I Awakened as a Dark History - Chapter 81

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 81
An Je-hwan approached the researcher carrying a beaker and a flask.
I grew curious and quietly trailed behind him.
“It’s rather small.”
“Should we find another one and process them together?”
“That would be ideal.”
From over An Je-hwan’s shoulder, the Seosiccho appeared as a delicate white flower with tiny blooms clustered densely together.
Had I seen it outside, I would have certainly taken a photo with my mobile phone—it was that beautiful.
I ventured a careful question toward the two of them, who seemed surprisingly cautious.
“Can’t we just pick it?”
“No. It dissolves the moment you pluck it.”
An Je-hwan extended his arm to shield the Seosiccho from me, as if afraid I might damage it.
“You have to use a Collection Skill to harvest it, or extract and store it immediately after picking.”
Quite finicky, I thought.
I carefully stepped back a pace.
“Team leader, I found another one here.”
Just then, one of the researchers waved his hand.
An Je-hwan approached that researcher to check its size.
“Two specimens… Let’s extract these two first. Cut them simultaneously and bring them straight to me.”
An Je-hwan uncorked the flask and poured the liquid into the beaker.
The two researchers cut the stems of the Seosiccho with garden shears at the same moment.
Just as An Je-hwan had warned, the Seosiccho began to wilt the instant its stem was severed.
“Quickly, quickly, quickly.”
The researchers moved urgently, dropping the Seosiccho into the beaker with hurried sounds.
I had wondered if the liquid might slow the dissolution, but it didn’t. The Seosiccho continued dissolving before my eyes, moment by moment.
At the sight of it, An Je-hwan recited an incantation urgently.
“From the crimson stone, I seek wisdom and knowledge. In them dwells the strength to endure winter and an unwavering will—grant me to obtain these gifts.”
Just before the flower disappeared entirely into the liquid, a faint light finally glimmered from within.
The Seosiccho retained barely any form, half-dissolved.
Soon it sank slowly beneath the liquid’s surface.
“Phew…”
An Je-hwan wiped the cold sweat from his brow and handed the beaker to the researcher.
The researcher picked up the Seosiccho with tweezers and placed it in a test tube.
“Wow, that’s fascinating. Is this a potion ingredient?”
An Je-hwan nodded.
“It’s one of the basic materials that goes into all potions. It only appears in dungeons with this kind of cold climate.”
Plop.
As if to prove An Je-hwan’s words, snow fell from overhead.
“Oh!”
At the sound of snow tumbling down, the researcher flinched in surprise, and I too looked up instinctively.
The snow had simply grown too heavy and fallen.
The researcher let out an embarrassed cough belatedly.
“Ahem, well. My apologies. The snow just suddenly fell…”
“It’s fine. No worries.”
Even as the researcher apologized, he kept glancing nervously overhead.
It seemed he feared the snow might have been knocked down by a demon beast.
Watching him, a new question suddenly occurred to me.
“But still—you’re an Awakened One, yet you have no dungeon-clearing experience?”
The researcher passed the test tube to An Je-hwan, rolling his eyes.
An Je-hwan placed the test tube into a Subspace Item.
“Not once. I don’t have any Combat-related Skills, so I’ve never entered a dungeon or fought a demon beast. It’s embarrassing in front of a Dungeon Clearing Hunter.”
The researcher laughed awkwardly.
Though I hadn’t meant to criticize, the researcher seemed to shrink away from my question.
I quickly shook my head.
“No, that’s understandable. Field work is important, and research work is important too. If there’s no need to enter a dungeon, there’s no reason to force it.”
The researcher finally relaxed his uncomfortable expression.
He seemed to have realized I held no malice.
I took a breath and asked the question I’d been holding back.
“Since this is an S-Rank Dungeon, I assumed a more experienced researcher would be coming. Doesn’t the Research Foundation have any researchers with dungeon-clearing experience?”
“We do have some, but not many. And their ranks are all pretty much the same anyway.”
It meant there were no researchers qualified to participate in clearing an S-Rank Dungeon.
“So someone with relatively high stats came in?”
The researcher answered easily now, the tension gone from his voice.
“Oh, no. They all volunteered.”
“Is the hazard pay that good?”
I’d meant it as a joke, but the researcher nodded seriously.
His gravity suddenly became mine as well.
‘How much did they get paid to walk into an S-Rank Dungeon? How many zeros are we talking?’
The moment I grew serious, the researcher waved his hand urgently.
“I was kidding.”
His expression said otherwise.
“Because of the Unconquerable Dungeon, we’re short on manpower and potions. We can’t afford to run low on potions, so I volunteered whenever I had the time.”
