Hwarba Ancient Ruins (Part 8)

An A-rank skill, promoted in rank?

A message that defied belief floated before my eyes, but I had no time to leisurely admire my status window.

—Master Han Hye, you must run!

Chunbae was right. The moment the Essence of Hwarba soaked into my flesh, the surrounding atmosphere took a violent turn. Mana roiled erratically in all directions, and the lake of molten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rock pooled beneath the altar churned in frantic resonance. Bubbling furiously, the magma's surface swelled as if primed for a catastrophic detonation.

The heat soared. Even with my Fire Resistance raised by three levels, the air bit into my skin with unbearable ferocity. Then came the tremors.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

The ground shuddered from subterranean depths. I spun on my heel and bolted, pushing my body to its absolute limit.

Flash!

I chained Leap whenever my mana pool permitted, desperate to shave off every second. I had to get out. Retreating into my subspace was out of the question under these conditions—to keep time flowing inside the pocket dimension, I had to maintain a hairline seam to the outside world, and in a place like this, liquid fire would flood through that gap in a heartbeat.

With every stride I took, the tectonic violence intensified.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

The earth bucked so violently it was difficult to keep my footing. An ordinary person would have been thrown to their knees, unable to stand again. Suddenly, a deafening thud vibrated through the stone—not an explosion yet, but its undeniable harbinger.

Exactly thirteen seconds later, I reached the spatial coordinate I had marked earlier. Without hesitating, I activated Leap toward the surface.

The open blue sky greeted my eyes. There was no time to celebrate.

"Yongyong!"

I ripped open my subspace, summoned Yongyong, and vaulted onto his back. The moment his wings caught the updraft and launched us skyward—

KABOOOOM!

Accompanied by a shockwave that threatened to tear the mountain apart, a colossal pillar of magma, dozens—perhaps over a hundred—meters thick, erupted straight into the heavens from the entrance of Mount Hwarba. It was a real-time reenactment of the cataclysm we had witnessed when the gate warped and time wound backward. The sheer scale of the eruption struck awe even into my battle-hardened senses, painting the once-azure sky a furious, blood-red hue in the blink of an eye.

"That way!"

Having mapped our escape vector in advance, I steered Yongyong away with sharp urgency. Moments later, the molten rock blasted into the atmosphere began raining back down—a crimson deluge falling beneath the ruined sky.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Oppressive heat engulfed the airspace. The ambient temperature felt as though it had spiked past fifty degrees Celsius in seconds.

Sizzle!

A stray splash grazed me, searing with agonizing heat. My outer garments melted away instantly, sending an excruciating jolt of pain through the exposed flesh underneath.

Hwarba wasn't exaggerating with his warning.

I had brushed against magma once before in a volcanic zone, but that had felt nothing like this. The eruption tearing through the ruins right now was unlike any terrestrial volcanic event; the very air surrounding the crater burned with spiritual fury. To be precise, it was the explosive discharge of Hwarba's primordial power. Was this what it truly meant to burn magic itself?

"Krrr!"

Even Yongyong, who normally reveled in intense heat, recognized that this descending barrage of molten rock was far from ordinary. He banked and rolled through the air, weaving between the falling meteors of fire. Fortunately, the blast radius of Mount Hwarba's eruption was relatively concentrated, and there was little suffocating volcanic ash.

Not that I've ever experienced a real volcanic eruption before...

Perhaps because the cataclysm was driven by Hwarba's unleashed essence rather than conventional geothermal pressure, the blast wave did not travel an absurd distance. Once we crossed a certain threshold, the fiery rain ceased to reach us. Still, thick rivers of lava continued to pour down the mountainside, bound to cool and solidify into the ancient topography we had traversed before the gate transformed.

A sudden curiosity struck me.

What were hunters originally supposed to find in there?

I pondered the question as we glided through the cooling air, but no certain answer surfaced. The Essence of Hwarba might have been there all along, but any team attempting to claim it without spatial blinks or an airborne dragon mount would have been incinerated within the chamber. If they had perished inside, perhaps the surviving hunters of the world would have recovered a depleted remnant of the essence after the eruption spent its fury.

Would it have been an A-rank or B-rank core then?

Whichever way I looked at it, my unique class had carried the day. I had walked away with an S-rank essence intact. And now that the immediate danger had passed, a long-overdue realization struck me.

