Stranger at the Pool (7)
Heo Da-yeong tilted her head in confusion.
"At the swimming pool? Oh, dear. I’ve put on some weight lately—I'm not sure a bikini would even fit me."
"......"
Apparently she’d mistaken this for some sort of outing.
And the expression on her face was so bright it was almost irritating.
"We're going there to train."
Now that I’d gained a new ability, I needed to run through a practical trial before any real combat.
"Aha! Then get in!"
Heo Da-yeong took the wheel, and I settled into the passenger seat.
Inside the car, cutting through the rain, Heo Da-yeong kept chattering without a pause.
"Are you good at swimming, Hunter Choi? I took toddler classes when I was little. Backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle! I’m even confident doing the dog paddle!"
Swimming.
I’ll admit it: I was a complete landlubber.
I could barely remember ever having been in the water.
The beach, the valley streams, swimming pools—my father had never once taken me or my younger sibling to any place where we could play in the water.
It had always been the same reason, as always.
Money.
Even after I became an adult and moved out, nothing had really changed.
I’d spent my life in factories and never once gone to a water park, let alone somewhere nice.
The factory work had been relentless.
Day shifts, night shifts, graveyard shifts—overtime piled on top of overtime, until I worked through weekends with no break at all.
I had hated my father for going on and on about money.
And in the end, I’d become no different from him.
If I’d wanted to, I could have made time anytime I pleased.
What was money, really, worth that much?
No.
Even if money was important, it wasn’t everything in life.
Looking back, it had all been my choice.
My misery.
My happiness.
The fact that I had no memories to hold on to.
None of it had been forced on me by my circumstances.
I had chosen it myself.
"We’re here!"
Heo Da-yeong stopped the car.
"By the way, Hunter Choi, do you have a swimsuit?"
I shook my head.
I’d come in such a hurry that I hadn’t even packed properly.
Heo Da-yeong snapped her fingers and winked.
"No problem! We can just buy one!"
* * *
I stretched out beside the pool and warmed up my body.
As I went through a thorough round of stretching, Heo Da-yeong flailed around next to me.
"Hup! Two! Hup! Two!"
She pumped her short arms and legs with noisy enthusiasm as she shouted the chant.
The swim cap and rash guard actually suited her surprisingly well.
She looked like a rabbit that had gotten soaked through.
"Miss Heo."
"Yes?"
Heo Da-yeong stopped moving.
"I’m the only one who needs to train. Why did you come along?"
"Oh, come on. A swimming pool is better with two people than one!"
She said that and flashed a V sign with her fingers.
The logic was so absurd that I couldn’t even be bothered arguing, so I let it go.
"Hunter Choi, how should I put this? You kind of seem like a lonely wolf."
Heo Da-yeong knitted her brows, pressed both hands to her temples, and mimed my slitted eyes.
"What the hell kind of wolf is that supposed to be out of nowhere?"
"You always try to do everything by yourself. Like I said before, I’ll support you with everything I’ve got, so please, just trust me and leave anything you need to me!"
Then she lifted one hand high.
So that’s what she meant.
What she’d said about two being better than one.
"Oh, right. Thanks for buying a swimsuit for me too. I’ll wear it well."
Heo Da-yeong dipped her head.
"Yeah. Since we’re here, you’d better earn your keep."
"Yes, sir! Understood!"
Heo Da-yeong stared at me for a moment.
"What now? What is it?"
"Hunter Choi, that swimsuit really suits you. You look like a swimmer!"
Unlike the childish-looking Heo Da-yeong, I was wearing a brief swim trunk that left my upper body completely bare.
The crotch is a little tight.
I’d wanted to buy a looser pair of trunks, but the store had been sold out, so I’d had no choice.
Stares rained down on me from every direction.
"Oh my. Who’s that young man?"
"Good heavens. Look at that body."
"My, my. Those thighs are something else. Really something else."
"Kek! You old bat, you’re practically drooling. Close your mouth!"
For some reason, the pool was full of middle-aged women.
Even when I looked in the mirror that morning, I’d been startled myself.
When an Awakener changes, the body changes with it.
