hotmtlnovel Chapter 386: Synergy (3)
Chapter 386: Synergy (3)
The reason Level 400 mattered to an assassin was that it let you choose a basic skill.
Just like how the black mage class, at Level 200, chose one basic skill from Oxidation, Ignition, or Exhaustion.
An assassin also got to pick one out of three options, as follows.
‘Multi Clone Technique. Acceleration Field. Ability Mounting.’
Multi Clone Technique was an enhanced form of the existing Clone Technique. Depending on mana usage, it was possible to create up to five.
Acceleration Field laid down a magic circle that stacked with the Acceleration skill, massively boosting movement speed while you stayed on it.
Since it accelerated in stages up to 100%, moving inside the field became far easier.
Ability Mounting let you register an additional weapon.
If the ‘Ill-Fated’ gloves Kang-hoo wore only added effects limited to daggers, Ability Mounting didn’t care what weapon it was. Anything was possible.‘No matter what I choose, thanks to the Dimension Plunderer I’ll instantly max proficiency, so the impact won’t be a joke.’It was a happy dilemma.
There was one option his heart leaned toward the most, but it seemed he’d keep agonizing until the final choice.
No matter what he picked, it was tempting. He wanted them all—he just couldn’t have them.
Level 400.
It didn’t feel real.
The day he escaped Cheongmyeong Detention Center.
It felt like just yesterday that he’d been sighing while staring at his level, which had been stuck the entire time he was inside.
Back then, he’d been a pathetic Level 10 hunter. The only skills he had were Leap and Lateral Movement.
What about now?
He had nearly seventy skills just by count. If he included skills linked to constellation abilities, it easily went far beyond that.
‘Even at the original ending...... I didn’t have this many skills. I had far fewer.’
If you only looked at his skill inventory—its composition and quality—there were many ways he surpassed Shin Kang-hoo, who died to Jang Si-hwan in the original story.
Of course, his level was far lower.
That was exactly why he had to keep whipping himself to grow. There were many things where level was a key requirement.
For instance, dungeons with level-based “entry restrictions.”
There were plenty of dungeons you couldn’t even enter at all unless you met the required level.
Even the most coveted “Skill Fusion” could only be attempted after Level 500. For now, it was impossible.
‘Level 999...... is there something after that, too?’
The question suddenly came to him.
Even Jang Si-hwan at the original ending had been Level 950.
Of course, that alone had put him on the throne of the world’s strongest, and there was no need to doubt it was an unequaled realm.
But.
Whether officially or even just in the setting, there had never once been any mention of an absolute level cap.
He’d only vaguely assumed it was 999. There might be a realm of Level 1,000—or there might not.
‘Nosy.’
Kang-hoo shook his head and brushed the thought away.
It wasn’t something to worry about now. He could think about it when he reached that level. For the moment, it was nothing but pie in the sky.
Just then.
Park Dong-jae’s voice, after he used the brief lull to finish yet another round of reorganization, blew away Kang-hoo’s stray thoughts.
“Hyung. Where are we moving to next? From here it splits, so I think we need to choose.”
Because it was a fork in the canyon, they had to pick one direction and move.
Since it was Park Dong-jae’s first time here, he had no way to judge which route was safer or more profitable, and he was anxious.
But thanks to that prankster traitor constellation, Kang-hoo’s view of the route was as clear as if he were watching it from a drone in the sky.
He didn’t even need to dredge up his memory. The dungeon map was so vivid it felt engraved into his brain.
Either way, they still had a long way to go to the areas where the middle boss and main boss appeared.
No matter which path they chose, it would eventually merge into one, so it didn’t really matter where they decided to go.
Still, Kang-hoo had been thinking of the right path from the start. There was a hidden area there.
【???】
The area that caught his interest was marked with question marks from beginning to end.
Even though the dungeon blueprint and all the related knowledge were in his head, only that area refused to resolve into anything but question marks.
