I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-37

Ch-37. **Transcendence**

—

“Will Randolph take first place in the next main quest too?”

Atop a building in Gangnam.

Inside the newly established headquarters of the Hero Alliance, someone casually raised the question.

But this was the very question every player was curious about.

Could Randolph—presumed to be Phantom—take first place even in Main Quest 5?

Phantom, the legend and peak of his gaming days.

The knowledge he possessed might well eclipse that of all players combined.

However, for those knowledgeable about ‘Mysteries,’ the outlook was doubtful.

“There’s a chance, but slim.”

“Come on, Mysteries are mostly just for show.”

A flashy ornament.

The established theory was that Mysteries, aside from looking cool, had little substantial utility.

“Well… maybe if it’s a Mystery of the ‘Dominion’ class, he might.”

“True. The dominion-class Mysteries held by the rulers of major cities are top-tier and have passive effects.”

“But Randolph, who just finished Main Quest 4, will become a city ruler? Even Transcendents struggle to take over a city.”

“It’s possible if you do what Master did—crushing everything with sheer force and taking a city early on. But Phantom doesn’t have a faction, right?”

The reason they were convinced Randolph couldn’t take first.

To obtain the highest-grade Mysteries, you had to be either overwhelmingly strong—or have a faction.

If you forcibly conquered a city and became its ruler, you could obtain the ‘City’s Ruler’ Mystery.

And that Mystery possessed some of the most exceptional performance.

But Phantom had no faction.

A solo player.

He’d always moved as a true lone wolf, so obtaining a Mystery through that method was impossible.

Then what—was Randolph truly a powerhouse rivaling a Transcendent?

‘He’s not *that* strong.’

Of course not.

He hadn’t been summoned as a player for long.

He might have secured first place up to Main Quest 4 with knowledge and experience, but obtaining a top-tier Mystery was an entirely different matter.

“Even if by some miracle he became a city ruler…”

“Yeah. Beating Master’s record would still be tough.”

Master had the largest faction among players.

He’d been active behind the scenes since three years ago and now ran the ‘Interdimensional Community,’ drawing global attention.

Officially, a little over 50 players followed Master, but unofficial estimates put the number past a hundred.

While Gracia at least spoke of ‘justice’ and tried to act on it to some extent, Master was infamous for silently eliminating anything and anyone that wasn’t his—or didn’t serve him.

He even operated an execution squad, disregarding anything for the sake of profit.

“People say all sorts of things about him, but in the end, Master is the owner of ‘Rundella’…”

“Now that you mention it—why is the Mystery possessed by Rundella’s owner different from the others?”

“Because Rundella is an ancient city. It’s not in the same class as a regular city.”

The Mystery Master obtained upon becoming Rundella’s ruler was fundamentally different from the Mysteries given to other city lords.

That’s why Master dominated first place in Main Quest 5.

His record was so overwhelming that people still talked about it.

“He beat second place by 50 points. That says everything.”

Everyone nodded.

No matter how legendary Phantom was, taking first this time would be difficult.

“Mmm. He might be better off just clearing this quest quickly.”

“But still, he’s Phantom. He’ll want to at least place in the rankings.”

Then it happened.

“What the—why isn’t the Golden Scale Shop opening?”

One of the members frowned and muttered.

The Golden Scale Shop wasn’t opening?

What kind of nonsense was that?

“Huh? It’s not opening for me either?”

“Why won’t this open?”

“Hold on—the Secret Auction isn’t opening either!”

“What about the others?”

“The others… also seem to not be opening at all.”

It wasn’t just the Golden Scale Shop.

Every shop obtained through influence was refusing to open.

As if forcibly shut down.

If it were only one person, it could be a coincidence, but all ten-plus members gathered here were experiencing the same issue.

“Contact players in other regions.”

“Already doing that—everyone’s saying it’s dead.”

“What about players abroad?”

“S-same thing.”

“This is strange. It happens occasionally, but all shops shutting down at once is…”

Everyone’s expressions darkened at the same time.

Something was happening.

Somewhere out of their sight, in circumstances they didn’t know.

“…What on earth is going on right now?”

*

*

 

<All constellations of the People’s Hall are fixated on you.>

Right now, I was being watched.

By the constellations of the People’s Hall, no less.

Well, it wasn’t bad—they were the ones who increased quest reward tiers. Drawing their attention wasn’t a bad thing.

But no matter how I looked at it, they seemed to be *enjoying* watching me suffer.

All of them.

“Damn it—kraaak! Void type, kraaak!”

Right now, I was being chased.

By ten thousand skeleton soldiers.

It looked no different from the first trial, but there was one major difference.

Every skeleton soldier possessed the ‘Void’ attribute.

The hidden trait that grants attribute antithesis.

Shhhhhhhhhhh!

Chrrrrrrrrrrk!

Have you ever seen a rainstorm of arrows made of light?

Tens of thousands of arrows rained down like a storm, all aimed solely at killing me.

Skeleton soldiers, yet using light-attribute spells.

<The level of ‘Skeleton Soldier’ matches that of the Challenger.>

<‘Skeleton Soldier’ gains antithesis attributes through ‘Void.’>

Upon advancing to the next stage, new information appeared.

All ten thousand skeleton soldiers now possessed the Void attribute.

At first glance it didn’t seem like much—but it absolutely *was* much.

Void granted attribute antithesis—in other words, it erased weaknesses.

Separately, corpse crows themselves were curse-attribute, and even though I possessed the Void hidden trait, my skills didn’t inherit that attribute.

Thus the summoned corpse crows were instantly slaughtered by the light arrows.

‘Wait. Why am I even running?’

Even as I sprinted, a question struck me.

