Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Part 19

“If... if you hold my hand... it’ll feel unpleasant. Cold... and creepy...”

“I don’t care.”

Grab.

Yugeon took her hand without hesitation.

A warm, firm grip.

At that moment, Seo Hwarin’s eyes widened.

‘Huh...?’

Normally, the instant someone touched her, they would feel a chilling cold and recoil in horror.

But this man did not so much as blink.

Instead, the energy flowing from his hand was suppressing the death energy rampaging inside her body.

“Th-Thank you... For saving me...”

“How long are you planning to keep enduring it?”

“...!”

Seo Hwarin’s heart sank.

He knew.

This man knew that she was not an ordinary healer.

“Wh-What do you mean...”

“That power inside your body. If you keep leaving it alone, it’ll consume you.”

“H-How do you know that...”

Seo Hwarin’s face turned deathly pale.

Her entire body trembled with fear that her secret had been discovered.

Would this man kill her now?

Would he swing his sword, saying monsters had to be dealt with before they became a threat?

But Yugeon did the opposite of what she expected.

“How about becoming my companion?”

Yugeon’s second companion after his regression.

Yugeon gazed steadily at Seo Hwarin.

____________

“How about becoming my companion?”

Yugeon’s proposal was simple.

But the weight behind it was anything but light.

Seo Hwarin stared blankly up at Yugeon.

The man who had just driven away Robertan’s party that had tormented her and slaughtered the orcs in an instant.

The hand he held out was rough, but looked firm and dependable.

“M-Me...?”

Seo Hwarin asked again in a trembling voice.

She could not believe it.

He wanted to take her as a companion, someone everyone avoided, treated like a monster, and abandoned.

She had already been kicked out of parties dozens of times.

She had even been expelled from a guild.

“But...”

Seo Hwarin lowered her head and stepped backward.

Her gaze fell to her fingertips.

A faint black haze was still lingering around them.

Death Energy.

“I’m... a ticking time bomb. The more I heal, the more this black energy accumulates. If this energy ever goes berserk, it’ll hurt you too.”

She was afraid.

Afraid of getting close to someone.

Because in the end, it would only repeat the same cycle of getting hurt and being abandoned.

“You won’t get hurt.”

Yugeon stated firmly.

“And it won’t go berserk either. Because I won’t let that happen.”

“How can you be so certain...”

“I have a way to control that power of yours.”

“What??”

At Yugeon’s words, Seo Hwarin’s eyes widened.

This horrible power...

There was a way to control the power that even she found terrifying?

“H-How...”

“If you become my companion, I’ll tell you.”

“...”

“Then how about confirming it for yourself?”

When Seo Hwarin could not give him a definite answer, Yugeon spoke again.

Right, it would be difficult to believe him immediately.

It was an energy that had tormented her for a long time.

Being told that it could be controlled would naturally sound dubious.

She must have tried hard to find a way to control it herself until now.

“Confirm it?”

“Let’s go. We’ll go confirm it.”

Yugeon jerked his chin.

There were no more monsters here now.

So they could move on to the next floor.

“Mincheol.”

“...”

“Cha Mincheol?”

“Ah... Yes? Yes, Brother.”

“?”

Seeing Mincheol staring blankly at Seo Hwarin, Yugeon tilted his head.

Had the battle earlier been that exhausting?

Why was he standing there so absentmindedly?

“Gather the items around here, then let’s move to the next floor.”

“Yes! Understood.”

Coming to his senses, Mincheol began picking up the items scattered across the ground.

Then all three of them moved to Floor 27, [Blood Training Ground].

_____________

Area 3, Floor 27 [Blood Training Ground].

A crimson land filled with the stench of blood.

Even the sky was dyed red on the twenty-seventh floor, a place like an arena where the tower’s monsters killed one another to prove their strength.

However, unlike an ordinary arena, it was enormous.

Nearly the size of Gwanghwamun Square.

“Huh? I thought those people from earlier would have moved to the next floor, but they’re not here.”

The party led by those pieces of trash whose names he had already forgotten.

Mincheol had naturally expected them to be here.

But there was no one at the entrance to the training ground.

“They must have realized it was too dangerous with only their own strength.”

Yugeon spoke calmly.

“They abandoned their healer, so their staying power would have hit rock bottom. Even they would know coming up to Floor 27 in that state would be suicide. They probably left the tower immediately.”

“True. They would’ve died if they came up without a healer.”

Mincheol snorted.

Seo Hwarin wore a bitter expression.

Once again, she was reminded that she had been abandoned.

As mentioned before, even though it had happened many times, she never seemed to get used to the feeling.

“Now then, shall we confirm it?”

Yugeon turned toward Seo Hwarin.

“You really can control it...?”

Seo Hwarin asked cautiously.

She still looked unconvinced.

