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Chapter 21
“Please wait here for a moment.”
With the strangely kind words of the staff member, Yujin was left alone in the waiting room.
They said that the results would be delivered together a little later.
‘Well, they won’t say anything about this, right.’
Yujin scratched his head.
He had expected that his records would be updated.
But he hadn’t expected that it would trigger an error.
To be precise, he hadn’t even considered it.
‘Does it even make sense that such a small thing would cause an error?’
The mage who created this artificial dungeon with illusion magic.
His rank was S-class. On top of that, he was a genius who worked as a freelancer abroad, crossing borders and developing all sorts of new technologies.
That meant one thing.
He wasn’t tied down to any one country and could go anywhere.
Would someone like that make something sloppy? He was the type to even refuse forming a company because he didn’t want to be tied down.
Naturally, the equipment he made to maintain his connections wouldn’t be carelessly built either.
‘And yet, just one enhancement was enough to cause an error.’
Why had the error happened?
Yujin rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. There was still plenty of time before the examiner would return, so he had time to think.
‘It’s not simply because the stats increased.’
There could have been an output restriction. But if that were the issue, the error should have happened from the start.
‘The error occurred the moment he lifted the sword and shouted.’
When that boy said he dreamed of wielding a sword and raised it toward the sky—at that exact moment, the error happened.
In other words, originally the boy wasn’t supposed to behave like that—or he had been programmed not to.
But Yujin’s enhancement had awakened that memory, and when he tried to exert that power, an error occurred.
‘Soul Enhancement.’
Yujin glanced at his ability.
The <Soul Enhancer>—one of the worst classes, so inefficient that even veteran players never touched it.
Because it required using souls, there were all kinds of restrictions involving lifespan and other risks.
So compared to other classes, its analysis was shallow. If more people had played it, maybe more would have been understood, but because of countless bugs and problems, it was unpopular.
‘Soul Enhancement really is special.’
He had enhanced that boy. The boy’s physical stats had definitely increased, and he could wield a sword more skillfully.
But had only the “body” really been enhanced?
‘No, something else was enhanced too. Even if I didn’t intend it.’
And if that “something” was the soul—
‘That’s worth remembering.’
Soul Enhancement could strengthen everything—even things that had only been preprogrammed.
‘Not bad.’
With this, countless new variables could be created.
Yujin crossed his arms and nodded. This was a decent achievement.
Just in case, he etched these realizations into the memory archive inside his mind.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door. From outside, he sensed a familiar presence. Yujin nodded.
“Come in.”
Clatter!
The one who opened the door was Baek Arin. A chill closed the door behind her, freezing the doorknob so no one could easily open it from outside.
She plopped down into the chair across from Yujin.
“I saw everything.”
“How did you find it?”
Her words came out without a subject, but Yujin leaned back calmly against the chair.
“Did you like it?”
Here, Yujin was clearly the one holding the upper hand. He had to maintain that stance.
Baek Arin stared at him intently.
After choosing her words, she spoke.
“…Honestly, I don’t understand.”
She shook her head, as if confused.
“How could just a single enhancement skill do that? Did you use another skill?”
“It was with my enhancement skill. You’ve already seen it once before, haven’t you? That I can enhance anything.”
“…”
Normally, enhancement skills had clear restrictions.
They could only be used on “items,” and never on ordinary things like a ballpoint pen.
But Yujin had enhanced a pen, and now had proven in the exam that he could even enhance people.
With a calm voice, he explained:
“The ‘Enhancement’ skill of an Enhancer is a class-exclusive ability. No other class can possess it.”
That was one of the few strengths Enhancers had.
While mages or alchemists could add new functions with enchantments or transmutation, only Enhancers could strengthen what already existed.
It was a unique ability that couldn’t be imitated—though no one had ever wanted to imitate it anyway.
“Do you need more proof?”
“…No. That’s enough. No reason to doubt it further.”
Right now, whether Yujin was lying or not wasn’t the important matter.
“You said you could fix my problem.”
“There’s a possibility. If I enhance your body or your skill, you could accept the cold energy more easily.”
“That’s enough for me.”
She didn’t expect Yujin to completely cure her condition.
Unless he was extremely high-ranked, it would be impossible—and he was only D-class now.
But the fact that she had come to him in person showed just how desperate she was.
“What do you want in return?”
Baek Arin asked, and the CCTV cameras monitoring the room froze solid.
Yujin gave them a glance and said,
“First, I’d like you to keep my ability secret.”
“As much as you want.”
She didn’t ask why. She had confirmed that his ability was special, and hiding it was natural.
‘Not that it can be hidden for long.’
What mattered wasn’t secrecy itself, but that Baek Arin was willing to help hide it.
Just the fact that an S-class hunter was cooperating would be enough to ward off most leeches.
Tapping her fingers on the desk, she gave a small nod.
“Let’s say the error was caused by my influence or something. What else?”
“I’d like to continue helping you in the future.”
