Even though I had finished meditating, my sense for mana continued to deepen on its own.
The mana had become even more vivid.
It was now beyond something I could just see with my eyes; if I focused, I could touch it with my fingers.
It felt as if countless stems were extending from my body, connecting to all the surrounding mana.
A powerful sense of déjà vu shook my mind.
"What is this…?"
Just a few days ago, I had felt this exact sensation.
It was the day I left Son Si-woo's body and settled into Kim Do-jin's.
The feeling I had before waking up was just like this.
A sense of dominance, as if I held the entire world in my hands, as if I had complete control over my surroundings.
"Could it be that time…?"
It had definitely felt like shedding a layer of skin.
Perhaps back then, I was in a state of being pulled into Kim Do-jin's body as a soul.
Having cast off my flesh, maybe I had come face to face with the mana that filled the world while I was nothing but a spirit.
"I'm sure I struggled then."
I remembered flailing my arms and legs wildly as I fell, not wanting to forget that blissful sensation.
Perhaps the lingering effect of that struggle was this very sense I had now.
"This is unbelievable…"
A mere spiritual experience couldn't possibly grant such an ability.
"This body itself is special, too."
Judging by how quickly I had begun to sense mana, this body itself was unusually sensitive to it.
A blissful spiritual experience and a body exceptionally sensitive to mana.
"Did the two combine to make this happen?"
I waved my hand through the mana flowing in the air.
Something incredible happened.
The pure, unprocessed mana instantly became a gust of wind, ruffling my overgrown hair before vanishing.
"Ha, haha…"
Although I didn't know a single spell, I knew very well how magic worked.
Back when she wasn't my wife, when we were just maintaining a good relationship, she loved to ramble on to me about magic.
Mages want to be seen as scholarly.
That's why they refer to magic as a field of study.
Han Ju-hee was no different.
She said that magic was a profound academic discipline, and a mage was one who learned to manifest miracles by creating various changes in mana, the energy of nature, through specific spell formulas.
"I wonder."
Once more, I waved my hand with intent.
This time, a blazing flame flickered to life above my palm.
The profound discipline of magic that Han Ju-hee spoke of so endlessly.
What if she saw me processing and changing mana with will alone, without the aid of any of it?
"What kind of expression would you make?"
An unbearably intense curiosity scratched at me from within.
At that moment, the flame on my palm went out, and a wave of intense dizziness washed over me.
"Ugh."
It was a feeling I'd experienced a long, long time ago.
A sense of enervation and emptiness, as if something precious inside my body had been completely sucked out and had vanished.
It was the precursor to mana exhaustion, which occurs after using up all the mana in one's body.
Only then did I remember the fact I had overlooked.
"This bastard… no, I only had 1 mana…"
The mana used to synchronize with and alter the surrounding mana comes from my own body.
Creating wind and fire with a pittance of mana, not even the size of half a pea—it was only natural that this would happen.
"Ugh…"
My vision began to spin.
Then, at a certain point, everything snapped and the world was dyed black.
Seo Jeong-hee had been feeling a little strange yesterday and today.
It had started a short while ago, when Kim Do-jin, the tenant in her rooftop room, came to borrow the vacuum cleaner.
He was a boy she had let stay in the rooftop room for cheap rent three years ago, feeling sorry for him because he had nowhere else to go.
Personal pity aside, Kim Do-jin was extremely lazy, slothful, and messy.
He was the kind of kid who would hole up in his room for days without moving a muscle, only to sneak out to the nearby convenience store when his snacks ran out.
She'd heard he earned a little money through gaming, but she didn't know the exact details.
Whenever she brought him homemade side dishes each week, she would be shocked by the state of his home, visible past his obese frame.
It was so cluttered she couldn't tell if it was a place for a person or a pigsty.
A full three years had passed like that.
Just as the thought that he was a lost cause began to creep into even the kind-hearted Seo Jeong-hee's mind…
'Dojin is cleaning…?'
The boy who only ever made messes was going to clean.
'And he's a kid who was reluctant to even come to our place because of Yujeong…'
Her daughter, who was the same age as Kim Do-jin, was so hostile to him every time they met that he was thoroughly intimidated and rarely ever visited. Yet today, he had come of his own accord.
'What on earth got into him?'
She suddenly recalled the moment Kim Do-jin had collapsed yesterday.
The thought even crossed her mind that maybe he had hit his head somewhere and it had affected him mentally.
"Either way, it's a good thing, I suppose."
She couldn't look out for him forever.
Kim Do-jin would have to leave this place and stand on his own two feet someday. If he had truly decided to change, it was something to be celebrated more than anything.
"I wonder if he's cleaning properly."
He never cleaned, so the caked-on grime must be terrible.
It wouldn't be an easy task for a boy who had never cleaned before.
He might even give up on changing, faced with the wall that was cleaning.
"This won't do."
It was a shame to waste her day off, but he was like family after living together for three years. If he was showing the will to change, she had to help him.
Getting up from her comfortable spot on the couch, she headed straight for the rooftop.
Contrary to her expectation of hearing a loud racket, the rooftop was quiet.
"Is he already done…?"
That couldn't be right.
It was obvious at a glance that the room was so filthy it would take at least a full day to clean.
Perhaps he had already given up and was preparing to return to his reclusive life.
As that thought occurred to her, she immediately knocked on the metal door.
