The Hero's Burden (12)
Mun Dal-su was the team leader of the Dio Guild’s Busan branch.
His talent was Long Pull. Used on others, it increased the designated Awakened’s effective range. Used on himself, it increased his own jumping distance.
Mun Dal-su could use three abilities in total: Attack, Defense, and Detection.
For example, Attack let him unleash striking techniques on targets within roughly 100 meters, while Defense allowed him to evade arrows or bullets fired from around 500 meters away.
Finally, Detection let him sense enemies more than a kilometer away.
Gender, appearance, mana quantity, killing intent, and so on.
Once he narrowed the target down by straight-line distance, the effective range could stretch from dozens of kilometers to several thousand.
Of course, there were limits.
Mun Dal-su was a B-class hunter. The farther away the target was, the harder it became to pick up fine details, unlike Lee Yu-seol’s Sense.
At best, he could identify basic biological information.
“Huh?”
Mun Dal-su’s eyebrows twitched.
“What is it, Team Leader Mun?”
Jang Na-ik tilted his head.
Right now, they were waiting for Choi Yongki aboard a Chamsuri fast patrol boat.
Choi Yongki had gone underwater to fight the Dirty Kraken.
Mun Dal-su narrowed his eyes.
The Dirty Kraken’s signal just cut out.
Through Detection, Mun Dal-su could tell that Choi Yongki had been locked in fierce combat with the sea monster.
The deadlock had broken in an instant.
I can’t be sure, but maybe...
It seemed the Dirty Kraken’s body had been torn to shreds.
Shredded beyond recovery.
It wasn’t hard to guess who had won.
Did he win?!
Joy surged through Mun Dal-su.
“Hunter Choi won!”
The sailors aboard the Chamsuri boat erupted in cheers.
“Ooh! Finally!”
“I’ll report to headquarters right away!”
One naval officer shot his hand into the air.
“I’ve also been informed that the Iseonggye vessel has finished its defensive battle safely. No additional casualties. All naval personnel and hunters survived!”
Jang Na-ik’s expression brightened.
“That’s great. That’s really great!”
The long, grueling war against the Dirty Kraken was over.
Mun Dal-su stared at the sea.
All that was left was for the hero of the hour to return.
“Told you so! I knew Hunter Choi would pull it off!”
“You said it!”
“Drinks tonight! Let’s get so smashed we can’t walk straight!”
“Hey, come on. You’re quitting alcohol, Team Leader.”
“Are you kidding? If not today, then when?”
They chatted idly, comfortable at last.
“But when is Hunter Choi coming up?”
“...Well, soon enough, right? The sea’s ridiculously deep, so if we just wait a little...”
Then, an ominous feeling washed over him.
“Wait.”
Mun Dal-su flinched and reached toward the sea.
Something’s wrong.
If the Dirty Kraken was dead, Choi Yongki should have surfaced by now.
No matter how strong Choi Yongki was, the sea was a cold, merciless place—more dangerous than most dungeons.
Unless you were exploring in a submarine, the deep sea was no place for a human to remain submerged for long.
And yet...
Why is he going even deeper?
Choi Yongki was moving farther and farther away.
His vital signs are weak.
He was bleeding badly, and his heartbeat was slowing.
...Is he even alive?
If Mun Dal-su had to guess, whatever was taking Choi Yongki deeper into the abyss was not his own will.
Mun Dal-su knew this much: in a trench, every extra meter of depth meant a terrifying increase in pressure.
In other words, Choi Yongki was sinking into the darkness under a pressure so monstrous it could flatten a beer can in a single second.
At this rate, death is only a matter of time.
Mun Dal-su shot to his feet.
“Na-ik! Let’s save Hunter Choi!”
“...Huh? Yes!”
A beat late, Jang Na-ik caught on to what Mun Dal-su meant.
“What do I need to do?”
“We have to haul Hunter Choi up. How many kilos can you move?”
Jang Na-ik’s talent was Gravity.
A telekinetic-type ability that used gravity like a magnet.
“My usable limit is under ten kilos, but...”
Jang Na-ik lifted the corners of his mouth with a meaningful smile.
Thanks to Choi Yongki, he had received a Magical Circle, the so-called Blessing of Effort.
There were people like that.
People who floundered for years, who seemed to have no talent at all, and then suddenly made a huge leap forward.
Jang Na-ik was one of them.
Along with the Blessing of Effort, his brutal training had driven his abilities upward by leaps and bounds.
“I can move up to around eighty kilos now.”
Choi Yongki weighed eighty-three kilos.
