Chapter 43
Lee Tae-cheon and Baek Do-hee were speaking with grave expressions.
It was a conversation in the Guild Master’s office, but the subject had nothing to do with the guild.
What they were talking about was his friend and her older brother, Baek Do-woon.
Lee Tae-cheon clicked the mouse.
An image rose up from the holographic projector on the table.
It was Baek Do-woon emerging from the forest.
His clothes were soaked through with blood, making him look badly wounded, but on closer inspection there wasn’t a single wound on him.
“This was taken in Hwayeomsan Dungeon.”
“As I thought. So it really was Orabeoni who turned the dungeon into a forest.”
“Yeah. I checked every CCTV clip I could find, and only Do-woon shows up.”
“And the footage?”
“I took all of it. The originals are deleted.”
Lee Tae-cheon lifted a USB stick with a smug look on his face.
The USB, no bigger than a fingernail, was crushed flat between his thumb and forefinger a moment later.
The powder that had been the USB fell into the trash can.
“No one else will be able to check it.”
“Good work.”
She seemed a little relieved and let out a long breath.
By “no one else,” Lee Tae-cheon didn’t mean other guilds.
He meant the government and the Hunter Association.
For the first time in history, a dungeon had been transformed into a forest.
The government and the Association would spare no effort trying to discover the reason and the cause.
It would become a powerful weapon in any country whose territory was too vast to properly manage all its Gates.
There were far too many lands in the world that had become dungeons and could no longer be used for their original purpose.
“The World Tree that was on the smartphone...”
“Hm?”
“That must be its ability, right?”
“Probably. I don’t know how it could do something like that, though.”
Lee Tae-cheon folded his arms and studied the holographic footage.
In the video, Baek Do-woon left Jae-i’s Blacksmith, got into a car, and departed a few minutes later.
Jae-i’s Blacksmith, Jae-i’s Blacksmith....
Watching the footage, he suddenly blurted out, “Before Do-woon went to Hwayeomsan Dungeon, he left from Jae-i’s Blacksmith. Are they dating or something?”
“...What?”
“Huh?”
At his offhand remark, Baek Do-hee fixed him with a stare.
Her wide-open eyes were beautiful, like gems set in white snow, but he felt no beauty in them, only fear.
The arms he had crossed over his chest began to tremble.
It was a fear etched into his body and soul over the course of his life.
“Uh, Do-hee?”
“Is it really so important who Do-woon Orabeoni is dating right now? In a situation where the number of people targeting him could multiply overnight?”
“No, listen, think about it. This is important too. If Do-woon is dating Yu Jae-i, then he’s finally escaping the life of a forever-single man.”
Bang!
Baek Do-hee slammed her fist down on the table.
Lee Tae-cheon shut his mouth with a snap before he could say another word.
“Let’s talk about something important. Something important.”
“Uh, yeah. Right. Let’s do that.”
After that, silence stretched for about five seconds.
Baek Do-hee was the first to speak.
She let out a deep sigh, apologized, and then went on.
“For now, let’s keep this between us.”
“Of course. If the government or the Association finds out Do-woon did it, they’ll obviously try to use him.”
“Ha.... Why on earth was Orabeoni given such an absurd ability?”
“Who knows? I really don’t.”
“......”
“Still, there’s one thing I do know.”
Lee Tae-cheon clenched his right fist and said, “We have to protect Do-woon...”
Unlike two years ago.
He trailed off, but she could infer what he had meant to say.
Because when he had felt powerless, she had stood beside him and shared his despair and frustration.
“Orabeoni’s right.”
Baek Do-hee looked at the video of Baek Do-woon climbing into the car, drenched in blood.
Then, as if she had made up her mind about something, she said with a resolute expression, “Orabeoni, have Kim Sang-cheol and Lee Jae-wook come up.”
“Got something for them to do?”
“Yes. A tracking device alone isn’t enough to put my mind at ease.”
“......”
So they really did put one on him.
Lee Tae-cheon muttered to himself, then smiled faintly.
Picking up the telephone on the table, he thought, Do-woon, just wait a little longer. I’ll figure out the tracker and teach you how to spot it.
For things like this, Tae-cheon would always side with Baek Do-woon.
***
While I was driving, gooseflesh suddenly rippled over my skin.
I looked around, but all I saw was an utterly ordinary street scene.
Cars waiting at the light, and others pulling away when the signal changed.
I was in the group pulling away when the light changed.
Checking the scenery against the navigation screen, I confirmed my destination.
