Chapter 27 - Now's the Time
Translator: Roshi
"So it was Serintia."
Whew.
I thought Demonic Creatures were pouring out or something.
Not that there was much to be scared of with Cer faithfully guarding my side.
Still, the thought of Demonic Creatures flooding the area in front of my clinic was horrifying.
[Will you accept?]
'Yes.'
The moment I accepted, a small Gate opened.
Vwooom—!
"Appa! What just happ.... Huh?"
Serintia looked around, her eyes going wide.
"Where is this? Why is Appa's clinic out here?"
She had every reason to be surprised.
She had opened the Gate following my location.
But instead of our house, she had ended up in some open field in front of a clinic.
I explained to Serintia what had happened today.
"Aha! So your wish for a bigger waiting room came true like this?"
"Based on the circumstances, it seems pretty much certain. I'll have to ask Yom for more details once he gets here."
"I see.... I thought you locked the door so I couldn't come in. Hmph."
Serintia's expression turned downcast.
She looked like she might start tearing up any second.
I quickly moved to comfort her.
"No way. Why would I keep you out? I've been looking forward to seeing you."
"Really?"
At those words, Serintia's expression brightened right back up.
I stroked her head.
"Of course."
"Hehe, what a relief."
Serintia broke into a beaming smile in no time.
I was watching her fondly when,
Ding-ding!
[Access for the target has been authorized.]
[Would you like to add True Progenitor Vampire, 'Serintia du Lanortas Veloche' to the Access Permission List?]
'Oh?'
So this meant she could come and go freely without needing permission every time.
I accepted immediately.
[Added to the Access Permission List.]
[You may remove and banish them from the list at any time.]
'Banish?'
Did that mean I could kick out unwanted visitors?
Not that I would ever need to banish Serintia, but having the option certainly didn't hurt.
It might even come in handy when a difficult pet owner showed up.
"Anyway, another one of Appa's wishes came true! That's great! The weather here is really nice, too, right? The sunset is so pretty!"
Serintia gazed at the fading sunset with sparkling eyes.
"It is. It's beautiful."
The sunset was beautiful, and Serintia, so genuinely delighted by it, was adorable.
Kking!
Cer had already gone over to Serintia and was nuzzling his cheek against her in welcome.
"Cer, have you been good? Hehe."
Kkiing!
Serintia threw her arms wide open and hugged Cer tight.
Together, we watched the sunset slowly sink below the horizon.
"Shall we head out to eat soon?"
"Yeah! I wanna eat!"
Kkiing!!
We decided to go have dinner.
"You can get out through the door over there."
"Wow.... I've never seen anything like this. How cool."
Serintia walked around the door standing in the middle of the field, examining it from every angle with wonder.
"Haha, cool, right? When I first saw it, I had no idea what to make of it either."
And when I opened the door to leave,
a familiar face stood right before me.
"Hah, huff, huff! J-Jeong Shin-hu Hunter-nim!"
"Deputy Kim Jun-o?"
Oh, right.
It came back to me just then.
When I was checking whether phone calls worked from inside the clinic, the person I had called was Kim Jun-o.
-Y-yes? You obtained a new skill? Hunter Jeong Shin-hu, if you could explain in more detail....
-I'm sorry, I have appointments starting soon, so I'll tell you later!
-Hunter Jeong Shin....
Click.
Back then, there had been a lot of guardians waiting, and I had been rushing because the appointment times got pushed back while I was checking whether the clinic was in working order.
"I'm sorry. I should have called you back during lunch, but things were hectic this morning and I completely forgot."
"Oh, no, not at all. Please don't apologize. If anything, I'm the one at fault for trying to ask about a skill in detail over the phone. I should have come to see you in person and asked properly."
Kim Jun-o asked if he could take a quick look around the inside.
I said of course.
"A space like this.... You created this with that new skill?"
"Hmm, it's not like I designed every detail or anything."
"So you're saying you can create something this incredible even without trying...."
No, that wasn't what I meant.
"You said the Rank was SS, correct?"
Kim Jun-o's eyes were gleaming.
"Yes. But like I said, I haven't fully mastered it yet.... And it's not an offensive combat skill, so it won't be much help for clearing Gates."
Just in case, I drew a line preemptively.
Ahem.
"Haha, that's perfectly fine. The fact that you've gained two additional skills in such a short time is simply impressive."
But Kim Jun-o waved it off as if it didn't matter at all, wearing an expression of sheer pride instead.
In reality, the only thing I had obtained was the Dragon's Mark, and all my abilities stemmed from that.
Well, whether my abilities increased or my skills increased.
It was all the same thing, really.
Kim Jun-o asked various other questions and took notes.
Things like whether I had made the phone call from inside, and whether the water worked properly.
Between the guardians earlier and now him, it seemed everyone was curious about the same things.
