Chapter 27
Mystery Woman
Ha-Jin drew his senses inward. Deeper and deeper until his presence floated right before the flamy orange core.
Although he wished to investigate the rough and circular thing he had noticed from the periphery of his vision, his mind was not totally into the task.
The things he had learned in the Library remained blurry and hazy though the veil over them was lifted little by little, providing Ha-Jin slight insight into the practical concept of the influence of Atherion and what exactly it was.
The harder Ha-Jin tried to concentrate, the more his focus seemed to drift away from the circular…organ maybe?
Coming to the conclusion that he was not going to get anywhere if his focus continued to drift back to the memories from the Library, he drew back his senses.
The strain on his mind eased as he let out a relaxed sigh, slowly opening his eyes.
The past two days had blurred past as he tried to master absorbing and circulating Mana whilst in motion.
Letting his mind freely drift to the blurred memories from the Library, he tried to unveil each of them.
He remembered the flaming sensation as something in him urged the Atherion closer to him, eventually inviting it to enter without Ha-Jin's permission.
The burning sensation..like he was about to die… He remembered all of it.
A sudden headache overtook him and his eyes opened wide. It was as if a scorching metal rod were being scored into his mind.
He collapsed onto the bed, his hands clasping over his ears as hellish ravings were whispered into his ears. He hugged his head tightly and tried to scream but no sound came out.
The pain was as if he were dying, the ravings sounding like they were whispered to him straight from Satan himself.
Suddenly, the ravings ceased and the pain subsided. Atherion clung to him as if it were soothing him yet not daring to invade his body. Mana coursed through his body, providing a warm sensation that, with the soothing embrace of Atherion, gave him the unfamiliar yet familiar love of a mother.
Just as his eyelids began to droop, his grip over his head loosening, his eyes shot open wide.
The Dark-Violet motes of Atherion dispersed from around him as he got up.
What the hell was that?! I've never had such an experience before…have I? Those hellish ravings…I think I've heard them before…
The thick veil over the tapestry of events that took place in the Library lifted more and more until he came to a conclusion.
Yes… I've heard those ravings somewhere! It was when those motes of Atherion invaded my body!
But the better question continues to be why? And an even bigger question is how? How the hell could I have survived after those motes of Atherion, toxic to the human body entered my body?
On top of that, I'm alive!
The mystery of the events that took place in the library riddled his brain with possible answers but no matter how much he struggled to form a possible answer, there was nothing.
It was either a sudden streak of luck or something he didn't know of. There was too much he didn't know of and it was frustrating.
With a sudden rush of powerlessness, he let out a frustrated groan and stomped his foot on the flat wooden floor.
The wood splintered with a sharp crack and Ha-Jin bit his tongue. He had forgotten his strength was coming back to him.
The door flung open as a surprised Jae-Woo barged into the room. He looked around before his gaze landed on Ha-Jin on the bed. He was about to let out a sigh of relief when his gaze dropped to the splintered wooden floor on the ground.
He let out a somewhat amused sigh. "How do you feel now?" Jae-Woo asked with a slightly worried tone.
"Fine."
Although Jae-Woo could see something troubling Ha-Jin, he did not ask, already able to guess what it was.
"It's time to head back to the capital soon," Jae-Woo said. "If you're ready, that is, of course."
"I'm good to go, how are the other two?" Ha-Jin pushed himself off the bed with a grunt, stretching his limbs.
"Alex is fine and I was going to ask Arthur after you."
With a silent nod from Ha-Jin, they both exited the wooden cabin.
***
After confirming with Arthur, the four of them departed from the woods.
They went to the capital the same way they had come to the forest, hopping from one tree to the other or running on the ground.
However, this time it was much easier since Arthur and Ha-Jin had a better grasp over Mana after gaining insight of the fundamentals of Atherion which made up Mana or in other words, Mana was a part of Atherion and the four elements and their respective Mana Arts were branches of Atherion.
Arthur, now all the more haughty from gaining more power, moved away from the group, making Alex reluctantly follow him to make sure he didn't get lost.
As the atmosphere around Jae-Woo and Ha-Jin remained silent, it turned tense.
"It's been a long time since we've—I mean you have been to the Capital, hasn't it?" Jae-Woo said, trying to hold a conversation while referring to the almost year Ha-Jin and Arthur had spent in the Library.
"It sure has." Ha-Jin replied.
However, at the mention of the capital, Ha-Jin suddenly realised something.
"How has the army been functioning without the commander?"
"You're only the commander of the 3rd squadron, responsible for emergency situations," he explained, holding up three fingers.
"Squad..ron?" Ha-Jin questioned, tilting his head to the side slightly.
"Right, you don't know anything." Jae-Woo said in resignation.
"Squadrons are divisions in the Royal Army, dividing it into 3 'groups' for each… 'job' you could say and also forming a sort of Hierarchy"
Ha-Jin processed the information provided to him and confirmed he understood with a discreet nod of his head.
