Ch.1Victory Report 1

“Dohyun, did you know?”

Jisoo, with a sword at her waist, asks me.

Her black hair tickles me, and I almost cough for a moment.

“There’s a big bar in Sindorim.”

“You mean Moment? That’s the expensive place where drinks cost ten thousand won each.”

“Yeah. These days, they’re giving free drinks to hunters who catch Level 7 monsters.”

Jisoo’s eyes sparkle.

She’s been a natural drinker since forever.

“Even if it’s free, wouldn’t it be cheap booze?”

“Absolutely not! The drink is called ‘Victory Toast.’ It’s a celebratory drink to thank those who protect the city!”

Jisoo clenches her fists with an excited face.

“So if we catch the wyvern this time, let’s definitely go there.”

She says with a bright smile.

“Would the party leader take me along too…?”

“Why wouldn’t you go? You’re officially our party’s healer.”

Despite her reassurance, I let out a deep sigh.

The truth is, I’m not worthy of being with this beautiful woman.

Though she treats me kindly out of sympathy, most party members besides her resent me for being “obsolete.”

They just can’t say it openly because Jisoo is the party’s important main dealer and she cares about me.

Sometimes I want to ask her.

Why she treats someone like me—neither handsome nor talented—so well.

Under the gray sky, she smiles at me.

That smile dispels the heaviness in my chest, as if answering my doubts.

“It’s okay. Humans weren’t originally beings who depended on skills anyway.”

Her golden eyes shine in the backlight.

Looking at those vibrant eyes, I feel like I could accomplish anything, just as she says.

A feeling that I might develop a new talent at any moment.

Thanks to that feeling, I’ve been able to endure the contempt and hang around this party.

“Before the gates opened, we didn’t have system windows or supernatural powers.”

I stop in my tracks at her words.

The world before the gates opened…

Five years ago, rifts appeared across the Earth.

Monsters from another world poured through those rifts, and the world I had known came to an end.

We were each assigned skills through system windows that appeared in mid-air.

And we began fighting for humanity, and for our own desires, against the monsters.

Some received mythical strength.

Others gained miraculous powers only seen in comics.

But not everyone received such abilities.

Some people, like me, got ambiguous healing abilities, and some had no abilities at all.

In an instant, the world’s order was turned upside down, based on ability rather than society.

Suddenly, I imagine meeting Jisoo before the world changed like this.

Meeting her at an ordinary university, going on ordinary dates.

“Hey! Hurry up, will you?”

Party leader Hyunsu calls me with an irritated voice.

Thanks to his gruff call, I was able to break free from my idle thoughts.

“Yes, coming!”

I hurriedly ran toward my companions.

The ruined downtown Yeouido.

A black shadow looms over a building with its exterior torn off, its steel frame exposed grotesquely.

We know better than anyone that this bizarre form is today’s prey.

A Level 7 monster, famous for being impossible to catch without a large hunter guild.

‘Blue Wyvern.’

Its massive tail wraps around the building.

When that tail moves once, walls crumble; when it moves twice, steel frames collapse.

“Everyone get ready, it’s coming!”

Soon the world darkens.

Because the giant dragon’s two wings block out the sun.

“—–.”

The monster’s scream is ear-splittingly loud.

While I cover my ears, Party Leader Hyunsu and Jisoo grimly draw their axe and sword.

“Gyuseon, I’m counting on you!”

Gyuseon, the party’s archer, draws his bowstring.

Meanwhile, Jisoo concentrates all her strength in her legs.

“Here I go!”

As he releases the bowstring, multiple arrows fly and embed in the building.

As if they’ve practiced countless times, Jisoo uses those arrows as footholds to leap into the sky.

She draws her sword and spins in mid-air, swinging the blade.

Following her sword strike, flames rise up and burrow into the wyvern’s thick body.

“—-!!”

The monster immediately swings its tail to attack the small swordswoman flying toward it.

That’s dangerous…

It’s a tail strike several times bigger than her body.

No matter how skilled Jisoo is, taking a hit in mid-air would be fatal.

“!”

Party Leader Suhyeon throws himself forward with his massive shield in front of the tail.

As he catches Jisoo, a powerful impact that dents the shield envelops the two.

They fall amid the flood of building debris.

I hurry toward my companions.

This is the only thing someone like me can do.

I dig through the debris and reach out to the two.

“Healing.”

A soft light follows my fingertips and wraps around their wounds.

Their blue-tinged wounds gradually begin to turn red.

“That’s enough!”

Hyunsu suddenly gets up from the ground in the middle of receiving healing.

