Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (46)

An Unidentifiable Fellow

A few days later.

Inje County, Gangwon Province, Snow Flame Empress’s Grand Mansion.

“How does it taste?”

The Snow Flame Empress asked Lee Si-hyeok with a deliberately tense tone. Her eyes were so earnest they felt pitiful to watch.

However, Lee Si-hyeok didn’t answer immediately and slightly lowered his head.

On the dining table.

Along with elegant tableware, food was beautifully arranged on the plate.

“Aglio e Olio Pasta, I see.”

“Y-yes. Hurry and try it before it gets cold.”

“Hmm.”

But contrary to her urging, Lee Si-hyeok appeared extremely cautious.

He was as serious as if handling an artifact. Slowly smelling it, visually savoring the plating, and poking around the noodles this way and that.

“Grr…!”

The Snow Flame Empress grew restless. Just as her tightly clenched fists were turning red.

Chomp.

Lee Si-hyeok’s mouth moved.

Starting from the left side. He gently rolled the noodles on the left side of his mouth to feel the flavor, slowly chewed with his front teeth, then moved it to the right side. He also rolled his tongue around to evenly enjoy the taste.

After what felt like hours but was only a few seconds.

—Flash!

Lee Si-hyeok’s closed eyes suddenly opened wide.

The Snow Flame Empress, who had been watching with bated breath from close distance, stepped back hesitantly.

Isaac, who was also dining nearby, got a strange look in his eyes. That look was like… the Boss was starting his nonsense again…

Anyway, Lee Si-hyeok reluctantly parted his lips.

“I’ll give you my comprehensive conclusion.”

“Co-comprehensive! What are your criteria!”

“My subjective opinion. Nothing could be more objective.”

“Huh…!”

The Snow Flame Empress felt her heart pounding. She never imagined she would be like this. Of all things, to be this nervous about having just one dish evaluated.

The moment Lee Si-hyeok’s words were about to be spoken, she squeezed her eyes shut.

The words that soon reached her ears.

“It’s the worst.”

It was a firm tone without a hint of emotion.

“…What…?”

“I’m sorry to say this, but it would be better to just order delivery instead.”

“H-how could that be…”

The Snow Flame Empress couldn’t help but be shocked.

No matter what, calling it the worst!

She had gone through the trouble of cooking personally, wasn’t this too harsh an evaluation? But since she was the one who asked for an honest assessment, she couldn’t make any rebuttal.

Ah, how powerless…

In the end, the Snow Flame Empress trudged over and slumped down in a corner of the restaurant.

“…”

Lee Si-hyeok, watching her, gave a bitter smile.

‘I had no choice.’

It had already been two days since the events in the Imitation World ended and they returned to Earth.

The Obsidian Mining Site had disappeared, saying it had fulfilled its role.

The place where they opened their eyes was none other than the Snow Flame Empress’s mansion where the mining site Gate had opened.

But since it happened to be morning, the Snow Flame Empress said she should treat them and brought out food she made herself. The taste was so bad it was like serving food waste that he had to forcibly hold back the urge to vomit.

It was fortunate that Hunter Lee Gang-mok left as soon as he woke up from being unconscious the whole time, because if that rich young master had been there too, he would have been truly horrified.

Still, enduring it meant he ended up eating it all.

‘But that should only be for a day or two.’

This was already the fifth meal, and she showed no signs of tiring as she kept serving food every time.

No matter how much you can’t spit in a smiling face, he felt like he couldn’t endure it anymore. His stomach felt queasy.

So he told her coldly as she wanted…

“You asked me to speak objectively.”

“That’s your subjective opinion! It’s not objective!”

Saying that, the Snow Flame Empress glanced at Isaac. It was silent pressure that Isaac’s opinion would be different.

However, seeing Isaac immediately shake his head, the Snow Flame Empress screamed once again.

“Aglio e Olio is a dish that’s hard to fail at no matter who makes it. Just having garlic, olive oil, and pasta noodles should make it taste decent.”

“F-foolish. Anyone can see it’s fusion cuisine!”

“Fusion should be done in moderation. What kind of maniac dumps banana and anchovy sauce on pasta at the same time?”

“Here I am…”

Really, she seemed to have a strange pride about cooking.

Eventually, she crouched down and stayed there for a while, then quietly left the restaurant.

Her protruding lips showed she was quite sulky.

“Phew.”

Lee Si-hyeok let out a small sigh, cleaned up the dishes, then returned to the room the Snow Flame Empress had given him and threw himself onto the bed.

His head buzzed with fatigue.

Actually, he had originally planned to return to Seoul immediately after coming back.

But there was a reason he was staying here…

 

[You are currently in a state of extreme accumulated fatigue.]

[Your entire body becomes tired due to ‘overwork.’]

[You cannot use 《Clear Mirror Still Water》 for the time being.]

 

It was because of these messages.

Indeed, Lee Si-hyeok had consumed tremendous energy creating the Imitation World.

Mental strength, mana, concentration, and so on.

He had poured all his nerves into creating a perfect artifact in a short time.

Even though he looked fine on the outside, this was simply because Lee Si-hyeok was a person so accustomed to fatigue.

‘Still, the status window has never stepped in to say it was dangerous before…’

Seeing it give such a direct warning, he must have really overdone it.

Well, since things turned out this way, he decided to rest at the Snow Flame Empress’s mansion for a few days.

A tranquil grand mansion deep in the mountains. Even a well-maintained garden.

“It’s healing.”

Except for the Snow Flame Empress’s cooking… no.

