Chapter 166

 

“Ugh, he’s so fucking heavy!”

I barely managed to drag him to the edge of the pit, but now the problem was how to get this bulk down below. All I had was one thin rope. I tried tying up the unconscious Seong San-ha front to back, side to side, every which way, but nothing seemed to work.

‘Since he’s asleep anyway, should I just push him off…? I can treat him before he wakes up.’

I was momentarily tempted, but eventually had no choice but to plop down in my spot. Looking down into the pit, I could see Cloud and Root staring up at me endlessly. I waved my hand to make them move aside, then embraced Seong San-ha who was lying on the ground.

“Shit… if only I had a flying skill.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, rolled my body, and threw myself down. Landing back-first and hitting the ground, the combined weight of myself and Seong San-ha created an even greater impact that assaulted my entire body.

“Urgh…”

I curled up into a ball, letting go of the body I had been holding. As I writhed in pain, Cloud and Root approached worriedly and circled around me.

I didn’t even have the presence of mind to take out a potion, so I crouched there for a while enduring the pain. As soon as it got a little better, I pulled out a potion and drank it down. As the potion’s energy spread through my blood vessels, the pain began to subside.

As expected of my potion. I was nodding and admiring it when Cloud’s pink nose and Root’s panting tongue came into my view. Soon their moist, soft tongues began licking me all over.

“Uhaha. Stop, stop! That tickles!!”

“Woof woof!”

“Baaah!”

“Ahahaha!”

After wrestling around for a while, I was completely drained. I stared blankly at the ceiling and let out a slow sigh.

‘What the hell kind of situation is this?’

Cloud, whom the cultists were desperately searching for, and Root, the dog that Tae Jae-heon cherished. Seong San-ha was injured and unconscious, and one of his arms was still twitching grotesquely. Each one was a heavy, large burden—though Cloud was small and cute.

At least I was the world’s only S-rank Potion Master, otherwise if I were an ordinary hunter, I wouldn’t have known what to do with them.

“Hmph. I’ll protect you all properly. Cloud, Root. Follow me.”

I stood up abruptly and hoisted Seong San-ha on my back. I had tied up Seong San-ha tightly in case of fractures when falling down, and this actually worked out well since his long limbs didn’t dangle around when carrying him. I walked inside with Root and Cloud.

I needed a bright, spacious place to examine Seong San-ha and Root and make potions, so I had no choice but to return to the cavern. But having Seong San-ha and the statues in the same place gave me an oddly uneasy feeling.

I deliberately turned my eyes away from the statues. I approached Seong San-ha, who was lying on a flat rock, and rolled up his sleeves.

“Just how far does this go?”

It was getting worse every time I looked. Even rolling up past his elbow, I couldn’t see the end of the affected area, so I had no choice but to undress Seong San-ha. When I untied the strings and opened up his top, revealing his abs and pecs, my jaw dropped.

“Whoa…”

Even though he was unconscious and not flexing at all, wasn’t this kind of cheating? Isn’t this bastard secretly flexing?

I sneakily lifted my t-shirt to check my own abs. Maybe because I’d been too busy with work lately to exercise, I wasn’t quite satisfied with what I saw. In contrast, Seong San-ha was…

No, that bastard is a hunter with combat skills. There’s a big difference between combat and non-combat types. I pouted, then confirmed that Seong San-ha was deeply asleep and poked his chest. His firm pecs and abs, even his cursed blackened forearms and upper arms, were incredibly solid.

‘Don’t tell me his lower body is like this too? That would be so unfair!!’

Given my profession, it was routine to sit in one spot for hours doing experiments, so compared to my confident upper body, my lower body was a bit, just a bit concerning. I was curious about how Seong San-ha would be. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever seen Seong San-ha’s lower body?

But I was just curious—I swear I had no intention of doing anything! I was just thinking, seriosuly just thinking about the facts!

But strangely enough, before I knew it, my hand had passed his abs and reached his belt. And at that moment, I heard a snorting sound from in front.

Startled, I jumped up and looked toward where the sound came from. Cloud and Root were lying down in front, looking at me with narrowed eyes. They seemed to be looking at me pitifully, so I waved both hands.

“No!! It’s not like that!!!”

“Baaah.”

“I said no! I was trying to see if Seong San-ha was hurt to treat him.”

“Woof-woof-woof-woof-.”

Root mockingly barked as if mimicking my words. My face turned bright red as I pulled out only Seong San-ha’s arm and covered him back up with his clothes. But the unnecessarily high-quality fabric kept sliding down, and Seong San-ha’s long legs kept dropping below the rock, which was annoying, so I just roughly covered him with clothes and used the rope to tie up Seong San-ha again.

“Phew, all done. Now let’s take a look.”

Now I could finally see the injured area. When I looked closely at Seong San-ha’s arm, the condition was serious. Blue veins bulging and pulsating, and skin that had turned deathly black. 

His nerves seemed to be moving on their own as his arm twitched constantly without rest. The black energy covering his entire arm had risen up to his shoulder and collarbone, rippling around his neck.

I tried using Divine Healing Touch, but as expected, it was impossible to interpret due to the unknown languages.

“Sigh, if only I knew what kind of curse this is.”

