10 – It Seems Only I Can See It – 5

Today, as well, Gi-jun woke up at 6:00 AM sharp.

Glancing at the system message floating in the corner of his vision, he could see that his Charm, which had already grown to Uncommon rank, had risen by 1 again last night, reaching 23.

His Mana, which he had barely raised to Uncommon just yesterday while training Steelification.

Considering the Strength that he had painstakingly grown to Uncommon a little before that while training to smash the front gate of the Demon King’s castle with a shield, it was a smooth growth to the point of feeling a bit unfair.

Even when his Charm had reached 99, there was no need to perform a mission like seducing the Demon King to break through the limit; it had simply grown to Uncommon after he slept for a night and woke up.

If the other heroes, who had been afraid of opening their status windows to prove their purity, heard this, they might have tried to kill him out of sheer envy.

‘Is it because I am receiving one-on-one training from the Demon King, an opponent I couldn’t even dream of at my current level, and training as a contractor to a rare spirit, that the Charm stat, which symbolizes interpersonal ability, is also growing along with them?’

It had already been three months since he was left behind in the deserted tutorial closed zone, and the theory of Charm growth he had formulated in the meantime was roughly along those lines.

According to the Demon King, the most important stat for someone who practiced spirit arts was Spiritual Power, followed by Charm and Mana, so it was not an entirely unconvincing theory.

“Hmm.”

Gi-jun pointlessly reflected his face in the stream and tried to see what had improved, but perhaps because it was his own face that he saw every day, it was quite hard to tell.

He only felt that his impression had become a bit brighter―― or something like that.

Then again, even that was something; since falling into the other world, because his body had stopped aging, he had to look at his unchanging twenty-three-year-old face for as long as fifteen years until he was sick of it.

When he thought that such a face was changing even a little, an emotion welled up inside him.

—Contractor, are you okay?

Stopping mid-wash, as he closed his eyes and concentrated to calm his overwhelming emotions, Lucy, who had been sleeping in his coat’s inner pocket, woke up before he knew it and was looking at him.

“I’m fine. I’m just happy.”

—Ah, you mean the quality of your Mana has improved! I’m happy too, since the stronger the contractor’s Mana is, the more power I can exert!

“Right. I look forward to working with you in the future as well.”

—Ahaha, that tickles!

Gi-jun decided not to correct Lucy’s misunderstanding.

It was because it was not a very appropriate emotion to voice aloud.

Simply playing with her using his finger, he gathered his remaining emotions, stood up, and ran.

The morning run was an important routine, so he could not skip it.

‘Hmm?’

However, after running a lap around the Demon King’s castle and heading towards the back, Gi-jun felt that something in the ground behind the castle was stimulating his senses.

Was it because it was near the Demon King’s castle? The Demon King had never said anything like that, but thinking there might be an external trap protecting the castle, Gi-jun kept his distance.

For a moment, the crazy idea of, ‘Wouldn’t experiencing the trap with my body also help with training?’ occurred to him, but he shook his head to clear it.

Apparently, it seemed his brain had been heavily contaminated by the Demon King all this time.

—Ah, you felt it too, Contractor. There is something stimulating your spiritual sense, right?

But then, suddenly, Lucy made a strange remark.

Stopping even his feet that had been continuously kicking off the ground, Gi-jun blinked and looked back at her.

“Now that you mention it, it definitely seems to stimulate my spiritual sense… Did this just appear today?”

—No, it has been here all along?

“…Why didn’t you tell me?”

—It would be a bit awkward if I stepped forward to act like I knew something you didn’t, right? And if something is hidden, I thought you would be happier discovering it yourself rather than me telling you.

Gi-jun, finding the spirit who paid such close attention truly admirable, stroked the bottom of her chin with his index finger.

To Lucy, who was rejoicing with her eyes closed like a cat, he added.

“You waited for my growth, didn’t you? Thank you, Lucy.”

—That’s right. We’re going to be here all along anyway…

“Right. But if there’s ever a danger or an opportunity that we might miss if we don’t seize it immediately, I want you to tell me right away. Can I ask that of you?”

