Chapter 125: Iryn (1)
‘Is there some kind of side effect?’
Or maybe my little brother’s “illness” was triggered because I pushed him too hard. If it’s the latter, that’s actually a relief… Well, is it really a relief? It might actually be easier to resolve if it’s a side effect.
Anyway.
“Let’s just go sightseeing for a bit and then head home. There’s still a lot to see around here.”
It’s a rare chance to splurge using someone else’s card.
“Sure. But I’ll take care of Seong Hyunjae first.”
“…Hey, if I go missing, I won’t be able to do any sightseeing, you know.”
“Don’t worry. We have the item that Yu Myungwoo made.”
Yuhyun smiled as he took off his glasses and put them on me. Well… true, I suppose. Though it would require the sacrifice of someone willing to pretend to be me. Actually, going missing and living a quieter, more comfortable life doesn’t sound half bad.
For a moment, I felt a tempting pull, but I quickly brushed it off. There’s too much I’ve started to just leave it all hanging. At least, not until I’ve dealt with all the dungeons. And I still need to find a way to bring him back.
“Hey… What’s up with your eyes?”
— Are you done with everything?
Noah came gliding down towards us, just as I felt Yuhyun preparing to move. Hey, you brat!
“Noah!”
I hurriedly activated the Teacher skill on Noah and one-sidedly transmitted Yuhyun’s senses to him.
With a sudden, powerful flap of his wings, Noah shot through the air like an arrow, cutting through the sky. Startled, he banked sharply and soared back up.
“What are you doing?!”
“I was just trying to intimidate him a bit.”
“No, you shouldn’t be intimidating him at all!”
I tried to cancel the skill sharing immediately, especially the double attack skill effect. But then, a message window popped up.
[The target has rejected the request.]
…Oh, crap. Yuhyun must have seen the message too, as he smirked, his lips curling up.
“Skills like this usually can’t be canceled without the other party’s consent. You could just cancel a flight skill mid-air, after all.”
He explained with an unnecessarily kind voice. I knew that already, but I didn’t realize it also applied to skills shared indirectly.
With Noah, I could simply let go of his hand to cancel it, and with Seong Hyunjae… well, I just passed out each time. Wait, so during the Babar incident, did the skill stay active even after I lost consciousness?
…Wow, that could have been seriously dangerous. And yet, he quietly exited the dungeon without causing a fuss. I guess he’s a better… better… No, actually, let’s not go there.
— Yujin, are you okay?!
— Chirp!
The dragon who had looped high in the air now turned and aimed back towards us.
“Don’t come over here!”
I said to Noah, who was looking at me with concern. My little brother didn’t seem quite normal right now. Yuhyun spoke in a sulky voice.
“Lately, I keep feeling like people are taking you away from me, and it makes me lonely.”
“No one’s taking me away. I only have one little brother.”
“But you’ve got all these other close friends around you. I only have you.”
That’s… a little concerning to hear.
“Hey, instead of that, why don’t you get along with Noah? Or maybe hang out with Kang Soyeong. Make some friends, maybe even date. I get it if there’s a barrier with non-awakened people or low-ranked folks, but there are plenty of others around your level.”
Take a page out of Yerim’s book.
“You don’t understand, that’s why you’re saying that.”
Muttering, he pulled a thin sword out of his inventory. It was an A-rank weapon he didn’t usually use. He tossed it towards the ground some distance away.
Thud.
The sword embedded itself in the ground, followed by a greatsword, a dagger, a scimitar, and other various weapons, all spaced out around him.
“What… are you doing?”
The Teacher skill doesn’t let me read minds. It only anticipates the body’s movements and mana flow. If someone pulls out a fishing rod, I can’t tell if they’re going to fish or hit someone with it.
“It’s an inefficient skill, so I don’t use it often. Using high-grade weapons as one-offs is a bit too costly.”
A bit, huh.
“Whatever skill it is, don’t use it. It’s a waste. And let’s try to resolve this with words if we can.”
“Are you going to keep using the Teacher skill? It’s annoying.”
