Damn Hunter Life Chapter 30
If it were the mouse familiar who had dwelled in Gang-hyeon’s body for a while, he might have realized the reason why Gang-hyeon was losing more life even after awakening.
“Is it because you overexerted yourself at the gate?”
The boy shook his head. While that influence wasn’t absent, it wasn’t the fundamental cause.
{There are those who possess negative qi and those who possess positive qi in this world.}
It was a theory Ja Hyeong-woo also knew.
The abilities of Korean successors followed exactly that theory of yin-yang and five elements. The twelve zodiac animals and five natural attributes.
However, the ‘yin and yang’ of zodiac animals seemed to have no particular effect on skills, so it had been excluded—
The mouse familiar brought this up.
{Whether yin or yang, one must possess the qi they were born with in neither excess nor deficiency. Especially humans who become successors must have qi commensurate with that.}
What he ultimately wanted to say was one thing. The body’s balance. The source that makes blood flow and breath happen, that constitutes a human being.
{But this guy possesses almost none of that energy. He’s close to the dead.}
That’s why the moment he truly awakened as a successor, his body conversely collapsed.
Gang-hyeon must have felt something for sure during the few days after awakening.
He seemed indifferent to his own discomfort. Partly because he firmly believed awakening would cure his sickly body.
Not knowing it was the opposite.
As soon as Ja Hyeong-woo heard those words, his hand covered the small, delicate face. He tried his best to remain calm, but his fingers were already trembling as he repeatedly confirmed the breathing by gently stroking the tip of the nose with his thumb.
“What’s the reason? Why did Gang-hyeon become like this? Was he like this from birth?”
{I don’t know such background.}
Ja Hyeong-woo bit his lips as he took in Gang-hyeon’s lowered eyelids.
He forgot how Gang-hyeon had treated him all this time. Things like how he never smiled at him were pushed to the back of his mind.
“There’s nothing I can’t do. Tell me if you know a method.”
Then the mouse familiar, the boy, wore a faint bitter smile at the corner of his mouth.
{That’s the first command master gives me.}
The method the boy suggested was simple.
{Master should share your energy.}
Because the explanation was too brief, Ja Hyeong-woo didn’t understand.
“How…?”
{Breathe into him.}
He got a clue from seeing what Gang-hyeon did to awaken Hae Mi-jun’s water affinity.
The mouse familiar himself had even been used as a test subject by Gang-hyeon beforehand. Thanks to that, he well understood the effects.
That successors could share power through acts like exchanging bodily breath, water, soul, and other contacts.
Ja Hyeong-woo’s bewilderment didn’t last long. The body temperature touching his fingers was too cold, making all other thoughts fly away.
It would be like artificial respiration.
He knelt on the floor beside the bed. He immediately pressed his lips gently against Gang-hyeon’s.
The sensation of biting something firm and tender. Ja Hyeong-woo’s earlobes reddened slightly from the strange texture that flustered him.
However, he didn’t stop. With his tongue tip, he parted the red entrance, penetrated between the teeth, and filled the inside with his breath.
The temperature touching the mucous membrane was so, so cold. Finding it excessively pitiful, Ja Hyeong-woo unconsciously moved by instinct.
He pressed down Gang-hyeon’s tongue flat and carefully explored the interior. He swept the even teeth with his tongue and gauged the location of the throat, bumping against the roof of the mouth. As if feeling his way around everywhere, he gently pressed the inner walls and cheeks.
Gang-hyeon, who had been still no matter what was done, started flinching from then on.
“Mmng…”
Fortunately, bodily responses returned.
Uncomfortable with the sensation of unfamiliar energy penetrating his body, he whimpered in his sleep. He made completely different sounds that just hearing them made strength gather in one’s waist.
“Mm, uhh.”
Like someone just freed from paralysis, Gang-hyeon twitched. The constantly returning reactions made Ja Hyeong-woo troubled by the thought that he was molesting a sleeping person, but the gradually budding warmth from Gang-hyeon’s body reminded him this act was effective and he forgot about it. The small nasal breathing that began to wheeze touched Ja Hyeong-woo’s nose tip.
