Reward (3)

The first sensation was one of dense magical power.

A pressure, as if I’d plunged deep into the sea, pressed down on my entire body.

Whoosh—

With a breath from Jin Harin, the pressure slowly began to recede.

When I slowly opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a barren plain.

A plain made of nothing but dirt and rock, without a single blade of grass.

And beyond it, in the far distance, stood volcanoes of overwhelming size.

Countless flames erupted from the lava slowly trickling down their peaks.

But it wasn’t just lava that spewed from the volcanoes. Billowing black smoke soared into the sky, obscuring it not just here, but as far as the eye could see.

And within those black clouds that veiled the sky, countless bolts of lightning flashed.

Feeling a tremor from behind, I turned to see what looked like a massive mountain range filled with waterspouts.

Wait, that’s not a mountain range—it’s a wave?

I watched nervously, but thankfully, it was moving in a different direction and not heading this way.

Then, a rumble-rumble-rumble came from the opposite direction. I whipped my head around again to see one of the volcanoes had properly erupted.

An immense amount of volcanic ash, chunks of lava flying through the air like meteors and crashing down…

And… huh? Was there always a sand dune over there? I’m sure it was right there just a moment ago—

As I stared at the sand dune, a sandstorm suddenly erupted—a sand tornado?

It was a truly surreal space.

A world on a completely different level from any other gate.

So this is the Spirit World?

She said we needed to move away from the gate before she called the spirits, so we walked for a bit.

Just when I thought we’d gone far enough, she spoke.

“I’m going to slowly lower the wind barrier, so get ready to adapt. The spirits don’t take kindly to those who try to contract with them from behind a shield…”

At the same time, the sound of the wind swirling around us began to fade.

Gasp.

The pressure was immense.

“Normally, only A-rank or higher Awakeners can come here, but—”

What? What does she mean by that?

“Don’t worry, I’ll step in if it gets dangerous. Making a contract with a spirit is well worth the trouble…”

Well… she was right. With an SS-rank Awakener right next to me, what could possibly go wrong?

And I couldn’t miss this chance. When else would I get to enter the Spirit World under the protection of an SS-rank Awakener?

“Haa… haa… haa…”

I took slow, deep breaths.

Just as I started to get used to it, the wind barrier would weaken again, and the pressure would intensify.

“Heok… heok… heok…”

Soon, the wind barrier dissipated completely.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

I could bear it.

Even if this was a place only for A-ranks and above, surely a B-rank like me could last for a little while.

“There we go. Now, I’ll call them.”

She smiled and walked forward.

Then, slowly spreading her arms, she began to sing.

It was a song without lyrics, but the magic power contained within it was extraordinary.

Something that had been toying with her hair zipped away.

From beneath her feet, something like a mole moved toward the sand dunes.

A flash of light from her hair—lightning shot up from the ground into the sky.

Droplets of water flicked past my cheek, pat, pat. Ouch, cold. Was there ice mixed in with the water?

The rumbling of the volcanoes resonated with her song.

And soon, her hair—

Crackle, became lightning.

Fwoosh, burst into flame.

Swaa, water coiled around her neck.

One of her hands turned transparent as a fierce wind whipped around it.

Her other hand burned, each and every muscle fiber a lick of flame.

The side of her face, glimpsed for a moment, was covered in frost—no, it was ice itself.

Water surged at her feet while earth and stone rose up to circle around her.

Her song filled the surroundings with a pressure that surpassed mere magic.

When the trembling of the earth, the surging of the waves, and the howling of the wind joined her song in a chorus,

RUMBLE—

The mountain range of waves charged toward us.

Directly overhead, a tornado descended, dragging the dark clouds with it.

The sand dune crawled forward, accompanied by a sandstorm.

The lava that had erupted from the distant volcano changed direction in unison, falling toward us.

The flames that had been erupting here and there raced toward us with ferocious speed, as if following a fuse.

If she hadn’t been standing there, a reassuring presence before me, the sheer scale of it all would have made me think, ‘Aren’t I fucked?’