—Of course, I exist for the contractor after all!

Gi-jun’s Spiritual Power stat had risen by 1 during training yesterday evening, and was now 50 at Rare rank.

This might have been the trigger for him to sense something he had never felt before, or if not, it could have been that all of his stats had achieved Uncommon rank with Mana being the last, thereby fulfilling some condition.

—Then what do you want to do? Shall we approach it?

“No.”

Gi-jun, checking the time, said as he started running again.

“It’s almost breakfast time, so I should wash up and eat first.”

—That’s right, the contractor put the leftover curry from yesterday evening to sleep, so we have to go quickly and wake it up!

When Gi-jun returned to the tent and mentioned that there was something stimulating his spiritual sense behind the Demon King’s castle, curry trickled down the mouth of the Demon King, who was secretly heating and eating the beef curry that had been left in the pot last night.

—Ah, you secretly ate it again! The contractor said the curry had to sleep soundly!

“S-Something like that was behind the castle…?”

“How can you not know that?”

“What do you want me to do when I don’t have spiritual sense?”

Gi-jun detailed what had happened during his run while soothing Lucy, who was angry at the Demon King.

The Demon King, who started scooping up and eating the curry with a ladle since he was caught anyway, pushed away the nagging Lucy and looked at Gi-jun with an incredulous expression.

“No, but you just left it and came back?”

“I couldn’t go off doing other things while leaving you to starve.”

“…I’m not touched by that kind of thing, you know?”

—That’s right, because if the contractor hadn’t been here, you would have eaten all the curry by yourself!

Leaving behind the embarrassed Demon King who looked quite touched, Gi-jun began to boil udon noodles.

This was because boiling udon was much faster than cooking rice if he wanted to have a meal before the Demon King devoured all the curry.

“You mean we can eat this with noodles?”

“You’ll know once you try it.”

—The contractor is… a genius…!

When he served the udon mixed with beef curry with chopped green onions on top, the Demon King and Lucy shed tears of emotion as they devoured it.

It was Gi-jun’s best effort, but even so, Cooking still remained at level 99 of Common rank and did not grow to Uncommon rank.

At this point, it seemed he had no choice but to admit that there was no Uncommon rank for Cooking.

Actually, Cooking was also something that did not really require him to hope for anything more.

Even before the level of his Cooking skill rose, his party members had eagerly looked forward to the dishes he made, and the same was true for the Demon King and Lucy, who were eating with him here now.

‘Since remaining here, as I approached everything with the mindset of training it all, it seems I forgot something important.’

Cooking was the one skill where he did not need to obsess over the level.

What mattered was not the numerical value, but the heart.

If those who ate it enjoyed it, Gi-jun was satisfied with just that.

Chuckling at the thought that it was embarrassing even to himself, the moment he picked up a mouthful of his portion of curry udon, a system message appeared before his eyes.

—Cooking is the most troublesome, yet most certain means to contain one’s heart. Realizing the true meaning of the skill, the skill grows! The level of the Uncommon rank [Cooking] skill has become 1.

—Cooking is the most troublesome, yet most certain means to contain one’s heart. Realizing the true meaning of the skill, the skill grows! The level of the Uncommon rank [Cooking] skill has become 1.

“This system guy always dampens the mood right when things are wrapping up nicely…”

“What is it? What happened again? Surely it’s not that this pot was treated as your shield and your Shieldsmanship grew?!”

Ignoring the voice of the Demon King, who considered losing to a shield a humiliation, he slurped his curry udon.

Whoever made it, the taste was absolutely amazing.

* * *

“Ah, I want to eat the curry that Jun-i Hyeong made… When he made it in a massive pot during raids, even the foreign parties clamored for a share.”

It had been a week since the second round began.

As soon as he realized that he had revived and everything had started over from the beginning, the man, who had been running toward the destination he had thought of beforehand, clutched his starving stomach and muttered so.

Looking around to see if there was anything to eat nearby, his gaze suddenly fell on a rabbit that had stopped right in front of him and was tilting its head.

“Can’t you see me either?”

“Kyuuu――.”

