World-Saving is a Skill

Chapter 91

Chapter 91

Other people would have found this impossible to endure. They would already have gone at least partly mad.

“Worst case, thirty percent.”

By the time I finished this job, the number of Hunters left could have been thirty percent or less. No matter how fast I moved, there was nothing I could do about that. I was not teleporting, I had to run on my own two legs.

I ignored the cliffs, and I ignored the pain spreading through my whole body. Like a racehorse, I did not stop my charge.

Every time one Hunter died, the odds of clearing the Jaun Valley dropped a little. One, then another.

I kept ignoring the hallucinations as they spawned and smashed the hubs that sustained the magic circle.

And finally, I drove my spear into the last remaining hub and poured my mana in, collapsing it.

— At this time, communications with the Hunters are now functioning normally. Good work, Hunter Yoo Chan-seok.

That had indeed been a lot of work. I let out a small sigh and wiped my sweat. I had moved so frantically that my mind felt as tired as my body.

“Please assess how many Hunters are still alive.”

— Yes, I will report as soon as the check is complete.

Now I headed for the spot where Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon were waiting.

“Hey, you guys are alive huh.”

Pushing through the dense fog, I saw Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon. Han Sang-ah checked my face, hesitated for a moment, then swung her sword with all her might.

Her blade met the spearpoint. I rolled my wrist and diverted the attack, and Han Sang-ah lost her balance and staggered.

“So it really is you? You definitely seem real.”

“For heaven’s sake, even if you are checking whether I am real, who charges in to take someone’s head first?”

Han Sang-ah pressed the attack a few more times, then nodded and sheathed her sword.

“It is you, Yoo Chan-seok. Jung Oh-hoon shackled his own ankle. We should probably go and undo it.”

A shackle was locked around Jung Oh-hoon’s ankle. I laughed and spoke.

“What, did you get into an SM kink?”

“Chan-seok, cut the crap and let me free. Let’s get out of here.”

Even as he talked, he still refused to let go of the gun in his hands.

“Hey, point it at me.”

At my words, Jung Oh-hoon obediently aimed at me. I examined the shackle for a moment and asked,

“Where’s the key?”

“I broke it.”

Good choice. If a key had been around, he might have freed himself while suffering hallucinations. I glanced at Han Sang-ah.

Whatever it was made of, it was insanely tough. If I just smashed it, I might take his ankle off with it.

“I am going to cut the Paradoxical Flame for a moment. Both of you hold your breath.”

At my words, they both held their breath. I extinguished the Paradoxical Flame, then bloomed it in my hand and brought it to the shackle. After burning down the shackle’s durability with the Paradoxical Flame, I rekindled the fog-clearing Paradoxical Flame over our heads, and tapped the shackle with my spearpoint.

The shackle shattered like glass and scattered across the floor.

“Nice. It really is you. No one but you could do that.”

Lowering his gun, Jung Oh-hoon rubbed his ankle and stood up.

— Hunter Yoo Chan-seok. Damage assessment complete. Forty percent are dead, and twenty percent are exhibiting symptoms similar to acute delirium.

Damn it all. I knew it would be like this. Still, with me now, I could burn away mental trauma. When we got back, I would have to bring that twenty percent of Hunters suffering delirium back to normal.

“Did you find the Erosion Core’s location?”

It was Han Sang-ah’s question.

“Near the Zhangweitang Ski Resort.”

Backtracing the magic circle had only gotten me that far. Even so, if we mobilized the remaining Hunters and combed the entire area, finding the Erosion Core would not be hard.

It was not as if the entrance to an Erosion Core was small.

“I would like to do the finishing move.”

Jung Oh-hoon reacted immediately to Han Sang-ah’s words.

“No, I will.”

Their eyes met. Watching the two of them, I cut in simply.

“Quit the crap. Did either of you already get inside the Erosion Core and kill the core or something?”

Nothing about how this would go had been decided yet. And already they were thinking about that nonsense. They both looked at me.

“If you get a chance to kill it, whoever it is, rush in and cut its throat. This is not some game where you shoot BBs at a prize.”

What, were we supposed to spare something that would die the moment we swung, and wait our turn? That was the number one way villains ruined their own plans.

I’m not going to do such a thing. Whoever lands the last hit, what mattered was choking off its breath.

“If it is alive, it still has a chance to do something. The moment it becomes a corpse, it cannot do anything.”

I broke up their pointless staring contest and returned to Harbin, following the operators’ guidance.

“Are you all right?”

Seeing Adakawa Nanami’s face, I felt a complicated mix of emotions. She had clearly suffered from hallucinations.

It had not been long, but dark circles hung under her eyes. If Adakawa Nanami looked like that, there was no need to check anyone else to know their state.

“Please get some rest.”

Staggering, Adakawa Nanami still answered.

“I am fine. I am still full of energy!”

She looked like a cabbage soaked in salt, but she sure sounded lively. Still, that was fatigue from ghosts and hallucinations, not insanity.

I headed to the area where they had separated out the Hunters who had lost their minds.

“…Good grief.”

