The next day, after driving back from Busan, Kwon Oh-Jin unloaded a bag full of blue Starstones into the storage room.
“Wow, that really is a lot,” Song Ha-Eun muttered as she admired the glowing Starstones.
“Oh, right. I’ll be using these,” he said.
“Huh? You’re not selling them for cash?”
“I need them for something.”
“Hmm.” She shrugged indifferently. “Well, you won them fair and square. Do whatever you want with them.”
“I'm still a bit hungover, so I’m going to take a nap,” she added, yawning as she turned to leave. Just as she opened her bedroom door, she glanced back with a mischievous grin. “Want to join me?”
Oh, please, he thought. “I have things to do. You go ahead and rest.”
She snorted and closed the door behind her. Soon after, the silence in the living room was shattered by a zombie-like groan.
“U-Ugghhhh... My child... I feel so nauseous...”
Vega was swaying unsteadily on his shoulder.
Among the millions of Awakeners in the world, how many could expect to see a Celestial suffering from a hangover?
He cupped her in his hands.
“You should’ve drunk in moderation,” he remarked as she slumped onto his palm. He gently rubbed her back to ease her discomfort.
“What, do you not like it?” he asked.
She quickly shook her head. “N-No, that’s not it... Ugh... For my head to pound like so... alcohol is a terrifying poison. How can humans drink it so casually?”
“Pfft! It’s fine if you drink in moderation.”
“Ugh.” She flopped onto his palm, lying on her back. “Haha, this is quite cozy.”
“Are you feeling any better?”
“I’m still tired.” She pouted like a child as she pulled his index finger on top of her. “I shall grant you the honor of caressing my stomach.”
She’s starting to talk like Ha-Eun, he observed. Maybe Ha-Eun's rubbed off on her after all their time together.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, gently stroking her stomach as she had commanded.
After a moment, she suddenly asked, “Did we spend time in your past life as well?”
“No. You weren’t in such a small form back then,” he answered with a faint smile. “We usually met in your Sanctum.”
He looked up as if recalling old memories and continued, “I would often pat your head like I do now. Though you didn’t call me your 'child’ back then, you still cared for me like I was one.”
He had woven false memories into a seamless story.
“Then, what did I call you?” she asked.
“You called me Oh-Jin from the very beginning,” he replied calmly.
“From the beginning, huh... What was our first encounter like?”
“Our first meeting...” He pretended to recall as he crafted a history that never existed—a false memory of the two of them. “I had become a bloody mess after fighting against the Heavenly Demon’s forces and took refuge in the Sanctum. I was on the brink of death, having lost a lot of blood, but that’s when you appeared and saved me.”
“... I see.” freewebnøvel.coɱ
“After that, I started visiting you often, and we grew closer over time.”
Vega slightly averted her gaze and mumbled, “What a strange feeling.”
“Imagining myself with you in a past life... makes my chest ache for some reason.”
Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity of a past she couldn’t remember. Nonetheless, she nervously looked up at him and asked, “Am I the same as I was back then?”
“No, you’re different.”
Her eyes widened with surprise.
He smiled as he added, “You’re prettier now.”
“A-Ahem! Buttering up a Celestial? H-How impertinent of you!” Despite her chiding, the corners of her lips rose ever so slightly. “In any case, I didn’t call you ‘my child’ in your past life.”
Vega chuckled as she floated into the air. “Then I shall continue to call you my child.”
She reached out and gently caressed his hair. “Hmm, my child’s hair is so soft. Stroking it is quite satisfying.”
She hummed a little tune that indicated she was in a good mood.
“Oh, by the way, Vega. Do you know what the Lightning Form is?” he asked, recalling his fight with the Hydra—when his legs had transformed into pure lightning. He couldn't fully process it in the heat of the battle, but he vividly recalled shooting forward like an explosion.
“Like the name suggests, it’s a skill that transforms your physical form into lightning itself. A body composed of lightning transcends physical laws and can perform various miracles.”
He was stunned. Wait a second. That sounds like a mad powerful skill.
“It truly is an exceptional skill," she added. "While it has the drawback of extreme mana consumption, its sheer power places it among the higher-ranked techniques of the Stigma of Lyra.”
“I didn’t realize it was that big a deal.”
Although he had only uncovered a clue and couldn’t use the skill freely, Vega's high praise made the skill seem worth mastering.
“Of course, it’s a skill you would never be able to learn at your current level, but...” She lightly chuckled. “Who knows? You might be different.”
“What star level do you usually need to have to learn it?”
