Episode 36.

[Jung Si-woo]

[Underground player]

[Lv.51]

[Strength-184 Agility-188 Stamina-202 Magic-46]

[Passive Skills-Chaos Tail Lv.1, Courage of the Ignorant Lv.5, Poison Resistance Lv.7, Fire Resistance Lv.2, Soul Collect Lv.1, Living Lv.2, Heavy Weapon Battle Lv.2]

[Active Skills-Grant Lv.21, Slam Lv.15, Battle Sprint Lv.15, Magic Shot Lv.6, War Cry Lv.6, Stone Skin Lv.4, Cruel Charge Lv.2]

“That was fun.”

Jung Si-woo’s refreshed smile made him look younger. He still couldn’t believe that he had raised his level just by defeating some low-level monsters. Soo Ah-rin was likewise surprised. Naturally, as Jung Si-woo, an underground player, grew, the level of his supporters Soo Ah-rin and Yong Se-ha, also rose.

“If you catch the liberated monsters, your level should also rise…does this apply to everyone?”

Soo Ah-rin couldn’t help but wonder if this were the case for all players or if it only applies to Jung Si-woo, who was an underground player. She suspected it to be the latter. Because this was an Ant Cave area rather than a Sky Castle area, she thought it might have something to do with Jung Si-woo.

“Let’s check it with them.”

Jung Si-woo turned around. The gaping survivors regained their awareness and set themselves straight.

“You guys, did you ever level up after killing these types of monsters?”

Jung Si-woo got straight to the point.

“No, we haven’t. We’ve caught a considerable number of monsters, but leveling up can only be done after completing a Sky Castle dungeon.”

“Are you sure?”

Jung Si-woo realized he was still wearing his helmet and quit trying to scratch his head. He then stepped up to them. The players seemed frightened but didn’t immediately run away.

“The injured guys, are you okay?”

“W-we’re okay. If we’re to return to the Sky Castle, we will most probably be healed…”

The least injured among all of them quickly got up and bowed his head to Jung Si-woo in deference.

“Thank you for your help.”

“Oh, don’t mention it.”

“Maybe you are the one from Sanha-dong…”

Jung Si-woo ignored the accurate guess and swiftly diverted the conversation.

“This is going to be more dangerous in the future, so head down slowly and silently. Got it?”

“Oh, that, yes. Okay.”

The warrior quickly shut his mouth. Then, while supporting the two injured players to get up, he bit his lips gently for a moment.

“Our dead colleagues…”

They silently stared at the dead bodies of their companions, who were neither falling nor disappearing. They weren’t familiar with a situation like this, instead used to seeing defeated fellows fall from the Sky Castle and disappear. However, these players who fought and died in the real world had left their corpses behind.

“We can’t just leave them like this.”

“But what? There’s not much we can do…”

Jung Si-woo sighed as he watched the players who felt embarrassed at being seen like this.

“Maybe, you can store them in your inventory and transport them that way.”

“O-oh, right!”

No one viewed his suggestion as inhumane, for they knew it was more ideal than leaving them in this hillside to be food for monsters and animals. The warrior and the two wounded hurriedly tried to put their three dead companions in their inventories. However, before they could do that, the bodies glowed and melted gently on the spot.

“Huh!?”

“Noooo! Damn it!”

“…?”

While the players shouted in protest, Jung Si-woo experienced a strange thing. As the players’ bodies melted away, a group of golden lights appeared and flew to Jung Si-woo. Was it invisible to the others’ eyes? With the players still shouting in surprise, several lights seeped exactly into the back of his left hand. Yes, to the very spot where the pattern of Soul Collect skill was engraved.

[Soul Collect skill has raised to Lv.2]

[Total Souls Collected: 4]

“…”

Jung Si-woo looked at the phrase silently. He didn’t know what was going on, but it didn’t seem like a bad thing. He rubbed the pattern on the back of his hand and opened his mouth, confirming that the force’s reality was still present.

“The corpses of the original players aren’t here anymore. I told you, there’s not much we can do, so please stop crying about it.”

“But…”

“Fine! Go ahead and cry but be prepared to be monster food. I’ll be heading out.”

“Well, wait!”

Jung Si-woo waved his hand and started walking away. For a moment, he thought he had acted too coldly and harshly, but he waved that thought away. In his mind, a more critical thought emerged, and a complicated calculation began.

‘Other players don’t grow even if they catch monsters on the ground. However, I am different. It’s highly likely that they’re coming from the Ant Cave, but it’s pretty good to get experience and mana on the spot even if you don’t have to clear it.’

Also, the souls of the dead players somehow got sucked into Jung Si-woo himself. It was a little odd to call it ownership, but for Jung Si-woo, it was very strange that it happened just because he had the Soul Collect skill. Many things remained unknown, as always.

“But overall, it was not a bad thing either. From now on, we will actively rescue people.”

After his declaration, Jung Si-woo ran through the dense forest, looking for monsters to kill and humans to save. He encountered several monsters in Mt. Seorak, and while he faced them head-on, he immediately found himself growing frustrated.

