The Buffs I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 26

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

Episode 26.
“Wait a moment.”
I caught Hyun Chaerin’s wrist.
On the surface, she seemed unaffected.
But the subtle tremor that ran through her wrist the moment I grabbed it told me I’d read the situation correctly.
Though that reassurance lasted only a heartbeat.
“Ugh——!”
Hyun Chaerin yanked her hand free urgently.
As if suddenly aware of watchful eyes, she broke into a cold sweat and felt the weight of surrounding gazes.
Only then did they register in my field of vision.
‘…Gulp.’
The glacial stares of figures dressed in black suits.
The air hung so thick with menace that it wouldn’t have seemed odd if someone had pressed a blade to my throat at any moment.
I nearly buckled at the knees.
“……And who might you be?”
The man in the center, who’d been maintaining silence, finally spoke.
Wariness flickered across his face, though confusion was equally evident.
I chose my words with deliberate care, slowly and thoughtfully.
One careless phrase could spiral into catastrophe.
The guild master’s instructions echoed in my mind.
First: speak to no one here but So Hyun and myself.
Second: don’t consume anything, no matter what.
Third: once I find Hyun Chaerin, leave without looking back.
‘I’ve already broken two of them……’
I felt tears prickling at the corners of my eyes.
Steeling myself, I spoke.
“She’s, um…… a colleague from work.”
Colleague from work.
I thought it was a fitting explanation.
It had taken a moment to come up with,
but I believed I’d given a satisfactory answer.
Or so I thought.
“A colleague…… from work?”
Apparently, he disagreed.
“You’re an employee of Baekryeon…… correct?”
“……I’m an Awakener.”
“An Awakener……? And you have a close, or rather, intimate relationship with Hyun Chaerin?”
“No…… well?”
The suited man’s expression darkened.
“So just another Awakener from the same guild wandered all the way here, with no particular closeness or intimacy between you? And for what purpose, exactly?”
The man glanced around the room.
“Alone, no less? I’m asking out of mere curiosity, but are you perhaps a high-tier Awakener? As far as I know, Jung Sohyun is the only top-tier output Baekryeon possesses.”
“……”
“From your reaction, you don’t seem very confident in your own abilities…… well, well.”
Ha!
The man released a sharp, forceful laugh, as if expelling something he’d been holding back.
And in that same instant, Hyun Chaerin’s face twisted with alarm.
“Oh——”
Slap!
She shoved my hand away hard.
Biting her lip fiercely, she pushed off the seat and stood.
“……May I have a moment to speak with them?”
“Is this not the place for such conversation?”
“……No.”
“Haha. Of course, by all means.”
With a relaxed gesture from the man,
Hyun Chaerin practically dragged me by the collar away from the table.
“Hey, wait…… hold on.”
“Stay quiet.”
We moved behind, circling away from where we’d been seated.
A place with no light, no sign of life.
Her trembling pupils moved sharply, taking in the surroundings, and then—
Bang!
“Ugh…….”
She slammed me against the wall.
Her eyes blazing with lethal intent.
“What are you?”
“…….”
“Where do you think you are? Did you come alone? No, what on earth……?”
“……wait, just—”
“So we talked for a moment back there and now you think we’re friends? No. Friends don’t come to a place like this. You’d have to be incredibly stupid!”
The pressure intensified.
I felt myself sinking deeper into the wall.
I wanted to say something to her, wanted to get her to listen, but—
I couldn’t.
My vision began to cloud.
“Throat…… throat……!”
“Throat……?”
Hyun Chaerin tilted her head.
Then—
“Oh…….”
She realized, belatedly, that her arm was choking me.
“I’m, I’m sorry…….”
“Gasp……! Gasp……!”
Oxygen had never tasted so sweet.
My neck had been seconds from snapping.
If I hadn’t cleared the first floor before coming here, I would have died by Hyun Chaerin’s hand—no one else’s.
She stood there, flustered, watching me gasp for breath.
The person who’d been screaming moments ago seemed like someone else entirely now.
No—the one who’d changed was her from before.
The relief I’d seen in her eyes when I burst into that space had been genuine.
It wasn’t intuition. The lingering effects of my Sense Amplification told me so.
She truly wanted to escape from that place.
Probably, her anger right now was a release of the anxiety she’d felt before.
And genuine concern.
“Hah…….”
I straightened up, still catching my breath.
My throat still throbbed.
My voice might be hoarse now.
But I had to speak.
I forced my reluctant tongue to move and finished the sentence.
“I came to help you.”
“……what?”
I watched her expression contort.
“Did you just……”
“First, let me answer your earlier questions.”
“Questions……?”
Her brow furrowed.
“First—I didn’t come alone. We got separated for reasons beyond my control, but my sister and the guild master are here.”
“…….”
“Second—I didn’t come because we’re friends. I have my own reasons for being here.”
“……reasons?”
“And last—I’m not stupid.”
I finished the final words.
Hyun Chaerin began looking at me like I was insane.
Even I could admit that last part was a bit much.
But still, there was a result.
Her guard was slowly dropping.
“I won’t ask what you were doing here.”
“…….”
“Let’s go. The guild master is waiting for us.”
“……Me?”
“Yes. The longer we delay, the greater the danger…….”
“You’re the one who should leave.”
“……What?”
Hyun Chaerin struck the outstretched hand away with a sharp flick.
There simply wasn’t enough time or words left to persuade her.
But dragging out the conversation any longer under the guise of dialogue felt far too reckless given the circumstances.
Here, she needed to be more forceful…….
“Tch.”
