Max Talent Player - Chapter 118

Chapter 118

(It’s alright, don’t worry. I’ll recover from an injury of this level soon enough.)

[Fusion was successful.]
Two abilities were fused.

[‘Sword of Insight’ has been generated.]

[The base skills have been erased.]

I unlocked a new ability called Sword of Insight.

[As it is the product of fusion between an innate ability and title special skill, ‘Sword of Insight’ is categorized as an innate ability.]
[Sword of Insight]

An advanced innate ability created by combining and pooling the merits of Excellent Strike and Sword Path Tracing in one place. No matter the situation, it will lock onto the enemy’s weakness and deliver a powerful attack at the most vulnerable point.

Sword Path Tracing, an innate ability that forcibly enabled an attack even if both the user’s arms were cut off, and Excellent Strike, a skill that could deal greater damage than a regular attack and had a unique ‘piercing’ effect, combined harmoniously to create a new skill.

‘Sword of Insight.’

I had the feeling I’d heard the name before. It wasn’t as famous an innate ability as Sword Path Tracing, but I still remembered hearing it somewhere.

Isabel’s voice sounded again in my head.

(I’m not giving you a gift like this because I like you or anything, you hear?)

The crack that had appeared on Isabel’s blade had already faded a little. She seemed to be recovering automatically.

(It’s just ‘cause you’re my bride. I only helped you because it would be embarrassing if you went out into the world without a single decent ability. Got it?)

All things considered, it was a good thing for me. So this was a transcendent item. It possessed the ability to fuse a skill with a skill, how very useful.

(Answer already, darn it. I absolutely didn’t do this ‘cause I like you or anything!) Isabel kept mumbling to herself. (I just did it on a whim.)

Fusing skills was something she could do on a whim, huh? Was it because she was under the influence of my sister’s wish? In the past, my sister’s summary was ‘Devoted Tsundere’. I was kind of getting the same feeling from Isabel.

(I picked this ‘cause I thought it would be compatible with your innate ability.)

‘She chose one out of various abilities?’

That meant she could make an ability other than this one.

(Of course. Who do you think I am? I’m Isabel, that Isabel. What do you think? You did well to marry me, right?)

I had no idea when we got hitched, but in any case, Isabel’s ability was worthy of acknowledgement.

(So just know that if you cheat on me, you’re dead.)

…Though she seemed awfully fixated on something weird.

(Anyway, there’ll be a big synergy effect if you combine this nicely with your innate ability. Sword of Insight is one of the innate abilities the Queen of the Sword Forest had, after all.)

Isabel. Isabel was this sword’s name, but it was also the name of the ‘Queen of the Sword Forest’.

[Isabel – Growth-Type – Partially Sealed]

An artifact found in the tomb of Isabel, Queen of the Sword Forest. It is imbued with a special spirit ki that chooses its master.

I was wondering what the relationship was between Isabel the Queen of the Sword Forest and Isabel the Sword, but I held the question back.

(Ah, jeez. How strange. Ever since that wish or whatever took effect, my chest has been all scratchy…)

Her voice fell silent.

‘Time’s up again.’

The ego had fallen asleep. But I figured I was able to get an ability like this thanks to the ‘strong wish’.

‘I’ll need to thank Noona once I get out of here.’

How strong had her wish been to create a gate like this and give me such a boon? This reward was completely outside of my plans, and this scenario had never existed in the future I envisioned. It wasn’t something I intended, but the result was far better than a scenario I planned and carried out myself.

[Leaving the Yellow Charm Gate.]
The world changed, and I found myself back in my room.

My older sister happened to be inside her room.

“Noona. Thanks.”

Noona, who was fiddling with something at her desk, jumped at my voice.

“How about knocking next time?”

I clearly saw her swiftly hide something inside her notebook. I already knew what that thing was. Unfortunately for my sister, I was an ‘Observer’ and unintentionally saw everything she did in HD resolution.

The thing she hid was the same Yellow Charm that gave me such a big gift. She seemed to be writing a new one and replacing it every day. Her concern for me transcended sister level and went into mother realm.

‘I’m really thankful.’

I was just grateful. Noona didn’t expect anything back. She was making those charms with a wish for my happiness, and nothing in return.

“Give me some of your time.”

“Why?”

“To go on a date with you.”

Noona scowled. “Gross. What do you mean, date? Did you eat something weird?”

Her reaction was natural. Before regressing, I never said anything like this. Even now, I was honestly just sentimental because of the Yellow Charm Gate ‘buff’, but normally, I was bad at saying cheesy stuff like this. Asking my sister for a date? We were brother and sister, but if another set of siblings were to hear this, they’d probably call me crazy.

“Oh c’mon. Is that really so disgusting? Your expression is so…” I chuckled. Even her expression of astonishment was hilarious. “Anyway, give me some of your time. There’s somewhere I wanna take you.”

“…”

Noona’s expression positively dripped. ‘Ah jeez, what a pain. Why do I have to go on a date with my little brother?’ But it was very unfortunate for her that I had a special ability called Eye of Perception.

State: Good Mood / Joyful / Happy
Sorry, Noona. This is unintentional, I swear. I’m trying not to, but I’m automatically reading your feelings.

“You’ve done so much for me.”

“Shut up. Just wash your feet and go to bed.”

Thanks to my sister, I learned a new thing called ‘Will Incantation’. I couldn’t use it freely yet, and I didn’t even know exactly what it was, but I was given a tiny sneak peek of the stage ahead of me.

I returned to my room.

