The Lightning Storm After the Elixir
I took a long, deep breath.
“Huuu…”
Elixir. Spirit medicine.
Those things collectively called spirit elixirs never granted power for free. Everyone knew they came with excruciating pain because they forcibly tore open and expanded the limits of your dantian or mana core. It was common sense.
It was just as common to hear stories of people whose qi pathways twisted, driving them into qi deviation. I remembered the day of my second awakening with crystal clarity. That dizzying agony. Today, I had steeled myself for something similar—or possibly even worse.
“Huu, huu. Let’s do this.”
I pulled out the leather belt I’d brought in advance and folded it in half. Just in case the pain made me thrash around and bite my tongue.
“Hup!”
With a short shout, I popped the cap off the ampoule and downed the contents in one gulp.
Gulp.
The moment the thick liquid slid down my throat, I bit down hard on the belt, clenched my molars, and squeezed my eyes shut.
Alright. It’s starting now.
The pain that would pave the way for my dream.
I balled both fists tightly and waited for the agony to hit. I braced myself.
Maybe it was because I’d stayed so tense, not knowing when it would come, but cold sweat poured down my entire body.
Ten seconds. Thirty seconds. One minute.
“…Huh?”
Feeling suspicious, I cracked one eye open.
It didn’t hurt at all. If anything, a pleasant warmth bloomed near my heart, and that was it. Far from pain, I actually felt languid and comfortable.
“What the? Why doesn’t it hurt? Don’t tell me this thing…”
Utterly bewildered, I spat out the belt I’d been biting. Then I glared at the empty ampoule.
Had Kim Soyeon given me a fake? No way. That couldn’t be it. Then why didn’t I feel any pain? Why was I so calm?
“…Hmmmm.”
I had no idea. The only thing I could guess was that I possessed the unique trait of the Natural Type. People said the Natural Type had no limits. Didn’t that mean the vessel itself was infinite? I was a Natural Type too—specifically Lightning. Maybe the limit that was supposed to be expanded had been vague from the start.
“…As expected.”
Right as excitement surged through me and I was about to cheer—
Crackle.
Lightning Storm
Sparks suddenly erupted all around me.
“This feeling… I’ve seen it before.”
I know this sensation!
Crackle-crackle! Snap-crackle!
Maybe because I’d taken the elixir, but an enormous amount of lightning began pouring out of my body in every direction.
“I knew it! There’s no such thing as a free lunch!”
It had nothing to do with my will. My mana core went into overdrive, accelerating its circulation endlessly. As if my body had become a conduit, it discharged a massive quantity of lightning outward.
Kwaaaaaang!
The entire stage flickered repeatedly. Dozens, hundreds of lightning bolts shot out in every direction from where I stood. It was a bizarre sight. Anything the electric waves touched was charred pitch-black.
The massive rock pillars rising in front of me. Every single one of them, rocks included. The pillars shattered, scattering debris into the air, but—
Kwa-gang! Boom!
They only turned to powder the moment they collided with other currents.
Before long, the stage was completely filled with lightning. Thick bolts bursting from my entire body produced constant thunderous roars. It was like a lightning storm had formed. A pure natural disaster in the flesh.
“Holy shit…!”
What was even worse was that I had lost control of my body. Even though I was floating in midair, I couldn’t even flail. All I could do was watch the lightning pouring out of me.
What if I’d done this at home? I had a feeling the problem wouldn’t have ended inside my room. I genuinely wanted to applaud my own judgment for deciding to take the elixir inside the Tower.
The lightning storm continued like that for a long while. After about twenty minutes it gradually began to subside, and after another minute the energy vanished like it had never existed.
Crackle… tick.
With one final spark leaping from my fingertips, the seventeenth-floor stage fell into silence.
“…Haa, haa.”
I panted heavily as I slowly rose to my feet. Then I looked around.
The area around me had been gouged into a pitch-black crater as if it had been bombed, and every surface was scorched. If that were all, it might have been fine. Static electricity still lingered in the air.
But instead of worrying about that, I focused on the energy inside my heart.
“…Whoa.”
