I’d already been thinking I needed to sort through my skills again soti soon anyway, but thanks to getting [Skillbook - Skull Demon Poison Claw(A)], that plan had moved up quite a bit.
I’d just finish preparing a few more things, then set up so face ti with the fairy.
For now, though, I decided to continue the box opening.
“......”
“......”
The party mbers were looking back and forth between Fast-Luckless and [Black Serpent’s Black Chest] with obvious interest.
They were probably curious whether the mirror image was really a Lucky Charm too, and if so, just how lucky she was.
With all eyes on her, Fast-Luckless said that line in advance.
“I’ve got a good feeling.”
That was the kind of move that could turn into a spectacular humiliation if things went wrong.
Which ant she had absolute confidence.
That sa confidence was written all over the hand motion with which she opened the lid.
WHOOM—!
The next mont, the whole area filled with an auspicious aura.
Like sothing good was about to happen at any second.
Sothing good did happen.
A good item.
With an effect this big, you could practically call the jackpot guaranteed.
And the item that revealed itself a mont later didn’t disappoint.
At the sa ti, it was unexpected too.
This cos out here?
It was a curved, droplet-shaped jewel—a magatama.
A reddish hue ran through it overall.
[Heaven Magatama(A )]
By winter break, Go Hyeonwoo had already obtained [Earth Magatama], one part of the three-part set.
I’d planned on tackling a deep-layer dungeon later and completing the rest, but now we had just yanked one out of a random box instead.
I grumbled—not quite seriously—at the two Seo Ye-ins.
“It’s a problem when you keep pushing my plans ahead of schedule.”
“But I did well, right?”
“You did excellently.”
We hadn’t broken through the S-rank wall, but we had at least added a onto A-rank.
And totem-type items were valuable even among items of the sa rank, because their effects applied just by keeping them in your inventory.
That made them extrely important from my perspective too.
In every sense, Lucky Charm had lived up to the na.
[Heaven Magatama(A )]
▷Small growth bonus to the lowest-ranked skill
▷.......
▷.......
Earth was closely tied to traits, Heaven to skills.
And for reference, Human was tied to equipnt.
Of course, those were only the base options.
The real beginning is when you complete the set.
I brought the two magatamas close together.
Then, as if they had originally been one object, they naturally fused, the red and blue blending into one another and forming a taeguk.
[Heaven-Earth Magatama(S)]
▷Taeguk[2/2]: Growth Bonus Enhanced
▷dium growth bonus to the lowest-ranked skill and trait
▷Taeguk[2/2]: Damage Reduction(F)
▷Triad Taeguk[2/3]: ???
▷Triad Taeguk[2/3]: ???
▷Triad Taeguk[2/3]: ???
The growth bonus that had been (Small) rose to (dium),
and on top of that, it gained the absurdly useful option [Damage Reduction].
Just as the words implied, it reduced a certain amount of damage.
Whether my whole body was engulfed in flas, my head got smashed with a club or a pot, or I got stabbed and slashed with a blade, it applied regardless of type.
And elental penalties count as “damage” too, when you think about it.
Right now it was only F-rank, so the reduction was tiny, and other than completing Triad Taeguk, there was practically no way to grow it any further.
Even so, once it was fully completed, it should be enough to nullify even S-rank elental penalties.
Though I’ll probably sort out Inferno Fist before that.
The last magatama wasn’t about to pop out of another random box, and the standard route would take quite a while.
Of course, even setting that aside, it was such a universally useful option that it was treated as the final boss among defensive effects.
So I happily stored the magatama in my inventory.
Which left the grand finale:
[White Serpent’s White Chest(A )].
“......”
“......”
No one said a word, but it felt like everyone’s expectations had reached their absolute peak.
An A item had co out of the B box,
and an A item had co out of the A box.
So didn’t it make sense to expect S from the A box?
But the bigger the expectation, the bigger the disappointnt.
Just like even monkeys sotis fall out of trees, maybe even Lucky Charm occasionally pulled sothing ordinary.
And it wasn’t exactly polite to act like a huge jackpot was owed to us, either.
So I said to Seo Ye-in,
“Don’t feel too pressured. It’s not like you absolutely have to blow the roof off the place or hit so massive jackpot.”
“No jackpot.”
“Right. Let’s keep it nice and calm.”
But apparently Seo Ye-in’s “No jackpot” didn’t an what I thought it ant.
She slowly shook her head, then gripped the random box and made her gray eyes flash.
“Breaking the ceiling.”
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!
Light burst out like an explosion and flooded my vision.
At the sa ti, it felt like a massive presence and pressure were bearing down on my whole body.
Like Sword Empress, or the principal, or soone even stronger, was releasing their aura without restraint.
Was there an effect like this?
Effects varied wildly depending on the type and grade of item, but I didn’t think this one was in my big-data archive.
While I was still feeling puzzled, the radiance gradually began to die down.
But even after the effect disappeared, the presence remained exactly the sa as before.
Which ant—
It wasn’t an effect in the first place.
That overwhelming presence had belonged to the item itself.
Either way, it was still sothing I was experiencing for the first ti.
No one needed prompting. All of us crowded around Seo Ye-in.
Floating above her white palm was sothing like a mass of blue vapor.
Depending on how you looked at it, it almost seed like a fla was burning.
When Seo Ye-in gave it a little push, it naturally drifted over onto my hand.
[Martial Soul(EX)]
▷???
“You really did break through the ceiling.”
You said you weren’t hitting a jackpot, and then you went and hit a completely insane ga-jackpot instead.
