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chapter 25
Shh—!
Shiiing—!
Blades of wind cut through the air in arcs.
Hanbit distributed stat points to everything except Vitality, repeatedly using the skill each time the wind filled.
Yeonwoo, who had been staring blankly at the sight, only realized near the end.
That all three stats with different natures affected the skill.
“So it’s really an all-stat skill?”
“Vitality’s an exception, but spirit power works like that originally. It’s a different kind from other techniques.”
Chirp—!
The small bird listening to the conversation cried out as if in agreement.
-Why is this real.
-So cute.
-If all spirit skills are all-stat, isn’t that insanely demanding?
-Spirit mains in tears.
The spirit’s response was highly persuasive.
Reaching out, Hanbit lightly stroked the bird.
“We’re borrowing the power of spirits. You need multiple abilities backing you to even qualify.”
“Still, requiring three different stats feels like the bar’s way too high, doesn’t it?”
“Think of it as a minimum condition, not a requirement. If the spirit doesn’t like you, it’s meaningless anyway.”
-Not easy for a kid.
-Baby spirit (5,000 years old)
-If you pump Intelligence and get smarter, can you negotiate?
-OK full Intelligence build.
-Wouldn’t changing your head be faster?
Jokes aside.
Spirit power was that difficult to handle perfectly.
If anything, having what you needed to grasp by intuition shown through stats could be called kind.
“But then you’re going all-in as a spirit user, right? Other skills won’t be very efficient.”
“It depends on how you use them. How you apply them matters more than efficiency.”
Everyone has preferred techniques, but for now, this was only the starting point.
Depending on the situation, there would be plenty of cases where multiple skills were used together.
Of course, it was clear he’d continue relying heavily on spirits.
‘This should be enough.’
Having finished allocating his stats, Hanbit completed the necessary data collection.
Moving his finger, he turned his gaze to the status window.
[Black Dragon – Lv.16]
[Title: None]
Strength: 20
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 20
Vitality: 7
Remaining stat points: 0
“Hah.”
Yeonwoo, who had been staring blankly, let out a sigh.
“What now?”
“Look at this.”
He spoke while opening his own character status window.
[Roper – Lv.25]
[Title: Forest Explorer]
Strength: 23
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 5
Vitality: 11
Hanbit turned his gaze to the screen.
Then, with a puzzled expression, he asked back,
“…What’s wrong with you?”
“It’s just that you got way too many stat points. I’m the normal one.”
Yeonwoo replied as if dumbfounded.
Hanbit examined his status window again.
[Roper – Lv.25]
[Title: Forest Explorer]
Strength: 23
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 5
Vitality: 11
Hanbit’s total stats: 67.
Yeonwoo’s total stats: 45.
Considering the level gap and playtime, it was an absurd difference.
“This is normal? Didn’t you slack off?”
“The only thing I didn’t do was the story! Compared to you, who’s only been playing a few days, this makes no sense!”
-Roper’s about to cry;
-This is actually normal.
-Is this a private server or something?
-Doesn’t story progression give like 15 stat points?
-If you’re really good, maybe up to 17.
That genuinely aggrieved expression made it hard to tease him.
Sighing once more, Yeonwoo turned his gaze back to Hanbit’s stats.
Then, as if something occurred to him, he asked,
“But is your Vitality really okay at this level? I’ve experienced it myself—there are tons of cases where monsters one-shot you.”
One reason RP was difficult was that Vitality wasn’t visible.
The system didn’t display HP, whether for characters or monsters.
Because of that, quite a few people invested a certain amount into Vitality for stable play.
At least, among ordinary players.
“You just don’t get hit.”
“…What?”
-LOL
-Look at that confidence.
-Everyone has a plan until they get hit.
-You only understand after getting insta-killed.
What sounded like bravado drew mocking laughter from the viewers.
If you don’t want to get hit, you just dodge.
An utterly simple truth, but not something anyone could do.
However, Hanbit, who had learned that by staking his life over countless years, did not fall into the ‘anyone’ category.
Closing the character window, Hanbit turned his gaze to the camera.
“That’s it for today’s stream.”
“Huh? You’re leaving already?”
-What? Why?
-Are you mad?
-Sorry.
At the announcement of the stream ending, the viewers instantly changed their tune.
Funny people, every time.
“I have to go to work. Tomorrow we’ll start the main story, so come by in the evening.”
Click—
After pressing the logout button, Hanbit removed the gear from his head.
“Phew.”
Brushing back his sweat-soaked hair, he stepped into the living room.
Since his mother was already asleep, Hanbit finished showering as quietly as possible.
Bzz—
When he returned to his room, his phone vibrated.
“Hyung, I’ll send you all of today’s donations and prize money. It’s a total of 31,392,000 won, but the app’s under maintenance so it might take about 30 minutes.”
“What are you talking about?”
The agreement to split donations fifty-fifty was still valid.
He had no intention whatsoever of being blinded by a large sum.
Hanbit opened the messenger chat.
