LTTH C70

Chapter 70

“What Hansol has done is worth far more than that, so don’t worry.”

As Hansol sat stiff and unable to regain his composure for a long while, Kassie gave him a gentle smile. James and the Tower Master, seated across from him, nodded as well.

‘You two don’t even know what happened. Why are you agreeing?’

The two men’s nonchalant expressions were so ridiculous that the pressure weighing on Hansol’s shoulders simply evaporated.

“Anyway, those enhancement stones… it seems your side has some interesting items.”

“Well, yes.”

“I’d like to study them a little. What do you think?”

“If I find anything I like, we might be able to make a good trade.”

As if their earlier hostility had been a lie, Kassie and the Tower Master exchanged meaningful glances and smiled faintly. Were all mages so quick to flip their mood like turning over a palm? Hansol didn’t know.

“Just let it go, darling.”

Shaking his head with the resignation of someone who had seen far too much of this, James leaned forward abruptly. His handsome face came so close so quickly that Hansol instinctively drew back. Fortunately, the table between them prevented any accidental collision.

“So, try that enhancement thing or whatever. Looks fun.”

It would be natural to covet a rare item like this, yet James seemed more eager to see how Hansol’s skill would change than to obtain the stones themselves. His eyes sparkled with curiosity and enthusiasm—so intensely that Hansol found it a bit frightening.

Leaning away, Hansol took an enhancement stone from the pouch. At first glance, it looked identical to the ones he had seen in England—same appearance, same item description.

“Then… I’ll try using it.”

“Mm. Go ahead.”

As before, the moment Hansol gripped the stone and activated it, it emitted a faint glow. Then a blue system window appeared. Everything was the same—up to that point.

The problem came in the next line of text.

“……?”

Enhancement could… fail?

He distinctly remembered succeeding effortlessly on his first try in England.

Startled, Hansol quickly opened the Purification skill description. It was unchanged. Identical to what it had been after the first enhancement back then. Perhaps he had received a one-time advantage the first time. Or maybe he had just been lucky.

The excitement that had filled him moments ago cooled instantly. Hansol stared blankly at the enhancement stone that had lost its light. And it was single-use. Truly a garbage system.

‘So that’s why he gave me so many.’

There was a reason Kassie had generously handed over nearly three hundred enhancement stones. Kassie must have known that success wouldn’t come easily. He must have used countless stones while surviving in England.

But then—how many would Hansol need? There was no listed probability, no “pity” count like in gacha games. Nothing.

Damn it. He had thought three hundred was excessive, but now it felt pitifully insufficient.

“What? Was it defective?”

“…No. I failed the enhancement.”

“Of course. The system wouldn’t let things be that easy.”

He agreed wholeheartedly. He had optimistically thought that this many stones would let him enhance not only Purification but maybe other skills as well. Clearly, that had been a foolish dream.

‘Well… I just have to keep trying.’

Ten stones, twenty stones, thirty. Driven by sheer determination, Hansol kept feeding the stones to the skill. When the spent stones exceeded fifty, doubt began creeping in.

Maybe he was doing something wrong. Maybe there was another trick to increasing the odds.

While Hansol fretted, the number of used stones passed sixty—and at last, the long-awaited message appeared.

The skill had changed. Not only the description, but the level itself.

So it was possible—to raise a skill level using items.

It required a ridiculous number of stones, but theoretically, as long as one had enough stones, one could grow stronger without wasting time. The problem was simply that these stones only existed in Kassie’s England.

“Oh, you did it?”

“Yes, barely.”

“You used around fifty, didn’t you? That’s insanely inefficient.”

Indeed. Far worse than he had imagined.

“How did it change?”

“Hmm… it says I can place something called a Purification Zone.”

“I knew it would be something new. Then we should test it, right?”

Kassie immediately stood up, energy fully restored.

Had he and the Tower Master resolved their earlier disagreement? When Hansol glanced over, the Tower Master also stood, as though ready to assist. They looked like business partners about to begin a joint experiment.

They weren’t warm with each other, but at least they no longer seemed ready to fight. Relieved, Hansol followed them.

The Tower Master stepped onto a floor-transfer magic circle. Gravity shifted, the scenery blurred—and instantly, they arrived elsewhere.

“This is likely the first time an outsider has entered this place.”

As the silver door before them opened, the bleak cityscape vanished, replaced with vivid green. The entire rooftop of the Magic Tower had been transformed into a small forest—an aerial garden. Truly worthy of the phrase, “As expected of the Magic Tower.”

“I’re not sure if it can be placed on buildings like a magic circle, but if not, we’ll find another safe location.”

Confidently giving Hansol full freedom to test the skill, the Tower Master stepped aside.

Following the neatly arranged path, Hansol arrived at the center of the garden. It resembled a small forest rest area, complete with an open clearing and a tree stump.

This seemed like the right place. The serenity of the view felt fitting for a healing-based skill.

“Purification.”

Unlike before, the system presented a choice. After taking a steadying breath, Hansol selected Purification Zone. Just like when he had purified a dark zone, a small light burrowed into the ground—and an area about the size of two palms lit up in pure white.

“Hmm.”

It worked, but the area was disappointingly small. Hardly enough to handle large numbers of infected people.

Almost as if the system sensed Hansol’s dismay, the white light suddenly began expanding—rippling outward from the small point, spreading wider, and wider, until…

“…!”

It covered the entire rooftop.

So that was it. The pre-enhancement and post-enhancement ranges definitely weren’t the same. The system was unkind as always, but it honored its give-and-take structure.

“Hansol, this is the Purification Zone, right?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“It feels a bit like Sanctuary. Though… it doesn’t seem to have a healing effect.”

Unable to contain his excitement, Kassie examined the glowing area. The Tower Master was just as impressed, his eyes shining.

“The range is incredible, Hansol. At this size, a single zone installed beside a dark zone should suffice. Of course, we should test whether infected individuals get purified while inside.”

Among the three, only James remained calm.

“This… this should do it. Thank you, darling.”

Perhaps because they stood on a rooftop—or because of the radiant white light beneath their feet—the sunlight striking James’s blond hair made him shine like the sun itself. His blue eyes curved gracefully, his expression radiant.

Hansol found himself staring before he realized it.

The only flaw was the half-singed hair, but even that looked like nothing more than an accessory on him right now.

“…By the way, what happened to your hair?”

“Oh, this? Well, darling, you see, a mage—!”

“I did it.”

The Tower Master, done admiring the Purification Zone, cut off James’s dramatic storytelling before it even began.

His expression, when looking at the zone or at Hansol, had been neutral—but the glance he cast at James was purely cynical. Then he sighed softly.

For some reason, that sigh explained everything.

“I simply gave him a bit of fire to get his head on straight.”

“I almost died. Darling, this mage is truly a vicious dance-party fiend!”

It’s ‘vicious man,’ not ‘vicious dance party’…

Perhaps Hansol shouldn’t have asked.