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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 12
Dojun sat with his back against the World Tree, staring at the two types of items he had piled before him.
Blue-glowing mana stones, and oval-shaped orange seeds.
These were the spoils left behind after slaying all the Bulkena.
Among them, Dojun picked up one of the oval-shaped orange seeds.
An Eternal Ember.
A rare drop from Bulkena, obtained only with some luck. But to Dojun, it was an incredibly valuable item.
“To think I’d get my hands on this again.”
With a firm grip, Dojun crushed the Eternal Ember in his hand.
Crack—Crrrk.
As the solid ember shattered, a sinister, cerulean flame erupted from within—a flame so violent it looked capable of incinerating anything it touched.
But before it could wreak havoc, Dojun calmly suppressed it with mana, enclosing it completely.
And he didn’t stop there—he began absorbing it, slowly.
Mana is the purest force of nature.
It holds no fixed attribute, yet contains the potential for all of them.
Which means, even an ever-burning fire—a flame that devours everything—could be absorbed… so long as one had the strength and control to do it.
The flame, which had been raging like a beast cornered, continued to burn as it was pulled into Dojun.
Ten minutes passed.
Finally, the flame flickered, then vanished completely, absorbed in its entirety.
“Took longer than I expected.”
Dojun clicked his tongue.
It had taken ten whole minutes to absorb just one Ember.
But still—it was worth the time.
That said...
“This is gonna take a while.”
Just from a glance, there were easily over 300 of those embers piled in front of him.
Even without a break, it would take days to absorb them all.
But Dojun didn’t bat an eye.
He simply reached for the second Eternal Ember.
＊ ＊ ＊
[News anchor on TV]
「It’s been 13 days since the new Rift emerged. The Rift appeared in the yard of a residential home in Mapo District, Seoul, and it is estimated to have formed around 11:37 a.m. on the 17th. The Hero Association’s Rift Detection Division immediately dispatched nearby heroes upon detection. However, before containment measures could be enacted, a man identified as Mr. Seo—who resided at the property—entered the Rift. The Hero Association has since declared a Level 1 Monster Wave emergency…」
“Because of one crazy bastard, all hell’s breaking loose. Damn it!”
Bang Seong-woo, who had been watching the news, scowled and shut off the TV. He tossed the remote onto the table like it had personally offended him.
“They said he went in trying to save his little sister.”
“Yeah, sure. That’s just what they’re saying. Let’s be real—he probably heard Rifts make it easier to Awaken and dove in without a second thought. Didn’t give a damn who he’d screw over. If he wanted to die so badly, he could’ve done it without dragging the rest of us down with him. Oh god—why can’t someone just clean up trash like that already?”
Seong-woo’s voice was sharp and twitchy with irritation.
Kim Hyun-woo, sitting across from him, just chuckled.
“What did Guild Leader Gilma say about it?”
“What else would he say? ‘Follow protocol.’ We’re supposed to gather in Mapo and run training drills until ten days before the Wave. Wait and prep—like we don’t know that already.”
“Just thought maybe he said something different. Damn it, man—I booked flights, locked in a resort and everything!”
“You were going with Sujin?”
“Yeah. Was gonna propose, too.”
“Guess that’s out the window now. Heh.”
“Maybe I should ask Gilma to let me skip this one.”
“Sure. Do that. He’ll probably tell you to stay in the Maldives permanently and never come back to Korea. Pfft!”
“Argh! Fuck’s sake! All because of one dumbass!”
Seong-woo looked like he was about to explode, but Hyun-woo just watched him with an amused smirk.
“By the way, didn’t new Rifts pop up in the U.S., China, the U.K., Turkey, and Switzerland around the same time as ours?”
“Yeah, that’s why Gilma’s been running around nonstop. We knew Rifts could appear anywhere at any time, but this is the first time we’ve seen 6 open simultaneously, and all in the same window.”
“I heard the others got theirs under control early on.”
“Sounds like it. The U.S., China, and the U.K. already sent in exploration teams. Turkey and Switzerland plan to enter within the next couple of days.”
“So why are we the only ones stuck in this shitshow?”
Seong-woo gritted his teeth again, his thoughts circling back to the infamous Mr. Seo—the man who’d entered the Rift and was now being dragged across every news channel and social feed as a selfish idiot and national disgrace.
“If that bastard somehow makes it back alive, I swear I’ll knock him the fuck out.”
“He’s probably already dead.”
And truthfully, as Hyun-woo said, just about everyone had come to the same conclusion:
That Mr. Seo—Dojun—was as good as dead.
＊ ＊ ＊
It took ten minutes to fully absorb a single Eternal Ember.
At least, that’s how it was at first.
“The time’s getting longer…”
To be precise, the process of the ember fusing with Dojun’s mana was slowly dragging out.
Up to about the 40th ember, it had gone just as expected—ten minutes each. But after that, the time started creeping up, and once he passed the 200 mark, each one was taking nearly an hour.
“Does that mean I’m running low on mana?”
That was the only explanation he could think of.
Back then, Dojun had only absorbed a tiny amount of Eternal Ember—not because there hadn’t been enough, but because he’d never felt the need to. His own mana reserves had been more than sufficient. There was no reason to bother converting it to fire-attributed mana.
But now, his mana reserves were barely half what they used to be. So he needed to absorb the embers, converting his mana into a stronger, fire-based form.
