# Chapter 84
It took considerable time to move again. Lee Hwan barely held onto his reason and slowly dipped his hand into the water. When he scooped up a large handful of sand along with the jewel, it felt like a sudden shiver running through him.
The double-horned shaped jewel briefly revealed its form in his hand.
‘Could this possibly be… a skill stone?’
Even though the jewel hadn’t directly touched his skin yet, he could be certain. Already a dizzy, overwhelming sensation was enveloping his body. Besides, if it had been an ordinary jewel, it wouldn’t have been sunk in such an out-of-place location to begin with.
Lee Hwan stared at the faintly glowing material as if mesmerized, letting the sand slowly filter through his fingers. As the sand visibly disappeared, the jewel touched his palm with a soft press.
A strange excitement tugged at his heart… and like someone whispering, information about the skill stone flowed into his head. It wasn’t like sound or text, but rather a sensation closer to pure understanding.
‘A-rank…’
From that grade alone, Lee Hwan felt like his breath stopped.
‘Amplification.’
And when he confirmed the ability contained in the skill, Lee Hwan was completely dumbfounded.
“What?”
In the past, he hadn’t touched anything resembling a skill stone except when he was on the verge of death. How had he ended up encountering three skill stones, each one extraordinary?
A-rank Amplification. It was a skill stone he had never heard of, either before or after his regression. He couldn’t possibly have forgotten information about a skill stone found in Korea when he remembered details of insignificant hidden rooms.
Lee Hwan forgot that he was still inside the gate, in a space where monster fish had been dwelling, and slumped against the wall. With a splash, water reached up to his waist.
Should he obtain it right away, should he take it out with him? The more unfamiliar situations increased, the more his anxiety grew, and equally, his expectations for a different future flourished.
“Haah…”
With joy and worry tangled together, his mind became confused, and it didn’t feel quite real. Lee Hwan made an effort to organize his thoughts and gripped the jewel with a complicated expression.
At first, he wondered how a skill of A-rank could possibly be buried, but thinking again, it made sense. If it was Amplification, unlike Explosion or Gravity, it would be a skill that quietly supported one’s original ability. If hidden well, perhaps it could be concealed forever.
However, if others unlike himself had witnessed this hidden room together, it probably would have been difficult to pretend the skill stone didn’t exist. For example, information about the hidden room was recorded, albeit in reduced form.
He became quite curious about how an intact skill stone could be erased from records, and who had consumed it.
Glancing down, he noticed his clenched fist was faintly glowing. Lee Hwan slowly opened his hand and stared at the skill stone as if entranced, then habitually recalled Taesung’s voice.
A low voice dripping with coldness seemed to tighten around his chest, constantly reprimanding him.
So when, when will you improve? No matter how different the environment is from the past, how long must I wait for you to become useful?
Was it because so much had built up? Words that Taesung had never actually spoken echoed in his head as if real, making him feel like the inside of his throat was being scraped raw.
Lee Hwan fiddled with the skill stone, clenching and unclenching his hand, then, as if having made up his mind, picked it up and put it in his mouth.
For a moment, it seemed like everything in front of him turned white.
[New! You have acquired a new skill.]
* * *
Lee Hwan sat slumped for a long time after coming out of the cave. First, he was preoccupied with the new skill he had obtained, and secondarily, he was angry at himself for recklessly swallowing the skill stone.
He didn’t necessarily have to eat it himself. At a truly critical moment, he could have used it as leverage to gain a valuable opportunity. If he couldn’t regress again, he should be approaching everything carefully, but from just before his regression until now, he seemed to be living recklessly.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was the wrong choice. It wouldn’t accrue interest like a deposit just by being left unused, and he couldn’t predict what accidents might occur by passing it to someone else.
Above all, Lee Hwan had been feeling his limitations lately. He believed in his potential for growth, but that was closer to expectations about tactics he could devise with his mind and physical skills he could obtain by pushing his body to extremes. Naturally, he couldn’t progress as quickly as he wanted.
Besides, hadn’t this new life, escaped from death, started with a skill stone he had swallowed without deliberation?
So considering various circumstances, it was better for him to consume this ‘Amplification’ skill. He just didn’t like the fact that he had obtained the skill hastily before reaching that conclusion.
‘Of all things to think of, focusing on the negative…’
The soaked combat suit had somehow half-dried. Lee Hwan finally rose from the ground where his buttocks had left a circular imprint and turned his attention back to his skill window.
* EX Broken Clockwork (0 times)
* A Amplification
* B Spatial Control (☆)
* C Gravity
It had gotten longer. That he, not some S-rank oil tycoon, could see his skill window so full—it felt very strange before he could even feel excited.
Lee Hwan stared blankly at the description of the Amplification skill and read it over and over.
* A Amplification
– Amplifies the user’s ability and affiliated skills.
‘This is no joke.’
As expected of an A-rank, it was substantial. If his understanding was correct, it meant that it would amplify not just his ability but also his skills all at once.
Skill and ability ranks ranged across six levels from S to E, except in special cases like the regression skill stone. Most fell into the D and E ranks. Even Lee Hwan’s notable ability was B-rank.
S to B ranks made up less than 10 percent of the entire Awakened population, so the utility of this A-rank skill he had just consumed was understandable.
