Chapter 12 Relic(3)
3.
“Oh oh, It’s filling up! It’s filling up!”
Bang Hyun was absolutely amazed to see a magical liquid slowly filling up the empty dilapidated looking goblet.
On the other hand, Ahn Sun Mi’s face was the opposite.
There was no way it could look good.
‘I can’t even move.’
Ahn Sun Mi’s body was nothing more than a pa.s.sage.
Some unknown power was flowing from Ahn Sun Mi’s body and gathering in the goblet as though the power were being filtered through her.
The moment Ahn Sun Mi moves her body, the moment her concentration is disturbed, the process of the power being distilled in her body stops.
But above all, the amount of concentration needed was beyond imagination.
Ahn Sun Mi was a doctor. If necessary, she would operate in the operating room for more than ten hours if it meant saving a patient’s life. If anything, there was no way that her concentration was less than that of other people.
If she was lacking in that aspect, then she wouldn’t have been accepted into medical school with a near perfect score on her CSAT. [TN: CSAT is a standardized test accepted by South Korean universities.]
However, she felt that surgery could not compare to the difficulty of maintaining her concentration for the goblet.
Eventually she gave up.
”Huk, Huk……”
From her mouth, some rough breathing came out.
It wasn’t something that she could just quit on. The sweat that was beading up on her forehead was not good in this cold weather.
“Noonim, are you ok?”
“Okay, I’m okay, huuu.”
Bang Hyun said to the exhausted Ahn Sun Mi. Kim Tae Hoon, on the other hand, was consolidating his observations and coming up with a hypothesis concerning the silent Ahn Sun Mi.
‘Mana…… it’s like a wizard.’
Ahn Sun Mi was very reminiscent of a wizard that you would see in media like a game, movie, or novel.
Wizards have to memorize spells in addition to having to concentrate when casting. Wouldn’t that mean that if their concentration was broken, their spells would be interrupted while casting?
There was more risk when compared to Bang Hyun Wook’s energy and Kim Tae Hoon’s telekinesis.
So Kim Tae Hoon had to know.
“It said that the effects were wound recovery?”
He needed to know if there were any risks to using the goblet.
Kim Tae Hoon scooped some of the syrupy clear liquid from the half filled goblet in Ahn Sun Mi’s hand, and rubbed it on a scratch on the back of his hand.
Bugeul, bugeul!
His wound began to bubble before it began to heal.
At that sight, Ahn Sun Mi let out a few rough breaths. With a look of unbelief in her eyes, Ahn Sun Mi stared at Kim Tae Hoon’s hand.
“Oh my G.o.d, that’s a miracle, a miracle!”
“Quiet down.”
Kim Tae Hoon gave Ahn Sun Mi a cold warning. Ahn Sun Mi tightly shut her mouth.
Once again, the police station regained its air of silence.
However, Kim Tae Hoon wasn’t so quick to lower his guard. He carefully navigated around the bodies and headed towards the door before expanding out his senses.
He carefully examined the adjacent surroundings.
Aside from a desolate feeling, there wasn’t anything special.
Kim Tae Hoon made a gesture with his left hand that imitated a mouth opening, Bang Hyun Wook and Ahn Sun Mi let out the breaths they had been holding in.
Huuuu, the sound of a long breath being exhaled echoed throughout the interior of the police station.
It had been quite some time since the conversation had ended.
“Incredible. It’s a sort of item?”
Bang Hyun Wook was the first to open with another conversation, to which Kim Tae Hoon gave an order rather than a response.
“Take pictures of everything.”
“What?”
“Take a picture of all the relics you found and see how many items we get from them.”
“Ah!”
Bang Hyun Wook started to enthusiastically take pictures of all the antiques in the bag.
At the same time, Kim Tae Hoon interrogated Ahn Sun Mi.
“What did it feel like to use magic?”
“Magic?”
“It’s the term I used to describe what happened out of convenience, but if you want to call it something else, that’s fine too.”
“Magic is a fine term.”
”So, how did it feel?”
“My body felt like it was a filter. It felt like some of the power went through my heart then entered the cup…… but it’s hard to say exactly. It was like walking on a tightrope.”
Kim Tae Hoon nodded his head.
‘The risks are huge, but the rewards are amazing.’
He organized his thoughts on the antiques and magical powers.
These relics are items that help the user channel magic power to reveal a mysterious power.
Some of these relics may manifest themselves in ancient items like these antiques.
‘If you follow the logic of a video game, then an item made from a monster or dropped by a monster would also have properties that allow the user to use magic.’
In addition, compared to telekinesis or energy, mana has a lot more constraints and conditions in order to be used.
‘If we want to get weapons, then the next best destination should be a museum.’
They definitely needed to collect as many relics as they could.
In the current world, there would be no Sotheby’s Auction that Kim Tae Hoon could attend, and even if he could, the items probably wouldn’t have been made available to him.
“Hyungnim, there aren’t any more.”
Having finished verifying the condition of the relics, Bang Hyun Wook reported his findings to Kim Tae Hoon while shaking his head.
Kim Tae Hoon ignored Bang Hyun Wook’s report and instead pa.s.sed him a revolver that he had retrieved from the armory.
He then also pa.s.sed one off to Ahn Sun Mi.
“You open the chamber like this, insert the bullets, then close the chamber.”
He taught them how to load the revolver.
“Identify your target, point the gun, then shoot. When you shoot, grasp the gun with two hands. Pull the trigger only once.”
It was a brief explanation on how to shoot the gun.
Bang Hyun Wook and Ahn Sun Mi began to clumsily load the chamber of their revolvers.
They followed the methods that Kim Tae Hoon had taught them.
“Never point your barrel at a friendly. I don’t want to hear you say you wanted to practice aiming while pointing your barrel at me.”
