I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 21

21

Seonghyun headed to the gate with Inhwan again today.

“Shall we go a bit deeper today?”

Inhwan seemed quite confident, thanks to Seonghyun.

He hadn’t been injured so far, but considering Seonghyun’s abilities shown in the mutated gate, he was sure that even minor injuries could be easily treated.

“Sure. It seems like your proficiency is increasing rapidly.”

“Haha, it has to. I’m hunting for hours every day.”

He was hunting in the gate almost all day, except for meal times, so his proficiency couldn’t help but increase.

However, because Inhwan’s ability was so powerful, there were hardly any opportunities for them to coordinate.

“So, are we going to hunt wolf-type monsters?”

“Yeah, we can’t just keep hunting low-level monsters like goblins forever.”

The two headed deeper into the gate.

As they passed the spot where they had saved Park Hanwook before, a different roar than they had heard so far began to echo from ahead.

“It’s a bit unsettling without a front line, but we should be able to handle it if we face them one at a time.”

In terms of firepower, they were more than capable of hunting wolf-type monsters.

Most of the first-year students at the academy had the talent to handle wolf-type monsters in a 1:1 fight.

However, the problem was their lack of experience.

“There it is.”

“Huh? Where?”

Seonghyun grabbed Inhwan’s shoulder, who was looking around, unable to find the monster, and pulled him down.

“About 20 meters ahead. Can you hit it from this distance?”

“Is it alone?”

“Yeah, it’s alone.”

“This is my first time at this distance…”

“It’s okay, take your time.”

Seonghyun comforted Inhwan, who looked worried.

What was important now was to increase the proficiency of Inhwan, who had the best attack power and range among the three of them.

“Okay, I’ll try.”

Inhwan stood up and stared at the monster in front of him.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have noticed their presence yet and looked quite peaceful.

“…Ignite!”

After a moment of concentration, Inhwan used the ability that dealt the most damage to a single target among the abilities he could use.

It was an ability that created blue flames on the target’s body. Unlike ordinary red flames that could be extinguished by normal means, blue flames burned the target’s inner self.

It burned the magic power within, not the skin.

The larger the target’s magic power, the greater the damage, and it was a tremendous ability that required burning 10% of the target’s magic power to extinguish.

However, it required using the same amount of magic power, so the user had to grasp the amount of magic power the opponent had before using it, to avoid putting too much strain on themselves.

“Ah…”

But the target of the ignition was not the monster.

It had attached to the corpse of another monster that was left half-eaten right next to the monster.

“Krrr!”

Thanks to this, the surprised monster jumped up and looked around, quickly spotting Seonghyun and Inhwan’s location.

“S, sorry…”

“It’s okay. You really need to focus now.”

As Seonghyun said, the wolf-type monster was sprinting towards them with all its might.

“Stay calm and attack. I’ll draw its aggro [attention].”

“Y, you?”

Seonghyun had already received a perfect score on the first exam, which he had to take without abilities, but even Inhwan didn’t completely believe it.

“Hurry! There’s no time.”

Seonghyun took out his sword and stood in front of the wolf-type monster.

It felt much less intimidating than when he had first seen it.

The wolf-type monster bared its huge fangs and charged at Seonghyun.

It showed no caution at all, clearly perceiving Seonghyun as prey.

‘It definitely looks slow.’

Seonghyun lightly turned his body to the side to avoid its jaws and expected Inhwan’s rear support attack.

However, whether it was due to a lack of combat sense, the support attack that Seonghyun had expected did not come.

“Inhwan…!”

He looked at the spot where Inhwan was with a desperate voice, calling his name, but a strange man he had never seen before was standing there.

“Ah, don’t worry, I didn’t kill him.”

“Wh, who…”

He tried to ask who it was, but Seonghyun didn’t have time.

The monster in front of him was once again running towards Seonghyun with its mouth open.

“Haha! Seeing this, it looks like I don’t even need to step in. Why don’t you catch the monster in front of you first?”

The man sat on top of Inhwan as if he was amused and spoke to Seonghyun.

It was clear mockery; the man was definitely off guard.

He was certain that even if they both attacked together, they couldn’t beat him. He had already dealt with one, and the other was dealing with the monster.

“…”

Seonghyun frowned deeply and looked at the man.

As if he didn’t care about the monster approaching him.

“Hmm? Did you give up…”

The man erased the mockery he had been holding until just now and looked at Seonghyun with a puzzled expression.

In his current state, he was sure to be pierced by the monster’s huge fangs.

However, the situation the man had expected did not occur.

“Wh, what? Why is that thing like that?”

The monster, which had been rushing in as if to tear Seonghyun limb from limb, suddenly whimpered and collapsed on the spot as if it had contracted an incurable disease.

“…What is it?”

But there was something even more surprising than that.

Seonghyun was looking at him without moving from his spot, as if he had expected this to happen.

“…Well, it’s just become a little more annoying.”

The man clicked his tongue once and took out a dagger from his pocket.

“You have healing abilities, right? You’re quite famous.”

“Is that a reason for me to die?”

“Die? Who, you? Don’t worry too much. I won’t kill you.”