It was slightly over the limit, but not by much, so it wasn’t a serious problem.
“Good. Let’s go.”
Jang Na-ik stretched both hands out and plunged them into the seawater.
“I’m ready.”
Mun Dal-su stood behind him.
He put both hands on Jang Na-ik’s back and poured in mana.
“We don’t have time. Move as fast as you can.”
“Understood!”
Jang Na-ik shut his eyes.
With Mun Dal-su’s help, Gravity stretched like a piece of taffy and activated.
Jang Na-ik’s consciousness shot straight down into the sea.
Where are you?
Only useless fish and marine life were detected.
No matter how far down he went, Choi Yongki was nowhere to be seen.
Mun Dal-su broke into a cold sweat.
“Still not there?”
Long Pull was, by nature, a skill that activated all at once.
It was rare to maintain it for this long.
Jang Na-ik shouted in a panic.
“I-I’m still looking.”
They passed over broad, sunken valleys on the ocean floor.
Then came a narrow, elongated trench.
No way.
It was a world without light or sound, swallowed whole by darkness.
A steep cliff that dropped away in a sudden, vicious slope.
A V-shaped abyss.
Found him.
Choi Yongki lay there as if dead.
“I found him. I’ll bring him up.”
“Hurry!”
Jang Na-ik’s mana changed shape and gradually materialized.
Mana was no longer an intangible thing without taste or weight.
The rounded mass of it sprouted angular protrusions like fingers.
It looked almost like a giant’s two hands.
Like a loving mother embracing a fetus, Jang Na-ik’s hands gently lifted Choi Yongki.
“Hup!”
Jang Na-ik let out a sharp cry.
Beneath the sea, Choi Yongki’s body floated upward as if weightless.
“Got him!”
Now they only had to pull him up.
Just as success was within reach, Choi Yongki didn’t move.
He was frozen in place, as if caught in a net.
“Ghk!”
Mun Dal-su caught the strange feeling immediately.
“Na-ik? What’s wrong?”
Anxious dread bloomed in his chest.
“Something’s caught him.”
“What?”
Choi Yongki stood on the edge of life and death.
A single instant would decide whether he lived or died.
It was obvious that if they missed the golden hour, the outcome would be tragic.
“...Something’s stuck to Hunter Choi’s body.”
They didn’t know it, but a tentacle had wrapped around Choi Yongki’s waist, and at the tip of that tentacle was a chunk of the Dirty Kraken’s body.
The Dirty Kraken had ended its life, and yet, like a vengeful spirit, it refused to let go of Choi Yongki.
“Do something!”
“I want to, but...”
The Dirty Kraken’s remains were only a small portion of the creature’s original body.
Including the tentacle, it probably weighed around 958 kilograms.
If they could detach the portion of the Dirty Kraken’s body that had clung to Choi Yongki, the problem would be solved.
“Hurry up!!!”
Jang Na-ik ground his teeth.
I’m telling you, I can’t!
No matter how much he had grown in such a short time, he still hadn’t surpassed the limits of human ability.
He could lift objects, yes, but he couldn’t shape mana into a razor-sharp knife.
“Can’t you just haul him up by force? Then it wouldn’t matter what’s stuck to him!”
This wasn’t just him pushing Jang Na-ik around.
Mun Dal-su’s own mana was nearly gone.
He was reaching his limit, so they had to use whatever means they could, right now.
“That...”
To lift Choi Yongki and the Dirty Kraken’s remains together, Jang Na-ik did the math in a hurry.
How much would that be? Five hundred kilos? No, six hundred?
Even accounting for buoyancy, the weight he’d have to handle was well over a ton.
No. Impossible. I can’t do it. I absolutely can’t... I can’t.
Self-loathing came crashing over him like a wave, stronger than despair.
Jang Na-ik’s hands, submerged in the seawater, trembled violently.
“Damn it! If this keeps up, Hunter Choi is really going to die!”
At Mun Dal-su’s shout, Jang Na-ik snapped back to his senses.
Expelled from other guilds for incompetence and mistakes.
Dio Guild’s burden, its nuisance, its leftover trash.
All he had was a pitiful ability that could move something about the size of a bowling ball.
And yet Choi Yongki had come to him first.
“Jang Na-ik. You’re not weak. I trust you.”
Just like his name.
Because of Choi Yongki, Jang Na-ik had gained courage.
Despite those sharp eyes and that hard, severe face, Choi Yongki had said things in that curt, indifferent way of his.
“Stay close behind me. You’ll be safe there.”
