Chapter 15 – Strategy Preparation

“I’ll choose this armor.”

“I’ll take this cloak.”

“I’ll go with the belt.”

The day after the Awakened acceptance celebration banquet.

Having visited the Association and completed the party formation registration with the three promising candidates, Lee Hanseong immediately had everyone use their equipment exchange vouchers.

Browsing the Association’s equipment warehouse, the three people holding Rare Equipment Exchange Vouchers each selected ‘Dragon Scale Armor’, ‘Cloak of Refraction’, and ‘Belt of Protection’.

“Since you have Spirit Treasures for weapons, you chose defensive gear. Smart.”

“Well, yeah.”

Except for Park Seongcheol’s Dragon Scale Armor, the other items didn’t look particularly defensive in appearance. However, from Rare equipment onward, the gear itself contained Skills, so what Skill it held was more important than its appearance.

In the case of Jin Yuseong’s ‘Cloak of Refraction’ or Yu Sehee’s ‘Belt of Protection’.

As the modifiers suggested, they contained the Skills <Refraction> and <Protection>, clearly seeming useful for defense.

“I think it’ll take me a while to choose, so wait outside.”

“Got it.”

Since he already had the Gluttonous Demon Sword for a weapon, Lee Hanseong also intended to choose defensive gear.

Unlike the other three, what Lee Hanseong held was a General Equipment Exchange Voucher, so he could only choose general equipment without Skills.

‘But even among the same general grade, not all equipment is equal.’

From his pre-Regression knowledge, he had heard that among the general equipment in the Association warehouse, there existed equipment rivaling Rare gear.

Thud, thud.

Unfurling his <Appraisal> Skill, he thoroughly examined the defensive gear.

How long had he been scanning the equipment?

[You have appraised <??’s Breastplate>.]

‘This is it.’

Finally, the equipment he was looking for came into view.

-Nyahaha~!

[The Nameless Constellation notices the equipment you have chosen and smiles.]

‘You recognized it, I see?’

Since they shared memories from before the Regression, he had expected they would recognize it.

<??’s Breastplate>.

The equipment he discovered was not at the level of simple general grade.

“I’ll take this one.”

“Are you sure you want that one? It’s a failed piece where Skill Engraving failed, so its durability is likely lower than it looks.”

The presence of a modifier is a characteristic of Rare grade equipment.

Because the modifier was displayed as question marks, it seemed to be classified as general grade equipment without a Skill, but this was clearly Rare grade.

“Yes. It’s fine.”

Of course, Lee Hanseong wasn’t the only one who had noticed that this breastplate was originally Rare grade level.

Appraisal-type Skills weren’t exclusive to him.

It’s just that even if you knew, if you couldn’t use the Skill, it was no different from general equipment. No, rather, because the failed Skill Engraving lowered its durability, they likely judged it to be a below-average general equipment.

‘But that’s a story limited to this period.’

In the future, equipment with modifiers displayed as question marks like this becomes a treasure you can’t find for lack of trying.

Because a method for overlaying a new Skill onto a failed Skill Engraving was discovered belatedly.

‘Right now, I’m the only one who knows the method.’

Treasure belongs to those who recognize its true value.

Well, it’s his own path, so he’ll manage. The Association employee, unable to understand Lee Hanseong’s choice, muttered and then nodded.

“As of this moment, this equipment belongs to Lee Hanseong-nim.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Suppressing a smile that threatened to leak out, Lee Hanseong headed outside the warehouse.

Then, he ran into Kim Jinho, who was just entering the warehouse, and the smile vanished completely.

‘Looks like he came to use his exchange voucher too.’

Just seeing his face put him in a bad mood.

But, Kim Jinho looked at Lee Hanseong with an inexplicable sneer, then passed by him and went deeper into the warehouse.

‘Why is he laughing?’

By now, he thought Kim Jinho would be regretting or anxious about betraying him, but he still seemed to look down on him, which was a bit strange.

‘Is there something I don’t know?’

