It was a little after 1:00 PM.
Members of the Ookami Guild, who had arrived in Korea via a private jet, reached the Korea Awakener Association.
“Haha, welcome. I am Jung Tae-hoon, the President of the Korea Awakener Association.”
Jung Tae-hoon greeted Kato Asumi and her party with a beaming smile.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Kato Asumi from Ookami.”
Kato Asumi reached out to shake the Association President’s hand.
After the handshake, her gaze shifted to Seong-jun, who was standing beside him.
“And you must be the one called Korea’s Saint, Mr. Kim Seong-jun? I didn’t realize it would be this difficult just to see your face. In any case, it is nice to meet you. I am Kato Asumi, often referred to as the Saintess of Japan.”
As Kato Asumi offered her hand, Seong-jun smiled and slowly reached out.
Of course, he didn’t forget to use Divine Eye first to discern her intentions.
‘Divine Eye!’
As soon as he cast the skill, Kato Asumi’s information appeared before him.
**[Analysis Results]**
**Name:** Kato Asumi [S-rank High Priest]
**Average Stats:** [S+]
**Detailed Stats:** [Available for viewing]
**Weakness:** Vulnerable to all physical attacks.
**Combat Style:** [Supports allies on the battlefield with powerful healing skills.]
**Core Skills:** [Great Heal / Area Heal]
**Reliability:** 17
**Mental State:** [Deeply displeased that someone called a ‘Saint’ is being treated as her equal. She feels intense jealousy toward Seong-jun for possessing unique skills that no other healer class has.]
**Last Thought:**
‘A healer from a tiny nation dared to make me move? Fine. I’ll take this chance to drain everything you have. Just wait. Everything will be over the moment you shake hands with Mamoru.’
After checking Kato Asumi’s information, Seong-jun put on a look of internal surprise.
‘Huh? What’s this? Reliability: 17? This is a first. Usually, even with strangers, it’s over thirty, and even for ill-fated relationships, it stays above twenty. But she wants to drain everything I have? What kind of scheme is this?’
What surprised him most was the Reliability score of 17.
In most cases, even meeting someone for the first time resulted in a base Reliability of at least thirty.
Even if they were destined to be enemies, it rarely dipped below twenty.
To see it drop into the teens upon the very first meeting was extremely rare.
This alone was enough to suggest that developing a good relationship with her would be difficult.
Moreover, her thought about “draining” his assets was concerning.
By assets, she surely meant his skills, but how on earth did she plan to take them?
Although Seong-jun had confirmed through Divine Eye that Kato Asumi wasn’t approaching him with good intentions, he maintained a bright smile, as they were in a public setting.
“It’s a pleasure. I’m Kim Seong-jun. I was planning to head to Japan once my busy schedule cleared up, but I feel bad that you had to come all the way to Korea yourself. Regardless, welcome.”
With those words, he took her hand.
Though they were smiling at each other, their inner thoughts were quite the opposite.
Seong-jun and Kato Asumi were observing one another, each wearing a thick mask of courtesy.
“Oh, don’t mention it! Ah, let me introduce this man. This is Sasaki Genshiro, our Vice Guild Leader and the Team 1 Leader. He is an indispensable core member of Ookami.”
At Kato Asumi’s introduction, Seong-jun looked at Sasaki Genshiro.
‘Divine Eye!’
Based on the information, he was indeed the Vice Guild Leader of Ookami and a pure melee damage dealer.
‘Hmm, this one really is their Vice Guild Leader. A pure melee dealer, too.’
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Seong-jun.”
“Yes, it’s a pleasure. I’m Sasaki Genshiro.”
Kato Asumi then proceeded to introduce another person.
“This is Matsuda Nobuhiro, our Administrative Team Leader. He handles the guild’s general affairs. Although he lacks combat abilities, his exceptional administrative skills keep the Ookami Guild running smoothly.”
The man was in his mid-20s and dressed in a suit.
Unlike his neat appearance, there was a somewhat gloomy aura emanating from him.
“It’s a pleasure. I am Matsuda Nobuhiro of the Ookami Guild.”
As Matsuda Nobuhiro reached out for a handshake, Seong-jun slowly extended his hand while activating Divine Eye.
‘Divine Eye!’
Then, Matsuda Nobuhiro’s information appeared.
