Chapter 15: Skill Acquisition
Major regions across South Korea have Awakener Support Centers.
These are government- and Korean Awakener Association-operated institutions for Hunter-related matters, handling tasks such as registering new Awakened individuals and conducting rank measurements for existing Hunters.
Seoul has one center each in Dongdaemun and Yeouido, and Jin-young visited the Yeouido Center, which was closer to home.
He rode in his sister Chae So-young’s car.
“Thanks for the ride.”
“How about you drive on the way back?”
“I have a license gathering dust in a drawer.”
“Ugh, just get out already.”
Chae So-young grumbled irritably.
Jin-young shrugged and stepped out of the car.
There was only one reason for visiting the Awakener Support Center.
It was for the regular Hunter rank inspection held every April and October.
Hunters could visit anytime they felt their rank might have increased to get measured.
But separate from that, regardless of whether the rank went up or not, the regular inspection was mandatory.
Even if you did a self-check in March, you still had to come during the official season.
The reason was simple.
It was partly to catch those deliberately hiding rank increases while continuing activities, and partly to statistically track the nation’s Hunter manpower.
Since you could come in any day during April, “no time” wasn’t an acceptable excuse.
Skipping both the April and October inspections would result in immediate classification as a villain and punishment.
As a civil servant Hunter, Jin-young had never missed a single regular inspection every six months.
Of course, he’d never moved beyond 9th-grade each time, and this would probably be the same.
Still, the upside was getting a full day off to rest.
He planned to finish the inspection quickly and head to the black market.
“See you later, then.”
“Yeah.”
Jin-young and Chae So-young parted ways in the lobby.
Inspection locations differed by rank.
Jin-young took the elevator to the 5th floor.
Quite a few 9th-grade Hunters were waiting for their turn.
He pulled a number ticket: 158th in line.
‘Looks like a long wait.’
Just as he was about to message his sister to leave first if she finished early,
“Chae Jin-young Hunter-nim?”
A woman approached and called his name.
Dressed in a black suit, she appeared to be a civil servant Hunter working at the center.
“Yes, what is it?”
“You’re here for the rank inspection, right? Follow me, please.”
“I’m number 158, though.”
Jin-young showed her his ticket.
“You’re designated for special inspection, so you’ll be processed separately.”
After a moment of thought, Jin-young nodded.
“Lead the way.”
He followed the woman down a corridor opposite the regular inspection area.
They went up another floor via the stairs.
As far as Jin-young knew, there were no inspection rooms starting from the 6th floor.
They continued down another hallway and stopped in front of an office.
Knock knock.
When the woman knocked, a man’s voice from inside said to come in.
“Please go ahead.”
The woman opened the door and let Jin-young enter first.
Then, as she followed behind him, Jin-young activated psychokinesis.
BOOM!
She flew backward and crashed into the wall.
A faint blue electric current flowed weakly from her hand.
The man seated inside the office watched the scene without the slightest change in expression.
Jin-young scratched his head and said,
“It was a test from the moment I walked in, right?”
“……”
The man, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
“How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That the agent behind you was going to ambush you.”
“Ah. I have eyes on the back of my head too.”
“……”
The man stared at Jin-young in disbelief.
Is this really a situation for jokes?
But Jin-young maintained a perfectly calm expression, as if he were being completely serious.
At that moment, crimson flames erupted from a hole in the corner of the office.
Jin-young had anticipated it. He immediately released psionic energy from his body.
It was only the level he used when compressing corpses, so it spread out very faintly.
Tzzzt—
The flames rushing toward him suddenly changed direction and shot toward the man instead.
Tzzzt-tzzzt—
It was as if an invisible barrier stood in front of the man; the flames extinguished the instant they touched it.
Jin-young’s psionic energy could pass straight through the barrier or sense it.
When he probed the barrier with psychokinesis,
Crack!
The barrier shattered like breaking glass, and the flames engulfed the man.
Whoosh!
The fire that covered him vanished in an instant.
Naturally, he remained completely unharmed.
Only a faint trace of surprise mixed into his otherwise expressionless face.
He looked curious about how it was done.
The man quickly regained his composure and asked,
“When you use your unique ability, no mana traces are left at all. And now it seems you aren’t even using mana to begin with. Is that correct?”
Even though Jin-young had released a small amount of psionic energy, the man hadn’t noticed it at all.
It appeared Hunters couldn’t sense psionic energy—nor even see it.
Jin-young saw no reason to reveal that fact.
“I don’t think that’s particularly important.”
It was an unexpected answer, but the man didn’t press further.
There was no need to make a bad first impression on a potential recruit, and the Intelligence Department would have a chance to examine his unique ability properly with their special equipment later.
“If Crystal or Guardian Guild offered you the absolute best treatment, would you join them?”
“Is there any particular reason I should?”
“What if the United States offered you the absolute best treatment?”
“I don’t speak English.”
Several more questions followed, and Jin-young answered each without hesitation.
The man diligently checked boxes and took notes on his tablet before speaking again.
“Then we’ll wrap things up here. I apologize for the rudeness at the beginning.”
“It’s not the first time, so whatever.”
