NSE-Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Park Si-woo stared blankly at Kim Min-woo. Even he himself had practically given up on Awakening.

Hearing such words in that situation, he somehow felt a lump rise in his throat.

“……Thank you.”

“Yeah. You’ll give it a try, right?”

“Yes. Who am I to refuse? You’re giving me a chance, so I have to seize it. I’ll work hard!”

Park Si-woo bowed his head deeply.

“Let’s move your things out together with your younger sister. Big brother will find you a place to stay.”

“Yes.”

And so the two returned to the Orphanage, and.

“Oh my! How wonderful! Our Si-woo and A-rin are both such diligent, kind children. Please take good care of them!”

“Yes. I’ll look after them well. Oh, and I put in a donation to the Orphanage. I’ll do it every year.”

“What? A donation…… Gasp! T-Ten billion won……?”

At the generous donation, the Director’s face melted into mush. The two’s discharge went through very quickly.

Park Si-woo and Park A-rin.

He arranged a luxury apartment for their lodging. It was an apartment not far from the Main House.

“B-Big bro…… are we really going to live here?”

His younger sister’s eyes trembled at the sight of lodging that looked, at a glance, worth billions of won or more.

Park Si-woo, too, couldn’t believe the sight.

“B-Big Brother…… this seems like a place that’s far too expensive…….”

“It’s your home now. I’ve transferred the title too.”

““……What?!””

“Why so surprised? Over such a trifle.”

At the sight of Kim Min-woo speaking as if it were truly nothing, both their mouths dropped open.

From casually donating 10 billion won to handing over a top-tier apartment outright.

‘Truly, Big Brother lives in a different world…….’

Park Si-woo was shocked.

“For the record, I’m never taking it back, so know that.”

“……Th-Thank you. A-rin. You should say thanks too.”

“Big bro! Thank you so, so much! I’ll definitely, definitely repay this kindness!”

Their thanks went on endlessly.

After handing over a house like that, he headed out with Park Si-woo.

“You’ve tried just about everything so far, right?”

“Yes. And still I didn’t Awaken.”

No wonder.

Users could learn the Awakening Condition right after starting to play, so they’d have challenged it easily, but Park Si-woo wasn’t a user.

He didn’t know the condition.

So fumbling around was inevitable.

“Spar with your big brother for exactly one week.”

“A spar?”

“Yeah. First, we need to raise your feel properly.”

To challenge a high Achievement, Park Si-woo’s feel needed to be raised to its maximum.

And so the hell training began.

* * *

For a whole week, Park Si-woo sparred with Kim Min-woo.

And he didn’t win even once.

‘Amazing.’

Park Si-woo marveled.

Since he was young, he’d been confident in using a sword. And no wonder, since he’d won every time.

But against Kim Min-woo it was different. Even though it was clearly a spar with his body matched to an ordinary person’s level.

“There’s another opening here!”

Thwack!

Like a little child, he was being toyed with before the guy’s sword.

‘They said he’s a prodigy acknowledged by the Sword Immortal…….’

The world is wide and masters are many, as they say.

Park Si-woo felt those words in his skin. Seeing him collapsed, drenched in sweat, Kim Min-woo grinned.

“Tough?”

“Gasp. I really think I’m going to die, Big Brother.”

“Quit exaggerating. Here, drink a Potion.”

He gulped down the Potion Kim Min-woo handed over.

His body, which had felt like it would faint at any moment, began to recover in an instant.

“You’ve improved a lot, though. You’ve become pretty decent.”

“……Have I?”

“Yeah, you punk. Forgot the first day already? You couldn’t deflect even twenty. Now you’re deflecting hundreds.”

“When I look at you, Big Brother, I don’t really feel like I’ve improved…….”

“A guy like you is on the talented side, after all.”

He said it casually, but Kim Min-woo’s true feelings were different.

‘A monster of a guy.’

Truly a monster of a guy.

The experience and know-how he’d gained from fifteen years of play. This guy was soaking it all up with every passing day.

His growth speed was terrifying.

‘Good thing I went Necro.’

It was so bad that this thought even crossed his mind. Thankfully the Class was different; otherwise, he might have been hit with a serious bout of disillusionment.

‘Still, around here, his growth is slowing down.’

Park Si-woo’s swordsmanship, which had been growing at a near-runaway pace, was now facing a wall. Unless some thunderbolt of inspiration came, breaking through that wall in one go would be difficult.

‘And helping with that would take too long.’

When enlightenment would come was, quite literally, random.

You could get a thunderbolt of inspiration from a single passing fallen leaf.

Or with bad luck, you could stagnate at that stage for years.

‘I’ve raised him to the level I aimed for, so this should be enough.’

Park Si-woo now was far more complete than when he himself had played Park Si-woo in the past.

It was a satisfying result.

S-grade or above, without fail.

And luck was on his side too.

