Healing Wind

I drew the heart out of the plastic bag. A damp, clammy chill climbed through my palm.

It was exactly as I had seen it on the request form — an item that carried extreme virtues and extreme flaws at the same time. Hold even one skill that had not reached maximum level, and you lost thirty percent of your physical ability outright, a fatal drawback. Hold a skill that had, and you gained something absurd: the right to learn a skill beyond the hierarchy.

Yu Ji-seong broke the silence.

"The workshop has only given it a preliminary appraisal. If we commission a formal one, we should be able to learn far more accurate details..."

There ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was no need. I cast Appraisal on the heart at once. A bright light circled it, and new information surfaced.

The result of a top-tier Appraisal. New lines had been added to the description. First among them: the heart of an Apostle.

"An apostle...? I'm afraid I've never heard of such a thing."

I had asked Yu Ji-seong, and he had nothing more to give me. I combed the Archive just as carefully and came up empty there as well. If neither the office nor the Archive had a record, then for all practical purposes the information did not exist.

Next was Two Hearts. Put simply, it would serve as a reserve storehouse for mana. If I could refill what burned away so sharply whenever I cast magic of differing schools, nothing could be better.

And since it even has a level attached, there's more than enough room for the Transcendence trait to apply.

The lack of anything on apostles was an uneasy factor. But the item bound itself the moment it was absorbed, and it didn't look particularly dangerous. Weighed against those advantages, refusing to absorb it would have been the stranger choice.

I fed mana into the heart at once.

Ssshhhhh—

In a flash the heart turned to black smoke. The energy that rose into the air sank in through my skin, and a moment later a new heart had seated itself right beside the one I already had.

That was the end of it. Deep in my chest, two hearts began to pound.

I came home. When I checked my phone, a message was waiting — from Yu Seo-ha.

A good idea. After what he had been through, sending him straight back into the field would meet obvious psychological resistance. He needed time to settle his mind while he handled lighter work.

Quietly, I found myself admiring Yu Seo-ha.

The more I see of her, the more she strikes me as someone both capable and kind.

Thinking back, there had been quite a few warm people around me before the accident, too. My parents had always been gentle with me. Maybe I had been missing this sort of warmth all along — warmth between one human being and another.

I packed what little I owned, left the motel room, returned the key at the counter, and stopped by the bank to deposit the money.

What Old Man Choi had handed over was more than I had expected. Seventy million won — a serious sum. I couldn't speak for other Awakened, but to me it was an enormous amount. My hand even trembled a little as I made the deposit.

Next I headed for a place I had looked up in advance.

I stepped into the lobby. It wasn't luxurious, but the stale, musty air peculiar to motels was gone entirely.

"How long will you be staying?"

I held up two fingers.

"Two days?"

I shook my head and, this time, held up seven. The clerk nodded.

"I'll register you for two weeks. Your room is 1302."

When the clerk mentioned breakfast service, I shook my head again and went up to the room.

I drew the curtains and looked outside. The unordered sprawl of Daelim-dong lay spread beneath my feet, and beyond it, toward the Han River, a cleanly parceled district came into view.

I dropped onto the bed. I thought about resting a little, but sleep didn't seem likely anyway, so I went straight to the lobby.

I turned toward the place where people had gathered. The skill shop.

Under ordinary circumstances, there were no more skills I could learn. But if the Cursed Heart's effect applied to the shop as well, that was a different story. I had already mastered no fewer than seven: among the general skills, Meditation, Detection, and Appraisal; among the fire skills, Fireball, Flame Burst, Crimson Flame, and Holy Fire.

If the heart's ability carried over in full, I could learn seven new skills. I was curious. Was that really possible?

Step. Step. Step.

I had only just started toward the skill merchant when I couldn't help but flinch. The Hispanic merchant, who always wore a cheap grin and tossed out jokes, was staring at me with a hard, fixed look. It lasted only a moment. The instant he felt my eyes on him, he slipped back into his usual flippant self.

"Hey. You showed up with something real interesting stuck to you."

One look at the list and it was plain I could learn more skills. There was also one striking peculiarity. The fire school was not among them — not even its final stage, the magic that governed Melting, the spell whose name meant a furnace. Crucible.

"No Crucible?"

