Chapter 18

Seo Hae-gun seemed equally stunned by what he was witnessing, rooted to the spot with a rare, blank stare.

Eui-rim stammered, “It seems… I possess a skill that halts time.”

“‘It seems’? What kind of ridiculous phrasing is that?” the Guild Master demanded. “It’s your own skill.”

Unable to shake off the absurdity of his own reality, Eui-rim didn’t know how to defend himself. I know that. It’s my skill, but today is the first time I’ve ever seen it!

“There were system errors,” the younger man managed to force out as the timer slipped past two minutes and twenty seconds. His voice quavered at the edges, sounding like someone freezing in a blizzard. “It’s difficult to explain in detail, but I suffered a severe status malfunction. For a long time, my skills were completely locked.”

“And you’re fine now?” Hae-gun asked, his piercing eyes raking over the healer.

“Not entirely,” Eui-rim replied, struggling to steady his breath. “Only a portion of the errors were unlocked just now.”

“Guild Master, we’re running out of time—” Eui-rim urged, glancing nervously at the timer.

“What’s your name?” Hae-gun cut in smoothly. With the countdown already dropping to one minute and fifty seconds, the S-rank hunter uncrossed his arms, straightened his tall frame, and flashed an effortless, disarming smile. “Come to think of it, I never properly asked for your name.”

Though the inquiry was absurdly ill-timed, a wave of profound relief washed over Eui-rim rather than irritation. The crushing tension drained from his limbs like a marathoner crossing the finish line, so much so that the dwindling countdown faded into the background.

It was a vital threshold—a demarcation line separating this moment from seconds ago, when the Guild Master hadn’t cared who he was or whether he was ripped apart by beasts.

Now, Eui-rim was no longer merely a suspicious, disposable D-rank Hunter; he had officially entered Seo Hae-gun’s orbit.

Just as he had been in the previous timeline, the healer was finally acknowledged as an individual human being. It mattered little whether the motive behind that gaze was clinical scrutiny or passing curiosity. What mattered was that he had crossed into Seo Hae-gun’s perimeter.

“My name is Kang Eui-rim,” the young man answered clearly.

“Kang Yi-rim?” Hae-gun repeated, tilting his head.

The familiar mispronunciation sent a sharp wave of nostalgia through his chest. Shaking off the ghost of the past, Eui-rim corrected him, “No. Eui-rim. Eui as in physician.”

“Ah. Kang Eui-rim,” the Guild Master murmured, rolling the syllables over his tongue.

Perhaps because the man was in peak physical health and composure compared to the ruined survivor of the bunker, his pronunciation was far crisper. A reflex of wry admiration almost surfaced in Eui-rim’s throat; had a horde of frozen monsters not encircled them, he might have offered a compliment.

“How much time is left?” Hae-gun asked.

Straightening his towering frame, the Guild Master began to lightly limber up. Tilting his neck from side to side until the joints popped, then rolling his broad shoulders and flexing his arms, the S-rank hunter looked every bit the apex predator readying for a slaughter.

Eui-rim checked the flashing timer. “About forty seconds left.”

“Plenty of time,” Hae-gun remarked with a lazy grin.

Forty seconds is plenty for a hundred beasts?! Eui-rim thought, dumbfounded.

As Eui-rim stood frozen in disbelief, Seo Hae-gun finished his warmup and waved a casual hand at the healer. “Water might splash. Step back.”

As the young healer scrambled backward, an overwhelmingly vast, cerulean mana bore down upon the clearing. A crushing pressure—akin to being dragged into the fathomless depths of an ocean trench—saturated the atmosphere, smothering even the faintest ambient whisper.

And then, the moment the countdown finally struck zero—

The severed carcass of the annelid beast from earlier shriveled into a desiccated husk.

Boom!

A chain of concussive detonations detonated like crimson fireworks as a gelatinous, jellyfish-shaped mass of sanguine fluid erupted from the carcass. The undulating organism aggressively gorged itself on sap from the surrounding trees, ballooning until it hovered like a grotesque, blood-red dirigible.

Grrroooaaar!

The moment time unfroze, the monsters surged forward, unleashing earsplitting shrieks. Seismic tremors rippled through the earth alongside their roars, shaking the entire mountainside with apocalyptic fury.

Whew

At Seo Hae-gun’s sharp whistle, the bloody fluid engorged on tree sap transfigured into hundreds of crystalline needles. Their tips honed into razor-sharp spikes in a fraction of a second, and—

Kieeeek!

They impaled the skulls of the stampeding monsters in a single, devastating volley.

Geysers of gore erupted from the carnage, converging into another unified torrent. Moving with ferocious, rhythmic choreography like an enraged swarm of hornets, the beasts’ carcasses collided, ruptured, and detonated across the clearing.

Krr-crack!

The crystalline thorns that had impaled the beasts’ skulls coalesced into the colossal maw of an aquatic dragon, swallowing the remaining survivors whole. From the pulverized viscera rose the choking stench of stagnant swamp water and metallic blood, out of which pristine torrents of azure liquid burst forth.

Then, a sudden, erratic movement caught Eui-rim’s eye.

A jet-black silhouette perched in the canopy suddenly wheeled around and plummeted straight toward the ground.

“Guild Master, above you!” Eui-rim screamed.

