Infinite Evolution Hunter [NOVEL] - chapter 36
He recalled when and how his Regeneration skill had reached B in his previous life.
It had been a day when he was in good condition.
He had taken out holy water to hunt low-tier undead, when a ghost approached before he could even sprinkle it.
Since it wasn’t particularly dangerous and just annoying, he absentmindedly swung his arm.
At that moment, his life force burst out, shattered the ghost, and the skill leveled up.
He tried to remember if he had done anything else special, but nothing came to mind.
The only certain thing was that it had gone up while he was fighting ghosts.
—
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok, is your gate entry suspension still not lifted?”
A call came from the Awakener Bureau.
“No, it’s been lifted.”
“Uh… according to the records, it was lifted, but you kept going only to undead gates, so we called to check if something was still wrong.”
“It’s lifted. I’m going in because I need something from there.”
“Could you tell us what that is?
If it’s something we can share with other hunters, it might help reduce the tendency to avoid undead gates.”
There was a note of hope in his voice, as if he’d finally found a way to make undead gates more appealing.
“I’m going there to train against undead. I don’t think it’ll be helpful to other hunters.”
“Ah… training… I see.”
He hung up sounding unconvinced.
It wasn’t strange that the Bureau had called.
Ji-seok had been running several undead gates a day for over a week.
Ji-seok himself was exhausted from dealing with ghosts, and Nayoung and Sangheon, who followed him around, were also worn out.
“From now on I’ll go alone. You two should rest.”
“Then… I’ll rest a little…”
“I’ll go. I’m not tired.”
Sangheon’s face had brightened at the mention of rest, but before he could finish speaking, Nayoung cut in to say she would go.
“Wait… then what does that make me?”
“Oh, you can rest. I’ll go with him.”
“Yeah, take a break. Help your dad.”
There was no problem going just the two of them.
At this point Nayoung could clear an E-rank gate by herself, so she was more than enough as support.
“So I really don’t get to go?”
Leaving behind a grinning Sangheon, who was already imagining his day off, they headed to the gate.
That day, they didn’t have many spare potions, so he used mana stones to replenish his life force.
Potions had better cost-efficiency, but he had a good stockpile of mana stones at home anyway.
It was a method he had also discovered in his previous life, but back then he hadn’t had the luxury of spare stones, so he rarely used it.
After taking a beating from ghosts for a long time, he crushed an ogre mana stone full of life force and absorbed it until it crumbled to dust.
He endured one-sided attacks for quite a while.
In his past life, he could freely release life force with that memory and experience, so the current stagnation was frustrating.
His vision began to blur, and he grabbed a mana stone in his fist to absorb its life.
But at the same time, dozens of ghosts were attacking and draining his life force, so the replenishment barely made a dent.
‘Fine, let’s see who wins.’
Annoyance turned to stubbornness.
He grabbed all the mana stones he’d brought, filling both hands, and sucked them dry with all his might.
In that moment, life force surged through his body as if it would explode.
It filled and overflowed, spilling out of his body.
[Regeneration skill level has increased from C to B.]
“Huh?”
He looked down at his fist and saw a clump of life energy shimmering around it.
He stared at the bundle of life force around his fist for a moment, then punched a ghost.
“Kkiaaaaaaa!!”
The ghost let out a hair-raising scream and dissolved into smoke.
It worked.
The ghosts trying to flee were also easily dealt with by wrapping aura-like life force around his fist.
“Ji-seok! It worked, right?”
From a distance, Nayoung ran over, delighted.
“Looks like I had to overcharge my energy.”
You needed a high total life force to have surplus to release.
Thinking about it now, it was obvious, but up until just a moment ago, the idea hadn’t crossed his mind.
It seemed that, in his past life, the skill had also leveled up simply because his total life force had finally reached the threshold needed for external release.
Suddenly the strength went out of his legs and his body tilted.
“Ji-seok! Are you okay?”
Using life force as aura was inefficient.
In his already weakened state, using aura drained him even more.
He hadn’t gained a level from killing ghosts, but his Stamina had increased by 3—still not enough.
Until he raised his level further, he’d have to refrain from using aura unless absolutely necessary.
“Looks like I overdid it without knowing the knack yet.”
“Get some rest.”
Nayoung sat him down and took jerky out of the bag, cutting it into small pieces for him.
At the same time, he drew life force from mana stones as well.
“Thanks.”
He looked at her face as she sat beside him.
If only this weren’t an undead gate, the atmosphere might have been nice—
but the ground was a rotten purple, and undead monsters were everywhere.
Hardly romantic.
“The whole world is purple. It’s pretty.”
He found himself snapping his head toward her.
She found this pretty?
Was it because she was a witch? Her sense of aesthetics was different.
“Is it… not pretty? Is that weird?”
Seeing his expression, Nayoung asked carefully.
“No, you’re right. The purple is pretty.
Oh, and thanks for helping me all this time. From tomorrow on, you should rest for a while.”
“I’d love to. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to keep running gates.”
“Of course.”
Nayoung sighed.
—
Smack!
His mother slapped him on the back.
“Ow! My hand!”
He felt the impact, but there was no way it actually hurt him.
Only his mother’s hand had suffered.
“Mom… what was that for?”
“Hey! Don’t you feel sorry for Nayoung at all?”
“Nayoung? Why?”
“I heard she’s been helping you for over ten days straight. And you don’t do anything to repay her?”