To be honest, I’m still thinking it…

The vibrations grew stronger, and she turned to look back at me.

Only then did I see her face clearly.

Her face was a mass of writhing flames, yet simultaneously frozen solid. But on closer inspection, it was also rock, carved with delicate and exquisite beauty. Waving hair—or was it lightning?—framed her face.

But what left the most overwhelming impression of all were her opal-like eyes.

The shimmer of opal, its brilliance at its peak. And beyond that shimmer, a sense of… omnipotence?

Is… is this the same person as me? No, is she even human…?

She spoke.

No, the elements filling the air sang her will to me.

—I will leave you now… Good luck….

Huh? What did you say?

And with that, she broke apart into countless elements and—whoosh—vanished.

“Uh, wait a minute—”

At the same time, the mountain range of waves turned and moved away from me.

The sandstorm scattered and disappeared with a whoosh. The sand dune slowed to a halt, then began to slowly crawl back the way it came.

…That’s surprisingly insulting.

But the tornado, accompanied by dark clouds crackling with lightning, only slowed its descent; it was still coming down.

And the charging flames and falling lava didn’t slow down at all.

I knew I could count on you guys. I don’t need those other bastards anyway.

Soon, the tornado and its dark clouds descended upon me.

In my darkened vision, all I could feel was a fierce current of magic.

Ugh… I can stand this much, ah… wait…

I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel the dark clouds riding the tornado, circling and watching me.

Gradually, a few of the clouds drifted upward as if losing interest. Holes began to appear in the light-blocking storm, and it slowly grew brighter.

But a few of the dark clouds continued to circle, their attention fixed on me.

From somewhere beyond, I heard giggling laughter.

And then—

“Agh!”

One of the dark clouds struck my right intangible horn with a bolt of lightning before cackling and ascending.

At the same time, the storm slowly faded, and the other dark clouds ascended in unison, cackling all the way.

“Ow… that hurts…”

Wiping away the tears that had sprung to my eyes, I saw the flames and lava still charging and flying toward me.

They would arrive any second.

Thud— Crash—

The lava crashed to the ground and surged upward.

Fwoosh—

The arriving flames surrounded me, flaring high into the air.

They surrounded me and—danced? They were dancing.

Soon, the lava also drew near and joined the dancing flames.

Unlike the dark clouds, however, they weren’t raging violently. It was hot, but this much was easy to handle.

For a long while, the lava and flames mingled, dancing with a fwoosh, fwoosh. I heard the same giggling sound, like an auditory hallucination.

Looking closely, I could see faint shapes flickering within the lava and flames. Forms resembling all sorts of animals—eagles, lions, peacocks, leopards—appeared and vanished.

After dancing for a while, the pattern of their dance slowly changed.

The lava gradually retreated, while the flames slowly advanced.

The flickering shapes in the lava grew more indistinct.

The flickering shapes in the flames grew clearer.

The lava continued to retreat, and the flames continued to advance.

Eventually, the lava cooled, lost its passion, and hardened on the ground.

Only the flames remained, still dancing joyfully, their forms now stable.

The shapes of all sorts of animals danced merrily. They resembled animals I knew, yet were subtly different.

Again, the pattern of the dance changed.

Most of the flames danced merrily away from me. The farther they went, the more their shapes blurred.

Huh? Why? We were having such a good time.

At that moment, a single flame danced toward me.

Its form was—human?

A head, a pair of arms, a pair of legs. And it walked on two feet.

That was the extent of its shape, but it seemed more human than the other animals.

Unlike the other animal-shaped flames, it was small and hard to see. Was it about knee-high?

Dum-chit, dum-chit.

At some point, it stopped advancing and just danced in place.

What’s this?

I decided to follow its dance, however clumsily.

I had a feeling that’s what I was supposed to do…

Dum-chit… dum, dum-chit…

Though my dance was clumsy and slightly off-beat, the human-shaped flame approached joyfully.

Hmm, how did I know it was happy? Ah, whatever. It must be happy.