Seeing snow falling from the sky, he grinned. That it happened to be winter was also perfect timing.

“I think you’re ready. Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“Follow and you’ll find out.”

He left the Training Ground with Park Si-woo.

The vehicle the two boarded began to move, and.

“……Big Brother, isn’t this an uninhabited island?”

The place they arrived at was a small uninhabited island.

“Yeah. It’s uninhabited.”

“Why here……?”

“Ever been to an uninhabited island?”

“Yes. Just once.”

“Was it snowing that day?”

“No.”

“Did you fight there?”

“No. I went alone, so I just swung my sword a bit and came back…….”

“That’s why.”

Park Si-woo’s Awakening Condition was extremely tricky.

Unless you knew it, you couldn’t find it.

Fighting on an uninhabited island on a snowy day.

How was anyone supposed to find that?

‘This is why even conglomerate heirs can’t Awaken without knowing the condition.’

Users were different, though.

Since Park Si-woo was the first character, a very kind explanation was included.

The tutorial that began from a ‘dream.’

‘It tells you everything there.’

The dream’s content was simple.

You start on a snowy uninhabited island.

Monsters pop out there and you learn combat.

At first five Goblins appear, and when you beat them.

A message even kindly tells you, ‘You have a strong feeling that you might Awaken if you fight in a place like this.’

‘Well, if you can’t beat the Goblins, it’s an endless loop, but…….’

That was the reason Kim Min-woo had brought Park Si-woo here.

“Big Brother, do you think I can Awaken here?”

“I don’t know either. But you haven’t tried it. So there’s a chance.”

“That…… is true.”

Park Si-woo nodded.

He had nothing to argue against.

That was how diverse Awakening Conditions were. Frankly, who would know that fighting on an uninhabited island on a snowy day could be an Awakening Condition?

Of course, the possibility was infinitely low.

Just then.

“Come out.”

With Kim Min-woo’s words, a horde of over several hundred Skeletons was summoned.

Park Si-woo’s eyes grew wide at the sight.

At a glance, the number looked well over 500.

It was a number incomparable to the roughly 300 the press had mentioned.

“B-Big Brother. Can you summon this many Skeletons?”

“There’s a saying that you should always hide thirty percent of your strength.”

This wasn’t thirty percent, it was like he’d hidden all of it?

To the shocked Park Si-woo, he said.

“What you have to do is simple. Just fight these guys. Cedric?”

―Is that human the one Master said I must handle?

“That’s right. Don’t go easy, do it properly. Okay?”

―As you wish.

“Si-woo, you just fight my Summons. Cedric will command them.”

“……Understood.”

Park Si-woo nodded.

This was the big brother who had shown him great kindness. It didn’t matter whether this helped with Awakening or not.

‘If I’m told to, I’ll do it.’

Park Si-woo resolved so.

He surely wasn’t acting like this to bury him on this uninhabited island.

There was no reason for him to do that.

“Please take care of me, Sir Cedric.”

―Master said you are usable talent, so I shall expect much.

Soon, the Skeletons began to swarm toward Park Si-woo.

* * *

Clatter!

A Skeleton thrust its spear with a vicious force. Twisting his body to dodge the spearhead, Park Si-woo cut through the Skeleton’s torso in one go.

On the path he’d traveled already lay hundreds of Skeletons turned to powder.

‘Astonishing.’

Cedric marveled inwardly.

The Skeleton Soldiers’ average Level was 17.

Though they were with only weapons, at this level they had to be considered far stronger than ordinary Goblins. Because they had accumulated considerable combat experience.

And a human who hadn’t even Awakened had felled hundreds of them.

‘He can’t have experienced a single proper real battle…….’

Even so, the guy’s movements had no wasted motion.

Clean and deadly strikes.

At the sight of him cutting the Skeleton Soldiers’ bones in one go along the ‘grain,’ he almost applauded.

‘To think there’d be talent like that besides my Master.’

The guy was growing stronger the more he fought.

And very quickly at that.

Cedric looked at Kim Min-woo.

―……Where on earth did Master find such a human?

“There’s a place called an Orphanage.”

―An Orphanage. Judging by the fact that it raised such a Swordsman, it must be a remarkable place.

“Well, yeah.”

The Orphanage.

If he had the chance later, he’d have to go see it once.

Who knows.

He might discover another such talent.

Cedric thought.

Each time the battle went on, the blue energy coming from Park Si-woo’s body grew thicker and thicker.

The Achievement Blossoming process.

When all the fighting was over, the Achievement would be settled.

Cedric spun his spear.

The wall of Skeletons, so numerous before, had now grown infinitely thin.

The fight about to follow.

It seemed it would be fun.

Before long, a battered Park Si-woo approached.

“Gasp. Gasp.”

―Is it tough?

“……I’m still fresh.”

