The Enhancer's Hunting Method
The entrance to the A-rank Gate, swirling with violet energy, looked like the maw of some monstrous beast.
The density of mana pouring out from within was on an entirely different level from an ordinary Gate.
The air itself was thick with clinging particles of mana, enough that even a normal Awakened would have felt pressure just trying to breathe.
"Wow... the atmosphere here is insane..."
"I’m nervous just looking at it."
Woojin stood before the Gate and took a slow, steady breath.
The alien mana seeping deep into his lungs felt, oddly enough, pleasant.
"Oh, right. Didn’t your sister say her second Awakening isn’t far off?"
"Hmm, I only have about twenty left... but this is the jungle, so it’s not easy finding enemies."
"Then want me to enhance your eyes?"
"Huh?"
"You already see pretty well, but if I enhance your eyes too, that’d be even better."
As a gunner who fired magic bullets, improving his eyesight as well would naturally make his combat power leap.
"S-sure? Then please do."
Body Enhancement — smell and respiratory protection, with foul odors blocked off and poison resistance greatly increased.
Golden mana swept over Woojin, Gabi, and Catherine in turn.
The stench that had been stabbing at their noses faded to something they could barely tolerate, and the reek of the gas no longer had any effect on their bodies.
"Oh? That’s so much better. You can even do this level of detailed enhancement?"
"Yeah. I didn’t know that either. It feels like I can meddle with every function the body has."
The body naturally possessed some resistance to toxins, and Awakened people were better at it than ordinary humans.
But once enhancement was layered on top of that, most poisons could be rendered completely useless.
"So, in theory, you could make a body that’s totally immune to poison?"
"...Enhancers really are broken, huh..."
"Still, you don’t have any attack skills. In an actual fight, you’d probably lose to me."
"Even so, your ability to adapt is incredible. You’re not even a dedicated combat class, and you can respond like this."
"Well, I guess that’s true."
"They’re coming from all directions. There are quite a lot of them."
With Catherine’s warning, eerie cries echoed from beyond the maze of trees.
Breaking through the violet gas were A-rank lower-tier monsters in the shape of mantises, known as Blade Mantises.
Their bodies were dozens of times larger than an ordinary mantis, and their forelegs were made of living metal sharper than any famed blade.
Dozens of them climbed the trunks and surrounded Woojin’s group in an instant.
"Gabi, you take the small fry with Catherine. I’ll handle the big ones myself."
"Okay! Got it, Daddy! Go out and play, everybody!"
The goblins Gabi summoned escorted Catherine as they crashed into the swarm of mantises.
It took two or three goblins just to keep one mantis in check, but there was no overcoming sheer numbers.
Woojin strode straight toward the three mantises with the largest bodies in the entire chaos.
One of the mantises slashed its foreleg at Woojin’s throat with a sound like the air itself being torn open.
The strike was insanely fast, but Woojin’s thoughts moved even faster.
He had already pushed his cognitive speed and visual nerves to the limit with Body Enhancement.
To Woojin’s eyes, the mantis’s attack path looked almost sluggish.
"What? That’s not much at all, is it?"
He slipped his head aside with casual ease, letting the attack pass, then kicked off the ground.
And he tested the new power he’d gained after becoming an Augmentor.
The blunt weapon item in his hand scattered into particles and seeped into his left leg.
Body Imbue — the Smash skill was directly imprinted onto his left leg.
He had directly imbued his leg with the item’s Smash skill.
The gear he’d picked up while conquering Gates, the stuff that was a little disappointing to wear directly, had now become excellent consumable material for Woojin.
Kwaang—!
"Oh, damn, that’s amazing."
Not only Body Enhancement but also Body Imbue had become possible.
That said, Body Imbue was almost one-use only.
Once a skill was imprinted and used, the item serving as the material vanished, so quite a few pieces of equipment got consumed in the process.
