Since I had just seen what happened, it wasn’t hard to guess the contents of the quest.
“Looks like it’s about maintaining form.”
“Right, that’s it.”
Dang Gyu-young readily agreed.
Apparently, Stage 4 would be cleared if she could maintain the shape of the shadow for a certain amount of ti.
Since it was just the beginning, the required duration was a short forty seconds or so.
But with the flimsy debuff applied, it didn’t look like it would be easy to hold for even four seconds, let alone forty.
She would have to concentrate several tis more than usual.
Then, as if a thought had suddenly crossed her mind, Dang Gyu-young shot a sharp look.
“Hey, you knew this was coming, didn’t you?”
“As if. If I knew, I would’ve laid down a mat and waited.”
Predicting the contents of a Hardship quest was an incredibly difficult task. Especially in its early stages
Even within a single class, there were dozens of possible directions it could take.
If I had analyzed every last detail of Dang Gyu-young’s skills, traits, and rank from top to bottom, maybe I could have narrowed it down a little more, but I hadn’t done that either.
And even if I had, there was always a chance the quest would throw out sothing completely unexpected.
Still, it’s starting to take shape little by little.
In Stages 1 through 3, the focus had been on increasing the shadow’s durability so that it wouldn’t be affected by the environnt.
Starting from Stage 4, it seed to be all about solidifying the shape of the shadow even further.
In that case, for Stage 5, there was a high probability that—
I feel like it’s going to involve control.
Sothing along the lines of handling the sculpted shadow in finer detail.
Of course, since Stage 4 had just barely begun, this was sothing to think about later.
After that, Dang Gyu-young tried creating things like butterflies and daggers out of her shadow, but every attempt crumbled apart without fail.
With a small sigh, Dang Gyu-young looked over at us.
“Haah… What am I even doing this for? It’s not like I’m going to be rich and famous or anything. Anyway, let’s get on with the ntoring first.”
Then, she walked up to the summoning gate and crushed a D-rank crystal.
The monster that ca walking out the next mont was—
Clatter.
A skeleton knight.
Though compared to the one controlled by the Witch of Death, this guy was leagues below in quality.
Its bones weren’t pitch-black either, just plain white.
Its equipnt too looked incredibly shabby.
Because of that, its lifespan was even shorter than that of the ogre.
“Hong Yeon-hwa.”
“Mhmm.”
“Fire.”
Whoooosh!
The skeleton knight was instantly engulfed in flas and vanished, and just like before, the area beca blanketed in thick mana.
Then, Hong Yeon-hwa and I began cultivating mana again, while Dang Gyu-young stood guard over us.
If there was any good news, it was probably that Dang Gyu-young hadn’t been stuck just killing ti. She actually had sothing to do now.
After cultivating mana for quite a while, I opened my eyes to find that night had already fallen around us.
And so, we decided to call it a day and returned to the lodging.
anwhile, even after returning to the lodging, even while having dinner, and even right before going to bed, Dang Gyu-young persistently kept working on her Hardship quest.
Even now, she was sitting curled up on the sofa, focusing her mind.
“……”
Her shadow slowly rose up, and Dang Gyu-young carefully drew out a single dagger.
It seed like she thought that if she moved slowly, she might be able to maintain it a little longer.
However, contrary to her expectations, the Shadow Dagger drooped limply like a withered bean sprout almost imdiately.
Perhaps out of a sudden surge of frustration, Dang Gyu-young threw the shadow bean sprout onto the floor.
“Ugh, I’m done with this!”
Then, while pouting her lips in place, she soon pulled the shadow up once again.
“…Damn it, just one more try.”
“Your persistence is really sothing.”
“It kinda feels like losing if I give up now. I’m going to pull this off no matter what.”
“That’s a great attitude. I’m rooting for you.”
While I occasionally offered Dang Gyu-young words of encouragent, Hong Yeon-hwa was holed up in a corner, reading a magic book.
However, perhaps because she couldn’t help but be curious about what was going on here, she kept sneaking glances our way. Noticing her gaze, Dang Gyu-young paused her training for a mont.