Didn’t I have the Giant’s Anti-Magic?

If I got hit directly, wouldn’t it negate the skill’s damage?

Even if there were tens of thousands of arrows, they were just low-grade *Light Arrow* spells.

Level-4 skeleton soldiers without even proper mana infusion.

‘…Anti-Magic negates mana itself. Not the *physical phenomena* created by mana.’

My mind snapped awake.

If I got hit directly by that storm, my body would be shredded.

Not by the light arrows—but by *pure physical force*.

Using a skill meant adding physical force through mana.

Giant’s Anti-Magic erased mana-based impacts, but it didn’t erase the physical phenomena created by tens of thousands of arrows roaring through the air.

Thus, staying still meant death by dismemberment.

Then how should I overturn this situation?

‘Skeleton soldiers are simple. They’re dumping everything into killing me.’

Skeleton soldiers had intelligence, but it was low.

They were mindlessly pouring out Light Arrows.

I’d been grazed by a few, but it wasn’t fatal.

Then—

‘I just need to drain all their mana.’

Void attribute or not, their mana wasn’t infinite.

‘Especially since they’re just level 4.’

A level-4 skeleton soldier—how much mana could it have?

Even assuming 40 mana points, that was about 20 Light Arrows.

‘So twenty arrows, times ten thousand… 200,000 Light Arrows.’

If I could force them to fire 200,000 Light Arrows, they’d all revert to regular skeleton soldiers.

But simply running wouldn’t cause mana depletion.

I would die before that.

‘Each skeleton perceives me. If I’m within 10.45m, they don’t cast. Beyond that, they begin shooting.’

I’d already drawn aggro.

While running, I was calculating their exact perception range.

10 meters, 45 centimeters.

If I exceeded that distance, they began firing.

But if I went beyond 50m, they stopped casting.

That was their maximum range.

Thus, for all ten thousand skeletons to fire simultaneously, I needed to stay between 10.45m and 50m from all of them.

But no terrain could satisfy such conditions.

‘They’re simple… like mobs in a game.’

I had to use that.

‘The center of the horde.’

The one place that satisfied all conditions: the center of that army.

If I leaped into that death zone where tens of thousands of arrows rained down, they’d burn their mana in no time.

Only someone with a steel heart would even consider that.

But it was fine.

I wasn’t planning on walking.

“Lift me! Kraaak!”

Seven newly summoned corpse crows gripped my body with their talons and flapped their wings.

My body rose into the air.

All that remained was to use the distances I’d calculated.

“Stop. Kraaak!”

I dove boldly into the midst of the skeletons, stopping at about 49.8m.

The skeletons aimed at me in the sky.

Whsss!

Shshshshshshshk!

“Higher! Kraaak!”

I ascended past the 50m maximum range.

The arrows fizzled out right before reaching me.

This was it.

This was the distance.

I repeated this delicate distance tug-of-war endlessly.

And one by one, skeleton soldiers began spacing out—having exhausted their mana.

‘If their level were higher, this would’ve been impossible.’

A higher level meant more mana, higher skill level.

Their Light Arrow range could’ve been hundreds or thousands of meters.

They might’ve used skills far beyond Light Arrow.

‘No matter how you look at it, this trial wasn’t meant to be cleared.’

To break the Mythical Mystery Coffin, you needed two key conditions.

One: like me, someone who’d invested in every talent, requiring absurd experience to level—making leveling via same-level monsters nearly impossible.

Two: someone overwhelmingly strong for their level.

Beyond that, you needed courage, fast judgment, deep understanding of the game…

How many could possibly possess all that?

‘I’m the only one who can do this.’

The more I thought about it, the more certain I became.

Even I wouldn’t have succeeded had I challenged this at level 7 or 8.

Call it divine luck.

“Round two, begin! Kraaak!”

As the mana-drained skeletons stared blankly, I dove straight into their midst.

*

*

Kraaak!

Kraaaak!

The corpse crows ravaged the skeleton soldiers.

Growing, combining, swelling larger, overwhelming them.

I deliberately fought slowly.

Because now it was clear.

‘I need to raise all my skill levels first.’

Before moving to the next stage, I had to max every skill.

<‘Art of the Dead’ has reached maximum level (Lv. 10).>

<‘Art of the Dead’ transcends into ‘Master of Dead Art (Lv. 1)’.>

<‘Corpse Crow Summoning’ has reached maximum level (Lv. 10).>

<‘Corpse Crow Summoning’ transcends into ‘Advanced Corpse Crow Summoning (Lv. 1)’.>

Skill transcendence!

Non-simple-proficiency skills could transcend upon reaching level 10.

If I were a normal corpse crow, this wouldn’t happen—but I was the King of Corpse Crows.

It was natural that my skills would evolve and transcend.

《You have cleared the trial: ‘Species Wall (2)’.》

《As a reward, you may obtain the Ultimate-Myth grade Mystery ‘Apex of Void.’》

《Will you claim it?》

《If you refuse, you will advance to a higher trial.》

Perhaps because I’d fought ten thousand Void-attribute skeleton soldiers—

After Overlord, now the Apex of Void appeared.

And Ultimate-Myth grade? A first.

It was certainly stronger than Overlord.

But this wasn’t the time to be satisfied.

《You have refused the Mystery ‘Apex of Void.’》

By now, I’d grasped the structure of this trial.

《The Challenger attempts a higher trial.》

《The entire Mystery Coffin trembles violently.》

《Achievement unlocked: ‘Indomitable Challenger Who Seeks Completion of Myth.’》

《The constellations of the People’s Hall cannot look away from you.》

…Alright then.

Let’s see this through to the end.

 

 

 

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