I Became the Only Healer in the Academy - Chapter 6

“There are fewer people as I go.”

As the time crossed over into the evening, there were hardly any people near the gate.

Seonghyun, who once again checked the equipment he carried, headed for the entrance.

“Are you going in at this time?”

The guard at the gate, who was from the association, looked at Seonghyun with a worried expression.

“Yes, it’s fine.”

“You have to come out before midnight. You know that, right?”

“Yes.”

Midnight is the time when the monsters become most active, even in not-so-deep places, powerful monsters can appear.

“Then, I wish you luck.”

“Thank you.”

With the guard’s last words, Seonghyun entered the gate.

As soon as he stepped inside, he felt like he was floating in the air, with a sight that didn’t show a single step ahead.

In no time, the scenery changed completely from what he had seen just a moment ago.

Wide thickets and trees spread out as he entered a forest.

“The monsters coming out from here are, at most, just as strong as goblins…”

Of course, even when you consider goblins individually, they were by no means powerful monsters.

Dealing with them might be a little tricky just because they traveled in groups.

“Phew…”

After a long absence from monster hunting, Seonghyun took a deep breath and hid in the bushes, concealing his presence as he moved.

“…There it is.”

Beside a small puddle, he saw a dog with its neck stretched out.

At first glance, it looked no different from a regular dog, but approaching it, one would see the fangs of a monster hidden beneath its appearance.

‘The weakness is the head. Well, that’s natural.’

Thanks to his innate ability to spot vital points, Seonghyun could quickly identify the monster’s weakness.

With careful movements, he pulled out the sword he had received from the association.

Having arrived in the closest bush to the monster, Seonghyun slowly approached from behind the monster, whose neck was still stretched.

‘Now!’

It had the appearance of a dog, but in reality, it shared nothing with a dog except a slight resemblance.

Hunting one was not a difficult task since it lacked the senses and attributes of a regular dog.

Seonghyun thrust the sword straight into the back of the monster’s neck.

He wiped his forehead as red blood oozed.

“Secure the essence quickly and continue searching for another.”

After extracting the heart from the lifeless monster’s body, Seonghyun reached in and retrieved the monster essence that showed a murky gray color.

As he did, the monster’s body turned into dust and disappeared into the air.

With the essence in his pocket, Seonghyun washed his face in the puddle where the monster is focused in, to remove the bloodstains from his face.

After cleaning up entirely and getting up, he felt a presence right in front of him.

 

***

 

“Haa… Haa…”

Hayeon, trembling, reached out toward the puddle in front of her while clutching her remaining arm.

‘I let my guard down…!’

Her companions who had come with her had all been torn apart, and as she tried to leave the gate, there were monsters on the way, leaving her in a helpless situation.

‘I need to wash off the blood.’

monsters were sensitive to the smell of blood.

Hunting monsters and immediately extracting the essence were not only to eliminate the bodies but also to get rid of the smell of their blood.

“Urgh…!”

In the deep gash on her arm, there was no sign of the bleeding stopping.

She had torn a piece of cloth and tried to stem it, but it didn’t seem to clot easily.

“They will definitely come after me.”

Time was running out, so escaping through the gate as much as possible, or meeting up with the other team members who might still be inside, were the best options.

However, meeting up with other parties was not going to be easy.

Hayeon quickly sat down in front of the puddle and washed her wound.

Each time the water touched her skin, the stinging sensation felt like a warning of imminent danger.

“Haah… Moving again…”

With the smell of blood almost removed, she had to shake off the monsters as much as possible to make her way to where the gate was.

As she got up, she momentarily felt a dizzy sensation and sat back down.

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, a chilling sensation enveloped her entire body, and her hands and feet began to shake.

“No, it can’t be…!”

Hayeon recalled what day it was today.

August 14th.

‘Of all days…!’

The 15th of every month was the day when the magic inside the gate grew stronger.

Demonic energy didn’t influence the strength of the monsters, but it affected everything inside the gate.

For example, the puddles where she had just cleaned her wounds.

When it touched her body, it was fine, but as it reached the injured areas directly, the magic permeated her body, and gradually, her hands and feet became paralyzed.

She didn’t lose her life, but as the paralysis worsens, she loses consciousness, so it was practically no different from dying.

“No… I can’t…”

The hand which she had been holding onto the injured area had lost its strength and now layed on the ground, and her vision was gradually becoming hazy.

“Gwargh!”

And from the front, the sounds of the monsters were approaching.

“They’re…here…”

She struggled to keep her heavy eyelids open, but before her eyes, something, or rather someone, flickered.

“Who…”

Hunters targeting other hunters, especially wounded ones like her inside the gate were quite a common thing.

Furthermore, the person who came to her, seemed to be searching her pockets, had their hands over her body.

“You… mother f…”

She wanted to curse or say something harsh, but now she couldn’t even bear the weight of her eyelids, so Hayeon closed her eyes and lost consciousness.

***

“Ugh…”

Seonghyun closed his eyes tightly in response to the pain radiating from his arm.

“Why does my ability have to be like this?”

Suppressing the urge to curse at the excruciating pain, Seonghyun lifted Hayeon and ran into the bushes.

