Chapter 28
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Prime Works
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Double Circle (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Opening the skill window.]
Lloyd opened the skill window.
He was trapped in a collapsed passageway.
The remaining oxygen would last at most thirty minutes.
There was no way out now.
‘I have to do everything I can.’
Lloyd’s eyes darted quickly.
He selected a menu on one side of the skill window floating before him.
The menu he chose was ‘Talent Skill Awakening.’
[Searching for talents that can be awakened into skills.]
‘As expected, it works.’
Lloyd clenched his fist.
He recalled the time when he first earned RP from Haviel and opened the skill window.
He remembered every detail of the guidance message that had appeared back then.
‘There was a message like this. It said I could invest the earned RP to awaken talent skills.’
That was right.
A function that turned one’s innate talents or knowledge into skills.
Thanks to it, he had been able to awaken his diligently studied civil engineering knowledge into skills.
Surveying and design skills were those.
But that wasn’t all.
‘I even turned shoveling into a skill.’
He often visited sites for part-time jobs.
Shoveling had to be done to the point of utter exhaustion.
Yet the skill window recognized even that shoveling talent as a skill.
‘Then, the other abilities and talents I have now should be turnable into skills too.’
The ability most needed at this very moment.
The exact ability he had in mind.
It could surely be awakened into a skill.
Just as Lloyd hoped, messages appeared one after another before his eyes.
[Current list of awakenable talent skills]
[Talent detected for absorbing surrounding mana.]
[...Talent detected for processing absorbed mana.]
[...Talent detected for amplifying absorbed mana.]
[Combining these, ‘Asrahan Heart Method’ skill can be awakened.]
[RP required for awakening = 15]
‘Got it!’
It was just as he expected.
The result he had hoped for most.
Lloyd decided without hesitation.
He immediately invested 15 RP.
A welcome message floated before his eyes.
Ding-dong.
[Asrahan Heart Method skill has been awakened.]
[Skill Name: Asrahan Heart Method]
[Level: Single Circle Lv 5]
[Absorbs surrounding mana. Processes and amplifies the absorbed mana using a circle created around the heart, then emits it. Amplification rate greatly increases each time the number of circles increases.]
[Mana Amplification Rate: 120%]
[RP required for next level up: 10]
[Current RP held: 142]
‘Good.’
It was a satisfying result.
The Asrahan Heart Method had been skill-ified.
Moreover, it had received a higher grade than expected: Single Circle Lv 5.
‘It must be thanks to all the practice I’ve done so far.’
He had trained diligently in his own way.
He had even used it in real combat against Sir Neumann.
After that, he never stopped practicing the heart method whenever he had a chance.
This was the payoff.
But Lloyd had no intention of stopping here and being satisfied.
‘If I was going to settle for this, there’d have been no need to spend precious RP to turn the heart method into a skill.’
Making it a skill didn’t make the heart method instantly stronger.
The ability to absorb mana.
The technique to process it.
The power to amplify it.
All were exactly the same as before awakening into a skill.
But now?
He could create a crucial difference.
Thanks to awakening the heart method into a skill.
‘Now I can upgrade it powerfully just by investing RP, without needing to practice or train.’
That was the biggest difference.
Lloyd invested RP into the Asrahan Heart Method.
[Skill level up!]
[Asrahan Heart Method: Single Circle Lv 6]
[Mana Amplification Rate: 125%]
[RP required for next level up: 15]
[Current RP held: 132]
With one level up, the mana amplification rate rose by 5%.
‘Good. Not bad.’
Lloyd quickly calculated in his head.
It seemed the RP needed for the next level up increased by 5 each time the skill level rose.
If so, what if he poured all his remaining RP in?
‘I can push past Single Circle Lv 10 and reach the next stage. It’ll be tight, but possible.’
It was a gamble anyway.
If the required RP increased by more than 5 unexpectedly, it would fail.
But he wouldn’t know until he tried.
And now was not the time to hesitate.
‘All or nothing!’
A do-or-die situation.
Lloyd dumped all his remaining RP into it.
The Asrahan Heart Method skill rose steadily.
From Lv 6 to Lv 7.
From Lv 9 to Lv 10.
Finally, after scraping together and investing the last bits of RP, the message he had hoped for appeared.
Ding-dong!
[Skill grade up!]
‘Success!’
Lloyd clenched his fist.
Just as expected, pushing one more level up from Single Circle Lv 10 raised the grade.
Fortunately, he never ran short of RP along the way.
He read the guidance message appearing before him.
[The grade of Asrahan Heart Method has risen to <Double>.]
[Skill options unlocked due to grade increase.]
[Asrahan Heart Method: Double Circle Lv 1]
[Mana Amplification Rate: 200%]
[Skill Exclusive Option ①: Energizer - Maximizes the efficiency of Double Circle. When used, allows movement without fatigue for 10 minutes. (Limit: Once per day.)]
