The weight of the backpack, increased by the six vacuum packs, exceeded fifty kilograms.
Regrettably, Han-eol had undergone DNA mutation and yet his strength had not increased.
'What do I do? I have no confidence about setting out on further exploration carrying this heavy backpack.'
On top of that, Han-eol was a self-preservation-first sort of man. His honest feeling was that he did not want to stay in this dangerous place a single second longer.
When Han-eol looked down at his half-broken watch, the hand was still unable to fix on a direction and spun round and round.
Which meant that this place was not a guided transfer region.
'Isn't the harvest I have taken more than enough anyway?'
Even weighing only the demon spirit stone embedded in the chief Snow Wolf's forehead, its weight would clearly exceed a good three kilograms.
And Han-eol had five more demon spirit stones on top of that.
In addition to that, Han-eol had secured no fewer than six Snow Wolf corpses.
In fact, Snow Wolf bone and blood were excellent research materials as well.
'This much should be enough. Let us hurry back before things get more dangerous.'
Han-eol took a rope from his waist, knotted and tied it to the backpack, and then used a motorized portable pulley to hoist the heavy backpack up into a tree.
A short while later, Han-eol climbed up the tree as well, groaning with effort.
"Hah, hah, haah."
Han-eol truly realized only now how hard a thing it was to climb a tree with a broken arm.
After recovering his stamina in the tree for a moment, Han-eol forced his injured arm to move, shouldered the backpack, and vigorously threw himself into the blue mist.
One fortunate point was the fact that the Highland's demon beasts not only could not perceive this blue mist but, even supposing they did perceive it, could absolutely not pursue anyone into the mist.
This was a very important point.
What if the Highland's demon beasts used the blue mist as a passage to invade Mid-Land?
Then humanity would face an immediate threat to its survival.
But no such thing happened.
This was a fact humanity had confirmed numerous times through experience over the years.
While leaving the Highland and returning to Mid-Land Seoul, Han-eol had to suffer through dizzying vertigo.
When Han-eol opened his eyes again, what he witnessed was Lee Ru-in's dumbfounded face.
"What kind of useless bastard is this? He arrives in the Highland and comes running straight back? Huh?"
A thick curse shot out of Lee Ru-in's mouth at once.
Han-eol did not even have the strength to answer her bellowing.
"Urrgh."
"Uh, uh? What is with you? Uh-uhh?"
Han-eol collapsed, drenched in cold sweat.
Lee Ru-in was startled. Only then did she discover that Han-eol's left arm was torn and broken, and her expression hardened sharply.
At first Lee Ru-in had thought Han-eol was the greatest coward in the world.
When the Shinseong Group's ability-holders entered the Highland, it was standard for them to stay there three or four days or more.
Frankly, even four days was short. To gather mana crystals or new materials, it usually took far longer than that.
Accordingly, cases in which some ability-holders spent as long as several months or more in the Highland occurred from time to time.
Lee Ru-in, being an ability-holder herself, knew this well.
'Today's work is all done, so I can just come back in a few days.'
After sending the greenhorn interns into the Highland, Lee Ru-in had been thinking this and about to leave.
And yet at that very moment, was some dazed intern boy not bursting out of the blue mist?
Lee Ru-in flared up with heat and drove a filthy curse into him first thing.
But right after that, Han-eol pitched forward toward Lee Ru-in.
"Hey, hey. Snap out of it. Open your eyes, you bastard."
"Urgh."
Before Lee Ru-in could take any measures, Han-eol's head slumped to the side.
"No. Hey. Snap out of it."
Lee Ru-in hurriedly slung Han-eol over her shoulder and ran toward the surface.
Because of that, she ended up carrying Han-eol's backpack along with him.
"Huh?"
Lee Ru-in's eyes went round at the unexpected weight of the backpack.
But right now there was no leisure to examine what was inside Han-eol's backpack.
