Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 86

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

Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (86)

Growth

Lee Si-hyeok came down below the cliff without delay.

Since it had been a while since he’d seen the sea, he would have liked to enjoy the scenery a bit, but he didn’t have that luxury. Things had become more difficult than expected.

Lee Si-hyeok came down to the beach and stood with his back to the sea.

Whoooosh…

The sound of waves crashing behind him.

Letting that noise flow like background music, he began carefully observing the cliff in front of him.

A steep cliff.

It was literally almost perpendicular. It stretched endlessly left and right, and extended long both up and down. This must be about the height of a 10-story apartment building.

Without the artifact he had prepared, even coming down would have been quite troublesome.

‘According to the information, there should be a bunker somewhere around here.’

Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes narrowed.

The expected candidate location was one of the various caves in that cliff.

However, unfortunately, since the exact location wasn’t specified, he had to find it himself.

Lee Si-hyeok’s gaze quickly crossed the cliff overgrown with weeds. From bottom left to top right. Drawing a diagonal line, he counted the number of caves.

“Twenty-seven.”

An absurd number.

Even if this was a limestone area, this many?

Of course, he had counted all the small holes the size of mouse holes, so it might seem like a lot.

But even considering that, this was too many.

After thinking for a moment, Lee Si-hyeok formed a hypothesis.

‘…They artificially created caves.’

Considering that a bunker was hidden somewhere around here, it was an all-too-easy deduction to make.

Perhaps they had attempted some kind of bluffing.

With that in mind, when he observed the cliff again, different points began to catch his eye.

There were certain patterns in the marks carved by wind.

The sediment direction was subtly misaligned with the surrounding strata.

These were traces so minute that one wouldn’t notice them at all without knowing they were artificial caves.

‘However…’

Should he exclude those artificial caves from the candidates?

That would be too hasty a judgment.

Rather, there was also the possibility that they had hidden the bunker in an artificial cave, not a natural one, by exploiting human psychology.

In the end, he had to examine all 27 caves.

Still, thanks to his recent deduction, he was able to establish clearer judgment criteria.

“Let’s start right away.”

Lee Si-hyeok nodded and activated his skill.

 

[Activating 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』.]

 

His vision turned blue.

 

* * *

 

A few hours later.

“Hmm…”

Lee Si-hyeok emerged from one of the caves in the cliff, letting out a contemplative sound. All he held in his hand was the rock climbing artifact. There had been no particular gains.

When he had activated his skill earlier to search for the bunker.

One problem had occurred.

His original plan was to use 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 to find caves where mana reactions could be confirmed.

Since the bunker was a product of magical engineering, the cave containing that bunker would inevitably have massive mana sleeping within it.

However, the problem was that identical mana reactions were confirmed in all the caves.

“Just how far did they take this bluffing?”

Even Lee Si-hyeok couldn’t have guessed that they had installed dummy bunkers in as many as 27 caves.

From the moment he confirmed the existence of artificial caves, he had thought it wouldn’t be easy, but he hadn’t expected it to be this extreme.

“They’re crazier than I thought.”

Lee Si-hyeok grumbled as he came down from the cliff.

Just in case, he had entered the nearest cave, but as expected. In a space that was only made to resemble a bunker, a magic stone was deliberately emitting mana reactions in all directions.

Once again, he crossed the gravel path and stood where he had stood before. This time he faced the sea.

‘What on earth did they hide?’

That was the first question that came to mind.

Just how important was what they were hiding that they would complicate things this much?

Lee Si-hyeok thought that perhaps the information Ryu Se-eun had written down might be wrong.

The assets recorded in her information totaled 31 types.

However, in Lee Si-hyeok’s judgment, they weren’t assets of that much value.

Of course, each one was a precious artifact and material. High-grade magic stones, legacy artifacts… they were treasures that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of.

However, if you asked whether they were worth hiding this strenuously, that was another matter.

‘There must be something more.’

He could see the sun slowly setting beyond the horizon.

It was already becoming evening.

Above the transparent sea, the sunset reflected and shattered as waves collided. The yellow reflected light gradually faded.

Lee Si-hyeok watched this scene for a moment, then slowly turned around.

“I should finish before it gets later.”

Before the sun completely set.

Fortunately, he had a method in mind.

He immediately sat down and crossed his legs. The damp gravel made its presence known through his pants, but he didn’t mind.

Instead, Lee Si-hyeok calmly settled his mind and closed his eyes.

Then he activated his skill.

Not a special skill, but a general skill.

—Flash.

 

[Activating 「Mana Sensitivity」.]

[Activating 「Mana Amplification」.]