“Looks like it’s around here.”
The “potion maker” Yu Jae-i had recommended lived in Gasan Digital Complex.
She’d added that she was someone who wouldn’t go around gossiping elsewhere even if I showed her the World Tree leaves, and the reason she could trust her was kind of funny.
She said it was because she was the type with such a narrow circle of acquaintances that she didn’t even have a place to go gossip in the first place.
As if the internet didn’t exist in this wide world.
I’d also brought the glass bottle containing the purple liquid I’d found in the Crowd hideout.
I wanted to show her the World Tree leaves and have her identify what was inside it as well.
“It’s definitely a buff potion, but I don’t know exactly what effect it has. It’s beyond my appraisal skill.”
That had been Yu Jae-i’s conclusion when she examined the liquid with her appraisal skill.
Honestly, I’d already expected it to be a buff potion.
It was similar to what Ji Sang-wook had been drinking in the Tower of Trials.
Only, the liquid in the bottle from the box was a deeper purple.
Yu Jae-i said she was on her way to see an expert, so I should bring it along and get an exact appraisal.
After saying she’d tell Woo Yeon-hoo the result, I brought it with me.
Destination reached. Ending route guidance.
“...This is it?”
The place I’d arrived at was a shabby, rundown two-story building right at the edge of the industrial complex.
It was only two stories tall, but there was a parking lot next to it, so I pulled in there.
On the building was a square sign that read,
[Crystal Workshop, specializing in potion crafting and item appraisal!]
The sign looked completely worn out, as if it hadn’t been maintained once since it was first made.
If not for Yu Jae-i’s recommendation, this was the kind of place I never would have found.
The Crystal in the sign’s name was the name of the person Yu Jae-i had introduced.
Hong Su-jeong, was it?
I rang the doorbell attached to the rusted green iron door and waited a few seconds.
“Hm. No way she’s not here.”
Yu Jae-i had told me she’d contact me when I left the blacksmith shop.
If she’d stepped out, she definitely would’ve called.
I rang the bell again and waited, but there was still no response.
With no other choice, I pressed the doorbell and pounded on the iron door at the same time.
“I’m here by Yu Jae-i’s recommendation! Is anyone there?”
“...O!”
Only then did a tiny voice come from inside the iron door.
All I caught was the “O,” but she’d probably meant, “I’m coming out.”
Then I heard a crash.
It sounded like she’d knocked something over in a hurry.
Rustling noises grew louder and louder from behind the door.
When the sound finally drew very close, the iron door creaked open.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the bell! Oh, hello!”
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
A young woman wearing large round glasses stepped out and greeted me brightly.
She was Hong Su-jeong, the owner of Crystal Workshop.
Her lenses were so thick that it was hard to make out her eyes at all.
It seemed she was looking at my right hand.
“Wow, you really are playing the game?”
She said that, clearly having heard about me from Yu Jae-i.
She laughed awkwardly and pulled her right hand slightly back.
Why say something pointless like that and make people self-conscious?
“Ah, this won’t do. Come in!”
With that, Hong Su-jeong went ahead into the building.
Once I followed her inside, I understood why she’d been making all that noise coming out.
It also explained why she hadn’t heard the doorbell.
The inside of the building was packed with books of every kind and all sorts of tools needed for potion-making.
It didn’t look like a potion workshop at all. It felt more like a laboratory.
“I was so surprised when Jae-i contacted me.”
“Surprised?”
“I never thought she’d introduce me to a person. And to say it was a man? I couldn’t believe it.”
“Oh, really? So you’re friends?”
I nearly dropped a book while walking down the passage stacked high on both sides with books.
Damn, clean this place up and live like a human being.
“Yeah. We were classmates in high school. What about you?”
“Me?”
“What are you to Jae-i? Her boyfriend?”
“No. Just a blacksmith and a customer.”
“Oh, really?”
Hong Su-jeong squinted at me with the corners of her mouth lifted.
Actually, with her head turned my way, it only looked like she was squinting.
Because of her glasses, I couldn’t tell for sure whether she was looking at me or not.
Still, from the way her mouth was curved up, I could tell she was amused.
Well, if a friend introduced a man, I could understand why she’d react like that.
Even if it wasn’t that, if Tae-cheon brought a woman over and introduced her, I’d be all wide-eyed and asking who she was too.
Passing through the book-lined corridor, I came to a place that looked like the workroom.
“Uh, hmm.”
Hong Su-jeong circled once, looking for something.
