A Sense of Unease (2)

Jihye's face was grave. What was this, all of a sudden? Hanseong studied her with a puzzled look, and a moment later her lips parted again.

"...We've run into a bit of a problem."

"Hm? What kind of problem?"

"While you were focused on clearing the rift, I tried to precharge the AH-64's power source with ether."

"And?"

"They say it won't take a charge."

What was that supposed to mean? Hanseong tilted his head.

"You can just use the auxiliary battery, can't you?"

"We can, but the auxiliary battery alone can't fill the power source."

"Then if I inject the ether myself..."

"They say that won't work either."

Jihye sighed, and in the cockpit Subin's shoulders drew in. A moment later she answered with the darkened face of someone who knew she was at fault.

"Th-that's because feeding ether straight into the power source takes a separate filter. And I... I don't think I brought it."

"Ah..."

"I'm sorry. I should have made certain. I left the most important thing behind...!"

He understood what she meant, and he understood why Jihye looked so serious. Hanseong himself didn't seem to think it amounted to much. He patted the sniffling Subin's shoulder as he spoke.

"It's fine. We go back and get it."

"B-but then we'd have to move the helicopter..."

"We can get back without doing that."

"What? R-really?"

Subin's eyes went wide as a startled rabbit's, and Jihye turned to him just as surprised. Hanseong nodded.

"Yeah. This is my base."

"...Ah!"

The realization hit Jihye a beat late. Only then did she remember what she had forgotten. Hanseong smiled without a word and reached toward an empty seat in the AH-64, meaning to open a passage from one base to another.

A blue vortex took shape at once. When he explained that they could return to the Suwon base through it whenever they pleased, the color came back into Subin's and Jihye's faces in a way you couldn't miss.

"Then you're heading back right away?"

The reason they had come to Japan was already accomplished. The liberated rift was cleared, and there was no cause left to linger. Contrary to what Jihye expected, Hanseong shook his head.

"No. I'm staying here for a while."

"What? You're staying in Japan?"

"Yeah. I still have to collect what I'm owed for helping Crow. And more than that, something's come up that I need to handle before the next rift opens."

According to what he had learned through Mind Reading, the next rift was likely to open in ten days to a fortnight. And judging by the mention of a main force on its way, an enemy of an entirely different order from anything so far might well appear.

I have to get as strong as I can before then.

There was more than one measure of strength. Learning more skills was one. Raising one's level was another. Neither was what Hanseong was aiming for.

Promotion to the sixth tier.

His rank experience currently sat near fifty percent. Each champion he brought down raised it by one percent. In theory, then, if he hunted fifty champion-grade monsters, he could advance to the next tier.

Promotion comes with plenty of advantages.

The greatest was the expansion of the range he could observe. With every promotion that range grew to five times what it had been, and at present he could see out to 312.5 kilometers. Five times that, and he would hold an overwhelming radius of some 1,500 kilometers.

Put Additional Bases to proper use, and Northeast Asia is covered with room to spare.

Install Purified Rift Stones on top of that and seize a large rift with five entrances or more, and his area of operations would stretch further still. Used well, he might even range the whole of Asia, clearing rifts as he went.

For any of that to hold...

He had to rise to the sixth tier. With his resolve set down to the last detail, he boiled the facts down and explained them briefly to Jihye.

A short while later, she nodded.

"I see. I understand."

Then she said something he had not expected.

"Then I'll stay at your side as well, Mage."

"Hm? You're not going back to Suwon?"

"No. Sergeant Seo Haeun is there, so nothing's urgent for the moment. While I'm at it, I mean to focus on hunting elites and push my level up a bit."

All this time Jihye had been running missions with the Special Mission Battalion and neglecting her level. The result was that Seo Haeun had recently caught up to her, and it stung a little.

"All right. Do that, then."

"Yes. Thank you."

Jihye smiled brightly. Subin, who had been quietly listening in beside them, spoke up in a fidgeting rush.

"Um, th-then what about me...?"

"No need to read the room. Head back whenever you like. I've got an errand for you anyway."

"An errand?"

"I'd like you to go to Minjae and bring back some Enchant Rings. High grade, if you can."

Enchant Rings, which permanently imprinted a skill. Hanseong meant to use them to take whatever was worth taking from the crow shaman's skills.

"How many should I bring?"

"Three or four ought to do for now."

"Understood. I'll tell him that. Oh! And I won't forget the filter!"

"Yeah. I'm counting on you."

That was the end of it with Subin. She set off for the Suwon base through the Warp Gate, and Hanseong sent Phantom along as her escort and guide.

With everything handled, he looked into the empty air and moved his lips.

"Open Map."

A vast map unfolded before his eyes. Centering on Fukushima, he fixed on the red square dots scattered across it and began picking out as many champion-grade monsters as he could. About half a day later, the champion hunt began.

Three days passed like that.

Hunting champion monsters in Japan, Hanseong went through a number of changes. The greatest, without question, were his level and his tier.

"Status."

Champions slain in that span: fifteen. Five a day, on average, and his rank experience had climbed a full fifteen percent. His level had broken out of the fifties along with it and reached sixty.

Smooth as anything.

Keep the hunt going without a hitch, and he would reach the sixth tier without much trouble before the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠new rift appeared. Hanseong smiled, satisfied.

And...

One more thing had changed, apart from his level. Loosening his stiff body, he looked at the small jar he had left in the cockpit—a black jar of no ordinary make. When he lifted the lid, whatever lived inside raised its head a fraction: a grotesque insect in which scorpion, wasp, and centipede seemed evenly mixed. A moment later, its information appeared.

