Chapter 77

77. An Ability User Similar to Mandragora

Lee Baek-ho woke up to the crackling sound of a bonfire.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a night sky full of stars.

'Where is this?'

Why am I sleeping outside? I don't know exactly, but it's soft and feels good.

Half-asleep, he reached for the blanket, then stopped. He belatedly felt a sense of incongruity with the situation.

'Why is there a blanket outside?'

Come to think of it, it was strange to be lying on a soft bed outside. He looked down at the blanket.

"Huh...?"

The blanket slipped through his fingers.

What he thought was a blanket was actually black hair. What he thought was a bed was also hair.

"Ugh, ughhh!"

Lee Baek-ho was horrified and stood up. He tried to get away, but his ankles got tangled in the hair, and he fell.

Scary. The sensation of hair tickling his whole body gave him goosebumps.

And what was that sweet shampoo scent he was smelling?

'Strawberry scent!'

Yes, it was a strawberry scent. Lee Baek-ho was confused. He could smell a fragrant strawberry scent from the ghost's hair.

As he thrashed around, a hand emerged from the hair and grabbed his arm.

"Ughhh!"

He remembered the arm he had seen before he fainted.

The arm that had popped out of the hair and crawled on the floor. Had he been caught by that arm?

Lee Baek-ho felt like his eyes were rolling back again.

"Get a grip."

If he hadn't heard the relaxed voice, he might have actually fainted.

Cheon Dowoon pulled Lee Baek-ho up by the arm. Barely standing, he gasped for breath and scrambled out of the hair.

"Hee... hee... hee..."

Cold sweat poured down his entire body. Cheon Dowoon looked at Lee Baek-ho with a puzzled expression.

"What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare or something?"

He did. This very moment felt like an extension of the nightmare. Unable to answer that, Lee Baek-ho rolled his eyes instead.

His priority was to figure out where he was.

The first thing he saw was the group sitting around the bonfire.

"Uncle's awake!"

Kim Nari waved at Lee Baek-ho. Seeing the pure smile of the child calmed him down a little.

That calmed feeling disappeared when he saw the fluorescent house over Kim Nari's shoulder.

The spiderwebs that wrapped around the house and hung down made his spine tingle.

'What, what the heck is that?'

Wasn't that the kind of feeling you got from a gathering place for demon worshippers?

When he turned his head, he saw a basement staircase with yellow light coming up from it. There was probably an altar for summoning demons inside.

Lee Baek-ho trembled as he looked at the wood storage.

"W-where is this?"

"My house. Come sit down if you're awake."

Cheon Dowoon went to the bonfire.

As Lee Baek-ho hesitantly sat down, Cheon Dowoon held out a skewer.

"You woke up just in time. It's snack time."

"S-snack time?"

"We picked grapes during the day. Try them. The texture is great."

The skewer that Cheon Dowoon held out had lightly grilled grapes skewered on it.

He took it, but he didn't feel like eating it. The atmosphere around him was so eerie that the food wouldn't go down his throat.

'Can everyone really eat in a place like this?'

Lee Baek-ho glanced at the group. Everyone was nonchalantly munching on grapes.

No one seemed to care about this bizarre house.

At this point, Lee Baek-ho began to wonder if he was the one who was strange for finding this place creepy.

"Um, about the test... did I pass?"

"Test...? Oh, that."

Cheon Dowoon looked at the basement that he and the siblings had dug.

Thanks to the logs that Lee Baek-ho had brought, they had already finished the altar and piled them up in the basement.

'We have enough firewood now.'

Since there was nothing else to make him do, he should send him back.

Cheon Dowoon threw the Return Stone he had prepared to Lee Baek-ho. Of course, he wasn't planning on just sending him back like that.

"You only passed half of it. You fainted at the end, so you'll have to take one more test."

"One more? W-what kind of test?"

"Information gathering ability. Find out about the forces trying to push out the slums."

"Ah, I understand."

Lee Baek-ho looked relieved. He thought he could easily find out about that with his connections.

Wanting to return quickly, he stuffed the grape skewer into his mouth.

Sweet juice burst out every time he chewed, but he couldn't enjoy the taste.

Looking at the alien house in front of him, he felt like he was eating alien eggs instead of grapes.

"Well, that was good! I'm done eating, so I'll be going now."

Lee Baek-ho ate the skewer in an instant and stood up. Cheon Dowoon stood up as well when he saw that.

"Open the Gate. I'm going too."

"Y-you're going too, Boss?"