Then she spoke in a calm and gentle tone.
“Hong Yeon-hwa.”
“Yes, senior-nim.”
“I’m not sure why, but you’ve been super self-conscious today. Don’t be like that; just relax. We’re going to be living together for almost a month. If you stress yourself out, you’re only hurting yourself.”
“Ah, yes…”
When I also nodded in agreent, Hong Yeon-hwa’s expression noticeably brightened.
“If there’s anything you want to say, just say it.”
“Umm, in that case…”
Even though Dang Gyu-young had given her permission, Hong Yeon-hwa hesitated for a while, as if carefully choosing her words.
Then she cautiously spoke up.
“Um, when you’re making the shadow…”
“Yeah, go on. It’s really fine, so don’t worry.”
“I was just thinking… maybe instead of starting with complicated things like butterflies or daggers… it might help to start with sothing simpler…”
At that, Dang Gyu-young’s eyebrows shot up in interest.
“…That actually makes a lot of sense. Why didn’t I think of that?”
From what I could tell, it seed like she had gotten stuck on trying to form shapes she was already familiar with.
She had been practicing shadow magic for years now, so things like blades or butterflies were not just familiar to her. She had reached the point where she could handle them almost like an extension of her own body.
On top of that, having those familiar forms keep falling apart probably made her even more determined not to give up.
On the other hand, since Hong Yeon-hwa had been watching from a third-person perspective, she naturally ca up with the idea of building things up from the basics.
Both Dang Gyu-young and I said a few words to her.
“I’ll give it a try. Thanks.”
“That was a really good idea.”
“A-Ah, not at all…”
Hong Yeon-hwa waved her hands in embarrassnt, but judging by the smile that had spread across her lips, she was clearly happy to be praised.
She was still pretty terrible at managing her expressions.
Soon after, Dang Gyu-young took her advice and slightly changed her approach, starting to create simple shadow shapes.
A square, a triangle, a circle…
They still collapsed pretty quickly, but at least the duration of their stability had improved, even if only slightly.
“…Good, it’s working.”
The light in Dang Gyu-young’s eyes made it clear that she had found a breakthrough.
And from there, she began to double down on her training.
This ti, she created a shadow cone.
It was obvious she was pouring all her focus into maintaining its shape, like she had sworn not to let it collapse no matter what.
Watching that scene sparked a mischievous urge in , so I summoned a faint breeze.
Whooosh—
It was barely enough to lightly tickle soone’s hair, but even that seed to shake Dang Gyu-young’s concentration.
After all, seeing the shadow cone slowly lose its shape and collapse into a shadowy blob made that pretty clear.
Slowly, Dang Gyu-young raised her head and looked straight at .
And she asked in a chilling tone,
“Kim Ho, do you want to end up all wobbly too?”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you keep provoking right now, I can’t guarantee what might happen. You’d better be careful.”
“I won’t bother you anymore.”
I sat down on the opposite side, quite a distance away from Dang Gyu-young.
And since I had so ti to spare, I decided to send a ssage to Seo Ye-in.
[Kim Ho: (Peeking cat emoji)]
[Seo Ye-in: ……?]
[Seo Ye-in: (Sleepy cat emoji)]
[Kim Ho: Did I wake you up?]
[Seo Ye-in: Yeah]
[Seo Ye-in: (Rolling cat emoji)]
[Seo Ye-in: Take responsibility]
[Kim Ho: Sorry]
[Kim Ho: Go back to sleep]
[Seo Ye-in: Take responsibility]
[Seo Ye-in: (Cat claw emoji)]
[Seo Ye-in: (Threatening cat emoji)]
[Kim Ho: How should I take responsibility?]
[Seo Ye-in: Co back]
[Kim Ho: That would be difficult, young miss]
[Kim Ho: Get so rest]
[Seo Ye-in: Co back……]
[Seo Ye-in: (Longing cat emoji)]
While I was exchanging ssages like that, sothing lightly poked at .
It turned out to be a wobbly shadow finger.
When I looked over at Dang Gyu-young, she quickly averted her gaze, pretending it wasn’t her.