[Skill Exclusive Option ②: Dormancy Burst - Explodes the circle’s amplification performance to the limit. When used, mana amplification rate triples for 20 seconds. However, upon completion, user enters exhaustion state and cannot use Asrahan Heart Method for a day. (Limit: Once per day.)]
[RP required for next level up: 100]
[Current RP held: 7]
Thump! Thump!
It was around the time he finished reading the skill description.
Lloyd’s heart pounded heavily twice.
Soon, a unfamiliar yet powerful sensation he was experiencing for the first time enveloped his heart.
Zzzzzz......
The Single Circle he had created before.
A new circle formed at a perfect right angle to that first one.
From the front, it looked like a cross wrapping around his heart.
The newly created second circle began to rotate.
Kiiiiing...!
“Hup.”
Double Circle.
The two circles rotated and resonated.
A wave of unprecedented powerful force rode through his veins, awakening every cell in his body.
The awe-inspiring sensation made him unwittingly gasp.
A smile crept onto Lloyd’s lips.
‘It worked.’
Jackpot.
Even reading the changed skill details had been hard to believe.
But feeling it in his body right after made it finally real.
‘So this is the power of Double Circle.’
Just moments ago, he had been utterly exhausted.
Now, that fatigue was gone.
No, rather, an unprecedented vitality awakened every cell throughout his body.
It was on a whole different level from when he only had Single Circle.
‘Turning the Asrahan Heart Method into a skill was the right call.’
He had aimed for two advantages by skill-ifying the heart method already ingrained in his body.
‘One was rapid growth.’
Once made into a skill, he could invest RP.
He could pour in massive RP to grow it.
If done right, he could achieve months or years of growth in a short time.
That aim had hit perfectly.
‘And the options from grade increase.’
He had already experienced grade-ups while growing his surveying and design skills.
How much benefit had those generated skill options brought?
He thought the Asrahan Heart Method might be the same.
If the grade rose.
If he reached the Double Circle realm.
He figured matching rewards might come as options.
And that aim hit perfectly too.
‘The options are solid.’
One could turn a person into an unfatiguing energizer for 10 minutes, once a day.
The other allowed explosive power for exactly 20 seconds.
Both were perfect for the current situation.
‘Alright, let’s do this.’
Grip!
Lloyd seized the steel shovel.
The reason he had scraped every last bit of remaining RP in this situation.
‘To break through the blocked passageway. Like this!’
Kwaak!
His shovel cleaved the air.
It churned the collapsed front passageway.
He began excavating the pile of earth with rough, relentless momentum.
Kuak! Kwaak! Deok! Suwk!
Tendons bulged on Lloyd’s forearms.
‘More! Keep going!’
It was a storm of shoveling.
A shovel far beyond human strength.
The shovel ravaged the dirt pile.
It fiercely scraped rocks and soil.
It scooped them out as scraped.
Each shovelful created a hole the size of a bucket, thudding into existence.
Such shoveling continued faster than a starving beggar’s spoon movements.
Puk-puk! Kwak! Ku-geok!
‘No fatigue! This is the best!’
Lloyd had already activated the first option, Energizer.
The option’s description was true.
Moving without rest, yet not tiring at all.
No sweat pouring like rain, no ragged breathing.
On the contrary, thanks to the Asrahan Heart Method at Double Circle, amplified mana overflowed around his heart.
He even loaded that amplified mana’s power into his shoveling.
The shoveling grew even fiercer.
And more precise at the same time.
‘Can’t just brute-force dig mindlessly. Might cause a secondary collapse in the passageway.’
It was a passageway already weakened by the methane gas explosion.
Even slight stimulation could make it collapse again.
Thus, Lloyd’s shoveling was rough yet cautious. Fierce yet careful. Quick yet smooth.
Thanks to his abundant shoveling experience.
‘Good thing I went to the labor office every time money ran out.’
A thought that suddenly struck him.
Lloyd often heard he was good at shoveling on sites.
In the military, and on construction sites in society.
Especially, his experience gouging gravel with a shovel was proving most helpful now.
‘That was practically my major.’
Gouging gravel with a shovel.
Men who served in the Korean military.
Or those who worked on sites.
Everyone had done it at least once.
Mix sand and cement powder, pile it up.
Make a crater-like depression in the middle.
Pour in a generous amount of water.
Then, collapse the crater’s(?) edges with the shovel, quickly mixing with the water.
The key point was controlling the water in the crater to ‘never’ spill out, with dazzling, precise shovel movements.
And Lloyd had a special talent for making that raw gravel mix with a shovel.
‘Who’d have thought I’d use that now!’