The slowly approaching human-shaped flame finally touched me. Tuk. It was warm.

Even with my flame immunity, I expected it to be hot, but it was just warm. A warmth filled with goodwill?

The other flames, which had been dancing away with their forms blurring, stopped in place to watch us. Still dancing, of course.

The human-shaped flame reached its hand up toward me.

I reached down and took it.

The moment I did, a message was conveyed:

‘Give.’

A craving within a deep sense of goodwill, a goodwill within the craving.

—Having a mana recovery skill means you can pay a different kind of price. And spirits… they like that kind of price….

It probably wasn’t asking for mana.

I’d never used Innate Vital Energy, so it couldn’t be that either.

Then, Essense. Could I give it Essense in this body?

Yes. I used ‘Essense Conversion’ just fine in this body.

It was my first time trying, but the warm Essense spread throughout my body was smoothly drawn into my arm.

It flowed into our clasped hands—

And finally, into the flame—

Kkyareuk.

The human-shaped flame rejoiced. It grew brighter, its human form becoming more distinct.

‘More.’

More Essense was drawn out.

Its form, which had looked like a person roughly drawn with a thick pen, became even more human-like.

Its joy was evident in its more energetic dance.

‘More.’

A long stream of Essense was siphoned away. I’d already used 1,000. It’s fine, this humble servant still has 1,800 Essense remaining.

‘Good. Give me more.’

The die was already cast.

Without a thought of conserving it, I poured in another 1,000 Essense.

The human-shaped flame’s arms and legs grew a little longer. It was still only knee-high, but its proportions… seemed a bit more human?

‘More! More!’

I poured in another 500 Essense. Now I only had 300 left.

Fingers and toes sprouted from its blunt hands and feet.

And a mouth appeared—

And that mouth formed a smile.

‘Great!’

It let go of my hand, threw itself toward my face, and zipped right into my left intangible horn.

Ting—

[Trait Unlocked: Spirit Summoner]

[‘Spirit Summoner’ Skill Acquired: Spirit’s Blessing]

[‘Spirit Summoner’ Skill Acquired: Spirit Magic]

The moment the status window appeared—

FWOOOSH—!

The flames that had been watching us flared up in unison, surging more violently than I had ever seen.

I felt a powerful sense of joy from them.

When I gave a deep bow, the flames danced merrily as they moved away.

….

Silence. Aside from the distant tremors, it was quiet.

“…Is it over now?”

“Good work.”

“Ah, you startled me—Ahem, thank you.”

Jin Harin had appeared behind me at some point.

“Don’t mention it. I expected you to finish safely, but I’m glad to see it actually happen…. Congratulations on becoming a Spirit Summoner.”

“…Thank you for recommending this.”

“It was a reward for your courage…. As expected, you contracted a Fire Spirit. Hmm, and lightning too?”

“I couldn’t contract a lightning one, though…”

“You may not have contracted it, but you’ll have to work hard on your lightning element…. It left a mark on you, you see.”

“A mark?”

Is she talking about how it zapped me with lightning and ran off?

“Yes. With this mark, it will find you on its own the next time you come to the Spirit World, even without a summons. If the spirit takes a liking to you then, you’ll be able to form a contract…”

Really? So it was calling dibs?

If that was the case, it should have made it more obvious… I cursed it for nothing.

“That is, if it takes a liking to you. If you keep coming to the Spirit World and it continues to be displeased, it might take the mark back, or in the worst-case scenario, it might attack you.”

“What?”

“So, work hard with your lightning magic and try to win the Lightning Spirit’s favor…. The more spirits you befriend, the more you stand to gain…”

She turned her head and looked toward the distant gate.

“Shall we head back now? It’s not good to stay here too long. I’ll take you on the way out—”

Fwoong—!

Before she even finished her sentence, we were back in front of the gate.

*

The Guild Master’s Office.

After informing a staff member of our return from the Spirit World, I sat on the sofa and waited.

Silence.

Jin Harin wore a thoughtful expression for a moment, then asked,

“Would you like to be a team leader?”