Chapter 54: Sprout’s Resolve

In front of Jaei’s smithy, it was late at night, but the place was bustling with people.

Most of them were broadcast reporters and their fellow cameramen.

Occasionally, some local residents had come out to see what was happening.

The broadcast staff had gathered, wanting to interview Yoo Jaei, but Jaei—who had previously chatted away about weapons with a beaming smile in front of the camera—was now annoyed, having shut the door and holed up inside.

That behavior was enough to bring looks of displeasure to the faces of the broadcast people.

“Blacksmiths, really. It’s best to avoid unnecessary hostility, so why don’t they get such a simple thing?”

Kim Jiyeon, who had been quietly watching, muttered this as she tried to calm the broadcast people.

She even bought them drinks and explained that Yoo Jaei wasn’t feeling very well.

When a reporter asked what kind of relationship Yoo Jaei and Baek Dowoon had, she replied with a “No comment,” as if there was something going on, even though she knew nothing.

It was the answer the reporters most wanted to hear.

After soothing the reporters for quite some time, Kim Jiyeon went to a place out of everyone’s sight and let out a long sigh.

“I didn’t come here for this…”

As she muttered self-mockingly to herself, suddenly, the sky brightened.

It was as if dawn had broken.

There was no way the sun had already risen, though.

She turned her head to the northwest.

Everyone in front of the smithy turned their heads, just as puzzled as she was.

“Hey! Do you see that, that thing?”

“Light? What’s that light?”

People began to murmur.

Some, upon seeing it, hurriedly stood up and began to move.

Being broadcast reporters, they rushed to film whatever the phenomenon was, even if they had no idea.

Kim Jiyeon stared at it with her mouth agape.

The massive light that banished the darkness from the sky looked like a white sun.

“It’s Sanctuary of Light! Baek Dohee’s Sanctuary of Light!”

“Sanctuary of Light?”

“Yeah, her signature area-wide buff skill!”

Reporters who realized what was happening busily gathered their equipment.

They hurried to keep up with the group of reporters who had already left.

“That’s a skill?”

Hearing this, Kim Jiyeon was shocked.

She couldn’t believe that a single person could create a light so bright that it drove away darkness and turned night into day in an instant.

As she was reeling in shock, thinking, ‘How could that possibly be a skill?’ the smithy’s door burst open with a bang!

She turned her head to see Yoo Jaei, who had urgently opened the door and was now staring at the white sun with a troubled face.

“Yoo Jaei?”

“……”

Yoo Jaei didn’t answer her question.

It wasn’t that she was ignoring her as usual, but that she seemed incapable of even thinking to reply.

She just stared at the white sun.

Kim Jiyeon quietly asked Sim Yunjin, who stood next to Jaei.

“What’s going on?”

“Well…”

Sim Yunjin trailed off and lifted her smartphone.

On the smartphone, a news video was playing.

[Baek Dohee activates Sanctuary of Light?]

Along with that caption, Baek Dohee was shown floating in the sky.

In the video, Dohee flew through the air, unleashing all kinds of magic relentlessly.

Each and every shot was a powerful spell equivalent to Grade A, looking like she was fighting an S-grade monster.

“Did a dragon show up or something? What’s wrong with that woman?”

“She’s fighting Kim Muyeon.”

“Kim Muyeon? Why would he be fighting Baek Dohee…?”

In the video, Baek Dohee’s eyes were icy cold.

Next to her, Yoo Jaei looked anxious.

Kim Muyeon, the one fighting Baek Dohee.

The answer was clear.

Kim Muyeon must have fought Baek Dowoon, and his younger sister came to protect him.

“Wait a second, don’t tell me that’s Heart Break?”

In the video, Kim Muyeon was emitting silvery mana from his entire body.

He looked like a log being burned to fuel a fire.

Sim Yunjin answered with a nod.

“Insane! Why are they going that far?”

“I don’t know.”

“What riches or glory is he after, using Heart Break?”

At that moment, Dowoon was caught on camera, radiating blue mana.

“Gasp, is he using Heart Break too?”

“No, no! Look closely.”

