The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 34

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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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34
Chapter 34 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
The elevator descended from the Middle District to the Lower District. With each passing floor, the landscape beyond the windows grew progressively darker. The gaudy neon signs vanished, replaced by broken streetlights and drab gray buildings that filled my vision.
The Lower District. The bottom rung of Hunter society. Just months ago, I had lived in a Goshiwon here, surviving on instant ramen. Yet returning today, the air felt heavier and more suffocating than before.
“This way. The Ash-gray Alley. Where Hunters with nowhere else to go gather.”
Park Jae-jung led the way. The narrow, filthy alley reeked of sewage and alcohol mingling together. Homeless figures sat along the sides—some limbless, others with vacant eyes—their bodies faintly emanating traces of mana that betrayed their former identities as Hunters.
“Grrrrr…”
A low bestial growl echoed from deep within the alley. People scrambled in panic, clearing the path. Three black-furred dog-like monsters emerged from behind a pile of garbage.
[Corrupted Sewers Hound (E+ Rank)]
Monsters that had either escaped from Dungeons or mutated naturally by consuming the corrupted mana of the Sewers. In the Upper or Middle Districts, the Association Mobile Unit would have responded immediately. Here, people simply fled as if it were routine.
“Get lost! Scram!”
A merchant swung a broom, but the hound bared its fangs and lunged at him.
“Dangerous!”
Park Jae-jung moved to intervene. But I was faster. I stepped forward with my hands in my pockets, blocking their path.
“Woof!”
The lead hound, underestimating me, leaped for my throat. Its rotting jaws dripping with putrid saliva closed in on my face.
Slow. To my D-Rank eyes, its trajectory appeared frozen in place.
I didn’t dodge. Just before its teeth found my neck, I drew my right hand and struck upward beneath its jaw. The moment my fist connected, I released a sharp, concentrated purification wave.
Crack!
“Yelp!”
The hound shrieked and flew backward, slamming into the wall. Not from broken bones, but from the corrupted mana composing its body suddenly destabilizing, sending it into shock.
The other two froze. They understood instinctively. The creature before them was an apex predator, far above their station.
“Not running?”
I growled low, and they tucked their tails, fleeing into the darkness. Silence settled over the alley. People cautiously poked their heads out from hiding. Their eyes held not awe, but wariness toward this unfamiliar force.
“You’ve certainly grown stronger. Your mana control has become far more refined.”
Park Jae-jung, who had been watching from behind, spoke with admiration.
“They were weak specimens. But…”
I stared into the darkness where the hounds had vanished. This place was chaos. Without strength, you were torn apart by monsters or became prey for criminals. Yet paradoxically, that very lawlessness made it an ideal hiding place for true monsters.
“Let’s go. Team Leader Lee Ji-young marked the coordinates nearby.”
We ventured deeper into the alley. Our destination was a shabby bar called the Old Lighthouse.
There, we would find the first broken blade we sought. A former youngest ace of the Dominion, once one of South Korea’s three greatest Guilds, now an alcoholic—a Genius Mage.
I straightened my clothes. This wasn’t mere charity. I was here on business. As I opened the bar door, a tinkling bell chimed, and thick cigarette smoke greeted us.
Ding.
Rusted hinges creaked as the small bell above the door rang out—not cheerfully, but dully and dryly, as if warning visitors to turn back.
The moment the door opened, a wave of air rushed in—far heavier and more stagnant than outside. The smell of aged mold, the acrid sting of cheap cigarette smoke, and the sour reek of spilled beer mingling on the floor—the quintessential stench of losers.
Rather than covering my nose with a handkerchief, I took short, measured breaths, forcing myself to adapt to the atmosphere. This wasn’t the Upper District VIP Lounge. There was no need for courtesy, no reason to show displeasure. This was raw, unfiltered bottom.
“Welcome. Sit anywhere you—”
The Bartender behind the counter, who had been wiping glasses, stopped mid-sentence upon seeing us. His gaze swept over my immaculate suit and Park Jae-jung’s imposing frame behind me. With the arrival of these obvious outsiders, the noise in the bar died away.
The scattered patrons’ eyes fixed on us. Unfocused pupils, trembling hands, bandaged limbs. They were all former Hunters, now fallen. Their eyes held not caution, but vague hostility and inferiority toward our well-dressed forms.
