Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 19
[Skill – Discernment activated.]
[Hidden information will now be revealed.]
The moment he finished reading the message, the status window closed.
Hyeonjun tried to bring the status window back up, but—
[System update in progress]
Hyeonjun tilted his head.
“A system update? Since when does that exist?”
No matter how much the status window resembled the one from the game, there had never been any feature like an update.
At least, not until now.
‘Could I really be the first?’
Half-hoping for something, Hyeonjun searched the internet.
Plenty of results came up, but nothing whatsoever matched what he was going through.
He set his smartphone down and let out a long, heavy sigh.
‘How many firsts am I going through right now?’
First a re-awakening, and now an update.
Even a fool could tell at this point.
Everything he’d experienced so far wasn’t just a string of coincidences.
‘What on earth is going on?’
He didn’t have to think very hard.
The strange sight he had witnessed moments ago.
The messages that had appeared before that.
His gaze drifted naturally to his hand.
His mother’s hand and his own, still pressed together.
The instant he had taken this hand, a world that looked like an illusion had unfolded before his eyes, along with messages he couldn’t make sense of.
“…No way.”
Was all of this connected to my mother?
Hyeonjun couldn’t bring himself to accept it, yet no matter how many times he turned it over, the answer stayed the same.
It was too coincidental to be dismissed as unrelated, independent phenomena, and so it felt almost inevitable.
‘What exactly is she hiding?’
Hyeonjun thought back on his mother’s past.
He couldn’t recall a single memory that might serve as a clue to this situation.
Well, that made sense. His mother had been an ordinary person.
‘She might have seemed a little unusual by society’s standards, but that was just the world’s view, after all…’
Raising two kids without a husband.
No relatives, no cousins, and not long after I came of age, she lost her parents too.
But those were just the ups and downs of life. They didn’t mean she had some superhuman power hidden inside her.
‘Though just surviving all that is superhuman enough…’
Setting aside her greatness for now.
My mother was just a human being, not an Awakened.
The same went for my grandparents.
“Hmm…”
Hyeonjun stroked his chin, lost in thought.
As if to tell him that was enough thinking, a message appeared before his eyes.
[The system update has been completed.]
Hyeonjun immediately opened the status window to check.
[Name: Ko Hyeonjun]
[Trait: Primordial Eye]
[Primordial Soul Circuit ]
Stats ▽
-Strength: 1/100
-Agility: 61/100
-Stamina: 1/100
-Mana: 1/100
-Willpower: 1/100
Skills ▽

-Copy
-Primordial Will
-Discernment
<General Skills>
-Magic Arrow (4/100)
Compared to the grand process of being told the system was updating and not being allowed to open the status window, very little had changed.
At most, aside from Discernment, a single new skill had appeared.
‘I get the gist of what Discernment does.’
A skill he’d already tried out on the status window.
Still, out of courtesy, he checked the description.
[Discernment]
-Allows you to see the hidden information of a chosen target.
A short, concise description.
There was nothing more to look at.
‘What matters is the next one.’
The newly appeared skill.
No, more precisely, a skill that had existed before but had been hidden from the status window: <Primordial Will>.
From the name alone, he couldn’t quite grasp what kind of skill it was.
<Primordial Will>
-The will that carries on the power of the primordial. Enhances all of the user’s senses and combat abilities far beyond their current level.
As he read the description, Hyeonjun suddenly recalled what had happened since his E-Rank promotion.
The first thing that came to mind was the group of Kim Seokdae that he’d fought on Darak Mountain.
Something had felt off in many ways during that battle.
‘Even if those guys were F-Rank, the gap was bigger than I expected.
It was practically a fight between an adult and a kindergartener.
On top of that, throughout the fight, a flood of combat details had swarmed through his head.
And that was without him even trying to think about them.
‘It wasn’t just that. When I got Magic Arrow, something was different too.’
Magic Arrow, with its unusually high accuracy.
At first he’d simply assumed it was talent, but it seemed it had all been the effect of the skill.
‘So I had a cheat-level skill all along.’
When he’d only read the description, he hadn’t been sure what kind of skill it was.
But thanks to his experiences since, he could tell just how absurdly overpowered it was.
‘I feel like I’ve been handed an army of a thousand horses and ten thousand soldiers.’
Hyeonjun’s heart steadied.
If you thought about it, nothing had really changed, but simply knowing clearly that it existed had given him confidence.
‘No, this won’t do. I should just go hunt something.’
Hyeonjun’s body was itching so badly he couldn’t stand it.