Right—the S-rank skill!

I hastily pulled up my status interface.

"Holy shit..."

A breath of genuine shock escaped my lips. My A-rank Fire Resistance had spiked straight to Level 7 in a single leap. Short of an elemental king unleashing its direct might, ordinary flames wouldn't even register as warm anymore. My Cresea Swordsmanship had also ticked up by a level during the duel with the Fire Knight.

Yet none of that compared to the crowning jewel.

It really turned into an S-rank skill.

I had seen the notification after ingesting Hwarba's essence, but looking at the finalized status window made it feel real. Acquiring an A-rank skill that instantly promoted itself to S-rank was the sort of absurd fortune that sounded like fiction. My luck had been downright miraculous.

Hwarba had mentioned that I barely qualified to absorb his essence in the first place.

And that was all thanks to the Sun Flower.

The power I had absorbed was refined and elevated by the solar energy already dwelling in my veins. When I first consumed the Sun Flower, the system text stating that 'fire-related abilities acquired in the future will be enhanced' had sounded like a modest boost of a few skill levels. I had never dreamed it would elevate an ability's fundamental rank—taking an A-rank power and crowning it as S-rank, rather than nudging a C ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or B-rank slightly upward.

"Is this kind of thing even possible?" I muttered aloud.

—Affirmative. It is not impossible, though it remains an exceedingly rare phenomenon, Chunbae replied, offering his perspective. —If I were to deduce the cause, the original manifestation of Incineration was likely an apex A-rank ability teetering on the cusp of S-rank to begin with.

That made sense. Skill ranks weren't monolithic blocks; variations in potency existed even among abilities sharing the same grade. If Incineration sat at the absolute pinnacle of A-rank, an external catalyst could easily have tipped it over the threshold. It had originated from Hwarba himself—a primordial Fire Spirit King whose flames devoured ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠magical energy. My mortal vessel had simply lacked the capacity to contain its full divinity, but conceptually, the power had always belonged in the highest tier.

—The willing blessing of Lord Hwarba undoubtedly aided the transition as well, Chunbae added. —His consciousness regarded you with notable benevolence.

"I see."

—Allow me to offer my congratulations. Claiming an S-rank ability is a feat achieved by very few across the dimensions.

According to the instinctual knowledge etched into my consciousness, Incineration manifested a destructive flame capable of consuming physical matter and magical authority alike—mirroring the ancient spirit king's legacy.

Fwooosh!

I channeled a thread of mana as we flew, conjuring a spark at my fingertips. Though no larger than a candle flame, its presence felt terrifyingly dense. The surrounding ambient mana made faint, crackling pops, burning away as fuel for the tiny ember.

—Fascinating. A flame that consumes magical power...

"Have you never seen this before either?"

—Affirmative. A flame possessing the property of burning pure mana is something I have encountered for the first time within this sanctuary.

Even a seasoned spirit guide like Chunbae was seeing this for the first time. I had truly secured an extraordinary trump card. Was this the privilege of conquering an ancient story-type ruin? Come to think of it, if our original plans hadn't fallen through, we would have been stuck in a standard siege-defense gate right now.

Are the executives at Daeeop Guild secret guardian angels or something?

If they hadn't pulled their underhanded bidding stunt, our guild never would have pivoted to this remote ruin. In hindsight, was them embezzling my settlement money years ago also an act of dark-knight altruism designed to lead me here? ...All right, let's not get carried away with absurd nonsense. But receiving an S-rank skill out of nowhere did have a way of making the whole world look wonderfully generous.

"Hye-ya!"

As Yongyong descended toward the staging area where the rest of the guild waited, our comrades rushed forward, letting out collective sighs of relief.

"You all right? That blast was ridiculous! We thought the shockwave was going to swallow this entire sector!" Uncle shouted, jogging over.

"Seriously," Minjae chimed in, adjusting his glasses with wide eyes. "When that pillar of lava shot straight into the clouds, I thought we were done for."

"It got a little close for comfort, but I managed to stay in the clear," I replied with a grin, stepping down from Yongyong's back.

While Uncle and Minjae celebrated my safe return, Lee Shinhee immediately stepped in close, scanning me from head to toe with practiced diagnostic concern.

