Chapter 29

Curse (2)

Woong!

Park Chang-hee’s Mana raged all over my body. It was the first time that I had absorbed this much at once. But now, there was no time to worry about it.

‘Park Chang-hee was also cursed by the same kind!’

It was like the one Seo Jin-wook suffered from.

I could feel red Mana at the tip of my hand. It was a seed that was the composition and result of a curse that looked like a sphere with entangled blood vessels.

It was baffling that the host died, so I poked the Mana in the form of bloody tentacles all over Park Chang-hee’s body.

However, there was no response. Park Chang-hee, who was hung on the chain, laid cold as he was lifeless.

‘Geek…?’

A low and small cry from the seed continued endlessly.

‘Geek! Geeeek!’

The sound grew louder and then louder… And finally tore my ears, almost as if it was groaning.

‘Geeeeeeeek!’

At that moment…

Swoosh!

An aggregate of red Mana, free from the material’s resistance, jumped out of Park Chang-hee’s heart and ran toward my heart like in a blink of an eye.

As if it was trying to change its host!

But then…

‘Geeek! Queek! Queek!’

What unfolded was a very unexpected scene.

The curse’s energy originally residing in Seo Jin-wook’s body, the seed that was dormant in the Mana after being blocked by the [The Successor’s Eyes] at first, and that was unable to speak again, suddenly revealed its power.

It wrapped itself around my heart as if to threaten me. It was almost as if it was telling me that this core was at its place, so I shouldn’t invade it, like a beasts’ territorial battle.

It was only then that I could see that the size of what was in my heart was much larger than the seed of Park Chang-hee.

‘Geek… Geek!’

Park Chang-hee’s curse couldn’t penetrate my heart in the end.

Then, this time it turned its direction towards my head.

At that moment…

-The skill [The Successor’s Eyes (Rank: EX)] resists the skill [Mercadius’ Seed (Rank: SSS)].

[The Successor’s Eyes] thoroughly defended this time, suppressing Seo Jin-wook’s curse.

Unlike Seo Jin-wook’s seed that existed before the possession, Park Chang-hee’s curse could not even penetrate my body.

‘Geeeeek!’

The [Mercadius’ Seed] protruding from the corpse stretched out something like a red tentacle in all directions. However, there were no hosts around for it to live on.

As there was no other way, it stretched back to my body, but the [The Successor’s Eyes] and the seed that was originally in the body defended.

Eventually, the momentum of Park Chang-hee’s curse began to falter.

‘Geek!’

Losing host and without taking over my brain or the heart, the seed, which trembled outside the corpse, gradually decreased in size.

Then…

Swish!

As if it was aiming for the window of opportunity, the curse that was hiding in my heart stretched out its tentacles and attacked Park Chang-hee’s seed.

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‘Geeeek!’

It penetrated the seed of Park Chang-hee. It was seen that the energy of the red sphere that constituted it was scattered and gradually disappeared.

Like a scream in the agony of death, I began to hear a particular ‘voice’ from the thing in contact with me.

‘How can you think that way, knowing how much Ms. Han-seol has cared for you so much? Her instruction to hurt you? You are ungrateful for even thinking that way. Why… What would ‘The One’ have to do with this bastard… Why this psychopath··· Yes, let’s kill him. This kind of bastard isn’t worth living!’

At first impression, it sounded like Park Chang-hee’s own voice, which was frowned upon with delusions of being the victim, but there was a difference.

It was not that things like voices and speech were different.

That telepathy was not human in the first place.

‘The voice of the seed!’

It must be the voice that had led his thought process until now.

‘Was Park Chang-hee not aware of this as he listened to it?’

He may have mistaken all of those impulses and thoughts as Park Chang-hee’s natural things, his raw feelings, and his own choice.

Unlike Seo Jin-wook before the possession.

The original Seo Jin-wook recognized this voice, so he suffered because something that was not his thoughts forced him to act.

He resisted trying not to be manipulated, and when he felt the urge to harm someone, he repressed it and even hurt himself. Meanwhile, Seo Jin-wook went crazy for a genuine reason, and he became suspicious of everything.

‘Until which line of the guild are affected?’

As the leader of the exploration team, who was in the top tiers in the rankings of strength, was affected, I could imagine even the worst situation. I thought it was fortunate that I didn’t tell Seo Gyu-cheol about the curse. If this was the situation, I shouldn’t trust anybody.

‘Seo Jin-wook in the past life must have felt like this.’

I could understand his attachment to suspicion.

‘Why such a curse?’

Park Chang-hee and Seo Jin-wook. Apart from them belonging to the guild, if I were to find a narrower commonality…

Both of them were endeared by Han-seol.

