Chapter 212: secure

The iron deck plates above their heads didn’t stop vibrating for three miles. The old wooden lugger ran straight into the teeth of the outer shelf line, its heavy oak frame cutting through the black, oily waves with a loud, rhythmic thud that sent freezing sea spray over the small wheelhouse roof.

Down in the low crew hold, the air was almost suffocatingly hot. The single copper pipe running from the diesel boiler line was whistling, leaking thin white columns of hot steam that smelled of heavy grease and toasted sesame oil from Rea’s cooking pot.

Jun-ho sat on a long, unpainted cedar chest near the iron bulkhead, his large rubber boots flat against the damp floorboards. He had unbuckled the stone-gray slabs of the Ashen Monarch Core Plate from his torso, setting the thick rock panels down near his ankles. His plain gray undershirt was wet from the sea spray, the thin cotton fabric clinging flat against his shoulders and showing the dense, powerful lines of his chest muscles, which had grown significantly thicker after his level-up at the slipway.

Right at the lower corner of his eye, the solid black status blocks were waiting, perfectly silent.

[ Level: 25]

[ Unassigned Attribute Points: 10 ]

[ Mana: 2700/4500 ]

[ Current Asset: The Ash Remnant (Phase 3 Form - Bound) ]

He didn’t waste time thinking about the trackers’ broken maces or the Sun God office priority wires. He focused his mind entirely on the ten points floating in his vision. If they were going to drop straight into an unfiltered Tier 5 primitive gate like the Sea King’s Vault, his raw physical output needed to match the thousand-fold weight calculation of his new weapon grip.

"Put 5 points into Strength," Jun-ho whispered into his own collar. "Put 5 points into Mana."

[Attribute Allocation Detected: 5 Points to Strength, 5 Points to Mana.]

[Applying 100x Multiplier to Resource Logic...]

[Strength increased by 500.]

[Mana increased by 500. Current Mana: 3200/5000.]

The reaction inside his chest was completely silent. The frozen lake behind his ribs expanded by another full circle, turning into a vast, heavy reservoir of five thousand mana points that made the skin on his arms feel tight and warm. The air right around his storage chest grew cool, a thin layer of gray frost opening across the wood grain of the floorboards beneath his boots, a small disc of white ice forming where his soles were planted.

Rea slid into the low cabin right behind him, her wet yellow rain jacket thrown over the corner wood rail to dry. She was wearing only the thin black silk tunic underneath, but the deep V-neck line had pulled wide when she sat down next to his knee, exposing the smooth, flawless porcelain curve of her collarbones and the rounded, full shape of her chest.

The heat from the boiler pipe had made her skin slick with sweat, the black silk fabric sticking tightly to her narrow waist and highlighting the perfect, voluptuous curve of her hips. Her wide golden-blue eyes spun slowly in the yellow lamp light, her full crimson lips parting into a lazy, slow smile as she leaned her entire weight flat against his arm, her long bare legs dangling over the edge of the locker box.

"Your internal density is shifting again, big guy," Rea murmured, her voice a deep, sultry purr that carried the heavy scent of wild orchids through the close cabin air. She reached out her bare hand, her fingers tracing a slow line up his forearm with a teasing, light friction that made his skin prickle against the frost. "The ledger inside your duffel bag is already humming with the new coordinates. If we break the seal on the Sea King’s gate before midnight, the legacy guilds won’t even have time to clear their radar logs from the central district harbor."

Eun-bi sat across the narrow aisle on the edge of the canvas cot, her canvas bag slung tight across her waist. She had the copper scroll pulled out of her pack, her sharp eyes narrowing as she looked at the two of them sitting close on the cedar chest. She didn’t shift her position back; her gray flannel shirt was left undone at the throat because of the heat, showing the sharp, neat line of her collarbones as her bare thigh stayed pressed firmly against the side of Jun-ho’s rubber boot for stability against the heavy rolling of the boat.

"The registry is secure," Eun-bi said, her voice dropping into that flat, quiet public-sector drawl as she tapped her silver scissors against her wrist ring. "But the shortwave wire just picked up a fresh log entry from the naval cutters down the coast. The regional director has elevated your name to a Rank 1 Emergency Priority. They aren’t just deploying the second line enforcers anymore—they’ve sent a private wire to the main Ministry office in Seoul to request a maritime blockade over the entire twelve-mile reef."

Jun-ho took a slow drink of the hot broth from his tin cup, the spicy liquid clearing the dry salt taste from his throat. He didn’t look at the copper scroll, and he didn’t look at the high-power white searchlights visible through the small porthole window as the old wooden lugger cut through the gray mist.

"The blockade is late," Jun-ho said, his fingers closing around the rough black hemp wrap of his sword as the dark engine below the floorboards let out a steady, dark roar, launching the boat straight into the deep water of the outer channel.

