Third Liberation (6)
“An S-class gate? Shouldn’t that be left to the other guilds?”
“You will be taking on an S-class gate, given the current situation.” Ahn Hyeongju responded to Kang Shin-hyuk with a big smile.
“An S-class gate is of a level that a guild must manage it. As reasonable rewards can be expected, they are popular enough to auction admission tickets… but what if there were multiple gates occurring at the same time as they are now, and one guild had to handle them all?”
“It means that the guild can’t afford to concentrate manpower on them.”
“Exactly. However, if you go in poorly prepared, you will lose power. So…”
“So it’s been passed on to the students? What nonsense.” Kang Shin-hyuk punched Baek in the shoulder for his words, but Hyeongju was silent.
“Isn’t he saying that the school evaluates us that highly? Or maybe they want to test us.”
“It is less risky to enter with an elite of a certain skill level.” Ahn Hyeongju rallied his strength in response to Kang Shin-hyuk’s words.
“Well, why did they choose us and not people from the reserves?”
“Well… there weren’t any.” Hyeongju became silent once more. No doubt, this was a complicated situation for him to explain.
“I’ll ensure your safety, so please don’t worry. I am from Vanguard, after all.”
“Hmm.” Kang Shin-hyuk knew what Baek was trying to say, but he swallowed the words. He thought the same thing.
‘I’m stronger than this person.’ It was a surprising decision that the school gave them an S-class gate for practice, but, to put it plainly, Kang Shin-hyuk thought that the S-class gate wouldn’t be enough to draw out his or Baek’s power.
‘I can hardly talk, but Baek’s movements at the last gate were astounding.’ Despite being weakened by the poisonous energy which several high-rankers had succumbed to, Baek had been able to fight back against SS-class monsters effectively. Although his specialty was agility, he wasn’t lacking when it came to power. He wasn’t particularly confident in his defense, but he was an excellent offensive ally to have by your side.
“There will be no problem.” These were two who had fought against that irregular SS-class gate. They couldn’t think of any trouble at an S-class gate they couldn’t handle.
“The gate hasn’t been explored in advance.”
“Why?!”
“The gates have been pouring out monsters, even research is undermanned.”
“Has the curtain of the great gate era risen?”
“Don’t start with such a pointlessly heart-pounding announcement…” It was gate practice, no different than just official superhumans attacking a gate. Shin-hyuk was worried about the others going out to practice, however. Would a crisis occur while Shinyoung’s students were out? At least it would be a valuable experience for those who’ve successfully completed their training.
“Here it is.”
“Good thing it’s not an emissive gate.” The gate was in Hongdae, so plenty of people were observing them. Perhaps Shinyoung had planned this from the start.
“By this evening, there will be headlines about two students entering an S-class gate.”
“Would you like some melon bread and ice cream?”
“Ah, normal Shinyuk.” Kang Shin-hyuk paid no mind to the eyes around him as he bought some food. Ahn Hyeongju was speaking with the soldiers in charge of the gate while the two boys enjoyed some tasty snacks. The maximum number of people allowed in was uncertain, but the gate was definitely a small dungeon based on its mana emission.
“This sort of talk is pretty helpful.”
“The original gate practice was done in a place where all the measurements had already been done, after all.”
“You two! Now you have to get ready to go.” Kang Shin-hyuk quickly devoured his bread and grabbed onto the handle of the Godslayer sword around his waist.
“Let’s head right in.”
-Entering the S-class gate ‘The Dark Creeper.’
“This…” Upon entering, Ahn Hyeongju frowned at the notification from the Gaia system that had appeared before them. Kang Shin-hyuk, who had only been going to irregular gates lately, was a bit taken in by the normal-looking message he had seen for the first time in a long while. All that stood before them in the gate was a large wall that blocked their vision.
“Is there a problem? It’s the correct rank, and it’s not an irregular gate.”
“Well, there is a problem… where we are now… I was hoping for a straight-forward gate.” Hyeongju let out a sigh.
“You are aware that certain gates require special actions to clear? This gate is like that. The higher the grade, the more difficult it is to clear…” Whereas some gates, like the one he was hoping for, just required those entering to move forward and destroy the monsters that appeared.
“Ah, I see.” Kang Shin-hyuk had experienced it before, in Belatos. Shin Eunah and he had to obtain the records and fight the blue cow. To put it simply, they were tricky dungeons to clear, but they offered quite a bit of compensation.
“The problem is that gates like this can be an issue without prior investigation. They aren’t kind places for humans…”
“Definitely not. Let’s go.” Baek In-ha spoke up briefly before disappearing from his spot. Shortly after, he appeared in front of the wall that had appeared, letting his leg fall down.
-Kyaaah!
With a short burst, something exploded at the end of the trajectory he drew with his food. He had found and killed a monster too fast for Ahn Hyeongju to recognize. His expression was dumb-founded as Kang Shin-hyuk admired Baek’s speed.
