87. My Buff is a Drug
87. My Buff is a Drug
Hye-yong stepped into the room with Lanfang — the same room where they'd been seated before.
It was the very spot where he'd mentally cornered her back then.
The thought hit him suddenly, and he chuckled as he asked Lanfang,
"I said some pretty harsh things to you in here."
"You did. But I don't dwell on things like that at all. If anything, I think getting to meet you, Master, was good fortune."
Shit. When she puts it like that, it actually gets to me.
Hye-yong carefully produced the ring he'd engraved with his own Divine Power.
"You said your left ring finger artifact slot was empty, right? I've got a special present for our well-behaved Lanfang, so hold out your hand."
A special present!
A ring — and on the ring finger, no less!
Was he really giving her one?
Just the thought made her heart pound uncontrollably.
Lanfang felt her face growing warm as she extended her left hand.
Hye-yong took her left hand gently and slid the ring, which had become a holy relic, onto her ring finger himself.
'Uh. Doing it like this really makes it look like a proposal.'
He only realized it just then, but he didn't pay it much mind.
More importantly, since it just looked like an ordinary cheap ring artifact to anyone watching, he needed to explain.
"Try praying toward that ring that you want to receive a blessing."
"Like...... this?"
The moment she spoke, Lanfang's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open of its own accord.
"Master's, blessing, from this ring......!!"
"I worked my ass off because I wanted to give it to you. So? Is it actually working properly?"
"It's, it's incredible, Master. I knew such things existed, but I never imagined I would end up having one myself!"
"Go on, recite the effects."
"Adaptive Stat Growth Efficiency Increase, Level 13......."
He clicked his tongue to himself. So roughly four levels got shaved off.
Down from Level 17 to Level 13 — that was a big drop.
Still, it was way better than having nothing!
It was a solid success.
"Now that you have that ring, you'll be able to train with a happy heart while receiving the buff, even when I'm not next to you."
"Ah, Master...... so the reason you haven't been seeing me lately......."
"Yeah. I was making this. I felt bad about not being able to be beside you all the time."
Lanfang's tears began to fall in big, heavy drops.
"Uuu, Master, I thought, I thought you'd gotten sick of me...... Masterrr......."
"Now, now. As long as you remain my cute pet dog, there's no way I'd ever come to dislike you. Since I said I'd take responsibility for you, I'll cherish you to the very end."
"Lanfang is, Lanfang is truly so happy. I'm so glad I got to become Master's pet dog......."
"I know how you feel, so knock it off now. Dry your tears with this, here."
Hye-yong mused that this handkerchief had turned out to be far more useful than he'd expected.
"Master."
Having dried all her tears, Lanfang called Hye-yong's name in a low voice.
"Yeah?"
"Tonight, could you stay with me? I, I want to be held tight by Master, to feel Master's warmth......."
Oh, shit.
When she says it like that, even a guy practicing the Child Technique would have a hard time refusing.
"......Alright. Want to go for a walk?"
"Lanfang loves going on walks with Master so much!"
A walk here meant something akin to a date — going out together on the streets.
He left the cafe with Lanfang.
Then they walked toward the shuttle bus heading into the city streets.
'Ufufu, a ring, a ring that Master personally made and personally placed on my finger.'
Lanfang deliberately refrained from using the artifact-hiding function, happily savoring the sensation of the ring pressing against her finger.
'On my left hand, my ring finger.......'
The left ring finger.
A meaning that promised eternal love.
Even Lanfang, born into a minority tribe in China and lacking a proper education, had encountered enough Korean culture to know that much.
Especially through pure romance novels.
Originally, she had loved reading books alone in the library.
So when Hye-yong brought up the topic of rings, she'd intentionally mentioned that particular slot was empty.
Just in case he might give her a ring.
'This ring from Master is now my treasure. I will absolutely never replace it with another ring.'
Eternal love.
For Lanfang as she was now, no words resonated better than those.
'Of course, Master probably didn't put it on me with that meaning. I'm...... a pet, after all.'
But it shouldn't matter if she privately thought of it that way, right?
Lanfang buried the moment Hye-yong slipped the ring onto her left ring finger deep in her heart.
She was perfectly happy just like this.
