A new aspect?

He’d forgotten all about the skill quests. In all honesty, he’d forgotten about everything else aside from surviving until the System notified him.

QUEST: The Path of the ONION KNIGHT (I)

OBJECTIVE: Reveal and COMPLETE 3 secret SUBQUESTS.

Current progress: Complete

REWARD: New ASPECT

New (Third Eye) ASPECT Unlocked!

SCAN+ now reveals additional information about PLAYERS and monsters.

That was… unexpected. Of the three No Class skills, it was universally agreed that [scan] was potentially the most useful for support classes. Being able to see how a monster was attacking and basic information allowed players to tailor their strategies before entering battle.

But being able to see more information about other players was simply unheard of. Now all he had to do was check for-

“Jinyoung.”

Seunghyo’s voice snapped him out of his trance. He was still standing in front of the wraith’s corpse.

“We need to move. It’s minus twenty now and we’re out of Fire Stones.”

The onion knight looked at his surroundings and was reminded of where he was. The structure lay in ruins and cold winds freely blew into the space.

“Right,” he mumbled. The air was frigid and unless they wanted to battle hypothermia, the party needed to move somewhere warmer.

Seunghyo motioned for him to carry Willow into the gate-lock chamber where Hana was waiting. Jinyoung had Willow’s arm slung over his shoulder and she was slowly coming to.

“Hey, you did great.”

Willow smiled back weakly.

Jinyoung was in high spirits. He was sure that the rest of the party had leveled up with the defeat of the wraith, his own advancements notwithstanding.

“Another quest completed, right, Hana?” he asked cheerfully.

A stony silence greeted him. His sister walked up to where he stood and checked on Willow. Satisfied that she wouldn’t die in the immediate future, she silently walked past them to the gate-lock entrance.

“Seunghyo! Get in here or we’ll leave you behind!”

A few seconds later, Seunghyo’s entered the chamber with a boyish grin on his face.

“Just wanted to grab my bow,” he replied, proceeding his bow for all to see. “Now let me see…”

Seunghyo stared at the control panel thoughtfully before tapping on the keys to wake the system from its slumber. It took two tries, punctuated by a harsh buzzer before Seunghyo entered the correct keycode and the gate-lock mercifully began to creak to life.

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Meanwhile, Hana stared ahead silently, willing the gate to move faster.

“Hey,” Jinyoung offered. “Are we okay?”

The rush of anger made Hana dizzy for a second. In the end, the only thing she could do was scoff.

She turned and looked her brother in the eye. “No, we are not okay.”

Jinyoung was taken aback, but he did his best not to show it. “We made it out in one piece, Hana. That’s a win in my book.”

“Have you lost your mind? We almost died back there. All so you-”

“But we didn’t.”

Hana stared at her brother. She could see him for who he was. Not the well-intentioned but inexperienced player she hoped he was, but the selfish, egotistical and foolhardy boy before her.

“We were seconds from death, Jinyoung.”

“That’s the job, Hana.”

Hana laughed. “Only for heroes, idiots and fools, brother. And I don’t know which you think you are, but there isn’t a difference between them. I would think our father taught you that.”

It was Jinyoung’s turn to turn flush with anger.

“He’s not my father, Hana.”

The gate-lock rolled into place, revealing the entrance to the structure itself.

“I know you have your problems with him, but he’s always been there for me,” Hana said. “And whether you want to admit it or not, he’s always been there for you, too.”

“Except now, right? Where the hell is the great Youngho Ko now, Hana?” Jinyoung shot back.

Seunghyo had his doubts about wading into this family squabble, but over the past few hours he’d realized that the two siblings were missing a piece of vital information. And while their marriage had long since ended, the guilt he felt for not talking to Hana outright weighed on him.

“Wait, your father-” he started. But Jinyoung cut him off before he could finish.

“This is a family matter. We don’t need your opinion of the old man.”

Hana stepped forward and closed the distance with Jinyoung. “Don’t talk to him like that.”

Jinyoung turned to face his sister. And, to drive the message home, he took a step toward her. “Or what, little sister?”

The challenge hung in the air and Willow shivered.

“Hey,” she said weakly. “This is the last thing we need. We’re on the home stretch here. Once we have Seunghyo’s team, we can leave. Jinyoung? Sunbae?”

The siblings stared each other down. Neither wanting to back down or concede to the other. And maybe if nothing had broken the silence, the challenge may have resulted in blows.

“What are you talking about?” Seunghyo asked. “What about the others?”

“Others?” Hana echoed.

“Yeah, Hana. I mean, I know we have our history, but I assumed you came here to retrieve Survey Team 1.”

Seunghyo was having a hard time understanding what he was hearing. He assumed that Hana and her party hadn’t been told the full story of the northern barony, but this…

Hana sighed and turned to face her ex-husband. “If they’re with your team, then we can bring them with us. But we’re not here for anyone but you and your team, Seunghyo.”

Hana didn’t notice the look on his face, but Jinyoung did. He clocked it immediately. It was a mix of confusion and a dawning realization.

I know we have our history, Seunghyo had said. But I assumed you came here to retrieve Survey Team 1.

“Seunghyo,” Jinyoung said. “I want you to answer me very carefully.”

The pathfinder took a deep breath. He already knew what Jinyoung was going to ask.

“Who was on Survey Team 1?”

Hana made a face. “Why does that matter?”

But Jinyoung’s eyes didn’t leave Seunghyo’s face. And eventually, Hana turned to face him as well as saw what Jinyoung had seen. All this time, Seunghyo was silent. Not because he didn’t have an answer, rather because he didn’t want to answer. He was hesitating.

“Survey Team 1 was headed by Youngho Ko,” he replied.