A/n: I realized I missed some things in the poll I posted yesterday.
So, here is the new and definitive one.
Please don’t vote via the chapter comments and just click on the character name itself and post a comment as a vote.
I’ll add one more harem member from Solo Leveling, so here is the poll: – Jin-ah – Baek Miho (She is a character from Solo Leveling: Ragnarok.) – Kanae Tawata – Querehsha’s vessel – Yoo Soohyun – Suggestions __________________ “It’s good to see familiar faces during raids.
How have you guys been?” Si-woo waved to the party he had raided with before and shook hands with the red-haired leader.
“With how frequently you raid, every hunter in Korea will be a familiar face to you by next week, Hunter Kang.” the redhead answered with a chuckle as his party members nodded behind him.
Si-woo dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand and a chuckle of his own before gesturing toward the gate with a jerk of his head.
The party responded by checking their gear, not that they would actually be needing any of it, before the leader nodded to Si-woo.
Just as before, the silver-haired man took the vanguard position as the rest of the party fell in directly behind him.
He paused at the threshold of the gate suddenly, his head tilted as he sensed the rank of the gate through its fluctuating mana.
“B-rank?
Last I raided with you, it was a C-rank gate, right?” he asked.
He turned back to the party, tilting his head as he sensed the mana of every single member before nodding to himself.
He spoke before anyone could formulate an answer.
“A second awakening, huh?
Congratulations, Hunter Song.” He tilted his head toward the bespectacled mage in the party.
The mage seemed to have climbed all the way from a C-rank to an A-rank.
“Thank you, Hunter Kang.
Please just call me Hyun-jae.” the nervous mage muttered with a polite bow.
“You could tell with just a single look?” the red-haired team leader observed with a bewildered expression.
“Hm?
Yes.
And I also sense a faint magic coming from that amulet on your neck.
Is this the one the orc mage had?” Si-woo asked the redhead, pointing with his chin.
“Yes, sir.
Most of the amulets gave me a burning sensation when I put them on.
This one did not for me, and another one did not for her, so we kept them and sold the rest.” The redhead pointed to the amulet on his own neck before pointing to a female party member, who had one tied securely around her waist.
“A protection amulet and one for healing.
That’s good,” Si-woo nodded with genuine happiness for the two, knowing that meant they would be far better protected inside the dungeons.
They continued walking deeper into the cave-type dungeon as they carried on with the conversation, though they had not come across any magic beasts yet.
“Sir?” the female party member walked up to his side with visible hesitation, prompting Si-woo to turn his head toward her.
“You just said this is a healing amulet, right?
You see, the amulet did not reject me, but I haven’t been able to figure out exactly how it works yet either.
Could you please help me with that?” She paused and bowed to him sincerely.
Si-woo was about to reply, but he paused and snapped his head forward before disappearing in a sudden flash.
In the darkness of the tunnels ahead, the party saw the bright flashing of a sword and heard the frantic screeching of creatures for a solid minute before Si-woo returned.
He reappeared just as he had gone, with no trace of blood on his clothes and no signs of physical fatigue.
“To answer your question, could you show me the amulet so I can see how it works?” Si-woo asked the woman.
She took a quick breath to compose herself before untying the amulet from her waist and handing it over to Si-woo.
They started walking forward again as Si-woo inspected the bone amulet in his hand.
It was made of crude, carved bone with a prominent orc rune symbol etched directly into the middle.
“You see this symbol?” He leaned to his side as he walked, showing the rune to the woman, who ran a few steps to catch up to his pace before she started walking right beside him.
“This is an orc rune that is capable of storing magic through sacrifice.” By now, the rest of the party had clustered just behind him as well, listening intently to his words.
“And this rune at the back,” he flipped the amulet over as he spoke, “is used to channel that stored magic into a healing spell when needed.” “How do I…
charge it, for lack of a better word?” she asked in a low whisper, scratching her cheek.
“I’ll show that to you the next time we encounter a magic beast, Hunter Seo,” Si-woo straightened up and offered her a nod.
She nodded in understanding.
The next time they saw a magic beast was inside the boss room, which Si-woo opened without much fanfare, bringing them face-to-face with a wind wyvern.
“This is good.
Wyverns live a long time, so they have incredibly high vitality,” Si-woo told Seo Rin.
He waved his hand casually, causing thick stone chains to sprout directly from the ground to restrain the wyvern.
