Chapter 47: Song Haechang, Part I
“Whew…is he still not awake?”
“No, ma’am.”
“You’re sure that he’s just sleeping?” Song Haein asked, looking at Lee Jiwon who was sleeping on the bed. He had been sleeping for four years now, but surprisingly with no detriment to his body.
“I’m positive. His MRI and CT scans showed no abnormalities. We’ve even had a healer come in and perform numerous tests, but he really is just sleeping. Very peacefully, at that.”
Song Haein sighed deeply, recalling that day four years ago.
She received a call from the very busy secretary’s office. After receiving valuable information from Lee Jiwon the day before, the whole company was busy preparing for the future. Their results were going to vary on the decisions they made.
“Yes?” she answered curtly.
“At Incheon Airport? Jiwon isn’t waking up?” The caller told her that Lee Jiwon couldn’t be woken up at Sapporo and was put on a plane back to Incheon. A doctor that was on the same flight said that his pulse was normal and was breathing properly, and advised that he be returned to Korea, but he still hadn’t woken up by then.
Lee Jiwon’s actions were carefully monitored by the Group and his condition was reported right away.
“What are you saying?” Song Haein couldn’t understand what the caller was saying. He fell asleep and couldn’t wake up?
“Thing is…we’re positive he’s sleeping. He’s breathing properly and his pulse is normal. But he isn’t waking up, no matter how we try. We’re transporting him to the Sunbin Group’s private hospital right now.”
“I understand. I’ll head over right away.” She still couldn’t figure out what was going on over the phone call. How could he not wake up after falling asleep?
She had to go and see for herself what was going on. She had to make sure Lee Jiwon was all right. She had her driver pull around the car and headed straight for the hospital.
“It’s already been four years.” Song Haein watched Lee Jiwon as he slept.
They couldn’t feed him or give him any water. At first, they had to administer an IV drip and brought in a healer to keep his HP up. They were worried that he would get bedsores for being in bed for so long and had nurses care for his body 24/7. They had ma.s.seuses come in to make sure his muscles didn’t atrophy.
They knew he was a deva and that he wasn’t going to die for good, but didn’t want him to accrue any death penalties and did their best to keep him alive. Soon, however, they realized they didn’t have to.
Even though he didn’t eat, there were no problems to his body. In fact, as time went on, it seemed like he was getting younger. His body didn’t seem to age and his muscles were still healthy. His body and hair didn’t even get dirty even though they hadn’t been washed properly in four years.
His body didn’t even create waste. For four years, he never pa.s.sed urine or fecal matter. There wasn’t a single trace of waste in his body. His body kept itself in pristine condition. It was a d.a.m.n mystery!
“There’s definitely something going on here.”
Everyone else gave up on the sleeping Lee Jiwon. In four years, the difference in strength between him and others grew tremendously. Already, there were level 500 and 600 devas all around.
Even if he were to wake up now, there was no way he could catch up to the rest, no matter how hard he trained. But Song Haein didn’t give up on him.
She had made it to level 673, and had learned the Unrivaled skill.
She managed to become the strongest deva, and it was all thanks to Lee Jiwon. It was thanks to him that she was able to train in Korea’s five dungeons in secret for eight months!
Because Lee Jiwon returned to Korea before finding j.a.pan’s dungeons, the Planning committee deduced that the rest of the world wouldn’t be able to find out about dungeons for the time being, and decided to keep Korea’s dungeons hidden.
There was debate on whether or not it was okay for them to do so just to get stronger before anyone else, but they decided that it was for the good of the company.
Now, the Sunbin Guild had turned over possession of Eulsukdo dungeon over to the Yung Gong Guild, and the Oksunbong dungeon over to the Ojin Guild. The monsters outside the Seorak Mountain dungeon had grown so strong that it was impossible to enter it.
The Sunbin Guild allowed free entrance to the Bukhan Mountain dungeon to devas under level 150. The guild still controlled the Jeju Island dungeon. There was some distance, but having that dungeon in its possession outweighed the risk and made the guild the strongest in all of Asia.
“Tsk! I was wondering where you were.”
“Oppa.” As she continued to watch Lee Jiwon sleep, a man resembling her came into the room.
The man was the only grandson to Guildmaster Song Daechul, and the only son to Vice-Master Song Myungsoo, Song Haechang.
“You really should forget about him now.”
“Oppa!”
“It’s already been four years. You, of all people, know how much of a difference four years make. There’s not hope for him anymore. He’s not strong enough to stand at our side anymore. Besides, we still don’t know when he’ll wake up.”
“Is that what you should say about Grandfather’s benefactor?”
“Benefactor, my a.s.s. You and Grandfather have already done enough for him. You’ve looked after him for four years; you’ve already paid your debt to him.”
“That’s enough!” Song Haein interrupted Song Haechang and turned away from him.
“Tsk! You and your obstinacy.”
Song Haein ignored her brother’s nagging.
