Chapter 77 – A Second Family (Part Two)

Il-hyeon arrived home, unlocked the door, and stepped inside.

A neatly organized home greeted him.

Though he hadn’t asked, Hyeon-seo had taken care of the various household chores.

As he walked down the hallway, he saw a door set naturally into one of the walls, as if it had always been there.

It was a door connecting to the adjacent unit, which had originally been a separate apartment. Thanks to it, Il-hyeon’s home had unintentionally doubled in size, now exceeding 4,900 square feet.

Squeak squeak!

The first to greet him was the mouse, which scurried up to his shoulder.

Il-hyeon placed the bag he was holding on the dining table and turned his head.

“She’s sleeping.”

Il-hyeon let out a soft chuckle.

He could see Hyeon-seo buried in the fluffy fur of a large wolf in a corner of the living room.

The two were peacefully asleep, tangled together.

Watching the heartwarming sight with a fond smile, Il-hyeon glanced down at the bag of chicken he had just bought.

“It’s going to get cold.”

He was hungry, but he had no intention of eating first.

Il-hyeon picked up the fox, which was curled into a ball and sleeping on the table.

Though it wasn’t blazing like the phoenix, the fox’s body was warm. Il-hyeon gently tucked it into the bag.

While the blissfully sleeping fox served as a hot pack, Il-hyeon closed his eyes and focused his mind.

He envisioned the form he wanted to create and began to fine-tune it in his mind.

Then, he lightly snapped his fingers.

Fwoosh!

The light from the lamp flickered violently.

The writhing light soon gathered in one spot and began to form a human shape.

Long, flowing blonde hair, radiant white skin, and Western features. But the face wasn’t what caught the eye.

It was far too small to be an ordinary person; the newly formed figure was perched on Il-hyeon’s palm.

“Hello!”

The tiny, doll-like child, glowing with a soft halo, raised a hand and chirped excitedly.

“Have you been well?”

Looking down at his right hand, Il-hyeon smiled and returned the greeting.

Its form was stable, and it spoke clearly.

The summoning was a success.

Two things applied to this summoning were aspects Il-hyeon had been practicing intensively.

First, instead of manipulating a physical object or the air he had grown accustomed to, he was summoning using light.

At first, it was difficult even to manipulate it, as he was unfamiliar with the medium, but now he could use it seamlessly with his summoning ability.

In addition, he had been attempting to summon a humanoid familiar.

While he had succeeded in summoning Hyeon-seo using a high-grade Ether Core, temporarily summoning one without Ether was another matter entirely.

After repeated training, he could not only summon a humanoid familiar but also enable it to speak. Recently, he had even managed to eliminate the occasional stutter.

“Thank you for summoning me again.”

“I have some questions. Is it alright if I ask you a few things?”

“Anything!”

The little one nodded vigorously in response to Il-hyeon’s question.

Previously, summoning a humanoid familiar consumed a significant amount of his energy, leaving him no room to maintain the summon and hold a conversation.

But now he had some leeway, and the recent incident had brought several questions to mind, so he decided to ask.

Il-hyeon sat down at the dining table, took out his wallet, and began his questions.

“Do you know what this is?”

“A black wallet?”

The little one looked at Il-hyeon as if wondering why he would ask such an obvious question.

“Yes, that’s right. Do you know the capital of our country?”

“It’s Seoul.”

“Too easy, huh. Then what’s the capital of Turkey?”

“Istanbul!”

“Hmm… Smart one, aren’t you? How do you know all this?”

Il-hyeon muttered, intrigued.

Of course, the capital of Turkey was Ankara, but since they were both mistaken, the conversation moved on naturally.

“Perhaps I was born having inherited most of the knowledge I need?”

“Actually, I was just thinking the same thing.”

Il-hyeon nodded in agreement.

In Hyeon-seo’s case, she sometimes got things wrong, suggesting she didn’t inherit all knowledge, but it seemed the essential parts were passed down.

And now he learned that the same was true even for summons not created through a core.

“Do you feel pain when you’re injured? I guess you wouldn’t know, since you haven’t fought yet.”

“No. I can feel it, but there’s almost no pain.”

“That’s a relief.”

His familiars had been injured more than once during their intense battles.

It had always weighed on his mind, so it was a relief to finally get a clear answer.

However, Hyeon-seo had said she felt pain just like other people, which certainly made her different from the other familiars.

“What about when the summon is canceled? Does your consciousness just stop?”

“Hmm, to be precise, it feels like waking up from a short nap.”

“Have you ever experienced another world, or…”

“Nothing like that.”

Il-hyeon created a tiny cup matching the little one’s size, then filled it with water condensed from the air.

Taking the cup brimming with water, the little one gave a small bow of thanks and continued to answer his questions.

He believed it was crucial to have a fundamental understanding of his familiars to use them effectively in battle or otherwise.

As he was asking about the things he’d been curious about and learning more, he remembered something he had briefly forgotten.

“Ah, hold on.”

Il-hyeon set the little one down on the table, stood up, and went into his room.

He took out the core from under the drawer of his wooden desk and held it for a moment.

It was the core of the A-rank mutant from the South Pacific. He tried again, but once more, there was no reaction.