At the burning gaze that seemed to say sweeping five hundred Skeletons wasn’t enough, Cedric nodded.

―Human. What is your name?

“I’m Park Si-woo.”

―I see. I shall remember it.

A human worth remembering by name.

Cedric leveled his spear.

―I have matched my body to your level.

Soon, the spearhead stabbed at Park Si-woo’s head in an instant.

“Ugh!”

As he hurriedly tilted his head back to dodge, several strands of spear afterimages poured down on him.

Blood spurted from all over Park Si-woo’s body. Had he reacted even slightly later, holes would have been punched through his limbs.

‘Fast!’

The speed itself was certainly similar to his own, but it felt fast.

The long spear.

That spear was perfectly occupying the space.

[Awakening is in progress!]

[The Achievement begins to blossom even more strongly!]

Each time the spear and sword clashed, the blue light from Park Si-woo’s body grew denser.

‘I’m being pushed back.’

Park Si-woo grasped the situation at a glance. Cedric was a master of the spear.

Closing the distance was extremely difficult. Like a hunted beast, he was gradually cornered.

His body had long since been exhausted.

‘At this rate I’ll lose without doing anything!’

Park Si-woo felt it instinctively.

A turning point.

If he sat down here, that would be the end.

His body was tired.

He had already fought many enemies.

Cedric was no pushover.

Those were all, in the end, mere excuses.

‘What Big Brother wants from me is a high Achievement.’

He didn’t know why.

It wasn’t important, either.

The most important thing was that Kim Min-woo wanted it.

A person who had invested in him without reservation.

He wanted to repay the kindness.

Park Si-woo’s eyes hardened as if he’d resolved something.

Soon, he kicked off forward.

His sword advanced toward the spear that naturally blocked his way.

He slightly twisted the sword resting against the spear shaft.

The direction of the spear aimed at his heart bent a little.

Park Si-woo threw his body forward without hesitation.

Squelch!

The spear pierced through his flank.

While the spear was lodged in his body, his sword slashed from above to below in one go.

Slash!

The blade cut off one of Cedric’s arms.

‘Damn it…….’

He’d been aiming for the head.

Cedric’s response was seasoned too.

He twisted his body in an instant and avoided a fatal wound.

Thanks to that, the gambit didn’t work.

Park Si-woo, impaled on the spear, collapsed limply to the ground. Blood was spurting from his flank.

He had no strength left to move.

Kim Min-woo, who had hurriedly taken out a Potion, ran toward him.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Cough! Big Brother, I’m fi……”

“Don’t talk! Stay still!”

When the Potion was poured on, the wound began to close. With his mind growing hazy, Park Si-woo closed his eyes.

Soon, blue light exploded from his body. It was a tremendous halo of light, enough to engulf the uninhabited island.

* * *

‘To think he’d throw his body onto the spear there.’

A judgment to give up flesh and cut through bone.

It was extremely bold for a judgment made by a greenhorn who hadn’t experienced a single real battle.

Thanks to that, the tide had nearly turned.

If Cedric had reacted even slightly later, his skull would have been split in two.

‘A prodigy is a prodigy.’

He looked at the unconscious Park Si-woo.

He’d poured Top-Grade Potions on him without reservation, so he should be fine now.

By now, the Achievement was probably being settled.

Judging by the intensity of the light, it was definitely S or above.

Soon, a message appeared.

● ‘Park Si-woo,’ one of the main characters, attains an SSS-grade Achievement!

● You have greatly changed the fate of ‘Park Si-woo’!

● The story begins to be altered!

● A large amount of Achievement Points is granted!

“Wow.”

Kim Min-woo marveled.

How tremendous an SSS-grade Achievement was could be gauged by looking at Cedric.

Though he was currently suffering much humiliation due to his low Level…….

The grade of the powerful knight who flew around riding a dragon was SSS.

‘It was well deserved.’

An Unawakened had hunted 500 Skeletons stronger than Goblins, and on top of that, put up a great fight against an SSS-grade Summon.

It wasn’t so strange that he attained an SSS-grade Achievement.

‘Anyway, my prediction was right.’

The idea that he could gain Achievement Points by giving a main character a major change.

That prediction had hit exactly right.

‘Achievement Shop.’

[Opening the Achievement Shop!]

[Grade: Bronze]

[Owned Achievement Points: 330]

[Product List]

[1. Limit-Breaking Elixir]

[Required Achievement Points: 100]

[2. ???]

[3. ???]

.

.

“300 points?”

The points he had gained when hunting Lee Seo-yun earlier were 30.

Points worth ten times that had come in.

A Limit-Breaking Elixir raised Level Potential by 50 each, so…….

‘Now I can go up to Level 350?’

Over 1,800 days of playtime.

At last, Kim Min-woo’s Level cap had surpassed even that of a neighborhood F-rank Awakened.

It was nothing short of a miracle.