Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: The World Slows Down
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#68.
The world slowed down.
One second felt like an hour, and everything around him decelerated.
The only thing moving normally
was Seo Woo-jin’s mind.
An immeasurable amount of mana poured out from the gem in his hand.
‘It’s not just mana.’
No one else could sense it due to the overwhelming mana, but a trace of demonic energy was mixed in as well.
Seo Woo-jin could feel it clearly.
Whether it was because he was touching the gem or because he was the ‘Demon King,’ he couldn’t tell.
But one thing was certain: the mana and demonic energy were slowly being absorbed into his body.
It filled him up in an instant and began compressing even further.
‘Ugh!’
Seo Woo-jin let out a silent groan.
The more the compression and absorption continued, the more hellish pain he felt.
It was like a rampaging wild horse charging through his veins.
The agony made it feel like his body would explode.
Yet there was no way to stop it.
The unprecedented mana relentlessly burrowed into him.
‘My... mind.’
His vision started to blur.
The body that had fully recovered from his recent level-up twisted and buckled.
The pain was so intense he felt like he’d pass out.
How much time passed like that?
With time crawling so slowly, he couldn’t tell exactly.
Subjectively, it felt like days had gone by.
‘No more...’
He finally hit his limit.
The mana, repeatedly compressed, seemed to realize his body could take no more and stopped absorbing.
Crunch—crunch—!
Instead, it began expanding and strengthening the vessel.
To hold even a little more energy.
Because of that, Seo Woo-jin writhed in agony as if his entire body was tearing apart and breaking.
The pain from absorbing the mana felt like child’s play in comparison.
‘Aaaah!’
He screamed in silence.
Seo Woo-jin barely clung to his fading consciousness.
‘I have to... control it...’
Instinctively, he focused his mind to control the mana.
He had to rein in this massive power.
But the mana ignored his will.
The mana circuits he’d been barely holding together tore apart under its ferocity.
“Grrraaagh!”
A wave of pain whitewashed his mind.
‘No, no!’
Seo Woo-jin desperately tried to control the rampaging mana, but it was too much.
The berserk mana raced through his body, shredding everything in its path.
Despair.
‘Am I going to die like this?’
As the horrific pain brought thoughts of death to Seo Woo-jin’s mind,
‘...Demonic energy?’
The dormant demonic energy finally stirred.
It began to cradle his broken body.
Ahh—
The demonic energy he’d felt until now had been repulsive and vile.
But not this time.
It felt purer than even the mana.
Wherever the demonic energy passed, his wounded body mended.
Torn mana circuits widened and toughened, while shattered bones and muscles reformed in the most ideal shape.
Only then did the mana that had threatened to burst his body begin to settle.
It flowed grandly through his expanded circuits, dispersing and absorbing throughout his body.
An unimaginably vast amount of mana had taken root in Seo Woo-jin’s flesh.
But he couldn’t sense it.
The soothing sensation had unknowingly pulled him into unconsciousness.
The space around the closed-eyed Seo Woo-jin collapsed.
The ruin vanished, revealing the forest once more.
“Woo-jin!”
“Uncle!”
Worried shouts echoed through the woods.
* * *
“Mm.”
Seo Woo-jin’s eyelids fluttered.
Then, slowly, he opened his eyes.
“Uncle! He’s awake! Oh, Uncle’s awake!”
The moment he stirred, Lee Ji-ah’s excited fussing made him chuckle dryly.
“Where...?”
He’d clearly blacked out inside the ruin, but this was somewhere else.
That corridor hadn’t had lamps like those on the ceiling.
“Talk later! I’ll go get everyone!”
Instead of answering, Lee Ji-ah bolted out with a clatter.
‘She’s busy as ever.’
Seo Woo-jin caught a glimpse of her retreating figure, then closed his eyes again.
He wasn’t sure exactly, but it seemed they’d escaped.
‘Probably because that Lodge Ruby bastard died?’
There was no other explanation.
“Good thing.”
It had seemed impossible, but they’d somehow made it out.
Seo Woo-jin thought he should at least thank Baek Si-woo soon.
He wasn’t someone he particularly wanted to get close to, but the guy had helped him, that much was true.
“But what were those energies?”
Mana and demonic energy.
He recalled the two powers that had erupted when the gem inside Lodge Ruby shattered.
Truly absurd quantities.
If Lodge Ruby had been able to wield them all, not even Baek Si-woo could have won.
‘No, we’d all be dead first.’
Fortunately, the bastard couldn’t control them.
It was more accurate to see Lodge Ruby and the gem’s energies as separate.
‘The power that formed the ruin?’
That made the most sense.
When the gem shattered, the ruin collapsed, allowing their escape.
Seo Woo-jin decided that was the case.
Who left the gem? How had its energies been absorbed into him?