Looking extrely satisfied, Seo Ye-in answered,
“The original’s class.”
“You proved it again today.”
“Every day.”
The way she puffed herself up, it looked like even her nose had gone straight through the ceiling.
Well, with this much, she’d earned the right to be a little smug.
I owed her quite a bit of praise myself.
Still, that could wait until later. Right now, curiosity ca first.
I started examining Martial Soul a little more closely.
First EX-rank I’ve seen.
Back when I played as a ga, S-rank had been the absolute cap.
EX only unlocked after I received the reincarnation quest and entered the world of the ga.
And now, more than a year later, I had finally gotten my hands on an EX-rank item.
But the options aren’t showing.
Just in case, I asked Seo Ye-in too.
“See anything?”
“......Can’t see.”
“Can’t see.”
Fast-Luckless chid in beside her.
If even those two couldn’t read it, then it was probably less a matter of eyesight and more a matter of qualification.
At minimum, you’d probably need to be S-rank before you could read anything at all.
Thankfully, the item’s na itself was intuitive enough that it at least gave a minimal hint.
The soul of a martial artist.
If that was the case, then naturally it had to be deeply connected to martial-artist-type classes.
So I asked Go Hyeonwoo and Han Somi,
“Do you see anything? Feel anything?”
“......”
“......”
The two of them stared at Martial Soul in silence.
After a long stretch of thoughtful murmuring, they managed to answer.
“......I can feel an aura that I dare not approach. It seems I am unequal to it.”
“......I don’t know. But what is that? It’s insanely insane!”
I checked with Dang Gyu-ri and Hong Yeonhwa too, but they both looked just as uncertain.
But then, at that mont, Go Hyeonwoo suddenly froze and his expression stiffened.
The others shot him looks that were half worried, half questioning, and he spoke with a sowhat uncertain expression.
“......It felt as though sothing called to .”
Then he opened his inventory and took out the Heavenly Wind Sect’s sacred relic.
No, it was only right to call it Wind God now.
I asked him,
“Why that?”
“I am not certain myself, so it is difficult to explain. I simply felt a strong intuition that I should take it out.”
WHOOO—!
As if answering him, a gentle wind rose and brushed around us.
It lingered especially around Martial Soul, almost as if it were saying, Give that.
For a mont, I even thought maybe I should just go ahead and hand it over once.
But this isn’t sothing I can treat that casually.
This was the first EX-rank item I had ever gotten, and its effects still weren’t even revealed.
The true nature of [Wind God] was also still veiled, so what kind of result the two would produce when they t was completely unknown.
Worst case, it disappears—or goes berserk.
Martial Soul might vanish outright, or Wind God might turn into a demonic sword, go wild, and start firing sword energy everywhere.
Even so, chances would keep coming in the future, and I was confident I could suppress the latter situation too.
That was only the worst case, after all.
The odds of it turning out positive are much higher.
Wind God had sothing of the nature of an ego sword, and its rank was probably around EX itself.
aning, it knew what it wanted, and it possessed the ability to predict the result.
Otherwise, there was no way it would be resonating this actively.
The conclusion was simple.
This was worth betting on.
Of course, the most important thing is what he wants.
So I asked Go Hyeonwoo,
“What do you want to do? We can do it now, or put it off until later.”
“Ordinarily, caution would be the correct course....... But if it is Wind God’s will, then I wish to respect it.”
“That’s a good enough reason.”
If we granted its request, then regardless of the result, we could at least raise our affinity with it a little.
Soon, Go Hyeonwoo set the sheath down with a visibly tense expression, and I carefully brought Martial Soul closer.
At first there was no reaction at all, but the closer it got, the more violently Martial Soul began to flare.
FWOOOOSH,
It looked like soone had poured oil over a blue fla.
Then Martial Soul seed to flow directly into Wind God, and after wrapping itself around the sheath, it kept blazing there.
FWOOOOSH,
The next mont, the sheath—which had shown traces of age and long years—took on a glossy shine, like it had just been crafted.
It also seed to carry an even sharper aura than before.
“The blade probably changed too, didn’t it?”
“Most likely. It is regrettable that I cannot confirm it at once.”
Go Hyeonwoo answered with a bitter smile.
If he drew it recklessly, it was obvious he’d end up seriously injured again, just like back in Black Serpent Fang.
If he challenged the sacred relic properly, he’d at least get to see it drawn partway, so we’d just have to wait until then.
Still, it went about how I expected.
So kind of effect had been applied—enhancent, repair, or supplentation.
Whichever it was, the performance had improved.
FWOOOOSH,
Then, as if it had finished what it needed to do, Martial Soul slipped free of Wind God and returned to my hand.
Tilting her head, Han Somi said,
“Huh? It got smaller.”
“It did.”
It definitely looked a little smaller than when it first ca out.
aning it was a consumable-type item.
But for , that brought more relief than disappointnt.
At least it isn’t one-ti use.
I’d been prepared for it to vanish the mont I used it on Wind God.
And it hadn’t even shrunk by that much.
I’d probably be able to use it a few more tis.
An EX-rank item for martial classes, with multiple uses left?
My gratitude toward Seo Ye-in swelled all over again.
So I imdiately started bowing and scraping so low I looked about ready to do a full prostration.
“It seems my faith was lacking. To think I dared say sothing as presumptuous as not to feel pressured in front of Lucky Charm Original herself, the one who breaks through even the ceiling.”
“Lucky Charm Original.”
Seo Ye-in nodded, looking like she rather liked that phrase.
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