Just today alone, I had been asked countless times whether the internet and card payments worked.
"Thank you very much. I'll be heading back then!"
"You've worked hard. Take care."
"Bye bye, ajusshi!"
Kkiing!
Serintia and Cer said goodbye to Kim Jun-o too.
Kim Jun-o gave Cer a pat, then waved somewhat awkwardly at Serintia before leaving.
After seeing Kim Jun-o off, I took Serintia and Cer home.
It was time to cook them a delicious meal.
*
"Heh heh."
A laugh escaped Kim Jun-o's lips on its own.
'An SS-Rank skill?'
The smile on Kim Jun-o's face as he returned to make his report was a full-blown grin.
Team leader Heo Min-cheol, who received the report, couldn't help the twitching at the corners of his own mouth either.
"Heh heh, is that so."
An Awakener's Rank is determined by the first skill they obtain.
They may acquire additional skills afterward, but the maximum is a skill of the same Rank as their own.
The chance of obtaining a skill higher than one's own Rank was essentially zero.
'Conversely, the probability of obtaining a skill of a lower Rank than your existing one keeps going up.'
The probability of obtaining a skill at the same Rank as one's own was the lowest.
A skill one Rank below was slightly more likely than that.
Two Ranks below was even more likely still.
In other words, if Hunter Jeong Shin-hu were to gain additional skills,
even without expecting EX-Rank, the odds for lower Ranks kept increasing.
While an A-Rank Hunter would hope for an additional A-Rank skill at astronomically low odds,
Hunter Jeong Shin-hu only needed to land a skill four tiers below to get an A-Rank one.
"First an S-Rank Taming skill, then an SS-Rank spatial skill. Not only is the Rank going up, the interval between obtaining skills has gotten shorter."
"He went five years without any skills and now they're popping up one after another. Do you think his meridians have finally opened up?" [TL: "혈이 뚫리다" (meridians opening) is an expression from martial arts fiction meaning a long-stagnant talent suddenly breaking through.]
"Heh heh. Could be. Skills two or three tiers below come along fairly often when you've been in the Hunter business long enough."
"That's right. With Hunter Jeong Shin-hu's weight class, he might very well produce S-Rank or higher skills going forward. Even if he doesn't currently have combat-related skills...."
What if Hunter Jeong Shin-hu obtained an S-Rank, or even SS-Rank, skill of the kind that let him bombard from long range safely?
No matter how reluctant Hunter Jeong Shin-hu might be, surely he could be persuaded to step in once or twice when a high-Rank Gate appeared?
"Even if that doesn't happen, it's fine. Just having a Hunter in Korea who possesses multiple S-Rank or higher skills is an enormous asset for us."
In the past, when nuclear weapons were the one and only absolute military force,
merely possessing them exerted a tremendous deterrent effect.
Now, Awakeners had taken that role.
What if Hunter Jeong Shin-hu kept acquiring skills at this rate and Awakened even a single SSS-Rank combat skill?
No country would dare provoke Korea.
Gates might have become the common enemy of all nations, but tensions between countries still ran high.
"If he actually gains another combat-related EX-Rank skill...."
"Well, that goes without saying. It'd be a power that could end the world if he felt like it."
"End the world...."
Kim Jun-o's jaw dropped, and Heo Min-cheol chuckled.
"Heh heh heh, I'm speaking hypothetically. Even the United States, the strongest Hunter nation, doesn't have that. There's no way such power actually exists."
"Right. Hahaha."
Heo Min-cheol stopped laughing and spoke with a serious expression.
"Hmm. I think I'd better pay a visit sometime soon."
"You, Team Leader? What for.... If there's something you need done, I'll handle it."
Heo Min-cheol shook his head.
"No, my Kkukku hasn't been looking too healthy lately."
"......"
*
Whoosh!
Chomp chomp chomp chomp!!
Kkiiing!!!
【Chewy meat today. Nice and satisfying to chew on.】
Cer and Jickan were still all about the meat.
I left them to grill and eat on their own.
'Come to think of it, Yom should be back around now, but I haven't heard anything.'
Maybe he was busy exploring today?
He never said he'd come back every single day, so he might be spending the night in another Dimension.
'I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, right?'
Thinking about Yom's round little face and soft paws, I couldn't help feeling a twinge of worry that something dangerous might happen to him in another Dimension.
But judging by the performance of that hammer he pulled out of Subspace, he was probably fine.
I had stocked up on plenty of the fresh abalone Yom especially loved, so I would give it to him when he got back.
Having set aside my worries about Yom, I got to work on a proper meal for Serintia.
"Heh heh. Get ready."
Serintia had loved the fried rice she ate last time so much that she asked for it again.
'It's not like we eat together every meal, so serving the exact same dish again feels a bit lazy.'
