Hidden Piece (1)
Hidden Piece (1)
I had drunk alcohol before.
Not something I bought with my own money, and nobody ever paid me to drink it either.
Instead, a soju bottle had been forcibly crammed down my throat once. A glass bottle knocking against my uvula, stinging liquor gushing down my esophagus—that was the memory.
Everything after that was hazy. They call that a blackout, don't they? The phenomenon where you close your eyes and open them to find it's the next day.
I had just gone through something similar.
The difference was that back then, the memories before waking were fuzzy and my body had been numb.
Now, the memories were vivid, as if thrust right in front of my nose, my body brimmed with vitality, and my mind was wide awake.
Through the skin pressed against mine, I could feel the thumping of someone else's heart.
A soft sensation, which had lodged itself with remarkable clarity in a corner of my memory, was currently pressing against my face.
Experiencing the contradictory mental state of clarity and dizziness at once, I patted Hong Yeon-hwa on the back, just as I had back then.
"Mm...?"
- Rustle
Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been lying on her side, stirred. She hesitated for a moment, then pushed her upper body up, leaning her back against the wall. I, held in her arms, was lifted along with her.
"You're awake... How's your body? Are you okay? Nothing feels wrong anywhere?"
- Nod nod
"That's a relief..."
Still speaking groggily as if half-asleep, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a sigh of relief.
I nodded back, and Hong Yeon-hwa's hand moved.
"...!"
The hand patting my back made my spine snap straight. Startled by the rhythmic tapping against my back, I shook my head from side to side.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
Hong Yeon-hwa tilted her head, puzzled.
The patting stopped. Instead, her palm pressed flat against my back and swept downward. A vertigo-inducing sensation traced down my spine.
"...!!"
My body flopped like a freshly caught fish. Flustered, Hong Yeon-hwa froze her hand in midair.
In the gap that had barely opened, I frantically wriggled out of the embrace and put some distance between us.
Weird looks or not, I steadied my ragged breathing.
This was a fresh reaction.
Yesterday's memories were clear.
The memory of suddenly losing my mind and causing a huge fuss was all too clear. Having been stroked like that back then, it was strange to act this way now.
If I had to make an excuse, I hadn't been in my right mind at that moment. There had been a reason I went crazy.
The flame that had clung to my right arm.
'Calamity Flame.'
A thought surfaced while I was calming my breathing, deepening my worries.
Yesterday's memories were clear. I remembered the disgraceful state I'd shown, and I'd heard the conversation between Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin.
I didn't know the reason. But the result was that the flames I'd spat out were apparently Calamity Flame. The power had certainly been worthy of the name.
But the question remained unresolved.
'Why?'
Why had the Calamity Flame burst from my arm—more precisely, from the burn scar?
A new question had wedged itself into a mind that already had no room to spare. Now all sorts of bizarre incidents were erupting from my own body.
I frowned and focused my hearing. A variety of sounds poured in. I drew a map in my head.
Only Hong Yeon-hwa and I were in the burrow. The other two's presences were felt above the ceiling.
I pointed a finger at the small exit. Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been staring at me blankly, nodded and stood up.
The moment I strode out, a cool breeze blew in and brushed against my skin.
I smoothed down my wind-tossed hair and drew a deep breath. Fresh air filled my body.
A slight but refreshing sense of relief eased my tight chest.
"Did you wake up?"
"Ha-yul, good morning!"
As I trampled the overgrown weeds underfoot, Baek A-rin and Ellia, who had been clustered together near the entrance, called out to me.
Ellia and Baek A-rin had already been trimming the fruit they'd gathered, their hands coated in Aura.
I gave a nod of greeting and plopped down near them. Sensing my surroundings, I detected all kinds of magic set up on every side.
These were the security, protection, and barrier spells Baek A-rin had plastered all over the temporary campsite. The level of magic itself was extremely high. There were many spells I could only classify, not interpret.
Observing them one by one, I couldn't help but be impressed. No wonder clans scrambled to recruit mages. Even one mage like that would make missions and daily life incomparably more comfortable than before.
'Day four already...'
Before leaving the burrow, Hong Yeon-hwa had filled me in on the situation.
A hastily pitched camp after we'd withdrawn, factoring in my state after killing the boss—when I'd suddenly flipped out—along with the party's depleted stamina.
We'd spent nearly an entire day recovering, so it was already the fourth day.
Tomorrow, the tower-entry schedule that had us so tense would end.
The sounds of nature, the quiet work of their hands, and the crisp cutting of fruit filtered into my ears.
They weren't unpleasant. Sounds to be dismissed as white noise.
Absentmindedly, I stretched out a hand.
The things Baek A-rin and Ellia were trimming... from their conversation, it seemed to be an apple-like fruit. I picked up a piece that hadn't been prepared yet.
Its smooth, cool surface was similar to an apple.
I fiddled with it for a moment, then coated the index finger of my other hand with Aura.
Not a crude, rough shape—I honed a sharp edge and sliced the peel off.
Scrape, scrape— the peel plopped onto the ground.
"Oh, you're incredibly good at peeling."
From the opposite side, Baek A-rin, who had been busily peeling away, let out an admiring remark. Judging by feel, the cuts were quite clean.
I steadily peeled the fruit the party had gathered. Since everyone was a superhuman, this amount was easily a single meal's worth.
While my hands worked, I organized my thoughts.
My objectives upon entering the Tower had been threefold.
First, innate growth.
Using the amplified Blessing of Growth to improve my overall capabilities: physical ability, mana, unique ability, skill proficiency, and so on.
This part had been fulfilled beyond expectations. Because the escape plan I'd initially devised had been blown to pieces along with my spatial perception, and I'd spent the first and second days being chased by cadets and brawling with them.
The hardship had been beyond extreme, but looking at the changes and results I was feeling now, it was nothing but sweet.
Second, collecting suitable materials.
Thanks to the mana concentration inside the Tower—which, compared to the outside, fully deserved the name Otherworld—a wide variety of material items could be obtained here.
Even the fruit I was currently biting into contained a considerable amount of mana.
Of course, it couldn't dare compare to an elixir. But it was enough to have a positive effect.
I'd planned to gather such materials with my spatial perception, but that plan had also ended in shambles along with my spatial perception.
I'd considered trying to gather some even now, but searching with touch, hearing, and mana detection alone had its limits, so I'd given up.
Also, even if my current condition wasn't the worst, I still wasn't at full strength. Just training quietly on my own would likely be more beneficial for growth.
And the third. Obtaining a Hidden Piece.
This part... was truly, bitterly regretful.
Considering I would've been disqualified without Ellia's help on the second day, this was nothing but greedy bellyaching, but I was so full of desire that I couldn't help clinging to it.
The trial conducted through Tower Entry changed in content each time.
This time's trial was the safe type usually held on the first floor, and the Hidden Piece I'd wanted was one obtainable only on the first floor.
'The Origin Egg.'
A Hidden Piece I had always acquired in every iteration since learning of its existence.
The method to find it was simple.
You just had to locate a structure somewhere on the first floor. With five days allotted, unless you got royally screwed and were speedrun into disqualification, you could secure it comfortably.
The method to acquire it was also simple.
In the first place, the access condition for this Hidden Piece was the title of 'Special Admission Cadet.'
Unlike other Hidden Pieces that could be randomly snatched away by NPCs, this one was player-exclusive.
Just approach the altar, and it would readily open.
Easy access, with the practical acquisition difficulty also the lowest among Hidden Pieces. On top of that, its effect was tremendous.
The 'Diamond Warrior'—the Warrior build that pushed character stats to freakish extremes in previous iterations.
It was no exaggeration to say the real snowball of the Diamond Warrior started rolling with the Origin Egg.
With that level of efficacy, I'd really wanted to obtain it... and this is what happened.
'Sigh.'
Regret overflowed, but with my spatial perception in this sorry state, it couldn't be helped.
From what I remembered, there was a re-entry to the first floor around the end of first year or the start of second year.
Now the only option was to aim for that time.
'...Where was that location again.'
Heaving a deep sigh, I finished peeling the fruit.
I cut a few into suitable sizes, shoved them into my mouth, and rehashed my knowledge of the original work.
The first floor was a space likened to the dense forests of the dinosaur era, but you could find structures of an unknown architectural style scattered in various places.
The Origin Egg lay dormant in one of those structures.
That structure had a fairly distinctive description, so I'd remembered it.
'A worn stone altar, and eight pillars surrounding it.'
Among them, three blackened...
"—pillars surrounded the altar in a triangle, and pure white pillars surrounded it in a pentagon."
'Huh?'
My chewing mouth stopped dead.
"That's unusual. I spotted a few odd things on my way too, but they were all crumbling stone structures. Didn't you find anything special?"
"No, I poked around to see if there was anything, but they just looked like decorations."
At the voice that suddenly drifted over, my head tilted. It felt like thunder ringing inside my skull.
For a moment, my information processing lagged. Had I just spoken that aloud? Impossible, because of the Curse.
After briefly sorting out my thoughts, I turned my head.
In that direction was Ellia, recounting how she'd seen something peculiar.
I churned my thoughts again.
An altar placed at the center. Eight pillars surrounding it.
Three black pillars arranged in a triangle.
Five white pillars arranged in a pentagon.
My judgment was complete. I shot up from my spot and strode over.
"...is what I'm saying. So I... Huh? Ha-yul?"
I walked right up to Ellia and clasped my hands around hers. Ellia, having her hand suddenly seized, looked at me with a puzzled gaze.
"Ha-yul?"
"Ha-yul!"
I could feel Baek A-rin's and Hong Yeon-hwa's gazes from the side, too. I paid them no mind.
"...!"
I suppressed my excitement as much as possible and shook her arm vigorously.
A moment later, I was forcibly stroked into submission.