Instant Kill, Time-Stop Spellcaster

“Professor! I’m the guildmaster of Gwangmyeong Guild! Our guild desperately needs your help! Please, help us just this once!”

A man with a broad forehead.

He said he was the guildmaster of Gwangmyeong.

He threw himself onto the floor of the entrance hall.

“Aha.”

I roughly understood the situation.

Looks like the anomaly detection is urgent.

My parents were shocked by his sudden deep bow.

“Oh, oh my. What is this?”

“Guildmaster? When did you become a guildmaster?”

“I’ll go talk about work for a bit.”

I finished the conversation quickly.

I agreed to help with the detection today.

What’s there to refuse?

Where to start is something Seonghwa Guild will coordinate.

Since Yoo Chae-young was on board, she must’ve brought him along.

“I thought I’d be busy starting tomorrow, but I’m already busy.”

Moreover, the Gwangmyeong Guildmaster was a tactful person.

“This is a token of appreciation…!”

“Oh!”

Durability elixir.

Very nice.

I’ll set this aside for now.

“I’ll go say goodbye to my family.”

“I- I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

It was a short time for a family visit.

But it was satisfying.

Yoo Chae-young had provided such excellent service.

I should show some sincerity as well.

I’ll see my family again soon.

“Mom, Dad. There’s an urgent matter at the guild, so I have to go. I’ll be back soon.”

“Take some side dishes and feed your younger sibling.”

“Alright, go in quickly! Men should be doing big things. Don’t worry about us!”

Both of them looked very happy.

They seemed content, as if they’d just been given some good herbal medicine.

Seeing their son succeed seemed to provide them with great comfort.

“By the way, didn’t you buy a birthday gift for your younger sibling on the way?”

“Huh!”

That’s right, Subin’s birthday!

‘Ah, I forgot.’

There’s no culture of celebrating birthdays in Thea.

There’s been a long war, so what birthday celebration would there be?

If you had parents to tell you about your birthday, that would be a blessing.

The same goes for Kyle.

As an orphan, I didn’t know about birthdays.

Naturally, that kind of culture was unfamiliar.

“I can tell by your reaction. You gave them pocket money last time, so just make do with that. Mom will explain it well.”

“Ah…”

I messed up.

I didn’t celebrate once when she was in elementary school.

‘She cried as if the sky was falling.’

We didn’t talk for a month after that.

Though now she’s in high school, to me, Subin still feels like a child.

She’s going through puberty now, too.

I was more afraid of my teenage sister than the World Tree.

‘Ah!’

That’s right, this!

I secretly pulled it out from my inventory.

“This, give it to her.”

[Garim Butterfly Wings]

[Earrings worn by two people that can send emergency signals without distance restrictions.]

A perfect clear reward I had kept in my inventory.

I was planning to sell it for a high price, but money wasn’t an issue now.

With the anomaly detection, I expected to earn a lot.

So it was more important to calm down a teenage girl.

“Oh my, what’s this! It’s so beautiful!”

“Oh? Has our son’s taste gotten this good?”

Alright, I solved it safely.

Since she’s in puberty, she must be crazy about decorating herself.

It’s a gorgeous item, after all.

“I really have to go. Tell her I’m sorry I couldn’t celebrate her birthday.”

“She’ll understand when you give her such a beautiful gift. But what’s with calling her your younger sibling? She needs to stop using such rough words—”

“I’ll see you again!”

As the four of us were heading out the door, Kang Subin got off the elevator.

“Oppa?”

“Yeah. Are you done for the day?”

“What high schooler talks about ‘getting off work’? Who are those people behind you?”

“Aren’t you curious why I’m here?”

“Probably came to see family.”

Typical of her, puberty phase.

She’s cold.

She wasn’t like this when we were younger.

She used to be so cute.

My sibling and I never fought much.

Since I’ve always had an adult soul in a child’s body.

What age would I be fighting with a little kid?

Mom, who had been seeing us off, came running out in her slippers.

“Subin, say hello! This is the guildmaster of Gwangmyeong Guild, and here’s the team leader from ‘Seonghwa’!”

“…?”

“He’s the team leader of the guild Oppa works for!”

“……?”

Subin couldn’t follow the conversation.

She just furrowed her brows.

“Happy early birthday. Check out your gift.”

“What’s going on? Why Seonghwa all of a sudden? Why is the guildmaster here… No, why are you here?”

Since she’s a high schooler, seeing such a high-ranking person made her a bit nervous.

I better leave quickly.

“Oppa’s busy. I’ll see you later… Ugh, why are you wearing stockings in weather like this? Dress warmly.”

“Stop it, old man. What is this nonsense—”

I quickly took out 50,000 won from my wallet.

Maybe about 8 bills.

“Huh?”

“Let’s go.”

I rushed the four of us out the door.

We got in the car and headed straight for the dungeon.

“Get in the back!”

“Yes.”

Inside the moving car, I organized my plans.

‘I’ll be going around doing anomaly detection for the time being… but how long will it take to cover all the dungeons?’

I can’t handle it alone.

It’ll take weeks to cover all the dungeons in the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, new anomaly dungeons will keep cropping up.

I’ll try to handle it until I can, though.

It’d be much easier if I could use something like a space warp spell.

‘If I could just master spatial magic, I could cover everything quickly.’

It feels like I’m almost there with the realization, but it’s still just out of reach.

‘What if the anomaly situation keeps getting worse?’

Is there no way?

Should I just go into Thea, and settle things with that Abyss creature?

