Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: I Made It
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‘Mana Contact Point Induction Method.’
The name alone felt ominous. When he typed the keyword into the search bar, a single old research post popped up.
[Author: Sorry My Son]
[… The Mana Contact Point Induction Method is a theoretical technique where the alchemist directly supplies activation energy to forcibly induce alignment, injecting mana into the contact points where bonding should occur…]
The complex explanation predictably made his temples throb.
“Ugh…”
He squeezed his eyes shut tight, then opened them. The potion sat on the workbench. He’d already gotten it this far—too much of a waste to give up now.
He forced his gaze back to the screen.
“Hmm…”
After wrestling with it for a good while, he vaguely grasped the core idea.
‘So… they’re tangled up because there’s no energy. I have to poke them with mana to force them to move… something like that?’
The problem was that it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. He had to locate those tiny contact points using sense alone, and the post’s author flatly declared that nearly impossible.
“…No choice, I guess.”
He picked up the flask sitting alone on the workbench. There were no other options anyway.
“Nothing to lose.”
He sat cross-legged on the mat and carefully placed the flask between his legs.
‘Mana… as thin as possible.’
Runes, was it? The earlier experience of drawing strange patterns in the air had helped a lot. Thanks to that, he had a rough sense of how mana moved.
A slender thread of mana extended from the tip of his right index finger.
A mana thread so thin it couldn’t pierce a sheet of paper. He slowly lowered it toward the flask’s opening.
The moment the mana thread touched the liquid, a sticky resistance transmitted through his fingertip. It felt unpleasant, like stepping into thick muck.
“……”
He set aside the complicated theory for now. From here on, it was pure instinct.
He maneuvered the mana thread through the tangled materials. It felt like diving into an endless deep sea. With his eyes closed, even his sense of direction dulled.
‘Not here… not there either…’
Everything around felt heavy and sticky. Despair started creeping in.
‘Is this… even gonna work?’
He’d lost track of time. Cold sweat dripped down his back, and his breathing grew ragged.
It was when the word give up rose to the back of his throat.
‘Huh?’
The tip of the mana thread twitched.
A sensation so subtle he might have glossed over it, but unmistakably different.
He immediately pressed the thread there. A resistance far stronger than before surged up.
‘…Found it.’
Certainty hit him. He focused all his consciousness on his fingertip.
Like a honed needle piercing tough leather, he thrust the mana thread hard into the center of the resistance.
Click—
Hallucination? But at the same instant, the pressure on his fingertip vanished like a lie.
He let mana flow along the opened path. The sticky aura pressing around it began unraveling on its own.
The rest was easy. Like a knotted ball of thread coming loose, faint flows guided him onward.
Second contact point, third…
The moment he infused mana into the final one.
Pop.
With the sensation of everything settling into place, all pressure along the mana thread disappeared.
He slowly opened his eyes.
“……”
Sometime during that, the liquid in the flask had turned a brilliant red.
“…It worked.”
He flopped straight onto the mat. Tension drained from his body, leaving heavy fatigue in its wake.
“Ugh…”
If he let go now, he’d sleep for who knows how long. He had to handle the annoying cleanup first.
Gritting his teeth, he hauled himself up.
He tossed the potion into a small box and staggered to the workshop’s iron door, opening it.
Cold night air snapped him awake. Had that much time passed?
Step, step. He headed to the small guard post beside the workshop.
“Um, excuse me…”
He knocked on the window. The old guard leaning back in a creaky chair, reading a book, turned his head familiarly.
“Oh dear, our alchemist. Worked yourself ragged again, eh?”
Yuna had assigned him to me, saying he was a retired member of the Normal Operations Guild. A seasoned mage, apparently, though he just looked like a kindly grandpa.
“You’re a mess. Keep this up, and you’ll really keel over one day.”
“Th-this…”
“I know, I know. Don’t need to say it.”
The grandpa took one look at his face and trembling hands, then silently accepted the box.
“Get back inside and rest.”
He just nodded and stumbled back to the workshop, collapsing onto the mat.
