Ninety-Nine
“What do you mean, affilia—”
An affiliation meant a lesser demon that had taken on the attributes of one of the Seven Great Demons as its patron.
When an ordinary demon was chosen by one of the Seven, its affiliation was fixed.
Wasn't Pride down to just four, in the end?
Pride had accepted only four demons as its own. The others kept several affiliations under their command, so I had never bothered to keep count.
“If you were bold enough to pick a fight with Geumgang, you must have an affiliation, right?”
This stunt was far too dangerous for a rank-and-file demon without one to pull off.
“Talk. Which affiliation?”
“Eeek!”
I said it while locking eyes with the man.
The demon who met my gaze shook like a leaf.
“I-I don't have an affili—”
Slap!
“No lying. Which. Affiliation?”
He tried to deny it to the very end, but my hand showed no mercy.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
Wow, that's a really satisfying smack.
Call it good hand-feel, or just the way it sounded — either way, I liked it. I was still happily swinging away when the man finally cracked.
“I-I'll talk!”
“Oh?”
At his words, I clicked my tongue, not even pretending I wasn't disappointed.
You could have held out a little longer….
Disappointment aside, information was information.
A demon with influence over Korea.
He's got to be at least an officer-level one.
To be issuing orders of this scale, he'd need to be a direct subordinate of one of the Seven Great Demons.
“So? Whose affiliation?”
“…….”
When the man clammed up, I slowly raised my hand, and the answers started pouring out.
“L-Lord Ramen's.”
“Tch.”
Denied the satisfying sensation one last time, I was a little let down — but the harvest was undeniable.
So Ramen's the one who moved.
The name sounded delicious, but his competence was the real deal. Love him or hate him, Ramen was Envy's proxy.
Ramen giving direct orders means Envy herself is on the move, doesn't it?
Dangerous. If Envy had truly stirred, the me of right now had no way to handle her.
No matter how much my stats climbed as a Great Adversary, no matter that I carried the Ma attribute, I could never reach someone who had crossed the Wall.
Go Myeong-sik only managed it because he cheated his way over with a loophole.
Every awakener at level 100 or above held absolute superiority over anyone level 99 or below.
Envy still shouldn't have broken past 200.
Which meant that if I could just barely scrape past level 100, I'd be worth pitting against her.
The problem was that Envy's whereabouts were a mystery.
If she's issuing orders through Ramen, she's hiding somewhere….
From where I stood now, I had no way to find her. No information. No position. No standing.
“Maybe I should ask Geumgang.”
Given that this had all happened at the Geumgang gate, they wouldn't sit on their hands. And even if they would, Han Min-joon had more than enough reason to want demons dead.
“Thanks for the information.”
With that, I drew my blade across the demon's neck in one clean stroke.
Shhk!
It came off neat and complete.
Nothing more needed saying.
“Now, I suppose I should play with the beast…?”
I turned toward the burning stare that had been locked on me for a while now.
“Grrrr!”
It was staring straight at me, right through my illusion.
Is it because it's a dog?
Dog-like animals with their razor-sharp senses sometimes saw straight through illusions. Death Hounds were probably the same.
“Let's play, beast.”
I pulled both daggers from my belt and gripped them tight.
Then I stepped into my footwork, straight toward the Death Hound.
Shadow Footwork.
Shadow Pressure(Yeopap).
A footwork technique that pinned an enemy's shadow in place.
Not that it was perfect.
The Ma attribute, the shadows — none of it's complete yet, is it.
In truth, both the Ma attribute that had struck the demon and the shadows of my Shadow Footwork only functioned thanks to special mana effects.
“When am I going to learn attribute conversion, I wonder.”
Only with that special effect would the attributes become whole. Pabaek Footwork was one of the techniques I'd improvised in imitation before I had attribute conversion, and once I finally learned it, I'd had no more use for it.
“Arf! Arf!”
The Death Hound swung a forepaw at me. I shifted just enough to dodge.
BOOM!
With a tremendous crash, the ground caved in.
That was a lazy swing — pure size doing the work.
And I'm suppressing it with Shadow Pressure on top of that.
Monsters really were strong, as expected. Weak compared to demons, sure.
That demon earlier, though — absolute trash.
He'd given up too fast, panicked too fast, without even taking a proper Ma-attribute hit.
BOOM!
Do demons even get hit, normally?
BOOM!
“Ugh, shut up already.”
Shadow Footwork.
Shadow Needle(Yeongchim).
Spikes of shadow rose from the floor and impaled the Death Hound.
At last, things quieted down.
You have defeated the monster Death Hound.
Settling experience points.
Faced with a cascade of level-up messages, I broke into a happy smile.
“Let's see, what level am I at….”
Han Jin — Lv. 77
“Whoa.”
Monster experience alone had shot me up about thirty levels in one go.