Sim Yunjin brought the smartphone closer.

She stared intently at Dowoon, who was radiating blue mana on the screen.

There was one clear difference between him and Kim Muyeon.

Kim Muyeon’s mana was dispersing into the air from his body.

But Dowoon’s wasn’t.

Instead of dispersing, the mana grew more dense and vivid as it wrapped around Dowoon.

It was as if he had covered his body with mana, just like one would coat a weapon with it.

She couldn’t understand how it was possible.

“What on earth are those siblings doing…”

She closed her mouth and looked down at the ground.

She felt a very faint vibration from below.

An earthquake, all of a sudden?

Feeling the tremor, she looked again at the smartphone screen.

In that brief moment, Dowoon was suddenly behind Kim Muyeon.

He sat with one knee on the ground, holding out his left hand.

“…!”

Kim Jiyeon, who had been watching the video, looked down at the ground, stunned.

Not just her—Yoo Jaei and Sim Yunjin, too.

They had seen the cause of the tremor on the screen.

It wasn’t an earthquake.

“This, this crazy bastard!”

*****

[84%, 84%, 84%, 83%….]

To explain it simply, Photosynthesis Mode was a buff skill with a time limit.

It increased my physical abilities until all the light energy stored in the leaf was depleted.

Once 83% dropped to 0%, the buff would end.

Also, Photosynthesis Mode wasn’t affected by other buffs.

Thanks to that, my body had undergone a total of three power-ups.

My physical abilities increased from holding Arca, rose further because I was within the Sanctuary of Light, and then increased yet again due to Photosynthesis Mode.

With buffs stacked on buffs, I was barely able to match Taechun’s level.

“Again! Go ahead and laugh at me again, Baek Dowoon!”

The one regret was that even after all that powering up, I still couldn’t reach Kim Muyeon.

Of course.

He was three to six times stronger due to Heart Break.

If he hadn’t been nerfed by the Sanctuary of Light’s doubling effect?

If Dohee’s light magic hadn’t bombarded him at just the right time?

Taechun and I would’ve long since failed to block his attacks and gone down.

Kim Muyeon’s greatsword fell on me like a rain of blazing light.

“Die, Baek Dowoon!”

“‘Shield Throw’!”

As I barely blocked his attack, Taechun hurled a silver shield.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized such a simple move was a B-grade skill.

The silver shield, imbued with black mana, flew at Kim Muyeon’s neck.

It bounced off easily, blocked by his thick arm.

Now’s when this skill really qualifies as B-grade.

The shield that bounced off didn’t fall to the ground but flew in front of me, blocking Kim Muyeon’s greatsword.

That’s right.

Shield Throw isn’t for throwing at the enemy.

It’s a skill meant to land in front of an ally for protection.

“You think you can block me with that kind of shield?”

“Ugh! Do you know how much that cost?!”

Kim Muyeon swung the greatsword with both hands, slicing the shield like tofu on a chopping board.

He could do that only by expending all his mana without a care for what came next.

When I get the log from the previous World Tree, I’ll have to make Taechun a new shield.

[Sprout requests a correction: the sprout is from a branch of the previous World Tree.]

Yeah, Sprout. A log—

“Muuu!”

Kim Muyeon, having cut through the shield, slashed his greatsword upward on a diagonal from below.

I threw my waist back with all my might to dodge at the last moment.

In that instant, Taechun was already running in.

Kim Muyeon pressed his attack even faster.

Taechun and I raised Arca together to block.

The greatsword that had sliced Taechun’s shield like tofu couldn’t cut through Arca.

The blow was strong, though, and we were sent flying together.

“C-close call.”

If not for Photosynthesis Mode, I wouldn’t have dodged that.

Fortunately, I still had 60% light energy left.

“Hey, this thing’s tough! I’ll buy you a new weapon, so give me that one.”

“No way, you punk!”

I kicked Taechun, who was eyeing Arca with a gleam in his eyes.

The spot where Taechun had been standing—Kim Muyeon’s greatsword slammed down.

Wham!

The greatsword gouged deep into the ground.

I jumped back and thrust my left hand toward him.

