Chapter 78: The Knight Seeks More Growth (1)

Crack-! Crack-! Craaaaaack-!

“Keeeughhh!”

“You’re driving me insane! Why did you turn your body into a rag again?!”

Crack-! Crack-! Crack-!

“A-Are you sure you didn’t put your hatred into your healing?”

“What? Are you expecting me to stay calm after what you’ve done?!”

“…Is it okay for a priestess to do that?”

“Priestesses are human too.”

“…I understand. I was wrong.”

“As long as you understand.”

Crack-!

“!?!!”

That last crack was extremely painful, even to Lee Han.

They said that when someone experienced too much pain, they couldn’t even let out a groan from their mouth.

This was exactly what happened to Lee Han. He couldn’t even make a sound as he was hurting all over and felt as if he was about to cry.

“Ugh…!”

He could hear the sound of his bones breaking, and feel the pain as if his muscles were exploding. When that pain hit him, he wished that he could just faint to escape from all of it.

Meanwhile, the priestess, Nun Jessie, wiped the sweat flowing between her eyebrows and gasped for breath.

“Phew! It’s been a while since the last time I’ve casted such a large healing spell for several days consecutively. You know, Brother Lee Han, whenever I did this, even a knight would faint in the middle of it, but you didn’t. As expected of you, your willpower is something else.”

“…You were the one who made the whole thing as painful as possible, and now you’re praising me?”

“I’m just telling you the truth. Anyway, lie down for a moment, I’ll bring you some medicine.”

“…When you were treating me, you were so scary that I actually wanted to run away from you, but now you’re acting like a real priestess all of a sudden…”

“I told you, priestesses are the same as everybody else. We are all humans.”

The nun let out a smile and left to fetch some medicine. Meanwhile, Lee Han was lying down exhausted, all of his energy had been drained from his body.

It’s been a while since I’ve experienced something like this.

He was exhausted from all the pain he felt. Except for when he was being experimented on by the illegal mages back when he was still a kid, this was the first time he had ever been exhausted from pain.

I thought I had developed immunity to most pain, but…guess I was wrong.

He never thought he would be humbled by a [treatment] process out of all things.

The Academy recovery room. It was a place where the highest paid personnel in the Royal Academy worked. It was also the place where someone could receive ‘Divine Technique Healing Techniques’ that most nobles couldn’t even receive.

Although Lee Han had never relied on the Divine Technique to resolve all of his injuries prior to this, he decided to use the recovery room this time. Considering that he was overworking himself during the intense fight a few days ago, this felt like the best course of action to take.

But, even though it was already his seventh treatment, his body still hadn’t recovered yet. It wasn’t because the treatment was ineffective, but rather because that was how worn out his body was.

I definitely pushed myself too hard…

It was only then did he realize that he had treated his body so ignorantly all this time. He had spent the two weeks of the exam period training while pushing himself to his limits without resting the entire time.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

He took a rest for one day, but right after that, he had to fight a fierce battle against a powerful monster before his fatigue could even recover properly. During the battle, he even chugged down five bottles of potions at once, exceeding the recommended consumption limit.

A normal high-level warrior would have died long ago if they were in the same boat as him. The only reason why he was still alive was because he was him.

In fact, as if to prove that the price of his survival wasn’t small, he still remembered the priestess’ pale face when she checked his condition for the first time.

-Y-You survived in this condition? H-How…?

That was the first time he had ever seen a woman’s face turn pale in real time.

She also said…

-This is going to hurt a little— No, it’ll hurt a lot.

The priestess firmly stated that the treatment process would be hard, but Lee Han thought it wouldn’t be a big deal even if it was. However, when he actually experienced it…

…She lied to me. Hurt didn’t cut it, it was a whole ass torture…

He wasn’t even joking. The pain quite literally made him lose his mind.

All this time, he only knew that divine power was something that was able to heal people’s bodies with flashes of light. It was only when he actually experienced it that he found out that it wasn’t like that at all. If anything, it was close to physical therapy or oriental medicine.

