Chapter 290
Zeon asked Brielle,
“You’re giving it to Gaia?”
“She’s a spirit, right? I thought giving her an item with an attribute might help.”
“You really like Gaia that much, huh.”
“Yep!”
Brielle nodded without even the slightest hesitation.
Seeing Brielle smiling so brightly, Zeon thought it was a good thing.
Even though it had only been four days since she met Gaia, the darkness that had lingered over Brielle’s face had completely disappeared.
Gaia also seemed happy to have found a friend like Brielle.
It felt as though Gaia regarded Zeon as a guardian, while thinking of Brielle as a friend she could connect with on a spiritual level.
‘Maybe it was fate for the two of them to meet.’
Seeing Brielle so happy made Zeon feel happy as well.
At that moment, Yoo Sehui asked,
“What’s Gaia? A new friend?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Tch! It’s not like I wanted to know about your friends anyway.”
Snorting, Yoo Sehui looked at Zeon.
“By the way, why did you come here?”
“Ah! I had something I wanted to sell.”
“Really?”
“It’s not something I can show out here.”
“Then let’s go to my office.”
“Sounds good.”
Hearing their conversation, Levin and Brielle spoke up.
“You go talk with the guildmaster, hyung. I’m going to look around the Goblin Market for the first time in a while.”
“I’ll also see if there’s anything I need.”
“Alright! See you later.”
After parting ways with Levin and Brielle, Zeon headed to Yoo Sehui’s office.
The moment they entered the office, Yoo Sehui smiled and said,
“So, what business does our Sand Mage have with me in secret?”
“I’d like you to sell these for me.”
Zeon opened his subspace and took out several mana stones.
“What are these—”
As Yoo Sehui examined the mana stones, her eyes shook violently.
Because the mana stones Zeon had produced were no ordinary items.
They were mana stones from a Gray Ogre and a Giant Spider.
Neither was something commonly seen.
An enormous amount of mana radiated from the stones.
“Wait… are these all mana stones from A-rank magical beasts?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you get these?”
“I was lucky enough to obtain them.”
“Lucky my ass. If luck alone could get someone A-rank magical beast mana stones, I’d spend all day staring at the ground too. How did you get them?”
“I told you. I got lucky.”
“Tch! Fine. If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. So you want me to sell these off for you?”
“Yes.”
Yoo Sehui rolled the Gray Ogre mana stone around in her hand as she spoke.
“A-rank magical beast mana stones don’t circulate easily on the market, so they’ll sell for a very high price. Even without us, you could get full value for them. The fact that you’re still entrusting them to us means you don’t want to step into the spotlight yourself, right?”
“You know me well.”
“Well, it’s not like we’ve only known each other for a day or two. Fine! We’ll handle these items for you.”
“Thank you.”
“We’re doing business for money anyway. I’ll take the commission myself, alright?”
“Of course.”
When Zeon answered readily, a smile appeared on Yoo Sehui’s lips.
“I like how straightforward you are. Unlike that picky little elf brat. Why did she become so corrupted? A kid her age already addicted to money. And who even is Gaia?”
“I’ll be going now.”
“You’re not staying longer?”
“I’m going to look around the Goblin Market too.”
“Alright. Go on, then.”
Zeon closed the office door and stepped outside.
By disposing of all the A-rank magical beast mana stones, he had achieved his objective.
Now it was time to leisurely browse the Goblin Market.
The scenery of the Goblin Market, which he hadn’t visited in a while, was unchanged.
The merchants busily called out to customers, while the buyers tried to haggle down prices by even a single coin.
As a result, voices often rose, and arguments broke out frequently enough.
Whenever that happened, guards rushed over to stop the fights.
Even scenes like that felt enjoyable.
Sometimes Neo Seoul and the slums felt suffocating, but sights like these eased his heart.
Active commerce was proof that civilization was still being maintained.
Using currency instead of simple barter trade was something unimaginable in other colonies or fortresses.
‘Do they even realize how blessed Neo Seoul is? Or how incredible it is that a place like this exists?’
Those who enjoy blessings rarely realize how fortunate they are.
Zeon leisurely wandered through the Goblin Market, looking to see if there was anything he needed.
Even after circling the entire market once, he found nothing he wanted.
Since he hadn’t expected much anyway, he wasn’t disappointed.
Everything stored inside Zeon’s subspace had been obtained personally and far surpassed the goods sold here.
Naturally, nothing in this place could catch his eye.
“I should head back now.”
However, Brielle and Levin were nowhere to be seen. Unlike Zeon, it seemed they had found stores that interested them.
Zeon sat on a wooden bench off to one side and waited for the two of them to come out.
About thirty minutes later—
Levin approached Zeon together with several boys around his age.
“Hyung!”
“Yeah?”
“You know my friends, right?”
Levin introduced the boys accompanying him to Zeon.
“Yeah! Long time no see. You guys doing well?”
“Yes! Hello, hyungnim!”
“It’s an honor to see you again.”
The boys bowed ninety degrees toward Zeon.
Caught off guard by their sudden behavior, Zeon looked startled. Levin immediately smacked them on the heads while scolding them.
“I told you not to do that. Hyung doesn’t like that kind of thing.”
“But it’s Zeon hyungnim…”
“Fuck, I said don’t do it…”
To Levin’s friends, Zeon was an idol.
Even though he lived in the slums, he was an incredible awakened one whom even the powerful figures of Neo Seoul couldn’t treat carelessly.
They wanted to become like Zeon.
Looking at them, Zeon found them rather cute. But Levin’s expression as he looked at him seemed unusual.
“Why do you look so serious?”
“The truth is… these guys awakened recently.”
“Really? Congratulations, everyone.”
