FLIA 24

“Ah! W-what was that?”

Yohan flinched as a strange sensation rippled through him. Where Lee Hyunmook’s fingertips pressed against his leg, something unexplainably odd stirred, like a ticklish tingling, or his muscles spasming on their own. As Hyunmook pressed firmly against a knot in his calf, he asked,

“It’s called EMS (Electrical Muscular Stimulation), like a low-frequency massage. Doesn’t hurt, does it? It works by sending a faint current through the muscle to loosen it up.”

“…No! It doesn’t hurt at all.”

Yohan was amazed. He’d always associated Lee Hyunmook’s ability with ruthless blasts of high-voltage electricity, so this gentler use was surprising.

“Wow, you can use your power like this too?”

“If there’s no fire around, I can use it to heat things too.”

“I see…” Yohan nodded. Could he use it to charge batteries too? Would that be rude to ask? A human air purifier and now a human power bank…

While his thoughts drifted, Yohan suddenly found himself in a very awkward situation. Now wasn’t the time to be marveling.

He swallowed hard as an embarrassed sound nearly escaped his throat. The massage earlier had been fine, but now, with this EMS added in, the feeling was… overwhelming.

He tried singing random songs in his head, imagined sad scenarios, anything to distract himself. But no use. Blood was pooling in all the wrong places.

‘No, no, no! Come on, seriously? Do you not realize the situation you’re in?!’

Scolding himself internally did nothing. Lee Hyunmook’s touch felt too good, too… weird. Thank god he was lying on his stomach. Just as Yohan was silently panicking, Lee Hyunmook moved to flip him over like he had earlier during the massage. Alarmed, Yohan suddenly blurted out,

“Uh, um! I think I’m good now… I’m just really sleepy. I want to go to bed…”

He pulled the blanket over himself almost desperately. Lee Hyunmook looked down with a faint smile but didn’t press him. Instead of continuing the massage, he simply patted Yohan’s head.

“Good night, Yohan.”

“Thanks for the massage! Sleep well, Mr. Hyunmook!”

Yohan beamed brightly as Hyunmook left the room. As soon as the door shut, Yohan let out a silent scream. He didn’t notice, right? He didn’t… right? Burning with embarrassment, he repeatedly buried his face into the pillow before he was finally able to fall asleep.

***

Once Yohan was able to dodge attacks from both hands, Lee Hyunmook began teaching him how to sense danger. That training was simple too: Yohan had to avoid Lee Hyunmook’s sneak attacks while he hid nearby.

But when Lee Hyunmook deliberately erased all trace of his presence, Yohan couldn’t help but panic. It truly felt like no one was around at all. Even knowing Lee Hyunmook was watching, he felt uneasy and called out,

“Mr. Hyunmook, you’re really nearby, right…?”

Of course, there was no response.

A little deflated, Yohan started the drill as instructed. The goal was to circle the shelter ten times while dodging Lee Hyunmook’s attacks. Tense and alert, he began walking, eyes darting in every direction. After a few minutes, he suddenly felt something damp on his arm.

“Uwah!”

Startled, Yohan looked down, black, sticky gunk was smeared on his forearm.

“What the heck…”

He carefully peeled it off and was horrified to see a lumpy, filthy clump of something unidentifiable, faintly squirming. He shuddered and shook it off quickly before purifying the area. So that’s why Lee Hyunmook told him to wear white…

The attacks didn’t hurt, but they were thoroughly gross. When something hit the back of his neck, he involuntarily shuddered.

Even with his nerves on high alert, Yohan took ten direct hits during the first lap. By the tenth round, he could finally start sensing the attacks, but dodging them was still out of reach.

When all ten laps were finished, Lee Hyunmook reappeared. As Yohan cleaned the dirt from Lee Hyunmook’s hands with a gloomy look, he asked,

“What did you throw at me?”

“Some gross mud clumps I found near the barn.”

“Ugh…”

The next day, Yohan managed to dodge five out of a hundred attacks.

But the mud felt so awful on his skin that, during the second half, he began purifying the projectiles before they even touched him. As he brushed off the soft clumps of dirt, he asked,

“Is it okay to purify them before they hit me?”

“Actually, that’s even better. Monsters usually lose power when they’re purified. Might as well make it a habit.”

