“Park Sangho here. I just arrived at Chuncheon. If there’s an incident nearby, let me know first. Ah! I’m with cadets, so anything above intermediate-rank grade 4 will be difficult.” Park Sangho called to Essence of the Strait’s Gangwondo's branch once they arrived through a portal.

He then turned to look at the three cadets that were behind him.

“I already alerted the branch. If there’s some accident where we can intervene, they will inform me.” He smiled. “But for the moments, shall we go to eat something? I don’t think we would be deployed sometime soon. I know a good restaurant nearby.”

With that, they all went towards a fancy, traditional Korean restaurant led by Park Sangho.

“Four people, please.” He said to the waiter that was waiting close to the entrance.

After they were led to a table inside a private room, where they all went through the menu and placed their order with the waiter, who left them to talk while waiting for their order.

“So, Hajin-ssi? How tall are you?” Park Sangho suddenly asked.

“Huh?” Perplexed by the question, Kim Hajin looked back at him for a second, before answering. “I’m 1.74.”

“So not that different from me.” Chae Nayun intervened.

“What? No. I’m a lot taller than you. You are 1.66.” He retorted back unconsciously.

“What…?” She got perplexed at his answer, even Yoo Yeonha stared at him with a curious glance. Chae Nayun then frowned at him. “How do you know how tall I am?”

At that question, Kim Hajin froze for a second, thinking about a possible answer, before he remembered something.

“C-Cadet profiles are public.” He answered, trying to look as unconcerned as possible, after all, there was no way he would know that type of information if he wasn’t some kind of stalker.

“Yeah, but still-” She tried to pry further at his weird attitude, but was interrupted by the sound of the door to the room opening.

Two servers came with their order and started putting the plates over the table. There were a lot of tasteful dishes that made Kim Hajin’s jaw almost fall over the table.

“Now, let’s eat.” With a smile, Park Sangho said and everyone grabbed their chopsticks to eat.

While Kim Hajin focused entirely on the food, the rest of them delicately ate while talking between themselves.

“Do you have a girlfriend, Park Sangho-ssi?” Chae Nayun asked.

“I don’t.” He shook his head, before asking something quite curious. “What’s your ideal type, Nayun-ssi? For a boyfriend, I mean.” He smiled.

“I…” She started to speak, before slightly glancing to the side. “I like tall guys, so he would have to be at least 1.85.”

She said, making Hajin, who was focused on eating until that moment, flinch.

“Yeah, my ideal type is someone tall.” She confirmed her previous comment, staring directly at Kim Hajin. “He would have to be at least fifteen centimeters taller than me. Mm… Yeah, fifteen centimeters. Twenty is too much.” She confirmed while nodding, still looking at Kim Hajin, only until he furrowed his brows, making her look away stealthy.

The rest of the meal was relatively calm, everyone except for Kim Hajin made small talk while eating, at least until a voice came out of Park Sangho’s smartwatch.

[Deployment order for High-Intermediate Rank Hero, Park Sangho…]

At the branch’s signal. They all went running out from the restaurant, not even paying or finishing their food. Once outside the building, they all started running towards the deployment location.

Even Kim Hajin, who was the weakest of them all, was running really quickly, though only one thought was circling through his mind.

{Jesus, is this a Wuxia novel…? They’re inhuman!} He thought while running far behind them.

***

At the same time, inside a dungeon in Norway, two persons and a leopard cat were looking to their front, specifically to a giant zombie that was leading a horde of zombies, ghouls, and even some zombified dogs. Each monster had a pale blue color on its skin as if the corpse was frozen.

“I guess that’s the boss, huh?” Cristopher said while looking at the giant frost zombie.

“What’s a boss, daddy?” Evandel, who was tilting her head while looking at Cristopher, asked.

“Well, each dungeon normally has regular monsters, elite monsters, middle bosses, and a single boss. Sometimes they can have two, but that’s quite weird and almost never happens.” Cristopher explained while throwing hundreds of bullets towards the army of the dead that was slowly making its way towards them. Killing the ghouls and dogs first, as they were quicker than the rest. “A boss is something like the goal of the dungeon, at least in most cases. You have to beat the boss to clear a dungeon.”

“And that giant ugly is the boss of this dungeon?” She asked while pointing at the giant frost zombie.

“Precisely.” Cristopher nodded, sending more bullets towards the monsters. “But don’t worry. This one’s quite weak. I wouldn’t bring you somewhere dangerous.” He shrugged.

“*chuckles* I’m not worried.” She said with a smile. “You’re powerful and you can protect us.” She said, before frowning and looking at Shina. “Though I’m worried about Shina… She doesn’t look good.”

