Chapter 60

[Blazing Sun Art]

[Rank: Ancient]

[A fire art created by Zhurong, the God of Fire]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 10000]

[Proficiency: 100%]

Since his affinity for fire was already maxed out, the proficiency was naturally 100%.

‘Thankfully, it’s martial arts.’

Relieved to some degree that it was a martial art, Jaeha immediately tried using the Blazing Sun Art. The energy inside his body instantly began to take on a fire attribute.

And then, hot energy began to surge out from his body. Feeling the energy within himself, Jaeha slowly began circulating his qi.

About six hours passed. After the long stretch of time, Jaeha’s closed eyes finally opened.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“And the poison?”

“Ah, I need to burn it out.”

Saying that, Jaeha looked at Sia and spoke.

“Pull the needles out.”

“Yes.”

Sia carefully began removing the needles embedded in Jaeha’s body. Once all the needles were out, Jaeha immediately drew up his energy and began burning away the poison energy remaining inside him. Having incinerated the poison energy in an instant, Jaeha smiled.

Only then did Sia smile and let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad it ended well.”

“Me too.”

“Should I call Seungho?”

“Don’t call him. Let him rest there for the day. Just call and tell him I’m fine.”

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

At Sia’s words, Jaeha smiled and got up from his seat.

* * *

As he rested, Jaeha gradually calmed down, and before long, finding himself no different from before, he felt reassured that he was fine.

After that, he grew curious about the Blazing Sun Art, and eventually came down to the sparring ground to try using it. He walked to a spot where there were no jiangshi and quietly began releasing his energy.

Jaeha used a sword while drawing out his energy, and before long, he was able to fight while freely spewing fire.

With that, Jaeha began testing the power of the Blazing Sun Art through sparring with the jiangshi, and the jiangshi couldn’t withstand the heat he emitted.

“Not bad.”

Once he could naturally utilize the power of the Blazing Sun Art, Jaeha stopped sparring with the jiangshi. After finishing the sparring session and tidying up the area, Jaeha greeted the jiangshi.

“I’m heading out.”

“Um, Master….”

At that moment, Amy called out to Jaeha.

“Huh? What is it.”

“Well… would it be alright if we also went to a place called a dungeon?”

“A dungeon?”

“Yes. Honestly, staying here all the time is pretty boring… And more than anything, the monsters that appear in dungeons seem a bit different from the monsters in our world, so I’d like to check them out too.”

At Amy’s words, Jaeha glanced around at the other jiangshi as well.

“Hmm.”

After thinking for a moment, Jaeha spoke.

“Well, sure, go ahead.”

“Really?”

“Why. Did you think I wouldn’t allow it?”

“……Yes.”

“Well, your faces are already as exposed as they’re going to get anyway, and if you just stayed here all the time, even I would’ve gotten bored. If you want to go to a dungeon, go.”

“Ah, thank you!”

“But when you go out somewhere, make sure you tell me where you’re going before you leave.”

“Yes!”

About to leave the training grounds, Jaeha paused to think for a moment. Then he looked at the jiangshi and spoke.

“Actually, never mind. I happen to want to try hunting with this anyway. Let’s go together. You’re going now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Let’s go.”

And so Jaeha left the house with the jiangshi.

* * *

Arriving at the dungeon entrance, Jaeha entered. The jiangshi followed behind him into the dungeon.

The dungeon Jaeha brought the jiangshi to was the Knight’s Tower, one of the A-Rank dungeons with a fairly high difficulty. The Knight’s Tower featured two types of monsters, one of which was the Knight.

The Knight was, as its name suggested, an ordinary-looking knight. Killing these Knights wasn’t all that difficult. However, the problem was the second type of monster: the Dark Knight.

When a Knight monster died, the dead Knight would resurrect as a Dark Knight. Perhaps because these Dark Knights belonged to the undead category, they wouldn’t die even if their bodies were cut in half.

The only way to neutralize a Dark Knight was to sever its head, completely burn its body with holy magic or regular magic, or render it unable to move.

The dungeon spawned around 300 monsters, but counting the Dark Knights, that number exceeded 600. Compared to other A-Rank dungeons, the count wasn’t small, and since Dark Knights were undead, they didn’t produce proper byproducts either. So it was one of the least popular dungeons around.

“Do whatever you want.”

Jaeha, who had been hunting with a moderate use of the Blazing Sun Art, nodded and spoke to the jiangshi. They nodded back and began moving forward.

Then, smiling, they each drew their weapons and started fighting the monsters. But the monsters began getting mowed down by the jiangshi all too easily.

The only jiangshi who struggled somewhat with the monsters was Seirin. Since her fighting style was close-quarters combat, she couldn’t easily kill the Dark Knights, which required severing their heads. But even that didn’t last long.

After gathering information by fighting the Knights for a while, Seirin began ripping the Dark Knights’ heads off using her overwhelming physical strength. She’d grab them with her hands and yank, or lock their lower bodies in place and kick their chins upward with her feet—hunting them without much difficulty.

‘So that’s what adaptability looks like.’

Of course, Jaeha wasn’t lacking in that regard compared to them either. Though there were bound to be differences.

