Episode 98.
Trying to activate the sound skill was simpler than the smell. Jung Si-woo had good hearing, so only six hours after he started practicing listening to different sounds, he learned how to block external sounds, and then it became possible to listen to the sound inside his body. Jung Si-woo mastered it after half a day and succeeded in creating a new organ in his ear by accepting and distinguishing internal and external stimuli.
[Mana is permanently reduced by 5.]
[Player acquired the sense of hearing (passive).]
“…I’m sure this skill will help me to control my body better. Internal stimuli are as important as external stimuli.”
He was right. By sharpening the five senses, his body improved. His already strong body gained delicacy by strengthening the five senses and gained a greatly sophisticated control of power. Jung Si-woo had never arrogantly thought that he had reached the top, but the strengthening effect of activating the five senses made him laugh at his previous self.
Above all, the biggest effect was that as the senses grew, Jung Si-woo realized how to move his body and mana.
“Whoooo…can you hear mana? Even if you walk the same way, mana makes a different sound depending on how you move.”
“Oppa, I feel like you’re heading to a path of no return.”
“I can’t hear it, Hyeong-nim. Damn it! I want to hear the mana too!”
“You are becoming more and more like a pseudo-religious figure…”
He tried hard to follow the five senses skill diligently beside Jung Si-woo, but it was too much for him. His natural talent and concentration were different. Of course, it was possible because of the ability to intuit his body with visual skills, but it was still fast considering that.
Originally, passive skills weren’t something that could be made as quickly as cooking ramen. Soo Ah-rin thought about what would have happened if Jung Si-woo became a player ten years ago, but she got so scared that she decided not to think of it. The problem was the sense of touch’ skill that he started working on the next day.
“This is harder than I thought…”
“Isn’t this different from what you’ve already made?”
“The coverage is too large.”
“Ah.”
Yes, the other senses weren’t entirely dependent on other organs, but the body organs, in general, were distinguished. Eyes and nose, ears and tongue…but the sense of touch contained the entire body.
“It’s going to consume my mana like crazy. Munch, munch.”
“Is it delicious…?”
“I told you that it tastes like purple.”
Jung Si-woo strengthened and raised his mana by eating the stones he collected from the ghosts. In addition, he didn’t forget to bring in the natural mana produced on earth and turn it into his own. Now was the time to draw in even more.
“How much have the ghosts grown?”
“I think most of the lower-level ghosts are over level 100. On the other hand, the ghosts with higher levels didn’t grow much, but that’s inevitable.”
There were many monsters on the earth now. In addition to the naturally occurring monsters on earth, there were many other monsters in the world that originated from the Ant Cave dungeons, and monsters near the city were somehow killed by the players, so there was little hunting except for the new monsters that appeared.
On the other hand, however, the areas with only a few people were often abandoned and given to the monsters, and Jung Si-woo’s ghosts were too powerful to be suppressed. At least, the low-level ghosts were hunted by picking out the ones with the least power, punishing them, and falling back, so the ghosts with the lower level had grown quite much, while the ghosts with the higher level didn’t grow very much.
“But these guys have the advantage of not getting tired easily. Just turn the macro like this way…if we keep hunting like this, we’ll grow steadily and eventually become a team.”
“As expected, Hyeong-nim also thought of a macro…”
“Well, we don’t have to be impatient about it.”
The souls under the Soul Force Skills were completely separate from him, at least in terms of experience. However, this was a slightly different matter, but it wasn’t the time to think about it.
[Mana increased by 1]
[You can no longer raise Mana with low-level mana stones.]
“Okay, this is the moment.”
For a few minutes, Jung Si-woo finally hit the first limit, thinking blankly as he chewed the mana stone. Although the expression “lower-level mana stone” was really ambiguous, it wasn’t that difficult for Jung Si-woo to check his mana with visual skills and find out the range.
“Approximately level 150. If that’s a low-level mana stone, what about mid-level or high-level ones…”
Jung Si-woo recognized that there was still a long way to go. Compared to the strength of the countless monsters that would appear in the future, the players’ ten-year career was really nothing. Marina was likely to be stronger, but she was stuck because she couldn’t break through the dungeon alone. If there was only one more talented person like Marina, they might’ve changed the way the earth was now…
“Well, you’re not going to destroy the world, are you? It’s not something I should worry about, is it?”
“That’s double track, right, Oppa? What if the earth is destroyed, and you save it?”
“I don’t have the drive to be a hero.”
