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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 32: By the way, this one's strawberry-flavored.
The sensation of her entire body freezing over.
To the point where even her lungs stiffened, making it hard to breathe.
Seol Yeonhwa resented her constitution.
She despised the talent that other mages admired and envied.
She feared the fate that was approaching its end.
A life no different from one with a terminal illness.
Her body was freezing from the ice-cold blood running through her veins, her heart hardening and killing her slowly.
As a human who would die once her body temperature dropped, she could never get used to this feeling.
Not only was she drifting away from being a normal human, but the worsening symptoms made her aware of the inevitable.
A premonition that someday, her heart would stop.
To survive, Seol Yeonhwa studied magic and raised her skills.
Fortunately, when she was learning magic, the curse of death turned into a blessing — her mana accumulated rapidly, and spells others found difficult came to her with ease.
She was soon hailed as the genius of the Blue Tower.
Even earned the nickname Ice Flower.
She reached an astonishing level of skill at the young age of twenty.
And yet, she still couldn't escape the curse slowly consuming her.
At first, it seemed like the symptoms were improving, but there was a limit to that too.
In fact, as her magical skills and knowledge increased, she began to see further into the future.
…Ah, this is an incurable disease.
Just because her magic was improving didn’t mean she could survive.
I'm going to die someday.’
‘ Once she accepted that calculation, her heart oddly felt at ease.
The Tower Master’s favor?
The blessing of freely using ice-type magic?
Mana that overflowed no matter how much she used?
What use was any of that?
They were all connections and talents born of a curse that was eating away her life.
She had no intention of getting attached to things she couldn’t take with her to the afterlife anyway.
For that reason, except during magical research, she remained withdrawn and spent most of her time indoors with the window to others firmly shut.
You could say her only friends were online.
The fleeting connections found on the internet felt more genuine and addictive.
[TheSunSets: Dead?]
[Blizzard: Alive, you #%&!]
To be exact, it wasn’t that she preferred the internet — it was that the people inside this idiot box didn’t know her real-life self.
She could erase her fate here.
That’s why it was comfortable.
“...A cure.”
Just for a moment, a memory she had forgotten, a glimmer of hope, floated hazily to the surface.
And Seol Yeonhwa found herself shaken again, like her trembling pupils.
Because, after all, she still wanted to live.
It was something she had wished for, for so long.
“...I’ll consider the experiment.”
She couldn’t bring herself to reject the idea of a drug trial — one where she was the test subject.
* * *
“Mandrake, wildcap mushrooms, sungrass, fire boar’s heart, and the fire-element slime core we got today — we’ve pretty much got everything.”
[The goddess proudly shrugs, claiming it’s all thanks to her blessing.]
Whether it really was her blessing or not, only two ingredients remained to complete the potion.
The collection process had gone way faster than expected.
Maybe the item drop rates were just really good this time.
The loot from treasure chests was on another level.
—Wait, this level of gem only drops in A-rank dungeons…?!
—Why is sungrass showing up here?!
Honestly, I didn’t expect much from my research club friend Pink-chan, but wow — their instinct for opening treasure chests was uncanny.
They had such incredible luck that I kept letting them open the chests, and every time it was jackpot after jackpot.
Sungrass is seriously rare — you’d never find it in anything below a C-rank — but it just popped out like it was nothing.
How can there be not a single dud?
I figured maybe it was just a lucky event season or something, so I opened one myself — boom, dud.
So I accepted it.
Some people are just born with that kind of luck — perfectly suited for loot hunting.
They were practically second in contribution to the weekend dungeon party, right behind me.
I joked about it once, saying that, and—
“…Next time, for sure…!”
—Sepine muttered, clenching her fist with a frustrated expression like a little kid.
Made me realize, again, that even joking harshly around kids can backfire.
She took it seriously right away.
But really, everyone in the party was doing great.
It wasn’t some world-saving hero party — more like a dungeon experience club.
We had combat roles, a loot opener, someone for accounting, even a cheerleader — the setup was perfect.
Right, no need to take it too seriously.
But for some reason, everyone was super motivated.
Maybe it was because we were making a lot of money per dungeon clear — at least by student standards.
Even Emir, who played a big role in managing operations and writing reports, seemed more fired up lately.
Well, it was a lot of money.
Back when I was just a student, I never even imagined touching this kind of cash.
Technically, I’m still a student now — even though I’ve got an apartment gifted by the goddess as a reward for saving the world.
Still, it felt great every time good loot dropped from a chest.
It just made me happy.
Like getting paid properly plus a hefty bonus.
Humans get that dopamine spike even from just winning one game — and when the reward loot box hits big, it’s just addictive.
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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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If we’re getting this much even in D- and C-rank dungeons, I wonder how big the returns will be once we clear an A-rank or S-rank dungeon.
Time to graduate from this hunter life, baby~
When I graduate from life, I’m going to play all day long.
