An F-Rank Veterinarian Physically Heals an S-Rank Magical Beast - Chapter 108
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 108
“S-rank… special evolution?”
Lee Shin-woo’s lips trembled violently. Even as an S-rank Hunter leading South Korea’s greatest guild, he couldn’t help but wear a dumbfounded expression in the face of this phenomenon of monster ‘evolution’.
The established academic consensus held that beasts born from Earth’s gates—not from The Tower—had their rank and limitations clearly defined from the moment of birth.
Yet now his partner, the A-rank Thunder Wolf, was attempting to shatter the species barrier and leap to S-rank. And it was happening inside the basement tank of the Arcana Animal Hospital.
Jin-hyuk cut through that stunned silence with a voice so dry and matter-of-fact it drove the point home like a wedge.
“Yes. Evolution. And not just any evolution—into a special specimen with the insane specs of a ‘Thunder Blood Wolf’ that simultaneously wields both lightning and blood attributes. Once the evolution completes successfully, the Zeus Guild’s combat power will balloon to at least three times its current capacity.”
“Then why not just let it evolve right now! Why are you asking about my payment limit first!”
“Why, you ask?”
Jin-hyuk pointed at the tank with his chin.
“Have you forgotten what condition its body is in right now? It’s a ‘critical patient’ in literal tatters—bones shattered, fascia torn to shreds just moments ago. Evolution is a brutal biological reconstruction process where every cell in the body dies once, then explosively regenerates. Even healthy beasts can’t endure the agony of evolution and their hearts burst. If we leave it in that state, it won’t evolve—instead, every blood vessel in its body will rupture within ten seconds and it’ll become nothing but a lump of meat.”
“Gasp…!”
Lee Shin-woo’s face drained of all color. The situation unfolding in the tank before his eyes was developing with exactly the urgency Jin-hyuk described.
Thunder Wolf’s body, which had briefly regained composure, convulsed and thrashed again. Its blue fur was turning blood-red from the roots, and beneath the skin, grotesque muscle expansion and contraction cycled repeatedly.
[System Emergency Alert!]
[The target beast’s physical durability cannot withstand the evolutionary energy and is collapsing!]
[Cell division velocity has exceeded critical threshold! Risk of systemic muscle necrosis!]
“That’s why I’m asking, Guild Master. How much of the guild’s budget are you willing to burn on an ‘evolution-assist surgery’ to save it before it dies? My physical therapy charges by the second, after all.”
A demon who wouldn’t loosen his grip on payment even in a life-or-death crisis. But Lee Shin-woo had no choice.
“Take it all! Every liquid asset the Zeus Guild has available this quarter, and the exclusive mining rights to our A-rank Dungeon gate for an entire year—I’ll hand it all over! Please… please just save Thunder!”
A declaration of blank-check desperation from one of South Korea’s three greatest guild masters.
Behind Jin-hyuk’s glasses, golden pupils blazed like wildfire. It was a sublime light where the sacred mission of a veterinarian saving lives merged perfectly with the capitalist greed to buy an entire Gangnam building today.
“Contract accepted. Director Ma! Release all the restraints and grab its limbs! We need to forcibly cool it down before the muscles liquefy!”
“Ugh, not a single quiet day! You furry bastard, I’m gonna pop every joint in your body today!”
Ma Dong-tak dove into the tank with a splash, gripping Thunder Wolf’s massive neck and front legs with crushing force. The water temperature surged to a boil in an instant as the medicinal solution began to evaporate. It was the tremendous magical heat generated during the evolution process.
“The temperature is too high! Guild Master! Stop gawking and get over here!”
Jin-hyuk gestured urgently.
“What… what am I supposed to do?!”
“Isn’t it your partner! We need to lower the water temperature! Synchronize with its lightning core right now and directly absorb the excess magical power being discharged outside the tank! Act as a grounding point to prevent magical overload!”
