Was Happy Being a Despised F-Rank Healer, You Know? - Chapter 135

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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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16. An Unusual Omen (12)

Isang Hee, who had been glaring at me with a dissatisfied expression, raised her hand.
“I, I! I’ll nominate myself……!”
“Isang Hee. Fine. Anyone else?”
“What about Hali?”
“Hmm. Hali, are you a good swimmer? If you don’t have related skills, it’ll be essential.”
“Oh, no!”
It wasn’t that I couldn’t swim at all, but I had no intention whatsoever of playing Shimcheong in this play, so I shook my head.
And as I was deliberating whether to recommend Yu Hee, Isang Hee raised her hand abruptly once more.
“I, I…… I really, really want to do this…….”
Everyone stared in confusion, and Isang Hee spoke with a shy expression, her body curling in slightly.
“Everyone, I, I know you don’t like me…… But, still I want to, to get along well with you…… If you let me do it, I’ll, I’ll work hard.”
It was the sort of thing that could be misunderstood as Isang Hee being ostracized within Class 8.
But we all knew—and she knew too—that she simply hadn’t been able to integrate herself, not because of that, but because in the Dungeon she had refused to blend in with the others, had openly discriminated by rank, and above all, had tried to kill someone out of personal feeling.
Even people who had no particular grievance with her before now viewed her unfavorably, given such behavior.
I couldn’t help but furrow my brow.
I was the one she had tried to kill, after all.
But that didn’t mean I wished her dead. Whatever happened during the festival, staying together was the safest course for Class 8.
Whether it was outsiders or the Dungeon, it was clear that anyone from Class 8 who found themselves alone would become a target.
‘Later on, I’m going to need Isang Hee’s help for sure.’
Then this would be the right move to make.
‘In the worst case, if there’s anyone being targeted, it’ll probably just be me anyway.’
The others in Class 8 seemed to be handling things well enough on their own.
After quickly running through all these reasons, I raised my hand and spoke.
“Isang Hee might have some misunderstanding here, but since she’s expressing such a strong desire for the role, I’d like to cast my vote for her.”
Isang Hee didn’t turn to look at me.
Yuhan Seong, much like last night, knitted his brow and gazed at me quietly.
And after the vote was held.
Isang Hee became Shimcheong.
***
Shin Su-yeong, a third-year at Narin Academy, had just been promoted to A-rank Inspector this year.
As befitted an Academy graduate, he came equipped with rich Dungeon-clearing experience, and already possessed skills that didn’t fall short compared to active Hunters.
A student whose future was assured—starting next year, he would travel overseas accumulating various Dungeon experiences, and in about three years would return home to become a pillar of the nation.
Yet this very student was, in fact, rather skeptical about the existence and purpose of Healers.
Because of Potions?
That was part of it, but not the absolute reason.
He simply believed that more Hunters died fighting without a Healer than died protecting one.
Actual statistics existed to support this view.
It was in the midst of this that he heard rumors of Hali.
Stories about some young ones making a name for themselves in the Annihilation Era, alongside them.
Curious, he found a few videos of their Dungeon runs, and through them he became interested in the Potions that Jin Hali produced.
From the footage alone, she seemed genuinely remarkable.
There were certainly things only a Healer could do, but the convenience of Potions was incomparable.
Perhaps a Hunter like himself—one who favored aggressive combat and often found himself distant from the rear guard—might show similar interest in Potions.
In any case, for these reasons, he stepped into the Potion Shop of the supposedly notorious F-rank Healer Jin Hali the day before yesterday.
As he pushed open the small bell-hung door, a faint herbal scent brushed his nostrils. The interior was neater than expected, and the display shelves were wiped clean of dust.
Scanning the interior carefully, he noticed that each Potion bottle bore a handwritten label.
「Muscle Rigidity Relief Minor」
「Mental Fatigue Recovery Aid」
「Sensory Stabilization Correction」
Orderly.
But seeing the notice posted on the door, the shop was currently in unmanned sales hours.
‘What kind of confidence allows her to sell unattended?’
Sensing the area, he could tell several precautions had been put in place, but still.
‘Then again, she’s a student too, so she can’t be here all day.’
He would have preferred to meet her in person and have a conversation, and it was a shame he couldn’t.