Having finished loading his gun, Bang Hyun Wook, who had been priming to point his gun at Kim Tae Hoon, stopped.
Kim Tae Hoon had a wry smile on his face while watching Bang Hyun Wook. He had already known that Bang Hyun Wook would do that.
Quite frankly, it wasn’t very difficult to predict.
It was a common mistake that beginners made when handling a gun for the first time. Trying out the sights while aiming the gun at someone they know.
‘These two aren’t bad, but I would prefer if there was someone experienced moving with me.’
It was Kim Tae Hoon’s decision to go with Bang Hyun Wook and Ahn Sun Mi.
They had no experience being a soldier.
Just because he wanted them to show the characteristics of a soldier wouldn’t make them soldiers right away.
‘I hope there’ll be some awakened amongst the soldiers in the military.’
It would be easier to find an awakened in the army, that was the reason for why he wanted to go to the military base.
He needed an awakened soldier.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the burden on Kim Tae Hoon would be lessened if he came across an awakened soldier.
‘I wish there was someone who understood me…’
It was so that there was someone who could help him if he ran into a small bit of trouble.
”We move out now. Replenish your energy with the chocolat. Now that we’re done arming ourselves, we can head to the next point……”
With the various worries about the military in his mind, he was about to give the command to head towards the base.
Kwooooooooo!
A loud cry rang out in Bucheon.
4.
The most terrifying sound that the survivors of a bombing hear is the sound of a fighter jet flying overhead.
Not only can the sound freeze the mind, but it can also paralyze the heart.
On the battlefield, intact corpses can sometimes be found with their fingers blocking their ears.
Not even trained soldiers are impervious to fear.
No one is free from fear.
The moment you are exposed to the planes, the moment that the planes commence their bombing, you are doomed.
The fear that comes from an impending sense of doom cannot be overcome. You can only get used to it.
Bbadeudeuk!
Kim Tae Hoon was able to maintain his wits as an unknown monster flew over his head. It was purely because he was used to this kind of fear.
He did not overcome it, he was used to it. Kim Tae Hoon was lying on the floor while waiting for the fear to fade away.
When the fear finally faded away, Kim Tae Hoon rose from his spot.
The first thing he did was to check Bang Hyun Wook’s and Ahn Sun Mi’s condition. They were similar to the corpses on the floor.
He immediately checked their pulses.
Deugeun, dugeun…….
Their pulses were still there.
But both their eyes were floating about, there was no focus.
“Huk”
Bang Hyun Wook was the first to regain his wits. Once full of spirit and gusto, Bang Hyun Wook’s eyes were now full of fear.
Kim Tae Hoon fished out a piece of chocolate that had broken off, and shoved it into Bang Hyun Wook’s mouth.
“Let it melt in your mouth, don’t swallow, just let it melt in your mouth.”
Then Kim Tae Hoon approached Ahn Sun Mi. Ahn Sun Mi’s condition was worse than Bang Hyun Wook’s.
Her heart was still beating, but the focus in her eyes was swimming, she was perpetually stunned,
Kim Tae Hoon repeatedly slapped Ahn Sun Mi’s cheeks.
“Hey keep it together. Ahn Sun Mi get up.”
Ahn Sun Mi’s red eyes began to regain their focus.
Kim Tae Hoon put the crumbled pieces of chocolate into her mouth.
“Let it slowly melt in your mouth.”
Afterwards, Kim Tae Hoon told Bang Hyun Wook,
“Wait here. If anything happens, yell at the top of your lungs, I’ll hear it.”
Having melted the chocolate in his mouth, Bang Hyun Wook gulped the chocolate down.
“What? What about you hyungnim?”
“I’m going to try and find out what the monster that flew over our head is. Also, take out the portable pot that we brought and boil some water. It’s not wise to move out in this condition. Warm up your bodies and move around.”
Kim Tae Hoon walked out of the broken police station door.
5.
Tuk!
With a curt sound, the lock on a car unfastened.
Blinking his eyes a couple times, Kim Tae Hoon opened the door of the car.
Durkuk!
Kim Tae Hoon entered the car.
“Huuuu. . . . .”
A white circle appeared from the foggy breath that came out of Kim Tae Hoon’s mouth in the cold car.
Kim Tae Hoon searched around before reaching for a black box installed in the car.
Dduk!
With deft hands, Kim Tae Hoon unfastened the black box, accessing its contents to view the most recent video footage it had recorded.
Of course, considering the broken streetlamps under the dark night sky, the footage was dim.
But despite that, it wasn’t particularly difficult to gauge the presence of the beast.
In the footage, there was a huge creature that pa.s.sed by.
The body was about 300 meters long, large enough to cover a gymnasium. It’s wings were huge so as to give flight to its enormous torso.
Dragon.
Amongst the myriad of human languages and words, the only one to best describe this monster was dragon.
High up in the sky where the dragon could see the ocean, it was heading towards Incheon through Bucheon.
Kim Tae Hoon clenched his teeth.
‘The black orc….. the black orc was no more than a dog.’
A true monster had made its appearance in the world. Without the aid of an incredible armory, the dragon would be impossible to take down.
’My mind was ignorant of to what extent the world changed.’
There was no way that Kim Tae Hoon would have ever even dreamed that such a monstrous beast could have appeared.
But now, Kim Tae Hoon couldn’t help but imagine what would happen now that monsters of such caliber had appeared.
‘If the dragon decides to roost in Incheon city…… it will turn the city back to September of 1950. [TN: Battle of Incheon,
How much firepower would be needed to take down such a monster with human devices?
How many human lives will be sacrificed? How much damage will be done to the geography and to the property?
How many of the survivors would be willing to suffer through it?
‘ …… I should look around.’