By the end of a week, Yohan could dodge or purify about half of the incoming attacks. As he dusted off mud and straw, he asked,

“But when do I learn how to attack?”

“You’re better off not attacking at all,” Lee Hyunmook replied unexpectedly.

As he brushed off Yohan’s back where he hadn’t noticed dirt, he explained,

“If you don’t know a monster’s traits well, you might end up hurting yourself. Some explode when hit, some stick to you like glue, and sometimes it turns out the ‘enemy’ was just a hallucinating ally.”

Yohan remembered the Red head and wheelchair monsters from the hospital, both of them perfect examples, filled with deadly toxins.

“It’s better to purify them instead. It throws them into a confused state and buys you time to escape. Besides, if a healer is getting attacked while the dealer’s just standing around, the whole team’s doomed anyway.”

Nodding at the valuable survival insight, Yohan realized Lee Hyunmook had classified him firmly as a healer type during training.

Based on his stamina and strength, he might even be weaker than a support class.

Well, corrupted people do heal slower. If I can reverse that, I guess I’m a healer in my own way.

By the time Yohan was dodging 70 to 80 percent of attacks, Lee Hyunmook finally decided it was time to go find Yoon Seungryong.

“That lazy bastard probably hasn’t moved far from where I last saw him. Let’s go scout the area, call it live training.”

Since the round trip would take two days, food was essential. They entered the black forest again.

Now, Yohan could feel the eyes of monsters watching them in the dark. He wouldn’t have noticed it before, but now he sensed it clearly.

Because they’d be walking a long time, he only summoned a small light. Fortunately, there were no attacks in the forest this time.

The problem came when they reached the swamp, about thirty minutes in.

The ground got softer, wetter, and the stench worsened. Eventually, their feet began sinking.

Sweating nervously, Yohan tried to step only where Lee Hyunmook stepped.

Suddenly, sensing something off, he dodged just in time as something slashed through the air where he’d been.

“Ahh, that scared me!”

Startled, he turned to see Hyunmook pat his shoulder twice.

“Nice dodge. That thing just now, it feeds on blood.”

Yohan beamed at the praise, then noticed Lee Hyunmook holding something squirming in his hand.

It looked like a bird with jagged, saw-like wing tips. When purified, it transformed into an ordinary forest moth.

If this had been before, he would’ve screamed about a giant monster moth. But now, it didn’t seem so scary.

“It was just a moth.”

Unlike frogs, it wasn’t edible, so they released it. The moth fluttered off, likely to become a monster again eventually. Yohan watched it disappear into the dark, then resumed walking.

The air grew unbearably humid, and their feet sank deeper. Yohan struggled to pull his legs free with every step. After a while, Lee Hyunmook raised his spear. He slammed it into the ground and sent lightning surging through the area.

Suddenly, the quiet swamp exploded with chaos.

Screeeech! Kyaaah! Aaaagh!

The swamp, which had looked like solid ground, writhed as monsters struck by the current flailed and leapt up, then scrambled away.

Lee Hyunmook watched their movements closely and pointed in one direction with his spear.

“The areas where nothing jumped out, that’s where the solid ground is. Follow right behind me.”

…Honestly, lightning was incredibly versatile. It worked for low-frequency massages, and even this. Yohan marveled as he carefully followed Hyunmook’s footsteps.

If a monster attacked, Lee Hyunmook gave Yohan the chance to dodge. If he couldn’t, Lee Hyunmook stepped in.

The worst monsters in the swamp were the swarms of insects.

They buzzed with a hellish drone and looked disgusting enough to make him scream. Even purified, they were still creepy as hell.

Thankfully, they had a human bug zapper on their side.

Lee Hyunmook never let the swarms get near Yohan. The smell of scorched flesh filled the air several times. After a long, grueling march, they finally encountered a large tree monster. Lee Hyunmook electrocuted it, and Yohan purified the rest.

What was left behind was a stump just big enough for two people to lie down on. After a quick meal, Lee Hyunmook planted his spear beside him and said,

“I’ll take first watch. You sleep.”

“Ah, okay, then I’ll go ahead and rest, sorry!”

Though he hadn’t complained, Yohan had been clearly exhausted. He rolled out his sleeping bag and crawled inside. He was so tired that the moment his eyes closed, he was out cold.