Park Do Hyun and Lee Seok Jin walked into the forest leaving trails of spider corpses behind.
In those hours of walk, Lee Seok Jin already voiced out all his complains and even asked for a raise. After that he will calm down and keep quiet. Then a few moments later, he would start blabbering again nonstop.
Park Do Hyun did not reprimand him or stopped him. He just focused on navigating the dungeon with ease as if he had been there before. He knew where the traps were and how he could easily get out of it with a sway of his sword.
Even Lee Seok Jin was amazed. Even if it's only A, monsters of A class dungeons are still harder to kill. They have enhanced skin which is tougher than bulletproof glass, strength, and speed that could easily kill lower rank hunters. It even take longer time for them to burn in his fire. But here is his boss, swaying his sword without using skill to chop up three to five in a row.
They walked, killed and rested. Then did the same pattern for days that the young man couldn't help but complain.
"Where are we going, boss? It's been three days." He asked. "Are we here for the dungeon boss?"
But as soon as he was about to barrage him with complains, his face slammed on Do Hyun's back when he made an abrupt stop.
"What?"
"We're here." Do Hyun announced, making Lee Seok Jin looked forward while massaging his nose. In front of them was a cave. The entrance is about a truck wide and it had a rather eerie and lonely look.
But beside the cave entrance, there were abandoned items which made it more suspicious. The walls outside the cave have set cocoons wrapped in spider webs, at least three, just like the cocoons on their way here.
Now that Lee Seok Jin can see human items on the ground, his thoughts were suddenly a mess. "Shit! Boss, don't tell me that those things actually have humans inside them!" He said in disbelief.
He immediately jumped at the top of the cocoon, grabbed an enchanted oknife out of his item storage and cut it open, but the moment it opened, horrible stench wafted in the air that made the young man nearly throw up in disgust. He looked at the thing lying inside the cocoon, finding a decomposing body of a man that died with a terrified look painted on his face.
"This is really a human!" Covering his nose, Lee Seok Jin jumped down and looked at the guild master.
Park Do Hyun was kneeling on the items dropped on the ground. There were ambiguous items contained there like rope, blindfold, camera, weapons, flashlight, and an odd piece of small glove that was stained with blood which was out of place.
He frowned, a speculation popped out in his head. Even Lee Seok Jin quietly observed the items and took the camera. The image popped out showing a boy's face that was looking away. He didn't look too old, rather, he didn't look mature at all and had a delicate and sickly pale features. The images are taken from far away, indicating that the person was being stalked.
Swiping image to image, it didn't take long before he had a bit of the youth's background. He can deduce that he really is someone very ill, wearing hospital clothes everyday. He is either being pushed in the garden by a nurse, sometimes a doctor, and then Lin Ji-Young and even the guild master of Aegis, Shin In Soo.
He even had to double check if it's really the ice queen Lin Ji-Young. Looking at that soft smile on her face gave him some kind of enlightenment. So the ice queen can really smile?
"Boss, what do you think? Did these guys do something bad?" Lee Seok Jin asked. He was hesitant. After all, what are these goons doing in an A class dungeon. They have no identification and 2 of them only have an awakened licence that is only a B-rank.
Do Hyun didn't answer, stood up and entered the cave. The redhead followed behind feeling an odd sense of chill while browsing the camera. They even taped themselves saying that Lin Ji-Young should stop provoking the organization or she'll lose blood.
"Sick bastards." Lee Seok Jin felt his head burning up in anger.
There was no spiders inside the cave. No rather, there was no sign of life. But the malicious Mana inside this place is thicker than outside. It felt ominous as if something bad will happen if they either go or not.
Getting deeper and deeper into the place, traces of blood started to appear. The redhead felt his heartbeat thumping, nervous of what's ahead.
The deeper they got, the darker it was. Making him create a torch out of his palm, lighting up what seems to be an endless pool of darkness.
