The Support Ate it All

Hong Yeon-hwa was walking.

It was pitch-dark all around which made it impossible to tell where she was, yet she somehow felt she had to keep moving.

– Hong Yeon-hwa…

Then she heard a voice.

It echoed from all directions, as if it was resounding through a cave and she couldn’t discern who it belonged to.

Yet, strangely enough, it felt familiar.

– Hong Yeon-hwa…

The farther she walked forward, the louder and clearer the voice seemed to grow.

Guessing it was because she was getting closer, Hong Yeon-hwa extended her hand and started groping her way forward while steadily pressing on.

As she walked a bit farther, she felt she was beginning to recognize the voice’s owner.

A strange sense of unease crept up on her, but the urge to confirm was stronger.

So Hong Yeon-hwa kept moving without stopping.

– ……

How much longer had she walked?

The voice that had been calling out periodically suddenly stopped.

Hong Yeon-hwa came to an abrupt halt.

Then she asked a question cautiously.

“Are you… there?”

– Ssss…

Instead of an answer, what emerged from the darkness was the face of Kim Ho who had been calling her this whole time.

The only problem was that his face was enormous. Like that of a giant.

“Uh, uh…”

Hong Yeon-hwa froze and her mouth slightly opened in shock.

Soon, the giant face of Kim Ho lowered its gaze to meet hers.

“Hoooong Yeoeoneon-hwaaaaaa….”

A giant hand reached toward her.

The pale-faced Hong Yeon-hwa began to tremble uncontrollably.

“Uwaaa…”

“Yeeeeon-hwaa…sooon…”

The shadow of that enormous hand began to envelop her.

Hong Yeon-hwa curled up tightly and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Ah!”

Then suddenly, she opened her eyes.

The pitch-black darkness was gone. It was replaced by bright sunlight streaming in through the window.

She was lying in her dorm room, on her own bed.

Hong Yeon-hwa let out a sigh of relief.

…It was just a dream.

Right, there’s no way a giant Kim Ho could be real.

She decided to go back to sleep.

Pulling the blanket over herself, Hong Yeon-hwa closed her eyes again.

But only a short moment later—

“Ah!”

She snapped her eyes open once more.

A single thought had crossed her mind.

But… why am I here?

Just a moment ago, she had been with Kim Ho in the dungeon fighting a defensive battle.

They had even taken down a strange black monster together.

Could this still be part of the dream?

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Hong Yeon-hwa tried to make sense of her current situation as she stared up at the ceiling.

Gradually, though only faintly, scattered fragments of scenes began to come back to her.

Kim Ho amplified her Fire Pillar to A-rank.

She had poured everything she had into it and finally succeeded in defeating the giant Ice Witch Golem.

In the next moment, she felt completely drained of mana. Her energy was utterly spent, and her memory faded out for a brief instant.

– It’s over. Let’s go.

“……”

She remembered resting her hand on Kim Ho’s and remaining like that for quite a while.

– Unnie… liar…

– What is it?

– You know… the effect…

She recalled nuzzling her face happily into Kim Ho’s back as he carried her.

– Hong Yeon-hwa, we’re here.

– ……

And finally, she remembered Kim Ho setting her down in front of the girls’ dormitory.

He must have carried her all the way from the dungeon building to the dormitory.

And then, without even saying goodbye, she had stumbled back to her room and collapsed onto her bed.

As the memories resurfaced, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a low sigh.

“Ah…”

She really must have gone crazy.

Hong Yeon-hwa berated her unconscious self.

At the same time, she made a firm resolve.

I really need to conserve my mana…

She tried hard to recall anything else embarrassing she might have said, but that was all that came to mind.

Still, even if she was relieved, it was hard to feel at ease given all that had already happened.

In the end, Hong Yeon-hwa chose to escape reality and burrowed deeper into her blankets.

Maybe I should just sleep a little more…

Even though she had rested enough to feel reasonably clear-headed, she had absolutely no desire to get up.

