Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Climbing the Ranks
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“The sun will set soon.”
Min Ha-na said, looking at the darkening sky.
Aisi wasn't the only one training in the Decartes Mountains.
Ever since Aisi had settled in, the members of Mad Castle had also been training fiercely. They had been hunting in a Stage 5 area with Gong Yeong-ji, and now they could handle S-rank monsters with ease.
“I think we just need a little more time.”
Uncharacteristically, Sa Seon-gi showed a hint of reluctance to stop.
Since Sa Seon-gi usually went along with any opinion, Min Ha-na readily agreed.
“Alright. Then just a little longer…”
Before she could finish, the members’ rings glowed and a voice came through.
—Where is everyone?
It was a ring enchanted with communication magic, an item Oh Min-jae had spent a fortune to create.
However, it had the drawback of only working within the same dimension and having a limited range, meaning it could only be used in the Decartes Mountains.
“The Stage 5 swamp.”
—I’m at the spider’s nest.
The first to respond to Wang-sik’s words was Sa Seon-gi.
“I’m on my way now.”
Hearing this, Min Ha-na flared up.
“Hey! Sa Seon-gi! You said you wanted to go a little longer!”
“Wang-sik called.”
“Is Wang-sik all you know? Would you even save me if I was in danger?”
A very brief silence followed.
“Of course, I would.”
“Whoa! I was nervous for a second there.”
Min Ha-na clutched her aching heart, bent over, and let out a long breath.
“Take it easy. He said he'd save you.”
“Yeong-ji, is there a cure for a wounded pride?”
“You’re my idol. Just look at me and let that be your cure.”
They stopped hunting and returned to the nest.
* * *
“From now on, Aisi will focus on controlling her instincts.”
After summarizing the plan, Wang-sik told everyone what he had learned about Barak. This was why he had called his friends together.
“Those Barak guys won't be able to operate openly either. They took a hit on Earth, so they'll probably lay low for a while.”
“There must be remnants left on Earth.”
“We’re ready to deploy at any time. The problem is that they’re not easy to find. It’s a sensitive issue, and they’re spread all over the world.”
It was announced that their headquarters had been seized and key figures dealt with, but there was no way of knowing if they were the true leaders.
“But we’ve definitely bought ourselves some time. We need to prepare in the meantime.”
His friends seemed to agree with this assessment.
“Still, we’re doing a good job of holding them off, right? We’ve overcome the biggest crisis.”
Gong Yeong-ji always brightened the mood with her positive words.
Indeed, they had successfully defended against the gates that the Azelan Continent had poured its efforts into.
Starting with the S-rank gate in Russia, they had also overcome the crisis in New Zealand.
Without them, Earth would have already faced a major catastrophe.
“Even so, all we’ve done is succeed in defending. It’s meaningless if we don’t grow stronger in the meantime.”
Wang-sik reined in the atmosphere, which could have easily become complacent. Then, Yeong-ji looked at Sa Seon-gi and spoke.
“I think Seon-gi is close to his Rank Up.”
Sa Seon-gi nodded as well.
He had heard about the phenomena that occur just before a Rank Up from Min Ha-na and was experiencing the same thing.
“Alright. How about a night hunt for a change?”
“Are you joining us?”
“Yeah. Just trust me and follow along.”
With Wang-sik taking the lead, the other three felt reassured. No matter what monster appeared, Wang-sik would protect them.
Having Wang-sik there versus not.
It made a difference in their very mindset.
A little past midnight.
As they defeated Death Eve, an S-rank undead monster known as a Giant Zombie, Sa Seon-gi’s body was enveloped in light.
“Congratulations.”
“The birth of a B-rank assassin!”
“You worked hard.”
Having achieved their goal, they returned to the armored spider’s nest, and Sa Seon-gi checked his changes.
B-rank Dark Shadow
Passive
Haste—Agility Increase
Throwing Weapon Mastery—Proficiency with throwing weapons
Active
Stealth—Silent Movement
Sound Nullification—Blocks sound in a certain area
Shadow Walking
As he was still B-rank, his skills weren't as flashy as the other members'.
However, the newly acquired Shadow Walking, which allowed him to disperse into shadows and move instantaneously, seemed useful.
One of the reasons C-rank and B-rank Awakeners were treated so differently was this disparity in skills.
But Sa Seon-gi's abilities didn't end there.
After checking his skills, Sa Seon-gi examined the power that was his true foundation for the first time in a while.
Secrets of the Dark Moon, 6th Class (Evolution Stage 6)
Passive
Shadow of the Dark Moon, Stage 6—Agility Increase
Silence of the Red Moon, Stage 6—Presence Concealment
Active
Illusion of the Full Moon, Stage 6—Visual Disruption
Afterimage of the New Moon, Stage 6—Swift Movement
Eye of the Waxing Moon—Structural Analysis, Vision Amplification
Ear of the Waning Moon—Sound Amplification
This was why he was known as the Dark Moon's greatest assassin.
Having mastered both Earth's Awakener system and the Secrets of the Dark Moon, the synergy surpassed that of the Dark Moon's top assassin.
Wang-sik was also seeing a similar synergy, but its effects were distinctly different.
The Mark of the Guardian had many conflicts with active skills, but its growth potential was much higher. This was because it was the very power that had driven the Azelan Continent to the brink of crisis.
In contrast, the Secrets of the Dark Moon synergized with both the passive and active skills of an Awakener.
This meant a two-stage boost was possible.
This was because the Secrets of the Dark Moon were not techniques that manifested the power of another being, but rather skills developed through training one's own body. Thus, the evolution of the Dark Moon's Secrets was not a stepwise progression with sudden spikes in ability, but a gradual ascent up a gentle slope.
“It’s still not enough.”
