Retire 286

286 Death (2)

There is always a certain concentration of mana distributed in the atmosphere.

No matter where you go in the world, the density of mana remains constant—whether you’re in the middle of the ocean, the heart of a desert, or the center of a city.

The only times mana density changes are when there’s an artificial disturbance: when a magician draws mana from the air to use magic, when a hunter enters or exits a dungeon, or right before a dungeon break.

And when a dungeon disappears.

…And, to add one more, when a dungeon gate forms.

I’ve witnessed all of these situations up close. Observing a dungeon gate forming takes some luck, but the others are common enough for any active hunter to have seen.

Of course, there’s one important difference between me and those other hunters.

Whether you can see mana, or not.

Do you know what the first thing my father tried was when he found out I could see mana?

He tried to pattern the movements of mana.

“That will be your weapon.”

Being able to see what others cannot—its advantages are obvious.

Traps powered by mana inside dungeons. In dungeons where all sorts of mana phenomena occur, being able to sense the flow of mana earlier can be the difference between life and death.

At first, I didn’t even understand what mana was. Even now, I’m not sure whether I awakened first or saw mana first. Maybe I saw mana and then awakened, or perhaps I awakened and then gained the ability to see mana. Or maybe both happened at the same time.

“It doesn’t really matter. Whatever came first, nothing changes for you, does it?”

That’s what my father said as he helped me learn to distinguish mana.

He was right. The order didn’t matter.

“This is a weapon only you have, so don’t tell anyone else.”

Being able to see mana was almost unique to me, and if people found out, there would be plenty who’d lose their minds and come after me. Even as a child, I didn’t think it strange when my father warned me so sternly.

Now, though, I wonder just how much my father really knew. Did he know about the research institute?

He probably did.

Considering how meticulously he erased all records.

“So… can you explain to me what you’re seeing, Hijae?”

Explaining was both difficult and easy. Describing what I could see was simple, but since it was formless, it was also hard.

It was like trying to explain where a gentle breeze starts—if I didn’t concentrate, my father would interpret my words completely differently.

“Really? Can you observe it again? Are you sure that’s what you see?”

…Thinking back, my father probably sensed what I was describing with his animal instincts. He asked me again and again until I described it accurately. Back then, I just thought he was being annoyingly persistent…

Through that process, I learned to pattern the movements of mana. When I officially registered as an Awakened and first picked up a wooden sword under my father’s guidance, my sensitivity to mana was already on par with most magicians.

Of course, I was cheating a little, since I could actually see it with my eyes.

…One of the magicians my father could easily call upon was Park Seo-hyun… She had demonstrated magic in front of me several times as a child. I wonder if she knew, too.

Anyway, the first thing I became familiar with was the movement of mana when a magician used magic.

When a magician draws mana from the air, it whirls around like a typhoon, swirling around the magician as if waiting its turn to be used.

Next…

I became familiar with the mana around dungeons. Magicians could be summoned, and gates were easy to approach. I’d entered plenty of dungeons following my father.

I’d never seen a dungeon break up close. But while working at the regulatory agency, I’d seen dungeons in the stage just before a break.

The movement of mana when entering a dungeon and right before a dungeon break is similar. Like throwing a stone into a calm lake, ripples spread out. The difference is, it’s not a pebble but a boulder. Mana surges violently. Gamble had even created a device to measure those turbulent movements to monitor dungeon changes.

The mana during a gate’s formation… is even more violent. It’s more like a bomb, or a black hole. Mana compresses into a single point and then suddenly explodes. Thinking back on Hope’s words, maybe it’s because all the energy needed to open the gate is drawn in at once.

Wooooong…

“……!”

The sky is crying. Still holding Kim Chaemin, I glanced at the mana drifting in the air.

It moved sluggishly, as if in a vacuum. It was unlike any mana pattern I’d ever seen.

“Teacher Woo! Let go of me!”

“We need to know what’s happening outside!”

“We have to see it to come up with a plan!”

I held on to Kim Chaemin tightly.

“Just a moment. Just wait…”

The mana slowly floated upward, starting to shine gold. I’d never seen anything like it in nature, but it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.

If I had to compare, it was most like the sky shattering just before a dungeon vanished.

Where were the kids? I’d left them in the classroom. If they were hunters—even if they remembered just a little of what I’d taught them—they wouldn’t come out until they could assess the situation. I had to trust in their intelligence.

“…That’s…”

I moved cautiously toward the window. Lee Miseon and the Daseon hunters followed.

The mana remained eerily calm, but it was gathering at a single point above the schoolyard.

Slowly, forming a small sphere…

“The mana’s strange.”