"Yeah. I have some business in Gold City."

In fact, he didn't have any business there. But there was one reason why he was following Lee Baek-ho.

'It would be convenient to have a Gate point in that city too.'

He couldn't open a Gate unless he had been to the place himself.

Because of this, he had always used the slum plaza as a point whenever he crossed the Gate.

He had never felt uncomfortable with it, but there was no harm in creating a door to Gold City as well.

"Ah, I understand. Then I'll be going now. See you later."

Lee Baek-ho broke the Return Stone and bowed to the group.

"I'll be back."

Cheon Dowoon also waved his hand lightly and entered the Gate.

The remaining group munched on grape skewers and looked at the place where they had disappeared.

"That guy Lee Baek-ho, how long do you think he'll believe in the test and everything?"

"I don't know. I think he'll keep believing it if we don't tell him."

The siblings said as they ate grapes with amused faces.

"Then what does he think this place is?"

Yoo-beom looked around the house. Yoo Ji-ah also looked around. Whatever it was, it didn't seem like a normal group.

The siblings thought so at the same time.

* * *

Cheon Dowoon looked around after passing through the Gate.

He had arrived in a residential area overlooking the city.

The brightly shining neon signs showed how affluent this city was.

'It's a sight you don't see in the slums.'

As he looked down at the city, Lee Baek-ho approached.

"This is the neighborhood where I live. Where do you live, Boss?"

"Inside the Gate."

Cheon Dowoon said it as it was.

Lee Baek-ho took it as he couldn't tell him and nodded.

'That place from before must be like the organization's headquarters, right?'

He thought of Cheon Dowoon's house as a secret base and looked amazed.

What kind of person was he to have a base in the Demon Realm? He was curious, but he didn't ask.

It was dangerous for someone at the bottom to know too much.

Having watched too many movies, he swallowed hard.

"Where's your house?"

"Ah, it's here."

Lee Baek-ho pointed to the fence next to him.

The fence stretched endlessly along the road, and its end was not visible.

It was a fence of a size that made it impossible to guess the size of the house.

"Then I'll go in now... oh, it's Grandpa."

Lee Baek-ho stopped in front of the iron gate.

A luxurious sedan was approaching from afar.

"Ah, come to think of it, you said you knew my grandfather. Would you like to meet him before you go?"

"Sure. That sounds good."

It was a reunion after 60 years. Now that he had come this far, there was no reason to just leave.

Soon the car stopped in front of them, and the chief secretary and Lee Un-soo (Chairman) got out.

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) looked at his grandson and Cheon Dowoon with a puzzled expression.

"Baek-ho, why are you out at this hour? And who is that person?"

"Ah. This person here is Boss... no. He's a Big Bro I know."

He belatedly changed the title of Boss, but Lee Un-soo (Chairman)'s eyebrows twitched.

Anyone could tell that Boss was not a normal title.

'He's been caught by another bad person again.'

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) sighed inwardly.

There were many people who approached his grandson, aiming for his background.

There were many cases where Lee Baek-ho was being used without realizing it because he couldn't feel such malice.

'It's my fault for raising him like this. I'll get rid of him appropriately.'

He gave a look to his chief secretary. The chief secretary nodded slightly and went to Cheon Dowoon.

"Let's talk for a moment."

He looked down at Cheon Dowoon with an imposing atmosphere.

A physique reminiscent of a bodybuilder. A height of 2 meters 7 centimeters. A scar on his face from when he was an active Hunter.

Usually, people would be intimidated and run away just by him standing in front of them.

He thought it would be the same this time, but his expectations were wrong.

"Talk."

"Excuse me?"

"You said let's talk for a moment. Do it. I'll listen."

The chief secretary was dumbfounded by the relaxed words. Had there ever been anyone who acted like this in front of him?

'Well, there were a few times. Pompous nobodies.'

This was the type that wouldn't understand with words. This type had to be suppressed with force to prevent future problems.

Knowing that from years of experience, the chief secretary grabbed Cheon Dowoon's shoulder.

"I don't think you understand me. I'm saying let's talk alone in a quiet place."

He pushed Cheon Dowoon. He was planning to take the lead, but he was inwardly embarrassed that he didn't budge at all.

That feeling soon turned into stubbornness.

'He must be a physical Awakened.'

If he was relying on his strength to hold on, then he had made a mistake. The chief secretary chuckled and activated his ability.

His ability was to absorb the Mana of the person he touched. He stored the absorbed Mana in his body.

That rare ability was said to be like Mandragora, so he was nicknamed Human Mandragora.

