An Awl in a Sack

"Hey. You're back? Took you long enough."

The moment I logged out, Suhyeok rose from the sofa as if he'd been waiting the whole time. He'd already cleaned up and bathed; he'd even changed into pajamas.

"If it dragged on this long... you ran a dungeon, didn't you?"

"Correct."

"A dungeon. Perfect. They eat the clock, but they pay you back in experience."

Clearing one took time, but the longer you were in there, the more chances you had to distinguish yourself—and the rewards tended to match.

"So which one did you get? At your level..."

Suhyeok stroked his chin, turning it over. I let the corner of my mouth lift.

"Underground Prison, 131st Floor."

"...Huh?"

He blinked. Everything about him said he didn't believe a word of it.

"That's the dungeon that doesn't even open until you're at least Level 20, isn't it?"

"It is."

"And it matched you in there at Level 6?"

His brows bent into an inverted V. Roughly translated: You expect me to believe that?

"Seeing it once beats hearing it a hundred times."

I set down, right in front of him, the armful of gear my teammates had pressed into my hands.

Items you could obtain only by killing the Minotaur in the Underground Prison. The moment Suhyeok checked their condition and their names, his face went slack.

"Holy—?! What is all this?!"

"Well? Told you I wasn't lying."

"Y-you actually went ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the Underground Prison?! And if you came back with the gear, that means...!"

"Yeah. We cleared it."

"Are you out of your mind?!"

I understood the reaction. A Level 6 stepping into the Underground Prison was already something to gawk at. Walking back out with boss equipment on top of that?

It was like a three-year-old knocking over the biggest bank on earth. With a baby bottle instead of a gun.

"No... fine. I'll grant you that, a hundred times over. But why so much loot? Even on a clear, it's one piece of gear per person."

"Oh, that. The others gave it to me."

"Gave it to you?"

"Yep!"

"......"

His brows started to bend again, so I piled the explanation on before they could finish the job. I told him everything that had happened inside the dungeon, down to the last grain.

"Whaaat?"

Unfortunately, far from stopping the bend, I'd twisted them into an even stranger angle.

"Jaeha... even so, that's too..."

"Oh, right. One of the party members was a streamer. You can just watch the broadcast."

"A streamer? Name?"

"Taeya, I think?"

"...Taeya?"

"You know him?"

He looked like he did, so I asked.

"A little. Skill and sense both looked decent, so he was one of the rookies our team had on the watch list. We backed off because he was right on the verge of signing with Eclipse... ah. That's confidential. Got it?"

I mimed zipping my mouth shut.

"Anyway, his broadcast has real weight. If a mess like that went down, there's no way I wouldn't have heard about it..."

Suhyeok picked up the tablet on the table and turned it on. He cleared the lock screen, and the moment he opened the video platform—

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Alerts chimed one after another as recommended videos flooded up.

"Wh... what?!"

Suhyeok stared at me, eyes round as coins. I didn't answer. I only shrugged.

With a trembling finger he tapped one of the videos and hit play.

—KAGAGAGANG!

The boss fight rolled across the screen. Players at Level 20 and above, Taeya among them, moving exactly to my calls. My face and name were mosaicked, sure—but the outfit, the way I swung that club, every tell was still right there. Anyone who knew me would have recognized me in a heartbeat.

The comments kept refreshing. People lured in by the phrase Underground Prison strategy discovered! took one look at me and lost their minds even harder.

"Uh... uhhh—?!"

Suhyeok's mouth hung so wide his jaw looked ready to unhinge.

He was staring blankly at the footage when his phone started buzzing.

"H... hello..."

"The broadcast...?"

"R-really?"

As he held the phone, his eyes drifted slowly toward me.

"No! I don't know! I don't know anyone like that!"

"Hahaha! If a rookie that incredible is out there, I'd want to know too!"

Click!

The line went dead, and Suhyeok dropped onto the sofa like a man whose soul had stepped out for air.

"Jaeha..."

"Yeah, hyung."

"Is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this a dream...?"

"Pretty sure it isn't."

Somehow he looked even less convinced of reality than I had on the day I came back.

