Chapter 108
< Cracked Magic Stone (2) >
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I took out the cracked magic stone from my inventory . As if he had felt something, Peace growled softly and showed wariness . Chirpie also stared with its eyes round . Though its eyes were always round .
“Is that… a magic stone?”
Yoohyun said, frowning slightly . With him being uncomfortable like Peace, I thought that there was something like bad energy spilling out from the cracked magic stone that I couldn’t feel .
“It’s the magic stone of the guy you contracted with . ”
“……What?”
The bitter expression quickly contorted . It seemed like he was shocked and it also seemed like he was angry . Seeing how he was grinding his teeth, it must be the latter .
“Why does hyung have that? Does that mean you faced a guy who could make a L-Rank curse contract… shit!”
“Should I say I faced him? Calm down and listen . ”
“Sung Hyunjae, that damn bastard, couldn’t properly protect you and still-!”
He growled like he would go barging into Seseong Guild right away, but he didn’t actually storm out . Instead, he turned to look at me with eyes full of worry and uneasiness mixed together .
“…Did you really only get hurt in the leg? Tell me truthfully, hyung . ”
Yoohyun said, grabbing my wrist . At the interrogation asking if I didn’t get caught in a curse or other skills, I replied that I was okay . Since it was true that only my leg was hurt for my real body .
As I pacified my brother, I told him about what had happened . I omitted the random kidnapping case, and explained that after we beat back MKC and Soodam attacking, I released Sung Hyunjae’s contract, when a dragon human type appeared .
“The curse and poison dragon king’s owner used a mind-related skill and I was caught, but the system manufacturers appeared and saved me . Laying a hand on me was a type of violation of rules, so they killed that lizard owner and gave the magic stone to me . ”
It was also true that they saved me . I continued, looking back at the still hardened face .
“It was almost a little dangerous, but thanks to that, the lizard bastard was caught . It’s something good . Loosen up your expression a bit . ”
“A little?”
“It wasn’t my real body, and the system side came immediately . I said that side pays a lot of attention, didn’t I?”
Just in case, I should get Water Droplet and Newcomer to keep quiet when I meet them .
“And it already ended well without any particular trouble . Besides that, you know that our world won’t hold out for long, right?”
“…I heard more or less . ”
“And you should’ve heard that if you’re in the high range of S-Ranks, there’s a method for escaping . ”
“I did hear, but it doesn’t really concern me, so I don’t really remember . ”
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Don’t make me laugh . I’m well informed of your record . Was there any reason a guy with a good head would forget that kind of important content?
“What ‘can’t remember’! You should’ve pretended to cooperate just in case, like Sung Hyunjae – why would you just thoughtlessly refuse?”
Yoohyun stared at me a little sulkily .
“If I was going to accept that, I wouldn’t have avoided hyung in the first place . And there would’ve been no reason to avoid you either . ”
“Still, if it was you alone, you could be safe . ”
At that time, too, if he hadn’t taken care of me . Unconsciously, I clenched my teeth . My insides hurt a little .
“…Even if it wasn’t for hyung, they were unpleasant guys . There wouldn’t have been any need to keep on collaborating with them . ”
“They did have a lot to say and were stupid, too . They definitely wouldn’t have been guys you should associate with for a long time . ”
Smiling lightly, I continued .
“Thanks to that, I was able to learn the way to save the world . No, it’s not completely saving, and if we manage and endure the dungeons well, apparently it’ll be safe for about a hundred years . ”
“A hundred years?”
“Yeah . Though the level of difficulty for dungeons will go up more, so it won’t be easy to endure . Still, if we bear with it for about five years, peace will come for a hundred years~ . I don’t know what’ll happen after a hundred years, but would I be alive then?”
But Yoohyun would be alive, and he would be able to leave this world . I just had to build things up so it would happen .
And well, somehow our world’s people could endure again a hundred years later . Since there would already be experience and information stacked up .
“That guy spoke like the likelihood was low, but we just have to hold out?”
“Yeah . Definitely . The lizard owner, who was an obstacle, was disposed of, and the system manufacturers said they would help, so it won’t be that hard . Above all, there are kiseungsu . I’ll raise the monsters well, and Myeongwoo will make weapons, too . Special skill aptitude people will be found, and you heard about Suk Hayan, right? When the research results come out from her team, it’ll be a huge help for managing dungeons . ”
Even when I heard it, my voice was light and bright .
“We just have to suffer for exactly five years . Then, to be content, what should we do? Is there something you want to do?”
The set of his eyes that had been stiff throughout, finally softened .
“Hm, what about hyung?”
“Me? I wonder . ”
I thought of the white tree and the white bird .
“Should I go on a trip? Since I haven’t gone, other than on a school trip . ”
“That would also be good . ”
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I looked at my smiling younger brother’s face . Right now, I should only think of the matters here . There was a lot to do . They were piled up .
“Name your elemental . You didn’t yet, right?”
