Chapter 365: Potential

[Initiating physical scan according to the liberation of potential.]

[Measuring your lost true talent…….]

The terrible pain was also brief.

The hot heat flowing through the blood vessels of his entire body soon gathered in his brain, and golden system messages began to pour down like a waterfall over Kim Minwoo's retina.

[The restriction that had been constricting your body has disappeared.]

[Your body regains its original potential!]

“……Is that it?”

Kim Minwoo, who was gasping for breath, stared blankly at the system window in the empty air.

He had expected some grand modifier like a genius who appears once in a hundred years or the possessor of absolute talent.

The system merely popped up a bland alarm saying the restriction was lifted and shut its mouth.

“Hah, could it be that even with the restriction lifted, the original talent itself is trash?”

No, honestly speaking, that was the standard expectation, but…….

Human greed and circuits of hope know no bounds.

An ominous premonition crept up.

He needed to check.

Kim Minwoo immediately pulled out a sword from his inventory and swung it in the empty air.

Buung―!

“……Mmm.”

It was definitively different from before.

As if oil had been applied to stiff, rusted cogs, the movement of his joints and muscles was much smoother.

The trajectory of the swordsmanship he had trained in the past connected quite plausibly.

However, it was exactly up to there.

That amazing inspiration or lightning-like realization like when Park Siwoo easily created the Dragon Slaying Sword in a single spar?

There was none at all.

The system still did not pop up any miraculous message like [A skill is created].

“……Well. Swordsmanship is exactly at this level.”

Rather than forcibly stuffing it in to use it in the -999 potential state, it was definitively a bit better to use it with the potential unlocked.

However, even giving it a generous evaluation, it was at a level similar to an ordinary person.

He did not feel any lightning-like realization or talent beyond that.

“Then could it be the bow?”

This time, he pulled out a bow and drew the bowstring.

He concentrated with all his might, recalling how Seo Yerim had created a high-speed rapid-fire skill the moment she grabbed a bow, but…….

“……I don't feel anything. I don't sense it.”

From spears, axes, to magic staffs. He pulled out weapons of all sorts of classes stuck in his inventory by type and tried swinging, shooting, and gathering mana.

The result was miserable.

He felt it got very minutely better than before, but he didn't feel even a speck of that thrilling blooming of talent, as if wearing perfectly fitting clothes.

“Tsk.”

Even giving a generous evaluation, they were all at the level of an ordinary person or far below that.

“Tsk. As expected. This is truly an ordinary trash body even with the restriction lifted.”

Kim Minwoo, grumbling and nervously throwing the magic staff he was holding, let out a deep sigh.

“Haa……. Now there is really exactly one last thing left.”

It was exactly Necromancy (Necromancer). His current main profession.

The reason he saved this for the very last was simple.

He had checked that his sword, bow, spear, and even magic were all at an ordinary person's level, but what if he confirmed he didn't have a shred of talent in the Necromancer side, his source of livelihood, either?

That would truly be perfect despair.

Fearing a possible disappointment, he had inwardly turned away from it and put it off.

“……Still, it's my main profession in name, so I have to check it lastly.”

The dice were already cast anyway, and the potion cost of 1,200 points was already gone. Kim Minwoo drew up his mana with a half-resigned face.

“Come out, Cedric, Merhen.”

Seureureuk―.

The energy of death clumped together in the empty air, and the two Legion Commanders and thousands of the skeleton legion revealed their appearances.

And the moment he met eyes with them.

‘……Uh?’

Kim Minwoo's breath caught in his throat.

‘This, something is something…….’

Something was definitively different from before.

Until now, handling the summons was closer to control relying on powerful skills like the Heart of the Legion.

Like clicking a game character with a computer mouse and keyboard to give one-sided commands.

However, now that his potential was unlocked, the trajectory itself was completely different.

The heavy energy of death flowing through Cedric's joints, the dense mana circuits composing Merhen, and even the weight of the souls of the thousands of skeleton soldiers.

All of that felt like his own hands and feet.

An overwhelming sense of unity, as if every single breath he exhaled meshed perfectly with their energy.

He instinctively felt the energy of death wriggling as if it were breathing and alive.

Dugeun.

Kim Minwoo's heart began to beat like crazy.

He gulped down dry saliva.

‘Ah, could it be…… is this that?’

Talent. Overwhelming and pure, genuine talent!

Kim Minwoo closed his eyes gently.

He knew.

How true geniuses in this world handled skills.

Just as Seo Yerim created a skill the moment she grabbed a bow, and Park Siwoo created the Dragon Slaying Sword with a single spar.

A true genius does not rely on a clumsy skill book, but subdues the system and creates a skill through action alone.

‘If I am truly, a genius in the Necromancer side…….’

Kim Minwoo flicked his finger lightly toward the empty air like a conductor.

The energy of death connected to the undead began to be tuned smoothly and explosively like the melody of an orchestra at his single hand gesture.

It was that moment.

[Overwhelming talent perfectly realizes the logic of Necromancy!]