As Evandel said, Shina was trembling, but not because of cold, as Cristopher kept them all warm even in this frozen canyon. Her tail was also moving slowly, while her ears were dropped.

“Don’t worry. She’s just assimilating the energy of this place.” He shrugged at Evandel’s words. “She’ll be fine once we finish this. Heck, she will be even better. I didn’t know she could absorb the magical energy of this place.”

“Huh? Is that why you’re killing the monsters slowly?” Evandel tilted her head.

“And how did you find out I was killing them slowly?” At her question, Cristopher stopped for a moment and looked at Evandel with a lifted eyebrow.

“Well…” She played with her fingers before answering. “I noticed that you had a lot of energy, dad… A lot more than what I have… So, I thought that there was no way you couldn’t end these ugly monsters faster, and you were just making time while slowly killing them.”

“Holy…” Cristopher widened his eyes. “Did you deduced all that with the amount of energy I had? It’s surprising you could even detect the amount of energy I have.”

“You sent your energy through my body… I noticed at that time…” She said with a soft voice, looking down as if she just noticed she made a mistake.

“*chuckles* Relax, you did nothing wrong.” Noticing her worries, Cristopher rubbed her head while chuckling. “It was just a little bit surprising.” He said with a shrug while restarting his attacks.

“Really…?” She looked up at him with hopeful eyes. “You’re not mad at me…?”

“Of course not. Why would I? You’re goddamn intelligent!” He said with a smile. “I won’t be mad at you for being intelligent.”

“…” She didn’t answer but just widened her eyes, while a small smile slowly appeared on her face out of surprise.

“And to answer your question, yes, and no.” He shrugged. “Yes. I did notice that Shina is slowly absorbing the energy, and I know that exposing her to this dungeon’s energy for a longer time would help her evolve, but that’s not the reason I’m killing these things slowly.”

“Then…?” Evandel tilted her head in confusion.

“You see. Finishing a fight early is quite boring.” He smirked at her. “Why the hell would you end things the moment you just started? I just love to take my time while fighting. If there’s not a need to end things faster, why would I?”

“Dad…” Evandel suddenly looked at him with eyes wide open. “You’re a bully!” She shouted while pointing at him.

“Huh!? Why!? And where the hell did you learn that word!?” He asked at her in surprise.

“Because you’re bullying the ugly monsters for being ugly!” She shouted, still pointing at him. “And I saw it on the TV, that bad kids and villains would bully others!”

“…” This time, Cristopher didn’t know how to answer, his energy even went out of control when swinging his arm and generated thousands of fire bullets at one sweep, sending a massive barrage that sweeps almost the entire horde of zombies, even destroying the legs of the giant frost zombie.

“See! You could end this faster! You were bullying them!” Evandel said while looking at the results of his mistake.

“…” At this point, he didn’t even know what to answer her.

“Are you a villain, daddy? Does that make me a villain too?” Evandel asked after a little bit of pondering, rubbing her small chin, a gesture she often saw him doing.

“*sigh…* Look. I’m not a villain.” He started. “And you certainly are not a villain either. You’re just a child.” He smiled at her.

“Then, are you a hero?” She asked with her eyes wide open.

{Where does she take those things from…} He thought for a moment.

“No, I’m not a hero either, Evandel.” He smiled awkwardly. “And well, most people would just look at me as some kind of lunatic, or something. Does that bother you? That I’m not a hero?”

“No! There’s no problem if daddy isn’t a hero! If you’re a villain I will also become one!” She shouted, alarmed at his words, thinking that she somehow made him feel guilty.

“*chuckles* Relax, Evandel. I’m no villain, and even if I’m not a hero, I won’t start fighting the good ones, okay?” He smiled at her.

“Okay…” She nodded.

“Also… It’s not bullying. I’m merely extending the fight, okay? It’s just my way of having fun.” He said while looking at her.

“*chuckles* Okay!”

“Let’s finish this then.” With a sigh, he started completely annihilated the remaining zombies and the giant one, after which, the typical sounds of glass shattering appeared, while the dungeon got back to the small cave where they were supposed to enter at first.

“Huh? Is it done?” Evandel asked while looking around the place.

“Yeah.”

“And the treasure!?” She asked in surprise, with her eyes wide open as if something really bad happened to her.

“Haha… Relax, look over there.” Cristopher said while pointing to the middle of the cave, where a small chest appeared. “That’s the treasure, or well, reward. You should open it, Evandel.”

He didn’t even finish speaking, when Evandel was already running towards the chest, quickly opening to see what was inside.

