Chapter 17

“Do the rewards change from the second attempt onward?” Eui-rim had asked.

“That’s right. You even have to watch an agonizing spectacle where the reward you lost shatters into dust right in front of your face. It pissed me off to no end.” Finding it infuriating even in retrospect, Seo Hae-gun had cut himself off with a bitter scoff. Failing to acquire a weapon truly suited to his mana had clearly been a profound regret, an obsession he couldn’t entirely mask.

And that memory gave Eui-rim unshakable conviction: securing that weapon was the most irresistible temptation he could dangle before the Cheongho Guild Master.

“What’s this?” Seo Hae-gun murmured, a thread of dark amusement creeping into his voice. “You sound like a total swindler.” His combative edge had softened by an inch. Though his tone remained dry, the shift was unmistakable in his posture. Brushing a hand across his mouth, the Guild Master eyed the healer before letting his lips curve into a crooked smirk. Suspicion and intrigue tangled together in his gaze, grudging skepticism eclipsed by undeniable curiosity. “Let me guess—the source of this intel is another trade secret you can’t reveal?”

“…I apologize,” Eui-rim murmured, bowing his head slightly.

With no viable way to justify his foreknowledge, a humble apology was his only recourse. While the healer could have concocted some lie about clairvoyance or foresight, an imperfect fabrication would only invite disaster; he preferred silence over sloppy deception.

At least he didn’t reject it outright, Eui-rim thought.

The fact that the Guild Master was deliberating at all proved he was taking the claim seriously. Simply not dismissing it as a lunatic’s rambling was tremendous progress. All that remained was to wait for Seo Hae-gun to make his move.

Rumble!

A violent tremor suddenly convulsed the mountain ridge. The ground pitched beneath their boots as though an earthquake had struck, and the earth began to throb in a heavy, rhythmic cadence—like the thundering cadence of monstrous war drums.

Eui-rim whipped around toward the taller hunter, catching a flash of genuine surprise across that striking face.

Narrowing his eyes toward the valley below, Seo Hae-gun clicked his tongue. “It’s a bit early for this.”

“Early? What’s happening?” Eui-rim demanded, his pulse spiking.

“Get ready,” Hae-gun replied, his tone chillingly casual. “They’ll be swarming up the ridge in seconds.”

Swarming in?

“Don’t tell me… monsters are stampeding?” the healer stammered.

“Yes,” the Guild Master answered simply.

The deadpan confirmation left the younger man’s mind blank. How can someone announce an incoming horde so breezily?

“Does this happen regularly?” Eui-rim asked, his voice strained.

“Every once in a while,” Hae-gun remarked. “Think of it like floodgates bursting open on a dam.”

In short, monsters were spilling out of the Abyssal Origin Cave like an apocalyptic flood.

Thud, thud, thud

The ground beneath their boots heaved as though the mountain itself were collapsing. As the deafening stampede drew closer, Seo Hae-gun’s lips curled into a smirk, his tone laced with mischief:

“Good timing. Might as well test your combat capabilities while we’re at it.”

“What?” Eui-rim choked out.

“If you’re volunteering yourself as a raid strategist, you must have some practical tricks up your sleeve, right?” the S-rank hunter drawled. “Surely you didn’t track me down in the mountains just to peddle a couple pieces of trivia.”

“No—wait a moment, Guild Master,” Eui-rim protested, his thoughts instantly derailing as if he had taken a sledgehammer to the skull. What the hell is this lunatic talking about?

“You claimed with your own mouth that you could clear the Tower of Time on the first try,” Hae-gun said smoothly. “So prove how you intend to be useful.”

“G-Guild Master Cheongho, wait! I…” Eui-rim stammered, raising his hands.

“Ah, look. They’re here,” Hae-gun interrupted, tilting his head toward the tree line.

There was no need to ask what had arrived.

Tearing through the billowing dust clouds like a tidal wave, well over a hundred aberrations surged into view.

“Fascinating,” Hae-gun murmured, genuinely intrigued. “I’ve never seen this many swarm out at once.”

A faint thrill hummed in the Guild Master’s voice. Utterly oblivious to Eui-rim’s mounting panic, the bright smile on the taller man’s face resembled that of an excited child on a playground.

Is he seriously enjoying this? He looks ten times livelier than before—am I losing my mind?

“Well, I can sit back and spectate for a bit, can’t I?” the Guild Master teased. “If you’re going to step up as the vanguard for conquering the Tower of Time, you should at least be able to handle this much.”

Why is this spiraling in such a deranged direction? When did I ever claim I’d be the vanguard?! I only offered to provide strategic intel! What I have isn’t frontline combat prowess—it’s closer to divine prophecy!

Leaning his broad frame against a nearby pine, Hae-gun looked entirely relaxed, fully intending to abandon the healer to his fate. The Guild Master’s posture—arms folded over his chest, ready to enjoy the show—was so shamelessly nonchalant that Eui-rim’s jaw dropped.

