The Spatial Ability User Who Puts Safety Above All Chapter 77

Companion (2)

 

The bullets pouring out from the GAU-8 passed straight through the entrance of Absolute Space and rained down outside, and the sandworms exposed defenselessly to those bullets were all torn apart in midair and vanished.

Meanwhile, Seon Yul hung safely in the air.

In fact, he had already activated Absolute Space [Tatto], so if Cheon Li Yu’s firing timing hadn’t matched, he had been planning to erase the sandworms himself.

But everything fell perfectly into place just as intended, and as a result, all eleven sandworms were instantly deleted.

‘Nice.’

From inside Absolute Space, Seon Yul lightly praised Cheon Li Yu in his mind for doing exactly as he had instructed, then gently descended to the ground.

The sandworms had already turned into smoke and disappeared in midair, so there was nothing left to worry about.

Seon Yul immediately entered Absolute Space, and inside stood Cheon Li Yu, her face still clearly showing lingering tension.

“Good job.”

“Huh? Ah! Yes! Whew, I was really nervous… but it wasn’t as difficult as I expected.”

“You just have to keep doing it like that. Today let’s aim for exactly 100 sandworms, no more and no less.”

“A-a hundred?”

“Yes, we’ve already killed eleven. Reaching one hundred won’t be that difficult.”

After saying that with a smile, Seon Yul stepped outside Absolute Space again.

His statement about the goal of 100 was absolutely not an empty remark.

Now that he had acknowledged Cheon Li Yu as a companion, Seon Yul wanted to raise her level as quickly as possible, so he planned to hunt without resting for at least three weeks.

The target level Seon Yul had in mind was 30.

Determined to push Cheon Li Yu to level 30 within three weeks, Seon Yul began diligently rounding up sandworms.

Normally, he would never do a lure-style hunting method where he himself served as bait. But now Cheon Li Yu’s rapid growth was also at stake, and sandworms, an A+-rank monster, no longer seemed particularly dangerous to him, no matter how many gathered, so he carried out the lure hunts without much difficulty.

‘Let’s increase the speed.’

After stepping outside Absolute Space, Seon Yul began running faster to search for sandworms, and thus, the party hunting between Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu… or rather, power-leveling hunting, proceeded steadily.

 

***

 

As time passed, Cheon Li Yu adapted incredibly quickly.

Now, even without Seon Yul saying anything, she would determine the firing timing on her own, and by using her awakened ability, she could strike enemies accurately and eliminate them even from long distances.

In particular, there was one thing she was truly excellent at.

Seon Yul himself fully admitted that Cheon Li Yu was far better than him at it.

That was…

‘It’s about 200 meters ahead… did you find it?’

Seon Yul, clinging somewhere on the cliffs of the West MacDonnell Range, spoke to Cheon Li Yu through telepathy.

Thanks to the heavenly cooking recipe he obtained after cooking a squid rice bowl for Cheon Li Yu, “Squid Rice Bowl Seasoned with Magic Stone Powder”, the two of them naturally gained the ability to converse through telepathy, and since that day, they ate squid rice bowl every time before hunting.

The telepathy ability granted for six hours after eating squid rice bowl seasoned with magic stone powder had a maximum communication range of about 15 km. If the entrance to Absolute Space was closed, the communication would be cut off, but if it remained open, they could continue communicating.

And perhaps because this too counted as a kind of ability, a small amount of mana was consumed whenever telepathy was used.

‘Just a moment. I’ll take a look!’

Upon hearing Seon Yul’s words, Cheon Li Yu immediately used her Divine Eye to peer through the point he mentioned.

Flash!

‘Ah! I found it.’

Beneath the ground in the direction Seon Yul indicated were more than sixty sandworms tangled together, forming one massive ball.

‘How is it? Jackpot?’

‘Not a huge jackpot… more like a medium jackpot.’

After wandering around for an hour, what Seon Yul had finally discovered was what he and Cheon Li Yu called a ‘sandworm ball.’

For reasons unknown, sometimes several sandworm groups would meet and become tangled together in a spherical mass.