“Woa!” She let out a surprised shout. “Look at this, daddy!” She said, as her small arms when inside the chest, taking something out.

It was a dress, an icy-blue dress came out of the chest, it was quite long, twice the size of Evandel, with a sparkling decoration on the lower end, with small icicles hanging from it, and little white stars decorating the sparkling lower border. It had long sleeves of an even lighter blue color, almost white. It looked a lot like an icy-blue sundress with long sleeves.

{That’s it. I’m not lucky at all. A dress? At least make it a shirt!} With that thought, Cristopher sighed and walked towards Evandel.

“Look, daddy! It’s so cute!” She shouted while showing him the dress, at which he smiled awkwardly.

“Yeah, it is, Evandel. Do you want to try it?” He asked while crouching down.

“Can I!?” She asked quite excitedly but then frowned, looking at the dress. “But… It’s too big for me…” She muttered.

“Relax. It will adapt itself to your size once you put it on.”

“Really?” She asked while tilting her head.

“Yeah, put it on, I’ll check on Shina meanwhile. Don’t worry, you won’t be cold while changing to that dress, I’ll make sure of it.” He said, before standing up and walking up towards Shina.

“Yay!” And with an animated shout, Evandel started undressing to put on her new dress.

***

Back in Seoul, Hajin finally made it towards the deployment site, where Park Sangho, Yoo Yeonha, and Chae Nayun currently were. They had run so fast that it was basically impossible for him to catch up to them until now, even with his strengthened stats, which made him consider how strong should the other cadets be in comparison to him.

Thankfully, with his Gift he was still able to see them, not getting lost in the way while also being able to see the fight that started five minutes after they rushed out of the restaurant when five golems appeared out of the ground and started attacking everyone on the street.

They were low-intermediate rank grade 5 monsters, meaning that they were quite the threat to the civilians in the zone.

After he got there, he could see everyone fighting, in particular, he could see Chae Nayun fighting the golems using her bow, which makes her quite safe as a distant fighter. Meanwhile, both Yoo Yeonha and Park Sangho were taking care of the other golems at a closer distance, Yoo Yeonha with her whip and Sangho with his spear.

Kim Hajin, being a distant fighter, but himself farther back than Chae Nayun, and started shooting those that were closer to Yoo Yeonha, as Park Sangho had enough strength to take the golems by himself.

“You’re finally here!” Noticing him, Chae Nayun shouted, before restarting her attack on the golems.

“Focus on the golems.” Answering shortly, Kim Hajin focused his fire where the cores of the golems should be, firing as much as possible into a single point, weakening the place enough for Yoo Yeonha to take care of the rest.

Meanwhile, a small limestone golem got closer to Chae Nayun, it was at least 2.2 meters tall, making it quite small if you compare it with other golems.

“Behind you.” Kim Hajin quickly said to Chae Nayun while changing his aim and shooting at the golem.

But sadly, when it comes to limestone golems, the smaller it was, the sturdier it got, as the material that made them gets denser thanks to their ability 'self-compression'. So Hajin’s training cadet gun barely tickled the really small golem.

“I saw it too.” With a snarky retort, she changed from her bow to her sword, swinging it to receive the impact of the golem’s fist.

Limestone dust flew to the air when the sword and fist made contact.

Chae Nayun took the chance to parry its fist while changing her sword trajectory towards the limestone golem’s weakness, its ankle.

But, against all her possible predictions, the golem did something that she never thought a normal golem would do. Kick her.

“URGH!” She was sent away, clutching her stomach from the pain. Even with her qi-reinforcement, a compressed limestone golem’s kick isn’t something to be taken lightly.

Without letting her breathe even for a second, the golem shot towards her, aiming its fist towards her head.

Chae Nayun was frozen, not only was she still afraid of close-ranged combat, but her inexperience with it led her to freeze in the worst moment possible.

But before the golem could smash her head with its fist, a small thread grabbed her from her waist and pulled her with force.

“Eh…?” After blinking a couple of times, Chae Nayun found herself between the arms of a man she knew. Kim Hajin. “*gulp*” Not knowing what to do, she just gulped strongly.

“If you’re going to freeze up in crucial moments, don’t get near the enemy in the first place.” Hajin said after a little moment of silence, urged by the need of saying something. “Just fight from afar. Your sword can get longer than a spear, right?” he asked.

As he said, Chae Nayun could enlarge her sword range thanks to her Gift. ‘Sea of Magic Power.’

It gave her an enormous amount of Magic Power to use as she pleases. Normally, this would have its own limit, as it would take time to restore the amount used and it would have a limit of how much she could use at a time.