Still, since her sincerity went into it, it would be better to gratefully accept even that.

After all, the Snow Flame Empress personally making food she didn’t usually cook was probably a kind of expression of gratitude to Lee Si-hyeok for saving Orbes.

Lee Si-hyeok smiled softly and brought up other messages.

 

[Your general skills have grown in rank!]

[「Mana Control」 C-rank → B-rank]

[「Mana Sensitivity」 D-rank → C-rank]

[「Mana Conduction」 D-rank → C-rank]

[「Mana Amplification」 D-rank → C-rank]

 

First, the growth of general skills.

When he activated 「Mana Sensitivity」 and waved his hand through the air, he could definitely feel the improved sensitivity. The mana that used to barely register now felt a bit denser.

He could even roughly grasp the situation outside the room.

When he expanded the range and carefully scanned the mansion, he detected the Snow Flame Empress’s presence in the restaurant on the lower floor.

‘Don’t tell me she’s practicing cooking or something?’

…In any case.

Next was about 〈Hollow Trace〉.

The newly unlocked ‘Dimensional Leap Technology’. It’s a technique that can read mana wavelengths to create dimensional gates to other dimensions and even cross over to them.

Since he had already grasped it, understanding wasn’t difficult.

However, it wasn’t completely omnipotent, and there were certain limitations.

‘The conditions are extremely demanding.’

Isaac’s crossing over to Orbes back then was possible in an instant because it was a world that had been connected once before by Elec, but it should be considered nearly impossible under normal circumstances.

Of course, Lee Si-hyeok intended to keep researching that impossibility.

He had to somehow visit Orbes again to learn the magical engineering he had missed.

‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.’

Ah, come to think of it, there was also a message related to Orbes.

Lee Si-hyeok’s gaze turned forward again.

 

[The Imitation World 〈Orbes〉 reveres you.]

[Due to the special privilege’s influence, your heroic tale has been passed down to the people. O savior of the world! The moved Orbes People welcome you.]

[Currently, your influence in Orbes is comparable to that of a deity.]

[Accordingly, a common goal has been established.]

[Orbes’s development speed will accelerate further.]

 

“…”

So-called auto-hunting.

Honestly, he never imagined that the special privilege would be transmitted to Elec. Much less that it would lead to such results.

Still, the outcome was remarkable when viewed as a whole.

Lee Si-hyeok didn’t know when he would visit Orbes again, but when that time came, he would be able to directly encounter magical engineering that had developed like crazy.

It wasn’t a bad feeling at all.

‘The gains are surprisingly enormous.’

Not in terms of money. However, considering Lee Si-hyeok’s goals, he had obtained tremendous rewards.

“Wait a minute.”

Come to think of it, didn’t he also secure financial gains?

And tremendously so at that.

Snap! Lee Si-hyeok, who had bolted upright, activated his skill.

 

[You can currently enter 『Subspace』.]

[Currently storing a total of 327 items.]

 

The artifacts he had gathered from Orbes’s underground treasury.

All those precious treasures were completely preserved in Lee Si-hyeok’s subspace.

‘Let me go in and take a look right away.’

Lee Si-hyeok didn’t hesitate and pushed his body into the subspace. A small spatial gap rippled for a moment, then swallowed his entire body in an instant.

The interior looked like outer space.

Everything around was pitch black, but thanks to the stars embroidered in the sky, it didn’t feel particularly dark. Rather, it was closer to being bright.

 

[You cannot use 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 in this space.]

 

He tried activating the skill just in case, but it didn’t work.

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been looking around with narrowed eyes, slowly began walking through the cosmic space.

A total of 327 artifacts.

Since he had thrown them haphazardly into the treasury, he hadn’t been able to examine them properly. However, he could tell at a glance that each one was at least a Legacy Artifact or higher.

‘I should research them one by one properly.’

As he was walking while calming his excited heart, something caught Lee Si-hyeok’s eye.

A round form roughly scattered among the artifacts.

It was so small that he almost missed it.

“…What is this?”

He had no memory of taking something like this from the treasury.

No matter how urgent the situation was, he remembered everything he had taken. Moreover, with such a distinctive appearance, it would have definitely remained in his memory.

Lee Si-hyeok tilted his head and carefully picked it up.

Unlike its pitch-black exterior, the texture was extremely soft.

When he applied slight pressure with his fingers, it felt squishy, somehow like holding a cotton ball.

When he channeled mana to identify what it was, the cotton ball suddenly vibrated faintly.

Woom, woom!

 

[An Unknown Creature is responding to your mana!]

 

“A creature?”

It doesn’t feel like a living creature though?

However, Lee Si-hyeok could soon understand the meaning.

 

[The creature is awakening from sleep.]

 

Pop! Pop!

Eyes suddenly sprouted on the cotton ball’s face… well, the area presumed to be its face.

“What the.”

That wasn’t the end of it.

Soon a crack appeared below the eyes, and with a “Waah!” sound, a large mouth formed.

Two large eyes looked at Lee Si-hyeok with sparkling curiosity.

Was it his imagination? For a moment, the phenomenon of a newly hatched duckling recognizing the first being it sees as its mother flashed through his mind.

Realizing this, he immediately tried to avert his gaze, but it was already too late.

“Maah!”

A joyful cry echoed throughout the entire subspace.

 

[The Unknown Creature has recognized you as its master!]

[You can view the creature’s information. Would you like to view it?]

 

“Huh…”

Lee Si-hyeok stared blankly at the message that appeared.

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