Chapter 19

Blaine glanced at Theo anxiously, worried he might be upset, but Theo didn’t seem to care. After all, thanks to Blaine showing up, his enchants had been succeeding one after another—there was no way he could be in a bad mood.

When he sensed no annoyance from Theo, Blaine felt relieved and pointed at the weapon in his hands.

“Did the weapon turn out well?”

“Ah, want to see?”

Theo sounded almost excited. Before Blaine could even answer, he held the weapon out. Blaine opened the info window—and gasped.

“Whoa… what is this? The attack power, and the bonus option too…”

“Right? Even the highest bow damage usually caps at around fifty, but this one’s over seventy—and it’s fixed damage. Plus, I was planning to rely on criticals to make up for my low Strength, and then it rolled crit as a bonus option.”

“Then it really came out amazing, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. If it weren’t for you, this never would’ve happened.”

“No, it’s Marco’s skill that made it possible.”

Blaine waved his hands with a bright smile. His modesty only made him more likable, and Theo found himself wanting to praise him more.

“Marco said it was thanks to you too.”

Theo grinned at him, and Blaine immediately turned red, quickly looking away. He pretended nothing was wrong, staring hard into the distance as if that could cool the heat in his cheeks.

Theo noticed, of course, but decided to let him have his effort at pretending. After a while, Blaine seemed to calm down enough to clear his throat and face him again. His cheeks still bloomed with a faint pink, like heat lingering in the petals of a flower.

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Equip the Eternal and run some damage tests.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you already decide on all your Actions?”

“No. Honestly, I still don’t know which ones to use. It’s my first time going melee, so I figured I’d swing it around a few times, get used to it, then decide.”

“Fair. If someone asked me to pick melee Actions right now, I couldn’t either.”

“Exactly.”

“So where are you going to test the damage?”

“Just outside the village fields.”

“Then… can I come too?”

“…Huh?”

“I’m just curious, that’s all.”

“Well, sure.”

There was no reason to refuse. It wasn’t like he had anything to hide. Theo stopped by the Storage to grab the items he needed, then headed out of the village with Blaine.

After walking far enough to find decent monsters to test on, Theo finally equipped the Eternal Fog.

Thick black mist wrapped around his body like a cloak. He could pull it up like a hood or let it down, and even when he stood still, the smoke-like darkness shifted and curled around him like drifting ash.

Then something strange happened: next to his five normal Action slots, two more appeared. Their names were Stealth and Veil—special functions unique to the Eternal Fog. Theo read the descriptions.

Just from the text, it was impossible to grasp what they actually did. Theo hesitated, wondering if he should just close his eyes and try them. That’s when a quiet exclamation reached his ears.

“Wow…”

He turned, and found Blaine staring at him, completely entranced. Their eyes met, and Blaine spoke as if spellbound.

“Hyung, you look amazing.”

Theo blinked a few times and checked his own appearance. He already wore all-black, so he hadn’t expected much change, but the way the mist spread and rippled with every movement of his limbs was mesmerizing. And since Blaine had called it amazing, he started to wonder what he really looked like.

“…How do I look?”

When Theo asked, Blaine snapped back to himself and quickly said, “I’ll take a picture and show you, wait just a sec.”

He hurried closer and pulled up his display. A moment later, he showed Theo a snapshot—himself cloaked in swirling black fog, hood pulled low, looking like he’d stepped straight out of the shadows.

Theo stared at the photo, narrowing his brows.

“…I look like a Dementor…?”

“Huh?”

Blaine tilted his head, clearly not understanding. Theo studied him for a moment, then waved his hand. Guess he doesn’t know.

Not wanting to linger on the eerie image, Theo pulled down the hood and looked around. By now, there should’ve been monsters nearby, but strangely, the field was empty.

“Why’s it so quiet?”

“Yeah, it is…”

Blaine kept scanning the area, uneasy with the silence. Then—thud. The ground shook. Both of them whipped their heads toward the sound and froze.

Between the trees and undergrowth, a massive shape moved. Each step made the earth tremble, silver fur rippling like liquid light across its body.

When it finally emerged, its full form was revealed: a gigantic silver wolf. Its name was Ord, the field boss who ruled over the Cottonflower Hills east of Lucilvania.

Ord passed by them, lowering its head slightly. Dignified, yet strangely familiar. Theo returned the gesture with a polite bow, while Blaine waved his hand cheerfully.

Field bosses weren’t targets for hunting—they were guardians, maintaining balance in the fields. Players were meant to protect them, coexist with them. In fact, players could choose a field boss to befriend. Once their bond reached a certain level, they’d receive bonus EXP while hunting in that boss’s territory.