The fire lizard was wandering around Yoohyun’s shoulder . It was still a young elemental, but it was the purest flame that had been born from an egg . Thanks to the lizard owner guy being a sorcerer from a world without the system, he knew a considerable amount about elementals, too .
The hatching condition was good, and its compatibility with Yoohyun was good enough that they immediately contracted . If he could break out of the mold of the system, he would be able to become stronger much faster than before the regression .
“Don’t just randomly name it and give it some thought, and ask its opinion, too . ”
“Do I have to go that far?”
“Hey, do you know how precious it is? It’ll be a big help from now on, so raise it well . ”
“I’m already feeding it well . And in the equipment storage room, there was a time when it ate up several billions of won worth in one breath, while I wasn’t looking . ”
…It seemed like it had swallowed several high rank equipment or something . High rank magic stones would rather be better; to think that they were items . It was a dangerous fire lizard . Just then, I received a text on my phone . When I checked it, it was Suk Simyeong .
[I will be grateful if you would ask Guild Leader if he could answer his phone . ]
“Team Head[1] Suk is asking you to answer your phone . ”
Though there wasn’t a single vibration sound . Did he just turn it off? At my words, Yoohyun annoyedly took out his cell phone and made a call . Hearing it more or less, it seemed like a complaint had come in because of sweeping away the Rank dungeon building and the surroundings . On top of that, since he turned around and came back after making that mess, it seemed like there was talk about this and that .
“Go over for a moment . ”
“It’s okay . ”
“At least for the peace 5 years later, don’t make pointless enemies . It’ll require a lot of people’s help, so if possible, you should be amicable . It’s not that hard showing your face once . ”
He had an expression saying he really didn’t want to, but he stood up from his seat . Looking at that, I wondered if it wouldn’t suit Yoohyun’s disposition to move around alone, like Riette . If it wasn’t for me, he might have done so . I really did drag him down in various ways .
Yoohyun left, and I placed Peace and Chirpie onto the sofa and stood up . Those two followed right behind me as I walked toward the bathroom . When I closed the door so they couldn’t come in, I heard displeased whining and chirping .
“Wait for a bit . ”
I reasoned with them, and stood in front of the sink . The cracked magic stone, and one more thing . I took out another magic stone from my inventory . It was the SS-Rank magic stone that came out from the dragon human type .
The curse and poison dragon king’s owner . Diarma combined magic stones with magic stones, and made new curse and poison dragons . I saw his skills, so I knew the method . Though I didn’t know if I could use it .
‘The foundation isn’t bad . ’
Dragon Slayer and Perfect Caregiver . If I broke free from the skill effects that the system told me, and just thought of those characteristics, it was appropriate for raising dragon types .
‘Suppression power that can oppress even while carrying a curse and poison dragon type’s magic stone . A strength that can cause growth . And lastly, the combination… should be possible through the Teacher skill . ’
It was a skill that could connect each of the other two . I had these three, so you could see it as having the innate talent for it .
Wouldn’t I be able to fill up the lacking parts with Diarma’s magic stone? Like how Diarma also received help from a teacher of the same species when he was young .
‘Let’s make the center the dragon human type’s magic stone . ’
The to-be-born dragon type’s abilities would differ according to the average of magic stones and the sorcerer’s competence . So there wasn’t a difference which one I used as the main one, but I didn’t want to combine them prioritizing that Diarma guy . It was simply an already dead magic stone, but the bastard who laid a hand on my younger brother should be used as a piece of material .
The closer the region that would carry the magic stones were to the heart, the better the effect was . I loosened and pushed away my shirt, and took out a short knife . The body reflected in the mirror was smooth without a single scar . Since I could get potions and healing skills at any time after the regression . But the wound that would be made would be impossible to heal . Even with that rank, that Diarma guy was covered in scars .
I lightly pierced above where my heart was beating . When I touched the cracked magic stone to the wound, it absorbed the blood as it spread the wound open and went inside . There wasn’t much pain . Maybe he had smelled the blood, because I heard Peace scratching the door .
“It’s okay, Peace . ”
It was still smooth sailing for now . I tried to recall Diarma’s memories, and moved my mana . Using up several bottles of mana potions, I pressed the white magic stone on top of the black, spread out wound . The white magic stone swallowed the black magic stone as if enveloping it . Then, the wound closed and a small scar was left .
I let out a thin sigh . First of all, it was a success . Though I didn’t know what kind of dragon type would be born . Suddenly, I took out a glass bottle from my inventory . The red magic stone tumbling in the bottle softly made tapping sounds .
“Hi, Blackie . ”
If it’s safely born, I’ll bring you out soon, too .
-Kkoooong
As soon as I cleanly cleared things away and opened the bathroom door, Peace stuck onto me . Maybe low-stat Chirpie hadn’t smelled the blood, because it seemed puzzled .
“I said it’s okay . It wasn’t anything . Chirpie, you come here, too . ”
I held them two and returned to the living room sofa again .
