Chapter 57
“Wait, why are you here?”
Lee Hyun-ah's sudden, unannounced visit caught me off guard, but I couldn't leave her standing at the door, so I opened it.
“Mister! Are you feeling any better? I was worried, so I came to check on you. Hehe.”
Hyun-ah greeted me with a beaming smile, holding a bowl of porridge.
Apparently, she'd come to visit me while I was sick. What an unexpected turn of events.
‘But maybe it's because I haven't seen her in a while? She's pretty… Was she always this charming?’
In my memories, Lee Hyun-ah had always dressed boyishly and worn clothes that revealed very little,
but for some reason, she was wearing an incredibly feminine outfit today—so much so that it was hard to take my eyes off her.
And on top of that…
‘I never thought I'd see pie-slice cleavage in real life…’
She was emphasizing her best assets as much as possible—assets she normally kept completely covered.
Her breasts were already large, but the bag strap emphasized them, doubling their appeal.
My hands were itching to touch them right then.
“Thanks for worrying about me. Is this porridge? How am I ever going to repay you?”
“Hehe, you don't have to repay me… We're colleagues! We have to help each other out!”
As she said that, Hyun-ah clasped her hands in a cheering pose.
Her breasts were naturally pressed together, creating a deep, prominent cleavage.
This is way too stimulating first thing in the morning.
Whether she knew what she was doing or not, Hyun-ah handed me the porridge with a bright smile.
“Could you wait a moment? I'll buy you a cup of coffee to thank you.”
“Can't I come in?”
“No, you can't. Wait here.”
-Click
Coming into my room? Absolutely not.
Even I could see what a mess the place was; if Hyun-ah saw it like this, whatever affection she had for me would fly out the window.
It would be a shame to throw away all the goodwill I'd painstakingly earned.
I hurriedly put the porridge in the fridge, threw on a hat and a coat, and opened the door.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes! But you look healthy. Are you completely recovered?”
“I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I'll tell you on the way.”
“Yes! Hehe.”
“By the way, how did you know where I lived?”
“Because you told me, of course. That's how I found you.”
Huh? Did I? I think I said I lived somewhere around here, but I don't remember giving her my exact address…
It was a fairly long time ago, so my memory was hazy.
“How else would I have found you?”
“I suppose you're right. I must have been mistaken.”
If that's what you say, then I suppose that's how it was. Maybe I was being overly sensitive.
Cecilia must have made me paranoid.
Right. How else could she have found me if I hadn't told her?
***
“What? You reawakened again? That's huge news…!”
“Shh! Keep it down. It'd be a nuisance if rumors got out.”
“Ah! Right. Shh!”
The excuse I came up with to deceive Hyun-ah was that I'd reawakened.
I told her that I'd suddenly reawakened after coming home from the drinking party and had experienced unexplained pain, perhaps because my body was adapting.
There were rare cases of Awakened people reawakening, but no one had any clear information about it, so it was a lie I could get away with.
“So, did you get a new skill?”
“Yeah. It's related to combat, too.”
“Amazing!”
Hyun-ah looked even more excited than I was, as if this were happening to her.
It was genuinely touching to see her celebrate for me as if it were her own good news.
“Speaking of which, I was thinking of going to a dungeon sometime this week to test my ability. Want to come with me?”
“What? Were you planning to go alone?”
“No, no. I'm asking indirectly whether you'll come with me. You know perfectly well I can't make a reservation without you.”
“Hehe… That's true. You can't do anything without me~ I guess I'll have to take care of it for you!”
Embarrassingly, that was true. I'd always left things like this to Hyun-ah, so I didn't know how to do them myself.
There was so much to prepare and so many forms to fill out that I was amazed by how effortlessly Hyun-ah handled it all.
Wasn't entering a dungeon just a matter of going in, clearing it, and coming back out?
“Then why not strike while the iron's hot and go today?”
“Today…? I'd be fine with that, but what about your equipment?”
“I always keep it in my car, so that's fine!”
Oh, right. She had her own car, even if it was a small one.
Hyun-ah always seemed so young and childish, but she wasn't actually like that.
She was already a senior in the Hunter world, several steps ahead of me.
“Then, can you make the reservation?”
“Yes! Just leave it to me, Mister.”
“Thanks. Then I'll treat you to dinner when we're done today.”
“Really?”
Hyun-ah brightened at the mention of dinner.
She even hummed to herself, looking genuinely excited.
I wondered what expensive meal she was planning to wring out of me…
Still, since I'd taken her virginity, I owed her at least this much.
“Reservation complete!”
“What? Already? How did you do it so fast?”
“I've got my ways. Hehe! I booked DD-138 for 3 p.m.”
