Chapter 335

My gaze grew slightly uneasy. I was someone who could talk about life on alien planets without the slightest hesitation, yet the early stages of reincarnation that Ahn Yoonseung was currently misunderstanding... that was something I could never bring myself to confess.

Not now, and probably not ever.

Well, anyway, from now on—don't worry about me anymore...

It was then.

Huh?

Drip.

Just as I finished speaking and began to rise from the bench, I felt something wet trickle from my nose.

Feels kind of like a runny nose... right?

I was about to ask Ahn Yoonseung whether he happened to have any tissues on him.

But before I could, he shouted first.

Nose! You're having a nosebleed!

What? A nosebleed?

Only then did I remember the magical factor I had completely forgotten about.

Ah, that's—

Right.

Come to think of it, before my second awakening, I'd always relied on that plant for help.

Achoo.

Whaaaaa!

And soon, a familiar scene unfolded.

An itch in my throat made me cough lightly—and just like that, I felt the unmistakable taste of blood as something burst deep inside my body.

The price of using the [Sacred Tree Branch].

Internal bleeding.

As expected of a creature nicknamed the "Assassin of the Deep Sea" in magical theory, its symptoms struck without warning, impossible to predict.

Now the damage it does to my body outweighs the protection it gives me.

That's a net loss.

After my second awakening, I had become capable of resisting its side effects by healing my body almost in real time.

But the problem, as with most unfortunate things in life, was the timing.

Hyuuung-nim! The medical team! I'll get the medics right now!

Ever since coming to Earth, it always feels like things are finally about to work out—only for everything to end up like this again.

I barely managed to grab Ahn Yoonseung before he completely lost his mind from shock and had to calm him down all over again.

The symptoms were temporary. My body was fine. There was nothing to worry about.

And when it became obvious that he was far too panicked to understand a word I was saying, I almost resorted to physically demonstrating just how resilient my cells had become.

***

And just like that, the storm passed.

Oh, please. Someone save this poor alien.

At this rate, this mage is going to grow old.

Seriously old.

Anyway, that [Sacred Tree Seedling] gave me quite a scare.

The Earthling I'd only just managed to calm down started panicking all over again, and for a moment, I worried I might have no choice but to reveal that I was an alien.

Fortunately, that fear never became reality.

As expected, the kid is kind.

Perhaps the phrase 'a man of his word' was invented for people like him.

Ahn Yoonseung did not go back on his decision to trust what I'd told him and maintained his stance.

With that, the Earthlings' baseless worries were finally put to rest.

Good thing I managed to settle this without revealing that I'm an Alphaun.

There's no need to stress ordinary people out by confirming the existence of extraterrestrials, right?

For a moment, a thought crossed my mind.

Someone might hear that and ask, 'Then what about Seonwoo Yeon?'

But that's a trivial concern.

With a mountain of work still ahead of me, I probably don't have time to indulge in pointless thoughts.

Let's wrap this up and head back before sunset.

Just as I'd explained to Ahn Yoonseung, I now officially possessed a body that functioned at an absurdly high level.

So, to celebrate regaining my strength, I decided not to put things off any longer and immediately moved on to the next item in my plan.

[Today's To-Do List]

[● Check the corpses of the [fake] beast pack, including Enzo.]

Extracting information from another person's body through magic was one of the crowning achievements of organic golemancy.

Of course, the same could be said of many spells, but this particular technique was one of my personal specialties.

I'd already adapted it to Earth's system ages ago.

I simply hadn't tested it on higher mammals yet, that's all!

So I decided to use that magic to sift through the beast pack's memories.

The reason was simple.

First—because I wanted to repay the nerve of whoever had deliberately targeted a dungeon break that nearly massacred the citizens of Seoul.

And second—to ensure my own safety beyond any doubt.

Just because I've gained power doesn't mean I can afford to stop being cautious.

Even weak criminals, if left unchecked, might fail to learn their lesson and start scheming again in ways that would annoy a mage.

