Resharing (2)

Well—only if I lock the level of a skill I received through sharing, and that lock carries over to the one who shared it. He could settle the question easily enough by testing it. Might as well do it now.

Jin-soo still had thirty-seven uses of Skill Sharing left. Among the skills I haven't pushed to 922 yet, is there anything worth using? The moment his Blessing had grown, he had raised every core skill to 922. Among the support skills he still meant to fuse through Skill Synthesis, though, plenty remained short of that mark.

One of these will do. He selected Mana Rampage, a Dark-affinity skill that forced his mana into a violent surge and amplified it for a brief span. You feel oddly bare without it, and yet you almost never have cause to use it. The amplified mana fell off afterward, which made the skill awkward to keep and hardly worth discarding. Still, there are times I need it. Used in a pinch, it earned its keep. Level 822. Suitable enough.

Jin-soo designated Mana Rampage, sitting in his Dark-affinity status window, as a skill to share with the Holy-affinity window. The instant it appeared there, he used Level Lock on that copy.

Yes. His face brightened. Mana Rampage, level 822 a moment ago, had climbed to 922. And the Dark window? He checked. The Mana Rampage he had shared from the Dark-affinity status window stood at 922 as well. It worked. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lock the level of a skill received through sharing, and the level of the one who shared it locked with it. This is enough.

The one thing that still nagged at him was that both windows were his. Whether the Blessing could reach the status window of an entirely separate person remained unknown. Item Level Lock had a precedent: when Jin-soo was not the owner, an item's level reverted to what it had been.

This isn't the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same as Item Level Lock. It should work. Even items that had reverted returned to their locked level the moment they came back into his hands. The crux is whether something is connected to me. Receiving a shared skill was no different from being linked to him at all times. So long as the shared skill I hold doesn't vanish, whoever received it ought to keep the locked level.

This was a weapon he could rely on. Offer someone the chance to drag a skill that was choking at a low level up in a single stroke, and no one could help but be tempted. Nine hundred twenty-two for now. Next would be 1,022. And that won't be the end. Keep growing the Blessing, and skill levels could push past the thousands into the tens of thousands, even the hundreds of thousands. A golden chance to raise their core skills all at once. Can they really refuse it? He doubted they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could. The problem is making them believe it.

The veterans who had settled and stagnated in the Tower would never take Jin-soo at his word. Before the regression, if someone had come to me with a claim like that, I'd have called him a fraud on the spot. Even so, he had a way to convince one of those entrenched players for certain. The Dark Saintess, Shin Sujeong. Shin Sua's younger sister, and a healer in the party of the person who had stood above him. Even if she's certain I'm running a con, Shin Sujeong will never refuse my request.

She was meticulous about debts of gratitude and grudges alike. Receive a favor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from her, and she repaid it no matter how great the loss. She was just as famous, of course, for paying grudges back in full. That had nothing to do with him. Win Shin Sujeong over, and I can win over the players who will grow into the Tower's strongest party.

Before the regression, the party and guild led by that person had kept the party and guild under Jin-soo as eternal runners-up. He himself had always been second to that person. That was only the life before the regression. This life had already changed in countless ways, and more changes were still to come. This time, I stand at the very front. One lifetime of always coming in second was enough. His second life would be first.

"Sasaki?"

Okamoto, Guild Master of the Minamoto Guild on Tower Floor 150, asked it with a face gone rigid.

"Yes. After murdering the guild's core officers, he took the guild assets kept in the Starting City, along with the belongings of the dead, and disappeared."

"That can't be. What could that bastard Sasaki have been wanting for..."

"Perhaps there was friction with the other officers. A struggle over influence."

"Even so. He isn't the sort to cause a disaster on this scale."

Okamoto's face set like stone. Sasaki had been someone he favored. Even so, this could not be let slide. It was a betrayal of the Minamoto Guild, and an act of open hostility.

"Preserve the scene. Send in a pursuit team."

"Understood."

"Bring him back alive if you can. That's the only way to make a proper example of him."

"Yes. I'll give the order."

At Guild Master Okamoto's command, the Sasaki pursuit team set out for the Starting City.

"Good. The scene's been left intact."

A deep smile spread across the mouth of Ogawa, the man in charge of the Sasaki pursuit team.

"We've locked it down completely. No one has been allowed in or out."

"Well done. Then let's begin."

Confidence filled his face. Anyone else, maybe. Once they've caught my eye, running is out of the question. Ogawa possessed a very particular art of pursuit. Trace of Mana.

He cast the pursuit skill, and the lingering echoes of mana inside the office writhed until they took on human shape. Vanish. At his word the faint figures faded one by one, until only a single form remained. Now. Move. He fed it mana, and the last wisp of human-shaped fog began to stir. Shall we see where you lead?

