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The burning, terrible pain disappeared like a mirage. And from behind came the groan of someone he didn’t want to hear.
“Kheuk.”
At the sound that laid bare raw pain, Doun’s eyes turned murderous.
When he whipped his head around, Samin, who had transferred all of Doun’s injuries to himself, was kneeling on one knee on the ground, breathing heavily.
‘That crazy bastard…!’
Doun swallowed the curses rising from within. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he randomly pulled out mana recovery potions from his inventory. There was no time to check what grade they were. After dumping everything he could grab into his mouth, he immediately ran toward Samin.
The pain had vanished without a trace, but the memory of experiencing that pain hadn’t disappeared. The emotions left by the pain that had felt suffocating were still vivid.
But this is the tower.
There’s no leisure to chew over emotions repeatedly like when he was holed up alone at home, wallowing in misery.
Whoosh!
The mana that had begun to surge again whirled around. Where Doun’s gaze, boiling with murderous intent, landed was behind Samin’s back.
The mana rapidly rising from the effects of mana recovery potions worth tens of millions of won was more welcome than ever. Without thinking ahead, Doun chose the most inefficient and irrational skill for this situation.
In the bright red landscape visible only to Doun’s eyes, there were only two things: what must be killed and what must not be killed.
In the brief moment of inhaling, he first excluded the precious people. Everything else had to die here.
Just as he was about to unleash his skill without hesitation in his irrational state.
‘Mmhm. Right. The tree roots at the gate have to suck up the magical beasts’ blood and turn red for the door to open. Our baby is so sharp? Ahhh, he said it’s okay to call him baby when we’re alone!’
Samin’s playful voice seemed to forcibly reconnect his severed rationality.
‘Fuck.’
He’d need to kill every magical beast that had set foot here to feel somewhat better. But after killing them all, there would only be clear losses that couldn’t be disguised with any words.
His own mana depletion as the main dealer, delays in opening the gate to the floor boss, the disappearance of corpses from which magic stones couldn’t be collected, and the burden other guild members would have to bear during his mana recovery time.
Whoop!
Doun’s vision, which had been dyed completely red, regained its color. The enormously surging mana subsided, and Doun barely managed to compromise with himself.
“Doun hyung!”
Seo Subin’s urgent cry was heard. After entrusting his share of magical beasts to Seong Suyeon, he had immediately run over and was pouring heals on Samin.
The two were exposed defenseless. Samin, who had taken on the injuries alone, was currently unable to fight, and Seo Subin’s situation was the same as he had to treat such injuries.
“Duck!”
At Doun’s short shout, flashing light burst forth.
‘If they need that damn blood, I’ll just spill it for them!’
Doun sliced up the magical beasts that had been rushing toward Samin and Seo Subin. It was completely different from previous conquests where he had at least not damaged the magical beasts’ forms and only cut off their breath.
Among the shattered corpse pieces, even magic stones lay scattered on the ground, cut up. The ground strewn with entrails, bone fragments, and muscles was soaked in blood and squelched.
“…”
As soon as Seo Subin’s vision recovered from the flashing light, he quickly shut his mouth at the scene before him. It was fortunate he had skipped lunch before entering. It would have been better to watch Samin’s gaping side healing instead.
‘Why are Doun hyung’s eyes like that again?’
It wasn’t the excited look of someone immersed in battle. The sinister atmosphere was clearly revealed, with anger rising to the top of his head, seeing nothing, even feeling murderous intent.
“Kyung Samin.”
With the lingering afterimage of skill light particles at his back, Doun murmured in a low voice. Samin looked up at Doun while kneeling on one knee.
“…”
“…”
It was difficult to read whether the emotion in his eyes, which had a strange moisture, was anger, sadness, or some other feeling.
Was it because of the strong scent of death rising from the pool of corpses Doun had dismembered? The magical beasts the group was still confronting no longer rampaged excitedly over their kin’s deaths. Rather, hesitation was mixing into their previously fierce charging movements.
“Let’s finish the conquest first. You… Huu, let’s talk later when we get home.”
Doun uncharacteristically let out a long sigh in the middle of his words to forcibly compose his emotions.
“…Yes.”
Samin squeezed out an answer, overwhelmed by Doun’s momentum.
“Subin. Do you need more time to heal?”
Doun looked around and asked Seo Subin dryly.