Ja Hyeong-woo didn’t even know his own breathing sounds were filling the room indecently.
Saliva rising from under his tongue seeped into Gang-hyeon’s mouth. Ja Hyeong-woo, who quickly found the knack, sucked the soft flesh a bit more strongly. Displaying patience close to enlightenment to avoid interfering with Gang-hyeon’s breathing, he propped his arms on the bed above his head.
While he couldn’t hear his own gasping breath, he heard only this sound. The ‘gulp’ sound of Gang-hyeon momentarily twitching his throat in his sleep to push out the tongue and swallow the saliva that had flowed in.
{…Master, that’s enough. It’s sufficient.}
Ja Hyeong-woo startled and raised his head as if waking from a dream.
He couldn’t guess when he’d lost his mind. He could only be dismayed that the number the minute hand pointed to had changed.
As he carefully got down from the bed, there was stiffness between his legs. Ja Hyeong-woo arranged the strands of hair that had come loose while openly showing bewilderment on his reddened face.
“…It won’t be permanent, right?”
He asked while wiping Gang-hyeon’s reddened lips with his sleeve.
The mouse familiar nodded to tell Ja Hyeong-woo his guess was correct.
{I’ll call master whenever needed.}
He promised while looking into his eyes. There was no sign of lying.
“In other words, you’re saying you’ll voluntarily stay by Gang-hyeon’s side.”
He hadn’t even known that the mouse familiar possessed personality, but it was more surprising that the familiar didn’t particularly refute this statement.
Ja Hyeong-woo had to add his own familiar to the list of those who had penetrated Gang-hyeon’s inner self, besides Hae Mi-jun and Jin Seol-woon.
‘What method did Gang-hyeon use to influence him…’
Whatever it was, he probably treated him more gently and kindly than he does to me.
The heat had already faded from Ja Hyeong-woo’s face. With a face that had become calm as if nothing had happened just moments before, he fiddled with Gang-hyeon’s hair and turned around.
“…When Gang-hyeon wakes up, could you please say this was recovered by your healing ability?”
He forgot he could command and expressed it as a request.
That’s how much he disliked the idea of Gang-hyeon finding out.
What psychology that came from—well, Ja Hyeong-woo himself didn’t want to define it. He only knew it was quite a complex emotion.
His feet stopped briefly at the doorway. Ja Hyeong-woo looked back at the mouse familiar.
“Since when has Gang-hyeon been this sick? Don’t you know this either?”
A question insistently asking about the duration of illness finally fell.
The mouse familiar had met Gang-hyeon relatively recently, so naturally he didn’t know the distant past.
Still, something he knew from accidentally hearing from a third party.
‘The time when Gang-hyeon, who failed to awaken, began to touch alcohol.’
When he was called an alcoholic by everyone, Gang-hyeon was already hiding in his room swallowing pain.
And even to the only friend who cherished him, Gang-hyeon didn’t reveal it for his sake.
A bitter story floated in the mouse familiar’s mind, but his mouth didn’t open easily.
Could master handle Gang-hyeon’s secret that no one in this world acknowledged and only his manager knew?
When the other party didn’t answer, Ja Hyeong-woo walked out without lingering. He assumed the mouse familiar wouldn’t know.
Left alone with Gang-hyeon, the mouse familiar felt guilt toward that guy for the first time.
While brushing the sleeping one’s hair to the side of his forehead, he murmured.
{Since I can’t bear to make master cry with my own mouth, when you’re ready, do it yourself.}
* * *
“Mmm…”
The morning sunlight warmly enveloped my body. I kicked off the blanket and stretched fully.
Ah, I’m late? No wonder the sunlight felt so good.
Won Ha-ri’s murderous gaze waiting for the latecomer was already vivid before my eyes. As I bolted upright, something bounced off my chest with a thud.
“What are you? Squeaky.”
A blue mouse smaller than my fist rolled over my body and fell between my legs. Soon an annoyed voice was heard.
{The tardy one is quite noisy too.}
“Didn’t you go to Ja Hyeong-woo? Did you go and come back? Why did you return?”
