Chapter 338

Chapter 338

Ever since the open-pit Mana Stone Mine was developed, Neo Seoul had felt unusually lively.

Neo Seoul invested a great deal of funding to turn the open-pit Mana Stone Mine into a fortress.

Building, stabilizing, and maintaining the fortress all required money and manpower.

They had to pour in an enormous amount of funding, but they also had to grind through just as many people.

Naturally, they needed countless workers.

Laborers to build the fortress, Awakened to handle security, miners to dig out Mana Stones, and managers to oversee them. They truly needed an enormous number of people.

The raid parties that had contributed to clearing the open-pit Mana Stone Mine had their shares recognized and voluntarily dispatched personnel. Even so, there were still not enough people, so they recruited from the slums.

It was good if they were Awakened, but it did not matter if they were not.

Everyone had some use.

Countless people headed for the open-pit Mana Stone Mine.

People who liked to talk called it the second Gold Rush.

Just as people had once flocked to the American West to search for gold, people now flocked to the Mana Stone Mine to change their fortunes.

So many people had left that the streets of the slums looked completely empty.

“This many people left? The streets are totally empty.”

A boy muttered as he looked at the slum streets.

It was night, and the sun had completely set.

It was the time when people who had rested to avoid the scorching daytime sun were usually most active. And yet, there were not many people to be seen. That meant one thing.

That many people had gone to the open-pit Mana Stone Mine.

Thanks to that, the boy could roam the streets as much as he wanted without worrying about people’s eyes.

To the people who lived here, it would have been an ordinary sight, but to a boy who had lived underground for so long, the surface was no different from another world.

The boy’s name was Jetoya.

The boy who had lived his entire life in the sewers had finally come up to the surface.

Over the past few days, Jetoya had secretly gone back and forth to the surface, buying necessary items and carrying them underground.

Because of that, he had barely had any time to rest, but Jetoya had not once thought it was difficult.

If suffering this much could make the lives of the people living in the underground sewers a little more comfortable, he could put in as much effort as needed.

The backpack Jetoya now carried was full of items he had struggled to obtain on the surface.

“Whew! I should head back now.”

It was time to return to the filthy, stinking underground world, to the Crocodile den.

Just as Jetoya was heading toward the entrance he had secured in advance—

“Hey, stop right there!”

Someone suddenly called out to Jetoya from the other side of the street.

Jetoya frowned and turned his head. He saw two men in heavy armor approaching.

Jetoya immediately realized who they were.

‘Paladins?’

There were countless Awakened in Neo Seoul, but only one type of person walked the streets wearing such gleaming, heavy armor.

The Paladins of Dongdaemun.

The place where Jetoya was now was also a secluded street in Dongdaemun.

However, it was outside the activity range of the Paladins he had usually observed.

He had never dreamed he would run into Paladins in a place like this.

The Paladins approached Jetoya with their eyes gleaming.

“You, come here. We need to inspect you.”

“What inspection?”

“You don’t look like someone who lives in Dongdaemun.”

“What are you talking about, stopping someone who’s actually busy?”

Jetoya grumbled.

At his calm reaction, the Paladins looked at each other with uncertain expressions.

Jetoya did not miss that opening and launched himself forward.

Paht!

Like a squirrel, Jetoya kicked off the ground and darted into an alley.

“Ah!”

“Catch him!”

The Paladins threw themselves forward to catch Jetoya. But Jetoya slipped past their hands by a hair’s breadth.

Once he entered the alley, Jetoya opened the iron bars leading to the sewer without a moment’s hesitation and jumped inside.

The Paladins who arrived late clicked their tongues.

“He really was a Crocodile bastard.”

“Fuck! No wonder the stench was so strong.”

The Paladins’ faces were full of hostility as they glared at the iron bars leading into the sewer.

The fanatics of Dongdaemun dreamed of a heavenly world.

They did not doubt that Johan, their leader, would guide them to such a world.

To fanatics like them, Crocodiles like Jetoya were nothing more than filthy waste contaminating their clean world. That was why they hated them so much.

The Paladins did not even think of entering the underground sewers.

To them, it felt like contaminated land, or hell itself.

“Seal it properly so that bastard can never crawl out again.”

“Fuck! This isn’t the first or second time. What the hell is this? They keep crawling out like cockroaches.”

Hiss!

The Paladins used a Skill to melt the lock on the iron bars entirely. But they knew.

No matter how much they did this, they could not completely block the Crocodiles crawling up from underground.

“Fuck! Are we some kind of plague? Why lock it up so tight? I can just find another door.”

Jetoya grumbled as he heard the lock melting.

If he had been an ordinary boy, he would have trembled in fear, not knowing whether the Paladins might chase him underground. But Jetoya knew.

They would never come into this underground world.

To those who believed themselves chosen, this place was no different from hell. And Jetoya roamed that hell as he pleased.

With the backpack on his back, Jetoya clung to the ceiling and walked upside down.

A strange adhesive force emerged from the soles of his bare feet and held him firmly in place.

It was an ability he had possessed from the beginning, but after Awakening, it had grown stronger. Thanks to that, Jetoya could move while clinging to walls or ceilings like a lizard, no matter the environment.

“Hm! Hm!”

Jetoya even hummed as he walked upside down along the ceiling.

He came down from the ceiling only when he had almost reached his destination.