-
"Hwa-ra, no lightning coming out today?"
"Hmm......! It seems the time is not yet upon us."
A conversation between Seo Ha-yoon and Chae Hwa-ra.
It was idle chatter during a mid-raid rest break.
It had been quite some time since Hye-yong had cast the Electrostatic Field buff on Chae Hwa-ra.
'Given that it still hasn't appeared, wouldn't it be right to conclude it's impossible after all?'
He'd have to cast the buff one more time.
The very moment he turned the page while thinking that—
BZZZ-ZAP!!
"Aagh!! Electricity!"
"Ohhh!! It came out!!"
Simultaneously with Seo Ha-yoon's scream came Chae Hwa-ra's exclamation of awe.
For a moment, Hye-yong went, Huh?
'I haven't even cast the buff yet.'
Na Hee-yeon, who had been watching the situation, smirked and approached.
"What? What? Did Hwa-ra finally fully awaken her electric ability?"
"Hmm...... this only manifests intermittently. I find it difficult to consider it fully complete as of yet."
No, Hwa-ra!
You just shot out electricity on your own!
He was brimming with the urge to say it, but he couldn't.
"As I thought, the......."
The,
Chae Hwa-ra stopped dead after that one syllable as if someone had hit the pause button.
Her voice came back roughly three seconds later.
"......Still, it seems the effort I put into practicing has paid off."
Watching Chae Hwa-ra, whose vocal tone had plummeted dramatically, Hye-yong felt a pang of sympathy.
She had, in the end, surrendered to the electric training.
'The performance on that collar that zaps you when you bark is just way too fucking reliable.......'
Originally, it had seemed like her sister was going easy enough, but this time the older sister had clearly resolved to be ruthless.
He'd heard that before — Chae Hwa-ra would even get shocked awake from talking in her sleep.
Now that her whole chuuni persona had crumbled, the girl's energy had just completely drained away.
'Like Chae Hwa-ra said, it's intermittent, but given that she produced it on her own, doesn't that mean there's potential?'
Hye-yong might not have given her direct help, but there was one thing he had definitely supported.
Namely, that he had made Chae Hwa-ra practice releasing electricity every single day.
Chae Hwa-ra had been under the misconception each time that the electricity coming out thanks to Hye-yong's buff was her own ability gradually awakening.
So she had practiced releasing electricity while concentrating her mind every day without fail.
Again and again, even after Hye-yong's buff had vanished and the electricity had stopped coming out.
The buff itself had little effect, but because of it she'd ended up practicing releasing electricity daily, and that training had begun to awaken the ability dormant inside her.
When it came to awakening, genetics couldn't be discounted, but it often appeared out of nowhere.
There was no guarantee that sisters awakening one after the other would share the same ability, but at least in Chae Ha-ri and Chae Hwa-ra's case, that was exactly what happened.
"Well, we seem rested enough, so shall we head to the next raid?"
"Sure, let's do it."
Hye-yong answered Choi Ah-young's words.
'I don't know how long I'll be with these guys, but...... I hope they all do well. I've gotta figure out how to fix Seo Ha-yoon's blood phobia too.'
Before he knew it, Hye-yong was treating them not in terms of profit and loss, but like genuine friends.
-
July 21st (Saturday), 1:09 PM
Private Sparring Ground
A few days had passed.
Today, Hye-yong had called Kwon Jin-ah out to the private sparring room.
The growth buff ring he intended to give her was ready, and it had been roughly a week since he'd gotten to know her, yet he felt like he knew far too little about her.
"The fact that you called me to the sparring room...... does this mean you'll be guiding my training?"
"Hm...... that's not it. Just confirming a few things. What's your main weapon?"
"Come to think of it, I haven't told you yet."
Shhk.
There had clearly been nothing there, yet a blade naturally settled into Kwon Jin-ah's hand.
A curved sword with a guard attached to the hilt.
The blade surface wasn't wide and it was single-edged, making it look lightweight.
Even Hye-yong, who didn't know much about swords, could tell.
It was a sword made to be held in one hand and to cut with speed.
Whether it was custom-crafted or not, it sported a fairly modern design.
As she brought it close to her face and took her stance, the atmosphere around her made her look quite dashing.