Jin-young thought of Na Ji-hwan from before as he spoke.
“Then we’ll meet again soon.”
Jin-young gave a light nod and stepped outside.
He made eye contact with the woman still stuck to the wall.
“Ah, you’re still there.”
When Jin-young released the psychokinesis, she landed lightly on her feet.
He’d half-expected her to fall on her butt like Na Ji-hwan, but she seemed quite thorough and composed.
“Thank you.”
She even bowed politely—surprisingly courteous.
Jin-young was about to leave when he turned back to her.
“But I still need to finish my rank inspection, right?”
“You don’t have to. We’ve already completed the administrative processing.”
“As expected from the Intelligence Department.”
Jin-young nodded in satisfaction.
***
After sunset, Jin-young visited the black market.
When he entered Jeon Yu-hwan’s workshop, Jeon Yu-hwan was nowhere in sight.
Spreading his psionic energy wide, he sensed a presence deep inside.
It was quiet, with almost no movement—he was probably asleep.
Regardless, Jin-young rattled the bedroom door with psychokinesis.
BOOM—
The thunderous knock made Jeon Yu-hwan bolt upright.
“W-Who… Ah, Hunter-nim.”
The moment he saw Jin-young, he greeted him meekly.
“You look tired.”
“I’ve been so absorbed in work lately that I lost track of time. Haha.”
The words ‘and whose fault is that’ nearly slipped out of Jeon Yu-hwan’s throat.
But seeing Jin-young’s cold face instantly subdued his anger.
“Is the blue magic stone finished?”
“Of course.”
He opened a safe in the corner of the workshop and took out a glowing blue stone.
It was large enough to fill his palm.
Even before receiving it, Jin-young felt heat rising near his heart.
『Kiiit.』
The tentacles had only ever echoed Jin-young’s thoughts so far—they’d never spoken properly on their own.
‘Don’t come out on your own.’
『Don’t come out on your own.』
Jin-young didn’t stop at mere thought. He actively moved his psionic energy.
The tentacles weren’t acting out of malice.
They simply followed instinct.
In times like this, he had no choice but to discipline them with a bit of force.
Tzzzt-tzzzt—
Jin-young concentrated psionic energy around his heart.
He clamped down hard, preventing the tentacles from bursting out on their own.
Then, as he accepted the magic stone, the tentacles’ resistance grew even fiercer.
『Kiiik!』
They squirmed like a puppy whining in front of food it couldn’t reach.
The more they struggled, the tighter Jin-young squeezed.
‘Wait.’
『Wai… t…』
After a while of wriggling, the tentacles finally calmed.
But Jin-young stayed vigilant, maintaining the psionic energy while slowly bringing the magic stone closer to his chest.
『Food! Fooood!』
Sure enough, the tentacles went wild again.
Their craving for the magic stone was intense.
Crunch!
Jin-young gripped the tentacles with psionic energy as if squeezing them in a fist.
The force was so strong it required even more energy than when he’d crushed corpses into dust.
Thinking about it, even Jeon Su-yong—whose body had been enhanced by Black Rose—had been completely immobilized by these tentacles.
The tentacles finally realized they couldn’t overpower it and settled down.
‘Obey my words, and you can eat.’
『Obey… then… can eat…』
‘Just stay still like now.’
Only then did Jin-young press the magic stone to his chest.
And he released the psionic energy that had been restraining the tentacles.
As the magic stone’s energy began absorbing into his body, the tentacles still didn’t rush out recklessly.
‘Eat.’
At Jin-young’s command, the tentacles finally emerged from his chest.
Jeon Yu-hwan, having experienced this once before, was already looking away.
Sssshhh…
The magic stone’s energy flowed into the tentacles, and as expected, his subspace slowly expanded.
Originally, the subspace storage had been about the size of a one-ton truck.
Now it could fit something the size of a bus.
More importantly…
『Food. Delicious.』
The tentacles had begun speaking on their own.
Of course, their language ability was still clumsy.
But smooth conversation wasn’t far off.
Once the magic stone was fully absorbed and vanished, a change occurred in Jin-young’s body.
Shaaaa…
A blue light enveloped his body once, then rushed into his head and disappeared.
Jin-young never imagined he’d personally experience the phenomenon he’d only seen in videos.
The low-probability effect from absorbing a blue magic stone:
Skill acquisition.
Information about the skill flooded straight into his mind.
Like unique abilities, skills required mana to use.
Subspace storage only consumed a tiny amount when storing or retrieving items, so it wasn’t much of a burden.
Larger objects increased the cost, but he rarely stored anything that big anyway.
But skills were something he’d never used before, so he couldn’t predict the mana cost.
It might not even activate if his mana was insufficient.
Jin-young first tried implementing the skill according to the information in his head.
Even though his internal mana was depleted in an instant, nothing happened.
‘Is my mana alone not enough?’
Absorbing the blue magic stone had increased his mana capacity, but after giving most of it to the tentacles, it wasn’t much.
Just as he was about to cancel the skill activation…
A freezing chill like dry ice spread around his heart.
Tzzzkwaaaa—
A sandstorm raged around Jin-young.