Chapter 190: Their Daily Lives (1)

The same day. A lakeside apothecary.

As the sun began to dip past its zenith and tilt towards the other side of the sky, Choi Hwayoung greeted the morning, later than usual, as always.

“Ugh, ugh….”

The dark circles under her eyes spoke volumes of her exhaustion, no explanation needed.

Fumbling around, Choi Hwayoung found her glasses on the bedside table and pushed herself up from the bed with a low mumble.

“…So tired.”

It wasn’t like there were many days when she wasn’t suffering from chronic fatigue, but still, lately, Choi Hwayoung had been experiencing mornings that were, for the first time in a while, ‘less’ tiring than usual.

The reason, naturally, was the sex she’d had with Kim Sungchul, a junior from the association, ten days prior.

Though she hadn’t realized it herself yet, the release of her pent-up sexual desire and the circulation of her blocked inner energy had brought about several changes in Choi Hwayoung’s body.

One of those changes was the resolution of the chronic fatigue she’d been experiencing.

Of course, being half-elf, a rather unique constitution, meant the effect was only about half of what a typical human would experience, but still, she could definitely feel that she was sufficiently less tired.

Naturally, the fatigue that had lessened for a time had, by other means, increased again.

The second change was none other than the recovery of her lost awakened ability.

As her long-suppressed sexual desire was unleashed and her inner energy began to circulate naturally without her even realizing it, she was able to regain a portion of her lost awakened ability: Ifrit’s Flame.

It was merely a minuscule amount of power returning, still too subtle to make a comeback as a Hunter.

Unlike her prime, when she could melt rocks into lava, the power Choi Hwayoung could wield now was akin to starting a campfire without kindling.

It was a sufficiently strong heat, but just a bit lacking for practical offensive use in combat.

Besides, returning as a Hunter with this ability would likely yield less profit than simply focusing more on potion crafting.

It couldn’t be helped. Her awakened abilities, dormant for decades after her retirement from the front lines, weren’t likely to return fully after just one night of sex.

Unlike cases like Cha Yuri or Do Sihee, who hadn’t lost their combat sense, Choi Hwayoung would need to have sex a dozen more times to fully recover her lost powers.

A half-elf over 110 years old’s accumulated sexual desire wouldn’t possibly be satisfied by a single instance of cumming inside.

Of course, there were ways to utilize the partially regained ability.

After realizing she could now conjure a fist-sized fireball in her palm, Choi Hwayoung often applied this newfound ability during her potion-making process.

When she needed a crucible while crafting multiple potions simultaneously and happened to be short, she’d use the flame conjured in her palm as a substitute.

It allowed for much finer heat control than boiling over a crucible, making it quite efficient.

Besides, Choi Hwayoung hadn’t felt particularly inconvenienced even before losing her awakened abilities.

What concerned her more wasn’t the power of her recovered flame magic, but something slightly different.

“Next time you light your cigarette, be extra careful with the heat.”

These were the cryptic words left by Kim Sungchul, the association junior, before he departed.

At the time, she’d only been puzzled, wondering what he meant, but now, she clearly understood the significance of his words.

He had accurately predicted that she would regain her awakened abilities for some reason, and thanks to that warning, she hadn’t singed her hair by lighting her cigarette with her usual flame.

Had he somehow sensed that her abilities returned while she was with him?

Or perhaps, was he the very one who restored her awakened abilities? Either way, Kim Sungchul had become quite an intriguing subject for Choi Hwayoung.

“I’ll have to ask him next time we meet….”

How on earth did he know I’d regain my awakened abilities? And if he was the one who restored them, what exactly did he want in return?

After decades spent repeating the same kind of manufacturing, the dormant desire for knowledge within her chest had finally awakened.

“If he really was the one who helped me regain my awakened abilities, the only thing I can think of is…”

Sex.

The only thing Kim Sungchul could have done to her body that might explain this was the intercourse they shared that day.

Even as she stumbled upon a tentative answer, Choi Hwayoung wore a look of unease.

“I thought there were plenty of studies showing no significant link between sexual intercourse and awakened abilities…”

Having lived a long life, she had researched extensively in various fields, so naturally, she had dabbled in research concerning the slowing of awakened ability regression.