The curse’s effect was to amplify the host’s most intense desires and emotions and induce thoughts. In the case of Seo Jin-wook before possession, it was clear what it was.

‘Anger. The wrath that cannot be suppressed. And the desire to express it.’

Did the curse take place during his childhood?

Perhaps from that age, he might have lived with anger that could not be resolved in his heart. The curse slowly amplified it. On the other hand, in the case of Park Chang-hee…

I heard the voice again.

‘Ms. Han-seol… All the rest of my life is for her.’

It had blind loyalty to Han-seol.

‘Ah, Ms. Han-seol…!’

The voice of the seed and the memory of Park Chang-hee resonated, and I listened to it. Then, like a fantasm, a person’s life unfolded in front of my eyes.

*

It was a typical story.

An E-class hunter who was rejected from the guild because his growth rate was too slow.

It didn’t work even if he insisted that he had A-class potential Mana. Many hunters died without activating even half of their potential Mana that they insisted on having. It was tough to train hunters with verifiable abilities, even indirectly, that even the country had ultimately given up.

There was no guild to use such means for an E-class.

Han-seol came to him who lived in despair in that way.

‘You, the training method is completely wrong. And you don’t even know what you’re good at… Why is your use of unique skills that way? Do you wanna be a human stove?’

Han-seol’s teaching was magical. After joining the guild she led, Park Chang-hee’s growth was remarkable. The day he was finally certified as an A-Class hunter, he cried. Life had changed.

Park Chang-hee decided to repay Han-seol this grace throughout his life.

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But then…

‘The Celestial Dragon Guild? Come on, our guild is small in size, but we do not lack in skill. What’s so disappointing that we integrate ourselves to be absorbed there?’

Han-seol smiled bitterly in Park Chang-hee’s memory.

‘I have already made a decision. If you don’t like it, you can leave. But, if you want to be with me, believe in my choice and support me.’

He eventually came to Celestial Dragon, following the Han-seol like other guild members, and found a thorn there.

Seo Gyu-cheol and Seo Jin-wook.

‘Why should Ms. Han-seol be under those guys?!’

Since he couldn’t accept it, Park Chang-hee decided to act for himself.

Seo Gyu-cheol only despised it because it was like an already setting sun, but did not care for it much. However, he collected the evidence step by step. When the crucial moment comes, he could let out a few of the corruptions connected with the constitutional office, limit them to personal faults, and blow them away. In terms of skill, he thought it was only a matter of time before Han-seol surpassed him.

On the other hand…

‘Seo Jin-wook is the problem. That prick!’

This was a prospect who was evaluated to have the highest potential in the history of the Korean Hunter Society. However, he was a lunatic that made a mess everywhere because of the mental illness that didn’t fit him.

And such a being was receiving Han-seol’s love solely. It was absurd. It was nonsense.

As Seo Jin-wook got closer to adulthood, twisted thoughts began to sprout in Park Chang-hee’s mind.

‘Let’s get rid of him. If the bastard is gone… Ms. Han-seol will be the next guild leader.’

He barely turned away from jealousy. The purpose of bringing down Seo Jin-wook was only to make Han-seol into a Guild Master.

He decided to think so. At some point, he did not realize the irrational madness permeated his loyalty to her.

‘…Do you dare to attack? Then, I will give up my life, and I’ll kill the bitch!’

And so, he tried to kill Seo Jin-wook, who kicked him.

‘He is alive? Seo Gyu-cheol, that greedy piece of trash must have Awakened him early!’

He thought Park Chang-hee himself had found a way to get rid of Seo Jin-wook while remaining beside Han-seol without being arrested. He attempted clairvoyance and failed and reported to the constitution. This was only to make Seo Jin-wook unable to return to the Celestial Dragon.

‘···Since there is one hunter and one non-Awakened, the work should be simple. Although the hunter will make a mess not to make it easy, target the non-Awakened first.’

Although he tried to provocate him through the Gangdong Revival Association to expose the truth of being Awakened, no traces were left on the scene.

‘Okcheon Dungeon Expedition Leader, I will apply for it.’

He volunteered for Seo Jin-wook’s first expedition. He thought it might be the last chance.

Suddenly, on the way, Han-seol said that she would be accompanying, so the opportunity was almost in vain. At the last minute, Seo Gyu-cheol rejected Han-seol’s participation.

There was also a problem of excess power, but it was mainly because Han-seol had a mission to be dispatched to urgently.

‘The Gangdong Revival Association and the United Clans fought without watching their backs that led to civilian casualties, so the Constitutional Office had been taking care of them. I don’t think I can go with you because I’m called there. Chang-hee, please take care of it on behalf of me instead. Okay?’