Jang Na-ik remembered the warmth of the hand that had rested on his shoulder.
“But if I’m ever in danger, you have to save me. Got it? Think you can do that?”
What had he answered back then?
Jang Na-ik recalled his own words.
“Hunter Choi. No matter what happens, I’ll definitely save you.”
Choi Yongki, who usually didn’t smile, had let out a small grin at that.
“Good. I’m counting on you.”
The trembling stopped.
Mun Dal-su sensed the change immediately.
Aura began to rise from Jang Na-ik’s entire body.
“Na-ik, you...”
It was a ferocity no one would ever expect from the timid, withdrawn young hunter he had always been.
“Team Leader Mun.”
Jang Na-ik shut his eyes, then opened them again.
His face was set with resolve.
“Just trust me.”
Jang Na-ik explosively released his mana.
Deep in the sea, Choi Yongki’s body rose once more.
“Ghhh!”
He ignored the Dirty Kraken still clinging stubbornly to him.
The higher he came, the lower the pressure became, and the faster his ascent grew.
Mun Dal-su’s mouth fell open.
Incredible.
It was power no E-class hunter should have possessed.
“...Ngk! Gghkghk!!!”
Cracks spiderwebbed through Jang Na-ik’s molars.
He was clenching his teeth too hard.
Even so, he didn’t stop.
That’s right, Hunter Choi. I...
Jang Na-ik’s eyes flew wide open.
The blood vessels in his pupils burst.
I can do this!!!
Blood poured from his nostrils.
His mind went hazy, and he felt on the verge of collapse.
“Cough!”
Jang Na-ik coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Hey. Jang Na-ik, are you all—”
Mun Dal-su couldn’t finish the sentence.
And if he wasn’t all right, then what?
So what if he was a little hurt?
So what if his body broke?
They couldn’t stop here.
We can’t stop now.
Mun Dal-su squeezed out every last drop of mana he had left.
Bulging veins stood out in his neck as he screamed.
“Hang in there! Kid!!!”
The only thing he could give their last hope was sincere encouragement.
Blood spurted from Jang Na-ik’s eyes, nose, and mouth. From every opening in his face, really. And in the end, he surpassed the limits of a human being.
The calm surface of the sea rippled violently.
Like a massive wave breaking, something burst upward in a spray of foam.
Choi Yongki, still bound to the Dirty Kraken’s body, floated on the water.
His deep blue suit was torn in several places.
His face was pale, and his lips had turned a vivid purple.
“...Th-there. Got him.”
Mun Dal-su’s tension broke, and he flopped backward onto the deck.
“Kghh...”
Jang Na-ik looked as though he had aged ten years in an instant.
It was the result of throwing everything he had into the effort, pushing himself to the absolute brink until his life force itself was being gnawed away.
And yet, a faint smile rested at the corner of his mouth.
Jang Na-ik swallowed a mouthful of bloody froth.
“...Hunter Choi.”
His gaze never left the hero who had come back from a battle that had burned so fiercely it seemed to scorch the world.
“I kept my promise.”
From far away, medium and small naval vessels began to gather, including the Iseonggye ship.
The navy had rushed in after hearing of the hero’s victory.
A sailor on the Chamsuri boat helped haul Choi Yongki out of the water.
“Towels! Bring towels!”
Mun Dal-su rushed over and checked Choi Yongki’s condition.
His body was as cold as ice, and he wasn’t breathing.
“H-he’s not breathing!”
Was it already too late?
Had Choi Yongki crossed the threshold into death?
In the suffocating silence,
“I’ll do it!”
Jang Na-ik dropped to his knees in front of Choi Yongki.
He spread his palms and focused his mind.
He had poured everything out already, so there was no mana left.
Just a little. I only need a little!!!
Jang Na-ik forced the seawater clogging Choi Yongki’s mouth, nose, airways, and lungs to move.
It worked.
A small amount of liquid was driven out of Choi Yongki’s body.
“Cough!”
Choi Yongki spat out water and drew a ragged breath.
“It worked!”
“He’s alive!”
“Medic!!”
The sailors lifted Choi Yongki onto a stretcher all at once and carried him away.
“Na-ik. Good job! Really good job, you punk!”
Mun Dal-su slapped Jang Na-ik on the back and wiped away his tears.
Only then did Jang Na-ik let his shoulders sag.
The sunset spread across the sea.
“Haha. Without those bastards, the ocean really is...”
The sky turned gold, and the clouds burned like red flames.
“...beautiful.”
Jang Na-ik murmured softly, and then collapsed.
---