“Kang Hanbit: Don’t talk nonsense. Split the donations exactly in half.”
“Joo Yeonwoo: No, this one’s definitely right for you to take. It’s the same context as prize money.”
“Kang Hanbit: If it weren’t for you, this opportunity wouldn’t even exist. We earned this together, so stop arguing. I’m going to sleep.”
Thump—
After sending the reply, Hanbit placed the phone face-down on the desk.
Throwing himself onto the bed, he listened to the vibrating phone and… couldn’t fall asleep.
“Ah.”
Remembering something he needed to do, Hanbit got back up.
Turning on the computer, he sat down and pulled the keyboard closer.
“If I took that much, I should do my part.”
The hints about the hidden skill he’d promised the viewers.
After checking the amount directly, he couldn’t just gloss over it.
After all, expectations were in the tens of millions.
“…Where should I post this?”
Asking Yeonwoo would’ve been best, but the phone was still vibrating.
Giving up cleanly, Hanbit entered the RPG community.
“There’s logged-in and anonymous posting, huh.”
Posts written with verified accounts and posts written anonymously.
It seemed the video Yeonwoo uploaded had been the latter.
“Let’s see…….”
Putting on the headgear, Hanbit entered the account identification number shown on the login screen.
Whether that alone was enough for verification, the registration process finished.
“I’ll start writing them one by one.”
Pressing the write button, he released the hints in the order he’d decided on.
However, the work didn’t even last ten minutes.
“Wow, this is hard.”
He had more than enough experience and knowledge.
The problem was that putting it into words was difficult in many ways.
“I need to write this so it’s easy to understand.”
The people who would read this were ordinary players—in other words, beginners.
That meant he needed to organize what was in his head as intuitively as possible.
Tap— tap—
With a hint of stubbornness, Hanbit’s fingers moved busily.
The work only finished several hours later.
***
The next morning.
Waking early, Hanbit stretched.
“Ugh.”
Movement in the game depended on the mind, but the fatigue was no small thing.
The more focused you were, the more you felt it.
Of course, it was also because he’d gone to bed late.
“When did this guy even sleep?”
Holding his phone, he reopened the chat with Yeonwoo.
More than ten messages had piled up since the last reply.
Fortunately, it seemed he’d agreed to follow Hanbit’s opinion.
“Twenty million won…”
An enormous amount that didn’t feel real.
It looked like he’d sent a bit more than half.
It made Hanbit let out a hollow laugh, like one last act of stubbornness.
Bzz—!
As he was staring at the amount again, his phone vibrated.
It was a call from Yeonwoo.
“At this hour?”
A call early in the morning felt strange.
With that thought, Hanbit accepted the call.
“What is it so early—”
(Is this really something you wrote?)
A frantic voice cut him off before he could finish.
He had no idea what was going on.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
(The post you uploaded on RPG! That was you, right?)
The intense reaction was suspicious.
Turning on his computer, Hanbit immediately entered the RPG community.
And there he was greeted by thousands of comment notifications at the top.
“…?”
Confused, Hanbit clicked the notifications and moved to the post.
The content was the hints he’d written yesterday.
As promised, I’m leaving the hints.
I’ve organized them briefly in the order of swordsmanship, sparring, and spirits, so please refer to them.
1. Swordsmanship
Balder’s first test depends purely on posture and mindset. Before accepting the quest, swing your sword at least 50,000 times beforehand.
2. Sparring
Right before attacking, Balder shows extremely subtle tells. The basic framework can be distinguished in advance through changes in the eyes, hands, feet, waist, and so on.
First, I’ll explain 15 basic movements, 21 linked movements, and 26 advanced movements.
I wrote this from the player’s perspective, so it should be easy to understand.
1) Right downward slash
Gaze facing forward, right wrist moves 2 centimeters toward the 1 o’clock direction, left foot moves 1.5 centimeters toward the 7 o’clock direction, waist rotates about 10 degrees to the right from the central seam……
The content Hanbit had painstakingly written was extremely long.
Those who read the hints, however, fell into confusion.
-W-what is this……
-Hint (theory)
-Professor, the syllabus is wrong.
-No, how are we supposed to follow this;
-You want us to read those tells?
-Need like 20 years of dynamic vision training.
└You think 20 years is enough?
└Reincarnating would be faster.
-I’m losing my mind.
-OK, I’ll just brute-force it.
└You’ll get your head smashed in.
-Couldn’t you at least upload a video too;
└Excuse me, sir, do you have no conscience?
The endless stream of comments was complete chaos.
(This isn’t a hint, it’s basically a full guide!)
Even amid those reactions, Yeonwoo felt the information was excessive.
Reading through the comments, Hanbit let out a short sigh.
“As expected, lots of people think it’s too hard.”
(As expected?!)
“Do you think you could follow this as written?”
(Well, that’s…….)
Yeonwoo’s voice trailed off as he tried to answer.
It seemed he was now actually rereading the post instead of focusing on the reactions.
Then, after a moment, an incredulous voice came through.
(No, how is anyone supposed to follow this?)
