Chapter 19

The man was fleeing for his life, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he unluckily tripped and fell. The one who saved that man's life was me.

It's common knowledge that the range of healing and support skills for B-rank or lower awakened is around sixty meters. But I had just cast a barrier on a man more than a hundred and fifty meters away... and saved someone's son.

"Get up! Get up and run!"

At Yoo Sumi's shout the man finally snapped back to his senses, scrambled to his feet, and fled. He was a B-rank archer, but he had already lost the will to fight. It was better that he wasn't there at all.

Sumi poured mana into her legs and accelerated several times before drawing her sword. Swirling cold energy clung to the blade. She forged it into a screaming vortex and swung.

KWAAAAANG!

The massive cold-laden whirlwind shot forward and slammed into the Minotaur. Sharp ice shards exploded outward, flaying its hide and freezing the wounds. At the same moment, the flaming arrows Kim Seohwa had conjured struck its left arm dead-on. The brutal temperature swing crumpled and shattered the limb, sending it tumbling away.

But the axe was in its right hand.

The Minotaur swung with murderous force. Sumi charged straight in. She had my barrier, after all.

KLANG!

The axe bounced off with a deafening crash. The Minotaur's balance collapsed. Blue magic arrows immediately hammered its face in rapid succession.

"GRRRRAAAAAHH!"

They were little more than toothpicks against its five-meter frame, but no living thing can shrug off a toothpick to the eye.

"Bullseye!" I cheered.

Sumi smiled at my shout. She poured a relentless flurry of sword strikes into the flinching, one-eyed Minotaur—slashing its leg, carving its arm, stabbing its gut. I never stopped supporting her. I drew my bow again and again, layering buffs and barriers between every shot.

If the arrows lacked raw power, I would simply aim for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weak points. I had already blinded one eye. I wasn't going to stop there. I dashed sideways, circled behind it, and poured focused fire into the back of its knee.

I had only just realized it, but my mana pool was so enormous that common skills barely made a dent no matter how much I spammed them. The moment I figured that out I grinned and unleashed Rapid Fire like a machine gun. A storm of arrows ripped into the joint until it finally gave way.

When Seohwa's colossal flaming spear punched straight through the Minotaur's torso, Sumi readied the finishing blow.

My buff had elevated her realm by two or three whole stages. Her mana reserves, the efficiency and speed with which she manipulated it, her strength, agility, and bodily coordination—everything had reached an entirely different dimension.

Right now...!

Things that would have been impossible for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the old her were suddenly within reach. A super-high-difficulty technique she had only ever studied in theory, never once attempted in real combat. The senior who taught it to her had said that mastering it freely would make hitting A+ rank as easy as eating cold porridge.

After receiving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my buffs so many times and growing stronger, she had a perfect grasp of her own limits. And now she had glimpsed brand-new possibilities.

Dozens of ice blades rose around Sumi's body. They swirled like a school of fish, moving in perfect harmony with her motions, then surged forward all at once and swallowed the Minotaur whole.

Kagagagagak—!!!

The sound of countless blades carving through flesh. The Minotaur collapsed into a mangled, unrecognizable heap of meat.

...It actually worked?

She had used the elevated state granted by my buff to smash straight through the wall that had been blocking her.

"Sumi unnie!"

I sprinted over and crashed into her arms.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Want me to heal you?"

"Ah, no. I'm fine. You did amazing, Jiyun."

"What was that skill you just used? I've never seen it before. Did you learn something new?"

"Yeah... It's kind of a long story."

Kim Seohwa walked over as well. She stared at the Minotaur that had been reduced to bloody rags and let out a low whistle.

"Holy crap. You'd normally need a full party of eight B-ranks to take that thing down safely."

"Right? We rescue that other party, collect compensation from them, get contribution points from the Management Agency, and harvest the mana stone from this guy... How much money is that going to be?"

The three of us burst out laughing.

When the dust settled, Management Agency staff entered the gate and asked for a full explanation. Sumi and Seohwa gave their statements while the other party was located by the hunter police and brought over. Fortunately there were no fatalities and no other injuries, so they decided to pay our party compensation and close the case. The trolling offense would be handled by docking their contribution points separately.

Contribution points are earned through hunter activities. More points mean better tax benefits and easier rank promotions, but none of that applies to unregistered awakened like me. Still, we received extra compensation for stepping up without hesitation during the crisis and resolving the situation.

And finally...

"Whoa, look at this."

Sumi lifted a mana stone the size of a child's fist. It was small, but the depth of its color was on a completely different level from anything I'd seen before. This was a superior mana stone that only dropped from fairly high-grade monsters. At the same weight, it could fetch up to ten times the price of a normal one.

Then something even more unexpected happened. After we harvested the mana stone, a cluster of light rose from the Minotaur's corpse and coalesced into a small, crystal-like object.

"This is...?"

It was a transparent crystal shard with the image of a bird—maybe an eagle, maybe a hawk—carved into its surface.

"Whoa. We actually got a rare item," Sumi said.

"For real? Will it sell for good money?"

"It's a shame, but not really."

"Eh...?"

"It's called a Phantasmal Stone. Break it and you can summon a phantasmal beast."

Basically, you get something that looks like a monster. Tamers and summoners usually use them to tame the creature and turn it into fighting strength. But tamers and summoners are rare classes, so demand is low and the market is already flooded. In short, it's rare but not particularly valuable loot.

"Still, you could probably sell it for around four hundred thousand won?"

...But I had a different idea.

"Can I have this?"

Sumi and Seohwa stared at me with identical question-mark faces.

"You? How?"

"I'm an elf. Who knows? Maybe I can tame these things too."

"No way..."

Sumi let out an awkward laugh, clearly thinking it was impossible.

"I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work, we can just kill it."

I set the Phantasmal Stone on the ground and backed up about ten paces. Then I nocked an arrow, took aim, and fired.

Clang!

The stone shattered. Yellow mana exploded outward, swirled, condensed, and took the shape of a bird. With a heavy flap of wings, a phantasmal hawk with brilliant golden eyes appeared.

"Careful. It might attack without warning," Seohwa warned, weapons ready. Sumi raised her sword too.

They might have felt hostility, but I didn't. What I sensed in the hawk's eyes was pure curiosity—the innocent wonder of a being that had only just been born into the world.

I slowly reached out my right hand the way I would with a puppy I'd never met. The hawk flapped closer.

"This... this can't be happening," Sumi muttered behind me.

The hawk gently landed on my arm. It was still a little awkward, a little distant, but the goodwill was unmistakable. I drew my arm closer and the gap between us shrank. Finally the hawk closed its eyes, lowered its head, and pressed its forehead to mine.

"Ah..."

For a single instant I could feel the hawk's entire existence. The moment I recognized it, an unbreakable link formed between us.

"Whoa...!!"

The hawk dissolved into particles of light and melted into my chest.

"Huh...?"

"Um..."

Sumi and Seohwa let out stunned noises in unison.

Huh?