In this piece of Park Chang-hee’s experience, there was a voice of seed he had not noticed.

‘For Ms. Han-seol… Thi is all for Ms.Han-seol. Get rid of Seo Jin-wook. Kill him!··· He must be finished in this dungeon!’

*

Click-click-click!

When I removed the chains, Park Chang-hee’s body laid on the floor.

‘This curse is a unique skill.’

Who was it? There was only one suspect in my head.

‘There is only one in the guild who knows Han-seol’s unique skill, Seo Gyu-cheol. It also wasn’t witnessed by any enemies in battle.’

I unwrapped my wrist accessory and destroyed it.

‘The terminal is completely burned.’

The storage device, both Park Chang-hee’s and mine, burned irreversibly due to the high heat.

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I took his other belongings and, most importantly, the keys to the dungeon. In Park Chang-hee’s thrown-away backpack, I found the goblin-provoking flute. It wasn’t something to bring while scouting.

After killing me, I think he was planning to call the monsters and destroy the evidence.

‘That’s an obvious plan.’

If we go outside the dungeon without Park Chang-hee like this, the Constitutional Office will not allow the gate to be closed.

They would send an investigation team inside. Of course, that would have been the same even if I went missing.

Therefore, for the same reason that Park Chang-hee had planned, I was about to play the flute. Even when the goblins flocked in, it was easy to escape. While messing up this place, I would join the group and leave the gate. No one would think that an E-class hunter could have killed Park Chang-hee.

At the moment, I was trying to play the flute, inheriting Park Chang-hee’s plan. Suddenly, the system messages resonated.

-The boundaries of the weakened dungeon have been broken.

“···What?!”

Without knowing, I shouted out loud. The message content continued.

-Reason for border-collapse: external entry.

Unconsciously, I hardened my entire body muscles. The curse came out.

“Fuck!”

Fortunately, the gate was not collapsing, and monsters would not be pouring into the Earth. It was not the collapse of the gate but the collapse of the boundary. It meant that the wall on the other side other than the Earth’s was broken.

In the previous life, this dungeon did not experience this kind of thing because the gate collapsed without clearing.

‘Which dimension is it from?’

The world in which the dungeon existed was called the ‘middle dimension.’

The ant-den-like space classified as the Okcheon Dungeon was only a part of a vast middle dimension, and we could only roam within the boundary now.

It was the same as having occupied only one room (dungeon) in a mansion (middle dimension) with more than a hundred rooms.

What if you wanted to go to another room?

First, you must clear the dungeon to weaken the border, and instead of closing the gate with a key, you must expand the border and expand the dungeon, like tearing down the walls of a room that has become flimsy.

That was how the second stage began, and the expeditions could once again attack the expanded dungeon. It was possible to expect more Mana cores and another reward.

‘If this were all of what’s around, there would be no problem.’

However, as the word “intermediate dimension” implied, the gate connected to this giant ant pit was not pierced only through the Earth. There was also a gate connected to this middle dimension in the other worlds, and the explorers from there would also roam the den within a given area like Earthlings. At first, that was.

But what if they chose to continue expanding the dungeon instead of closing the gate after clearing? What if they desired more cores and rewards that they continued to expand the boundaries?

Won’t the boundaries not touch each other at one point?

The explorers could then go beyond the wall they touched as the middle dimension as their medium, from their dungeon to the dungeon of another dimension.

What’s next? They would be able to penetrate the dungeon they have visited further and enter another dimension.

And now the problem was…

‘The time difference between was less than a few days since we cleared and they entered.’

The unknown ones must have already widened their borders enough to make contact with our dungeon wall. It must have been waiting for this site to be cleared and the borders weakened.

They weren’t savages, as observed from their behavior.

‘Rather, I prefer those with low civilization levels!’

Assuming we encountered each other in the dungeon, the ideal foreign beings are civilized and peace-loving. However, it was only a wish, and humanity would realize it in the future.

That sophisticated culture and peace-loving tendencies did not necessarily accompany each other.

It was while I was hoping that it was not the worst-case as I was in a hurry…

Weeing!

Suddenly, bright red rays emanate out of my arms. I reached my hand in my pocket and pulled it out.

[Clarices’ Red Stone]

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-Item Description: This small stone, made up in pairs, confirms the holder’s safety. The other stone glows red and guides the way under the following conditions.

If either stone is broken

When a person who has one of the stones becomes unconscious due to another person

When a person who has one of the stones suffers a severe injury

The rays emanating from the item were pointing to the place where Secretary Kim would be.