Chapter 107 101: In The Hospital

I was dropped out on the streets of the Deep Down Town, right next to the entrance of the labyrinth. Immediately as I and Dawn returned to the town, I was stuffed into the hospital of the adventurer's guild.

Interestingly, a large part of the second floor of the guild house was remodeled into a hospital. Even more interestingly, almost the entire hospital was full of patients. And, perhaps, most interesting of all, more than half of the bastards on the bed were there since they fought with each other.

What a wild bunch.

I had fallen asleep as soon as I was laid on the bed so I didn't remember any treatment. When I woke up, I was already in loose blue robes. Bandages were scrawled over my chest and back and my hand around my finger was wrapped up as well. It sucked that my right hand was missing a finger now, I would have to adjust my posture with the sword for a while.

I didn't have to worry about magic, though. I only used spells that I had a hundred percent control over, so missing a hand or two won't affect my spell activation.

Just as I thought about magic, the mana circuits and Ki veins in my body started throbbing, sending up a wave of pain.

I bit my lips and closed my eyes, still laying down.

"Eugy... It seems I'll have to go back to Alfheim."

Titania's mutters reached me.

"What? Why?"

Titania crossed her legs while sitting on my chest and rested her head on her palm. "The reverse flow of that world-end thing weakened you greatly. Just keeping my body in the mortal realm is taking a toll on you. If I stay here your circuits won't heal."

"It's just Ki and Mana you know?"

"Heh? Of course, it's not?" Titania answered, exasperated. "It's not just a simple mixture. It's a completely different form of energy, like Demonic Energy or Holy Energy, it's not as simple as just being Ki and Mana."

"Is that so...?"

I wasn't aware of that.

"In the first place, mixing the two should be impossible. It's because you have a more scientific understanding of Mana and Ki from your different world paired with your insane control that's even making this happen."

"Right... I was involved in a lot of research myself."

"In that pantheon place you mentioned?" Titania asked.

I nodded meekly at her words.

"I used to run away with the labs thinking a strong person should have the best of research centers, so they decided to just let me in."

I had got the idea of mixing the two from the research that was being conducted in Pantheon as well.

Titania didn't say anything, but I could tell she was a bit shocked. How weird, it's perfectly natural to steal research centers in my opinion.

"Will you be safe?" I asked. Titania hadn't said anything, but I had a feeling that she was different from all the other fairies, but not in a good way.

She nodded.

"It's ok, I'll freeload off my twin sister and her husband for a bit."

"You have a twin?"

"She's not even half as pretty as me."

"I am sure," I said.

Titania suddenly floated over to my face and pecked my cheeks.

"You were really cool," she said. "I'll see you in a bit."

With that, Titania suddenly disappeared.

"Ah... now I am going to be bored.

***

A few hours later, I ended up with a visitor.

A seriously bulky, tank-like visitor.

"No need to get up." The visitor, the branch manager of the Adventurer Guild of Deep Down Town said as he sat next to my bed and crossed his arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Never been better," I said, showing off my right hand.

"Hm... It won't be easy even with a prosthetic, the best you can do is a stiff metal finger to curl and open up."

"That wasn't what I was getting at—"

"—It must be pretty detrimental for you to lose a finger. A swordsman's balance is set up on years of foundation."

"It's alright, I am a magician after all."

The manager kept staring at me as I said those words.

Ah damn it, why couldn't Titania be here and tell me what kind of face he was making.

"I know you're a dual-core."

I saw that coming damn it. Just how monstrous do your senses have to be to detect something like this? Even if we had a conversation, it barely lasted a few minutes. It was a feat I wasn't anywhere close to being able to pull off.

"I see..." I said, hiding my thoughts.

"I heard everything from Adventurer Dawn. You two should have left immediately after noticing there was a demonic curse."

"No. The curse made them stronger the more they ran into each other. If we had delayed it for long then an unbeatable monster would have been born."

"Hm, it was still dangerous."

The manager was strangely talkative. He didn't give off such an impression previously.

"I think you survived purely by luck."

"What? That's not the case at—"

"What if instead of your finger, your torso was grazed?"

