Traces of the SunCh5.1 - Virtual (1)

Editors: Spade, Roki

Proofreader: Sapphire UOKpDl

Yisun’s penalty period lasted for a week.

He had gotten fairly used to it by now. He stopped using the pain as an excuse to make it last longer. The first time he got sick in this Raid, he felt bitter remembering all the times he had spent his penalty period with his friends, but he didn’t let it consume him anymore. The thoughts still haunted him, but he was taking it one step at a time.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Now that he’d cleared three dungeons, three of his friends could finally close their eyes and find respite. He wouldn’t dare call it an accomplishment, nor would he rejoice in it, but it felt like he was shedding off the burdens he had been suppressing within his heart for the last year, one by one.

As he briefly imagined what it would feel like when all those weights disappeared, he fell back into a half-dozing state. At some point, he faintly woke up to see Sa Hyeon in front of him. The man was speaking to the caregiver while examining the wound on Yisun’s arm. At the tepid warmth of Sa Hyeon’s touch on his feverish body, Yisun blinked slowly. zM43Fl

“Your arm… does it hurt?” he asked, remembering the scene of Sa Hyeon tearing at his own arm in the fourth dungeon. Hearing the painstakingly uttered question, Sa Hyeon’s expression was quite strange. He was silent for a few seconds, as if he wasn’t sure if Yisun was asking him, and then, when he realized that the inquiring gaze was indeed directed at himself, he let out a brief sigh.

“That’s not something I thought I’d get asked by a patient.”

Sa Hyeon smiled, as if he found it strange that someone who was currently lying in bed, suffering, would ask about another’s condition, but also amusing because it was such a typical Yisun thing to do. Sa Hyeon then extended his right hand in front of his face; Yisun stared blankly at the palm in front of his eyes.

It had obviously been stabbed deeply with Sa Hyeon’s own blade and, just a few days ago, blood had been flowing out of the wound like a river. Yet it had miraculously healed, leaving only faint red lines. It was said that combat-type Hunters had high regenerative abilities, and it seemed to be true.

As Yisun breathed a sigh of relief, Sa Hyeon shot him another exasperated look, but in the end, he gently placed his hand over Yisun’s eyes in a wordless, reassuring gesture.

After a full week had passed, Yisun was allowed to go outside. This time as well, he naturally visited his old house first and watched as Sa Hyeon used Nullification on yet another one of his friends. Following that, they went to the funeral parlor. However, on the way back to the car, Yisun suddenly felt a jolt of pain—he had unknowingly opened the car door with his injured right hand.

It was just a faint pained whimper, yet Sa Hyeon still insisted on checking his right arm. A little troubled, Yisun rolled up his sleeves.

A large scar could be seen on his bare forearm. It was from when a monster had scratched his arm in the fourth dungeon, causing him to bleed. Despite applying healing potions on it, it had not completely healed. cwiZNh

“Even for an S-class, it seems a non-combat type Awakener’s recovery is rather slow.”

Sa Hyeon frowned as he examined his injury. He’d seen the wound when Yisun was bedridden due to his penalty, and he’d hoped it would have gotten better after a full week, but it hadn’t. The fact that Yisun hadn’t received proper nutrition during his week-long illness had likely slowed the healing process even more.

Then Sa Hyeon asked Yisun to turn his arm, and Yisun slowly obliged with a bemused expression on his face, and finally…

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

They arrived at the hospital. rVJk2T

“…….”

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“I didn’t know either…?” VdPs3I

“It must have hurt quite a lot….”

Sa Hyeon paused for a moment in his anxious rant and then sighed. He clutched his forehead, looking a little pained.

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“Yeah, I guess with all the pain from your penalty, you must not have noticed that your arm hurt as well. It’s my fault for not checking properly.”

The word “fault” coming out of Sa Hyeon’s mouth took Yisun by surprise. It was in no way his fault, but the fault of the monster that caused this to happen. If there was anyone to blame, it should have been someone else… Yisun silently swallowed his words. UYbtxl

However, the consequences of not correcting Sa Hyeon’s expression were more severe than Yisun thought. Because he had momentarily overlooked Sa Hyeon’s unique way of thinking, he had ended up in a very troublesome situation.

He was told that he had a fractured bone, but he would only need a cast for about a week. While he would be in some discomfort, there would be no major impact to his daily life. His lively friends had also often worn casts while working, so it was obviously not a major problem.

Yet, here he was, confined to the hospital’s VIP room.

