He must have known for a while that I was no ordinary healer. But upon seeing an 8-star Monster killed with just a few drops of blood, Iron Arm’s face was one of utter shock.
“Hunter Hae-seon…”
In truth, I was quite grateful to Iron Arm. There must have been a million things he wanted to ask all this time, but he never once bothered me with them. About my identity.
But it seemed this time, he just couldn’t hold it in. His rugged lips twitched incessantly, a rather comical sight.
“As you can see, I am far from an ordinary healer. I have another special ability within me. For now, that’s all I can say.”
“Yes… I understand.”
If I could, I would have told him many things, but it was still too soon. Mainly because I myself didn't know much about being a Poison-type Hunter. Besides, Poison-type Hunters were branded as ‘traitors’ among Hunters.
My answer was the most sincere I could be, and Iron Arm, sensing this, didn't press any further.
“This is news worthy of the papers. To think a healer, even an S-ranker, took down an 8-star boss Monster alone… I feel like no one would believe it even if we told the truth.”
No one would believe it if we told them… An idea suddenly sparked in my mind.
“That’s a good idea.”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s just report it as a 2-star, more or less. The difficulty of this dungeon.”
“That… We can’t do that.”
Iron Arm jumped up, then clutched his chest with a groan. His reactions were great, but he shouldn’t be moving his body like that yet.
“Ugh… Didn’t we clear this dungeon at the risk of our lives? I cannot let your contribution, Hae-seon, be forgotten like this.”
“For what purpose?”
“…?”
“We’ve already gotten everything we wanted. If there’s a problem with the permit, we just have to call the Association, and we can even find dungeons like this before the Association does. If you’re perhaps trying to raise the prestige of the Cleanup Clan…”
“No… it’s not that.”
Iron Arm shook his head with a firm tone. I thought so. His reason for acting as the Cleanup Clan in the first place was to find the Gold Eternal Flower.
To save his family’s lives. He wasn’t the type of person to brag about things differently from the truth for the sake of his Clan’s or his own reputation now.
“It’s just that I… hoped the world would recognize your abilities, Hunter Hae-seon…”
“It’s a hassle. Things like that.”
I gave Iron Arm a slight smile and then shouted down to Bi-soo below.
“Let’s go back.”
‘Ppori. Can you hear me?’ -Kkuwang!
‘Stay attached just like that.’ -Kku.
As we headed for the dungeon entrance, the three of us walked without much conversation. We were all fundamentally exhausted, each lost in our own thoughts. Iron Arm was likely thinking of his wife, and Bi-soo was probably calculating her remaining debt.
I was trying to deduce the nature of the unknown energy I had just experienced. It certainly wasn’t my energy, nor was it Iron Arm’s. A special ability sent by a third party. It was a sensation I had never experienced before.
‘V1. Can you check the data?’
‘Overseas? You mean this kind of Ether doesn’t exist in the country?’
‘Wow…’
I didn’t show it, but I couldn’t help but be amazed. Was this not an ultra-rare ability, with no similar cases to be found in Korea? Whoever it was, it was an enviable ability.
‘That makes sense.’
A Buff.
It certainly felt that way. My depleted Ether boiled up as if it had never been gone, and even my fading ‘will’ felt uplifted. If not for that ‘Buff’ at that critical moment, we wouldn't have made it out of the dungeon alive.
Did someone from overseas cast a Buff on us? Why, for what reason? One thought led to another, but even with the data V1 possessed, I couldn’t find a clear answer.
‘Does Exa not have a self-repair function?’
Tsk.
What a shame. I couldn’t just inject blood into its mouth every time I met a Monster. I needed to find a way.
‘And…’
There was actually one thing that bothered me more than the ‘Buff’. The old hag from the black market, who stared at me strangely despite not being able to see. The old hag had clearly said this.
[Quite a few have found the Gold Eternal Flower, but none have returned unscathed. You will surely pay the price.]
The old hag did not like me very much. But she wasn’t the type to curse someone with made-up words. Anyone capable of finding the Gold Eternal Flower would have to be a top-level Hunter or Guild.
After all, it wasn’t a Rare herbs that grew in some trivial dungeon. They found it, but none returned unscathed? Of course, failing to defeat the boss Monster would be a disaster, but the old hag’s nuance felt different.
[There is an unexpected variable in the Gold Eternal Flower.]
That was the conclusion I reached, which was why I had given Ppori special instructions.
“Everyone worked hard. Let’s go have a celebratory dinner once we’re out of the dungeon!”
“Haha. That’s a great idea, Bi-soo. But I’m in a hurry today.”
You don’t know when you don’t have it, but now that he had secured the Gold Eternal Flower, Iron Arm looked anxious. And why wouldn’t he be? He could finally heal his wife, who had been suffering from mental corruption for years.
It would be strange if his heart wasn't racing.
“Aww. No fun.”
Bi-soo spat out her words with a sour face. And I was watching her closely.
‘She’s always been a brat, but…’
She wasn’t grumbling playfully; she was genuinely annoyed. She wasn’t unaware of Iron Arm’s situation, yet she made such a rotten face just because he postponed a dinner?
‘Something’s off.’
Suspicion breeds suspicion. It also felt strange that the normally talkative chatterbox had been walking quietly for a while. With Iron Arm’s awkward laugh, we exited the dungeon, and soon, the dungeon began to collapse.