“DD-138… Is that the orc dungeon?”
“Wrong! That's DD-125. DD-138 is the lizardman dungeon. Seriously! Do you really know so little?”
“I really can't memorize things like this. Hyun-ah, I'll just leave it to you.”
“……Y-yes! Just trust me!”
***
“By the way, what skill did you get? I won't tell anyone. Can't you tell me?”
“I don't know exactly, either. I'll probably have to use it on a monster to find out, but for now, I'll tell you that it's an eye-related skill.”
As we chatted about this and that in the car on the way to the dungeon, Hyun-ah asked cautiously.
She probably thought I would keep it secret, but I had no intention of doing that.
I'd have to bring it up anyway to explain my sudden increase in combat ability.
“An eye-related skill?”
“Yeah. You can think of it as something similar to identifying weaknesses.”
“Wow! Isn't that amazing? You can't memorize things like that, Mister!”
Wait, was that the amazing part?!
Still, she had a point…
I'd literally memorized them while being beaten up, so her reaction was only natural.
“Hey, but I did memorize them all eventually.”
“If we go to another dungeon, you'll have to memorize new ones all over again. Are you going to get beaten up while claiming you don't know them then, too?”
“Well… not exactly…”
“Hehe. I'm kidding, so cheer up! That means it won't happen anymore!”
What was that? She built me up, only to knock me right back down…!
Hyun-ah doubled over laughing, and apparently that wasn't enough, because she started smacking my thigh and enjoying herself.
No, I really wish she'd drive properly… It absolutely wasn't because I was annoyed.
But her physical contact was excessive today.
At the café, she'd casually brushed my arm, tried to link arms with me, and pressed her breasts against me… She was being pretty aggressive.
What was with the lack of personal space? Even after racking my memory, I couldn't recall us ever being this close. It was puzzling.
Come to think of it, she'd acted that way in our messages yesterday, too. Something about this was suspicious…
Daughter, thanks to you, Dad has developed a bad case of self-consciousness overload.
What am I supposed to do about this?
***
Whatever Hyun-ah was up to, I decided not to worry about it for now.
What mattered now was testing ‘Observation’.
I'd acquired ‘Observation’ before entering the romance-fantasy world, but this was my first time using it against a monster.
It was time to find out how different it was from using it on a human.
“Hyun-ah, don't intervene until I give you a signal. Got it?”
“I'm worried… but okay. I'll trust you!”
I'd coordinated with her to hunt in the past, but today I planned to take on the challenge alone.
That was the only way to find out how much I'd grown.
A pair of lizardmen that had strayed from their group appeared in front of me.
Judging by their gear, they looked like patrol guards, making them perfect for the test.
[Observation]
When I used the skill, I felt mana drain away.
A slight weakness welled up in me, and a translucent window appeared beside the lizardmen.
[Weakness: Left flank (injured)]
[Weakness: Right instep (injured)]
‘!!!’
What the hell? Those weren't ordinary weaknesses.
Instead of the weaknesses generally known for lizardmen, the translucent window displayed each individual's weaknesses.
The information was far more useful than I'd expected.
With newfound confidence, I charged at the two of them.
Taking advantage of their confusion after my sudden ambush, I used my favorite blinding combo, circled around, and slashed the lizardman whose flank was a weak point.
-Screeeech!
The creature screamed and writhed in pain.
The overpowered nature of ‘Observation’ was beyond anything I'd expected.
The weak spots were glowing, making them easy to attack.
Hunting felt incredibly easy, as if I were taking a test with the answer sheet in front of me.
-Gurrrk! Ghk, squeee!
But that wasn't the end of what ‘Observation’ could do.
When its companion fell, the enraged lizardman thrust its spear at me, and the attack's trajectory appeared before my eyes like a hologram.
I dodged the attack as naturally as breathing, took a reverse grip on my sword, and brought it down on the lizardman's instep.
-Squeeeech!
Finishing off the disarmed lizardman as it thrashed in pain was as easy as eating cake.
“Phew…”
I had taken down two lizardmen in an instant.
I was hunting at a speed that put my former self to shame.
And the mana cost of ‘Observation’? Once I'd actually used it, I found it was so low I didn't even need to worry about it.
It was completely different from using it on a person.
“Haha… This is incredible.”
My Heal and Purification skills, both fully leveled, never even had a chance to be used.
At this point, it seemed like I could clear a dungeon by myself without Hyun-ah.
“Hyun-ah, did you see that? It was completely…”
Huh? But Hyun-ah's expression was strange.
She was smiling with her mouth, but not with her eyes.
Her eyes darted around as if she were feeling uneasy about something.
Why was she acting like that? It was giving me the creeps…