Task Force Secret Weapon (2)

Shin Eunah was confident that she had survived more than anyone else in their 20s or 30s, standing on the same battlefield as countless other superhumans. It wasn’t a boast, but merely a fact. However, none of those other superhumans she had seen had ever shown the same performance that Kang Shin-hyuk had now.

‘He’s already hunting A+ monsters…’ Kang Shin-hyuk’s fingers were dancing splendidly in the air, cutting down all the enemies around him. She already knew of his talent, but the destructive power of his weapon and his skillful handling of it surprised even her.

-Kyaak!

“Okay, that’s all of them over here.” He was aware of the limits of his weapon. No matter how sharp it was, it wouldn’t be able to overcome enemies of a higher rank, at least, not by itself. But he was able to increase its power using Wind Mastery, in addition to his trait that strengthened all of his armaments.

‘Even without spiritual power, it’s absurd. Plus there’s room for him to grow…’ Kang Shin-hyuk himself had yet to realize how truly great his power was. With his spiritual power and his ability as a blacksmith to embody his imagination into a weapon, he was a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps it was in part due to that sword dance that he kept striving to imitate.

“Senior?”

“Hm.” Shin Eunah was considering these things until he called out to her. He was staring at her with an odd expression as she was lost in thought. She was fascinated by his eyes, which shone golden every time he used his abilities. She turned her head away, unable to face him directly as impulses she couldn’t understand welled up inside of her. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing.” Shin Eunah shook her head as if trying to wake up.

“What rank are your statuses?”

“A+.” Kang Shin-hyuk’s physical statuses were A+ across the board now, and even his spiritual power had grown that high.

“I think it’s higher than that. The last time you defeated an entire irregular gate alone, which means the association recognizes you as an S-rank. Do you know what that means?”

“That the human standard is more accurate than the Gaia system, or perhaps different?”

“No, not quite.” Shin Eunah smiled at his response.

“It means that your traits and skills have an effect on your rank. You can sense it yourself, the advantage that your ability to handle weapons has ,and how it closes that gap between ranks.”

“Then if I used a sword instead, my rank would go down.”

“No, if you lifted your sword you would get stronger, right?” Shin Eunah’s sharp point made him go stiff. Although that sword dance could be used through other weapons, it was still the strongest with a sword.

“How’d you know?”

“I can tell by the way you move. One day, if all your weapon skills grow that strong, your rank may be even higher.”

“Haha…” She had a keen eye, after all. Kang Shin-hyuk instinctively felt for the sheath of his sword that was currently stored in his inventory.

“So now, do we move on to the next gate?”

“You’ve gained a lot of experience here. I think it’s enough for now.”

“That’s too bad. I wanted to catch a boss.”

“A boss?” Shin Eunah’s expression was filled with spite, unlike her usual self.

“No one has ever caught the boss of this dungeon.”

“Huh?”

“Hm?” They both tilted their heads at each other, and Shin Eunah was looking embarrassed.

“No one has ever found the boss’s lair. It’s so popular that it has been flooded with superhumans training in the lower parts.”

“Is that safe?”

“It has to be, look at the number and rank of superhumans in this dungeon.”

“Ah, I suppose.” A gate that hadn’t been cleared of its boss was like a ticking bomb. The gate itself acted according to the will of the boss in charge of it, who could even command the monsters inside to go out and kill humans. However, there was a surplus of superhumans who had flocked here to hunt monsters, several of which even exceeded A-rank. No matter how strong the boss might be, it couldn’t be more than one rank above the gate. So if it did show up, everyone would attack it.

“That’s why it’s safe. What an odd dungeon.”

“Yes.” Shin Eunah’s eyes were twinkling as Kang Shin-hyuk began to notice her intentions for the first time.

“I think I have an idea where it is. If I haven’t been caught yet, I want to do so with my own power.” Belatos was a shining jewel of a gate where many people gathered to train. Even Shin Eunah after she graduated from Shinyoung and had joined the Superhuman Association. But what many of them couldn’t find, Kang Shin-hyuk wanted to test his abilities against.

“Huh… to think you would want to clear this gate. As expected, given Gromas.”

“Well, I haven’t found it yet.” Kang Shin-hyuk stepped forward confidently, shaking his head at Shin Eunah’s exaggerations. He couldn’t know for sure, but now that he had reached the depths of the gate where the A+ rank monsters dwelled, he could sense a strange flow. So long as the boss room was inside the gate, a twisted flow could be felt running through it.

“I actually felt something similar, but could never find a way to open it.”

“I wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for the spiritual power flowing out of the gate.”

“Hm?”

“But once I read it…” Kang Shin-hyuk led Shin Eunah as he walked up a rocky hill. This was the most dangerous zone in Belatos, where aerial monsters, golems disguised as rocks, and earthworms waited to attack the unwary.

“Are there any people nearby?”

“Not currently.” The two in the task force uniforms certainly stood out, especially given their reputations. Attention had been on them for a while as they roamed the crowded gate, but Shin Eunah had deliberately shaken them off a while ago. They had been leaving them alone to show off Kang Shin-hyuk’s ability, but they didn’t want anyone nearby if they were going to the boss room.

“So open it with confidence.”

“Yes, then.” Kang Shin-hyuk reached the point where the dark energy flowed the strongest and placed his hands on the floor. Spiritual power flowed into the earth from him as he scanned the area. Now that his spiritual power had risen, it was no longer difficult to do. Still, he couldn’t help but groan out as too much information began to rush in his brain at once, overloading him.

Only

“Are you okay, grandpa?”

“I’m alright, just dizzy.” He reassured her, who was watching him anxiously, then gently closed his eyes as he organized the information in his head.

“Okay, then…” He put his hand on a nearby rock as he recovered his spiritual power. He was now moving it around gently as if to find the keyhole of a door in the dark. He was slowly putting in a bit of wire to twist around the mechanisms inside instead of a key.

-Click

Perhaps it didn’t actually sound like that, but suddenly he was able to open the lock. The rock that he had been holding onto was suddenly pulled into the ground as a staircase descending down into a temple opened up.

“Now, let’s go.” Shin Eunah was surprised that she had never noticed it before.

‘To be able to communicate with anything with your spiritual power… could it be possible to attack the remaining gates in this world…?’ She watched his back as he fell into the step behind him.

Perhaps that would be the start of a historic step forward for all superhumans.