Chapter 39
[Is there a problem?]
At the employee’s question, Yeonwoo, who had been looking around inside the container, raised his hand to make an X shape. He had been slowly wandering around the container hoping to hear that auditory hallucination again or get some hints about his previous life, but there was nothing to gain.
Opening the door and slipping out, Yeonwoo covered his mouth in preparation for the rush of oxygen, but a cough immediately burst out. As Yeonwoo forcibly tried to catch his breath, Lee Subin handed him a water bottle.
“Training with you makes me feel like I’m still at the academy.”
Lee Subin, frowning and muttering seriously, opened the water bottle and handed it to Yeonwoo, who was trembling.
“Are you okay?”
Lee Subin patted Yeonwoo’s back as he gagged while drinking water, then pointed at his hollow eyes. Because of those damned nightmares, he couldn’t even remember when he’d last slept properly. As Lee Subin gave him a sympathetic look, saying he looked like a walking zombie, she glared at Jo Heeseo who was emerging from the container.
“Looks like the guide doesn’t even think about guiding when a team member is struggling with mana sickness.”
Despite the sarcastic comment delivered in a raised voice, Jo Heeseo’s gaze at Yeonwoo remained cold. After giving him a look bordering on disgust, Jo Heeseo turned away to look for Bae Jaeyoung.
“When is that one going to come to his senses?”
Lee Subin clicked her tongue watching Jo Heeseo and tilted Yeonwoo’s hand, which was just holding the water bottle without drinking. The mana potion tasted even more disgusting than usual, making him wonder how much they had put in. Even though he gestured that he really couldn’t drink it, Lee Subin forced him to finish the whole bottle. Then she twirled her finger to summon a small bird.
The bird, clutching the water bottle with its two feet, flew toward Choi Dongwon before dispersing in mid-air. Lee Subin, watching Choi Dongwon gag after gulping down the water bottle, looked back and forth between him and Jo Heeseo standing in the distance, and whispered loud enough to be heard:
“Did you know that person has never given me guiding even once?”
It was the same for Yeonwoo. She had at least pretended to guide when training with Seo Yujin, but with Lee Subin, who had seen it all at the academy, she snorted from day one as if to say don’t even think about receiving guiding.
Wondering if it was because he couldn’t receive guiding, Yeonwoo smoothed down his mana core that showed no sign of settling and grabbed a new water bottle to sip slowly.
To calm the mana sickness that came with a slight headache, Yeonwoo used his ability while holding the bottle cap. The cap, which should have appeared about a hand span away, fell from mid-air. Yeonwoo sighed at the sight and snatched the cap.
His ability was misfiring again.
With his arms crossed while holding the cap, Yeonwoo looked down at the floor. Why was his ability misfiring? Did Chahun’s boomerang of causality take his ability away? But that didn’t make sense since his ability had been misfiring even before meeting Chahun. Then is it related to coming back to the past…?
While pondering various hypotheses, Yeonwoo closed his eyes and exhaled languidly. The throbbing headache was subsiding, perhaps due to the mana potion finally taking effect.
“What are you doing?”
Seeing a foot tapping his shoe tip, Yeonwoo shifted his dazed eyes. First, he noticed sloppily tied shoelaces, followed by an equally messy knot at the ankle, and a skewed thigh belt. When his gaze reached the zipper pulled down to the solar plexus, he frowned.
“Zipper.”
At those words, Chahun obediently pulled the zipper all the way up to his neck and squatted next to Yeonwoo.
“I came along because they said we were going on a tour, but I didn’t know hyung would be here… Why does your face look like that?”
Chahun reached out and brushed under Yeonwoo’s eyes. Thinking something was stuck there, he realized it was dark circles. As Yeonwoo briefly leaned into Chahun’s hand, he blinked his heavy eyelids. Seeing Yeonwoo’s drowsy eyes that looked ready to fall asleep, Chahun carefully offered his shoulder.
Lee Subin, who was looking back and forth between them with round eyes, shook Yeonwoo awake as he was about to fall asleep.
“I know you’re tired, but release the dungeon mana before you sleep.”
At those words, Yeonwoo barely opened his eyes and tried to force himself up, but his limbs wouldn’t cooperate.
“Hyung. Get up. They said to release something before sleeping.”
He clearly didn’t know his own strength. Yeonwoo nearly broke his neck from the rough shaking and supported his nape as he slowly got up.
“What do I need to do?”
“What? Huh? What? Me? Uh… you just need to talk or move,”
“Hyung. Get up. They said to talk.”
Following Lee Subin’s instructions, Chahun grabbed Yeonwoo by the waist to help him up, then took his hand and began walking briskly as Yeonwoo staggered drowsily.
“What’s that?”
Chahun pointed at the container and gently shook Yeonwoo’s hand. Checking the structure with blurry vision, Yeonwoo gestured toward the entrance and exit.
“They create an environment similar to gates at those two places, fill it with dungeon mana, and then test whether you can withstand the pressure of the dungeon or not.”
“Haha. That’s right. As expected, Esper Han Yeonwoo knows a lot.”