“I’ve helped her plenty too, you know.”
“Being this dense… is that your father’s side of the family?”
“Why bring up Dad like that…”
“Whatever. Nayoung’s going shopping today. Go and at least carry her bags.”
“How do you even know that?”
“I talked to her mom. I told Nayoung you needed clothes too, so just accept it.”
“Mom, you can’t just decide that on your own.”
“Silence. I want grandkids before I die.”
The truth was, he did have feelings for Nayoung,
but with the world on the verge of turning upside-down, marriage was unreasonable for now.
Maybe if things settled down later.
“And dress a bit nicer, will you?
You make all that money and still neglect your own clothes.
Perfect timing. Let her pick some out for you.”
Under his mother’s pressure, he changed clothes and stepped into the living room.
Nayoung was waiting there, her face red up to her ears—
which meant she’d heard everything.
“Ahem… shall we go?”
Embarrassed, he quickly led her out of the house.
“Oh dear, sorry about that. My son’s so slow on the uptake.”
“Oh no, not at all. Nayoung is just as hopelessly shy, you know.”
Even after they stepped outside, the moms’ voices carried clearly to their ears.
Nayoung, while not as sensitive as Ji-seok, still had better senses than an unawakened person, so she’d heard everything too.
“I’m sorry. You’re being dragged along because of me.”
She lowered her head.
“No, I really was going to buy clothes. Seriously.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I didn’t have time, and I don’t know much about clothes. That’s all. Please help me choose.”
“Leave it to me!”
He took her to a department store and stepped into the luxury brand floor.
In his previous life, these were things he couldn’t even dream of owning;
now, with more money than he needed, they were just convenient purchases.
“Not here. Let’s go up.”
Nayoung tugged his arm and led him upstairs.
They arrived at a mid-priced men’s clothing section.
“Stuff downstairs is a waste. It’s hard to maintain, too.”
Both of them had lived rough financially until recently, so this sort of place felt more comfortable.
“Okay.”
He let her drag him around while he tried on clothes.
“Oh wow, that looks so good on you. Try this one too.”
“Oh my, your boyfriend has such good shoulders~”
The shop clerk, speaking in a nasal tone, tapped Nayoung’s arm as she joked.
He silently kept trying on everything that Nayoung and the clerk brought over.
She definitely had a better eye for style than he did.
“But isn’t this a bit too many outfits?”
She was bringing far too many.
“I have to see you in a lot of things to figure out your style.”
Nayoung tirelessly brought all kinds of clothes.
He spent two hours trying on dozens of outfits.
He’d always thought his stamina was among the best of hunters,
but this kind of mental assault drained him.
“Can we just buy what we have and leave now?”
“There’s still so much more to try…
Fine.”
She clearly wanted to keep going, but seeing how exhausted he looked, she relented.
With a hint of regret, she piled the chosen clothes onto the counter.
“Wait, you’re buying all that?”
“Yes.”
They paid for the mountain of clothes, and even staff from the next shop over came to help with packing.
With shopping bags hanging off him like ornaments, they walked back to the car.
“Now let’s buy mine.”
“Ah…”
He had completely forgotten—that was the original purpose of this trip.
“Hurry, let’s go.”
Nayoung grabbed his hand and pulled.
She was pretty enough that people turned to look at her in passing,
and seeing her try on outfit after outfit was genuinely enjoyable—for about the first hour.
When he counted the time spent choosing his clothes too,
they had been walking around the department store for six hours.
When it was his clothes, he could rush things along,
but when it was Nayoung’s turn, he couldn’t bring himself to say “let’s go,”
so he just stood and waited.
“Let’s check out another store.”
She showed no signs of tiring, tugging him along again.
With his stamina, he could carry heavy loads and run for a week without rest,
but in a single day, his energy was thoroughly drained.
“Oh no… sorry. You must be exhausted following me around.”
Seeing how drained he looked, she apologized.
“It’s fine. Are we done choosing now?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
In the end, she bought far fewer clothes for herself than he had for himself.
On their way through the mall’s parking lot, they passed the luxury floor again,
and a dress in the display caught his eye.
A long green dress with white floral patterns that weren’t too flashy,
off-shoulder, with bare shoulders.
“Nayoung, try this on.”
“This? It doesn’t really seem like it would suit me…”
It was definitely different from her usual style.
She preferred dark, bold, simple designs.
Those suited her very well, of course,
but in her villain days in his past life, she had worn a lot of black.
He wanted her to wear brighter clothes now and live a brighter life.
“Please.”
He gently pulled her inside the store.
“I’ll try this on.”
He pointed out the dress, and the clerk immediately led Nayoung to the fitting room.
After a short while, she came out.
Contrary to her worries that it wouldn’t suit her,
the dress went perfectly with her pale skin.
Honestly, with her face and figure, anything would look good.
“We’ll take it.”
He handed his card to the clerk.
“I’ll pay for it.”
“No, it’s a gift.”
In a good mood, he finished shopping with her and headed home.
“What about mine?”
His mother held out her hand.
“Ah…”
He had forgotten.
“Here, ma’am.”
Nayoung passed a shopping bag to his mother.
He hadn’t even noticed when she bought it,
but inside were clothes for both mothers.
“Seriously, what would you do without Nayoung?”
He hadn’t even heard her ask for anything.
While they were enjoying a surprisingly peaceful time,
Section Chief Baek Young-shin from the Awakener Bureau called, asking him to come in.