Despite him making a sound, the rabbit only let out a puzzled squeak and did not even think of running away.

The man contemplated whether he should catch and roast even this guy, but soon smirked and lightly nudged the rabbit away with his foot.

“Kyu?!”

Only then did the rabbit, noticing the man’s presence, flee in fright.

As he stared blankly at the retreating back of the fleeing rabbit and recalled the faces of the people who would recognize him first without him having to do anything, a system message appeared and filled his vision.

—A state of completely deceiving even the most sensitive animals in the forest. The level of the Rare rank skill [Stealth] has risen by 1, becoming 18.

—Dexterity has risen by 1, becoming 27.

—A state of completely deceiving even the most sensitive animals in the forest. The level of the Rare rank skill [Stealth] has risen by 1, becoming 18.

—Dexterity has risen by 1, becoming 27.

Confirming the growth of the skill that shared his name, the man, Eun-shin, laughed hollowly.

All he had done for the past week was sprint through the forest, yet already, his innate Rare skill and Dexterity stat were rising rapidly.

Despite his level still being 1!

Thinking about it, since stats grew well through training when they were low, delaying leveling up and training like this made him think that in the long run, the stat efficiency would be overwhelmingly better.

‘Having to do that bullshit all over again is annoying, but thinking that I can become stronger makes me feel a bit better.’

During the first round, if he had utilized his aptitude like this from the beginning, could he have grown Stealth to Legendary rank?

Instead of being discovered by the Demon King in vain and dying, could he have plunged a sharp dagger into the Demon King’s heart and saved his companions?

Now that everyone had failed and returned to the past, it was a completely meaningless assumption.

Eun-shin accepted the second opportunity given to him as a responsibility.

This time, he could absolutely not die so pointlessly.

Min-i Nuna’s brilliant talent, Jun-i Hyeong’s sacrifice and effort, Uncle Su’s pain and patience.

He could not make… Hye Nuna’s tears meaningless.

‘To achieve that, first…’

For the mage of the party he had been with in the first round, Ji-hye, he had to obtain the Unique rank Mana Circuit.

Thinking to act for her first of all was absolutely not because he had personal feelings for her or anything… it wasn’t that…

It was simply because the ruins where the Mana Circuit lay dormant were close to the tutorial area.

Even during the first round, the ruins, which had drawn much attention and interest and triggered a bloody competition, were unfortunately missed in vain because the timing of their party’s information acquisition had been slightly late.

This time would be different.

He was confident that there were not many people who could reach the ruins as quickly as him at this stage.

Above all, now that everyone had returned to their original state, the level of the heroes was too low to challenge those ruins.

However, if it were him who possessed a level of Stealth skill that was ‘impossible’ for a beginner, passing through the ruins would likely not be difficult either.

‘I remember it definitely being around here… Ah!’

Running breathlessly, Eun-shin spotted people confronting each other a short distance away and hurriedly hid behind a tree.

At least ten people holding weapons were surrounding two women.

There was no need to ask who the surrounded women were.

They were the members of the party he had belonged to in the first round, Ye-min and Ji-hye.

“So what do you want? You guys can’t clear the ruins anyway. I don’t even understand why you came here.”

The moment he heard their voices, he tightly suppressed the urge to cry out.

Leaving aside Hye Nuna who still had little Mana, Min-i Nuna was unlikely to lose easily against any number of them.

“Are you unable to understand words, Ye-min? We’re telling you to form a party right now.”

“Us? With you? Why?”

So there was no need to be impatient.

“So you’re going to play it like that till the end? You think you’re the only one who wants a Unique rank skill, huh?!”

“It’s not even worth having a conversation.”

What he had to do now was simply to hold his breath.

“Ha, you think you’re still the strongest just because you did well in the first round? We were trying to take it easy since we met, but…”

“Hey, let’s just make them obedient with this. Why talk when we have something good?”

Quietly, quietly, approaching behind them.

“Disgusting bastards.”

“Disgusting? Like we care? The weak are meant to be preyed upon!”

“You talk big for people who rely on numbers.”

“This is all— the result of learning. If you’ve got a second chance, shouldn’t something be different? It would be quite a sight to drag these bitches around by a leash on their necks――”

――Stab.

