Comrades
The feeling in my shoulder vanished in an instant. The moment I realized I’d grown addicted to that strange sensation, the chimera whipped its tail and hurled me into the wall.
KWAAAANG!
“Khak?!”
I groaned through the suffocating pain but tightened my arms around Deborah even more fiercely. Thanks to that, most of the impact was absorbed. She remained completely unharmed.
“L-Luan! Are you okay?”
She staggered upright and shook me. The motion only made my blood circulate faster, spreading the poison quicker. I wished she would stop.
“Ugh… Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
“Liar! Stay still and don’t move! I’ll finish it myself!”
Deborah clearly didn’t believe a word I said. With a face full of determination, she turned to confront the chimera. Then why the hell did you ask?
Rape Level unchanged. Target's trust in you is too high.
While I grumbled internally, the chimera roared, certain of its victory, and charged. The earlier shock must have broken Deborah’s concentration and dispelled her magic, because the creature had fully recovered.
This isn’t going to work.
The instant I realized the plan had failed and prepared to trigger Hwasin-hwa, Deborah shouted.
“Luan can never be touched!”
She thrust both hands forward and unleashed her spell. A purple glow like mist flooded the passage and swallowed the chimera whole. Its eyes turned blood-red. Then, without warning, its two heads turned to face each other and began tearing into one another, splitting left and right in a frenzy.
—Kieeeek!
The passageway descended into pure chaos.
“Haa… haa!”
Deborah frowned from the strain of maintaining the magic, yet she exhaled in clear relief. Hope and a sense of accomplishment shone on her face. I couldn’t help smiling as I watched her.
Normally, casting a single spell should have taken over thirty seconds. She had invoked two spells simultaneously in mere seconds. There was only one explanation.
She did it!
Deborah had finally broken through her limits and reached Level 150.
Mages who reach Level 150 gain access to fifth-circle spells and the ability to double cast. The downside was the massive mana consumption of using two fifth-circle spells at once. As if to prove the point, the red glow in the chimera’s eyes faded steadily. The frequency of its attacks against itself dropped. Soon the creature completely shook off the magic’s influence.
—Grrrrrrr!
The battered chimera’s four eyes locked onto Deborah at the same time.
“Eut…! N-no.”
Deborah tried to cast again, but her mana reserves were clearly insufficient. She kept failing to complete the incantation. Just as despair began to flood her face—
“Deborah. Step back.”
I rose to my feet, moved past her, and stood between her and the chimera. She grabbed my wrist.
“Luan! It’s dangerous!”
Her worried gaze fell on my shoulder, already turning black and necrotic. The sight alone proved how deeply the poison had taken hold. Moving carelessly now could send the toxin straight to my brain.
I gave her a small smile and reassured her.
“It’s fine. Just watch.”
“But…”
“Don’t you trust me?”
Our eyes met. When she saw the absolute confidence in mine, Deborah slowly released my wrist. Free once more, I gave her one last smile before turning to face the monster.
—Kieeeek!
Apparently unwilling to wait any longer, the chimera roared and brought its fist crashing down. I raised my hand and clutched my heart.
“Awaken.”
Thump!
With a violent heartbeat, the Taeguk coiled in my middle dantian began to spin. The two balanced flames roared to life, unraveling fiercely. They surged through every mana pathway in my body like a typhoon before merging with my lower dantian, becoming one with my flesh.
WHOOOOSH!
The intense flow of flame gave birth to the incarnation. I exhaled softly, drunk on the overwhelming sense of omnipotence, and looked up at the chimera.
At the same moment—
BAAAANG!
The chimera’s descending fist froze in mid-air. The delayed shockwave exploded outward. Its eyes trembled violently, as if struck by an earthquake. The creature was now experiencing absolute terror. Beneath the gaze of an apex predator, it was utterly powerless. Unable to withstand the invisible pressure crushing its entire body, it stumbled backward and collapsed. Its tail curled tightly around its head in a desperate attempt to hide.
“Huh? Wh-what’s going on?”
