Chapter 5 – A Clumsy First Step

“Wow.”

Il-hyeon let out a gasp of admiration as he arrived home and took the Ether Core out of his bag.

A cube filled with pure white light. It looked almost identical to the last core he’d seen, just slightly different in size.

To an ordinary person, it was just a sparkling crystal, but Il-hyeon’s mouth watered at the sight of it.

He stared intently at the core in his hand, like a man who’d starved all day being presented with a succulent piece of meat.

‘If I absorb this, will my other ability finally manifest?’

Hoping the core would relieve his current sense of frustration, Il-hyeon squeezed it hard in his right hand.

*Crack!*

A crack appeared in the core.

The core shattered much faster than before, releasing a flood of Ether that was absorbed into his body.

Shards scattered across the floor as Il-hyeon took a deep breath.

“Guess that crazy stunt was worth it after all.”

A grin spread across Il-hyeon’s face as he finished absorbing the white light.

He immediately stretched out a finger and manipulated the floor.

Though his hand was nowhere near it, a small section of the wooden floor bulged upward.

It was less powerful than when he made direct contact, but he could now reshape objects from a distance.

‘My physical abilities seem to have improved, and it’s easier to manifest my power. But…’

Il-hyeon closed his eyes and focused his mind.

He pictured the form of the being he wanted to summon, channeling his power to give it shape.

It felt less like pulling something from another world and more like creating a new life from scratch.

His ability slowly began to manifest, and the faint outline of a small, index-finger-sized person started to appear.

He already knew he lacked the power to summon anything grand, so he was hoping for even a small result.

But at the last moment, the tension in his body snapped, and the summoned form vanished like a mirage.

“Hah, damn it. Still no good.”

He muttered in frustration, letting out the breath he’d been holding.

The summoning ability he truly wanted had yet to awaken.

There was no need to be impatient, but he couldn’t help feeling stifled.

“I never knew creating something from nothing would be this hard.”

He flopped down onto the sofa.

If his transformation ability was like reshaping an existing object, his summoning ability felt like having to conceptualize, sketch, and color on a blank white canvas.

‘Wait, what if I provide the sketch myself beforehand?’

Il-hyeon paused, then began rummaging through his belongings.

Searching for something solid, he picked up a toolbox that had been tucked away in a corner.

He took out a reasonably sized hammer and used his transformation ability.

The rubber handle fell away, and the head of the hammer began to change, slowly taking on a new shape.

An oval body formed, two wings sprouted from its sides, and a head with eyes and a beak appeared on top.

Creating a human form felt a bit more difficult, so this was his next best choice.

With the small bird statue now formed in his hand, Il-hyeon attempted to use his other ability.

He focused harder and poured in more power than when he used his transformation ability.

Then, the eyes of the inanimate statue gained focus, and its wings twitched.

*Coo, coo-rooo, coo, coo!*

“Whoa, you startled me. It actually worked…”

The pigeon flapped its iron wings, flying frantically all over the living room.

Startled, Il-hyeon ducked to avoid it.

He watched in a daze for a moment before the iron pigeon shattered a glass on the table, snapping him back to his senses.

“Stop! Come here.”

He gestured, and the pigeon stopped its erratic flight, swiftly landing on his right forearm.

The sight reminded him of a falconer with his hawk, and Il-hyeon couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

“So this is what I can manage by borrowing the power of transformation. But why a pigeon…?”

He had tried to create a magnificent falcon, but what emerged was a strange-looking pigeon with wobbly outlines.

Then again, it was only the size of a fat sparrow, so he couldn’t have expected a masterpiece.

‘My skills are still lacking, so I’ll have to rely on this indirect method of summoning for now.’

It was different from the “summoning” he had always imagined, but he had succeeded in creating another living being nonetheless.

It was a success made possible by his transformation ability. He was still lacking, but that was something that could be solved by becoming more adept with his powers and absorbing more Ether. Nothing to worry about.

In fact, having created a living, moving creature himself, he felt more excitement than despair.

He had never heard of an ability like this before.

The pigeon stretched its wings and puffed out its chest.

Il-hyeon watched with a smile.

‘Still, my control has definitely gotten more refined. I think I can solve my weapon problem with the transformation ability, too.’

Mulling it over, Il-hyeon got to his feet.

Now that he’d belatedly realized a paring knife wouldn’t even scratch a monster, he had to solve the problem.

He searched his home and gathered every piece of scrap metal he could find.

Kitchen knives, pots, chopsticks, an awl—he collected all sorts of miscellaneous items and began to transform them.