At the sudden intrusion of an uninvited guest, Chahun stretched out his arm to hide Yeonwoo. The Zone A training center director looked at Chahun with a regretful expression and opened his mouth.
“Even though Esper Han Yeonwoo is C-class, he’s already doing this kind of training… I wonder when our Esper Kang Chahun will receive proper training. Hehehe…”
Contrary to his downturned eyebrows, only one side of his lips was raised crookedly, making it look like mockery rather than concern. He clearly meant “Even a C-class can do it, so why can’t you, an S-class?”
Yeonwoo peeked his head out from behind Chahun’s back and looked up at the Zone A training center director with bright, alert eyes as if he’d never been drowsy.
“Is Esper Kang Chahun not in training yet?”
Chahun’s brow furrowed at Yeonwoo’s head-tilting question. Why is hyung acting like this? His gentle tone was the same, but his voice was a pitch higher, making him sound… artificial, or at least different from usual.
“Well, our Esper Kang Chahun hasn’t been awakened for long. But usually by now, things would be stabilizing…”
Inwardly, Yeonwoo clicked his tongue. Was there something wrong with his eyes? Chahun’s irises were not only tinged with blue but were now glowing with a faint sky-blue light.
It was obvious to anyone that his mana core had stabilized, yet the training center director was shaking his head, claiming Chahun’s mana core was still immature.
The director was muttering to himself about how it would be good to try this opportunity, what a shame there weren’t such opportunities. Disgusted by his nonsense, Yeonwoo turned his gaze to Chahun. Normally, Chahun would have reacted sullenly, asking what the man was talking about, but instead he stood with his eyes closed and arms crossed. Finding something familiar about this scene, Yeonwoo stepped between the training center director and Chahun.
“I was in the middle of explaining the training center. May I continue?”
After the training center director briefly looked down at Yeonwoo and gave permission, Yeonwoo grabbed Chahun’s training uniform and moved away. As they distanced themselves from the Zone A training center director, Chahun, who had been keeping his mouth shut, clicked his tongue in disgust.
“It’s so disgusting. Does he think I’ll contract with the Center by acting like that?”
Watching the grumbling Chahun, Yeonwoo let out a small laugh. He’d been wondering where he’d seen this before—it was just like when Yeonwoo used to run away from employees.
“It’s so gross, really. First he threatened that if I won’t contract, I should pay for using the training center, and did you see how he was provoking me today? He’ll definitely say ‘try this, try that’ during training, and then push a contract in front of me saying ‘try stamping this too.'”
Smart kid.
Yeonwoo unconsciously nodded at Chahun’s words. That was the Center’s method—pretending to do a favor and then later insisting you owe them your life. If Yeonwoo had the ability, he would have torn them apart.
“So what is that thing that makes people come out looking like that? What are gates, and what is dungeon mana?”
When Chahun gripped the railing and pointed to the Espers who were retching, Yeonwoo put his hand to his forehead.
“No, I know! I mean, I know, but you said I need to talk if I’m going to do whatever it is.”
A lie. Ignoring the urgent excuse, Yeonwoo squatted down and rubbed the floor with the water bottle. The moisture from the bottle left a dark mark on the floor.
“If we say this water bottle is Adder, then these traces are gates. Just like a snail leaves a trail when it passes by, gates remain in the places where Adder has passed.”
Since gates are also a part of Adder, you could access Adder through the gates. That’s what a dungeon is. The variety of dungeons was so diverse that it was impossible to guess what kind of being Adder was, and the magical beasts that appeared in them also varied.
“But why eliminate them? Can’t you just leave them alone?”
“Do you know about dungeon breaks?”
Seeing Chahun’s expression that showed he knew nothing, Yeonwoo smiled brightly and lightly shook the water bottle.
“They say Adder generates infinite mana, and if gates that have been living off Adder’s mana break away, they’ll be hungry, right? Hungry gates will indiscriminately consume mana generated in nature, causing the surrounding area to become desolate. As a gate grows larger by consuming mana, when it becomes bigger than the dungeon it contains, the dungeon escapes from the gate—that’s a dungeon break. The devastated areas are called danger zones.”
“Then what are cubes?”
“Think of them as hideouts in danger zones. Since it’s difficult for guides to operate in places without mana, they’re places where Espers can rest while receiving mana.”
When Chahun nodded his head, Yeonwoo let out a small sigh. I wouldn’t want to contract with the Center either. Who would want to contract with a place that doesn’t teach you the basics while threatening and mocking you?
“What about Adder?”
“Nothing has been revealed yet.”
At those words, Chahun looked down at his hands and nodded with an uncomfortable expression.
“I get the gist of it. There are a few things I don’t understand, but just because I don’t understand doesn’t mean I can’t do it, right?”
Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Pondering those words, Yeonwoo nodded. He might not understand why he came back to the past or why his ability was misfiring, but there must be something Yeonwoo could do.
It was just as he was taking Chahun’s outstretched hand to stand up. Chahun frowned and pointed at Yeonwoo’s wrist.
“By the way, it’s been bothering me for a while—what’s that on your wrist, hyung?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