‘For now, I’ll focus on helping Seonghwa, make some money, and then perhaps exchange some for nutrients.’

I closed my eyes to meditate.

###

Seonghwa Guild Headquarters, the welfare bar in the basement.

From the bright daylight, the guild members and guests were bustling around.

Since they were combat personnel, alcohol usually sold well.

But this was beyond the usual.

Some wondered why there was day drinking.

However, the side dishes being broadcasted on the TV were incredibly delicious.

“Don’t you think the protesters have grown in number since yesterday?”

“Look at all the broken windows of the headquarters, the breeze must feel nice!”

“Just like my insides!”

“Those damn bastards, they should all be locked up in a special prison!”

The real-time broadcast of Parlan’s guild headquarters.

Today, the police force was still in a standoff with the protesters.

“This is it, this is karma.”

“What are you talking about, it’s not over yet. We need to beat them more!”

“Yeah, the dungeon anomalies aren’t even over yet.”

It felt like watching the World Cup semifinals.

So, the bar was full.

Some were simply watching the news and snacking.

Others just enjoyed the atmosphere, sitting back and nibbling on their snacks.

Maru belonged to the latter.

Unlike before, his expression was clear.

It wasn’t just Parlan.

Most importantly, there had been no more deaths in Seonghwa.

“Hey, you really did a great job, Professor!”

“Shut up.”

He whispered so that the nearby tables wouldn’t hear, then giggled to himself.

“Hey, who do you think that ghost person was?”

“How would I know?”

“Hey, what if it was one of our guild members?”

He flinched.

Why did the people around him always have such good instincts?

“What are you suddenly saying?”

“No, the place that suffered the most damage because of Parlan was us. What if one of our guild’s hidden experts got angry and went after them?!”

He pretended not to hear and took a sip of barley tea.

“Tch. You won’t listen. But why barley tea? Mister, can’t you drink?”

“Alcohol.”

“Eh?”

“Throat care. It’s difficult.”

“Huh?”

How could a mercenary not drink?

Even when he was Kyle, he was the second best drinker among the Seven Heroes.

Curiously, even after his body switched, his drinking ability remained unchanged.

“Hey, what do you think will happen to Oh Hyuk-jun?”

“He’ll probably go to a special prison.”

“Huh, not sure.”

“Why not sure?”

“I just brought it up so you wouldn’t be disappointed.”

Then he made a bitter face.

“People who know, know. That guy will probably get out again. It’ll take some time to fix things, but…”

He sipped the barley tea and listened carefully.

“Based on what?”

“I don’t know who’s backing him, but it’s always been like that. Every time he causes trouble.”

“Really?”

“You don’t believe me?”

He answered while watching the protests on the TV.

“He must have accumulated a lot of bad deeds.”

“Huh? What bad deeds?”

“He must be due for judgment soon.”

“What do you mean? Who’s going to judge him?”

Who knows?

Anyway, this time, it might be different.

###

Korea Awakening Management Bureau.

Dungeon Anomaly Countermeasure Committee.

The researcher was rubbing his temples.

“Ugh… What a mess because of those Palan people.”

“Yeah, they’re terrible.”

The numbers on the report made them sigh.

“Too many awakened ones have died…”

This would have a huge impact on Korea’s progression rate.

The rate had already been dropping year by year.

And this season had just started.

There was no accumulated progress at all.

Several weeks had passed since the season started, but progress had barely reached 1%.

“Isn’t this season going to explode?”

“If we don’t solve it quickly, it’s a sure thing.”

It was a grim forecast.

“At least we’ve managed to handle the dungeons that were about to explode.”

“Seonghwa really did a big favor.”

“I’ve heard Manager Choi is really good at scouting. How about the professor Seonghwa, though? Can’t he scout him?”

If that person were in this research team, it would be a huge help.

“What’s the simulation result?”

“It’s the same. Golden Time is three weeks. We’ve already passed one week, so if we don’t solve it in the next two weeks, it’ll be irreversible.”

A fact not revealed to the media.

The deadline was much more urgent than expected.

Even if they solved the anomalies, it wasn’t over.

They’d have to rush to make up for the progress.

Moreover, many awakened ones had already died.

The lost progress wouldn’t come back.

Considering that, the simulation result gave them two weeks.

If it wasn’t resolved in that time, South Korea wouldn’t be able to complete its progress for this season.

Which meant… destruction.

Not just the country being destroyed, but the entire Korean Peninsula would perish.

“…”

They didn’t want to think about it anymore.

But thinking about this problem was the research team’s job.

The two stayed silent and resumed their work.

Then, something unusual caught their attention.

“…Huh? What’s going on here?”

It was the data on dungeon anomaly distribution.

“Why is there no dungeon anomaly around the center of Seoul?”

No, strangely, the outskirts to the east of Seoul were also affected.

The range wasn’t a perfect circle, it was irregular.

It looked like several circles overlapped.

‘This range… seems familiar.’

Wait a minute.

“Hey! Get the E-Class Blessing distribution data! Bring it over!”

Could it be?

They quickly compared the data.

When a perfect clear is achieved, a blessing spreads over the surrounding area.

And the effect of the blessing depends on the dungeon’s difficulty level.

The effect of an F-Class blessing is an increase in the abilities of awakened ones within the range.

The effect of an E-Class blessing was still unknown.

“…Oh my God.”

The range of the E-Class blessings currently spread over Seoul.

It matched exactly with the area where there were no dungeon anomalies.