Pondering for a moment, Lee Hanseong, who had exited the warehouse, shrugged his shoulders and redirected his attention to the newly acquired breastplate.

Considering the multiple lives gained from the Stigma Narrow Escape from Death, the Historical Alteration that could stop time and gain growth time, along with the Vocation Awakening Skill Transcendence and the Gluttonous Demon Sword…

Thinking of the abilities he was hiding to avoid revealing them as much as possible, he was confident he could overcome whatever scheme that guy came up with.

And now, with the addition of the newly acquired Void Skill Equipment, he could become even stronger here, so he had no leisure to worry about someone like Kim Jinho.

—

‘What Skill should I imbue it with…’

The method for imbuing a Skill into Void Skill Equipment was simple.

Use an Empathy-type Skill to Synchronize with the equipment down to the Deep Layer, then think of sharing your own Skill. The Skill would naturally overlay onto the <??> Skill in its own form.

Therefore, the Skill that could be imbued into equipment was usually only one’s own Skills.

[The Nameless Constellation is curious about what Skill you will imbue.]

‘You’ll see soon enough.’

The Skill a Rare equipment could hold was limited to the same Rare grade.

The only Rare Skill Lee Hanseong currently possessed was Overmind.

But he had no intention of necessarily imbuing Overmind.

‘It’s not absolutely necessary to imbue my own Skill.’

The important thing is Synchronization with the equipment.

Using Overmind’s multiple Synchronization, he could imbue others’ Skills as much as he wanted.

Moreover, hadn’t he just formed a party with promising candidates who had good Skills?

Approaching his party members waiting outside the Association, Lee Hanseong grinned slightly.

Anticipating imbuing the Rare Skill of a High-Rank Spirit into his equipment.

“You want us to tell you the Skills we have right now?”

“Well, since we’re a party, sharing Skills should be fine, right? Anyway, to conquer dungeons together, we need to know each other’s abilities well.”

Following Lee Hanseong’s suggestion, the party briefly took time to share each other’s Skills.

Lee Hanseong went first.

“First, I have…”

27 General Skills, 1 Rare Skill, 2 Awakening Skills, and up to 12 Vocation Awakening Skills.

Thanks to Lee Hanseong first honestly explaining his own Skills excluding Stigmas, the others also revealed their Skills without much hesitation.

Lee Hanseong listened carefully to the Rare Skills among the three people’s Skills.

Usually, one obtains two Rare Skills each at 3-Star and 4-Star.

The three people who had contracted with 5-Star and 6-Star Spirits each possessed four Rare Skills.

‘Park Seongcheol’s Chungmugong has <Legion Command>, <Naval Battle Formation>, <Ghost Ship Sortie>, <Artillery Order>.’

First, he excluded <Legion Command> and <Naval Battle Formation>, which specialized in commanding multiple legions and ships.

He also excluded <Artillery Order>, which linked with <Ghost Ship Sortie> that summoned turtle ships.

Among Park Seongcheol’s Skills, <Ghost Ship Sortie> was somewhat usable.

Even if not for naval battles, the turtle ship itself could be used as a defensive structure.

‘Jin Yuseong’s Mountain Hermit has <Black Shadow Manipulation Art>, <Body Double>, <Drug Resistance>, <Pain Block>.’

<Black Shadow Manipulation Art> grants physical force to shadows and manipulates them.

<Body Double> transfers damage to shadows.

<Drug Resistance> and <Pain Block>, honed by hashish drugs.

As expected of the Skills of a named Spirit in the assassin lineage, all four Rare Skills had excellent utility.

Keeping all four Skills in mind, he also examined Yu Sehee’s Rare Skills.

‘Yu Sehee’s Nightingale has <First Aid>, <Immunity Enhancement>, <Rapid Recovery>, <Stamina Major Enhancement>.’

<First Aid> prevents wounds from worsening, and <Rapid Recovery> increases recovery speed.

<Immunity Enhancement> and <Stamina Major Enhancement> strengthen one’s own recovery capability itself.

