*GASP!*
He opened his eyes with hope, hoping that everything was just a dream. Sadly, the events that happened were not.
'A dream...?'
'Was it a dream?'
As he breathed the still air and clasped his chest, he looked around, seeing a familiar environment.
'A hospital... again.'
However, compared to his past experiences with the hospital, this time was different. He felt new, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long one.
Jin-Woo usually awoke with the familiar aching and battered body, but that feeling was gone, somehow.
As he felt around his body, he came to notice that his lopped leg was back. 'So everything that happened must've been a-!'
However, before he could conclude, the door to my room clicked open.
"You're finally awake." a weighty voice said; with power behind it, Jin-Woo hurriedly turned his head to whoever spoke.
"Apologies, we did not mean to surprise you. Unfortunately, we are unable to wait any longer." the leading man said, accompanied by another, both in black business attire.
"Who are you?" Jin-Woo has never seen such faces before, neither has anyone visited him before, apart from his younger sister.
The man behind the other presented a professional-looking business card. "This is who we are."
Jin-Woo received it slowly and read it, 'Woo Jin-Chul, the section Chief of the Monitoring Division, Korean Hunter's Association?'
"What does the Monitoring division want with me?" Jin-Woo asked carefully. The Monitoring division usually handled criminal Hunters, and Jin-Woo had a clear conscience.
Jin-Woo's question was soon answered, with Jin-Chul giving out the story of his current predicament.
"I was asleep for three days!?" It was apparent that Jin-Woo was shocked, something the two expected; hence, they ignored it.
"Yes. However, do you remember what happened before you blacked out?" Jin-Chul asked; this was the question he needed answering.
What soon followed was a back-and-forth exchange of what Jin-Woo experienced with the statues, along with the other Hunters.
As this was happening, Kara was on the other side, watching as this went on.
"Well, isn't this boring?" A bored out of her mind, Kara said. She didn't have any new experiments to carry out, nor did she find any new book worth investing her time in.
"I was expecting Ashborn to come to me, considering how I killed the Architect and all."
What was Kara's goal? Her goal was to create something similar to the Black Heart. Her material? The Cup of Reincarnation, of course!
Unfortunately, no such thing happened, but she was sure that Ashborn was watching. He watched the Architect's soul getting destroyed, that is.
As of now, Kara was casually lazing in her office, doing nothing. She leaves all the administrative work to elves and its representative, Kainas.
With nothing to do, she sent a mental transmission towards Think. Think is Kara's assistant, a rather convenient worker to have.
Moments later, Think appeared within Kara's office. "Lady Kara, how may I help?"
"Give me a report on all the races living in Avant Heim and also the political situation of this planet."
Hearing this, Think was surprised! 'Is Lady Kara finally going to work? I should take this chance to unload everything she has neglected to do!'
Without wasting time, Think summoned all the paperwork regarding the topic. What appeared was a mountainous pile!
'Ugh, paperwork, always upsetting to look at. I wonder how Mom handled all these?'
Laura is the assistant of Thomas in the Scavenger Guild; she manages every ounce of necessary paperwork there is.
Anyway, after sifting through the documents, Kara found some intriguing topics.
One, the dwarves managed to find an unknown metal when they were digging around the core of the Earth. The metal is said to have natural reflective properties to mana.
Two, the countries that Avant Heim has floated near have experienced a decrease in pollution. Making countries want the floating city to visit them more.
Three, the dwarves converted a nuclear warhead into a weapon that utilizes mana, making it effective against monsters.
"Hm. No countries sending assassins anymore? I figured they would never give up." Kara said blandly.
"Well, after you tortured the people responsible and sent them naked to space with their family for the world to see, they stopped."
Yes, Kara has done such a thing, and she did it with joy.
"Anyway, regarding the unknown metal, I think it's time for me to create my own golem. I had an inspiration after killing a statue recently.
"Tell the dwarves to prepare the smithy; I'll be using it with them."
Over the years, Kara absorbed the experience and knowledge from the dwarves for creating things. The best weapons and armors created by Kara go to her family, while the junk gets sold off to the world.
However, the so-called junk is always the number one thing the Hunters always fight over.
The worse instance is when a quarter of a city was razed to the ground when multiple S-Ranks fought over an armor set. Therefore, auctions regarding Kara's items are held outside of cities nowadays.
"As for the stolen nuclear warhead that the dwarves converted, well, store it somewhere properly, I guess."
The dwarves have a habit of requesting Kara to steal military assets from America. To date, they have stolen a few aircraft carriers and transformed them into magical flying ships, making them unnoticeable.
Of course, Kara is the one stealing the equipment while she lets the dwarves do their magic. Then at the end of the day, she reads about what they have done with said stolen equipment.
As for the United States military? Well, they're losing their shit. Assets of the military disappear out of nowhere with no one to blame, what a shocker.
"Let's go; I have a whole lot of golem ideas that I want to test and create."
Think hearing Kara saying this paled slightly. Kara has a reputation for going for days without sleep when she gets her creative mode on.
And whoever gets asked for assistance will suffer days without sleep. Well, technically, they can naturally go on for days without it, but who doesn't like sleep?
As this happened, elsewhere, someone was fighting for their life.
Who else but Jin-Woo?
Before fighting for his life, Jin-Woo has just gone through a horde of beasts with the help of Mr. Kim's sword.
However, the said sword is now ready to crumble from the stress of swinging it through dozens of limbs and bodies of monsters.
And now, he was just struck earlier by the Swamp's Ruler, Blue Poison Fangs Rasaka; the strike broke his sword into two.
With long bated breaths, he asked the massive blue long serpent in front of him, "Are you the boss of this place?"
Unsurprisingly, the serpent said nothing but stare at him menacingly.
"No worries, you'll become my exp soon enough."
As this happened, Kara is missing all the good parts of Jin-Woo being thrashed around!
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(CHEERS)
Couldn't really write much, was figuring out where to flow the story, anyway, I'll see how it flows. Hoped you enjoy today's chapter.