There were unanswered questions, but he pushed them from his mind.
‘It involves demonic energy.’
Digging too deep into the gem’s origins might reveal that demonic energy had entered his body, which could spell trouble.
“Even if I investigate, I’ll have to tread carefully.”
With that thought, Seo Woo-jin opened his eyes.
He checked his condition.
It wasn’t bad.
No, it was better than ever.
Remembering the pain before he passed out, he sat up.
“Hm?”
Seo Woo-jin tilted his head.
Something felt off.
“My vision...”
It was higher.
Only a little, but definitely higher than usual.
Unconsciously looking down, his eyes widened.
“My body’s improved too.”
His physique had already been excellent.
The brutal training in the North had ensured that.
But now it was different.
It was like a sculpture.
His densely packed muscles were compressed to the point where not even a needle could slip in, and his skin gleamed with luster.
“Huh.”
He couldn’t comprehend what had happened.
‘Is it connected to that?’
Seo Woo-jin circulated his mana.
“Huhk!”
He jolted in shock.
An unimaginable torrent of mana enveloped his body.
If his previous mana had been a stream, this was now a vast ocean.
The sheer volume was endless; his jaw wouldn’t close.
Even absorbing just a fraction of the gem’s mana had made it immense.
But the surprise was fleeting.
A smile crept onto Seo Woo-jin’s lips.
With this, he wouldn’t lose to Baek Si-woo.
No, in terms of mana alone, he might even rival Ban Slane.
And that wasn’t all.
His transformed body felt less like growth and more like evolution.
The overflowing power gave him a sense of fullness he’d never known.
“I could beat Lodge Ruby again.”
He wasn’t just saying it.
Even without using the ‘Demon King’s’ skills, he felt confident of victory now.
Seo Woo-jin chuckled softly and picked up the shirt beside the bed, slipping it on.
Lee Ji-ah had gone to fetch the others, so they’d arrive soon.
He didn’t want to greet them half-naked.
He draped on the cleanly laundered white shirt and buttoned it up just as the door burst open.
“Woo-jin.”
Aileen entered first.
She tried to hide it, but her face was full of worry.
“Are you okay? What happened all of a sudden?”
Kang Byung-gyu followed.
“You alright?”
Even Kim Da-hye asked after him.
Then the rest filed in one after another.
Lee Ji-ah, Yu Hong-seol, Jin Tae-seong, and Rudain too.
“I’m fine.”
Seo Woo-jin smiled at them to ease their concerns.
It wasn’t just to reassure them.
He truly felt better than ever.
“We were worried when you collapsed so suddenly.”
Rudain approached.
“Was there something wrong with the gem?”
It was a natural question, since Seo Woo-jin had passed out right after touching the red gem.
“I’m not sure what happened either.”
He claimed a strong shock hit him when he grabbed it, knocking him out.
He said nothing about absorbing the mana and demonic energy.
“I see.”
Rudain seemed to have more questions but held back, mindful of the others’ eyes.
“By the way, what happened while I was out?”
“I’ll explain!”
Lee Ji-ah jumped at Seo Woo-jin’s question, as expected.
She looked like she’d burst if she didn’t get to talk, glancing at him for permission.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
He nodded with a grin, and she launched into her tale with glee.
“When you touched the gem, mana went boom! Everyone froze in shock, and then the ruin started collapsing!”
It matched what Seo Woo-jin had guessed.
“But sadly, we didn’t find the other knights.”
When the ruin collapsed, everyone inside returned to the forest.
But some of the search party, including Rudain’s men, were missing.
No one said it, but everyone knew.
Those who hadn’t reappeared were dead.
“Oh, and Baek Si-woo oppa’s friends are all safe.”
Seo Woo-jin, whose expression had darkened thinking of the meat lump, brightened with relief.
“Good to hear.”
Im Tae-eun, who’d appeared briefly then vanished.
Unlike her friend Sung Yu-ra, she’d been polite and stirred protective instincts.
He’d worried about her pet ‘Dragonling’ too, so it was a relief they were safe.
“This is the academy.”
“...The academy?”
He’d known it wasn’t the Demon Realm, but he hadn’t expected to return all the way to the academy.
“How’d we get back?”
“A mage from the empire came looking for us. That ice-cold guy opened a gate and brought us straight here!”
At the mention of a mage, Seo Woo-jin’s face lit with curiosity.
He’d never seen a real mage who wasn’t a hero.
“Right, he said to let him know when you woke up. I’ll go tell that cold-blooded jerk real quick!”
His curiosity grew—from mage to ice-cold to cold-blooded.
‘Perfect timing.’
Seo Woo-jin had business with a mage anyway.
The strange symbol etched on the cover of the ‘Otherworld Demon King Record.’
This was his chance to learn what it was.