The Only Enhancer - Chapter 174

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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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Episode 174
174 – Leveling Up (6)
‘This is insane. I could actually die if I’m not careful…!!!!’
By the fourth day, that was Won Eun-seong’s singular thought. Well, truthfully he’d been thinking it long before that, but now he felt it with genuine conviction. Dying from exhaustion? No, it wasn’t that simple.
The ordeal was so brutal that he wondered if he was essentially committing suicide.
What made it worse was that every time his mental and physical fatigue was completely restored, he felt an illusion—a delusion that his mind itself was fragmenting.
He thought to himself that this couldn’t continue, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud.
The Quest that had brought him here in the first place remained incomplete.
He could have claimed business at the Hunter Association and escaped, but Won Eun-seong wanted to call anyone who would do that someone who knew only half the story.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered it. But this damned Jung Ji-hwan had sent an official document to the Association.
He’d written that he was borrowing the Association President for his level advancement. What would the Association say? They’d tell him to use me until I’m ground to dust. What else would they say?
Won Eun-seong had never resented Jung Ji-hwan more, but when he thought about it, hadn’t Jung Ji-hwan gone through this same ordeal? The thought provided some small comfort.
In any case, escape had become difficult, and even if he did escape, there was a problem.
‘Ultimately, I’d have to come back to complete the Quest anyway, wouldn’t I?’
With that thought, his resolve hardened—finish everything and never return.
How could he come back when it was already this brutal?
Just imagining it made his entire body crawl with goosebumps. No, it was worse than that. It felt as though ants were crawling across his skin.
Perhaps that’s why most of the Reinforce Guild members approached Won Eun-seong with enlightened smiles on their faces.
“At least your situation is better, hyung!”
“My situation is better? Ah… I suppose it is, but you guys….”
“Ahahaha! Exactly!!!!! Ahahahahaha!!!!!!”
Unlike Won Eun-seong, who only had to endure this once, how could those Reinforce Guild members—who had to go hunting every single time—possibly be in the same situation?
During breaks, Won Eun-seong and the other guild members would gather and laugh together like this.
For some reason, their eyes looked terribly sad, but no one paid attention to it.
Min-jun gazed at Won Eun-seong with something like admiration, smiling.
He was holding up well for someone on their first time, after all.
And Hong Myeong was enduring it well too.
Seeing him now calmly administering treatment without crying, Min-jun nodded in approval.
Thinking that he was doing well now, Min-jun continued with his own work.
Of course, Hong Myeong wasn’t calmly enduring it.
His tear-stained cheeks had long since dried—he simply had no more tears left to shed.
Just last week, Hong Myeong had been an ordinary person, yet now he was treating people who collapsed before his eyes, blood pouring from their wounds. If he were normal, that would be even stranger.
But still, because he was healing them with his own hands, he felt a certain sense of accomplishment.
‘At least it’s better than at first. I should be grateful for that.’
With that thought, Hong Myeong healed with even greater dedication. Actually, if he didn’t work hard, he couldn’t predict when these people would die, so he had no choice but to push himself.
Each time he used mana, he felt his skills improving, but he had no time for such reflections. It was better to cast one more heal in that time.
He felt as though his soul was being sucked out from using so much mana, but whenever that happened, Min-jun would give him mana stones to absorb from, which helped somewhat.
Or rather, it kept him from dying, at least.
Besides, the guild members all treated him well. Sometimes people would grab his hand and beg him not to heal them, to let them die, but Min-jun would ignore them and order him to continue treating them.
At those moments, instead of despair, his party members would nod with gentle smiles, which was heartbreaking, but what could he do? He had to heal them.
The more I did this, the more I wondered if saving them was truly the right thing to do—but I pushed the thought aside.
When I confided my worries to a few guild members, seeing them take pride in my growth as a proper Reinforce Guild member lifted my spirits somewhat.
It seemed I was gradually drifting away from normalcy.
Even for me, rest was precious. That thirty-minute break after a monster died—or rather, was killed—felt sweeter than honey itself.
They said I didn’t need to sleep to recover from mental fatigue, which seemed absurd, yet strangely, I found myself not feeling “tired” even without sleep, as unfair as that seemed.
As I rested and wrote in my journal with a deep sigh,
“Sigh…”
“Are you alright? Last time I saw you consulting with the other seniors about something…?”
“Oh, Ji-min. Ha, I’m fine. I think I’m becoming a proper Reinforce Guild member now.”
“That’s not fine at all, though?”
“Huh? I suppose that’s true too? Haha.”
Yu Ji-min shook her head as she watched me laugh, though my eyes held sadness.
She’d come out of concern, and while I seemed to be adapting well, there was something lamentable about that very adaptation.
At that moment, I looked at Yu Ji-min and asked with a slight smile.
“Still, it feels good that my skills are improving and that I’m becoming someone useful.”