Maybe I should just go hunt down monsters everywhere.
It occurred to me that might actually be the faster way to level.
Then another message appeared.
Clear conditions fulfilled.
Forest of Palla is now closing.
Settling experience points.
As the gate closed and the experience poured in, three more levels followed. Only nineteen levels stood between me and the first Wall.
One more run, then.
“Monsters?”
“Yes.”
At the word monster, Han Min-joon reacted sharply.
Beings more feared than ordinary monsters. That was what monsters like the Death Hound were.
“The monster you reported, Awakener Han Jin, is a Death Hound. And you say there was a demon present as well.”
“A demon too?!”
Demons were internationally wanted. Terrorists who had carried out attacks across multiple countries — that was the public-facing information ordinary citizens knew.
“The affiliation was Envy, and it appears the operation was carried out on Ramen's orders.”
“…….”
Han Min-joon sank into thought.
Information that wasn't public. Everything about the Seven Great Demons, and the affiliations tied to them.
He knew from the very beginning.
Both the Seven Great Demons, and the affiliations.
“Secretary Choi, what's your read on him?”
“I'm beginning to understand why you insisted on sponsoring him, Guildmaster.”
Secretary Choi, too, seemed to have come away from this incident with something to chew on.
“For now, begin the search for Envy as he requested.”
“But, Chairman—”
“And quietly notify the Association as well.”
“…Yes, sir.”
With that, Secretary Choi left the room.
“Envy, huh….”
If a true member of the Seven Great Demons was personally on the move, a dozen dangers came with her.
What will you do, I wonder.
Han Min-joon thought of a man who was, at that very moment, hunting somewhere out there.
“I am sorry.”
“Say that again.”
A dark chamber, lit by a single torch.
Two men stood within it.
“I said, say it again!”
As he spoke, one of them slammed his fist against the wall beside him.
“The Death Hound was defeated.”
“And by whom, exactly?”
The man delivering his report before that overwhelming demonic pressure had to force himself to swallow.
“Our investigation suggests a newly spawned C-rank awakener sponsored by Geumgang.”
“Ramen.”
“Yes, Lord Envy.”
At the sound of his name, Ramen broke into a cold sweat and slammed his forehead to the floor.
“Do you still not understand why I put my faith in you?”
“I do, Lady Envy.”
“Then why did the plan fail?”
Under Envy's interrogation, Ramen kept his head bowed and answered.
“I apologize!”
“If you know how to apologize, then bring me results. Understood?”
“Yes!”
Those were his final words before Ramen fled the chamber.
“A sponsor, hm….”
“A C-rank, getting sponsored?”
Envy seethed with envy.
She, who had once been F-rank, had never even received a sponsorship — and now some C-rank nobody, a nobody like her, was getting one.
“I'll kill him…!”
Shhk! Thud! BOOM!
I moved on footwork, and my daggers danced a dazzling waltz. Every step slew a monster; every flick of a blade opened another throat.
“Kieeeek!”
The final boss monster fell, and the closing message appeared.
Rize's Dream has closed.
Settling experience points.
“And that makes 99, doesn't it.”
A week had passed since I handed the information about the demon over to Geumgang and ran gate after gate without pause — and that grind had brought me to level 99.
What was that, about half a year?
Considering how long it took most awakeners to reach level 99, that was blisteringly fast.
“Status window.”
Traits: Footwork, Body Reconstruction (Hwangeoltaltae), Lower Dantian, Negotiation, Balancing
Achievements: One Who Defied Time, Originator of Footwork, Gate Entrant, Skill Creator, Labyrinth Conqueror, Closing All By Myself, The First Supernova, The Black Challenger, War of Defense, One Who Overcame, The First Lower Dantian, Divine Beast Hunter, The One Who Slashed the Moon
Stat Points:2,130
Strength: 147.9 | Agility: 147.9 | Endurance: 147.9 | Mana: 147.9 | Divinity: 5
Skills: Fighting Spirit — Passive (A), Great Void Heart Method (Taeheo Simbeop) (B), Area Detection (C), Battle of Warriors (C), Stealth (A)
Unique Skill:Great Adversary
My stats had stopped climbing ever since they passed 140, and my skills hadn't changed either.
At this rate, 100 should come easy….
And even though it didn't show on the window, I had Invincibility as well, so I'd be fine.
You have reached level 99.
A dedicated gate for your promotion is now active.
A gate has opened in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
Hwaseong, huh….
It was already late, so I decided to move tomorrow and headed home.
The next day, I rose early and headed straight for Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
I didn't know the gate's exact location, and I had no way of knowing how long clearing it would take.
Han Min-joon took about a week, didn't he?
His was the longest promotion quest on record — long enough to make it into Fxcebook's history books.
I wonder what kind of trial mine will be….
Before my regression, the test had been nothing but mindless grinding.
I hoped this time it would be a little different.