In other words,
“I hit the jackpot…”
Lee Hwan muttered out loud without realizing it.
He wanted to use it immediately to experiment, but hesitated as he suddenly recalled getting a nosebleed on his first awakening day. It seemed best to draw out his ability carefully and get a feel for it up to a level that wouldn’t strain his body.
Going home, resting well, and trying it out wouldn’t be a bad approach, but he was already inside a gate. It would be a waste to let the opportunity to face monsters slip by.
Light glimmered in Lee Hwan’s eyes. A small space was designated around him, and the surrounding ground began to crack with light sounds, the area gradually widening. Weed stems twisted and flattened under pressure.
The size of the controlled space had increased to a point that would normally start to feel burdensome, but Lee Hwan could feel power surging from his heart.
If before it had felt like extracting ability from his body, now it felt closer to gushing out. It was as if everything within the designated space was completely under his control. Lee Hwan raised the corner of his mouth in a smirk and pressed hard on a rock by the water.
Crunch… crack!
After slowly crushing a rock, he carefully observed the changes in his body. Was his stomach turning? Was his blood flowing backwards? Or were there other unexpected damages he hadn’t thought of?
For an ability this versatile and powerful, it could have had a terrible penalty like Spatial Control. But from another perspective, since it was simply a support function, it might have a relatively light penalty.
However, from what he could observe by clenching and unclenching his hand and stretching his arms, no particular symptoms were evident. Rather, Amplification seemed to alleviate the burden of his existing ability, and even his stomach, which would normally churn, remained fine without any burning sensation.
‘Hmm… I’ll have to keep watching.’
Well, if there was almost no penalty, it was good news that Lee Hwan would welcome with open arms. The aftermath of the burdensome Spatial Control had become lighter, and he had been suspecting that the symptom of energy rapidly draining was due to the regression skill.
If he could choose, he would have preferred something as soft and light as down feathers for an already not-so-great situation.
‘If there’s no strain on the body, that means I can go all out here before leaving.’
Lee Hwan finished drying himself and put his jacket back on. The bag and Dolpeung were secured to his back. After bringing up the map to locate monsters, he headed toward the center of the gate with excited steps.
From now on, it was cleaning time, filled with sticky bodily fluids and bloodshed.
The Mimic Birds he encountered again were circling in the sky from the moment they detected his presence. Since they would surely mimic whatever he said, Lee Hwan kept his mouth tightly shut and approached quietly.
These monsters usually imitated the voices of hunters who entered the gate, especially the entry leader’s voice, to divert attention or spread incorrect instructions. But since Lee Hwan was alone, it was just embarrassing, like listening to a recording of his own voice.
The Mimic Birds had a habit of circling around their target and attacking like missiles when they saw an opening. Assuming they would rush in over time, Lee Hwan first designated a large space around him. It felt like ability was emanating from his body like heat haze.
‘Is this enough?’
Bang!
First, a couple of nearby birds crashed to the ground. Lee Hwan compressed them with gravity, crushing them, and gradually expanded the space.
Having killed them in such a messy way, he expected the distinctive foul bloody smell of monsters to hit him. However, what reached Lee Hwan’s nostrils as he expanded the space was, unexpectedly, a rather pleasant and sweet smell.
‘This smell… apples?’
It was definitely a scent he hadn’t noticed when entering. He could understand the faint smell of grass and soil, but a sweet fragrance in a gate that actually contained nothing but weeds and old trees?
Lee Hwan momentarily held his breath and checked his body by clenching and unclenching his hands. It wasn’t poison. No signs of intoxication appeared either on his skin or in his nervous system.
But he couldn’t be reassured just because it wasn’t poison. Although it was a quite pleasant fragrance, the sweet air he inhaled again wasn’t entirely welcome.
Now that he thought about it, this smell seemed to have been present intermittently for a while. He wasn’t certain, but something might have been sprayed into the gate’s atmosphere, or an unknown monster might be following him.
‘If I encounter the wrong thing, I could really end up buried in this gate…’
The Mimic Birds, having witnessed the death of their kind, were apparently not planning to rush in immediately and were just circling in the air. Lee Hwan kept his eyes fixed on the flock of birds while deeply considering.
Could there be a monster that smelled like fruit in his memories?
Some musk monsters did emit pheromones vaguely similar to fruit scents. Such monsters had appeared in gates he had explored with Taesung. When he had smelled them directly, he had thought they smelled like overripe fruit, so it was most likely that kind of substance.
He hurriedly sorted through the musk monsters in his head, but no matter how much he thought about it, none of the monsters that appeared in this gate were among them.
Could it be that bringing the skill stone had caused a change in the gate, creating monsters that had never appeared before? Or was there any possibility that the twisted Form Tree had suddenly become a fresh tree bearing fruit?
When he considered the possibility of a new monster, even though the battle hadn’t even started, he already felt sweat breaking out. As he was bringing his hand to his forehead, which felt itchy, Lee Hwan suddenly realized an unexpected fact.
‘Wait… this smell.’
Lee Hwan twitched his nose.
‘Why is it coming from my wrist?’
The unidentifiable apple smell that had been following him all along was coming from his own body.
