18. Same Scent

The power of time-space manipulation, intensified and transformed through Mu-Wol Jiche.

Blue threads of light settled into a structure like bones, joints, and nerves.

The limit in speed of reaction disappeared, and he was freed from the limit of acceleration.

The web of violet and scarlet intertwined, taking the shape of muscles, blood vessels, tendons, and ligaments.

It changed so he could maintain his spatial form intact amidst various transformations.

And, mingling in the crisscross web of crimson and violet, the blue threads turned into something resembling a black heart.

The black heart, an engine, core or reactor of sorts, amplified his innate power into something much more powerful.

That’s why, when the black reactor, shaped like a heart, got activated, a black power, all-covering, spewed out.

Loxer’s eyes and hair turned blackish.

As the skill ‘Over Clock’ activated the black reactor.

In the case of the skill ‘Over Clock’, the power drawn from the black reactor accelerated the newly forged body to its utmost.

It was also possible to only accelerate the surrounding time, not the body itself.

Given that power is defined by mass and speed, it reflected Loxer’s will to maximize destruction.

“Gaaah-!!!”

It was only after the supersonic strike passed and wounds started appearing.

That a sonic boom, a piercing shockwave, finally reached.

Brought by the distortion of time due to time acceleration, the aftermath of the extreme speed reached belatedly.

While Loxer’s body, with the power of manipulating time-space, neutralized the sonic boom and friction caused by tremendous acceleration.

The Villain, devoid of any such abilities, was bombarded with the enormous shockwave.

Like leaves swept by the wind, the severed mana channels leaked magic, following the trail of Loxer’s sword, causing a delayed sonic boom.

With magic bursting out like a dam sprouting a gigantic hole.

“…Such a fool… Cough-!”

Succumbing to power fatigue, he collapsed on the spot.

Loxer, panting seriously in the background of the collapsed Villain, felt as if he was trying to move with every muscle in his body tensed up.

‘The recoil is still too strong…!’

With made him dizzy with a sensation as though he had strained every muscle to their limit, and it felt like his heart would come out.

However, the more he pushed to the edge, the plus addiction caused by the rapid pulse increase worsened.

Thanks to the sense of liberation and thrill brought by the pulse addiction, which worked like a painkiller.

“Ha… ha… that was no joke.”

He kept standing, gripping the ground, barely hanging on where others would have collapsed.

It was like when children, failing to control pouring water from a full water jug into a small cup, end up dropping the jug itself.

The big water jug represented the black reactor, the small cup symbolizing his still frail physical form.

The sensation of fatigue felt like he had dropped his heart, the source of energy, due to exerting an excessive amount of power in an instant.

Even with time-space manipulation grounded in his body, barely letting him hang on, the pain it caused made his vision blink occasionally.

‘I need to use it in small portions….’

Fearing it might actually kill him if used recklessly, he slowly calmed his breath and body.

When the activation of the black reactor ceased and his hair and eyes returned from black to their original blond and red.

“You’re pretty good, but you have too many openings.”

The serious Villain, who had been fighting Jane, suddenly appeared behind Loxer.

At the same time, the deadly hand of the serious Villain flew towards Loxer’s neck.

“Loxer!!! It’s dangerous!!!”

That vertiginous spectacle reflected in Jane’s blue eyes, which were desperately advancing from the far end.

Due to outstanding combat sense, bizarre speed, and an overwhelming difference of experience beyond imagination, Jane lost the villain.

‘Oops…! I didn’t expect the difference in experience to be this significant…!’

Jane was skilled.

However, after witnessing Roxer’s ability, the solemn villain decided it was critical not to spare him, thus, he unavoidably missed Jane.

‘Although the wounds are deep, eliminating this bastard is a priority.’

Jane had dealt a serious blow with a longsword, causing a significant wound on the solemn villain’s abdomen.

Cutting down the unidentifiable entity that suddenly appeared was for the benefit of the ‘Disanhord’ guild, to which he belonged.

An instant before, the impeccable horizontal stroke from the villain attempting to skin Roxer and cut his throat missed its mark.

“Finish him, Jane. Haa…”

Roxer, whose hair and eyes had turned black again, hid behind the villain, panting heavily.

A white sword of Roxer was lodged in the villain’s foot, restricting his movement.

‘Even when used in moderation, it’s a killer.’