Even a little exercise burned off body fat and packed on muscle with ease.
Like natural steroids were being produced in my system.
And the effect only intensified the more mana I handled.
"Wow. Damn."
"Is he some kind of gym rat?"
Now even the men were raking their eyes over me.
This is getting uncomfortable.
I motioned toward Heo Da-yeong.
"Let’s go in."
"Yes, sir!"
We escaped the barrage of stares and dove into the cold water.
"Brr! It’s cold!"
Heo Da-yeong shivered all over.
The water shimmered under the blue lights.
The sharp smell of disinfectant brushed against my nose.
"Ehehe! How long has it been since I’ve been to a pool!"
Heo Da-yeong splashed around and shouted like a child.
It might have been easier just to leave her be, but—
She did say to trust her with anything.
I hauled the flailing Heo Da-yeong up until she was floating at the surface.
"Miss Heo. Get ready."
"Yessir!"
She stopped splashing, stood up straight, and pulled out her phone.
I took a breath.
"Hoo."
Let’s begin.
I dove under and opened my eyes.
A bright blue world spread out before me.
The muted murmur of people reached my ears.
Buoyancy kept trying to lift me upward.
I forced myself not to raise my head above the surface.
Holding my breath and keeping my body submerged wasn’t especially difficult.
Not until the air starts running out.
To ease the tension, I let the strength drain from my body and sank into thought.
Let me say it again.
Awakeners had physical advantages over ordinary people.
Evolution, maybe.
Strength increased, flexibility improved, stamina went up.
Lung capacity, too.
Na Sang-min’s words came back to me.
"If you focus your mind, you can go more than three minutes without breathing in a fight."
He’d said that while explaining the One Heaven Style technique of swinging a sword thousands, even tens of thousands of times in a state of breathless combat.
Not in ordinary life.
In the middle of brutal combat, he could hold his breath for three full minutes.
Just how far did the limits of a human body go?
A French freediver had set a world record by holding his breath underwater for 11 minutes and 35 seconds.
Eleven minutes.
Wasn’t that incredible?
"Kuh!"
All at once, I felt my breath surge up to my throat.
It was getting harder and harder to hold it in.
I felt pressure at the base of my neck.
My face seemed ready to burst.
It felt as though someone were choking me.
This is my limit.
I wanted to shoot straight out of the water right then and there, but I ground my teeth and endured.
Only now did I truly understand the preciousness of air.
Still, I didn’t give up.
On the contrary.
Now!
Blessing of Water has been activated.
A warm current of mana wrapped around my entire body.
It felt a little like Super Kid’s God Aura.
The difference was that God Aura formed a barrier of mana to protect the body.
Blessing of Water was...
"Hoo."
I exhaled a stream of bubbles.
Fresh oxygen flowed into my lungs.
I was still deep under the pool water.
And yet—
I can breathe!
It was a truly astonishing experience.
For oxygen to flow straight into the lungs like this.
Fish can breathe in water thanks to their gills.
They absorb oxygen from the water through the gills and expel the carbon dioxide produced in the body through those same gills.
I had no gills.
Instead, I had—
hero abilities.
"Hoo! Hoo!"
After repeating it a few times, I figured out the principle.
It’s turning the mana I emit from my whole body into oxygen.
Like a diver relying on an oxygen tank to move through the water, mana was filling the role of that tank for me.
Which meant that as long as I kept releasing mana, I could stay underwater forever.
How much time would an ordinary hunter need to gain a power like this?
Unless they were born with a water-type talent, they might have to devote their whole life to it.
No, they might still fail even if they spent their entire life trying.
And yet this incredible ability had been placed in my hands so easily.
As expected, the Purchase talent was the best.
Of course, it wasn’t free.
There was no time to sit around feeling moved.
Even now—right this very second—
Awakener's Balance
: ￦751,014,006
Awakener's Balance
: ￦750,032,157
Awakener's Balance
: ￦748,853,214
...
The money was draining away without end.
Watching it fall by the million in a single instant, “draining” was the only word for it.
It was an astonishing ability, no doubt.
But terribly inefficient.
I focused and roughly estimated the numbers.
