Chapter 131 - Heading to the Dark (1)

'I need to decide on my own.'

Hyun started to think about what he should do from then on.

Thanks to the Truth’s authority, he had become neutral. Not only that, but she’d said she was fond of him.

Going to the Heavens was out of the question, but if he wished so, he would probably be able to receive full support from the Holy Kingdom.

There was no way his tendency would fall to the three digits. Not only that, but he didn't need to worry about his position anymore, so it was an incredible benefit!

Despite all that, Hyun didn't seem excited.

'It's weird.'

There was something bothering him.

'It's probably her.'

Hyun looked at Louise, who was sleeping on the sofa.

He'd promised they'd go hunting at night, but since she was sleeping, he hadn't woken her up.

What was Louise's real identity?

Every time he got involved with her, his tendency grew closer to the Abyss.

The reason behind the tendency changes of a user was simple—it meant you had contributed to a certain faction.

It meant that something he'd done related to Louise had weakened the Heavens or made the Abyss stronger.

Maybe it was both.

But even if she had a seed of darkness implanted in her… the rate at which his tendency changed was too much.

'At this point, wouldn't it make sense if Louise was a demon?'

Hyun thought of a possibility but soon shook his head.

In the video he'd seen where Louise appeared with Keidrial, she was clearly a Royal-ranking Angel.

She'd lost her crystal wings due to Deception, and because of that, she’d probably lost her memories.

Hyun knew a lot about Angels and Demons. He knew that the nature of a Transcendent didn't change.

An Angel was forever an Angel, and a Demon was forever a Demon.

But to think that someone who wasn't a Demon could drag his tendency toward the Abyss so much surprised him.

'An Angel who drags someone to the Abyss…'

He had no choice but to take some time to think of Louise-related things.

* * *

A week after Truth appeared…

Posts of users who had gone to the Heavens began appearing on the Asrian community boards.

The first thread that appeared was that of a famous user.

He was a streamer who had gotten obsessed with praying after becoming a Holy Knight. He was obsessed with the idea of going to the Heavens.

He uploaded a video and a short commentary of what he'd experienced in the Heavens.

「I didn't find the Heavens that impressive. Was it a place worthy of reaching after spending an entire day praying? I don't think so!

If you saw the video, you'd notice that they only let you roam around the entrance. You're not allowed to go inside. Not only that, but I haven't seen the face of a single Angel!」

Many things didn't show up properly on the video, so lots of people asked questions.

- Didn't you obtain a new skill? They said that you can receive skills in the Heavens.

- (OP) I got one skill that reduces the cooldown of your main skill by 5%.

- Isn't that quite impressive?

- I'm not sure. Considering how big of a fuss they made out of it, I think it's a lackluster reward.

Rather than the skill, the biggest reward was sacred power!

Those past few days, people began learning about the importance of Sacred Power and Demonic Energy.

The power wielded by Transcendents…

According to the revealed information, skills that used 'sacred power' were all incredibly powerful.

That was also the reason why everyone wanted to go to the Heavens.

- This guy has 600 sacred power, lol. He hid his number on the interface but made a mistake in one part of the video.

- Was this all him trying to manipulate people? Lol.

- (OP) No. After completing the job ascension, I became a Holy Knight; that's why I gained so much sacred power. I obtained 600 because I was lucky. Most people shouldn't hope to become as lucky as me.

- Fact: The maximum amount of sacred power a Holy Knight can obtain is 1000. The OP still has 40% left to go.

- OP's inner thoughts: Oh f***! I need to go one more time next week…!

- It's amazing the lengths people are willing to go just to reduce competition, lol.

- This guy is a Holy Knight, right? Doesn't he need sacred power because of his job type? If you have other jobs, you don't need it that much, honestly.

- Secondary account of OP.

- Unless you have a character like a Necromancer or Dark Priest, there's no harm in getting some sacred power.

Users were very attracted to the 'sacred power.'

They'd known for a while, thanks to the players of the previous game, that sacred power became more important the further you progressed through the game.

Magic and sacred power were powers that usually appeared after the second or even third job ascensions.

One of the two had appeared unexpectedly fast, so it was normal that users were excited.

On top of that, when people learned that Holy-type jobs were most likely to receive rewards from the Heavens, the preferences for the job ascensions of the users began to change.

'If I keep praying, I'll eventually be able to reach the Heavens. In that case, wouldn't it be better if I chose a Holy-type job?'

The number of users that went to the Holy Kingdom, or people that chose the Holy Kingdom as a starting city, increased.

* * *

Shade Guild's private room…

Hyun discovered something incredible after making Salon and TarrTarr join the Guild.

He’d thought that Louise was younger than TarrTarr, but in reality, they were the same age!

The first time he’d met Louise, she was ten years old, so in his mind, she was still just a kid.

They were surprised by each other from the first time they met.

"Oh, there's someone who looks weak. What level are you? I'm 200."

"Is she really an NPC? She looks like a user… Aren't you trying to deceive me again?"

"It's true. She's around the same age as you, so get along with her."

Although he was timid, he was sociable, so they were probably going to get along.

Including Ain and Salon, there were, in total, five members in the guild, so the private room became noisier.

Salon was surprised after looking at Louise, and he was surprised again a few hours later, after he saw TarrTarr.

"Haha, this kid was, in reality, bad!"

He ended up discovering TarrTarr's real ability.