‘It’s a random manifestation.’
The interior activated based on a random probability the moment you entered, so the information clearly couldn’t be fixed.
For example.
It was like having a room inside a building you owned, but every time you entered that room, a die got rolled.
You could know the die “existed,” but you couldn’t know what “number” would come up—same principle.
‘Usually, places like that are the domain of variables.’
A hidden skill. A rare monster. The appearance of something that twisted the system’s order. Or...... an unexpected clue.
No matter what he imagined, there was a high chance something would show up that shattered expectations. It had always been like that in the original story.
“Let’s go right.”
“Right? Okay.”
“You’re not going to ask why?”
“You decided, hyung. That’s the reason, isn’t it?”
Park Dong-jae followed the decision without even a hint of doubt.
It was a strange sight—the one making the decision was more baffled than the one following it.
Kang-hoo let out a dry laugh and strode ahead.
The hallmark of question-mark areas was that unusual actions and situations happened with annoying frequency.
He needed to stay on high alert.
The hard stone ground he’d just stepped on could, in the next instant, turn into a squishy swamp—
“......!”
【Leap】
The moment the tips of his toes touched, he sensed danger and immediately launched himself with Leap.
【Corrupted Wings】
At the same time, he summoned Mumyeong in the form of a Corrupted, attaching it to Park Dong-jae so he could take off as well.
Gloop— gloop—.
“If our reaction was any slower, we’d have sunk straight into the ground.”
“Hyung, what is this?”
“Demon wings.”
“Wow. The ride quality is insane. Wings that softly cradle your shoulders? This is crazy, seriously.”
Unlike Kang-hoo, who had cleanly cleared it with Leap and landed far away.
Park Dong-jae, with Corrupted Wings slung over his shoulders, was moving slowly toward where Kang-hoo was.
He’d made up a name on the spot—demon wings—but now that he’d said it out loud, it sounded surprisingly fitting.
“It’s only thirty seconds, so it doesn’t last long. Still, in a situation like this, it’s the best.”
“What skill do you not have, hyung? What kind of assassin carries wings around? Isn’t this something only a black mage should have?”
“Maybe black mage blood is flowing in me too, on top of being an assassin.”
“Hyung. What does your class display say in your status window?”
“Assassin.”
“Nothing else after it?”
“No. Assassin.”
“Unbelievable...... where in the world is there an assassin like this?”
“You’re looking at him. Come down already. The wings are about to vanish.”
“Ah!”
Only then did Park Dong-jae realize the ground under his feet was no longer swampy, but solid stone, and he came down.
Psssst.
At the same time, Corrupted Wings disappeared.
“Wow. I flew that whole distance. And you got here with one Leap, hyung?”
“Up to about twenty meters is doable with Leap. If I use other methods, I can multiply that several times over.”
If he’d had time to charge Sacred Leap, he probably would have.
But ordinary Leap was enough, and the nature of the ground had changed so abruptly that he’d simply responded on instinct.
‘If obstacles keep popping up that make it hard to approach, then there’s definitely something here.’
It was a classic sign.
The more secrets a place held, the more it tried to block outsiders from getting close.
If he hadn’t improvised just now, they’d both be dead of suffocation by now. They wouldn’t even find the bodies.
Right then.
“Wait.”
“Yeah.”
When he reached out his hand, Park Dong-jae stopped immediately. He knew there was always a reason behind Kang-hoo’s actions.
“Stick behind me.”
“Got it.”
Park Dong-jae, plastered to Kang-hoo’s back like a cicada, lowered his posture.
【‘Dead Aim’ has been activated.】
The Strategist of the Wasteland’s “Intuition” ability had triggered. He couldn’t see it, but someone was hidden and aiming a snipe.
The power detected by intuition wasn’t that great. It wasn’t an absolute measure, but it was enough to size the opponent up.
So—
【Wall of Integrity】
He deployed a wall.