…Tap. Her fingers froze mid-tap.
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Not just helping you manage your ability growth, but working together on other matters. For example—”
Yujin lightly traced his fingers across the desk.
“Your guild, perhaps.”
“…”
Her face instantly turned cold.
“…You’re not an ordinary reawakened hunter, are you?”
“No. I’m just an utterly ordinary hunter.”
She stared at him in disbelief, but he only smiled shamelessly.
“Maybe just a bit bolder than most.”
“…I’ll put that request on hold for now.”
Baek Arin sighed, her breath scattering in a white puff.
“Meeting regularly to improve our abilities isn’t a problem. But—”
“You’re complicated because of guild issues, so we can think about other cooperation slowly. Just consider it positively for now.”
“…Fine. Do you want anything else?”
“For now, that’s it. We can think of the rest as we work on fixing your ability.”
At his relaxed tone, Baek Arin slumped back into her chair, as if drained.
“…All right. Then, shall we get to the main point? How exactly do you intend to fix my ability?”
“There are two options.”
Yujin raised two fingers.
“One is to enhance your vessel—strengthen your body so you can handle it. If you can endure the power, there won’t be a problem.”
“Then right away—”
“The problem is my mana.”
He pressed a finger against his chest.
“I don’t have much mana. Even if I use magic stones, the limit is clear.”
In truth, that was just an excuse. With enough magic stones, he could push through and go beyond even a single enhancement.
But the real problem was the backlash.
It wasn’t the same as with Vigrid. Back then he had only needed to strengthen the vessel, but now it was the [Heart of Frost]’s emanating cold that was dangerous.
‘If I’m not careful, I could freeze myself solid.’
Even if he lost limbs, there were ways to restore them, but he had no intention of wasting such precious fortune here.
‘Forcing it with magic stones isn’t ideal either.’
“…You can draw mana from magic stones?”
“Why couldn’t I?”
“….”
Leaving her speechless, Yujin continued.
“The second option is for you to gain a new skill.”
“…A new skill?”
“Yes. A skill that contains heat.”
“I’ve already tried that.”
She shook her head.
“My cold interferes with even acquiring other skills. Anything below B-rank is impossible to obtain.”
“So starting from B-rank, you can suppress the cold a bit.”
Then the solution was simple.
“Acquire a C-rank skill. I’ll enhance it for you.”
“…You’re saying that would really work?”
“At the very least, it would buy time.”
The [Heart of Frost] skill was S-class, but it wasn’t complete yet.
It was still searching for a suitable Lord of Frost. At this stage, it could be suppressed.
“…Honestly, I can’t believe it. But refusing to believe you at this point would be ridiculous too.”
She made her decision.
“I’ll trust you.”
Creeak—
Baek Arin rose from her seat.
“They’ll probably want to verify your abilities soon.”
“Ability verification?”
“It’s an unspoken rule not to demand all skills be revealed. But when an accident like this occurs, it changes. I’ll cover for you, but—”
“No need. I have nothing to hide.”
“…What?”
“I don’t have any hidden skills.”
The association probably assumed it was some kind of mental-type skill. Otherwise an error couldn’t have occurred.
‘But I don’t have anything like that.’
He simply had strong mental strength, not any skill.
“So don’t worry about that. Just book me a dungeon somewhere between D- and C-rank with a fiery, volcanic environment. I’ll just earn some taxi fare.”
She looked at him with an expression full of unsaid words, but soon closed her mouth and nodded.
“Oh, and could you give me your phone number? Nothing else, I’ll just need to contact you later…”
“….”
About a minute after she left, the team leader and several association staff members burst in.
Standing beside them was Hyewon, who sent him a reassuring glance.
‘Not that I have anything to worry about.’
The one holding the power here wasn’t the association—it was Yujin.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Minseok, in charge of this exam.”
“I’m Han Yujin.”
The team leader approached with a friendly face and extended his hand.
“Hoho, a diligent young man.”
With a genial smile, Lee Minseok asked:
“May I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you hide your skill?”
He continued speaking with the same smiling face.
“Don’t you know you can’t hide skills during an exam?”
“There’s no such rule. And even if there were, as long as it doesn’t cause problems, isn’t it fine?”
“But you did cause a problem. Do you know how much the machine you broke costs?”
“Then test me.”
Yujin crossed his arms with a confident stance.
“Check if I have an undisclosed mental-type skill or not. That should settle it, shouldn’t it?”
“….”
The team leader faltered at Yujin’s unexpectedly bold attitude.
Yujin pressed on.
“But in return, I’ll have to charge you for wrongfully interrogating an innocent hunter—”
His steady gaze locked onto Lee Minseok.
Eyes that could never belong to just some young hunter. Reflexively, the man swallowed hard.
This… was he really just a D-class? That kind of presence belonged to at least an S-class hunter.
“…Are you sure you want to do this?”
Yujin spoke with a faint smile. But his eyes weren’t smiling at all.
“I…”
The team leader opened his mouth.