Deborah’s bewildered voice echoed through the passage. I strolled forward at a leisurely pace until I stood directly in front of the chimera.
“So you still have some survival instinct left, huh?”
Dragon Fear. The innate ability dragons possess from birth—it triggers the primal terror rooted in every living creature. Simply existing nearby pushes mental strength to its breaking point. And this chimera was nothing more than a defective patchwork of various monsters.
I clenched my fist.
“No need to drag this out.”
Fwoooosh!
Two streams of flame raced forward, spiraling around my fist. I poured every ounce of focus into a single strike.
Taeguk Hwasin-gong—maximum output!
The mana I could currently mobilize was roughly half my total reserves. Even that exceeded two hundred, far more than my current level could comfortably handle. All of it condensed into my fist. The stacked flames swallowed not only my hand but my entire forearm. The moment control reached its limit—
—Keeeeeeeek!
Sensing death, the chimera panicked and threw a desperate punch. I answered with my own.
Luan Style.
First Form.
Crushing Flame!
KWAAAAAANG!
The two fists collided. For the briefest instant the chimera seemed to hold its ground—then it crumbled. Pure flame that rejected everything and destructive flame that annihilated everything tore through it. The swirling inferno raced from fist to forearm and devoured the creature’s entire body in a heartbeat. The chimera couldn’t even scream before it vanished, reduced to a handful of ash.
“Huu…”
After confirming victory, I took a deep breath and calmed the flames raging through my body. As if time itself were reversing, the Taeguk spun in the opposite direction, gathering every wisp of flame and sealing it once more. When the rotation finally stopped, Hwasin-hwa released. An overwhelming wave of exhaustion crashed over me.
“Ugh…!”
The sensation of every muscle disintegrating at once made me stagger. Deborah, who had been staring blankly, snapped out of it and rushed to support me.
“L-Luan! What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”
Even as she asked, she lowered me gently to the floor, pulled a potion from her subspace pouch, and fed it to me. I drank it like an infant. Once I regained some strength, I gave her a short explanation.
“I’m just exhausted.”
“Really? That came on so suddenly!”
“It’s the side effect of a special technique. The stamina cost is huge.”
“Then I’m glad…”
Just as I had told her, Hwasin-hwa consumed far too much stamina. The price for briefly surpassing one’s limits was a brutal recoil that hit all at once. It was better than not having the technique, but it demanded careful use.
“More importantly—congratulations, Deborah.”
“Huh?”
“You achieved enlightenment. Congratulations on reaching the fifth circle.”
She clearly hadn’t expected to hear praise in a moment like this. Deborah’s eyes widened, then she broke into a bright smile and nodded vigorously.
“Thank you! You were amazing too, Luan. By the way, what was that just now? The chimera couldn’t even move!”
Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. They already shone like stars on any normal day; I wondered how dazzling they would be without the lenses.
“I ate some elixirs during the break. They’re fire-attribute, so I can manipulate flames now.”
“I see. This has to stay secret too, right?”
“Obviously. I’ll avoid using it in front of others as much as possible.”
“Hehe! So you’re only showing it to me?”
“That’s right.”
Sharing a secret between just the two of us deepened our bond even further. I savored the warmth of her body for a moment before gently pushing her away and standing up.
“Now that we’ve cleaned up, shall we go collect our rewards?”
“Yes! Now that you mention it, is the poison gone? Your wound has completely healed?”
Her soft hand stroked my shoulder. I rolled my shoulder in a wide circle to emphasize that I was fine, then started walking.
“I have regeneration and detoxification abilities too. It all healed earlier.”
“That’s incredible! No wonder it eats so much stamina. You really do need to be careful.”
Deborah muttered to herself, apparently having convinced herself of the logic. I let it slide and stepped into the space beyond the cavern.
It was a laboratory. A massive shattered isolation wall—clearly the point where the chimera had broken free—dominated the center. Magical instruments and documents lay scattered everywhere in disarray.
I headed toward what appeared to be the researcher’s personal quarters and picked up a single book.
