By Zephyria 
“Defend me for a moment.”
In the brief opening created by Seo Gae-un, who immediately began protecting him, Tae-un closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness. The flow of magical energy, more accurate than what the naked eye could see, was clearly sensed.
The location of the core. The direction of the magical beast’s attack. The flow. The moment everything was calculated and input, Tae-un opened his eyes and leaped.
A wooden desk surged upward. Stepping on it in mid-air, he leaped toward the 2 o’clock position. The time it would take for the pillar to break completely: 4 seconds. He stepped on it before then and leaped again toward the 9 o’clock position. The magical beast’s subsequent attack was a steel frame shooting diagonally from the wall.
“…I can’t get used to this, no matter how many times I see it.”
Looking up from below, Seo Gae-un shook her head in amazement. With every leap, Tae-un was defying gravity, bouncing higher and higher. The way he predicted the magical beast’s attacks and used them to his advantage was as smooth as if he were moving with foresight of the future.
Humans aren’t supposed to be able to read magical energy, so she had no idea how he was predicting the attacks so accurately. Whenever she asked out of curiosity, he simply answered that it was a ‘feeling.’
Even if he truly possessed a hidden precognitive ability, how many people would have the physical prowess to respond perfectly without a single mistake in a battle where life and death are decided in an instant? Not only that, but any ordinary hunter would have run out of magical power after delivering the wide-range strike used to break the magical beast’s camouflage.
Watching him fight, she wondered if they shouldn’t establish a rank higher than S-class, like U-class or EX-class.
The sight of his back, with his long coat fluttering, disappeared amidst the onslaught of countless falling debris. Seo Gae-un also began to retreat, defending against the attacks directed at her.
Having quickly retreated outside the building, Seo Gae-un frowned as she looked up at the sky. Tae-un had leaped so high that he appeared only as a small black dot.
‘But where up there is he planning to find the core?’
The measuring device pointed upward, but in that high void, the building still stood tall despite the relentless attacks of debris. To avoid falling, one would have to leap continuously, making it seemingly impossible to find the exact direction using the measuring device.
At that moment, as if he had read her movement of retreating through magical power, a massive blade of darkness formed in the upper reaches and extended outward.
Seo Gae-un understood the answer to her question. When you don’t know exactly where the core is, isn’t the solution simple? Just cut everything.
The massive blade of darkness, concentrated with overwhelming energy, descended without hesitation. Soon, the darkness covered even Seo Gae-un’s field of vision.
“Kieeeeee…”
The scream of the magical beast, sensing its imminent death, rang out. The blade of darkness, striking down as fiercely as a guillotine, did more than just split the hidden core of the magical beast; it sliced through the building’s debris and crashed downward.
Finally, the core was destroyed, and the buildings completely collapsed and were pulverized. Seo Gae-un thought it was a relief that this wasn’t the real world. If he had split a building in half in reality, the cleanup would be more tedious than she ever wanted to imagine.
As Tae-un landed amidst the dust, he abruptly cut off Seo Gae-un, who was about to ask if he was hurt.
“Hyung didn’t see me fighting, did he?”
“…What on earth is your concept with the mentor?”
“Cute and fragile, pretty Un-i.”
“….”
“It’s not a concept, it’s a fact.”
“Ah, yes…”
The reality of a healthy adult man in his thirties referring to himself in the third person and acting cute might be more disastrous than the Id Portal…
Ignoring her distress, Tae-un diligently smeared dust all over his body. It was a level of meticulousness unlike the man who had left the magical beasts alone for Seo Gae-un to hunt. Unlike Seo Gae-un, who clearly looked like she had just been in a fight, Tae-un’s suit—which had remained relatively clean even after taking down a Portal Keeper alone—quickly became dirty.
This time, Seo Gae-un didn’t bother to ask why. No, she didn’t want to know. Absolutely not.
Even in an era where it had become natural for Awakened individuals to hunt magical beasts, the mechanism of awakening remained unclear. On the other hand, awakening brought an unparalleled turning point in one’s life. It was a situation where scammers claiming they could trigger an awakening were bound to thrive.
That was why Gwak Yun-sang was conflicted.
‘Is Mr. Kim Si-baek actually scamming people right in front of the Invitation Bureau hunters?’
Why would a hunter presumed to be S-class feel the need to scam people by offering to awaken them? The more he thought about it, the more confused he became, so Gwak Yun-sang decided to stop thinking and just watch.
The group was waiting for the two members of the Special Task Force to return after destroying the outer core. This meant that Tae-un—the man with the scary face and rumors even scarier than his face, who had been clinging to Kim Si-baek—had disappeared. Furthermore, several civilians, emboldened by the fact that even the not-so-polite Bae Jihan was being accepting, were huddled around him.
After a period of conventional yet sincere admiration—comments on how amazing and cool he was, and how he hadn’t become famous until now—they were having this conversation.
“You’re saying we can gain abilities through faith?”
Because the flow of conversation had been so natural, the people were a bit puzzled as to how the discussion had reached this point. They had no way of knowing that this was the proselytizing skill of a priest trained for decades.
“It probably won’t be as grand as the abilities hunters awaken. There won’t be such a dramatic change. For most, it will likely stop at things like becoming healthier or the body’s natural healing power increasing.”
“Eh, then it’s not a big deal.”
Despite calling it trivial, the people did not leave. Part of it was because they felt safe being near an S-class hunter, but above all, Kim Si-baek’s gentle voice had a calm pull that soothed the anxiety of being trapped in an Id Portal.
Bae Jihan, who had a history of being scammed, looked suspicious.
“If what you say is true, shouldn’t people like pastors or monks all be Awakened?”
“As I said, it is different from the abilities of hunters. Therefore, there may be those who have not yet realized it themselves.”
Kim Si-baek continued in a soft tone that didn’t make the listeners feel pressured.
“Humans are the species with the most superior intelligence among living beings, and the development of intelligence and civilization means that desires have diversified beyond primary survival in nature. Since the diverse desires of humans and the heart’s desire resulting from them can be said to be truly infinite, where else would there be a subject so appealing to a god who possesses infinity?”
“Sounds like a cult…”
“It doesn’t matter which divinity or religion. Those who go to temples, look into the sincere wishes within yourselves while praying to Buddha; those who go to cathedrals or churches, do so while praying to God. That might become the catalyst.”
In truth, no one believed Kim Si-baek’s words. It did sound like the logic of a cult.
However, his voice clung pleasantly to their ears, and since they might get healthier by praying, there was nothing to lose. He wasn’t asking for money, after all.
“In my case, the medium for calming my mind was this crow.”
“It wasn’t a pet?”
“I consider it a guardian deity.”
The expression ‘As expected, it’s a cult’ flashed across the people’s faces, but at the very least, they became acutely aware of the ugly baby crow sitting proudly on his crown.
Just as Gwak Yun-sang was tilting his head with thoughts like ‘A scam? A cult? Why on earth would an S-class hunter?’, the fog that had been densely surrounding the group surged. A dizzying sensation swept through his mind as the moments of separation overlapped.
The fog, which had been undulating like jelly, dispersed in an instant. The view cleared significantly. The white, closed horizon became faintly visible. Gwak Yun-sang’s face brightened.
“It seems the attack on the outer core was successful.”
Before long, two figures could be seen walking through the blurring fog. They had returned after about an hour. Seo Gae-un, drenched in dust and magical beast fluids, looked visibly exhausted, and Tae-un’s hair, which was always neat, was disheveled.
“Un-ah, good wor—”
“Hyung.”
Before Kim Si-baek could even finish his greeting, Tae-un let out a groan and collapsed weakly.