Just like when I obtained the Successor of Stars class and my mana changed into star power.
It meant they even had countermeasures for that kind of variable.
‘Impressive.’
My thumb naturally went up.
Pangaenia is a place where countless variables exist.
It was, quite literally, a game where you overcame variables.
Of course, if even one variable was cut off, there was no way it wouldn’t be impressive.
‘High Druid’s Great Nature.’
The hidden trait, Druid’s Nature Affinity, had become High Druid’s Great Nature.
It evolved, but it still doesn’t feel real yet.
Likewise, I don’t know if it’s a trait specialized in spirits, or if, like how the Heart of the Eternal Monarch erased the dungeon’s conditions, some other function has been added.
‘I’ll have to experience it to know.’
Still, there was something I could check right away.
‘…What kind of skill is this?’
A single skill had been created.
The skill that appeared after eating the World Tree’s fruit was none other than,
<Rapid Growth (Lv 1)>
…Rapid Growth, huh.
There wasn’t even a proper description.
After thinking for a moment, I used it on my own body.
<Not a suitable target for this skill.>
It didn’t seem to be a skill used on the body.
Then how about the flower in the pot?
<“Mirazia” begins Rapid Growth.>
Mirazia. In Pangaenia, it’s a flower nobles often raise for ornamental purposes, and there was one by the window of this room.
When I used Rapid Growth on it, the skill took effect.
What kind of change would there be?
Would it grow quickly and then die just as quickly?
“Hm…?”
It was completely different from what I expected.
Crack!
Craaack!
The flower’s roots grew like crazy, then soon broke the pot, and began to slowly creep up along the window frame and walls of the room.
“W-what, what is happ—… huh?!”
“…!!”
Isaac and Isabella, who rushed in at the commotion, saw the scene inside the room and were horrified.
Because the roots, stretched out like tentacles, had filled the entire room.
***
Beep—
Beeeeep—
In a sterile hospital room, a man opened his eyes.
The man’s eyes widened greatly, then he quickly tore off the breathing mask on his mouth and sat up.
“Y-young master! If you get up so suddenly…!”
The monitoring room that had been checking on the man.
An old man who came out from there hurriedly tried to stop him.
“Young master Oliver, you must rest, if you get this worked up, it will be bad for your heart.”
But the man called Oliver didn’t care at all.
“The Great One is going to visit us, do you really think I can stay calm?”
“P-pardon? W-what do you mean by that?”
“Melson, go to Korea and attend to him, you must ensure that he can come here in perfect comfort, not a single blemish can be tolerated, which is why it has to be you, Melson.”
Melson’s eyes shook violently.
It was the first time in his life he had ever seen Oliver this agitated.
Isn’t Oliver the one who, because of his weak constitution, never showed interest in other people’s affairs at all?
Oliver, who had transcended worldly concerns, who found living itself painful.
And yet now he was saying “The Great One”.
‘That’s not something you say about another person, normally.’
…It was more like the attitude you’d take toward a god.
Phantom. No, Mr. Park Hyun-myung?
Everyone was staring at me wide-eyed, as if they’d just seen a ghost.
When I tilted my head slightly,
“Uh, uh…!”
Isaac’s mouth fell open even wider.
Only then did I realize they weren’t looking at me, but behind my back.
I slowly turned around.
‘Oh?’
One of the roots was mimicking my movements.
When I moved my hand to the left, the root also moved left.
Same when I moved to the right.
After doing that for about thirty seconds, it withered rapidly.
“W-what, what was that just now?”
“A new skill.”
“A s-skill…?”
What kind of skill is that bizarre?
A skill that grows roots and lets you move them at will.
Even a High Druid, guardian of the forest, wouldn’t be able to pull off such a freakish stunt.
I stroked my chin, looked at the roots that had withered away, and came to a conclusion.
“I’ll have to run some tests.”
***
Rapid Growth was more efficient when used on seeds than on plants that had already grown.
They sprouted quickly, took root, then moved for about two minutes before shriveling up.
‘I can use this for traps.’
I thought about how to use this skill.
I could grow plants to bear fruit and sell them to help the household finances, but the growth didn’t last that long.
Right now, all it could do was grow roots and move them, so it seemed best suited for use as traps, or for grabbing someone’s ankle.
‘When the skill level goes up, its versatility should increase too.’
The skill was still only level 1.
Who knows, once it reaches level 10, I might be able to grow trees like the World Tree itself.
‘Use it like a wood mage’s Entangle, create obstacles…’
A skill that makes small roots shoot up and grab ankles, Entangle.
The size could be adjusted as needed, and while there was the condition of having to sow the seeds in advance, the upside was that, as long as you had enough seeds, there was no limit to how many times you could use it.
Besides that, it could be used to create obstacles or build walls.
It seemed like it would be very useful in preparing for the upcoming Abyss Labyrinth.
‘Seeds were more efficient than grown plants, then among the seeds, there should be some it works even better on.’
Isn’t extreme efficiency the racial trait of Koreans?
I was no different.
I swept up all the plant seeds in the lord’s castle’s storage, and began testing them one by one.
***
Arriving at Gimpo Airport, Melson slowly looked around.
‘Korea, it’s developed a lot.’
Long ago, Melson had once come to Korea. Back when Korea was still a developing country.
Compared to then, Korea had changed so much it was almost unrecognizable.
He could hardly believe this was the same country that had once lived in a constant state of tension because of the Cold War system.
To think there would be such an airport in a place that couldn’t even fly planes properly back then.
There was a certain ease on people’s faces.
‘The person young master Oliver spoke of is here.’
Honestly, he was still half in doubt.
Oliver extremely disliked outsiders.
Even with his own family, there was almost no coming and going, yet now Oliver was actively trying to meet someone.