She was probably trying to find a place for me to sit.
In the workroom, there was only a potion-making table and one oddly shaped chair.
So she really did intend to receive guests, huh?
“I’ll just use this pile as a chair.”
I pointed at the stack of books piled high, and Hong Su-jeong scratched her neck awkwardly.
“Uh, are you sure that’s okay? If you want, you can sit in the chair.”
“No, I’m fine. Books make excellent ramen stands. Ah, no. They’re fine as substitute chairs too.”
Making a throwaway joke, I plopped myself down on the pile of books.
Then I took the glass bottle filled with purple liquid out of my magic pouch and handed it over.
“Violet Violence?”
“You know it?”
Oh, she really was a pro. She recognized it at a glance.
Hong Su-jeong shook the bottle, then closed her eyes and held it up near her ear.
She seemed to be listening to the liquid sloshing around inside.
“Yes. It’s a new buff potion that’s been circulating in small quantities on the market lately. It’s a lot cheaper than other potions, so it’s very popular. The problem is...”
“The problem is?”
“It hasn’t passed any Ministry of Food and Drug Safety inspection.”
“So it’s an illegal potion?”
“Yes. No one knows what it was made from, or what side effects it has. It’s a completely unidentified potion.”
Well, it had belonged to the Crowd.
Of course it hadn’t passed any inspection.
“How on earth did you get this? I couldn’t find it no matter how hard I looked!”
I just shrugged and didn’t answer.
I couldn’t exactly say I’d stolen it from a Grade A terrorist organization called Crowd.
“I see. You don’t want to tell me. What matters is that I have it in my hands. So your purpose is to have this investigated, right?”
“Yes.”
“If you want a thorough examination, the results will take about a week to two weeks.”
“That long?”
“That long? That’s because it’s me. If you went somewhere else, it wouldn’t just take two weeks. It’d probably take more than a month.”
Hong Su-jeong spoke with complete confidence.
As a layman, I had no way to appreciate how impressive that was.
So I just said, “Wow, that’s amazing.”
She pouted a little, probably because my praise had a touch of deadness to it.
“...I’ll contact you through Jae-i with the results.”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
“By the way, what was it you said would surprise me?”
She asked as she set Violet Violence down on the worktable.
It seemed she must have heard about the World Tree leaves from Yu Jae-i.
I’d probably said she’d be surprised by what I brought.
I took the World Tree leaves out of my magic pouch and set them on the table.
“A leaf? It’s big, but... this is, how should I put this...!”
Muttering at the leaf, Hong Su-jeong suddenly sprang to her feet.
Then she shoved her face into it.
She buried her nose in it and sniffed hard, even sticking out her tongue to lick it.
“No way! This is a World Tree leaf!”
Hmm. That was a rather unusual method of appraisal.
“A World Tree leaf... How on earth did you get something like this? No, wait. That’s not the important part. The important part is that this is right in front of me now, and—hyaaah.... Just smell this. This is insane, insane!”
She muttered feverishly while inspecting the World Tree leaf.
Watching her endless stream of muttering, I decided to wait until she calmed down.
If I tried to stop her half-heartedly, she looked like she might bite.
Right now, she looked exactly like a dog stuffing itself greedily with food.
How many minutes passed?
At last, she became somewhat composed and asked me, “What do you want to do with it?”
Of course, even now she still had her cheek pressed against the leaf.
“...I was thinking of making a potion or cosmetics.”
“Hm. Healing potions would be better, I think.”
“Don’t cosmetics sell for more?”
“They do, but things are different these days.”
“How so?”
“There haven’t been any high-grade potions good enough for A-class Hunters coming out lately. If we make healing potions with this, we could make a lot of money.”
“Oh, really? Then let’s make healing potions.”
“Good thinking! That’s an excellent idea!”
Then Hong Su-jeong hugged the World Tree leaf tightly.
With her face buried in it, she clung to it and stared at me intently.
“......”
“......”
Huh?
I knew that look from somewhere.
Ah, right. It was the same look I’d seen at the blacksmith shop when Yu Jae-i had been throwing me out....
Hah. Birds of a feather, I guess. They really are alike in the weirdest ways.
“I’m going to head out. Call me when it’s finished.”
“Yes! It won’t take long!”
With a sigh, I stepped right out of the workshop.
When I opened the workshop’s rusted iron door, a familiar face was waiting for me.
“Oh? You came out fast.”
Messy hair.
A dark leather jacket.
Seo Ji-hyeok of the Balance Guild.