Chapter 180: Loot (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 180: Loot (1)
The next morning, I was waiting for the doctor's final rounds.
After last night's commotion, Cheon Yeo-wool never came back.
She seemed pretty flustered...
Sometimes, it seems like she gets even more flustered when I act confident.
It’s like, unlike Yoon Chae-ha, who's openly clueless, she tries to act all composed.
It's cute, but I feel like I'll have to properly put her in her place one day.
Creeak.
The hospital room door opened, and a doctor in a white coat came in, holding a tablet.
The doctor showed me the data from the detailed examination, explaining my exact physical condition.
“All things considered… your recovery rate is medically inexplicable, Hero Jung Hae-in.”
“I see.”
He turned off the tablet and gave me his final opinion.
“As of today, you are cleared for discharge.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I replied perfunctorily and prepared to get up.
Just then.
Creeak.
The door opened again, and someone came in.
“Brought you some clothes~”
It was Kang A-rin. She was holding a bag with the clothes I'd wear for my discharge.
She gave the doctor a slight nod, then came over and handed me the bag of clothes.
“You can't leave in a hospital gown, can you?”
Kang A-rin added with a smile.
“Your combat suit was torn to shreds.”
I nodded and changed into the clothes she'd brought.
My first time wearing normal clothes in two weeks.
My strength hadn't fully returned, but it still felt like I was finally back to my daily life.
I followed Kang A-rin through the complicated discharge procedures.
With her right by my side, everything went smoothly and quickly.
Classic Kang A-rin.
“Are we heading back to my place now?”
I'd rested in the hospital, but it's not the same as resting at home.
I wanted to go lie down right away.
“No.”
But Kang A-rin's answer dashed my simple hopes.
“We have something else to do today.”
“Ah… we do?”
My expression soured.
At that, Kang A-rin turned and gave me a light hug.
Ssk.
Her soft hair tickled my arm.
“Just hang in there a little longer… okay?”
Kang A-rin soothed me.
Feeling like I was being treated like a child, I let out a dry laugh.
“I'm fine. So, what do we have to do today?”
“Um… do you remember anything after you collapsed?”
My memories after collapsing…
I didn't think so.
I remembered right before I passed out.
Belial pounding on the inside of the barrier.
But after that, it was just darkness. I couldn't think of anything else…
“Hmm… no, nothing.”
“After you collapsed, something… strange appeared where you were.”
“Huh?”
Strange?
Kang A-rin pulled away from me and met my eyes.
“An egg.”
“What egg?”
“A huge egg.”
Seeing my continued look of confusion, Kang A-rin raised her watch and showed me a picture.
Before me stood a massive, glossy black egg.
A perfect, oval-shaped black that seemed to absorb all surrounding light.
“When your barrier that trapped Belial disappeared, this egg was left inside.”
She swiped to the next photo.
“Ugh…”
I let out a short groan.
The second photo showed Belial's corpse.
Belial looked like he'd been drained of all his energy; he was emaciated like a mummy, nothing but gaunt limbs.
His skin was shriveled like leather, clinging to his bones, and his eyes were hollowed out.
And right next to him stood the large, glossy black egg, looking as if it had eaten very well.
“What… is this?”
I tilted my head, staring at the photo.
Wait a minute.
Could it be?
I started rapidly searching through the setting book in my memory.
Cheon Yeo-wool, Yu Hana, Kang A-rin. Each of them has a guardian spirit that symbolizes their Fragment.
In Cheon Yeo-wool's case, it's the Divine Bird, Gani.
That beautiful, white-feathered bird's defining characteristic is that it feeds on demonic energy as its main diet.
In Yu Hana's case, it's probably Bangeul.
Yu Hana usually names things like that in the original story…
I don't know if she did this time, though.
In any case, that squirrel also grows by eating demonic energy.
Finally, Kang A-rin has Ari.
A black fox.
The common thread between all three is that they are the guardian spirits of the Fragments and…
…they are masters at absorbing demonic energy.
They feed on that evil energy as if it were their staple food.
I looked at the photo again.
Belial's corpse, desiccated like a mummy, all its life force sucked away.
And right beside it, the huge, glossy black egg.