Roxer had relied on his experience and his skill, ‘Over Clock,’ which lets stationary objects accelerate momentarily, escaping from the human eyesight for a while.

With a serious wound from fighting Jane, and his body far from normal, he had successfully got behind the solemn villain.

The villain, who could assassinate a target one-on-one up to an intermediate hero, had been caught off guard for the first time in a long while.

“…It’s my defeat.”

Before the villain who admitted his defeat, Jane’s blue sword energy approached like a wave.

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‘Jane isn’t hostile to me, is she….’

Roxer thought. If Jane was really planning to harm him, this would be the golden opportunity.

From behind, only the end line of the solemn villain could be heard. There were no surprise attacks from Jane.

“Roxer!! Are you ok!? You didn’t get hit, right??”

Instead, he came closer behind and worried whether he had been hit by an attack that hadn’t even reached him.

‘Since he has many watchful eyes, I shouldn’t let down my guard.’

Signaling that he was alright with a wave of his hand, Roxer, back pointed at Jane, approached somewhere.

Although the skill, being new to him, was used excessively causing his steps to falter, he somehow managed to get hold of his senses and moved on…

“Hey, Rika.”

…While barely holding onto consciousness, due to the pleasure akin to painkillers of ‘Heartbeat Addiction.’

Despite sustaining heavy injuries, he slowly got up and walked towards Rika, who was staring blankly at him.

At first, he thought she was just trying to harm him.

But upon a rethink, besides giving him the death stare and stabbing him in the ribs, Rika hadn’t actually harmed him.

On the contrary, it seemed that she was genuinely fond of Roxer and showed jealousy upon Jane’s actions.

To protect the vulnerable Roxer who was gaining enlightenment, she had discarded her usual battle bow and carried a dagger.

‘She’s scary, but she doesn’t seem to be a bad person.’

Thanks to the lower elixir he had consumed, his body was recovering some magical energy.

“Roxer….”

Rika, whose face bore a multitude of crossed emotions, wore a suit that was somewhat recovered from the damage.

Judging by the slight redness in her eyes.

It didn’t seem like Rika would act strangely while he was unconscious.

“Have I repaid all the favors…?”

With his eyes slightly darkened, he smiled towards Rika. Swinging from side to side, he was excessively spent from forcefully utilizing his awakened power, causing his eyes to close involuntarily.

###

The ‘Dishonored’ Villain Guild professionally conducts assassination and massacre terrorism.

The world was buzzing due to the attack on the Academy for Awakeners reportedly done by villains affiliated with this guild.

It was far from a pleasant story, so until the investigation was completed, it was strictly concealed from the public.

Yet, within the Academy for Awakeners, rumors spread like wild fire.

“Why all of a sudden do we have a holiday!? I like it though?”

“But we can’t go out, right? For a few days, we can’t even contact or access the internet, what’s going on?”

“Ugh, idiots. Haven’t you heard? The Dungeon for ‘Special Entities’ extermination training of 1st grade Jinban and Hoban was attacked by villains of the Dishonored Guild, you know?”

“Huh? What is that supposed to mean? Why has this monstrous villain group infiltrated us??”

Indeed, a heinous horde of villains had attacked the Academy’s practice dungeon.

The main issue here was that neither professors nor faculty staff noticed this.

Implies there’s an insider within the Academy, thus the institution had halted its classes for around two weeks in order to apprehend the traitor.

Due to this, for a while, all institutes of the Awakeners Academy were under control.

The students remaining at the Awakeners Academy exchanged various stories while they were investigated.

“They may have attacked, but a student named Lokseu suppressed the 6th grade assassination team of the Disanerd Guild, ensuring everyone was safe.”

“What??? Isn’t he that stalker that everyone says turned a bit strange??”

“That’s right! Supposedly, he suddenly captured a gem golem by himself, no one knows if it’s because of his growth or sheer luck!”

“Is the information incorrect or distorted? How did such a guy manage to capture the villains.”

Lokseu, notorious for his stalking behaviors in the academy, had become the talk of the town.

The rumor quickly spread that he had suppressed two members of Disanerd Guild, an organization of villains specializing in interpersonal combat.

Of course, there were those who doubted this.

“But, Rika and Erin, who despised being stalked by Lokseu, assured it. Even the top student of the 1st year, Jane, said the same, didn’t she?”

“Are you telling a lie now? It’s not April Fool’s Day, is it?”

