Chapter 31

Clean Up

Boosh!

As Park Chang-hee installed the Mana core bombs, he spoke up.

‘A single bomb contains only a few grams of the core, but it is difficult to manufacture, so it’s quite expensive.’

By blowing up the bomb containing a few grams of it, several goblins had their bodies torn apart. In addition to this, the Iponia’s crystal that was thrown blew up a whole Mana core with an intense pressure had erupted from the inside!

Bo-boom!

A blue energy storm rushed in the Mana core. The other cores around it also exploded as a chain reaction.

The blast seemingly tore my ears and vibrated my bones. A mountain of blue flame covered the surrounding. Even with [Mirage Shield], we felt the pressure, heat, and vibration following the explosion.

This alone was not enough.

“This explosion can’t be held by only one item!” I shouted to Secretary Kim.

“Create a Mana shield around the whole body! At full power!”

“Yeah!”

As Secretary Kim clenched his jaw, he concentrated all of the Mana in him to the barrier. I did the same.

Crack! Crrrack!

[Mirage Shield] began to crack. As the cracks increased, the colored barrier made by the item leaked the external shock towards the inside, rather than blocking 100% of the impact.

We then blocked the leaked impact and heat using the Mana barrier.

“Ugh!”

Secretary Kim stumbled. Seeing this, I wrapped my Mana barrier over his.

“…”

Secretary Kim’s eyes widened. It was the first time that he was able to see such use of Mana. He couldn’t feel my Mana. He must have felt his Mana rearrange by responding to something. I supported his shield as if one placed a wooden log to support a structure on the verge of destruction.

Like that, the 10 seconds that passed felt like ten years.

“Ugh!”

The Mana storm that was caused by consecutive explosions of cores finally disappeared.

Blue burning debris rolled around everywhere, and the survivors were only the two of us.

Secretary Kim knelt as if he was deeply fatigued. We were still in the barrier that was created by [Mirage Shield]. Initially, it should be maintained for 3 minutes, so we still had to wait for more than 2 minutes here.

But then…

Flick!

I concentrated Mana in hand and lightly flicked the shield. Then…

Shatter!

The color barrier that protected us shattered, much like a window that had been struck by a metal bullet. It must have reached its limit.

“Should I ask the store for a refund?”

Secretary Kim murmured while bitterly smiling, as he was the one that strongly suggested buying this item. As he said those words, his eyes flipped over, and he fainted.

‘Mana exhaustion.’

It was the side effect of using up all of his active Mana on the Mana shield.

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I took out the Mana potion that I carried in my bag. The active Mana that was available for more than 10,000 was already almost emptied, and as I drank the potion, it returned to about the figure of 5,000.

I approached Secretary Kim as I tried to give him the other bottle of potion. At the same time, I snuck a look at his chest.

The Mana that should be covering my sight while emanating like a fountain was almost invisible. Like the surface of a calm sea, the potential Mana silently settled in the core, and I could observe it inwardly as if I was seeing through him.

When I woke up as Seo Jin-wook, I couldn’t see the inside of the potential Mana in this body. It was like how one would not be able to see the deep ocean floor from outside the water. However, Secretary Kim’s potential Mana was visible, like seeing the shallow water along the shore.

‘There are none.’

The tension dissipated from me.

As the worst-case scenario that I had to be suspicious of Secretary Kim was avoided, I could relax a bit.

‘There is no curse on Secretary Kim’s core.’

Originally, on his list of tasks, there was no obligation to go to the dungeon with me. However, he voluntarily came along.

I had lived 80 years in the past life, and I still didn’t have the answer to such a tremendous question if a man was originally good or evil. The helping hand that approached with goodwill would come back to stab you in your back, and sometimes, the infertile garbage field would bloom a flower.

There was no way to be able to look into what Secretary Kim was thinking about.

However, what I was sure of was that he was the one who stood up for me.

Groan!

As I dropped the Mana potion around Secretary Kim’s mouth, he opened his eyes as he escaped from exhaustion.

