Chapter 231: The Life of a Sparrow Isn’t So Bad (2)
Scratch. Scratch.
The sound of thin paper brushing against each other.
The second hand of the wall clock moves smoothly.
And the subtle scent of wood lingers in the background.
“……”
This is a public library in Seoul.
Many people had their books and notebooks spread out on their desks, deeply engrossed in reading.
In a secluded spot between the bookshelves, a hooded figure occupied a desk.
Typically, this high school student had his eyes glued to problem sets, but for a change of pace, he had come to the library and unconsciously glanced towards the problem set side while picking out books.
[Biology]
[Cell Biology]
[Structure and Function of the Human Body]
[Best Travel Destinations: Thailand]
Some odd ones seemed to have slipped in there…
The nameless high school student quickly moved on, not wanting to disturb anyone’s reading.
And at this moment.
Strands of a somewhat rare-colored hair flowed out from under the hood of another library patron.
“……”
That’s right.
The one sitting here is none other than Kim Gi-ryeo, the fourth S-Class Hunter of Korea.
Flap flap.
He turned the pages with his hand, continuing to read at quite a fast pace, but his stern expression showed no signs of changing as time passed.
For a top-tier Hunter, of which there are only four in the country, to be sitting in a library in broad daylight was indeed unusual.
In fact, he was currently facing an unexpected problem.
Thinking that understanding the Earthling’s body might lead to some breakthrough, he had decided to study in a desperate attempt to find a lifeline.
-What’s this? The information labeled ⓐ here is somehow labeled ⓝ there? It’s completely opposite!
The internet had too many inaccurate materials.
He went through various attempts until he finally stumbled upon this library.
Published works that exist offline undergo at least some scrutiny, making them relatively trustworthy. If he wanted to study hard, this place would be far more advantageous than the internet.
But even though he attempted to learn,
The more information he accumulated, the clearer the negative deductions in his mind became.
No matter how he thought about it, there seemed to be no way to artificially awaken his body’s potential.
To be precise, it was clear that Kim Gi-ryeo’s limits were above F-Class, but there were no means to accelerate the painfully slow progression of his Awakening Level, which only increased by 2 each year.
‘No, seriously.’
With each study session, his conclusion accelerated. There was no answer.
‘I’m going crazy.’
What creature wouldn’t feel that way?
Alphauri were beings with a strong desire for longevity; on a scale that could be described as Earth-like, it was a planet where biotechnology had advanced dramatically.
So with some care, Kim Gi-ryeo’s body could, in theory, maintain its ideal form for 300 or even 1000 years, but a thousand years…
To last a mere thousand years in this body.
‘Damn, if it’s that long, the Earthlings would adapt to magic at grade 3 and there would be SSS-Class Hunters popping up left and right.’
Creek.
He leaned back, hands clasped behind his head, sinking into thought.
Living day to day wasn’t particularly difficult.
‘Earth… it’s a good planet.’
Even without the aesthetic beauty.
The internet. A well-ordered plumbing system. Affordable electricity. Fashion. Food. Music. Culture. Culture. Culture.
Earth was a world with plenty to enjoy and love.
In fact, compared to some other planets, the emotions felt almost gentle and warm.
So even being a citizen of this land without the status of a Great Mage brought him no dissatisfaction.
Not at all.
The problem was.
‘The karma I’ve built up…’
He rubbed his nose, following an old habit as if it were a corpse.
The forged grade.
The lie on his register with the Association didn’t bother him much; he could just break his own body tomorrow, saying he couldn’t handle the pain anymore and retire as a Hunter without a care.
But enhancement and sacrifice.
How on Earth could he resolve this?
‘Is there a way to stop Kang Chang-ho with F-Class magic…?’
No way.
‘There really is none. Unlike Brooklyn, that guy has decent talent in control, so I can’t even block his spells with [Mana Burst].’
But lamenting wouldn’t change the world automatically.
He resolved to slowly start tidying up the mess he had made so far.
Flap.
Gi-ryeo flipped through the third book and opened the comic book he had brought for fun.