"Blade. That's the weapon's name. It's said to be an improved version of a saber."
"How do you fight with it?"
"I fight by cutting through as quickly as possible, and as many times as possible."
"Then what do you think the stats you need most right now are?"
"It would have to be Strength and Agility. Strength to swing it quickly, and Agility to control and handle it flexibly. The power seems to only come out properly when those two stats are mixed in the right balance."
"What type of weapon proficiency?"
"One-Handed Sword Proficiency."
So it's categorized as a one-handed sword, then.
Her trait must have manifested first, and then she chose the weapon.
The information registered on the terminal might not be that detailed, but it did classify things into categories like longsword, one-handed sword, dagger, and rapier.
'Then shall I try making something suitable.......'
Since just stuffing stats in every time would be boring, this time he decided to add something called speed.
'There's an actual Attack Speed buff, so it should work if I mix it in properly.'
[ Path of the Quick Sword ]
Attack Speed Increase Level 5
Strength Stat Increase Level 10
Agility Stat Increase Level 10
One-Handed Sword Proficiency Increase Level 15
Kwon Jin-ah Exclusive
'Is it around this level?'
The full-cost buff he'd cast last time had been Strength Level 11, Agility Level 14, Stamina Level 8, and Combat Proficiency Level 15.
Since his cost pool had increased thanks to Kwon Jin-ah, if he'd built it purely out of stats, it might've clocked in at Strength and Agility Level 15 plus One-Handed Sword Proficiency Level 15.
However, it seemed this Attack Speed function gobbled up more cost than expected.
'It's good, so of course it'll eat up that much.'
Having finished the stat check, Hye-yong cast the exclusive buff onto Kwon Jin-ah.
"C-Captain. This buff is—!?"
When people received an exclusive buff, their reactions were mostly the same.
Exactly the reaction he had imagined burst out of Kwon Jin-ah.
"That is purely my ability as an Awakened. I'm a Blessing Mage, you see."
"Blessing Mage......!! So you didn't awaken as an ability user."
"It's because my ability and the power I gained through awakening are mixed together. Since I'm a Blessing Mage, even my means of suppressing aberrations is done through blessings."
So there were types even among abilities.
Kwon Jin-ah, thinking she had learned something new, read over the buff's effects once more.
'Whoa.......'
She truly admired it from the bottom of her heart.
'Incredible. Really incredible. How could it be that it only contains the exact stats I need?'
It wasn't just that it was custom-tailored.
The values themselves were also tremendously high.
'The buff coefficients are insane too. Strength and Agility at Level 10, and Sword Proficiency at Level 15! And on top of that, it even has the Attack Speed Increase I needed most desperately!'
Kwon Jin-ah's party also had a Blessing Mage.
A first-year, C-rank.
The buffs that party member cast only increased Strength and Agility by about Level 7.
And yet even just receiving those had a considerably large impact in combat.
'Just how far could I go with this buff? My stat averages are around Level 10...... a buff that's higher than my own stats, good heavens.'
If she could walk around with something like this on her, she'd be A-rank at minimum.
Talent-wise alone, she'd be top-tier.
There's no way the factions within the facility would leave someone like that alone.
Any faction would have tried to recruit her as their absolute highest priority.
And yet, the fact that she hadn't even known his name......
'He's hiding his strength, the Captain is.'
Indeed he was.
He hadn't enrolled at the facility to graduate with good grades — he was a figure dispatched by the secret society under orders to protect the facility.
He had no interest in factional squabbles between students, nor would he want to get pointlessly dragged into them.
At that, Kwon Jin-ah felt a fresh surge of respect.
For the way he had such prowess — enough that most people would want to show it off — yet never used it carelessly, deploying his power only where absolutely necessary.
'He's really an amazing person.'
Even though there didn't seem to be any particular age gap, his level of maturity alone seemed on another plane entirely.
He must have lived roughly the same number of years. So just what kind of life did you have to live to turn out like that?
'Could I ever become as cool as him?'
For the first time in her life, Kwon Jin-ah established a role model.
Someone she could only respect as a human being: her Captain.
Choi Hye-yong.
In all likelihood, it was probably for the best that Kwon Jin-ah never learn his true identity for the rest of her life.