Chapter 118: Dragon’s Resting Ground (1)
[Gasp!]
Vega’s eyes opened wide while looking at Ha-eun who crash into the room.
“Always pretending to be elegant and dignified, and now what? Mama?”
[N-No, that isn’t it!]
“What do you mean! I heard it loud and clear!”
[S-S-So…]
Vega’s golden pupils frantically looked around the empty air.
[L-Like you have said, hasn’t my child grown up without parents? Even if he pretends to be fine on the surface, he’s probably craving motherly love!]
“And that’s why you imposed your perverted fetishes onto Ohjin?”
[P-Perverted? How impertinent!]
When the two of them continued their quarrel for a while—
“…So Ha-eun, since when were you listening?” asked Ohjin with a slightly stiffened expression.
‘It’ll be a bit troublesome if she listened from the start.’
They had talked a bunch about the 1st Round, changes in the future, and whatnot.
“Hm? I heard from when Vega started to talk about how she would continue to stay beside you or something.”
“Ah, I see.”
In that case, she wouldn’t have heard about the regression.
“I wasn’t coming in because the mood seemed a little serious, but…”
Glare—
Ha-eun crossed her arm and stared at Vega.
“I couldn’t even imagine that she would ask you to call her mama in that situation.”
[K-Khm! Come to think of it, there isn’t much more time I can stay materialized today.]
Vega forcefully cleared her throat and curled the tip of her long silver hair with her fingers.
For reference, it hadn’t even been 10 minutes since she materialized.
[This lady shall take her leave!]
Vega went into the pendant in an escaping manner.
“…Seriously.”
Ha-eun unfolded her arms and approached Ohjin.
“Um… by the way, Ohjin.”
“Yeah?”
“You aren’t actually… craving motherly love like Vega said, right?”
“Of course not.”
Ohjin chuckled while shaking his head.
There was no reason to crave for something he had never received before in the first place.
‘I don’t need something like that.’
—Parents?
—Family?
Not once had he felt the need for them.
Not when there was someone even more precious than those to him.
“Anyways, where did you go?”
“Well, I just went to do some light training,” Ha-eun said while avoiding his gaze.
Her face had a grim expression as she looked away.
“You said you were able to find some results lately. Are things not working out?”
“Hmm… Sigh. It feels like it’s going to work but doesn’t.”
Ha-eun exhaled a deep breath and scratched her head.
“To put it in words, it’s like the goal is right in front of my eyes, but I’m unable to make it in because I lack stamina.”
‘Is insufficient mana the problem? I should start working on those potions.’
“Wait a little longer. I’ll give you a present later.”
“Present? What present is it all of a sudden?”
“I’ll tell you when that time comes.”
“Ah, tell me.”
Ha-eun frowned and pinched Ohjin’s cheeks.
“The way you’re acting is making me damn curious.”
“I’m acting like this so you get curious.”
“You little shit?”
“Anyways, just wait. I’ll give you something good.”
He smirked and turned around.
“I’ll be in the storage room for a bit.”
“Alright. I’ll just go take a shower.”
Ha-eun flapped her shirt drenched in sweat.
His eyes were subconsciously focused on the white skin and cleavage that were revealed every time her shirt flapped.
“Eyes up here, buddy.”
“My bad.”
“Hehe. If you really want to see, want to go inside with me?”
Ha-eun pointed to the bathroom with a smug grin.
“No thanks.”
It was obvious that she would get flustered and blush if he really said that he’d go inside with her.
Though he wouldn’t mind seeing that, either…
‘I need to make the potion right now.’
Ohjin’s heart fluttered as he imagined how happy she would be after receiving the potion.
* * *
Not much preparation was required to make the potion.
All he had to do was put a starstone inside a water bottle filled with distilled water and use the stigma of Aquarius to melt the mana contained inside the starstone.
‘Though I obviously won’t be able to melt 100% of it.’
According to what he had heard, it was deemed a success if you were able to melt just 10% of its mana.
“You can melt up to a maximum of 20~30% of it according to your proficiency in handling mana, huh.”
Ohjin glanced over the information displayed on the internet and mumbled.
“Let’s give it a shot.”
He coursed mana into the distilled water after activating the stigma of Aquarius.
Blue rays of light permeated the starstone that was inside the distilled water.
Owooong!!—
The mana contained within the starstone started to gradually melt into the distilled water.
-Ring!
[You have successfully melted the mana contained within the starstone.]
[Dissipated mana is recovered due to your marvelous mana handling capabilities!]
“What?”
‘Dissipated mana is recovered?’
“No way…”
Ohjin held in his surprise and confirmed the amount of mana inside the distilled water.
‘There’s no dissipated mana.’
Melting just 10% was a success.
He had heard that even the most talented individuals could only melt 20~30% of the starstone.
“What the hell…”
He couldn’t believe it despite being the one who did it.
No loss of mana at all?
And in his first try, at that?
“…”
The words of Vega when he first learned Exceed suddenly resurfaced in his head.
-It seems almost as if… you were born to hold dominance over all stigmas.
Talent that made even a North Star unable to hold back their astonishment.
He was able to display that talent once again in an unaccounted field of expertise.
‘Talent, huh…’
Could it be explained with the simple word ‘talent’ alone?
“…Is it because of the Black Heaven?”
He didn’t know.
He couldn’t know when he had never used mana before awakening the Black Heaven.
‘Well, anyways.’
The potion that was made to give as a present to Ha-eun was completed, and it was one that performed several times better than what he first expected.
Click—
“What are you doing here?”
Ha-eun, who had just finished showering, opened the door and entered the room.
