Living Stems
After the first battle, they clashed often with the beasts that came charging in droves. Guard Park Hana grew steadily more accustomed to combat. Yet the fiercer the fighting became, the harder it was for her to hold the line.
- !
While blocking a beast’s savage assault, Park Hana took a penetrating wound from one of its spines. Her thigh was punched clean through. The moment her stance collapsed, a pincer clamped down on both her shield and her body in a single crushing grip. This time the wound ran deep.
“Aaaagh!”
Her scream tore free. The sight of blood pouring from the torn flesh short-circuited her mind on the spot. She flopped onto the ground and thrashed. Kang-jun was already there, blasting the beast’s head clean off. …And just like that, the fight was over.
Hye-mi immediately poured healing into Park Hana’s body. The wounds visible through the ripped clothing closed at a visible rate. Even so, Park Hana sobbed from the sheer shock. The moment had been truly horrific. Her forearm had been gouged deep enough that bone had peeked through. The pain had been brutal as well…
“Park Hana! Park Hanaaa!”
Crack. Kang-jun slapped the crying woman’s cheek without mercy. The sobs cut off at once—only to swell again as if they would burst free any second. He seized her by the collar and hauled her upright with rough force.
“Snap out of it! You want everyone dead? If you go down, we all die! You hear me?! We all fucking die, you bitch! Got it?! If you understand, answer me!”
Crack. Another slap landed across her cheek. “Y-yes, y-yehk. Uhk.” Park Hana’s jaw crumpled again. Kang-jun released her collar with a shove. Ugh. She toppled back onto the floor. Hye-mi started forward with a worried “Unnie—,” but Kang-jun stopped her cold.
“Don’t touch her! Get up on your own. Get up right now! Are you getting up or not?!”
Park Hana rose while still sniffling. Kang-jun had no choice but to be rough. Compared to the rest of the team, her level was simply lower. To close that gap quickly, he needed to handle her hard. There was no time to coddle her and pat her on the rear while she grew. They still had higher-level beasts waiting for them right now.
Kang-jun jabbed a finger roughly into her chest as he barked,
“You’re the guard! Even if your arms and legs get cut off—grit your teeth and hold! Hey! If you fall, the people behind you all die! Understood?!”
“Y-yes, yes, ugh, eub, ugh.”
Kang-jun gave her one last glare and spun away. She sniffled and pressed her palm hard against the spot he had poked.
“…Everyone rest.”
Hye-mi watched his retreating back, then approached Park Hana with a soft “Unnie.” Hana clenched her teeth and fought desperately not to cry. Even Velita, who was usually unflappable, thought Kang-jun might have pushed a little too hard this time.
“Little sister, don’t take it too hard. Everyone’s like that at first.”
“I-I’m fine.”
Sniff. Hana swallowed her runny nose, eyes still red from crying, and forced the words out. The effort to smile was almost heroic. Everyone understood both Kang-jun’s and Hana’s feelings at the same time.
Jang Hwa-young, sitting beside Kang-jun, watched Hana stubbornly holding herself together and offered a single remark.
“…She’s got guts, at least.”
“If she didn’t, I wouldn’t have made her the guard.”
“You said this was her first time? Then ease up a little and coax her. You’re making her cry too much.”
Kang-jun glanced sideways at Jang Hwa-young. The look said, You’re the one who would’ve been even rougher than me, and now you’re saying this?
“What?”
“…Nothing.”
He rested a moment longer, then stood. Time to move. Everyone groaned as they rose and slung their packs over their shoulders. Kang-jun checked the time. It was already past three in the afternoon.
“Move out.”
Kang-jun took the lead. After five or six fights, the number of beasts in the area had dropped noticeably. Of course the team members were still dragging their feet from exhaustion. Even Hye-mi, the healer, was running low on both stamina and mana.
Just one more fight, then we call it.
They engaged the beasts again. This time there were four. Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young quickly carved two of them apart.
The remaining pair went one each to Ogre-nam and Park Hana. This time Hana held out with real viciousness. The thorough scolding earlier had clearly taken effect.
Velita and Zishu performed better than expected. Velita in particular fought well enough that Kang-jun looked at her with new eyes. The damnable prejudice from watching her flee for her life back in the labyrinth had been corrected, at least a little.
“Not bad.”
“Hah! I’m Cool Girl Velita!”
She smacked her tied-up hair with the back of her hand and deliberately lifted her chin for all to see.
Kang-jun led the briefly resting team to a suitable spot—one free of nearby beasts.
“We camp here tonight.”
Huuuaah. Everyone exhaled heavy sighs as they dropped their packs like dead weight. They set a lamp in the center and pitched tents in a circle around it. Then they sat on the mats and filled their empty stomachs. This expedition had been considerably harder than usual.
The meal ended quickly. They ate only the fixed rations. Naturally, no one felt full.
Kang-jun quietly called the resting Park Hana over and led her behind a nearby pillar. Traces of the earlier crying still lingered faintly on her bare face.
“You did well today, Hana.”
“No, I only held everyone back. I’m sorry.”
“It was your first time. Can’t be helped.”
“I should have steeled my heart more… I’m sorry.”
Park Hana kept bowing her head, begging forgiveness. Kang-jun patted her shoulder in encouragement.
When training, swinging only the whip never did any good. You had to toss a carrot at the right moment so they would think, Ah, he’s actually a good person, and work even harder.
“You went through a lot today, didn’t you? I believe in you, Hana. …Right? Unnie.”
The soft “unnie” made Park Hana’s face crumple again, as if all the pent-up sorrow might explode.
“Hey, don’t cry. If you cry I’ll scold you again.”
“I-I’m not crying. Hic. I won’t cry…”
“Good. Hang in there tomorrow too.”