“In that spirit, I shall commemorate my return home with just three hours of gaming.”
[The goddess frowns slightly and asks if that really makes sense.]
“Now that I think about it, haven’t I already graduated from life at this point?”
I’ve saved the world, traveled across dimensions, and even caused a bit of chaos not long ago.
I’ve done just about everything, and thanks to the goddess, I even have enough wealth and property to last a lifetime.
So doesn’t that make me someone who’s succeeded to the point of life graduation?
[The goddess clicks her tongue in reluctant agreement, finding it hard to argue.]
Anyway, I’m going to play some games.
As soon as I got home, I turned on my computer and launched a game.
The new one I’ve started is Gunlorant.
It’s an FPS game mixed with abilities—kind of like Superwatch—and it’s decently fun.
Feels like the kind of thing that’s perfect to play for about three hours a day as a warm-up.
Maybe it got more fun recently because I made a new friend in it.
[Logging in-]
I immediately checked my friends list, and sure enough, my buddy—who's even more of a shut-in than me—was already online.
We met as opponents.
His nickname reminded me of “frozenicicle” and he was a warrior with an impressively foul mouth.
Somehow, through fighting, we became friends.
His skills were a bit lacking at first, but when I gave him a few tips, he got all riled up—yet he improved rapidly.
Kind of a diligent type, I guess.
[The goddess tilts her head, asking if I wasn’t just teasing him the whole time.]
“Ahem, I most certainly was not teasing.”
If it were just teasing, wouldn’t he have refused my friend request in the first place?
We got along because we argued but still liked each other—that’s why we became friends.
[SunsetFalls: Heyo]
[SunsetFalls: Wanna play a game?]
I was pretty sure of that.
[Blizzard- has disconnected.]
Hmm.
Maybe not.
My friend ran away the instant I logged in.
Seeing him vanish like that, I couldn’t tell if I’d lost the desire to mess with him… or if it was burning even stronger.
[The goddess rolls her eyes and says I’m truly the worst.]
Maybe I’ll do something else besides gaming.
* * *
Haaaah—
Seol Yeonhwa, who had fled the moment the toxic player logged in, was now visiting the Blue Tower for a sort of private audience.
Normally, she never left the house unless it was for magical research—but this, she figured, might count as magical research too.
The old master of the Blue Tower, face covered in wrinkles, beamed as he introduced a man.
“Yeonhwa, this is Doctor Erneon from Paris. He’s a renowned miracle doctor who’s already cured dozens of so-called incurable diseases.”
“Pleased to meet you, young lady.”
To her, he had a stern air—seemed like someone who’d make a great butler.
Or maybe a con artist.
She wondered if she should confront him as she had others like him before, but this time, she couldn’t bring herself to be rude.
It didn’t matter if he had the look of a fraud, or if he was a man, or anything like that.
They said his nickname was the “Miracle Doctor”...
If his past deeds weren’t lies, he might actually be able to fix her condition.
It might be a foolish hope,
but with a heart heavy with anxiety, Seol Yeonhwa couldn’t let it go.
“…Please take good care of me.”
Truth is—
She didn’t want to die.
That’s what led to this meeting.
To cling to even a single thread of hope, she made the time to be here.
Doctor Erneon stroked his chin with a crooked smile.
“Hmm hmm hmm, shall I explain the specifics then? About the ‘Five-Syllable Meridian Segmentation Technique’ I’ve developed.”
* * *
“Uuugh.”
A bizarre, bitter smell of herbs filled the house.
Maybe I shouldn’t have messed with alchemy at home.
I felt a twinge of regret as I stirred the liquid inside the cauldron.
Alchemy—Potion Brewing.
I’d never learned it in a formal, structured way,
but picked it up by watching over the shoulder of others.
After 20 years of watching the dwarf uncle with the golden hands do it, I’d memorized all the methods.
And since I’d basically mastered magic manipulation in my battles against demons, well...
Yeah, I never officially studied magic.
Even though my favorite movies back in the day were the Howgwartz Magic School series, I never had time to study it—too busy swinging swords.
Besides...
‘Trying to cast spells against demonlords who’ve been using magic since birth? Terrible return on investment.’
Just like I’d spent my life mastering the holy sword, they’d spent theirs mastering magic.
Every spell I tried would be instantly countered.
That’s why our hero party didn’t even have a mage.
Still, watching how those demons operated...
After raiding many alchemical crime scenes during my time fighting evil, I realized something:
They may be the scum of the earth—but you gotta hand it to their skills.
This potion was one of those—
A life-saving technique stolen from the demons.
A potion that boosts vitality and masculine energy.
I was short a few ingredients,
but since the potion needed to be aged before finishing, it was fine for now.
Fwooosh—
I watched the red-glowing liquid inside the cauldron with satisfaction.
For the record, it tasted like strawberry.
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[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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