King of the Corpse Crows
Dimension Warriors.
Heroes who protect the world from attacks launched from other dimensions!
Ever since their appearance, the world had been plunged into a shock and terror greater than any it had known before. Monsters materializing out of nowhere, and Descenders who transformed into superhumans — the fervent cheers, the anxiety, and the deep distrust of the future drove the global economy into freefall, while countless conspiracy theories were shouted as if they were established fact.
Naturally, related internet communities sprang up like weeds after rain. But among them, one place achieved growth more explosive than any other on the planet.
A colossal community that, in a mere month, racked up a staggering one billion total visitors.
Behind the Other-dimensional Community's blistering rise stood a great number of Dimension Warriors themselves.
The reason was simple: renowned Dimension Warriors themselves resided on the community and answered posts in person. The (W) before a nickname stood for Warrior, and the numbers or letters that followed were closely tied to each Warrior's rank.
They gave advance warning whenever a threat approached the world, and even provided detailed guides on how to respond when monsters appeared. Nations across the globe had reached the point of officially recommending the Other-dimensional Community — for before the unknown, every one of them had been powerless.
But all of that applied only to the public pages.
High-ranking officials of the World Government and globally famous figures were issued separate VIP accounts. Upon logging in, they could see hidden boards.
— Monsters of the Other Dimension —
— Special Items of the Other Dimension —
— Elixir Auction —
— Prophet's Journal (VIP.7) —
Even VIP accounts were assigned different levels depending on the person, and the boards visible to each were restricted accordingly. Of those, the most popular by far was naturally the Elixir Auction board. Elixirs that healed every wound and, depending on grade, could even regenerate dead nerves and lost body parts — VIPs showed explosive interest. Called an immortal panacea, the elixir had become the very foundation upon which the Other-dimensional Community was protected and cultivated.
And what of the Prophet's Journal? There one could read the handwritten records of a prophet who foresaw major events yet to come. Access was limited to heads of state and figures of equivalent rank.
But a rank higher still — the right to speak directly with Master, the owner of the community — existed for only five people in the entire world, including the leader of the United States.
Yet no matter how high a VIP account's level climbed, there remained a domain it could never see.
That domain was the Warrior Board.
The fifty-three warriors belonging to the Other-dimensional Community, selected through a rigorous verification process — for them alone, a separate space existed.
— Wanted List (+New!) —
— Alliance Unified Board (+New!) —
— Talent Awakening by Class —
— Recommended Hunting Grounds by Level —
— Research Log: Correlation Between Talent and Stats —
— Main Quest Strategies and Summaries —
— Confirmed Hidden Traits to Date (+New!) —
Click.
Master — owner of the Other-dimensional Community and the highest-ranking player of all — clicked his mouse.
⊳ Totem Shaman Banyac (Threat Lv. 3) / Eliminated
⊳ Blood Ghoul Weizhang (Threat Lv. 4) / Eliminated
⊳ Madman Haksal (Threat Lv. 6) / In Progress
⊳ Deranged Isaac (Threat Lv. 7) / In Progress
⊳ Dragonslayer Barmush (Threat Lv. 9) / In Progress
⊳ Phantom Randolph (Threat Lv. 10) / CAPTURE ALIVE — MANDATORY
Nearly a hundred players listed on the wanted board. It was a collection of those whose high threat levels risked adverse effects on both reality and Pangenia.
Totem Shaman Banyac has been eliminated.
Not a particularly dangerous one, but he had been put on the list for spouting unnecessary things in the real world. There was no need to tell ordinary people that the warriors of the other dimension had come from a game called Pangenia. Doing so would only damage the warriors' mystique and authority.
No other changes.
Confirming the status was enough.
Click.
Master browsed another board.
◈ Void
◈ Craftsmanship
◈ Weapon Master
◈ Beast Lord
◈ Giant's Magic Resistance
◈ Golden Grace
◈ Glutton ★ NEW
In five years, they had uncovered a total of six Hidden Traits. And now a new one had been added.
Glutton, is it.
Interest flooded Master's eyes. A Hidden Trait was no mere talent — it was a key that pierced both worlds. A power granted independent of level growth.
Even among Transcendents of the same star rank, a gap exists depending on whether one holds a Hidden Trait.
To put it with only slight exaggeration, a single Hidden Trait was worth one Star. That was how immense the authority and power a Hidden Trait conferred. It had been confirmed that, unlike ordinary talents, Hidden Traits themselves grew as one's level rose and as one Transcended. For a top-ranker, related knowledge was essential.
And through privileges, one can newly acquire talents and awaken Hidden Traits as well.
Talents could be awakened with SP at character creation, but most players had been possessed into the game without even a handful of them. That did not mean talent was forever out of reach. Through training, through hunting, through special elixirs — talents could still be awakened. Even so, there was a limit to how many one could obtain. The surest method was to awaken talents through privileges earned while progressing the Main Quest.
And for that, one must thoroughly memorize the talent tech trees that open Hidden Traits.
But Hidden Traits were, as the name implied, hidden — almost nothing was known about which talents needed to be awakened to unlock them. This board was a place for sharing the talent tech trees and applications for obtaining Hidden Traits. For a top-ranker like Master, it was a board one could go mad over. Realistically, raising every talent was impossible. Even a top-ranker held only a few dozen talents at most — yet the total number of talents ran into the hundreds.