The harder it became to breathe, the faster the money was deducted.
Roughly 1 million won per second.
Assuming I fought the Dirty Kraken underwater.
At one minute, that would be 60 million won.
At ten minutes, 600 million.
At that point, most of my Awakener's Balance would be gone.
And if my battle against the Dirty Kraken dragged on?
While I burned through all my money—
I’d die.
No matter how skilled I was with a sword.
No matter how powerful my body had become.
Under the sea, none of it would matter.
That was why this was a fight the Dirty Kraken had the advantage in from the start.
To win while carrying the overwhelming disadvantage of the deep sea...
I had to finish it in one shot.
With the sound of a splash, Heo Da-yeong’s face drifted into view before me.
"Uoooh!!"
She was mouthing something at me.
I couldn’t hear her under the water, but I knew what she meant.
I’d been down too long, so she’d probably come under to check on me.
I pointed upward with my index finger.
Then I surfaced with Heo Da-yeong.
"Hah! Hah! Hah!!!"
I sucked in breaths so harshly my shoulders heaved.
Heo Da-yeong came over and rubbed my back.
"Hunter Choi! Are you okay?"
"...I’m fine."
"I thought you’d passed out underwater."
All at once, I became curious about the record.
"How long?"
I was a little worried she might have neglected her own job because she’d been so busy worrying about me, but that turned out to be unnecessary.
Heo Da-yeong held up her phone.
"I pressed the button exactly when you came up."
She turned the screen toward me.
13:48
More than thirteen minutes.
That number included the time I’d spent underwater with my hero ability active, as well as the time I’d held my breath on my own.
Thirteen minutes.
A combat sports match lasted about three minutes a round.
Wouldn’t this be more than enough?
I bit my lip.
No, it wouldn’t.
The sea was a place where waves roared, currents shifted without warning, and nature revealed its brutal face.
And if violent movement was added to that?
Taking everything into account—
Five minutes.
The golden time in which I could fight with everything I had was only five minutes.
If I wanted to hold my breath even one second longer, I had to repeat this training over and over.
"Miss Heo. Let’s keep going."
"Yes, sir!"
* * *
Before I knew it, a great deal of time had passed.
The once-busy pool had gradually grown quiet.
"Hunter Choi. We’re almost closing."
There wasn’t a single person left in the lane where I was standing.
There was one last thing I needed to check.
"Step aside for a minute."
This time, I planted one foot against the pool wall.
"Time me."
"Huh? You’re going underwater again?"
"I’m going to make it all the way over there and back."
I pointed at the far end of the 100-meter lane.
"But you said you can’t swim, Hunter Choi."
Blessing of Water didn’t just let me breathe underwater.
It was, quite literally, Poseidon’s protection.
The number of ways to apply it beneath the surface was endless.
Let’s go.
I kicked off the wall and surged forward.
Blessing of Water has been activated.
With a spray of water, my body shot forward like a spring.
This wasn’t backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly.
I simply dove and shot straight to the end of the wall in one burst.
Since I could breathe, I didn’t need to lift my head midway through.
To reduce resistance, I brought my hands together and stretched them out in front of me.
Good. Just like this...
I cut through the water like a dolphin.
In an instant, I reached the end.
I spun around and kicked off the opposite wall.
Every motion on the way back to my starting point flowed as smoothly as water itself.
"Hah!"
I lifted my head above the surface.
Those watching me all had their mouths hanging open.
"D-did you see that?"
"What was that guy? A national athlete?"
"...No national athlete could do that."
Heo Da-yeong was staring blankly too, phone clutched tightly in her hand.
"How many seconds?"
"5.35 seconds."
100 meters, and a round trip at that.
In the five-second range.
That worked out to about 144 km/h.
To move that fast underwater, far beyond even Usain Bolt...
I’ve gone beyond the human realm.
Heo Da-yeong stammered,
"Hunter Choi, you just looked like a tuna."
That was an unexpectedly fresh comparison.
In fact, sailfish can move as fast as a car.
I exhaled and pulled off my swim cap.
"I’m hungry. Let’s go eat sushi."