**[Analysis Results]**
**Name:** Takahashi Mamoru [A-rank Skill Book Maker]
**Average Stats:** [A-]
**Detailed Stats:** [Available for viewing]
**Weakness:** Lacks combat-related skills. Physical abilities are close to those of an ordinary person, making him vulnerable to all attacks.
**Combat Style:** [None]
**Core Skills:** [Skill Copy / Skill Book Creation]
**Reliability:** 31
**Mental State:** [He is doing this for the money, but he finds it incredibly annoying to have come all the way to Korea. He wants to finish the job quickly and return to Japan.]
**Last Thought:**
‘Tsk. No matter how much I copy and turn things into skill books, I can’t even learn them. What kind of Awakened am I? Damn it. Of all things, why did I awaken such a garbage ability? Anyway, just grab my hand already. Let me copy this and get it over with.’
The man introduced as Administrative Team Leader Matsuda Nobuhiro was actually a person named Takahashi Mamoru, an Awakened capable of copying an opponent’s skills and turning them into skill books.
However, it seemed he couldn’t learn the skill books he created himself.
‘Huh! Copying an opponent’s skill and making it into a skill book? There’s an ability like that? How novel. But since he’s so eager to shake hands, I guess physical contact is required to activate the skill? Fine, I’ll take that hand as you wish.’
Even though he knew exactly what the man’s ability was and what his intentions were, Seong-jun took his hand anyway.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Seong-jun.”
*Clasp!*
The moment their hands met.
‘Got it! Skill Copy!’
Takahashi Mamoru immediately cast Skill Copy.
However, at the same time, Seong-jun also activated a skill.
‘Nullification!’
Nullification was a skill that could cancel any skill targeted at him.
It was the very skill he had acquired recently in the A-rank Centaur Dungeon while raiding with the Holy Emperor, Changcheon, and Genesis.
**[Skill [Nullification] has canceled skill [Skill Copy]. Nullification is deactivated because one skill has been canceled.]**
Once cast, Nullification usually lasts for 10 minutes, but if it cancels a skill directed at the user, it deactivates immediately regardless of the remaining time.
Thus, it was dismissed right after canceling the Skill Copy.
Meanwhile, Takahashi Mamoru, who had been casting Skill Copy during the handshake, could not hide his shocked expression.
‘What? What…?! My skill was canceled? How can this be…!’
Since his skill had never been canceled before, Takahashi Mamoru couldn’t help but be flustered.
Seong-jun, who had canceled the skill, looked at the panicking Takahashi Mamoru with a smiling face.
“Is something the matter? Did I do something wrong?”
Startled, Takahashi Mamoru quickly stammered.
“Oh! No, it’s nothing.”
They finished the handshake and pulled their hands apart, but Takahashi Mamoru’s eyes remained fixed on Seong-jun.
At that moment, the Association President stepped forward with a benevolent smile.
“Let’s continue this conversation inside.”
“Ah, yes. Let us.”
As the Association officials and Seong-jun headed inside first, the Ookami Guild, led by Kato Asumi, followed behind.
As they entered the Korea Awakener Association building, Kato Asumi whispered cautiously.
“How did it go? Did you copy either Kim Seong-jun’s Cure or God’s Miracle?”
The skills Kato Asumi wanted were precisely Seong-jun’s Cure and God’s Miracle.
Unlike the Cure skills of other healers, Seong-jun’s was a ridiculous, miraculous Cure that could save patients on the brink of death.
On top of that, God’s Miracle was a broken skill that could regenerate severed body parts and even heal congenital disabilities related to bones.
From the moment she saw a video of Seong-jun regenerating torn-off arms and legs, Kato Asumi had been determined to get those skills by any means necessary.
In response to Kato Asumi’s question, Takahashi Mamoru shook his head.
“No. I don’t know what happened, but my skill was canceled. Once the skill is cast on a target, it can’t be used on them again for one hour, so I’m planning to try it on someone else first to make sure there’s no problem before trying again later.”
The skill’s cooldown itself was about 10 minutes.
However, a one-hour waiting period was required before it could be used on the same target again.
“What? What do you mean? It was canceled? Are you serious right now? You haven’t forgotten why I’m paying you so much to bring you here, have you?”