Lee Shin-woo bit his lip and plunged both hands into the tank. The moment the S-rank Hunter’s pure mana connected through the tank to Thunder Wolf’s body, the rapidly rising water temperature miraculously began to slow its ascent.
Seizing that fleeting opening, Jin-hyuk’s hands moved to ‘physically treat’ the beast’s body.
“Let me show you the fundamentals of physical therapy that aids evolution. Lymphatic drainage, maximum output.”
Jin-hyuk’s hands moved with piano-like precision and speed along Thunder Wolf’s reddening neck, down the spine line, and across the thighs and hip joints.
It was no simple massage. It was the highest-difficulty manual therapy technique—using physical pressure to force the massive volume of metabolic waste and dead cells generated during evolution—lactic acid and toxins—into the lymph nodes for forced expulsion.
Splurt! Glug!
From the pores and wound sites where Jin-hyuk’s hands passed, black, viscous clots of dead blood sprayed forth.
With each toxin expelled, Thunder Wolf’s swollen chest found stability, and its blood-red fur began to take on an increasingly deep and vivid crimson sheen.
[System Message: Physical intervention by the attending physician increases the target’s toxin expulsion rate by 500%!]
[Cell reconstruction enters stable phase!]
“Ugh… Director Kang! My magical power is running dry! This beast’s energy consumption is beyond imagination!”
Lee Shin-woo screamed with bloodshot eyes. Cold sweat poured from his entire body like rain.
“We’re almost there! Just one more joint realignment and we’re done! Ma, grab his pelvis!”
I submerged completely underwater, seizing the creature’s right hind leg that I had forcibly separated moments before. The bone density and length were shifting in real-time due to the evolution. If it hardened in this state, it would become a permanent deformity.
Crack! Screech!
With both arms channeling the [Divine Hands] trait, I grasped the beast’s femur and tibia, physically bending the bone angles to align with the direction of evolution. The friction sound of bone grinding underwater sent chills down the spines of those listening, yet my expression remained eerily serene and perfectly focused.
Saving lives and earning money—before these two absolute imperatives, my hands allowed not a single millimeter of error.
Flash—!!!
The moment I finally drove the last kneecap into perfect alignment.
The entire tank was engulfed in a flash of brilliant crimson lightning so intense that all three of us—myself, Ma Dong-tak, and Lee Shin-woo—instinctively shielded our eyes and staggered backward.
Boom!
The tank on Basement Level 3 couldn’t withstand the force and shattered, sending tens of tons of jade-colored medicinal liquid cascading in all directions.
“Cough! Ptui! Damn this crazy mutt….”
Ma Dong-tak grumbled as he pushed himself up from among the shattered glass fragments.
Beyond the billowing steam, an enormous silhouette radiating overwhelming presence gradually began to reveal itself.
[Congratulations!]
[The special evolution has been completed perfectly!]
[The A-rank magical beast ‘Thunder Wolf’ has been reborn as the S-rank special individual ‘Thunder Blood Wolf’!]
With the system window’s festive fanfare effect, the steam cleared.
What stood there was utterly different from the previous Thunder Wolf—a literal calamity, a divine beast incarnate. Its body height alone reached a staggering three meters.
Every strand of fur blazed with a mesmerizing crimson hue as if blood might drip from it at any moment, and the muscles supporting its four legs trembled faintly, barely containing explosive energy.
Most overwhelming of all was the crimson lightning that danced like serpents along its mane and tail tip. With each breath, the mana in space rippled, generating sharp static electricity.
“Oh… Thunder… my partner….”
Lee Shin-woo rose from his seat as if entranced, staggering forward. An S-rank magical beast—only three existed in the entire world. That legendary being had been reborn right before his eyes, and as his own partner. Lee Shin-woo spread his arms wide, anticipating the beast would immediately unleash a thunderous roar toward the heavens.
“Come here, Thunder! Your master is right here….”
But in the next instant, the S-rank Hunter’s expectations were shattered in the most pathetic and ridiculous manner imaginable.
“Whimper….”