Squeaky replied a bit late, as if the current situation wasn’t welcome.
{…The way to help master is to monitor you.}
“Ah shit, did Ja Hyeong-woo send you back?”
Well whatever, regardless of this guy’s intentions.
“I was actually sick yesterday, but I’m fine today. Did you help me?”
{…}
No answer, but it seems right. My head naturally cleared up.
Though my body wasn’t cured, at least I learned one temporary measure—where is this not good?
“Squeaky. You were precious. Since you were gone, I realized your preciousness. Don’t leave me now.”
{Ridiculous talk.}
I think I’m someone who needs a healer by my side day and night. Even if Ja Hyeong-woo begs for Squeaky back, I absolutely won’t give him up.
When I went to the training ground (receiving Won Ha-ri’s contemptuous gaze for the latecomer) and tried attribute affinity training again.
‘It works right away!’
Earth energy burst out at once. It felt exactly like the training ground floor was being filled with soil starting from me. It was a sensation like actually experiencing moist earth scent and warm sunlight.
‘Right, the problem was not having the mouse familiar. That’s why yesterday’s training didn’t go well, and I got dizzy while shooting arrows.’
[Do you have leisure for other thoughts? Would you like to swing the sword 20 more times?]
“No! Ah, no.”
Of course, just because I got a dedicated healer doesn’t mean my terrible stamina improved.
To confirm whether attribute skills really worked well, instead of going to physical training, I headed to another room inside the training ground.
[Attribute Skill Simulation Laboratory]
This looks like an empty room with nothing in it, but once you enter, the room’s airflow automatically changes according to the registered successor’s attribute.
Most importantly, this room doesn’t transmit shocks to the outside no matter how much chaos you create with skills. And it’s an all-purpose space that even automatically resets the mess when you’re done using it.
==
<Grave of the Dead (Earth Attribute)>
==
Thump!
Soil erupted from beneath my feet. A shockwave stretched like lightning following the direction the sword pointed. Boom—! A tremendous noise rang from the wall that took the direct hit.
“Whew…”
My whole body tingled. I dropped the sword and pressed my hand to my chest. My heart was pounding too hard.
‘At least I didn’t vomit blood like last time, but what to do with this frail body.’
Click.
The sound of a door opening came from behind.
I turned around, then saw the dark blue clothes filling the doorframe and shut my mouth.
“…So you are training.”
It was Ja Hyeong-woo. Since he made an irritating soliloquy as soon as he came, I glared at him first.
“What’s your business? I have nothing to do with you. I’m even training now, so do you have leisure to do other things? Is this what people call the top healer?”
I poured out criticism rapid-fire without giving Ja Hyeong-woo a chance to say anything more behind. That way he’d get sick of me and go train.
As expected, Ja Hyeong-woo, whose words were blocked, looked me up and down a bit more, then suddenly took a step forward.
“What? Why are you coming? Stay there.”
“…You look fine.”
“Do you wish I wasn’t fine?”
After snapping at him, something seemed strange.
‘Why is he suddenly checking if I’m okay?’
The guy stared at me intently.
Those eyes whose intentions I couldn’t grasp seemed to hold the time around me so it couldn’t flow normally.
As we stared at each other, I suddenly felt my mind becoming distant, but because I disliked this mysterious feeling, I raised my guard sharply.
“Close the door and get out!”
I deliberately shouted more fiercely. But at that moment, all the soil beneath my feet rumbled.
Because I was concentrating on Ja Hyeong-woo and neglecting to control the soil’s energy, this damn soil attacked Ja Hyeong-woo as if it had developed a will, following my jagged emotions!
“Wait, hey!”
Not knowing what to do, I reached out my hand, then ran over. If I block with my body first, that should work! I charged intending just to ram into him, then actually collided with Ja Hyeong-woo.
“Agh!”
Ja Hyeong-woo’s chest was like some cliff face. Ja Hyeong-woo’s arms caught me as I hit my shoulder and was in pain, then because even the ground beneath our feet turned to soil and sank down, we fell together.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