As a serrated beak plunged like a spear toward Seo Hae-gun’s skull, the healer’s body moved before his conscious mind could intervene. Without even calculating his mana expenditure, the earth beneath his boots flashed, golden light bursting into radiant bloom.

Wracked by a gut-wrenching sensation as though his very soul were being wrung dry, the phantom clockwork turned.

With the clattering strike of the second hand, the minute hand advanced a single notch, and the diving abomination froze in midair as though pinned to the sky by an invisible spike.

“Haah… haah…” Eui-rim’s chest heaved violently as he panted for air.

The breaths tearing from Eui-rim’s throat were violently ragged. Even though he had restricted the skill’s radius to a fraction of its prior reach, his reserves were so completely hollowed out that debilitating vertigo washed over him, as though he had sprinted a marathon without stopping for air.

Did my mana run dry already?

Having invoked a high-tier skill twice in rapid succession, utter depletion was only natural. Bracing trembling hands against his knees, the young man wheezed in agony. He wanted to bring up his status window to verify his remaining mana pool, but the spinning dizziness made it impossible to keep his eyes focused.

“You often hear people call you a reckless fool, don’t you?” Hae-gun’s voice drifted down.

“What? Haah…” Eui-rim could barely force out a syllable between gasps.

“I asked if you’re often told you’re self-sacrificing to the point of sheer idiocy,” the Guild Master clarified.

“No… I was always…” Eui-rim swallowed a mouthful of air, fighting the nausea. “…fairly ordinary.”

“And yet you burn through your life force claiming you’re trying to protect me?” Hae-gun asked, amusement edging his dry tone.

Flaring with indignation, Eui-rim forced his head up, catching sight of the S-rank hunter and the butchered carcass beside him. In the span of a single breath, the man had already dismantled the frozen abomination, its shredded remains littering the soil like the scales of a shattered pinecone.

Eui-rim grimaced, averting his eyes from the gory mess.

Right. An S-rank hunter hardly needed a D-rank’s protection. I wasn’t expecting gratitude, but isn’t this scolding a bit much?

“Then…” Eui-rim dragged in another shuddering breath, “…was I supposed to just… stand by and watch?”

“Didn’t you say today was the first time you ever used that ability?” Hae-gun pointed out, leaning down slightly. “You don’t even know your own thresholds yet. You shouldn’t recklessly burn out your core.”

Yet the healer’s resentment failed to hold. Caustic though the Guild Master’s delivery was, the substance of his warning was indisputable. If anything, beneath the biting sarcasm lay an undercurrent of genuine consideration for an inexperienced awakened, causing Eui-rim’s irritation to wither away.

“Haah… Still, if I can help…” Eui-rim muttered weakly, “…shouldn’t I?”

“Hahaha.” A low, bright chuckle spilled from Seo Hae-gun’s lips.

A genuine burst of laughter spilled from Seo Hae-gun’s lips. It was a bright, unfiltered laugh, completely devoid of the cynicism he had displayed until now.

The way his mouth curves upward softens his striking features completely. So even an S-rank hunter this imposing can look this gentle. But why is he laughing? Is watching me gasp for air really that entertaining?

A breathless chuckle slipped past Eui-rim’s lips at an unbidden memory from his childhood.

Back when the wonder of Christmas still felt real. His deceased younger brother, overcome with pure joy upon unwrapping a holiday gift, had worn an expression remarkably similar to the one on Seo Hae-gun’s face right now.

That delicate blend of excitement and delight, bewildered awe and pure wonder—it was the exact same expression.

As the last monster’s death rattle faded into nothingness, absolute silence reclaimed the mountainside. In the quiet broken only by the wind rustling the pine needles, Seo Hae-gun—who had closed the distance without making a sound—reached out and grazed Eui-rim’s blood-streaked cheek.

A sharp, prickling sensation stung the healer’s torn skin, making his brow furrow in reflex. Forcing his heavy eyelids up to meet the taller man’s gaze, Eui-rim saw blue-gray irises holding the fathomless depth of a midnight sea, shimmering with subtle currents.

Eui-rim glanced down at the calloused hand gently tracing his cheekbone.

Though a stinging ache flared across his abrasions beneath the touch, a strange, phantom tickle stirred as well, like a downy feather brushing across his skin.

“…That hurts,” Eui-rim whispered, wincing.

More flustered by the warmth than the pain, and far more rattled by the electric frisson than either, the younger man leaned his head back. At his retreat, the contours of Seo Hae-gun’s eyes softened into an amused crescent.

“Where on earth did someone like you roll in from?” Tracing the line of Eui-rim’s jaw with his thumb, the Guild Master continued in a low, velvet murmur, “I haven’t the faintest idea what your hidden agenda is. Though I suppose it hardly matters.”

“…” Eui-rim could only stare, breathless under the intensity of that fathomless gaze.

“Just get some sleep for a little while,” Hae-gun whispered softly. “We can talk once you wake up.”

“Pardon?” Eui-rim asked, blinking in confusion.

And before his sluggish mind could parse the bizarre instruction—

Thwack!

A brutal, explosive impact caved into his solar plexus, violently extinguishing all breath from his lungs.

You crazy bastard… The curse barely flared behind his clenched teeth before his vision gave out. As if a master breaker had been thrown, the world plunged into pitch-black nothingness, and Eui-rim’s consciousness snapped clean in two.

It happened in the fraction of a heartbeat—a strike so terrifyingly swift that neither evasion nor bracing was conceivable.

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