As he spoke, the researcher picked up the garden shears.
“Even if I can’t clear dungeons, I should at least be able to help support the clearing effort as a Hunter.”
His spirited attitude drew an involuntary gasp of admiration.
“Wow, that’s impressive. A true sense of mission.”
I clapped playfully, and the researcher squirmed with embarrassment.
I clapped even harder, just to tease him further.
I was about to whistle when the Leader shouted from a distance.
“Stop clapping! Demon Beasts incoming!”
“Oh, sorry!”
I hurriedly lowered my hands.
The researcher glanced sideways at me, as if to say he hadn’t expected me to make such a mistake.
I leaned in close and spoke softly to him.
“I’m still a beginner—only recently Awakened. I’ve only been in a couple of dungeons so far.”
Which was to say I had no room to criticize anyone.
The researcher seemed to understand my meaning and laughed at ease.
While we were slacking off, another researcher in the distance waved his hand.
“Here! Found another Seosiccho!”
An Je-hwan, who had only been listening to our conversation, stood up.
“What size?”
“About twenty centimeters. It might be a waste to extract it right now. Let me search for another one first.”
The researcher, hearing their exchange, quickly turned around.
“Right, I should go look for more Seosiccho too, then.”
“Sure.”
The researcher hurried away from me in quick strides.
Watching his retreating figure, I turned back to An Je-hwan.
“That sense of mission is admirable.”
An Je-hwan shrugged his shoulders—a gesture that suggested he found it unremarkable, which oddly bothered me.
“I lack that kind of sense of mission myself, so I’m a little envious.”
An Je-hwan watched the researchers searching for Seosiccho, then turned back to me.
“……Isn’t your sense of mission greater than theirs?”
“Me?”
I must have asked too bluntly. An Je-hwan’s expression twisted subtly.
“Most high-rank Free Hunters don’t take on dungeon-clearing schedules as grueling as this. Healers especially can pick and choose their operations.”
I was beginning to understand that Healers were precious and rare resources.
Even when entering this Unconquerable Dungeon, I’d received considerable consideration.
My share was generous, and I’d been excused from menial tasks.
So it seemed others wouldn’t blame me if I backed out of a dungeon.
“But you’re accepting and tackling every operation request that comes your way.”
I rolled my eyes uncertainly before answering awkwardly.
“Well… they said they were in a bind?”
“Then you have a strong sense of mission.”
Does accepting something just because circumstances push you into it count as a sense of mission?
I’d taken on the stone tablet only because Darya Goden had asked—reluctantly at that—and I still hadn’t examined it more than a few times.
I cleared dungeons because they paid decently. And along the way, I received all the consideration and treatment that came with it.
‘A sense of mission… isn’t that something you attach to work even when nothing else is there?’
Perhaps it was the solemnity the word “sense of mission” carried.
I found it difficult to connect myself with that concept.
Unlike Darya Goden, I didn’t throw myself into danger for some grand goal, heedless of the risks.
Not like a movie hero, throwing my life away for humanity.
Not like a firefighter I see in daily life, rushing forward for professional duty.
“Hmm…….”
At moments like these, Yu Ho-yeon’s concern came to mind unbidden.
Darya Goden possessed a sense of mission that made her choose human lives over her own desires.
What about me?
‘I don’t think I have it.’
If my family and countless others were placed on opposite sides of a trolley, I knew I’d choose my family.
Just as Yu Ho-yeon said, if someone I knew was involved, I’d lose my altruism.
I’d made excuses to him well enough, but facing a situation like this, I felt ashamed all over again.
‘Even the researcher volunteered for an S-Rank Dungeon as part of her professional duty, and yet I…….’
The conversation that had started from a small exchange rolled around inside my head.
Just before the snowball of tangled thoughts could settle on my chest, I managed to cut it off.
And at the same time, I ended the conversation with An Je-hwan as well.
“You’re right, I suppose it is.”
What good was a sense of mission anyway?
Either way, money gets deposited into my account.
‘I’ll worry about my sense of mission later. It’s not like a trolley is bearing down on me right now.’
Whether I developed a sense of mission and made a noble choice in the future, or lacked one and faced Yu Ho-yeon’s criticism—worrying about it now was pointless.
I barely shook my head clear.
But the mad scientist who lived in the real world must have seen it.
An Je-hwan suddenly opened his mouth.
“What’s so special about a sense of mission anyway.”
“Sorry?”
An Je-hwan flicked the green chemical remaining in the beaker onto the ground.
A green stain marked the white snow.
As I stared at it, An Je-hwan spoke again.
“A sense of mission—it’s not really anything special.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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