If it were up to him, he’d prefer to just sit beside the World Tree and passively regenerate mana. But unfortunately, his current reserves were already pressing against the physical limit his body could handle. As a stopgap, he’d chosen to use the Eternal Embers instead.
“Hrm…”
Dojun hesitated, debating whether he should keep absorbing the embers.
Sure, each one only took about an hour now. But with each additional ember, the process would take longer and longer. That was inevitable.
He glanced around.
Since taking down the Bulkenas, he hadn’t sensed even a hint of life from another monster in the area.
The decision didn’t take long.
He couldn’t just leave over a hundred of these embers sitting here. And carrying them back with him? That would just be asking for trouble. Something annoying would definitely come of it.
Better to just deal with it here—slow as it may be.
“If Kusak saw this, he’d probably grin so wide his face would split.”
Back in the day, Kusak—the strongest fire mage on the continent and one of Dojun’s old comrades—used to get absurdly excited whenever he absorbed one of these embers. Said it made his fire magic more powerful every time.
With a brief flicker of memory, Dojun thought of his old friend… then crushed the ember in his hand.
CRACK—!
＊ ＊ ＊
The house on TV.
The rundown home, now surrounded by dozens of heavily armed Heroes, had become a nationwide sensation—no matter which channel you turned to, there it was.
Watching the broadcast, HCS Capital’s President, Hwang Chang-seop, took a drag from his cigarette.
“Manager Kim.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you think the odds are that bastard comes back alive?”
“If he’s just a civilian, there’s no point even talking about odds. One percent? Not even that. More like a zero point one. He’s as good as dead, realistically speaking.”
“A civilian? Don’t make me laugh. The idiots at the Hero Association have got it all wrong—completely wrong.”
Hwang’s comment was met with nods from everyone behind him—especially those who’d personally been humiliated by Seo Dojun. Manager Kim agreed as well.
“If he’s an Awakened, then sure, maybe there’s a slim chance. But honestly, in a situation like this, even I can’t say for sure. We don’t know what kind of environment that new Rift has. No idea what monsters are in there. So whatever rank that Seo Dojun guy has, it’s all just speculation right now.”
“Fair.”
Hwang furrowed his brow, taking another deep drag from his cigarette.
If he had it his way, Dojun would already be dead inside that Rift. But like Manager Kim said, with so many unknown variables, there was still a chance he might crawl back out alive.
That slim possibility gnawed at him.
“Manager Kim, go bring me that bastard’s family.”
“What do you plan to do with them?”
“We’ve got a score to settle with that piece of shit, don’t we? If he’s dead, then someone’s gotta pay up—old man, kid, whoever. And if by some miracle he does make it back alive, we’ll just say we’ve been taking good care of his people. That’ll make him think twice, won’t it? Though, honestly… I really do hope he’s dead.”
With that, Hwang Chang-seop curled his lips into a nasty, crooked grin.
＊ ＊ ＊
Dojun had been so immersed in absorbing the Eternal Embers that he’d lost all sense of time.
At some point, his mana had begun to glow a deep, vivid blue—Mana imbued with a powerful flame attribute, capable of burning through anything with nothing but his will.
A primal, destructive fire that needed no complex spellwork to unleash.
But that didn’t mean Dojun’s mana was solely fire-aligned.
Mana, after all, was the purest form of natural energy—containing all attributes, yet none at the same time. That’s why he could choose to imbue it with the fire attribute only when he needed it.
And as long as his mana wasn’t fully depleted, he also gained near-absolute resistance to any flame-based attacks.
If you were to judge by that aspect alone, he was stronger now than he had been during his days as the so-called “Sword God.”
“…It’s done.”
Dojun smiled in satisfaction as he fully absorbed the last of the Eternal Embers.
It was the first time he’d smiled since entering the Rift—this place that mirrored the forest of Partisua.
He rose to his feet and placed his hand on the World Tree.
The bark still had that same rough texture and that strangely comforting warmth.
He didn’t know how a piece of a destroyed world—or the World Tree itself—had ended up inside a Rift on Earth, and frankly, he didn’t care to find out.
“That time, and even now… thank you.”
The World Tree had helped him countless times, and Dojun felt compelled to express his gratitude.
He packed away a stash of mana crystals—even more than he’d gained in Eternal Embers—into a bag made from the World Tree’s own bark and leaves.
There was no longer any reason for him to stay.
He began searching for an exit—a Rift gate that would lead him out of this place.
Because this Rift mirrored the real Forest of Patisua so closely, he had no trouble navigating it.
He scanned the area for a Rift gate—some tear in space that would act as an exit—and then his eyes lit up.
A fissure.
A Rift gate where hues of green and blue were intertwined like woven threads.
Dojun started walking toward it—but suddenly, he stopped.
Slowly, he turned to glance back at the World Tree.
He had a strange feeling.
A sense that he’d never be able to return to this place again.
Most Rifts didn’t disappear so easily.
But that didn’t mean they were permanent either.
Rarely, though it did happen—Rifts would vanish on their own.
“…Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if it did disappear like this.”
The World Tree was the one thing that had sustained its destroyed world until the very end.
The thought of it being exploited by Earthlings left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Of course, if it disappeared, even Dojun would lose access to its power—but even so, he felt that it might be better for the World Tree to vanish completely, once and for all.
“…Or maybe I should be the one to protect it.”
With those words, Dojun stepped through the Rift and vanished beyond its edge.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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