[Malicious Man Absorption is in use
Target: 76.98%
Progress: 0.07%]
Lin Young-Jae frowned, staring at the painstaking countdown on his notification screen. He had to observe his ability and noticed that it takes at least 2 minutes for the percentage to increase a bit. This takes a lot longer than he expected which is quite frustrating in his part.
He sighed, closed his notification window and looked forward. They were able to leave the cave just a minute earlier and the atmosphere had been really quiet.
Outside the cave, the group finally ventured back through the forest path, the trail of spider corpses has long been gone and new sets of web cocoons appeared.
"Hey kiddo, do you feel better?" Lee Seok Jin finally spoke, asking the young man who had been very quiet on the way.
Lin Young-Jae glanced at him and smiled. "Yes."
"Good to hear. I'm Lee Seok Jin, by the way. And the one carrying you is my boss, Park Do Hyun."
The familiar names spewed out of the young man's mouth. But he had neither strength or leisure time to reminisce about old memories so he will think about it for later, for now, his focus is on gratitude.
"I'm Young-Jae. Thank you for saving me."
"Are you perhaps related to the guild Aegis?"
"Oh, I'm a patient in the guild's hospital." Young-Jae replied, it could be seen that his hospital clothes has the Aegis mark on it so he didn't suspect anything.
"Really? Do you feel uncomfortable now?"
"Yes. I just have a weak constitution, but I'm not really sick." He explained.
"Do you know why you were kidnapped?" Do Hyun suddenly asked. He wasn't looking at the boy, but it didn't mean he wasn't paying attention on his actions. The young man has been cleansing his contamination for minutes now. But the question still lingers what this person is doing in that place.
The young man went quiet for a moment. His hand that was holding on to him stiffened a bit. "I know." He mumbled quietly but the two s-ranks with keen senses were able to hear him. "That's why I wanted to get back soon and assure them that I'm alive."
"Is your kidnapping related to Shin In Soo?" Lee Seok Jin asked.
"The guild master? Not really." He didn't know whether he should say that his sister is Lin Ji-Young. If he said that without confirming if they're decent people and not people who blindly hates his older sibling, then only can he say more.
"Then Hunter Lin Ji-Young?"
The boy flinched. He looked at Lee Seok Jin, wondering how he would know that he has ties with Lin Ji-Young.
The redhead noticed that the kid was caught of guard and wary. Thinking how he had been knowingly asking specific questions, he might find it suspicious. Realizing this, Lee Seok Jin immediately cleared. "Did I scare you? Sorry bout that! The kidnappers just left some clues so I decided to ask." He explained. "Don't worry. We're not like those fucking bad guys. We're a legitimate guild."
Lin Young-Jae blinked twice. He pursed his lips still feeling doubt. He didn't want to question them, and they did look decent too.
"We're from the Legion Guild." Seeing the hesitation in the boy's eyes, Lee Seok Jin admitted. "So don't worry, we've collaborated dungeon raids with Aegis so you can say we're on friendly terms." With a proud hint on his tone, he looked at the boy's ever changing expression, changing several times. It was cute and funny, he almost wanted to pinch his cheeks if he weren't in the guild master's arm.
Meanwhile, Lin Young-Jae was silent again. His eyes glanced at Park Do Hyun, sounding realization bells in his head. Right Park Do Hyun is one of the main character of the story, the regressor one! Lee Seok Jin is one of the supporting characters who died in the middle of the story. Specifically, he was killed by Lin Ji-Young by stabbing him with thousand ice shards, leaving his mangled body in the city center as example not to mess with her.
But since Lin Young-Jae is presumably not dead now, then Lin Ji-Young should not have a reason to become a villainess, right? Also, he needs more ally for his sister in case something unexpected happens. What if being friends with the main characters is helpful for her?
After all, they were never on bad terms before the villainess turned. They didn't care about her reputation and thought that she was efficient to work with.
He mentally nodded and his shoulders visibly relaxed.
"But why is the Legion guild in that cave?" He suddenly realized. No one discovered that cave until a year later. It was Lin Ji-Young who discovered it.