Her wet hair and slightly reddened cheeks couldn’t be more lovely.
* * *
* * *
“Here, drink this.”
Ohjin handed the water bottle that had a starstone melted in it over to Ha-eun.
Glowing blue colors splashed inside the water bottle.
“What’s this?”
“I mentioned I was going to give you a present before.”
“This is that present?”
“Yup.”
“Hmm.”
Ha-eun’s eyes twinkled as she received the water bottle.
“What kind of drink is this? It’s my first time seeing one that shines this much.”
“It’s a mana potion.”
“Eeh. A mana potion? Aren’t those potions that raise…”
Her eyes opened wide.
“W-Wait, a mana potion? Th-This is a mana potion?!”
Her mouth opened wide out of disbelief.
“Is-Isn’t this really fucking expensive?!”
“I guess.”
When comparing only the price, it would be similar to the Cursed Dragon Eye he gifted her before.
‘And that’s when 10% of the mana is preserved.’
The potion he made preserved 100% of it. An item of that caliber couldn’t be obtained no matter how much money was paid.
A potion that increased the amount of one’s mana was an item that every Awakener would desperately want.
“Wh-Where did you get this from?”
“I received a couple of high-quality starstones for helping the Valhalla guild last time. I requested an Awakener of Aquarius that I know to make it.”
“Then, Ohjin, you should drink—”
“Even you should know that the effectiveness drops if a person with a lot of mana drinks one.”
At his current state, there would barely be any change even if he chugged down a truckload of mana potions.
“That’s true, but…”
Not knowing what to do, Ha-eun grasped the water bottle tightly with both her hands.
“Th-This is too precious.”
No matter how precious it was, could it be more precious than she was to him?
“Didn’t you say that everything that’s mine is yours last time?”
“But…”
Ha-eun normally acted confident, but actually didn’t know what to do in situations like those.
‘Well, that kind of thing is cute, too.’
“Anyways, it doesn’t have much meaning to me, so you drink it. Didn’t you go through some trouble due to insufficient mana lately?”
“…”
Ha-eun’s pupils trembled.
If Ohjin knew that she was going through trouble due to insufficient mana…
“Then did you get this made… to give it to me?”
“For who else would I have used such an expensive starstone?”
With the potion hugged in tight, she groaned while curling her feet.
“Y-You really drain the life out of me!”
Considering that, her face was conflictingly full of vigor.
“Then… I-I’m really drinking it, alright?”
“Hurry up.”
Ohjin was also curious as to how large of an effect a potion that preserved 100% mana would have.
“…Gulp.”
After carefully opening the water bottle’s cap, Ha-eun slowly drank the subtly glowing blue potion.
Fwoooosh!—
Crimson flames wavered around her body—
“Ah.”
—and started to slowly permeate into her body.
“This is…”
Her eyes widened with disbelief.
“How is it? Is it effective?”
“I-It’s not just effective. Wh-What is this? Is it normally like this?”
Ha-eun mouth fell agape as she felt the mana that filled up her body.
She had heard about a mana potion’s effects a couple of times in the past, but what happened was on a completely different level compared to that.
‘I think my mana has increased by double… no, triple.’
There was the fact that she didn’t have much mana in the first place, but it was also because there was an enormous amount of mana contained in the potion.
“…Give me a second.”
Click—
Ha-eun took off her eyepatch.
“Fuu.”
She slowly inhaled air while focusing her mind.
Her Dragon Eye gave off a fierce light as thick veins sprouted around her left eye.
Fwoooooosh!!—
Crimson flames overflowed out of her.
Ha-eun slowly extended her hand forward.
Flames started to gather on top of her spread palm.
From there, she started to condense the flames.
The flames that overflowed as if they were going to devour the surroundings started to condense into a small, spherical shape on her palm.
“Haa, haa.”
Her breathing became rough, and cold sweat dripped down her face.
Normally, she would’ve failed there due to insufficient mana.
‘But right now…!’
Ha-eun’s eyes shone.
Fwooooosh!!!—
Even more intense flames poured out and condensed into the spherical flame. As she continued to condense, it became a red bead that didn’t even look like fire anymore.
“Ha.”
A bright smile was placed on Ha-eun’s mouth.
An electrifying thrill ran down her spine and spread out.
—Dragon Bead.
A flame crystal that was made by using the Dragon Eye.
“Is this… the new technique you learned?” exclaimed Ohjin.
The size of the dragon bead she made was merely around a 50¢ coin—
‘Holy shit.’
—but the amount of power contained in it gave him goosebumps just by looking at it.
‘I’ll die if I get hit by that.’
He wasn’t playing around or exaggerating.
The moment he got hit by that dragon bead, he would literally ‘vanish’.
“Finally…”
Ha-eun’s eyes glistened.
“I finally succeeded!!!!!!!!”
—A shout full of joy.
After breaking through her bottleneck, she jumped around from the boiling excitement.
“Congratulations, Ha-eun.”
“Ohjinnnnnn!”
Ha-eun hugged Ohjin tight after removing the dragon bead.
“I succeeded! I fucking succeeded!”
“Hehe. I saw it.”
“Ahhhh!!! Finally! Finally!!!”
She consecutively kissed Ohjin’s cheek from her excitement.
“My precious little Ohjin!!! What should I do for you?”
“It’s fine”
He didn’t give her the potion while expecting something in return.
“It’s fine?”
Ha-eun held Ohjin’s shoulders and her eyes lost rationality.
“First, take it off!’
‘What is she saying all of a sudden.’
“And spread out!”
‘Spread what, you crazy person…?’