The beast thrashed and screeched wildly, its eyes locked onto Si-woo as it desperately tried to run away from the man.
Si-woo did not bother with any unnecessary theatrics, walking over to tie the amulet to one of the wyvern’s claws before beheading the creature with a single, painless swing of his blade.
The sacrifice rune on the amulet glowed brightly, and the wyvern’s blood formed a stream before it started to get sucked directly into the bone itself.
Not all of the blood entered the amulet, and the entire process took only a single minute.
By the end of it, the beast’s corpse looked as if it had been killed weeks ago.
Si-woo untied the amulet from the wyvern’s claw and handed it back over to Rin.
“Keep it close to you at all times, and it will heal you automatically if you were to ever get hurt,” Si-woo explained.
The woman took no time in tying the amulet securely back to her waist.
“Can I use it to heal others?” she asked after tying the knot firmly.
Si-woo smiled at her question before regretfully shaking his head, causing Rin to look disappointed.
“It’s a good thing the amulet resonated with the party’s tank then.
If any of us behind you need healing, we’re already in massive trouble,” the red-haired leader grinned, placing his arm around Rin’s shoulder.
Si-woo smiled at the familiar scene, and the other party members seemed to agree with their leader’s logic.
“I’ll transport the corpse of this wyvern and the giant bats outside.
You all will have to deal with the mana crystals.
I guess the collection team will have to process the corpses outside,” Si-woo announced before getting straight to work.
He first dragged the wyvern outside before taking a cart from the collection team.
It took him only two more rounds to transport all the giant bats he had defeated earlier.
By then, the fighters of the party were busy mining the mana crystals while the mages used their magic to help the transport team wheel the crystals outside.
“Take care, everyone,” Si-woo bid farewell to the party, receiving waves from everyone as he walked away.
He looked up at the sky.
“It’s late,” he muttered before flickering away in a fast sprint toward his apartment.
He knocked briefly on the door of Jin-woo’s apartment before entering to see Jin-ah sitting on the couch in comfortable clothes.
“How was the party?” he asked, making her look up from her phone screen.
“It was good,” she answered.
“I learned some new things today,” she added slyly, patting the empty cushion beside her to indicate for Si-woo to sit down.
“Though, I didn’t expect to see you here.” she muttered, noting that the amount of time she could actually see Si-woo had lessened significantly after his awakening.
“Well, I figured I should pop by from time to time to make you worry less.” Si-woo smiled at her.
She leaned her head on his shoulder at his words.
“With Jin-woo getting into his gym guy phase, it’s a miracle if I ever see either of you two home,” she whispered with a pout.
Si-woo sighed and opened his arm, letting her rest her head comfortably against his chest.
“If you see Jin-woo tonight, tell him that the three of us will be going to see Aunt tomorrow morning.” Si-woo whispered to her as he gently stroked her hair.
Jin-ah nodded against his chest.
“It’s been some time since we have visited her together, huh?” Si-woo only answered with a quiet hum as they rested together for a silent moment.
He pulled out his phone with his free hand, typing out a quick text to Hae-in.
– I’ll be a little late tomorrow.
Good night, Hae-in.
He sent the direct, sweet message before pocketing his phone once more.
“Texting your new girlfriend, huh?” Jin-ah asked with a teasing smile.
“Yeah.
I just told her I’ll be a little late tomorrow,” Si-woo replied, not really bothered by her teasing.
“Hey, she’s the first girl to have been duped by you, so I hope your relationship lasts a long time.” Si-woo’s lips twitched at Jin-ah’s words.
“Get off me and go sleep in your room.” he told her, getting up abruptly and causing her to tip over onto the couch cushions.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” he told the pouting Jin-ah before moving out of the apartment and heading toward his own place.
“How was your day, Grandpa?” he asked Do-yoon the moment he entered, noticing the old man reading a book as he paced around the living room.
“And by the way, it’s still weird that you like to read and walk at the same time,” Si-woo added quickly.
“I should be the one asking you how your day was.” Do-yoon raised an eyebrow at Si-woo, completely ignoring his observation.
Si-woo chuckled.
“It was good.
She is good,” he said with a fond smile.
Do-yoon gained a fond smile as well, walking up to Si-woo and patting his shoulder.
“I presume you’ll be out today as well?” the old man asked, receiving a clear nod from Si-woo in return.