Chapter 43
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Fruit of the Wild Mandragora
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The Yu siblings checked the Parrot Poison Bird’s condition.
It was still breathing, but if left alone, it was only a matter of time before it died.
“The wounds are too severe. Can we save it?”
“I’ll need to get a potion.”
“Get one? From where... Ah. That alchemist?”
Manager Kim, who had sold his abilities for the next ten years to Cheon Doun.
Cheon Doun took a return stone from his pocket. It was one of the stones he had brought along when he went to destroy the research institute.
“I'll be back, so stay by its side. The smell of blood will attract monsters.”
Cheon Doun said, crushing the return stone.
It was late at night, so even if he went to the Association, Manager Kim would have already gone home.
‘I’ll have to go to his house.’
With that thought, he stepped into the Gate.
* * *
Late at night, Manager Kim unwrapped the jajangmyeon that had been delivered. He also opened a cold beer from the refrigerator.
After setting the food on the living room table, he opened his tablet.
“Well now. I said I could do it with confidence, but... this is difficult.”
The request from Cheon Doun: analyzing the explosion magic circle embedded in the feather.
He was in the middle of his research, but analyzing the magic circle wasn't easy.
“I'll eat first. I need some food to get my brain working.”
Turning off the tablet, he picked up his chopsticks. With his other hand, he used the remote to flip through the TV channels.
He stopped on his usual current affairs program, and a peculiar video was playing.
A shaky video, filmed by someone on a cell phone.
[This video has been trending online lately. Surprisingly, a mysterious figure was spotted riding a Parrot Poison Bird. Doctor, what are your thoughts on this?]
[It makes no sense. Riding a monster? Some people online are saying it might be possible for an A-rank Hunter, but that's just talk from non-Awakened who don't know any better. This is absolutely impossible.]
[But there have been multiple witnesses in the slums. There are also rumors that this mysterious figure is the reason the Hanbit Research Institute was reduced to ashes overnight. Let's look at the footage.]
A photo of the exploded building filled the screen.
Hanbit Research Institute. At the familiar name, Manager Kim let out a smirk.
“Looks like that institute is gone. They were doing all sorts of shady things behind the scenes, like tax evasion and money laundering. Serves them right.”
It was an institute infamous in this industry for all the wrong reasons. Was this what they called karma?
Just as he was smirking, a knock came from the window.
At first, he thought he'd misheard. His apartment was on the seventh floor. It wasn't a height where a passing kid could knock on the window for fun.
He tried to ignore it, but the knock came again. Wondering what it was, Manager Kim turned and was startled.
The shadow of a person was stuck to the window.
The translucent curtains only showed a silhouette, making it look even more bizarre.
"Wh-what is that...!"
*Screech.* The sound of something sharp cutting through the glass. A hand reached through the circular hole and unlatched the window.
He had never felt such terror. Was it a thief who had rappelled down from the roof?
As a non-combat Awakened, Manager Kim had never been in a physical fight.
Call the police. No, it's too late. I have to run. Someone who breaks into a home like this must be an armed robber.
This was a common occurrence in the slums, and a cold sweat ran down his back.
Manager Kim shot up and ran for the front door. But the mysterious figure grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.
Is this how I die? Just as a shiver ran down his spine, he heard a familiar voice.
“Why are you running?”
“H-help m—! Huh? Sir?”
When he turned, he saw it was Cheon Doun.
“S-Sir, it was you?”
“Yeah. You didn't answer when I knocked.”
“But, why from the window...?”
“The apartments in the slums are built in strange configurations, so it's hard to find the entrance. The hallways are like a maze, too.”
“W-well, that's true, but...”
Who cuts a hole in a window to get in? Manager Kim was bewildered, then his expression turned to one of confusion.
“But how did you know where I live?”
“Mana detection.”
Mana detection? Did he mean he covered the entire slum district with his mana to find me?
‘No way. The slums are huge. That can't be possible.’
Despite his thoughts, a cold sweat trickled down. He had a feeling that this man could actually do it.
“There's no time, so I'll get straight to the point. Give me a potion. A high-grade one.”
“A high-grade one? I'm sorry, I don't have any. No one in the slums looks for something that expensive... I don't have any at my shop right now, either.”
“Then can you make one?”
“I have ingredients at home, but they're for mid-grade potions. The ingredients for a high-grade one... Ah!”
Manager Kim ran to a display cabinet and took out several medicinal herbs.
“I can make a mid-grade potion with effects comparable to a high-grade one. You gave me that red moss before.”
A moss that, when added during potion brewing, increased its efficacy dozens of times over.
It was so precious that it was usually only used in high-grade potions, but since Cheon Doun seemed to be in a hurry, Manager Kim brought it up himself.
“That moss... I didn't sell it all to the Association. I kept a little for myself. It's incredibly hard to come by.”
Manager Kim lovingly stroked the jar containing the moss.
Cheon Doun watched him with a strange expression. To him, it looked as if Manager Kim was lovingly stroking a jar of common bean paste.
“You seem to be in a hurry, so I'll start making it right away. Ah! Or, would you prefer I go to the patient and mix the potion liquid directly inside their body? It's much more effective than drinking or applying it.”
“Then do that. Pack your things. We're leaving now. Are those all the ingredients you need?"
"Yes. I just need to change my clothes...”
“No time. We're going like this.”
Cheon Doun lifted Manager Kim and slung him over his shoulder. He dropped a return stone out the window, and a Gate opened above the asphalt.
“W-wait, Sir? Where are you going— Aaaah!”
Manager Kim screamed as they jumped out of the seventh-floor window. Where am I being dragged off to?
With the fall, the two of them disappeared through the Gate that had formed on the ground.
* * *
A foggy night, a cool breeze, the distant sound of waves.