“I know. I know, but I don’t understand this situation either. This has never happened before. Regardless, we’ll be seeing Kim Seong-jun often while we’re in Korea, won’t we? I’ll test it on someone else first, and if there’s no issue with the skill itself, I’ll keep trying. Also, could you get close to Kim Seong-jun and find out if he has any special artifacts that block skills? If he does, we have to find a way to get him to take it off.”
He didn’t know why the copy skill had been canceled, but he intended to test the skill for malfunctions.
If it worked fine, he would continue to attempt it on Seong-jun.
He also asked her to check if Seong-jun was carrying any artifacts that blocked skills.
If he was wearing something like that, copying would be impossible unless he was separated from it.
“Fine. There’s a banquet at the OO Hotel this evening, so try again then. I’ll subtly ask him about any such artifacts.”
She had swallowed her pride and flown to Korea herself.
Therefore, she had to get her hands on God’s Miracle at all costs.
She believed that only then would she become a Saintess in the truest sense and recover a bit of her wounded pride.
***
As he conversed with Kato Asumi’s party, Seong-jun periodically used Divine Eye to gauge Takahashi Mamoru’s mental state and thoughts.
As a result, he was able to gather more information than expected.
And now, before attending the evening banquet, he had excused himself, saying he had something to take care of.
‘So he can only copy one skill at a time, and he has to wait one hour to target the same person again? The cooldown for Nullification is also one hour, so that’s perfect.’
Takahashi Mamoru’s Skill Copy could only copy one skill at a time.
While the cooldown was 10 minutes, he needed one hour to use it on the same target again.
The important thing was that Nullification’s cooldown was also one hour.
By the time Takahashi Mamoru would be able to cast his skill on Seong-jun again, Seong-jun would already have Nullification ready.
‘By the way, I didn’t expect Kato Asumi to be after my Cure and God’s Miracle. Well, since she holds the title of Saintess, I suppose she’d be greedy for those skills. They are literally miracle-like abilities.’
In addition to learning about Skill Copy, he also discovered that Kato Asumi was targeting Cure and God’s Miracle.
From her perspective, they were certainly skills worth coveting.
Although she was called the Saintess in Japan, she was essentially no different from a regular healer.
She could simply use slightly more powerful healing skills than others, but she couldn’t perform miracles worthy of the title ‘Saintess’.
In short, while her abilities were not fundamentally different from other healers, the Japanese people called her a Saintess simply because she was the only S-rank healer in Japan.
Until now, she had been satisfied with that, but everything changed after Seong-jun appeared.
She coveted his other skills too, but Cure and God’s Miracle were truly enough to be called miracles.
She felt that if she could just get those, she wouldn’t just be a Saintess in name, but a real one.
“Even so, I didn’t think she’d dare to go this far. Trying to steal my skills? Not a chance.”
Technically, since it was copying and not stealing, ‘theft’ might not be the right word, but since he would be using skills Seong-jun had worked hard to develop, it felt like theft to Seong-jun.
Of course, since Seong-jun had Nullification, he had no intention of letting it happen, nor did he intend to avoid her.
If she tried to copy his skills?
He could just cancel every single attempt with Nullification.
“It’s a good thing I learned Nullification because the Holy Emperor’s team yielded it to me. Otherwise, this could have been a pretty troublesome situation.”
Even without Nullification, he would have discerned her intent with Divine Eye, but depending on the situation, things could have gotten awkward.
In a place with many eyes watching, blindly avoiding handshakes or other physical contact could be seen as disrespecting the other party.
As Seong-jun arrived at the hideout and entered the second basement floor…
*Click!*
The eyes of the group there turned toward him.
“Oh? Seong-jun. Why are you back already?”
“Did you meet the Saintess of Japan? Why did she want to see you so badly?”
At Gwang-taek and Yuseon’s questions, Seong-jun shrugged.
“She just said she wanted to see who the Saint of Korea was.”
Seong-jun didn’t bother mentioning Kato Asumi’s true intentions.
She had never spoken them aloud, and he wanted to keep Divine Eye a secret as much as possible.
“What? She asked you to come to Japan several times for just that reason? And when that didn’t work, she flew to Korea herself? Hah! She must have nothing better to do.”
“Right? I heard Kato Asumi has far-right leanings and is incredibly prideful, but maybe that’s not true? Seeing as she flew all the way to Korea just to see Brother Seong-jun’s face.”
Those who didn’t know Kato Asumi’s true intentions could only think that way.
