Chapter 11: Aether (2)

-*-

For the last two days, my search for Aether has been unsuccessful, though, I have found many caves, I am yet to find the dungeon, and now with this class starting, my time searching will be less. I still have about 3.5 weeks before he goes to the dungeon, so the situation is not terrible yet, however, I have no idea how long finding Arachne's thread will take. Disappointed, I headed to my first class of the day, post-outcall history.

*outcall is the event that gave people gifts and spawned dungeons/monsters

Rachel, one of four main love interests for Kim Hajin and the princess of England, has always taken pride in her first place on exams. The entire country of England is rooting for her to be the first master-class hero, a hero that ranks within the top 70, to come from England, so they have invested a truckload of money. To say, she had a burden is a huge understatement, she is carrying the hopes of millions of English citizens. To keep up with the country's expectations, Rachel works every day tirelessly and never sleeps for more than five hours.

This same great Rachel asked Kim Hajin, a loser, for his number and now texts him when she has problems with the theory. On the other hand, everyone including Rachel thinks I fucking cheated on the test, so they mostly ignore my rank. However, one little idiot keeps pestering me.

[Bam: dude tell me how you cheated, I won't snitch]

[Bam: bro put me on]

[Ren: DUDE THE METHOD IS STUDYING]

 As I entered the class, I could see that same great princess of England staring at Hajin from across the room. 

'wait across the room? doesn't she sit behind him? wait why is he in my seat?'

I slowly walked towards MY seat which now contained some unwanted specimen. I arrived at my seat row and placed my hands on Hajin's shoulders.

"HEY MAN, whatcha doing over here"

"oh, I just wanted to see what trick you used on the theory test"

"hahaha, get up rank 934"

Hajin got up and sat in the seat next to mine, which previously had my backpack on it. At the same moment, Rachel also walked towards MY seat and sat in the row behind us.

"Look what you've done," I said

"oh shut up dude"

"First Yoo Yeonha, second Chae Nayun, now Rachel. dude choose one boat" I said loud enough for Rachel to maybe hear it.

Kim Hajin gave me a light punch and seriously said.

"keep it down dude, you know if any of them heard that, our heads would be gone"

"our? yours"

'wait if Hajin, the protagonist dies, does the world get destroyed, so I die too?'

While waiting for the class to start, I checked my style progress

[Authorities]

--- Kekei Style: "Quick Flash" 90,000 / 100,000

'Almost there'

After post-outcall history ended, we headed to Phenomenon Realm Analysis, and again Kim Hajin sat next to me while Rachel tried to be discreet when she sat behind us. The bell rang and the professor walked in with a good mood.

"Hello students, Today we'll be going over the previous exam. You must imagine how shocked I was to see that we had not one, not two, but three theory prodigies in our class. We'll be going over Kim Hajin's answer sheet today. Different from the others, Kim Hajin's explanations were amazing and creative with no detail left untouched"

I could see Kim Hajin's face turn rose-red, so I nudged him and said.

"Wow, you're so cool, dude"

After Hajin almost died from embarrassment in theory class, I decided to spend the rest of my day searching for Aether. I took a mana train to the area mentioned in the book and headed through the ginseng forest, a forest where people dig for expensive medical ingredients, and arrived at the base of the mountain.

The previous three days, I had spent solely clearing out the right side of the mountain, so it was time to check out the left. Unlike Hajin, I didn't need climbing gear as I could run up the mountain, but unlike me, Hajin knew exactly which cave to go whereas I had to search over hundred caves.

'Alright, the first cave of the day. I'm feeling lucky!'

That's a lie with my 2/10 luck, I'm never feeling lucky.

I headed into the cave, which had a small entrance, however, a good sign came when the cave gave off an eerie feeling. I squeezed myself in order to enter and it was completely dark. I started walking down, but I felt like I was being looked at.

'creepy'

*RATTLE*

Hundreds of undead immediately appeared out of nowhere. They seemingly grew from the ground. There was an army of maybe a thousand skeletons, each wearing armor and equipped with swords, in front of me awaiting my first movement. Unfortunately for them, they were simply my test subjects. I placed my hand on my katana, which was in the sheathe, felt the wind particles gather around my hand and in less than a second unsheathed it. 

*WHOOSH*

Instantly, a wind slash cut through hundreds of skeletons with a path now being formed in the middle of the army. The bones of the skeletons disappeared after they died.

*WHOOSH*

*WHOOSH*

The sound of bones dropping echoed throughout the cave and all evidence of the undead disappeared once they were killed. Where a thousand skeletons were a moment ago, now there was none, the quick flash left behind no evidence or sign of a fight. I used 3 quick flashes, meaning I saved 3 more for any type of emergency.

