New Job Unlocked (2)
Park Deokgu’s grinning face drifted into view.
I could roughly guess what was going through that idiot’s head.
He probably thought I was in a somewhat delicate mood. He meant well enough, I suppose—wanted me to shake off the gloomy feeling in my chest for a moment with my beloved Jung Hayan—but it wasn’t particularly welcome.
Because Jung Hayan was sprawled in my arms, breathing hard.
“O-oppa….”
Setting aside the fact that she was on the verge of tears, she kept drawing in huge breaths as though she were trying to smell something. She had buried her face against my chest and showed no sign of pulling away.
If Kim Hyunsung hadn’t arrived in time, she might have stayed like that for hours.
“So you were here.”
He was a little later than I expected.
Honestly, I’d thought Kim Hyunsung would be finished a bit earlier than Jung Hayan. That had turned out to be wrong.
He looked perfectly composed on the outside.
Still, the singe marks on his clothes and the small slash left on his cheek told me the fight with Jung Jinho hadn’t been an easy one.
The regressed Kim Hyunsung naturally possessed stats worthy of calling him a monster, but Jung Jinho had apparently been no pushover either.
Monsters.
But it had probably been one-sided in the end. No matter how far Jung Jinho could stretch, the difference in basic stats and experience was obvious.
At best, he could have created variables with magic.
Looking at the faintly relieved expression on Kim Hyunsung’s face, it seemed Jung Jinho was no longer alive.
“What about the others…?”
It was a somewhat sensitive question.
Before Jung Hayan could say something bizarre, I hurriedly cut in.
“I killed them.”
“Ah.”
Of course, Kim Hyunsung wasn’t going to condemn me as a murderer here.
Eliminating future trouble was, if anything, the cleaner choice.
He had the temperament of a benevolent mediator, yes, but he understood better than I did that people like that couldn’t be left alive.
“And Jung Jinho….”
I let the name hang just a little, and Kim Hyunsung answered with nothing more than a silent nod.
Park Deokgu looked a little downcast, and I was already feeling unsettled, while Jung Hayan sniffled in my arms. The whole party had the air of people who had been beaten down a little.
Jung Hayan was a little different, of course, but it was only natural to think she was gloomy from the shock of her first kill.
In the end, he gave a small nod and spoke.
“It was a necessary thing.”
Our trustworthy party leader had begun tending to everyone’s mental state.
“I know, b—but….”
“It seemed like they were targeting us from the very beginning. I don’t know how they managed to win over Seokwoo, but it seems he joined their plan somewhere along the way as well. If we had fallen to them, I doubt the people in the Shelter would have remained safe either.”
“…….”
“It may be difficult, but I would like you to think of it as doing the right thing.”
“Mm….”
“You did the right thing. Perhaps incidents like this will become more common from here on. This place is only the tutorial, and the world outside may be even harsher. It must have been difficult, but no one will criticize you for making that decision. Not now, and not in the future either. I’m not sure whether this is any comfort, but… I hope you’ll be able to get through it.”
“Thank you.”
“Well… thanks.”
It had been a respectable speech.
In fact, he was right.
I absolutely had not done something wrong.
If those men had lived, not only would the Shelter have been endangered, they would have gone on to create more victims after leaving this place.
Even if Yoo Seokwoo had become a stepping-stone for my own experience, there was no denying what Kim Hyunsung said was true.
I just cleaned up some trash.
That was all it was—taking out the trash.
There was no reason to feel guilty.
“Are you feeling a bit better, Kiyoung?”
“Yes. I’m fine. If it hadn’t been for the ring you gave me, Hyunsung, I would’ve died. That means you saved my life twice now. I won’t forget this debt.”
“And your injuries…?”
“I’m fine. They’ve healed completely.”
Once the little speech ended, Kim Hyunsung seemed to brighten a little.
Things had gone the way he intended, so there was no reason for him to look grim. I couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking, but he seemed faintly proud of himself.
He had dealt with Jung Jinho’s group according to plan, and on top of that, he’d even made us indebted to him.
He had probably already thought of us as companions traveling together, but it seemed he saw this incident as something that would make our bond a little tighter.
I felt the same way.
We’d struggled together, faced danger together, and overcome it together.
I was certain these four would maintain good relations even after we left this place.
Just imagining myself riding in the stable, comfortable Kim Hyunsung bus was enough to make sleepiness creep in.
No, maybe it was more that the tension had finally left me.
Just having Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan here already made me feel safe, but as expected, our regressor’s ride was on another level entirely.
“You look a little tired. I think it would be best to rest somewhere nearby today.”
“I think that’s best too. You seem tired, hyung, and noona as well.”
“Yes.”
As for Jung Hayan, she probably still had some mana to spare.
I nodded vaguely and then spoke toward Kim Hyunsung as he began moving his feet.
Of course, I was asking about my class options.
Ultimately, the choice was mine, but I thought it only natural to test Kim Hyunsung, who knew the future.
“Hyunsung.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“A new class has opened.”
“Ah.”
As expected, he looked rather pleased.
“That was fast.”
“Yes. I suppose it’s because I’ve been using magic to deal with monsters….”
“May I ask what classes opened?”
“Of course.”
Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan seemed interested too, both watching me now.
It was also a good topic to talk about while we looked for somewhere to rest for the night, and it was decent material for lifting the party’s somewhat deflated mood.
“Summoner, Spearmancer, Dark Mage, Alchemist, Fire Mage. There were quite a few options.”