I told Yoohyun that it wouldn’t be that hard holding out, but it naturally wasn’t the truth . 50 S-Ranks wasn’t going to cut it . Since the important thing was the quality, instead of the number .
At that, what was lucky was that I had the ability to raise Hunters . Adding onto that, now I got a kid for some time . So there would probably be enough of a possibility .
‘Why would the immoral people have told me to just gather, not raise, 50?’
Thinking it odd, I opened my status window . They had touched it at some point, because the arrows and the trifling words like ‘good luck’ had disappeared . Among my skills, I checked the Last Repayment skill .
[Last Repayment(L) - Upon the death of a keyword-influenced target, receive all the skills and abilities of the target with twice the effect
Duration time: 7 days
※Overlap impossible]
Doubled, and doubled again because it was a curse and poison dragon type . I stroked the wound under my clothes . It was a method I still didn’t particularly want to use . But I needed at least one last measure . A measure to protect my younger brother, and to go find him .
“Starting from tomorrow, I’ll get even busier, so let’s rest for one day today . ”
I hugged Peace and Chirpie and stretched out on the sofa .
I couldn’t return to the rearing facility until the evening the next day, too . Because of settling the matters of MKC and Soodam, I was held up for the entire day .
Two S-Rank Hunters had conspired to murder another S-Rank Hunter .
Obviously, it wasn’t a normal matter . It wasn’t spread publicly yet, but it was an incident that would be enough for the 9 o’clock news to be noisy about for days and days . Thanks to that, Song Taewon had a weary face throughout, despite being an S-Rank Hunter . It seemed like there was no helping mental fatigue .
They had met up with and talked to Sung Hyunjae yesterday, so today was my turn . I excluded the things about Sung Hyunjae’s contract and the filial duty addicts, and explained similarly to what I told Yoohyun yesterday . For Riette’s case, it was handled as her having been employed by MKC, and then stopping when she learned the truth .
“Soodam will probably bear responsibility for the most of the charge, as the mastermind . ”
Song Taewon said, mixed with a sigh .
“MKC still has sturdy backing left, so even though they will suffer a blow, they probably will not collapse . ”
“They certainly live comfortably . Will the Seseong Guild Leader just let it pass?”
When Sung Hyunjae came up, Song Taewon’s expression became darker . It seemed like he had been quite harassed .
“Would something like that happen? He will probably wage war in secret for a long time . He was already provoking MKC over Han Yoojin-ssi’s kidnapping affair, and he caught another big affair……”
The sigh was beyond being heavy, to being earth-shaking . I stared at Song Taewon being like that, and then spoke lightly .
“The Association side is probably also on the stance of letting it pass, right?”
“Yes . As they are not pleased over the balance of the giant guilds collapsing . They wish for the continued rivalry . ”
“Even so, to think that they would close their eyes to undeniable criminal actions . And there is nothing to be done about the confidence in the Association falling, as Hunters . ”
“……For that point, I also do not have anything to say, except for an apology . ”
The heavy voice was burningly bitter . It was definitely unfavorable in various ways to just leave the current Association alone . They would probably keep on dragging people down in the situation where Hunters were getting stronger and had to combine their strength .
‘If Sung Hyunjae had chosen the path to block dungeons and endure before the regression, it might’ve been right that he was the one who killed Song Taewon . ’
It would’ve been a waste of an S-Rank Hunter, but it would’ve been more favorable instead to tear down the Association, with Haeyeon occupying Korea and making it into a community prioritizing Hunters . He probably had tried giving the backstory and persuading, but did it not get through? Or was there a different reason?
“Truthfully, it is also not trustworthy that the Association Head is an Unawakened Person . If Chief Song Taewon was the Association Head instead, I think it would’ve been reliable . ”
At the words mixed with laughter, a crease formed between Song Taewon’s brows . He didn’t answer and let is pass in favor of the details of the compensation .
With the chilly response, I had a hunch that it wouldn’t be that easy to draw him in .
And when I returned home, Myeongwoo was collapsed on the living room floor .
[1] ok this is all abt nuance so tl;dr but anyways, I previously tl’d this as ‘Department Head’ bc the concept of ‘team leader’ (the lit . def of the word used, with ‘team’ being in eng transliterated) seemed different to me in eng vs krn, esp since krn also uses ‘team’ for ‘department’ (ex: human resources department, public relations department, etc . ) . I haven’t heard ‘team leader’ used much formally in eng, so idk if this is right, but it seems to be something like a project leader; the eng title seems smaller scale and less versatile compared to how this word is used in krn (which I’ve seen tl’d from anything to project/team leader to manager to department chief), and anyways for this particularly context, ssm is the head of the human resources department (hence my prev tl) . BUT technically, there is a krn word for ‘department head’, so after some thought, I compromised with ‘team head’, since ‘head’ sounds more formal than ‘leader’ .