Chapter 10

The Returning Archmage Is a Max-Level Player Chapter 10

“A man who had been in a coma for three years suddenly regained consciousness.”

Choi Doyoung continued his explanation.

If that were all there was to it, it could have been dismissed as merely an unusual case.

It was not unheard of for long-term coma patients to wake up.

But what had placed him among the candidates were his actions afterward.

“A patient who had been in a coma for three years completed rehabilitation and was discharged in just one week, which is astonishing enough. But on the very day he was discharged, he also completed his Awakened registration.”

Han Seungjae’s eyes narrowed.

It was an absurd rate of recovery.

If he had been lying down for three years, his muscles should have practically disappeared.

It would not have been strange for rehabilitation alone to take several months.

Yet it had taken only a week.

He was undoubtedly an Awakened with a fairly exceptional ability, but for now, that was as far as the evidence went.

“However, since there were no other noteworthy accomplishments, I considered removing him from the candidate list entirely. But I decided it would be better to keep the possibilities as open as possible, so I included him at the end.”

It made sense.

It was ambiguous.

In fact, judging only by the data, the candidates he had seen earlier had higher probabilities.

And yet, this man kept bothering him.

‘There’s something about this man.’

For one thing, his decisiveness was extraordinary.

On the very day of his discharge, he immediately took action.

There were two kinds of people who did that.

‘Either they’re ignorant. Or they’re confident.’

Most were the former.

But.

The intuition Han Seungjae had developed as the Association President after meeting countless Awakened was sending him a signal.

“Strategic Analysis Division. Have your people investigate him personally and dig deeper.”

“Understood.”

Choi Doyoung did not question the order.

Having known Han Seungjae for a long time, he understood.

This man had not obtained the title of Association President through political connections.

The reason they could not retain Awakened was the lack of support and benefits from the political sphere. Judging only by his own ability, Han Seungjae was exceptionally competent.

And such a Han Seungjae had given the order himself.

‘He judged that it was worth directly deploying the Strategic Analysis Division.’

The Strategic Analysis Division always had a mountain of ongoing work.

If manpower was pulled away, other analyses would be delayed, so it was not a department that was directly deployed for ordinary matters.

Which meant.

Han Seungjae had sensed something from Kim Dohyun.

No, it was not only Han Seungjae.

Choi Doyoung himself felt it too.

If he had not sensed something strange in the first place, he would have removed Kim Dohyun from the candidate list before submitting the report.

‘There’s definitely... something there.’

Choi Doyoung’s gaze sharpened as he looked at Kim Dohyun’s photograph in the file.

____________

Kim Dohyun’s day after clearing Babel was no different from usual.

Early in the morning, he saw his family off to work, and after finishing lunch, he loosened up his body with some light exercise.

Afterward, he gathered as much information as possible about Babel and the Awakened.

And then came the most important part of his routine.

Preparing dinner using magic.

Before he knew it, it was 7 p.m.

It was just after he had finished eating with his family after they returned home.

“Thanks for the meal!”

Kim Haeun set down her empty bowl and stood up.

“Our son worked hard, so Mom will wash the dishes.”

Yoon Seoyoung then placed a hand on the table and was about to stand up.

“Ugh...”

Her face twisted.

“Mom. What’s wrong?”

Kim Haeun hurriedly approached her.

“Your lower back hurts again like before, right?”

Kim Taesu, already familiar with the situation, stood up and brought over a pain-relief patch.

“Don’t worry so much. It only hurts for a little while and gets better quickly.”

Yoon Seoyoung forced a smile and tried to brush it off as nothing serious.

But Kim Dohyun’s expression hardened as he watched her.

‘Fatigue must have accumulated in her body.’

To help with the family’s poor financial situation, Yoon Seoyoung readily took on difficult part-time jobs, including restaurant assistance and other forms of hard physical labor.

In fact, her daily routine consisted of leaving for work early in the morning before the sun had even risen and only returning home after sunset.

She had never worked this hard before.

A large part of the reason things had become this way was Kim Dohyun himself, who had spent three years in a coma.

‘And I call myself an Archmage.’

He had failed to accurately match the date of his return or even space-time itself.

Anger at himself surged up, but fortunately, there was a solution.

“Kim Haeun, you do the dishes. Mother, could you sit down on the floor for a moment?”

“Suddenly?”

Kim Haeun cut off Yoon Seoyoung’s question.

“Oppa is a Returnee, remember? He must have some kind of ability. Just humor him and let him treat you once. I’ll do the dishes.”

“It should be pretty effective. Just trust me once.”

At Kim Dohyun’s confident words, Yoon Seoyoung sat down on the living room floor with a doubtful expression.

“All right...”

Kim Dohyun approached and carefully placed his palm against her back.

Starting from her shoulders and down along her back where her spine ran.

He examined Yoon Seoyoung’s physical condition.

‘As expected...’

Her condition was poor.

She must have been enduring a significant amount of pain every single day.

If this condition had continued, she might eventually have lost proper use of her lower back.

Bitterness lingered in his mouth, but fortunately, it had not yet reached an irreversible stage.

‘I can cure this completely.’

Magic had countless branches.

Attack and defense. Detection and crafting.

Among them, healing magic also existed.

Although it was not as exceptional as the holy power Ernst had wielded, this level of musculoskeletal damage was well within what it could treat.

‘Heal.’

It was a higher-level spell than Recover. Rather than merely accelerating recovery, it directly restored damaged tissue, and when used by someone who had been praised as an Archmage, its effectiveness was on an entirely different level.

‘From top to bottom.’

He slowly drew out his mana.

Whiiiing-

Through the brief resonance spreading throughout her body, Kim Dohyun read the flow of mana within and moved his hand without hesitation.

