The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 76

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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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Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with Song – Episode 076
Dan Myeong-ah had grown up being mocked relentlessly since childhood for bearing a fate of short-lived destiny. Yet such words had never truly bothered me.
My life had encountered no significant crises (aside from a sudden plunge in academic performance), and I had never even caught a cold.
I possessed flexibility as well—the wisdom to step back from tasks that challenged me, refusing to overextend myself with reckless ambition.
Warning! Use Holy Power. Mana has been depleted!
Warning! Severe body damage detected. Use Holy Power!
Waves of energy undulated across my entire body. With each step I took, Leng-leng’s holiness rippled outward like a tide.
It was a pressing urge—a demand that I draw upon my own strength.
Yet despite my mana reserves hitting rock bottom, I endured. Somehow, I had to see this through.
‘I cannot lose Leng-leng.’
Objectively speaking, I was not friendless.
Kind, steadfast, and occasionally burdened with an unflattering reputation—yet responsible—people who cherished him had surrounded me since childhood.
But Leng-leng was different.
Casting Hermit’s Veil (C)!
Empowered by holy strength, I activated a concealment skill elevated two ranks higher.
I concealed myself behind a floating bookshelf suspended in mid-air, clamping my hand over my mouth.
The hunters pursuing me were not the only threat.
Within a B-rank Dungeon, even the lesser monsters possessed enough strength to claim my life.
Blood flowed ceaselessly from the wounds carved into me by the book pages. The poison from my initial encounter prevented the bleeding from stopping.
A deep, resonant voice leaked from within my body.
[Dan Myeong-ah, stop being stubborn. It is fine if you use my Holy Power.]
[You will die like this!]
I knew.
That was precisely why I was acting this way.
When a contractor dies, the Staff Member becomes sealed once more for a time before seeking out another contractor.
Most contractors die of old age. The Staff Members throw themselves entirely into protecting their contractors when sudden crises arise.
Right now, Leng-leng was showing restraint only because my life hung by the thinnest of threads.
‘If I truly become critical, he will forcibly seize his power and sacrifice himself.’
Therefore, I could not lose my reason.
I had to cling to consciousness by sheer force of will. The moment my awareness dimmed even slightly, I would lose my precious buddy.
But.
I was reaching my limit….
“You hid well? Where are you?”
A voice called out from the distance.
Using a B-rank Dungeon as a place of abduction meant they were at least B-rank Hunters.
Which meant escaping with a C-rank concealment skill would be difficult. I gasped for breath.
‘Leng-leng said there was a life signature here. Someone with immense mana, he said.’
With every movement I made, I was leaking mana into the air around me.
Even knowing that I was leaving a trail for my pursuers to follow, I could not stop.
I desperately hoped that someone—anyone—would notice this signal and come find me.
I can’t rule out the possibility that someone who entered here might be evil. If that were to happen, it would truly be the end.
But I’ve always been taught to look in a positive direction.
Dan Myeong-ah’s heaving body crumpled.
“Found you.”
There was no time to sense his presence.
The Unknown Male Hunter’s eyes gleamed brilliantly as he grinned wickedly.
It seemed he had struggled considerably—beads of sweat dotted his forehead. He furrowed his brow sharply and hurled Dan Myeong-ah with an invisible force.
Intense pain flooded through my entire body as I was driven into the massive bookshelf. Dan Myeong-ah gritted her teeth, barely suppressing a groan.
She succeeded in stifling her cry, but she couldn’t prevent the world before her eyes from spinning into darkness.
A desperate message materialized before her vision.
Your Staff Member forcibly realizes their divinity.
At that same moment, Leng-leng materialized before her in a semi-transparent form.
[Awakened one, why do you torment a fellow Awakened?]
A voice echoed from a distance.
“Leng… yes, Nereus.”
This can’t happen.
Words wouldn’t come. Blood surged up her throat with a coughing sound.
It seemed something inside her body had been injured from being thrown moments before.
She couldn’t lift her body.
