I came down from Mount Obong, boarded a bus, and then transferred to the subway.
Throughout the journey, I kept my eyes wide open, terrified that the bag containing my potions would get knocked around or stolen.
Eventually, I reached my destination: Yongsan, Seoul.
The district had once been famous for its electronics market, but now it had become something of an all-purpose marketplace for the Awakened.
Items found in dungeons were bought and sold there, both wholesale and retail, and Awakened frequently traded with one another directly.
Above all, people who had awakened artisan abilities had begun opening businesses here, turning Yongsan into the mecca of Korea’s Awakened.
‘I used to think I’d open a shop here one day too…’
It had seemed only natural, since my ability was technically related to making items.
Unfortunately, unlike other crafters, I could synthesize only liquids, and the cooldown was far too long for mass production.
I had realized ages ago that running a shop was out of the question.
Jingle!
“Welcome!
Oh?
Gyuseong, is that you?”
As I opened the door, the owner, Yeongseong, welcomed me warmly.
I had been coming to this shop since I first became Awakened.
As we gradually grew closer, he became someone I could count on, buying my potions at fair prices.
“How have you been, hyung?”
“Same as always.
But you’re back after only a week this time?”
“Yeah.
And I’ve brought quite a lot.”
“Hm?
Did something happen all of a sudden?
Need money for something?”
Yeongseong was about fifteen years older than me, which was probably why he treated me affectionately, almost like a nephew.
Rather than answering, I pulled every potion out of my bag and lined them up on the counter.
There were eighteen in total, half the stock I had painstakingly saved up.
Considering that I had used my ability every single day for more than three years, the amount I had left wasn’t particularly impressive, but my everyday expenses had made it impossible to save more.
“Gyuseong, tell your big brother.
Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing like that.
I was just thinking of exploring some dungeons.”
“All of a sudden?”
“It’s because of my quest.”
My third quest had held me back for three years, but I hadn’t told anyone that.
It wasn’t exactly good news, and there was no reason to bring it up and invite pity or, worse, contempt.
Of course, Yeongseong and my family would never look down on me.
Still, I had my pride.
‘If telling someone could help me clear the quest, I’d swallow my pride and tell them in a heartbeat.
But if it doesn’t help, why bother?’
Yeongseong probably had a rough idea of what my ability was, but there was no way he knew I was still stuck on my third quest.
Of course, I was selling off my stock now because I finally thought there might be a way to solve that problem.
“Sounds like you’ll be spending quite a while in the dungeons?”
“Yeah.
A few days, maybe even months.”
“Tsk.
You’ve got it rough.
If you ever need help, tell me.
I might not look like much, but I’ve got connections.”
His shop might have been small, but anyone able to run a business in Yongsan surely had some connections.
I didn’t need his help right then, but I appreciated the offer and bowed my head.
“Thank you, hyung.
I’ll definitely use my big-brother favor when I’m really in trouble.”
“That’s right.
Don’t hesitate to ask, anytime.”
After neatly arranging my potions, he asked me to wait a moment and disappeared into the room at the back of the shop.
A short while later, he returned carrying a thick envelope.
“Here’s your money.
I put in a little extra on purpose, so don’t get the wrong idea.
Just take it.”
“Hyung, you really don’t have to do that.”
“Tsk, you little punk.
We’ve known each other for three years.
Think of it as some pocket money from your big brother.
Compared with what I’ve earned thanks to your potions, it’s nothing.”
There was no reason to refuse something he was offering so sincerely.
Still, maybe it was because I had spent so much time alone in the dungeon lately, or because of the hardships I had endured and what had happened yesterday.
Whatever the reason, I suddenly felt overwhelmed with emotion.
“…Thank you.”
“Sure.
You look thinner every time I see you, so make sure you’re eating properly.
It’d be a waste to ruin that handsome face, you punk.”
I thanked him, then turned to leave before he could see how choked up I had become.