“You’d need to be at least a nine-star to even attempt using the skill.”
Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t refrain from laughing in disbelief. A nine-star?
Nine-star and above was a realm referred to as human transcendence. It was unbelievable for him, a five-star Awakener, to access even a clue of such a skill.
“I guess it’ll be incredible once I'm able to use it freely,” he remarked.
“Don’t rush too much. Just like with Exceed, skills that surpass your level can end up wrecking your body.”
She's right. It’ll be better to start training this skill properly once my star level's higher.
When Exceed alone wore him down, stacking it with the Lightning Form could injure him to the point of no return. Just as a sparrow would end up with torn legs if it aped the steps of a stork, forcing skills that didn’t match his current star would do more harm than good.
“Okay, I’ll practice this slowly.”
“Hehe. What a clever child." She patted his head again, then rubbed her eyes as though she was tired. “Hmm. It seems that I need to rest now.”
“Is it because you’re hungover?”
“Yes, but I was also in my manifested form for too long yesterday.”
“Ah.” He recalled that she had manifested for more than six hours the other day. “Alright, go rest.”
“You should also get some good rest today,” she advised before returning into the pendant.
Well then... Now that Vega’s gone too, I should continue with the quest.
He entered the storage room and reached inside the bag.
Dark clouds flowed from his hand and enveloped the Starstones.
How many will I need?
He had already gathered over a thousand. It would be a huge headache if they weren't enough.
As the Black Heaven absorbed the blue light from the Starstones, he could feel mana flowing into him—albeit much less than what he got from other Awakeners' Stigmas.
He had been primarily using Lightning Flames lately, so it always felt like he didn't have enough mana.
[The quest ‘The Star-Devouring Sky Demon’ has progressed due to Kwon Oh-Jin's absorption of Starstones.]
[Completion rate: 2.7%]
[Completion rate: 8.4%]
The completion rate increased with each Starstone he finished absorbing.
Damn, how many of these do I have to consume?
After absorbing about three hundred Starstones, the completion rate reached thirty-two percent.
Looks like I’ll need to use all thousand to reach a hundred percent.
He couldn't even imagine how long the quest would have taken if not for the competition with Jerry Kim and the double-Starstone gate.
“Whatever. Just need to get it done.”
He was curious as to what kind of power the Ancient Constellations possessed.
Right as he finished absorbing around five hundred Starstones, a system notification rang out.
[Progress cannot continue.]
[Completion rate: 50%]
[Starstones of higher quality are required for further progress.]
“Huh? I need higher-quality Starstones?”
Kwon Oh-Jin furrowed his brow and took out the two large Starstones he had obtained after defeating the Hydra. Will I be able to reach a hundred percent with these?
He used the Black Heaven to absorb the mana within the Starstones.
[Completion rate: 61.2%]
[Completion rate: 72.4%]
Damn it. This can’t be completed with quantity alone.
He needed Starstones from monsters that were at least stronger than a Hydra.
Does that mean I need to hunt an eight-star monster?
Since the Hydra was a seven-star boss monster, he would need to hunt at least an eight-star monster to obtain Starstones of a comparable quality. No, even an eight-star monster would likely drop lower-quality Starstones than the Hydra unless it was an elite or boss monster.
Do I need to hunt an eight-star elite monster or higher?
As Korea was known for being a mostly monster-safe area, it was rare to find gates with such powerful monsters. Even if they existed, most of them were monopolized by specific guilds.
After a moment of reflection, he snapped his fingers.
I haven’t received my reward from the Valhalla Guild yet.
Not only could he earn high-quality Starstones as compensation for contacting Jang Seok-Ho on their behalf, but he could also pass along the information he’d gathered to further pressure the Black Star Society.
“Valhalla should be fully recovered by now.”
He organized the remaining Starstones and reached for his phone to contact the guild, but his vision suddenly blurred.
He felt a sharp pain as something flowed into his mind, causing his eyes to widen.
He had gotten quite familiar with this phenomenon by now.
[Some of Awakener Lee Shin-Hyuk’s records have been successfully restored.]
Lee Shin-Hyuk's memories unfolded before Kwon Oh-Jin's eyes, manifesting as a vision of a city engulfed in flames.
Horrific screams and the strong scent of blood filled the atmosphere.
Kwon Oh-Jin scanned the devastation and noticed that the style of collapsed buildings was unlike anything typically seen in Korea. In the distance, he saw the iconic Colosseum engulfed in flames as it crumbled apart.
The ruined city was none other than the capital of Italy—Rome.