He plunged a dagger into the neck of the man who had been talking the loudest, then pulled it out.

If you were weak, you suffered; he thoroughly agreed with those words.

—First Murder achievement completed! You have obtained the Common rank title ‘Murderer’. Due to the title’s effect, your abilities increase by 10% when dealing with humans, but you become slightly weaker to mental magic. Charm decreases by 5.

—First Murder achievement completed! You have obtained the Common rank title ‘Murderer’. Due to the title’s effect, your abilities increase by 10% when dealing with humans, but you become slightly weaker to mental magic. Charm decreases by 5.

A decrease in Charm was actually a good thing for Eun-shin.

The lower his Charm was, the more his presence faded, and for an assassin who hid in the shadows to slit throats, there was nothing better than lacking a presence.

“What the!”

“Eun-shin… this bastard was with them from the start, *urk*!”

The Stealth skill was bound to be deactivated the moment one attacked an enemy.

However, the higher the skill rank became… and the more the enemy failed to find his figure, the faster the time to re-enter Stealth became.

These idiots committed the folly of losing sight of the assailant, shrinking back in fear the moment their leader’s neck was pierced by the dagger.

Stabbing the neck of the second target to death without hesitation, Eun-shin thought.

‘No wonder I didn’t recognize their faces from the final battle; as expected, they were just small fry.’

The moment their fighting spirit was shattered, the battle was already decided.

In that gap, Ji-hye, who had gathered her Mana, caused a minor earthquake to throw them off balance, and several swift sword strikes unleashed by Ye-min slashed their legs, making them collapse.

“S-Spare us. We were temporarily blinded…!”

“Just keep your eyes closed.”

“Run… Aaargh!”

Cutting down the remaining guys from the front, Eun-shin said calmly.

“I’ll kill them, so you nunas stay still and don’t get an unpleasant title for no reason.”

“We feel so bad about that…”

“Shin-a!”

There was no time for Ye-min to say anything.

As Ji-hye raised her voice in delight, Eun-shin smiled faintly.

The last remaining enemy, looking at his smile, realized that even at the moment he swung his sword he was not paying them the slightest bit of attention, and ended up laughing hollowly.

And then, he collapsed with a blade pierced through his heart.

“I’m glad to see you both looking healthy. Actually, I did think you might come here.”

“Oh, Shin-i, really.”

Eun-shin, who had killed every last enemy, confirmed that the Uncommon rank title ‘Ten-man Slayer’ was completed, and nodded as he shook the blood off his dagger.

Ji-hye, who had walked over to his side before he knew it, pulled his head to her chest and hugged him.

“U-Uh?”

“Did you come to get your nuna the Mana Circuit? Thank you…”

“I-It’s nothing. It’s only natural.”

At Ji-hye’s physical contact, which was more intimate than expected, Eun-shin was left speechless and sputtered.

Meanwhile, Ye-min, who was watching the two of them hug, spoke with a look of realization.

“Could the ideal type you said was someone else be…?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Oh, I think I was just naturally rejected…”

“Ignore Min-i’s nonsense, Shin-a. She really has no filter when it comes to someone who is like a younger brother.”

‘But the one I care about is you, Nuna.’

‘I’m not a younger brother…’

As Eun-shin could not bring himself to say that and mumbled, Ji-hye took his hand and led him along.

“Since the three of us are together, we’ll be able to clear the ruins quickly. Oh, by the way, have you eaten?”

“Just some beef jerky. Since I got used to the food Jun-i Hyeong made, nothing else tastes good.”

“Min-i said the exact same thing. In fact, she said that as soon as we clear this place, we’re going to meet that oppa right away.”

Joining up with Gi-jun was something Eun-shin welcomed too.

Then, the only one left after that was Uncle Su.

Wondering if she was having the same thought, Eun-shin sighed softly as he watched Ji-hye quietly blushing.

His mind was complicated, but even so, he decided to focus only on the ruins before him for now.

Because Jun-i Hyeong had repeatedly warned them that they would die the moment they let their guard down in any ruins.