Sensitive to mana as she was, Kim Chaemin noticed the oddity immediately.

In that short time, the sphere of mana grew larger and larger.

Was a dungeon about to form? But there had never been a dungeon at the academy’s location.

“What is that?”

“…Pardon?”

Lee Miseon, pressing close to the window, spoke up.

“It looks like something’s about to pop out. Is it magic?”

I looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“There, over the schoolyard. That round thing.”

“…You can see it?”

“Can’t you, Teacher Woo? Guys, do you see that?”

“I see it.”

“I see it, Master.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“No, no… I can see it too.”

Was it not mana?

No, it was definitely mana. But why could others see it too?

I’d always been the only one who could see things like this—now that others could, I didn’t know how to react.

It’s mana, right? It has to be mana.

“Huh? Uh, uh…”

Kim Chaemin’s voice was flustered.

The others were starting to panic too. The sphere of mana was surging violently, as if something inside was trying to break out.

KUUUUUUNG!!!

The sky began to cry again, just like before.

The hair on my arms stood on end at the chilling vibration. Damn, if only Hong Seok-young were here.

He was never around when you needed him.

Never around when you need him.

But I’m always needed.

CRACKLE!!

The sphere of mana shattered into pieces.

CLANG!

Something broke.

Like the glass ceiling shattering over the sky in a dungeon on the verge of disappearing.

But the sound of breaking glass came only once… and from the torn sphere of mana, a blood-soaked feather dropped. It didn’t flutter silently like a feather should, but fell with a sharp, heavy clang, as if it were a chunk of metal.

Maybe it was because I’d just seen the monster with white feathers in the video, but that was all I could think of.

KUUUUUUU…

But when a tangled mass of feathers burst out from the rift in the mana, it was more than just a thought.

The tangled feathers rolled and tumbled, and then, along with more blood-soaked feathers, the head of a snake drenched in crimson blood emerged.

Between its golden scales, white feathers sprouted. In the grainy video, it had looked like a golden ring, but now I realized it was a snake.

Everyone held their breath.

The snake thrashed with its mouth clamped shut. It looked like it was writhing in agony…

THUD!

The head dropped to the ground, bodyless. The severed end was ragged, as if it had been torn apart by something.

After a while, the snake’s head stopped moving. Its tightly clamped jaws finally slackened and fell open.

“Oh!”

Kim Chaemin shot to her feet. There was no time to stop her—because I jumped up and vaulted out the window right after her.

No time to think. I reached inside my coat. Drawing a weapon from subspace was basic hunter training.

Ji-eun’s sword?

No. This wasn’t the time to use a weapon that didn’t even feel right in my hand.

I gripped the familiar shaft I could picture even with my eyes closed. The spear that had once been like an extension of Hong Seok-young’s own body. Even after he’d passed it on to his son, its power had never diminished.

…I hadn’t drawn it before because my father still used the same spear. But I wasn’t stupid enough to worry about that in an emergency.

I clutched the spear and charged at the snake, which, even with only its head left, still writhed hungrily for prey. I knocked aside its fangs, leapt high as it recoiled, and drove the spear down.

My father’s spear pierced easily through the snake’s jaws. The roof of its mouth and its lower jaw were skewered. The snake writhed, trying to pull the spear out, but without a body, it couldn’t muster the strength, and its movements gradually stilled. Blood gushed from the severed end.

Only after I was sure the snake couldn’t escape did I rush to the person it had been holding in its jaws.

Damn it, just thirty minutes ago they said he was fighting well!!

“Hope!!!”

“…Kh—!”

He was still breathing. The wound where the fangs had pierced him was so severe he could die at any moment. Kim Chaemin, who’d run up behind me, poured a potion over Hope’s wounds. Lee Miseon and the other hunters pulled out every potion they had.

But Hope spat out a mouthful of blood—black blood.

“Hope! Stay with me. Don’t pass out now!!”

“…Ah, ugh, Sa—Sandra.”

“Sandra? Gamble?”

“…No.”

Hope grabbed my arm. I had no idea where he found the strength, half-dead as he was.

His clothes were stained with Hope’s blood. There was flesh clinging to Hope’s hand. I wasn’t sure all this blood was even his.

Damn, what happened here?

“Woo Hijae.”

Hope called my name.

His eyes, which had been fading, snapped open and fixed on me.

“Listen carefully.”

“……”

“I’m dead.”

“…What?”

“I’m dead. Just say it was that.”

“What?”

But with that, Hope closed his eyes. I quickly checked his breathing.

“……”

It was faint, as if it could stop at any moment, but thankfully, he was still alive.