However, before much time passed,

“Ah!”

Hong Yeon-hwa opened her eyes again with a start.

When she looked outside, she saw that the sun was already high in the sky.

Frantically, she checked the clock. It was 11:30.

“…Class!”

She had completely missed her morning classes.

Hong Yeon-hwa hurriedly began to get ready to leave.

***

After finishing her afternoon classes, Hong Yeon-hwa headed to the Ruby Magic Tower clubroom.

Though it was practically a second dormitory to her, she entered with the caution of someone visiting a friend’s house she wasn’t all that close with.

She opened the clubroom door just a third of the way and peeked her head in.

In the next instant, she pulled back and quickly shut the door.

Bang!

A fist-sized fireball had come flying toward her.

From beyond the closed door, her sister’s voice called out.

“Hong Yeon-hwa, come in.”

“..….”

With no other choice, Hong Yeon-hwa stepped inside the room.

As her eyes darted around nervously, the question she had expected finally came.

“Why did you skip class?”

“It’s not that I wanted to skip… really….”

Having missed her morning classes, Hong Yeon-hwa felt like a criminal.

However, she was a criminal with at least some defense to offer.

After all, just last night, she had gone into a D-rank dungeon and only made it back afterward.

And not just for a simple clear. It had been for training purposes.

To top it off, an unexpected strong enemy had appeared at the end.

Since replay recording wasn’t possible, Hong Yeon-hwa explained everything in detail, step by step.

Of course, she kept silent about the [Amplification] skill that Kim Ho had used and his overwhelming strength displayed at the end. Somehow, she just felt it was best to keep that part to herself.

“……”

Hong Ye-hwa’s face, which had shown a hint of frustration, grew more serious as she listened to the story.

Then, she pulled up a replay purchased from the student store.

It was from just yesterday, filmed as another party tackled an underground dungeon.

“That thing you saw at the end. Did it look something like this?”

In the crystal ball, a second-year party was struggling against a single monster.

Its appearance was a bit peculiar; it walked on two legs with the head of a deer, and instead of arms, writhing snakes sprouted from its shoulders.

It looked like a mix of several monsters.

Its entire body was jet black with a faint sheen.

Though the appearance was different, the details were extremely similar, and Hong Yeon-hwa slowly nodded her head.

“…Mhmm, it looked like that.”

“You really went through a lot.”

Even as a club president, Hong Ye-hwa had only recently been informed of this.

Earlier in the week, a few parties had encountered undocumented monsters in the dungeon and had struggled to defeat them.

She never would have guessed that Hong Yeon-hwa and Kim Ho had been among those parties.

She felt immense relief that nothing major had happened.

At the same time, Hong Ye-hwa raised her evaluation of Kim Ho by a notch.

He’s definitely got decent skills.

The areas where the black monsters had appeared were rumored to have increased in difficulty by about half a level, and every witness had reportedly struggled.

But Hong Yeon-hwa and Kim Ho had encountered one in a D-rank dungeon and seemed to have handled it without much trouble.

This meant that they dealt with the situation flexibly and had the skills to make it possible.

I can trust him to handle things.

He seemed to be reliable enough for at least D-rank dungeons. With some observation, maybe even for more than that.

Hong Ye-hwa asked again.

“So, what about the loot?”

“We got two random boxes and one scroll.”

Hong Yeon-hwa pulled out the dungeon-clear rewards.

At some point, they appeared in her inventory, and it seemed Kim Ho had already divided them evenly with her unconsciously storing her share.

“I used up one mana potion and two rank boosts—”

“Wait, two?”

Hong Ye-hwa interrupted.

One boost should’ve been more than enough for the whole dungeon; why two?

Hong Yeon-hwa averted her gaze and answered while trying to sound casual.

“One of them… I gave to Kim Ho.”

“Why’d you give it to him?”

“Well, am I supposed to be the only one boosting my rank while he just watches? That’d be kinda awkward, don’t you think?”