The colossal beast that had been spewing crimson lightning capable of devouring the world suddenly curled its tail between its hind legs and let out a whining cry. Then, completely ignoring Lee Shin-woo, it trotted toward me—who was sitting on the floor wringing out the moisture from my gown—and plopped down.
Thud.
“…?”
“Huh?”
Both Lee Shin-woo’s and Ma Dong-tak’s eyes bulged simultaneously.
A three-meter-tall, over-one-ton S-rank ferocious beast… had flattened itself beneath my feet and rolled onto its back like a month-old puppy, exposing its belly completely.
It was the ultimate surrender declaration of a canine acknowledging someone as the perfect alpha, an absolute submission—and an expression of blind affection.
“Pant pant pant! Whimper!”
The creature even extended its massive tongue and began licking my latex-gloved hand frantically. Its enormous tail swept across the floor like a propeller, grinding the remaining glass shards into powder.
“Hey, Thun… Thunder?! What are you doing?! Don’t you recognize your, your master?! Why are you showing your belly to…!”
Lee Shin-woo cried out in panic, but Thunder Blood Wolf merely snorted dismissively in his direction before burying its nose back into my gown’s hem, sniffing eagerly and wagging its tail. It was an obvious request for belly rubs.
“Hah… the surgery went very well, it seems.”
I chuckled softly, removed my gloves, and began skillfully scratching under its chin and between the soft crimson mane. Its hind legs trembled with pleasure, kicking at the air.
“Wh, what did you do to it?! Why is our Thunder…!”
Adjusting his glasses, Kang Jin-hyuk answered Lee Shin-woo, who was consumed by jealousy and shock.
“In veterinary medicine, particularly from a behavioral perspective, this is a completely natural phenomenon. That beast has been trapped in hellish agony all this time. The idiots who caused that pain were incompetent Healers, and the one who allowed it was you, the guild master.”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s facts carved deep into Lee Shin-woo’s chest.
“But I tore away the fascia that was crushing him, realigned his bones, and completely eliminated his suffering. On top of that, I personally assisted the entire process of his evolution—his rebirth as a new life—with my own mana. From a beast’s instinctive perspective, I am nothing less than his savior who freed him from pain, and a mother bird who gave him new life. In other words, a powerful ‘imprinting effect’ has taken hold.”
“So… Thunder won’t listen to me anymore?!”
“Not at all. He hasn’t forgotten his master. That snort he just gave you when he saw the guild master? That was a bit of pouting mixed with disappointment—something like, ‘Here comes that guy who didn’t help when I was suffering, suddenly acting friendly.’ You just need to feed him some delicious, premium A-rank beast meat snacks and take him for walks more often. Then in about a week, he’ll probably be back to normal.”
Kang Jin-hyuk tapped the Thunder Blood Wolf’s plump front paws and stood up from his seat.
“Well, the treatment is complete and the bonus package—the S-rank evolution—is perfectly finished. Now, shall we move on to the beautiful time of adults: settling accounts?”
A tablet PC appeared in Kang Jin-hyuk’s hand as if by magic.
“Base surgical fee of 50 billion won, special evolution assistance allowance, night shift surcharge, aquarium damage costs, Director Ma’s special employment fee… and the exclusive mining rights contract for one year of A-rank Dungeon Gates belonging to the Zeus Guild that you promised earlier. Let’s sign it cleanly.”
Lee Shin-woo stared back and forth between the S-rank beast sprawled on the floor wagging its tail and the insane bill thrust before his eyes, letting out a delirious laugh as if he’d lost his mind.
“Ha… haha. I’ve lost. To think the day would come when Lee Shin-woo, the Thunder Emperor of South Korea, would be completely fleeced by some animal hospital director without even getting a bone back.”
Lee Shin-woo, resigned to his fate, pressed his fingerprint on the tablet screen to sign.
In that instant, an enormous cascade of system notifications began pouring into Kang Jin-hyuk’s vision like a waterfall.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
[You have collected overwhelming wealth and power from the leader of the mega-guild ‘Zeus Guild’!]