“Anyway, Father wanted me to tell you. We’ve completed our negotiations with China’s Huiman Guild, and we’ll be raiding their mid-grade dungeon boss. We’re leaving in seven hours, so get ready.”
“OK.”
“I’m telling you this again as your older brother, but it’s too late for him. To be honest, he’s basically abandoned goods. Even if he wakes up now, do you really think he’ll be of help to us? Never in a million years. He’ll never be reach our…”
“One more word out of you and I’ll relay everything you just said to Grandfather.”
“Ugh. You and Grandfather are just the same.” Song Haechang stopped what he was saying at his sister’s threat. His grandfather still cared greatly for Lee Jiwon.
He couldn’t understand why, though. He wasn’t there at that meeting, but he had heard that Lee Jiwon made it possible for the Sunbin Guild to become not only Korea’s, but Asia’s strongest guild. But he had also heard that he was already rewarded for his help. The guild had even looked after him for four years!
Song Haechang believed that was enough. He felt that the guild no longer had a reason to look after this man any longer. But he could do nothing about it, as the guildmaster himself had ordered the guild to do so.
“Fine. I’ll go. Just make sure you’re sufficiently prepared. This mid-grade boss uses area-of-effect magic skills.”
“Don’t worry about me. Have I made a mistake so far?” Song Haein retorted back with immense confidence.
“Tch! You keep that up, and one day you’ll bite off more than you can chew.”
Song Haechang was the first member of the Sunbin Guild to learn the Unrivaled skill. To be more precise, he had learned the skill when he reached level 500.
He had removed all of his known skills to learn the Unrivaled skill at level 500, leaving him with no other skill points to use. Still, the skill brought up all of his stats by 1,000 each and by properly allocating his stat points, he became the optimal tank.
He obtained complete immunity to all status effects. His damage output against deities went up by fifty percent. He could easily kill normal monsters with normal attacks, so he didn’t need to rely on other skills. He really liked that part of the skill. He had the best equipment with the support of his guild, so there was really no reason for him to be unsatisfied.
He loved that he could swing his greatsword and kill monsters with one hit while they couldn’t do any damage to him. That is, until he went up against bosses.
He could deal with elite monsters. They withstood his attacks better than normal monsters, but they were still no match for him. They were a slight ha.s.sle, that was all. He laughed at how easily they fell before him. When he learned his Greatsword Mastery pa.s.sive skill at level 550, he partic.i.p.ated in a boss raid for the first time.
Despite others’ attempt to dissuade her, once his youngest sister, Song Haein, learned the Unrivaled skill, at level 550, she attempted to raid the boss of Jeju Island’s mid-grade dungeon.
Song Haein opted instead to use the one skill point she gained at level 550 to learn her Defense Mastery pa.s.sive skill and was able to perfectly fill the tanker role for the five-hour long battle. The entire guild even acknowledged her skill in combat.
There were healers and buffers in the party, but she managed to keep all of her party members out of harm’s way. Their grandfather showered her with praise when he found out about her prowess.
Song Haein’s performance in the raid was so good, that the video of the raid was used by the guild as an example of the perfect raid. The Sunbin Guild became the first to beat a mid-grade dungeon boss, making Song Haein’s name known all over the world.
d.a.m.n that day!
Once he learned of Song Haein’s success, he rushed to his grandfather and told him that he wanted to lead a boss raid as well. Song Haechang had originally planned to wait until he reached level 600, but he had lost his chance at being the first to beat a dungeon boss when his sister was only at level 550.
He stubbornly decided to attempt the boss raid 588, 12 levels lower than his initial goal.
Song Haein had cleared Korea’s only mid-grade dungeon. Her success made it impossible to return to that dungeon for a month and Song Haechang had to challenge the only other nearest mid-grade dungeon in China. Of course, he had to pay a large sum of golden rings to the guild controlling it.
The Chinese guild hadn’t received the order to attempt this boss and as a result, this raid attracted a lot of attention.
The Chinese guild also received a lot of backlash for selling out its dungeon to a foreign party, and so the raid began amidst a ma.s.sive media storm.
d.a.m.n it all!
The result was abysmal.
Song Haechang failed to aggro the boss properly. The boss monster completely ignored him and instead focused its attacks at the fire-lightning mage responsible for dealing damage and the warlock responsible for debuffing the monster. Both mages had significantly low physical defense and fell in an instant.
Song Haechang’s first attempt at a mid-grade boss raid failed miserably.
Eleven of the twenty party members died to the monster.
Song Haechang couldn’t even save his only healer and barely survived the fight.
As a result, Song Haechang lost much of his support within the guild. The mockery from the Chinese media only fueled the flames as his support plummeted.
The guild a.n.a.lyzed the failure and deduced that rather than learning Greatsword Mastery, it was better to learn Defense Mastery level 550 and Taunt at level 600 to perfect the tank build.
His youngest sister had filled the perfect tank role without the Taunt skill, and he felt that it was humiliating to learn it, but he had no choice. His grandfather had ordered him to.