‘It hasn’t been long since I guided him, but he’s already getting worse.’
Joo Youngha’s energy always felt like the waves right before a typhoon.
He lived 365 days a year with a massive energy load constantly weighing on him.
Ever since Seo Jaewon first met him, the guy had detested guiding, so it would actually be stranger if his levels were normal.
Like , this state was simply the norm for him.
But this was different from a typical energy overload.
It was too unstable. Something was wrong.
Unlike usual, the energy didn’t flow toward him naturally.
Normally, his energy would react instantly to Seo Jaewon’s presence, like a puppy pressing its nose against a hand.
He wasn’t sure if he should use such personal descriptions for energy, but right now, it was rampaging as if resisting something.
No, those words weren’t enough.
Joo Youngha’s energy was boiling, churning inside his body as if clawing at him.
Like a ferocious sea trying to tear down a cliff of jagged rocks, a force powerful enough to make his skin crawl swept through and collided again and again.
‘I don’t know why it’s suddenly like this, but I have to calm it down first.’
Seo Jaewon first opened a path so a portion of that energy could enter his own body.
Very carefully, slowly.
“Joo Youngha, don’t hold back. Let it out to me.”
He then gently touched the strands of the terribly tangled energy, guiding them toward himself.
Joo Youngha’s tightly gripped hand flinched slightly.
From the point where their skin touched, a thick, sluggish energy began to crawl in.
“Urgh…!”
A groan escaped his lips, and Seo Jaewon’ts grit his teeth.
It was heavy. It was a dark, chaotic energy that was far beyond what a novice Guide’s power could follow.
But if he got scared of this, he wouldn’t be qualified to be an EX-rank Esper’s Guide.
Seo Jaewon furrowed his brow and concentrated.
Saying he “can’t do it” wouldn’t work in the field. If it wasn’t him, no one could do it.
He just had to relax and accept the energy bit by bit, very slowly.
If he tried to take control too forcefully, it would only cause him pain.
Fortunately, because their matching rate had increased, the guiding was progressing little by little even in this situation.
Compared to how serious the situation was, the higher matching rate supported him, making it much easier than before.
‘The effect is minimal… but it should work as first aid.’
It was worth the effort of doing those quests that felt like drinking game penalties just to raise the matching rate.
He still couldn’t get used to this tickling, itchy feeling inside his ribs… but the sensation of the violently rampaging energy losing its heat and slowly flowing through him made him feel strangely excited and liberated.
The energy that Seo Jaewon coaxed and calmed flowed back into Joo Youngha through their touching skin.
“Cough.”
Just then, he heard a small cough.
The metallic smell of blood surged up through the humidity.
Crimson blood burst from Joo Youngha’s pale lips.
“Joo Youngha!”
Seo Jaewon panicked and tried to let go of his hand.
But Joo Youngha interlaced their fingers even tighter.
“Don’t let go.”
“What nonsense are you saying? You just coughed up blood!”
Joo Youngha looked dissatisfied and tried to say something, but he broke into a dry cough again. More blood spilled from his pale lips.
Looking closer, it wasn’t just the blood.
Even his neck was pale, while his cheeks were faintly flushed.
He had felt warm earlier, and it really was a fever.
He always had a strangely fleeting impression, but now he looked like a water-soaked flower petal.
He looked like he might wither and collapse at any moment.
“Why are you suddenly like this? Since when?”
Seo Jaewon forced Joo Youngha’s hand away and held his white cheeks.
With his mouth and chin smeared with blood, Joo Youngha grumbled.
“Can’t we keep guiding? I can still bear it.”
‘Wait, bear it…?’
“Then you’ve been in pain this whole time?!”
“Yeah, well.”
Joo Youngha replied listlessly.
Seo Jaewon barely resisted the urge to smack him on the back.
“Does my guiding hurt you, by any chance?”
“Usually it feels good. Just today.”
“That’s a relief… relief my ass! Why are you enduring pain, you lunatic?!”
He had never heard of an Esper getting hurt from receiving guiding.
‘Is my guiding wrong?!’
“Because I want to hold your hand.”
Joo Youngha tilted his head as he said that.
Seo Jaewon’s voice rose in frustration.
“Hey, are you seriously crazy?”
