Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Part 16

“So this is the lantern you were talking about, Brother.”

Mincheol examined the lantern from various angles before handing it to Yugeon.

“That’s right. It absorbs evil energy.”

“By evil energy, do you mean poison or something like that?”

“No. More precisely, it absorbs death energy.”

“Death energy... So I guess it absorbs it and makes it disappear on its own?”

“If this were Mythic rank, it probably would.”

But this was only Heroic rank.

Of course, if he used the hammer on it, it could grow all the way to Mythic rank.

But doing that would instead make it lose its original purpose.

“Let’s go.”

Yugeon fastened the lantern at his waist.

Good grief...

He really needed to get himself a spatial bag.

If he kept hanging items one by one from his waist like this, he was liable to start looking like a traveling peddler.

“Only one left now.”

Yugeon and Mincheol turned around.

The blue flames remaining in the park stretched out in a long line as though seeing the two of them off.

___________

Their final destination was the Hokkaido University Botanical Garden.

A massive glass dome located in the northern part of the city.

“Brother, isn’t it even colder here?”

The moment they entered the botanical garden, Mincheol began trembling violently.

Something was strange.

All of Sapporo was cold, but the chill here was on an entirely different level.

It was so brutally cold that every breath turned into flakes of ice and fell away.

“Of course. That’s the cold that thing is giving off.”

Yugeon pointed toward a small pond in the center of the botanical garden in the distance.

The pond was frozen solid, and in its very center bloomed a single flower glowing an unusually vivid blue.

“Is that... the lotus? It’s pretty, but I feel like I’d freeze to death if I got close.”

Mincheol took one step forward, only to flinch and stop when the snow beneath his foot shattered with a crack.

The cold here was not merely physical chill, but something closer to a curse that froze mana itself.

“Take off your gas mask.”

“Pardon??”

Mincheol was momentarily startled.

But he immediately removed the gas mask.

If Brother gave an order, there had to be a reason.

“Huh?”

“How is it? No poison, right?”

“H-How is that possible...”

“That flower surrounds itself with cold in order to purify the poison. It’s a self-defense mechanism.”

“Ah, so that’s why there’s no poisonous energy here. I didn’t notice because I was wearing the gas mask. But how are we supposed to take that? It feels like my hand would freeze the moment I touched it.”

“You wait here. One mistake and your whole body could freeze solid.”

Yugeon walked toward the pond alone.

Step. Step.

The closer he came to the pond, the more white frost settled over his eyebrows and hair.

A bone-cutting cold.

Even though he was circulating internal energy to generate heat throughout his body, the chill still seeped into his bones.

‘Impressive. It hasn’t even fully bloomed yet, and it’s already this strong.’

When Yugeon drew up even more internal energy, heat haze rose around his body and pushed back the approaching cold.

A clash of force against force.

A contest of will between the flower rejecting approach and the one trying to pluck it.

Crack.

Yugeon walked across the frozen pond and finally stood before the lotus.

Seen up close, it was even more radiant.

The purification power emitted by this single flower was suppressing the poisonous energy throughout the entire botanical garden.

If he planted it at his base later, it would become a perfect Sanctuary where no poison or curse could intrude.

“I’ll move you somewhere warm.”

Yugeon reached out.

Sizzle!

The moment his fingertips touched it, his skin froze and turned white.

The cold tried to travel through his blood vessels all the way to his heart.

But Yugeon did not stop.

He concentrated his energy into his hand and forcibly suppressed the cold.

If he had possessed even slightly less internal energy, he would have instantly become an ice statue where he stood.

‘Good thing I consumed the Five-Colored Poison Pearl beforehand.’

Thanks to that, he could convert poison into internal energy.

And in the end, he was able to avoid being overwhelmed in the struggle against the lotus.

Wooooong!

BANG!

With the sound of the air tearing apart, the barrier of cold surrounding the lotus shattered.

Swoosh.

Yugeon carefully pulled out the lotus.

The roots had to remain intact.

Snap.

Then, as if it had all been a lie, the bitter cold enveloping the surroundings subsided.

【Item: Sacred Flower of the Snowfield】

Rank: Heroic

Type: Installation Item

When planted in the ground, it grows by absorbing harmful energy from the surroundings.

As it grows, its purification range and purification speed increase, and once fully bloomed, it continuously purifies poisonous energy and various forms of contamination within a radius of 10 kilometers.

“Did the flower die?”

“No. It didn’t die. It just went dormant.”

Now he only needed to transplant it into a suitable flowerpot.

Then it would come back to life and begin purifying the surroundings again.

“We’re done.”

The eye, the hammer, the lantern, the lotus.

He had obtained everything he needed from Sapporo.

“Let’s go. It’s time to go home.”

Yugeon moved on together with Mincheol.

