Chapter 32: By the way, this is strawberry flavour

The sensation of her entire body freezing cold.  

When even her lungs seemed to solidify, making it nearly impossible to breathe.  

Seol Yeonhwa cursed her own constitution.  

She despised the talent that other mages revered and envied.  

She feared the fate that would soon reach its end.  

A life no different from a death sentence.  

Her body froze, her heart hardened, and she was dying from the unbearably cold blood of ice coursing through her.  

The sensation of losing body heat and facing death—a feeling no human could ever get used to.  

Not only was she drifting further from being an ordinary human, but she could feel her symptoms worsening.  

The premonition that her heart would one day stop gripped her.  

To survive, Seol Yeonhwa learned magic and honed her skills.  

Fortunately, when it came to mastering magic, her curse of death became a blessing. 

Her mana accumulated at an astonishing rate, and spells that others found difficult came to her with ease.  

Soon, she was hailed as a genius of the Blue Tower.  

She even earned the moniker “Ice Flower.”  

At the tender age of twenty, she had reached an astonishing level of mastery.  

Yet, she still couldn’t escape the curse that was eating away at her.  

At first, it seemed like her condition was improving, but there was a limit to that hope.  

The more she learned about magic and refined her mana, the clearer the distant future became.  

‘Ah, this is an incurable disease, isn’t it?’

No matter how skilled I become or how much I master mana, it won’t save me.  

I’m going to die someday.  

Once she came to that realization, oddly enough, her heart began to feel lighter.  

The favor of the Tower Master?  

The blessing of wielding ice magic freely?  

An inexhaustible well of mana?  

What was the point of any of it?  

These were merely byproducts of the curse that devoured her life, nothing more than fleeting talents.  

She was destined to die anyway.  

She had no intention of growing attached to things she couldn’t take with her to the afterlife.  

For that reason, outside of her magical research, she remained closed off.

She kept the windows of communication with others shut, spending most of her time in her room.  

Her only companions, if you could call them that, were her “cyber friends.”  

Fleeting connections on the internet felt more genuine, almost addictive, in their transience.  

[Stardust: Dead yet?]  

[IceIcicle: Alive, you jerk.]  

To be precise, it wasn’t that she preferred the internet—it was that the people in this virtual box didn’t know the real her.  

She could erase her fate there.  

And that made her feel at ease.  

***

“…A cure.”  

The moment a fleeting memory she had tried to forget—a sliver of hope—faintly resurfaced, Seol Yeonhwa found herself trembling, like her quivering pupils.  

She still wanted to live.  

It was something she had longed for all this time.  

“…I’ll think about the experiment.”  

She couldn’t bring herself to outright refuse a pharmaceutical experiment involving herself.  

“From mandrakes to troublemaker mushrooms, sungrass, flame boar hearts, and even the fire-attribute slime core we got today—we’ve gathered almost everything.”  

***

[The Goddess shrugs, claiming it’s surely thanks to her blessing.]  

Whether it was truly the Goddess’s blessing or not, only two ingredients remained to complete the elixir.  

The collection speed was far faster than expected.  

Or rather, the item drop rates were better than anticipated.  

The rewards from opening treasure chests were almost absurdly good.  

Wait, a gem of this quality should only drop in A-rank dungeons…!

Why is sungrass showing up here?!  

He hadn’t placed much hope in her treasure-hunting friend from the Magic Research Department, but the girl’s knack for opening chests was astonishingly sharp.  

Her luck was so good that he kept entrusting her with it, and somehow, every chest was a jackpot.  

Sungrass was considered a rare elixir, something you wouldn’t expect to find in C-rank or lower dungeons, yet it just popped up like it was nothing.  

How is there not a single dud?  

He wondered if it was some kind of burning event or a generous season, so he tried opening a chest himself—and got a dud right away.  

That’s when he accepted it.  

There really were people in this world optimized for cracking open rewards, blessed with insane luck.  

The girl was so good at it that, in their weekend dungeon party, she was practically the second-most valuable member after him.  

On a whim, he jokingly mentioned it to her.  

But then Sephine, with a frustrated expression, clenched her fists and muttered, 

“…Next time, I’ll…!”  

That’s when he realized he shouldn’t tease kids like that, even as a joke.  

The feedback came immediately.  

To be fair, there was no need to nitpick—everyone in the party was doing their part exceptionally well.  

This wasn’t some hero party out to save the world; it was more like a casual dungeon-diving club.  

They had a combat specialist, a chest-opener, an accountant, and even a cheerleader—perfectly balanced, right?  

There was no need to take things too seriously.  

But for some reason, everyone’s enthusiasm was skyrocketing.  

Maybe it was because clearing a dungeon meant big money by student standards.  

Even Imir, who handled operations and report-writing, seemed more motivated lately.  

Well, it was a lot of money.  

When he was a student, he couldn’t have dreamed of handling sums like this.  

Not that he wasn’t still a student now, but with the apartment he’d received from the Goddess as a reward for saving the world, every good item that came out of a chest still felt thrilling and delightful.  

It just felt good.  