“It’s okay. It’ll get better if you leave it alone.”
“What do you mean ‘better,’ you madman!”
Seo Jaewon was the only one pacing with anxiety, while Joo Youngha—the one actually vomiting blood—calmly continued to get on his nerves.
It was his first time seeing Joo Youngha in pain, and his first time seeing energy rampage so wildly.
Seo Jaewon recalled the sea of energy he felt during the guiding.
It was a density and quantity that was impossible for one person to contain in the first place.
If something like that was rampaging inside his body, there was no way he could be fine.
Given that the guiding actually made his condition worse, the cause seemed to be the unstable state of the energy.
To an Esper, energy problems are more painful than any illness or injury.
It must have hurt enough to kill him, but Joo Youngha acted as if it were no big deal.
He didn’t even show signs of being surprised by the sudden change.
His attitude suggested he had experienced this before.
‘Is this guy sick?’
Does he have some kind of disease?
For how long?
Why didn’t I know until now?
Could it be that even in my past life…
For a moment, his mind went blank, but he forced himself to stay grounded.
If he wavered now, it was over.
He needed to get treatment in a stable environment.
He might need a more skilled Guide.
Joo Youngha would hate it, but it was a stroke of luck that the senior Guide, Min Yoomin, had entered the dungeon with them.
“Let’s go back for now. Once we get back…”
Just then, a cold raindrop hit his forehead.
“Ah, dammit.”
It started to rain.
Seo Jaewon cursed even more internally.
Rain? Now of all times? The rain intensified in an instant.
Joo Youngha looked up at the sky.
He now wore a strange, expressionless face.
It was that hollow, transparent gaze that always made Seo Jaewon feel uneasy.
Then, Joo Youngha let out a long sigh.
“Something’s coming.”
“What?”
The moment he tried to ask the meaning of the random remark, thunder rumbled.
The rain grew thicker, pouring down on their heads.
The droplets hitting his skin felt heavy enough to be painful.
‘Rumble…’
Clouds so dark they looked blue-black rushed over their heads.
They looked like a predator swimming toward prey it had just spotted.
“Clouds?”
No, they weren’t ordinary clouds.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up from an inexplicable sense of dread.
He felt the invisible gaze of some massive presence.
A gaze, an interest—whatever you wanted to call it.
Whatever its identity was, one thing was certain: it was not friendly.
A strong arm wrapped around Seo Jaewon’s back.
A large hand covered his mouth.
“Mmph…?!”
A cool scent, like the air at high altitudes, blocked Seo Jaewon’s airway.
“Can you be quiet for a second? My head is ringing…”
A low voice, barely audible, brushed past his ear.
Rumble, rumble…
And then, the ground began to shake.
“…!”
Seo Jaewon looked down at his feet in horror.
The soil and gravel covering the ground trembled, and dust rose in clouds.
Rotten fallen leaves were flipped over, emitting a sickly sweet smell of decay.
Rising from deep underground as if surfacing or manifesting, something tore through the ground like a ghost appearing…
It was a marble floor decorated with gold patterns.
“What on earth is—”
Before he even had a chance to be surprised, towering shadows shot up from all sides.
With a deafening sound, rocks shattered and trees collapsed.
When he jerked his head up, an even more bizarre sight was unfolding.
The forest was being swallowed.
Rumble—
Four massive golden walls rose from the earth and met at the corners.
A roof, also rising from the dirt, covered the top, showering them with mud.
It was a violent appearance that cared nothing for the forest that had been there first.
Trees were crushed in the gaps of the walls, and ancient vines were snapped, slicing through the air like whips.
Broken tree roots fell over Seo Jaewon’s head along with clumps of dirt.
And in an instant, the ornate decorative walls, pillars, arches, and…
‘We’re being eaten.’
It was irrational, but his instinct screamed it.
A massive dome decorated with frescoes of gloomy figures covered their heads.
A giant chandelier shot up, narrowly missing Seo Jaewon, and hung from the ceiling as if drawn by magnetism.
There was no way to escape; they were already blocked on all sides.
He was already trapped inside the palace…
Finally, the last piece of the roof closed.
As his vision instantly went dark, a system message flashed in red letters like a warning.
!WARNING!
You have left the qu■st area. Please return to the qu■st area imm■diately!
