Chapter 132 (1/2)
Summon of the Tower (1)
After returning home, I asked Hibiki a question.
“Ah, by the way, Hibiki.” “…?” “Can I go to your room for a while?”
She suddenly blushed and mumbled. Realizing that the words had a misleading remark, I quickly patched it up.
“The cat is in your room right now, right? Can I see it for a moment?” “…”
Hibiki regained her composure remarkably fast and spoke with an expressionless face as usual.
“I’m not sure if it’s in my room right now.” “Hmm?” “It recently learned how to turn the doorknob… so it opens all the doors at home.”
The Iponia, named Cat, had a tail longer than its body and used it as freely as an elephant nose. If it were to be compared to a human being, it’s like a substitute for a hand. Last time, it learned how to press the water dispenser button and turned the kitchen into an ocean. After that, it had even learned how to turn doorknobs. Oh, was that why all the doors were open whenever I walked down the hallway the past few days?
“But it doesn’t come into my room, though?” “Strangely, it seems to be a little scared of mister Jin-Wook. Except for the occasional times that you feed it.”
I could guess the reason. However, since a lot of time had passed already, it was time to experiment again.
“Let’s go together for now, shall we? Since your room is the place where it stays most of the time.”
Fortunately, the cat was taking a nap in Hibiki’s room. When I opened the closed door (She also said that if it’s sleepy, it closed the door by itself and slept), I saw a cat that had a reversed U-shaped figure in the most comfortable position in the world. Its body flinched a little every now and then as if it’s dreaming about something. The white foot, as if to give an edge on the black-furred leg, kicked the air.
“Cat.”
When I called it, it slowly opened one eye and looked at me, then closed its eyelids again.
“It’s completely ignoring you.” “…”
Even though in the past, I rescued it out of the black market myself, fed it, and managed to fatten up the skin-and-bones kitten… At that moment, it was all heels over head for Hibiki, and I was overlooked. Hibiki called it out, extending her hand.
“Cat. Wake up.”
Only then did it fully open its eyes and looked at Hibiki.
“Meow!”
It cried as if to murmur, yawned once, and then got up and stretched. Then it approached Hibiki. She turned her head and looked at me as if to say, ‘what now?’
“Okay, I’ll be quick in trying this out.”
It’s been more than a year since I brought the cat to my house, and it’s bigger than ever. It was worth looking at it with astonishment. Wouldn’t it be able to handle it by then? The work of eating up the curse in my heart, that was.
“Don’t be scared this time. Go ahead and have a bite.”
I moved the blue Mana into a particular pattern in the Core, stimulating the embedded [Mercadius’s Seed]. Then the red Mana inside my heart began to rise quietly in the abyss like fruit flies gathering around the light.
‘…Geeeek!’
The red energy started from the heart and spread all over the body. Back then, the cat could only busy itself by hiding under the bed whenever I stimulated the curse like that. But what about that moment?
“Hisss!”
I sang of joy inwardly. That’s right! Its reaction was different from before. Hibiki looked surprised and gazed at the cat and me alternately. The cat and I were staring at the existence that was invisible to Hibiki’s eyes. Red tentacles-like anemones sprouted from my chest and extended radially. Then-
“!”
Blue flashes poured out of the cat’s eyes like starlights. All of it was aiming for my heart.
‘It’s draining its force before it consumes it!’
It was the step that needed to be taken to weaken the coagulated skill effect of the curses in the body before eating it up. However, the seed in my heart did not fall off easily. It wriggled as if to struggle and spread its red hands all around. It even tried to reach out for my head, but it was useless.
-[The Successor’s Eyes (Rank: EX)] Resists to [Mercadius’ Seed (Rank: SSS)]!
It was impossible to move to another body because it was already stuck in a host called ‘me,’ and it wasn’t powerful enough to wrestle against me all for the sake of taking over my mind. I watched the fight between the two with my eyes shining. Maybe it was possible!
“Meoooow!”
Ra-ta-ta-tat!
It was the sound of my expectations collapsing.
“It didn’t work again this time.”
It was a swift turnaround. Iponia ran away without looking back and hid under the bed. But I wasn’t as deeply disappointed as I was before, and I didn’t even sigh.
“This is a tremendous improvement!”
Its behavior was completely different until the very end when it ran away, scared that the tentacles would win against it. That time around, it faced the seed bravely, and the seed of the curse seemed to have suffered too.
“I’ll just have to wait for it to grow a little bit more.”
Of course, I planned to pay close attention to supplying the food (skill cards) for rapid growth.
“I have high expectations for you.”
I spoke encouragingly, but…
“Meow!”
It only cried in a sharp voice as if it were protesting under the bed.
*
“We’re almost there, Guild Master.”
Having enough time in the schedule, I visited the R&D Center near Gyeonggi-do with Secretary Kim. J/V’s Korean research center expanded quickly and now used up a small industrial complex size of land. Of course, the Korean government actively cooperated in the process. The gate that automatically recognized the vehicle number opened, and we entered an area that couldn’t be seen from outside. Inside, some ordinary factories appeared to be lined up. There was also a lot of unused land. Most were empty parking lots and unused vacant lots. Secretary Kim didn’t slow down. He entered the road blocked by yellow barricades. If he kept driving like that, we’d crash.
“Are you nervous?”
Secretary Kim smirked.
“Come on, Guild Master. I’ve brought you here a few times already. This would be only…”
The distance from the barricades was getting narrower. Four meters, two meters… zero meters! The collision between the barricade and the car… did not take place, of course.