'ok yea, maybe training quick flash 6 hours every day was worth it'

I followed the path that Kim Hajin used in the novel and examined my surroundings. Though this cave is a dungeon that will be eventually cleared by the Pack Horse Masters, the upgradable equipment item, Aether, is located in a hidden part of this dungeon. I had to be careful not to touch anything related to the main dungeon as my money was in Pack Horse Masters and I can't have them not clearing this dungeon.

After about ten minutes of sightseeing in the cave, I got bored, so I sped up my pace and arrived at my destination. Leaving the tunnel, I could see a room with a dead tree. The tree had purple crystals growing on its branches, and at the base of the tree, there sat an undead who took the appearance of a little girl. The girl had a body of bones with light green hair and purple rags on it. It kinda looked like a witch.

'Hajin and Tomer, the villain who got aether before Hajin took it, killed it and it's not even alive'

Calming my thoughts, I placed my hand and my katana and performed a quick flash aimed right at the undead. The undead was split in half, but before I had time to celebrate, the cave shook.

*RUMBLE*

*QUAKE*

A dark purple aura flowed out of the undead, and I could see her hand reaching out towards me. I should have been surprised at this, but in the novel, the same thing happened when Hajin killed it. Walking over to the base of the tree, I saw an orange thread that stretched out around the tree. I walked up to the item and appraised it.

Aether

--- Upgradable equipment that grows stronger with its user.

--- A fluid equipment with no fixed shape. It attaches to its owner and their weapon and reinforces them

--- Can be converted to a weapon.

'I hit the jackpot'

I immediately went towards it, but before I could pick it up, like a child, Aether ran towards me and jumped on my shoulders.

[Item aquired]

I almost had a heart attack when it disappeared, but I realized that it was just invisible, yet it was already boosting my stats. Immediately, I thought of a katana in my head, and in my right hand, aether appeared in the form of a katana. The katana was orange and had significantly better stats than my training one and it also looked much cooler. Deciding that it would also be the best time to test out aether, I made a sheath with it and put the Aether katana in it. I put my hand on the orange katana and immediately felt the difference. The wind elementals, which previously took around 1 second to form, now only took 0.5. This essentially doubled the power of quick flash.

I decided not to use quick flash though as Kim Hajin would probably see a dent in the wall when he came and know something was up. When I was deciding to leave, I saw another thing sitting beside the tree.

'the hell is this? A seed?'

I examined the 'seed,' but it seemed like it couldn't be appraised. I stooped next to the seed and examined its design. On the front, there was a star and two moons on each side of it.

'ohhhh, its seed of Evangel'

The seed of Evangel is an item that needs blood to grow and eventually will become a witch. The personality and appearance of the witch depend on whose blood you put into it. For example, if I were to give it Kim Suho's blood, it would be as pure as an angel. This seed that would later turn into Evangel, essentially Kim Hajin and Rachel's daughter, would make a major difference in the story, and I gained nothing from taking it. After deciding to leave it, I stood up, dusted my pants, and prepared to leave when the seed, like a kangaroo, jumped onto the skin on my arm. 

Immediately, I felt some blood leaving my arm, so I quickly dusted off the seed and put it back where it used to be.

'It was only my arm for like two seconds, it probably won't make a difference. I doubt it even got enough blood. Still, that was a really stupid mistake on my part'

After deciding to be better in the future, I exited the cave but left a mental note of it as I would have to come back later to put Arachne's thread there. As I prepared to run down the cliff, I felt a notification on my smartwatch.

[BZZZ]

[Has anyone seen Seungyeon from the World Unit? We haven't been able to reach her since yesterday]

'Only one more victim until the second main incident reaches its climax.'

The second main incident involves one of the four main love interests, Yoo Yeonha. She is targeted by a djinn due to her beauty, so she is kidnapped and later saved by Hajin. Unfortunately, the djinn killed 3 students before kidnapping her, so those are the notifications I am receiving now. 

Though I do kinda feel like an asshole for letting them die, I realized that millions of lives could also be gone if I change the main plot by saving them and catching the djinn. 

I ran down the mountain's walls and went through the forest at max speed as I had around ten minutes until the last mana train left and tomorrow had a very important class. I sped through the forest until I tripped on what seemed like a branch. This was my first time tripping while going so fast, so it hurt like hell.

'fuck, I thought was invincible when going this fast. I should have been able to dodge that, I really needa level up my gift'

Keep in mind, I was going over 100 km/hr when I tripped and hit the ground, so this actually hurt. I crawled into a ball and began caressing my knee which absorbed most of the impact. After about ten minutes, I got up and looked for the source of my pain when I saw it, a ginseng. This medicinal ingredient is really rare and worth over 80 million yen, so my anger immediately turned into happiness until I realized I couldn't take it.

In the main story when Kim Hajin goes looking for the cave, he also finds a gingseng and this might be the one he found. I sadly walked away from ginseng and out of the forest when I realized.

'FUCK THE MANA TRAIN'

I was stranded in this unknown city.