Chapter 139

Chapter 139

/Your Enhanced Eyesight skill has risen to Rank A!/

/You have acquired the title, ‘One Who Sees Through’!/

/You have acquired the special ability, ‘Core Eyesight’!/

This was the first Master Rank skill that Merlin obtained outside of swimming. To put it one way, Ilyia’s stealth skills had to be top-notch for Merlin to receive this title from spotting her.

“Stealth… It’s worth using. If the user can disappear at will, it would be an effective combat tool.”

For Merlin, this statement was an honest compliment. Previously, he’d thought that stealth was merely a trick to launch a surprise attack, so the way Ilyia used the technique was a refreshing shock. However, the recipient of this compliment had a different opinion of what he truly meant.

“It’s… worth using?”

Ilyia’s shoulders trembled, and soon, crushing pressure started to spread from her. As he felt such a tremendous qi aura, Merlin was amazed at how she could completely hide her aura.

Woong!

Lancelot had already returned to his training. Of course, for him, he did so to cement the inspiration he got from his battle with the Level 12 monster, the Ogre Hero. Since Lancelot wasn’t talented, he couldn’t forgo a single experience or revelation. So, whenever given a chance, Lancelot performed his stabbing maneuver to develop and acquire experience; it was almost akin to meditation for him. However, in truth, his actions looked strange from the outside.

“What’s going on here? How come no one seems normal….”

Despite being the most abnormal one here, Merlin mumbled this as Ilyia started moving her hands in various formations.

“Body, Darkness, Giant Gate, Release.”

Ilyia opened her chakra once more, choosing a gate higher than the one before: the 3rd Gate. While she’d never tried opening this gate, her seething anger had fully opened her chakra and made it possible.

“Inanimate.”

Without a sound, Ilyia’s body vanished. Before, her aura had been briefly released from the rage that she felt, but it was completely imperceptible now. This meant that, even when her emotions were heightened, she had remained coolheaded and knew she needed to withdraw her qi aura.

“Here!”

“Ack!”

“Where did you… found you!”

“Ugh!”

“The corner of the ceiling! Behind the practice dummy!”

Somehow, Ilyia’s stealth skill grew even more formidable. Any average person wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint her location even if she were standing right before them. Considering that she wasn’t anywhere near this level previously, she was making great strides and developing at a terrifying speed. However, Merlin’s Enhanced Eyesight was improving as well.

“Body, Darkness, Exchange Gate, Release!”

Once more, Ilyia opened a more advanced gate: the 4th Gate, or the Exchange Gate. She had never attempted to release this gate before. Her ‘Understanding’ of Body and Darkness wasn’t too extensive, so opening the 4th Gate should have been impossible. Yet, as if she was under some sort of trance, she opened her chakra and dove deep within herself, which allowed her to grab her hidden potential.

“Hidden Sky.”

Sss.

Without any sounds or traces of her qi aura, Ilyia disappeared once again. At that moment, even Ilyia forgot she existed. She had realized and fully understood the meaning of ‘Nothingness.’

Right then, Ilyia realized that her stealth skill had risen to the Master rank.

/Your Stealth skill has risen to Rank A!/

/You have acquired the title, ‘Absence of Spirit Being’!/

/You have acquired the special ability, ‘Assimilate’!/

‘Ah…’

Ilyia trembled in bliss at the realization. At that moment, she knew that her darkness attribute and affinity had grown significantly. The darkness surrounding her approached as if she was familiar, enveloping her like a warm blanket.

‘I can’t find her?’

On the flip side, Merlin’s mind had been thrown into turmoil because Ilyia had completely disappeared… she was nowhere to be found. It was as if she had ceased to exist.

‘No way!’

Merlin closed his eyes and cleared his mind as he began to integrate spiritual qi into his mind.

Then, he started to see.

It wasn’t like what he’d typically see with Enhanced Eyesight, which solely depended on internal energy being imbued into his eyes. Instead, he could now see everything within a 100-meter radius around him, as if he was looking down from a high vantage point.

Step. Step.

Merlin walked slowly before placing his hand on Ilyia’s shoulder.

“Found you.”

“Ack!”

/Your Enhanced Eyesight skill has risen to Rank AA!/

Disregarding the notification, Merlin stopped operating Enhanced Eyesight. Since the skill required a steady stream of inner qi, Merlin couldn’t use amplified internal energy to run it, and it consumed a considerable amount of his internal energy.