After discovering this fact by chance, Seon Yul stopped luring sandworms individually and instead began specializing in searching for these sandworm balls.

‘Alright then, let’s begin.’

As soon as Seon Yul said that, Cheon Li Yu immediately went to stand in front of the railgun.

The thing she was far better at than Seon Yul.

That was long-range bombardment.

The sandworm ball Seon Yul had found was roughly 12 km away from the Absolute Space entrance they had opened as their base camp.

The railgun installed inside Seon Yul’s Absolute Space currently had a maximum range of 450 km.

For the railgun, a 12 km bombardment could practically be considered ultra-short-range firing.

Strictly speaking, it was even close enough that they could have fired using the K9X instead of the railgun… yet the reason they chose the railgun was surprisingly that the ammunition used for bombardment was cheaper.

This was one of the railgun’s major advantages: the shells used for firing were relatively inexpensive.

And the power was even greater.

Given that, it was only natural to use the railgun.

The only aspect where the railgun was inferior to the K9X was its rate of fire, but since nearly all the sandworms would be eliminated in a single bombardment anyway, that wasn’t a problem.

And even if a few sandworms survived, Seon Yul, waiting nearby… could simply finish them off.

Cheon Li Yu manipulated the railgun’s control panel, setting the approximate distance and direction toward the location she was observing with her Divine Eye.

Since she would be using the “Target Designation” ability anyway, this configuration wasn’t strictly necessary. However, just in case, Cheon Li Yu entered the firing parameters as she had been taught, then pulled the operation lever without hesitation.

Wiiiiiiing—THOOOM!

From the railgun, an 11-kilogram tungsten projectile was launched at a speed of 2 km per second.

Even the thunderous sound generated during firing was only about 10% of the sound of ordinary artillery, making it feel less like firing a cannon and more like a ball being launched from a pitching machine.

Normally, it should have traveled over 200 km before striking a target, but now it simply flew almost in a straight line toward the target 12 km away.

This was the magic produced by Cheon Li Yu’s ‘Target Designation’ ability. Thanks to it, the tungsten projectile from the railgun reached its target in only about six seconds.

Literally in the blink of an eye, the projectile reached its destination and burrowed into the ground.

The shape of the tungsten projectile resembled the fin-stabilized discarding sabot round used by the K3 stealth tank.

Because of that, its ground-penetrating capability was naturally excellent.

The tungsten projectile that burrowed underground struck the sandworm ball with perfect accuracy.

KWA-AAAAAAAAANG! PAPAPAPAPOOM!

The immense kinetic energy carried by the tungsten projectile created a massive explosion. Naturally, the force carried by that projectile was more than enough to erase the roughly sixty sandworms tangled together.

KWAANG!

Watching the bombardment while clinging to the cliff, Seon Yul saw the explosion surge up from the ground and confirmed that there was no need for him to intervene.

‘Clean.’

Cheon Li Yu’s railgun bombardment truly had no unnecessary excess.

Even though it was the same railgun, when Seon Yul fired it, there was always something slightly lacking.

Even at a short distance like 12 km, he couldn’t fire with this level of precision.

Of course, the railgun’s power was so overwhelming that even a near-miss bombardment would still blow the sandworms away, but if they were going to fire anyway, something clean like this was better.

‘At this rate, I might actually start hating hunting without Ms. Li Yu…’

Just like how someone feels a huge sense of loss if their smartphone disappears after they’ve gotten used to using it, Seon Yul thought that after hunting with Cheon Li Yu for about three weeks, hunting alone might become extremely bothersome.

At this point, Cheon Li Yu had become an enormous help to Seon Yul.

If he listed just a few of her advantages:

First, thanks to her Divine Eye ability, she could survey the surroundings, so there was no need to send out things like Spike Crows for scouting.

Second, during long-range bombardments, she boasted perfect accuracy, meaning Seon Yul didn’t need to worry about anything.

Third, when Cheon Li Yu was around, there was no need to summon shadow workers… she handled all sorts of miscellaneous tasks inside Absolute Space.

Fourth, when resting inside Absolute Space, Cheon Li Yu often sang the songs Seon Yul liked live for him.

