If Yeon-hee reveals her face properly, quite a few people will recognize her.
‘Um…’
I wonder why… I felt a strange urge to lower my phone to the floor.
‘…Let’s make a bomb.’
Bang bang—
While making the bomb, I took out the fragments I had obtained after defeating the mutant earlier.
The four fragments I had stored in my inventory had now combined into a very small orb.
As I rolled the black orb in my hand, a question popped into my mind.
‘Reviving the dead… how would it work on me?’
Considering the characteristics of the system that had dominated this world for decades, there must be limits to reviving someone who had died.
For example, maybe a complete corpse is required, or at least a head and heart must be present? There might even be a time limit.
I thought of several conditions and quickly realized that none of them applied to me.
However, even if I couldn’t be reborn as a human, there were still some things I could hope for.
Trait [96 Lives]
At the very least, it was reasonable to expect this trait to recover its value by one.
‘Thinking about it like that makes it seem trivial…’
To add one more to my 96 remaining lives, I would take on a thousand people who had turned into mutants? Right now, I wasn’t too interested.
If I were to acquire something so precious, it would be best to keep it safe for any potential situations, for someone other than myself.
Of course, I hoped such a situation would never arise, but the future of people is unpredictable.
‘I need more information.’
I needed a connection to the association or management office.
I had never felt the need for this kind of thing in my life, but now things were different.
I wanted to know how many people were doing this kind of stuff and hoped for quick information delivery.
‘Was that promotion examiner named Maeng Seong-yong…? He seemed favorable to Yeon-hee. Hmm…’
If he had the power to recommend someone directly into the organization, he likely also had decent information networks.
‘Sigh— It would be great if I could transform into a human, even just for a while.’
I always felt regret over the limitation of not being able to move more than a certain distance from Yeon-hee, but this was the first time I wanted to move freely beyond that range.
Right now, I couldn’t think of any other way than expanding the range of my sense.
So, I had no choice but to keep grinding through dungeon activities, but it would take a long time to act freely within this city.
“Ugh… Huh?”
Yeon-hee had slept for a whopping 13 hours and finally woke up at 4 PM. That meant I had been sitting in one place for 13 hours too. It would have been tough if I weren’t a skeleton.
“Whoa—!”
As soon as Yeon-hee woke up, she jumped up in surprise.
“What…? 4 PM?! I must be crazy!”
First, she checked her phone, spending quite some time texting and calling. During her sleep, vibrations had gone off non-stop, mostly from her companions.
“No! I’m fine! Yes, yes… I really didn’t get hurt. Yes.”
After proving her safety to those who contacted her, she immediately started getting ready to go out.
“Il-wol! Let’s go test some stuff first. The blacksmith is open until late evening.”
Nod—
An hour later.
We headed to a café run by a magician with the [Reading] skill. Since those living off their skills outside the dungeon often had unstable incomes, many of them worked side jobs in cafés or other establishments.
After getting off in the bustling area, we had to walk deep into a narrow alley before finding a café.
I thought there wouldn’t be many customers since the location was so hidden, but the café was fairly packed.
“Welcome~!”
The high-pitched voice of the staff greeted us first, and after Yeon-hee ordered an iced café latte, she moved to a black seat that contrasted sharply with the other tables.
That seat had a rounded buoy-like décor hanging above it and was positioned a bit more inward than the others.
“Boss~! The reserved customers have arrived!”
The female employee called someone from behind the counter as we took our seats.
Around ten minutes later, a short man with a wide body took a seat opposite us.
“Hehe, I see you’re eager to check something out?”
With a chin that seemed to fold into three layers, the man looked quite kindly, making Yeon-hee, who had been nervously tense, feel a bit lighter.
“Yes… but that’s not me, it’s my summoned creature next to me…”
“Oh, I see. I suspected that might be the case when I heard from the summoner earlier. So, what does this invisible magical summoner wish to check?”
“Uh… well, that is…”
Yeon-hee explained briefly about me to the man. To use [Reading], a certain amount of information about the relevant being was needed beforehand.
Swish—
The man grabbed the rounded décor above and brought it down. As if setting up a tent, the fabric spread out, forming a separate space from the other tables.
“Hehe… this is the first customer I’ve had like this…”
After a quick explanation about me, as Yeon-hee undid her invisibility and revealed herself, the man pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead repeatedly.
“A rookie mage who has just started using Fireball instead of being invisible… but I see you also have a skill that resembles a bone bomb spell.”
“Yes…”
“Alright. I don’t know if it will work, but let’s see your hand. Can this friend understand what I’m saying?”
*Clap, Clap, Clap!!*
“Yikes!! That startled me.”