“Hey, Lee Gyuseong!”
“Yes?”
“Take this, too.”
Yeongseong suddenly came running after me and pressed something into my hands.
Looking down, I saw a cloth-wrapped box.
The words ‘Hoengseong Korean Beef’ were written in enormous letters on the wrapping.
“Go grill yourself some meat.”
“But, hyung…”
“I happened to have some left over, that’s all.
You’re not going straight back home like this, are you?
Since you’ve finally come out, go see your family too.
Take it over and eat it together.”
“Thank you.
I’ll enjoy it, hyung.”
Instead of refusing, I bowed once again and left the shop.
The envelope of money in my breast pocket and the meat in my hand both felt unusually heavy.
“This won’t be enough.”
Looking at the meat Yeongseong had given me, I smiled bitterly and made my way back to Yangju, where my family lived.
* * *
“How long has it been?”
My family home wasn’t far from the dungeon where I stayed, yet it felt as though almost a month had passed since my last visit.
I could have come more often because it was close, but I hadn’t.
How could I face my family after spending three years going nowhere?
I hadn’t done anything wrong, yet I’d still found myself reluctant to visit.
Beep!
Beep-beep-beep!
Chime!
“I’m home.”
When I opened the front door, my mother heard my voice and rose from the sofa, where she had been watching television.
“Oh, goodness.
Why didn’t you call before coming?”
“I’ll have to go back soon anyway.
Where’s Dad?”
“He should be home any minute.
I thought it was your father coming in.
Oh, that’s right.
Have you eaten?”
“I actually brought some meat.
Are the kids out?”
“Jaeseong will be back soon.
Seona went on a university trip yesterday.
She probably won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“Oh, she went on an orientation trip?
Must be nice being a university student.”
I set down my things and glanced around the house.
Nothing had changed.
To an outsider, it would have looked like an ordinary household, but I knew our financial circumstances weren’t very good.
I had played a significant part in causing that situation.
“How have things been lately?
You’re doing all right, aren’t you?”
“I’m getting by.”
After giving her a vague answer, I took the envelope from my pocket.
I had already set aside the money I needed to live on, so I handed her the rest.
“Mom, here.
Put this toward the household expenses.”
“Oh, you.
Where did this money suddenly come from?
It’s fine.
Keep it and use it yourself.”
The reason I had been able to become Awakened in the first place was that my parents had poured an enormous amount of money into supporting me.
There were two ways to become Awakened: natural awakening and forced awakening.
‘It cost hundreds of millions of won.’
To be honest, even I didn’t know the exact figure.
Back then, my father’s business had been doing well, so the expense hadn’t seemed like much of a burden.
But life had a way of turning everything upside down.
His once-thriving business abruptly began to fail, and by then we’d already spent so much on making me Awakened that abandoning the attempt seemed just as difficult.
Faced with an impossible choice, my father had ultimately chosen me.
‘And after all that, the ability I awakened was just Liquid Synthesis.’
He had never shown his disappointment, but I was certain he’d been the most devastated when he heard what ability I’d received.
“It’s not much.
But I do earn a little money, even if I’m not a very impressive Awakened.
Think of it as some spending money from your son.”
“You should invest that money in your ability so you can earn more.
Put it away.”
“Mom.”
“I said it’s fine.
Use it for yourself.”
Beep-beep-beep!
Chime!
Just then, my father returned home, with my younger brother Jaeseong beside him.
“Huh?
Hyung?”
“So you’ve come home, Gyuseong.”
Jaeseong, the second child, had been working at a small restaurant since last year.
He had graduated from a junior college and, perhaps because he was the middle child between me and our youngest sister, Seona, he had grown up much faster than either of us.
If it hadn’t been for me, he might have gone abroad to a culinary school in somewhere like France and already become a successful chef.
Thinking about that made me feel guilty.
“Welcome back, Dad.
Been a while, Jaeseong.”
“What were you doing?