The only difference was that while the aforementioned technique used medical devices and needles to heal people, the priestess used the Divine Technique she applied on her hands. Although the coolness that came every time the Divine Technique touched his body felt nice, it was completely overwhelmed by the tickling and burning sensation that followed.

He felt like his muscles and bones were turned into a puzzle that she broke and reassembled.

What did that mean exactly?

…I don’t know. I don’t even know what the fuck I am saying anymore.

It meant that the pain was so painful that no proper words could ever describe it.

“Huuu…”

“Oh my, you’re already standing up?”

“I feel better now.”

“Your resilience is something else. It’s five times—no, seven times more resilient than the average person. It feels like I’m looking at my brothers.”

“Brothers?”

“My ‘Monk Brothers’. They practiced the Divine Technique by solely training their bodies and increasing their resilience to the point that it’s on par with trolls. And your resilience, Brother Lee Han, is on par with them. Could it be that you received training from a monk when you were young?”

“I’ve never met a monk before.”

“…Is that so? Hmm… Actually, you’re someone that my brothers would really like. If you’re interested, you can try to seek them out. I can write you a letter of introduction.”

“A letter of introduction?”

Why does she want to give me that all of a sudden?

Seeing Lee Han blinking in confusion, the priestess let out a bright smile and winked one of her eyes at him.

“If it’s someone like you, Brother Lee Han, they would surely welcome you.”

“Huh? Are you trying to convert me? No, more importantly, do priests even scout for people?”

“There is always a shortage of talent everywhere. Heroes who have saved countless people in particular, are the best talents who will be welcomed everywhere.”

“Hah!”

He got to admit that while it was shameless, that offer was quite lovely to hear.

If it were the pot-bellied nobles who had made such an offer, Lee Han would have punched them a long time ago. However, he couldn’t do that because she was the one who treated him.

Moreover…

…She’s cute.f

The priestess resembled the idol he liked in his past life, so he decided to let her off the hook for once.

Although…

I never thought I’d get scouted here out of all places…

Recently, a lot of people have been trying to scout him. But he never thought the temple would also offer him to join them. The title of hero certainly had a huge advertising effect.

In this case though, he had to hold back the harsh words that he couldn’t say to the priestess.

You think I’m crazy enough to go to the temple and pay tithe to them?

Of course, he didn’t say those words out loud. There was no way that he’d bring himself to say it to the person who had treated him, after all.

“Heukkkk!”

After he left the recovery room, Lee Han did some light stretching to loosen up his body. The intense pain that came during the treatment was the worst thing he ever experienced, but the more he walked, the more he felt that his body recovered. He felt invigorated, as if a wave of energy was shot into his whole body.

I don’t trust the temple that much, but the convenience it offered is just amazing.

Of course, doctors and healers existed in the kingdom. After all, it was only natural to seek other healing methods since healers who could use Divine Technique were considered as precious personnel. However, they weren’t really that popular because medicine was a slow-developing field.

Even back in his previous worlds, the doctors back in the 19th and 20th centuries were said to kill more people than save them.

They’d drain their patient’s blood to lower their blood pressure, give them mercury instead of medicine, and most importantly, their standard of hygiene was a complete mess.

In Pendragon Kingdom, it wasn’t that much different. The level of their medical practice was still abysmal, while the temple’s healing techniques were more firmly established. Lee Han just experienced the latter and couldn’t help but feel amazed by it.

He estimated that his injuries would need half a year of treatment, but it had been pretty much cured by now.

“Just three more sessions, and I’ll be in perfect condition.”

By that time, his body’s vitality would be restored properly. No, not only vitality, even the internal injuries and minor injuries that had been accumulating in his body without him knowing would be restored.

My body feels light already. Maybe I could just start to fly after a few more treatments.

Thud-!

“…Ah, right. There’s this thing.”

While he was lost in thoughts, a fist-sized rock snapped him back to reality. He had been carrying this around for a while now. At first glance, it could be mistaken for a stone he had collected just for the sake of it, but in truth, it was a treasure of astronomical value that no stones or jewels could compare to.

The Ghost King’s Heart.