Most attacks would be stopped at the Wall of Integrity.
【When durability is 333 or higher, you can defend exactly once against an attack that exceeds what your durability can withstand.】
Since it could block even a finishing blow, all he had to do was keep track of the durability state. There were no variables.
Bang!
Koo-woong!
A moment later, with a gunshot, a mana bullet slammed into the Wall of Integrity. So there really was a hidden sniper.
His body slid back slightly, but the firepower wasn’t as high as expected. This level was manageable with the wall.
‘Found you.’
At the same time, Kang-hoo pinpointed the sniper’s position.
If you tracked the mana pathway left behind as the mana bullet flew in, finding the firing point was child’s play.
With the Skilled Empathizer constellation’s mana-tracking ability, he could even distinguish it by intuitive coloration.
“Park Dong-jae! Get behind the rock!”
“No, I’ll land a buff on you! Hyung—where you’re looking, that’s where the sniper is, right?”
“Right!”
“Then I just have to line up a straight shot! Don’t worry about me—just aim for the target!”
Kang-hoo trusted Park Dong-jae’s confidence.
The moment the sniper accurately identified Kang-hoo’s position and felt him approaching, the hidden shooter sprang up in panic.
He’d assumed the first shot would end it, but it had been blocked far too easily by the Wall of Integrity.
Worse, Kang-hoo was closing in while maintaining the wall, making the pressure feel even heavier.
“......!”
Slash!
Sensing danger, the sniper cut a taut rope to the side with a dagger.
In that split second.
Kang-hoo thought:
The sniper’s position was in the forest, with tall trees rising into the sky.
What kind of trap could you make here using ropes—something that could threaten an approaching enemy?
【White Sun Slash】
The instant his judgment finished, Kang-hoo began concentrating mana into a single point with everything he had.
A hidden skill—White Sun Slash.
Without losing the flow of pursuing the sniper, the only way to handle an unexpected variable was a hidden skill.
And then—
Thoom!
With a heavy sound—
What burst through the brush was a massive boulder, big enough to crush a person with ease.
“Aah......! Hyung!”
Around the same time, Park Dong-jae recognized the boulder and shouted.
If Kang-hoo took the hit, it would be a trap perfectly designed to bury and kill Park Dong-jae behind him as well.
But instead of the future, Park Dong-jae’s mind filled only with worry for Kang-hoo’s immediate situation.
“Heh-heh-heh.”
The sniper was sure Kang-hoo was dead.
Wasn’t it obvious?
If he wasn’t dodging even with a massive boulder bearing down head-on, he had to have lost his mind.
Still, there was one unsettling point—
Kang-hoo was accelerating even more.
It didn’t matter.
The sniper, half-kneeling, dead-aimed Kang-hoo again. Even if he dodged, he wouldn’t escape the next shot.
Then—
KWAANG!
With a tearing shockwave that felt like it would shred eardrums, a white crescent-shaped blade aura launched from the tip of Kang-hoo’s dagger.
The next moment—
Saaashk!
Like slicing soft bread with a knife, Kang-hoo’s White Sun Slash cleanly split the massive boulder in half as it passed through.
The neatly severed boulder, following the redistributed flow of force, naturally scattered left and right.
And then—
“Ah......?”
As the blade aura that casually cut the boulder filled his entire view, the sniper’s expression changed.
As if the boulder had never existed, Kang-hoo’s impassive face entered a wide-open line of sight.
The blade aura of White Sun Slash that stood between them had already arrived right at his nose.
He could have predicted dodging or running.
But he hadn’t predicted a head-on charge—let alone slicing the boulder cleanly in two.
Slash!
Soon, the sniper’s eyes—flung up into the air—remained frozen in the moment from just before, when he’d been staring at Kang-hoo in blank disbelief.
There was no second shot.
Only—
Death, destined to be both the first and last, became the conclusion, carved into a cold corpse.