But more than that, he was curious about the Potions he’d just seen.
‘……There’s real care here.’
He picked up a few of the specialized Potions in minor size and two bottles of Basic Recovery Potion. The price was almost bargain-like.
As an A-rank Inspector, he would surely have no use for them and would throw them away.
In fact, he’d considered discarding them on the way home after the purchase, but when he held the bottles up to the light and saw how the contents were perfectly clear and formed such a stable layering, his thinking shifted slightly.
‘At least it’s not hastily made.’
That was his first impression of F-rank Healer Jin Hali.
And two days later.
That judgment saved his life.
The Dungeon he was scheduled to enter was a cave-type C-rank.
The moment his feet crossed the gate’s threshold, the air felt different.
The ground trembled subtly beneath him.
“……Something’s wrong.”
One of his party members muttered.
Immediately after, the ground erupted.
Crack!
Bursting through the heap of soil came a grasshopper the size of a man. Its exoskeleton gleamed with a greenish sheen, and its jaws worked as if to grind through steel.
“A grasshopper Dungeon?”
A Mutant Dungeon.
A structure not in the intelligence.
And.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
From all directions, tens. No—hundreds of grasshoppers poured down upon them.
The battle was pure hell.
Each time Shin Su-yeong’s blade swept, grasshoppers split in two, but their numbers were endless.
“Guard the rear!”
“Heal! Healer!”
“Ahhh!!”
Screams.
Blood.
Torn limbs.
The body of a comrade crushed by exoskeletons fell to the ground.
Shin Su-yeong clenched his teeth.
His arms trembled.
One down.
Then another.
His party members fell one by one.
In the end, only he remained standing.
His breathing was ragged and his vision swam.
Yet even the slightest wrong move would end him.
Grasshoppers surrounded him on all sides.
Then suddenly, a glass vial in his pocket brushed his fingertips.
‘……That Potion.’
Basic Recovery Potion. That shop’s goods had never borne ill repute.
He hesitated for a moment, but there was no other choice.
He uncorked it and drained it in one gulp.
The instant he did, the world split apart.
And at the same time, a sensation of a thin membrane settling over his mind, a transparent curtain enfolding his head and pushing outward stimuli away.
And.
Boom!
All sound cut out, and the grasshoppers froze.
The bodies of his comrades shook.
The space twisted.
Shin Su-yeong’s eyes flew wide open.
‘……Illusion?’
The swarm of hundreds of grasshoppers he’d believed he saw.
The blood.
The corpses.
The hellish battlefield.
All of it peeled away like a shell.
What remained was only one thing.
A grasshopper boss standing before him, no larger than his palm.
A Mental-type Specialized Entity.
Illusion, Fear Amplification, Collective Illusion Projection.
Every sight he had witnessed until now was a mental assault created by this tiny boss.
And the Potion had blocked it.
“……Insane.”
Shin Su-yeong muttered.
This was no mere recovery Potion.
At minimum, high-grade.
The boss, sensing the threatening momentum, let out a warning cry.
But it was already too late.
The illusion had already shattered.
Shin Su-yeong’s blade flashed.
One strike.
The grasshopper boss split clean in two with a single blow.
As it did, the space flipped.
The party members who had been trapped in the illusion all snapped back to consciousness at once.
“……Huh?”
“I…… I’m alive?”
“What is…… this……?”
They all had seen the same hell.
And all had been on the brink of death in that same way.
Shin Su-yeong gave a brief explanation.
“It was an illusion. I’ve already taken care of the boss.”
Silence.
And then, belatedly, the reality of their survival crashed down upon them.
The rest of the clear was straightforward.
Without the illusion, the individual grasshoppers posed no real threat.
When they recovered the Boss Core and exited the gate, the sun hadn’t yet set.
But to Shin Su-yeong, the elapsed time felt like days.
The next morning, he returned to that shop.
It was still unmanned hours.
The lights were off.
Same handwritten labels on the display shelves.
Shin Su-yeong stood there for a moment.
Then he set a note on the counter.
It was a brief sentence.
「I lived because of you. Thank you.」
And after hesitating a moment, he added one more line.
「Next time, I’ll repay this debt properly.」
He pressed the note in place and turned to leave.
Just before stepping out the door, he paused.
He picked up one more bottle of Basic Recovery Potion from the display shelf.
What happened to Shin Su-yeong began to occur with increasing frequency among the senior students at the Academy.

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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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