An exclamation slipped out before I could stop it. My mana core had grown four times larger. It wasn’t just the volume—its density and purity felt incomparably more refined than before. The sensation of that mana flowing through my veins was incredibly satisfying.
“Nice.”
I clenched and unclenched my fist. The special-grade elixir had more than lived up to its price… no, its name.
That thought made me remember the Yarn Grape. I quickly turned my gaze toward the leather bag. I prayed it hadn’t been destroyed.
Fortunately, it was only slightly singed. I pulled the Yarn Grape out of the perfectly intact leather bag.
With my mana core increased this much, the duration should have gone up too. A faint hope crept over me that I might be able to use the Yarn Grape a little more freely.
The moment I tried to put it on to test it—
Remaining Time: 00 hours 00 minutes 02 seconds
I saw the system message floating before my eyes.
Two seconds. One second.
Then my vision flipped naturally, and everything began to change. What appeared next was the entrance of the Tower.
Clicking my tongue in dismay, I muttered under my breath.
“Why the hell can you only clear one floor per day?”
It was an absolute rule of the Tower. You could only enter once per day. The system didn’t allow any more, so there was nothing humans could do about it.
In the end, I had no choice but to drag my itching body toward the brightly lit exit.
“Huu, that feels refre—”
I was stretching as I tried to leave when I suddenly froze, eyes wide.
Because I saw a figure waiting for me just outside the Tower entrance.
Still wearing a mask and a black cap pulled low. Objectively, the silhouette looked incredibly suspicious, but lately it had become far too familiar to me.
“Kim Soyeon?”
At my call, she flinched and pushed herself off the wall she’d been leaning against. As if she had been waiting here for quite a while.
I couldn’t understand why she was here at this hour. Ah, right. The first time we met was here too. Even the time was similar. The only person who knew I climbed the Tower around this hour was her. So she must have come at the right time to wait for me.
I slowly walked toward her and spoke.
“What are you doing here instead of sleeping?”
I asked in a deliberately gentle voice.
But Kim Soyeon only mumbled in response and couldn’t answer easily. She fidgeted with her fingers, avoided my gaze, and lightly kicked at the ground with her toes before whispering softly.
“Well… I sent you a text, but… you didn’t reply, so…”
She came all the way here because I didn’t reply? Why on earth…
Still unable to understand, I tilted my head slightly and mulled over her words. Then I recalled every single action she had shown me so far.
The way she suddenly asked if she could come to my house. The way her ears turned bright red when I woke up in the morning. The way she frantically waved her hands and said no when I asked if she hated it. The way she stubbornly insisted on applying medicine for me after we returned home. The way her face flushed all the way to her ears when she said she’d take full responsibility if rumors spread. The way her expression brightened like she’d gained the whole world when I gave her my number. And even this foolish act of waiting endlessly for me late at night just because I hadn’t replied.
…No way.
I didn’t think I was overly optimistic or suffering from excessive self-consciousness. I was a person with extremely accurate self-objectification. I had seen women like this quite often. Women who blushed in front of me and asked for my number. Women who only looked at my face and asked for my contact info.
At this point, it was hard to pretend I didn’t notice Kim Soyeon’s behavior. I had my doubts, but no matter how I looked at it, Kim Soyeon seemed to be…
Really interested in me.
At first I thought it was because too many unfortunate things kept happening, and because I had somewhat led her into getting entangled with me. I figured it was a form of repayment.
But this was unmistakably the behavior of a girl who had fallen into a one-sided crush and was restless with anxiety. Even if it wasn’t love yet, it was clearly an expression of interest.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, an involuntary chuckle escaped me.
She was South Korea’s youngest S-class hunter, a title that came with countless followers thanks to her cute and beautiful appearance. And yet here she was, twisting her body in embarrassment in front of me. The gap between her usual image and this clumsy side of her was honestly adorable.
When I showed a faint smile, Kim Soyeon rolled her eyes in panic. Pretending not to notice, I casually tossed out in a soft voice,
“Oh, right. I just came out after taking the elixir you gave me.”
I threw out a perfectly natural topic.