“Ah, no. The healing is done. Not all internal injuries are healed, so he needs to drink a grade 3 potion and wait a bit.”
“Drink it.”
As soon as Subin finished speaking, Doun curtly told Samin. As Samin immediately took out a potion, he glanced at the blood on his hands holding the potion bottle.
‘Hyung seems angrier than I thought…’
When their eyes met, Doun gave him a brief look, then twitched his eyebrows and turned his head away first.
‘I’m in big trouble.’
Samin instinctively realized that his lovely soft tofu was seriously angry.
Doun unhesitatingly pulled out a mana recovery potion from his inventory. Judging by the color, it was grade 2.
He knew that his mana consumption must have been extreme, so there was no other suitable choice. However, frequent consumption causes side effects. It was when Samin was quickly emptying his potion while worrying about Doun.
Crack!
Doun, who had drunk his mana potion at similar timing, smashed the potion bottle with his hand. Destroying potion bottles consumed during battle like this was standard practice. They could become obstacles for others if left rolling on the ground.
However, because of Doun’s murderous look that he was seeing for the first time, Samin couldn’t help but gulp.
“15 seconds left!”
Hong Chan’s shout was heard as he checked the minimum time for the castle wall to open. The sounds of explosions and clashing weapons from various places quickened.
Doun stayed alert of the surroundings, preparing for magical beasts that other guild members missed to rush at the recovering Samin. His face was expressionless as he casually smashed flying rocks with his staff along with the mana rising in his body.
“Um, Samin hyung. I know this is a fucking tactless question at this timing, but may I ask why you two are going to talk at home…”
“Because we live together.”
“What?”
“Doun hyung and I live together.”
“That… Ah? I see.”
Seo Subin’s eyes widened before he quickly nodded first. Though many questions arose, the gate was opening right before their eyes.
Seo Subin turned his head. Doun, silently staring at the gate, hadn’t looked this way even once after Samin’s recovery was complete.
* * *
[Your alliance has successfully conquered floor 54.]
[Time taken after entry: 2 hours 11 minutes 43 seconds.]
[Alert: This record is a new South Korean record for Veritas Tower floor 54.]
[Sorting by highest contribution calculated by Veritas System.]
[Loading information…]
[Calculation complete.]
[1. Magnetic]
[2. Slope]
[3. UpKite]
.
.
A popup appeared announcing the successful completion of conquest. However, instead of chatting as usual while catching their breath, the Yeoun Guild members were reading one person’s mood.
The face irritably dismissing his staff was handsome enough to be acknowledged even by his fans and antis. However, the atmosphere felt murderous.
“Hey.”
There was only one person in the guild that Doun would call with such an unreserved form of address.
Samin glanced at Doun like a dog that had caused trouble and was reading its owner’s mood, only rolling his eyes.
“…Me?”
When he deliberately stalled and asked back as if questioning whether he was being called, Doun’s neat eyebrows twitched. It was clearly an upset face.
“Yeah. You.”
“Why… why me?”
Samin bought time by wiping the sweat flowing down his chin with the back of his hand.
‘I’m fucked. Our baby is really seriously angry. Look at that murderous tone… That time he got annoyed when he first came to the guild building was nothing.’
When Doun got annoyed, he would glare, openly scold, or throw direct jabs asking if he was crazy. He had never looked at someone with such murderous eyes. That’s why Samin was extremely tense and swallowing nervously at this first-time sight of Doun.
“Come see me for a moment. I have something to say before we leave the tower. Follow me.”
At other times, guild members would have chimed in asking if the rank 1 was disciplining rank 2, but they all pretended not to notice the menacing atmosphere of Doun they were seeing for the first time. They pretended to clean their weapons, fidgeted with potion bottles, and made trivial remarks about whether they could help with collection.
When Doun didn’t feel anyone following behind him, he frowned and huffed. He didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere any further in a place where others were still together.
Pressing down the emotions that had risen to his throat, Doun bit his lips. Then he urged Samin in a somewhat softened voice.
“Samin, what are you doing not following hyung?”
Then the hesitating Samin quickly followed. His face was such that if he had a tail, it would definitely be wagging frantically.
“No, I thought if I stuck close right after conquest ended, hyung might be hot. I was about to follow right away?”
Though it was an obviously coquettish tone, Samin was still reading Doun’s mood.
‘Our baby… still has a stiff expression.’
Samin had a feeling that this time, Doun wouldn’t let it slide easily.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