Knock, knock, knock!
"Student Dojin!"
There was no answer.
"Student Dojin?"
She called out again, but no sound came from inside.
An ominous feeling crept over her, and she immediately grabbed the doorknob.
He must not have locked it, because the door opened right away.
"Student Dojin…?"
She called his name cautiously as she stepped inside.
"Wow."
She was a little impressed.
A good amount of cleaning had been done.
There was still dust piled up here and there, but the floor—which had been so dirty your feet would stick to it—was worthy of a passing grade.
"Student Dojin?"
As she looked around, her eyes landed on Kim Do-jin.
He was leaning against a wall, his eyes closed.
"Oh my, did he fall asleep?"
He must have been tired, having swept and wiped the floor until it was this clean with that heavy body of his.
She smiled softly and approached him.
"Student Dojin, you'll hurt your back sleeping like that."
She tapped his shoulder as she spoke, but Kim Do-jin still didn't react.
It was then.
She sensed that something was wrong.
"Dojin?"
She called his name again, shaking his shoulder a little harder this time.
And then.
Thud!
Kim Do-jin's body, which had been leaning against the wall, simply slumped sideways.
"D-Dojin!?"
Startled, she quickly grabbed his shoulders and slapped his cheeks, but he remained unresponsive.
He had collapsed yesterday, and now he had collapsed again today.
Could he have a serious illness?
"What do I do…! I should have taken him to the hospital yesterday!"
She felt as if Kim Do-jin's collapse was her fault.
It was because of the thought that she should have called an ambulance right away yesterday and had a doctor look at him, but she hadn't, and now he had collapsed again.
"1-119."
She immediately took out her smartphone and called the fire department.
"This is the rooftop of Happiness Villa. Someone's collapsed! Please send an ambulance quickly!"
As she was carefully following the first-aid instructions the paramedic gave her over the phone, she heard the loud wail of a siren from outside.
She immediately went out and waved at the ambulance parked in front of the villa.
"H-Here! Over here!"
Sturdy paramedics came up and loaded his heavy body onto a stretcher.
She got into the ambulance with the collapsed Kim Do-jin.
Since Dojin had no family, she had to accompany him as his guardian.
As soon as they arrived at a nearby hospital, a doctor approached and examined him.
The doctor, who had been tilting his head while checking his condition, brought over a large machine and attached clips from it to his hands and feet.
A moment later, a sheet of paper printed out from the machine.
"D-Doctor. How is he?"
In her urgency, she couldn't wait for the doctor's answer and asked first. The doctor shook his head.
"It's a case of mana exhaustion."
"What…? M-Mana exhaustion, you say?"
Her jaw dropped.
Mana exhaustion? Wasn't that a symptom that manifested only when Awakened Beings or Hunters overused the mana in their bodies?
"I think there's been a mistake. Dojin isn't an Awakened Being, Doctor."
At her words, the doctor showed her the paper that had just printed from the machine.
"That's impossible. As you can see from this report, a faint mana reaction was detected in patient Kim Do-jin's body. If he weren't an Awakened Being, such a reaction would not have appeared."
"Th-That can't be."
Shocked by the result, she looked at Kim Do-jin lying on the bed with bewildered eyes.
Had he been hiding the fact that he was an Awakened Being?
'No, that's not it.'
If he had been hiding it for a long time, he wouldn't have suddenly collapsed from mana exhaustion like this.
That meant he must have experienced his Awakening recently.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, the image of Kim Do-jin collapsing from dizziness yesterday flashed through her mind.
She had heard that all Awakened Beings collapse in extreme pain when their trait is engraved onto their bodies.
'Could that have been…?'
Was that a precursor to his Awakening?
If so, everything fell into place.
'Right, so that's what it was.'
It now made sense why he had suddenly come to borrow a vacuum cleaner, as if seeking a change.
Having become an Awakened Being, he must have resolved to make a fresh start somehow.
The mana exhaustion must have happened when he was trying to test his new trait.
The jumbled puzzle pieces were fitting into place, one by one.
"In any case, it's not a critical situation. He should wake up soon after receiving a mana IV."
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
Following the doctor's instructions, a nurse inserted a catheter into his arm and connected an IV bag.
Seo Jeong-hee sat in the chair beside his bed and watched Kim Do-jin.
'To think that Dojin would become an Awakened Being.'
An Awakened Being was someone who was granted a trait and a status window, earning the right to transcend human limitations.
They were people who could protect themselves in an era overrun with all sorts of grotesque monsters.
It was also the minimum requirement to become a Hunter, one who could conquer the dungeons appearing all over the world and claim their rewards.
The traits that Awakened Beings obtained were wide-ranging.
Some traits were suited for combat, while others were suited for rear support. There were even traits that were more useful in daily life.
Because of this, not everyone could become a Hunter.
Only after passing the devastatingly difficult Hunter exam could a tiny fraction of Awakened Beings become Hunters.
"Did he perhaps want to become a Hunter…?"
Seo Jeong-hee gently wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He might have.
Abandoned by his parents and abused in an orphanage, perhaps he thought that was the only way to turn his life around.
She couldn't guess his inner thoughts.
Although they had lived in close proximity for three years, he was a boy who only holed up in his room, passing the time alone, never opening his heart to her or anyone else.
'I'll find out when he wakes up.'
She sat in the chair, waiting for Kim Do-jin to awaken.
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