Then, squeezing out his last bit of strength, he pulled out his smartphone and sent the messages.
[Me: Done]
[Me: Left it at the guard post]
[Me: Going to sleep now lololol]
[Choi Yuna: ?]
He woke to the blaring ringtone with the sun high in the sky.
[Caller: Choi Yuna]
He answered in a groggy voice.
“…H-hello…?”
- You up? How many hours did you sleep?
“No idea…”
- Whatever. Anyway.
“…Yeah?”
- What is that thing you made?
Yuna excitedly spilled what had happened at the guild.
- Soon as the potion arrived, we applied some to the injured guy’s wounds. You could see flesh filling in on his mangled leg right before our eyes. Faster than most healers’ spells, even.
The main dealer who’d been hurt. His condition was way worse than he’d imagined.
His thigh had been half torn off by a spider leg, apparently.
For a wound like that to heal perfectly with one bottle of his potion. The recipe had listed the effects, but hearing it firsthand felt different.
- Scans show the bone’s set right too. He tested it out with a jump and said it feels even better than before. Wants to bow to you every day…
“N-no need to go th-that far…?”
He mumbled awkwardly, fidgeting with the hand on his stomach. Then he felt a fluffy sensation on the back of his hand.
He looked down. Chun-sik was rubbing his round head against it.
Why’s this guy here?
He’d definitely put him in the cage.
“…Hmm.”
Racking his brain, a forgotten fact surfaced.
‘Oh, the test.’
He’d completely spaced on it amid the chaos.
“……”
Well, it worked, so whatever. No better options right now anyway.
He dazedly petted Chun-sik while listening to the rest.
- How’d you make something like this in one day? With those useless materials?
“Tr-trade secret…”
- Are you some kind of genius?
Genius… felt like a stretch that pricked his conscience. He’d just followed a gallery recipe.
Copying someone else’s work and getting this praise felt embarrassing.
“……”
Undeterred by his silence, she continued.
- Anyway, thanks to you, we can join next week’s joint raid no problem. Appreciate it.
Then she added one more thing.
- The day you come to the guild. I’ll pay whatever you want for the potion.
Whatever he wanted.
That instant, the last shred of his mental trigonometry wore away.
“…Yeah. Got it…”
What did it matter? As long as he got paid.
A few days later.
With the large-scale guild joint raid looming, hunters swarmed the gate area.
“What? They showed up after all?”
The biggest buzz was the Normal Operations Guild. Rumors had spread that their main dealer’s severe injury might force them to sit it out.
“Heard one leg was wrecked, but he’s walking fine?”
“Must’ve called in a healer. Bet that cost a fortune.”
Everyone thought the same. An injury bad enough to consider skipping—a healer was the only way it’d heal overnight.
Sympathy mixed with a touch of envy turned their way.
“Alright! Let’s go!”
The raid began.
“Fuck, why’s it so brutal today?”
It proved far tougher than expected. Six hours in, fatigue set in, slowing the hunters noticeably.
“Haa… like I was saying.”
Minor injuries piled up, combat efficiency plummeting.
Inevitable. A coalition of mid-to-small guilds meant dedicated healers were rare. Even those were holding back for potential critical hits.
“Huh?”
But some hunters looked oddly fresh.
“What’s with them?”
Normal Operations Guild. They seemed to sharpen up as time dragged on.
“Weird. Aren’t they handling a tougher spot than us? Why’re they so lively? No injuries either.”
One by one, hunters noticed. Soon, all eyes were on them.
And finally, they witnessed why.
In a lull in the fighting, a few Normal Operations Guild members pulled small glass vials from their pockets.
Without hesitation, they drank the red liquid inside or applied it to wounds.
What followed was unbelievable.
“……!”
Slashes on forearms healed at a visible speed, and pallid faces regained vigor in seconds.
“What… just happened?”
A watching hunter muttered blankly.
For hunters, injury recovery was strictly healers’ domain. Wounds healing and stamina restoring from a drink? Beyond their common sense.
“……”
That night.
A post went up on the Korean Hunter Gallery.