"Hey, hey. I don't care what fancy thing you're wearing. A merchant's still got to keep his ethics."

He grinned slyly and winked.

"Clear the sixth floor of the Tower and come back. Before that, absolutely not."

Skills from the other schools, I could learn. Not all of them — but five basic skills, no less. From Earth I took Bind, which shackles an enemy to the ground. From Wind, Wind Shield, defensive magic that compresses air to block an attack, and the skill I had needed most urgently of all. From Water, Flow, which lets you steer the movement of water at will. From Ice, Freeze, which creates ice and spreads it. From Lightning, Shock, which runs a current through a target to paralyze it and deal damage over time.

"Well, I'll be damned. First lunatic of this kind I've ever seen..."

Was I the first to walk off having learned five skills at once? The skill merchant clicked his tongue.

...The point cost is pretty steep, though.

I had heard that anything outside the first attribute you acquired came expensive, and it seemed to be true. Even basic magic ran three hundred points apiece. Fifteen hundred points, gone. The higher the tier, the worse it would get. Spend freely just because I had points to spare, and I might find myself unable to learn a skill I actually needed.

Two general skills as well. Last came the one that mattered most — a Holy-attribute skill.

...I had finally managed to learn it.

Healing Wind, the most basic skill of the Holy attribute. It was known to heighten a target's natural healing — but that was only the story at low level. No one knew what it would do once it reached the maximum.

Either way, I can learn Holy skills now. Thank God.

Perhaps it was because a plan that had been half delusion had become real faster than I expected. Learning a Holy-school skill left me with a strange new feeling. It would be all right even if the skill fell short of what I hoped. I could always learn others, and heal my body that way.

...Do I climb, or do I test what the skill actually does?

I hesitated a moment, but the answer was already decided. I left the Tower and returned to the bed at my lodgings. Climbing could wait. Healing came first.

I checked the community first. As with most basic skills, the evaluations were thin. After I had torn through the Archive as well, it settled into two lines. Sleep came easily. Wake up, and the fatigue was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cleanly gone.

"So it's... like being on an IV?"

I'd know once I used it. I drew up my mana and activated the skill.

Whoosh—

A gentle wind swept lightly across the bed. For an instant my mind went blank. I felt as if I might yawn at any moment. Actually yawning, of course, was impossible.

I forced my heavy eyelids to stay open a little longer, and the message I had been waiting for appeared.

The wind blowing over me grew stronger, and I felt markedly more at ease. This time my eyelids sank before I even had the chance to yawn.

What is this...

I couldn't carry the thought any further. Darkness closed over my eyes.

I opened my eyes.

Cheep!

Cheep-cheep!!

Birdsong came in through the open window — a sound that lifted the mood all on its own.

Maybe I had been lying there too long; my back itched. I hauled myself up on mana threads and raked at it. Refreshing. I went to the window, opened it, and took in the gloomy view of Daelim-dong for a moment.

The midsummer sun was sharp enough to sti—

"......!!"

My eyes flew wide. My back had itched. The sunlight had stung. What was this...!!

My God.

I wrapped myself in mana threads and ran for the bathroom. I lifted my head and checked the mirror. A face no different from usual — a little gloomy.

But it was clearly not the same.

A twitch.

My eyebrows moved, and the corners of my mouth trembled faintly. A fine shiver that began in my fingers and toes gradually spread. The mana threads weren't doing a thing, and still my body was responding.

"Uuuh... euh..."

A strange sound leaking from my throat. It was close to the voice I heard in the Tower — the voice I had lived all this time forgetting, the voice I had wanted so badly to get back.

At a sensation I couldn't place, I blinked. Something welled up and spilled over.

I raised my head. The young man in the mirror was crying. Tears were streaming down his face.

I released the mana threads and forced my trembling arm up. With shaking fingers I wiped the tears away. The feeling was vivid and clear.

...Warm.

I looked up at the slack, lifeless corners of the mouth in the mirror and pulled them upward with everything I had. My facial muscles quivered for a moment. I barely managed a smile.

It was an unbearably awkward smile, but that didn't matter. The first smile I had made in eight whole years. For today, this alone was enough.

Now it was time to look over the skills I had just learned.

© Domhwangcha