“Huh? What…”
“Shinyuk, does this work for you?” Baek threw a mass of indefinite black solids at Kang Shin-hyuk.
[Shadow Predator’s Shadow Fragment]
[S-class]
[Part of the body of a shadow predator. It is a daunting task to fabricate, but if you succeed, there may be no one capable of physically harming you.]
“A shadow predator?”
“By the way…”
“Even without knowing what it is, there’s a lot of them!” Kang Shin-hyuk was unaware, but shadow predators were one of the most difficult to deal with among the S-class monsters. They moved in the shadows and had an unmatched speed in the dark. They were vicious guys who would move into their opponent’s shadow and give them all kinds of debuffs as they devoured their magic. It was the monster that had shown up to escort Nathan Bodin before. But now, those very same shadow predators were all over the wall that stood before them in this gate.
-Kyaaaah!
“What an intuitive gate name…!”
-Member, if that wall is broken, the gate will change into an eroded irregular gate. Blocking them from that wall is the gate’s defense condition.
The administrator’s message came in quickly.
‘Then what is the clear condition?’
-The general condition is to hold on until morning. If so, the gate will be deactivated but not destroyed. The requirement for destroying the gate is to destroy the source of the shadow predators.
Looking up, Kang Shin-hyuk couldn’t get a sense of any energy beyond the wall. It was the same with the monsters. They were able to thoroughly hide their energy, specialized in hiding from the start. If so…
“Shall I let Onyx debut here?”
“Onyx?!”
“Onyx?” Ahn Hyeongju was considering whether or not he should intervene, curious about who or what Onyx was. Baek, who had already met Onyx before, raised an eyebrow. He was mistaken in just thinking of Onyx as a gluttonous hedgehog that ate metal. Well, actually, he wasn’t, but Onyx could do other things.
“Onyx, I choose you! Go!”
-Myuuuu!
As soon as he opened the door to the garbage warehouse, Onyx ran out fiercely. Upon seeing the shadow predators crawling along the wall, he urgently made a U-turn and returned to Kang Shin-hyuk’s arms.
-Kyahahaahaha!
-Myu?!
“Look, it doesn’t mean anything by its laugh.”
“Hedgehog? No, a monster? Where did it…”
“I already reported it to the school.” Kang Shin-hyuk replied briefly before turning to Onyx.
“Onyx, that wall.”
-Myu…
The small hedgehog seemed disheartened but had no intention of disobeying the order. He went to the middle of the wall and activated his new skill.
[Synchronization (SS): B
-Assimilate with the target and add their own status, characteristics, and skills to it. Low rank, only available for inanimate targets.]
That was the skill Onyx had acquired after eating the sword. Surprisingly, Oh Joo-young had been learning unity, a state in which a sword and a person harmonized to become one. Onyx had succeeded in taking a copy of that skill when he devoured the blade. Onyx’s status had grown to A+ through his constant eating, but that by itself wasn’t enough. He also had the skill of [Implementation (SS)], which let him reproduce what he ate. He was able to use that to express his new talent further.
What happened as a result…
-Kyahak!
-Kiiii!
“Thorns have sprouted all over the wall?!”
“The predators are stuck in the thorns…?”
“What… they’re being revealed.” He was able to fully express the abilities of the prey he had eaten so far through the inanimate objects he synchronized too. Now that enormous wall was like a huge version of Onyx, as long as his magic sustained it.
-Myu! Myu!
“Yes, I’ll feed you.” It had the disadvantage of requiring a tremendous amount of magical power. If it weren’t for the enormous amount of food piled up in the warehouse, it wouldn’t have been possible.
“Then, let’s go.”
“Where?!” In an instant, the risk of the gate had hit rock bottom. Ahn Hyeongju was relieved but responded angrily at Kang Shin-hyuk, who was making no sense.
“We have to clear the gate. There’s a lot of energy around there.” He hadn’t felt the root of that energy yet, but they were sure to find it if they looked for it.
“You’re heading down the wall on purpose?”
“Hey, Shinyuk, you’ll regret it if you take all the fun for yourself.”
“One of you has to stay here, I can’t just leave it to Onyx.”
“Just leave it to Hyeongju.”
“I’m the supervisor!”
“Then rock paper scissors.” Kang Shin-hyuk had no intention of backing down himself. The materials from these monsters looked pretty good, so he wanted to see how great the drops from the source would be.
“Okay, one game.”
“Come on.” Baek was confident he would win with his agility. Kang Shin-hyuk made sure his gloves were on properly and activated his spiritual power to strengthen himself further.
“Are you both ready? …Why am I here supervising this game?”
“Give me a quick signal.”
“If you don’t like it, next time we’ll go to a gate where you can’t afford to engage in this nonsense.”
“Rock… Paper… Scissors!”
The result was obvious.
Kang Shin-hyuk boldly strode forward with Godslayer in hand, leaving behind the sorrowful Baek In-ha.