CHAPTER 74: Min-soo’s Encounter {(Part-1) out of 3}

Even though those Sword Aura Projectiles travelled at incredible speeds, with the Storm Eagle flying 150 meters in the sky, it had enough time to dodge them, especially with it's agility which was further augmented by its control over Wind Element.

I continued to attack it using every projectile attack in my arsenal, and none of them managed to even graze the monster.

Since my attacks couldn't reach the monster, whereas its attacks that managed to reach me couldn't break past my Centauri Kavach's defence, the Storm Eagle and I were stuck in a draw.

The monster's intelligence was so high that it even feigned attacking me by getting closer in order to let me use more skills and use up my Spirit Energy.

I didn't let the Storm Eagle realise that I understood it's intentions and played along by continuing to attack it, and soon, my Spirit Energy was drained.

I could feel the dizziness trying to pull me into sleep, and tiredness could even be visible in my posture.

Noticing me in such a state, the Storm Eagle let its guard down and dived towards me with its maximum speed, intending to pierce me with it's beak.

When it reached 30 meters away from me, I activated , a Rare Grade Skill of

________

(Rare Grade): Lets the user completely refill their Spirit Energy Pool.

(It can only be activated once the user's Spirit Energy runs out.)

Cooldown: 12 hrs.

________

In an instant, my Spirit Energy reached its maximum capacity again.

[Spirit Energy: 0/625 --> 625/625]

By then, the Storm Eagle was 10 meters away from me. I pointed the tip of my Stream Wind Sword at its head and activated and at the same time.

Since the Monster would have at least 30% Wind Element Resistance, I even coated Darkness element over the Sword Aura Extension to finish it off with that attack.

At a speed of 120 m/s, it couldn't dodge my attack with such a short distance in between us.

As a last-ditch effort, the Storm Eagle folded its neck and placed both of its claws to protect its head.

But that wasn't of much use as my attack pierced through its claws, and the Storm Eagle's high-speed movement in the opposite direction of my attack caused the monster to ram itself into my attack.

Just when my attack passed through the Storm Eagle's claws and was about to pierce it's head, something unexpected happened.

*****

Even though I was just 22 years old, I was called a Prodigy in my field of work. I, Min-soo, was close to cracking Warp technology, which was tens or even hundreds of years advanced from current time.

But to complete my research, I needed a vast amount of resources, which was ultimately denied by the South Korean government and other Conglomerates due to loss that might be brought in case of my failure.

No one believed in me, and for the past 3 months, I begged them to invest in the Warp technology and promised I could succeed in creating it.

While I was going through continuous rejections, one day, I was teleported to a world filled with monsters.

As a Scientist, I never believed in God, but still, I believed in some kind of higher power.

The content of the notifications that appeared before I was teleported and the superhuman-like powers I gained made me believe that the System must be that higher power.

I don't know if it was fate that I, who devoted my whole life to space research, gained a Grade-7 Space Innate Talent.

Thanks to that, I gained a whole new understanding of Space.

With the ability to manipulate the very fabric of space itself, I learned to teleport myself.

But the distance to which I could teleport was limited to a short-range. On top of that, the number of times that I could teleport was limited to my Spirit Energy.

Only by increasing my Space Mastery was I able to shorten the expenditure of Spirit Energy and increase the range of Teleportations.

Because of my ability to teleport, I managed to survive Day-1 in a World that was filled with dangerous monsters.

When a function called unlocked, I learned that other than me, 10 more people from Earth were teleported to the Trial World.

Among the 11 people, I was ranked 9th with my Lv.3. It was understandable because all I did was kill a few weak monsters and escape when I came across any intimidating monster.

But only when the announcements appeared in the sky at the end of Day-1 did I finally realise how vast the true scale of the Trial Program was.

During the 18-hour rest period after Day-1, I increased my along with other things, and when Day-2 began, I tried my best to level up, unlike Day-1, where I stayed hidden most of the time.

But just after four hours into Day-2, I was surrounded by a small group of Tier-1 monsters when I was recovering my limited amount of Spirit Energy, leaving me no chance to use teleportation for escaping.

When I thought it was over for me, a blonde-haired man, whose body was covered in lightning arcs, appeared and confronted the Tier-1 monsters head-on with a Spear in his hands.

Other than him, there was a thin man in a baggy tracksuit, supporting the blonde-haired man by shooting arrows at the monsters as he jumped from tree to tree, using almost gravity-defying movements.

That was how I met Mr Brandon and Gabriel Gonzales. They saved me by killing those Tier-1 monsters.

Like that, I joined them to survive in the Trial World.

During Day-2, Mr Brandon taught me how to fight against monsters and even helped me level up by helping me kill monsters.

Upon staying together, I learned more about them. Gabriel Gonzales was a Brazillian Parkour Athlete who won the World Parkour Championship for the past 4 years.

To me, that made a lot of sense as to how he could move so dexterously. Even though he was annoyingly competitive in nature, I got along with him pretty well.

As for Mr Brandon, his leadership qualities to plan ahead according to the situation, and formulating monster-hunting strategies by keeping our strengths and weaknesses in mind, made Gabriel and me follow his lead.

When we were not hunting, we prioritised increasing our respective Innate Talent Masteries. When the reached Stage-3, my comprehension over Space Element reached a point where I could create a small room-sized subspace that was only accessible to me.

Within that Subspace, I was able to store anything as long as it was inanimate.

As I experimented more with the Space element, other than the subspace, I was also able to create pockets in space, which acts as a reflection of the real world.

By entering it, I would be separated from the real world, making me invisible.

But to create Space pockets, it consumed a lot of Spirit Energy and to maintain stability in those Space pockets, it takes the constant expenditure of my Spirit Energy.

Because of that, the duration I could hide in Spacepockets was limited by my Spirit Energy.

Even though I couldn't use the Space element to attack directly, I could incorporate the teleportation ability in my physical attacks and make them unpredictable for the target.

Other than that, I was able to sense spatial fluctuations within a 10 km radius, making me a human radar.

Because of those abilities, I was given the role of scouting the surroundings.

Aside from myself, Gabriel was also good at scouting because of his Grade-8 Wind Innate Talent. That, combined with his Parkour skills, basically made him faster than a monkey on a tree.

Coming to Mr Brandon, he was a CIA agent, an ex-CIA agent to be exact since he was promoted to be the head of a new organisation called 'Guardian Guild'.

It was an organisation that was created especially for recruiting those who were assimilated by the System.

Of course, Mr Brandon didn't reveal all of that to me. At least, not until I had joined that organisation.

My reasoning to join 'Guardian Guild' was simple, It was because of the expensive resources that I needed for my research.

The thing I liked was that Mr Brandon didn't force us to join 'Guardian Guild' and clarified that even if Gabriel and I didn't choose to join the 'Guardian Guild', we would still be a group in the Trial World in order to survive together.

Apart from that, I also liked their cause to recruit more of the Chosen to defend the Earth from the possible monster invasion once the Trial Program ends.

Plus, there weren't restrictions on me, besides responding to Mr Brandon's instructions when the United States and its interests were in grave danger.

Besides me, Gabriel was also a member of the 'Guardian Guild' and just like what we agreed upon, both of us received the benefits that we were promised.

Within 12 hours of the 18-hour rest period after Day-2, Mr Brandon had arranged the resources I needed for my research, along with providing me with the Research centre of my own at the US Embassy in South Korea.

It seemed that Mr Brandon wasn't kidding when he said that the entire resources of the USA were at his disposal.