And gradually, he calmed his emotions.
But just when the character in the book was shipwrecked in the middle of the vast ocean,
Suddenly, it struck him.
‘Ah.’
Now that I think about it…
‘This week is already that time?’
Outside, the humid summer rain was pattering down.
That’s right.
It had been about three months since he visited the building of the guild called Garion.
The first tutoring period he had signed a contract for with Jeong Ha-seong was about to come to an end.
*
Fwoosh!
The fragrance of flames that had become quite familiar now.
I chased the heat carried by the wind, hands behind my back.
‘Hmm.’
As you can see, the national hero was receiving one-on-one tutelage from the twin star system’s Great Mage and was growing like bamboo shoots in the rainy season…
“Jeong Ha-seong. Look again here.”
“Ah, yes.”
Whoosh.
A small spark appears before the apprentice’s eyes with a quiet sound, like a candle flame.
In other words, the storage magic of the Pyromancer Necklace.
“Don’t let it just float up; use it as if it’s rising from the inside. If you think of this hand as a cross-section, then like this, the point where the x-axis and the y-axis intersect is the ignition center.”
“But doing it like this feels somehow off…”
“There’s repulsion. The magic within the body originally interferes when it overlaps with the starting point of the skill. That’s why it’s hard to use skills directly in an Awakened’s body.”
“Ah.”
“But if you find a gap and push with your strength, it can unexpectedly break through. Practicing this will help improve your skill control.”
“A gap, huh.”
“If you strike at just the right moment when the flow slows down…”
I was passionately explaining something using my right hand as a teaching tool when I suddenly trailed off.
“You should strike….”
Ha-seong looked puzzled by my reaction but soon returned to practicing.
About two hours passed.
Just around the time we were getting ready to leave the gym after finishing the lesson.
“Thank you for today. I will practice what you’ve taught me and be sure to master it before our next lesson.”
The moment some words slipped from Ha-seong’s mouth.
I voiced the opinion I had been mulling over.
“Ah. Ha-seong, about that ‘next’…”
“Yes.”
“Um… this might be a bit weird, but you don’t think you’ll finish your lessons here without a contract extension, right? Even if I say there won’t be significant improvements from now on, you’ll definitely continue learning, right?”
Thud.
Immediately after this, Jeong Ha-seong dropped his latest model mobile phone on the floor.
How could he place that expensive thing down without a protective case?
I looked down at the phone stuck to the ground.
Tutoring with the number one ranked Hunter started as a monetary transaction, but now the meaning of this act had faded considerably.
Do you know how much money I have in my account right now?
After deducting the costs.
Dungeon Break compensation for the Thornbush Forest. And the last lecture fee added together, the total is…
5.62 billion.
A whopping 5.62 billion was the amount I had on hand.
I could buy two Infinite Power Cores, which were so expensive that I had to tremble while buying even one from the Nachalsawon, and still have change left.
They say the average lottery first prize in Korea is about 2 billion.
How absurd is it that someone with 5 billion in capital is still not free from labor?
‘Ugh, I don’t want to work…’
I repeated a sentence that any worker might have pondered at least once.
It would be impossible to switch bodies now.
The curse of the Knight’s Pact itself was meaningless, but due to the physical effects applied to the contractor, my remaining expected lifespan was barely 9 years.
‘I want to quit everything.’
Thus, the impulse struck me.
All the scheming just to rake in money had become a hassle, and if possible, I wanted to stop this nonsense immediately and take a break.
Furthermore, this was something I felt I could reasonably say since I’d crunched the numbers as a teacher.
‘This seems plenty enough.’
After all, Jeong Ha-seong had significantly reduced the secondary damage he was most worried about.
As long as I didn’t shoot someone right in the face…
The flames of the hero had not left indiscriminate scars, just because they were nearby.
“Hmm.”
But thinking again, the real problem might be with Esther.
While I had managed to fix Ha-seong leaking magic, the curse magic was a mental interference type.
‘Although I’ve somewhat improved the physical barrier, it’ll still be penetrated if caught in a curse storm.’