Having reviewed all his abilities, Sa Seon-gi was not satisfied. His words awakened the ambitions of his friends.
“I want to become S-rank too!”
“I want to see what lies beyond S-rank, too.”
Wang-sik watched his friends’ determined expressions with satisfaction.
* * *
Han Young-im opened the door to the chairman's office at the scheduled time, just like any other day.
Though she had been advised to work remotely for her safety, she defiantly kept her regular office hours.
Yura had also returned to her daily routine, going back to school.
While it was expected that no one would dare touch them again after Mad Castle's powerful retaliation, increasing her security was unavoidable.
Unassured by Korean Awakeners, she hired two skilled A-rank Awakeners from a Russian agency with which she had good relations. One of them was a tanker formerly from an intelligence agency, who could buy Han Young-im enough time to escape in any situation.
Yura was also being secretly protected by two people with the same composition.
However, their residence had been moved to the base. They were now living there. Today, after waking up at the base and coming to work, Secretary Kim knocked on her office door as if he had been waiting.
Seeing the expression on his face as he entered, Han Young-im knew something good had happened.
As expected, Secretary Kim handed her a document, unable to hide his smile.
“These are the gate transaction statistics for last week.”
Han Young-im understood why Secretary Kim was smiling.
“We’ve finally climbed to second place.”
“Our market share is at 23 percent. It’s been rising by 2 percent every week.”
The phrase ‘a blessing in disguise’ came to mind.
A 2 percent increase every week was a miraculous figure from a management perspective.
After the attack on her mansion, the Guseong Group gained a positive image, and they signed new contracts with nations wanting to maintain good relations with Mad Castle.
Their market share began to soar from that point on, and today, they had finally caught up to second place with 23 percent.
“At this rate, we can push all the way to first place.”
“Of course, we must. Release the exclusive supply.”
“The operations team will be thrilled.”
“It seems you were under some pressure.”
“To be honest, yes. The clamor about how we could climb faster if we just increased the shipment volume was…”
Until now, they had been controlling the volume of their exclusively supplied gate trade goods. They had intentionally supplied just enough to create a slight shortage.
Thanks to this, they were able to maintain market prices while steadily increasing their customer base.
“You’ve done well to hold out. The time is right, so let’s begin. And what’s the development status at the Gate Research Institute?”
“It seems they still need more time. They’re developing a system to be applied to communication towers, but they say improvements are needed in maintenance costs and accuracy.”
“Support them without reservation. And make sure to tell them that the gate occurrence detector is not for profit, but for humanity.”
Following the gate measuring device, they were now developing a detector that could cover the entire country.
Given South Korea's infrastructure, the plan was to utilize the communication towers spread across the nation, but it was still in the development stage and had not been announced publicly.
“How is the image-building campaign going?”
“It’s growing explosively. We’ve signed agreements to donate this quarter’s profits to twenty charities. The news will break soon.”
“Excellent.”
The reports continued, making for a refreshing start to the morning. But as always, it wasn't all good news.
“There’s a rumor that the Blacksmith Guild is signing an exclusive contract with the Invest Exchange.”
The Invest Exchange was the world’s number one gate exchange.
Having once surpassed a 50 percent market share, they were currently maintaining a level of 48 percent.
The prevailing assessment was that the warring states period of the exchanges was already over.
This was because the Guseong Group's growth, by absorbing the customers of lower-tier exchanges, had established a three-way power structure. With these three exchanges accounting for 97 percent of the volume, it became difficult for other exchanges to survive.
As a result, discussions about merging the lower-tier exchanges were actively underway.
“It appears the Invest Exchange will accelerate its high-end strategy. Their trade volume of completed A-rank or higher items is still unrivaled.”
“If they sign an exclusive contract with a crafting guild on top of that, it will be difficult to catch up.”
The Blacksmith Guild was regarded as the best of the crafting guilds.
“There are also rumors that Invest plans to absorb not just the Blacksmith Guild but crafting guilds on a massive scale, so we need to prepare countermeasures.”
Han Young-im fell into thought for a moment.
*‘The high-end item trade is crucial.’*
The Guseong Exchange's biggest weakness was precisely the trade of completed high-end items.
As they had mainly sold consumables and special materials, the trade of finished products was actually on a downward trend.
“We’ll need to secure the high-end item market to reach first place.”
The Invest Exchange knew this as well, which was why they were preparing in advance.
“I understand for now. Let’s not rush this. Unfortunately, it’s already too late. Investing now won’t be enough to stop them.”
“Are you giving up on the high-end market?”
“Of course not. We still have a trump card left to play.”
Secretary Kim was unaware of Aisi's identity.
“For now, let’s do what we can in the current situation. After all, crafting finished items requires high-end materials. Instead of competing half-heartedly, focus more on securing materials. It’s especially important to secure as many high-end materials as possible.”
Han Young-im did not rush; she waited for the right time.
After the secretary left and she was alone, a message arrived on her smartphone.
*‘Hm?’*
The message was from the Mad Castle headquarters.
Following the instructions in the message, she checked her secure email and found a report over a hundred pages long.
“It’s finally here.”
It was the report sent from the United States.
It was an analysis of the data obtained from the raid on Devist Nolan's laboratory, which they had promised to share fully with Mad Castle.
She set aside her other tasks and focused on the report.
However, after carefully reading through the detailed report, she frowned.
“Do they think we wouldn't know?”
The report mentioned most of what she had expected. But one thing was missing: information about Mana Stone weapons, including the Mana Gun.
“That’s not a wise choice…”
Han Young-im shook her head with a frustrated expression.
“They still don’t know how nasty our team’s temper is… Oh my.”
Having unconsciously spoken her true thoughts, Han Young-im quickly shut her mouth and looked around. Fortunately, there was no one nearby.