It was the only byproduct left by the Ghost King that had been burned by Baltar’s Aura a few days ago.

He wouldn’t be able to defend himself if someone were to call him crazy for carrying such a treasure around carelessly like this, but he wasn’t the type of person who cared much about treasures to begin with.

-Happiness isn’t such a hard thing to achieve. Just feel satisfied with what you have without worrying about what other people think.

Back in his previous life, he had painstakingly saved money to prepare for his retirement. However, before he could even use the wealth he had accumulated, he died. It was probably because of such a reason that the current Lee Han rarely saved money and instead spent it lavishly in ways that satisfied him.

Since he had never dreamed of getting married because of his curse(impotence), he only saved the bare minimum for living expenses. In his view, his saved money would be useless if he died, so he might as well just use them.

…Of course, he ended up saving quite a lot of money because of his a poor man’s mentality, but he never placed much importance on treasures. Also, in his eyes, if someone took his treasures away from him, then that was it. It meant that he just wasn’t skilled enough to possess such treasures.

Only misfortune awaits those who possess a treasure they’re unqualified to possess.

That was how it went in the martial arts novels he used to read.

Every single time someone discovered a treasure, they’d be caught by someone from the unorthodox or orthodox faction of murim before getting killed. With that in mind, he figured that it would be better to carry his treasure around rather than hiding it. After all, even if he ended up losing it, at the very least, he’d be able to live comfortably.

A positive mind.

Lee Han thought it was one of the most important outlook that one should had in order to live a stress-free and healthy life.

But…

Even if I am going to live positively, that doesn’t mean I’ll just stand still if I actually got robbed.

If a thief came to rob him, the thief must also be prepared to be robbed by him. That was another rule that Lee Han decided to follow in this life.

He wouldn’t let someone take advantage of him and control his life. If there was anyone who dared to mess with those rules, he wouldn’t let them off easy.

As he touched the heart, recalling his fierce determination, he started to ponder over what he should do with the thing.

Should I make it into equipment, or just eat it straight?

Of course, he had no intention of selling it. After all, he had decided to use it as a stepping stone for his development.

However, finding someone who could process this rare material was as difficult as finding a lost contact lens in the middle of a sandy beach.

Of all my connections, Older Sister is the only one who can process this…

If it was her, she probably had capable enough manpower since she could create a mythical elixir like ambrosia. However, it wasn’t like he could just ask her about this. Because…

She’d just swallow the whole thing on her own.

If said older sister—Isis—were to hear what he was thinking about, she’d definitely fly into rage and say something along the lines of, ‘Do you think this lady looks like a shameless monarch who covets other people’s things?!’.

Lee Han knew about that though, but he also knew that…

She’ll ask for something else in return.

No matter how much she trusted him, he couldn’t just ask her for a favor thoughtlessly like that. One of her life principles was [Equivalent Exchange]. If he asked for something from her, she’d demand something of the same value in return.

She’d either ask for half of the Ghost King’s heart, or ask an extremely vicious favor.

Which meant, he could only ask her as a last resort.

Then the next candidate is those two magic freaks… Hmm, they’re both at the same level.

The Slave Magic Freak was out of the question because he was hospitalized after the fight. In the meantime, Chick Number 2 didn’t seem to have the skills to handle something like this.

She’s not the scholarly type, she’s an intuitive type like me.

Lee Han, who prided himself on having a good eye for people, knew that Irene Windler wasn’t exactly a girl with a mindset of a mage. He could predict that she’d just break out in a cold sweat if he brought the heart to her.

When he was about to give up since he couldn’t think of anyone in his network who could handle the monster’s material…

Tak.

“…Maybe he knows someone who can do it.”

A face suddenly came to mind, prompting him to stop tapping his forehead with his index finger.

He was a guy who he had brought with great difficulty…

“‘Assistant Number 2’, I need something from you.”

“…Can you just call me Timid?”

He was none other than the status window guy, no, Derrick, who showed his strong refusal for the first time.

From his answer, it seemed like he didn’t want to become an assistant no matter what.