Chapter 12. Sunday
“Ma! Ma! Mama! Ma! Mamama!”
“...Soma?”
“Ma!”
“I still don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Mamamama!”
No way!
“Oh.”
This time, he understood.
It wasn’t some natural telepathic communication like he had with Sarang. It was because Soma had dropped into a classic "OTL" despair pose, like a defeated emoji.
“Do you know how to write, by any chance?”
“Ma?”
At Kim Suho’s words, Soma suddenly perked up. Then, using his wooden sword, he started scribbling something on the ground.
“Ma.”
“…Are you asking if I understand this?”
“Ma!”
“Nope. I don’t.”
It was a character he had never seen before. If he had to guess…
“Is this Arabic?”
“Maaa…”
Soma drooped again. But before long, he perked up. Sitting cross-legged, he shook his head.
“Ma… Ma… Ma!”
Did he figure something out?
Soma’s eyes sparkled. He jumped up and drew a picture instead.
It was two stick figures with swords bumping into each other.
“…You’re saying communication is hard, so teaching is difficult. And since there’s no time to learn Korean, we should just spar instead?”
“Maa!”
Pointing at Kim Suho, Soma nodded once and got into stance.
Kim Suho also raised his wooden sword and faced him.
“Maa!”
Soma let out a loud cry as if to signal the start, slightly bending his knees.
Kim Suho matched the stance.
His opponent was no ordinary swordsman.
He was a True Mandragora Swordsman, the best among the Mandragora race at wielding a blade.
Whack!
“Ugh…”
Kim Suho knew Soma was strong. But he didn’t expect the gap to be this wide.
“Five seconds…”
He lasted exactly five seconds.
“Ma! Ma!”
“Yeah, yeah. This time I’ll make it to thirty seconds.”
Their first spar lasted five seconds before Soma won.
Stunned, Kim Suho asked for a rematch. Again, five seconds.
After two identical results, he focused even harder and continued the spars. After a total of 25 bouts, he finally lasted 30 seconds.
“I knew having sword skills made a big difference… but this much?”
He stared up at the sky in a daze, but snapped out of it as Soma walked over, tilting his head.
Kim Suho chuckled and stood up.
“Soma.”
“Ma.”
“You were holding back for me, weren’t you?”
“Ma!”
“And I still lost because my sword skills are weak?”
“Ma!”
“…Okay. Let’s keep going.”
Tatata!
Soma dashed with his short legs. When he gained some distance, he took a stance again. Kim Suho mirrored him.
There was a huge height difference.
Soma leapt into the air and swung his mana-infused wooden sword.
Thwack!
Wooden sword clashed against wooden sword.
Not only was there a swordsmanship gap—there was also a serious difference in mana control.
Kim Suho winced at the shock transmitted through his hands, then staggered back, swinging again.
Thwack! Thwack!
The gap was so wide that by the tenth bout, Kim Suho was ready to stop training. But persuaded by Soma—who claimed the sparring would help him improve in defense, dodging, and mana control—they continued.
The outcome didn’t change. But the time until defeat steadily increased.
The new goal: 1 minute.
“Ma!”
Shhff!
Kim Suho narrowly dodged Soma’s thrust and hastily moved his mana.
Through mana sensing, he realized something.
Soma, failing to land the thrust, had twisted midair and thrown his wooden sword.
Two options to dodge:
Twist his upper body… or throw himself completely aside.
Whack!
Kim Suho pushed his mana outward and tracked the trajectory of the flying sword. He could’ve dodged it with just a twist, but instead, he dove to the side.
Vwooom!
As if proving it was the right move, the sword curved mid-air.
If he had just twisted his body, he would’ve been hit.
Rolling several times, Kim Suho looked up—and saw the reason.
A tiny tendril extended from Soma’s palm, still attached to the sword’s hilt.
With crescent-moon-shaped eyes, Soma landed and reeled the sword back in—then charged again.
“Whew…”
After a shower, Kim Suho collapsed onto the sofa by the front door.
“That was brutal.”
Two hours of mana-draining sparring.
They’d reached their goal of lasting a full minute, but it had taken a serious toll.
He unconsciously massaged his shoulders and looked at Soma, now resting in a bowl of warm water.
“Soma.”
“Ma.”
“We’re not doing this every day, right?”
“Ma.”
Soma raised his hand and spread his index and middle fingers.
“Twice a week?”
“Maa.”
“…Every other day?”
“Ma!”