Every single reason appealed perfectly to Seon Yul.

Even if just one of these reasons existed, he might have considered continuing to travel with Cheon Li Yu… but since there were four, it made him wonder if hunting alone might become impossible.

In any case, the hunt was over, and Seon Yul returned to Absolute Space.

As soon as he returned, Cheon Li Yu hurried over, her face full of her characteristic bright smile as she spoke urgently.

“I reached level 30!”

“Oh!”

Cheon Li Yu had truly achieved the target level of 30 in just three weeks.

In truth, it hadn’t been an easy task, but after indiscriminately slaughtering sandworms, she had finally succeeded.

“I also received a level bonus and accumulated two Stigmata points. Should I use them right away?”

“Hold on for a moment… what’s the level 30 bonus?”

Two weeks earlier, when Cheon Li Yu reached level 20, the level bonus she obtained had been ‘Magic Shield.’

That ability allowed her to instantly consume 80% of her mana to generate an extremely powerful protective barrier that protected her body for five minutes.

It hadn’t been a particularly helpful ability for their hunting, which had been somewhat disappointing, but since it was a very good survival skill for Cheon Li Yu herself, they had simply accepted it.

And now the newly obtained level 30 bonus.

Seon Yul secretly hoped this level bonus would be something like the level-10 bonus ‘Target Designation,’ an ability that greatly helped in party hunting.

“The level 30 bonus is called ‘Weakness Detection.’”

“Weakness Detection? What’s that?”

“According to the description here… It’s a skill that uses the Divine Eye ability to identify the opponent’s weaknesses.”

“Oh?”

The moment Seon Yul heard her explanation, he realized that this level bonus was definitely useful.

“Then, if you look at me using that skill, what does it say?”

“Just a moment.”

At Seon Yul’s request, Cheon Li Yu focused her mind and looked at Seon Yul using Divine Eye [Weakness Detection].

“Whoa~ nothing appears for you, Seon Yul.”

“What?”

“More precisely, it says the ability’s rank is higher, so the weakness cannot be detected.”

“Ah… rank.”

As far as Seon Yul knew, Divine Eye was an SSS-rank ability.

And his Absolute Space was EX rank, which was even higher.

Because of that difference, Weakness Detection probably didn’t work on him.

“Anyway, that’s a good level bonus. Oh, and use all your Stigmata points to raise the Divine Eye ability level to 7.”

“Yes!”

“And since we’ve reached the goal, let’s stop hunting here and return to Korea.”

Seon Yul returned to Korea with Cheon Li Yu.

Originally, the hunting trip had been planned for about three weeks anyway, and although Seon Yul himself was fine, Cheon Li Yu was normally an extremely busy person in her everyday life.

Cheon Li Yu was the most popular singer-songwriter in Korea, so naturally her schedule was packed.

Yet she had canceled all those schedules to spend three weeks hunting with Seon Yul, so they needed to return to Korea to sort things out.

Cheon Li Yu also expressed considerable regret but said she would make time again later and asked him to hunt together next time.

Of course, Seon Yul replied that she was welcome anytime.

Now, Cheon Li Yu had become a complete companion to him, so her joining was always welcome.

After parting with Cheon Li Yu, Seon Yul headed to Jeju Island again.

Although they had been power-leveling hunting, they had still hunted hard for three weeks, so Seon Yul planned to rest a little.

While resting, he also intended to plan his next hunt, so he planned to spend about a week in Jeju.

‘Next time… it might not be a bad idea to challenge an unconquerable gate with Ms. Li Yu…’

Unconquerable gates carried a high risk, but the rewards were extremely certain.

And with Cheon Li Yu, the chances of conquering one would definitely increase.

‘Ms. Li Yu grows quickly, and I get plenty of rewards. The more I think about it, the more it feels like we should go to an unconquerable gate.’

While walking along the beach in Jeju and thinking about various things, Seon Yul finally decided on the next plan.

Of course, he would have to ask Cheon Li Yu’s opinion as well, but for some reason, he felt certain she would say yes without hesitation.

Challenging an unconquerable gate.

That would be the next plan for Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu.