Sim Chul-Soo succeeded assimilating with the 1-star aretisite, Torso Scale Lizard.
'Now that I think about it. I know why I failed before. I tried to assimilate with a 2-star aretisite without first assimilating with a 1-star aretisite. Thus, the chance of failure was even higher. It seems that I have to assimilate with a 1-star than a 2-star to increase my chance of success.'
Lyden was able to deduce why he failed after seeing the ceremony. He watched many of them failed, and a few of them succeeded. Given that the ones who succeeded have nothing in common, he concluded that it was random. Hence, the chance for a normal human to become a 1-star hunter was around 12%.
After the ceremony, they were separated into two different groups. Sim Chul-Soo went with the three others who had passed while those who failed went somewhere else.
After they all left, Ku Sang went up to Lyden to greet him with a friendly smile. He took out his hand towards Lyden.
Lyden did not refuse and shook his hand out of politeness.
After they let go, Ku Sang chatted with him.
"I heard a quite interesting thing about you from the others, Lyden. Did you enjoy the ceremony? It is not every day we do one."
"It was enlightening in a way..." Lyden could not help looking at the sigil on his cheek. He was wary of being next to a 3-star hunter. Although he was strong, he was not invincible. He had many weaknesses and was cautious with dealing with unknown hunters.
Ku Sang noticed Lyden was looking at his sigil. "Seeing a 3-star hunter is pretty rare, right? I do get a lot of stares from it..."
Lyden gave an awkward smile. He reminded himself not to stare when thinking.
Ku Sang did not mind and switched the topic. "Lyden, do you mind following me?"
"Why? Do you need my help?"
"From the story I heard, I believe you can help us."
Lyden was hesitant, but he agreed.
The two went alone down the stairway.
Ku Sang led Lyden underneath the base until they stepped out into a giant chasm. The hole ran deep down, and stairs were spiralling downward, and the steps were large enough for at least a dozen people to stay on.
The hole was so deep that Lyden could not see the bottom. And also because of the bright flame spewing out of it.
Lyden thought that something or someone built this place.
"Where are you taking me?" Lyden asked Ku Sang.
"We are going to see one of the monsters that dwelled in this tower. This monster came out from the gorge. We captured it a week ago before it reached the town..." Ku Sang replied.
"So what seems to be the problem? It seems that you guys have it under control."
"Not quite. That monster has a high resistance to heat, and we were barely able to capture it. Since it countered the aretisites we founded here, it made things difficult to go against it... I'll explain more about, but let's go down deeper to see it."
Lyden and Ku Sang went deeper underground, and the surrounding area was getting hotter. It was not before long until Ku Sang had to resort to activating his aretisites to prevent himself from burning.
He summoned four 1-star aretisites out of his body.
Lyden recognized one of them, the Red Torso Scale Lizard. It was an armament type aretisite that change form into a sleek red chest armor.
The other three looked similar to the Red Torso Scale Lizard with some differences. They changed form into gauntlets, leg armors, and a helmet that fitted Ku Sang.
When Ku Sang equipped his aretisites, he felt cooler.
Lyden did not need it since he did not feel the heat, although it was getting slightly warmer for him with each step.
"It seems that I was right about you. You haven't felt the intense heat, am I right? With each step, the temperature increase by 2 degrees Celsius. The first step starts at 40 degrees Celsius, and now after 21 steps, it is at least 80 degrees Celsius."
"You were testing me?" Lyden did not like that. If it were not for his new body, he would have melted before long, but Ku Sang should not have known that.
"Yes, my apology for that, but when I first saw you in the lobby, I did not see your body temperature rising. It was like your body deflected the majority of the heat from your surroundings to help regulate your body." Then Ku Sang left eye turned an orange-red color when he was looking at Lyden. "I have a 3-star aretisite, Blank Red Blue, that I received when I awakened. It allowed me to see the temperature of others as well as control the temperature around me to a certain degree." Ku Sang did not want Lyden to think he had the intention to harm him.
'Since he is telling me his aretisite, then the situation must be desperate enough, or does he think that I would not tell anybody...' After Ku Sang had said that, Lyden thought of many ways that Blank Red Blue could be used such as decreasing or increasing the temperature of the aretisite armors he was wearing.
'He was using his Blank Red Blue aretisite this whole time, and I did not even notice...' Although the extreme changes in temperature could not harm Lyden, he was not sensitive to the changes of it anymore.
"So because of your 3-star aretisite, you can go deeper without the help of other aretisites. Then how far can you go down?"
"40 steps is my limit, even after equipping my aretisites. These armored aretisites will begin to melt soon after 35 steps, but I am able to cool it down with Blank Red Blue to go to 40." Ku Sang said to Lyden like he was casually bragging.
Then he led Lyden down nine more steps before they stopped next to a tunnel.
They ventured forth with Ku Sang leading Lyden. It was not before long that they reached a humid room that could fit at least 100 people at a time.
On the other side of the dark red room, there had been a tunnel, but it got closed off when the tunnel collapsed on its self.
In the middle of the room, a monster the size of an elephant was sleeping. It had blood-red fur with black claws and a long yet skinny nose like an anteater. Its tail looked like it was made out of rock with a sharp tip at the end.
"What is that?" Lyden said calmly, but his heart beated slightly faster. He never confronted a monster before and only saw them in the media.
"We called that the Blood Nosehound. At first there were no signed of it, but lately, more and more have been coming up from the bottom. The first few were the size of dogs and was easily dealt with before they reached the surface. But suddenly this one appeared. It is far larger than the others and has a high resistance against physical attack. We could not even make it bleed."
"Then how did you get it to sleep?"
"With my Blank Red Blue, I lowered its temperature, thus, putting it to sleep and then encased this room with ice, but as you can see, it had already melted. We tried killing before it woke up, but nothing we could penetrate its fur and his jaw was shut tight so we cannot even attack it internally."
Lyden could guess why Ku Sang was so desperate now. It seemed that Ku Sang was cooling the Blood Nosehound body every couple of hours or so to prevent it from waking up with his Blank Red Blue.
'Seeing how Ku Sang looked ill, he must have overexerted his aretisite without feeding it probably. But what can he expect me to do? I doubt he knows my true strength and probably thinks I can't kill it. He must have another plan.'
Lyden did not trust Ku Sang. If he were to use him as bait, then the Hwangsaechi will become enemy of Lyden.
"So how do you expect me to help?"
"The Blood Nosehound is blind but very sensitive to the change of temperature to its surroundings. Saying that you should be invisible from it. The plan was that once it was awake, I will use myself as bait to lead it to the edge, and you will push it down."
"This is based on your assumption. What if it can see me and attacked me? I am risking my life with nothing to gain." Lyden said even though he knew that the Blood Nosehound was not a threat to him. He wanted to see what Ku Sang had to offer.
Ku Sang expected this, but he was hoping that Lyden was the type of person who helps for nothing.
"I can give you a full set of aretisites like the one I am wearing."
Lyden did not say anything and looked at Ku Sang like he was expecting more. Ku Sang hid his displeasure, but he offered something else.
"I will also include information on how to refine aretisite..."
"Refine? Explain what you mean?"
"It is possible to make a 1-star aretisite to a 2-star aretisite..." Ku Sang gritted his teeth as he told Lyden. It was information that only he knew after researching for months. It was something that could increase the strength of the Hwangsaechi, but it was still in the early stage. He could not perfect it yet.
"Tell me everything about it, and only then I will help." Lyden did not care for the full-set aretisites as much, but the information to increase the star was extremely valuable to him.