But a sword countered these limits while using it as a conductor of Magic Power. Making it possible for her to shine as a true monster, with her sword reaching longer than any spear could possibly have, even with the use of Magic Power.

“Let me go…” She pushed him away, tucking her hair behind her ear before she held up her sword once again. “I was just caught off guard last time. Take a good look.”

Meanwhile, all of this was being watched by a third party. A girl was currently looking at them from over the building. Giving them a gaze that only Kim Hajin felt.

“…” Looking over at where he felt the gaze, Kim Hajin found the girl looking at them, someone he even knew from his novel, and the original owner of Aether, Tomer.

“Haaa!” With an invigorating shout, Chae Nayun shot forwards the golems once again with her swords on her hands, making Hajin glance at her for a moment, before going back to look at Tomer, who already disappeared from the spot.

He somehow had an apologetic smile on his face, thinking about the villain with a tragic past who he stole Aether from.

“Hey! Help me!” At that moment, Chae Nayun, who was currently hanging from her legs like a piñata, held by the golem, shouted at Kim Hajin. She managed to cut an arm and a leg but was still caught.

“The heck…?” Hajin didn’t even know how she could possibly end up like that at the moment he looked back at Tomer.

“H-H-Help…! Ah!” she shouted again, evading the golem fists. “Waaaah!!!” But before anyone could help, the golem threw her away as if tired of its new toy.

Hajin just looked at the flying Chae Nayun for a moment, before letting out a deep sigh.

***

Back in the dungeon, Cristopher finally finished helping Shina to absorb the Magic Power from the dungeon, while also using his Natural Energy to stabilize it inside her body and recover her stamina.

 

“That’s it. You should be ok now, how do you feel Shina?” I asked Shina who was now bigger than before and that had an even more shining fur than she ever had. As if she took a magic bath for her haircare. “Haha… You look cuter now, Shina.”

Shina purred at my compliment while rubbing her head on my hands.

“Daddy! Look! Isn’t it beautiful!” Suddenly, Evandel called me, making me turn to look at her, as all this time I kept my senses on the minimum. It was the least I could do for her, letting her change in peace.

“Wow, it sure is cute, Evandel. It looks good on you.” With a smile, I answered her.

“Hehehe…” She just chuckled at the compliment. “It changed its size once I wore it!”

The dress we got from the dungeon is what she’s wearing now, while it looked like a simple dress, it was an artifact, a low-ranked one, but still an artifact.

[Dress blessed by Skadi]

[A dress blessed by Skadi to be wear by the royalty. It holds the eternal beauty of winter.]

[Armament-grade. Defense. Enchanted.]

[Blessed by Skadi: the wearer of this dress won’t feel the winter colds and will be always protected from the weather changes. Dress of Winter: the dress enhances the ice element by 5%. High-Intermediate grade defense. Size self-adjustment.]

{At this point… I just give up about finding something good for me in dungeons unless they’re of a higher rank. Heck… Hajin found a fucking mythical-grade artifact in an easy dungeon… And Evandel even got this Armament-grade dress.}

“Well, shall we go? We already finished here.”

“Yay!”

“Let’s go eat something in Oslo before coming back to Korea, what do you say, Evandel?”

“Yes! But what are we going to eat?” She asked with a tilted head.

“I don’t know, but there should be something good to eat there.” I shrugged while leading her away. “We can also hunt some monsters on our way down, I brought a bag to carry them back and sell them back home.”

“Okay!” She shouted, before tapping my arm.

“Mm? What?”

“Are you going to teach me how to fight?” She asked, tilting her head.

“Oh, that? Sure, but we’ll have to find time during the break, as having school makes it harder for us to train, and we don’t want to blow the dormitories, right?” I smiled at her.

“Yes! And heroes don’t destroy things!”

{You’re so wrong on that one. But I won’t say it out loud.} I chuckle at the thought.

“Sure.” I just shrugged as we made our way back down.

***

Later, in England, inside the English Royal Court’s garden, Rachel was finishing her morning exercises at 10:00 AM.

While calling it exercise, the truth is, she was merely meditating. After all, her master did say that it was important to always do the breathing exercise he taught her. That way, her affinity to her elementals would increase, and it would be easier for her to manage them.

Since the final exam on Friday, she hasn’t seen her master, after all, he was in Korea, while she had to come back to England.

Still, she was happy with the free time she had. Not worrying about studying, training, nor even her safety. The only thing she did was relax and her breathing exercise which she made every morning and every noon before taking a shower to sleep.

Another thing that she noticed, is that her days were getting brighter since the moment she saw a part of her future.

