Day 2 of Vacation (1) – Team Dinner

A rustling sound. A ticklish feeling.

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Choi Shin-woo’s head between my—

Smack!

“Ow! What was that for?”

“What do you think?”

It seemed that because I’d slept without reverting my transformation, Choi Shin-woo had woken up, seen me, and gotten horny.

I’d told him to ‘take good care of me from now on,’ but wasn’t this a little too soon?

Choi Shin-woo, his hair a mess, whined.

“I know you need a lot of Essense—”

“Don’t make stupid excuses. It’s always about Essense with you.”

“Sorry. To be honest, I just wanted to have sex.”

What was with this honesty?

“Hah, fine. Go ahead.”

“Thanks. You’re pretty even when you’ve just woken up. My morning wood won’t go down looking at you.”

“Whatever.”

“I’m putting it in.”

“Right now?”

“I licked you a bit before you woke up.”

“What? You son of a— Hah….”

Choi Shin-woo’s cock entered me tightly. Even after he’d come so much yesterday, he was full of vigor again today.

“I’ll be quick.”

After a few tight thrusts, I started to get a little wet, but it was still rough.

Squelch… squelch… squelch… squelch—

“Hah… haah… hah… hngh….”

Choi Shin-woo pulled out.

“It’s a little tight. Suck me for a bit.”

“Fuck off. The first thing in my mouth after waking up being your dick is a bit much.”

“Alright. Then I’ll lick you.”

Choi Shin-woo put his mouth on my pussy and started licking me with his tongue.

Slurp— Schluurp—

Even in my drowsy state, I could feel intermittent jolts of pleasure.

As I got wetter, an impatient Choi Shin-woo pushed his cock back inside me.

“Hnngh….”

It slid in more smoothly than before.

Squish, squelch, squish, squelch, squish—

Doing it in a daze felt different from before.

Just as I was slowly waking up,

Spurt, spurt, splurt—

“Hahk…. Hahk…. Hahk….”

Semen flooded my insides as Choi Shin-woo let out ragged breaths.

“Ah… morning sex is fucking great.”

Choi Shin-woo’s eyes fluttered shut, and he flopped over to the side, falling asleep again.

What the…?

A sudden round of morning sex, the thrill felt while half-asleep, and Choi Shin-woo passing out right after coming.

I just stared blankly for a moment.

Anyway, after getting up and taking a shower, I released my transformation.

Ting—

[‘Demonic Horns – Anomaly’ has leveled up: Lv.1 > Lv.2]
[‘Demonic Horns – Manifestation’ has leveled up: Lv.1 > Lv.2]

A status window greeted me.

I wondered how the horns had gotten stronger in my untransformed state.

[Demonic Horns – Anomaly: Lv.2
– Magic Power +3%
– Max Mana +100%
– Skill (A): Essense Conversion Level +1
– Skill (A): Elemental Creation Level +1
– Skill (A): Elemental Control Level +1
– Skill (P): Elemental Immunity Level +1]

[Demonic Horns – Manifestation: Lv.2
– Magic Power +3%
– Skill (A): Elemental Creation Level +1
– Skill (A): Elemental Control Level +1
– Skill (P): Elemental Immunity Level +1]

As before, the changes to ‘Manifestation’ were minor, and it seemed some of its skills were overlapping with ‘Anomaly’.

I opened my full status window.

[Lee Han-gyeol
Trait: Elemental Mage
Sub-trait: Element – Flame
– Skill (A): Elemental Creation (Lv.5+1)
– Skill (A): Elemental Control (Lv.5+1)
– Skill (P): Flame Immunity (Lv.5+1)
Sub-trait: Element – Lightning
– Skill (A): Elemental Creation (Lv.1+1)
– Skill (A): Elemental Control (Lv.1+1)
– Skill (P): Lightning Immunity (Lv.1+1)

Trait: Transformation – Succubus
– Skill (A): Transformation (Lv.2)
– Skill (A): Essense Conversion (Lv.5+1)
Sub-trait: Demonic Horns
– Skill (P): Demonic Horns – Anomaly (Lv.2)
– Skill (A): Demonic Horns – Manifestation (Lv.2)

Strength: 80
Magic Power: 160+4
Mana: 148/3296
Essense: 1022/3296]

All my elemental skills had gained a level. Even Lightning, which I’d never even used properly.