Woojin twisted his body in midair and drove his sword down into the mantis’s chest.
Kwajik—!
With his increased strength and the item’s power added together, the mantis’s hard shell crumpled like paper.
With a single blow, the A-rank monster’s chest caved in and green fluid sprayed everywhere.
"One."
Even as he landed, Woojin didn’t stop adjusting his mana for a second.
"Should I try this next?"
One shabby shoe-shaped item imbued with the Swift skill turned into a mote of light and settled into Woojin’s feet.
Then his figure vanished into the air.
Woojin reappeared behind the mantis before anyone could blink, swung his sword, and two mantises dropped to the ground with their upper and lower halves split apart.
Catherine, who had been fighting nearby, stared at Woojin’s movements and jumped in surprise.
"Woojin, that’s incredible. You’re fighting amazingly well!"
But Woojin’s face pinched slightly.
"Wow... but the efficiency is terrible."
Every time he used a skill once, one item disappeared. No Awakened fought with absurd efficiency like this.
"Wouldn’t this be solved if you leveled up? Or maybe if the item grade was higher?"
Woojin nodded at Catherine’s words.
"Maybe. Then again, if the skill could be permanently imprinted on the body, that’d be way too broken."
There wasn’t just one or two body parts he could imbue.
If permanent imbuement were possible, it would only be a matter of time before Woojin became the strongest in the world.
"Still, this is fun."
Woojin was gradually growing addicted to this charming way of fighting.
The battle went on.
The deeper they pushed into the jungle, the more powerful and bizarre the monsters that blocked their way became.
There were giant centipedes spitting venom, and reptilian monsters shaped like chameleons that could vanish into stealth.
And now, before them, was a bird-like monster flying through the sky.
For Woojin, who had no ability to fly, it would normally have been a troublesome opponent, but Catherine was beside him now.
"Should I take it down?"
"No, I’ll try."
Woojin looked at the scroll in his hand. It contained a Fireball spell.
"Let’s see. Enhance, enhance, enhance."
Enhancement succeeded: +1.
Enhancement succeeded: +2.
A powerful blessing has taken hold of the enhancement. Enhancement succeeded: +5.
"Oh? Damn, that’s amazing."
A critical success at +3 had triggered. His luck was excellent.
Woojin thrust the scroll forward.
"Fireball!"
The scroll flared with light, and a massive fireball burst forth. It was at least five times stronger than its original power.
Pwoooosh—!
The monster, which had tried to flee into the air, was swallowed whole by the fireball and crashed to the ground.
Woojin finished it off with his sword and muttered, "Wow... scroll enhancement is no joke. I’d love to have a ton of these."
Catherine replied, sounding just as dumbfounded. "We... do have a lot of them..."
"You do?"
"Yeah. We’ve cleared quite a few Gates, remember? Besides Fireball, we’ve got all sorts of other magic scrolls piled up."
"Ohhh! If you enhance those and fight with them, that’d be convenient."
"...I’m not even sure whether it’s right for you to use magic stronger than a mage’s."
Woojin snorted with a laugh.
"Well, if you can’t use a scroll without one, does it really matter?"
Catherine fell into thought for a moment.
"Just in case... don’t go making a +15 scroll out of that, okay?"
A +15 Fireball.
It would obviously have power rivaling a missile, or something even beyond that, practically a strategic weapon.
"I won’t, heh heh."
"This isn’t funny. To me, that sounds like one person mass-producing strategic weapons."
"I-is that how it looks?"
"Yes. We need to be a little more careful."
"Still, everyone’s here to protect me."
"Heh. Fair enough."
Woojin checked his status and said, "Wow, fighting directly really does give me way more than splitting experience with the goblins. I’m already level 48."
"It’s an A-rank Gate, so the experience is pretty sweet."
A smile spread at the corners of Woojin’s mouth.
"Yeah. Even if it’s just to avoid wasting it, I’m going to clear the whole place out."