In particular, a paper detailing the commonalities among Hunters who successfully delayed their retirement was among the data she collected during her research phase.

A lengthy treatise studying the common traits of Hunters who remained active past their thirties.

Although now considered flawed and largely erroneous, she vaguely recalled the paper’s main points.

First, 96% of Hunters who didn’t retire after age thirty were either married or had boyfriends.

Second, 90% of them preferred partners who were muscular or physically fit.

Third, 75% of these Hunters’ husbands or boyfriends had prior experience as male Hunters.

Because of this paper, for a time, the formula for maintaining awakened abilities became ‘marrying a retired male Hunter’.

The paper’s content wasn’t entirely wrong, but marrying a male Hunter wasn’t a perfect solution either.

The only way for female Hunters to retain their awakened abilities was through ‘sex filled with genuine love with their partner.’

Simply marrying a man with Hunter experience, or having sex, wasn’t enough to recover lost awakened abilities.

Indeed, after the paper’s publication, there was a surge in male Hunters and a trend of women marrying just any male Hunter.

Within a few years, it became clear that this alone wasn’t sufficient to recover lost awakened abilities.

When broken down point by point, the paper’s content wasn’t technically incorrect.

To regain awakened abilities, physical intimacy was necessary, hence the need for a husband or boyfriend.

Satisfying the women of this world sexually required more than average stamina, necessitating muscular or physically fit partners.

The experience as a male Hunter helped foster deeper empathy for the struggles their wives or girlfriends faced in their own Hunter careers.

Male Hunters who merely put their names on the roster without proper activity, just to gain an edge in the marriage market.

And female Hunters who entered marriages with any male Hunter, regardless of compatibility, solely for the purpose of retaining their abilities.

Naturally, genuine feelings or love were absent between them, and the obligatory sexual encounters usually ended unsatisfactorily for both parties.

This period saw South Korea, along with countries worldwide, breaking divorce rate records year after year.

Of course, there were rare cases where couples found true compatibility and experienced positive results, but in the grand scheme of things, such minor instances were merely statistical outliers.

Consequently, the link between sex and awakened abilities was widely regarded as a statistical anomaly, a flawed conclusion.

“What’s the point of agonizing over this alone? It’s better to just ask someone who might know.”

It wasn’t too late to start researching again if Kim Sungchul didn’t know either after she asked him.

Choi Hwayoung temporarily set aside her unresolved worries and quietly lay back down on the bed she had just left.

The third change that had occurred since the day she had sex with Kim Sungchul.

It was the overwhelming sexual desire that had recently surged within her.

“……”

Barely having gotten out of bed, Choi Hwayoung found herself contemplating whether or not to touch herself intimately right there.

This was precisely why the dark circles under Choi Hwayoung’s eyes persisted, even after her chronic fatigue had dissipated.

Lately, she’d been spending nearly every day indulging in self-pleasure under the covers, a habit more than enough to bring back the chronic fatigue she had just managed to shake off.

Female masturbation requires considerable stamina right up until the moment of climax, and even afterward, one is left feeling drained and exhausted for quite some time.

With her heightened libido, Choi Hwayoung’s already depleted stamina was being consumed much faster than usual.

Even her main job, potion crafting, could now be finished slightly faster thanks to her awakened abilities, leaving little need to explain where she spent all her remaining time.

She’d even cut back on smoking her beloved Black Slime cigarettes, investing that time instead in these manual endeavors.

The saying ‘an old dog learns new tricks’ certainly applied to her, albeit in a rather belated fashion.

“Should I just endure it?… I really need to cut back now…”

Regardless of the differing time perceptions between humans and half-elves, the pleasure of sex, experienced for the first time in 110 years, was certainly not something that could be resolved by a single night of intercourse.

On the contrary, Kim Sungchul had merely stirred her sexual desire before leaving, leaving Choi Hwayoung struggling to contain her heated body these days.

“Still, it’s hard to work in this state…”

Entering potion manufacturing while this worked up would inevitably lead to a lack of focus.

Choi Hwayoung rationalized that it would ultimately be more efficient to address her desires first before starting work.

“…I’ll just do it once, then work. Just once…”

Muttering to herself about a battle already lost, she stealthily slid a finger beneath her underwear.