Ghost Without Shadow
On the way to the Training Center, I messaged Shin Byung-cheol. He'd lent a hand with the Black Snake Gang raid, so it was only right that the opportunity circle back to him as well.
And sure enough, Shin Byung-cheol came sprinting at a dead run.
"Aigoo, thank you for calling on me, boss!"
"I did promise, didn't I."
"Kheh, that's right. A man's gotta live keeping his promises."
I shot Jang Mu-geuk a questioning glance as well, and he answered with a slight lift of his chin. Apparently he'd already called Wang Chunsam out.
At the Training Center, we claimed one of the larger training rooms. Then, with everyone looking on, I began setting things up piece by piece.
When I operated the room's terminal, a square platform rose into being — very similar to the one-person training ground I'd seen in the bamboo grove. Next, I drew the evil spirit and dokkaebi statues out of my inventory one by one and arranged them around it. To recreate the Phantom Demon's formation, every single position had to match exactly, without even a hair's breadth of error.
That said, this particular job demanded no special formation skills or knowledge.
Just memorize the whole thing.
There weren't even that many statues — barely ten or so — so committing them all to memory was the simple answer. A dokkaebi at the eastern corner, an evil spirit facing it at the western corner, another evil spirit in the nook beside it... I placed each one with care, down to its position and the direction it faced.
- Ssssshhh...
A mist slowly settled over the square platform, and the dokkaebi and evil spirit statues gradually began to grow.
Dang Gyu-young reached out and prodded one of the statues, looking intrigued.
"Feels like some kind of balloon. I can tell it's an illusion formation, but still."
The fact that we could see the illusions meant the formation was manifesting properly — which also meant I was doing it right.
So I kept placing statues, and by the time I finished, every one of them had grown larger than a person. When I turned away from the platform, Dang Gyu-young asked,
"Done?"
"Yep. Want to go first?"
"Why not."
Dang Gyu-young stepped onto the platform and took her place at its exact center. In an instant the fog thickened and swallowed her whole, leaving only a silhouette.
"……"
"……"
Everyone stared hard into the mist, apparently curious how the Trial of the Illusion Demon actually unfolded. But Dang Gyu-young's silhouette simply stood there, motionless — because the trial took place not on the platform, but inside the illusion itself.
Before long, the fog cleared rapidly, and Dang Gyu-young reappeared.
"Hah—!"
She flinched, startled, and shook herself back to her senses. Judging by her sour complexion, she'd failed — probably pounded on by the statues until it ended.
When she stepped down, I asked, "Want to rest a bit first?"
"Nope. I've got the feel for it now. This is when you push through."
"That is the smarter call."
I nodded readily, and Dang Gyu-young took her place on the square platform once more.
Her second attempt took considerably longer. When the fog finally cleared, she let out a long sigh — but a smile was slowly creeping across her lips. She even glanced sideways, as if a notification had popped up.
"Got it."
"That was quick."
"Two tries is plenty."
Dang Gyu-young grinned, flush with triumph. As a rogue-type class she'd have every confidence in her evasion, but I'd still expected her to burn three tries or so. Pulling it off in two — Dang Gyu-young's raw talent wasn't bad either.
Next up was Chae Da-bin. This time my prediction hit the mark: it took her three attempts to pass the Trial of the Illusion Demon. Her magic engineering was tremendous, but everything else was somewhat lacking.
Which is why, on a hex stat graph, she's a spike.
Could she hold her own against a first-year rising star? I was mulling that over when Dang Gyu-young came wandering over.
"So we're done, right? Anything else you need from us?"
"Nope. You're free to go."
Both of them had already learned Ghost Without Shadow, and since the trial unfolded inside the illusion formation, there was nothing to watch anyway. Heading off to do something else was the more productive choice.
"Enjoy the weekend~"
Dang Gyu-young waved a breezy goodbye and left the training room with Chae Da-bin.
Next, I alternated between Shin Byung-cheol and Go Hyeon-woo.
"Who wants to go first?"
"I'm in no hurry myself."
When Go Hyeon-woo yielded, Shin Byung-cheol's mouth corners curled upward.
"Hoh. So it's finally my turn."
Then he strode onto the platform with all the confidence in the world and declared:
"No need for two tries or three. I'll finish it in one."
"Look at that confidence."
Soon the fog swallowed Shin Byung-cheol, and the Ghost Without Shadow trial began.
But before long—
"Kghak."
Shin Byung-cheol staggered with a sound like air hissing out of a balloon. The dokkaebi statue had landed a solid blow to his gut. And yet he still hadn't lost his composure.
"I got careless. But this time will be different."
He threw himself straight into a retry. Of course, the second attempt's result wasn't much different. Neither was the third.
"Kghak."
"……"
I stayed silent. So did Go Hyeon-woo, Jang Mu-geuk, and Wang Chunsam — but a wordless understanding was forming among us. The thought running through our heads was probably much the same.
Don't get cocky.
Any one of us could end up looking exactly like that, so keeping our mouths shut was strictly in our own interest.
Shin Byung-cheol moved to take his fourth attempt.
"Ah, I've got the feel now. I'm just gonna snag Ghost Without Shadow this time."
"Hold it. Stop."
But I reeled him in.