[As the incarnation of capitalism, your notorious—no, your reputation explodes upward!]
[Current Hospital Reputation (Recognition): Lv.4 (A sacred sanctuary before which even mega-guilds bow)]
[System Window Level Up!]
[Special Reward: ‘Magical Beast Anatomy Knowledge (Intermediate)’ is engraved into your mind.]
[Special Reward: Subspace Zone 4, ‘Sterile Isolation Operating Room’ has been unlocked.]
Detailed structural diagrams of the bones, muscles, and mana circuits of A-rank and above magical beasts from across the world were suddenly carved into Kang Jin-hyuk’s mind as if he’d swallowed hundreds of books whole. His vision brightened, and he felt his mana circuit capacity expanding.
The days when he was an F-rank awakened veterinarian were gone. At last, he was breaking through the system’s limitations and leaping into a stage that might be S-rank or even beyond. Moreover, his true power lay not in rank, but in the expertise and capital that deepened with each passing day.
“Thank you for your hard work, Guild Master Lee Shin-woo. I’ll need to observe his condition a bit longer, so we’ll proceed with a two-night, three-day hospitalization. The guardian should head back now.”
Kang Jin-hyuk gathered his tablet and turned away with ease. An unprecedented achievement of S-rank evolution, astronomical capital, and a new subspace facility—from the morning of his opening day, he’d hit an enormous jackpot, and his steps were as light as feathers.
Just as everything seemed to wrap up perfectly and he was about to raise a glass in victory.
Wee-ooo-wee!
Wee-ooo-wee!
Suddenly, the red emergency warning lights installed on the walls of the Basement Level 3 Operating Room began spinning loudly, and a siren wailed to life.
“Booooom! Master! Emergency! Critical situation!”
Kim Chun-sam’s urgent communication came through from the Lobby.
“What’s happening? Did another monster charge into the Lobby?”
Kang Jin-hyuk furrowed his brow and asked.
[No, that’s not it! Government agencies have stormed in! The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s special audit team, Hunter Association investigators, and the Police Mobile Unit have smashed through the hospital’s front entrance and occupied the Lobby!]
Beyond Kim Chun-sam’s voice, the realistic sounds of people shouting and objects breaking could be heard.
[And mixed in with those guys at the front are remnants from Apollo Hospital’s Choi Myung-seok—the one we cleaned out at The Tower last time! They’ve brought a warrant to arrest you for ‘unlicensed medical practice and violation of bioethics law’! Director Yoo Yi-soo is holding them back at the perimeter, but physically we’re reaching our limit… Bzzt!]
The communication was forcibly cut off.
A petty and vicious counterattack from Apollo Hospital’s remnants backed by power. Unexpected physical intervention from government agencies had begun on the very first day of opening.
A cold silence descended over the Operating Room. Lee Shin-woo and Ma Dong-tak’s gazes turned toward Kang Jin-hyuk in unison. A worst-case national crisis situation that would have made an ordinary doctor’s legs give out.
But Kang Jin-hyuk, far from panicking, brushed the blood from his surgical gown and slowly lowered his head, gazing down at his feet.
“Director Kang, the situation seems rather unusual. Allow me to step in on behalf of the Zeus Guild and handle this matter for you….”
“No, thank you, Guild Master. I make it a principle to personally ‘exterminate’ any pests that interfere with my hospital’s operations.”
My lips stretched into a cruel smile so chilling it sent shivers down the spines of those who witnessed it.
“Come on, Thunder Blood Wolf. Your first walk is shaping up to be far more entertaining than I expected.”
“Grrrrr….”
The Thunder Blood Wolf, who had been playfully scratching at his belly just moments before, instantly transformed at the sound of my cold voice. His crimson fur bristled upright, and scarlet lightning crackled ferociously across his body.
The sight of an S-rank unscrupulous veterinarian and an S-rank beast walking side by side toward the elevator was itself a harbinger of a new calamity that transcended all law.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————