“Phew.”
He sighed, but he couldn’t refuse. The sparring had clearly improved his defense, dodging, and mana control.
Soma lowered his hand and turned his head toward the TV. Kim Suho followed his gaze.
“…Soma.”
“Ma?”
“Wanna go see Charming?”
Apparently, Charming the True Mandragora King meant more to Soma than the mysterious TV.
He instantly stood up, abandoning the screen he’d been mesmerized by for the last 30 minutes.
Kim Suho lifted Soma onto his shoulder and stepped outside.
Heading around the building toward the field, he immediately spotted Charming, arms raised high, using a skill.
“No wonder my mana kept draining…”
That’s why he couldn’t spar for longer than 2 hours.
“But wait…”
The field was split in two. One side, with mounded soil, looked like it had sweet potatoes planted. The problem was the other side.
“…This isn’t a forest, is it?”
Corn stalks—taller than elementary school kids—completely filled one half of the field.
Just earlier, there had been nothing there.
And one more thing.
Both Kim Suho and Soma turned and stared at a tree outside the fence—one they’d never seen before.
“…What the hell happened in just two hours?”
A mango tree stood tall outside the field.
“You’re back?”
From within the cornfield, Yuna stepped out. Kim Suho pointed to the mango tree.
“Why is that here?”
“It’s Charming’s ability.”
“…Yuna.”
“Yeah?”
“Can tropical fruit grow in Korea?”
“Normally no. But I confirmed it was possible by testing Charming’s powers.”
“….”
It must’ve been a side effect from one of Charming’s skill tests.
“But where’d you even get a mango tree?”
“From school.”
“School?”
“Yeah. Jae-wook brought it.”
Lee Jae-wook, who got a scholarship to an agricultural university in the countryside, had always dreamed of becoming a farmer. No one in his family objected.
“There was a school project, supported by hunters, but it got canceled at the last minute. Everything was already prepared.”
“Project?”
“Yup.”
“Ah, Jae-wook hyung.”
“Yeah.”
Right then, a bespectacled young man in his early twenties, Lee Jae-wook, emerged from the cornfield carrying a basket full of corn.
“Suho.”
“Hey.”
“Can I take these?”
“No.”
“…?”
Jae-wook tilted his head.
“Why not?”
“Appraise.”
Kim Suho grabbed a corn and activated his appraisal system.
Name: Corn Grade: F Description: Corn empowered by the True Mandragora King’s mana. Effect: Detoxification (E-rank and below)
“Just as I thought.”
It had absorbed mana, just as he suspected. Turning off the hologram, Kim Suho told Jae-wook:
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“This corn has a special effect. If it’s revealed now, it’ll be a huge headache.”
“Effect? Oh, you mean it’s an item… wait, what? An item?”
“Yep. An item.”
“…!”
Jae-wook quickly turned to look at Charming, who was walking around the field with the younger kids, arms still raised.
Eventually, it’d be revealed anyway. In fact, Kim Suho was already preparing to sell online with help from his tech-savvy younger sibling.
“We’re not selling it right now, right?”
Ground floor lobby, Ha-neul’s house.
With the kids left in Soma’s care, Kim Suho returned to the lobby with Jae-wook and Yuna.
After sipping on a drink, Jae-wook continued:
“It’ll leak no matter how secretly you do it.”
“Exactly.”
Kim Suho had no powerful backing. The moment he started selling crops with special effects, guilds, corporations, even the government would come knocking.
“So you’ll wait until after you join a guild?”
“Nope.”
Kim Suho shook his head.
“By chance, I made a connection with the Hunter Association.”
“…The Association.”
Though they were powerful, the Association was still the most trustworthy among all major forces.
“You’ll make a contract with them?”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“After I successfully finish this request.”
Kim Suho had Soma, the expert swordsman.
Sarang, who wielded cleansing fire.
And Charming, who could create mana-recovery fields and weaken monsters.
“But will the Association really make a deal with you? They could just take the crops.”
They might, in the name of public safety or requisition.
“They could. But only if they’re stupid.”
“Huh?”
“Think about it. Sure, they can take the crops. But that’s it. The ability to grow them lies in me—well, technically in Charming. That’s not something they can steal.”
Still confused, Yuna tilted her head. Kim Suho explained:
“If they seize the crops, I just won’t grow any more.”
Realization dawned on Jae-wook, who looked at Kim Suho with admiration.
“Would anyone dare kill the goose that lays golden eggs?”
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