He got up from his seat and, looking at his mother’s face, offered a small bow.
“I’ll come again next time…”
[There is a target that can be discerned.]
“Huh?”
A single line of message floated over his mother’s face.
Hyeonjun blinked blankly, then shifted his gaze elsewhere.
At once, the message vanished.
‘What is this?’
Hyeonjun looked at his mother again.
[There is a target that can be discerned.]
The Discernment message clearly pointed at his mother.
Gulp.
Hyeonjun’s throat bobbed.
The appearance of this message meant there was something hidden about his mother. At the same time, it meant he could uncover it with Discernment.
‘…No way.’
Hyeonjun’s heart began to pound.
With a trembling heart, he activated the skill.
[Activating <Skill – Discernment>.]
[Previously concealed information will now be revealed.]
[Information]
-Name: Yoon Sujeong
-Age: 48
-Trait: Unawakened
-Condition: Multiple illnesses [<Void Sediment>, <Petrification>]
Hyeonjun’s gaze snagged on the last item.
A disease with no precedent, so they had simply been calling it “Unknown.”
The name the doctors at the hospital had casually been using for their own convenience, “Abnormal Mana Poisoning,” had now been revealed by the System.
“Void Sediment… Petrification…”
Hyeonjun turned the names over in his mouth again and again, murmuring them under his breath.
‘So that’s what it was called.’
Five years, and this was the first real information he’d gotten.
He didn’t feel particularly happy about it.
A name was just a name. It meant nothing.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t been able to cure his mother simply because he didn’t know what it was called.
‘If you’re going to tell me, at least tell me properly.’
He’d assumed that since the skill had activated, something special would come of it.
The reality fell short of his expectations, and all the strength drained out of him.
‘Still, finding out the name is an achievement, I suppose.’
Hyeonjun stared hard at the name Void Sediment.
Just then, a new information window appeared.

-A form of existential mutation that occurs rarely due to Dimensional Contamination. If left untreated for a long period, there is a high likelihood of Petrification symptoms appearing.
-Treatment: [ The skill’s rank is too low to Discern!]
“……!”
Hyeonjun shot to his feet without realizing it.
Treatment.
No matter how many times he rubbed his eyes, the word was there: Treatment.
‘Th-the rank’s too low to Discern? What does that mean?’
His frantic hand passed straight through the translucent System Window.
“Shit……”
What kind of nonsense is this?
If you were going to show me, then show me everything!
Every part of him wanted to shout and demand answers.
But this was a six-bed ward.
Other people were here resting, trying to recover.
That fact alone pulled Hyeonjun back from the edge.
“Hah……”
‘Stay calm and think it through.’
Either way, he had managed to find out how to treat it.
If his rank was too low to Discern it, then all he had to do was raise his rank and solve it that way.
Hyeonjun sat back down in the guardian’s chair and calmly checked the information on Petrification as well.

-The body gradually hardens. Seizures and other symptoms may appear during the process, and continuous mana treatment can delay complete petrification and reduce how often these abnormal symptoms occur.
‘……So this is it.’
The reason he had come to this place today.
Hyeonjun let out a deep sigh.
‘For five years nothing happened, so I thought things would stay fine from here on.’
For the past five years, his mother had never regained consciousness, but there had been no other symptoms.
So he had assumed things would remain that way, but as it turned out, they hadn’t.
It had merely been like a virus in its incubation period, waiting for its moment to come.
Today’s seizure was only the beginning.
Unless she received delayed treatment, more seizures and symptoms would surely follow.
‘And even that is only delayed treatment, after all.’
What weighed on him most was that it wouldn’t solve the problem at its root.
‘For now, the best course is to proceed with delayed treatment while raising the rank of my Soul Circuit.’
As the rank rises, the Trait Skill grows along with it.
Once that happens, I should be able to learn the treatment for Void Sediment too.
‘That’s going to cost a lot of money.’
To speed up the rank increase, he would need not only the Copy Skill but also to buy runes directly and absorb them.
On top of that, there was the money for the delayed treatment itself.
‘Will I really be able to cover all of it?’
Maybe if I had no debts at all.
With debt already piled on, the list of places to spend money only grew, and his head throbbed.
It was only a short while ago that his income from Hunter work had grown and life had finally started to ease.
Before he could even savor that breathing room, other problems began to close in around his throat.
“The way we’ve been doing things won’t get us anywhere.”
I need more money.
And for a Hunter, more income means more risk.