I might be able to handle poison, but curses aren’t my specialty. I tried having him smell some incense with awakening effects, but there was no movement at all – the situation seemed more serious than before. Feeling frustrated, I scratched my head and called Cloud.

“Cloud. Come here.”

“Baahhhh.”

Cloud jumped down from the rock he had been on and approached me. I started taking out and laying out appropriate materials between Cloud and myself. When Cloud saw the materials and started twitching his nose trying to pounce on them, I grabbed him to stop him.

“Whoa, Cloud. Wait. I’ll let you eat them soon, just wait a moment.”

“Baaaaaah!”

“What’s so sad about it? You have to help me whether you like eating or not.”

This won’t work. I held Cloud in my arms, stroking his head while looking at the materials in front.

Cursed Dreaming Branch, Cursed Wongjeo Mushroom, Cursed Small Stone, Cursed Blue Fragment, Cursed Cosmo Powder, and twenty other various cursed somethings.

“Cloud, try eating this.”

When I gave him the Cursed Wongjeo Mushroom, Cloud bit into it eagerly. The wide mushroom cap was left with small, round tooth marks as Cloud began chewing earnestly. Soon Cloud coughed lightly and spat out a bit of black smoke. He had successfully purified it. But it still wasn’t enough.

“Hmm, I need to absorb only the curse or poison.”

I couldn’t exactly feed Seong San-ha to Cloud as a meal. After pondering, I offered another Cursed Wongjeo Mushroom to Cloud. Cloud tilted his head, then bit into the Wongjeo mushroom again. Watching him shake his bottom while chewing deliciously, I suddenly held out my hand again and said:

“Cloud! Give it here!”

“Baaah?”

I beckoned to Cloud, who looked up with a bewildered expression.

“Spit it out, spit it out.”

Shake, shake. 

Cloud shook his head. And he started chewing even faster, clearly planning to swallow it quickly, so I hurriedly pulled out the ‘Cursed Evil Spirit Bone’ I had hidden and waved it while shouting:

“If you spit that out, I’ll give you this!”

“…Baahhhh!”

After pondering for a moment, Cloud spat the chewed Wongjeo mushroom into my hand. I gave him the Cursed Evil Spirit Bone to hold while I hurriedly appraised what had been the mushroom…

“Flamel’s Eye!”

 

<Almost Purified Wongjeo ■ Mushroom> 

A ■ food that fairies named Wongjeo particularly ■ like, growing in ■ groups between rock ■ crevices. 

˚

˚

The sacred energy of the universe protects you. You are no longer affected by ■■■■■’s curse.

 

“It worked!”

The Wongjeo mushroom was half-mashed and not completely purified, but at least the strange characters blocking the status window were gone and it said I wouldn’t be affected by the curse.

Excited, I took away the Cursed Evil Spirit Bone that Cloud had been sucking on and appraised it, and sure enough, it was effective.

 

<Slightly Purified Evil ■ ■ Bone> 

Beware of the ■■■■ evil spirits. Where ■■ took blood and ■■ and left, only white bones ■■■■■. 

˚

˚

The sacred energy of the universe protects you. You are no longer affected by ■■■■■’s curse.

 

Unlike the mushroom, the bone was intact except for being wet with saliva, probably because it couldn’t be chewed. Instead, the dark red energy that had been swirling around it had faded.

The commonly appearing “sacred energy” seemed to be the key…

Just in case, I tried appraising Cloud’s saliva, but nothing came up. So it meant that purifying curses was Cloud himself.

‘Hmm… this is a fucking ridiculous idea, but…’

I looked at Cloud, who was deliciously licking the bone next to Root, who was drooling.

“Cloud.”

Perhaps because I’d made him do so many strange things, there was insolence in Cloud’s eyes. I tried to smile kindly and waved Seong San-ha’s hand that I was holding.

“Cloud, would you… try eating this? Don’t bite, just lick…”

“Baaaaaah!!”

“You don’t want to? Just once though. Please?”

Cloud ran away with a disgusted expression. I chased after Cloud as he fled between the statues, pleading with him.

“Cloud. Seong San-ha needs to wake up so we can escape from here. Okay?”

“Baa!”

“You’re the only one who can do this! You purified the Wongjeo mushroom and the bone too. If I could do it myself, I would…”

Even if it wasn’t the answer, I had to try at least once. I was spouting whatever came to mind to convince Cloud when he suddenly stopped running and turned to look at me.

I sat down where I was and reached out my hand so Cloud wouldn’t be startled.

“Cloud. You’re a good boy, right?”

“Baaah.”

Cloud came up to me and tapped my hand with its nose. I reached out to pet it, but it gently bit my hand instead, like it was trying to get me to do something.

“What? What do you want me to do? Ingredients? No? Then what…”

I opened my hand, showing there was nothing in it. Cloud tapped it again. Thinking it might be asking for food, I reached into my bag, but it shook its head wildly, then flailed and pointed at my palm again. I stared in confusion until Cloud jumped up in frustration and started poking back and forth between my left ankle and the center of my palm.

It took two tries before I finally understood.

It was pointing at the sigil of Castor etched into my palm.

“…Why Castor?”

Cloud jerked its chin at me, then toward Seong San-ha.

It was almost like it was trying to say…

“You want me… to do it?”

“BaaAAhh!!”