As expected of a healer-type Spirit, they were full of recovery Skills affecting combat sustainability.

‘It’s hard to decide which one to choose.’

Whichever he chose wouldn’t be bad.

First, Lee Hanseong organized his thoughts while explaining to his party members about the dungeon they were going to.

“The dungeon we’re going to is called [Crossroads of the Scales].”

“Crossroads of the Scales?”

Dungeon [Crossroads of the Scales].

“Its characteristic is two divided passages and the fact that the two passages are connected by some kind of Law.”

Like a scale weighing death, the more death accumulates in one passage, the more the passage tilts. If that tilt exceeds a limit, the passage itself collapses. That’s how the dungeon was designed.

“So, to conquer it, we need to attack both passages simultaneously.”

“We’ll have to split our forces and match our hunting speeds.”

“For that, we can connect our consciousness like last time to match our progress.”

The level of monsters appearing ranged from 2-Star to 3-Star, and they were spider and bat lineage monsters inhabiting cave environments.

Besides monsters, there were some traps in the passages, and the dungeon boss appearing in the final boss room was 4-Star level.

And the most important thing was that the rewards were very excellent compared to the conquest difficulty.

‘In my previous life, the party that conquered this dungeon grew into a mid-tier party in an instant and became a topic of discussion.’

A mid-tier party usually refers to a party where all members are 5-Star or higher Awakened or Contractors of 7-Star or higher Spirits. Most such parties are formed by promising candidates, but they were different.

They had no promising candidates at all; it was a party gathered from 1-Star and 2-Star Awakened with average talent of 3-Star Vessels. But after conquering [Crossroads of the Scales], they grew rapidly and reached mid-tier party status.

Naturally, their growth momentum must have originated from the rewards obtained in [Crossroads of the Scales].

‘If non-promising candidates could achieve that much, it should be even more helpful for our party of promising candidates.’

However, since he couldn’t explain how he knew the rewards in advance, he finished the dungeon explanation leaving out the part about rewards.

“That seems appropriate as our first conquest target.”

“If we do well, we might even achieve 2-Star Awakening there.”

Hearing the dungeon explanation, the party members showed determination.

[The Nameless Constellation, anticipating your Awakening, recommends <Black Shadow Manipulation Art>.]

The Constellation, whose recovery was linked to Lee Hanseong’s growth, also showed anticipation for this dungeon and recommended a Skill to engrave onto the breastplate.

‘Black Shadow Manipulation Art… That would indeed be good.’

Considering the environment of [Crossroads of the Scales] they were going to, the most useful Skill was Black Shadow Manipulation Art.

It was also Jin Yuseong’s main Skill, so its utility was proven.

Having made up his mind, Lee Hanseong moved to the location of the dungeon entrance he remembered.

And just as they were almost at the dungeon.

Hum.

Using the excuse that the dungeon was close, he activated <Overmind> and <Empathy>.

While Synchronizing with his party members, he simultaneously attempted to Synchronize with the breastplate.

Recalling the knack from when he empathized with the demon sword before.

‘Engrave Black Shadow Manipulation Art.’

The moment Synchronization Rate with the equipment reached 100%, <??’s Breastplate> reacted according to Lee Hanseong’s connected will.

[<??’s Breastplate> transforms into <Black Shadow Manipulation Breastplate>.]

[You have achieved the Feat, ‘Equipment Skill Engraving’.]

The previously empty Skill slot was filled with Black Shadow Manipulation Art, and he even gained a Feat.

[The Nameless Constellation blesses your Feat.]

If it had been a blessing from a named Constellation, he might have been able to achieve 2-Star Awakening with this Feat, but with only a blessing from a still-nameless Constellation, it fell short of Awakening.

But that didn’t mean the Constellation’s blessing brought no change at all.

[Conditions met. General Skill <Skill Engraving: Set> Blooms.]

His inner Vessel expanded slightly, and he obtained in advance one of the new General Skills he should have gotten upon reaching 2-Star.

