Blue Forest and Narak

Fortunately, I was a man.

Then again, if I transformed over something so trivial, I’d have already—

Come to think of it, I was pretty drunk that time, too.

…The first time I transformed, I was drunk and did it with Choi Shin-woo.

It seems alcohol makes my libido explode.

Normally, I stop at ‘Should I?’, but when I drink, there are no brakes—

I should definitely avoid drinking in front of Yu-hwa.

Enough stray thoughts.

I went into the stall and pulled down my pants.

*

I managed to get through dinner with a calm mind.

We scheduled the gate expedition for two days after my community service ends. We’d take a day off, then go the day after.

So, until then—

[Essense: 3745/76342]

….

Honestly, 3,745 Essense was more than enough.

My ‘Essense Conversion’ was level 13, so the ratio was 1 to 65. That meant 3,745 Essense was over 200,000 Mana.

If I don’t have a reason to turn into a succubus, should I just rest?

I’ve been living as a succubus so much lately, I feel like I need to get back in touch with my Elemental Mage side…

That thought shattered the moment I got home and saw the four vials of Succubus Queen’s Blood.

Right. I hadn’t drunk these yet.

I’d forgotten to drink them before changing back, and I’d been holding off because I figured the effect would be weaker if I wasn’t in my succubus form.

…Still, should I try drinking one as an Elemental Mage?

I had four vials now, and Yoo Yi-jun promised to give me five more, so I had some to spare.

With nine vials in total, let’s just see—

“Ugh.”

It was foul.

It definitely tasted worse than when I drank it as a succubus.

….

There wasn’t much of a change… well, there was something.

[Strength: 88]
[Mana: 1221/76342]
[Essense: 3966/76342]

A little bit of Strength, a little bit of Mana, a little bit of Essense.

It was a waste of Succubus Blood, but I had to experiment.

I had eight more vials anyway.

I transformed immediately.

After transforming, I opened and drank three vials, one by one.

The results:

[Demonic Wings – Enhanced ▼
-Flight (Impossible) (Lv.2+2) (1479/2000)
-Intimidation (Lv.2+2) (1762/2000)
-Magic Field (Lv.3+2) (21/4000)]

[Skill (A): Demonic Horns – Enhanced (6792/64000)]

[Strength: 91]
[Magic Power: 592+266]
[Essense: 6842/77256]

From now on, I’ll only drink this as a succubus.

All three passive skills under ‘Demonic Wings,’ which were at base level 1 (0/1000), jumped up that much.

‘Demonic Horns’ also went from 0 to 6792.

My Strength and Magic Power also rose slightly, and my Essense increased by quite a lot.

My Essense was full, but since I’d already transformed—

*

“In conclusion, it was smaller than last time, but it ended without any trouble!”

“Good work.”

Despite the late hour, Park Eun-su and Ahn Yu-su delivered their report briskly.

Park Eun-su, a member of the guild ‘Narak’ and the Guild Master of ‘Blue Forest,’ and Ahn Yu-su, also from ‘Narak’ and the administrator of ‘Blue Forest.’

Last Saturday, while the two criminal organizations were busy fighting, the black market in the ‘Blue Forest’ gate opened for business.

They couldn’t open it the week before due to the aftermath of the attack, but last week, it opened without a hitch.

However, they said business wasn’t as good as in its heyday, since the effects of the attack hadn’t completely faded and the two criminal organizations were still fighting.

Well, you can’t expect everything at once.

Still, since there was no trouble, they collected the commission fees safely.

The fees, which included protection money, were in the hundreds of millions.

A quick look at the documents showed the fees were distributed fairly, so I just gave them some of my personal funds (which I’d just acquired) and told them to have a company dinner.

Without me, of course.

Officially, I’m not a member of ‘Blue Forest.’

“Thank you, Guild Master!”

Even after giving them a generous amount for the dinner, my personal funds were still in the hundreds of millions. As I wondered what to spend it on, my eyes fell on someone: Lee Jin-ho.

The would-be traitor who sabotaged his own team during the ‘Nokrim’ raid and ended up having over 100—170, to be exact—of his Innate Vital Energy drained by me.