I still had much to verify before starting to teach Esther.
So, I suppressed my impulse to retire while using Jeong Ha-seong as an experiment to refine the teaching methods I would apply to the next student.
After all, these thoughts came from a temporary phenomenon induced by the shock of failure.
Initially, I intended to send the remaining know-how and some informational documents to Jeong Ha-seong’s home address once I safely transitioned.
“Um, does this mean that Mr. Kim Hunter doesn’t want to extend the contract…?”
“No. What I just said was just a throwaway comment, so don’t worry about it.”
Thud.
The sound of the door to the Hunter-Exclusive Gymnasium locker closing followed.
“Really. Personally, I’ve felt that you’ve grown a lot, so I said that. Seriously, you could quit this stuff right now, and you wouldn’t have to worry about things in your work compared to before.”
“……”
“Oh right, when we re-sign, let’s not bother with a formal pact; just continue with the usual upfront monthly payment. Then I’ll keep teaching you right away.”
As I pulled out Kim Gi-ryeo’s phone, which I had kept separately in the locker, I casually changed the subject.
But Ha-seong was looking at my side face and soon raised a question.
“It didn’t seem like you were joking… Could it be about the lecture fee? If you need it, I can raise the amount anytime for the re-signing.”
In the past, I would’ve been easily swept away and drooling over that statement.
‘Yeah. What good would hoarding gold and silver do for a low-level Mage? If I’m lucky to avoid being robbed, that’s a blessing. It’s time to be more cautious since I need to live like a real weakling from now on.’
I needed to be more prudent since I was about to live as a real underdog.
If I recklessly tried to regain my status with tools, I might become an unfortunate victim, just like the frog incident from a while back.
No, even worse, with this F-Class body, it was common not to maximize the abilities of high-grade artifacts.
‘Sigh…’
Maybe later, when my mood improved, I’d start collecting Epic grade items again.
In any case, that act wouldn’t be funded by the blood of Jeong Ha-seong.
Let me reiterate, I was now an unwilling soul trapped within Kim Gi-ryeo’s body.
I thought it was too late for me, but if I wanted to live even a bit longer, I had to please the S-Class Fire Mage from now on, right?
‘If I build a good rapport, maybe they’ll overlook my mistakes later when the truth comes out. Suddenly being formal will seem weird, so for now, just being nice is the best strategy…’
Hunters usually had most of their possessions tied up in equipment.
This would likely be true for Jeong Ha-seong, who also wore Epic-level gear.
But due to the dangerous line of work, he often got injured on the job, and treating those injuries during battles required expensive consumables costing millions.
‘Hunters have to wait for their loot to sell before they can gather funds, so the cash flow slows down… Including taxes, 6 billion a month would even be burdensome for an S-Class Hunter.’
Let’s not be greedy.
I barely swallowed the sigh bubbling up inside me and continued speaking.
“You don’t need to increase the money; just send it like you’ve been doing.”
“But…”
“Seriously, it’s fine. I might even lower it if you really want. Should I?”
“…No, it’s fine.”
“Alright. Then let’s wrap up our conversation and go grab some food.”
Fortunately, it seemed the student fell for this persistent persuasion.
Indeed…
Muttering.
Somehow, Jeong Ha-seong mumbled something peculiar as he left the gym, but whatever.
*
After finishing the lesson with Jeong Ha-seong, Kim Gi-ryeo headed towards the reservation he had made at a mushroom hot pot restaurant, thinking.
After trying out various teaching methods during the last three months of lessons with his first student, he planned to start teaching Esther right away without any breaks.
And once he fulfilled the teaching commitments he had shared with the two S-Class Hunters, his goal was to take a brief retreat to the countryside.
Finally, the schedule in his mind neatly organized.
But there was one thing that the Great Mage was forgetting.
【-If you get strong enough for me to acknowledge you, we can team up anytime.】
Now that I think about it, this lesson.
Wasn’t there a little something beyond just improving the number one ranked Hunter’s skills?