There were more than I expected. Burning away all these people’s traumas would take time. But that was not a bad thing.

If I burned this many people’s traumas with the Paradoxical Flame, the amount of mana the flame released in the process would be tremendous.

I could use that mana to hasten the strengthening of the blood meridians in my body.

“The Undying Legion is going to drive me crazy with worry.”

Beijing was not that far from Korea. The thought of a place like that crawling with undead monsters made it impossible not to feel pressed.

“I should probably improve my weapon too.”

It was not that my current spear was bad. A weapon’s reach was set, and the spear I used could adjust that reach freely.

From a dagger about thirty centimeters long to six and a half meters like the Sarisa. Being able to create whatever reach I needed on the spot was excellent.

“Anyway, I recovered a spear.”

I had recovered the spear used by Seonghong of the Undying Legion I fought before, and sent it to Choi Seung-gi’s Miracle Junk Shop. While I burned the gathered Hunters’ traumas with the Paradoxical Flame, I contacted Choi Seung-gi.

— Ah! What can I do for you?

“I was wondering how the analysis is going on the spear I sent you.”

At my words, Choi Seung-gi let out an “Aha.”

— It is an excellent spear. The material is tough yet flexible, and it absorbs mana very well. If you put it up for sale, a lot of Hunters would want to buy it.

Of course. I had coveted it the moment I saw it. It did not have any special abilities. Some weapons classified as masterpieces were like that.

Simply faithful to the basics of a weapon, yet so overwhelmingly faithful that it qualified as a masterpiece. Seonghong’s spear was exactly that kind.

It was incredibly sturdy, yet flexible, perfectly balanced, and the blade was frighteningly sharp.

“You must already have analysis data on the spear I use now... Do you think we could synthesize them somehow?”

— About that… we concluded that you will need a very high-grade catalyst for the synthesis. The spear you are using now excels in durability too, right?

A catalyst strong enough to melt down the materials that composed the two spears and unite them.

— Ah, of course, you could use a mediocre catalyst. But in that case, I doubt you would get what you want, Hunter Yoo Chan-seok.

What I wanted was to keep my current spear’s ability to freely adjust reach, while preserving as much as possible of the masterwork quality of Seonghong’s spear.

As Choi Seung-gi said, if the catalyst was mediocre, I would likely lose many of the outstanding qualities of Seonghong’s spear.

“Understood. If I find a usable catalyst, we will try it.”

Either way, until the Jaun Valley was cleared, I had to push through with my current spear. Recasting the two spears into one could wait.

“Maybe I should get some help from Jung Oh-hoon.”

They called him by the nickname “Jung O-hare.” He had already helped a lot during the Jaun Valley assault. In the black market, all sorts of items would be floating around. He might be able to help me secure a catalyst.

“Yoo Chan-seok… Hunter.”

Once I had burned away their traumas, the Hunters who had been a bit out of it started coming back to themselves, one by one. But overcoming trauma did not automatically mean they could fight again.

This was not a computer game. There were not many people whose mental strength let them jump straight back into a fight the moment they recovered.

“If you do not want to continue, pay the penalty and head home.”

At my words, a few Hunters who had been isolated in tents and had just come to look around uneasily.

“There is no need to be ashamed.”

If you try it and it is not for you, keeping you by force is foolish. That does not make you fight well anyway.

“But the penalty fee…”

“You do have to pay for it of course. There are no exceptions.”

We had a contract, and we agreed to do the job. If you cannot keep it, you pay the penalty.

“I am not a bad person. I will only take exactly the amount that was to be paid upon completion of this mission.”

Ordinarily this would count as a contract for services, and the penalty would usually be about twenty percent of the agreed amount. But in contracts with Hunters, penalties could be as high as double the agreed amount.

The reason was simple. This was not painting someone’s wall. If you did not fulfill the contract, people died, buildings were wrecked, and a region’s economy went off a cliff.

“I cannot do this anymore.”

“Damn it, I have chills down my spine…”

It looked like some of the Hunters had decided they could not keep doing this. I kept my tone gentle.

“We have pinpointed the Erosion Core’s location. We can probably finish within a few days.”

I did not yet know what kind of end that would be. Still, if you quit now, you might really regret it later.

Of course, I was ready to respect whatever they chose. You only had one life. If they wanted to pay a bit of money and take a one hundred percent chance of going home alive, what excuse did I have to hold them?

“After this, anyone who wants to go back can leave once we confirm payment of the penalty. Oh, and…”

I dropped the gentle tone and spoke in a very stiff, cold voice.

“If you just run away without paying, I’ll kill you.”

Pay the money if you are going to leave. If you want to live and go home, then you pay the price that matches that.

Saying you would just fade away if you felt like it, what was this, a TOEIC cram school study group?

If you did not pay, I would use every means without regard to method, and make it impossible for you to live in Korea again.

“That is all. Also, from now on, you do not have to crowd around here. We will attack the Erosion Core in Jaun Valley when I judge that everyone has had sufficient rest.”

With that, I bowed and stepped out the door.