Suhyeok's barrage of questions burned the entire night away.

In the end, we agreed to leave it as though he didn't know who I was.

No point dragging him into trouble for nothing.

That was separate from what I intended to do next. From here on, I wasn't going to bother hiding my strength or my skill. The pro league was a market, and in a market you marketed yourself. Pose as a pearl buried in mud and someone would nod and say, Hmm, this pearl's got too much dirt on it. We'll knock about fifty percent off. Better to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠take the pearl out, polish it until it gleamed, and set it in something pretty. That was how you charged more than it was worth.

The higher my standing climbs, the more I can squeeze out of the teams that come to scout me!

Even so, I had no plans—not yet—to march onto some broadcast and announce I'm that bastard! That time was better spent logging into Channel one more time and dragging my level up. Efficiency first.

"An awl in a sack, they say."

Keep stringing together plays people couldn't look away from, and attention would stick whether I wanted it or not. So for now, no wasting focus on some pointless celebrity act.

Do what had to be done now.

Whirrr—

I registered the key card, and the door opened onto a training room of decent size. I'd booked the Public Rental Training Facility closest to Suhyeok's place.

"All right, then—"

First I put on the Minotaur Set I'd brought out of the dungeon. Gauntlets, pauldron, cloak, and the cuirass over all of it—I actually looked put together. Enough that nobody was going to laugh at my gear anymore.

The Minotaur Set is absurdly good in the early game.

I wouldn't have to worry about equipment for a while. Except for one thing. The weapon.

"I need a weapon if I want the set effect..."

The Minotaur Set only activated once all five pieces were equipped, and a weapon was the one piece I didn't have. I'd hoped my own reward would be one.

"All that came out was this box."

Thinking it over again, it was strange. I'd never heard of anyone receiving a box as an Underground Prison reward.

Did discovering the first strategy stack with my achievements and punch through some absurd probability?

Only half believing it, I pulled up the box's information.

"Oh? Ohhh?"

Hold on. This was better than I'd thought. It was A-rank, yes, but it was a box, so I'd quietly assumed a random loot box and felt a private stab of disappointment.

It isn't random?

It was closer to a guaranteed ticket—something that would become, without fail, the item I wanted. What was there left to hesitate over?

"Open!"

I smacked my lips and opened it on the spot.

Fwoooosh!

A mysterious energy spilled out from within. A blue-violet swirl of light gathered, taking shape little by little.

The weapon I wanted, deep down. That had already been decided.

Flash!

I took hold of the grip once the weapon had fully formed.

A solid weight settled perfectly into my hand. The moment I equipped the hammer, a faint light bloomed across every piece I was already wearing.

"Now that's more like it!"

A sound of pure satisfaction escaped me the moment I checked the numbers. Stamina and Strength were both over 10 in raw stats alone, and between the title effect and the set effect I'd picked up a comfortable pile of bonuses on top. More than anything, ten stat points were a feast just to look at. This wasn't merely smooth growth. It was growth with wings.

All that remained—

My constitution. Evolving Strong Bone.

Right now, everyone believes a constitution, once set, can never change.

That was a false assumption. Later it would come out that even a constitution could evolve or shift, if you satisfied special conditions or landed in certain extraordinary situations. Mine was no different. At a glance, all it seemed to do was make the body a little sturdier and the strength a little greater.

The moment you expose this constitution to a special environment for a long time—

—it shows what it's really worth.

I let out a thin breath and stepped to the center of the training room.

The skill flared, and a domain of violet mana formed, crushing everything around me under a heavy weight.

I can't stop here.

I focused and worked the mana. Slowly, I drew the domain's range inward.

Wooooong! Wooooong!

The smaller the field became, the denser the gravity inside it grew.

"Ghk—! Nngh—!"

The domain kept contracting. Gravity fierce enough to cave in the floor beneath my feet slammed down on my whole body as if it meant to snap me in half.

Creak! Crack-crack-crack!

The training room floor began to split. Muscle screamed. Pain like every joint in my bones wrenching out of place stabbed into my brain—and in that instant—

The message I'd been waiting for appeared before my eyes.

At last.

The moment to leap farther.