Flash!

A bright light suddenly burst from the destination.

“What is it?”

Jetoya was startled and looked ahead.

There was a small village where the light had burst out.

People lived gathered together in a place where sewage did not flow.

Recently, after Jetoya joined them, the village had grown in scale.

Many people had joined after hearing the rumor that there was a magic power generator.

Thanks to that, the village now had more than two hundred people.

The one responsible for the village’s safety was Jetoya.

Although he was young, he had Awakened as a Grade D martial artist and was also acquainted with Zeon, so everyone trusted and followed him.

Naturally, protecting the villagers was Jetoya’s role.

Because of the light that had suddenly burst out, Jetoya quickened his steps.

Countless people were gathered in the center of the village.

“What happened?”

Jetoya asked urgently as soon as he arrived at the village.

One of the residents hurriedly answered,

“Remura performed a miracle.”

“A miracle?”

At the unexpected answer, Jetoya’s eyes widened.

When he pushed through the people and went inside, he saw a blond, freckled girl who looked about eight or nine years old.

The blond, freckled girl was looking at her own hands with an expression that seemed as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

In front of the girl sat a middle-aged woman with a bewildered expression.

The middle-aged woman’s abdomen was covered in blood, as if she had been stabbed by something. Even so, she was alive and breathing perfectly well.

She merely blinked, as if she could not believe her own condition.

Jetoya asked,

“What miracle did Remura perform?”

“She, she brought someone who was dying back to life.”

The one who answered was a plump woman standing beside the freckled girl.

Jetoya asked again,

“What does that mean? She brought someone back to life?”

“Auntie Mallang had a serious wound, and then light flashed from my daughter’s hands, and it all healed.”

The name of the middle-aged woman whose abdomen was covered in blood was Mallang.

Mallang had gone down into the deeper underground, slipped, and fallen, suffering a serious injury.

As ill luck would have it, there had been something sharp where she fell, and a large hole had been opened in her abdomen.

The fact that she had made it back to the village with such a serious wound was a miracle in itself. But that was all it was.

The underground village had nothing that could treat her.

No hemostatic agents, no potions, nothing.

All Mallang could do was lie down and wait for death.

The true miracle happened precisely then.

Light flashed from Remura’s hands beside Mallang, and that terrible wound healed completely.

Remura’s mother chattered excitedly.

“Did you see? My daughter performed a miracle. I’m telling you, my daughter saved a dying person.”

“Wait a minute, Auntie Heather. So Remura saved Auntie Mallang?”

“Yes! Light just flashed from her hands, and she lived.”

Heather, Remura’s mother, explained with spittle flying from her mouth. No one criticized her fussing.

Because everyone there had clearly seen Remura perform a miracle.

Jetoya frowned.

‘Light flashed and the wound healed? Then did Remura Awaken as a Healer?’

Healers were an extremely rare class.

They were precious even among magic-type Awakened.

As far as Jetoya knew, Healers were said to be so rare even in Neo Seoul that they could be counted on one hand.

“Wait a moment. Auntie Mallang, let me see your wound.”

Jetoya carefully examined Mallang’s wound.

When Jetoya lifted her clothes and checked, he was startled.

Despite how much blood she had shed, not a single trace of the wound remained.

It was proof that she had been healed that perfectly.

As if she had never been wounded at all.

Jetoya asked Remura, who could not hide her dazed expression,

“Remura!”

“Ah, Brother Jetoya!”

“Did you Awaken?”

“I…… think so.”

“Can I look at your wrist for a moment?”

“Mm-hm!”

Remura held out her wrist.

Jetoya examined the Rank Insignia on Remura’s wrist.

On Remura’s wrist, six pure white lines were shining.

“Good God! Six lines means she’s Grade A from the start?”

He knew well because he had Awakened himself.

The grade one started with at the time of Awakening made a tremendous difference.

If she started at Grade A, the probability that she would become a Grade S Awakened was extremely high.

He did not know what level of ability a Grade A Healer had, but judging from the ability Remura had just shown, she could clearly save even someone on the verge of death.

‘This is insane!’

Jetoya grabbed his head and shook it.

Remura was looking at Jetoya with an expression that said she knew nothing. It seemed she still did not understand just how incredible an ability she had obtained.

Her mother, Heather, was different.

Her face was filled with greed.

She clearly knew just how tremendous the ability her daughter had Awakened was.

“My child Awakened. She’s an Awakened with an incredible ability. Now all of you had better get on my good side. You’ll have to get on my good side if you want to be healed.”

She chattered with spittle flying from her mouth.

Jetoya spoke cautiously.

“Auntie!”

“What?”

“You need to be careful from now on.”

“Careful of what?”

“If other people find out that Remura has such an incredible ability, they’ll definitely covet her.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Too much ability invites disaster. Remura’s ability is too dangerous right now.”

“Don’t make me laugh! You’re saying that, but you want my daughter’s ability too, don’t you?”

Heather hid Remura behind her and glared.

Seeing her blinded by greed, Jetoya let out a sigh.

‘Hah! Damn it.’

Heather’s face was already deeply stained with greed.

It was clear that she would not listen no matter what Jetoya said.

He had no way of knowing what kind of waves Remura’s Awakening would cause in this underground world.

‘This won’t do. I need to discuss this with Mr. Zeon.’