Chapter 25 : Chapter 25
Chapter 25 : Heal
Sal collapsed forward as he deactivated his ability.
Watching the vision seep into darkness and melting back into the present moment, he looked around with panicked eyes.
His heart pounded wildly, and he turned his body to check around the circular auditorium.
Laughter from a few passing students could be heard, but most didn't pay them much attention.
Turning his head to find Divinity, he saw her kneeling beside him.
Her eyes were still glowing white.
It meant she was still looking into the future.
Seeing her posture and his own lying position, Sal realized she had been cradling his head while he was unconscious.
‘Let’s not wake her forcibly.’
Now knowing what it felt like to be dragged out of a vision by force, he didn't intend to wake her up forcefully.
Instead, he struggled to organize the scenes he had seen.
Most futures depended on variables he didn't know at all, and he finally understood the concept of reference points of memory Divinity mentioned to the bone.
He cursed himself inwardly for climbing too high up the branches.
All those visions were blurring like dreams, and Sal tried to organize as many scenes as possible in his mind before forgetting them.
But among all of them, one final scene remained clearly etched in his brain.
It was the catalyst to avoid countless destructive outcomes and move toward the optimal branch of the future.
“You’re back! What did you s…”
Divinity’s excited voice burst out, cutting through the surrounding noise.
But the moment she saw Sal’s pale and grim expression, her words stopped without finishing.
She grabbed his arm firmly.
Sal flinched reflexively at that touch and had to calm himself for a moment.
It seemed he had never trembled this much in his life.
He didn't even have the strength to support his body.
“How long was I perhaps….”
Sal placed his hand on the ground to steady himself.
The world spun as if he were dead drunk, and with every word, he had to gasp for breath painfully.
Sal blinked rapidly, gave up on continuing to speak, and focused on catching his breath instead.
Divinity’s voice rang much louder than he expected, and Sal staggered his upper body trying not to lose consciousness.
Eventually, as he had been doing all day, he cursed his own foolish choices.
‘Useless fool.’
Depleting all energy on equipment he made himself, and attempting Divinity’s ability at maximum output within hours.
Sal shook his head in annoyance at his own recklessness and endured the dizziness shaking his senses with clenched teeth.
He turned his head to look at Divinity.
At that moment, the sound of her sharply inhaling breath sounded like a warning alarm in his head, and his last support crumbled.
Cursing the darkness rushing in again, Sal fell into unconsciousness for what felt like the thousandth time that day.
***
“What on earth was he appraising to pass out like that?”
As Sal began to regain consciousness, a clear, singing voice said with a laugh. Unfamiliar energy gently seeped into his mind, washing away the darkness, and senses slowly began to return.
“Forget the credits. I much prefer Oracle owing me a debt.”
The singing tone continued, and finally, Sal regained enough strength to open his eyes.
But it was completely different from the situation he expected.
Sal was still lying in the circular auditorium, not the infirmary or his room, and several students were gathered around.
Among them, the only face Sal knew was Divinity sitting beside him.
She stared intently at his face, then smiled with relief when their eyes met.
“You’re back!”
She sighed and relaxed her shoulders.
When Sal turned his head, another girl was smiling brightly on the opposite side.
Her disheveled red hair was slowly floating due to the side effect of her ability, and her eyes shone with vivid green light.
Sal felt more energy being injected into him, eliminating the remaining throbbing pain.
Looking down, her palm was placed on his chest, and faint green light flowed from there, cleanly removing Sal’s pain.
“Healer?”
Sal spat out, feeling no pain at all.
That singing voice rang out again. She turned her head and spoke to Divinity as if asking.
“Yeah, how did he know?”
Then she looked at Sal again, laughed mockingly, and lifted her hand to gently cup his chin.
Just as Divinity was about to say something, strange energy wrapped around Sal’s mind, and his eyes rolled back.
“Abilities like this need some recovery time, you know? You don’t want to go blind, right?”
This time, a sharp energy carried in the singing voice.
Sal felt his two eyes burning, but it wasn’t a particularly unpleasant feeling.
He tried to activate his eyes, but the pouring energy blocked even that.
“No no, you shouldn’t do that.”
She said with a laugh, turning her head to look at Divinity.
“Since I just used more energy, the price went up a bit? Being rank 2, you must have received quite a bit of credits at the opening ceremony; you can spend that much for a friend, right?”
Her words were still like a song, but the tone was threatening like a predator.
“He’ll pay you back later, right? Mr. Appraiser?”
As if emphasizing those words, the gift-like energy remaining in Sal’s body was instantly detached and wavered as if about to disappear without a trace.
It seemed she intended to leave the recovered Essence in a broken state.
“So, how about it? Want to make a deal?”
The Healer whispered softly, and laughter burst out among the students standing around.
Divinity looked ready to accept any moment.
Sal was furious at himself again for collapsing due to his own mistake and becoming a burden to Divinity.
The moment the Healer withdrew her ability, Sal immediately activated his eyes.
