As a result of steadily continuing my training with Dang Gyu-ri during the remaining raid-battle period,
I was able to achieve some modest results.
[The rank of ‘Move Command’ increases. (C→B)]
▷Forced-movement resistance penetration: Rank 2
▷Additional penetration per minute: Rank 2 → Rank 3
If I stack [Amplification] on top of this, that makes it S-rank.
At this point, at least as far as forced movement went, it should work even on the principal or the Sword Empress.
Meanwhile, I coaxed and soothed Seo Ye-in, whose motivation had bottomed out, while progressing her trait quest.
There were twists and turns, but in the end we cleared it, and not only did she learn [Time Oblivion], she even received the challenge bonus.
It was originally supposed to start at F-rank, but it shot straight up to C.
As for registering it to [Bond], I would wait until it rose a little more and I had some spare slots.
Monday.
As always, I ate breakfast with Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa, then headed to the classroom together with them.
But just when we were almost there, Shin Byeongcheol popped out from somewhere and blocked our path.
He rubbed both hands together briskly and said,
“Well now~! Aren’t you all my valued customers?”
“Who’s your customer?”
Hong Yeonhwa shot back bluntly.
Seo Ye-in also looked like she had no real interest.
Which made sense. They practically had no point of contact with the Thief Club, and they did not use the errand center either.
Even so, Shin Byeongcheol kept up his salesman smile and said,
“The possibility isn’t zero, is it? If you look at the big picture, everybody’s a customer, aren’t they?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Well now, you’re hearing me out. Then just this way for a moment.”
“......”
When Hong Yeonhwa glanced at me for a cue, I jerked my chin in a let’s hear him out sort of way.
From the look of it, he had not happened to run into us by chance. It seemed more like he had been waiting for us, and anything that had to be said somewhere with fewer ears around was usually important.
Before long, Shin Byeongcheol led us into a secluded alley.
At this point, there was nobody to see and nobody to hear, yet he leaned his face in close and lowered his voice to the utmost.
“I’ve brought a very enticing proposal.”
“And what might that be?”
“Have you ever heard of early access? We made a new product, you see.”
“Who exactly is ‘we’?”
“......Ahem! Me and, well... people. I’ve got business partners.”
Shin Byeongcheol mumbled that part vaguely.
Apparently those business partners were not the Thief Club.
If it had been Senior Chae Dabin or the twins and the like, there would have been no reason to hide it.
“This already smells suspicious.”
“There are various circumstances tangled up in it. Be understanding, will you?”
“Fine for now. Let’s take a look at this new product of yours.”
“Ah, naturally.”
With that, he started fumbling through his clothes and pulled out a tiny potion bottle about the size of a finger.
Inside it, a magical liquid gave off a faint glow.
“A potion.”
“It ain’t just any potion. Look carefully.”
Brimming with confidence, Shin Byeongcheol shared the item description.
[T.E.B - 001]
▷With a high probability, increases the rank of a random skill/trait by one stage.
▷The effect does not apply with repeated consumption.
▷Caution: Mild temporary side effects may exist.
“What the hell, that’s a scam.”
Not only was it something I was seeing for the first time, its performance also far exceeded my expectations.
Since rank was directly tied to specs, it was the single most important factor in this game-world.
There was a reason [Rank Up] was so valuable.
It raises it just by drinking one potion?
There was the condition that it was random, but even so, there was absolutely nothing bad about it.
For instance, from my perspective, if my C-rank [Diamond Freeze] went up by even one stage, that alone would save me the trouble of obtaining one [Rank Up].
And if, by some chance, it hit an A-rank one, that would be a jackpot.
And the probability is high.
[Random Rank Up] had a similar effect in itself, but its weakness was that the higher the rank of the skill or trait, the more sharply the success rate plummeted.
By the time you got to around A-rank or B-rank, it was common to burn through dozens of them and get nothing.
But [T.E.B - 001] straight-up said “high probability.”
That meant it was worth trying even on A- and B-rank abilities, which made it tens or hundreds of times better than Random Rank Up.
It’s a shame you can’t drink it multiple times.
Because it came with “does not apply repeatedly,” one per person was the limit.
Even if the rank-up failed, a retry was impossible.
Though that doesn’t mean it’s completely over.
Since this was numbered 001, that meant they planned to keep making 002, 003, and so on after this.
So I put on a warm smile, set a hand on Shin Byeongcheol’s shoulder, and said,
“Byeongcheol.”
“Hm?”
“Sorry, but I think I need to hear who your business partner is.”
“Nope, can’t do that. You think I can just spill the most important part?”
At that firm refusal, I flicked a glance to the side.
Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa instantly picked up on the meaning and formed an encirclement from three directions.
“......”
Seo Ye-in raised the pot, ready to swing it in a full-force arc at any moment, while Hong Yeonhwa lit a spark at her fingertips.
FWOOOSH,
A sense of crisis flashed into Shin Byeongcheol’s eyes.
He looked from one of us to the next and let out an awkward laugh.
“Haha, why did the mood suddenly get so vicious? Let’s not do this, everybody.”
On top of that, I pressed him in an even more threatening tone.
“It would be in your best interest to speak truthfully. If you wish to preserve what little hair you have.”
“You’re taking my hair hostage? Do you have no blood, no tears?”
“It’s already thinning. Just shave it off while you’re at it.”
“There are things you can say to a man and things you cannot!”
Shin Byeongcheol snapped furiously.
But only for a moment. Soon he waved both hands and said,
“Anyway, I absolutely can’t tell you who my partners are, not even if it means I end up bald.”
“No helping it, then. I was just saying it.”