When they got into the innermost part of the cave, droplets started to join the sound of their footsteps. Reaching the edge, the feeling of that suffocating malicious Mana suddenly vanished as if they were inhaling fresh air. Lee Seok Jin didn't notice this change as he was immersed in what's ahead.
"Pay attention." Park Do Hyun warned upon entering the path.
The young redhead also braced himself and found that the end of the cave is a big dome. Droplets of water dripped from the sharpened ceiling, making several echoes in the area.
The raven activated his ability as black flame devoured his sword. He looked around, assessing the place full of tall stalagmites which can be used as a hiding place.
His eyes also glowed. Activating another ability that could see through mana, finding a dark entity immediately upon a sweep of his head. The man jumped, sped through the rocks and swayed his sword in just a few second, slicing the black smoke entity in half. And as it vanish into his sight, he heard it giggle playfully.
Standing for a moment to check the entity's location, he felt like his feet had brushed through something. Looking down immediately, he found a person half dead on the ground. Pale and is barely breathing.
Park Do Hyun knelt down, he reached out to the young man's pulse and felt the weak heartbeat.
Blue notification window suddenly appeared on his face surprising him.
[Malicious Mana: 77.99%
Cleansing: 0.01%]
Distracted by the sudden pop up, he was caught off guard by the the sudden tug on his sleeve and a face appearing through his system window. Before he could even react, the young face reached the side of his lips, having his left cheek kissed unintentionally.
He was astonished. Speechless and frozen for a few seconds he saw his notification popped out again behind the boy's head.
[Malicious Mana: 77.49%
Cleansing: .51%]
The unconscious head slipped and his small body fell into Park Do Hyun's chest while he sat there still in shock.
What just happened?
Just as he was trying to figure out what was the kiss and the pop up was for, he heard the young man gasped and suddenly sat up, regaining consciousness.
.
Lin Young-Jae felt like he was drowning. Drowning in an endless abyss of darkness as he tried to search for an exit and in that darkness he was the only one visible, glowing dimly like a dying light.
He didn't know what to remember or what he should do, all he knows is the fact that he needed to survive.
He wished he could have eaten a lot of cake at the hospital if this world is going to leave him alone and hungry to death. Maybe he should have requested meat in the menu too.
Lastly, he should have called Lin Ji-Young and said his goodbye.
It's quite sad. He felt guilty knowing that it will take months for Lin Ji-Young to find what remains of his brother and what remained would be a piece of tattered bloody glove. He thought that maybe giving her a heads up might be better than a year full of hopes only to shatter it back to reality.
Her heartbreak is imaginable after seeing how much she care for her little brother in person. And of course, resonating with the memories of 'Lin Young-Jae', he must also be heartbroken not being able to say his last goodbye.
Thump
His heart felt a sudden beat.
Thump
It was painful. As if something was trying to squeeze his heart.
Thump. Thump.
He wanted to groan but his throat was clogged and his head hurting. He wanted to grasp his chest but found that he couldn't move.
Hihi~
He could hear an odd giggle.
Hearing that, the pain was suddenly gone and he could move again in the quiet and lonely darkness, and then he saw a light. A light was shining on his right wrist.
It was an irresistible sight. It was warm and brighter than his dim light. He wanted to catch it, absorb it. Like a fish longing for the sea. Or a breathless man desperately wishing for air.
His instincts told him that he must absorb it. He grabbed the light, seeing as it became bigger, he absorbed it in his mouth out of instinct. But maybe because he was overwhelmed, he felt like his body got a bit dizzy again as he closed his eyes for a moment and then suddenly, everything started to come back to reality.
He gasped, opened his eyes and felt a bit of strength.
The first thing that he saw was a pop up. His status window showed an activated skill.
[Malicious Mana absorption in use
Target: 77.46%
Progress: .54%]
"Huh?" He was confused for a moment and then closed his status window feeling something warm to his side.