Kwak! Kwajak! Tusok!
Shoveling laden with countless experiences.
It moved like a third hand.
He freely adjusted intensity on the fly.
Intense when scraping, churning.
Precise when scooping, clearing.
Quick and smooth when flipping, stabbing.
All movements blended and harmonized in real time.
Thanks to that, he excavated at wondrous speed while giving almost no shock to the surrounding ground.
Even as the dug tunnel reached 3 meters, 4 meters.
‘Come on now... please! Show yourself!’
It had been about 5 minutes since activating the Energizer option.
Lloyd bit his lip in anxiety.
He was also activating the surveying skill amid the storm of shoveling.
The tunnel he was digging was visible clearly up to 5 meters ahead.
Yet no trace of hope appeared.
5 meters ahead.
Only the dirt pile filling the collapsed tunnel was visible within that range.
Worse, the air was starting to get stale.
‘At this rate, I can’t even use Ppoddong.’
The space was still too narrow to gigantify Ppoddong.
Casually gigantifying would consume the remaining oxygen here in an instant.
Lloyd gritted his molars.
‘I have to handle this myself.’
He couldn’t stop here anyway.
Stopping would erase even the chance of finding hope.
His shoveling turned even more desperate.
Ku-hwak! Ku-gak! Ku-geuk! Tuk!
The forcefully dug tunnel grew longer.
Reaching 6 meters, 7 meters.
It was then.
‘Huh?’
Something appeared 5 meters ahead.
A fist-sized empty space.
‘No way?’
Kwak! Ku-gagak!
Shoveling quickened.
Advance sped up.
With each step forward, the empty space 5 meters ahead, visible via surveying skill, grew.
From fist-sized to watermelon-sized.
Watermelon to drum-sized.
And finally to the original passageway size.
‘Found it!’
An unburied passageway was 4.5 meters ahead!
“Haviel!”
He shouted.
“Follow me! Crawl if you can’t walk!”
His head already throbbed painfully.
Objects before his eyes doubled at times.
Hypoxia symptoms.
‘Time’s running out.’
Drowsiness grew bit by bit.
Soon, consciousness would snap like a cut film.
Collapsing then would mean dying asphyxiated in sleep.
That was the terror of hypoxia, or anoxia.
Lloyd bit his lip harder against the growing drowsiness, moving the shovel.
‘A bit more. Just a little more!’
Just clear another 3 meters of the dirt pile ahead.
Not all of it, just a fist-sized hole.
Poke a hole that size.
Then minimal air would flow.
Hope for survival.
But at that moment.
Ding-dong.
[Asrahan Heart Method option, Energizer activation has ended.]
Already 10 minutes had passed.
Simultaneously, strength drained from his whole body.
Fatigue he hadn’t felt until now flooded in at once.
‘But I can’t end it here.’
Really, just a little left.
A bit more and done.
Amid the hazy consciousness tormented by hypoxia, Lloyd glared wide-eyed.
‘Dormancy Burst!’
Ding-dong!
[Asrahan Heart Method option, Dormancy Burst is activated.]
[Double Circle’s amplification performance is exerted to the limit.]
[Mana amplification rate triples for 20 seconds.]
[Mana Amplification Rate: 600%]
Kwaaaak! Kwaak!
Now, no more smooth, precise shoveling.
Pure will to survive, wielding the shovel like a beast.
Stab, smash, scrape, scoop.
The distance to the intact passageway beyond the collapsed section shrank rapidly.
Puk! Puk-guk! Kaga-gak!
2 meters, 1.5 meters, 1 meter, 0.5 meters....
A vigorous advance toward survival’s hope.
And finally, when only 30 cm remained of the thinnest part of the blocking earth wall.
[Asrahan Heart Method option, Dormancy Burst activation has ended.]
[Entering exhaustion state due to option activation penalty.]
Clang!
Strength drained from his entire body.
He unwittingly dropped the shovel.
His legs gave out.
He glared, but to no avail.
‘Damn.’
Lloyd reached out.
Struggled to pick up the shovel again.
Almost there.
Right in front of him.
He had dug a 12-meter tunnel in a mere 10 minutes.
Just one last step left.
‘And it ends here?’
Frustrating.
Regretful too.
Seeing Haviel already collapsed unconscious made it worse.
‘Did I drag this guy here for nothing?’
A hollow laugh escaped.
Suddenly, sleepiness poured in.
Consciousness hazed rapidly.
Delusions began to sound.
“Ppoddong!”
“...Huh?”
But something was off.
The delusion was too clear.
Lloyd gathered his last strength and raised his head.
At that moment, he saw it.
Ppofit!
A fist-sized hole popped through the remaining 30 cm thick wall.
A hamster the size of a fist, Ppoddong, poked out its round head.
“Ppoddong!”