Chapter 123 – Independence (2)

The woman’s eyes widened at the sudden voice.

“Could it be the Summoner? But it’s a woman’s voice?”

The voice she heard wasn’t the thick voice she always heard.

“How fascinating. It’s the first time I’ve heard another person’s Summoner voice.”

The woman looked at Sun-woo with a curious expression then soon came to her senses.

She nodded briefly with a firm expression. Fortunately the unfamiliar voice seemed acceptable.

Strange energy and new information began rushing into Sun-woo’s head.

A headache started again, but having experienced it before, he could endure it just by frowning without showing embarrassment.

“Is it already finished?”

The woman asked in a small voice.

“Yes, it’s finished. Thank you.”

At Sun-woo’s words the woman looked dejected. Having worried a lot after hearing from the branch chief, she was even bewildered.

After the ability transfer that was more ordinary than expected finished, people left the conference room.

Sun-woo and Yeonhwa, the branch chief and Caroline, and spatial ability user Sofia remained in the conference room.

“How fascinating. To be able to acquire others’ abilities so easily…”

Contrary to the branch chief’s words, acquiring abilities required using many points.

Constant effort was also needed to grow abilities from the beginning.

But Sun-woo didn’t particularly respond to the branch chief’s words.

Making such excuses was close to cheating compared to other ability users.

When Sun-woo didn’t answer, the branch chief continued speaking.

“First, the reason I called Miss Yeonhwa was because I thought the situation should be explained to her too. Executive Director Caroline could explain, but I thought it would be better if I spoke.”

Though she didn’t receive attention because of Sun-woo, Yeonhwa’s ability to purify contamination spreaders and create treatments wasn’t light.

This time too, she resolved the contamination of amplification stones brought from the Empire.

Having finished the branch division matter well, it was natural to separately explain to Yeonhwa who would continue staying with Sun-woo and performing missions.

The branch chief explained to Yeonhwa in as much detail as possible, but Yeonhwa only tilted her head while looking at the branch chief.

“Um, is the explanation insufficient?”

“Hmm. I understood about half.”

The branch chief who was troubled by Yeonhwa’s answer couldn’t hide his dejected expression at her following words.

“But it doesn’t matter. I came here to help Sun-woo anyway. I just need to move together with Sun-woo, right?”

Eventually all the various responses the branch chief prepared became meaningless.

Seeing the two, Sun-woo smiled bitterly inwardly and Caroline smiled slightly. Both had expected the conversation to proceed this way.

The branch chief sighed softly and agreed with her words.

“Then, we’ll consider Miss Yeonhwa as understanding and discuss work.”

Sun-woo nodded at the branch chief’s words.

Now they were finally getting to the main point. Anyway, having gained abilities, he had to earn his keep.

“With association matters finished, several of our people plan to dimension travel to the Empire. Please move together with those people. It’s been discussed with the Summoner too, so a mission will come down when departing.”

“Seems you received recognition from the Summoner too.”

“Fortunately we seem to have gained recognition of our necessity.”

The branch chief made a slightly bitter face. With the Empire’s destruction now, trust in Summoners had greatly diminished.

“When you go to Stuttgart’s underground city, you’ll meet with prophets. Since we don’t yet have an amicable relationship with those Scavengers, we request escort and mediation.”

Anyway, it was a mission Sun-woo sufficiently expected. Moreover, if he got a mission too, it wasn’t much different from previous missions.

Though refugees, it was the official first meeting between those who were Empire soldiers and Scavengers who were rebel forces against the Empire.

The resentment between the two who were enemies wouldn’t disappear overnight.

Escort was uncertain, but mediation was unreasonable.

“I’ll only handle escort. Problems between the two should be resolved by the parties involved.”

Though Sun-woo cut off the discussion sharply, surprisingly the branch chief didn’t oppose.

“Then let’s make it escort only. Please handle the rest according to field situations.”

The appearance of immediately backing down was puzzling, but Sun-woo asked another question first.

“But aren’t other Korean summoners going together?”

“The situation cleanup isn’t finished yet, and moreover there are almost no summoners left who’ve been to the Empire.”

As he said, when the Empire became contaminated, many summoners who had visited the Empire didn’t return. And remaining summoners also didn’t want to go to the Empire.

At the branch chief’s words, Sun-woo could understand the situation.

Sun-woo felt briefly regretful about continuing to be separated from Korean summoners.

But rather than clashing with Korean summoners in the current situation, it seemed better to be alone.

And there was something more important.

“I’d like Miss Yeonhwa to go together on this mission. There will probably be things Miss Yeonhwa needs to check directly.”

There was quite a lot for Yeonhwa to check, including cores of contaminated monsters and memories of a woman who appeared to be a cult priestess.

Moreover, there was another important experiment to conduct.

It was content Sun-woo had been thinking about since destroying formations made from contaminated monster cores in the Empire in a recent mission.

Sun-woo put his hand in his pocket to check the dragon’s inner dan that Yeonhwa purified.

