If my memory was correct, that was undoubtedly an Enlightenment.
The flame-shaped tattoo that had appeared around one of Kang Sujeong’s eyes.
On extremely rare occasions, a person could comprehend and acquire a Passive Skill.
‘Brand of Fire.’
Some called it a Reawakening, but I considered it an Enlightenment.
Certain Passive Skills could neither be purchased nor obtained as rewards. They could only be acquired through Enlightenment.
Such skills were commonly called Brands or Seals.
What Kang Sujeong had received was the Brand of Fire.
It granted overwhelming power when using fire-related abilities, but it also made the bearer extraordinarily vulnerable to the opposing Attribute.
In other words, fire-Attribute attacks would become practically meaningless against Kang Sujeong, while Earth-Attribute attacks would become especially effective.
It was a Passive Skill associated with Five-Element Affinity.
Fire was strong against water and weak against earth.
This differed from the conventional relationships between the Five Elements.
Common sense dictated that water extinguished fire. However, when water came into contact with fire, it sometimes evaporated and reacted with oxygen, causing an oxidation reaction that made the flames burn even more fiercely.
Therefore, the elemental relationship applied here was not Water Overcomes Fire, but Water Generates Fire.
And true to the name Brand, this Passive Skill could never be removed.
Other skills could be deleted or replaced, but Brand- and Seal-type skills could not.
The Brand of Fire was probably the reason Kang Sujeong had survived the firestorm.
‘It must also be why the firestorm burned so intensely.’
It would have been like walking into a gunpowder warehouse while carrying a flame.
Dragon’s Wings, which Yonghyeok and Seongwon had created, was incomplete from the beginning. It should not have produced that level of destructive power.
However, if a human Totem had been standing beside them and causing the flames to burn even more fiercely, the result made sense.
‘I originally wondered whether she would even escape the Tower of Beginnings. As the bearer of a Brand, she should survive comfortably until at least the middle stages.’
Naturally, combat strength was not everything when it came to survival.
Nevertheless, it certainly helped in many ways.
Unless something exceptional happened, she should be able to clear the Tower of Beginnings without too much difficulty.
WHOOOOOSH--
I flew through the sky like a human bullet piercing the wind.
As my altitude steadily decreased, I realized that landing was not far away.
‘As expected, there is only one possible route.’
Putting Kang Sujeong’s situation aside for the moment, I looked down at the city in preparation for landing.
The wind struck my eyes fiercely, but my enhanced body allowed me to keep them partially open.
When I surveyed the area through narrowed eyes, I saw precisely what I expected.
There was only one visible infiltration route.
We had openly erected spike-like barricades across every rooftop except one, leaving no other suitable landing area.
The only empty location was the clearing at Point 4.
It connected directly to the underground Point 5, and I had deliberately left it open to make landing there convenient.
We had lacked the time and materials to cover every area densely with barricades, and there had been no need to do so.
Depending on their abilities, experienced Raiders would not consider those spike-like barricades a serious obstacle.
They would be troublesome, but some could force their way through using their durable bodies, while others could neutralize them through various methods.
That was why I had installed only enough to irritate them and left one entire area open.
I had narrowed their options, offering them a landing point where they would not have to struggle unnecessarily.
I drew the Rifle from my shoulder and aimed at one section of the landing area.
From the perspective of real-world physics, what I was about to attempt was nearly impossible.
However, it was not particularly difficult here.
This place already contained countless violations of the laws of physics.
“Maximum-output Mana Charge.”
HMMMM- HMMMM-
Intense violet light began gathering around the muzzle of the Rifle braced against my shoulder.
[Mana Charge: 80%.]
[Mana Charge: 90%.]
[Mana Charge: 100%.]
The completion of the charge coincided perfectly with the moment I needed to land.
“Fire.”
I pulled the trigger, and brilliant light erupted from the muzzle.
BOOOOM!!
True to the command, the shot tore an enormous hole through the rooftop, nearly destroying half of it.
Using the blast to reduce my acceleration, I kicked against the surrounding terrain and landed safely.
“Phew-.”
My Stats were still insufficient, so even that landing left me covered in a cold sweat.
Without Guardian Selection, not even a superhuman body would have made such a landing possible.
The enormous hole now connected directly to the first floor.
“One shot remaining.”
Firing a maximum-output Mana Charge placed tremendous strain on the Rifle’s durability, so I could not use it recklessly.
The weapon would have fared somewhat better in full-auto mode, but the barrel could not withstand repeated shots in this single-shot mode.
The Rifle had originally been created from a Toy Gun, so its durability was especially poor.
Even so, it should remain usable until I completed the Sentinels & Raiders mission.
[Eyes That Pursue the Light will remain active for five minutes.]
The Jump Spot’s Buff had been applied properly.
Nothing appeared different when I looked around.
However, the moment I turned toward the location where I had hidden the Guardian Stones, they became visible as though displayed through a Hologram.
The Buff showed the distance and provided multiple routes that could be used to reach them.
It did far more than merely reveal where the Guardian Stones were located.
“I constructed this place well. Only one route is being displayed.”
I had intentionally blocked every other possible infiltration route, leaving only one.
First, I had to enter the building’s basement.
Without hesitation, I threw myself into the enormous hole I had created.
WHOOSH-.
THUD. TAP. THUMP. TAP.
I rapidly descended, landing on protruding surfaces along the way to prevent myself from accelerating too much.