I should probably go to Elemental to try it out. As I thought that, I checked my phone.

Lee Hyun-woo: Is this Han-gyeol’s number? I’ll send the address for the team dinner below, but if you have time, come to the guild hospital and we can go together with the others.

Me: Okay.

*

I stopped by my house to drop off my things, showered in my male body, and then headed to Elemental.

When I opened the door to the designated room in the guild hospital, Park Ji-an and Sung Yu-han were lying in beds, surrounded by the rest of the team.

They saw me and waved.

“Han-gyeol!”

“Hey, Han-gyeol.”

Looking at their faces, they all seemed to be in good condition.

“Hello. Is everyone okay?”

“We’re fine. But I heard you didn’t even suffer from mana exhaustion? You must have used a ton of mana too. That’s strange.”

Park Ji-an asked, tilting her head.

“Han-gyeol worked the hardest. I heard he has a mana recovery skill—”

“Whoa, really? I’m so jealous. Flame magic already eats up so much mana—”

“But Ji-an, don’t you think you’re being a bit too casual with Han-gyeol? Please don’t take it the wrong way, Han-gyeol. Ji-an’s just like that.”

“Hey, it’s a sign of friendliness. You’re okay with it, right?”

“I’m fine with it.”

“See? Call me Nuna.”

“Excuse me?”

“What? You can’t? We’re not that far apart in age.”

“Hah, Ji-an—”

While the team leader was nagging Park Ji-an, Sung Yu-han spoke to me.

“I heard from a staff member that you got hit by lightning back there. I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s okay. It was an unavoidable situation, after all.”

“Still, it must have hurt a lot. Are you injured anywhere?”

“I’m perfectly fine. In fact, thanks to getting hit, I awakened the Lightning element.”

In that instant, every eye in the hospital room turned to me.

“Really?”

Sung Yu-han’s lazy expression shattered, replaced by shock. The contrast was striking.

Everyone else was just as surprised.

“How?”

“Uh, I got hit by the lightning, and it suddenly awakened. Of course, my proficiency was too low to use it back then.”

“That’s a relief. You can’t control lightning well when you first use it. If you’d used it wrong, it could have come right back at you or hit Han-yul. Anyway, I’m jealous. But Team Leader, is it even possible to awaken like that?”

“How should I know? But having a mana recovery skill means he has another way of managing his magic power. Maybe the versatility of that management method raised his affinity, making it possible to awaken that way. In any case, congratulations, Han-gyeol.”

“Yeah. Congratulations. I’m jealous.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you—”

“That’s seriously amazing. How—”

“Alright, alright, let’s save the chatter for the team dinner. We’re in a hospital, so let’s keep it down.”

*

Is there anything better than beef?

The juices and aroma, completely different from pork, spread through my mouth.

Of course, it had lost some of its prestige since certain monster meats hit the market, but still, beef was beef.

The taste was one thing, and the price was another.

But who were we?

Awakeners.

This was the life of an Awakener.

Eating piles of that expensive beef.

“I was so out of it back then I couldn’t say it, but thank you so much. You’re my savior. My life’s savior. Ah, this piece is cooked perfectly. Here, you have it.”

The person chattering away next to me was Nam Han-yul. He’d been stuck to my side since the beginning, thanking me nonstop.

At first, I felt proud, but after hearing it so many times, well…

“I really thought I was going to die. Wow, but you—”

“Ah, about when you woke up.”

“Huh? Oh. And speak casually. Hearing you use formal speech feels awkward. Just call me Hyung. As long as you don’t just call me ‘hey,’ it’s fine.”

“Okay, uh… sure.”

“Right, so when I woke up?”

“When you woke up in my, I mean, my arms, you said, ‘Huh? It’s not wet?’ What did you mean by that?”

“Huh? Uh, oh? That? Ahh, it was nothing. I was just out of it and must have been talking nonsense. Don’t worry about it. It was really nothing—”

He was rambling, flustered.