“It means he can understand…”
“I see… Hehe…”
I immediately extended my hand to the man, who eagerly took it, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Fidget—
‘…Is it supposed to feel like this?’
It didn’t feel too pleasant, but I decided to endure it.
“Um… this is strange… nothing is coming to mind from your hand. Generally, the hands are the largest conduit of mana in the body, so something should show up. But no, nothing is coming through. Hmmm—”
Yeon-hee and I nodded at each other slightly. I didn’t feel particularly disappointed, as I suspected this could happen.
However, the man seemed unwilling to end it here. He sought Yeon-hee’s permission, placed his hand on my head, and closed his eyes again.
“There’s a core in the Skeleton Soldier’s head, you should feel something here. Ahem—”
After sweating profusely for about three minutes, the man suddenly opened his eyes wide, gasping and writhing in pain.
“Uh-oh?! Ehem!”
“Cough— I’m… I’m okay, really. Hah…”
The man hurriedly rushed outside to gulp down some water. After a few moments of rest, he staggered back to us.
His face was dripping with sweat as if it were raining, making the handkerchief he used to wipe it quite soaked.
“…… You said summoned creature, right?”
“Yes, yes… Is there a problem?”
“No, it’s just… this is the first time encountering such a dark entity. Ahem…”
“Dark…?”
“Yes. Normally, humans have various colors within them. But your summoned creature only seems to possess pitch black darkness.”
“Oh… is that so…”
Upon hearing the man’s words, Yeon-hee felt somewhat sad, as if her failure to take good care of me had darkened my heart.
“Yes… and furthermore, at the very end…”
“The very end, what about it?”
“Hm, never mind. Haha—”
The man drank some water again and continued.
“You probably already know this, but let’s say it once more. What I can grasp is not that detailed.”
“Yes, yes. That’s fine.”
“Alright— first, this summoned creature named Il-wol is indeed a mage.”
“Oh… I see.”
“But surprisingly, he also possesses knight qualities. This is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly rare. It’s something I’ve only seen in books. There were some irregulars in the early awakened ones, but recent reports indicate no such examples.”
‘Is it that rare? So it’s not just that I can’t remember, but actual magic knights were uncommon.’
“The early awakened ones were exposed to enormous mana when gates broke, leading to such irregularities, but this one… I don’t know. The summoner class is still new, so there’s much to research.”
“Wow… really?”
“I can’t ascertain potential as a knight, but that’s the situation regardless.”
“Oh… That’s our Il-wol. Hehe…”
‘… She already knows this stuff; why is she acting surprised?’
I softly placed my hand on Yeon-hee’s left hand under the table and focused back on the man’s story.
“The tendencies of this mage… are extremely aggressive. I identify tendencies through visible colors; the redder the color, the closer it is to being attack-oriented. However, I’ve never seen a red aura this intense. I’ve probably examined over 500 hunters, and I’ve never encountered such a vibrant red, so you can imagine.”
“Oh! Yes, I understand.”
“But don’t get the wrong idea: being extremely attack-oriented means that using defense or support magic will be very inefficient.”
“…It’s specialized in attack, which doesn’t represent the mage’s overall talent…”
“Exactly. I don’t have the ability to determine potential, so thankfully you have Fireball, so you can develop that.”
The man gulped down water like he was about to choke and scratched his head.
“And as for the summoner’s attributes… I’m going to sound like a merchant, saying this repeatedly.”
‘… Oh, right? You are a merchant.’
“The attributes are confirmed by checking the patterns on the surface of the shining particles, and this summoned creature has shown all elements except for light. Fire, water, wind, death, nature, even illusion magic particles were visible. In other words, this means it can learn and use all magic except for light, and in theory, it can even reach the ultimate level.”
“Wow…!!”
As soon as Yeon-hee heard this, she grabbed my hand and shook it up and down joyfully.
Well, I can’t say I feel bad about it.
“Um, um, what about ordinary other sorcerers…?”
Yeon-hee, for once, tried to compare with others. She seemed curious about how outstanding I was… and that’s a little embarrassing.
“Well… ordinary sorcerers typically only have one element. Those who possess two are seen as having talent in magic.
If you show potential for three or more elements, you start getting significant points when applying to large guilds, and your signing bonuses start several tiers higher.
Having potential in multiple attributes doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be an outstanding sorcerer, but looking at all the sorcerers playing around in the skies, there doesn’t seem to be a single one with just one attribute, so there’s likely some correlation.”
“I see, I see. So is it possible that Il-wol is more specialized in fire magic?”
“Well, I didn’t feel that specifically…”
“Oh, I see… then that means he can handle all sorts of magic evenly…”
The man stared at Yeon-hee and parted his lips. After a brief moment of contemplation, he added one last thing.
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