From Melson’s perspective, it was a joyful thing, but he had absolutely no information about the person Oliver was going to meet.
All Melson knew was that he was Korean and his name.
—Mr. Park Hyun-myung.
He stood there holding a placard with that name written on it.
Had someone who knew Melson seen him, they would have been utterly shocked.
But Melson didn’t mind.
He had come quietly, off the record, and there was no one in Korea who knew him anyway.
More than anything, it was young master Oliver’s earnest request. No matter where the place was, he would gladly fulfill it.
Who knows how long time had passed like that.
“It’s Gracia!”
“Gracia! Please say just one word!”
“Are you leaving Korea?”
The outside suddenly grew noisy.
Surrounded by a swarm of reporters, someone was entering the airport.
Gracia.
The strongest Dimension Warrior who had been staying in Korea!
He had appeared at the airport to leave Korea.
***
The moment I arrived at the airport, flashes went off and the surroundings grew rowdy.
‘Gracia.’
The cause of the commotion.
The moment I saw the man at the center of it all, I knew who he was.
He’d been covered by so many media outlets, but more than that, I just instinctively recognized him.
‘Talk about bad timing.’
Of all days, it had to overlap with Gracia’s departure date.
On top of that, I thought I glimpsed Kim Hana among the reporters.
I pulled my cap as low as possible and quietly slipped past to the side.
Just as I recognized him at a glance, he might recognize me too.
After walking in for some time, I spotted an old man holding a sign with my name on it.
He was an elderly man with white hair and the tidy impression of an English gentleman.
“I’m Park Hyun-myung.”
“Could you tell me whose invitation you received?”
The old man spoke Korean fairly well.
“Oliver.”
At my answer, the old man smiled brightly.
“I am Melson, young master Oliver’s butler, please feel free to follow me.”
Melson folded up the sign and started walking ahead, as if there was no time to waste.
But he didn’t line up, didn’t go through the normal procedures, and instead headed straight somewhere.
When we entered a building with ‘SGBAC’ written on it, the staff bowed to Melson at a ninety-degree angle and greeted him warmly.
But when they saw me behind him, they tilted their heads.
“And this gentleman is…?”
“He will be coming with me.”
“Ah! I apologize, we’ll expedite the procedures right away.”
At a single word from Melson, the looks in their eyes and their attitude toward me changed a full one-eighty.
Following the staff’s lead, immigration, quarantine, and customs were handled like a high-pass lane. With no waiting, the whole process didn’t even take ten minutes.
Only then did I realize this was a VIP terminal for those who arrived by private jet.
A place where VIPs from home and abroad quietly and discreetly come and go.
‘Hudson never explained it like this.’
He just said it was a “wealthy family”, he never mentioned they were rich enough to fly private.
If we were just boarding first class, I wouldn’t have been this shocked.
But I couldn’t just stand there being amazed.
‘Gracia…’
Because he was there.
Once past the immigration line, I saw Gracia again.
It was only natural, since Gracia had also flown in from the United States by private jet.
The problem was Gracia’s gaze.
He was staring back and forth between me and Melson.
‘Did he recognize me?’
For a moment, the thought crossed my mind, but the likelihood was low.
Gracia and I had no point of contact. The only reason I recognized him immediately was because he’d acted like such an attention seeker everywhere.
There was practically no one in Korea who didn’t know Gracia’s face right now.
Even so, I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.
In Pangaenia, there are thousands, tens of thousands of ways to identify a target.
Who knows, by some outrageous method, he might have figured out I’m a player, that I’m Randolph.
Besides, Gracia had been a player far longer than I have.
I couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that he knew something I didn’t.
‘His stare is prickling.’
Right up until we boarded the private jet, Gracia kept watching me and Melson.
By coincidence, Gracia’s private jet was parked right next to ours.
His gaze continued until the door to the jet closed.
***
There was nothing more to gain in Korea.
Gracia came to that final conclusion.
He hadn’t been able to find the owner of the Hydragon’s soul, which was a material for creating a unique-grade sword, and when the dimensional fissure opened, he likewise got nothing.
At the time, Gracia had been in Korea, not the United States, so public opinion in America wasn’t good either.
‘I have to prepare for the Abyss Labyrinth.’
He let go of his regrets.
The Abyss Labyrinth was more important than that.
To conquer the Abyss Labyrinth, he would have to return to his home country and entrust his body to someone he could trust.
Because of the labyrinth’s insane condition: once you log out, everything resets.
‘A place where secrecy is absolutely guaranteed.’
He couldn’t trust anyone.
That’s why he needed a place and a person who could hide him.
The other eight heroes?
They were just as untrustworthy.
They could send assassins, to hinder him, or to kill him.
Most attacks would be blocked by his privileges, but those weren’t infinite.
If he were ultimately forced to log out by an external attack, he’d experience the disaster of the labyrinth resetting.
‘I might be able to get the Hydragon’s soul in the Abyss Labyrinth.’
And yet, despite such horrible conditions, there was a reason he had no choice but to challenge it.
The labyrinth merchant.
There was a rumor that, when he appears, his location is announced to all entrants.
Rumor had it that the labyrinth merchant sells, in limited quantities, all sorts of souls and other things that are nearly impossible to obtain by normal means.
On top of that,
‘Sword of Stars Riley.’
The one who inherited the same lineage of the Sword of Stars as himself.
‘Riley will be killed by me.’
There can only be one Sword of Stars in an era.
Two cannot exist at the same time.
Even if the other party is the ruler of the labyrinth, he could never allow anyone else to use the name Sword of Stars.
He would kill Riley, and let the world know that he is the true Sword of Stars.
He would completely sink the Sword of Stars of ages past into the abyss.