“Water is fine.”
Park Jae-jung leaned close to my ear and whispered low. The atmosphere in this place was so tense it felt ready to erupt into violence at any moment.
“Don’t mind it.”
I replied matter-of-factly and moved deeper into the tavern. The sticky floor caused my shoe soles to make squelching sounds with each step.
Our destination wasn’t the center of the hall, but the most secluded corner imaginable. A dark table untouched by any light. Someone was slumped over it. On the table lay several empty bottles of strong whiskey, and the ashtray was piled high with cigarette butts.
Disheveled black short hair. Skeletal wrists exposed beneath a loose hoodie. And on those wrists, faintly visible tattoos bearing the mark of the Dominion Guild.
[Seo Eun-ha (Former A-Rank Mage)]
If the information Lee Ji-young provided was accurate, this woman was the talent we were seeking. Once the youngest attack captain of the Dominion Guild, one of South Korea’s three major guilds—a tragic genius whose mana circuits had been burned out in a mysterious accident a year ago.
As we stood before her table, she seemed to sense our presence and slowly lifted her head.
Our eyes met. Her face appeared not merely pale, but translucent. Deep dark circles hung beneath her eyes, and her lips were cracked and dry. But what struck me most was her gaze itself.
Dead. All will to live, all hope, even all rage had burned away, leaving only the hollow ash of her eyes.
She stared at us blankly with unfocused eyes, then lowered her head again.
“I… didn’t order a drink.”
Her voice was hoarse and fractured.
“We’re not here to drink. We came looking for someone.”
I replied.
“Someone?”
She let out a bitter laugh.
“Where are there any people here? Just corpses rotting away.”
She reached for a whiskey bottle with trembling hands. It was empty. She hurled it to the floor in irritation.
The bottle shattered with a sharp crash.
Glass shards scattered in all directions. Nearby patrons cursed, but she paid them no mind.
“If you’ve got nothing to do here, get lost. If you came to show off your money, you’ve got the wrong place.”
Her words dripped with hostility—a hatred for everything in this world, particularly a deep contempt for the Hunter society that had reduced her to this state.
I pulled out the chair across from her and sat down. Park Jae-jung stood behind me, keeping watch over our surroundings.
“Seo Eun-ha.”
When I spoke her name, her shoulders flinched.
“Second attack captain of the Dominion Guild. Specialty: flame magic. One year ago, retired due to mana backflow during an S-Rank Dungeon raid on the Frozen Throne.”
She jerked her head up. Life flickered back into those dead eyes—a murderous glint.
“Who the hell are you? Some rat digging into people’s pasts?”
“I’m Lee Tae-hyun, Guild Master of Munglade Guild.”
I pulled a business card from my pocket and placed it on the wet table. The white card lay there against the dampness.
“I came to scout you.”
“Scout? Ha… Are you insane? Don’t you know I’m crippled?”
She pounded her chest repeatedly.
“It’s all burned out here! My mana circuits are charcoal. Magic? I can’t even manage a spark. S-Rank healers gave up on me. And you want to scout me?”
Her voice grew louder. It was less anger than a scream.
“Looks like your money’s rotting and you’re trying charity work. Go find someone else. I don’t want to be a spectacle.”
She tried to stand, her movements unsteady and precarious. I didn’t reach out to stop her. Instead, I spoke quietly, letting my words fall like a stone.
“Isn’t it unfair?”
Her movement froze.
“When Dominion abandoned you. When they handed you a pittance and cast you out. And when your accident was truly just an accident.”
She turned slowly to face me. Her eyes wavered.
“…What are you talking about?”
“Your mana backflow. According to my investigation, it wasn’t simple overload.”
I recalled the information Lee Ji-young had provided. Among the raid team at the time, there had been an executive from a rival faction keeping tabs on Seo Eun-ha. And immediately after the accident, that executive had taken her position and risen to prominence.
“Someone tampered with your staff. Not an amplifier—they installed a suppressor. One designed to trigger a runaway.”
“…”
Seo Eun-ha’s lips trembled. She must have suspected it. But without evidence, and powerless as she was, she couldn’t stand against Dominion’s vast influence. So she had buried it. And I had just torn open that festering wound.
“Don’t… don’t lie to me…”
“You know better than anyone whether it’s a lie or not.”