“Someday…” She muttered to herself while thinking about the little child that embraced her in her vision. “*sigh…* I miss master-” She thought, before stopping quickly, her face going all red.

She shook her head while trying to get that word out of her mind. Only that it was becoming harder and harder to do so.

After a bit. She regained her composure, breathing.

“*chuckles*” Floating beside her, Heli chuckled a bit while seeing her act embarrassed.

“What…?” Rachel asked her elemental.

“You’re flustered~” Heli answered her, in Korean.

“I-I am not…”

“Yes~ You are~” She kept answering.

“*sigh…* Sure…” Rachel just shook her head. “Also… Why do you speak in Korean with me…?”

“I don’t know~” Heli said while floating around her. “Maybe because of him~?”

“Huh? Him…?” Rachel tilted her head.

“Yes~ Him~ The master that got you all flustered~” She giggled while finishing.

“…” Rachel didn’t answer and just got all embarrassed. Getting red again.

“Hehehe~”

She didn’t say it out loud. But she wanted to see her master.

***

Back in Korea, the day was almost ending, it was 9:00 PM currently here, and Kim Hajin was just getting back to his room. Tired of going from place to place.

“*sigh…*” Kim Hajin just entered his room, letting his cross bag with his things in the table, and sitting over the couch, letting out another deep sigh.

“Mm?” It was at that moment that he noticed something was wrong. Looking around, he couldn’t see the one person that should be here, or well, the two persons that should be here. “Um… Evandel? Cristopher…?” He tried to call for them, but no answer came back.

He quickly raised himself and went towards the bathroom, but it was empty. Looking around the house, he noticed that it was strangely clean. Not because it didn’t have any dust, but because it looked as if no one was here for an entire day.

“Where…? Wait! His room. He surely took her to his room.” With that idea in mind. He quickly rushed out of his room and ran all the way towards Cristopher’s dorm a few floors over his.

But contrary to what he thought, there was no one there. The room was completely empty. He couldn’t do anything more than go back to his room with a dazed face.

{Where… Where… Where… Where…} The same thought went and came again and again. With no answer to where they could be.

Once inside his room, he sat on the couch.

“WHERE THE HELL DID THEY GO!?” He couldn’t hold it anymore and ended up shouting, before turning on his smartwatch and calling them.

…

… …

… … …

… … … …

[Yeah? Hajin?] After a little moment, a holographic screen appeared over his smartwatch, with Cristopher’s face on the other side of it.

[Mm? Hajin? Where?] Kim Hajin could also hear Evandel’s voice, as well as Cristopher showing her the screen on his side and telling her that it was a call.

[Huh! Hello Hajin!] Evandel excitedly shouted while waving her hand at him.

“Hello, Evandel…” Hajin smiled awkwardly and also waved at her, before looking at Cristopher. “Hey. May I ask something quickly?” He said with a smile.

[Um?] Raising his eyebrow, Cristopher raised his arm again and looked directly at Hajin’s, while Evandel tried to jump to look at the screen too, some food still plastered on her face.

[Sure, why do you ask for my permission all of a sudden?] He tilted his head.

“Great.” Hajin smiled. “WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?” Before shouting.

[Dude… You don’t have to scream.] Cristopher rolled his eyes while picking his ear.

“I ASKED YOU ONE THING! To keep Evandel safe IN the room! But here I come to my room, and you’re not anywhere around here!” He shouted back.

[Relax, dude. We’re in Oslo.]

“Huh…? Oslo…?” Hajin suddenly looked dazed. “Oslo… As in Norway’s capital?”

[Of course. What other Oslo do you know?]

“*SIGH…* Why…? What the hell are you doing in Norway!?” He asked after unconsciously letting out a really deep sigh.

[Hajin! Hajin! Look!] Evandel shouted while pulling Cristopher’s arm to appear on the screen.

[It’s a dress! We found it inside a treasure che-] Evandel started talking, but Cristopher stopped her, putting his hand over her mouth. [She meant we found it inside a store called Treasure. Yes. That.] Cristopher nodded with a really serious face.

“*chuckles* I’m sure I may be imagining things.” Hajin laughed. “But, just to be sure. You didn’t go to a dungeon, right?”

[Huh!? You know dungeons too, Hajin!?] Evandel excitedly asked while escaping Cristopher’s hand.

“…” Kim Hajin couldn’t even speak at Evandel’s words. He sat on the couch with his eyes and mouth wide open.

[Look. It’s not what it seems like. Really, it was-] Cristopher said at the other side of the call, but before he could keep talking. Hajin intervened.

“YOU IDIOT…!” He strongly shouted at him.