'I'll drain all the Mana you have!'

With a shout, a whirlwind swirled around the chief secretary.

As the ability was activated, Cheon Dowoon's Mana was sucked into his palm.

'How is it? You can't move, can you!'

The chief secretary grinned.

Once Mana absorption started, the opponent's body would stiffen as if paralyzed.

The standard was to have their Mana sucked out until they fainted without even twitching.

'Interesting ability. This is just like Mandragora.'

Cheon Dowoon looked at the chief secretary with an interested face.

He could feel the Mana he had absorbed being stored in his body.

He was truly a human Mandragora.

This was an ability that Cheon Dowoon was seeing for the first time, and he wondered if he could absorb as much as a real Mandragora.

'Should I feed him this much?'

Cheon Dowoon slyly released the Mana that was compressed inside him.

The chief secretary's eyebrows twitched at that.

'W-what is it? The amount of Mana is more than I thought.'

The chief secretary was momentarily flustered by the lump of Mana that was coming over.

But it was still within his tolerance.

"Haaap!"

The chief secretary absorbed the Mana with a shout and stored it in his body.

'He's holding on well. Should I feed him more?'

Cheon Dowoon released the compressed Mana again as if he was opening a bundle.

'W-what? Why is the amount being absorbed increasing compared to before?'

Cold sweat dripped from the chief secretary's forehead.

The amount of Mana being absorbed should normally decrease over time.

But instead, an even larger Mana began to flow in than before.

"H-Haaap!"

He started Mana absorption once more with a shout.

Was he surprised? He could absorb this much. He raised his ability with that momentum.

In fact, his instincts were screaming that something was wrong.

If he had absorbed this much, the other person's face should have been pale and on the verge of fainting.

But why was that guy still fine? Why was he looking at him with an interested face?

The chief secretary gritted his teeth.

'I-I should cancel what I said about him being a bluffing bastard.'

The chief secretary raised his evaluation of Cheon Dowoon.

'He eats well. He'll become a pretty good ability user if I raise him.'

They raised each other's evaluations.

The difference was that Cheon Dowoon was calm, and the chief secretary's complexion was pale as if he was about to collapse at any moment.

'G-grrr...! Why, why isn't he still collapsing! I think I've absorbed 3 people's worth of Mana by now? Is it just my imagination? Am I not in good condition today?'

The limit of Mana he could absorb was approaching. Despite that, Cheon Dowoon was fine, and his back was soaked.

'I-I can't lose!'

At this point, it was a battle of pride between men. The chief secretary activated his ability to near its limit.

"Oh. That's not good."

Cheon Dowoon said. The chief secretary glared at that. Lee Baek-ho and Lee Un-soo (Chairman), who were watching, were also surprised and opened their mouths.

"H-he spoke?"

Once Mana absorption started, the body would stiffen. He couldn't even breathe properly.

It was impossible to speak normally in such a situation.

Cheon Dowoon, who had broken common sense, took off the chief secretary's hand that was grabbing his shoulder.

"Stop eating now. If you mess up, you'll lose control of your ability... ah. Too late."

Cheon Dowoon clicked his tongue at the fact that his Mana was being absorbed all at once.

At that speed, he was already out of his control.

He was planning to drain all of Cheon Dowoon's Mana and control his ability, but it was impossible to absorb all of his Mana in the first place.

"Your stubbornness is too much. You'll die like that."

"G-grrr..."

He wanted to stop, but he couldn't control it anymore.

The chief secretary's face turned red as if it would explode from the Mana that was being absorbed like a waterfall.

Even if Cheon Dowoon didn't compress and pass over the Mana, his body felt like it was burning because he had already absorbed more Mana than his tolerance.

"You overate."

Cheon Dowoon scanned the chief secretary's body. He was on the verge of breaking the vessel because he had absorbed too much Mana.

If he left him like this, he would either become a cripple or lose his ability when the Mana Hole broke.

'He's not a bad guy, though.'

Cheon Dowoon looked at the chief secretary. He could guess why he had picked a fight with him.

He didn't just swing his fist for that purpose.

He wasn't a bad person. He didn't want to leave such a person to die.

'And I gave him a heaping bowl for fun.'

If the problem was that he gave him a heaping bowl, he could just take it out.

He could just take out his Mana that had been absorbed by the chief secretary.

Cheon Dowoon took out Dodak from his waist bag. He held it out towards the chief secretary.

"Dodak, let's eat."

It was time to face what true Mana absorption was.