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Chapter 4. Secret
Doun left his house wearing a mask and hat. He was heading to the psychiatrist he regularly visited. As he entered the hospital with its calm, soothing interior design, his heart felt strangely at peace.
In the past, he would feel suffocated and stifled, but recently it was just the waiting time that felt boring. Even that boredom had disappeared since joining Yeoun—he was too busy checking the group chat that rang constantly at all hours of the day.
“Lee Doun-nim. You may enter the counseling room.”
“Yes.”
When his turn came, the psychiatrist he met again asked about his recent situation, and Doun gave a brief explanation. He had decided to return to being a hunter and had recently been meeting people.
“How have you been feeling about that, Doun-ssi?”
The psychiatrist spoke carefully while quietly observing his patient. His patient definitely had a slightly different expression from his last visit.
Counseling begins the moment a patient enters the counseling room. When comprehensively judging things like gait, movements, facial expressions, and tone of voice, he definitely felt a change. The doctor judged it to be a positive sign.
“I felt a little happy.”
“And?”
“And…”
Doun couldn’t easily continue his words. Actually, it wasn’t just a little happy—he had been very happy. He felt like he had been confirmed that he could mix back into society, and sometimes he was even confident that with people like these, he could eventually overcome the shitty depression that had consumed him.
“I thought they seemed like they’d become really good colleagues, something like that.”
“That’s good. And how have your extreme thoughts been lately?”
“Uh… I think I hardly had any recently.”
“Based on what you’ve told me today, I think it might be okay to reduce your medication a bit.”
“Really?”
“Actually, these depression medications aren’t something you can stop all at once, so it might be a bit frustrating, but…”
More depression patients than expected think slight improvement means complete recovery and extremely abruptly stop taking medication. Many cases return to the hospital after realizing their symptoms have returned.
They thought their depression was completely cured. They said they thought it was like a cold of the mind, so they believed taking medicine briefly would completely cure it.
His patient sitting in front of him was also one who was very tired of symptoms that wouldn’t easily improve and habitually only wanted medication prescribed. When the psychiatrist, worried that he might use slight improvement as an excuse to stop medication, casually added this, Doun smiled slightly and answered.
“No. It’s fine. I’m not frustrated. The medication being reduced means my condition has still improved a lot, right?”
“That’s right. The frequency of extreme thoughts has decreased a lot, and the bonds with people and such behaviors you gain while adapting to a new environment…”
The doctor continued his explanation while looking at the man sitting in front of him. He had definitely brightened up a lot compared to the last consultation. It was a morning where he felt small satisfaction as a psychiatrist.
* * *
Yeoun Guild’s Conference Room 1.
All members of the so-called ‘Magnetic High-Pass Elite Gathering’ were assembled.
“Hyung. We have an opinion that we unanimously came up with while going through the 45th floor the day before yesterday.”
Samin began while sipping his iced americano.
“If hyung is okay with it, we’d like to go through the 46th floor today, check the time it takes and our condition, and if it seems fine, we want to try breaking through the 47th floor right away too. What do you think, hyung?”
Doun organized his thoughts for a moment. Unlocking two floors in one day. Unlike the past when he always entered towers focused on conquering the highest floors, he definitely felt behind. In the past, he wouldn’t have even thought of such a thing.
“I don’t mind as long as everyone else is okay with it. Actually, I feel kind of sorry.”
When Doun gave an indifferent answer, Kim Chansol quickly chimed in.
“What’s there to be sorry about! If you really feel sorry, just take a selfie with me later.”
After setting the national record for conquering the 45th floor, Kim Chansol, whose mood had reached its peak from the pouring attention, would spring up even from sleep if someone mentioned Magnetic. He was worried someone might snatch away his precious attention totem that satisfied his interests.
“Doun hyung. Ignore him. Kim Chansol has gone crazy lately from getting high on attention. Look at his eyes. He looks completely insane.”
Rain Work Do Hyeonwoo, sitting next to him, covered his mouth with his hand and whispered loudly. While Doun was frozen, not knowing how to react, Cooler Kim Siwon looked at his phone and laughed.
“Ah, Sangyeon just sent me a gift card asking me to switch with him just once. He’s really cute.”
“Tell him to practice rock-paper-scissors first.”
