Cracking the Cube Keeper
There were countless ways to conquer a Pioneer Keeper. The key point here wasn't just smashing it with brute force—it was about truly conquering it. Knowing how it attacked, how to dodge, and where its weaknesses lay was more important than anything. Especially since some Keepers couldn't be breached no matter how strong you were, if you didn't understand them. And the Keeper I faced was no different.
Cube... huh.
It was one of the overtechnology relics believed to exist in the Tower Ruins from ancient times. That's why, excluding the first-generation hunters—the "real" ones who had actually raided the Tower and hunted monsters—no modern hunter knew about this Keeper. But I remembered it well. Before my regression, I'd broken through this Keeper in the finals, found the hidden piece, and claimed victory.
Back then, my Piercing Eye was S+ rank, which let me discover the dungeon...
Anyway, if I snagged the ancient relic Ether here, breaking into the top 5 was a sure thing.
With that thought, I stepped forward. As if sensing me, the massive single Cube split into 27 fragments.
Of course, I wasn't just going to stand there watching. It was time to move.
Now!
I reacted first, and in that instant, a massive flash shot straight from the Cube at my position. A light-speed beam impossible to dodge unless you knew it was coming. But luckily, I did know—and I rolled sideways to evade it.
If I hadn't challenged it before regressing, I'd have been eliminated from the survival game right then...
Nothing remained where the laser beam had passed. But there was no time to marvel. The Cube fired its first laser with blinding speed and intensity, but afterward, it overheated, leaving a brief window. This was the moment to charge straight at it.
Zing—
At the same time, I used Magic Engineering Weapon Conversion to transform my basic weapon into a pry bar.
My target: the gaps between the 27 fragmented Cubes. I wedged the pry bar in and leveraged it like a jack. One chunk of the Cube exposed a seam and began to split open.
This skill really is the best for this.
It let me improvise and create whatever tool I needed on the spot. Though calling a pry bar a "weapon" might be a stretch.
Either way, that strike knocked one piece from the Cube's top row loose. One down, for now. I had to be satisfied with that—the overheating was cooling, and it was about to attack again.
But that didn't mean I'd lost the initiative. I'd already predicted its movements and attack range.
If it were a monster instead of a Cube guarding an ancient relic, the physical spec gap might've made it tough.
But the Cube was a machine designed to protect relics. It had patterns. And manuals for every situation.
The Cube, now missing one piece, registered the damage and shifted to its next protocol. Instead of lasers, the remaining 26 cubes merged into a new massive form.
In an instant, they reshaped into two enormous hands—and clapped down on my position.
Boom!
Whew...
Even knowing it was coming, dodging wasn't easy. But I hadn't just taken it passively this time either.
Crack... crunch...
With a grotesque sound, the center of the clapping hands began to split. The moment I'd anticipated the shape-shift into a physical attack, I'd dodged the clap zone and placed the pried-off Cube fragment right there.
No matter how tough they were, two Cubes of equal hardness colliding head-on had to shatter.
Sizzle... hiss...
Finally, with the sound of breaking, the airborne Cube fragment lost power and dropped to the floor. Not easy, but not impossible either.
"Whew... Time to claim the Ether."
What remained was harvest time. Beyond the Cube, the door led to a cool, refreshing space—unlike the sweltering outside. In the center stood something like an altar, topped with a gem-like chest.
Seeing this in person... well, virtual reality, but it's been ages.
I climbed the altar and opened the box. A gentle light poured out—not blinding, but warm. Ether.
Right on plan.
Thankfully, the Ether was exactly where expected. Equip it and head out, and I could wrap up the match without major surprises.
But when I slotted the Ether into my weapon, something utterly unexpected happened. The Ether didn't just enhance the weapon—it enveloped my entire body in a white glow.
In that moment, I felt a surge of vibrant energy.
Bloom - Talent Awakening: Ether
You can indirectly manifest Ether using mana.
Oh...
This was luck on a miraculous level. Finding the hidden piece dungeon with this body, defeating the "Keeper," and claiming the Ether—it must've counted as an achievement.
With this... I might be able to use guns even without unlocking Bloom.
Before regression, I'd used guns in the Hunters League thanks to Magic Engineering Weapon Conversion—because I had enough mana to spam mana bullets. Without Bloom unlocked now, guns should've been impossible.
But with this...
I channeled mana from my body to manifest Ether, and it looked just like the real thing in the box. The description said "indirectly," so probably a downgraded version.
Before heading out to fight, I needed to test it. I used Magic Engineering Weapon Conversion to form dual pistols.