I stopped speaking.

"Your sword breaking apart was also a show of negligence. That's not all, the head-on approach you two chose and the attacks you used to fight were absurd. I had been thinking since I saw you fight in the examinations, even there you gladly let your foot be stabbed through just to win, didn't you?"

I wanted to argue, but I couldn't.

He wasn't wrong.

I hadn't thought of it that way... but being told all of it so flatly.

From my equipment to my methods, all of them were based on my belief in absolute strength.

"Kid," the manager continued. "You're conceited."

My eyes widened.

This fucker, what did he—

"You fight like you're the strongest, but you don't really have the strength to live up to it. This isn't called 'development,' to abandon yourself just to win is conceitedness."

I slowly pushed myself off, trying to sit up, and faced the manager with a stern gaze.

Not development? I was putting my life on the line precisely for that. Did he think I was scouring that dungeon to find riches?

"I am aware of my limits," I said, my voice coming out as a groan from the pain. "I fought how I did to train myself, not to chase some ideal."

The manager pulled back slightly.

Then, his shoulders bobbed up and down.

His voice coarse, he started laughing out loud.

From a small chuckle to a wall-shaking roar, the manager laughed out extremely loud.

"How funny," he said in between breaths. "To train? Like that? That's stupid."

"The heck did you say—"

"Five. No, three." He cut me off and pulled up three fingers in front of me. "I'll train you for three years. I am the one who trained all three current Mythril Ranked Adventurers. Strong enough to live up to that style of yours, that's what I'll make you. What do you think?"

"You... manager?"

Suddenly, the manager let out his aura.

The world seemed to be collapsing inside as his pressure focused on me. My teeth jittered and my body trembled. I could see everything shaking, as if an earthquake had hit.

It was intense. At the level of those Rankers amongst the Hunters from Earth.

Dragon. This intense pressure reminded me of my murderer.

Keith's words came ringing in my ears.

'There's plenty stronger than those dragons,' he had said.

In front of this, the monster that had almost taken my life seemed like an ant, no, it was even smaller.

From deep within my heart, excitement welled up.

This.

Such power.

My breathing grew heavy, it was getting harder to control my heart as drool started spilling out of my lips.

Such strength.

I wanted it.

"Three years?" I asked, my excitement couldn't stop me from speaking even through this pressure. The manager too seemed slightly shocked by my change, but I didn't care.

Greed for the power he had exhibited was flowing in me.

If he refused to hand it over, I would willingly try to kidnap him and cut him open to find his secrets.

"I'll do it," I said, panting. "I'll learn from you. So give me all of your strength."

The manager blinked twice and the pressure he exuded disappeared.

He broke into another loud chuckle.

"Fine!" He said. "Take all of it if you dare!"

***

The manager left soon, and I was left alone in the hospital room. Soon enough, the sun went down.

The receptionist of the guild had shown her face in between. I mistook her for a nurse and was flicked on the forehead though.

As the night deepened, the door to my room opened.

A woman in a suit stepped inside.

"Dusk, it's me, Dawn."

I opened my eyes and turned to her.

"Adventurer Dawn, are you doing good?"

"Yeah, I wasn't as injured." Dawn walked over and placed a hand on my forehead to check for any fever.

Right then, the door was opened again and the receptionist stepped inside again.

"Hey, kiddo," she said, completely ignoring Dawn. "Are you doing better now? Think you can move?"

I nodded.

"Good. Then get out, we need this room for someone else now. Stupid idiot lost his legs."

I was left blinking in the record time it took for the staff of the adventurers guild to kick me and Dawn out and enter the room with someone else. The amount of consideration they showed me was to hand me a pair of crutches. The adventurer guild hospital was way too busy.

"Um... Dawn, do you think you can help me find an inn?" I asked.

"An inn? This late, what if you need a doctor again?"

"No rooms are open in the dorm, so I have no choice."

"In that case," Dawn turned me and smacked her chest. "Leave it to this sister. You can just sleep in my room."

"Hah?"

"Don't worry. Just relax, I'll take care of you!"

And so I found myself (kidnapped) in Dawn's room.