It seemed he still hadn’t recovered.

He looked better than before, but his face was still gaunt, his eyes lifeless. His hands trembled slightly.

“Mr. Jin-ho.”

“…”

“Mr. Jin-ho?”

“Yes? Ah, yes! Guild Master.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

I didn’t say what he should be okay about.

Whether he’s fine or not is none of my business, though.

“Have you been up to any schemes lately? Tell me honestly.”

“Hon… estly… speak… ing… yes, I… I have.”

“What? Really?”

Didn’t I warn him back then?

I even used ‘Devil’s Whisper’ to plant a suggestion not to cause trouble.

“Not to… a Narak guild member… but to a Blue Forest… member…. Because I… am a Narak guild member….”

Lee Jin-ho was suddenly playing a game of ‘find the logical loophole.’

“…Why? No, what kind of scheme was it?”

He could at least say his piece before he went.

“I was wondering what would please you, Guild Master… so first, I bought some information.”

“What?”

“It was expensive… but I found out that you, Guild Master… are a succubus….”

“Uh… and so?”

“That must be why I was so drained after… we had sex. Of course, I want to offer you my Essense, but it’s too draining for me to do it even once….”

Lee Jin-ho was clearly unhinged.

He was an unregistered Awakener, but he was the kind of bastard who’d try to team-kill because he hated competition, or prepare paralysis needles to jump me when he saw an opening.

I was almost curious to see what he’d cooked up this time.

“I decided… to offer someone else.”

“What?”

“I found someone from Blue Forest who wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared, kidnapped them, and have been continuously administering an aphrodisiac—”

“Excuse me?”

“After continuously administering an aphrodisiac, I was going to make them unable to resist and offer them to you.”

He wasn’t subtly unhinged. The bastard was completely insane.

That was my first thought.

My second thought:

I’m glad I planted the suggestion in this bastard not to mess with Narak members.

And after that:

Is the kidnapped person okay?

*

CRASH!

Lee Jin-ho’s private quarters within the ‘Blue Forest’ gate.

I kicked the door open to find only one person inside. A relief… or was it? I wasn’t sure. I guess it was better than finding two or three people tied up.

His arms were tied behind his back, his ankles bound to the chair legs.

A cloth gagged his mouth, and his blindfold was stained with tears.

Unlike his stiff lower body, his head, which had been hanging limply, jerked up at the loud noise and began to move violently.

Violently… or at least, he seemed to be trying.

“I’ve been washing him periodically… so you can use him whenever you wish.”

“Mmph—! Mmph! Mmph!”

His head thrashed more violently.

Of course, ‘violently’ was a relative term. I reached out to remove the blindfold, then paused.

First, I dragged Lee Jin-ho outside, so the person inside couldn’t hear.

“You said he was someone who wouldn’t be missed. How did you know that?”

If he was someone who wouldn’t be missed for a bad reason, it might be better to just get rid of him right here, along with Lee Jin-ho.

Of course, getting rid of Lee Jin-ho was a given.

It seemed better to dispose of this bastard quickly.

“First, he has no family.”

“No family?”

“He’s apparently deep in debt, so he has no connections and is always on the run.”

“…And?”

“Plus, he’s an F-rank Awakener, so he has nowhere else to go. That’s why he hangs around Blue Forest.”

…I did say that securing manpower was the top priority, but did they have to bring in F-ranks?

“He doesn’t even commute; he sleeps inside the gate. So if he goes missing, it won’t be a problem.”

“…I see.”

“I have my eye on a few others, so in the future—”

Snap!

I snapped my fingers, cutting Lee Jin-ho off.

“Jin-ho.”

“Yes.”

“Come to me.”

*

Ding—

[‘Innate Vital Energy Absorption’ has leveled up: Lv.1 > Lv.2]

[Magic Power: 627+282]
[Essense: 10669/81823]
[Innate Vital Energy: 1000+589/1000]

My Magic Power rose by 35, my Essense by just under 4,000, and—

281 Innate Vital Energy.

Adding the 170 or so I absorbed before, that’s 450.

