Since we’ve heard the good news first, then the bad news is…
The bad news is… Father was seriously injured.
The Boss Monster that appeared during the Monster Wave was a Beetle.
It blocked attacks with its hard exoskeleton that was difficult to pierce with blades, and while flying, it launched deadly long-range attacks with spikes hidden inside its wings.
On top of that, the Boss Monster had intelligence so high it was hard to believe it was an insect, and it even commanded an Elite Beetle Unit to conduct guerrilla warfare.
“So the Chieftain sacrificed himself…?”
Yes… He barely avoided a fatal area, but a powerful spike pierced him… He was struck in several places and the bleeding is severe.
Kasia bit her lips, barely holding back her sobs. Seeing the look on her face made my chest ache.
Maybe it’s because the affairs of the elves no longer feel like someone else’s business.
“Will the Chieftain be able to cross the Portal?”
It will be difficult. Both physically and mentally, he is greatly weakened now.
At that moment, a thought flashed through my mind.
“Kasia, stay here and take care of the Chieftain and the other patients. I’ll make a quick trip to Earth.”
Earth…? Why to Earth…. Ah, I understand. Go and come back.
Currently, there was so much to be done in Eliya that they needed every helping hand, even the tiniest.
And yet Kasia trusted me enough to tell me to go without even asking the reason.
I needed to hurry, if only to repay that trust.
The moment I returned to Earth, I called Baek Seonwoo right away.
“How’s the Porti research going?”
I got straight to the point, my urgency showing.
Baek Seonwoo asked if something was wrong.
But I didn’t have time to answer every question.
Every second counted.
Perhaps sensing my urgency, Baek Seonwoo gave me the answer I wanted right away.
She said they were prioritizing supply to Hunters of the Association of Superhumans for further verification.
The recent results were good, so they were in the midst of clinical trials.
“There are people in urgent need of treatment. Could I get some samples?”
Thankfully, sharp-minded Baek Seonwoo said she’d send plenty by quick delivery, and I let out a sigh of relief.
I hung up quickly and called another person right away.
This time it was Han Suyeon, the Superhuman Association President’s daughter and the healer of the Minjun Party.
“Suyeon, are you busy right now? Can you spare a moment? This isn’t a date request… It’s just really urgent right now.”
Han Suyeon was the only healer I knew.
As soon as I explained the situation, she said she’d come to Chilcheon-ri right away.
I felt fortunate to have met such good people recently.
‘It must be the Research Center in Incheon…’
From Incheon to here takes about three hours.
That’s if there’s no traffic.
Normally, I could wait patiently, but not now.
Time in Eliya flows about thirty-three times faster than on Earth. Three hours here would be more than four days in Eliya.
Watching the second hand crawl by today, I grew increasingly anxious.
‘Please… please hurry!’
Screeech-!
A motorcycle stopped in front of the house.
Already?
Checking the time, only twenty minutes had passed.
I was puzzled, but I took the box anyway.
When I opened it, there were three Potions inside.
‘Three won’t be enough…’
Ka-talk!
[A message has arrived from Baek Seonwoo.]
[You seemed in a hurry, so I collected some temporarily from Hunters living in Gangwon-do and sent them. Kim Sanghyun helped, and Kanghan Group pitched in, too. I also sent the ones I originally planned to, so you shouldn’t be short.]
Thanks to Baek Seonwoo’s quick thinking, the wait time was drastically reduced.
Thank goodness.
Every second mattered.
‘Let’s cross over to Eliya.’
There was no time to wait for Han Suyeon.
[Suyeon, it’s urgent so I’m going ahead. When you arrive, go into the storage room on the left side of the house. There’s a passageway connected there. If you walk straight, you’ll find stairs. Go up and open the door…]
Suppressing my growing anxiety, I sent a message to Han Suyeon and entered the Portal.
I came back as quickly as I could, but according to my calculations, six hours had already passed.
I hurried to where the Chieftain was.
Da.
Da.
“Kasia! I’m back!”
Kasia was sitting by the Chieftain’s bedside.
Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she’d been crying for a long time.
When she saw me, a single tear rolled down her cheek, as if she had no more tears left.
Why… why did you come so late…. I waited for so long!
