Chapter 105
Chapter 105: Why Is Only Oppa Different…?
An EX-tier capability whose actual designation remained obscured by question marks was still an utter riddle to me.
Yet, completely unbeknownst to me, a fresh entry had quietly emerged beneath that very skill window.
[??? (EX)
Capability Information:
-
Stealth: Upon activation, the user’s presence and energy can be entirely masked. Be that as it may, throughout the duration of this effect, the user is incapable of exerting any external influence or impact upon others.
Even so, the effect may be terminated prematurely at the user’s discretion during its activation. (Active Duration: 30 minutes, Recovery Period: 10 minutes)
-
Incarnation: Upon activation, the user is capable of partially channeling and wielding the ??? belonging to ???.
Once total completion reaches 100%, the user will be capable of ???.
Current Level of Mastery: 10%
(Active Duration: 10 minutes, Recovery Period: 12 hours)]
The phrasing was straightforward, devoid of any convoluted or archaic vocabulary, yet reading through the overview left me deeply perplexed.
Unlike the previously unlocked ‘Stealth,’ critical portions of this newly gained feature were deliberately blotted out.
It wasn’t merely the skill title that remained hidden; with vital sections of the description masked in such an obscure manner, deducing its true nature was practically impossible.
Even setting that mystery aside, there were other glaring oddities.
A mere ten minutes of active use was paired with an absurdly punishing twelve-hour recovery cooldown.
Furthermore, despite being the bearer of this ability, I had remained utterly oblivious to its awakening until this very moment.
It carried far more enigmas than Stealth ever did.
‘Could it have been…?’
It might have occurred right when I brought down the final floor’s boss guardian.
The power could easily have broken through its seal at that exact moment without alerting my senses in the slightest.
“Min-jun?”
“Oppa?”
Caught entirely by surprise, I had completely neglected the presence of Rokan and Sia right beside me.
“Is something the matter?”
“Ah… I was inspecting my personal status window just now, and another skill appears to have awakened on its own.”
Without lingering, I disclosed the details of this fresh revelation to both Rokan and Sia.
The moment my explanation drew to a close—
“That’s incredible! Oppa, I’m so happy for you!”
Sia gave me an energetic high-five, her face beaming with sincere excitement.
Even so, my mind remained tangled in confusion.
While it certainly called for celebration, I remained completely in the dark regarding what this capability truly entailed or how it was supposed to be wielded.
During situations like this, relying on Rokan’s seasoned perspective was the most sensible course of action.
I shifted my gaze toward Rokan.
Following a brief moment of quiet contemplation, Rokan offered his counsel.
“If the opportunity allows, activate that Incarnation ability right now.”
He evidently intended to observe and deduce the exact nature of the phenomenon firsthand.
“Understood, I’ll test it immediately.”
Although the precise handling remained unfamiliar, given that it stemmed from the identical root skill as Stealth, the activation process was bound to function along the same lines.
Without hesitation, I channeled Incarnation.
However—
“…Is nothing taking effect?”
Right as unease crept in from the complete absence of any noticeable reaction—
A hauntingly familiar sensation of dissonance abruptly washed over me.
That eerie detachment I had endured back when overcoming the dual dungeon—the uncanny feeling of my vessel no longer belonging entirely to myself.
That strange impression, which I had assumed was gone for good, was resurfacing in its exact form.
Yet the shift did not stop there.
“O-oppa, look at your head…!”
Sia directed a shaking finger toward the crown of my head, and the instant her words registered, Rokan’s earlier remark echoed in my mind.
‘It can’t be… actual horns?’
Panicked, my hand darted up to touch my scalp, yet my fingers met nothing out of the ordinary.
Her reaction left me thoroughly baffled.
The mystery was resolved when Rokan produced a mirror for me to see.
“W-what on earth is this…?”
The glass presented an unfamiliar reflection of myself, markedly altered from my standard appearance.
Just as Rokan had suspected, subtle projections resembling petite horns had surfaced upon my brow.
Strangely, much like an ephemeral projection of light, my fingers simply phased through them regardless of how many times I reached out.
Nor was that the sole transformation.
My irises had lost their ordinary dark hue, replaced instead by a profound, starry abyss that mirrored the radiant luster of my Sword Aura.