"You aren't injured anywhere, are you? Wait... over here. This is a severe burn!"

Without waiting for permission, she pressed her hands toward my side, channeling soothing green healing light into the melted patch of fabric where the fiery spray had scorched my skin. Uncle's jaw dropped as he watched the wound sizzle under the divine energy.

"Hang on, don't you have A-rank Fire Resistance? How the hell did you get burned through that?"

"It was completely absurd," I admitted. "The fire burns through mana itself. Even with Fire Resistance pushed to Level 7, a stray splatter did this."

"Wait, what kind of fire is..." Uncle trailed off, suddenly freezing mid-sentence. His eyes widened like saucers. "Hold on. Level 7?! Wasn't it Level 3 when we walked in here? There's no way a skill jumps four levels in one dungeon!"

"Ah, well... circumstances forced me to absorb the Essence of Hwarba," I explained, scratching my cheek apologetically. "It triggered automatically through a trial, so I couldn't consult the team beforehand. I'm sorry about that."

In typical raid parties, unilateral consumption of high-tier dungeon loot would cause an immediate fallout over distribution rights. But the members of Dinosaur Guild didn't bat an eye.

"Hyung, don't worry about that for a second," Minjae said wave of his hand. "Of course you should have it."

"What choice did you have?" Lee Shinhee agreed softly, her healing magic concluding with a pleasant chime. "From the looks of that explosion, no one else could have retrieved it anyway."

Uncle, on the other hand, was practically vibrating with curiosity.

"Did swallowing the essence just level up your passive, or did it grant something else? Was it like a divine elixir?"

"No, it unlocked an active skill."

"What kind of skill?"

"It's called Incineration..." I paused, offering Uncle a teasing grin. "An S-rank."

"Pardon?" Shinhee blinked.

"What?!" Minjae gasped.

"Are you out of your mind...?" Uncle whispered, clutching his head.

The reaction, naturally, was nothing short of explosive.

The clear reward yielded only two level-ups, but in terms of overall gains, this expedition had shattered our personal records once again. Securing an S-rank skill was a milestone that redefined our guild's offensive ceiling.

Incineration... it's still only Level 1, though.

While I could summon an extraordinarily potent ember, its current scale wouldn't turn the tide of high-level skirmishes overnight. Even so, its growth potential was staggering. High-rank abilities inherently wielded terrifying scaling, and unlike skills like Leap that arrived near-complete from Level 1, offensive spells grew exponentially deadlier as their proficiencies matured. The weaker an S-rank skill appeared in its infancy, the more apocalyptic its endgame destructive output would become.

"T-They're out!"

"The Dinosaur Guild has exited the gate!"

The moment our boots crossed the dimensional threshold back into reality, a wave of deafening noise washed over us.

"Huh? Why are there even more people than before?" Uncle muttered, looking around in bewilderment.

"No kidding..." Minjae agreed.

Given that our expedition had spanned over twenty-four hours, we had expected the initial crowd to have thinned out considerably. Reporters might stay on rotational shifts, but ordinary citizens rarely camped outside an active perimeter for an entire day. Yet the sea of spectators and media crews gathered past the barricades had doubled in density. Amid the relentless barrage of camera flashes, an Association coordinator hurried toward us, wearing a complex expression that mixed profound relief with palpable anxiety.

"Congratulations on your successful clear! Thank goodness you've all returned safely."

"Thank you," I replied, raising a hand in greeting. "Did something happen out here?"

"Well... while the Dinosaur Guild was inside the ruins, an identical gate manifested across thirty different nations simultaneously."

"An identical gate?"

The coordinator scratched the back of his neck, visibly troubled.

"Haah, it's hard to explain concisely out here on the field. Chief Secretary Park Seo-woong specifically requested that you contact him the moment you emerged. It would be best if you heard the details directly from him."

Escorted into the temporary command briefing container, I grabbed a tablet to review the breaking news feeds. In the span of a single day, the international hunter community had been thrown into utter pandemonium.

The gate was titled the Trial of Mana, bearing a level restriction of Level 26 to 40 and an entry cap of twenty hunters. It had appeared in precisely thirty sovereign states, including South Korea.

My eyes drifted toward the most recent updates stamped at the top of the feed, published mere hours ago.

Right on cue, my smartphone buzzed against the table. I picked it up and tapped the screen.