Like a person who woke up from a dream, he began to look around, muttering in a dispirited manner.

“So, it wasn’t a dream.”

“I am not sure if it’s a shame or fortunate. Everything is real.”

He stood up with his posture upright. And then he spoke, staring at me.

“Putting everything aside… I should tell you this first.”

What was this, all of a sudden?

Secretary Kim then spoke with a serious gaze.

“Thank you. Thank you for sparing my life. I will repay this grace.”

He then looked around. The bodies of the other two guild members did not even leave a trace. It was comparable to the Ersmann, in which they left a few identifiable body parts.

“What is this, all of a sudden?”

“Because anyone can see it. It is because of the grace of the Team Leader that I was able to live.”

Indeed, it would have been difficult for Secretary Kim to survive had he not interfered with my actions and trusted and followed all my instructions.

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome.”

Secretary Kim, who had thanked me several times that way, suddenly had a change of expression.

“I’m aware that the situation is not the best, but may I ask a few questions before we move along?”

I focused my senses. There was no sign that the latecomers of Ersmann were rushing.

“Carry on.”

Staring at me, Secretary Kim asked once more.

“Who are you, really?”

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*

Inside the cave, where the last screams of blue flames echo everywhere, an awkward silence flowed between Secretary Kim and me.

“Who am I?”

Secretary Kim spoke calmly. His pupils held no excitement, nor did they hold fear.

“I could accept that you did not get angry as before after the accident. The guild members around murmured that beyond the level of having a changed personality, it seemed like another person was wearing the cover of the person but…”

My heart dropped.

“I, for the longest amongst the secretaries, served Team Leader Seo Jin-wook. You asked me the secret of long-term service before, right?”

After jokingly saying ‘life struggles,’ he added.

‘I told you. There are times that it comes back intermittently? Your sanity.’

He then continued.

“Team Leader Seo Jin-wook’s 364 days among the 365 days in a year was filled with instability and anger, but there are times that he kept his sanity. The actions and personality that Team Leader showed then… is very similar to ‘you’ right now. Almost to the point of not being able to understand the scolding of the Guild Master, blaming the weak mental state, in those times, the Team Leader instead showed a strong heart and sound mind.”

He frowned as if he was reminiscing the past, and then continued. “So, I was happy. Finally, the illness that interfered with his sound mind had been cured. It didn’t matter if the reason was the impact on the brain or the aftermath of amnesia. Now, 365 days a year, you can keep a clear mind; I was glad.”

“···”

“However, this isn’t it. The Team Leader Seo Jin-wook of my memories does not have this ability. Finding the bracelet’s function that nobody was aware of could be reasoned with genius Mana control. However, no genius could realize the attack methods of a foreign race they encountered for the first time. Team Leader Seo Jin-wook, who I had been serving for three years, had no such opportunity to acquire that knowledge.”

His voice deepened.

“Among the unique skills and items, there are kinds that can indefinitely maintain the ‘polymorph’ magic beyond the Mask Slime function. If so, where is the real Team Leader? “

I was able to read the determined light from his gaze, realizing that he was risking his life by talking about this, not being able to predict what kind of reaction I’d show.

“···”

I looked at him and spoke.

“Who am I? That is such a weird question. I am Seo Jin-wook.”

When I realized that Choi Seung-hyun’s traces had been entirely erased from this world, I made a decision.

Now I was Seo Jin-wook. I had no choice but to live as Seo Jin-wook.

“But…!”

I intercepted his words.

“And you don’t have to thank me. You don’t even have to swear solemnly to repay the favor. Secretary Kim had already saved my life twice. This is me paying it back.”

One occasion was when he protected me from Gangdong Revival Alliance’s attack before I Awakened, and the other one was…

Secretary Kim, as if he understood what I referred to, loosened his face.

“No way!”

“2035. You saved me then, too.”

It was a thing of the past that only Seo Jin-wook and Secretary Kim were aware of.

[The Successor’s Eyes] was still slowly but steadily gathering and arranging the original memories together. Now, I could see a lot of videos as well.

