The Buffs I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 2

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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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Episode 2.
Jeong So-hyeon.
Jeong So-hyeok’s older sister.
She is an Awakener.
A true Awakener—unlike her half-awakened brother.
Her Rank is A.
The face of the Baekryeon Guild itself.
Yet she carries a worry.
An annual salary of five billion won.
Her standing within the guild.
Her own house, her own car.
None of these things fill the void.
It is growth—or rather, the lack of it.
Her progress halted on the 49th Floor.
No matter how many times she challenged it, she could not defeat the boss of the 50th Floor.
She herself had come to believe it too.
I cannot kill that thing.
The conviction had crystallized, buried in the depths of her mind.
As the face of Baekryeon, she could not abandon the challenge.
Yet no matter how many times she tried, no clear path to victory emerged.
She was trapped.
* * *
“Weapon maintenance is complete.”
“Support team is ready!”
“……Exhale.”
Guild members gathered around Jeong So-hyeon.
“We’re all set.”
Her eyes held resolve.
Yet beneath it all, her hands trembled slightly—a lack of true conviction.
She entered the Tower.
A faint shimmer bloomed before her.
[You have entered the 50th Floor.]
[Name: Jeong So-hyeon]
[Affiliation: Republic of Korea]
[Level: 49LV]
[Ability: Heaven-Breaking Great Sword]
[Unique Skill: Heaven-Breaking]
[General Skills: Downward Strike, Upward Strike, Spinning Strike, Sword Energy Release……]
[Active Buffs: World Tree’s Blessing, Battle Cry, Berserker’s Soul, Hero’s Strength, Guardian’s Grace, Iron Will……]
Her Status Window materialized before her eyes.
And then.
A sharp ring of steel.
A massive Great Sword materialized in her grip.
“It feels lighter today.”
She gripped the hilt with all her strength.
Her gaze fixed forward.
A vast Ravine stretched before her.
A full moon hung in the sky above.
At its center stood a single figure.
―A low, rumbling growl.
“Lycantrope…….”
As Jeong So-hyeon confirmed its presence.
[50th Floor Mission: Eliminate the Lycantrope.]
[Time Limit: 4 hours]
[Objective: Lycantrope 0/1]
[Failure: Death, or mission abandonment]
The Clear conditions appeared.
‘……Four hours.’
The time limit always felt suffocating.
On the 49th Floor, it had been six hours.
The difficulty had surged more than threefold, yet the time limit had actually shrunk.
‘Even if I pummeled a stationary opponent like a punching bag, it’d take two hours.’
Clear it while defending too?
That doesn’t make any sense.
Then.
―Roaaaaarrr—!
“Ugh……!”
Their eyes met.
Eyes burning with a brilliant, blood-red flame.
The creature that had been standing on two legs suddenly collapsed forward.
Four-legged locomotion.
Then it began charging at tremendous speed.
What made the Lycantrope truly terrifying was its mobility.
In an instant it reached Jeong So-hyeon,
and swung those massive claws.
“Grrgh!”
Clash!!
A crystalline ring echoed across the Ravine.
Great Sword and claw.
She barely blocked it.
But then.
‘Wait, what?’
Something felt off.
Jeong So-hyeon, holding the Great Sword,
and the monster, driving its front leg forward—
both felt it simultaneously.
‘Lighter.’
―Grrr……?
Thump!
Jeong So-hyeon, feeling strength still remained, flicked the front leg away.
Three strides.
The creature skidded backward, gouging deep furrows in the earth.
The Lycantrope’s stance crumbled.
Jeong So-hyeon didn’t waste the opening.
“Haaaaa!!”
Crash!!
She brought the Great Sword down in a Downward Strike from on high.
* * *
At that moment, in the Baekryeon Guild where Jeong So-hyeon had vanished.
“Do you think she’ll clear it today, So-hyeon?”
One of the support staff spoke with concern.
“Impossible.”
“This is her twelfth attempt. Not a single person in the entire country has succeeded after exceeding ten tries.”
“That’s simply where her talent ends.”
Words that might have sounded like gossip.
But they were resignation.
After all, they themselves were members of Baekryeon.
Who would want to see the guild’s figurehead stop growing?
The figurehead’s growth coming to an end
was the same as the guild’s growth ending.
“Two hours elapsed.”
“Phew… time’s flying faster than expected.”
“Let’s wait a little longer. The time limit is four hours anyway.”
“I’ve already given up. Might as well prepare some words of consolation for this time too.”
Then.