Whenever a skill fell on cooldown after a champion hunt, Hanseong had emptied whatever mana remained into the Egg of Gu, downing the potions Jihye made for him along the way. The result was that the egg hatched a little after midnight the night before, and since then he had been checking on the Gu whenever he found a spare moment.

It was a little revolting the first time I looked at it.

Look long enough, though, and the revulsion faded. Whether because it recognized Hanseong as its master, the Gu showed no hostility at all. If anything, it spun in place and fawned on him. So he reached out and stroked it, and at once the manner of its use came flooding into his mind.

First, decide on a host.

A host, to be the Gu's nest. As a rule the subject was a living thing, and the more keenly it felt pain, the more desperately it clung to life, the better the effect.

Then you feed it the Gu.

Once it had entered the host and settled in, the Gu spent ordinary days in hibernation. Only when the mana it held dropped below half did it show its true worth, intermittently venting Deadly Poison and visiting the most extreme pain upon its host. Left alone, that agony was the worst there was—enough, if ignored, to end in death.

Two ways out of the pain.

Take your own life, or receive mana from the Gu's master. A Gu that had absorbed its master's mana fell quiet again, just as before. In short, the creature was optimized for working someone like a puppet. The moment Hanseong understood that, his brow tightened.

"...But where would I even use this?"

At first he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had considered feeding it to the leadership of the Sejong Provisional ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Government, but that would have been a waste. They were the sort you could bring to heel by force of overwhelming power. No point squandering his one and only Gu. After a long stretch of thought, he reached his conclusion: for the time being, he had no use for it.

The day will come when I need it.

He put the Gu, still wriggling as if begging for affection, back into the jar, closed the lid, and stored it in his Inventory at once. Then, just as he was opening the map again to throw himself back into the champion hunt—

"That's..."

A single blue dot was drawing near the Moving Fortress. He sent Phantom outside, and the visitor's identity was soon plain.

"Hello. I'm here."

The crow shaman, Kurogane Kotori. She came fluttering up in a black dress and bent at the waist in a polite bow, then returned to Phantom the notebook and pen Hanseong had given her three days earlier.

"I wanted to get this to you sooner, but repairing the defense line the raid broke took a while. Sorry."

"Doesn't matter. I understand."

Phantom shook its head. It hadn't been urgent anyway. He opened the notebook Kotori had brought and asked in return,

"More to the point—you wrote down every last one, yeah?"

"Yes. I don't have any reason to hide them."

A check with his magic eye confirmed it was the truth. The notebook held some twenty skills. All of them were written in Japanese, but that was no problem. He had Language Master. After a long look through them, he found what he wanted.

There are some decent ones in here.

Three, all told. Hanseong took in the description of the skill at the very top.

The first skill made totems. What caught his eye was not the shamanic craft itself, but the fact that a skill could be engraved. It meant he could store a skill in advance, the way the bracelet he wore already did. Depending on the situation, that would be extremely useful. One thing puzzled him.

"What do you mean, a medium that's been ritually treated?"

"Exactly that—an object given a shamanic treatment. Infuse spell-power into something natural, wood or stone, and you can make one easily."

"Ah. Got it."

Hanseong nodded, picked up the pen, and drew a circle around Totem Creation. Phantom's gaze moved next to a skill that fell under the shamanic arts.

Three days ago, when Thunderstorm had annihilated the rift's host, this was the taunt Kotori had used to pack the enemy into one place.

I do have taunt skills of my own, of course...

Decoy Dummy, and Dimension Vortex. Those alone weren't enough, though, and their cooldowns ran long. The Art of Allure, by contrast, could be used once every ten minutes. Imprint it on an Enchant Ring and link it to a totem, and it would be a real help. So he circled that skill as well, then looked at the last one.

This one looked good at a glance. Engrave the Art of Amplification onto a totem and install that totem at the base, and every skill's range, area of effect, and power would double. It was an installation skill, besides—a perfect fit for Hanseong, who never moved from his base.

Link that with Magic Field...

And the conditions would be in place to dump overwhelming firepower in an instant. With a satisfied smile, he circled the third skill too, then handed the notebook back to Kotori.

"Here. Take it."

"Oh? Why are you giving this back to me..."

"Because I've got a job ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for you."

Finished answering, Hanseong drew three rings from his Inventory: intermediate Enchant Rings, received from Minjae through Subin two days ago, able to permanently imprint any skill of four stars or below. When he passed them to Kotori, she startled.

"Th-these rings...?!"

She had recognized what an Enchant Ring did. Whether she was surprised or not made no difference to Hanseong, and he went on with what he had to say.

"Just grant each ring the skill I marked, a hundred times. Simple, right?"

"A-a hundred times...?"

"Yeah. I'll call the two hundred thousand coins square with that."

She stared blankly at Phantom, then looked from the rings to the notebook and back, her face troubled.

"The others are one thing, but using the Art of Amplification a hundred times is going to take quite a while..."

"It's fine. I can wait."

He had time to spare anyway. He could just hunt a few more champions in the meantime.

"Don't want to do it, hand over the coins."

"...Ugh. I'll do it. I'll do it, all right!"

On the verge of tears, Kotori took the notebook and the Enchant Rings. A duplicate couldn't manage the work, she said, so she would carry them to Tokyo, where her real body was.

The request handed off, he was just about to throw himself back into the champion hunt when a familiar whisper knocked against the inside of his mind.

Mage.

It was Jihye's voice.