_____________

[Today’s overseas news. Reports say that the ‘Death Fog’ hanging over Sapporo, Japan, which has long remained a painful scar, has recently begun to thin.]

[According to the Japanese Association, the concentration of poisonous energy in central Sapporo has decreased by approximately 25 percent or more compared to several months ago. Academic circles believe this may be part of a natural purification process, but the cause of the rapid change remains...]

“Huh? Brother, look at that.”

Mincheol, who had been preparing the meal, pointed at the television.

The screen showed an aerial view of Sapporo filmed from a helicopter.

The city was still tinged purple, but compared to the suffocating murkiness they had personally seen, it had definitely become much thinner.

“They’re saying the poison in Sapporo decreased? Natural purification? Was that stuff something that disappeared on its own?”

“As if.”

Yugeon spoke calmly while flipping the meat.

The poisonous energy did not disappear naturally.

If anything, as time passed, it settled into the ground and became even more toxic. There was no reason it would grow thinner.

“Because I ate it.”

“Pardon...?”

“I drank quite a lot of it while walking around there. My body basically acted as a filter.”

At Yugeon’s words, Mincheol stared blankly with his mouth open.

It was true that while they had stayed in Sapporo, Yugeon had absorbed poisonous energy while saying that even breathing counted as eating.

He had even continued circulating his energy during battle, so in effect, a human air purifier had been running at full capacity twenty-four hours a day.

“Wow... Lowering the poison concentration of an entire city by yourself... Sometimes I really wonder whether you’re the same kind of human as me, Brother.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Eat the meat. It’s getting cold.”

Yugeon picked up a well-cooked piece of pork belly and ate it.

Half a month.

That much time had already passed since they returned from Japan.

A lot had changed during that time.

First, they established a base in Yeongdeungpo.

A place close to the tower, with decent security, yet sufficiently secluded.

For the sake of his future plans, he bought an entire two-story house.

Mincheol’s house had his mother living there, and using Yugeon’s own home as a base felt like it would disturb a place filled with memories, so he gave up on that idea.

Because of that, he simply bought a new house.

‘Of course, I drew the money out.’

【Endless Golden Pouch】

Rank: Mythic

Type: Summoning Item

A money pouch without end.

A pouch that bestows wealth upon you.

[Item Effect]

A total of five times.

Can produce money at the maximum amount.

[Special Notes]

Enhanced into a growth-type item using the Hammer that Strikes the Stars.

Forcibly promoted to Mythic rank using the Needle that Stitches the Flow.

He had already drawn one trillion won from the Endless Golden Pouch.

‘My physical condition is excellent too.’

Strength: 28

Agility: 31

Stamina: 35

Feat: 3

Internal Energy: 312

Senses: 29

Technique: 24

Will: MAX

【Special Notes】

Will MAX due to 【No-Mind】.

Consumed Feats recover after 24 hours.

Thanks to absorbing an enormous amount of poisonous energy in Sapporo, his internal energy had risen sharply.

He had even spent two weeks traveling through every floor from Floor 1 to Floor 40 of the tower to regain his senses.

Mincheol had also grown greatly.

The two of them repeatedly ran through the lower floors together, pushing their teamwork in combat to the limit.

“Brother, there’s something I’m curious about.”

“?”

“Why are you still only in Area 5?”

He had been watching Brother all this time.

Brother seemed stronger than the ten Colossi.

No matter how strong they were, even they could not kill Baroden or Drogas in a single blow.

But Brother had dealt with monsters like those in just one strike, hadn’t he?

“Well... there’s a reason.”

Now that he had regressed, it was possible.

Yugeon shrugged and dodged the question.

At that moment.

Ding-dong.

The doorbell rang.

“Who is it? We weren’t expecting anyone.”

Mincheol checked the intercom with a puzzled expression.

On the screen stood a man who looked like a beggar.

His hair was wildly disheveled, his clothes were torn in several places, and his face was completely covered in dirt.

“Who...”

“Open the door.”

When Mincheol tilted his head, Yugeon stood up as though he had been waiting for this.

Hwang Mungi had finally returned.

Click.

The moment the front door opened, a musty smell of soil rushed in.

Hwang Mungi practically crawled through the doorway before collapsing onto the floor.

“Water... Give me some water...”

“You look terrible.”

Clicking his tongue, Yugeon took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and tossed it to him.

Hwang Mungi looked as though even opening the cap was difficult, but the instant he saw the water, he drank it down like a madman.

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

After emptying the two-liter bottle in one go, he finally let out a long breath as though he had come back to life.

“Khaa... I seriously almost died.”

“Good work. You were later than I expected.”

“Late? Did you just say I was late? Hey, you demon bastard!”

Hwang Mungi shouted in outrage.