‘Will Incantation.’

Darongi clambered onto my chest and fell asleep instantly, like he had narcolepsy.

‘And the wish imbued in Isabel.’

Those were the two things I got from the Yellow Charm Gate.

‘I can’t use Will Incantation freely yet.’

Actually, I couldn’t even remember the phrase that well. That last phrase, what was it again?

“Was it… May all lies… be shattered?”

I was saying the same words, but the ones I was speaking now didn’t carry ‘life’ in them. The words had to be imbued with life and power to accomplish the ‘Will Incantation’.

‘For now, let’s just be satisfied with this.’

I closed my eyes. I had the feeling I could fall asleep in a good mood today. In my head, I recalled and sorted the things I needed to do.

There were two urgent tasks to settle: the Predator Tree Colony, and Find Charles’ Owner.

I started thinking about how to approach the two tasks, but shook my head and put a brake on my brainstorming. Work was good, but resting was just as important.

‘Let’s rest up tonight.’

I fell asleep, treasuring the warm feeling inside my chest.

* * *

One day passed. In just a single night, there was a groundbreaking change.

One of a Player’s secrets, ‘talent plates’, begins its era.

The world was being introduced to the concept of ‘talent plates’. Using an item first discovered by the US Player ‘Mark’, the innovative entrepreneur ‘Raspberry’ developed and disseminated a talent plate reader all over the world.

The fact that it spread so quickly meant that the preparations for its spread had long been in place. The talent plate reader was probably developed some time ago. In any case, it found its way to Korea as well, and it was in official use at the Korean Players Association. My teammates were also very interested in the talent plate reader at the moment.

“Boss. Didja know I went and had my talent plates checked?”

“Hyungnim, I had it done as well.”

Both of them were assessed at ‘30’ plates. As Yeonseo spoke, her face flushed with excitement.

“The device’s limit is thirty, apparently.”

“Hyungnim. I feel like I’ve reached the top!”

The current device could only show a max of thirty plates. Thirty wasn’t terrible talent, but by the standards of the future, it was also hard to see it as anything outstanding.

‘Would you have ever believed the Fist King and Sword Empress would be so happy over thirty plates?’

Though, it was true it was the best number you could get at this point in time.

“What about you, Sunghyun?”

“I also got thirty.”

Sunghyun didn’t make a big fuss about it.

“You don’t seem that happy about it?”

“Because I feel like quite a lot of people have gotten thirty,” Sunghyun responded quietly, his eyes wandering to a certain person who was opening the door to the coffee shop and coming in. It was Choi Sung-gu. His belly had started showing a little. He said something about how he was eating like crazy to earn money these days, something along the lines of ‘eating is what matters most’.

“Shabam! I hit thirty, boys! Isn’t that great?”

Everyone in the shop turned to look at Sung-gu. His exclamation boomed like a cannon going off, and he came scuttling over to us without a hint of embarrassment.

“Ey, Jo Sunghyun. How many did you get?”

“It’s a secret.”

“You couldn’t get thirty, right? Just be honest. Hyung will be understanding.”

He covered his mouth and gave a very spiteful “Hohoho!” Sunghyun didn’t bother with him and just asked me, “Did you do a talent plate test, Hyung?”

“Not yet.”

I knew the result of my talent plate test from the past. I still couldn’t forget that night before I regressed, how painfully my heart had throbbed at those two words. ‘No Talent’.

“You won’t do it, Hyung?”

“Hm, not sure.”

At this point, I wondered whether my having ‘talent plates’ or not was important, but it would be a lie to say I wasn’t curious.

‘I have to get past level 40 to be sure I’m not an early bloomer.’

I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t anxious about the talent plate test. There were quite a few Players who experienced explosive growth until the level 30-40 range, even without talent in the past, after all.

‘Talent plate test, huh.’

The current level of talent plate test wasn’t all that accurate, but I was still curious. What was the difference between the past and current me?

‘I’ll do it eventually, but…’

I wouldn’t just blindly rush into it. The least amount of effort for the greatest efficiency. That was my Playstyle.

“Senia. Are you streaming?”

Senia didn’t appear. We discussed various things in the cafe, and I called Senia multiple times throughout. After about one hour, she finally showed up.

“I heard you were looking for me.”

She probably found out I was looking for her from the stream of one of my party’s Streamers. Every gaze in the cafe turned to focus on Senia. Her beauty alone drew the attention of onlookers, and I also heard whispers of awe. But the important thing right now wasn’t Senia’s beauty.

“You know that hot topic lately?”

“Are you talking about the talent plate testing?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna go do it.”

If I had to do a talent plate test anyway, it was best to do it while the Guardians were watching. The Guardians would definitely be deeply interested in the result.

‘I’m probably the most-watched Player in the Korean server.’

There were even Guardians based in foreign servers who kept sending me messages. They didn’t know how many talent plates I had, either.

‘If the same No Talent assessment comes out…’

I didn’t fear that at all.

‘It would actually be better for me.’

That would be content the Guardians would go wild over. How fun would it be if the most eye-catching Player on the Korean server other than perhaps the Demon King had a talent plate test result of ‘No Talent’?

Senia nodded. “Understood. I will prepare to direct the scene.”

We all headed to the Players Association. My party members came too, saying they were curious. Thanks to Song Kiyeol, I was able to skip the waiting time and get tested right away.

The reading didn’t take very long, maybe five minutes at most.

“The test results have come out.”

Song Kiyeol came over holding a piece of paper, the results paper that had said ‘No Talent’ in the past.