103. Shadow Boxing
How could each day be this exhausting?
I had no idea who the enemy was and I was being suppressed into subjugation through my dreams.
At least if they appeared before me like the radical faction, I could destroy them into pieces.
I could never clearly hear what he was saying despite appearing in my dream every day.
At the most, I could only guess that he was someone from the demonic realm from what Zekill said combined with the dreams.
Since it turned out this way, I could not continue my relaxing daily routine, even if I did not know how strong my enemy was.
Currently I had 5 transcendence essences.
Some were from the unknown dungeon, while the rest were from Zekill.
It was another factor that added weight to the theory of Zekill coming from the demonic realm.
To think that he would drop a transcendence essence like the monsters.
The amount of essence mentioned was after having Meteor, Formless Sword Aura, and Mana Shield being transcended.
No matter what skill I transcend, the results would be more than satisfactory.
However, it would be better to transcend skills that are of the highest rank.
Meteor Call is an ranking skill.
Of course, the amount and damage of the skill increase noticeably, but imagine this type of increase on an S or S+ ranking attack skill?
The destructive power would be beyond what one could imagine.
On top of that, I obtained the 20% magic power stat bonus.
The stat that no one in the world has.
Imagine transcendence of a skill with this magic power bonus.
Demonic realm or demon king, I would be able to consume them all.
It"s not like I didn"t have money or have Awakened Essences that were un.o.btainable by money.
Any skill book could be obtained if I just want to.
The reason why I wasn"t doing so before was because there were many annoyances in the way, such as the radical faction.
It seemed that the time has come to change these peaceful days back into tension filled ones instead.
It could be just a repet.i.tive nightmare.
Not a prophetic dream, but the result of all the stress I"ve acc.u.mulated up till now.
However, my intuition didn"t agree.
It felt as though something from the demonic realm was visiting me to purposefully show this visage in my dreams.
Dark circles went down to my cheeks and my eyes were bloodshot.
Despite the weather becoming nicer so that I had to wear less clothing, fatigue on both my heart and body was ever encompa.s.sing.
I opened the door to my room so that I could wash myself and eat breakfast.
"Where are you going, young master."
"Woah. You surprised me."
It wasn"t easy getting used to the role of a young master, even if a whole month had pa.s.sed.
After deactivating the magic I readied on reflex, I spoke.
"Yes. Good morning, butler."
"I was worried since you"ve been holed up in your room and not eating properly for days."
"Hahaha…. Sorry."
"Has your health gotten better?"
"Yes. It"s gotten a lot better."
"Looking at your appearance, it seems you should rest a bit more….."
"Thank you for worrying about me."
"I"ll ask chauffeur Mr. Hw.a.n.g to prepare the car. Please wait just a moment…."
"Ah… No. I"ll go for a walk alone."
"Hm…. Is that so? Then I shall prepare a meal instead."
"Yes, thank you. Do you know where mother is…."
"Ah. The mistress has gone to a meeting. She has informed me that she will be returning after lunch."
"Yes….. Has Jong Ho hyung gone out hunting?"
"Yes. That"s correct."
"Is there any issues with living with my family members?"
"Not at all. Thanks to the young master and the mistress, I"m quite comfortable."
"Glad to hear that. If there is anything you"d like to bring up to my attention, please do without any reservations."
"Thank you. Let us head to the dining area."
"Yes."
Perhaps it was because I wasn"t used to it yet, but I felt very uncomfortable.
"Wonder how the kings of old lived like this. I heard that the servants even watched you as you used the bathroom."
Finishing my meal, I left the house.
Since there wasn"t a place I planned to head after this one, I used Warp to get there.
"Ha… It"s been awhile since I"ve been here. Huh? Was the sign always like this?"
The place I haven"t visited in awhile was the office of the midget.
It had become the base for Ho Jin, Jong Ho, and me.
Since it"s been awhile since I visited, I didn"t Warp into the storage room of the office.
Instead, I Warped to an alleyway out of view, then headed for the office.
"Have you been well?"
"Waaaaa!"
The midget looked at me and made a very odd sound.
It sounded like wailing, but it was probably was just my imagination.
Tossing the wooden chopsticks he was eating Jajangmyeon with, he rushed towards me.
It was the same with the other two employees.
"I thought something terrible happened!"
"Nothing happened, right?"
"Of course. Thanks to you, we"ve been doing well as usual."
"When I saw the sign outside, I think it was changed….."
"Ahem! Did you see? You did mention it before and we also thought we couldn"t live on like this, so we stopped loaning money as a business."
The midget spoke with pride, pulling out a calling card from his wallet.
Finding this scene amusing, I looked at the card.
"Whatever item you"re searching for, we"ll find it. Call Me, Call Me, Call Me Up?"
"Yes! That"s right. Obtaining things that you can"t get with money, items that are lost, or even rare items that are few in existence in this world. We"ll obtain them all for the customer."
"Ah. So stealing or black market deals?"
"Uhahahaha. Is that how it goes?"
"Well, it"s not bad. I"ve witnessed firsthand of you obtaining skill books for me, and I find it that it fits your skills perfectly."
"Of course. It"s not completely legal work, but at least we won"t be causing harm to others."
