Chapter 33

Out of the gate, I headed straight home.

To reach 100 in my stats, I couldn't afford to level up any further.

I'd better go right away.

The place where an elixir that grants a full 100 stat points could be found.

The mountain behind our house.

"It should be around here…."

Three hours passed as I cleared away fallen leaves and searched for the elixir.

I hadn't seen so much as a hair of it.

It should be around here, though….

The elixir in this area was the famed elixir-grade wild ginseng that people had prized and hunted for generations.

Not just any wild ginseng, either — one that had soaked up the earth's energy to the very root.

Did it have a bonus effect of reducing mana consumption for earth-attribute magic?

Not that it mattered to someone like me who didn't use magic.

I searched for another two hours after that.

It's already ten o'clock.

I'd cleared two gates and spent five hours hunting for an elixir.

Naturally, I'd missed dinner.

Shouldn't it have shown up by now…?

And then, as I was still sweeping leaves aside, I spotted a bluish-green sprout among them.

Carefully, I dug away the soil around it.

Come on, this time….

Over the past five hours I'd come across living plants more times than I could count.

All of them had been weeds.

If this one turns out to be a weed too, so help me.

Gritting my teeth inwardly, I gingerly brushed the earth away.

"Jackpot!"

And there, the fruit of my labor — I'd finally found the elixir.

Before my regression, no one had even realized this thing was an elixir. Mom and Dad had chopped it up and thrown it into a pot of samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup, and eaten it like any ordinary root.

I still remembered myself, back then, listening to their story and lamenting it to the heavens.

My hundred points.

The exact effects of an elixir remained unknown until you actually ate it.

An awakened person who consumed one got a detailed breakdown of the numbers; a non-awakened person could only guess at its effects after the fact.

At the very least, it was said to raise you by 100 points.

The appraisal of the one my parents had eaten had confirmed it granted a minimum of 100 stat points.

"Well then, here goes. Thanks for the meal."

I shook off nothing but the dirt and popped the ginseng straight into my mouth.

Chomp, chomp.

No bitterness at all….

If anything, a sweet taste washed over my tongue.

Chewing, savoring, taking my time with every bit of it, I finally swallowed the last piece.

"There we go."

With that, I'd reached 500 stat points.

But just as I was settling into satisfaction, another message appeared.

The Ring of the Earth had reacted to the elixir and siphoned off the useless effect straight into my mana.

What the—?

I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thought the fellow had gone quiet after his excited chattering as a stone settled down into being a ring — and here he was, quietly pulling off something incredible.

"Thank you."

I stroked the remarkably clever Ring of the Earth with my hand.

Reading the message, I snorted with laughter inside.

Then a new system message arrived.

Reading it, I grinned.

The ability I was about to gain was one of those I would need going forward.

The trait Balancing.

Exactly as its name suggested, it kept my stats in even proportion.

"Status window."

The effect of Balancing was to hold every stat at an equal ratio.

With this, there would never again be a situation where my footwork failed for lack of mana or a shortfall in physical ability.

If there's a downside, I suppose it's that all my other stats are now shackled to my mana.

Mana couldn't be raised with ordinary stat points.

Magic power was a different stat, but mana was not.

The only ways to grow mana were breathing in mana-rich places or absorbing it through elixirs.

In other words, I can't spend stat points anymore.

Since footwork weighed body and mana equally, it was an important trait — but honestly, it stung a little.

To think I can't spend my stat points….

I was now in the position of having to hoard points that gave out a hefty twenty per level.

Granted, I'd chosen this knowing full well ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what it meant — but a loss was still a loss.

Well, I needed to save up for the shop later anyway….

But that was a problem for another day.

If I started hoarding now, the pile would grow without end.

I wonder what I'll be able to buy….

I forced my thoughts down another track, but the fact that I couldn't spend my stat points remained exactly the same.

Then another message appeared.

Along with the notification that the elixir's absorption was complete and my mana had risen, my other stats had climbed as well.

Feels good.

But as I was admiring my status window in high spirits, something odd caught my eye.

Divinity isn't affected by Balancing?

Granted, it was a stat I'd gained from the Supernova buff — but a stat was a stat.

For Balancing, which applied to all stats, not to work on it was strange.

Even my divine power got caught in it, though.

Divine power was the measure of one's faith in the gods.

Even that hadn't escaped Balancing's reach.

So what on earth is this Divinity?

A stat gained from the Supernova buff.

Its nature was unknown. Its effects were unknown.

Even how to raise it was unknown.

"Did I… pick wrong?"

My Divinity stat, once a flat 1, had inexplicably increased by 4 on the second floor of the Tower of Trials.