"You're the commander of the third squadron of the 'Attack Force,'" Jae-Woo continued. "There are 2 more of these specialised forces, the Stealth Force and the Defense Force."
"And a Force is divided into troops, managed by an Officer. Commanders are not the highest rank, above them exist Generals, who take the lead in wars and above Generals are Marshals, the highest rank in the Army. He runs the Army and its businesses for the Emperor and recruits strong members himself. He is also extremely strong and sometimes participates in battle if things are rough for the Generals."
With another hesitant nod, Ha-Jin asked, "so, how strong are the soldiers and commanders of the Attack Force and how do I compare to them?"
"You never run out of questions, do you?" Jae-Woo sighed in amused exasperation.
Although slightly embarrassed, Ha-Jin maintained his steady rhythm of hopping from branch to branch.
Jae-Woo stroked his stubble that had grown on his face in the past few days, seeming to ponder over the matter.
"Let's see… The average foot soldier of the Attack Force would be about B rank overall and a Knight would be about A or A+..." He said before continuing.
"An Officer would be about S+ to SS+ depending on the squadron and a Captain would be about SSS to SSS+ once again depending on the squadron."
"And finally, the Commander of the 2nd Squadron is SSR or SSR+ and the 1st Squadron commander is at UR."
"UR? There are rankings about SSR?" Ha-Jin mused out loud although he already knew of the answer.
"Many more," Jae-Woo said before ending his sentence abruptly, once again drowning the atmosphere in tense silence.
***
It wasn't until they approached the Capital that the suffocating silence shattered like glass into a million pieces.
The usual hustle and bustle of the Capital filled their ears like soothing balm. The colourful awnings of the many markets greeted them as many shopkeepers greeted Jae-Woo but most either ignored Ha-Jin or glared daggers at him, apparently still having not digested the fact that a mere ex-slave had become a commander.
Ha-Jin blissfully ignored them as he looked around the markets for anything useful.
His eyes drifted from one shop to the other before landing on something peculiar.
The shop he had purchased the pendant for Joo-Hee from had a crowd gathering near it.
Ha-Jin curiously drifted apart from Jae-Woo—who didn't stop him—to inspect the situation.
As he reached the shop, bile burned the back of his throat as he retched on the ground.
Stuffed in bloody crates were rotting corpses, ripped apart piece by piece and some having a bite taken out of them.
Ha-Jin shot a meaningful look at the approaching Jae-Woo who instantly disappeared from the crowd to call for help.
Wiping away the remnants of vomit on the sleeve of his shirt, he pushed through the crowd.
"Civilians, I have to ask you to evacuate this shop, I have sent someone to call the police but until then I will search the place." Ha-Jin said, showing his insignia to the crowd, the light glinting off of the metal as the crowd reluctantly departed.
As the crowd dispersed, Ha-Jin pulled the shutters on the shop before getting to work.
Holding back the urge to retch once more, he opened the first crate. Inside the crate was a man who had probably looked handsome when he was alive, but now, he was but a rotting corpse exuding a bile inducing smell of rotting flesh.
Ha-Jin steeled himself as he slowly pulled out the mangled and disassembled corpse from the crate. After all, this was definitely not going to be the last time he would see such a sight.
The arms were ripped off of the corpse from the elbow.
Chunks of meat had been bitten off the man's body.
Could this be the work of a cannibal? No way, there are no cannibals in the Capital and even if there were, they should have been caught by now…
He reluctantly drew his eyes towards the second crate. This one was a woman, her body mangled but not ripped to pieces.
The woman seemed to have been more recently killed, the body not as rotted as the man.
Before he could do anything, five police officers and an Inspector barged into the shop.
"Greetings, Commander!" They all saluted at Ha-Jin simultaneously before rushing forward toward the corpses as Ha-Jin walked past them and waved them off, trying to act cool even though all he wanted to do right now was vomit.
The Medical Examiner in charge of inspecting the dead bodies checked the rotting corpses.
As he inspected the rotting woman, the corpse's eyes suddenly flashed open, gleaming red and her body jerked forward.
The officer's and the corpse's lips met, a green acid like liquid trickling down the officer's chin, burning through his jaw before suddenly, he bloated like a balloon along with the two rotting corpses.
"Run!" Ha-Jin barked out but it was too late.
The three bodies burst like bombs, drenching everyone in dangerous acid.
The Inspector and constables were quickly reduced to a melting pile of corpses while Ha-Jin who had been flung back through the shutter and out onto the street from the intensity of the explosion suffered major third degree burns.
[Passive Skill:Regeneration is trying its best to keep User's condition stable]
[Passive Skill:Regeneration has Ranked Up!]
[Regeneration is now Rank SSR]
The cold blue Interface flickered to life in front of Ha-Jin's blurry eyes as blood trickled from his forehead and into his eyes, turning his vision a deep shade of crimson, a stinging pain stacked on top of the unbearable pain.
This was no ordinary acid…. This was something else… Something much stronger…
Before his eyes gave out, one image formed in his head.
The woman who had sold him the pendant…
Joo-Hee… fuck!