"Yes. When there was chaos a couple months ago, there wasn"t any damage done to this area, right?"
"That"s right. Most areas were engulfed in chaos. We were quite worried since you haven"t visited or contacted us since."
"That"s a relief. I am also safe and sound."
"Now, what skill book are you looking for today?"
"Haha. Jong Ho hyung and Mr. Ho Jin should be arriving soon, so we"ll talk then."
"Will do. What are you two doing? Why aren"t you getting tea at the least?"
"Yes!"
"Thank you."
It didn"t take long for Jong Ho and Ho Jin to arrive.
Since Jong Ho lived in the same house, I saw him every day, but that wasn"t the case with Ho Jin.
Just like before, he was pa.s.sionately invested deep into his work at the a.s.sociation.
I heard that the workload has severely increased recently due to the portals changing color.
It was then that I heard Ho Jin"s jolly laughter.
"Hohoho! It"s been quite awhile since we"ve all gathered like this."
Next to him, Jong Ho spoke with a mischievous expression.
"Hohoho! Talk about how short it has been since we saw each other at home. It"s getting repet.i.tive!"
"Have you been well, mister? Hyung-nim…. You can just go hunting instead!"
"Yes. Every day I"m spending is a wonderful day."
"Hey! You"re the one who called me here, so why are you saying that!"
"Whatever. Mister, is the commander doing well?"
"Of course. The commander is always filled with a sense of duty."
"I heard that all of the Awakened deployed returned home safely. Thank goodness."
"Yes. He was very worried about his subordinates. Only Lee Sang-Ho was severely injured, but thank goodness that it stopped there. Of course, he has completely recovered with Status Negation."
"Is that so. I"m just glad we"re able to see each other after such a long time. Thank you for coming despite being busy and all."
"Hohoho! No worries."
"Please have a seat. Hyung-nim can sit over there."
"Hohoho!"
"It seems we have to get going due to how busy we are with our jobs, so please take your time."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Thank you again. Hoho."
The midget and the two employees left the office.
Almost as if owning the place, we relaxed our posture.
I spoke up.
"Well… I"ll be frank, I"d been suffering from nightmares every day."
"Hm. Just from looking at your face, I can tell that you haven"t had much sleep."
"Yeah. Even before we left the house, you were sleeptalking and sweating as if rain was falling on you."
"Yes. That"s right. It seemed to be a simple nightmare that keeps on repeating……."
"What"s the nightmare about?"
I explained about the nightmare that"s been repeating.
"The dream seemed too detailed to be simply concluded as a result of all the stress you"ve acc.u.mulated so far."
"A barren field and monsters. On top of that, enough power to suppress even you. What could it be?"
"That"s…. The truth is….. I did hear a few things from Zekill."
"Huh?"
"……."
I explained how Zekill told me about the demon realm and how the monsters crossed the realm to this side.
This included the reasons why the portals were summoned in the first place and their ultimate goal.
"What…. What do you mean……"
"It"s the truth. We finally found peace after such a long struggle, so I didn"t want to cause panic by telling you all."
"Does that mean the dreams you"re having…..?"
"Yes. It could be one of the 3 demonic races in the demon world still left or the demon king he was talking about."
"If that"s true, it"d be a huge disaster. We barely found this peace, but it"ll be chaos again….."
"We"re not absolutely sure of this yet, right? It could be from what you heard from Zekill and the b.l.o.o.d.y fights you"ve been taking on combining together as a dream. Your mental state has become weaker too."
"Yes. I"m also hoping that"s the case as well. But…."
"……"
"Is there anyone the a.s.sociation having these dreams as well?"
"No. I"ve never received such a report."
"I"ve recently been meeting with most rankers and I have not heard such things."
"As expected……. Just in case, please check the a.s.sociation for anyone who might be also having these dreams."
"Yes, will do."
"Hyung-nim, could you also look around as well?"
"Yeah, ok."
"Well, since it turned out this way, I guess I can"t just sit idly at home."
"Makes sense, since you have no idea what"s to come……"
"That"s why I plan to grow stronger!"
"Hey. How are you going to become stronger than you already are!"
"There"s skills for me to obtain. I have only one attack skill that"s a S rank, Formless Sword Aura. On top of that, I have 5 transcendence essences leftover."
"So you will be purchasing a S ranking attack skill?"
"Yes. Stuff beyond that is ok too. Since I"ve given all the essences to the commander, I better start getting some more to gain back some purchasing power."
"S ranking skill……"
"The cla.s.s and mana cost doesn"t matter, right?"
"Hey, hyung nim. It"s not the first time you"re meeting me, you know?"
"I"m asking just in case! A S ranking attack skill….."
"There are quite a lot of skill books in storage in the a.s.sociation. There are probably offensive skill books either S ranking or above in there. I"ll speak to the commander about it. If it"s Mr. Min-Cheol"s request, he probably would grant it without delay."
"Thank you. You know you"re the only reliable source I can get information about skill books, right hyung-nim? Is there anything decent?"
"What about this one?"
Jong Ho showed his phone"s screen.
"Oho….."
"Looks pretty good from the description, right?"
"It looks like it could cause some serious damage."
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