Two Spirits, the Harmony Heart Method, and a Strange Morning
Once the energy stabilized, my body suddenly felt lighter. The water energy surged through the entire lake and wrapped around me, lifting me upward. I shot into the sky above the water, hovered for a moment, then slowly descended toward the lakeshore.
Arin came running first. “Jihoon! Wow… you really got another spirit’s power.”
At that moment, Elly quietly revealed herself. A wave-like energy spread thinly around her.
“…Could it be… are you the Fire Spirit King Ifrit?”
Arin looked up and immediately replied. “Then you must be the Water Spirit King Elraim?”
Elly smiled faintly. “…Not quite at that level yet. I can only sense energy of a similar size to yours.”
“Yeah. I was sealed just like you. From now on, call me Arin. I’ve been given a new name.”
“…Call me Elly too.”
The two spirits approached each other and quietly embraced. The moment the cool energy of the waves met the heat of the fire, a short burst of steam rose lightly. They both stepped back slightly at the same time.
“As expected… we’re between water and fire.”
Arin chuckled. Elly smiled softly as well.
“Alright! We can chat later. First, let’s get out of the dungeon. I need to absorb the core and leave before the gate closes. Let’s hurry.”
“Arin, go back to the spirit realm with Elly and explain everything that’s happened. You’re the senior here, after all? Heh.”
“Got it! Elly, let’s head back to the spirit realm for now. I’ll explain everything.”
“Yeah, okay. Jihoon… see you later.”
“Yeah. See you later. Recover your energy and talk for a bit.”
I felt the lingering resonance of power within my body and quickly exited the cave. From the edge of the lake, I leaped into the sky and stabilized my posture midair with telekinesis. The mana flow was much clearer than before. It was smooth, uninterrupted, and required almost no effort to move. My aerial movement speed had increased by another level, and the physical strength emanating from my body had clearly risen by at least one rank as well.
Passing through the gate, it was already dawn. Two hours had passed since absorbing the core, but the gate hadn’t closed. It seemed the energy I left behind while absorbing it was sustaining the gate longer. I waited another two hours, but the gate ultimately didn’t disappear. As dawn broke, I flew to where I had parked my car, got in, and headed straight home.
On the way home, while driving, it suddenly occurred to me.
“Ah! I forgot to bring the Snake Mana Stone… I was distracted because of the core absorption. Arin said she’d collect it for me… I forgot. What a shame… my money!”
Upon arriving home, I took off my shoes and walked into the living room. My body still seemed to carry the scent of the Samcheok Dungeon.
“Arin, Elly.”
Two points of light, one fiery and one watery, flashed into existence simultaneously.
“Coming up from Samcheok… it’s really far.”
“Really? We came out right next to you… I’m not sure?”
Arin tilted her head with an expression half-filled with playfulness.
I flopped down onto the sofa and stretched out with a long sigh.
“You guys had it easy. I thought I was going to die from exhaustion.”
Elly gently flew down and landed beside me.
“Did you talk a lot with Arin?”
“Yeah. Quite a bit.”
“Elly seems very interested in this civilization. She wants you to summon her often from now on.”
“I want to see and experience a lot by your side, just like Arin. So… summon me often too.”
“Yeah. I’ll always summon you two together. But… will I have the ability to do that?”
“Earlier when you were absorbing, our energies briefly clashed inside you, right?”
“Yeah, but when I channeled them through the Omega Circle into both hands, the colliding flows split into two streams and stabilized right away. Now, the central mana hole in my solar plexus is firmly holding the center, and the energy rises from both hands, passes through the central mana hole, goes down to the lower mana hole once, and then spreads smoothly. It’s like a small circulation has just opened.”
Elly quietly continued.
“The flow inside you… it feels like passages have already formed up to the middle section. The energy doesn’t get blocked, and it seems to stabilize after making one large loop.”
“Before going to sleep tonight, sit down and observe your interior. The flow descending from the central mana hole in your solar plexus to the lower mana hole, and the subtle rebound rising back up… at this rate, you’ll be able to see all of it.”
I nodded and looked at Arin and Elly, thinking for a moment.
“By the way, how long can you stay in this world? Does the fire and water energy I possess affect that?”
Arin answered immediately.