Compared to a normal person, he was talented, but compared to Hyun… No, he lacked even compared to him!

Salon laughed while dodging TarrTarr's attacks. It was as if he'd become intoxicated by his own movements.

"Haha, try to hit me at least once."

"But I'm a Combo Thief! I'm not good at PvP!"

"Am I not a Combo Thief as well?"

The sight of the oldest member using a middle school student to throw off the anger he had accumulated until then looked ugly, but since he didn't seem to have any ill intentions, Hyun just looked from a distance.

After all, he knew that Salon's smile would soon disappear.

"Duel? How about with me?"

Ain said with her eyes shining. Salon shrugged his shoulders.

"No, I'm a Combo Thief, after all… I'm not that interested in PvP…"

TarrTarr, who had been saved from Salon's pranks by Ain, quickly left the place.

"What about now?"

"Ehem… That was to help him with… combos. He's unexpectedly talented. Haha…"

The person Salon had the most difficulty dealing with was Ain.

He still remembered how easily he was defeated during the Count's Quest.

After that, he'd seen many videos of Ain fighting and realized the gap between their talents.

In the end, he found his own path. At the time, he became so frustrated that he’d fallen to self-loathing.

He never thought he would be in the same guild as her… you really never know what the future holds.

'Five people… Not bad for a new guild.'

Hyun smiled in satisfaction after looking at the guild that had become noisier than before.

Although there were people from all around the world that had different jobs gathered in one place, things hadn't changed that much.

If he had to pick one thing that had changed, it was that they had a common base.

Each party member spent their time hunting, doing quests, practicing duels, etc, and from time to time, they gathered in the private room and spent time together.

Of course, Louise's routine completely changed.

Louise started to have fun while hunting at night.

"If you think things are about to get dangerous, use this."

Hyun gave Louise an expensive scroll.

It was a scroll that allowed you to teleport to the private room.

It was overwhelmingly more expensive than a teleport gate, so it wasn't frequently used, even among rankers.

There weren't that many in stock, so Hyun had to spend a lot of money to buy one.

But still, your only life was far more valuable than any sum of money.

'It's going to be okay, right?'

The reason why he’d started to take Louise hunting was simple.

Was it that he felt bad for her because she stayed locked inside the private room for many hours?

That was one of the reasons, but more than that, Louise's specs were good, even compared to any user. She was of great help while hunting.

After she’d finished the job ascension, her level instantly went from 100 to 200.

The biggest difference was that her skill, Steps of the Wind, had evolved.

[«Black Wind» Lv.4(+1)]

- You move and attack with a wind that comes out of your body.

- The wind deals [Magical Power] x 1.5 as damage.

- If you mix Demonic Energy, it deals x 7 extra damage.

The skill was capable of dealing 10.5 times her Magical Power as damage!

Considering that Ain's «Efreet's Claws» dealt seven times her Magical Power as damage, it was an incredible power.

'Although Ain is stronger if she uses her ultimate attack and the Latent Potential Increase on top of that.'

The damage Louise could deal was similar or a little bit inferior to the one the Elemental Berserker could deal.

But «Black Wind» could also be used as a moving skill, so it was a skill that combined attack and utility.

The mobility of the wind was superior.

'The only bad thing is the attack range.'

Ain's claws had an attack range that went between one and two meters, but Louise had to get closer to the enemy in order to deal damage.

'Well, having high damage when killing trash mobs is the best.'

But in fights, being able to deal damage from a distance was also important.

They had no issues killing monsters without intelligence with Louise's skill.

«Black Wind»!

They began hunting in the field in the middle of the night.

Hyun, who had «Assimilated» to Louise, enjoyed running through the fields.

Pang-!

He used the effects of the wind to rise and then used «Shadow Run» to soar to the sky once more.

80 meters into the air, he let his body flow with the air currents of the night sky.

Gluna shone yellow, and Illuna shone blue.

The surface illuminated by both moons was full of monsters.

There were also some wyverns flying underneath them.

It was the result of Hyun gathering as many monsters in one place as possible.

「Fu, are you afraid?」

「Now I'm okay…!」

Hyun laughed at Louise's reply.

During their first hunt, Louise had wanted to use a return scroll, but now she seemed less scared than before.

Hyun could understand her feelings thanks to «Assimilation».

Louise was a bit excited. She had improved a lot from before when she’d almost had a seizure after looking at the horde of monsters.

「I'm glad.」

Tap.

The tips of Louise's feet touched the ground.

If she used the wind, she could land on the ground without any impact.

As a weak-looking girl landed in the middle of the fields, the eyes of the monsters around them began shining.

«Sword of Darkness»!

But Hyun was faster than them.

Pang! The moment launched wind at the back of Louise's hands, her body couldn't withstand the recoil and rotated in place three times.

At the same time, the «Sword of Darkness» sliced through the enemies in a circle around them.

With that, he could use a simple sword swing as if it were just one skill.

All of the monsters around them became pillars of light and disappeared.

'Oof, I finally got used to it.'

Hyun smiled in satisfaction.

Controlling Louise's mobility at first had been hard.

Her speed had increased so much that it couldn't be compared to before, and he also wasn't used to moving using her body with the wind.

Louise was like a butterfly that could create a typhoon by herself.

It took a lot of effort to be able to avoid being swept away by her own power.

It took Hyun more than a week to be able to control the effects of the wind, which showed how difficult of a task it was.

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