Seven hours later. A one-room apartment in Seoul. A bright, sunny afternoon.
I fiddled with my phone as I listened to the summer cicadas buzzing beyond the window. For the record, this was after I had thoroughly cleaned up every trace of what had happened at the abandoned building. In other words, seven hours had passed since my failure.
"Whoo."
I hadn't slept a wink. Between erasing the bank robber's DNA that had been scattered all over the place and transferring the assets I'd buried underground back into my bank account, my head was already spinning.
"Ha, right. I need to hold on. This isn't the time to rest..."
I splashed cold water over my face to chase away the fatigue, then immediately began reviewing what had happened.
First, the result of the body exchange ritual performed in that abandoned building could be summed up in a single sentence.
"The soul of a great wizard cannot be contained within the body of a C-rank Hunter. The specifications of the body and soul are incompatible, causing the body to break down."
But the more I thought about it, the stranger that conclusion seemed.
"Huh."
After all, I had been using Kim Giryeo's body perfectly well for months!
This blond body with its dead-fish eyes. Despite the fact that this oddly built vessel had tested at a mere F-rank upon awakening, making it practically disposable, it had endured the weight of my soul without the slightest problem.
And yet a C-rank Hunter's body—even though that was considered a mid-tier awakened body here—had been destroyed simply because the difference in level was too great?
"Hmm..."
I instinctively covered my mouth as I sank into thought. Before long, a compelling hypothesis began to take shape in my mind.
If the idea that had just occurred to me was correct, then yesterday's failure wasn't something to regret at all.
In fact, it might even be something worth celebrating.
However, a hypothesis only had value if there was evidence to support it.
"Evidence..."
I stood there thinking for a moment before letting out a frustrated sigh.
"Aha."
I had just realized my mistake.
Come to think of it, I already had a way to prove the hypothesis that had occurred to me.
"Damn it."
Now that I'd finally remembered, should I ask the person responsible directly?
Tuk, tuk, tuk.
I turned on my phone and dialed someone's number.
After a few rings, a familiar silence greeted me.
"..."
It was his characteristic habit—waiting without saying a word until the caller spoke first.
"Hello, Hunter Kang Changho."
The person who answered was Kang Changho, South Korea's third S-rank Hunter.
"I'm sorry for calling you out of the blue. Do you have a moment to talk?"
"Say it."
"It's nothing serious. There's just something random I've been wondering about."
"What?"
"It's about the terms of our contract..."
Even after finding myself in the bizarre situation of having my life threatened by that towering S-rank Hunter, I had never really bothered to dig into the reason behind it.
After all, my knowledge of magic existed on a level far beyond ordinary understanding.
In theory, that meant I possessed the potential to use every kind of magic known on Earth. The only problem was my lack of mana.
Even so, with the driver affecting my body, I was effectively equipped with an enormous variety of skills, almost as if I were carrying an entire arsenal of magical abilities with me.
"So I assumed that whatever Kang Changho, the owner of [Improvement], wanted from me wasn't particularly important."
But after the corpse explosion incident early this morning...
I had begun to wonder.
Had the matter I'd been dismissing all this time really been so trivial?
"Ahem."
I cleared my throat lightly, easing the dryness from my smoker's throat, and continued.
"Anyway, what I wanted to ask was... Hunter Kang, what exactly was the name of the skill you intended to steal from me using [Improvement]?"
"..."
"I'd like you to tell me clearly this time."
Kang Changho finally answered.
"– That's certainly an out-of-the-blue question."
Clink.
At the same time, the sound of utensils being set down came through the speaker.
It was ten in the morning. A little late for breakfast, so perhaps he was having brunch or something.
"– What I was after with [Improvement]? I thought you already knew the answer. You never bothered asking about it before."
I remained silent for a moment.
"– And now, all of a sudden, you're asking about that skill... Why would you need to hear the name of an ability you already possess from someone else's mouth..."
When I still said nothing, he eventually let out a breath, as though something had finally clicked.
"– Ah."
The conversation continued.
"– Oh my. I didn't want to believe it, but... you don't even know for certain whether you possess the skill, do you?"
I casually shook my head and switched the phone from my right hand to my left.
"It's not that I don't know. I was just a little confused for a moment. But judging by the way you're talking, it seems we were referring to the same skill after all."
"..."
"May I ask you one more thing?"
"– Go ahead."
"Actually, this is what I'm really curious about. Hunter Kang, you were able to identify the skill I possess just by looking at me with your own eyes, weren't you?"
Right.
[Dragon's Eye].
Until now, my attention had been focused entirely on the lungs, so I hadn't paid much attention to that particular area.
However, whenever Kim Giryeo's body was observed using a certain item called [Dragon's Eye], a distinctive phenomenon always appeared.
A mysterious ripple.
