The Third Class (8)
My eyes slowly opened.
It was because of the noise. It was unbearably loud.
The last thing I remembered was choosing my job yesterday, testing out a few things, and then falling asleep right there and then. I felt dazed, as if I’d just woken up after a very long time.
How long has it been?
The problem was that I’d barely slept as everything was coming to a close. Since I still hadn’t finished cleaning up after the last battle, I’d had no choice but to sleep in the alchemy workshop instead of my own room.
I’m exhausted.
If I’d known I’d still feel this tired after waking up, I should have finished the cleanup first and slept after. The bed Hayan had given me was practically a miracle cure for fatigue.
Without thinking, I turned my head, and the first thing that came into view was Hwang Jeongyeon, sprawled out on one side of the sofa.
She must have been tired too.
She’d pushed herself to keep up with my schedule, and after she finished her work, she’d simply collapsed. She was lying there a little carelessly, but I didn’t get any strange ideas. If anything, it was proof that her guard around me had dropped, so I should probably have been pleased.
The more people you can trust, the better.
It was then that the voice that had woken me reached my ears again.
“Aigoo... our boss looks like he had it rough too. The whole second floor’s a mess, a real mess. Hey, miss! If you run like that, you’ll trip. Mistress Heeyoung, say something to her too.”
“……”
“For now, let’s get the luggage sorted out. Miss Heeyoung, Miss Hayan...”
“Yes. Yes.”
I didn’t need to hear the rest to know exactly what they were talking about.
The party members who had gone out on expedition had returned.
I felt the corners of my mouth lift before I could stop myself, but then I looked at Hwang Jeongyeon still sprawled across the sofa, and my mind began to go blank.
Shit.
I could hear someone pounding up the stairs to the second floor. It was fast, too fast, and I didn’t even need to guess whose footsteps they were.
Jung Hayan.
Even if there hadn’t been any physical contact, it was hardly going to please her to find a woman in the same room as me.
And for Hwang Jeongyeon, who was fated to have a dramatic reunion with Park Deokgu, this probably wasn’t a particularly welcome situation either.
“Oppa... Oppa...”
I heard Jung Hayan’s voice as she knocked at the door, clearly thinking I’d be in the alchemy workshop.
No, since I’d placed tracking magic on myself, she’d probably already known I was here.
But with the sound of her continued knocking, I actually felt like the protagonist of a horror film.
Thud!
“Oppa... are you in there? Are you there?”
Thud!
“You are, right? Oppa?”
Thud!
“Hey, maybe he’s just asleep? He probably kept on researching, so it’d be best not to make too much noise if he’s trying to rest, miss. It’s still early too...”
Nice, Park Deokgu.
“Or maybe something happened to him... what if he collapsed?”
You fat bastard.
Bang, bang.
The pounding on the door kept coming. It almost felt like I was being mocked for no reason at all.
Given the huge noise suddenly coming from outside, it was only natural that Hwang Jeongyeon woke up.
Rubbing her eyes, she quickly grasped the situation.
When she looked at me with those rabbit-like eyes, I became even more flustered.
“Boss! Uh, you were sleeping?”
It was a question that completely ignored the very basic fact that if I were asleep, I couldn’t answer her.
If I could’ve answered that I was asleep, I would have.
“Is something wrong here?”
What the hell is he talking about?
When I glanced toward the window, Hwang Jeongyeon was nodding furiously.
“Ah... Deokgu. I dozed off for a second, and I’ve just woken up.”
“Oppa...”
“So you really were asleep.”
“You came a little later than promised. I’ll open the door now. Wait a moment.”
I could see Hwang Jeongyeon hurrying toward the second-floor window.
Well, I supposed it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to say we’d been researching together in the first place, but it was better to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
The very fact that a man and a woman were together this late in the day was probably enough to violate Jung Hayan’s sense of morality.
“Kyah!”
As Hwang Jeongyeon leaped from the second floor, she let out a short shriek, and the door shook once more.
Thud, thud, thud.
Jung Hayan must have sensed that something was off and was shaking the door with all her strength.
After checking to make sure there were no other suspicious traces in the room, I opened it slightly, and familiar faces came into view after so long.
First, Park Deokgu.
No matter when I saw him, his simple, honest grin was always a welcome sight.
For some reason, his eyes were a little red. Judging by the scars scattered across his body, the expedition hadn’t exactly been an easy one.
And naturally, Jung Hayan was just as welcome. She was looking around the workshop as if trying to find the answer to that brief scream, but soon I could feel her gaze settle on me.
It happened in an instant: tears welled in those huge eyes and began spilling out, fat and heavy like chicken droppings, one after another, without any sense of reality to them at all.
No other description was necessary.
She had missed me that much.
To be honest, I felt something similar too. Just seeing Jung Hayan after so long improved my mood a little.
“Uuuugh... Oppa...”
What came out next was a strange sobbing sound. It was somehow adorable, so I reached out and gently patted her head without thinking.
“Grrr... Oppa...”
“Was it hard?”
“Uuuugh...”
I could see her shaking her head back and forth violently.
She tried to wipe away the streaming tears with her palm, but there was no way that was going to work.
At that, I spread my arms a little, and Jung Hayan immediately rushed into them, burying herself against me.
Her face was rubbing against my chest.
“I missed you.”
“Yeah. I missed you too, Hayan.”
That was at least half true.
As I patted her head and looked ahead, I could see Sun Heeyoung giving me a nod of greeting, and Kim Hyunsung watching me as well.
