The Skill Maker

“What do you mean? I called because I wanted to . How’s the shop?”

– “It’s great . I think people know about our store now . The number of customers are increasing every day . ”

“Nothing dangerous happened, right?”

– “Of course . The young lady from before helped out so much, so nothing dangerous happened . ”

“It’s nothing special, but I just got my first pay from my new job, so I wanted to send it to you . They’re not long johns, but I hope you’ll accept it . ”

– “No, there’s no need to send it . You should use it since Hyuna is there with you as well . ”

“It seems like you’re not spending much of the money that you’re earning from the store, so use the money that I’m sending you and go eat something nice with father . ”

– “Jeez . We do run a restaurant, you know . ”

Even though she lightly criticized him, she didn’t refuse .

The money that Hyun-Soo was sending wasn’t what made her happy . She felt proud that he hasn’t forgotten about them and was taking care of them even though they were in separate countries .

After they finished talking on the phone, Hyun-Soo sent a part of the money that he received to his mother .

It was still a large amount .

‘I’m sure she’ll be surprised’

He didn’t have to see it to know .

When he imagined the expression on her face, a part of him felt proud .

‘I hope they build a airstrip soon . ’

Once it’s there, he’ll be able to fly to Korea and give it to them himself .

They recently decided where it will be placed and the design for it, so he felt disappointed .

***

A few days after they cleared the colorful portal .

The members were asked to gather .

“We got a request . ”

Kim Yoo-Na slowly spoke while looking at the members that were in the large meeting room .

And then .

“Finally!”

“It seems too soon to say finally, but it does feel like it’s been a long time . ”

“We need money . Money!”

“I approve no matter what!”

The members all reacted excitedly .

Kim Yoo-Na calmly spoke despite their excitement .

“But please make the decision after hearing about the request . ”

“What kind of request is it?”

“It’s a colorful portal . ”

Everyone became stiff all of a sudden .

“That’s…not the same one as before, right?”

The colorful portal they entered without any information .

If Hyun-Soo wasn’t there, they would’ve gone through a lot of doors and would have starved to death from not being able to find the exit .

There were a lot of choices and none of them guaranteed that it was an exit .

All of their faces turned dark when they remembered their experience with the previous request .

“If it’s the same as before, then it’s better to decline…”

“If we agree to go, then I’ll go, but I’m not really interested…”

Even though they didn’t express it during the hunt, it seemed like they felt really troubled back then .

“It’s a different kind . ”

The staff that was beside Kim Yoo-Na handed out the report .

“It’s an ordinary portal? There aren’t any monsters here either?”

One of the members that read the report asked with a confused tone .

“As you can see, there were three research teams and all of them provided the same result . There aren’t any monsters and it has a very relaxing scenery . It doesn’t have doors or traps . Also, the portal doesn’t have an owner . ”

“There aren’t any monsters, traps or issues…then why did we receive this request?”

“The problem is that the portal isn’t disappearing . If the teams’ information is correct, then it can be considered as being cleared, but since it’s still there, they submitted the request since they felt odd about it . ”

It looked like it didn’t have any problems, but they didn’t feel good about leaving it there, so they submitted the request .

“As of right now, we’re the only clan that has cleared a colorful portal . I think that’s why they want us to take a look . ”

“If we clear this one, does that mean we would be clearing two in a row?”

“We’ll become the maestro of colorful portals . Not bad . ”

They must’ve been inspired because they were starting to take interest .

If they clear this colorful portal, the clan will be more well-known .

It was extremely rare that they were the only clan that cleared the colorful portal and that position can’t be compared with anything else .

The members were proud of being a part of this clan, so it was only natural for them to think positively about this .

“Even though we didn’t have any information last time, we still went in, but that’s not the case for this one . There probably won’t be any issues, right?”

“If a portal doesn’t have an owner, they’re automatically closed . Is it because it’s a colorful portal? We just need to explore it thoroughly . ”

They were worried at first, but now they all wanted to go for it .

‘A new colorful portal . ’

Hyun-Soo had high expectations as well .

In the last portal, he found a plant that was filled with question marks while picking the Levshilas .

He earned a new skill through that plant .

He didn’t know he could obtain a skill through that method, but it was sitting in the list of skills .

‘I still haven’t figured out what it is though…’

But he had a feeling that it wasn’t a useless skill, so he secretly raised his expectation .

Anyways, since he obtained it from the colorful portal, he couldn’t help but have high expectations this time too .

He even obtained a lot of Levshila, a plant that only grew under the moonlight .

Since the portal was mixed with different colors, he was really curious as to what was behind it .

***

“It’s like a marshmallow . ”

Katrina marveled at it and commented that the colors reminded her of marshmallows .

Katrina was in the same group this time too .

The group remained the same as last time to be exact .

Which meant .