Whoosh!
“……It’s over.”
A blue aura manifesting in empty air.
The phenomenon signifying the clear was complete.
Jeong So-hyeon, battered and bleeding, emerged.
He dragged the Great Sword behind him, trudging out of the dungeon.
“……You did well, So-hyeon.”
“Oh, unnie. Are you okay?”
The support team swarmed over in an instant.
Their task from here on was already set.
Treating Jeong So-hyeon.
And consoling her, now that the light had drained from her eyes.
“Unnie……?”
Jeong So-hyeon said nothing.
She stared silently into empty space.
“…….”
But they could tell.
Something was different.
The support team, who had watched her every day, was keenly attuned to any shift in her.
“……Clear.”
“What?”
“……We cleared it.”
Jeong So-hyeon murmured.
Everyone leaned in to listen.
“The Clear was a success.”
* * *
“Haaaaah…….”
Chirp, chirp.
A morning bird sang.
Sunlight streaming through the window struck his face.
Come to think of it, the bed’s position was brilliant.
More effective than any alarm clock.
“Graaaah……!”
He stretched and rose to his feet.
After a quick wash.
He opened the refrigerator.
Rumble.
“Ah…….”
Right.
I didn’t eat dinner last night.
Last night, when all my cherry tomatoes were stolen.
My sister had told me to order delivery.
But nothing else could satisfy the craving.
‘Now that I think about it, I’m starving for tomatoes.’
He couldn’t forgive this.
Someone eating his entire dinner and fleeing the scene.
No matter that they’re an Awakener.
No matter that they contribute living expenses!
‘If I use the skill again, will more grow?’
He peered out the window.
All that existed was a trunk that must have been three meters tall.
Not a fruit in sight.
“Status Window.”
He needed a closer look at his abilities.
There might be something he’d overlooked.
Ding!
[Name: Jeong So-hyeok]
[Affiliation: South Korea]
[Level: 1 LV]
[Ability: World Tree’s Blessing]
[Exclusive Skills: World Tree’s Blessing, World Tree’s Servant]
[General Skills: None]
It had been ages since he last called out his Status Window directly.
More embarrassing than he’d expected.
“Huh?”
Then, a strange phrase caught his eye.
“World Tree’s Servant?”
His lips trembled.
And for good reason.
This skill hadn’t existed when he first Awakened.
‘Could it be…… a Secondary Awakening?’
A second Awakening following the initial one.
The effects of a Secondary Awakening.
Most notably, a second exclusive skill.
Fundamentally, each Awakener has one exclusive skill.
One ability, one exclusive skill.
For example, his sister had the Heaven-Breaking Great Sword as her ability and Heaven-Breaking as her skill.
An exclusive skill was, in essence, the very identity of an individual Awakener.
How could anyone have two identities?
‘Probably only the world’s number-one ranker had a precedent for this.’
He swallowed hard.
With trembling hands, he clicked on the second skill.
The description unfolded before him.
[EX-Rank Skill ― World Tree’s Servant]
―The blessed become servants of the World Tree.
―Current Target: 1
“E, EX!?”
He gasped.
He quickly clamped his hand over his mouth.
‘EX-rank……’
It was common knowledge that S-rank was the highest tier.
Even the world’s number-one ranker, who’d undergone a Secondary Awakening, only reached S-rank.
But EX-rank? What on earth was that?
‘The blessed become servants of the World Tree.’
The description was almost absurdly simple.
“Current Target: 1?”
As if bewitched, he clicked on the part that read “1”.
Then.
[Target ― Jeong So-hyeon (Heaven-Breaking Great Sword)]
“……My sister?”
Why was her name listed there?
He retraced his memories.
He had no recollection of ever buffing his sister.
He’d never even used his abilities on anyone but himself.
Then, a hypothesis flickered through his mind.
“The cherry tomatoes……”
Those cherry tomatoes his sister had eaten entirely yesterday.
What if by consuming the one blessed by the World Tree’s Blessing, she’d received the buff?
In that moment.
Brring-brring-brring♪
“……My sister?”
His sister was calling him.
The timing couldn’t have been more suspicious.
“Hello?”
―So-hyeok!!
“……You startled me. What’s wrong?”
―That tomato yesterday! No, wait. I’m coming home now! Just wait for me!
Vroooom!
Just before the call cut off,
he heard the sound of his sister flooring the accelerator.
“……Huh.”
He’d never seen his sister this frazzled before.
He looked carefully at the stem of the cherry tomato plant.
