Chapter 14
I had made a friend.
Finally, one.
Still, since he was the person I’d seen the most, I had subtly targeted him, and I was relieved that it seemed to have been the correct answer.
That leaves two more…….
Being friends with someone was a surprisingly delicate and difficult thing.
Even after exchanging contact information, it was easy to become strangers again if you didn’t continuously make an effort to socialize.
At the very least, I needed to build enough rapport that, after completing the entire training course, I could naturally introduce him to Seo-ha.
Because of that, I diligently sent messages to a man named Kim Seung-min every single day.
Fortunately, since I didn’t have to actually meet him face-to-face, it wasn’t particularly exhausting.
Ding.
[What did you have for dinner?]
[Photo]
[Something like this.]
[The nutritional balance is a little lacking…….]
Behold this perfect conversation between respectable members of society.
It was excellent both from a business perspective and because it provided small, practical benefits.
A delicate feast of polite speech that maintained proper etiquette while still conveying a sense of familiarity.
I was so impressed that I couldn’t help admiring myself.
This side should be fine.
Now it was time to target someone else.
By now, only one week of the training course remained.
And that was exactly the part I had been waiting for.
I don’t like the idea of staying in group accommodations…….
But conversely, it might be an opportunity to get closer to the others.
One might wonder how I could accomplish that when I couldn’t even properly talk to people.
But I had a solution.
Sparkle.
Before we parted at the hotel, Helena had hurriedly procured and given me a ring as a gift.
It was a high-end item enchanted with a top-grade mental stabilization spell.
It had a limit of only ten minutes, once per day, but I had already confirmed its miraculous effectiveness.
Ten minutes a day, for a total of seventy minutes over one week.
I was going to use those seventy minutes to make two more friends.
…….
There was a time when I thought that.
It’s over…….
I had vastly underestimated what group accommodations would be like.
To be honest, communal living was impossible in my current condition.
Ten minutes was nowhere near enough to accomplish anything.
Two days had already passed like that.
Considering that the remaining four days consisted of a visit to the Seoul Memorial Park and a tour of a low-rank dungeon, today was essentially my last opportunity to have a leisurely conversation with someone.
What should I do?
I was thrown into confusion.
Would all the hardship I’d endured during the training up until now end up being completely pointless?
I really didn’t want that.
As I watched for an opportunity, one possibility caught my eye.
Today’s dinner menu was grilled mackerel.
It was tasty, but also one of the quintessential foods that were troublesome to eat.
I looked around at the people assigned to my group before subtly approaching a woman who was intently working her chopsticks.
She had just turned twenty this year.
Her name was Han So-eun.
“Ugh.”
She was clearly having quite a difficult time.
I’d already used today’s mental stabilization spell, but I composed myself and cautiously spoke to her.
“Um, excuse me. I-I can remove the bones for you…….”
It was the perfect move.
To put it simply, the operation was a success.
Using a technique adapted from necromancy, I instantly transformed the mackerel into completely boneless fillets.
Two other people who had been struggling with the same inconvenience were impressed and asked me to do it for them as well.
As a result, I found myself in a miraculous situation.
I now had four people I was acquainted with.
It was a secret that the feeling of being admired, which I hadn’t experienced in a long time, felt surprisingly good.
Perfect.
There was nothing left to worry about.
All I had to do was leisurely finish building rapport during the remaining time, and I would accomplish my goal.
And so, three days before completing the training course, I found myself at the Seoul Memorial Park.
The purpose of the event was to commemorate Hunters who had died fighting monsters, beginning with the first generation, while helping the trainees recognize the dangers of the profession and strengthen their resolve.
The atmosphere, which had become somewhat relaxed during the group accommodation period, was certainly solemn now.
After all, from this point forward, the people before them could become their own future.
“We’ve all probably encountered this many times through the news and articles.”
The instructor, an active C-rank Hunter, continued speaking with a bitter smile.
“But even today, somewhere in some dungeon, other Hunters are losing their lives. This isn’t a statistic. It’s reality.”
Death.
Something that could happen at any time and could not be avoided simply through one’s own determination.
The trainees, having felt death at a much closer distance, swallowed nervously.
Perhaps because negative emotions had begun to consume their minds, a small amount of death energy began leaking from some of the trainees.
I carefully absorbed it through the magic stone in my possession.
Whoooong.
Many drops make an ocean.
That was a resource too.
Not using it would simply be wasteful.
While I was doing that, I sensed a strange presence somewhere.
Srrrk.