“Don’t talk nonsensically and just believe it.”

“Taeseok!! Are you okay? You looked seriously injured, have you recovered already?”

“But is it really true?? Is that Lokseu so strong??”

“Didn’t he do some strange trick or threaten the girls to say so?”

Even Taeseok, who usually disliked Lokseu, was chattering annoyingly.

“Just talk sensibly… it’s all true.”

The rumor about Lokseu, which was already hot, became even hotter and became the talk of the town.

Scratching his head, Taeseok, who thought he was indebted, walked away from the main door of recovery, leaving behind the students who came to visit Rika, Erin, and Jane.

Meanwhile, Lokseu, who was still lying in bed, saw his reputation slowly change.

He closed his eyes tightly, dressed in a ‘casual clothes’ outfit that was recently updated in his combat suit.

Lokseu in the clean single room, where the lights were out and the humidifier was on….

…the weird bed sheet he was under.

‘What? Something is hugging me? What? It’s super soft??’

There seemed to be one more person under the blanket, forming a hill.

Because of this, Lokseu, who thought it was awkward as soon as he woke up, thought that he had fallen into a strange place after dying.

But the extremely soft touch, although it doesn’t make sense, why…

‘Why does it feel like a glamorous girl is hugging me even though I’m feeble?? Has something gone wrong with my senses?’

It felt like a very attractive woman was lying in his arms and pressing her face into him.

So surprised that his heart rate almost shot up.

“????”

On Lokseu’s face, numerous question marks blossomed, and all sorts of worries began to crawl up.

‘I really overworked myself, maybe it’s the side effect.’

It wouldn’t be strange if there was any side effect since the film was almost cut off due to a mistake in skill control.

Lokseu thought that he felt a strange touch due to the aftereffects of using the skill excessively.

First, he calmed his body with deep breaths and calmly opened his eyes to look at the strange ceiling.

Upon shifting his gaze towards the touch and warmth he could vividly sense,

The bed sheet, which had been shaped like a small hill, was completely present.

“Oh, it’s probably nothing.”

Really, maybe, oh well, it’s probably okay? With that thought, he quietly lifted the blanket.

“Huh, there’s nothing?”

Where had the protruding blanket and touch gone? Only his body in normal clothes could be seen.

‘The mysterious technology of the healing blanket, sleeping close to each other or something like that??’

While he was confused, a black shadow slipped out from under his blanket.

The shadow slipped smoothly under the door of the single room.

A knock on the door promptly interrupted the silence.

As if nothing had happened.

Perplexed, Loxer put on his slippers that were placed beside the bed and got up effortlessly.

“I’m coming.”

Loxer, who seemed to have seen something that was quite wrong, opened the door with an enigmatic expression.

“…You appear to be fine. I’m not here because I was worried about you, but because I have some information from the professor to pass on.”

Rika looked back at him with a cold stone-faced expression.

For some reason, her cheeks had a slight blush, almost as if she had put on makeup.

‘No way, right?’

Loxer felt peculiar and stared at Rika with an awkward expression.

“What, why, why are you looking at me like that? If you are still tired, you should rest more.”

Rika, rather asking him why he was staring at her, boldly crossed her arms and told him to rest more if he was not feeling well.

Rika, who was cold yet had a tender heart and yearned to witness Loxer’s growth from childhood to his subsequent generations, looked at him with a cold smile.

However, Jane, who had brought a fruit basket and came to pay a visit to Loxer, came upon them.

“Loxer!! I was worried because you suddenly collapsed! It’s good to see you’re okay! Was Rika here already? “

Jane, who had been troubled with all the girls who followed her, gave a sigh of relief and walked beside Rika, who was staring at her.

Rika, rolling her eyes, gave Jane a sharp look that resembled a pouting cat.

Underneath this atmosphere that appeared to be the girls’ first time visiting a friend who was unwell, Jane approached the duo.

Jane stopped as she seemed to sense something. Her eyes widened as she glanced over at Rika, who was staring back at her, and Loxer, who looked tense.

“Huh…? Did something happen between you two? I smell something similar from both Rika and Loxer…”

Jane almost blurted out something she should not have when her mouth quickly got covered by Rika’s hand.

“We were both treated in the same recovery room, that’s why we smell the same.”

“Ah, I see.”

“That’s right, it’s just that.”

Jane swallowed her saliva under Rika’s piercing gaze and held her tongue.

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