Since then, nothing. Total silence.

"What is this stat even for…."

Right as I was mulling that over, my phone rang out loudly.

The caller ID read: Mom.

"Hello…?"

I'm dead.

I hurried down the mountain and sprinted all the way home.

The Geumgang Guild — one of Korea's top three.

A report had just landed on the guildmaster's desk.

"This is true?"

"Yes, sir. Without a doubt."

At his secretary's words, Han Min-joon, guildmaster of the Geumgang Guild, burst into a great booming laugh.

"Robberia's Forest. The Prison School. The Crimson Wetlands. The Aeron Plains. The Orc Village."

Every gate on the list Han Min-joon recited was C- to B-rank.

Gates that an S-rank like him had no business caring about — that was the point being made.

"And you're telling me every single one of these gates was cleared by one man?"

"Yes. He's also confirmed to have cleared a number of minor C- and B-rank gates besides."

Dozens of C- and B-rank gates.

And he'd cleared them all alone.

Every last one, within a single week. By himself.

"And the man who pulled off this colossal feat is C-rank… barely scraping past the cutoff, at that."

"That is correct, sir."

Hearing this, Han Min-joon weighed two possibilities in his mind.

One or the other. A measurement error, or a fraudulent registration.

Fraudulent registration was the trick murderers among the awakened used most often — suppressing their mana to receive a rank far below their true strength, then working their killings in the low-rank gates where weaker hunters gathered.

"Make contact with him for now."

"Understood, sir."

After giving the order to his secretary, Han Min-joon gazed out at the night city spread below the window.

He didn't know yet whether this was a new murderer or not, but there was no loss in finding out.

My gut's telling me. That young man is no murderer.

Han Min-joon trusted his instincts.

And inwardly, he hoped — truly hoped — that the man was no murderer at all.

Having confirmed I'd risen three levels, I stepped out of the gate.

The moment I emerged, a man approached as though he'd been waiting for me.

"Would you happen to be Han Jin, sir?"

"That's me. And who might you be?"

He knew my name. He knew my face.

Worse, he even knew which gates I'd entered.

A scout.

In his neatly suited hand, he carried a paper that looked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠very much like a contract.

Anyone could see he was a scout.

Faster than I expected….

I'd known contact would come eventually — I just hadn't guessed "eventually" would arrive this soon.

So which guild was it?

"I'm Jung Jin-ho, team leader of Scout Team 1, out of the Geumgang Guild."

The business card he held out bore the name of one of Korea's three great guilds — a name every citizen of this country had heard at least once.

The Geumgang Guild, huh.

Geumgang, Haeshin, and Red Hunting — those three were the top guilds of South Korea.

Among them, the Geumgang Guild was famous for its exceptional employee benefits.

And a guild like that is reaching out to me….

Which meant one of Korea's first-generation awakened — Han Min-joon himself — had taken an interest in me.

That's an honor, sure….

But I had no intention of placing myself under anyone's command again.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to decline."

"Well, of course you'd— wait, what?!"

At my refusal, the scout let out a cry of genuine astonishment and stared at me.

The look on his face ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said he'd fully expected me to accept.

"Well then, have a good one."

"W-wait, just a moment!"

The scout lunged to grab me, but my feet were faster.

And so I cleanly dodged my first scouting attempt.

Or so I thought.

"He refused?"

"Yes, sir."

At his Scout Team 1 leader's report, Han Min-joon smiled.

That smile carried something quietly chilling, but the team leader didn't dare put the feeling into words.

He'll know what my team leader's position means.

Even after a man of that standing had come in person, he'd turned down membership.

As if he'd never been interested from the very start.

Is he telling me to come out there myself, then?

Han Min-joon let out a hollow laugh.

A first-generation awakened. Guildmaster of the Geumgang Guild, one of the great three.

He's absolutely no murderer.

A murderer would conceal his true profile from the start and avoid scouts on principle.

If one ever did corner him, he'd gladly join a guild — the chances to kill many at once, alone, were simply too rare to pass up.

The moment that young man had put his information out in the open and let it be verified, he'd proven himself no murderer.

"I'll go see him myself."

"…I'm sorry?"

The team leader doubted his own ears.

One of the first generation's heroes — moving personally?

Impossible.

But there was no room to object either.

Because the guildmaster was a man who, once he said he would, did.

"Have you given any thought to joining Geumgang?"

A scouting offer, round two.

Ordinarily I'd have refused on the spot — but this time I couldn't.

Sitting across from me was Han Min-joon, one of the first generation's heroes.

How on earth did it come to this?