Third Liberation (4)

[Soul Connector]

[SS Rank]

[Special ability: Shadow Silk, Lord, Spiritualization, Dwarf’s Hand]

*Shadow Silk: It emits spiritual power into a thread with physical force. It never ceases unless spiritual power is lost. Allows for movement through the shadows.

*Lord: You are the master of the soul. When wearing this armament, spiritual power is amplified by one step, and the ability to interfere with other spiritual powers is increased.

*Spiritualization: Envelops the thread with spiritual power to further strengthen it. It also applies to the wielder, boosting strength, agility, and stamina by one step.

* Dwarf’s Hand: 30% increase is applied to all hand-related movements and skills.

[Mutations that occurred in areas where Gaia’s eyes could not reach, scratching the dark wall with nails to pierce the dimensional barrier. The blacksmith of the soul made those nails into a stable armament that cannot be handled without spiritual power.]

-You have succeeded in creating [Soul Connector (SS)] by handling materials above your current level! Metallurgy has grown to the S-rank. Emotion has increased to A+.

-Synchronization has greatly accelerated- current rate of 48.5%.

“Wow…” Lee Na-hee was staring at the pair of red gloves atop the workbench. As it was generally believed that the SS rank was the highest limit of a superhuman, so too was it for an artifact. An SS-rank artifact was something most couldn’t even imagine a human creating, and obtaining one from a gate was unlikely, to say the least.

“I heard that there are less than a hundred in the world… and now we just made one here.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Don’t you understand?!” Earth seemed to be a world inferior to the ones the other members of the Hero Universe resided in. Yet, Anvil had created several works that didn’t reach that rank that had been highly praised. Kang Shin-hyuk felt a bit of incongruity in that, but the administrator quickly explained as if he had read his mind.

-The items you create are exceptional regardless of rank, especially in the field of spiritual power, where no one was able to come close. Therefore, even if something you made was only A-rank, it was viewed as being more valuable than an SS-rank artifact without spiritual power.

‘I see…’ It was the same with this artifact. Weapons that dealt with spiritual power were in a different league. The gloves even said that those without spiritual power couldn’t handle them. He gave it to Lee Na-hee as a test, and sure enough, she could only fumble them in the air.

“Uh, huh? I also helped make them, so why?”

“It means that you’re still lacking. If you realize what it is, you’ll be able to grow quicker in the future.”

“Ah, it’s a little bit higher…” Kang Shin-hyuk smiled as he put the gloves on. They were made of metal yet were quite comfortable to wear. Perhaps it was thanks to the last skill they had, Dwarf’s Hands, that they felt like he wasn’t even wearing gloves.

“I’ll have to keep wearing them.”

“They’re stylish, but aren’t they a little noticeable? If you wear them as Shin Eun-hyuk…”

“Voila.” He filled the gloves with his spiritual power, finely manipulating them as if they were a part of his own body.

“I can’t see them!”

“Here, try touching them.”

“…” Despite the fact he must’ve been wearing gloves, Lee Na-hee could only see his bare hands. She gently held his hand with both of hers, the result being roughly what she had predicted. She couldn’t feel the glove at all; it was just Kang Shin-hyuk’s hand she was holding.

“You can hide them like this…”

“How long will you hold onto me?”

“I was just trying to find the gloves.” Perhaps it wasn’t a lie, as soon he felt the energy of his gloves increase as her trait activated.

“It wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t help make it. It’s really an SS-rank artifact.”

“There’s still room to experiment with them, but this is good enough for now.” Even without testing them in combat, the artifact’s excellence was obvious just by looking at the stat amplification. Of course, it couldn’t be worn without spiritual power, but that hardly mattered.

-It’s an object that could compete with the masterpieces of your previous life. If you put this on the trading board, everyone would be in an uproar.

‘I’ll have to work on making stuff like this consistently in the future.’

-It was as I expected. Even though you haven’t recovered everything from your previous life, you are already regaining the state of your previous life. By the time you regain all of your memories, you’ll be capable of results that no one could imagine.

