Chapter 53 - Chapter 53 (2/2)

Now that he had failed twice in a row, his vision seemed to have blurred, everything looking a bit bleak.

"Fuu....."

Jin-Woo deeply inhaled and exhaled his breath.

There were no more attempts remaining after this. He had only one more shot left. Jin-Woo closed his eyes and reorganised his thoughts.

'Well, it could be nothing more than percentages and odds, but....'

But, it was possible that his desire to possess Igrit's shadow wasn't earnest or strong enough.

Jin-Woo slowly reopened his eyes.

He sensed the black smoke rising up from Igrit reaching out to him, pleading with him to save it. Jin-Woo became a lot more serious than before.

And he reached out with his right hand as if to grab that pleading hand of the smoke.

"Rise up."

He didn't do it deliberately; he himself didn't quite realise it then, but Jin-Woo's voice sounded much heavier and graver than ever before and it reverberated throughout the boss room.

It was then!

Uwaaahhh-!!

A deep scream could be heard coming from somewhere, and chilling, eerie wind swept by the boss room.

'Isn't this it...?'

Jin-Woo's expression brightened.

He remembered encountering a similar situation like this one before.

….Back when his infantrymen first popped out from the shadows.

Aaaaah-!

Just as he hoped for, as the lengthy scream came to an end, a long black hand emerged out from the shadow. And when that hand pressed down on the ground, a new message popped up in his view.

[Shadow Extraction was a success.]

Jin-Woo let out a cry of happiness.

"Yes!!"

He tightly clenched his fists. The taste of success was so much sweeter since he had to go through two failures to get here.

However, the good news didn't end there.

[The sovereign's voice had awakened the departed's fighting spirit.]

[You have succeeded in strengthening your shadow soldier.]

[The shadow's level will now start at 7.]

'I succeeded in strengthening? What?'

A shadow's starting level could be higher than 1?

Jin-Woo's eyes widened once more. Just as the message said, the black knight emerging from the shadow carried 'level 7' in its status.

"Mm!!"

Jin-Woo spat out a short gasp.

The newly-emerged shadow looked exactly as it was in his memories.

The mane attached to the helm; the highly-fashionable armour wrapped around its entire body; that noble, dignified cape.

The only difference being that the blood-like armour now sported a pitch-black colour, instead. Everything else was exactly the same.

He'd have probably believed it if someone told him that Igrit had returned to life just now.

However...

'…..'

The newly-born Igirt didn't display a single hint of animosity towards him. No, it just stood there quietly, waiting for Jin-Woo to give it a new order.

Thump, thump.

Hin-Woo's heart began pounding in excitement as he stared at Igrit. And there was a big grin etched on his face. Even though his heart was palpitating, there was something he was curious about.

Jin-Woo's gaze shifted just above Igrit's head.

'Why doesn't this guy have a name?'

[?? Lv. 7]

Knight grade

For some strange reason, there was a couple of question marks instead of its name.

'And its grade is also different.'

He understood that its level was high because of that strengthening thing, but still, this guy exhibited quite a few differences from the regular infantrymen.

Perhaps it read Jin-Woo's mind, because the System sent him a new message with excellent timing.

Tti-ring.

[You can bestow a name to a knight grade soldier.]

[The bestowed name will be maintained until the shadow soldier is dismissed.]

[Please set the soldier's name.]

'A name, is it?'

At first, he was at a loss with this unexpected demand, but soon enough, he recalled that this 'guy' already had a name and a smile crept up on his face. There should be no problem calling it by its original name, no?

[Please set the soldier's name.]

The message blinked as if to urge him on with the naming already.

Jin-Woo opened his mouth.

"Igrit the Cri...."

No, hang on a minute.

When the System asked him to set the name, it meant that he'd have to use that name to call this guy from here onwards. So, didn't that also mean that he'd have to call it Igrit the blah-blah all the time from now on?

Just thinking about that gave him a nasty case of goosebumps.

'…..That's way too cringey.'

In the end, he decided to shorten the name somewhat.

"Igrit."

[Will you set the name as 'Igrit'?]

"That's right."

As soon as Jin-Woo spoke, the question marks on the guy's head disappeared and the name Igrit appeared there.

[Igrit Lv. 7]

Knight grade

All he did was to simply give it its original name, yet Jin-Woo still felt like he had accomplished something pretty amazing. He was filled with contentment, knowing that this guy was his loyal soldier now.

'My own loyal soldier, eh....'

Jin-Woo took a look behind him.

29 shadow soldiers were still there, waiting for his orders.

For now, the number was too small.

'Only 30, huh....'

Either this was because the skill level of 'Shadow Extraction' was too low, or because his Intelligence Stat hadn't been raised high enough yet.

But, he was sure of one thing, and that was the number of his soldiers would gradually swell up.

'Yup, I really have myself a new army.'

Not only that, they weren't some skeletons and corpses, but an army of shadows.

Now, there was only one problem remaining.

And that was how he'd walk around with these guys. Now that gave him a bit of a headache.

'Doesn't matter skeletons or shadows....'

It'd be way too eye-catching if these guys freely walked around in the streets.

Would that be all?

This skill was already way past regular people accepting it as one of the many awakened abilities a Hunter could possess.

Either he'd be under the constant surveillance, or worse, someone might even demand him to dismiss the summoning, too.

'Woo Jin-Cheol, the section chief of the Monitoring Division, the Korean Hunter's Association....'

Thinking about how stuffy-looking guys like that man would come around every day and annoy him to no end in the future, Jin-Woo felt like he'd die from frustration already.

That was precisely why the next skill existed, probably.

'Skills.'

Jin-Woo summoned his Skill Window.

[Class-specific skills]

Active skills:

- Shadow Extraction Lv. 1

- Shadow Storage Lv. 1

The skill he only checked its name and nothing else until now.

The 'Shadow Storage'.

That name alone made him think that this skill would help him out in these sorts of situations.

< Chapter 53 > Fin.