No way…
‘Is this my guardian spirit?’
The player's guardian spirit in the original story wasn't predetermined.
I personally designed it so that its form and abilities would be determined by the direction in which the second Expanded Authority was awakened.
It could be a holy unicorn.
A powerful dragon.
Or just an imugi.
Or there might not be a guardian spirit at all.
So I hadn't even been thinking about it…
But it looked like I had gotten a guardian spirit of my own.
And one that was born after devouring an entire Apostle, no less.
“Where is it now?”
“We retrieved it and have it safely stored at the guild.”
Before Kang A-rin could even finish her answer, I was already moving.
“Let's go. Quickly.”
We left the hospital.
We finished the remaining procedures at lightning speed.
The moment we got into Kang A-rin's car, it sped toward the Maengju Guild's headquarters.
We stopped at the entrance to the Maengju building.
We headed for the guild's research lab, located deep in the building's basement.
Vweee…
After passing through several layers of security, an isolation room came into view.
A few researchers in white coats greeted us, bowing politely.
And behind them, in the center of the room beyond a thick pane of reinforced glass, was ‘it’.
A giant black egg, as tall as I was.
Its surface was smooth and glossy like obsidian.
As if possessed, I walked toward the glass.
“I'm going in.”
Kang A-rin must have noticed how completely captivated I was by the egg, because she ordered a nearby researcher to open the door.
Pssssssht.
With the hiss of compressed air, the isolation room door opened.
The researchers all took the elevator and left.
I stepped inside without hesitation.
And, as if in a trance, I approached the egg.
It was even bigger up close.
“……”
I cautiously reached out and touched its surface.
“…!”
It was warm.
And I could feel it faintly… resonating with the Fragment's mana inside me.
Thump, thump.
It was alive.
I could feel a slow… heavy pulse.
The beat traveled from my palm through my body.
‘A guardian spirit.’
It was unmistakably a guardian spirit.
But the problem was…
‘How do I wake it up?’
I began to ponder, gently stroking the egg's surface.
The process of obtaining a guardian spirit varies greatly.
Sometimes they appear in the form of an egg like this, and other times they seek out their master from the start in their animal form.
And not all eggs were the same.
Some hatched naturally over time.
Some hatched by feeding on their master's mana.
And some eggs had to be broken open with physical force.
I glanced at the spear hanging on the wall outside the lab.
That… on this egg?
That would be insane.
In the end, there was only one thing I could try right now.
I placed my hand on the egg.
Then, I slowly roused the sleeping Fragment's mana within me, drawing it out like a thread and channeling it into the egg.
Vwoooom…
As my mana reached it, I felt the egg's pulse quicken slightly.
The creature inside greedily drank my power, as if delighted.
‘This is it.’
I smiled and poured in more mana, just as it wanted.
Gulp, gulp.
This little guy sure eats well.
Is this what a parent feels like, feeding their child?
I continued to pour the Fragment's mana into it, as much as it wanted, until it was satisfied.
Just as I started to feel a little dizzy and light-headed…
The suction pulling at my mana abruptly stopped.
I nodded and removed my hand.
Is it about to hatch now?
I waited for the moment with a smile.
And just as I expected.
Shwoooooo…!
A jet-black aura of darkness began to pour from the egg's surface like smoke.
I was sure it was hatching.
However.
Buuurp.
The dark aura enveloping the egg's surface was sucked back inside, and the shell transformed into an ashen gray that looked much harder than before.
Then, with a mysterious burp that sounded utterly satisfied, all light and energy vanished.
“……?”
I stared blankly at the lump of rock before me.
“Hello?”
Knock, knock.
I knocked on the egg.
No response.
“……”
Ah, so this is how it is.
I get it now.
There's usually only one explanation for this.
Meaning, it was the last scenario, the one I wanted to avoid the most.
“Catastrophe.”
I reached out and summoned Catastrophe from my subspace.
Vwooooom…
This was the last resort.
“Hey.”
The kind of guardian spirit that only comes out when its master personally smashes the shell.
“Come out.”
KRRRRA-CRACK!!
Dragging my exhausted body, I brought Catastrophe down hard on the egg's surface.