“Aaron awakened as an E-rank martial artist, and Dominic is a D-rank mage.”
“E-rank and D-rank? Those are pretty good ranks. So what’s the problem?”
Zeon looked puzzled.
Just not being F-rank was already something to be grateful for.
Moreover, they weren’t mechanized awakened ones who had to abandon their human bodies. Even with just that, they could live relatively well in the slums.
“The awakening itself isn’t the problem. These idiots suddenly volunteered for the mana stone mine assault force.”
“Hm?”
“These bastards awakened only recently and have absolutely no combat experience, yet they volunteered for such a dangerous mission.”
“That is a problem.”
Only then did Zeon understand why Levin’s expression had been so grim.
The mission was to pioneer a new mana stone mine.
Besides the Kraken Zeon had confirmed himself, there was no telling what other magical beasts might be lurking nearby.
The terrain made it easy to mine mana stones, but that also meant it was heavily exposed to outside threats.
Neither securing nor defending a mana stone mine would be easy.
Naturally, many people would die.
Because of that, numerous assault teams would be mobilized for the mana stone mine operation.
Naturally, Neo Seoul’s assault teams needed to recruit more personnel than usual.
Levin’s friends had impulsively applied to one of those assault teams—
and been accepted.
Levin grabbed his head and groaned.
“These crazy bastards. I never thought they’d pull something this huge without even talking to me first.”
“Hey! We thought long and hard before deciding.”
“If not for this opportunity, how would we ever get into an assault team? Everyone tells us to gain experience first, but where are rookie awakened ones like us supposed to get experience?”
Their flimsy excuses caused Levin’s anger to explode.
“So you volunteer for an assault team just like that? Fuck! Do you really think they accepted you because they actually need you? They just want to use you as meat shields.”
Normally, Neo Seoul’s assault teams almost never accepted low-rank awakened ones from the slums.
Training inexperienced awakened ones into something useful required enormous amounts of time and money.
It was far more efficient to recruit awakened ones who had already survived and grown stronger on their own in the slums.
There was only one reason such assault teams had accepted low-rank awakened rookies like them.
They intended to use them as disposable shields on the front lines.
At least Dominic, a D-rank magic-type awakened one, had it slightly better.
As a magic-type awakened one, he would at least be casting spells from the relatively safer rear lines.
But Aaron, who would have to clash directly against magical beasts at the front, had a high chance of dying in his very first battle.
The survival rate of martial-type awakened ones in their first combat deployment was abysmal.
And if the awakened one had absolutely no combat experience, survival was nearly impossible.
Aaron and Dominic had grown up with Levin since they were children.
When Levin lost his family to the serial killer, they had risked themselves gathering information for him.
The information network Levin built independently would never have been possible without Aaron and Dominic’s help.
That was why Levin considered the two of them especially precious even among all his friends.
But by some cruel twist of fate, the two awakened on the very same day.
One as a martial-type awakened one.
The other as a magic-type awakened one.
Unfortunately, that happened right when Levin had fallen into burnout after killing the murderer and shut himself away from the world.
Because of that, he knew nothing about their awakening.
Levin only learned the truth here at the Goblin Market.
He had spotted the two buying supplies needed by awakened ones and immediately felt something strange.
At first they denied it, but after Levin persistently questioned them, they finally confessed.
“You insane bastards! You guys have never even entered a dungeon before, and you joined a mana stone mine assault force? Withdraw immediately.”
“We can’t do that. We already signed the contract.”
“Don’t worry so much. We’re not that weak either.”
Seeing the two still refusing to come to their senses, Levin pounded his chest in frustration.
It felt as though he had swallowed a hundred sweet potatoes whole—completely suffocating.
“Fuck! Which assault team is it? Come with me right now.”
“What are you going to do if you come?”
“Cancel the contract immediately.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because we want to become stronger too.”
“What?”
“We want to grow stronger so we can be treated like human beings too. Like you.”
“You guys…”
“If we keep avoiding everything because we’re scared and inexperienced, we’ll never grow stronger, right? We want to become strong like you and live like actual people instead of living this soul-crushing life every single day…”
“……”
Levin couldn’t say anything after hearing his friends’ words.
They were orphans too, just like Levin.
Unlike Levin, who had lost his family halfway through his life, they had been born that way from the beginning.
The slums were cruel to the weak who possessed nothing—
and even more merciless toward orphans.
Naturally, they had grown up under even harsher conditions than Levin.
That was why their yearning for strength burned more fiercely than anyone else’s.
They had simply buried that desire deep inside because they hadn’t awakened until now.
“We’re sorry for volunteering without discussing it with you first. But now that we’ve come this far, we can’t just back down and do nothing.”
“Please understand this just this once. We thought about it seriously before deciding.”
Hearing the two speak, Levin let out a deep sigh.
“Haah… Seriously, what am I supposed to do with you guys?”
After agonizing for a long while, Levin looked toward Zeon.
“Hyung!”
“Speak.”
“If we send these idiots into the assault team as they are, they’ll die on the very first day. I have to go with them.”
“Levin!”
“I can’t just let them die meaningless deaths. I’ve received a lot of help from these guys until now. This time it’s my turn to help them. Don’t try to stop me.”
Seeing the determination in Levin’s expression, Zeon clicked his tongue and replied,
“I won’t stop you.”
“R-Really?”
“But I’ll train those guys first.”
“H-How?”
“Simple. We grind them.”
“…Don’t tell me?”
“Exactly. Just like how you got ground down in the dungeon…”
At Zeon’s words, Levin’s face instantly turned pale.
Meanwhile, the clueless Aaron and Dominic merely blinked innocently, having no idea what was coming.