By every standard, it was far removed from the countenance of a typical mortal.
“Detail the precise shifts you perceive compared to your prior state.”
Putting the sensation into exact words proved challenging, yet if I had to articulate it—
“—It feels as though a genuine dragon has manifested right inside my physical vessel.”
With ethereal draconic crests gracing my head and ancient draconic vigor surging through my vessels far more vigorously than usual, the phrasing came forth naturally.
Glancing sideways, I caught sight of Sia holding up a camera she had retrieved from nowhere, eagerly snapping photos of my appearance.
“Attempt to unleash Dragon Fear while maintaining that condition.”
“Right away.”
I promptly projected the aura of Dragon Fear outward.
“Well now? The disparity should be obvious, shouldn’t it?”
“It’s… far more formidable than before.”
Though measuring the exact scale was impossible, it had undeniable potency far outstripping its usual limits.
It stood to reason that this Incarnation state served as an explosive, temporary amplifier for my foundational power.
“Lord Rokan, would it be possible to head toward an open clearing, perhaps somewhere like the Garden of the Dragon Sword?”
“It seems you have quite a few maneuvers you wish to evaluate.”
“Indeed.”
I was eager to discover just how monstrous the outcome would be if I channeled ancient draconic arts while enveloped in this Incarnation form.
“Very well, let us proceed.”
With the active duration being so fleeting beside its lengthy cooldown, Rokan promptly guided both Sia and me straight into the Garden of the Dragon Sword without squandering another second.
“Feel free to experiment with whatever strikes your curiosity in this space.”
By my inner judgment, barely five minutes remained before the effects of Incarnation dissipated.
The window was narrow, yet an abundance of ideas pressed upon my mind.
Debating where to begin, I reached into my personal storage space and produced the Dragon Bone Sword.
Brimming with such overwhelming vitality, testing the resonance of a Dragon Word was simply mandatory.
I locked my attention onto a colossal boulder resting roughly ten paces away, easily boasting a diameter of twenty meters or so.
[Ascend.]
The moment the draconic command resonated, the massive stone launched straight into the upper atmosphere.
Excellent, the execution was remarkably fluid.
[Crumble to dust.]
Following that secondary command, the airborne rock shattered violently with a heavy fracture, bursting apart into dozens of fractured pieces.
“Kyaaaah! That was unbelievable!”
Witnessing the flawless back-to-back deployment of the draconic phrasing, Sia squealed in pure delight and clapped her hands enthusiastically.
Offering her an appreciative gesture, I swiftly evaluated the remaining countdown.
Only two to three minutes remained on the clock.
Just as I weighed how best to utilize the fleeting seconds, Rokan voiced a proposal.
“Perhaps you should attempt to release a Dragon Breath.”
“…?”
A Dragon Breath?
While I understood the abstract concept, witnessing an authentic release of that legendary attack had never happened before.
Logically speaking, a breath attack ought to resemble an inferno cast directly from a mythical wyrm’s maw.
‘Asking me to suddenly discharge a breath attack out of thin air…’
Yet right in that heartbeat—
An unexplainable intuition flashed across my awareness.
The very destruction that had wiped out that abominable replica pretending to be Sia.
That wild, ash-gray aura that had swallowed my frame during that ordeal, the one I had utterly failed to restrain.
Though it sounded far-fetched—could that destructive radiance have been an expression identical to a Dragon Breath?
Perhaps such a cataclysmic emission wasn’t constrained strictly to being expelled from one’s jaws.
“I can’t say for certain if this matches your expectation… but I’ll give it a try.”
Reconstructing the memory of that fateful confrontation, I began drawing upon the reservoir of dormant energy deep within my frame with everything I possessed.
Roughly twenty seconds drifted past in silence.
As that buried instinct flared to life once more, a pale gray radiance gradually coiled around my entire silhouette.
Rokan offered a quiet, affirmative nod, seemingly unsurprised by the display.
Sia, however, displayed a noticeably bewildered expression.
“Why… is it that color…?”
Her soft murmur was barely a breath, yet it registered clearly within my perception.
Did her reaction mean this gray tint deviated from the norm?
A flicker of curiosity stirred in my chest, yet the ticking clock left zero leeway for distractions.