Field bosses also waged territorial wars against one another. Players allied with a boss could join in these battles, and if their side won, they’d earn highly valuable rewards.

Of course, that didn’t mean field bosses were unkillable. Illegal poachers still hunted them in secret. They didn’t drop loot or grant EXP—the only reason was “fun.”

Once Ord disappeared, monsters hiding in the area began crawling out one by one. Theo drew his bow and tried out the Veil Action.

“?”

There was no targeting, no area designation. The black mist cloak around him only rippled thicker. Confused, he raised his arm, looked himself over, but nothing seemed to change.

Wait… wasn’t it supposed to be seven steps?

Hesitating, Theo took a cautious first step. A black footprint formed, trailing wisps of shadow like heat haze.

He watched as he walked all seven steps. For the first six, only dark, shimmering footprints appeared. But on the seventh step, the darkness erupted upward all at once, rising like a curtain of night and linking each footprint together.

Startled, Theo reflexively took an eighth step. The moment his foot hit the ground, the veil rippled like a flag before shattering into mist—instantly annihilating every monster in the area.

Theo was speechless. The sheer power was one thing, but the fact that it required no weapon use at all left him stunned. Regaining his senses, he quickly checked the skill window.

He wondered… what would happen if he used Stealth instead of walking the eighth step?

Deciding he’d kill time swinging his bow for ten minutes anyway, Theo adjusted his grip on the weapon. That’s when Blaine approached, his face uneasy.

“Hyung, what… what did you just do?”

“Huh?”

“You said you hadn’t decided on your Actions yet.”

“This? It’s a special function.”

“Special function?”

“Yeah. A special function from the Eternal Fog. Don’t you have one?”

Blaine looked bewildered and shook his head.

“I didn’t.”

Theo blinked in surprise at Blaine’s answer. Same Eternal Items, yet… why?

“Can you show me your Eternal Stone’s info?”

“Eternal Stones are consumables. I already absorbed mine, so I don’t have the item anymore.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. And when I checked your Eternal Fog earlier, I didn’t see anything like a special function in the info.”

“You didn’t?”

“No….”

Theo opened his equipment window and checked the Eternal Fog again. There it was, right at the bottom of the description—clear as day, a note about special functions.

He suggested Blaine try opening it again to double-check. Blaine nodded and did so, but even now, no special functions appeared.

“Looks like the special function is only visible to the owner…”

“But you said you didn’t see anything when you used your Eternal Stone? Could it be a bug?”

Theo was about to suggest reporting it when Blaine spoke up with an unexpected idea.

“It might be because Eternal Stones can be held in multiples.”

“Huh? But aren’t Eternal Items supposed to be limited to one per person?”

“Yes, for Eternal Items classified as equipment. But Eternal Stones are consumables, and the description said they can be stacked.”

“…That’s broken.” ¹

“…Well, Eternal Items themselves are already broken.”

“…Fair point.”

“Yeah…”

“Still, just in case, you should file a report. Could be an actual error.”

Blaine blinked at him, then gave a shy smile and nodded. It wasn’t anything special, but just the fact Theo cared enough to mention it made him happy.

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

While they chatted, the ten-minute cooldown passed in a blink. Theo tried Veil again. This time, after taking the seven steps, he activated Stealth. In an instant, he was back at his very first footprint.

“?”

Theo looked around in confusion. His vision was warped, murky, like standing behind a sheet of glass with water running down it. Everything was dim, cloaked in shadow. Only now did the description—Slip into the depths of darkness—make sense. He must have entered the Veil itself.

As he turned his head in fascination, he spotted Blaine outside, restless and frantic, searching the area where he had just been. Theo couldn’t help but laugh at the sight—he really did look like a lost puppy.

Curious, Theo tried stepping out. He wondered if there’d be restrictions, but his body slipped easily through. The moment he appeared, Blaine spotted him and hurried over, eyes watery with worry.

“You disappeared so suddenly, I was scared…”

“I didn’t know it worked like that either.”

Theo smiled and soothed him, briefly explaining how Veil and Stealth worked. Then he activated Stealth again and slipped back inside the Veil.

As long as the Veil remained, he could move in and out freely, even from far away. The Veil itself would eventually vanish after a set duration.

The seven steps didn’t need to be plain walking either—he could use jumps to extend the distance. That was why the Eternal Fog boosted Jump Enhancement. With leaps, he could spread the Veil across quite a range, and by crisscrossing jumps, he could even shape it into complex patterns.

Theo spent a long while in the field, testing every possibility. For anyone else, it might have been tedious. But for Blaine, there couldn’t have been a more blissful time.