Though she’d said she was fine letting me go, clearly, she wasn’t.
She seemed to resent me for leaving her side.
Blood still flowed from the wounds all over the Chieftain’s body, leaving his skin ghostly pale.
If not for the faint sign of breathing, anyone would have thought he was already dead.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I had to get Porti Potion. Quickly, sprinkle this on his wounds.”
No! Father’s breathing is—
As the Chieftain’s chest, which had been rising and falling so weakly, slowly stopped moving, Kasia broke into tears.
It’s not too late yet.
“Don’t, don’t give up yet! We’re not too late!”
I told Kasia to pour the Potion on the wounds and climbed onto the Chieftain’s body.
First, I had to restore his breathing!
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which I’d practiced countless times as a Hunter trainee.
I placed both hands on the Chieftain’s chest and pressed down with my body weight.
I could feel the bleeding worsen at the wound sites.
But I’d have to leave the bleeding to the Potion.
I couldn’t worry about both at once.
“Kasia! Don’t stop—keep pouring Potion on the wounds!”
O-okay!
Maybe feeling my determination to save the Chieftain, Kasia snapped out of her panic.
Chest compressions, then artificial respiration, then chest compressions again.
Ah! The bleeding, the bleeding is finally stopping!
“Now, if only his breathing comes back!”
Huff, huff, huff, huff.
Kh, kuhuk!
!!
!!
Blood spurted from the Chieftain’s mouth.
The blood that had blocked his airway from the hemorrhaging was expelled by the chest compressions.
Soon, the Chieftain’s chest swelled, and his breathing resumed.
“Huff, huff. For now, for now, he’s breathing again.”
I handed Kasia another bottle of Potion and told her to pour it over his wounds.
The last bottle, I slowly poured into the Chieftain’s mouth.
Slowly, color returned to the Chieftain’s deathly white body.
“It’s working!”
Very slowly, but surely, I could see the wounds starting to heal.
“Haa…”
Maybe because the tension was released, my whole body lost its strength.
By now, had the additional Potions arrived?
I had to go get them… but I couldn’t get up.
I’d used every last bit of strength to perform CPR to save the Chieftain.
Just then, I heard voices murmuring outside.
I’ll go check.
Kasia, having regained her composure, went out and returned with Han Suyeon and four other healers.
They had been surrounded by elves who mistook them for intruders.
Fortunately, Kasia recognized Han Suyeon’s face, so she was able to bring them in before it was too late.
“Ahh! The wounds are terrible!”
Han Suyeon screamed as soon as she saw the Chieftain.
“Here, take these first. I got them from the front of the house. And everyone else, please help the other elves.”
Han Suyeon sent the four healers to help the other elves.
When I opened the package Han Suyeon handed me, there were eleven Potions inside, one of which was in a different-shaped bottle.
There was also a note.
[This is an Intermediate Potion. It’s a one-of-a-kind success, so please use it where it’s most needed.]
Baek Seonwoo really went out of her way for me.
I made a note to thank her properly when this was all over, and discussed the next steps with Han Suyeon.
“Penetrating injuries. These are serious… There must’ve been a lot of bleeding, but you managed to stop it. Luckily, the color’s mostly good, too. But these bloodstains…?”
As expected of a top-class healer from a national party, Han Suyeon assessed the patient’s condition at a glance.
“The bleeding only just stopped. There was at least six hours of bleeding.”
“Six hours?! That’s impossible… How did you hold out that long?”
Han Suyeon was shocked, but she naturally began using her Healing Skill and asked for help.
“Please pour some Potion on the wounds!”
The lower-grade Potions wouldn’t be enough.
I decided to use the Intermediate Potion for the Chieftain and save the others for the rest of the elves.
Without delay, I opened the bottle of Intermediate Potion and poured it on the wounds.
Chiii—
A sound I hadn’t heard when using the lower-grade Potions echoed.
The wounds are healing.
The reason the Chieftain survived this long wasn’t just his physical strength, but also because Kasia devotedly nursed him with Porti.
Thanks to the Healing Skill, the wounds were visibly healing.
“Thank goodness the Porti works well. You’ve worked hard.”
“Once I gave him the Porti Potion formulated by Kanghan Group, his color returned, too.”