“Are you planning to talk this out?”
“No. Not at all. Is it painful when the skill gets rejected?”
“Yeah, a lot.”
“Sorry, hyung.”
With a laugh, Yuhyun met my eyes, his red irises sparkling as I released the Teacher skill on him. He looked satisfied.
“I’ll finish this quickly.”
Seong Hyunjae, run. Stopping my little brother seems impossible at this point. I don’t care about your life, but I’d rather not waste my skill.
At that moment, the Fire Salamander slithered around Yuhyun’s neck, moving to his opposite shoulder. Unlike usual, its two black eyes were staring straight at me. A prickling sensation of something being wrong stabbed at me again.
“Iryn.”
When I called out, the spirit blinked. On instinct, almost out of habit, I used the Promising Talent skill.
[Spirit of the First Flame — Iryn
Current Stat Grade: C
Potential Awakening Stat Grade: F
Initial Skill: Spirit Contract (L)
Contractor — Han Yuhyun]
The status window, which had looked like an item screen when I first saw it, had now changed to resemble that of an awakened being or monster. An L-grade initial skill? Spirit Contract, with the contractor listed as Han Yuhyun. There’s no way an L-grade skill like that is a simple contract skill. Just what kind of effect does it have?
“Lizard, come here for a second.”
“Hyung?”
It’s definitely that lizard causing trouble. I reached out and grabbed Iryn, who tilted its head obediently. Since it couldn’t talk, there was no way to interrogate it directly.
After a moment of indecision, I used the Teacher skill. Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation as if my insides were heating up.
Though it looked like a small lizard that fit in the palm of my hand, the feeling it transmitted was an endless inferno. It was like standing in a desert where the sand was replaced by red flames licking up from below.
“You…”
This was more serious than I thought. Trying to keep my composure, I focused on the skill. Just as I had when I delved into the dragonkin back in the lake dungeon.
And just like that time…
“Huh?”
My vision briefly blacked out, then brightened again. The place I found myself standing in was a familiar yet unfamiliar living room… The home Yuhyun and I used to live in before dungeons appeared, before he awakened.
[Hello!]
In the living room, a small, round salamander, about the size of a cat, greeted me cheerfully.
“Iryn?”
[Yep, that’s right. It’s me, Iryn!]
The spirit of fire answered enthusiastically, grinning with its mouth wide open.
Park Yerim lifted her head. The skill that had been applied to her was gone. Though she couldn’t share the exact vision like the Terrifying Teacher Chick Class Teacher skill allowed, she could sense that right before the skill deactivated, Han Yuhyun had attacked someone with an intent to intimidate.
“Did another monster show up?”
“In that case, he wouldn’t bother with intimidation.”
Seong Hyunjae replied, glancing over the rubble. If it were a monster, Yuhyun wouldn’t have bothered with intimidation; he would’ve incinerated it on sight. So who on earth did he try to threaten?
Yerim quickly lifted herself into the air.
“Mister!”
The desolate land, swept by water and trampled flat by the Kraken, was barely recognizable. And there, cradling his unconscious brother, was Han Yuhyun.
“What happened?!”
As Yerim moved towards them in alarm, a golden dragon suddenly flew over to block her path.
— Hold on a moment!
— Chirp, chirp!
“Noah? Chirp?”
— The Haeyeon Guild Leader seems… strange. He looks fine, but seeing as he’s not listening to Han Yujin, something’s definitely off.
— Chirp!
“He’s not listening to Mister? That is strange!”
— He also mentioned he was going to deal with Seong Hyunjae.
“That actually sounds pretty normal.”
— He did threaten me too, but that’s not unusual, so I’m confused.
“Oh, so he attacked you, Noah? That’s definitely weird! And Chirp’s here too! Plus, he did it right in front of Mister!”
Yerim landed a safe distance away from Han Yuhyun. His red eyes met hers. Though there was no murderous intent, only a hint of irritation, Yerim instinctively knew she shouldn’t get any closer.
Instead, she asked Noah why Han Yujin had fainted.