— Bren Benedict —
The mad mage who delved into the domain of creation.
I left the room with the grimoire and approached Deborah, who was busy examining the surroundings. I held it out to her.
“Here. Take this.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“A magic book. It’ll be useful for you. I’ll take everything else.”
“Huh? Ah, y-yes!”
Her curiosity must have been piqued by the title alone. She opened it immediately, gave a half-hearted reply to my statement, and fell straight into reading. It was very mage-like—gaining enlightenment one moment and diving back into study the next.
Leaving her behind, I began systematically looting the entire laboratory. The items here were worth quite a lot.
*
Late Sunday afternoon, we finally returned to the capital.
“We’re finally back!”
Deborah cheered. After two days of brutal real combat, she clearly craved rest.
Yesterday was a complete disaster.
When I mentioned we still had one more dungeon to clear, she had nagged me relentlessly, asking if I really wanted to suffer like that again after barely defeating the chimera. Of course, the moment I brought up saving her master, she fell silent.
Regardless, we had gained so much from this journey that none of it mattered.
“Deborah. We’ll be raiding dungeons together often from now on, so stay ready. Understood?”
“Huh? Again?”
“Did you think this would be the only time? To grow stronger, you have to push yourself to the limit. Don’t worry—you won’t die.”
You’ll just experience something extremely unpleasant instead.
When I ran my gaze over her entire body, she felt it and hugged herself protectively.
“Pervert! You’re having dirty thoughts again.”
“Dirty thoughts? I’m simply considering the final resort.”
“I already told you last time! I can’t hate you anymore, so it won’t work!”
“True. But there is still a way.”
Since she roughly understood my circumstances, she knew that ordinary sex wouldn’t raise the Rape Level high enough. That assumption only applied to normal intercourse, however. If I took her the way I had taken Pernia—by violating her anus—even someone as kind as Deborah would be unable to avoid hating me.
She must have instinctively sensed danger in my eyes, because she began to tremble.
“Wh-what exactly are you thinking?”
“Nothing much?”
“It’s obviously not nothing! Tell me right now! If you don’t, I won’t cooperate!”
“That would actually be better for me.”
“Really!! Stop joking and explain!”
After staring at her for a moment, I decided to simply tell her. Even if she knew in advance, there was no way she would easily allow me to enter that place. On the contrary, her desire to avoid it would make her fight with everything she had in the dungeons. Not a bad outcome at all.
“I’m simply aware that a woman has more than one hole.”
“H-hole? More than one… w-wait, you can’t mean—!!”
Deborah tilted her head in confusion at first, but the moment she realized I was talking about her anus, her face filled with horror. She shook her head frantically, unable to accept reality, and stammered.
“N-no, right? It’s not that, right?”
“What do you think ‘that’ is?”
“You know what I mean! Th-that place is off-limits. Right?”
Humans really are foolish creatures. Even when the mind understands, the heart refuses to accept it. Such escapism solves nothing. So I forced her to face the truth.
“It is.”
My refreshingly simple answer made Deborah’s brows furrow horribly.
“Are you insane? That place is dirty! How can you even think of doing something like that?!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll clean it thoroughly with a magic cleanser first.”
“That’s not the point! That place is absolutely forbidden. I will never allow it!”
“Suit yourself. I’ll just take it by force.”
I genuinely cheered for Deborah’s resistance. The fiercer her defiance, the higher the Rape Level would climb, making the conditions easier to meet. Apparently that attitude pissed her off. Her skin flushed crimson all the way to her ears as she trembled and began hurling insults.
“Y-you rapist! You piece of trash!”
Since she rarely swore, the insults lacked real bite. I picked at my ear and nodded.
“Yeah. You’re right. I’m a rapist and trash, so I’ll just fuck your ass.”
Without the slightest hesitation, I turned my back and began walking toward the Academy.
“W-wait! Where are you going?! S-stop! I said stop right there!”
Deborah’s desperate cries tried to hold me back, but I ignored them completely.
And so, another day came to an end.