Chapter 51: Beautiful Flowers Attract Bugs   

The Awakened special handling force had finished their meeting .

Vice CEO Kim Ho Jin had left .

After confirming he left, one man asked everyone a question .

"Hey . Who's going to take the Kim Min-Cheol case?"

"If he's someone that goes through level 23 dungeons as if nothing, wouldn't I be risking my life if I were to take on this case? I have 3 kids . Ahem!"

"Oh . Of course senior shouldn't be doing work like this," the junior said as he massaged his shoulders .

He continued while glaring at everyone else at the table .

"If you want this case, raise your hand up quickly!"

They were too busy giving glances at one another .

But that only lasted for a moment .

One man raised his hand .

"I . . I will…"

"Oh! Se-Jin . You looked like a smart kid from the start . Confident? When you start off, you should start with the tough ones to get used to things quickly . "

"Yes…"

"And this is something the vice CEO specifically requested of us, so make sure the report looks good, okay?"

"Yes . I understand!"

"What did I say . All work?"

"In moderation!"

"Good . Do your best . "

"Yes!"

A tree cannot grow well if the roots are rotten .

The association worked just enough to keep up appearances .

* * * *

"Who are you?"

The man who was keeping me under surveillance was rummaging through his wallet for something .

With his trembling hand, he pulled out something and preceded to hand it over to me .

"Awakened Association Special Maintenance Force Se-Jin Kim . "

"From the Awakened Association?"

"Yes . That's correct . Here is my ID . "

The man gave out his association ID with fear in his eyes .

The association was made up of the elites, keeping a tight control over the Awakened .

This man must be either someone with very low ranking or a new blood .

After checking his ID, I asked him a question .

"So, what's the occasion?"

"That's�� Are you Kim Min-Cheol?"

"That's correct . "

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"What's your age? How long have you been an Awakened for?"

"Are you here to do an interview?"

"Ah . This is part of protocol…"

"18 years old and about 4 months since I've Awakened . "

"Hm… Haven't reached the age to get a license… If you have a school ID, could you show it to me?"

"Instead of only asking me questions, how about answering mine? What is this about . "

"You've been put under suspicion of using a stolen or forged Awakened ID and an investigation has been launched for you . "

"Illegal ID?"

"Yes . It's only been 4 months since you've become Awakened, but we've been receiving data that you've been solo clearing the level 23 dungeon . "

Murmuring the words, he seemed to be trembling like a leaf .

'Did I say I was going to devour him or something?'

Now I was able to grasp the situation .

I knew this would happen eventually .

Even on the first day I met Jong Ho .

When I received the reward for defending against the succubi portal explosion, I was put under suspicion as well .

Thankfully for the idiotic association member who only tried to get his work over with, I was able to avoid the annoying complications .

All he wanted to do was to confirm the ID that I was using .

Wouldn't I just have to let him confirm and be done with it?

"Here it is . My school ID . "

"Sorry… I mean . Thank you . "

After receiving my school ID, he looked back and forth between the ID and my face to check .

"Wew… . "

After checking my ID, he sighed in relief .

"All done?"

"Um… I'm sorry but can you also do a fingerprint testing . . "

"…Wew . "

I felt bad for Se-Jin Kim, shaking in fear and working late into the night .

To get it over with as quickly as possible, I did as he wanted .

Beep .

My information came up .

"Thank you . It really is you . Sorry for all the trouble . "

"No worries . We're done right?"

"Yes . The confirmation process is complete . "

"I'll be going then . "

"It's amazing . To be able to do a level 23 dungeon in 4 months…"

"See you…"

I didn't want to waste any more time .

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I left him behind and headed towards the bench .

'I got away easy this time, but seems like things are going to get bothersome . '

One day, my identity would be revealed, but at least I wanted to live quietly until I defeated Jin and his group .

I called Se-Jin .

"Hey there . "

"Yes! Mr . Min-Cheol . "

"Let's go eat to out sometime . "

"R . . Really? Wow! Thank you . Thank you very much . "

Se-Jin nodded eagerly with joy .

Now for the actual reason of calling Se-Jin back .

"By the way, does this identity confirmation automatically get uploaded to the servers?"

"No . This stuff isn't on the network . Why do you ask?"

"Please delay the report as long as possible then . "

"Huh? I've already confirmed that you aren't an illegal Awakened yet . There's no reason keep others suspicious of you . "

"Come on . Even if that's the case, there's no Awakened who accomplished what I did in 4 months . "

"That's true . "

"The news on TV and newspapers will have me featured . If that happened, do you think other countries will leave me alone? They'll be asking me to transfer over . That would be a loss for this country . "

"Aha! That makes sense . "

'What the… I was able to convince Se-Jin that easily? What a naive person . '

"Ah… Yes… I'll be counting on you . "

"Don't you worry! That cannot happen!"

"Thank you . Then I'll be on my way . "

"Yes . Fighting!"

Perhaps Se-Jin is an airhead like Tae-Seong from my class .

There were many Awakened with fame equivalent to idols .

I didn't know if Se-Jin was acting, but I could tell that Se-Jin's eyes shone with honesty .

* * * *

Se-Jin left, and now it was time to check my spoils .

Arriving at the bench, I dumped the contents of the backpack .

With one day's worth of hunting, I had gathered this many bloodstones .

Between the pile of stones, I saw the skill books .

Something like the thrill of lotto?

Since I couldn't tell the identity of the skill book until I scanned them, it was exciting .

I stacked the four skill books next to the bench, placing the skill book I got from the rank 1 Lich King at the very bottom .

"All right… let's see!"

The first skill I confirmed was 'Charging' .

Used by tanks or clerics, one uses a shield to push away an enemy .

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Useless .

At least it wasn't a Fire Ball or Cross Cut . An F ranking attack skill book would've been bad .

Because this skill book had quite the price on it .

Without delay, I checked the next skill book .

'Charging Shot' for the ranger class .

I could use skills from all classes, but I had to give up on this one .

It was only usable when equipping a bow or crossbow .

With repeated duds, I was becoming less excited .

Click .

"Wow!"

I couldn't help but exclaim .

On the smartphone was the skill's name .

'Glacial Field . '

Out of all the A+ ranking skills, this was the first one I tried to get .

While it had an aoe freezing effect, the damage was quite lower than Meteor or Iceberg, so I had given up on learning it .

But if it comes to me like this, of course I have to learn it .

It was like an herbal medicine after a long exhausting hunt .

The finale! The only skill book left was the one I got from defeating the highest ranking Lich King .

The stronger the boss was, the better the skill book drop .

I had a good feeling about this one .

"Probably not a skill beyond A ranking, but give me a good one!"

As I put my finger on the smartphone, I became nervous .

After scanning the skill name, I felt it .

The skill explanation was as follows .

-Formless Sword Aura-

Usable class: Warrior (Other classes have 10 times the mana cost . )

Mana cost: Channeled . (Per tick, uses 1% of total mana . )

Skill introduction: *Cuts apart the target with speed that cannot be followed .

*Target cannot detect the sword aura .

*As the skill rises, the destructive force increases .

*Usable on (???) ranking bosses .

Cooldown: None .

Duration: None .

Skill ranking: Attack S

Additional information: Using the skill increases user's physical and magical defensive stats increase by 10% .

Estimated skill book cost: ???

"S rank?"

Warrior class skill 'Formless Sword Aura' was an S ranking attack skill .

Out of all the skills I've obtained so far, none were an S rank .

I only had 3 A+ ranking attack skills . 1

And that's including the Glacial Field I got just now .

A ranking skills were not weak .

You can tell just by seeing it in action .

Meteor and Iceberg . No matter who the target was, they would receive massive amounts of damage .

But an S rank .

It wasn't just the skill's attack capability .

Looking at the additional information section, it said that I would obtain 10% physical and magical damage reduction .

Wearing the Lich King's armor set, each piece granting 20% damage reduction, and adding this new skill, I'd only receive half the damage of any skills used against me .

"It seems I'm slowly becoming a monster?"

As everyone said, "Amateurs are based on gear . "

But at this point, I had already become a pro with all the ability and growth I've achieved .

And I had gear to boot .

It was almost enough to make me scared of myself .

Checking the skill book once more, I began to organize the stones .

Grabbing a fistful of stones and shoving them back into the bag .

It was to make sure no Awakened Essences would end up mixed with the stones .

"One, two, three . Almost threw away one . "

After repaying the essence to the midget, I now had 3 again .

It was nearly time to Awaken Meteor and Iceberg, both of which were nearing level 100 .

The last one?

Of course I'd have to use it on Formless Sword Aura .

However, it would be difficult to raise this skill because it only hits a single target per use .

The condition for gaining experience for skills were a little bit different from skill to skill .

Most depended on how many targets it hit .

Explosion and Holy Missile were both single target skills .

That's why I had not obtained level 100 with them even after one week of obtaining them .

Of course, I was using my infinite mana to level up my skills at an incredible rate already .

Not aoe's, but single target skills are what differentiate me from other Awakened .

Thinking about that, I remembered the Assassin Weapon Throw that Jin used on me .

That skill was also a single target skill .

Dodging my attack as if it was nothing, I became more confused the more I thought about Jin . There was something wrong, but I couldn't put my foot on it .

For that guy though, I had a present ready for him .

Hiding my evil grin, I headed home .

"My bag is stuffed more than usual today, hehe . "