The Author's POV

Sitting on a wooden chair, I attentively scanned the room.

My task was to protect Jomnuk from any potential threats coming from Inferno.

The Monolith equivalent for the dwarves.

They were an organization made up of Duergars, which were also known as under dwarves. They held great infamy for being sneaky and cunning.

Since Jomnuk focused all of his time on engineering, he was quite weak. It was exactly because of this that he needed to be protected.

The only noteworthy thing about him was his mana capacity, but that was just about the same as mine.

Unlike us humans, dwarves were quite weak in combat, their short statures being perfect evidence of it. They mainly relied on their artifacts; therefore, their ranks and other stats didn't really matter to them.

At the Lock, when they used to teach about dwarves, the professors would say,

'A dwarf without an artifact is as easy to kill as a ranked human.'

The statement wasn't wrong. I'd personally witnessed just how helpless they were without their artifacts during the war above.

But that wasn't the only thing I saw.

I'd also seen them with their artifacts, and what I saw truly shocked me. They were incredibly strong.

Although humans could also use artifacts, dwarves were able to utilize them to the very extreme, drawing out latent potential. Because of their highly developed brains, unlike other races, they could use a lot of artifacts at the same time.

Typically, it took a lot of concentration to use just one artifact. Controlling an artifact required the user to manipulate their mana in complex patterns to activate the artifact. The sheer sophistication of some dwarven artifacts could fry a human's brain. This was how it typically went. These limitations didn't apply to dwarves who could use multiple artifacts at the same time. They were literally big-brain people.

Still, according to convention, that didn't change the fact Jomnuk was weak.

Given how important of an individual he was, it was only natural that he had so many people guarding him.

"Here, Douglas told me to give you this."

Disrupting me out of my thoughts, Waylan flashed a mysterious grin before handing me an odd-looking red box. It looked quite out of place.

"What's this?"

I curiously asked, taking the box.

The box felt light to the touch, and although it didn't look special, it had fine golden patterns sewn by the side of it.

"Open it up and find out."

"...Okay."

Waylan's mysterious attitude had piqued my interest.

Just what was in the box that was making him grin like that?

Ci- Clink—!

Finally opening the box, a subtle clicking sound rang out.

"This..."

Upon opening the box, I let out a strange voice. Turning my head to face Waylan, he flashed me a slightly envious look.

"Although I don't know what you did to make Douglas favor you so much, all I can say is that even I would've had difficulty getting that in my younger days."

Leaning back on the chair, Waylan brushed his hair to the side.

"Go on. Take it before we no longer have time. You shouldn't worry too much for now."

"...Ah, yes."

Staring at the contents of the red box, I had no words to say.

That was because inside it was a small, circular black pill.

The pill's intoxicating fragrance invaded my nostrils and the mana within my body jumped up wildly. I couldn't hold back a smile. I was in euphoria.

Wiping off my smug grin, I glanced at the pill once more to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

[Probulin]

Herb, and Queen's Coriander. Upon mixing the three ingredients together, a potent pill is created. Disclaimer, the pill can only be

the pill's description, I still could not find any words

rare. Not only would it help me breakthrough to rank, but it also had other benefits such as improving my concentration

this

the back you can use to

shoulder and pointed towards a certain

counting on you.

"I understand."

up, I gratefully

and sat back down,

to thank me. In

it would be impolite of me to just take it without expressing a little bit

too polite for someone your age. If only my daughter could be

slightly, I didn't

comment that wasn't

decided to not waste any more time and bid Waylan

go take the

"Ah, sure, sure."

treasure, I followed Waylan's instructions and walked towards the back of

"You need something?"

for the mission. He

front of him, I could vividly feel the difference in our size. Moreover,

to

calmly replied with

he looked extremely intimidating, for some reason, I wasn't scared. Well, if I had to be honest, ever since a while ago, I realized that my emotions had

lot to make

didn't faze me,

—BOOOM!

as I was about to enter, the whole place started to shake

brows

like the third wave has begun. I hope the others are

mission, I did not know how they were faring. Although they

be even more

where the

unlike before. This was why

their choice and I had

Click! Clank—!

the door behind me, I looked around myself to survey the

the place was not quite big, it was sufficiently large enough

the room was rather plain. Other than a grey mat in the middle of the room, there were no other decorations. A meditating room true to its name. I was lucky to have found a good place to break through. I sure as hell wouldn't be comfortable breaking through to Rank

crossed-legged on the mat, I carefully placed

"Huuu..."

a while since I ingested something like

time had passed ever since I took something

get

eyes instantly locked onto the small pill resting in the

pill, giving it a faint, mysterious appearance. Other than that, a fragrant smell invaded the room, and the mana

pill, I felt a slight chill run through my body the moment my fingertips

—Gulp!

and calm energy that swiftly entered all of the energy paths inside of my body.

my previous experiences, I suffered no pain this time as everything flowed

arms, I could vividly feel my strength surging

I continued to process

wasn't long before a bright light shot out of my body, and I felt an unfamiliar, refreshing strength fill every

missed

VOOOM—!

glow around my body rhythmically

became