Ogawa followed the fog with absolute confidence. So long as a mana residue had not fully dissipated, Trace of Mana boasted a perfect success rate—a downright cheat of a skill. It was not made for combat, and in ordinary times it was useless. For hunting a boss monster, or tracking a player who had harmed the guild or turned hostile, there was nothing better.

The Sasaki pursuit team under Ogawa moved after the human-shaped fog. Hm? This is a lodging. The first place it arrived was an inn. Bold bastard. I was sure he'd leave the city at once. Apparently he had lingered there and taken his ease. Now. Move again.

At Ogawa's command the human-shaped fog bustled into motion and slipped out of the city. Now it begins. From here they would have to brace for sleeping in the open and keep the chase going. The team swept busily through the forest after the fog.

"Huh?"

"What? This way leads back toward the city."

The fog that had been rushing through the woods turned and entered the city once more. Has this bastard lost his mind? Ogawa cocked his head and kept following. The fog, however, only shuttled back and forth between the inn and the hunting grounds.

"Ogawa, something's wrong with your skill, isn't it?"

"Like hell! My skill is perfect!"

He snapped at his companion, but he was growing anxious himself. Inn and hunting ground, over and over—the worry crept in that something really had gone wrong.

Unless Sasaki has gone mad, there's no way he'd act this carefree. It wasn't as if every Minamoto member in the Starting City had been wiped out. Only part of the leadership was dead. Common sense said people who knew his face were everywhere, and calmly traveling between lodging and hunting ground made no sense at all. My skill is perfect. It is perfect. Clinging to that certainty, Ogawa pressed the chase.

A thunderous boom split the air, and a raw scream tore out after it. The human-shaped fog veered toward the noise, where a player was fighting a monster.

On the hunting grounds, giving other players a wide berth was an unspoken rule. Ogawa and the Sasaki pursuit team ignored it. They could afford to. They trusted their own strength. The fog approached the fight and stopped in front of the player who had been hunting the monster—then unraveled with a soft rustle and melted away.

"Huh?"

Ogawa was more than a little thrown. Trace of Mana vanished only when he canceled the skill, or when it found its target. The person standing in front of him was not Sasaki.

"Hey, Ogawa, what the hell is this? That isn't Sasaki."

"Yeah. You can tell at a glance."

"So the skill really is broken."

Ogawa shook his head at his companions.

"There's no way my skill is wrong. That bastard is the culprit."

"So you're saying Sasaki disguised himself as this guy?"

One of them asked it with a sneer.

"Could be. Or this bastard disguised himself as Sasaki and caused the mess. Sasaki never had a reason to do something like that in the first place."

"True, now that you mention it."

"Well. Ask him, and we'll know the details."

The pursuit team closed a net around their mark. If someone looked suspicious, you grabbed him, interrogated him, and dug out the truth. That was all there was to it. It didn't matter whether Ogawa's skill had glitched, whether the man had some unavoidable story, or whether he was a scapegoat for someone else's scheme. They were not the ones who would pay for it.

"Hey. You've got something to do with Sasaki, don't you? You're coming with us over the Sasaki business."

Ogawa spoke to the player who had just finished the monster.

"I thought I'd already finished cleaning this up. To think someone on Tower Floor 150 had learned a tracking skill of this caliber."

The player muttered it with a frown, and Ogawa's face lit up.

"I knew it! He's the one!"

His companions nodded along.

"Impressive, Ogawa."

"Grab him and we can head back."

"Didn't think he'd admit it that easily, though."

"Something feels off."

"Catch him first."

They kicked off the ground and lunged.

What a nuisance. Jin-soo, now the pursuit team's target, frowned at a turn he had not expected. I thought eliminating everyone who knew I existed had settled this cleanly. He had not imagined a variable like this.

"Blame that fine tracking skill of yours."

Steel whispered free as he drew the Blood-Sucking Sword and Baekcheonsingeom. The assassin who led the charge came apart, upper body shearing clean from the lower. The warrior rushing in behind him split from the crown of his head to his groin.

"Aaagh—!"

"We can't handle this guy! Run!"

Two comrades dead in an instant, the rest of the Sasaki pursuit team finally grasped the situation and turned to flee.

"Too late. Shackles of Binding. Twisted Footsteps."

He cast the curses and bound the feet of the men trying to run.

"What? What is this? How is a warrior using curse skills?"

"Undo it, quick!"

The fleeing team cried out in panic toward their healers.

"Flash of Purification! Wave of Dispel!"

The healers hurriedly cast their purification and dispel.

"What? Nothing's happening!"

"This can't be right. Flash of Purification! Wave of Dispel!"

The healers with the Sasaki pursuit team startled and poured everything they had into firing the skills again and again. It did nothing. Jin-soo's curse skills simply sat far above the level of their purification and dispel.