“That is certainly a lot.”
Since there wasn’t a suitable place nearby, I started explaining the drawbacks of each class and the classes I could choose later on.
For example, a Fire Mage would require a great deal of mana, while a Spearmancer didn’t have many dead-end paths afterward.
I had never revealed my exact stats, but I figured someone like Kim Hyunsung would still have a rough idea of what kind of specs I possessed.
“Forgive me, but… Kiyoung, your mana is a little….”
“Yes. I haven’t met many other mages, so I can’t say for sure, but the mana I have seems low. Compared with Hayan’s, it doesn’t seem particularly high either.”
“Mm….”
To have a proper consultation, you had to reveal a certain amount of personal information.
There was no reason to hide what was lacking. I still had plenty of strengths left to show.
“In that case, I think it would be better to think carefully about Fire Mage. It doesn’t seem like your affinity with fire magic is particularly bad, Kiyoung, but if it requires a high amount of mana, it could cause problems later.”
“Ah, I was thinking something similar.”
He was trying very hard to drop hints, and it was kind of adorable.
I had no idea how old he really was, but outwardly he looked younger than me.
“As for Spearmancer….”
He couldn’t quite say it outright, but that seemed to be what he meant.
You’re not exactly good with spears, are you?
I thought I’d already done more than enough to hold my own, but from his perspective, I must have looked clumsy.
I had never intended to choose Spearmancer anyway, but seeing Kim Hyunsung make that face left me oddly bitter.
Was I really that bad…?
“Personally, I think it would be better to choose between Summoner, Alchemist, and Dark Mage, but I’m afraid I can’t recommend Dark Mage.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t say for certain, but you might find yourself in a dangerous situation. At the very least, this status window doesn’t lie to us.”
“Mm….”
“You’ll need mana to maintain summons as well, but I can’t get a sense of how much mana would be required. If anything, Alchemist seems bad at all. It would suit you, Kiyoung, since your intelligence is high.”
“Actually, I was thinking something along the same lines. Alchemy seems like it might also involve activating magic through catalysts….”
“And not only that. You’d be able to make potions and a great many kinds of elixirs. If you need a summon, there’s always the alternative of a homunculus, which would be even more advantageous. A created life-form won’t require as much mana as a summoned one.”
He seemed to be getting a little worked up as he spoke.
This time, unlike before when he lacked data on me, he already knew quite a bit.
Because of that, his recommendation felt trustworthy.
More than anything, the delighted look on his face made my own mind tilt further in that direction.
It’s rare.
Alchemists were rare.
Maybe the class didn’t open often, or maybe people simply didn’t choose it, but in any case, Alchemist itself was a very rare class.
If priests were rare as well, then potions would only grow more valuable.
When you considered that even a priest’s holy power had limits, good-quality potions were a necessity.
Summoner was tempting too, but considering I already had two people who used similar powers, I might be able to obtain another summon later on as well.
While I was lost in thought, Park Deokgu, who had been listening intently, suddenly shook his head and jumped into the consultation.
“What nonsense is that? If it’s hyung, then it’s obviously Dark Mage.”
…
“Just imagine it—Dark Mages scattering the power of darkness and wiping out monsters. The more I think about it, the more I can’t see any class that suits hyung better… Who’d look at him and not think he’s a Dark Mage?”
There was no logic to it, no substance at all, and yet somehow it had a ridiculous amount of weight behind it.
It seemed he had completely forgotten his earlier fixation on “commander.”
This time, he had apparently latched onto Dark Mage.
“What does it matter what the world thinks? If anyone comes after hyung, I’ll blow them all away, so that part doesn’t matter much… And while hyung’s personality doesn’t really suit a Dark Mage, the sight of him wearing a black robe is… just thinking about it makes him look cool….”
“Alchemist would be better.”
By this point, even Kim Hyunsung sounded quite urgent.
He had noticed that there was a strange force to Park Deokgu’s shouting.
“No! Hyung has to be Dark Mage!”
Park Deokgu, who had once turned into a commander parrot, was now suddenly evolving into a Dark Mage parrot.
“Alchemist is definitely better.”
“Dark Mage, no question!”
“Alchemist….”
“Dark Mage! I want to see hyung scattering the power of darkness.”
“Alchemist!”
“Dark Mage!”
“Al…”
“Dark!”
“Al!”
I shouldn’t have asked.
I’d had a feeling something like this might happen again, but watching the two of them ramping each other up made me feel genuinely flustered.
Apparently the phrase “power of darkness” had a strangely powerful effect on Park Deokgu’s heart.
When I glanced at Jung Hayan, she must have thought I was asking for her opinion too, because she shook her head furiously.
“I, I can’t choose either one. A smart oppa who does alchemy and an oppa who uses the power of darkness….”
That wasn’t what I was asking.
Even so, this bizarre argument kept growing hotter by the second.
In the end, Kim Hyunsung quietly rummaged through his bag and spoke.
“By pure coincidence… by pure coincidence, I happened to obtain this item. It seems to be an Alchemist-specific item. If you choose Alchemist, I’ll give this to you as a gift.”
Where the hell did that come from?
That leather bag Kim Hyunsung carried around seemed to be some kind of magic bag after all.
I never imagined he’d become this desperate.
Thanks to that, I could be certain the reputation of Dark Mage wasn’t especially good—but separate from that, the moment I saw the item he pulled out, I had no choice but to betray our party’s Dark Mage parrot.