When contaminated summoners contaminated the Empire, they needed cores of monsters living in other worlds and a priestess.

Then conversely, using purified monster cores and priestess purification techniques had great possibility of purifying certain areas.

Previously obtained imugi cores were used by Sun-woo and there was no Yeonhwa, but now both were prepared.

Sun-woo told his thoughts to the branch chief and Caroline, and both opened their mouths wide at Sun-woo’s words.

“Are you saying contaminated zones can be eliminated?”

At the branch chief’s question full of expectation, Sun-woo showed difficulty.

“It’s still just speculation. There’s much to check after going over there, and there’s no guarantee it will actually work.”

Of course he remembered all the composition and making methods of formations that created contamination using abilities, but there didn’t seem to be a need to raise expectations unnecessarily by talking about such things yet.

But the reaction was enthusiastic.

“Still, a possibility has emerged. There’s a world of difference from just harboring hope!”

The branch chief’s face that seemed cold-hearted was flushed red and Caroline’s eyes were sparkling like starlight.

While making a troubled expression at the branch chief’s appearance pushing his face right forward, Sun-woo finished what he was going to say.

“When finishing work and giving compensation, I think this matter should be discussed together. I think the Summoner should know too.”

Sun-woo brought up this uncertain story to say these words.

It was work he’d do anyway, but there was no reason to do it for free.

Moreover, seeing the current atmosphere of the two people, they seemed ready to give compensation even if it meant pulling out building pillars, so he could finish the conversation comfortably.

Several hours later, Sun-woo and Yeonhwa went down to the association’s basement in an elevator with Caroline.

Yeonhwa looked with curiosity at the elevator going down to non-existent basement floors by pressing several numbers.

The elevator passed the basement floor where Sun-woo previously obtained bulletproof coats and stopped at the floor below.

It was a wide basement that looked like a gymnasium where several people were waiting for Sun-woo’s group.

Several men and women wearing the same coats as Sun-woo were standing on one side, and Sofia was sitting alone in the center of the basement.

Sofia sitting in the middle of amplification stones arranged in a circle with eyes closed overlapped with the spatial ability user seen before in the underground city.

She was currently absorbing the energy of amplification stones for dimension travel.

And the people standing beside waiting for the group seemed to be those who would dimension travel with Sun-woo and Yeonhwa.

“The branch chief didn’t come. Who’s the person in charge?”

Three men and one woman. He asked the gathered people, but they only looked at Sun-woo with puzzled expressions.

Just as Sun-woo was about to ask again, an answer came from beside him.

“I’m the person in charge.”

Caroline smiled slightly while looking at Sun-woo.

“Branch Chief Schmidt got me good.”

He could see why the branch chief stepped back at Sun-woo’s words about only doing escort.

The branch chief seemed to think it would be hard for Sun-woo to pretend not to see when Caroline was there as person in charge and he said he’d only do escort.

That thought wasn’t wrong.

To Sun-woo who sighed softly, Caroline introduced the people. All were Empire soldiers who refuged to this world with her and were now all association summoners.

After Sun-woo exchanged greetings with them, he conversed with Caroline while waiting for Sofia to open her eyes.

“But have you checked the ability you acquired earlier? I can’t tell how you’ll use it.”

“The grade is low so power is weak, but I think I can use it the way I thought.”

At Caroline’s question, Sun-woo recalled the experiment he conducted before coming down here.

It was an experiment targeting Yeonhwa and general staff walking the corridors, from which he could obtain quite satisfactory results.

“I need to check more whether it’s usable in combat. If satisfactory results come out, I’ll inform you immediately.”

While conversing like this, Sofia opened her eyes. She had finished absorbing all the amplification stone energy and was ready for dimension travel.

“Is everyone ready?”

At Sofia’s question, other summoners nodded with firm expressions, but Sun-woo waved his hand left and right.

“The mission hasn’t come yet. Hmm, how does the mission come at times like this?”

But Sun-woo’s question didn’t get an answer. As soon as Sun-woo finished speaking, a voice was heard in everyone’s ears.

[This mission is to travel to Dimension Beta for reconnaissance and confirm whether contamination can be lifted. Safe return will give basic compensation, and lifting even part of contaminated areas will give large additional compensation.]

Sun-woo found the expression “large additional compensation” quite interesting. His proposal seemed to have properly worked on the Summoner too.

Sun-woo was satisfied with the mission content, but the voice wasn’t finished yet.

[For smooth mission performance, a summoner will be additionally summoned.]

As soon as the Summoner’s words ended, one person began appearing before Sun-woo.

A beautiful woman wearing a robe with plum blossoms drawn on it. It was Nanseol.

“Ah!”

Sun-woo welcomed Nanseol with a pleased face. Nanseol also became pleased seeing Sun-woo.

But her expression stiffened awkwardly when she saw Caroline and Yeonhwa.

“There are many women. And even a cult priestess…”

Wondering what happened during the time they couldn’t meet, Nanseol’s expression looking at Yeonhwa was extremely cold.