“Ah, that Potion. I heard it contains ingredients that promote blood production in Porti. That must be why.”
That was new to me.
Since I’d left it entirely to Kanghan Group and Baek Seonwoo, and since the Potions were being given to Hunters first for trials, it made sense Han Suyeon, as an active Hunter, heard the news first.
“There was a Healing Skill Debuff and bleeding, so the recovery was slow, but with the Potion and skills combined, the recovery amount is high enough to overwhelm it.”
Han Suyeon’s forehead was dotted with sweat from using her Healing Skill repeatedly.
“Whew. At this point, I think most of the wounds are healed. However… since the injuries are so severe, I can’t say for certain when he’ll regain consciousness.”
I conveyed Han Suyeon’s words to Kasia, and she was so relieved that her legs gave out and she slumped to the floor.
Thank goodness… Truly, thank goodness…
[Elf ‘Kasia’ feels deep gratitude in her heart to ‘Do Minho’ and ‘Han Suyeon’ for helping her tribe.]
[‘Do Minho’, ‘Kasia’, and ‘Han Suyeon’ are experiencing Sympathy.]
[The unique ability ‘Sympathy’ grows stronger.]
It allows you to share your heart and communicate with other life forms.
The minimum affinity rises with those you’ve shared Sympathy with.
*Yudae: Enables communication between those with established Sympathy.
*Resonation: Builds a relationship of trust between those with Yudae.
*Sharing: Allows some stats or skills to be shared with those in Sympathy.
*Understanding: You can sense the emotions of those you’re in Sympathy with.
‘It hasn’t been long since I got the Sharing Skill, but now I’ve gotten another new skill?’
Though it’s an ability to sense the other person’s feelings, it doesn’t seem very useful.
Since you can only feel the emotions of those you’re in Sympathy with, not everyone.
‘I have had a lot of Sympathy moments lately. Can I use it now? Should I try?’
First, I used the skill on Suyeon, who was slumped in exhaustion.
Focusing on Suyeon, I slowly began to feel her emotions.
Pride, fatigue, guilt… guilt? Even though most of the wounds are healed, why does she feel guilty?
Satisfaction…
‘Is it because the Chieftain hasn’t regained consciousness?’
Next, I tried using it on Kasia.
Compared to Suyeon, I felt more negative emotions.
‘Worry, anxiety, sadness, relief, gratitude. That’s understandable. He hasn’t woken up yet.’
These sorts of emotions are obvious from their expressions and actions, so the skill still doesn’t seem very useful.
‘Well, it’s better than nothing. At first I was disappointed with only one Sympathy skill, but… I didn’t expect it to be a growth-type skill.’
After a while, the healers returned from treating the other patients.
They all looked utterly exhausted.
‘How should I reward them…’
They’re Hunters too, and time is money for them.
“I didn’t get to introduce myself earlier, so let me do it now. I’m Do Minho.”
The healers each introduced themselves in turn.
They seemed relieved now that everything was over.
Then, they finally spoke about what happened earlier.
“Whew, when the elves surrounded us earlier, I thought we were done for. The elves are all so beautiful and handsome, but they’re really scary when they want to be.”
They laughed and joked about the earlier incident.
It seemed the tension had lifted.
“Thank you all for coming to help on such short notice. How should I compensate you?”
The healers burst out laughing.
“Uh? Why are you laughing…?”
The one who seemed to be their leader replied on their behalf.
“Did you know you’re a VIP at the Association of Superhumans, Mr. Do Minho?”
“Uh… am I? I figured as much, but no one’s ever told me directly.”
“It’s because you’re a VIP that the Association sent us. We’re part of the Association, so you’ll get the compensation and bonus from them anyway.”
Healers are highly valued in dungeons because of their Healing Skills.
In dungeons, where your life is always at risk, just having a healer can help you deal with half the dangers.
To think they’d send five such valuable people.
I was deeply grateful, knowing how things worked at the Association.
The healers didn’t seem to have time to linger either.
“This place is fascinating, but I guess it’s not the right time. We’ll rest a bit and head back.”
Even though they must be curious about Eliya, I appreciated that they were considerate of the elves and refrained.
Suyeon, her tension finally released, collapsed and fell asleep.
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