His eyes followed the warmth and found that his barehand was clutching someone's callused hands almost making him jump from shock. His head looked up and saw a handsome fellow looking back at him with blank cold eyes.
"Uhm..." He didn't know what to do. This was the first skin contact he had ever since he woke up in this world. Also, this is the first time he used his ability. But rather than feeling weak, he felt like he breathed fresh air and earned energy.
He wanted to speak to the person beside him. He already opened his mouth but was hesitant. Also, the question lingered in his head whether this person is actually a good man or a kidnapper.
Thinking of this, he became wary. Hand pulled back as he embraced himself weakly.
"Who... Who are you, mister?" He asked, his voice was a bit hoarse from days of not being able to drink.
"I'm-"
"Boss! What happened! Did you catch something?" Appearing from the maze like rocks, Lee Seok Jin appeared and saw his boss kneeling beside a boy who seemed weak and frightened.
Their eyes met and the pitiful face immediately jogged his memory, his eyes looking at the camera in hand. His red eyes widened in realization and pointed at Lin Young-Jae. "Ah!"
His shout made the boy flinch, looking up at the redhead with fear and shock.
"What is it?" Park Do Hyun asked.
"Boss, he's the kid in the photos. Those fucking sick bastards really kidnapped him!" He said in anger.
"Kidnapped?" Do Hyun faced the trembling little lamb. His neck was bruised, wrist had signs of being bound, his hands were dirty, but there's also a shoe mark in it, showing that his hand was stepped on, there was blood on his clothes... No wait, blood?
He immediately checked the boy's body, ignoring his shocked face, he pulled the hospital shirt up, checking for signs and saw blood flowing at the back close to his visible rib lines. Lee Seok Jin was quick to take out a potion from his storage and handed it to the guild master in a hurry.
"Hey, kid! Drink this, you're bleeding!"
Looking at his shocked face, even Lin Young-Jae was surprised. His body was painful everywhere that he didn't even know that he's wounded!
His face went pale, he has been bleeding for days. Did 'Lin Young-Jae' died of blood loss? He was in a trance that he noticed the vial being put into his mouth late. Oh right! The potion! Grabbing Park Do Hyun's hand, he guided the hand and allowed him to chug the healing potion to it's last drop.
The heal was effective... Highly effective that he was healed from major to minor injuries.
[Malicious Mana circulation activated
Cleansing: .53%
... .52%
.51%
.50%
.40%
.30%]
The pop up made him blink twice. And just as soon as that notification appeared, he felt like his head became numb and his body, which was slightly better than before, suddenly felt heavy again.
At that moment, something struck him. Realizing something, he removed his gloves, grabbed the man's hand with both his barehands and the status window immediately came out in sight.
[Malicious Mana Absorption in use
Target: 77.45%
Progress: 0.01%]
From just a small amount, he felt like his headache was slightly less painful than usual. Does that mean using his ability is actually making him in less pain?
The young man blinked twice, his eyes were amazed by such condition. So there's a hope for this weak body after all.
Meanwhile, Lee Seok Jin was watching the two in awe. His boss, Park Do Hyun is staring at the young man, while the young man was grabbing his boss' hand and was staring in daze. Perhaps, he had never seen the guild master this closely intimate with someone before, but seeing it in person is really... Interesting.
"We should go back first." Do Hyun sighed, let the hand go, took out an A-rank cloak from his storage space as he draped it around the young man's shoulders and carried him in one arm. The position looked like he was carrying a child, while the one being carried had no choice but to grab his clothes to balance himself.
No matter how much Lin Young-Jae wanted to complain, he knew he didn't have the strength to walk and he didn't have any footwear to protect his feet so he had to swallow his pride and let it be. He just wrapped his arms around the man's neck making skin contact to absorb more Malicious Mana in his body.
He pondered deeply about the things he saw earlier.
The giant fox and his contamination being 100%. But when he checked again, the contamination was zero and there was no fox but another human.
Was that some kind of dream or omen?