'First things first, put out the urgent fire.'
Lee Ru-in focused for the moment on transporting the patient.
The next morning.
Han-eol lay in a private room on the seventh floor of Gangbuk Shinseong General Hospital, located in front of Seodaemun Station in Mapo District, and stared blankly up at nothing but the white ceiling.
Into Han-eol's right forearm were inserted one pack of milky nutrient fluid and one pack of clear painkiller fluid. His left arm was of course in a cast.
Several patches connected to wires were attached to Han-eol's forehead, temples, and chest.
Perhaps thanks to the painkillers, the pain Han-eol felt was not so severe. Even the splitting pain in his chest now felt only slightly stiff.
'My body is fine, but...... I would like to see a mirror. That hand in my Image, is it real? Surely I was not dreaming?'
Han-eol replayed in his head the scene of finishing off no fewer than six Snow Wolf tribe members.
No matter how much he chewed the memory over, those astonishing scenes simply did not seem real.
'By the way, what happens to the Snow Wolf corpses? The demon beasts' demon spirit stones seemed rather expensive, so will the group take them all?'
As was probably the case with most of those from Old Earth, Han-eol too had lived in poverty all through his childhood in a lousy orphanage.
So Han-eol was curious about the ownership rights to the Snow Wolf corpses.
Of course, the matter of rights was clear.
Ownership of all substances and knowledge gathered by the contracted worker in the Highland shall vest in the company.
This was a clause specified in the employment contract Han-eol had signed in his own hand.
Even without this clause, it was impossible for an individual ability-holder to wage an ownership dispute against the great Shinseong Group.
The moment the group's support was cut off, the path to being supplied with various essentials would be blocked for an ability-holder, starting with the watch that served as a compass in the Highland world and extending to antidote injections, deodorizing spray, space-contraction vacuum packs, and other survival items.
'And that means death.'
Han-eol had no intention of pressing greedy demands either.
He merely hoped for a modest reward.
'They said the Shinseong Group gives a truly enormous reward if you discover a relic and bring it back; is there nothing like that for demon spirit stones?'
This was the humble wish Han-eol harbored.
***
Meanwhile, at that same hour, in the VIP lounge of Gangbuk Shinseong General Hospital, the Shinseong Group's Head of Human Resources Lee Jae-in was conversing with Lee Ru-in.
Before coming to the lounge, Lee Jae-in had finished an interview with the head of surgery at Shinseong General Hospital.
At that meeting, the department head had given Lee Jae-in a briefing on Han-eol's physical condition.
Rupture of the left arm muscles.
Severed tendons.
The bone broken into nineteen pieces.
Apart from these, the rest of Han-eol was intact.
Originally Han-eol had suffered abrasions here and there and had cracks in his ribs in five places, but such minor injuries had all healed at some point.
It was thanks to the extraordinary Vitality Han-eol possessed.
When Lee Jae-in had first heard the emergency report about Han-eol's injuries from Lee Ru-in, his heart had plunged.
No one within the group knew the fact that Han-eol was the blood of Head of the Strategy Division Lee Myeong-u. Even Lee Ru-in did not know Han-eol's identity precisely.
Han-eol was an assignment Lee Jae-in had taken exclusive charge of.
'And yet what if the young master died on his first entry into the Highland?'
Merely imagining the fallout made cold sweat run down Lee Jae-in's back.
Fortunately, Han-eol's physical condition was not so bad.
Thanks to that, Lee Jae-in barely managed to catch his breath and then received the follow-up report from Lee Ru-in.
This concerned the spoils Han-eol had brought back from the Highland.
"I took photographs here."
Lee Ru-in enlarged the images of the Snow Wolf corpses taken with her mobile phone and showed them to Lee Jae-in.
"Well now. Does this make any sense? Well now."
Lee Jae-in flipped through the photographs on the phone one by one and marveled. Even so, he opened his ears wide and concentrated on Lee Ru-in's report.