It looked like I wouldn’t be able to pry Jung Hayan away for the time being, so the best I could do was keep her hanging off me while I waved.
Judging from the atmosphere, things weren’t perfect, but it felt like everyone had found some kind of answer in their own way.
The expedition was a success.
I was almost certain of it.
“It’s been a while, Kiyoung.”
“Yes. Hyunsung. Was the expedition all right?”
“It wasn’t exactly satisfactory, but we did get results. Yeri only managed a second advancement instead of a third, but Heeyoung, Deokgu, and Hayan all completed theirs. Their stats all seem to have gone up noticeably too.”
“That’s a relief.”
It couldn’t have been easy.
Kim Hyunsung had only been along in the role of a caretaker, after all.
When I saw how haggard his face looked after a month, I figured I’d been right.
“How are you doing, Kiyoung?”
“I’m the same. My stats are definitely where I wanted them, and I got a new job too.”
“What kind this time?”
“You advanced too, boss?”
“Yeah. I did. I’ll explain the details downstairs.”
“Ahh.”
“Actually, even I’d have a hard time explaining what kind of job I got. It’ll be easier if I just show you directly.”
“Is it a higher-tier job than alchemist?”
“Yes. The status window said it was a newly discovered job.”
“You mean it wasn’t one that existed before?”
“Probably not.”
“That’s... rather surprising.”
“It left me with no choice. If several jobs had come up at once, I would have waited until you arrived to make a decision, but... there was no choice to make. Still, I don’t regret it.”
“The more you say that, the more curious I become.”
Jung Hayan was still clinging to me, so I couldn’t exactly confirm her expression, but Park Deokgu was looking just as eager to know.
“Hah. I should’ve been there for that glorious moment... I’m a bit sorry I couldn’t help the boss choose this time.”
“You’ll like it too.”
“Really?”
I couldn’t say for sure how Kim Hyunsung would react, but Park Deokgu would definitely like it.
At the very least, it would look flashy and strange enough on the surface.
“To think you acquired a job on your own... you’re truly amazing.”
“Not at all. More importantly, was this your...?”
“Yes. This is my fourth advancement.”
“I see.”
What I found a little interesting was the mood of the party.
Before, there had definitely been a somewhat awkward atmosphere, but now they seemed to be getting along much better overall. It felt like the new members had blended in well with the existing ones.
Park Deokgu and even little Kim Yeri seemed to be a little wary of Sun Heeyoung, but I found the answer to that reason pretty quickly.
Hmm.
Apparently, after Kim Hyunsung and me, she’d been the next best option.
Since she had the highest specs among them, they’d probably started relying on her little by little, and that had led to this result.
Not bad.
She thought of beating the lazy, socially useless trash to death as a new kind of charity, but there was no doubt she was capable and knew how to distinguish right from wrong.
She was different from Jung Hayan, but she did give off a slightly eerie feeling. Honestly, I suspected those qualities were part of what made her such a good fallback.
To be honest, I’d hoped Park Deokgu might step up a little more proactively, but...
Maybe he’s not there yet.
He also seemed strangely deflated.
In any case, the party that had finally gathered again after so long was in a pleasantly warm mood. As we walked toward the training grounds while talking about this and that, they asked me about my job, and I answered with a few deliberately vague comments, nodding along as if we were at a demonstration.
Come to think of it, the demonstrations I’d once shown to influential figures from other guilds, back when I was unaffiliated, didn’t really deserve to be called demonstrations at all.
They weren’t about showing off my strengths or traits, or about revealing what kind of person I was.
But this was different.
Of course I needed to be recognized for my own value. I needed the regressor and the party to acknowledge that I was even more useful to them than before.
“I’d like you to judge this properly. The raw power itself doesn’t seem bad, but I still can’t tell whether it’s efficient...”
“Yes, of course.”
“Hayan, could you step away for a moment?”
“Ah... yes, Oppa.”
I began chanting at a fairly slow pace. As I poured mana into the catalyst I’d prepared, an immediate reaction began to follow.
Even by my standards, it wasn’t much mana. Given my low mana reserves, this was probably the best I could do.
I needed two things.
First, a catalyst with a variety of magical formulas engraved into it, and second, another catalyst that would receive the spell.
Materials with the same informational value, materials capable of interacting with each other, were necessary.
Really, the quality that could endure a condensed and then recondensed spell circle was important too, but even more important than that was the informational value.
For example—
Just like the tooth that Jung Hayan had enchanted, and me, the recipient of that magic.
I was a little distracted, but it wasn’t enough to prevent me from completing the spell.
I slowly began to recite the incantation.
Growth Promotion.
It was a simple spell, if you wanted to call it that.
That was the moment the tiny cell of the monster flying toward the spell suddenly began to swell.
Watching a tiny cell abruptly transform into a mass of flesh was a little grotesque, but it certainly had weight to it.
Kwajijijik, kujik, kkadeudeudeuk.
Impossible sounds followed.
They sounded like bones twisting out of shape, or like cells bursting apart.
I was used to that sound, but Kim Yeri covered her ears, apparently finding it too loud.
The huge lump of flesh, which made me wonder whether it might burst apart at any second, ultimately molded itself into the shape it wanted.
What burst out from there was the hand of a gigantic monster.
Kwa-dududududududuk!
Before the thunderous roar even fully rang out, everyone was already staring at me with looks that plainly demanded an explanation.
“Wh... Boss...”
“Th-this... how did you do that?”
Even Kim Hyunsung.
A strange thrill rippled down my spine.
“It’s the nature of the job.”