Even after regression, the performance is unchanged. Perfect.
I loaded one pistol with Ether manifested via Bloom - Talent Awakening, and the other with the Ether from the hidden dungeon. The manifested one felt lighter in weight and handling.
How about firepower?
Bang! Bang!
The wall of the ruins showed a clear difference in the craters. My low mana meant the destructive power was way inferior to the relic.
Good for suppression fire, but tough for decisive hits. About that level...
Still, being able to use guns—even just for poking—during the audition show, when I'd thought it impossible, set my heart racing. A semi-permanent skill like this might be the ultimate reward.
***
"What... the hell was that..."
Just as Lee Chang-hyun had worried about the cameras, several were indeed capturing him and the Keeper.
"Ah...! I remember now. That's a Cube, right? It's so rare, I only saw it in a book a senior gave me."
"Must be one of those rare Keepers."
"I heard there used to be quite a few guarding ancient relics. Like Min-seok sunbae said, not easy. But it'll make for great footage, yeah?"
As if on cue, right after Jin Su-hyuk finished speaking, a massive beam erupted from the Cube.
Even I might not have reacted to that...
Unless you knew ahead of time, that speed seemed impossible to dodge. But then, something unbelievable happened before their eyes.
Lee Chang-hyun—whose stats had to be at best half of average—dodged the laser.
Luck?
It didn't stop there. His standard-issue spear suddenly morphed into a pry bar.
"A skill?"
"Shape-transformation type, looks like. Pretty rare... But what’s he gonna do with that? Uh...? Huh?"
Lee Chang-hyun boldly approached the momentarily stalled Cube, as if he knew it wouldn't move.
"Why isn't it moving? Broken?"
"No way a Keeper breaks. But... yeah, something's off."
Either way, the Cube stayed still, and what came next was even more absurd—Lee Chang-hyun's actions.
"With... a pry bar?"
He jammed it into the gap of a fragmented Cube, levered with all his might, and pried one loose using basic physics.
"No way..."
Silence fell over the monitoring judges. Small mercy: soon after, the Cube stirred again.
It abruptly reshaped into massive hand shapes.
"Whatever glitched it before, unless it breaks again..."
"With his stats, physically smashing those Cubes is still impossible."
But why... does it keep feeling uneasy?
As if proving Jo Ah-ra's unease, a deafening crash echoed as the hands clapped at Lee Chang-hyun.
Boom!—Crack!
Jo Ah-ra couldn't trust her eyes. The Cube she'd deemed unbreakable...
It had placed the pried-off fragment right in the clap's center.
"It broke..."
"An anomaly."
"How is that possible..."
Meanwhile, the other judges could only gasp in admiration. Lee Chang-hyun's combat sense and on-the-fly improvisation were phenomenal.
"How'd he dodge the first laser?"
"...That's the question."
"Not a living thing, so patterns make sense, but the odds he knows them?"
"Even if, no way a rookie applicant knows what we don't. Probably a related skill... like foresight or prediction."
There were candidates: Foresight-types that read the future, Action Reading, Pattern Master. Plenty, if you stretched it.
But his potential was clearly higher than Jo Ah-ra had thought. And soon enough, something astonishing proved it.
"Whoa, he's pulling out guns again?"
"This far in?"
At some point, Lee Chang-hyun held dual pistols transformed from the pry bar. Probably one of his skills, though the principle was unclear.
"But unlike round one, guns won't work on other applicants here..."
"No... think about it. The prize here is Ether."
Guns weren't entirely impossible. Compressing mana hyper-concentrated could work, but efficiency sucked, and guiding shots like arrows was tough.
But with Ether? No mana needed. Slot it in like a magazine, and fire endlessly with its energy.
"Ha... He's gonna spray bullets in this game too."
"..."
Jo Ah-ra had dismissed his round-one gunplay as luck back then. She didn't retract that, but confusion was inevitable.
She recalled her words at the survival game's start.
What we want is a 'real' hunter. Not just a Hunters League player, but one worthy of stardom. Like the first-gen hunters—pioneering the world, expanding horizons.
In that sense, Lee Chang-hyun might be the 'most hunter-like hunter.'
He'd found treasure and uncharted territory, fought fiercely, and seized the prize.
If it were me there, could I have done it?
Jo Ah-ra probably would've gone for unchallenged dominance in a brawl, aiming for first. His stats looked mediocre from her view.
...But carving a path no one else has. A hunter pioneering their own way.
Just a little. A faint echo of first-gen hunters stirred, unbidden.