But the wobbly shadow kept poking at as it ford distorted letters.
[Hye, yong monarc]
[Teh seat nexto feel empty]
I guess I could roughly interpret that as her telling to co back.
So I went and sat down next to Dang Gyu-young.
“Didn’t you tell not to provoke you?”
“I didn’t an for you to go over there.”
“Communication sure is hard.”
“I’m pretty easy to understand, though. I say everything straight.”
“Is that so?”
“It is, you little punk.”
Dang Gyu-young lightly bumped her shoulder against mine.
Then she raised her shadow once again.
“Stay here and keep cheering on.”
“I’m watching.”
I stayed by her side, watching over her training late into the night.
***
The next day, Dang Gyu-young continued her Hardship quest whenever she had the chance.
At first, the shadows she summoned would crumble almost as soon as they appeared, but little by little, their duration was starting to increase.
From two seconds to three, from three to five, from five to eight…
If she kept steadily pushing forward like this, she would eventually be able to reach forty seconds too.
Of course, while Dang Gyu-young focused on her own training, we went ahead with our ntoring in our own way.
Hong Yeon-hwa cast Fire Pillar, and the towering columns of fla fired off blazing projectiles like turrets.
They were aid straight at the newly summoned monsters.
Booom-boom-boom-boom!
A series of small explosions went off, turning the monster into a pile of ashes.
This ti, instead of mana thickening in the air, a notification ssage popped up in the corner of my vision.
[The growth speed of your skills and traits has greatly increased.]
An effect almost identical to a Rank Boost.
So naturally, we dove straight into rank farming.
Hong Yeon-hwa chained together Fire Pillars and various fire spells, while I focused on playing defensively.
All to work on ranking up [Wind Barrier].
Guess it’s ti to start paying attention to defense too.
Up until now, I hadn’t really felt much need for defensive skills. Most situations could be handled through control, and I had plenty of safety nets in place.
Skills like [Distortion] or [Retrocovery], for example.
But still, there’s a limit to relying on just that.
Take, for instance, the large-scale corpse explosion the Witch of Death had cast.
Within that kind of range, avoiding it completely was practically impossible.
There could always co a ti when I wouldn’t just need to dodge for myself, but would also have to protect my allies.
I should at least learn one proper defensive skill.
The more cards I had to play, the better.
With [Wind Barrier] wrapped around , I deliberately let Hong Yeon-hwa’s attacks hit .
Fireballs ca flying relentlessly, exploding on impact.
Boom! Boom-boom!
As expected from a promising student, each of those fireballs packed serious power, and my barrier would often shatter in no ti.
Every ti that happened, I imdiately cast a new [Wind Barrier] over myself.
If I kept up this rank farming like this, I’d probably break past C Rank before long.
After that, I planned to learn an entirely new defensive skill.
Maybe they’ll give it as a reward?
I reopened the quest window I had seen on my first day here.
[Event: Second ntoring] (In Progress…)
[Ti Remaining: 27 days]
▷Grow faster with the help of a ntor.
▷Defeat D-Rank Monsters: 3
▷Defeat C-Rank Monsters: 0
▷Defeat B-Rank Monsters: 0
▷Rewards given for defeating a set number of monsters
Normally, quests were designed to reward players with whatever they needed most based on their current level of growth.
Since my defense was still sowhat lacking at the mont, there was a aningful chance that the reward would be a related skill.
The rewards were set to be given out gradually as I defeated the monsters from the summoning gate.
Of course, defeating a single C or B-rank monster was valued more highly than taking down multiple D-rank ones.
If I just rushed in and wiped them all out at once, I could probably get the rewards pretty quickly, but there was no need to hurry.
What really matters are the buffs.
If I killed more than two monsters at once and ended up getting the sa buff twice, they wouldn’t even stack, making the extra buff practically useless.
And since the crystals Dang Gyu-young had brought weren’t unlimited either, it was definitely better for the long run to make use of each one carefully and efficiently.
I stepped forward directly into the oncoming fireballs.
Boom, boom-boom!
The space in front of was soon engulfed in small fiery explosions.
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