Il-hyeon clicked his tongue in disappointment, shook off any lingering hope, and left the room with the core.

Squeak squeak!

The mouse on his shoulder grew restless at the sight of the core’s brilliant light, looking at Il-hyeon with pleading eyes.

But since it was an A-rank core that even Il-hyeon couldn’t absorb, he simply flicked the mouse’s nose.

Besides, he still had one more experiment to try.

Clack!

The incredibly valuable core was placed on the dining table.

The phoenix, catching its scent, flew swiftly from its cage, but it didn’t swallow it without permission as it had before.

Doing his best to ignore the gaze of the phoenix perched on his arm, Il-hyeon looked down at the softly glowing little one and spoke.

“Do you feel any sort of desire for it? Like you want to take a bite or eat it?”

“This? It doesn’t look edible.”

The little one frowned at the cube emitting a white light and shook its head.

“Hmm, really? I have an experiment in mind. If you don’t mind, could you try biting it?”

“Okay.”

He was curious if a humanoid familiar would become a permanent summon if it absorbed a core.

The little one took a bite of the core.

But it must have been much harder than it looked, as the little one just rubbed its teeth.

He hadn’t had high hopes to begin with, but unfortunately, feeding a core to a humanoid familiar didn’t make it a permanent summon.

‘Could this be defective?’

Il-hyeon turned the core over and over, examining it from all angles.

Of course, judging by the senses granted by his Predation ability, that was impossible.

Just then, whether it was due to the commotion or the scent of the core, the sleeping Hyeon-seo began to stir.

After blinking a few times, she shot up and approached Il-hyeon.

“You’re back?”

Hyeon-seo plopped down on a chair at the table and stared intently at the bag.

It seemed she hadn’t woken up for any other reason than the smell of chicken.

“Why is this one sleeping in here?”

Hyeon-seo pulled out the fox, which was curled up in a ball inside the bag.

The red fox, dangling from her hand, was still sleeping soundly.

Il-hyeon stayed quiet, finding it awkward to admit he’d been using it as a hot pack. Hyeon-seo, however, wrapped the fox around her neck as if it were a scarf.

She had a satisfied expression, seemingly enjoying the warmth.

The fox, which was calm compared to the other familiars, was a heavy sleeper and wouldn’t wake up once it had fallen asleep.

“Time to eat! So, the core still isn’t working?”

Hyeon-seo said, picking up a chicken leg.

Il-hyeon nodded and walked over to the dedicated core disposal bin.

Over the bin, which was half-full of core fragments, he lightly squeezed his hand. The core shattered, and the Ether within was absorbed into Il-hyeon.

“This one was a dud, I guess.”

Il-hyeon said calmly, clenching and unclenching the palm that had absorbed the Ether.

His goal of summoning another person had failed, but thanks to absorbing an A-rank core, he could feel a substantial amount of Ether flowing into his body.

“I thought I was getting a little sibling.”

Hyeon-seo, who had hoped the new core would bring a new companion, was quite disappointed.

At that, the little one who had been quietly listening to their conversation on the table perked up.

“What about me!”

“Ah, sorry. I forgot.”

Hyeon-seo smiled, gently patting the tiny one’s head with her non-greasy hand.

“Our little sibling, when are you going to see some real action?”

“That’s right! I want to be helpful soon, too!”

Hearing her words, the little one turned to Il-hyeon and chattered from its spot on the table.

Il-hyeon, who was setting the phoenix from his arm down, shook his head.

“You consume too much of my energy. It won’t work.”

Il-hyeon said firmly.

The little blonde in front of him looked powerless, but contrary to its appearance, it was strong. The problem was that it consumed too much energy.

If it were a permanent summon like Hyeon-seo or the fox around her neck, it wouldn’t strain Il-hyeon at all, but the little one was different.

He could probably handle one or two scenes without depleting his stamina, but using it as a main force when work was overflowing like it was these days was out of the question.

Crash!

A sudden, sharp noise made Il-hyeon turn his head.

The wolf, having gotten up and approached, had knocked over a glass and shattered it.

“Sigh, honestly…”

Il-hyeon clicked his tongue and walked toward the scene of the accident.

Using his Transmutation ability, he gathered the scattered glass shards. With a light gesture, the broken glass completely reformed into its original shape.

Even the microscopic fragments, difficult to spot with the naked eye, were no exception.

This level of delicate control was now nothing to Il-hyeon.

“Let’s be a little more careful, okay?”

Il-hyeon stretched the wolf’s cheek.

The creature, knowing it had done wrong, whimpered and nodded.

Il-hyeon chuckled, nuzzled the wolf’s face, and let it go. The wolf wagged its tail and trotted over to its friends.

With more family members in the house, it was certainly more chaotic than when he lived alone.

“Hmm…”

Il-hyeon stood there for a moment, watching his family gathered around the dining table.

The sight brought back old memories.

Before he Awakened and gained his ability, he was usually home alone at night.

It was natural, since he had a job and lived on his own.

During moments of downtime, after a flurry of activity, when he would just zone out like this, he would often look around the empty house and feel a sense of hollowness.

But he didn’t feel that way anymore.

It was something he never could have imagined when he first gained his ability, but all these beings filling his home with their lively presence were now his precious family.

Squeak squeak