The diesel engine gave three long, hollow backfires that shook the oak floorboards before Old Man Hak finally cut the main fuel line. The lugger drifted in a wide, silent circle, its wet hull catching the slow, heavy rolls of the ink-black water half a mile out past the jagged black teeth of the outer shelf.

The air out here didn’t just smell like salt; it carried a thick, metallic static that made the small hairs on Jun-ho’s arms twitch under his gray shirt. Every ten seconds, a faint crimson line would ripple across the surface of the sea, lighting up the dark water from below like a buried lamp.

Jun-ho walked out of the cabin hatch onto the open stern deck. He had buckled the stone-gray plates of the Ashen Monarch Core Plate back over his chest, the rough mountain rock cold against his ribs. His left hand kept a casual, hard grip on the rough matte-black hemp wrap of The Ash Remnant, the new four-character inscription near the raw slag crossguard glowing with a slow, white-hot fire that cast no light.

Right at his side, Rea stepped onto the wet deck planks, her black silk tunic rustling softly against her thighs. Her long bare legs moved with a fluid, lazy grace over the slippery wood, the high-slashed fabric parting to show her smooth skin as she leaned her torso against the cabin frame. Her golden-blue eyes spun slowly under the grey morning light, her full crimson lips curved into a quiet smile.

"The portal is ten meters below the hull, big guy," Rea whispered, her smooth voice dropping into a sultry register that cut right through the diesel exhaust. She reached out, her bare arm brushing slowly against his shoulder guard with a warm, light friction. "The system logic down there is completely unfiltered. It’s an ancient maritime anchor gate—the kind the Ministry map developers never list because the core output is too heavy for their electronic turnstiles."

"The turnstiles are gone," Jun-ho said flatly.

Eun-bi climbed out of the cabin hatch right behind his shoulder, her canvas bag slung tight across her gray flannel shirt. Her dark hair was half-dry, tied back with a piece of gauze, but her sharp face carried that regular, flat public-sector drawl as she adjusted the strap. Her bare thigh pressed firm against his denim jeans for stability as the boat rolled over a larger swell.

"The long-range radar loop just spiked, Jun-ho," Eun-bi said, her fingers tightening around her silver trauma scissors. "The two naval patrol cutters we broke at the channel have already re-aligned their tracking loops. They’re running a synchronized extraction line three miles north, and they just sent a wireless signal to a Tier 5 Maritime Knight detail down the coast. We have less than ten minutes before their heavy search hulls close the perimeter."

Jun-ho didn’t look back at the horizon. He looked down at the corner of his eye, where the solid black status box was waiting.

[Level: 25]

[Mana: 3200/5000]

[Active Trait: Ashen Domain (Phase 3)]

"Tae-woo, lock the front line," Jun-ho called out over the hum of the dead props.

The five elite vanguards burst out of the forward hatch, their massive Tier 4 frames making the boat’s bow dip low into the ink-black water. They didn’t say a word. They stepped right up to the rail, their massive arms hoisting the wide blocks of dark basin rock, slamming the stone edges flat against the timber bulwarks to form a solid, five-man mountain wall that completely covered the front deck.

Jun-ho unzipped his duffel bag with his right hand, his bare fingers closing around the cold brass lock of The Monarch’s Ledger. He didn’t pull the heavy leather book out into the salt wind, but he focused his mind entirely on the ink-black distortion visible through the clear water beneath the keel.

[The Monarch’s Ledger Active.]

[Target Sector: Unranked Maritime Gate ’The Sea King’s Vault’.]

[Applying 10x Area Multiplier to Ancient Drop Tables...]

[Mana Cost: 1000. Current Mana: 2200/5000.]

A sharp, heavy click exploded through his mind—a mechanical sound that made the entire twelve-ton oak hull of the lugger vibrate with a low, deep resonance. The ink-black distortion ten meters below the surface didn’t expand; it turned a deep, blood-red color, the thin blue mana threads inside the portal twisting and turning like living wires as the ancient ledger rewrote the entire gate logic of the mile-wide sector.

"Now," Jun-ho whispered.

He didn’t use a rope or a diving line. He grabbed Eun-bi by the thick strap of her bag, his left hand holding The Ash Remnant tight against his thigh, and dove straight over the side rail into the cold water.

Rea followed right behind his shoulder, her black silk tunic cutting a clean, fluid line through the foam as she dove, her golden-blue eyes spinning in a lazy circle under the surface. Tae-woo and the four vanguards dropped right behind them, their heavy stone blocks of basin rock sinking like five dark anchors into the grey mist below.

The pressure of the sea didn’t crush his chest. His five-thousand-point mana lake expanded naturally, his high endurance stat taking the force of the water column effortlessly as their bodies broke through the blood-red portal, dropping straight down into the deep, dark silence of the Sea King’s Vault.