“Haah… Thanks to you, I could only kill one monster today.”

Seonghyun muttered resentment as he began to treat Hayeon’s heavy wounds.

The pain in his arm was steadily worsening, perhaps to the point where it felt even worse than the source pain.

Seonghyun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and checked the situation outside the bushes.

“Grugh, Gwar!”

A group of goblins, perhaps following the scent of Hayeon’s blood, seemed confused by the broken trail at the puddle.

“If I’m only alone, I could probably handle it, but…”

Hayeon was a problem, and the pain in his arm was another one.

Fortunately, goblins didn’t have particularly keen senses, so as long as they didn’t give away their presence, they should pass by on their own.

“Ugh…”

But nothing seemed to be going as planned.

Hayeon, who was deep in lost consciousness, groaned, and Seonghyun was startled and quickly covered her mouth

Though it seemed a little late.

“Grauggh!”

The goblins were approaching the bushes where Seonghyun and Hayeon were.

“Haah…”

Seonghyun let out a deep sigh and drew his sword as he stepped out of the bushes.

“I have healing, so I won’t die.”

It was kind of fortunate that it seemed the goblins hadn’t noticed Hayeon in the bushes.

‘I’ll use the puddle.’

The goblins were naturally going around the puddle and approaching Seonghyun, so he carefully moved away from the bushes and leaned against the puddle.

He had to do it this way to prevent Hayeon from being exposed.

As he prepared for a battle with the goblins, a window appeared before him.

 

[Choose]

 

“Choose…?”

 

[Devotee: The ability to heal now affects a range. The pain you receive remains the same. The path forward is now determined.]

[Crusader: You can use healing on targets without injuries. You can create injuries up to the limits of your healing ability. Your physical abilities will improve overall.]

 

“Is it just a matter of choosing?”

However, the decision wasn’t easy.

In some ways, the former seemed better, but in other ways, the latter did.

“For now, I’ll deal with the goblins…”

But as always, there was no time for decision, as the goblins rushed at Seonghyun.

“Even though I’m at the bottom of the academy…”

At least he wasn’t weak enough to die at the hands of goblins.

‘My body is a bit heavy, this was when I hadn’t begun training.’

He had to be prepared for small wounds on his body. And as for small injuries, he could quickly heal them, so there was no problem.

“Grr!”

The goblins surrounding him seemed to be targeting his vulnerabilities, aiming their weapons at him and then, as if finding any gaps in Seonghyun’s defense, they charged blindly.

“If you approach so predictably, you won’t kill me.”

Seonghyun turned his body to avoid a goblin’s spear flying toward his heart and then swung his sword to cut the closest goblin’s throat at the perfect timing with great power.

Seonghyun’s ability, which was to locate vital points, revealed the goblin’s vital point to be the throat.

The goblin, with half of its throat severed, dropped the spear it was holding and clutched its throat before collapsing to the ground.

‘Five left.’

In the direction where the dead goblin was, there were two more goblins.

Seonghyun immediately charged toward the goblins.

‘I’m… a little slow!’

Perhaps because he hadn’t trained his body yet, his momentary speed burst was lacking.

He barely managed to dodge the spear coming from behind, and in the same motion, he swung his sword to take out the remaining goblins in front.

“I got a little scratch there.”

It seemed he couldn’t completely avoid the attack, as there was a small amount of blood trickling from his forearm.

“The rest should be easy.”

Seonghyun, with his blood pumping from the excitement of the battle, confidently turned his attention to the remaining goblins.

 

***

 

“Whew, finally starting to loosen up a bit.”

Seonghyun placed the goblin’s essence he had collected into his pocket and then began to treat his wounds.

Just as he finished tending to his wounds, a voice came from the bushes.

“W-Who…?”

“I’m a hunter.”

Hayeon took a moment to assess the situation, looking around.

The goblin group that had been chasing her was gone, and she should have been lying in front of the puddle. Instead, In front of her was a young person who had saved her.

“Th-Thank you. I thought I was dead…”

“No, It’s nothing. More importantly, you’ll be going outside the gate now, right?”

“Yes, I should leave. It’s almost midnight.”

Hayeon quickly checked her belongings and realized that nothing was missing.

‘Wait, I feel like I’ve missed something…’

There was one notable change from before she had fallen.

‘Why don’t I feel the pain?’

Hayeon quickly checked her arm. Normally, there should have been a scar of red blood, but she couldn’t see any.

‘I can only feel the slightest pain.’

Hayeon thought that the person in front of her might have the ability to heal. But since she had never seen an ability like that before, and it was too much of a coincidence for it to suddenly appear when she needed it the most, she ignored it.

“Thank you once again. May I ask your name?”

“I’m Kim Seonghyun.”

“I’m Lee Hayeon.”

“For now, shall we head out of this gate?”

“Y-Yes!”

So Seonghyun and Hayeon made their way towards the exit.

‘Right, that option thing!’

After the battle had ended, Seonghyun examined the details on the screen again.

“What… is this?”

“Is something wrong?”

“N-No, it’s nothing.”

But the window that appeared in front of him seemed to be mocking Seonghyun, with its puzzling content.