Eui-rim stared at the smiling hunter—who was practically cheering him on with a cheerful ‘You’ve got this!’—as though looking at a certified lunatic.

Has he genuinely lost his mind? Leaving me to face a horde alone? When he just saw my Hunter registration card?!

“I look forward to seeing what you can do, Hunter,” Hae-gun called out encouragingly.

The chilling realization struck Eui-rim at that exact moment.

As the man spoke while casually glancing at the stampeding abominations, the stark contrast between this Seo Hae-gun and the one from the previous timeline crashed into the younger man’s chest.

Even after their conversation had progressed this far, Seo Hae-gun had never once asked for his name.

To the S-rank hunter, who the healer was—or whether he was ripped apart by beasts—did not matter in the slightest.

The Guild Master had addressed him solely as an anonymous Hunter.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud

Eui-rim felt as though his frantic heart had detached and was rattling through his entire body. Pulsing in grotesque unison with the monsters’ thunderous strides, the vibration made his muscles cramp as if wrung out like a wet cloth.

“…” Eui-rim swallowed hard, clenching his trembling jaw.

Calm down. Stay calm. If I lose my head here, it’s truly the end.

A few deliberate, deep breaths settled his fraying nerves. Wiping his palms—slick with sweat and grime—against his trousers, Eui-rim drew the modest self-defense blade tucked inside his coat.

Seo Hae-gun remained rooted by the tree, merely spectating. Showing zero concern for the stampeding horde, the taller man tapped his forearm rhythmically with long fingers, looking thoroughly entertained.

No way. Surely he’ll step in halfway through. Would an S-rank hunter really leave a D-rank healer to be slaughtered? Since he called this a test, he’ll intervene the moment he sees I’m outmatched.

Although the Guild Master had a notorious reputation for being capricious and erratic, Seo Hae-gun was generally decisive when it came to preserving human life. While he lacked the self-righteous hero complex of other high-rankers, he was surely not so ruthless as to watch an innocent die before his eyes.

…He isn’t that ruthless, right? At least, that was his public reputation.

I don’t know anymore. Things will work out somehow. Even if I’m unlucky enough to be torn apart by beasts, I’ll have to accept it as fate. After all, drawing breath right now is entirely thanks to the Seo Hae-gun of my previous life saving me. If my borrowed time runs out here, so be it.

Gauging the dwindling distance between himself and the charging horde, Eui-rim clicked his tongue.

The horrors churning up the dust were varied and repulsive. Not only segmented annelids like the one that had ambushed him earlier, but human-faced abominations and grotesquely misshapen chimeras surged forward in a ravenous pack.

…Is there truly no other way? Standing here like a target won’t solve anything. Shouldn’t I at least attempt something before the Guild Master writes me off completely?

“Ah, come to think of it…” Eui-rim muttered under his breath.

There had definitely been two awakened skills unlocked from the system errors. What was the second one?

The status window flickered to life the instant the thought crossed his mind. As though waiting solely for this command, an amber radiance illuminated an unfamiliar skill on the translucent panel.

What kind of skill is this?

A hollow laugh escaped the healer at a description even more cryptic than Shackles of Oblivion. Touch the flow of time? How on earth am I supposed to touch something immaterial?

Perhaps because everything differed so drastically from his days as a healer, a phantom migraine throbbed behind his temples. Back then, skill descriptions had been intuitive and channeling divine mana had felt as effortless as breathing. Now, he couldn’t even fathom where to begin. Was he supposed to wind an imaginary clockwork spring?

His doubts vanished in a single heartbeat.

A bizarre sensation abruptly engulfed him as an alien current of mana began surging through his veins.

The mana churning around his limbs settled onto the earth, shimmering with dappled, golden amber light.

And moments later—

Huuuum

Upon the glowing earth, monumental clock hands materialized from the golden light: the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand aligned side by side.

Tick

Tock

The second hand swept forward with a sharp, mechanical clatter. Ticking far faster than standard time, it completed a full revolution in an instant, snapping upright at the zenith of the dial.

Click

Immediately following, the stationary minute hand lurched forward by a single notch, plunging the world into absolute silence.

As though the landscape before them had been preserved in taxidermy, the charging monsters froze in mid-stride.

Eui-rim whipped his head around, his gaze colliding with Seo Hae-gun’s wide, astonished blue-gray eyes.

In a world turned suffocatingly still, the only two living beings capable of motion were Eui-rim and the Guild Master.

The bizarre system prompt materialized right before Eui-rim’s eyes.

Displaying a glowing countdown, the luminescent digits ticked down with clinical precision, pulsing with an urgent warning.

“There are three minutes left,” Eui-rim choked out.

“…Three minutes?” Hae-gun echoed, his voice laced with disbelief.

“Until the skill expires… there are three minutes left,” the healer gasped.

Like a man wracked by violent chills, Eui-rim could not stop his trembling. Though his fingers had gone numb and dropped the blade to the dirt, his entire body shuddered so fiercely that he couldn’t even summon the strength to retrieve it.