“Not bad.”

Watching the jiangshi fight, Jaeha spotted Amy standing still off to one side.

“You’re not fighting?”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“If I used magic as I pleased, the monsters would all be swept away in one go.”

“……Fair enough.”

As a 9th Circle master, each of Amy’s spells was practically on the level of a calamity. In combat, the other jiangshi might beat Amy, but in war, Amy utterly dominated them all.

“Well, do what you want.”

“For me, just coming to a place like this and feeling nature is more than enough.”

Even though she had become a jiangshi, Amy was still a High Elf. Being an elf—a being called a child of nature—cooped up only in a space created by magic must have been incredibly stifling.

Watching Amy smile as she took in nature, Jaeha smiled too and spoke.

“I happened to meet an elf once, and she felt exactly like you do right now. Her name was Ferencia, I think.”

“……Master.”

“Hm?”

“Is the Ferencia you’re referring to, by any chance, Sia Ferencia?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“How do you know her, Master?”

At Amy’s question, Jaeha briefly explained what had happened while he was learning summoning.

“So that’s what happened…….”

“How do you know her?”

“She’s my disciple.”

“……Really?”

“Yes.”

At her words, Jaeha was silent for a moment.

“How old are you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know exactly. I counted up to 9,000 years, but I stopped counting after that. Still, if I had to guess, I’d say I’m around 13,000 years old.”

“……I see.”

Jaeha was a bit taken aback by an age far greater than he’d expected.

“Then what made you, someone who’s lived that long, not want to die?”

At Jaeha’s question, Amy’s expression darkened slightly.

“The reason I wanted to live was…… for Ferencia.”

“For Ferencia?”

“Yes. Ferencia is my disciple and also my daughter.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. And I bore a child from a relationship with a human.”

“So Ferencia is…….”

“Yes. What they call a half-elf. And more than that…… a half High Elf.”

He could feel the sorrow in her expression as she vented to him.

Chapter 7

“You didn’t want to die because of her?”

“High Elves are beings revered even within elf society. We’re born receiving the power of our mother—the World Tree—directly.”

“So a half High Elf like her can’t have that.”

“Not only that, she’s heavily ostracized. I’m an elf myself, but elves are closed-minded. They despise half-elves.”

“But she’s not just a half-elf—she’s a half ‘High’ Elf.”

“That’s exactly why her position is so precarious.”

“Hmm…….”

“That child was subtly ostracized by the other elves from a young age. It was only because I held on that the elders and elves couldn’t openly shun her. Ferencia was in that delicate position. But not long after I started to weaken, it reached a point where the elf society as a whole could no longer ignore her—not because of me.”

“Why?”

“Because that child contracted with the Spirit King.”

“The Spirit King?”

“Yes. So in the end, she became a half ‘High’ Elf who was also a top-tier spirit master contracted with the Spirit King.”

“But if contracting with the Spirit King kept her from being ostracized in elf society, then there’s nothing to worry about.”

“No. Even if she isn’t ostracized, being unwelcome within our community is no different.”

“Hmm…… so you didn’t want to die because you were worried about her?”

“Yes. That child has never managed to make a single proper friend in her life. Even if she has spirits, the feeling of an elf or human friend is very different from spirits. I was her only friend and family. So I didn’t want to die and leave her all alone.”

Around the time the conversation was wrapping up, all the monsters in the dungeon had been cleared.

“Let’s get up.”

“Yes……”

She answered forlornly, then rose from her seat, smiled bitterly, and spoke.

“By now, that child is probably doing fine in her own way. She’s a smart one.”

With that, Jaeha left the dungeon with the jiangshi in tow.

* * *

“You feeling okay?”

Seungho, who had slept over at Hajin’s house for the night, asked Jaeha that.

“Of course.”

“Good to hear.”

“There was a slip-up, but either way, I’m fine now.”

“Still, glad you’re okay. Don’t go showing off like that next time.”

“It wasn’t showing off. I just didn’t know it would be that strong.”

Saying that, Jaeha joked around with Seungho. The two of them, messing around like that, headed to a skewer shop in front of the station to have a drink for the first time in a while.

Thanks to stacking up drinks and downing them, the two were fairly tipsy, and Jaeha came home in that state. Stumbling into the house, he went up to his room while listening to Sia’s nagging.

Then he roughly stripped off his clothes, asked Undine to wash him, and sprawled out on the bed. Lying on the bed, Jaeha stayed still, feeling the buzz.

And then—the energy inside Jaeha’s body suddenly surged outward. Feeling it, Jaeha sat up.

Then, sitting on the bed, he quietly began to check the energy within his body. Before long, the energy inside Jaeha’s body started rampaging like crazy.

“All of a sudden?”

As the energy suddenly went wild, Jaeha panicked. But thanks to the rampaging fire energy, all the alcohol haze vanished, and Jaeha quickly came to his senses.

Jaeha immediately began circulating his energy, and before long, he was able to calm it down. As the energy settled, Jaeha let out a sigh of relief.

‘If I’d messed up, I could’ve fallen into qi deviation.’

As Jaeha was letting out that sigh of relief, a window floated up before him.