Jung Si-woo shrugged and put the remaining stones in his inventory. Just because he couldn’t absorb it, it didn’t mean they were useless. It could be used when making an artifact in the kitchen, charge the phantom bike, or he would just sell them. Now, it was time to make sense of the touch skill.
“Whoo…”
If he closed his eyes, he could feel the small motes of dust and airflow that touched his skin at this moment. With his current sense of touch, of course, it was impossible to feel it. It was only possible for him because his sense of hearing and smell were contributing.
‘You don’t have to rule out any other senses. I was trying to make the five senses in the first place because I wanted to develop my abilities in harmony…’
All senses were interlocked like cogwheels. It was very unnatural and wrong to cut it off on purpose, so all he had to do was rediscover and strengthen the sense of touch. And it wasn’t that difficult; it was easy to get there.
“Whoo…”
The problem was then the process of creating the skills. Mana had to be spread throughout the skin covering his body, turning it into a new mana organ, so he needed delicate control.
‘Did I start something I couldn’t handle…?’
It required a different level of concentration than just focusing only on a specific part of the body. One of his active skills was Stone Skin, so it was helpful that he already knew how to produce mana around his skin. He was experimenting with stone skin to repeatedly invoke it; of course, from the moment he felt that he mastered the sense, mana rushed to his body. And he made it stay there. It was easy to say it in words, but it was really difficult in reality.
“Oppa, your skin is shining…”
“I don’t think he can hear us. I’ve felt this for a long time, but I can’t imagine how focused he is.”
Time slipped along. He didn’t know how long it took, but it was really more difficult than he imagined to use to create a passive skill to cover the skin and form a new organ. He had to forget everything else. But in the end, He could do anything if he was given enough time.
[Mana is permanently reduced by 25.]
[Player acquired the sense of touch (passive).]
The problem was the next moment. Just when Jung Si-woo safely completed his sense of touch, countless stars in his body began to shine and resonate. Jung Si-woo soon realized that it was his other five sense skills.
‘I felt the five senses interacting. Yeah, maybe it’s only natural that the skills resonate…oops!?’
However, at that time, one passive skill that had been holding its breath resonated with the other five skills. It was the intuition skill.
‘I wasn’t expecting this…!?’
Needless to say, he knew that intuition was affected by the five senses, but why did it start to resonate like this? Jung Si-woo was the only one who believed that he had complete control over himself. Now his body was trying to fit the pieces he had prepared into the realm of the unknown!
“Op-oppa?”
“It’s all right, Seonbae. That’s just a skill!”
Indeed, it was only after listening to Yong Se-ha’s words that Jung Si-woo realized what was going on in his body. That’s right. It was a skill; another skill was about to be made! The sensory skills, including intuition, were coming together!
“I feel like my body is distorted…no, it’s an illusion. It’s just that the five senses are moving freely.’
More precisely, that was also wrong. The five senses skill was speeding to his heart as if it should have been there from the beginning. They were leaving their positions as if it were natural and tried to become one with the intuition skill.
‘Oh, my God, that’s because these skills are…hmm? Oh, wait a minute. Damn it!’
However, as Jung Si-woo watched the flow with rapture, the mana and skill’s resonance suddenly began to weaken. Jung Si-woo was surprised and tried to correct it, but he didn’t know how to move his skills. The change was led by the body, and his determination wasn’t reflected. He couldn’t control it because it wasn’t an intended change in the first place.
The resonance of the skill gradually faded. Six skills slowly moved back to their place. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin. And then his heart. If he hadn’t experienced that resonance, he would’ve thought everything was in the right position, but Jung Si-woo sensed the change in skills at the moment, so he couldn’t help but feel empty.
‘This isn’t it. The resonance wasn’t a coincidence. There must be another next step. And that’s probably…’
Maybe…he didn’t know yet. He sighed softly. The original goal of making the five senses into skills was fulfilled, but the next goal came right away when it was achieved.
“Oppa, are you okay?”
“Hyeong-nim?”
“Oh, I’m okay. I just had a stomachache trying to eat something raw.”
The impact of the six skills leaving their place ended in nausea. It’s a trivial matter. Nevertheless, he clenched his teeth, not to forget what he had just felt. He already got a hint. The next chance would come soon. Once again, he had succeeded in creating a new skill.
His phone began to vibrate. Jung Si-woo sighed and picked up the phone with a frown.
“Wait, it’s just Seria. Se-ha, have I been like this for quite some time?”
“It’s been exactly two days, Hyeong-nim.”
Jung Si-woo sweated at Yong Se-ha’s reply.
There was only a day left before the World Player Representative Conference.
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