*Screeeech!* With a loud noise, the metals separated and fused together.

To maximize its density, Il-hyeon winced as he strained, compressing the material with all his might.

“Phew.”

Il-hyeon slowly exhaled.

Before him lay a crude but formidable-looking silver stainless steel sword.

*Clang!*

Il-hyeon held the finished sword firmly and struck it with his hand. It didn’t even bend; it was perfectly solid.

If it could withstand his enhanced strength, it should be able to inflict fatal wounds on low-rank monsters.

Of course, the advantages of an AT Sword weren’t limited to its superior strength, so this was just a temporary measure. Still, compared to charging in with a paring knife, he was more than grateful for it.

But he had no time to celebrate. He had to fight to keep his heavy eyelids open as he walked.

‘I feel like I’ve used up several days’ worth of energy in just one day.’

Exhausted from the long day and drained from overusing his abilities, Il-hyeon collapsed face-first onto his bed and passed out.

As he fell asleep, the summoned pigeon’s eyes lost their focus, and its body slowly slumped over.

And while he slept, a small incident occurred in Seoul.

* * *

The next day, Il-hyeon’s internal clock—a remnant of his office worker days—woke him up bright and early. He quickly got ready to leave.

He no longer had any reason to go out early, but after seeing the breaking news on the TV he’d turned on without thinking, he couldn’t afford to dawdle.

“What a mess.”

Il-hyeon muttered, scrolling through the news on his phone.

Public opinion was in an uproar over a Gate that had opened in the city center at dawn.

A normal Gate would have a waiting period—as short as thirty minutes or as long as a day—before it spewed out monsters.

During that precious time, special police would secure the area and evacuate civilians.

Then, Awakened dispatched by the government or corporations would handle the monsters that poured out when the time came.

Since it was impossible to manually close a Gate before it disappeared on its own after releasing its monsters, every country and region handled them this way.

But this one was different.

A Surprise Gate.

Unlike normal Gates, it was a catastrophic type that unleashed monsters in an instant, less than five minutes after appearing.

Naturally, there was no way to respond properly, and the damage was incomparable to that of a regular Gate.

It was so bad that people said an F-rank Surprise Gate was scarier than a B-rank Gate set to open in five hours.

And a Gate just like that had appeared in the middle of Seoul.

While he slept, monsters had emerged from the abruptly opened and activated Gate, wreaking havoc before disappearing into the city.

It was in a neighborhood not far from where he lived.

Fortunately, most of them had been eliminated by the government and the Awakened during the early morning hours, but four monsters remained unaccounted for.

All were E-rank.

While not a high rank, they were still strong enough that an ordinary person couldn’t even fight back, so the surrounding area was on high alert.

Schools in the vicinity were closed, and online news articles were flooded with comments blaming the incompetent government and Awakened.

In reality, it was impossible to perfectly defend against a Surprise Gate, but that was a hard pill for the general public to swallow.

Shouldn’t they at least be earning the high taxes that went up with the appearance of the Gates?

And when there were casualties, the situation became even more serious.

“Seventeen casualties, and three dead…? This is bad.”

Il-hyeon shook his head as he read the article on the portal site’s main page.

The damage was relatively low only because this was Korea; in any other country, it would have been dozens of times worse.

Thanks to its small land area, high population density, and, most importantly, an overwhelmingly high ratio of Awakened to the general population, major damage was rare unless it was an exceptional case.

As a result, people tended to be complacent about the dangers of Gates.

He quickly stuffed his things into his bag and left the house.

The long sword he’d made yesterday was difficult to carry and too conspicuous to walk around with, so he had broken it into three pieces and packed them away.

He could just reassemble it on-site.

Once outside, Il-hyeon immediately hailed a taxi.

“To Ilyeon-dong, please.”

“What? They’re saying monsters have appeared there. It’s a total mess.”

“It’s fine… no, just take me nearby, then.”

Il-hyeon sat in the back, looking at his phone.

He read an article stating that even the government’s Sensor Awakened were on the scene, but there had been no progress.

“Hmm.”

The fact that even the Sensors couldn’t find them meant the problem wasn’t with the searchers, but that the creatures were deliberately concealing their presence, hidden away somewhere.

In that case, the chances of him finding the monsters by blindly searching were slim.

He had to find a new method.

Il-hyeon took a piece of wood from his bag.

It was a brown piece of timber that had broken off some old furniture.

Since he lived alone, he hadn’t gotten around to tidying it up yet, but now he’d found the perfect way to dispose of it.