Chapter 368 (1/2)
Act 7
The 105th floor.
As expected, it was set in another uninhabited city—and not just any city but one that had almost completely crumbled away and was covered in thick layers of dust.
Su-hyeun was no longer taken aback by such a sight, and he started looking around him straight away. As he thought, the administrator could be found leaning against one of the walls, and he was yawning rather grandly away.
“I almost fell asleep waiting for you. What took you so long? Your trial ended ages ago, didn’t it?”
It seemed that he had been waiting here since Su-hyeun passed his trial.
Su-hyeun briefly thought that he made the administrator wait unnecessarily and replied with an awkward grin, “I had some things to discuss with someone, you see.”
“You mean, with that guy, right?”
“Yes, Luslec. He said he’s an apostle.”
“Tsk! He’s got pretty loose lips, alright. Well, unlike us, he isn’t under some kind of restrictions, anyway.”
The administrator let it all slide without any fuss. His attitude made it seem like he didn’t care as long as the stuff didn’t come directly from either him or his colleagues.
It was rather likely that the 105th floor’s administrator wasn’t a firm believer in hiding the truth about everything.
“Okay, so? Will you start your challenge right away?”
“No, not right now.” Su-hyeun momentarily clenched and unfurled his hands for a bit before making his reply, “I’ll see you again after a day from now.”
“Sure thing. Well, then,” the administrator replied and simply vanished from the spot.
Now that he was gone, Su-hyeun no longer had a reason to remain on the 105th floor, so he immediately opened the portal and returned home.
The first thing he did after returning was to carefully comb through his current status.
[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]
[Magic count: 98]
[Magic level: 9]
[Strength: 101] [Agility: 100]
[Stamina: 100] [Reflex: 100]
[Death Aura: 99]
[Skill: Leap * advanced]
[Skill: Transfiguration * advanced]
[Skill: Godhood—Flame * advanced]
[Fatigue: 8]
[Godhood—Flame]
* LV: 1
* Proficiency: 48.43%
* The sacred flame that burns away evil. It inflicts fatal wounds on enemies with darkness attribute, and its power is determined by magic level.
Su-hyeun now possessed a total of seven qualifications of godhood.
His reflex stat had finally reached the triple-digit mark, and excluding magical energy, that stat was the most useful one for Su-hyeun out of all the four primary stats.
The reason for that was simple enough.
“Maybe it’s been too long because I can’t seem to get a grip on it that easily…”
Su-hyeun closed his eyes for a bit and heightened his other senses.
“But it’s still great, isn’t it?”
In his previous life, Su-hyeun had reached the peak at 100 points in his reflex stat as well.
It was the only stat that reached the three-digit mark back then, and it was also the most familiar sensory perception to him. That’s why Su-hyeun felt like he had gone back in time to when he first experienced this sensory perception, which was something he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
Of course, he was currently a lot stronger than back then.
Step, step—
Su-hyeun immediately started walking, picked up his phone, and called someone.
“Hello? Yes, it’s been a while.”
* * *
A massive change had occurred in the Awakener Authority in recent times.
Not just the director responsible for the day-to-day running of the Authority but even the vice-minister above him got axed, and the minister had been suspended as well.
In all honesty, the Authority had lost at least half of its powers at this point.
But even then…
“Welcome.”
Su-hyeun came to visit Bak Yun-gyu who was currently accepted as the Authority’s strongest awakener, but that wasn’t all; behind Bak Yun-gyu was a large group of awakeners affiliated with the Authority standing in rank and file.
They were all here because of a request Su-hyeun had asked earlier.
“Welcome, sir!”
“It’s our honor to make your acquaintance, sir!”
Their loud and energetic voices resounded.
About 100 awakeners present today were directly under Bak Yun-gyu’s command, and their skill levels were quite high. Indeed, they were a gathering of the Authority’s elites who were under the direct command of no one but Bak Yun-gyu alone.
Su-hyeun bowed slightly at them in greeting and then extended his hand toward Bak Yun-gyu.
After shaking hands briefly, Su-hyeun spoke up first, “I didn’t think you’d gather this many people, Mister Bak Yun-gyu.”
“But you did say the more, the better, didn’t you?”
“Still, with this scale, isn’t it like you have gathered most of the available awakeners affiliated with the Authority?”
“Doing this much is only obvious, of course. Mister Su-hyeun, we do owe you a good deal of debt, after all. However, I’m rather pleased by the fact that the Authority has been thoroughly cleaned out, all thanks to your efforts,” Bak Yun-gyu laughed.
Su-hyeun made a somewhat awkward expression at Bak Yun-gyu’s words.
He knew that the Authority had lost a lot of its power due to the events from not too long ago. This wasn’t what he intended, but he still did expect it to be the likeliest result.
Whatever happened, Bak Yun-gyu was an Authority-affiliated awakener at the end of the day. He was not just any awakener, though, but an instructor in charge of fostering the awakeners and, at the same time, the figure that best represented the Authority in the public eye.
Su-hyeun felt apologetic toward him.
While Su-hyeun was hesitating on what to say next since he couldn’t think up of anything suitable, Bak Yun-gyu said, “There’s no need to apologize, Mister Su-hyeun. What happened was the natural course of action. The correct resolution, if you will.”
“Even then—”
“Mister Su-hyeun, you aren’t the type to regret the choices you make, are you? You did the right thing. If there was a body part that has been rotting away for some time, then it’s only natural to cut it off before it can taint the rest of the body,” Bak Yun-gyu said while deeply bowing his head.
“Actually, I’m grateful for your actions. You did something that I should’ve done,” he continued.
“Thank you for putting it like that,” Su-hyeun smiled awkwardly and shifted his gaze over to the awakeners behind Bak Yun-gyu. “Well then, please take care of me for today.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Please take good care of us instead, sir!”