And what’s that?”
“I wanted to help out with the household expenses.
Dad, you take it.”
When I tried to give the envelope to my father, my mother snatched it up.
“Hey, he said he was giving that to me!”
“He was going to give it to me originally.”
Watching my parents bicker, I handed Jaeseong some spending money too.
It was only 100,000 won, but I felt indebted to him and wanted to give him something.
“What’s this money for?
It’s fine.
Keep it, hyung.”
“How did you manage to say exactly the same thing as Mom, word for word?
Should I just give it to Seona, then?”
“No, in that case, I’ll take it.”
After another round of lively chatter, we all sat down to dinner.
We talked about this and that, but I could barely join the conversation.
I simply smiled awkwardly and listened.
Was it because I had spent so much time holed up inside a dungeon?
I didn’t even know what was fashionable in the outside world anymore, let alone the latest big news stories or gossip.
“When are you going back?”
I was grilling the meat when my father asked.
I shrugged.
“Right after dinner.”
“Why not stay and rest for a few days?”
“Come on, Dad.
What would I do with a break?
I wouldn’t have anything to do even if I took one.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“…”
My father spoke in his usual matter-of-fact way, but for some reason his words brought the past three years rushing back to me.
I hadn’t taken even a single day off.
Anyone looking at me might assume I’d spent every day resting, since I hadn’t cleared my quest or made any progress.
But that wasn’t true at all.
Once I realized that day after day was passing while I remained stuck in the same place, even the moments when I did nothing stopped feeling like rest.
“Here, Mom will grill the meat.
Try this lettuce wrap instead.
Open wide.”
“Ah…
Mm.”
I took the wrap my mother had made for me and chewed diligently, but couldn’t taste a thing.
Two contradictory feelings kept crossing my mind: that I shouldn’t have come home, and that I was glad I had.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“We’re the ones who should thank you.
Anyway, come home more often.
What’s a mother supposed to do when it’s so hard to see her son’s face?”
My mother gave me a bright smile.
Afterward, my family insisted that I stay the night, but I stubbornly refused and headed back to the dungeon.
On the way, a strange feeling settled over me.
“Why am I getting so sentimental?”
Would I have felt this way if I hadn’t awakened a second time?
I doubted it.
They say the most dangerous moment for someone stranded at sea is when land finally comes into view.
The sight of hope, together with the deceptive way the shore seems closer than it really is, drives some people to leap into the sea and drown rather than endure that final short stretch of waiting.
‘I think I understand that feeling a little now.’
It was still too early to celebrate or cry.
I could let my emotions burst out once I had truly succeeded.
I couldn’t afford to relax while everything was still so uncertain.
Lost in thought, I soon found myself back at the dungeon, where the familiar scenery unfolded before me.
As though they had been waiting for me, Mark Two and Slime One immediately came to greet me.
Squirm…
Squish!
Squish!
“Did you have a good day?
Have you been working hard?”
Squirm!
Hm?
I had thought the scenery looked familiar, but something green had caught my eye.
At first, I wondered whether I was seeing things because of the slimes.
Yet when I looked again, there really was something green growing there.
“Sprouts?”
Trying to calm my pounding heart, I ran straight toward the vegetable patch.
I could feel the slimes chasing me as fast as they could.
“They’re not…
weeds, are they?”
I wasn’t completely sure, but weeds wouldn’t sprout a pair of seed leaves like these…
would they?
No, anyone could see that these weren’t weeds.
“This is insane…”
Was it thanks to the slimes?
But could something really grow so much in just one day?
Maybe the seeds had been about to sprout anyway and the slimes had just happened to be there at the right moment.
“Huh!”
Whatever the explanation, one thing was certain: the seeds had finally sprouted.
After three years without even a single sprout, this was my first real accomplishment.
Right beside me, as I stood there overwhelmed with emotion, Mark Two swelled and wobbled proudly, as though demanding praise.
Squish!