It was less a presence than a sense of existence.
Or rather, something closer to a certain lingering thought.
Interested, I used the free time we’d been given to trace that will.
And eventually, I arrived at someone’s grave.
[Hunter, Chae Hwa-in]
Then I felt an intense manifestation of will that I hadn’t sensed at all until moments ago.
“Ugh.”
Twitch. Twitch.
The presence was so powerful that my body trembled involuntarily.
Souls capable of maintaining such a strong form even after death were extremely rare.
I could tell just from that brief glimpse that the owner of this grave had been no ordinary person.
Eventually, I discovered that the soul had a rather unusual form.
Rather than taking human shape, it simply existed as a sphere, observing the world.
There was no will there.
No consciousness, either.
In a sense, it seemed to be the optimal form for maintaining its own existence.
It appeared to be instinctively performing an act similar to hibernation.
Interesting.
Even I had never seen a form like this before.
Just from seeing this one fragment of it, I could feel it deep within my heart.
How desperately the owner of this soul had refused to disappear from this world.
That intense and unwavering desire to survive.
“…….”
As if entranced, I approached the soul.
There was no need for rational judgment or any particular behavioral pattern.
If I could look upon a soul like this and not feel the urge to investigate it, I would be disqualified as a necromancer.
I can’t handle this carelessly.
At least, not right now.
In my current state, I was still insufficient.
I took off the ring on my finger.
An artifact for mental stabilization, made from the highest-quality materials.
An item of this caliber should be capable of temporarily serving as a vessel to contain that powerful soul.
Whoooong.
After performing the delicate procedure carefully enough to ensure that the soul wasn’t harmed in the slightest, I successfully settled the soul inside the ring.
This was an incredible achievement.
For the first time in a long while, my curiosity as a necromancer was overflowing.
While I was basking in that sense of accomplishment, one of the instructors eventually came over and caught me.
“I’m, I’m sorry…….”
I’d been so absorbed in my work that I’d missed the gathering time.
When Baek Seo-ha first heard about it several days ago, she had no intention whatsoever of approving Baek Eun-ha’s activities as a Hunter.
What changed her mind was one sentence Baek Eun-ha had uttered.
He wanted to live like a human being.
…….
In truth, Baek Seo-ha had been worried about it all along.
Was this really okay?
There wasn’t any major problem at the moment.
But if Baek Eun-ha continued living a dependent life like this, there was no doubt that he would eventually become incapable of living his own life.
There’s no guarantee that this life will last forever.
It was an unpleasant thought, but what if Baek Seo-ha died while clearing a dungeon?
There would be no one left to take responsibility for Baek Eun-ha.
Worse, because of his status as a Returnee, he could become entangled in the schemes of unscrupulous people and be exploited however they pleased.
That wasn’t good.
Her brother must have instinctively understood that as well.
That had to be why he’d decided to change himself.
“Yes. How was he today?”
[There weren’t any major problems. He still seems to have difficulty interacting with people, though.]
Baek Seo-ha had soothed her aching heart and sent Baek Eun-ha off, but she couldn’t help worrying.
So she used her connections to monitor Baek Eun-ha’s situation in real time.
“Yes. Please keep a close eye on him today as well…….”
As she continued discreetly gathering information and keeping tabs on the situation, she was somewhat surprised to find that he seemed to be progressing through the training course more smoothly than expected.
He might have been close to failing in terms of communication and social cooperation, but his overall training results were actually quite good.
Oppa, you really can do it when you try…….
Once he completed the final training, where he would observe the instructors’ dungeon-clearing process and learn the precautions needed inside an actual dungeon, Baek Eun-ha could really become a Hunter by registering as an Awakened.
Her brother was struggling this hard.
There was no way she could simply sit still.
If she truly intended to let him work as a Hunter, she needed to take certain measures of her own.
After seriously considering what to do next, Baek Seo-ha posted something on a private request board.
[Recruiting one Hunter to monitor and manage a protected individual.]
……B-rank should be enough, right?
In the harsh Hunter industry, Baek Eun-ha needed someone who could at least protect him if a dispute or an unexpected situation arose.
It was essentially a form of safety insurance, something commonly used for rookies from major guilds or second-generation chaebol heirs.
Ring-ring.
[What are the protected individual’s specific abilities?]
“He can make chicken bones stand up.”
[Uh…… unfortunately, I don’t think that’s within the scope of what I can manage. I’m sorry.]
Of course, the process wasn’t likely to be quite as smooth as she’d hoped.