To her, the death energy inside her body was no different from a curse or incurable disease that had tormented her ever since she awakened.

Swoosh.

Yugeon took out the Lantern of the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts hanging from his waist.

A blue flame flickered inside the old bronze lantern.

“Take it.”

“I just... take this?”

“Yeah. It has a strap, so wear it at your waist.”

Seo Hwarin timidly reached out.

She seemed worried that her black energy might extinguish the flame or break the lantern.

When she hesitated, Mincheol suddenly cut in from beside her.

“Excuse me, don’t worry!”

“Pardon?”

“Just trust Brother once. Our Brother never says anything he doesn’t mean. I’m serious.”

Mincheol grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.

At his rough but dependable smile, Seo Hwarin relaxed slightly.

She took a deep breath and grabbed the lantern’s handle.

Whoosh!

At that moment.

The blue flame inside the lantern began blazing fiercely.

At the same time, Seo Hwarin’s body staggered violently.

“Ugh...!”

“Endure it. It’s cleaning you out.”

Seo Hwarin’s eyes widened.

She could feel it.

Deep inside her body, the black residue clinging stickily to her and constricting her was being sucked toward the lantern.

A refreshing sensation like a badly clogged drain finally being cleared.

The headache pressing down on her head vanished, and her hazy vision brightened.

She felt momentarily dizzy.

But as the black energy disappeared, her eyes gradually became clearer and her body felt refreshed.

Whooooosh.

The black haze gathered at her fingertips was absorbed into the lantern.

The lantern devoured the death energy and emitted an even more brilliant blue light.

“Ah...”

Drip.

Tears flowed from Seo Hwarin’s eyes.

It was the first time since awakening that she had felt this light.

The weight of death that had always pressed down on her shoulders was gone.

“Whenever you used the energy of life, death energy must have clung to you.”

Like light and shadow.

They must have been impossible to separate.

“But as long as you have that, from now on you can use both the power of the Saintess and the power of the Necromancer.”

The lantern did not destroy the death energy it devoured.

No, more precisely, it did not choose not to destroy it.

It simply could not.

Because the power it possessed was too weak.

But that weakness instead became an advantage.

“Really... this is all I need...?”

Seo Hwarin asked in a trembling voice.

She could hardly believe that a single lantern had solved the curse that had ruined her life.

“Thanks to that lantern, you’ll become twice as strong as everyone else. Now you can use both powers.”

“Really... is it really all right for me to do that?”

Seo Hwarin’s eyes reddened.

Elation.

And relief.

The excitement of knowing she no longer had to turn into a monster.

At that moment.

“Graaaah!”

“Kieeeek!”

Roars sounded from beyond the red mist.

Thud, thud, thud.

With the sound of the ground shaking, a massive group of monsters appeared.

Orc Berserkers.

Floor 27 was a place where Orc Berserkers appeared.

And behind the orcs.

Grgrgrgrgr.

An Ogre at least five times larger than the orcs appeared carrying a weapon.

“They’re coming!”

Mincheol reflexively raised his shield and stepped in front of Seo Hwarin.

“Miss Hwarin, stay back!”

Mincheol’s broad back filled her entire field of vision.

It was the first time.

The first time someone had not abandoned her in a moment of danger, but instead stood in front of her to protect her.

‘Ah...’

Seo Hwarin’s heart beat strangely.

“Seo Hwarin.”

“Yes?”

At Yugeon’s voice, she turned her head.

“What do you think? A companion who protects you.”

“...”

“If they’re companions like this, why not trust them? Besides, you don’t want to lose that lantern either, do you?”

“Yes...”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Mincheol began blocking the monsters’ attacks.

“Now is a time when it’s all right to show your true power.”

Yugeon whispered to her.

At those words, conviction gradually filled Seo Hwarin’s eyes.

“Seo Hwarin.”

“Yes!”

“Show me your power.”

Clench.

Hearing Yugeon’s voice, she finally steeled herself.

‘Right... Let’s stop running away.’

Seo Hwarin took a deep breath.

Death Hands.

Whoosh!

Crunch!

Black flames flickered as hands of death flew out, grabbed the heads of three Orc Berserkers, and crushed them.

“Chwik?!”

The orcs froze in confusion.

And in the next moment.

Corpse Explosion.

Flash!

KRAKAKAKAKAKANG!

The dead orc corpses exploded, heavily damaging the other monsters gathered nearby.

Raise Skeleton.

Rrrrrrrattle!

When she moved her hand, skeletons began rising from the ground.

There were roughly one hundred of them.

“Huh...”

Mincheol’s jaw dropped at the overwhelming sight.

Her hair, which had been silver, had turned black before he knew it.

Her pale green eyes had turned red.

And her power in that state was truly immense.

“Groooooar!!”

A scream of agony.

The orcs whose legs had rotted away collapsed to the ground.