Chapter 3
Yeonwoo watched Chahun’s upturned lips as he folded space, causing a ringing in his ears.
Tsk. It hadn’t been long since he’d received Guiding.
Clicking his tongue, Yeonwoo followed Chahun’s back with his blurred vision. Chahun leaped forward and thrust his spear into the same spot with a posture so identical it was eerie. Yeonwoo rushed forward, dodging the dragon’s swinging tail, and grabbed Chahun’s outstretched hand.
As soon as he folded space, the mana core squeezed his heart. Enduring the discomfort, he reached out, but the hand he caught wasn’t Minyoung’s—it was Chahun’s.
Seriously, no matter how excited this bastard is, he should at least consider other people’s condition.
Even when Yeonwoo tried to push him away, Chahun kept holding onto him. A potion bottle was placed in his hand as he tried to escape. No way. Biting his lips, Yeonwoo hastily ripped off the cap. Despite the terrible taste making him gag, he forced himself to swallow the potion, pressing down on his tongue. Even after swallowing it all, the nausea was so strong he couldn’t open his mouth for a while.
“Where is Guide Do Minyoung?”
“He passed out.”
Following Seo Yujin’s finger, Yeonwoo saw Minyoung lying flat on the ground. It was impressive he had endured this long with those injuries, but Yeonwoo couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“Will we be okay without him?”
“We’ll have to manage.”
Knowing it was empty but tilting the bottle out of regret anyway, Yeonwoo opened his bag to check the remaining potions. Three low-grade potions. When he looked at Yujin, she shook her head with a heavy sigh. He hadn’t expected much from the supplies issued to a C-rank esper in the first place, but seeing the empty hands made him sigh in frustration.
“Looking for these?”
Chahun, who had been watching Yeonwoo, opened his auxiliary bag. Five bottles. Not many, but from their different color compared to Yeonwoo’s potions, they were clearly high-grade. While Yeonwoo and Chahun divided the potions, Yujin, who had been slowly pouring healing potion into Minyoung’s lips, looked around.
“I’ll go collect some potions.”
As Yujin hid Minyoung in a corner and cast a barrier, Chahun approached.
“Do potions spawn in dungeons?”
“No?”
When Yeonwoo looked up with an expression that said ‘what are you talking about,’ Chahun gestured toward Yujin who was walking away. As Yeonwoo stared at Chahun’s clueless face, he rolled his eyes. If I tell him honestly, he’ll probably be shocked.
“There are people who don’t need potions, even if they have them.”
Trying to be as indirect as possible, Chahun frowned as he considered this.
“Is that allowed?”
What wouldn’t be allowed? It’s not like having a potion can bring you back to life.
Yeonwoo stretched out fully and grabbed Chahun’s hand, which wore an uncomfortable expression.
“Let’s go.”
At the signal, Chahun’s eyes immediately sharpened.
Space folded, and with a sound like breaking glass—or shattering scales—the dragon screamed. After grabbing Chahun and fleeing immediately, Yeonwoo collapsed to his knees.
“Just a moment, just a moment please.”
Yeonwoo tore away from Chahun’s hand and opened his auxiliary bag. His hands shook violently as he opened the potion. He managed to remove the cap, but his trembling hands made it impossible to drink. As Yeonwoo struggled to drink while clutching his chest and gasping, Yujin rushed over.
Chahun, who had been watching out for the dragon, also hurried over. Yujin held down the struggling Yeonwoo and handed the bottle to Chahun.
“Pour it in.”
Even as he poured, more than half the potion spilled down Yeonwoo’s chin because of his twisting tongue.
“What’s going on? Why is he like this?”
After confirming that Yeonwoo had swallowed the potion and calmed down, Yujin sighed and answered.
Low-rank espers had limitations with their mana cores. When a mana core overheated, they needed to rest a bit while using abilities, but since he couldn’t do that, he was having a mana seizure.
As an S-rank, Chahun probably still had reserves, but C-rank Yeonwoo must be near his limit by now.
At Yujin’s words, Chahun looked at Yeonwoo with a pale face. When he’d suggested resting and Yeonwoo said it was fine, he must have meant it was fine to die from a bursting heart.
“Shouldn’t he rest then?”
“That would be best, but…”
At Yujin’s words, Yeonwoo shook his head and stood up.
He knew he should rest, but there was no time. Dragons had healing abilities. Every moment Yeonwoo took to catch his breath, the dragon’s wounds would heal. Moreover, with other magic beasts potentially crossing into the dungeon, targeting Chahun’s tired mana core, they couldn’t just sit around resting.
“Let’s go again.”
When Yeonwoo reached out with a trembling hand, Chahun’s shoulders flinched upward. From his distorted expression and movements, it was obvious he wanted to push him away, but he was clearly worried Yeonwoo would collapse if he did.
Though Yeonwoo could sense Chahun’s concern, somehow it twisted his insides. He really is like a greenhouse flower. Someone else wouldn’t have worried—they would have shoved potions into Yeonwoo’s mouth whenever he struggled and urged him to use his ability quickly. Not because they were a psychopath, but because the situation was that urgent.
What the hell has the center been doing if they don’t even teach this?
“It looks like we’ll be done soon, so we can rest after. You heard the different sound when the spear went in just now, right?”
At those words, a smile spread across Chahun’s face. Watching his expression—part embarrassed, part excited, part proud—Yeonwoo took a deep breath and folded space again.
When he felt the heat beneath his feet, his exhausted body moved reflexively. Following Chahun’s back with blurry vision, folding space, grabbing Chahun’s hand. And then once more, folding space—
“See, I told you to rest!”