The man’s eyes seemed to regard Seonghyun as his own already.

“Really? Then what will happen to me?”

“Are you curious? Why don’t you experience it yourself? If you follow me quietly, you won’t feel any pain at least. Ah, are you used to pain? Or do you enjoy it?”

Seonghyun frowned and looked at the man.

The man seemed to like that expression even more and showed a satisfied smile.

“Let’s stop the small talk here.”

The man erased his smile and pointed his dagger at Seonghyun.

As if foretelling that it would be over soon.

The man disappeared in an instant, just like when he had dealt with Inhwan.

The man’s ability was stealth.

It was quite a useful ability for dealing with monsters, but stealth shone brightest when hunting people.

‘He really doesn’t know anything.’

The man headed behind Seonghyun while maintaining his stealth.

He almost felt sorry for him, still looking at the spot where he was standing.

“Just be unconscious for a while.”

With those words, the man tried to strike the back of Seonghyun’s neck with the handle [of the dagger].

He couldn’t kill someone with healing abilities, and if he took him to his organization and made him use his abilities, he would definitely be able to expand his power even more than he was now.

With that, he could also solidify his position.

As he was spreading his wings of such happy imagination, a pain that shattered that imagination in an instant began to surge.

“Cough, cough…!”

The man grabbed his chest and collapsed on the spot, suffering from an unknown pain.

“Wh, what on earth…!”

His hands trembled.

If he knew the cause, he would at least try to remove it or find a solution, but he was going crazy with just the vague pain surging.

“Who ordered you?”

“Huh?”

The man didn’t hear Seonghyun’s question.

The pain disappeared like a ghost the moment Seonghyun asked the question.

“Th, this bastard…!”

The man tried to swing his dagger.

The unknown pain was just a momentary accident, so there was nothing stopping him from dealing with the healer in front of him now.

“Kuaaak!”

But as soon as he tried to swing his sword again, the pain surged like a ghost.

The man, in even more pain than before, soon dropped the dagger he was holding and sat down on the floor, sweating profusely.

“Whose request is it? Tell me.”

This time as well, the pain that seemed to tear his body apart disappeared at the same time as Seonghyun’s question.

It was as if someone was controlling a supernatural phenomenon, and the man was even feeling a creeping fear of the unknown.

“Wh, what is this…”

“Did you think I’d be traveling alone?”

“Wh, what did you say?”

The man looked around again then.

But as expected, no one else was there.

Only the monster foaming at the mouth and whimpering nearby was visible.

“If you could find them, would that be a bodyguard?”

“Y, you mean…!”

The man finally grasped the situation.

There was a tremendous expert attached as a bodyguard in this area, whose presence he couldn’t detect at all with his abilities.

“Kuek…!”

“I’ll ask again, who ordered you.”

“Did you think I’d answer…”

The pain surged before the man could finish his answer.

“Kuaaak! I know, I know! I said I know!”

The man finally opened his mouth to the pain he never wanted to taste again.

“It, it’s Heo Taehyun.”

“Heo…Taehyun?”

Seonghyun instantly recalled the name Heo Taehyun.

‘If it’s Heo Taehyun… isn’t he the kid who follows Gu Sangyeon around?’

It seemed like he had made things this way because of being selected as the class representative.

If he couldn’t go out, someone else would have to go out instead.

“Was I the target?”

“…Yes.”

“Then why Kang Inhwan…”

“Because he was annoying. They told me to take care of him over there as well. As I said before, I didn’t kill him. I just knocked him out.”

Now that he had finished finding out what he needed to know, Seonghyun lightly put strength into the sword he was holding.

The man also flinched for a moment upon seeing that.

“Now that I’m done here.”

Seonghyun finished speaking and swung his sword.

With a poof, the sensation of piercing through the skin was transmitted to his hand along the sword, and then dark red blood began to gush out from between the torn skin.

Seonghyun put his hand through the torn skin.

Then, he took out the crystal [monster core] and put it in his pocket, and looked at the man and said.

“I said I’m done here?”

“Ah, uh, th, that’s right.”

The man stood up awkwardly and staggered backwards before disappearing in the direction of the gate.

Seonghyun approached Inhwan, who was still unconscious.

He looked over his body here and there, but fortunately, he didn’t seem to have any injuries.

“It doesn’t look like I need to heal him, but I’ll have to wait a bit.”

In the meantime, Seonghyun washed away the smell of blood and took a seat next to Inhwan.

Fortunately, Inhwan came to his senses not long after.

“Ugh… what happened?”

“You were attacked by a monster.”

Seonghyun had no intention of telling the truth.

Inhwan wasn’t the target in the first place, so he didn’t think he needed to know about this.

“Wh, what? By a monster? Haa…”

Inhwan frowned at his carelessness.

“It ambushed you from behind, so there was nothing you could do.”

“Really? But why are you okay…?”

“Fortunately, some hunters passing by helped us.”

“Phew… that’s a relief.”

“Let’s stop here today. That would be good.”

“Yeah. Thanks for your hard work.”

Inhwan and Seonghyun came out of the gate without any regrets.

Of course, he had no intention of just letting that man go.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.