‘I’m in the same group with Marcus . ’

But after witnessing how Hyun-Soo picked the correct doors last time, he took a step back .

He didn’t really pick it since he used Interface .

Everyone must’ve caught on to the fact that Hyun-Soo had something special .

Some even made odd assumptions about how Ariel told him about it beforehand .

“Good luck!”

The first group entered into the portal after everyone bid them good luck .

Chirp, chirp .

Trickle, trickle, trickle .

“It really is like a vacation spot . ”

Green grass filled the entire area and there were small hills everywhere .

On one side, there was a small stream and a shallow pond .

Small birds were flying over the trees of different sizes .

“All you need is a chair to enjoy the scenery . ”

Someone mumbled that you can see this kind of scenery at some vacation home .

Everyone must’ve agreed because they commented that it looked relaxing .

“We came to clear the portal, but it feels like we’re on vacation . ”

“You’re right . We won’t run into any danger like last time, so should we enjoy the food that we brought before we clear it?”

Everyone was nervous because it was a colorful portal, but the scenery looked so relaxing .

The members started to relax .

Their reaction was definitely different from last time .

Their speech, actions and expression looked more relaxed .

Kim Yoo-Na usually remains level-headed during official occasions, but she looked a bit relieved .

But one person .

That one person wasn’t able to enjoy this moment .

‘……What the?’

It was Hyun-Soo .

Hyun-Soo couldn’t understand why they were acting that way .

The scenery is peaceful and relaxing?

They feel like they came to a vacation spot?

Well, it was understandable .

Because that’s what the outer appearance looked like .

‘Am I…the only one that’s seeing this?’

Hyun-Soo saw two different views .

Like a glitchy hologram, the scenery that was displayed was as warm and beautiful as a picture…

‘This view looks like we entered a grave . I guess they can’t see it . ’

The other view looked like the inside of a dark and wet grave .

The two were mixed together .

But he was able to tell which was the real one .

‘Interface . ’

He used Interface to make sure .

——————————

[Karazhan’s Illusion]

An illusion created by Karazhan .

——————————

Because it was that obvious .

And at the same time, Hyun-Soo was able to figure out another truth .

‘Karazhan……?’

This portal did have an owner .

The vacation spot illusion that everyone was seeing was created by the owner .

But none of the members noticed it .

“Hey, rookie . What are you doing there? Did you find out something odd?”

Since Hyun-Soo cleared the last portal by himself, the members turned their attention to him since he was standing still .

He must’ve figured something out again .

“I did, but…… . ”

“What is it?”

“Um, I’m not really sure of it yet . ”

He didn’t know how to explain this .

The fact that the grass they were standing on was actually broken slabs of stone that were covered in moss .

And the beautiful, small spring they were praising was actually filled with a weird liquid that had a rotting smell .

He was curious as to how they would take it since the appearance was different .

He watched Katrina skip towards the spring and and scoop the water with her hands .

The way she was playing with the clear spring water looked like a picture .

But Hyun-Soo also saw the odd liquid that was emitting a foul smell, flow out of Katrina’s hands .

Illusion .

A hallucination .

It looks like something’s there, but it actually isn’t .

They call this an illusion .

And the members were stuck in this illusion and couldn’t get out .

‘Wait . Does that mean the research team just saw an illusion as well?’

Hyun-Soo remembered their report saying that they only saw a peaceful scenery .

Three teams reported the same thing .

They must’ve seen the same illusion as the members and exited .

‘No wonder why the portal couldn’t be cleared . ’

The monster of the portal was alive and living, so it would be weird if the portal was cleared .

Karazhan, the portal’s owner, must create an illusion and make the hunters go blind while hiding behind the hallucination .

And they make them leave by letting them think that there’s nothing here .

‘But why?’

When he thought about that, another question popped up .

There isn’t a monster alive that enjoys others invading their space .

And if they were hunters that were trying to destroy their space, they really wouldn’t like it .

They’re staying still even though we’re invading their entire space?

‘That’s weird . ’

Is the monster not attacking because they’re an advocate of peace?

That doesn’t make sense .

There had to be a reason .

While thinking about different possibilities, Hyun-Soo felt someone looking at him .

It was a dark and shady feeling .

He didn’t like this feeling, so he turned his attention to where the stare was coming from .

“……!”

Beyond a messy wall that was covered in an unknown fluid, his eyes saw a pair of eyes that looked like black glass beads .

Wall .

In the illusion, it was behind a tree .

There was something there .

Hyun-Soo’s instincts told him that that was Karazhan .

Karazhan’s large, black eyes were shaking .

It was as if they were surprised by the fact that Hyun-Soo was able to see them .

“Hey, rookie . Is there really something there?”

David asked after watching Hyun-Soo and noticing how shocked he was .

And .

Crack .

Crack .

Crackkkkk!

He heard the sound of something cracking .