The largest amount I’ve ever drained. Congratulations.

Even Ahn Ji-seok didn’t give up more than 400.

“Heeek— Hhhh— Haaak— Huek—”

Lee Jin-ho was on the verge of suffocation.

His fingertips trembled lifelessly, and his vacant eyes, staring at nothing, told me his end was near.

His naked body, covered in desiccated skin, was hideous. I covered him with a blanket that was lying nearby.

His breathing grew faint, maybe because of the blanket, or maybe because it was his time to go.

Not my problem.

The victim was limp, apparently lacking even the strength to turn his head.

Up close, I could see the tear stains on his blindfold were dark.

He must have cried, dried his tears, and cried again, over and over.

I flicked off the blindfold and removed the cloth gagging him.

His eyelids fluttered. He slowly opened his eyes, then closed them. He opened them again, then closed them.

When he finally opened his eyes fully, he cried out.

“Please, save me!”

*

“So you were desperate for money and came here willing to do anything, and someone who seemed like a high-ranking guild member called you over. Is that right?”

“Yes, yes…!”

In a way, ‘Narak’ is above ‘Blue Forest’…

Lee Jin-ho, being from ‘Narak,’ might have been treated with a certain level of deference, whether he knew it or not.

Did word of that spread, making this idiot seem like a high-ranking official?

…Doesn’t matter now.

I stopped massaging the victim’s arms and legs, which were wrapped in the blanket.

It was about time for me to go to sleep, and I could leave the rest to Park Eun-su.

“Can you walk?”

“Ah… not yet… I don’t think I can on my own.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll call someone here. Just wait.”

“D-don’t go! No… can’t you stay here?”

Seeing someone my age in this state made me feel…

Well, if you get down to it, it’s not like I’m entirely blameless.

I ignored the white flame. He’d been continuously injected with aphrodisiacs, after all.

Putting myself in his shoes, from his perspective, I must be, hmm…

A hero who defeated the villain and saved the victim? A very… beautiful one?

“…I’ll stay a little longer.”

My heart may have softened, but I still needed to manage my condition.

*

Since just massaging his limbs was getting boring, I asked him to tell me his story of living as an F-rank Awakener.

I’d lived as a promising prospect, so I was curious about life in a different world.

The victim, Han Jin-seong, flinched at first but soon began to open up.

As I listened to his story, one thought kept coming to mind.

F-ranks are practically no different from non-Awakeners.

In what they do, and what they can do.

And yet, they don’t lose hope. To put it harshly, they dive into the world of Awakeners with a foolishness that shows they don’t value their own lives.

Eight or nine times out of ten, they end up dead. No, they might suffer a fate worse than death.

In Han Jin-seong’s case, he ended up like this because Lee Jin-ho’s goal was to offer him up as a living dildo for a succubus.

I’d heard that somewhere in the world, people gathered low-rank Awakeners—because they were still Awakeners—and made them into human meatballs.

I’d also heard of a place where they tied up low-rank Awakeners and raised special insect-type monsters inside their stomachs.

I used to think those were just horror stories meant to slander Awakeners, but now that I was living this life, it seemed entirely plausible.

Yang Geun-tae even said he’d seen the latter with his own eyes.

He said they ended up cremating the victims en masse, and it was truly the worst.

I got chewed out for telling that story at a company dinner, but anyway, this world is far too dangerous for low-rank Awakeners.

I should persuade him to get out of the Awakener world and help him get support from the government or somewhere for his debt—

“Whoa, I got another Trait!”

“…What?”

“Another Trait…! Does this mean… I won’t have to suffer like this anymore?”

“So what did you get?”

Of course, asking about another Awakener’s Trait is considered rude.

But it looked like Han Jin-seong was about to dive headfirst back into the Awakener world just because he got one more Trait.

“It’s… um…”

“Fine, don’t tell me. I was going to help if I could.”

“…You’ll help me?”

“If I can. But if you got something useless, I’m kicking you out of the Awakener life immediately.”

“Um… I’m not sure.”

“If you hesitate one more time—”

“It says… Incubus.”