“That’s right, Jihoon! A bit of our energy has settled in your body, so we can stay much longer than before. And also… if you see any stones in the dungeon that feel like our attributes, bring them. Or just summon us. We’ll take them to the spirit realm and absorb them ourselves.”
Elly quietly added.
“It’s thanks to your energy, but the actual time we can stay depends more on our recovery state. Absorbing spirit stones or attribute stones little by little stabilizes our energy so we can stay longer, but if we use a lot of power in battle, we might tire quickly.”
“Then… if we just talk like this, we can stay together for a long time, right?”
“Yeah. If we stay quietly, twelve hours is fine. But in situations where we use a lot of energy, sometimes it won’t even last three hours. And Jihoon, just by keeping us by your side and summoning us like this, your affinity with our energies builds up. That’s good for your mana flow too.”
“So from now on, we’ll gradually grow stronger together! If you see any stones, bring them, and summon us whenever you need!”
“Got it. Then, if you’re okay with it… even if I’m asleep, you can look at more things from this world. I’ll teach Elly how to use the computer and TV too. But! No soju! I’ll be the one to teach that! Arin, you’re not allowed!”
“That’s the taste of soulmates! I was going to tell her first!”
“Arin’s completely become a Korean spirit. From taste to preferences.”
Elly smiled softly and said.
“Hehe… Then will I become a Korean spirit soon too?”
“I’m a spirit evangelist! I’m taking responsibility for educating her!”
Arin shrugged her shoulders.
“Where did you even learn the word ‘evangelist’… I can’t handle you.”
I shook my head and looked at Elly.
“Still, teach Elly well so she can adapt easily.”
Arin waved her hand as if telling me to go in quickly.
“Okay! You go take a shower. We’ll look into more of this world’s culture. No drinking alcohol~ Probably.”
“Tsk… Fine. Then I’ll go shower. You guys check out our civilization. And really, don’t drink.”
After finishing my shower, I sat on the bed and quietly activated the Omega Circle. As Arin had said, I decided to first observe the flow inside me.
I steadied my breathing and focused on the movement of energy. I could immediately feel the warm energy from the central mana hole. Mana had gathered clearly in the lower mana hole, and after a moment, it was pushed upward to reach the center. The flow moved between the center and the lower part without tangling, mixing naturally. Even though it was a flow created by the Omega Circle, it felt strangely stable.
Following that sensation, I rotated the Omega Circle a little deeper. The flow that had been moving subtly in the lower mana hole rose upward along a definite path. The moment it reached the center, fire energy rose in my right hand and water energy in my left hand simultaneously. The two attribute energies filled my fingertips and returned to my heart, and after leaving only a tension as if they might clash, they quickly merged into one flow.
The merged energy made one large rotation around the central mana hole and immediately descended toward the lower mana hole. It gathered in the lower mana hole as a single flow, compressed, and after a moment, spread throughout my entire body again. The spread energy moved along the mana circuits, imbuing my right hand with fire and my left hand with water, while the three flows stabilized in the center without collision. And then back to the lower mana hole.
Compression in the lower mana hole → central mana hole → both hands → back to the lower mana hole. As this circulation repeated, the passage connecting the center and the lower part became more solid, and the circuits flowing through my entire body also clearly hardened.
‘…Was there such a naturally flowing circulation?’
The feeling of my mana and the two spirits’ attributes forming the same flow within one circuit without conflicting.
Only then did a name come to mind.
‘Yeah… This suits the name Harmony Heart Method better than Omega Circle.’
I slowly rotated the Omega Circle—no, the Harmony Heart Method—again. A gentle vibration passed slowly through my body.
This much was enough for today. As I closed my eyes, feeling the two energies stabilize and settle into place, I fell asleep.
The next morning, the Investigation Team 3 office at the Uijeongbu Northern Branch was bustling with the morning rush and team members wearing tired expressions from the weekend. Among them, Team Leader Yoo Mira’s serious expression stood out.
As I headed to my seat, I casually asked Hyomin hyung.
“Hyung. Is something going on? Team Leader Yoo Mira’s expression doesn’t look good.”
“Huh! Jihoon, you’re here? You know that Samcheok C-06 Dungeon we went to last week? They say the gate disappeared yesterday without recovering the core.”
“What? Really? Don’t tell me another audit is coming?”