 

He didn’t activate 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 like before.

There was something he had been feeling consistently for a while now.

『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 had started hitting limitations at some point. While it could analyze legacy artifacts without much difficulty, things began appearing that it couldn’t handle.

‘It was the same when I first saw Blackie, and ether is still far from complete analysis.’

And each time, a message appeared saying the skill needed to grow.

But wasn’t 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 EX-rank?

While Lee Si-hyeok had the unique skill called Blooming that could grow skills, this case was different. He couldn’t even imagine that there might be ranks higher than EX-rank.

Then how exactly was he supposed to make it grow?

He had been pondering this for quite a long time. Before participating in the seminar, and even while experiencing various incidents afterward. Thoughts about growth always remained in one corner of his mind.

But finding the answer wasn’t easy.

It was inevitable. Taking a skill that had already reached its peak and raising it one more level would be no different from saying he had to shatter the heavens.

As time passed and passed again.

“…”

A thought flashed through Lee Si-hyeok’s mind.

It must have been a few days before the seminar ended.

‘When I was checking the general skills that had ranked up one by one.

Perhaps he had been focusing too much on special skills? That thought.

Wasn’t that right? Lee Si-hyeok had countless resources. He had a total of 3 special skills, and even 『Mimicry』 had passive skills.

What about general skills?

They might lack rarity, but he had as many as 4 of them. Not only that, when combined with knowledge, know-how, intuition, and various other things that couldn’t be converted into numbers, it was truly an enormous level.

But what had his behavior been like until now?

‘…I’ve been relying too much on special skills.’

Even with such tremendous things, he hadn’t been able to utilize them properly.

Of course, he had used them in the right places at the right times, but at least the current Lee Si-hyeok thought there would be more ways to utilize them.

Not just using them when crafting artifacts.

In all aspects, in any way possible.

―Shiver!

Suddenly, a chilling sensation brushed across his skin.

Though invisible with his eyes closed, he could clearly feel an intangible energy. It felt like a stream of water flowing by, yet sometimes it also seemed like tangled threads.

Mana.

Originally, the way 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 worked was like this.

When the skill was activated, his vision would turn blue, and he would ‘see’ the flow of mana throughout the surrounding area with his eyes. Then the status window would organize all that information in an easy-to-read format.

But that meant it ended right there.

“…”

Lee Si-hyeok concentrated his mind. The sound of waves that had been like background music stopped, and he could no longer feel even the salty sea breeze.

A state of extreme concentration.

He read the mana using only two general skills: 「Mana Sensitivity」 and 「Mana Amplification」.

Naturally, it wasn’t easy. Until now, information had simply flowed into his head when he activated skills, but now he had to identify and analyze everything one by one.

Even so…

‘…I have to do it.’

Gulp, saliva went down his esophagus. His entire body heated up to the point where even the temperature of that saliva felt hot. The blood flowing through his veins resonated with the mana.

First, this vicinity, the immediate area.

Swoosh!

Mana that had been circling nearby brushed past his forearm for a moment.

He couldn’t let it slip away. Lee Si-hyeok furrowed his brow and ‘marked’ that mana in his mind.

Because he hadn’t caught it, the marked mana began to gradually move away from Lee Si-hyeok. However, since he had caught its tail earlier, a trace remained.

Eventually, he slowly followed the movement of the mana.

Left, right. It stopped once, then right again.

This time, the marked mana came into contact with other mana.

As they gradually touched like that, they slowly merged.

‘…They become one mass.’

The mana grew in size according to the theory he had studied.

After that, it was a repetition of similar events.

He continued tracking mana using only general skills.

Then, at some point, Lee Si-hyeok detected a change.

―Whoosh.

The mana that had only felt eerie was somehow coming across as gentle.

As if it were softly embracing his entire body…

Ding!

A message window appeared beneath his closed eyelids.

Though his eyes weren’t open, he could read the text.

 

[‘Mana’ accepts you.]

[Mana is essential energy that has existed since ancient times. Though it appears sharp and mighty on the surface, its interior is quieter than anything else.]

[You have understood this mana more clearly.]

[Accordingly, 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 grows!]

 

‘Is this success?’

Until just moments ago, Lee Si-hyeok had felt mana using all means except special skills.

Though he had only used two skills – Mana Sensitivity and Amplification – he had mobilized all the knowledge and know-how he had accumulated.

As a result, he could feel mana much more clearly.

Simply put, it was like this.

When observing with 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』, he was just confirming the ‘result’, but the process just now allowed him to know the process rather than the result.

How mana clumped together and behaved.

He could now understand all of that.

However, it was still difficult to clearly explain the realization from earlier.