"The most notable point is the fact that no cause of death whatsoever turned up on the Snow Wolf tribe's corpses. Not only were there no external wounds, there was no poisoning reaction either."
"Does that make any sense? Then how is Yo―, no, how is Intern No. 550895 supposed to have taken down the Snow Wolf tribe?"
"I hear that the Demon Beast Analysis Team could not even leave work last night because of this affair and held an emergency meeting. But it seems they were unable to reach a conclusion."
"What?"
Lee Jae-in bent one eyebrow upward.
Lee Ru-in shook her head from side to side.
"They combed the entire bodies of the Snow Wolf tribe corpses with the MRI equipment the Analysis Team holds and ran every kind of test there is, and the conclusion is that the cause of the demon beasts' death is unclear."
"They even took MRIs? And still could not identify the cause? Do you mean to say the dead demon beasts' internal organs are intact?"
"Yes. They say there are no internal injuries, not just no external ones."
"Well now, this is something."
Lee Jae-in pressed his palm to his own forehead.
He made a show of being troubled like that, but in fact the corners of Lee Jae-in's mouth had risen slightly.
'I am not sure what this is, but the result is not bad. In any case, it is clear that the young master has awakened a very powerful ability.'
To Lee Jae-in, who belonged to Head of the Strategy Division Lee Myeong-u's faction, this was positive news.
Two weeks passed like an arrow.
Today, May 12, was the day Han-eol was discharged from the hospital.
Thanks to his rapid recovery owing to high Vitality, Han-eol had already had the cast removed from his left arm at the beginning of last week. His other injuries had healed cleanly as well.
That Han-eol nonetheless stayed in the hospital a full week longer was thanks to the consideration of the group's Human Resources Team.
"He is the hero who caught six demon beasts on his first outing. Naturally we should do at least that much for him."
With words like these, Lee Jae-in granted Han-eol special treatment.
Because Han-eol's achievement was so utterly unprecedented, not a single employee of the Human Resources Team regarded this as favoritism.
Thanks to that, Han-eol spent his time comfortably in a pleasant private room at the general hospital.
In the meantime, Lee Ru-in interviewed Han-eol several times.
Frankly, Lee Ru-in was curious about what sort of ability Han-eol had awakened.
At first Han-eol put up an iron wall.
"I understand that I am not required to report in detail regarding my ability. I am sorry, but please do not press me about it."
This was true.
Among the abilities awakened by ability-holders around the world, there were many whose potency was halved if the particulars were disclosed in detail.
So most ability-holders wanted to conceal their abilities as much as possible.
The tendency was all the more severe the more lethal the awakened ability was.
Lee Ru-in coaxed Han-eol gently.
"Do not misunderstand. I am not telling you to lay bare every detail of how your ability works. I am only asking for a hint about the rough category. That is the only way the group can help you, is it not?"
"The group is going to help me?"
At Han-eol's counter-question, Lee Ru-in nodded eagerly.
"That is right. Those Snow Wolf tribe corpses you brought back last time, their condition was excellent. One of them in particular held a demon spirit stone of very superior quality."
"Ah!"
Han-eol's face brightened sharply.
Lee Ru-in caught the change in his emotions keenly and put more effort into her persuasion.
"And it is hardly only the demon spirit stone. Snow Wolf bone is good for making weapons, and the hide is perfect for leather armor."
"That is a relief."
Han-eol's eyes gleamed with anticipation.
Lee Ru-in grinned.
"Right. Thanks to that, it seems a reward decision will be handed down by the group."
"A reward?"
"Well, you know how these things go. It seems you will receive the Outstanding Intern commendation at the intern closing ceremony, and in truth the certificate is not what matters; the prize and the prize money that come with it are the crux, are they not?"
At last what Han-eol was hoping for had been mentioned.
"A prize and prize money?"
Han-eol's eyes gleamed for all they were worth.