Chapter 174
Chapter 174
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: Mutual Prosperity (4)
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Long black eyelashes twitched.
“Mmm...”
A small groan leaked out briefly.
The quivering eyelids suddenly snapped wide open.
Flash—.
Golden irises gleamed into view.
Blink blink—.
Unlike the abrupt awakening, Yuri simply stared vacantly at the ceiling, his mind blank.
‘Where...?’
A familiar ceiling.
It was right inside the fissure—his own hideout.
‘Why am I... here?’
He had definitely entered the Don-o and uncovered the secret behind Se-kyung’s Light Star Extreme Transformation Technique.
‘Then what happened after that?’
He vaguely remembered unconsciously drawing his sword and unleashing the Holy Sword.
And that was it.
What Yuri recalled ended there.
‘How did I end up lying here? How did I get back?’
As Yuri blinked, desperately trying to remember...
“If you’re awake, get your lazy ass up already. How long do you plan to lie there like a lump?”
At the familiar voice laced with irritation, Yuri bolted upright.
He turned toward the source.
“Ah, Gramps, when did you...”
Yuri froze mid-sentence, words dying on his lips as if jolted.
“......”
After a moment of silence, he tilted his head.
“...Who the hell are you?”
The voice was unmistakably that of the geezer he knew, but the face was completely different.
This guy’s hair was darker.
His skin was tauter than the geezer’s.
It was like the old man he knew had gotten a bit younger?
Yeah, almost like...
“...a rejuvenated geezer?”
No sooner had the mutter escaped than retribution struck.
Smack!
A crisp sound rang out as Yuri’s head snapped back.
He clutched his forehead and shot to his feet.
“Ow! That hurts!”
“Damn right it hurts—that’s why I hit you.”
The situation and banter were so familiar that Yuri had to admit the old codger before him was indeed Yohan.
Stunned, Yuri asked,
“What the—Gramps, you got younger? What happened?”
Yohan flinched at the question.
He waved it off dismissively.
“We’ll talk about that later. Check your body first.”
“My body?”
At Yohan’s suggestion, Yuri examined himself.
‘Arms and legs fine, no pain anywhere?’
Finally, he circulated his mana.
His eyes went wide, a bewildered voice spilling out.
“G-Gramps! It’s... gone... it’s gone!”
“What is?”
“My mana core... my mana core’s disappeared!”
“What?!”
Yohan was just as shocked.
‘No way! I checked just a bit ago—it was fine!’
He urgently grabbed Yuri’s wrist and probed his condition.
Minutes later.
Crack—!
A thunderous flick to the forehead sent Yuri rolling back a couple of somersaults.
“Gah!”
Clutching the red, swollen bump, Yuri yelled.
“Hey, why’d you hit me?!”
“It didn’t disappear, you idiot. Look properly before you spout nonsense.”
“It really did!”
“What do you mean gone? Ugh, you worthless punk. To think my mana went to a guy like you...”
“......?”
“What’re you staring at? Look closer!”
Cowed by Yohan’s shout for some reason, Yuri dropped into a seated position and immediately entered meditation.
How much time passed?
‘Huh...?’
Observing his internals as Yohan suggested, Yuri freaked out.
He cried out in panic.
“G-Gramps! My... my mana core... it’s hollowed out like an empty melon!”
It was a crude way to put it, but nothing described Yuri’s state more accurately.
His mana core was exactly that.
He’d thought it vanished because the core, now the size of a small watermelon, was completely empty inside.
‘What the hell?! Why’s my mana core like this?!’
A normal mana core was a solid orb packed full.
But Yuri’s was still spherical—just hollow inside.
‘Wait, not completely empty?’
A tiny clump of mana clung to the vast inner wall of the core.
Like a small bump.
‘What’s this? Not a damn nipple?’
How was he supposed to make sense of this?
Seeing Yuri’s confusion, Yohan sighed softly.
“Sigh, you little...”
Then he began recounting what had happened while Yuri was unconscious.
After listening for a good while, Yuri blinked his wide eyes repeatedly.
“So... my mana core was about to shatter, but you stopped it?”
“Lucky bastard. If I hadn’t been there, it would’ve exploded ages ago. If I hadn’t!”
It was pure luck, just as Yohan said—no other explanation.
If Yohan had arrived even a day later, Yuri’s mana core really would’ve shattered.
Yohan subtly emphasized his role.
Anyone else might’ve just expressed thanks and moved on.
But not Yuri.
Sensing something, Yuri’s eyes narrowed.
“Spill it.”
“Spill what?”
“You did something wrong to me, didn’t you?”
“Wrong? You ungrateful brat! I saved your dying ass!”
Yohan bellowed, but Yuri’s eyes narrowed further.
A chilling voice emanated from him.
“...But hey, Gramps?”
“......”
“How’d you get so young all of a sudden?”
“Rejuvenated my ass!”
“Find some miracle cure or something?”
“N-No way.”
Seeing Yohan avert his gaze, Yuri quickly felt around his neck.
But his hand found nothing.
“Huh, it’s gone?!”
“Uh...”
“My... my elixir!”
“W-Well...”
“Gramps, my elixir!”
“Hold on, hear me out!”
As Yuri’s eyes started spinning, Yohan shouted desperately.
“There were circumstances!”
Fearing an outburst, Yohan rapid-fired the reasons he’d had no choice but to drink the elixir.
It was all to save you.
That was his only thought—no ulterior motives.
Yuri listened quietly.
Surprisingly calm, he finally asked,
“Phew... fine, got it. That part’s clear. But... why’s my mana core this messed up? Why’s it hollow?”