“Pebble!”

Kim Muyeon didn’t even look at my left hand.

He glared at me as if I wasn’t even worth noticing anymore.

At last!

“Light!”

At the moment he hesitated, Dohee’s light magic poured down in torrents.

Dohee’s magic rained on us nearby as well, but it didn’t matter.

Inside the Sanctuary of Light, anyone Dohee recognized as an ally wouldn’t be harmed.

The dazzling magic forced Kim Muyeon to stop moving.

Thanks to that, we could fall back far from him.

“Whew, that’s not easy.”

Taechun swung his longsword through the air.

He wanted to get inside the guy’s reach, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Kim Muyeon knew that, too, and kept Taechun at bay with his greatsword.

Taechun found it hard to approach Kim Muyeon.

And even if he did, he had no means to subdue him.

I planted Arca into the ground and spoke.

“Taechun, draw his attention for me.”

“His attention?”

“Yeah.”

I’m different.

I have a way to get close to Kim Muyeon.

Even in the Sanctuary of Light created by Dohee, there are shadows.

And I also have a way to subdue him once I’m close.

“I’ll land a real blow on him.”

“Okay.”

Just then, the stream of light Dohee had been pouring out stopped.

Taechun seized the opening and immediately used the ‘Dash’ skill.

Clad in heavy armor, Taechun’s dash looked exactly like a charging tank.

Kim Muyeon blocked the charge with his left hand and stabbed at his neck with the greatsword in his right.

A transparent barrier appeared in front of Taechun and blocked the sword.

Dohee had blocked Kim Muyeon’s attack instead of Taechun’s shield.

I stretched out my left hand and shot a pebble at Kim Muyeon.

As before, he paid the pebble no mind.

“Shadow Step.”

My vision darkened.

Three white holes appeared.

Mine, Taechun’s, and Kim Muyeon’s shadows.

Dohee, being in the sky, had no visible shadow.

I ran to the hole farthest away.

Standing over the hole, my vision brightened again.

Kim Muyeon’s back was in front of me.

He sensed me appear behind him and swung his greatsword wide.

“You think I haven’t seen that trick a dozen times before!”

“…!”

As expected of an A-rank hunter.

That’s the benefit of experience.

To dodge the sword that targeted both Taechun and me, I dropped down, folding my right knee.

At the same time, I raised my left hand.

Kim Muyeon sneered.

Careless.

That’s his only weakness.

He came alone out of carelessness, and now, again, he didn’t dodge out of carelessness.

“A pebble—”

“Pinecone!”

“What…?”

[Sprout says it’s been waiting for this very moment!]

KWAANG!

A pinecone blasted out of my palm with a thunderous roar.

It was so powerful, my palm flew backward.

No, not just that—my whole body slammed into the ground from the recoil.

I wondered if this was how a ballistic missile launcher felt.

“U-uoooooh!”

The pinecone shot from my hand embedded itself in Kim Muyeon’s side.

It spiraled upward, tracing an arc into the sky.

It spun incessantly, like a drill digging into the earth.

I could sense Sprout’s fierce determination to add a spin to it.

In the end, the pinecone bored completely through his body, just as Sprout intended.

Kim Muyeon, who had shot into the sky as a single body, split into two as he crashed to the ground.

[Sprout is happy and satisfied!]

“……”

…Well, as long as Sprout’s satisfied, that’s good enough for me.

[All light energy has been consumed.]
[Photosynthesis Mode is ending.]

Wait, what?

I definitely had more than 60% left.

Why is it ending all of a sudden?

The blue mana that had wrapped around me slowly flowed back into my body.

“Hah!”

At the same time, an intense pain shot through me.

It was similar to the pain of my body tearing apart during pruning.

Come to think of it, there was a warning about Photosynthesis Mode.

Something like ‘A penalty will occur after use,’ right?

Anyway, none of these abilities ever end peacefully.

[Sprout sends its apologies to the caretaker.]

Huh? Oh, no.

Sprout, I’m not blaming you…

[Sprout becomes depressed.]

No, really, it’s not that.

…It’s my fault.