Flash!

The previously dark waiting room suddenly brightened after Ilyia closed her chakra. The disbelief was evident on her face.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah… I’m fine. Thanks.”

While the entire fiasco had started from Ilyia’s fit of rage, she had unexpectedly reached the Master rank and was now a stealth master. Only now did this tremendous achievement dawn on her.

‘At this rank, I can even use stealth right in front of my opponent during battle.’

In fact, the only reason she could hide previously from an Enhanced Eyesight user was that she had opened dark chakra around her. If Merlin had used magic or martial arts to forcefully close her chakra, this bizarre confrontation would have never occurred.

Ding Dong!

Then, with a strange sound, a text message appeared on one of the waiting room walls.

/Due to a lack of group members, we will integrate the users who cleared the 6th, 7th, and 8th Stages of the evaluation test./

“We’re in the 6th Stage waiting room, right?”

“Yeah. The 7th and 8th Stage… passing the 8th Stage means that the user defeated a Level 16 monster all by themself. Is that even possible?”

Level 16 represented monsters like the unreasonably powerful Hell Hound, a hunting dog of the underworld, and the Orc Hero Sungmuk, the swordsman. The latter had attacked Starting and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of users by himself. It would take hundreds of expert users to stand up against such monsters, so to fight such a foe one-on-one…. At that moment, Lancelot stopped stabbing and spoke up.

“… Well, I think we all know who’s going to show up.”

“Oh, right.”

“Yeah, it’s surely….”

As expected, the usual suspects appeared.

“This is nonsense! I expended great effort to defeat those difficult monsters, but since there was no one in my waiting room, I was forced to merge with the lower levels. Why wasn’t I told of this possibility beforehand? Also, I wasn’t even given any drops!”

The speaker was Caucasian, and she stood about 160 centimeters tall. She had slightly brownish red hair and blue eyes, which were large and clear, giving off a pure impression. However, her manner of speaking gave the impression that she wasn’t easy to deal with. With her voluminous red hair lying on her shoulders, Cruze wore light metal armor that clung tightly to her body and looked like a military uniform. Her appearance was strangely detailed, alluding to an interest in the military.

“Well, just chalk it up as gaining some combat experience and EXP. Those opponents aren’t easy to find.”

Standing next to Cruze was a tall man who must’ve been over 180 centimeters. He wore a stylish long black coat with a dress shirt underneath. It was obvious at first glance that Arthur wasn’t wearing a ‘user’ outfit but a ‘real-life’ outfit. However, one important detail was that his clothes seemed to be imbued with unusual-looking magic. His clothing had to be magic items at Rank 3 or higher.

“Wow, it’s like I’m meeting celebrities. Nice to meet you all. My name is Lancelot du Lac.”

“Huh? I see. You’re a knight from the Round Table. I’m Arthur Pendragon.”

When he saw Arthur’s surprise and heard his chuckle, Lancelot continued.

“Ah, we have another name related to the Knights of the Round Table… Merlin?”

“Hahaha, what a coincidence. I’m Merlin Emrys.”

The denotation of a surname, family name, or last name was a recent system update. Since there were so many users playing DIO, there was a lack of viable IDs, so the developers decided to add a surname feature. Thus, Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin, as knights of the Round Table, chose to use the surname of the characters in the fairy tale.

“Ilyia Heinz.”

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

Merlin made a funny sound after hearing Ilyia’s surname.

“Oh, nothing… that surname… it seems to be an abbreviated version of a longer surname. By any chance, did you get that surname from another game?”

“Yeah, you’re right. But another user snatched it before me! Someone took the surname that I wanted!”

“Dang….”

These occurrences happened often. Users placed great importance on these names, and there was even a premium on in-game IDs. Although Merlin didn’t know, there were also some users who snatched popular names to resell them on the market. In truth, if Arthur, Lancelot, or Merlin were willing to sell their ID names, they’d all fetch a high price.

“Cruze Schmidt.”

And with that, all the introductions were given. Soon, a text message appeared.

/The required user numbers for the mission have been fulfilled! Begin mission?/

“Is everyone ready?”

Arthur took the lead and asked the rest of the members. Everyone nodded. They had all decided to participate in this event to conduct this mission, so there was no reason not to start.

“Begin.”