“I don’t know! The Blue Dragon Team 2 leader is apparently in an uproar. You know his personality. They were about to enter for resource collection when the gate vanished… If they get caught, he won’t let it slide, they say it’s at the level of a rampage.”
I broke into a cold sweat internally, but outwardly acted as if nothing was wrong.
‘I… seem to have a talent for acting.’
A meaningless confidence rose for a moment.
“Hyung, but we couldn’t find the core back then. Did a new core scanner come out? How did they find it?”
“How would I know that! Whether it’s something made on the black market, or if there’s a hunter who can detect cores in an illegal guild…”
“Isn’t this going to come back to bite us?”
“Ah, this time we all moved together. There’s nothing to audit.”
“Right. Hey, Jaehun hyung’s words really came true.”
“Hey, Byun Jihoon. Why are you dragging me into this when I was just sitting quietly!”
“You said ‘Isn’t another audit coming because there’s no core?’ back then.”
“Hey! At that time… who knew it would really disappear. Tsk.”
“See? I knew it from then. Heh. Anyway, did you have a good weekend, hyung?”
“Yeah~ I ran for the first time in a while, so I’m tired.”
“Oh, you went running?”
“No. Club. Keh.”
“Pfft, that’s so like you, hyung. Anyway, let’s hope today stays quiet.”
Just then—
“Alright, if everyone’s here, please gather in the meeting room.”
Team Leader Yoo Mira’s voice was heard.
In that moment, tension rose for no reason. Another cold sweat broke out.
Director Han Seo-yeon of the DIO headquarters called for Audit Division Chief Choi Junhyuk while flipping through a report. On the desk lay the settlement data for the Samcheok C-06 Dungeon.
“Another C-class gate has disappeared without core recovery.”
Audit Division Chief Choi Junhyuk reported briefly.
“There are movements from illegal hunter guilds, but there’s no direct connection yet.”
“This incident involved Investigation Team 3, right? Including Investigator Byun Jihoon.”
“Yes. It was a joint operation with Blue Dragon Team 2. Blue Dragon Team 2 handled the boss, and Investigation Team 3 waited in the rear and only collected samples. In that situation, it would have been difficult to secretly recover the core.”
“Then the disappeared core… was probably recovered around Sunday afternoon.”
“Yes. The only ones who know about the boss clear are Blue Dragon Team 2 and Investigation Team 3. It’s likely that a small team quickly entered and took only the core, or an individual acted alone.”
Director Han Seo-yeon turned to the next page of the document. Byun Jihoon’s growth indicator graph was quietly rising.
“…His growth rate is fast.”
“He was promoted from D-class to C-class five months after his promotion last year.”
“Is such speed common among investigators?”
“No. There have been cases among combat hunters who rose quickly, but this is the only case among investigators.”
“Then it means either he has potential above SS-class… or his growth method is different.”
“Estimation is possible. At this rate, we can expect SS-class within five years.”
Director Han Seo-yeon tapped the document with her finger.
“What if he has a constitution that can absorb dungeon cores?”
“Investigator Byun Jihoon is a telekinesis-type hunter. We can suspect a second awakening, but… in the experimental base in northern China, they succeeded in forced absorption up to E-class cores, but all C-class cores resulted in death from overload. There are no success cases.”
“Alright. Then how on earth did they find the core? A core that neither the hunter team nor the investigation team could find.”
“We’re still investigating. It could be a hunter with the ability to detect cores, and we can’t rule out the possibility of black market technology either.”
Director Han Seo-yeon let out a short sigh.
“Can we track it with our investigation bureau’s capabilities?”
“We specialize in dungeon investigations, so external criminal investigations fall under the Hunter Association or Hunter Police Bureau’s jurisdiction.”
“Then let’s do what we can internally, and leave the rest to them.”
“Yes. Then what about Investigator Byun Jihoon?”
“For now, we’ll only observe. If he’s a talent with SS-class potential, touching him rashly would be dangerous.”
“Even if he has the ability to absorb cores… would that be a problem?”
“We’ll judge that when the time comes.”
“Then this case will be concluded as ‘suspicion of unauthorized intrusion and resource recovery attempt by an illegal hunter guild.’”
Director Han Seo-yeon closed the documents.
“Good. For the time being, let’s just watch.”
Audit Division Chief Choi Junhyuk nodded.