“What? You were already…”
“No… before the guild master brought me here, I was utterly worthless. I’d spew insults at hunters on the internet, complain endlessly about society, and never put in any effort at all.”
“…Hmm.”
“But coming here, even if it’s just as a member—no, actually putting in effort—it feels refreshing. It’s hard, but there’s definitely a sense of accomplishment. So I understand why everyone stays despite the hardship.”
“That’s definitely true. If it were only hard, nobody would stay. The guild master has that power—making you feel that you yourself matter.”
The Reinforce Guild’s self-esteem grew from experiencing daily what most people only felt near death, yet no one recognized how twisted this truly was.
Perhaps that’s why even those who warned others couldn’t stop themselves?
It almost felt like dopamine addiction.
Yu Ji-min and I both realized our conversation had taken a strange turn and said nothing more.
What mattered was that we both felt satisfied, didn’t it?
Seeing that I was fine, Yu Ji-min stood and spoke with a smile.
“If things get tough, come find us. Everyone’s curious about you and wants to talk.”
“Oh! I’ve been too busy to socialize properly.”
“That’s fine. We usually bond after work anyway, so we’ll see you then.”
“Ha, thank you. Oh, looks like another one’s coming. See you later then.”
As I said, in the distance, another monster was being dragged in, so Yu Ji-min quickly moved to maintain formation. Glancing back at me,
she let out a soft laugh. I looked far more imposing than when we’d gone to the Amusement Park before coming here, preparing to heal with such confidence. He’s actually starting to look cool.
With that thought, Yu Ji-min rushed into the fray.
5.
Lightning fell from the sky, spewing yellow current all around. The descending bolt crashed down like a dragon opening its maw, striking a single figure—a child who appeared no more than eight years old.
One would naturally be anxious seeing such a massive bolt strike a child so small, yet the child wielded the claws in both hands, cleaving the lightning apart.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack――!
The thunderous sound split in all directions, crashing to the ground, and even the scattered fragments carved a massive crater, overturning the terrain.
Yet the child still charged madly through the air toward the woman who’d unleashed the bolt.
Crimson radiance enveloped the child as it flew toward the woman, who gracefully evaded and thrust her spear at the child.
A spear blade flashed like lightning, streaking through space as it aimed for the child’s brow and pierced forward.
The moment the child saw it, they swung their right claw in a slashing arc to deflect the spear, but the blade slipped past slightly, grazing their temple.
Where the spear had been thrust, a tempestuous current flowed and melted the ground into magma. The child let the spear pass and burrowed into the woman’s embrace, then swung their left claw with a flash of crimson light that gathered like the talon of a colossal bear.
Bloody radiance condensed in an instant upon the claw on their left hand, and it was swung with the ferocity of a giant bear’s claw.
The woman seemed unable to evade, but she wrapped electricity around her entire body and escaped from that spot.
Watching this, the child burst with frustration and cried out.
“Argh! Mary’s so fast, I can’t catch her!”
“Hmm, Woo-jin, you’ve improved quite a lot. That was genuinely dangerous this time.”
The woman speaking thus, Mary, lifted her upper garment to show the wound inflicted by Woo-jin’s claw. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but it was quite a deep gash from the talon.
Woo-jin was delighted to see it.
“Oh!”
It had been quite some time since they began sparring with Mary, and this was the first time he’d inflicted such a wound.
Moreover, his own wound was merely a shallow cut from grazing her temple.
Had the exchange continued further, who knows what might have happened, but judging by the present moment alone, it was fair to say Woo-jin had won against Mary.
Mary, acknowledging this, healed the wound with an item and gave Woo-jin a thumbs up.
Woo-jin, understanding the gesture, grinned widely and nodded.
Just as anyone enjoys being recognized, Woo-jin was quite pleased and didn’t know what to do with himself.
“Woo-jin, you’ve become incredibly strong. I need to work harder too.”
“That’s a lie! Mary! You think I don’t know you’re holding back even more power!?”
“Haha, well, that’s true, but still, you’ve grown quite a lot, Woo-jin.”
Even as Mary said this, she spoke with a hint of regret.
“Still, even if all of us combined our strength, it would be difficult to defeat Min-jun.”
“…Y-yeah, that’s right. H-he’s scary, big brother. I-I can’t beat him.”
Mary stroked the trembling Woo-jin’s head. Certainly, Min-jun’s power was terrifying—after all, even if all the executives fought together now, they couldn’t match him.
The world praised them and called them remarkable, lavishing endless praise upon the executives, but the fact that they all fell short of Min-jun alone was something only the members of the Reinforce Guild knew.
Then Woo-jin recalled something and asked Mary.
“But what if we gathered all the new executives and trained them together? Wouldn’t that be different?”
“Oh? That’s a good point. And that sniper? Ma Chong-sa? I heard she’s supposed to be that remarkable?”
“Oh! A sparring match! A sparring match!”
“Rather than sparring, shouldn’t we just go watch?”
“Great! Great, Mary!”

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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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