“But your wounds are still…”

“If we keep taking your damn healing, the monster will escape!”

His huge arm knocks away my fingertips.

Hyunsu, breathing heavily, runs back toward the massive shadow.

Building structures raining down.

Blue flames so hot it’s hard to breathe.

I hear my companions’ screams from all directions.

But the tank, the archer, and the swordswoman all bravely charge toward the overwhelming power they face.

My legs tremble madly.

As if my body knows my weakness better than I do, it signals me to flee from here.

“Watch out!”

Huh…?

The moment I come to my senses, a chunk of concrete falls toward me.

Gyuseon pushes me aside and we both roll on the ground.

“Gyuseon…!”

“Hyung, what’s wrong with you? Do you think hunting a wyvern is like a regular raid?”

“Sorry…”

“Gyuseon, why aren’t you shooting during your DPS timing?”

Hyunsu shouts while holding up his shield.

“Sorry! Dohyun hyung was in danger just now…”

“Don’t worry about that bastard and do your job! He can heal himself, can’t he?”

While Gyuseon paused his attack, the wyvern folds its wings again.

Thanks to that, the wound Jisoo had inflicted is now hidden.

“Damn it! Useless bastard…”

I feel resentful.

Resentful of myself for having only this dog-shit healing ability.

Resentful of this suddenly changed world.

Resentful of the leader who carelessly knocked away my hand when I was trying to help.

Amid the deafening explosions, I hung my head and covered my ears.

I wish the world would just end right now.

For a moment, I even have the terrible thought that I wish the raid would fail and the blame would fall on someone else instead of me.

As I sink into these negative thoughts, someone reaches out to me.

I knew the owner of that rough hand.

It was Jisoo.

Her face was covered in soot, and her body was soaked in blood.

I couldn’t tell if it was her blood or the wyvern’s.

“Healer, could you heal me please?”

Jisoo asks me with her usual smile.

“…”

I stare at her reddened palm.

Her fingers were so calloused from all her efforts that it was hard to believe they belonged to a woman.

In contrast, my hands as a healer are white as jade.

For a moment, I was so ashamed that I almost knocked her hand away.

“Noona.”

“Yes?”

“When this raid is over, please find a new healer.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Exactly what I said. I don’t want to be a burden to everyone anymore.”

I let out a deep sigh.

But soon that sigh turned into a yelp.

Because noona had hit me hard on the head with her fist.

“You idiot.”

Unlike usual, she glares at me with an angry face.

“Is that what I taught you?”

“What?”

“Did I tell you to just run away when things get tough?”

“But everyone’s getting hurt because of me! I hate it. I hate living with guilt because someone else is in danger because of me…”

I raise my head and speak to her.

Something in my eyes makes her silhouette waver.

“No one is strong from the beginning.”

Jisoo reaches out to me again.

“Hyunsu couldn’t even hold a shield with one hand in the past. Gyuseon couldn’t hit a stationary apple with an arrow.”

“And I used to swing my sword at thin air while aiming at a scarecrow right in front of me.”

Noona chuckles and asks me:

“But do you know how we got this far?”

Her backlight shines under the black sun.

“Because everyone waited patiently for each other to grow. And we plan to wait for you too.”

“What…?”

“Even Hyunsu, despite how he talks, actually worries about you a lot.”

That gruff leader worries about me…?

“We’re investing in you. So don’t talk like you’re a burden. If you feel sorry for us, just work harder.”

I stare at her hand.

I’m ashamed of my embarrassing thoughts until now.

When there’s someone right in front of me who needs my ability.

“That’s all it takes.”

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

And without a word, I took noona’s hand.

At that moment, a brilliant light springs from our joined hands.

The radiance I’ve never seen before is dazzling.

“Angelic Hand”

New flesh visibly grows on Jisoo’s calloused hand.

Unlike before, when it took 1 minute or 10 minutes, her hand recovers to a pure white color in just 5 seconds.

“Now watch.”

Jisoo rises from the debris as if to show me.

“See what the hand you saved can do.”

Jisoo grips her sword firmly with both hands.

Soon flames flicker on the blade and then engulf her entire body.

“Flame Butterfly Dream.”

The realm that a flame swordswoman can reach when she attains A-rank Hunter.

This nameless swordswoman, not even a ranker, climbs the debris and soars into the sky.

She leaps powerfully through the pouring sunlight.

And delivers her ultimate strike toward the black shadow blocking the sun.

As noona’s red blade cuts through the sky, bright light pours through the gap.