“Oh.”
A new fruit had grown in its place.
* * *
“To celebrate So-hyeon’s conquest of the 50th Floor! A toast to that!”
“A toast!!”
Clink!
The sound of dozens of glasses colliding echoed through the space.
A drinking gathering where nearly everyone from the Baekryeon Guild had assembled.
And the guest of honor was none other than Jeong So-hyeon.
“So-hyeon! Why are you so down? Come on, drink up!”
“Ah, haha. Thank you…….”
Usually, a guild didn’t throw a celebration quite like this just because an Awakener had cleared a single floor.
The significance of this gathering lay in that particular number: 50.
The guild’s first Clear of the 50th Floor.
The weight of that achievement was immense.
One of the essential conditions for a mid-sized guild to advance into the ranks of large guilds was—
the possession of a Clear-holder for the 50th Floor.
The Baekryeon Guild had just completed its transition from the apex of mid-sized to the threshold of large-guild status.
‘A large guild…….’
Jeong So-hyeon set down her glass.
Her mind drifted elsewhere.
She had no urge to smile.
The reason was singular.
This victory had not been hers alone.
‘Something felt off.’
At first, she’d chalked it up to being in peak condition.
Blocking the Lycantrope’s claws.
Severing its entire left arm with a single strike.
But as the battle progressed, the strangeness only deepened.
No matter how many blows landed on her, they barely hurt.
And when she attacked in return, the beast recoiled as if struck by an invisible force.
‘Under normal circumstances, a solid hit like that would’ve sent me crawling out to surrender.’
This power wasn’t her own.
She knew that better than anyone.
But why today, of all days?
Who on earth had—
‘Did the guild somehow recruit a prodigy buffer I don’t know about?’
That made no sense.
If they had, I’d have been informed first.
She retraced her steps through the day.
What was different about today?
What had changed?
‘Training as usual. Lunch at my regular spot. A meeting with the guild master. And…….’
“Oh. I stopped by So-hyeok’s place.”
Dragged into an Awakening he never asked for.
Forced to abandon the baseball he once loved.
My poor little brother, cooped up in that Rooftop Room.
“Sigh…….”
Just thinking about So-hyeok was enough to darken her mood.
And there was precious little she could do to help.
All she managed was to cover his living expenses.
‘Come to think of it, that kid…… even though I give him more than enough, he was eating cherry tomatoes for dinner.’
Koreans live on rice.
What was he doing trying to substitute vegetables?
‘Hmm…… cherry tomatoes.’
Gulp.
“Ah.”
Without meaning to, her mouth watered.
Now that she thought about it, those cherry tomatoes from back then.
They’d been incredibly delicious.
The memory of how she’d eaten every last one without a second thought.
Of everything that day, the only thing different from usual had been those cherry tomatoes.
‘Could there have been something in that cherry tomato after all?’
Hmm.
“Ha ha ha!”
That couldn’t be it.
The kind of medicinal herbs that boost physical abilities can only be found in the Tower.
How would that guy have gotten his hands on something like that?
‘Well, So-hyeok is an Awakener, but still.’
He wouldn’t have gone crazy enough to enter the Tower.
Besides, his Awakening ability isn’t even combat-oriented.
‘Come to think of it, what was his ability again?’
She mulled it over.
It was definitely a Buff-type power…….
‘The World Tree’s Blessing, wasn’t it?’
She had a vivid memory of thinking the name was quite grand for an ability.
Status Window.
She carefully checked her Buff list.
It hadn’t even been three hours since she left the Tower, so it should still be active.
“Current active Buffs…….”
Battle Cry.
Berserker’s Soul.
Hero’s Strength.
Guardian’s Grace.
Iron Will.
……
……
……
“?”
[World Tree’s Blessing]
‘World Tree’s Blessing?’
Why is this……?
Click.
“…….”
[World Tree’s Blessing]
[Rank: EX-rank]
“……Huh?”
Clang!
A sharp sound of breaking glass.
All eyes turned toward her.
“Ha ha, So-hyeon, you haven’t even had a drink — what’s wrong? Did you get drunk on the atmosphere?”
“I, I should head out first.”
Whoosh!
Jeong So-hyeon vanished from the banquet hall at invisible speed.
“What, what’s going on?”
Clunk.
She fired up the car engine and entered her destination.
[Destination entered……]
“My brother’s rooming house!!!”
Something had gone wrong.
The buff I raised had become too powerful.
Author |
Naengmyeon Hwachai
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dreambooks
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Submission |
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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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