“Why...”
Yohan trailed off, as if knowing something, then paused before answering.
“...It didn’t finish forming.”
“Huh?”
“It stopped midway, your mana core.”
“......?”
It was all Yohan’s doing, really.
As Yuri drained his mana, Yohan realized he’d lose it all if it continued.
So he’d forcibly cut off the supply, leaving Yuri’s mana core unfilled inside.
“Uh... probably won’t function properly until that empty space fills up completely.”
“My mana core... unusable now?”
“Hmm, not unusable, just looks that way...”
“Looks that way?”
“Ahem, anyway, it looks like crap, but performance is fine. It’ll output the same as any normal core. Just...”
“Just?”
“Don’t you feel a little protrusion inside the core?”
“This dangly nipple thing?”
“...Yeah, that ‘nipple’ is probably all the mana you can use right now.”
“......”
“If you steadily consume spirit herbs or potions to fill that empty space... you’ll unlock the full power of the core.”
Yohan added lengthy explanations.
Seeing Yuri still silent, he broke into a cold sweat and kept going.
“B-But don’t worry too much. It’s not like some oversized worthless piece-of-shit core... I mean! Just think of it as a slightly bigger-than-normal mana core!”
Yuri’s face darkened at the unconvincing comfort.
Soon, a icy voice emerged.
“So...”
“......”
“Putting your story together, the price for you guzzling my elixir is just this nipple-sized mana clump?”
“Hey! That’s not all! Thanks to it, your core got fixed good as new! And that ain’t no ordinary nipple!”
Frustrated, Yohan thumped his chest and explained.
Of the 21% mana you took from me, 90% went to repairing the core, and 10% formed that protrusion.
Yuri, listening, replied sullenly.
“Still just 2.1%, right?”
“You damned punk... that 2.1% is way more than what you had originally! I saved your core and gave you my precious mana... and you say ‘still just’? Still just?!”
Sparks flew from Yohan’s eyes.
A glare that would make the faint-hearted tremble.
But Yuri just snorted.
“How much mana you got left, Gramps?”
“Good, you brought it up. The elixir left me at 70%, then you burned through a ton more! Ungrateful bastard!”
“Yeah, so how much now?”
“Half!”
“50%, huh? Purity?”
“......”
“Purity go up after the elixir? Huh?”
“......”
“Why’re you quiet? How much?”
“Uh... about... 7%?”
“Oh? So now 97%? Alright, pick one: 100 units of 90% purity mana, or 50 units of 97%. Which you taking, Gramps?”
Grinning ear to ear, Yuri watched Yohan roll his eyes before answering.
“Hey! Obviously 100 of 90%!”
Yuri knew it was a lie.
“This geezer trying to sell me snake oil?”
“......”
“Wow, not only did you boost purity by a whopping 7%, you got so youthful you could remarry! And for that, you stick me with a nipple mana clump and act all proud? That’s too much!”
Yohan’s mouth clamped shut.
He knew it too.
Aside from fixing the near-collapsed mana core, he’d come out ahead.
He’d hoped to brush off Yuri’s bitching.
‘This airtight punk!’
But Yuri wouldn’t let it slide.
Yohan glared and roared.
“You punk!”
“What?”
“Remarry? I’ve never even been married!”
“......”
“......”
Catching Yuri’s momentarily dumbfounded look, Yohan pressed.
“And you don’t get it, but old folks don’t take tonics for health! Stuffing that crap in when you’re ancient just makes dying harder!
“......”
“You want an easy death, quick snap of the thread. But it thickens up, drags it out. Think I haven’t seen a few? Makes it hell for me and everyone around!”
“......”
“So me drinking the elixir ain’t all good!”
“People beg for elixirs they can’t get, and you say that? Some conscience.”
“Ahem.”
“Anyway, congrats on the long life, Gramps. Let’s settle accounts now.”
“Accounts? What accounts?”
“Feels like I took a slight loss this time, so...”
“So?”
“Got any spirit herbs or potions stashed? Seems like that’s the only thing to soothe my hollow core.”
Yohan felt a strange déjà vu.
‘This punk... was he awake earlier?’
As Yohan glared suspiciously, Yuri stood.
“Think hard! Any spirit herbs or potions hidden away!”
“I’d eat that crap and drop dead first! Where you going?”
“To Kongsul. Gotta wrap up the bet. He still around?”
“Was till just now... but what bet?”
“Oh, that...”
Yuri briefly explained the bet with Se-kyung to Yohan.
Yohan snickered.
“Doing all that just to learn metallurgy?”
“‘Just’ metallurgy?! ‘All that’?!”
It was that sacred metallurgy bet that had granted him two enlightenments.
How dare he blaspheme it!
Yuri yelled and stormed past Yohan to the entrance.
Just as he was about to exit the hideout...
“Oh, right. Gramps.”
“What now.”
Yohan scowled, bracing for another gripe.
Back turned, Yuri spoke.
“Thanks... for the mana core.”
With that, he kicked the door open and bolted.
Staring at the spot Yuri left, Yohan clicked his tongue.
“Tch, what a kid—no charm whatsoever.”
Were Yuri’s ears faintly red as he ran? Just imagination?
Yohan’s lips twitched into a faint smile, then relaxed.
Left alone in Yuri’s hideout, Yohan stood in the dim light, gazing at his hand—freckles slightly faded—and let out a small chuckle.
“Yeah, thanks to you, I’ll live long. Heh heh.”
Yohan’s laughter carried a hint of bitterness.