His eyes darted back and forth.

Hmm. He’s fun to tease. I think I get why Park Ji-an is always messing with him.

The team leader stood up, raising his glass.

“Alright, then, a toast to our team’s safe return! Cheers!”

“Cheers!” “Cheers!” “Cheers!” “Thank you!”

“And a toast to Han-gyeol, who worked so hard for our team!”

“Cheers!” “Awesome!” “Thanks!” “Congrats!”

Ah, this atmosphere.

Something warm and fuzzy started to bubble up in my chest.

*

As time passed, the empty liquor bottles formed a forest, and people gathered in small groups to chat.

Lee Su-ha, Kang Han-ui, and Kim Ga-yoon were talking together (probably about physical enhancement and recovery).

Lee Hyun-woo, the team leader, and Sung Yu-han were talking about elemental awakenings, specifically about awakening a nth element—

“…So you have to get hit by various elements…”

“…First, let’s have Han-gyeol get hit by all of them…”

Excuse me?

Did I just hear something strange?

Well, whatever. I was with a cackling Park Ji-an and an aggrieved Nam Han-yul—

“He was carried out in his arms—!”

“No! I mean, it’s true, but no! And it’s because I got hurt trying to protect Han-gyeol, you know?”

Both of their faces were flushed from the alcohol, their eyes glistening with tears.

One was tearing up from laughter, the other from indignation.

“I thought we’d finally get to hear you be called ‘Han-yul Hyung’ now that we have a junior, but you get carried out in his arms instead? You should just stay the youngest forever. The baby of the team suits you perfectly.”

“Seriously, what are you talking about!”

Finding the scene hilarious, I chuckled along. I must have been drunk too. Nam Han-yul whipped his head around to look at me.

“Hey! Don’t laugh! Was I that useless?”

Seeing tears welling up in his boyish, youthful face, I felt a mischievous urge, like an uncle teasing his nephew.

“No, you did well. But at the end, doing nothing and just sleeping soundly in my arms… that seemed more like a little brother, or a baby, not a hyung.”

At my words, Park Ji-an burst out laughing as if she couldn’t breathe.

“A baby, a baby. He’s really a baby, isn’t he?”

“That’s not it….”

A tear trickled down from Nam Han-yul’s already brimming eyes. Drip. Drip.

“I’m really sorry about that….”

Uh, if you apologize like that, it makes me feel awkward.

“I was just kidding. Hey, come on.”

“Are you crying? Is our baby crying?”

“Nuna, you should stop laughing too.”

“It’s funny! Alright, alright. I’ll stop teasing. There, there, our baby.”

“Stop teasing him. Why are you always so playful?”

Sung Yu-han approached and intervened. Then he said to me,

“Now that you’ve awakened Lightning, you’ll be coming to the sub-group meeting, right?”

“Um… I haven’t actually used lightning even once yet, but can I still go?”

“Of course. There aren’t many of us anyway, so don’t feel pressured and just join.”

“What are you talking about, old man? He shouldn’t feel pressured even if there were a lot of people. And Han-gyeol will probably come to our sub-group meeting too.”

“Well, of course. That’s why we schedule them on different days.”

“When is it?”

“When’s the Flame meeting? Ah, tomorrow? Ours will be a little later. Can you make it?”

So, Lightning after Flame.

“Ah. Yes. I can.”

“Great. See you then.”

Sung Yu-han returned to his seat. The dinner was generally winding down.

The team leader stood up from his seat.

“Should we wrap it up? Han-yul’s passed out over there. Someone’s going to have to take him home.”

Sung Yu-han raised his hand.

“I’ll take him. I know where he lives.”

Looking at the passed-out Han-yul, a dark thought surfaced. Should I take him home and drain his Essense?

I was still reeling in self-loathing, shocked—Did I really just think that?

Thankfully, Sung Yu-han had eliminated that particular worry for me.

If I just stayed away from Han-yul for a bit, I’d calm down one way or another.

“Han-gyeol, would you like to see Han-yul’s house? It’s one the guild provided for him.”

Ah.