It felt strange that the prideful, far-right Kato Asumi would fly to Korea just to see Seong-jun.
“Maybe that was just an excuse, and she has some hidden motive. It’s only the first day. She wouldn’t show all her cards right away. Regardless, they’re holding a banquet at the OO Hotel tonight. They said the whole team is invited, so if you don’t have other plans, let’s go together. Apparently, the domestic Top 10 Guilds are coming, and they’ve invited Karl and his team too.”
At Seong-jun’s words, Gwang-taek and Yuseon’s eyes widened.
“What? A banquet? The domestic Top 10 Guilds are coming too? It’s been a while since I’ve seen some familiar faces. Oh! But do we have to wear suits if it’s a banquet? We can’t exactly go like this.”
“Going to a banquet? Why are you just telling us now? Dang it! Now’s not the time to be sitting around. I’m going out to buy some clothes right now. Who’s coming with me?”
Since it was their first time at such an event, they seemed concerned about their attire.
“We can’t go to a place like that looking shabby. Yuseon, do you have an eye for clothes? If so, pick something out for me too.”
Gwang-taek decided to go shopping with Yuseon.
“What about Brother Seong-jun?”
“Me? I’m fine. I have a suit I bought a long time ago. I’ll just wear that.”
Since Seong-jun wasn’t particularly interested in clothes, he said he’d just dig out his old suit.
At that, Yuseon’s face crumpled.
“No, is he crazy? You’re not thinking of wearing that shiny silver suit I saw last time, are you? No way. Brother Gwang-taek! Drag Brother Seong-jun along by any means necessary!”
As soon as Yuseon finished speaking, Gwang-taek grabbed one of Seong-jun’s arms.
*Grab!*
“I agree, that’s not it. Just come with us.”
Seong-jun replied with a look of absurdity.
“Huh? I said I’m fine!”
Then Yuseon glared at Seong-jun.
“What do you mean ‘fine’! What are you going to do with all that money in your bank account? Take it to the grave with you? I’m not saying you have to be extravagant, but you have to spend when the time is right. That’s how the economy stays afloat. You too, Chang-su! Follow us! From the looks of it, you’re the same type as Brother Seong-jun. Take this chance to buy some decent clothes.”
What could they do?
Even Seong-jun was being dragged away; Chang-su had no chance of resisting.
“I……”
As Seong-jun and Chang-su were led out by Gwang-taek, Yuseon looked at Seon-hwa.
“Sister, I’m sorry. Only we’re going somewhere nice. I’ll buy you something delicious on the way back.”
Since Seon-hwa had to strictly avoid external activities, it was awkward for her to go to a place where many people gathered.
At Yuseon’s words, Seon-hwa smiled and replied.
“It’s okay. I actually hate those kinds of events. I’d rather stay here quietly and look over this.”
Since they didn’t have all the equipment yet, they couldn’t perform full-scale experiments.
Instead, she was examining the equipment Seong-jun had handed over whenever she had a spare moment.
Since it was the only one of its kind in the world, she was examining it as carefully as possible, but Seon-hwa seemed to enjoy the very act of researching something new.
“We’ll be back then.”
Once Yuseon left, only Seon-hwa remained on the second basement floor of the hideout.
Seon-hwa let out a slight smile and then began to focus on the Dungeon Activation Device.
—
The top floor of a high-rise building.
Someone spoke quietly while looking down at the city through the window.
“You’re saying it failed?”
A man in a suit standing nearby bowed his head and replied.
“Yes. It turns out that another team in the dungeon with Karl Buckman’s team was Kim Seong-jun’s team.”
“Kim Seong-jun. I feel like I’ve been hearing that name too often lately. But if that’s the case, does it mean the probability is high that the Dungeon Activation Device fell into the hands of either Kim Seong-jun or Karl Buckman?”
At those words, the suited man replied cautiously.
“We’ll have to investigate further, but we suspect it ended up in Kim Seong-jun’s hands. However, since it was a one-time device to begin with, wouldn’t it be fine?”
It was a one-time device that stopped working after a single use.
So he was asking if it really mattered even if it fell into someone else’s hands.
“The device itself isn’t the problem. The problem is that we must stop that device from flowing into the Holy Emperor’s hands. It seems I’ll have to meet Kim Seong-jun soon. Get ready.”
After saying that, the man turned around and walked away slowly.