A Skill that allows engraving Skills onto anything, be it equipment or whatever, as long as there is an empty slot.

It wasn’t a Skill immediately helpful in combat, but it wasn’t bad.

‘2-Star Awakening isn’t far off.’

It seemed he might really achieve 2-Star Awakening in this dungeon.

Testing it out, he activated the breastplate’s Black Shadow Manipulation Art.

Squirm, squirm.

Consciousness spread through the shadows like paint, and the parts touched by consciousness began to move with physical force.

Very slowly.

‘Tch. Proficiency is too low.’

The sensation of moving shadows felt awkward, as if a new tail or wings had grown.

Because Skills engraved onto equipment had their proficiency reset, even with high Synchronization Rate, the Skill proficiency was almost at rock bottom.

But even that alone made the party members look at Lee Hanseong with shining eyes.

“Wow. Did you really grant my Skill to your equipment?”

Because they were in Empathy, they could perceive the process of engraving the Skill onto the equipment, so the party members also knew of Lee Hanseong’s achievement.

“He completed a failed piece into Rare equipment…?”

“The method is raising Synchronization Rate with the equipment to 100%… How on earth did you figure that out?”

Actually, it’s not that there are absolutely no Skills that raise Synchronization Rate with equipment to the end.

When martial arts reach a certain realm, Skills like <Sword Unification> or <Spear-Body Unity> that make one with the weapon are born.

But weapons unified like that usually inevitably become good weapons.

No one in their right mind would choose a failed piece as a weapon to make part of their body.

Naturally, the method for engraving Skills onto failed pieces was difficult to discover.

‘Of course, in the future, there was one such madman, and the secret of equipment engraving became known.’

Unable to explain that, he evaded the question.

“Well, I just happened to find out.”

At Lee Hanseong’s nonchalant response, the party members looking at him grew bleary-eyed.

Then, Jin Yuseong seemed to remember something and nodded.

“Well, this guy was the madman who simultaneously Synchronized down to the Deep Layer with all his Spirits.”

“I can hear you, you know.”

“What~, it’s a compliment. A compliment. They say a genius can’t beat a hard worker, a hard worker can’t beat someone who enjoys it, and someone who enjoys it can’t beat a madman, right?”

“Isn’t the original saying ‘Those who know are not as good as those who love; those who love are not as good as those who enjoy’?”

“Eh, as long as the meaning gets across. Why be so picky?”

Although Confucius’s words from the Analects were a bit altered, he understood roughly what meaning he was trying to convey, so he didn’t press further.

As if agreeing with Jin Yuseong’s words, the other two also shook their heads.

“Enough pointless talk, let’s get ready to enter. We’re almost there now.”

Feeling slightly awkward, Lee Hanseong hurried his steps while unnecessarily rebuking Jin Yuseong.

* * *

A certain mountain near Seoul.

On one side of a closed hiking trail, encroached upon by tree-type Awakened Monsters, Lee Hanseong’s party arrived.

Whoooong-

An oval-shaped, undulating blue halo of light.

That was the entrance leading to the dungeon.

“Here it is.”

“It looks like it hasn’t been here long.”

Looking at the entrance, which unlike other public dungeons had no administrators or control facilities whatsoever, the party members each voiced their impressions.

“There’s really nothing here.”

“Anyone seeing it would think it just appeared.”

Muttering words that accidentally touched upon the truth, the party members moved their feet toward the dungeon entrance.

Thud.

Starting with Lee Hanseong, the entire party entered the dungeon’s severed space.

.

.

.

Not long after the four entered the dungeon interior.

“Who would have thought there’d be a Private Dungeon in a place like this. How on earth did that guy know about this?”

“I’m not sure. We just have to do our job, right?”

Two people who had been tailing them from the Association, keeping their distance, revealed themselves before the dungeon entrance.

It was Kang Min, the fixer dispatched to deal with Lee Hanseong, and Kim Jinho, who had followed him.