“As you said, I will report to the Association that it was about a 2-star level. Not that they’d care much about a dungeon that’s already closed.”
“Yes. Please do that.”
“Now that we’re outside, it’s really sinking in. To think we cleared that hellish dungeon… You’re truly amazing.”
Iron Arm, who was looking at me with eyes full of faith, suddenly blinked his thick eyelids.
“By the way, why are you holding that?”
“Ah, this?”
As Iron Arm said, I was holding ‘something’ in my hand.
“It seems my deduction was correct.”
“Deduction… you say?”
“Clan Leader. Please don’t be too upset about what happens next.”
Doesn’t that sound like a line a villain would use when revealing their evil plan? Iron Arm looked at me and Bi-soo alternately with a tense expression. No, to be precise, he tried to look.
Because Bi-soo had vanished from where she should have been.
“Hunter Hae-seon. Bi-soo…!!”
She disappeared.
To be precise, she bolted. With the Gold Eternal Flower in her arms. Iron Arm’s face turned paler than when he had been poisoned by my toxin.
To think she would run away with the Gold Eternal Flower he had worked so hard to obtain.
“I’ll explain later. Let’s clean this up first.”
“Ye… Yes?”
“Ppori.”
I gave Ppori a signal, and soon, a woman’s faint scream was heard from nearby.
“Kyaak!!” -Kkuwang!!
As expected, she couldn’t get far. Mainly because the minerals in her bag were too heavy. Considering the value of the Gold Eternal Flower, those were ‘mere minerals,’ but she was in no state to make rational judgments.
Because ‘something’ had completely paralyzed her thoughts.
“You bastard…!!”
Bi-soo glared at me with a venomous face. Wow, a venomous snake itself.
“You’ll be thanking me when you come to your senses.”
Bi-soo’s face was so ravaged it was hard to believe she was the person we knew. Her facial nerves were taut, making her look like a monster, and her pupils were completely black. And that expression, steeped in greed.
I had seen a similar expression a few times before. On the junkies who wandered the black market like zombies, addicted to drugs. Bi-soo was now clearly addicted to something.
‘Extremes connect, they said…’
It was a phrase Kiril had repeated countless times in a short period. Combining that phrase with the old hag’s warning, I was able to form the following inference. The Gold Eternal Flower possessed something that corroded a person’s mind, just as it had outstanding healing abilities.
What if it incited greed, like the poison chips? That would explain the stories of people who found the Gold Eternal Flower but never returned unscathed. Like ‘my precious’ from the movies, they become incapable of even thinking about handing it over to someone else.
The object Iron Arm asked why I was holding. It was the blade of ‘White Dream’ that had been embedded in the dead Giant Treasure. I was glad I had kept it, just in case.
With this blade, I was able to easily subdue the rampaging, beast-like Bi-soo.
“Kyaaaaaak!!”
It sounded like the cry of a wildcat. Bi-soo raised both hands and charged at me. She had no combat ability to begin with.
Normally, no matter how cornered she was, she wouldn’t charge in like this. It seemed greed was preventing her from thinking straight.
Thud.
Without hesitation, I plunged the blade of White Dream into the space between her eyebrows. It was such a merciless attack that Iron Arm flinched.
“Hun, Hunter Hae-seon!!”
“It’s fine. I can just heal her.”
I took the Gold Eternal Flower from her arms and placed it in my inner pocket.
“Someone gave me advice about the Gold Eternal Flower.”
“Advice…?”
“Yes. They said that just because I obtained the Gold Eternal Flower, that wasn’t the end of it. Since it’s a top-grade Rare herbs that grows in a Poison Dungeon, I needed to be careful in many ways. Bi-soo was probably poisoned from the moment she put the Gold Eternal Flower in her arms.”
“So that’s why she’s making such a scary face.”
Iron Arm finally seemed to understand the whole situation. The Gold Eternal Flower, considered the best of the best. It truly was a treasure that was hard to obtain in many ways.
Shhh…
“Umm…”
While I was healing Bi-soo, Iron Arm licked his lips.
“It would have been better if you or I had carried the Gold Eternal Flower, Hunter Hae-seon. Then Bi-soo wouldn’t have been unfairly suspected or needed to be healed like this.”
“No.” “Pardon?”
“If you had come at me with sincere intent, Clan Leader, I wouldn’t have been able to stop you moderately. One of us might have died.”
“That… is true.”
“Besides, what would have happened if this Gold Eternal Flower had affected me?”
“…!!”
Nine times out of ten, they both would have died by my hand today. A Poison-type Hunter is immune to all sorts of harmful substances. I had never suffered any internal damage from any poison I had encountered so far.
But in the process of obtaining the Gold Eternal Flower, carelessness was not an option. Experimenting on the most manageable(?) target, Bi-soo, was advantageous in many ways.
“Then… you expected this to happen from the beginning?”
Iron Arm let out a hollow laugh as if he was dumbfounded. As much as he was impressed by my meticulousness, he seemed to feel a chill at my unhesitating choice of Bi-soo as a test subject(?). What’s the matter, Clan Leader.
This is for the good of everyone.
“When Bi-soo apologizes later, please accept it well.”
“O-of course. It’s not a matter of accepting an apology or not. She was poisoned…”
Iron Arm is truly a person with a pure soul. Though I do wonder if he could use that pure soul to clean the office a bit. In any case, he makes people want to cheer for him.
For him and his family.
“Let’s go right away. To the hospital.”