— I don’t know. Even Haeyeon Guild Leader seemed surprised.
“Phew. At least he didn’t go crazy enough to hurt his own brother.”
— He tried to reject the Teacher skill…
“Wow, he really has lost it.”
— He’s planning to silence us, and with Yujin out cold, he could attack at any moment. Stay alert.
“Silence us? Does he think that’s gonna be easy?”
Yerim gripped her Icewood Spear firmly. Seong Hyunjae, who had been listening in, raised an eyebrow.
“This could be troublesome.”
“But there’s three of us. I’ll hold him down; just go for the back of his head.”
Confident, Yerim suggested, to which Seong Hyunjae responded coolly.
“It’s not that simple, kid. To handle the Kraken, Han Yuhyun received a double attack skill effect. It’ll stay in effect until we separate him from Han Yujin. Plus, he has an item that nullifies damage and resists poison.”
“…That’s broken.”
Yerim thought of the Kraken that had been reduced to ash in an instant. She herself would probably be severely injured if she even brushed against Yuhyun’s flames.
But she showed no sign of retreat. In fact, she looked even more determined as she gazed towards the ocean.
“Noah, can you lend me some magic stat?”
Then Shadowless Day spread toward Han Yuhyun. Almost at the same time,
— Whoosh
Flames rose up around Yuhyun in a circular barrier. The intense heat sucked the moisture out of the air, and Yerim clicked her tongue.
“Forget even touching his shadow, I’d get evaporated before I got anywhere near it! I’m sure I can take down our dear Guild Leader, so are you in?”
“I’d be disappointed if you asked me to sit this one out.”
Seong Hyunjae replied, a slight smile on his face. His coat of dark red, Silencia’s Wings, spread over his suit. The golden feather of the S-rank Golden Griffin gleamed between his fingers.
Without hesitation, Seong Hyunjae leapt into the blazing area surrounding Yuhyun. The heat, intense even with S-rank fire resistance, surged up to meet him as he released the feather.
The Griffin’s feather summoned a gust of wind. With a loud whoosh, the flames split, opening a path. Simultaneously,
Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck down. But instead of hitting its target, it was deflected by a dagger embedded in the ground nearby. The earth and rocks scattered, and immediately afterward, the dagger exploded, sending shrapnel flying towards Seong Hyunjae.
Crackle!
Though he swung his chain to deflect the fragments, it was impossible to block everything, even knowing their direction. Red lines appeared on the back of his hand and the tip of his ear, and one shard embedded itself in his shoulder. An attack sacrificing an A-rank weapon, boosted by a double skill effect—any ordinary S-rank hunter would have been skewered.
Han Yuhyun prepared to continue his assault, drawing a longsword. But—
“When did…?”
His movements slowed. Shadowless Day had bound him.
Seong Hyunjae knew Yerim had used Pale Rain as soon as he opened the path with the Griffin’s feather. Although the ice melted before it could reach him, some small stones within had continued forward, striking his shadow.
In that brief window when lightning split the earth and obscured his vision.
Even if a high-rank target wasn’t completely immobilized, any slowing effect against an S-rank opponent was a significant handicap.
“I didn’t plan to move much anyway.”
Han Yuhyun glanced down at his unconscious brother. The flames, which had temporarily parted, flared back up, crimson and fierce.
The weapons embedded around him began to hum faintly. His red eyes, tinted with a faint golden glow, met Seong Hyunjae’s gaze.
“I’m ready to tear apart the most annoying pest.”
“My, it seems the young master is more possessive than I thought.”
“Why would I care of the opinions a thief?”
Only anger and the desire for punishment remained. Just then—
Rumble.
The ground shook. Then, with a loud cracking noise, the earth began to collapse.
Jets of water shot up from the ground, twisting like multiple dragons. Both Han Yuhyun and Seong Hyunjae turned their gazes towards the towering water columns reaching for the night sky.
At the same time, Yerim shouted.
“Han Yuhyun, cool off a bit!”
A massive water column descended, crashing toward the comparatively small flames surrounding him.
–TL Notes–
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