So this was a necessary precaution.

Frankly, with the body I have now, I could retire from physical labor whenever I wanted.

But if this peninsula nation keeps falling into danger like this, it's going to become irritating.

Anyway, I won't have to threaten anyone with nationality anymore.

I'd like to enjoy my time in Korea while I can...

If I plan things properly, perhaps for another fifty years or so.

Ultimately, all of these actions stemmed from caution.

I decided to continue uncovering any hidden schemes that might cause trouble in the future.

«Autopsy Room»

And once again, at that moment, I found myself thinking the same thing.

Being an S-rank Hunter really is too convenient a position to give up.

I can enter places like this with hardly any difficulty.

As you can see, if I really put my mind to it, even crucial evidence secured by a government agency is surprisingly easy to access.

In this strange world called Earth, no matter how intimidating your face might be, without real status behind you, it means nothing.

That's why I'd recently begun to seriously question whether giving up my notoriety and quietly retiring was really the right decision.

H, Hunter-nim. Then I'll open the storage now.

At that moment, the staff member in charge of the examination room, who had guided the alien here, stepped forward.

Just so you know, even though they were criminals, all three Hunters were foreign nationals. So other than removing their equipment, we haven't performed any further procedures.

Yes.

So their bodies remain essentially untouched. We've also confirmed that there are no hidden artifacts inside them. Based on our examination, we're confident these really are the individuals in question.

She was doing her best to explain everything, but none of it reached my ears.

I hadn't come here to pray for the souls of the Hunters I'd killed.

What interested this archmage was solely their bodies...

Wait.

That sounds rather disturbing when I put it that way.

Anyway, while the staff member was looking elsewhere, I placed my hand near the head of one of the corpses.

Then, using the magic circle concealed beneath my palm, I activated the spell and began probing into its background—

I almost succeeded.

Huh?

At that moment, in one dim corner of the room, I also discovered something I very much wished I hadn't.

***

First attempt.

I tried extracting memories from Hunter Enzo.

My lungs ruptured.

Huh?

The archmage initially suspected that there might be a flaw in the spell's design.

So he refined the magic, improving its efficiency.

After spending nearly an entire day recovering—and coming up with a handful of excuses—he returned to the cryogenic storage facility.

No, wait.

Then came the second attempt.

That day, while investigating the short imposter who had accompanied Enzo—

My lungs ruptured again.

Why?

The exact same physical symptoms I'd experienced when sinking that dungeon kept repeating themselves.

So then—

What did that mean?

H, Hunter Kim Giryeo?

Suspicion quickly became certainty.

The mage living in this world under the name Kim Giryeo understood the situation after only two attempts.

But unwilling to acknowledge the danger he was in, he broke into a cold sweat—an unusual reaction for an extraterrestrial being—and stubbornly returned to the morgue yet again.

Are you okay...?

And after all that effort, the final day eventually arrived.

Today marked the sixth day since the investigation began.

Kim Giryeo, having prepared himself in ways no Earthling could possibly understand, reached out once more.

Yet despite all his hopes, the same reaction began the moment he examined the final imposter.

Ah, s*it.

Aaack!

Is there someone with recovery skills waiting outside? P, please bring them in immediately. Hurry! Get in here now!

Every time he attempted to extract memories from a corpse, his lungs ruptured.

And because of that, the mage found himself facing a problem he had never anticipated.

Kim Giryeo!

This body—

still couldn't withstand a vast number of spells.

Damn it!

You chain-smoking bastard who used to own this body—how did you manage to buy cigarettes so faithfully when you didn't even have any money?!

In a burst of frustration, I ended up cursing the body's former owner.

But in truth, regardless of my anger, the current situation wasn't entirely Kim Giryeo's fault.

That had already been made clear during my one and only attempt at body swapping, back at the gate anomaly known as the [Thornbush Forest].

By magical standards, Earthlings were still little more than primitives.