"You've failed three tries, so everyone else goes once, then you can go again."
"Do we really have to cycle all the way around? Wouldn't it be cleaner to just let one person grind it out until they get it?"
"Clean, sure. But there's a limit on tries."
- Krrk—
The words were barely out of my mouth when something crumbled. I checked the platform — several of the statues were now cracked.
"……!"
Everyone's expressions stiffened a little. They'd just realized that too many failures could send the opportunity up in smoke. Shin Byung-cheol's bloated confidence shriveled in an instant.
"...Boss? I can still try again, right?"
"Dunno."
Didn't that depend on how many attempts the rest of us used up?
I took stock of Shin Byung-cheol's anxious eyes, then turned to Go Hyeon-woo. "Your turn, then."
Go Hyeon-woo mounted the platform with a light stride and took the Trial of the Illusion Demon — and he did not disappoint my expectations. When his second attempt ended and the fog cleared, a thoroughly satisfied smile hung on his lips.
"I have done it."
"Nice work."
As expected, he wasn't far behind in talent either.
Next, the two assassins.
"My turn now, is it."
Jang Mu-geuk didn't make any brash one-try declaration like Shin Byung-cheol, but right before stepping onto the platform, he sent Go Hyeon-woo a look brimming with competitive pride. Clearly he meant to match him — finished in two tries flat. And he had the skill and talent to make it possible.
When the fog had filled and cleared from the platform twice, Jang Mu-geuk wore the same smile Go Hyeon-woo had.
"So you finished in two as well, Brother Jang."
"One failure is plenty."
Jang Mu-geuk replied as if it were nothing.
Wang Chunsam stepped up to his attempt right after. He, too, seemed to be aiming for a two-try clear like the two martial artists — but unfortunately, his skills were comparatively lacking.
"……Mm."
The result: two consecutive failures. I stopped him briefly before his third attempt, and lowering my voice, reminded him of one small fact.
"Chunsam. Fail this time too, and you become that guy over there — same as Byungcheol."
"……!"
"You'll have to change your alias to Wang Byeongcheol, too."
"...I cannot allow that. I will succeed, no matter what it takes."
Wang Chunsam steeled himself with grim resolve and took the Trial of the Illusion Demon for the third time. Soon the fog cleared, and—
"……Hah."
Wang Chunsam let out a long breath of relief. Somehow, he seemed more relieved at not having become Wang Byeongcheol than at having learned Ghost Without Shadow.
The two assassins came up to me and each offered a word of thanks.
"My thanks. Thanks to you, I have obtained the rare opportunity I wandered so long in search of."
"You kept your promise, so we will keep ours."
With that, they handed over several finely crafted wooden cases.
What Jang Mu-geuk had earned by joining this raid as a mercenary was, strictly speaking, only 'priority trading rights.' The trade itself was a separate matter — and now that they'd obtained Ghost Without Shadow, they were paying the promised price.
I decided to inspect those at my leisure later. Storing the wooden cases in my inventory, I said,
"Good work, all of you. Off you go."
"We shall. My thanks."
Jang Mu-geuk and Wang Chunsam, on the verge of leaving, paused to stare at Shin Byung-cheol for a few seconds. He was, after all, the only one who still hadn't obtained Ghost Without Shadow. Then, as if some thought struck them, they turned away with perfect composure and—
- Sliip—
- Sliiip—
—unfolded Ghost Without Shadow in perfect sync as they slipped out of the training room.
Watching their retreating backs, Shin Byung-cheol pressed a hand to his forehead, deep fury rising.
"No, seriously, that's just— wow."
"Hold it in. If you fight them, you lose."
"That's not the point. Agh, damn it."
As if agreeing with me inwardly, Shin Byung-cheol reined in his anger at speed. To be precise, he redirected it.
"Fine. I'm annoyed enough that I will succeed."
He marched onto the platform and took the trial. ...It took him two more attempts, but in the end, Shin Byung-cheol obtained Ghost Without Shadow.
There had been plenty of twists along the way, but the fact remained that he'd acquired a high-performance skill, and he looked thoroughly pleased about it.
With Shin Byung-cheol sent off as well, only two of us remained in the training room.
"Thankfully, everyone succeeded. I confess I was worried the attempts might run dry before then."
"It was close. There's barely anything left now — two or three tries at most?"
Unlike when I'd first laid out the formation, the statues were now weathered as if ages had passed. Cracks ran everywhere, and pieces had even broken off in places. They hadn't shattered, and the formation still did its job, so they retained some use yet.
Since this was a high-grade formation, I could hand it over to Jegal So-so as research material afterward,
but I'll wring every last use out of it before handing it over.
In fact, I'd already sent the messages a while ago.
Before long I sensed someone's presence, and turning my head, I found Seo Ye-in standing in front of the training room door. Bedheaded, much like her sticker. As always, she looked like she'd been roused from a very long sleep.
"……?"
She stared at me blankly. Her eyes seemed to carry the unspoken question, 'Show me what?'
I stepped forward and readied my stance.
"Watch closely."
"?"
"Sliip."
And the moment I activated Ghost Without Shadow, my body slid forward as if gliding.
"……!"
Her gray eyes lit up and sparkled. It was the look she got whenever she found something she wanted.
[247] The Support Ate it All