‘Why does the sound of waves sound so eerie?’
The sea. A forbidden zone in the Demon World that one should never enter. The place they arrived at after passing through the Gate was a cliff overlooking the sea.
Manager Kim, who had been dragged to the northern sea in the middle of eating jajangmyeon, was half dazed.
He hadn't even had time to change and was still in the teddy bear pajamas his nephew had bought him.
“Oh, is this the alchemist? You brought him yourself.”
said the man with the head of an eagle.
At the sight of his intimidating, muscular body, Manager Kim froze stiff.
“He looks more ordinary than I expected. I was picturing someone with a more authoritative air.”
said the woman wearing a bone helmet.
The demonic energy emanating from the bone helmet was enough to make Manager Kim back away as she approached.
Beside them, an eight-meter Parrot Poison Bird lay unconscious.
Where am I? Where on earth have I been brought? Will I make it back alive? Manager Kim trembled, his face pale.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and treat it.”
“Tr-treat what... You don't mean that bird?"
“Yeah.”
So he wasn't here to treat a person?
Manager Kim fumbled to open his bag. I should just do as I'm told. That's the only way I'll get back alive. The thought crossed his mind.
* * *
Brewing a potion inside a patient's body was something only a high-rank Awakened could do.
In other words, it required a large amount of mana.
After finishing the potion synthesis, Manager Kim collapsed from exhaustion.
The Parrot Poison Bird's body was so large that the amount of potion he had to create was immense.
“I heard you were skilled, and it wasn't an exaggeration. Those wounds are all healed.”
“Indeed. You're worthy of Cheon Doun's praise.”
“Th-thank you.”
At the siblings' praise, Manager Kim looked bewildered.
He was confused about how to react to the monsters, who he had found so frightening, now showing him a friendly attitude.
Cheon Doun approached the flustered Manager Kim.
"The bird's wounds are taken care of. What about the feather I gave you? How's the progress?”
“Well... it's not as easy as I thought. The spell is so archaic that I can't even get a feel for what kind of formula was used. There are almost no records of formulas from that era.”
“Is there a solution?”
“Hmm... If I had a Mandragora fruit, I think I might be able to do something.”
Manager Kim voiced something he had been thinking about for a while.
“A Mandragora is a reservoir of high-density mana. It's a creature that sucks up mana like a vacuum cleaner.”
That was why cultivating Mandragoras in the human world was impossible.
Even if dozens of A-rank Awakened worked together to infuse it with mana, the Mandragora would not be satisfied.
Far from being satisfied, it would sometimes even spit the mana back out, like a picky eater complaining about a side dish.
The plant's root seemed to be asking, *Can't you bring me mana of higher purity?* and countless Awakened had been frustrated by it.
A gourmet root that would never eat just any mana. That's what a Mandragora was.
“Because of that, it's said that the fruit stores an unimaginable amount of high-purity mana. If I could just use that as a medium, then maybe...”
...he could create a chemical to forcibly dismantle the magic circle. That was Manager Kim's idea.
“It's just my theory for now, but I think it's worth a try.”
Manager Kim glanced at Cheon Doun. Hadn't he said he would get him any necessary ingredients?
This was the man who had a Mandragora root. Maybe he had the fruit as well. He looked at Cheon Doun with that hope.
“I don't have the fruit.”
“Ah... O-of course. The fruit. There's no way you'd have something so precious."
Feeling he might have asked for something too outrageous, Manager Kim felt awkward. Meanwhile, Cheon Doun was lost in thought before he spoke.
“I don't have one now. But I think one might bear fruit soon. I've been feeding them well. ”
“Pardon...?”
“I can't be sure, though. The ones in my garden are still young.”
Garden. Young. Feeding them well. What did all that mean?
Manager Kim looked at Cheon Doun with a bewildered expression.
“There's also the option of searching the highlands for a fruit, but that would probably be difficult. Mandragoras that have borne fruit hide in rock crevices or caves.”
In the first place, the number of Mandragoras that bear fruit was small. The fact that they also hid made the chances of finding one in the wild slim.
“It would be faster to just put a few rocks in my garden and wait. When it bears fruit, it will hide among the rocks.”
“Garden...? Pardon? Rocks... Uh, garden?”
“Come and see for yourself. Just tell me which one has the highest chance of bearing fruit. Then I'll give it intensive care and fatten it up. I think the root needs to get plump for it to bear fruit. Is that right?”
Manager Kim couldn't answer. He couldn't understand what on earth Cheon Doun was talking about.
“It'll bear fruit, so don't worry. The problem is getting it to pick the fruit and hand it over on its own.”
“P-pick it on its own?”
“If you force it, the components will turn to poison. And the mana inside the fruit will disappear. If the fruit senses danger, it absorbs all the mana inside it back into the root.”
These were facts Cheon Doun knew because he had Mandragora cells mixed in with his own.
Manager Kim's face went blank upon hearing this for the first time.
"The problem is whether it will offer up the fruit willingly. It'll be hard to persuade. The ones I have are quite strong-willed. Ferocious, too.”
Manager Kim swallowed nervously. He didn't know what Cheon Doun meant by "garden" or any of that, but one thing was certain.
‘This man is raising Mandragoras. I can see a wild Mandragora, grown in the Demon World.’
A ferocious and strong-willed wild Mandragora.
Just hearing about it sent a shiver down his spine. Having grown up feasting on abundant demonic energy, its offensive power was presumed to be immense.
“I-it's fine if it's ferocious. Please, show it to me. I will select the one that will bear fruit.”
This was a chance to see a wild Mandragora. No matter how ferocious, it was worth risking his life.
“I don't care if it's dangerous. Please take me to this place you call a garden.”
This was a life-or-death meeting. He had no regrets. Manager Kim spoke with firm resolve.