Junhyuk looked at her bracelet and then at Eunseo. Her health and mana hadn’t changed, which meant that attack, defense and attack speed might have. They couldn’t find out unless she went to the Dimensional Battlefield, but he was really curious.

“What kind of item is it?”

Eunseo took the bracelet out and showed the inside of it to him.

“It’s been said Cleopatra used this bracelet. There’s an inscription inside about the rain G.o.ddess Tefnut, and it works.”

A rain G.o.ddess, so it might have a water attribute. He wasn’t sure about it, but it was a good thing that she had the item now.

Junhyuk looked at her and said, “It looks expensive.”

“It’s an antique, so yes, it was expensive, but it is not worth more than life.”

He nodded.

“I hope it will help.”

Touching the bracelet, Eunseo said, “I will try to get better items.”

He smiled.

“Expensive items will probably have great buffs, but cheap things may also work in the Dimensional Battlefield. The jujube tree necklace worked right away on the battlefield.”

“Really?!”

“I also found an item in an antique shop by accident. Just be thorough, and you’ll find them.”

Eunseo’s eyes beamed, and he smiled at her.

“We should eat, no?”

“Right.”

Eunseo picked up her chopsticks, and both ate their sashimi with pleasure.

Junhyuk thought they would go their separate ways after the meal, but Eunseo suggested that they train together right away. He had planned to train with Sarang that evening, so he couldn’t take Eunseo with him. With A-ranked monsters appearing, Eunseo wouldn’t survive.

Nevertheless, he took Eunseo to his house. Sarang was already there. He had made plans with Eunseo suddenly, so he didn’t have a chance to tell Sarang about it. She was making food when they arrived.

Eunseo grimaced a little after seeing Sarang, but he was looking at Sarang, so he didn’t notice it.

“When did you get here?”

“At six. Big sister came, too?”

“I had a favor to ask him, so we went out.”

“Right. What favor?”

Junhyuk answered instead, “This time around, every country is gathering novices, but to control them, they need the Dark Knight. So, I’ll provide a video.”

“A video?!”

He nodded.

“I will explain dimensional tears to them and tell them how to get rid of them.”

Sarang smiled at him.

“You did good. You should help out,” she said to him. Then, she walked over to Eunseo, crossed arms with her, and said, “Big sister, help me prepare the meal.”

He said calmly, “We already ate!”

Sarang frowned a little.

“And you didn’t tell me about it?!”

Junhyuk looked awkward, and Eunseo helped him out.

“Sarang, we only ate a little. We can eat more. Shall I watch your cooking skills?”

Sarang folded the sleeves of her shirt up and said, “Of course! I will show you what I got.”

Junhyuk laughed at her. Sarang’s cooking skills were ordinary. Her food was edible, and that was the extent of it. She didn’t douse her food with MSG, but her cooking was regular.

Eunseo had only eaten high-quality cooking from very young, so she looked at him funny, and he shrugged.

“I’ll go get changed.”

“You do that.”

Sarang waved him off, and Junhyuk went into his room to change. When he came out, Sarang and Eunseo were laughing while talking and cooking.

Shaking his head at the sight, he turned on the TV. The gathering of novices wasn’t a secret, and some of those novices had already become famous, like celebrities.

He watched them on TV, but he realized that some countries were keeping their partic.i.p.ation in the gathering a secret. At the moment, only the less developed countries were flaunting their novices and the fact that they were sending them to Korea.

The U.S., China and Russia, and other countries of similar strength weren’t making public announcements.

Junhyuk suddenly thought about the Chinese woman, the one who had sliced a monster in half.

Would she come to Korea? She had displayed a high-ranking power.

While watching TV, he turned his head toward the smell of kimchi stew. Sarang place a pot of it on the table and said, “Come.”

Junhyuk was already full, but he couldn’t say it, so he took a seat at the dining table while Sarang placed the other dishes.

An omelet and other sides filled the table Normally, Junhyuk didn’t eat sides when he dined alone, so when he saw the table full of food, he laughed.

“Looks good.”

“Big sister is here,” she said. Sarang looked at him and added, “You are going to help her train, right?”

“Sora was able to enhance her power by training while wearing her bracelet. Because Eunseo’s power is a counter, someone must spar with her.”

Sarang nodded.

“That’s good,” she said. Then, she touched Eunseo’s hand and added, “Big brother’s health should decrease. This is a win-win situation.”