Roaming the hunting grounds nonstop and pushing myself too hard to hunt.
Or entering a dungeon you can’t leave until it’s cleared.
‘It’s dangerous, but… I have no choice.’
I had finally found a lead on how to cure Mom’s illness.
Even if the future ahead turned out to be a living hell, I was prepared to face it willingly.
‘I’m sorry, Hyeona.’
I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my promise not to push myself too hard.
***
The office of Michuhol Guild.
Baek Jehyeok opened the door and walked in, summoned by his older brother Baek Jegeon, the guild’s Deputy Master.
“Why do you keep calling me in? A man not even in his forties and you’ve already forgotten how to use a smartphone?”
“I heard you didn’t go to Group 22. You went to Group 23 instead.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Have you already forgotten the entrance test you took?”
“Oh. Right.”
It had been several days already.
And he was bringing it up now.
Baek Jehyeok was dumbfounded.
“If you’re going to talk, then get on with it… It’s been a while already…”
“Do you think I’m as free as you are?”
Baek Jegeon flicked a middle finger at his younger brother and jerked his chin toward the sofa.
“Sit down and tell me what that guy was like.”
“That guy? Who?”
Baek Jehyeok yawned so wide his jaw seemed about to split, then dropped onto the sofa.
Baek Jegeon stared at his brother with open disgust.
“Why did you even go to Group 23?”
“Uh, why did I go again…?”
“You didn’t go to see that guy Jejung saved, did you, you bastard!”
Unable to hold back his frustration, Baek Jegeon hurled the clutter lying on the desk at him.
Baek Jehyeok easily tilted his head aside to dodge it, wearing an indifferent expression.
“What’s the big deal? Why are you making such a fuss?”
“You should at least report what he was like if you saw him.”
“What? Why would I?”
“That’s because you… haa…”
Baek Jegeon pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose and swallowed his anger.
“Forget it. Just tell me what that guy was like.”
“Hmm. He was definitely different from the other Hunters. His talent was outstanding. He was exactly the kind of person Baek Jerin described as a prodigy, I’d say.”
“…You’re saying he impressed even you that much?”
Baek Jehyeok.
A brat with no manners, no sense of decency, and no social grace whatsoever.
And yet praise for someone was coming out of that kid’s mouth.
It was an extremely rare thing.
“Of course, with a lousy Trait his growth ceiling is obvious. No matter how hard he struggles, he won’t make it into the upper tier.”
“Why do you talk like that? You didn’t just send him off without signing him, did you?”
“?”
“???”
“I did send him off, yeah. He said he didn’t want to join the guild.”
“Ah, damn it.”
“I tried everything to sign him, you know~”
Baek Jehyeok lied without so much as blinking.
Baek Jegeon knew that very well.
“I’m sure you did, of course.”
“He said he didn’t want to take on the risk because of his family situation. I can’t very well cling to his pant leg and beg.”
“Family situation?”
“I didn’t look into it, but he’s probably the breadwinner, don’t you think?”
Baek Jegeon immediately picked up the phone and gave an order.
The reply came back a few minutes later.
“Right. Their mother’s been hospitalized for a long time, the father’s not around, and there’s a younger sister below them.”
“Gives me chills. You dig into people’s backgrounds like it’s nothing.”
“Th-that’s, um…”
Baek Jegeon couldn’t find his words.
He tried to come up with an excuse, but nothing plausible came to mind, so he hung his head.
“Sorry for being this kind of brother…”
“Let’s just do our best.”
“…”
“Anyway, my guess was about right. Making someone risk their life to enter a dungeon for a man like that is crazy.”
“That’s true, but… I still want to get the contract locked in…”
“Hyung. There are certain principles a person has to keep.”
“I’m not talking about a contract to join the guild.”
“Then what is it?”
Baek Jegeon laid out his idea for his younger brother.
Baek Jehyeok’s eyes went wide.
“Hyung, are you a genius?”
“Heh.”
“But do you really have to go that far? We can’t get around inborn limits anyway, so he’s not going to climb very high.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Nothing in this world is a hundred percent. Especially not in this line of work.”
Leaving open even the slightest possibility.
That was Baek Jegeon’s way.
“Look up his contact info through HR and send him a message. I’ll draft the contract.”
“Ugh, what a pain…”
Under Baek Jegeon’s killing-intent glare, Baek Jehyeok slowly rose from his seat.
“I-I’ll ask Jejung. Looks like those two are already setting up a meeting, from what I can tell.”
“I don’t care how you do it, just make it happen somehow.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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