“I still lack the means of a long-range attack.”

“Isn’t breaking the head of an orc just by picking up a stone and throwing it one?”

Jung Si-woo, while grumbling over the orc corpses he had just annihilated, refuted Soo Ah-rin’s ridicule. Again, he, who couldn’t find mana’s purpose, continued to worry while sprinting down the mountain path.

“Ranged weapons…what would be good?”

“How about a sling?”

“It’s the same as picking up stones one by one.”

Jung Si-woo sought a ranged skill that could wipe out enemies while shooting like a machine gun. Soo Ah-rin thought that killing an orc by just picking up a stone and throwing it was enough, but now she understood his worries as he knew he had to run through a large space and deal with many enemies at once.

“So, let’s practice Magic Shot! You particularly neglected this skill.”

“Oh! Are you also learning Magic Shot!? That’s a very rare skill!”

“What could you do with a rare skill like that…?”

While running, Jung Si-woo fired a magic bullet at a nearby tree. The bullet barely penetrated the tree, but that was sufficient. This level was enough to kill goblins. Of all his active skills, only Magic Shot was stuck at its level.

“Shall we add rotational power?’

“In cartoons, things become stronger just by rotating it.”

By adding rotation to the bullet, the center was fixed, and it didn’t deviate from its path. The destructive power also increased overwhelmingly. However, an insane idea of this nature could only be conjectured by a middle-school student who saw Naru X. Why had no one ever tried something like that? Jung Si-woo gave up after realizing that injecting rotational power into Magic Shot was more difficult than creating a new passive skill. Instead, he thought of merging it with other skills.

“Magic Shot is already one of the applications of Critical Hit by itself. Then, wouldn’t it be possible to combine it with sprinting like Cruel Charge?”

“How can I do it when I can’t even get the basics?”

Jung Si-woo asked, evidently frustrated. Battle Sprint needed to process mana’s nature more destructively in order to maintain it. Even though it looked like a simple skill, it was fairly advanced in application. As soon as he realized the peculiarity and trained intensively, Jung Si-woo was able to handle mana from Battle Sprint as naturally as breathing, and it was thanks to his command over it that enabled him to create Cruel Charge.

“Would it be easier? Cruel Charge puts mana all over my body and rushes it to the point of smashing, and in the meantime, you are even able to use Stone Skin.”

“I think my head will burst just by listening to that…how did you create such a skill?”

“I told you. My player’s mana amount, at least in terms of application power, is unmatched.”

Soo Ah-rin admired Jung Si-woo’s courage, and she was proud to have been part of his journey. While the newly recruited Yong Se-ha was confused, Jung Si-woo turned his ideas into action. The trick was to apply Battle Sprint to a minuscule amount of mana concentrated on the fingertips. If he left it as it was, his fingers would be twisted, so the moment he created mana, he needed to activate the magical skill and shoot it out immediately! Jung Si-woo tried this trick…

[Bang!]

A rock that had been struck by the magic bullet burst into pieces.

“…”

[…]

[…]

Jung Si-woo, who fired the magic bullet without thinking, and Soo Ah-rin and Yong Se-ha, who were both quietly watching, had their jaws drop upon seeing such unimaginable power.

“…No way, why haven’t other people done this simple thing?”

“It’s not that simple, right? The fusion of skills isn’t that simple as you think. I already told you. Starting from the battle sprinting skill, it’s not that easy.”

“Would you be able to explain it?”

“Speaking is rather easier. I won’t do it now, though.”

“That’s a wise judgment…”

Using a Magic Shot skill with Battle Sprint consumed more mana than using only Magic Shot, but it wasn’t enough to put a burden on Jung Si-woo’s body, who had already passed level 50. After just doing that simple experiment, Jung Si-woo smiled with satisfaction. Suddenly, a violent mana reaction occurred in his body. It was similar to the experience he felt when he developed Cruel Charge. The only difference was that this shock felt like the evolution of an unprecedented skill.

[Active skill Magic Shot has changed to Critical Bullet.]

[Critical Bullet Lv.1]

[Synthetic evolution skill. It can destroy the target by shooting specially processed mana bullets.]

“The skill has changed!”

Soo Ah-rin gasped, still in shock.

“It’s almost the same skill. Anyway, it has been solidified into one skill so that I can handle it more comfortably.”

“You can create two active skills and one passive skill in such a short period of time…you must’ve been blessed by God.”

Yong Se-ha commented, his religiosity evident. Si-woo merely shook his head. He thought it wouldn’t be too bad to get a dedicated artifact dealing with Magic Shot if there were a chance later. Meanwhile, Critical Bullet’s destructive power was enough to kill goblins, slimes, and even orcs! Soo Ah-rin was astonished that he had been given a ranged means of attack right after he wished for one. No one could stop him anymore. It was natural that Jung Si-woo’s search for Mt. Seorak would pick up.

After a swift three hours, Jung Si-woo found himself at level 53.