Click.
The most useless Hidden Trait among those known.
A trait that allows one to Devour the core of an evolved Boss Monster and acquire that monster's characteristics.
The problem: the monster's poison and mental contamination proceed simultaneously.
A holder of this Hidden Trait was captured and subjected to various experiments. The subject reacted to an evolved Boss Monster core; upon Devouring it, the subject fell into delirium within half a day and died.
Some degree of physical transformation and Boss Monster characteristics were acquired, but a complete change was never achieved.
Monster toxins also appear to strengthen and evolve upon being Devoured. Even a Transcendent body equipped with poison resistance was judged unable to endure them easily.
Mental contamination likewise. Even after the subject was raised to the maximum level of the mind-protection skill Wall of Mental Armament, the experimentee's mind could not hold.
Judged to awaken when the following talents are all raised to maximum: Health, Constitution, Endurance, Fire, Darkness, Void, Adaptability, Taste, Sensitivity, Expressiveness.
Master's face twisted.
So even among Hidden Traits, garbage like this exists.
A Hidden Trait that invariably killed its holder. And the talents one had to invest in were far too many — several of them talents one would question ever raising at all. The burden of pouring points into those talents just to awaken a Hidden Trait of unproven performance was simply too great.
"Tsk."
Master shook his head and shut off the computer, thinking he had wasted his time.
The potent miasma of the Devoured Corpse Crow core is pulverized by Giant's Magic Resistance.
The curse and powerful mental contamination of the Devoured Corpse Crow core are nullified by the Heart of the Iron-Blooded Lord.
Dominion over the evolved trait rises under the influence of Beast Lord.
Change and adaptation are completed by Mutation.
I slowly looked down at my body.
Black feathers. A sharply protruding beak.
I've become a Corpse Crow.
I was a Corpse Crow now. No matter where I looked, I was a Corpse Crow.
So this is the nature of Glutton.
Glutton — a Hidden Trait that had never once manifested until now. I hadn't known the conditions for its awakening, but it seemed an evolved core was the key. Still, to be able to transform this completely… it was far more perfect than any shape a transformation specialist could mimic. I was a Corpse Crow itself.
King of the Corpse Crows.
And not an ordinary Corpse Crow, either. When I ran a hand over my head, my fingers found a small crown. I had evolved all the way into a king. Monsters bearing the name "King" stood on an entirely different plane from ordinary Boss Monsters.
Related skills have appeared as well.
Skills, for instance. I could now use more advanced versions of Corpse Crow skills.
Corpse Crow Summon
The number summoned varies according to possessed sacred power.
I used one of those skills — Corpse Crow Summon.
Caw! Caaaw!
Two Corpse Crows burst from my breast and circled the air around me. Slightly larger than ordinary crows, they were Boss Monster Corpse Crows. Summoning Boss Monster Corpse Crows was a privilege only a king could exercise.
I gazed at the summoned pair with satisfaction, then slowly lowered my eyes.
This core is the medium of the transformation.
Embedded in my chest like an Iron Man reactor sat a violet core. If it shattered, the transformation would unravel. Conversely, so long as it remained intact, I could maintain this form indefinitely — or transform at will whenever I chose.
"……!"
Isabella's eyes were storming as she stared at me.
"I'm not in danger, caw."
"S-Sacred One……?"
"It's me, caw. Getting into Kramdel just got a whole lot easier, caw."
Why did every sentence end in a caw? I tried to hold it back, but I couldn't. Without the caw, it didn't feel like I'd properly finished speaking.
Isabella still wore a thoroughly unsettled expression as she opened her mouth.
"You mean to go to Kramdel alone… looking like that?"
"You're coming too, caw."
Thud. Clatter-clatter.
Isabella tilted her head at the equipment I'd dropped on the ground.
"Isn't this your armament, Sacred One?"
"The Michela Set, caw. Wear all three pieces and you gain the wings of a Celestial Dragonkin, caw."
Ah. This was driving me insane.
Anyway, my method for entering Kramdel had been simple. The Celestial Dragonkin effect of the Michela Set was a hidden entry ticket into the fortress. But now that I had become the King of the Corpse Crows, that Celestial Dragonkin effect was no longer necessary.
"Let's go, caw."
Caw!
Caaaw!
The two crows cried out with me.
"……."
Isabella watched the scene with a gaze too complicated to put into words.
Following a hidden dungeon path opened by the Mutation trait, we walked for half a day before coming upon a large bipedal rat wearing a black helmet.
That rat, too, was an evolved Boss Monster.
"Hm? This path is only visible to a Guide."
The monster rat raised its claws in suspicion. Had it sensed we were human? But the aggressive posture didn't last. Once it got a closer look at Isabella and me, the monster rat immediately sheathed its claws.
"Ah! Forgive me. My eyesight isn't what it used to be. The King of the Corpse Crows and a Half-Dragonkin — now that is an exceedingly rare pair. Are you both bound for Kramdel?"
"We are, caw."
"Follow me. Take a wrong turn and you could fall into the Abyss."
The transformation into a monster had been a complete success. Even a Guide couldn't tell the difference — proof that I had become a perfect King of the Corpse Crows.
Before long, the Guide monster rat took the lead and began escorting us toward Kramdel.