“Ah, I know. I’ll definitely tell you later.”
“Very well. And there’s one more important thing. The side effects.”
It said they were temporary and mild, but side effects were still side effects.
Shouldn’t we at least know what kind of thing would happen?
At that, Shin Byeongcheol scratched the back of his head.
“To be honest, I don’t know exactly either.”
“You must have tried one.”
“I did. I even went through the side effects too.”
“So what were they?”
“Well, uh... my face got red, something like that.”
Meaning he had added one more embarrassing black-mark memory to his history.
And it was not as though he could explain that in detail in front of us.
At that, Hong Yeonhwa let out a disbelieving scoff.
“You want us to drink something like that?”
“Honestly, it sounds worth it, doesn’t it? A little embarrassment in exchange for a rank-up.”
“From the sound of it, there’s a chance it won’t go up.”
“If that happens, that’d be deeply unfortunate, but shouldn’t you be willing to accept a little risk?”
“......”
It was certainly a reasonable thing to say.
Considering the hardship required to raise a rank by one stage, a slight chance of failure and a little black-mark embarrassment was nothing.
If it meant taking one step closer to world peace, I, for one, was more than willing to accept that much.
So, as I took the potion bottle, I asked Shin Byeongcheol,
“It goes without saying this isn’t free, correct?”
“If it were up to me, I’d love to hand them out left and right too. But there’s material cost, labor cost, and the amount we can make is limited, you know.”
“Very well. Then tell me what you want.”
“It’s nothing much. I’d like you to do a little advertising.”
Well, just from the serial number 001, it already looked like something at the very beginning of its rollout.
Once word of mouth started spreading, it would take off quickly enough, but the problem was before that.
Since it even came with suspicious side effects, they needed some reviews with a certain degree of credibility behind them.
“In that case, it would be better for Hong Yeonhwa to drink it than me.”
“That would probably be best.”
I had managed to shake off the stigma of being a coward and was building up some name recognition in my own way, but I was still nowhere near a prospect from last year.
On top of that, Hong Yeonhwa also had the backing of the mid-tier major club that was the Ruby Mage Tower, so if they said a word, the ripple effect would be considerable.
So I handed over the T.E.B - 001 and asked,
“Want to try it?”
“That’s......”
Hong Yeonhwa did not take it immediately and instead rolled their eyes around in hesitation.
I could roughly guess what they were thinking, so I asked another question.
“Because of the side effects?”
“Y-yeah....... I’m a little worried.......?”
To be precise, it was probably not the black-mark itself they were worried about, but what our relationship with them might become after they added one.
So I spoke in a calm tone.
“You don’t need to worry that much. Why would we hold a grudge when it would be obvious it was because of the potion?”
“Re...ally......?”
“Of course.”
Only then did Hong Yeonhwa seem a little reassured, and they took the potion bottle.
After removing the cap, they took a deep breath, then downed it all at once.
“......”
“How does it taste?”
“It feels....... a little sweet.”
“You don’t feel anything in particular?”
“Not really....... right now......?”
But in the next instant, Hong Yeonhwa suddenly widened their eyes and stared into midair.
Then, in a dazed voice, they said,
“......It went up, the rank.”
And then they shared the notification message with us.
[The rank of ‘Pyro-Fusion’ increases. (C→B)]
“So it really does go up.”
“I told you it was real.”
Well, the system did not lie.
I held out my hand to Shin Byeongcheol and shamelessly demanded,
“If we’re going to advertise this properly for you, give us a few more. Let’s say four, enough for the headcount.”
“Come on, I don’t have that many. And we’ve got to make a living too.”
“Then let’s compromise at two.”
“You really are a highway robber. I’ll give you just one more.”
“Thank you.”
Holding the second T.E.B - 001, I asked Seo Ye-in with my eyes, Want to drink it?
Shake shake.
For some reason, she shook her head.
She even started slowly backing away.
It seemed either her Lucky Charm radar had detected failure, or she expected the side effects would trigger in some strange direction.
Of course, there were plenty of people besides Seo Ye-in who could drink it.
“Then I’ll try it.”
The moment I pulled the cap off, I one-shotted the potion without the slightest hesitation.
Then I stared up into the air, expectation rising—
but,
“......What the hell, why isn’t anything coming up?”
Even after quite a while, no notification message appeared.
Meaning the rank-up had failed.
I had prepared myself for that possibility to some extent, but I still took it out on Shin Byeongcheol out of spite.
“Byeongcheol, do you want to start reflecting light off the crown of your head?”
“Haaah? Is that my fault? I gave it to you after smoothing things over and everything.”
“Give me one more.”
“Go eat a flea’s liver. Not happening even if you beat me to death.”
Well, they had to leave some to sell on the market too.
They needed seed money if they wanted to make 002 and 003.
I nodded, then asked him,
“When do the side effects show up?”
“It was pretty fast for me.”
“And how long do they last?”
“Half a day, I think? Though it seems like there’s some individual variation.”
So I waited a little longer, but I did not feel anything in particular.
The sovereign mental barrier must have blocked it.
On the other hand, Hong Yeonhwa probably had no trait or item to block side effects, so I casually asked them,
“How is it?”
“I...... don’t really know.”
Hong Yeonhwa replied with a slight furrow between their brows.
If there was individual variation, maybe it took time for it to apply too—or so I thought, just then, when Hong Yeonhwa moved in much closer than usual.
Then they looked up at me and said,
“But, you know.......”
“What?”
“Isn’t it about time I got to kiss you too?”
Then they clapped a hand over their own mouth and went, Gasp.