Like getting a proper bonus on top of the rewards for your hard work.  

Winning a single game already sent dopamine surging, but when the reward gacha hit this hard, it was impossible to stop.  

If D-rank and C-rank dungeons were this good, how massive would the returns be in A-rank or S-rank dungeons?  

Alright, let’s aim to retire as a hunter!  

Once he “graduated” from life, he’d play to his heart’s content all day long.  

“In that spirit, to celebrate coming home, I’m going to game for three hours.”  

[The Goddess subtly furrows her brow, asking if that’s really okay.]  

“Now that I think about it, haven’t I already graduated from life?”  

He’d saved the world, traveled across dimensions, and even caused a ruckus not too long ago.  

He’d done all sorts of wild things, and with the wealth and property gifted by the Goddess, hadn’t he already succeeded enough to call it a lifetime?  

[The Goddess reluctantly agrees, admitting it’s hard to argue, but clicks her tongue.]  

Anyway, time to game.  

As soon as I got home, I powered on the computer and launched the game.  

The new game I started, Gunlorant.  

It’s an FPS with skills mixed in, similar to Superwatch, and it’s pretty fun.  

It feels like the perfect palate cleanser—three hours a day seems just right.  

Or maybe it’s gotten more fun since I made a new friend recently.  

[Icelcicle has logged in.]  

I immediately checked the friend list, and sure enough, the girl was already online, true to her hardcore gamer nature.  

She was someone I’d met on the enemy team, with a nickname that reminded me of “IcicleFreeze” and a warrior with a mouth to match.  

We somehow ended up bonding after a match.  

Her skills were a bit lacking, so I gave her some pointers.

She got heated at first but quickly improved—a real effort-driven gem.  

You’d call someone like that a quiet hard worker, right?  

[The Goddess tilts her head, wondering if I was just messing with her.]  

“Hey, I wasn’t messing with her!”  

If it was just a petty argument, she wouldn’t have accepted my friend request, right?  

We bickered, sure, but that’s how we got close.  

[Stardust: Yo.]  

[Stardust: Wanna game?]  

That’s what I thought, but—  

[Icelcicle has disconnected.]  

…Huh, maybe not.  

She bolted the moment I showed up.  

It’s like her quick escape killed my urge to tease her… or maybe it just fired me up more.  

[The Goddess glares, calling me a total jerk.]  

Maybe I’ll do something else instead of gaming.  

Haaah.  

***

As soon as the toxic gamer logged in, Seol Yeonhwa hurriedly logged off and was now at the Blue Tower for a meeting of sorts.  

She rarely left her house unless it was for magical research, but perhaps this could be considered research too.  

The wrinkled Tower Master of the Blue Tower beamed as he introduced a man.  

“Yeonhwa, this is Dr. Erneong from Paris. He’s a renowned physician who’s already conquered dozens of incurable diseases.”  

“Pleased to meet you, young lady.”  

Her personal impression?

He had a stern demeanor, like he’d make a great butler.  

Or maybe a con artist.  

Part of her wanted to confront him as fiercely as she had others like him before, but she couldn’t bring herself to be rude.  

Whether he was a con artist or a man didn’t matter.  

His nickname was supposedly the “Miracle Doctor.”  

If his track record wasn’t a lie, could he be the one to cure her condition?  

It might be a false hope.  

But Seol Yeonhwa, feeling a suffocating knot in her chest, couldn’t let go of it.  

“…Pleased to meet you too.”  

She didn’t want to die.  

That’s why this meeting happened.  

She had made time to grasp at any lifeline, no matter how slim.  

Dr. Erneong, with one corner of his mouth curled up, stroked his chin and spoke.  

“Hmm, shall we discuss the specifics? About the ‘Nine Yin Severance Technique’ I’ve devised…”  

***

Ugh.  

The strange, bitter smell of medicine filled the entire house.  

Did I mess up by trying alchemy at home?  

I felt a twinge of regret but kept stirring the liquid in the cauldron.  

Alchemy, potion-making.  

I’d never formally studied alchemy or magic, but I’d picked it up over the years.  

Watching the all-purpose dwarf uncle craft for twenty years, I memorized every recipe.  

And fighting demons had honed my mana control to near perfection.  

Sure, I never studied magic formally.  

My favorite movie series used to be that wizard school Hoguwarts, but I was too busy wielding a sword to have time for that.  

Besides—  

Against demons born casting magic, using magic myself would be a terrible deal.  

Just as I’d spent half my life mastering the holy sword, they’d spent their lives mastering magic.  

Any spell I cast would be countered instantly, so our hero party didn’t bother with a mage.  

Still, watching those demons operate…  

If there was one thing I learned from busting their shady potion-making operations, it’s this:  

They might be scum, but their technical skills deserved respect.  

This potion was one such skill, stolen from the demons—a technique to save lives.  

A vitality potion to bolster the target’s life force.  

It was missing a few ingredients, but I could finish it now and fill in the gaps later.  

Hwaaaa.  

I looked at the red-glowing potion in the cauldron with a calm heart.  

By the way, it tastes like strawberries.  

To be continued…