lightning dragon stretched well over twenty meters, surging skyward with the force to smash through anything in its path. The Manager scooped me up in a hurry and bolted into a building.

—BOOOOOOM!!

A massive rupture of sound. When I carefully stepped back outside, white light was still flooding the street. The glass windows of the surrounding shops had all blown out, but mercifully the street itself didn't look too badly damaged.

Thank god I'd aimed at the sky. If I'd pointed this thing at a person… I didn't even want to imagine it.

"…Yuseong."

"Yes, Manager."

"Never use this outside the Tower again."

"You were the one who told me to try the skill—"

"Shut up."

I left him standing there, still half out of his mind, and looked up at the sky. Clouds split open, and through the gap, the sun. My chest was pounding at the thought that I'd finally gotten a proper combat skill of my own.

That said, there was still one matter to settle.

"By the way, Manager — you said you'd handle the cleanup earlier, right?"

"Huh? W-well, yeah."

"Then how about covering the broken shop windows for me?"

"…"

That day, the Manager spent thirty million won reimbursing every shattered pane on the street.

"Ha. So this floor's boss is a Lich."

The day after I got home, I went straight into the next floor of the Tower. The reason was simple: I wanted to fire off Thunder Dragon Torrent one more time. Being an Awakened who couldn't actually fight had always sat wrong with me. And now that I had a combat skill this cool? How was I supposed to hold back?

"Come at me, Lich! Today I'm clearing this floor alone — no summons!"

"Why is the Summoner suddenly like this?"

"A man's heart is beyond understanding. Simply accept it."

The days of cowering behind my summons and clicking my way through clears were over. I finally had a real combat skill!

Without wasting another second, I brought both hands together and unleashed Thunder Dragon Torrent.

"Take this!"

A colossal dragon of lightning tore across the ground as it charged forward. The startled Lich scrambled to deploy a defensive spell — for all the good it did. The thunder dragon punched straight through the barrier as if it were nothing, and then…

"Kiriik?!"

"What? Why is it fine?"

Nothing happened. The Lich the massive thunder dragon had just torn through was standing there on two feet, perfectly intact.

"What the hell — wait a second…!"

"Kiririik!!"

The Lich sneered and prepared its counterattack. A vast dark sphere rose above its head, radiating an ominous aura.

"Not a chance."

"Get away from the Summoner!"

Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course, my summons stopped it without breaking a sweat.

"Kyaaaaargh!!!"

Under their combined assault the Lich crumbled to dust on the spot — but a serious question still hung over me. Why hadn't I been able to kill it? There was no way an attack that overwhelming should have bounced off a Lich.

I was standing there blankly, baffled, when Yeonbi approached.

"What manner of technique was that just now?"

"Ah — a skill I picked up recently."

"Thou hast learned quite the peculiar art. A flash-type technique that converts electricity into light, is it?"

She flicked her tails with evident amusement and began to explain. Thunder Dragon Torrent was a technique that transformed lightning-attribute energy into light and fired it outward. But that light carried no physical force, so it could not kill a person. A direct hit would blind you and leave you reeling from the shock — and that was about it.

In other words, it was just a lucky flashbang.

"…This technique is non-lethal?"

"Indeed."

"Then why does the dragon even fly?"

"Tis merely the preference of the one who devised the technique."

"…Son of a bitch."

No one struck by this blow ever lived to see the next sunrise? They hadn't died from the attack. They'd just gone blind and couldn't see the sun.

"Yeonbi."

"Hm?"

"I'll be counting on you for the next floors as well."

Looks like I'd be riding the bus for a while longer. Well — a summoner was supposed to be carried by their summons anyway.

A dark night with little moonlight. At Gold Capital, Deputy Kim Hyunwoong spoke to someone unseen.

"Ihwa. Are you there?"

"Yes, young master."

A woman stepped out of the shadows. Ihwa — Hyunwoong's bodyguard and personal secretary. Her class kept her from taking the front line, but she was always at his side.

"You saw Yuseong earlier, right?"

"The young man from lunch, you mean."

"Yeah. What did you make of his strength?"

Ihwa thought back to midday. The youth who had fired that monstrous thunder dragon into the sky. No one had been hurt — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a mere incident, thankfully — but her answer was absolute.

"We cannot win."

"Me? Or you?"

"Even if we both attacked together, we would not stand a chance."

In her eyes, the young man had been closer to a monster than a person. Unlike Hyunwoong, who was a warrior-type Awakened, she was a mage — and that made her all the more certain. The sheer energy packed into that lightning dragon was something even an S-class hunter would not have walked away from intact.

"At minimum, top-tier A-class. Possibly S-class."

"Is that so…"

Hyunwoong was fairly stunned himself. The pitiful kid who'd been paying off his parents' debts had come back as that kind of monster. Even Ihwa — an A-class stronger than Hyunwoong himself — had tucked her tail between her legs. He'd clearly been growing his power in secret for years after awakening. Truly absurd talent.

"How shall we handle him?"

"Leave him alone."

"But…"

"He's a little brother I know well. Nothing to worry about."

Stronger or not, to Hyunwoong, Yuseong was still just a cute kid brother. Hiding his strength even from him was a little annoying — but that kind of caution was worth praising, if anything.

"Ah, though maybe we should take some measures."

"Sir? What kind…"

"Let's scout him into our guild."

The guild he and Ihwa actually belonged to. Not the loan-shark business they ran as a front — their real affiliation. Asia's largest unregistered guild, a criminal enterprise in all but name: the Cheonhyung Guild.

"Offer him an annual salary of around ten billion."

The order came from Hyunwoong — son of Gwangcheon, the S-class hunter and guild master of Cheonhyung.