Three years ago, 17-year-old Seo Jin-wook, tired of the whispers of the curse, made a radical choice and put it into action. Having sensed a strange atmosphere that day, Secretary Kim deliberately did not leave work but stayed by the company house, and found the blood-smothered Seo Jin-wook.

Secretary Kim saved his life with the potion he kept around, and by Seo Jin-wook’s request, who did not want that to be known to Seo Gyu-cheol, the tale of that day had remained between the two.

Secretary Kim’s confused gaze subsided a little.

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However, it seemed that he had not wholly cleared his doubts.

“Let’s talk again once we are out of this place. I can’t tell you everything right now.”

I had no choice but to do this now.

“As the number of persons entered in the system message had decreased to two, the rescue team must be dispatched soon. Let’s quickly clean up first. Change your terminal. We don’t have to reveal what happened here as it is.”

He expressed a complicated emotion, but he must have decided to follow my instructions for now. He began to ask as he stood up.

“···Could the Team Leader have killed Park Chang-hee?”

There was a need to match our words anyway.

“Today, we all moved together and encountered those foreign races, and Team Leader Park Chang-hee passed away with them. And we couldn’t save those two guild members in the process.”

He nodded and collected the debris of dead Ersmann that would serve as the evidence. And he moved along with me to take care of Park Chang-hee’s corpse and the evidence of our battle. Secretary Kim could not close his mouth as he saw our battleground.

When we finished cleaning up, I could feel that the rescue teams were fast approaching.

“Team Leader, can I ask something for the last time?”

I nodded. I guessed his next question as probably, how I managed to grow this fast, and how I could kill Park Chang-hee.

However, what came up was none of those.

“I mean, how the hell do you know to speak cockroach?”

*

As only 2 out of 5 people barely came out alive, the Celestial Dragon Guild and Constitutional Department flipped.

After we had been rescued, they dispatched another expedition team. Still, there was a danger of the ‘foreign race’ to send another expedition team as well, and as the evidence was clear, the expedition team returned and closed the gate.

It was a big accident for the Celestial Dragon Guild that Park Chang-hee died. It covered the headline of the media and conflicting interpretations against the action of saving the life of the successor by sacrificing his own life followed.

Some unique media blamed the incompetent Seo Gyu-cheol for being greedy that got Park Chang-hee killed by assigning weak Seo Jin-wook to a dungeon that he couldn’t handle.

There was a good reason to interpret it that way, yet Secretary Kim explained that to write that way without watching out for Celestial Dragon Guild was because other guilds protect them.

We went through the Constitutional Department’s investigation and internal investigations as well, and the case closed as Secretary Kim and I received a stamp of ‘no charges.’

Sure enough, this must have had quite an impact on Seo Gyu-cheol that he did not nag me on going to another mission, nor did he assign a trainer for me. Thanks to this, I leisurely explored the undisclosed dungeons and continued to absorb Mana cores.

Then one day, Secretary Kim approached me with a serious expression.

“···Assistant Guild Master Han-seol is here.”

She returned to work after having a leave of absence following Park Chang-hee’s death, and she dropped by the company house as she was leaving work.

“Please tell her to come in.”

*

Han-seol tightly hugged me as soon as the door room opened. As I sat down, she asked my regards with words of comfort.

“Losing a colleague is what we have to go through once we have become a hunter. But isn’t it strange? It doesn’t get dull even after repeating it many times. It’s always equally hard and sad.”

Han-seol, saying so, had swollen eyes that were bloodshot. I continued the awkward conversation with complicated thoughts swirling in my head.

She then suddenly asked.

“Jin-wook, I’m sorry to ask this in this situation, but…”

Her face lingered with a light of hesitation. But soon, she opened her mouth with an expression as if she had made a big decision.

Was that all just an act? It almost made me doubt if there was a skill card that enabled such things.

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“I’m sorry. But I couldn’t get it out of my mind as it keeps on lingering.”

She spoke.

“Jin-wook, the unique skill that you taught us at that time. Is the effect the same as how you described it to us?”