“Still, how could you just give away a boost like it’s nothing?”

It was true that the Ruby Tower fully supported Hong Yeon-hwa, but it wasn’t to the extent that she could use rank boosts as if they were water, let alone share them with someone else out of generosity.

So, it was no wonder Hong Ye-hwa was reacting so strongly.

“At least try to negotiate. Like giving the boost instead of the ruby!”

“How could I even do that?”

Negotiate with Kim Ho? For Hong Yeon-hwa, that was an unthinkable idea.

Besides, from her perspective, she felt she had a valid reason.

“Still, he went in there because of me, so I had to show some appreciation.”

“Then why show appreciation with a rank boost? And was it even yours to give?”

Hong Ye-hwa was implying that the boost was provided by the magic tower, not for her personal use.

Hong Yeon-hwa was momentarily at a loss for words because it was a fair point, but she also started to feel a bit irritated.

So she shook a random box and held it up.

“I’ll make up for it! I’ll break open my piggy bank or draw something out from here!”

“Do you really think you’ll get anything useful? Out of that?”

Hong Ye-hwa scoffed.

A rank boost wasn’t the kind of item that would just drop so easily. Maybe if it were a B or C-rank box, but D-rank? Absolutely out of the question.

It would be lucky if she didn’t end up pulling something useless like a cushion or a teacup.

Regardless, Hong Yeon-hwa seemed already fired up.

[The ‘Random Box Enhancement Scroll’ has been used.]

Flaaaash!

A burst of light radiated from the scroll as it merged into one of the random boxes.

[Winterhalt Random Box (D+)]

The rank shifted from D to D+.

Hong Ye-hwa felt it was a waste to use the enhancement scroll, and she also thought her sister was doing something reckless, but she decided to stay quiet and watch.

It was her sister’s item to use as she wished, and if she failed this time, it might cool her down a bit.

But the moment Hong Yeon-hwa flung open the random box—

Flaaa—sh—!

A dazzling light, almost too bright to believe it came from a mere D+ rank box, filled the room.

When the light finally faded, two rolled-up magic scrolls appeared in Hong Yeon-hwa’s hands instead of the random box.

[Rank Boost] *2

“……”

“……”

“It… really came out.”

“…Mhmm.”

The Hong sisters were dumbfounded.

Hong Ye-hwa, who had been planning how to calmly reason with and persuade her sister afterward, found herself stunned at this unexpected outcome.

Hong Yeon-hwa was equally speechless. She had opened the random box out of frustration, without really expecting much.

But now that things were turning in her favor, the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but twitch into a small smile.

“See? S-Satisfied now? I got it, didn’t I?”

“… So you’re still planning to give one to Kim Ho?”

“What? Can’t I?”

Hong Yeon-hwa shot back confidently.

On the other hand, Hong Ye-hwa was left speechless at this unexpected windfall.

What could she say when her sister was offering her own item as a gesture of goodwill?

Still, she felt uneasy and asked anyway.

“Why are you going that far? Do you… like him?”

“What? Why are you suddenly pushing it in that direction?”

“You’ve been acting strange lately; that’s why. Just tell me. I won’t get mad. What do you think of him?”

“I don’t like him.”

Her answer came without hesitation.

Yet Hong Ye-hwa was still unconvinced and pressed her further.

“Really?”

“I said I don’t! Stop meddling already!”

“…Alright, sorry.”

As Hong Yeon-hwa snapped back, Hong Ye-hwa apologized.

After all, no matter how close they were, there was a limit to how much she should interfere in her sister’s personal life.

Meanwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa silently repeated her sister’s question to herself.

What do I think of Kim Ho?

Honestly, she didn’t know.

Until recently, even meeting Kim Ho’s gaze had made her shrink back, but lately, her preconceived notions had been breaking down, and she found herself noticing his positive traits.

He seemed reliable, and she even thought he was impressive.

When they shared coffee together, she felt at ease.

But still, liking him… that’s not it, right?

Probably not.