His metallurgy was S-rank still, and his synchronization rate was still less than fifty percent. Despite that, however, he had created an SS-rank artifact. Of course, the ingredients were good, but they were like the Great Heavenly Spirit of the Shinfeng orb, merely by-products of an ordinary monster. It was an achievement incomparable to renovating the blue cow. Of course, he wasn’t content with just that, but it was a start to surpassing his previous life’s skills.

‘Na-hee’s help was also great…’

-Cheh.

Kang Shin-hyuk laughed at the administrator’s short message. He had felt it clearly while working. Lee Na-hee’s trait matched his metallurgy well. It was clear that just by looking at the results that his judgment was correct.

“Then, let’s create an artifact for you. I have a lot of work to do after that.”

“You really pamper people.”

“Aren’t we partners?”

“Yes, partners. Our business. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t let you take up my entire weekend, so remember that.” Lee Na-hee responded happily. No doubt, she was also proud of her own growth.

“What do you want to make?”

“Yes, I was thinking about it while watching Claire…” He immediately accepted her request, and they got back to work. Kang Shin-hyuk wondered if Claire would be envious when she saw what they were crafting.

In the end, he decided to make something for Claire as well.

***

Kang Shin-hyuk returned to his room around 1 AM. For some reason, Onyx was waiting for him in the middle of the room instead of being in the garbage warehouse.

-Myu!”

“Oh, you decided to show up?”

-Myuuuuuuuu!

Kang Shin-hyuk had omitted saying, ‘since you normally are just eating or sleeping.’ However, Onyx seemed to notice the omitted part and violently charged at Kang Shin-hyuk with his thorns protruding. He jabbed them into Kang Shin-hyuk’s foot.

“What are you doing?!”

-Myuuuuu!

Onyx climbed up Kang Shin-hyuk’s leg, jabbing him with his thorns all the while.

-Myu!

“Ow, ow!” Only then did Kang Shin-hyuk realize that he hadn’t kept his promise from France.

“I was supposed to give you a sword in exchange for taking care of the building…”

-Myuuuu…

Onyx shook his head at Kang Shin-hyuk. Thanks to him, rescuing the survivors under the rubble had been a walk in the park. But so much had happened since then that Kang Shin-hyuk had completely forgotten. Onyx had been waiting patiently all that time for his reward.

“Ah, my bad… I’ll give it to you, Onyx. Come on.”

-Myu!

As soon as he said that, Onyx’s thorns receded as he jumped onto Kang Shin-hyuk’s shoulder.

“Let’s see, it’s in the inventory… here.” Kang Shin-hyuk produced the two swords he had taken from Oh Joo-young, the traitor of mankind. The man praised as the new blade had some unique weapons.

“As a result of repeatedly manifesting his trait, the nature of the sword changed…” His trait was Excalibur (SS+). It was a trait that gave him powerful light magic and cutting power, a trait named after the legendary sword. The swords he used had been shaped by that trait over time. Kang Shin-hyuk recalled seeing an auction for one of the blades Ju-young Oh had just touched on TV before.

‘Now, I have two of them.’ One of them had been the one he normally used, while the other seemed to be a secret weapon of sorts that exceeded the former overwhelmingly.

‘But if it didn’t contain the power of Excalibur, it would be weaker.’ Maybe he always kept his energy in this sword, or perhaps it just contained his trait as he died. Kang Shin-hyuk began to wonder what would happen to the power of a trait when a human died while manifesting it in a weapon. Did it remain in the object? Perhaps this sword had the answer.

Only

-Myuuuuuu!

“Yeah, wait a moment. You can’t have this one.”

-Myuuu…

Onyx nodded sadly at Kang Shin-hyuk’s resolute voice and accepted the weaker first sword.

-Myuuuuu?!

However, as soon as he took a bite, he began to devour it ferociously. Kang Shin-hyuk wondered if Onyx would change after eating it.

“Godslayer, you’ll get to eat one too.”

The second sword that contained all of Ju-young Oh’s power was given to the Godslayer sword.