So what I prepared instead was,
"Here you go. Cream pasta and kimchi fried rice."
"Cream pasta? Kimchi?"
Serintia stared at the table with a baffled expression.
I smiled.
Rich bacon cream pasta, cooked down thick with premium fresh cream.
And kimchi fried rice made with my mom's homemade kimchi, stir-fried with ham and sausage just like last time.
The cream pasta's richness, tamed by the kimchi fried rice, and then the slightly spicy kick of the kimchi making the cream pasta tempting all over again, a devilish cycle.
Just try it first. Heh heh.
"Ah, can Serintia not use chopsticks very well yet?"
Serintia tried to imitate the way I lifted the pasta with chopsticks but seemed to struggle, grunting with effort.
"Here, use a fork for now."
"Uuugh. I wanna be good with chopsticks too, like Appa."
Serintia pouted, apparently frustrated that the True Progenitor who led the Bloodline Clan couldn't even handle a pair of chopsticks.
"Then I'll give you chopsticks to take home and you can practice separately. Want to use a fork for today?"
"Mmm, fine! I'll use a fork for now!"
Frustrated as she was, she seemed more curious about the cream pasta in front of her.
Serintia snatched up the fork and twirled the noodles around it.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"Eat up."
Serintia popped the twirled cream pasta into her mouth.
Her eyes went wide.
"Appa, this is so smooth and delicious!!"
"When it starts feeling rich, try the kimchi fried rice next to it."
"It's not rich at all though?"
Serintia said that, then inhaled three more bites without pausing.
Then naturally reached for the kimchi fried rice with a spoon.
Pfft. She must have finally noticed the richness.
Serintia's eyes lit up after tasting the kimchi fried rice.
"Wow. What is this, Appa?"
"That's called kimchi. It might be a little spicy, so I didn't add too much. Is it okay?"
"Yeah! It's not spicy at all, it's delicious!"
Having said that, Serintia ate three more spoonfuls in a row before reaching for water.
Still, it must have been tasty after all, given how she scraped every last grain of rice clean.
In any case, Serintia had successfully acquired a Korean soul.
After the meal, Serintia played with Jickan.
"Wow, your mane is so soft! It feels amazing...."
【Heh heh. I sensed it before, but you're a bold little child. And the power you hold is immense.】
When Jickan was first summoned, he and Serintia had exchanged greetings, and Serintia had welcomed him right away.
Seeing her innocent love for animals never failed to warm my heart.
"Hehe, Cer is here, and Jickan came to visit too. This is great."
Kkiing!
As I watched them, a question suddenly popped into my mind, and I asked Serintia.
"Oh right, Serintia. Earlier, a voice came from the necklace you gave me. It can do that?"
"Oh, that! It can normally do that, but when I'm in our Dimension, the distance is too far, so it probably won't work. Earlier it worked because I was right nearby."
Aha.
"But since I'm still growing, eventually I'll be able to talk to you even from our Dimension!"
"Oh, that'd be nice."
In other words, once Serintia grew stronger, cross-Dimension calls would become possible.
"Oh right, Appa. I know it's only been two days, but could you check if I have the Bloodlust Precursor?"
And to grow stronger, it was best to treat the Bloodlust Precursor as soon as it appeared.
The exact interval of its onset was still unknown, so the only way to tell was to use a heal.
"Sure, I'll check right now."
I gave Serintia's head a gentle rub, then activated my skill.
"Restoration."
Flash.
Fwshhh!
"Oh, it's glowing, so it must've been cured on the spot?"
"Yesss! Then I'll just say I need Treatment and come every two days for sure!"
Rather than being upset that the Bloodlust Precursor had manifested in just two days, Serintia was thrilled that she now had a legitimate excuse to see me every two days.
And then.
Ding!
[You have gained 1,511 EXP.]
[Restoration Lv.9 (Stage 2) effect: EXP gain slightly increased.]
[You have gained an additional 211 EXP.]
[Repeatable Achievement: Treated the 'Bloodlust Precursor' condition of a True Progenitor Vampire.]
[Additional EXP will be awarded.]
[You have gained 3,000 EXP.]
[Restoration Lv.9 (Stage 2) effect: EXP gain slightly increased.]
[You have gained an additional 420 EXP.]
Last time, the EXP had been around 5,000 if I recalled correctly.
Since it was a repeatable Achievement, the EXP payout seemed to have decreased a bit.
'Well, whatever. I should be grateful I'm getting anything at all.'
But I had earned quite a lot of EXP at Level 9, so when was the level-up going to...
Ding!
[Skill level has increased!]
[Restoration (EX): Lv.9 → Lv.10]
[Restoration (EX) has reached Skill Level 10, unlocking an additional Trait.]
Ah, so it was happening now.
*****
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