Had I possessed an ordinary human body, my knees would have shattered and my spine would have twisted even if I used a parkour-style breakfall.
For an enhanced body, however, it was nothing significant.
‘Things will be different once I learn a Lightness Art. For now, I will have to be satisfied with this.’
A Body-Lightening Technique.
Until I learned the movement method commonly called a Lightness Art, I had no choice but to move in this crude manner.
I understood the principles behind Lightness Arts, but I could not use one because it had not been registered as a skill.
It was comparable to trying to move the involuntary muscles controlled by the autonomic nervous system.
We knew that our hearts beat endlessly, but we could not freely command them to speed up or stop.
Calling out a skill’s name when activating it worked according to a similar principle.
A skill could activate through thought alone, but speaking its name aloud made it feel easier to use.
SWISH-.
I reached the first-floor lobby in less than a minute.
Even an elevator would not have been much faster.
Since I had personally designed and constructed this place, pursuing the intruders was not difficult.
As I continued moving quickly, I discovered a corpse.
“What is this? Is he one of the intruders?”
Three enemies had infiltrated the city, so this man was probably the first to enter.
However, there was no possibility that the Time Acceleration user had collapsed in a place like this.
“Especially not after falling for such a simple trap.”
The fool’s skull had been crushed by one of the basic traps hidden throughout the area—a falling weight.
Once certain conditions were fulfilled, an enormous weight swung into the back of the victim’s head.
It was such a simple trap that even while installing it, I had assumed almost no one would fall for it.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and passed the corpse.
It belonged to a fool unworthy of further attention.
An Awakened with an enhanced body should have heard the weight rushing toward the back of his head and avoided it.
If he had failed to notice it and allowed his skull to be crushed, he was either extraordinarily dull or possessed almost no combat ability.
He had probably relied upon a skill such as Gliding or Stealth.
Occasionally, people who lacked confidence in combat but possessed unusual abilities displayed outstanding survival rates in missions like this.
If they could fly high into the sky or conceal themselves, their chances of being killed fell dramatically.
I assumed that this man had been one of those people.
Raiders of that type were usually helpless against the traps I created.
In a sense, he had merely been an unlucky petty thief.
“…This one is dead too. Does that mean only one remains?”
Before long, I found another corpse.
However, this one had not been killed by a trap.
It appeared that someone had ambushed him.
And that someone had most likely decided to eliminate a rival following behind.
“He fell to his death. What an unusual bastard.”
The attacker had neither stabbed him from behind nor confronted him directly.
The victim had tumbled down the stairs leading underground and died after his skull split open.
In other words, someone had pushed him from behind.
I could not tell whether the attacker had intended to kill him or merely injure him.
However, it seemed that the victim had survived briefly after the fall before dying.
The surrounding traces showed that he had remained alive for some time.
Had his skull simply shattered and killed him immediately, blood would not have been smeared throughout the area like this.
“Good grief. Is everything truly going to be this easy?”
The situation differed greatly from my expectations.
When the Skirmisher Unit was neutralized, I had assumed that I would encounter an even worse situation inside.
Instead, the enemies had collapsed without accomplishing anything significant.
Some of my tension began to dissolve.
Only one remained.
Beyond this corridor was the spacious underground parking area where the Guardian Stones had been prepared.
“……I knew everything was going far too smoothly.”
At the end of the corridor, I found my allies sprawled around the glowing Guardian Stones.
One of them was Park Gilsu.
An enemy held him by the throat, and he writhed in pain.
“Hahaha, I told you it is a massage. How does it feel? Refreshing, is it not? Now, do you feel like dismantling those traps for me? I have provided such excellent service, so should you not help me in return? Hm?”
The inhuman bastard was torturing Park Gilsu for his own amusement.
“Park Gilsu.”
“L-Leader…! Be careful! This bastard is a perverted son of a—GHRK.”
The moment the enemy noticed me, he flung Park Gilsu aside.
Park Gilsu was empty-handed, apparently having failed to make proper use of the shield and spear I had given him.
Instead, the enemy before me was holding them.
“I gave those to him. Would you mind returning them?”
“Ah, these? They are remarkably well made. They suit me perfectly. Thanks to them, I had quite a difficult time. Ah, you are the Leader? Then you can… dismantle these, correct?”
He pointed toward the traps made from Sharp Matte Thread.
Most of them had already been neutralized.
Only one remained intact.
It was the trap around the Guardian Stones—the one I had constructed with the greatest care.
I had taken inspiration from the riddle Park Gilsu received, Arachne’s Thread, and tangled the Guardian Stones within a web of densely woven Sharp Matte Thread.
As a result, anyone who wanted to touch a Guardian Stone had to push through countless razor-sharp threads.
Only then could the Stone be absorbed.
Even though I had installed the trap myself, I had filled the area with Arachne’s Thread without considering how it might later be removed.
Since I knew that a Time Acceleration user was coming, I had made certain that it could not be dismantled, no matter how much time they spent.
Our objective was to protect the Guardian Stones, so we had no reason to remove the trap.
We could use the Stones through the System without physically touching them.
Had I not installed it like this, that bastard would already have stolen every Guardian Stone.
“I can dismantle it. But I will deal with you first.”
“Ha, hahahaha! Fine. Try it if you can. I still have plenty of time.”
“As much as you need.”
As he said, there was plenty of time.
Amazingly, less than an hour had passed since the Stage 2 battle began.
I had more than enough time for revenge.