"That, well..." Lee Seok Jin turned his head to the guild master, not knowing what to say. It wasn't him who discovered the cave but his boss.
Seeing him unsure, the young man looked at Park Do Hyun.
Park Do Hyun, who had been quiet, glance at him and back on the path. "This dungeon appeared a few days ago. We received reports that unauthorized individuals entered this place earlier." He explained.
"Did you find them?" There was a careful tone in his voice. Knowing that they came to find culprits, and the person who came was the most capable main character, he felt like they succeeded. But he wasn't ready to face people who bore malice towards him. It's just like him in his past self, he tends to avoid conflict and hated getting nasty glares.
"Yes, but you don't have to worry about them." Lee Seok Jin coaxed. "You'll never see them again."
Ignoring his dark tone with a hidden meaning, Lin Young-Jae calmed down after hearing what he wanted to know. They'll never cross paths again.
"Thank you." He sighed. Felt the complains in his empty stomach which had not eaten for days. He didn't know how long, but he survived thanks to the fresh water dripping from the cave. Given more days, he thinks that he'll die soon. "Umm... Do you... have food?" He decided to ask.
Just as he finished his sentence, his stomach followed with a growl as if supporting his question to make it believable. Embarrassed, the young man hid his face in the wide hood of his cloak and retreated at the crook of Park Do Hyun's neck.
[Malicious Mana: 76.30%
Cleansing: .60%]
Do Hyun's brow furrowed noticing the sudden decrease of .50% on the chart when the young man hid on his neck. Observing that sudden jump, he concluded that the cleansing must have something to do with the level of relationship or skinship.
He had never seen an ability like this. Although there are healing potions that can cure wounds and illness, an ability to decrease contamination is unheard of. Even in previous regressions, there's no such thing-no, there is one similarly to contamination but not exactly the same.
Malicious Mana is as bad as it sounds. It is a contamination from dungeons that is being fused in mana core which is absorbed inside a hunter's body, causing an imbalance to ones mental and physical condition. It may cause illness, hallucinations, nightmares and any other ailments that may disrupt one's body function. It's not a common case, but most hunters who constantly enter high ranking dungeons have a high possibility of getting it and being affected.
It can be reduced if one constantly releases mana outside of dungeons. There are facilities that allows them to do that in guilds, but it will not completely diminish the corruption in their core. Also, it's a tiring and time consuming activity. For hunters his caliber, it may even take two years to stabilize his mana into 20% if he strictly releases mana without entering dungeon.
This is why he was surprised. Not even an hour yet and he already lost almost 2% of the contamination.
"I have food here, kid. Are you good with oat bars?" Lee Seok Jin was checking out his bag and fished out his pack of oat bars from it. He opened the pack, took a piece and handed it over. But there was no movement from the young man in his guild master's arm. He raised an eyebrow, looking at his boss. "Is he asleep?"
"Yes." Feeling the even breathing in his neck, he concluded that it was the case. But even unconscious, the cleansing was still activated. "We'll rest after three hours."
"Can't we make it 1? It's really hot here, I want to rest quickly." The redhead complained.
In the end, they rested after 4 hours. The group of 2 hunters and 1 rescued found a flat plot of land in the forest to sit. The space is also helpful so that they could see if some random monster would appear to attack. Setting down their bags, Park Do Hyun, cleared the ground and laid the sleeping boy in the center for protection.
After checking out on him, he planned to get back to the country as soon as possible.
In the past, before his regressions, he had heard the name Young-Jae many times so it wasn't impossible to understand who he is. Although there was no image of him, the group knew that he was Lin Ji-Young's most cherished person.
Lin Young-Jae, the younger brother of Lin Ji-Young who died without recovering a body. No, he was killed by an organization who wish to disrupt the peace and order of the world, pretending to be citizens who hate that woman, using her younger brother as 'sacrifice' as her lesson.
This is what he was told about when he asked what caused Lin Ji-Young's enmity towards innocent citizens. What she did was wrong, yet he wasn't right to blame her too.