His eyes burned with brilliant silver light.
The Healer, still with her back to Sal, believed she held control.
Sal stared at her as if piercing through, replicating her ability at the fastest speed ever, not worrying about losing control or anything.
He didn't intend to let Divinity be blackmailed and used like this.
It was an act of resisting his own helpless existence rather than a sense of justice.
As soon as replication was finished, Sal activated the healing ability, and soon the surrounding situation came into view.
There were seven students wrapped in light, and all of them were bound by threads of light connected to the Healer.
Sal moved his gaze to her arm following the flow of Essence flowing into him.
She was holding that Essence like a hostage.
That energy wasn’t hers, but Essence stolen little by little from three students standing around her.
Judging by their triumphant laughter, the three were definitely accomplices.
Sal made a decision without hesitating for a single moment.
First, he pulled Essence through the connection link she made, getting a feel for how it moved and flowed.
Fortunately, the Healer didn't notice anything, but the thugs around her reacted.
By the time Sal had accumulated enough energy in front of his eyes, the Healer noticed something strange and turned her head toward Sal.
“Hey, what are you doing right—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Sal extracted all the energy gathered from her gang and flowed it into his own body using her as a medium.
She let out a short scream and tried to remove her palm, but it was already too late.
Energy began flowing in along her arm, delivered straight to Sal through the connection link she made.
The result was immediate.
Sal felt vitality and vigor he had never felt before filling his body.
All sorts of pain and fatigue accumulated over the past few days disappeared in an instant, and what was more surprising was that the healing energy roamed around his body finding places to fix on its own.
Thinking his eyes might really be damaged as she said, Sal guided the energy to his head, and couldn't help but be amazed that there actually was an injury needing healing there.
“How….”
The Healer mumbled, staring as if her own arm had betrayed her.
“You’re not just a simple Appraiser?!”
Sal shrugged and stood up.
“And you’re not a Good Samaritan either. Needless to say, I won’t pay the price you suggested.”
He brushed off his clothes and extended a hand to Divinity, who was looking at him with a face still in disbelief.
On the other hand, the Healer turned her head to look at her group, and snarled with a venomous voice, her singing tone nowhere to be found.
“He says he can’t pay.”
Her intention was clear.
And only now did Sal fully realize the fact that the students around were truly her subordinates and Essence sources.
He admired that she had already set up such a business in the first week of the semester, but the biggest emotion was pity for her foolish judgment.
When the group showed no movement, the Healer turned back to them and shouted.
But what she faced upon turning around were three students bending over, gasping for breath.
“You sucked all the Essence out of these kids just for you to survive? What a dirty act.”
The only people who knew this statement was false were Sal and the Healer in front of him.
As soon as his words ended, angry groans flowed out from here and there in the group.
Sal decided to go one step further to completely dismantle this gang.
“Divinity, could you check if these guys lose their abilities completely if they keep hanging out with her?”
He pointed at the panicked Healer.
She seemed to finally realize what trick Sal was using.
Divinity shook her head from side to side, covering the corners of her mouth as if suppressing laughter, and closed her eyes with an expression as if looking into the future.
“Hmm… one loses their ability, and another… seems to die?”
Her clumsy acting and shocked tone were quite effective, and fear seeped into the faces of the group students.
“Be picky about your friends.”
Divinity added with a soft smile.
Perhaps due to her earnest tone.
One of them slowly raised their body and even nodded.
Meanwhile, the Healer hadn't said a word.
Her green eyes were still shining, and anger dwelt in the gaze piercingly glaring at Sal.
“Don’t try to get Essence supply again. It’s already cut off. You won’t get back the Essence you used either.”
Sal pointed his finger at his own eyes toward her.
The Healer flinched seeing his silver pupils turn green, perfectly mimicking her ability.
The gang looked ready to confront the Healer now.
Sal and Divinity left the spot leaving them behind.
From behind, the Healer's voice excusing herself gradually changed into a threatening tone, and when Divinity looked back, students were clutching their chests and collapsing on the ground again.
The Healer was glaring at them with eyes full of rage.
"Sal, I think we just made an enemy."
Divinity whispered.
Sal, barely registering her words, led her toward the administration office.
“There’s a bigger problem than that.”
He sighed and shook his head.
“We have to go find the Principal and tell him about the visions I saw with your ability.”
Divinity looked like she still had a ton of questions, but seeing Sal’s expression, she paused for a moment.
“Is it very bad?”
She examined Sal’s face carefully, trying to confirm if her prediction was right.
Sal suddenly stopped and pointed beyond the giant towers.
Through the gaps, a blue-tinged protective barrier was shimmering in the distance.
That was the boundary protecting the city from the Red Zone.
“It collapses from there.”
Sal turned his body and pointed in another direction.
Other barriers spread at different angles were visible in the distance.
“Next is there, and then there…”
Sal’s voice trembled. Recalling the scene he saw in the vision, he continued.
“Eventually the city is invaded… and the academy and guilds are all destroyed.”