Junhyuk frowned. Their goal was to beat the h.e.l.l out of him.

He tasted the stew.

“Today’s is better than usual!”

“Is that a compliment?”

“I thought it was.”

Without saying anything else, he started eating. Eunseo ate, too, and paid Sarang many compliments.

“It’s delicious!”

“Right?”

Sarang gladly ate the food, and Junhyuk realized that compliments made people happy. When he finished the meal, it was almost eight o’clock.

He turned to Eunseo and said, “When we finish with the monsters, I’ll come back. Rest up.”

“I will train here alone. Go,” she said, fixing her gla.s.ses.

He nodded and took Sarang’s hand.

“Enter.”

When they entered the training facility, Junhyuk said, “Vera is certainly taking a while.”

“She has to send the items through dimensions. It’s a favor to us, so we should wait.”

Smiling, he summoned his equipment and said, “Get ready.”

They were monsters of the same rank, A, but he was being diligent about his training. If possible, he did not want to use powers to kill the monsters, but that wouldn’t be easy.

He hoped the Spatial Slash would work with the single-point explosion that day, and he stared at the monsters coming toward him.

—

An old man and a young woman had come to see Doyeol, and he offered them wine in his garden. The old man was president of W.A.N.C.S., Mario, and the young woman was a member of the Rockefeller family, Jennifer Rockefeller.

Mario was also the nucleus of Pentagram, and it was possible that Jennifer would succeed him. They were both important to Doyeol.

While drinking wine, Mario asked, “There was only an estimate for the number of novices coming. How many experts will come?”

Doyeol answered calmly, “Two from China, one from Russia, two from the States, one from the United Kingdom. That’s it so far.”

Jennifer put her wine gla.s.s down and asked, “How did you find out?”

Jennifer had brought one expert from the States, while the American Department of Defense brought another one, and Doyeol already knew about it.

He continued calmly, “I was lucky enough to have finished making expert detectors, which I placed at the airport. That’s how I knew.”

Jennifer said matter-of-factly, “I thought we had to share new technology…”

Doyeol nodded.

“Correct. It’s still in its developmental stage, so I haven’t had a chance to send them out. I’ll do it soon.”

Unlike before, Doyeol was no longer pressed about his decisions. Because he had survived the Dimensional Battlefield and was starting a revolution, Doyeol had become a full member of Pentagram. He hadn’t lost an inch in power, and was actually becoming more important to the organization.

He had created Guardians and was becoming unimaginably wealthy.

At that moment, Guardians was making more money than ST Capsule, and that was due to the weapons coated in monster decomposition liquid. Pentagram had provided the initial capital, but Doyeol was the main shareholder, so he was wealthier than ever before.

Jennifer wasn’t a member of Pentagram yet, so her complaint seemed like the whining of a child.

Mario looked at Doyeol and asked, “South Korea doesn’t have any experts?”

Doyeol answered, “We have the Dark Knight, but we don’t control him.”

“The Dark Knight. He feels like more than an expert.”

On video, the Dark Knight looked superior. He had sliced through the monsters, making a mountain out of the bodies, and then leapt into the dimensional tear.

Pentagram wanted to acquire the Dark Knight, along with his armor and equipment, but in the long run, they wanted to control him. That’s why Mario was there from the States. Doyeol had joined Pentagram relatively late, and Mario still didn’t fully trust him.

Mario turned to Jennifer. She could help a lot. She could succeed Charles, and on top of that, Charles had sent an expert with her.

Mario didn’t trust Doyeol, so he brought Jennifer along to acquire the Dark Knight.

“So, where do you think their first target will be?” Mario asked.

Doyeol shrugged.

“Well…” Doyeol wanted to do whatever he could to earn power, but he needed someone to help him. “The sequence of attacks isn’t important. The important thing is whether we can destroy the monster areas.”

Doyeol did not answer Mario’s question, and Mario and Jennifer looked at each other. Both realized that Doyeol was hiding something from them.

Mario said to him, “You should do more.”

The situation would be handled by Guardians, and because Guardians’ CEO was Doyeol’s little sister, Pentagram couldn’t simply ignore him.

Mario gave up, for now, and Doyeol smiled at him.

“Yes, I will.”

Doyeol cheered with Mario and smiled. He had sent Jeffrey to the gathering. If Jeffrey did his job, Doyeol’s place within Pentagram would be fixed, and he would hold great importance.