Chahun caught Yeonwoo as he collapsed and looked around. Minyoung was still unconscious, and Yujin was nowhere to be seen. Holding Yeonwoo, who was clutching his chest in agony, Chahun pressed on his cheeks. He tried pouring potion between the parted lips, but there was no sign of swallowing.
He tried stroking Yeonwoo’s throat, but the potion only flowed out of his lips.
“Oh, please.”
Chahun became terribly anxious.
Looking at Yeonwoo’s pale face, Chahun roughly ran his fingers through his hair. He should save negative thoughts for the absolute last moment. Hearing Yeonwoo’s breath growing fainter, Chahun supported his nape and filled his own mouth with potion.
He placed his mouth against Yeonwoo’s and let the liquid flow in. Through their connected lips, he felt a small gulp. Chahun stayed with their lips pressed together until all the potion in his mouth was swallowed, then filled his mouth again with the remaining potion.
Intermittently, gulp, gulp, the swallowing sounds grew faster as Yeonwoo reached out and wrapped his arms around Chahun’s neck. Chahun tried to detach the clinging Yeonwoo and offered him the potion bottle, but Yeonwoo just kept pulling him closer.
“No, drink this.”
When Chahun placed the bottle in Yeonwoo’s flailing hand, only then did he desperately bring it to his lips. He drank so urgently that potion dripped down his chin and soaked into the ground.
Yeonwoo’s hand fell with a thud as he tilted the empty potion bottle. As Chahun wiped his messy chin, he noticed Yeonwoo’s eyes were unfocused. Should I feed him more? As he rummaged through his auxiliary bag, Yeonwoo reached out and grabbed him as if urging him to hurry.
“I’ll give you more. Just a moment—”
It wasn’t urging.
As Yeonwoo pulled Chahun, Chahun simultaneously wrapped his arm around Yeonwoo’s waist.
The rock that had been hiding them shattered, revealing the dragon’s golden eyes. The moment Chahun met that horizontally slit pupil, his vision distorted terribly. The feeling of his entire body being disassembled and reassembled—a sensation he couldn’t get used to no matter how many times he experienced it—made Chahun shudder as he caught the collapsing Yeonwoo.
“Keu…”
While Yeonwoo gasped for breath so painfully that just hearing it made it hard to breathe, he opened his auxiliary bag. Chahun, who had scattered ice spears randomly to divert the dragon’s attention, ran over and supported Yeonwoo.
He cradled Yeonwoo, who couldn’t even lean against him and kept sliding down, and tilted the potion. But it only moistened his lips without being properly drunk.
Chahun grasped Yeonwoo’s hand, which weakly held the potion bottle, and poured mana potion into his own mouth—but immediately grimaced. The foul smell was one thing, but the moment it touched his tongue, he gagged.
“What the…”
It was a horrible taste.
Clicking his tongue at the indescribable flavor, Chahun looked down at Yeonwoo in his arms. Chahun adjusted Yeonwoo, who was barely breathing, and filled his mouth with the potion. This tastes disgustingly awful. As Chahun grumbled and slowly poured the liquid, Yeonwoo, apparently growing impatient, abruptly stuck out his tongue.
Chahun gently opened his mouth and tightly shut his eyes.
I never thought I’d have my first kiss in a place like this.
Having such a leisurely thought inappropriate for the situation, after feeding him a couple more times, Yeonwoo, who had been frantically sucking on his tongue, gently pushed Chahun away.
“Are you feeling better?”
Yeonwoo nodded and wiped his face, which was a mess of mana potion and saliva. Chahun watched him, checking the focus in his eyes, and let out a relieved breath. While Yeonwoo calmed his mana core, Chahun looked at the dragon.
The dragon had hidden in a corner, curled up, suggesting their previous attack had been effective.
“Let’s go.”
“It would be better to rest a little more—”
“No. Right now.”
At Yeonwoo’s words, Chahun’s lips quivered, but Yeonwoo firmly extended his hand. Dragons had better self-healing abilities than any other magic beast. If they didn’t finish it now, they’d have to start that whole ordeal from the beginning.
After Yeonwoo’s explanation, Chahun hesitated briefly before taking his hand.
When they rushed forward and Chahun thrust his spear, the dragon let out a scream that seemed to bring down the cave and swung its front paw. Quickly retreating to avoid the claws, Chahun caught the staggering Yeonwoo, and Yeonwoo, gritting his teeth, folded space. As soon as they arrived at the coordinates, Yeonwoo collapsed, and Chahun, supporting him, looked down at the empty auxiliary bag.
“Can espers recharge mana between different ranks?”
What nonsense is that.
Yeonwoo, who had been slowly sucking down the last potion, deeply frowned. He wanted to shout that he was talking nonsense, but only gasping breaths escaped his lips.
After looking at his hand for a moment, Chahun grabbed Yeonwoo’s hand. He slid his fingers between Yeonwoo’s and firmly interlocked them. The mana flowing through their connected palms cleared Yeonwoo’s breathing, but only for a moment. Yeonwoo’s mana core strongly rejected the unrefined mana that wasn’t processed through Guiding.
Holding the struggling Yeonwoo, Chahun continued pushing his mana into him. Whenever Yeonwoo thrashed and tried to push him away, Chahun held him down and pushed in a little more mana, bit by bit.
“Please stop…”
Unable to even scream, Yeonwoo clung to Chahun. At the plea full of whimpering, Chahun checked Yeonwoo’s complexion and slowly unwound their fingers. Sniffling in Chahun’s arms, Yeonwoo checked his mana core. The mana core, which had been on the verge of shattering, had stabilized, and his mana was somewhat replenished.
…So this is possible. This is what they learn in Zone A…
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