Until now, I had simply assumed that it was caused by the difference between our souls, but looking back, that had been an awfully careless conclusion.
"Why did the sight of mana wavering make you think of a specific skill?"
I tightened my grip on the phone as I asked.
Kang Changho, however, did not answer immediately.
All I heard was a dry swallow, as though he were deep in thought.
"– Hmm."
After a moment of contemplation, Kang Changho finally spoke.
"– For some reason, I don't really feel like telling you... If I explain this, you'll become far too aware of your own value."
"Is that so?"
"– But judging from the way you're asking, it seems you've already figured out half of it yourself. And since we have a contract in place anyway, well..."
It doesn't matter.
The man who said that took a sip of what sounded like an iced drink before beginning his explanation.
"– Do you happen to know Choi Jin?"
"Yes?"
"– She's not a Hunter who works in Seoul. She's an awakened person ranked third or fourth. Short hair..."
"Ah, yes. I know who you mean."
"– Then you probably also know that the woman wears [Dragon's Heart]."
Why was the name of the Dragon Slayer suddenly coming up?
"– Anyway, listen carefully."
Before I could voice my confusion, he continued on his own.
"– In my entire life, I've only seen two cases where someone's mana fluctuated like that. The first was when an awakened ability had been sealed by an item such as [Twisted Rabbit's Ford]. The more heavily the awakening value was suppressed, the more violently the mana fluctuated, almost like boiling water. But a few years ago, I discovered another case."
He continued.
"– I went to observe an awakened person who had swallowed a newly discovered artifact called [Dragon's Heart], which had dropped in Singapore. Choi Jin... That Hunter didn't jump from B-rank to A-rank instantly. It took roughly eight hours for [Dragon's Heart] to fully settle into her body. When she first returned to Korea and underwent a reawakening test, she measured in the top 50% of B-rank. On the second test, she reached the top 3% of B-rank. Finally, once the changes stopped, she measured in the top 20% of A-rank, where she remains today."
Thud.
Had Kang Changho just set his drink down on the table?
Or had that familiar sound simply come from the cheap speakers of my budget smartphone?
"– I know because I watched the entire process from a distance, but while those changes were taking place inside Choi Jin's body... there was definitely the same kind of trembling."
With all those premises laid out, arriving at the conclusion wasn't difficult.
"– I think that should be enough of an explanation. Can I hang up now?"
A moment later, the call ended.
I didn't even wait for my phone screen to go dark before reaching for the clothes hanging beside me.
Chatter.
Countless sounds mingled inside the clean white building.
Footsteps.
The creak and clatter of military equipment.
The murmur of employees chatting among themselves in the quiet office area.
This was the Hunter Association's awakening test reception center, a department responsible for everything involving the PIXY magic detection device, including appeals concerning disputed ranks.
However, awakening itself was a rare phenomenon, so compared to the other departments, the staff here had quite a bit of time to slack off...
"Heuk!"
It happened then.
One of the employees sitting behind the desk suddenly sprang to their feet, eyes wide with alarm.
At that, the others who had been engrossed in conversation slowly raised their heads and held their breath.
Tak, tak, tak.
Soon, the sharp sound of high heels echoed through the room, inexplicably filling the air with tension.
"Ah, hello. Hunter Kim Giryeo..."
Sssk.
Surprisingly, however, the blond man who had approached in long strides simply reached for the nearby dispenser and pulled out a numbered ticket.
Up to that point, his behavior was almost unnervingly ordinary for a regular customer.
"C, come this way! What brings you here?"
But the moment the man realized there was no one else waiting, he made a startling request.
"Please call whoever is in charge. I'd like to use the Association's latest awakening test machine."
"Yes?"
Tuk.
Immediately afterward, the man placed a thick bundle of blue banknotes on the desk.
"Right now."
Since no subsidies applied, the man paid the entire 3.46 million won advanced re-examination fee upfront.
Faced with the weight of that bundle of cash, the employees hurried to their feet and began guiding him through the procedure.
Before long, Giryeo found himself standing in front of a familiar-looking machine...
......
"Uh, if you're carrying any sensitive electronic devices, such as a phone or mana device, please hand them over here first. Ah! Yes, just lie down with your head facing that way."
Choi Jin, the person who had obtained the heart-shaped magical artifact.
And an awakened person suffering from a debuff that sealed their power.
The two cases mentioned by South Korea's third S-rank Hunter had one thing in common.
"It only happens when the awakening level is continuously fluctuating..."
In other words, whenever a disturbance occurred within someone's internal magical power, the PIXY magic detection device registered it as a fluctuation.
But this body was immune to the vast majority of abnormal conditions.
And aside from Blueshell's, whose effects had already stabilized, I had never come into contact with any equipment capable of increasing magical power.
Then why did Kim Giryeo's magical power appear to be 'unstable'?
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