Immediately afterward.

Like flowing water, magical power began moving in an entirely natural manner.

The mana he guided quickly spread throughout her entire body, gently wrapping around the contracted and twisted muscles.

‘...Done.’

Now that mana had settled within her body, her muscles would no longer twist or contract as they had before.

Yoon Seoyoung, who was not an Awakened, could not fully perceive the flow of mana.

But merely feeling her stiffened muscles loosen was enough to draw an involuntary exclamation from her lips.

“Ah...”

It felt refreshing.

Like food that had been stuck in her stomach finally going down.

It felt as though something that had been tightly blocked was finally opening up.

The sensation that began in her back swept through her entire body in an instant before gathering around her lower back and gently enveloping it.

At that moment.

The pain in her lower back that had persistently interfered with and tormented her daily life gradually disappeared.

Feeling comfortable for the first time in a long while, a bright smile bloomed on Yoon Seoyoung’s lips.

“That feels incredibly refreshing. Thank you, son.”

“If your muscles knot up again or you feel tired later, tell me. I can do this for you anytime.”

The response did not come from Yoon Seoyoung.

“Really? You’ll give free massages?”

In the meantime, Kim Haeun had finished washing the dishes and returned with shining eyes.

“Why? You want one too?”

“Yeah! I want one too!”

“Then come sit here. Father, you should try it too.”

“Really? Then maybe I’ll enjoy some filial piety from my son.”

Kim Taesu smiled and sat down.

When Kim Haeun crouched beside him, Kim Dohyun extended both hands and placed them side by side on their backs.

Whiiiing-

Magical power bloomed from his palms and spread along both of their backs.

Fortunately, Kim Taesu had a naturally sturdy constitution. Despite his hard labor, he was relatively healthy.

Kim Haeun also had no significant injuries, perhaps because she had consistently maintained her body like an athlete.

In this condition, there was no need for them to receive Heal.

At most, the only effect they could gain from Heal would be relief from fatigue.

It would not be efficient.

In fact, there was not even any real need to use magic.

But that did not matter.

Simply being able to share ordinary daily life together was enough.

“What is this! It tickles! Hahahaha!”

“Stay still. You were the one who asked me to do it.”

“Stop! Stop! I said it tickles!”

“This is the massage I chose. Endure it.”

“Dad! Dad, doesn’t this feel weird to you!?”

“It only feels refreshing to me? Just sit still and enjoy it.”

“Aaah! I can’t take it! Stop!”

Contrary to her words, Kim Haeun’s face was filled with joy and happiness.

At the sight, a bright smile also bloomed on Kim Dohyun’s lips.

‘This is fun.’

There was nothing special about it.

It was truly an ordinary daily life.

‘But I love it.’

He could not even remember how long it had been since he had laughed without a single worry like this.

The weight of the precious existence called family settled deeply into his heart.

And so.

‘Just like this. I will protect this everyday life with my family no matter what.’

A heavy resolve settled into Kim Dohyun’s eyes.

______________

The next day.

Kim Dohyun had been lost in deep thought since early morning.

‘Babel’s proposal.’

It was certainly attractive.

But he could not calculate it.

He had searched BabelNet and various other communities, but could not find even a single precedent of Babel directly making a proposal.

As he had predicted earlier, it seemed to be classified information. Or perhaps a secret shared only among an extremely small number of people.

But if asked whether it was enough to frighten him into giving up in advance, the answer was no.

Considering the difficulty of the existing Tower, no matter how much it increased.

‘If I complete the second ring of Arcanum Cosmos...’

He would become capable of using unique magic. Magic exclusive to Arcanum Cosmos.

At that point, Kim Dohyun would become an existence on an entirely different level from now.

Even a higher-difficulty Babel would certainly be clearable.

In the end, there was only one problem he had to solve right now.

He lacked the mana required to form the second ring.

Since mana naturally accumulated over time, it was a problem that would eventually resolve itself.

But Kim Dohyun did not have the luxury of waiting for that.

He wanted to lighten his family’s burden even one moment sooner.

“A way to accumulate mana...”

Entering Babel was the fastest method, but there were still two days remaining on the cooldown.

No, even if the cooldown ended, he could not recklessly enter when he still needed to decide whether to accept Babel’s proposal.

Making a decision without sufficient preparation went against the principles of an Archmage.

He needed to find another method.

Fortunately, it was not as though there were none.

Yesterday at lunchtime, while gathering information, he had discovered something.

‘Mana Cores can be obtained outside.’

Mana Cores did not only come from inside Babel.

The Gates that appeared on Earth. The monsters pouring out from beyond them also possessed Mana Cores.

Of course, there were currently no Gates within South Korean territory.

But there was one very close by.

‘North Korea.’

A country that had once occupied half of the Korean Peninsula.

Since it had happened before Kim Dohyun was born, he had only encountered it through books and had never seen it himself.

A nation that had collapsed after failing to adapt to change.

Now, it was monster territory.

The Gates had been left completely unattended, and the monsters pouring out of them had spread throughout the entire territory.

It was a constant problem.

Some of the monsters even descended southward.

Because of that, the Korea Awakened Association periodically organized subjugation teams to manage the threat, while also opening the area to ordinary Awakened as a public hunting ground.

That meant they were free to keep any byproducts obtained from hunted monsters.

In other words, it was the ideal place to secure Mana Cores.

“For now, I suppose this is the best option.”

It was not as though there were no other methods.

But they were all either less efficient or more dangerous.

Although it was abandoned territory, the border regions were areas managed by the Korea Awakened Association, so they were comparatively safe, and the supply of Mana Cores was stable.

Having reached his conclusion, Kim Dohyun’s eyes gleamed.

“Should I take a trip north?”