Just like how you might suddenly become good at something you couldn’t do after practicing consistently, he had simply approached mana more essentially after analyzing and re-analyzing it.

Rather than ‘this is exactly how I succeeded’, it was closer to ‘somehow I succeeded while doing this’.

‘I wonder if the skill growing without the rank increasing is similar logic.’

This kind of realization would be in a realm difficult to express numerically.

“Whew…”

Lee Si-hyeok let out a light sigh.

He had consumed too much energy in an instant. A feeling of exhaustion spread through his entire body. After briefly taking out Blackie to replenish his mana, he immediately opened his eyes.

At the same time, he activated 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』.

Then the scene he saw.

“As expected.”

It was different from before.

All the mana that had been invisible was now revealed, and he could even see in detail what routes they moved along.

Then there was no need to hesitate.

Lee Si-hyeok immediately searched for the location of the bunker.

And he let out a small sigh.

“Ah, this…”

 

[Search complete.]

[Hidden 28th Cave discovered.]

[Location: 100m Depth]

 

He almost never would have found it in his lifetime.

 

* * *

 

“Aaaaah!”

Park Cheol-min, Chairman of Chronos Industry, banged his head against the cell wall. Though his head rang painfully against the hard concrete, he didn’t care.

“Damn it, damn it!”

The criminals imprisoned with him blinked their eyes.

Rather than being scared, their eyes showed curiosity, like looking at a zoo monkey.

“Why’s that guy acting like that all of a sudden?”

“Leave him be, he must have gone crazy.”

“Well… I’d probably be like that too if Chronos got completely cleaned up and I got dragged here. All that wasted money must be killing him, right?”

Hearing such words in his ears, Park Cheol-min’s self-harm became more severe.

Words that hit the mark. Because his stomach hurt like crazy. Moreover, it was torturous to the point of madness that lowly creatures he normally wouldn’t even associate with were mocking him.

“These damn…”

“Hey, are you cursing at us?”

“N-no. It’s just talking to myself…”

“Strangely sounds like you’re talking about us. Am I mistaken?”

But it was also difficult to fight back.

The status of being a major corporation chairman was now useless anywhere. Thanks to the Association uprooting everything, he couldn’t even be confined to a comfortable solitary cell.

He would probably have to rot here for the rest of his life.

“Grrrrrgh….”

Park Cheol-min clutched his stomach and collapsed.

My money! My home! My building!

He was a man obsessed with material greed. While Pyo Jae-hwan had sociopathic tendencies and was crazy about ether, Park Cheol-min craved only money and joined hands with the Eterion Principal.

Glorious memories of the past flashed quickly through his mind.

Days when he lived more wealthy and affluent than anyone else….

Then suddenly, one particular memory struck him.

“Kiyaaaak! Uaaak!”

“Cr-crazy bastard. Why is he like this?”

“Has he lost his mind?”

That was the happiest memory of Park Cheol-min’s life.

Danyang County, Chungcheongbuk-do.

The bunker built beneath the cliff coast, in an underwater cave!

That place was constructed solely from Park Cheol-min’s greed. To safely store the precious collection items he had gathered throughout his lifetime.

From Legacy Artifacts to Gate Byproducts of tremendous value.

Things that couldn’t be bought even with hundreds of millions.

But among them, the most precious thing was….

‘My precious! That one absolutely cannot be lost!’

It was a super-large monster he had secretly smuggled out from a Gate in the past.

Originally, breeding and experimenting on monsters was strictly prohibited under South Korean law, but he had somehow succeeded in acquiring it.

Since that bunker itself was practically built for that monster, there was no need to say more.

Even while Park Cheol-min clutched his stomach and groaned, just thinking of his magnificent monster made him smile foolishly.

“…He really has gone crazy.”

“Should we call the Prison Guard, sir?”

That was because the monster was Boss-level.

And of an incredible rank at that.

‘Damn. What a waste, such a waste!’

He hadn’t even been able to experiment on it properly yet!

Even the superficial experiments he had conducted showed tremendous results. If he had done it properly, what great gains it would have been.

Park Cheol-min screamed.

But only briefly, as he blinked, remembering something.

‘Did I feed that guy?’

He definitely hadn’t, right?

That cute creature was very violent despite its appearance, and when it went hungry, it would cause tremendous havoc. In fact, many Hunters had died during the process of bringing it over.

‘But well… it doesn’t matter anyway.’

After all, he would rot here for the rest of his life.

That creature would also struggle inside the bunker and eventually starve to death.

Park Cheol-min continued thrashing about for a while longer before his strength gave out and he fell into a deep sleep.

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