I rose from my seat and approached her. Up close, her condition was far worse than I’d imagined. A peculiar stench emanated from her body—the reek of alcohol mixed with the acrid smell of charred flesh. The odor of necrotic mana circuits.
“If I were to heal you.”
I met her gaze directly.
“If I could make your flames burn again. If I could give you the chance to take revenge on them.”
I extended my hand.
“Will you join us?”
Silence filled the tavern. The Bartender and the other patrons held their breath, watching us. Seo Eun-ha’s eyes flickered between my hand and my face. What burned in her gaze was no longer death. It was a tiny but fierce ember, still smoldering.
But she didn’t take my hand. Instead, she stepped back and shook her head.
“You can’t fix it…”
She muttered the words.
“I’ve tried hundreds of times. Medicines, shamanic rituals, I spent my entire fortune chasing every healer with a reputation. But they all said no. That it was too late. How do you turn ash back into wood?”
Tears streamed down her face. Her despair ran so deep that hope itself felt like torture.
“Don’t do this to me. Don’t torture me with false hope… please…”
She fled toward the back exit of the tavern.
“Seo Eun-ha!”
Park Jae-jung tried to follow, but I stopped him.
“Let her go.”
“But sir, if we lose her now…”
“She’s not running away.”
I watched the back door swing shut, trembling slightly.
“She’s going to verify something. To see if she can trust one more time, just once more.”
I picked up my business card from the table again.
“We’ll come back tomorrow. I’ve shaken her enough for today.”
We left the tavern.
Her eyes. In a place I thought was nothing but ash, an ember still lived. If I could only kindle it, she would become a roaring inferno that would burn Dominion to the ground.
“Park Jae-jung.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tomorrow, wear work clothes. And…”
I looked up at the sky as I spoke.
“We’ll need to prepare treatment equipment. Something very special.”
Tomorrow would be the day her Renewal began—and Munglade’s as well.
Back at the Golden Tower, I spent the entire night preparing. Mana stabilizers for the treatment, potions… of course, my hands were the real instrument, but I had to account for worst-case scenarios.
‘Repairing an A-Rank Mage’s circuits…’
It was work on an entirely different scale from equipment or ore veins. Mistakes were not an option. Park Jae-jung knocked on the door.
“Director, everything is ready.”
“Good. We depart tomorrow afternoon.”
The next afternoon, we found ourselves back at the Old Lighthouse in the Lower District.
As I opened the tavern door, a silence different from yesterday spilled forth. There were no customers. Only one person—Seo Eun-ha—sat in that same spot. The only change was a glass of water on the table instead of a bottle of alcohol.
She hadn’t slept a wink all night. Her eyes were red and swollen, and the marks of bitten fingernails were evident. As we entered, she lifted her head and glared at us. But that gaze was different from yesterday’s hostility. I could see the desperate hunger of someone clinging to a straw at the cliff’s edge.
“…You came.”
Her voice was still hoarse.
“I didn’t think you’d actually show. Everyone else just probes once and never comes back.”
“In business, promises are everything.”
I sat across from her. Park Jae-jung locked the entrance door to block outside interference and hung the closed sign.
I placed the prepared bag on the table.
“Before we begin, I have a question.”
Seo Eun-ha asked, looking at my bag.
“Can you really fix it? Or are you just going to pretend to? My body—an S-Rank Healer came and poured divine blessings on me, but nothing worked. They said my circuits weren’t just severed; they were completely burned to ash. That dead cells can’t be revived.”
Her voice trembled. She was terrified of being tormented by false hope again.
“The Healers were right.”
I answered coldly.
“Dead cells can’t be revived. You can’t turn burned ash back into wood.”
Her face went pale.
“Then…”
“But.”
I continued.
“You can clear away the ash and plant new wood in its place.”
“What?”
“Your circuits are damaged because contaminated debris from mana backflow is clogging your blood vessels. As it rots, it kills healthy cells around it. The Healers never thought to clear away that debris—they just poured healing on top of it, which is why the treatment doesn’t work.”
I removed my gloves and extended my bare hand to her.
“My job isn’t to heal. It’s to clean. I’m going to scrape out every bit of that black ash filling your body. It will hurt terribly.”
I met her gaze directly.
“Can you endure it?”

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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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