I continually dragged forth the strange yet deeply ingrained potency churning inside, and once the boiling crest peaked, I surrendered all restraint over my inner channels.
The moment constraints were lifted, the ash-colored currents lashed out in violent turbulence.
Judging by Rokan’s composed stance, this wild storm was undeniably the breath art he had urged me to test.
Time was virtually spent, but with what few moments were left, I committed to recreating my past feat.
I marshaled the wildly scattering surges, compressing them down toward a single localized nexus.
Fixing my intent upon an adequate target, I aimed directly toward a solitary tree positioned safely away from Sia and Rokan, then let the compressed torrent rip free.
Instantly—
KRRRAAACK—!
The outcome was beyond dispute: absolute devastation.
The sturdy timber that had stood proud moments prior was eradicated down to the roots, dissolving into thin air amid a brief wisp of vapor.
Shortly following the breath’s impact, the otherworldly sensation encasing my physique steadily subsided.
The duration allotted to Incarnation had formally run its course.
Simultaneously, an immense wave of exhaustion seized my limbs, causing my footing to falter.
Thankfully, Sia was already there to support me, preventing me from collapsing outright onto the turf.
“Oppa, are you alright?!”
“I’m fine. Just a sudden wave of dizziness.”
Shaking off the momentary stupor, I sank down onto the grassy floor.
It wasn’t a severe affliction, yet my vision swirled softly in circles.
Despite it being entirely manageable, an anxious Sia immediately channeled restorative restoration spells into my tired body.
“Share how your physical vessel fares.”
“There’s no lasting harm, simply a lingering lightheadedness.”
“Extracting such a tremendous volume of power inevitably exacts a physical toll.”
Rokan placed a reassuring palm against my shoulder.
“Setting that aside, Lord Rokan… was the manifestation I released at the end genuinely equivalent to a true Dragon Breath?”
“I cannot outright deny it.”
His guarded, ambiguous phrasing signaled immediately that an underlying nuance remained unsaid.
“A moment ago, I happened to catch Sia muttering to herself. Unless my hearing deceived me, she seemed perplexed by why the hue was gray.”
“You… managed to pick that up? I barely even whispered it.”
Realizing her words had reached me, Sia’s eyes widened in genuine shock.
The notion that I could detect such faint murmurs had clearly caught her off guard.
“It indicates that your sensory faculties are heightened dramatically throughout the Incarnation state. Under ordinary circumstances, such a whisper would have escaped your ears.”
That explanation carried weight.
Looking back, my perception had indeed operated on an entirely different plane while the skill remained active.
“To address the heart of your inquiry, what you unleashed was unmistakably a Dragon Breath. Even so…”
Rokan’s expression grew solemn, his eyes anchoring onto mine.
“It bears stark divergence from the breath wielded by ordinary dragons.”
That clarified the hesitation.
Never having been hatched as a true dragon, differences between myself and the ancient race were bound to manifest.
“Is the distinction limited strictly to the visual shade of the blast?”
“It goes beyond that. It carries the signature of a typical breath while simultaneously diverging completely… though calling it defective would be incorrect.”
Weighing his perspective for a few seconds, I ventured another thought to Rokan.
“Provided it doesn’t cause offense, would you allow me to witness your own breath, Lord Rokan?”
Since the topic had opened, gaining a direct comparison would help me understand the contrast far better.
“That poses no trouble at all.”
Rokan accepted the request without a hint of hesitation.
“Oppa, just to be prudent, we really need to retreat to a wider perimeter.”
“Is the hazard that severe?”
“Grandfather will suppress the output himself… but lingering too close remains an unnecessary gamble.”
Sia quickly ushered me a substantial distance away from Rokan’s position.
Once a vast buffer had been established between us—
“Min-jun. Observe with care.”
Inhaling deeply, Rokan began expelling his breath directly into the vacant expanse ahead.
KWAAAAAA—!
The very instant Rokan unleashed that cataclysmic surge—
The entire Garden of the Dragon Sword trembled violently down to its very foundation.
Comments for chapter "Chapter 105"
MANGA DISCUSSION
Madara Info
Madara stands as a beacon for those desiring to craft a captivating online comic and manga reading platform on WordPress
For custom work request, please send email to wpstylish(at)gmail(dot)com