“?”
Hyun Chaerin twisted her lips upward into something like a smile.
“I get it now—why you came here. You went along with this reluctantly, at the guild master’s request. But even so, there’s a time to step in and a time to stay out.”
“No, I…….”
“Tell the guild master this from me: I have no intention of breaching our contract. I’m looking for a way to help Baekryeon, so give me a little time.”
“…….”
“I feel sorry toward the guild master. One of her Awakeners vanished without warning. If I get fired for it, so be it—I’ve nothing to say in my defense.”
“Fired…… you say?”
Something caught in my chest—a sudden surge of feeling.
The image of Baek Yulheon’s face before I came down here flashed through my mind.
Genuine worry etched into her features. Unease. Anxiety.
The way she looked at me—as if I were her own daughter.
And I’d felt pushed forward by her, my hand clasped in hers.
“Ah…….”
If I failed to recognize the value of someone who treasured me,
then no one would ever love me again.
That’s why I had to show it.
If I only buried my feelings deep inside and pushed people away on the surface,
then no one—not even for their own good—could ever be happy.
Hyun Chaerin was walking down the wrong path.
It’s strange for someone like me to point that out.
But because I’m someone like me, there are things I can say.
“Chattering away with quite the smooth tongue, aren’t you…….”
“……W-what?”
I took a step forward.
She took a step back.
“The guild’s Awakener? A way to help? For someone so young, your words are awfully polished.”
“W-why are you suddenly speaking informally……!”
“You did it first. Besides, when I looked it up, you’re only a year older than me, right? Twenty-two.”
“Ugh……!”
Hyun Chaerin’s mouth fell open, startled by the sudden shift in my tone.
An incomplete sentence spilled from her lips in broken fragments.
I drew a breath in rhythm with her shock.
My heart was pounding.
For the past few years, I’d lived as timidly as I could, holding everything back.
My hands trembled just from raising my voice to someone—a stranger I wasn’t even particularly close to.
My head and body felt disconnected, as if I were stumbling drunk.
‘Calm down.’
The person before me right now was extremely unstable.
Teetering on the edge, swayed by every word I spoke.
So I had to think carefully.
What sentence should I lay out next?
What words would let me grab hold of her and pull us both out of this Underground?
First, I needed to begin like this.
“Dismissing someone who’s worried about you—no matter what shape you’re in—that’s not right.”
* * *
“Guild Master.”
“…….”
“Would you say that one more time?”
Crackle.
Amidst the clamour of the crowd, the sickening crackle of joints dislocating rang out with appalling clarity.
“So Hyun, that was…….”
“No. No, no. Say it again.”
My mouth refused to open, as though glued shut.
What could I possibly say?
‘……This is my fault.’
Your brother had awakened an Ability to borrow Skills from others, it turned out.
And I’d meant to use that to find Hyun Chaerin.
But things had gotten badly tangled.
Now I’d left your brother isolated in this vast Underground.
‘…….’
The more I thought about it, the blanker my mind became.
How was I supposed to make her understand?
Or rather—would anyone in their right mind?
My only task had been simple.
Keep pace. Keep chasing.
‘If I’d told So Hyun beforehand, would things have been different?’
They probably would have.
I was the only one who’d taken a direct hit from that monster that flew at us by chance.
So Hyun would have pursued So Hyuk relentlessly, regardless of my condition.
‘I was arrogant.’
That’s the only word for it: arrogance.
I lowered my head before those fierce, blazing eyes.
“……As for So Hyuk.”
“……I don’t know.”
“Is there a way to find him?”
“……No.”
“Can we contact him……?”
“Communications are completely blocked. The moment we got separated, if he weren’t an Awakener like you, finding him would be…….”
Each word that escaped my lips only reinforced the reality of our predicament.
In this hopeless situation.
What could I possibly do?
“It’s my fault…… I shouldn’t have brought him here in the first place…… I dragged So Hyuk into this because of my own desires…….”
“…….”
The word “sorry” wouldn’t come.
Not because it wouldn’t solve anything—
But because I didn’t want it to look like a single apology could sweep it all away.
So Hyun stared into empty space with hollow eyes for a moment.
Then she moved.
“……So Hyun?”
“What?”
“Where…… are you going?”
“To find him.”
“……On foot?”
“Of course.”
“……But like I said from before, this place is labyrinthine and the layout changes periodically, so even just walking could take over a month and…….”
“Then we just leave?”
“……What?”
“We can’t find Hyun Chaerin, and now we’ve lost my brother too. We’re just going to leave?”
“That’s…… not it.”
“Then we walk. He might not have gone far anyway—remember when he played baseball? He was never the fastest runner. His stamina was average at best. Finding him by walking isn’t impossible.”
“…….”
Watching So Hyun move forward into the darkness,
I could do nothing but follow.
The only shame was that I, the one responsible, had surrendered first.
‘Get your head straight, Baek Yulheon.’
I’ve lived long enough.
If I can’t think clearly now, when can I?
‘All I know is the direction So Hyuk ran.’
How far he might have gotten.
Maybe he vanished somewhere along the way.
Whether she even managed to meet Hyun Chaerin at all.
There’s no way to know.
‘Then predict it.’
Time is running short.
Soon ‘that hour’ arrives.
The reason this place is called the Black Market.
After that hour sweeps through, no method on earth will make it possible to find So Hyuk again.
“So Hyun.”
“What?”
“Let’s move faster.”
I’ll find him no matter what.
The buff I raised is far too potent
Author |
Naengmyeon Hwachae
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7F Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260731072
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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