Kim Chansol snorted, and Samin ignored the chatter and summarized the conclusion.
“Alright. Since Doun hyung said he’s okay with it too, let’s go with conquering the 46th and 47th floors consecutively today.”
Samin looked at Doun sitting next to him. His profile, stiff with tension, was too dangerous for his heart. He decided to remember this sensation of wanting to burst something and use it when beating up magical beasts in the tower.
* * *
“Am I really standing as main?”
Doun gripped his staff nervously and looked behind him, asking quietly.
The 46th floor of the tower they entered again after breaking through a more complex crowd than expected. Opposite to the 45th floor which resembled a tropical climate, a vast snowy field in bitter cold that made breath visible spread out widely.
“If not Lee Doun, then who’s going to be the main dealer?”
Samin asked back with his arms crossed, and the group including Kim Chansol enthusiastically agreed.
“We’ll all support you! Just move around comfortably!”
“Even if you just walk around without using skills, we’ll take care of everything.”
Doun was a bit flustered. He wondered what they would do if he really did nothing but walk, but then he remembered Samin’s words about dealing with magical beasts on floors in the 50s, which were higher than the 46th floor where he stood, and felt reassured.
“Then I’ll be counting on you all.”
Doun politely bowed his head slightly and gripped his staff.
The crunching sensation of snow stepped on under his shoes and the cold that seeped into his skin brought him back to reality.
As Doun moved forward, what had looked like a hill raised its body and shook off clumps of snow. The massive body instantly gave tremendous pressure to Doun and everyone else.
It was so tall that you had to crane your neck up to see what was presumed to be its head. Based on information he had acquired from videos and knowledge his colleagues had given him, Doun detected the number of magical beasts surrounding them.
5 beasts.
It was a number of entities well within the range he could handle alone.
Doun drove his staff into the ground. The black sphere that shot out like lightning from the staff buried in the softly piled snow responded to the caster’s will and carved a mark on the enemy’s body.
Stigma.
Along with a flash, it was the signature attack skill representing Hunter Magnetic. The black sphere that attached to the defensively exposed form changed into geometric patterns combining curves and straight lines, and in the brief moment Doun’s eyelids closed and opened.
Dark red light burst from the pattern.
Before the brilliant light reflected on the pure white snowfield gradually faded, the massive body that had created enormous shadows and intimidation lost its strength and collapsed.
Thud, the heavy mass buried in the snow scattered huge amounts of snow.
It was instant death.
Combat ended in an instant without a single drop of blood or piece of flesh flying. Just as the guild members who had been about to provide support from behind were about to feel wonder.
Beyond the sight line that wasn’t secured due to the rising snow, a massive group running at dramatically fast speed was detected. By his calculation, collision would occur in just 2 seconds.
‘Wait. This wasn’t in the conquest videos?’
Doun urgently accelerated his thinking without even being able to look back.
Since it was a variable caused by his own attack, the responsibility was his.
With his two eyes emitting blue light, he detected the speed and number of enemies charging toward this place while devising the optimal skill combination.
‘Stigma can handle 8 beasts maximum simultaneously. There are 21 now. Can’t use it. Collision in 1 second. Mana is sufficient and to cover up to the rear…’
His thinking, accelerated to its limit, derived the optimal skill to protect everyone.
Lee Doun didn’t want to lose the precious people he was just beginning to want to become close with.
‘I thought they seemed like they’d become really good colleagues, something like that.’
The inner feelings he had confessed to the doctor yesterday like a confession were real.
He wanted to keep being part of the noisy dinner gatherings, and he wanted to keep seeing the faces that smiled at him. Though he had pretended otherwise, Doun’s wish to protect every single hair of those he wanted to call colleagues drew out a skill he hadn’t used once since the 20th floor.
Annihilation 沒殺.
The multicolored light that shot out like lightning from the staff driven into the snow field again as if in anger enveloped the grotesque things.
It was a manifestation of light that killed everything existing within the range perceived by the caster without leaving a trace. The remains of the magical beasts that vanished in an instant transformed into gentle light and began to envelop the guild members.
As if protecting them.
The caster’s determination, vivid to the point of being desperate, permeated completely into his colleagues’ bodies. Though it was cold enough to see their breath, the light was mysteriously warm. It was another form of camaraderie.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