[Genius inspiration creates a new skill!]

[A new unique skill, Conductor of Death (SSS), is created!]

[You have acquired the title, 'One Who Tasted Trance'!]

Flash―!

Along with a blinding light, an SSS-rank skill was proudly engraved in his skill window.

It was a skill ripped out solely with pure talent, without a skill book.

“……No, this is crazy! It was real?!”

Fierce joy burst out without him realizing it.

Only then did the puzzle pieces that had been twisted all this time perfectly fit together in his head.

First, originally, this body's potential was perfectly fixed at -999.

Even if he was born with the talent of a god, when the system grabbed him by the collar and crushed it, by what means could he display his talent? If he hadn't used the overflowing 1,200 achievement points like petty cash today to lift the restriction, it was something he would never have known in his entire life.

Second, Kim Minwoo had never even once played a Necromancer with this body until now. Because for the past 6 years, he had only chosen swordsman day and night.

His class was swordsman, but his true talent was all-in on the Necromancy (Necromancer) side.

With the shackle of -999 even slapped on there, it was natural that not a single basic skill was created even if he swung a sword for 6 years.

“Hah…… Seriously.”

No wonder.

“That strict old geezer Death Lord didn't choose me as his successor for nothing.”

In the past, when he obtained the Death Lord (EX) skill, he thought he had just gotten it for free because of the game system or good luck. However, that was not the case.

The Death Lord had recognized the transcendent talent for Necromancy dormant in this body at once, and pinpointed him as the sole successor.

‘So you're saying I'm actually a Necromancy genius who creates an SSS-rank skill in a single trance?’

Even before he could check the text of the skill, Cedric and Merhen, who were standing beside him, flinched in surprise and looked at Kim Minwoo.

―……Master? Just now your energy, suddenly became distant…….

―Minwoo! What was that just now? It felt like our souls were bound into one!

Even the two Legion Commanders instinctively realized that the class of Necromancy spewed out by their master had instantly changed dimensions.

“Turns out, I was a hidden pure talent freak.”

Kim Minwoo checked the description of the newly created skill with an excited heart.

[Conductor of Death (SSS)]

[The ultimate communion that only a genius of Necromancy can reach. The legion is now your hands and feet, and an instrument that amplifies your power.]

[Effect 1. Absolute Synchronization: The entire legion executes perfect combined attacks and covers openings without delay, matching the combat tempo of the conductor (Master).]

[Effect 2. Resonance of Divinity and Power: Can deliver the conductor's divinity to the summons to temporarily explode their status, or conversely, concentrate all the mana of the legion into the conductor's weapon to deliver a powerful strike.]

If the Heart of the Legion (SS) was a one-sided issuing of commands, the Conductor of Death (SSS) was an absolute combination technique where the conductor and the legion were bound into a single organism.

“Let's see, shall I test if it's really like that?”

Kim Minwoo smirked and drew Hell Rhapsody from his waist.

As he connected his consciousness, there was no need to even issue commands with words. The swarm of Dragon Tooth Soldiers on standby in the training ground began to perfectly synchronize with every single breath and muscle movement of Kim Minwoo.

Kim Minwoo kicked off the ground and leaped into the empty air.

The moment he moved, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers scattered like Kim Minwoo's shadow and perfectly guarded his blind spots.

‘Gather it.’

Kim Minwoo transmitted his consciousness while raising Hell Rhapsody.

Swish!

The death mana spewed by the Dragon Tooth Soldiers following behind did not scatter into the empty air, but began to be sucked into Kim Minwoo's sword blade like a single massive wave.

For Kim Minwoo, the baton was exactly this Hell Rhapsody, and the instrument became the legion following him itself.

Kim Minwoo slammed his sword down like a thunderbolt toward the special alloy dummy erected at the end of the training ground.

Kwaaaaaaaang―!!!

Just a single slash. Half of the training ground swept by the black trajectory evaporated without a trace.

Kim Minwoo's jaw dropped.

Even if the individual strength was weak, as the overall strength resonated as a perfect whole at the tip of Kim Minwoo's sword and inflated, a power that slapped the cheeks of an average Seven Lords' AoE skill popped out.

“……Isn't this completely at the level of Descent (EX) shot without consuming my mana or life force?”

Kim Minwoo wasn't the only one surprised.

―M-Master. That just now was…….

―Minwoo! The skeletons' mana just now gathered into a single point on Minwoo's sword! If we resonated my magic and Cedric's spearmanship there too, I think the power would jump double!

Looking at the appalled Cedric and the jumping Merhen, Kim Minwoo began to giggle.

Was that all.

Conversely, if Kim Minwoo delivered his divinity to the Legion Commanders by resonating it, Cedric or Merhen could temporarily reach a transcendent state.

When he fought personally, he used the legion as a massive mana battery, and when he put his summons forward, he injected divinity to make them fight as proxies.

“Is this the life of a genius.”

With just this vicious talent alone, the benefits he could extract during the remaining 1 hour were infinite.