Kang-jun gave her head one firm ruffle and walked back. Park Hana swallowed her runny nose with a sniff and scrubbed at her eyes with her palm.
Kang-jun really is a good little brother. I was the bad one. Bad unnie. …Ah, my pussy’s getting itchy.
Kind Hana returned to her place. Hye-mi asked worriedly if she was all right. Of course she was, Hana said, showing her usual gentle smile as she patted her junior’s shoulder.
Velita rolled a candy around in her mouth and stared at the returning Kang-jun. What an incredible man.
She had already known he was strong. She had seen it up close, and the rumors had been plentiful.
But after going through multiple battles side by side, she could only be more astonished. His strength was far beyond anything she had known. Jang Hwa-young in particular made an excellent comparison right beside him. Their performances were so close it was nearly impossible to declare a winner.
I have to ask.
Velita truly began to wonder whether he might succeed Jang Hwa-young as an S-class Hero. The rumors she heard whenever she was bored had not been exaggerated. If anything, they had understated him. He was a genuine… monstrous genius.
The world really is unfair. How can one person get everything dumped on him like that?
Kang-jun lacked nothing. At least not in Velita’s eyes. He was perfect—too perfect. And the slightly rough edges of his personality only made him more appealing. If his personality had been kind and pure on top of everything else, she probably wouldn’t have become this obsessed. It would have been too far beyond her station.
If I show up at the Four Princesses gathering with Kang-jun on my arm, they’ll all drool with envy for sure.
That was the real core of it. Even now she was dying to brag about him to someone. Just imagining those envious stares made her chest tingle. The only person who could make that fantasy overwhelmingly real was Kang-jun.
7:11 p.m.
The team members set the night-watch order and crawled into their tents. Kang-jun flopped onto his mat with an old-man groan of “Ugh.”
You fucking bastards, for 500 I’d do it right now.
So Kang-jun, just in case, threw out a little bait.
Of course it wouldn’t work. …You bastards.
Kang-jun closed the chat window and shut his eyes. Sleep crashed over him.
During the night there was one beast attack. Kang-jun stepped in and handled it swiftly. He couldn’t risk the half-asleep team members making a mistake.
Because of that sudden mid-night wake-up, the team slept poorly. They set out early the next dawn, yawning nonstop without a break.
Kang-jun checked the electronic map. The exploration was progressing quite quickly. At this rate, they would be able to open the area to civilian teams in three or four days. Of course, whether any teams would actually want to visit a place full of arthropod-types that barely paid was another question…
The deeper they pushed into the labyrinth, the more numerous the beasts became. It was not even noon yet, and they had already fought four times. Exhaustion was plain on every face.
From that point on, Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young moved a little busier, making sure the rest of the team only had to face the bare minimum of beasts.
Still, the hardship brought solid level-ups. Watching their stats grow rapidly gave everyone fresh strength.
Around then Hye-mi also completed every condition for Awakening. Of course she planned to do the actual Awakening after they got outside. No matter how urgent, doing it inside would be pure insanity.
Kang-jun leveled up steadily as well. But now that the beasts were close to his own level, the pace had clearly slowed compared to before.
Hoping for a decent trait this time…
Still, a second Awakening guaranteed at least a B-class trait or higher, so he held onto a thread of expectation. Even an A would count as success.
Carrying that hope, Kang-jun advanced like a hyena sniffing for prey. …And then, something alien caught his eye.
A stem. No—he had been seeing stems the whole time. But this one was different: a fresh, living stem that had not withered and died.
“Ah.”
Hye-mi, the first to spot it, flinched a little. The way some fluid-like substance seemed to slosh inside it was thoroughly disgusting. Yet here, unlike before, no waves of heat were pouring out. …Apparently that heat had been a byproduct of the digestion process.
Kang-jun glanced sideways at Jang Hwa-young as she stepped up beside him. Their eyes met for a brief moment.
“Could there be another queen-type beast?”
“…Possible.”
“We don’t have any buffs… We won’t be able to hold out with just us.”
“Then let’s contact another team. …Anyone nearby?”
Kang-jun moved to the comms gear and checked the linked electronic map. The teams that could potentially connect with them were…
“Team 7 is nearby.”
“Who are they?”
“Uh… one moment. They’re from our branch.”
After checking the roster, Kang-jun nodded at the list of names. Conveniently, it was a 45th Branch hero team. The leader was the same special-ops member from back then—A-class Guard Carlos.
Click. Kang-jun tuned the frequency and lifted the handset.
“Ah, this is Team 6. Team 7, respond. This is Team 6, Team 7 respond.”
A reply came almost immediately.
- This is Team 7. What’s the situation.
“We’ve discovered living stems. Requesting to link up. Over.”
A short silence followed. Probably checking the roster on their end as well.
- Understood. We’ll link up. Over.
The call ended there. Team 7’s map data uploaded rapidly. With the short distance, transmission was fast.
Kang-jun’s team also moved toward their position. There were a few beasts in the way, but Kang-jun and Jang Hwa-young cleared them quickly. Meeting Team 7 came first.
12:22 p.m. Just past noon, the two teams finally met.
Team 7’s leader, A-class Carlos, greeted them with an easy grin.
“Senior! Kang-jun!”
Kang-jun returned a brief greeting and immediately launched into the situation report.
“We found living stems. We requested the link-up because we were worried it might turn out like last time.”
“Then doing it all together is way safer.”
Jang Hwa-young agreed to the link-up but insisted they still move separately for now.
“Until we get near the site, let’s act independently. Tangled command chains could get dangerous.”
“Understood, Senior.”
And so Team 6 and Team 7 linked up, each maintaining their own formation as they walked the same path.