“Ah, this is the villain’s law, isn’t it? Usually when we spout off what schemes we have like this, the hero shows up.”
The Unknown Male Hunter chuckled before shaking his head as if it were ridiculous.
As Nereus swung his hand, a shield made of foam materialized. Not a weapon to attack, but one to defend.
An Awakened with a Staff Member stronger than oneself cannot be harmed in any way. An unspoken rule among Staff Members.
“I don’t like it. In the first place, this is a society where people choose based on their own interests and gains, so it doesn’t make sense that trying to make money becomes villainy… ”
Besides, I don’t really want to be punished by a hero.
Having finished speaking, he began unleashing invisible force toward Nereus’s shield.
It soon became grey lightning. Dan Myeong-ah clearly saw Nereus beginning to fade from her feet upward.
‘The shield is breaking.’
“Stop, sto, stop…”
As Dan Myeong-ah cried out desperately, coughing up blood repeatedly, the Unknown Male Hunter spoke again with regret.
“Actually, being caught up badly because you’re a Hunter Association Staff Member is one thing, but someone like you would have died anyway, even without the Association.”
Without even knowing the reason you had to die.
Despair bloomed from the deepest recesses of her heart.
When that shield breaks, Nereus will surely face death. Yet he wore a faint smile as if protecting Dan Myeong-ah was the greatest honor imaginable.
As long as he endured, he stood firm with his single shield, blocking everything flying from all directions so that no attack would reach her.
It would be better if he abandoned himself and disappeared. Until a slightly stronger contractor appeared.
“Run away… Leng, Leng-leng, please!”
He cried out with the agony of his throat tearing. But Nereus whispered into her ear as if he couldn’t hear her words at all.
[Myeong-ah, I’ll use my final divinity to send you as far away as possible.]
[The other magical power that entered here is incredibly pure and sacred. I can feel that strength.]
[That Awakener will surely save you. So you must survive by any means necessary.]
Dan Myeong-ah had no chance to respond.
Nereus’s shield cracked, then shattered into fragments.
“The hero isn’t coming.”
And the Unknown Male Hunter’s gray lightning poured down.
‘I know myself, Leng-leng. I don’t think I’ll ever become very strong. How do I put it… it feels like my limit is fixed right here.’
‘Being active within a dungeon isn’t the sole measure of an Awakener’s worth. There are crafters, and tamers too.’
‘Ah, well then. I’m quite proud of my grades, so please don’t comfort me like I’m such a pitiful person, okay? I’m still a high school senior with infinite possibilities.’
Nearly a decade had passed.
‘When will I ever climb out of being a perpetual assistant?’
‘If I transferred to desk work, I could advance, but because I stubbornly stick to fieldwork, my performance gets overshadowed by higher-ranked hunters.’
‘But the rankers aren’t good at teaching hunters with poor stats like me. I’m the right person to understand those people. And…’
‘And?’
‘I still can’t trust sending Kim A-jin out alone.’
A friend who, despite being a Staff Member’s avatar, would walk around drinking cheap iced americanos together.
Someone who was sometimes family and companion, my only true confidant, and my infinite supporter—that person was gradually disappearing.
Nereus turned his head to look at Dan Myeong-ah.
[You are my greatest contractor.]
It was an affection deeper than any declaration of love.
A single word of recognition that made an unremarkable person invaluable.
Hot tears streamed down Dan Myeong-ah’s cheeks. Where could such an immaculate and sacred being possibly be, that they would not come?
If she possessed such power, she wished only to help those dear to her avoid parting.
It was not yet time for a final farewell.
“Leng-leng!”
In that instant, a vivid mana swept across her vision, completely overwhelming the gray.
As if the World Tree itself were blooming, the brilliant green of a vast forest unfurled before her eyes.
In the blink of an eye, she saw the back of a small female figure blocking Nereus’s path.
“The hero may not have come…”
She finished her words while breathing heavily, as though she had rushed here at full speed.
“…but the healer has arrived.”

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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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