Their resistance to mana was therefore low, and they did not always absorb those particles—the very foundation of sorcery—in beneficial ways.

There had even been severe cases, such as elderly people attempting to awaken only to fall into vegetative states.

The risks were real and well documented.

To put it simply, Earthlings still weren't properly suited to becoming mages.

And if you looked at it from that perspective, the one in the greatest trouble right now was the archmage inhabiting Kim Giryeo's body.

Damn it!

Apparently, Kim Giryeo's human body had already used most of its capacity simply by containing a soul this powerful.

That was why even a brief attempt at reading someone's memories was enough to rupture his lungs.

No matter how simple a spell might appear, most were structurally complex forms of modern magic.

A primitive human body was therefore all the more likely to collapse once it crossed that threshold.

[?? - Critical Collision Detected]

[Using magic above a certain level causes bodily rupture]

Whenever magic beyond a certain level was used, the immense amount of mana gathered to produce the miracle began tearing the body apart from within.

I...

This...

He had never been the sort of creature who cried.

And yet, for one brief moment, he nearly burst into tears.

This is a nightmare...

From his perspective, the threshold of magical strain this body could endure was absurdly low.

But from the perspective of an ordinary Earth native, even with such risks, the power gained through the second awakening was already extraordinary.

In fact, there had never been a single recorded case on Earth of someone's 'body tearing apart from excessive mana use.'

That alone demonstrated just how much power this individual had regained.

Just as in the battle against Enzo, if he truly put his mind to it, he could overwhelm even an S-rank Hunter without breaking a sweat.

And if the situation became desperate, he could simply choose to unleash high-tier magic, even at the cost of tearing his own body apart.

Cough.

But to an Alphaun who had once wielded magic as naturally as moving his own limbs, this limitation could only be profoundly frustrating.

Are you really planning to go home like this, Hunter-nim? Are you sure you don't want treatment first?

It's okay.

Oh my goodness. No wonder there have been so many rumors about Hunter Kim's health in the Dispatch articles lately...

I'm fine, so stop holding me up and open the door already.

Trudge, trudge.

The golden-haired alien returned after finishing his investigation.

After repeated attempts, he had finally managed to obtain some of the information he wanted.

But compared to what he'd gained, both his mind and body had already been left in tatters.

His lungs had ruptured three times.

Including the recovery periods, six full days had passed.

What on earth is this mess?

The shock of what had happened had left him bedridden for most of that time.

As a result, he hadn't even managed to complete his discharge procedures.

And so, Kim Giryeo had no choice but to return to the hospital yet again.

Patient—did you run here today? Your blood pressure is a little high.

That...

Ah, you shouldn't talk right now. Just a moment—

The Earthlings' disaster began from that moment onward.

She's the one who started talking to me, so why is she telling me to be quiet?

He had been full of hope.

After awakening beyond even S-rank, he'd believed he would finally be able to use magic freely and extravagantly once again.

But once the brutal reality came crashing down on him, the alien archmage underwent a profound change in mindset.

He became irritable.

His already particular personality grew even more fastidious.

And this is clearly a hospital.

Who the hell keeps smoking outside designated areas for the smell of cigarettes to linger like this...?

Of course, this was merely a temporary outburst of temper.

But hadn't he recently been keeping some kind of record?

No, that's not it.

Now that I think about it, Earth's smokers aren't actually the ones at fault!

The mage, still lying on his hospital bed in shock, glanced around the bedside.

It's this rotten world that's truly to blame—

forcing people to endure their lives by inhaling poisonous substances like that.

No matter how severe the limitations were, the potential ceiling of this body was already incomparable to that of an ordinary Earthling.

Moreover, this alien was, at the very least, the only being on this planet who possessed genuine knowledge of magic.

And so, in an age where dungeon materials and steadily advancing research should have made things relatively manageable, he continued his assessment in a foul mood instead of simply abandoning the effort.

From the perspective of the planet's mammalian inhabitants, this was by no means a development that could be viewed positively.