“It’s just a minor bone fracture… Do I really have to be hospitalized?” JxXb1o

“Your injury hasn’t healed either, has it?”

“For ordinary people…. wounds don’t disappear in a single week…”

Yisun felt very conflicted. Was it because Sa Hyeon was an S-class Hunter that these wounds seemed too significant for him? If that was the case, then the wounds he had inflicted on himself were even worse. Besides, he must have seen a lot of injuries during his time in A-class dungeons, so he couldn’t understand why he was acting like this.

Was his wound taking time to heal considered an anomaly because Chord only consisted of A-ranked Hunters and above? Han Arin, who had endured a lightning strike from an S-class dungeon boss, had gotten up in just a few hours and was fine on the second day. So, for him to nurse an injury for over a week might have seemed strange to them. FizQrq

Yisun tried to begrudgingly accept his fate, but the thought of  “Still…” kept resurfacing. To think that he was supposed to stay in the hospital room for a whole week, wasn’t this just a new form of confinement?

“You said the fifth dungeon is in eight days, if I spend a whole week here, I…”

“Ah, I don’t think Yisun-ssi will have much to restore in this dungeon.”

Yisun seemed confused at those words, so Sa Hyeon announced that they had already finished analyzing the clues for the next dungeon. He showed a picture of the next dungeon’s theme on his tablet, and Yisun looked at the screen and sighed. afrFvS

“The Colossus of Rhodes…”

Rhodes was a confederation of city-states that was the center of Mediterranean trade around the 3rd and 4th centuries BC. The alliance was formed by Lindos, Ialyssos, and Camiros. Trying to break the union, Macedonia attacked. However, Rhodes won the war, and in commemoration of their victory and unity, erected a colossal bronze statue. It was the Colossus of Helios, the sun god

It was called the Colossus of Rhodes. It was said to be so huge that a full-grown man could not wrap both arms around the statue’s thumbs. The colossus was 36 meters tall and stood on a 15-meter pedestal at the end of the harbor’s breakwater.

Historical records indicated that ships had to pass between the colossus’ legs, the statue serving as a kind of harbor gateway, but modern architectural engineers had shown this to be an impossible fiction. To accomplish such a feat, the statue would have to be well over 100 meters tall. 3RlWf

The colossus is said to have collapsed due to a massive earthquake in the 2nd century BC, which broke both of its knees. It was left unattended and functioned as a tourist attraction for nearly 1,000 years, until the Arabs who invaded Rhodes dismantled it and sold it to Syria.

“This time, the clue was clearly engraved on a bronze tablet, and it reads in ancient Greek: ‘In the sea, you shall be punished by the sun.’”

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Sa Hyeon calmly explained the next dungeon. Combining what he heard and what he knew, Yisun deduced that the next dungeon’s boss monster was undoubtedly the Colossus of Helios. Not only was it a new monster, but it was also a 36-meter colossus… he could only sigh in apprehension.

“Since it’s a titan-sized monster, I’m guessing Hunter Han Arin will take the lead, right?” hgCR 0

“That’s the plan. Besides, if it’s a sun god, then it’s a bad match-up for my ability. Shadows are everywhere, but for now, Hunter Han Arin will be our main attacker.”

Yisun nodded with a short sigh. As he imagined Han Arin holding her gem box, full of grievances, he couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. And then, he realized what Sa Hyeon had said.

“Ah, so when you said there won’t be much to restore…”

“Yes. Since the fighting will take place in the harbor, you’ll only need to restore that, but you can simply level the ground. No need to memorize any other special structures.” Wvk1M8

If the boss monster was a colossus, there really wasn’t much to restore. The statue of Zeus they faced in the third dungeon was inside a temple, so he had had to memorize the temple restoration diagram, but this time, it was a colossus in a harbor, so Sa Hyeon’s words were true. All he had to do was restore the ground and prevent them from falling into the sea. The floor would probably collapse several times while fighting the colossus, but since there were fewer objects to restore, he would have plenty of energy.

As Yisun was naturally visualizing the dungeon inside his head, Sa Hyeon spoke with a faint smile, “You’re so diligent in figuring out the dungeons, Yisun-ssi, even though you’re a non-combatant.”

“That’s because you told me to restore it 100%.”

“Although, I think your restoration ability improving has less to do with your understanding of dungeons and more with other reasons…” FiSZas

“…….”

In an instant, Yisun’s face was colored with embarrassment and shock. As he remained speechless, Sa Hyeon smiled casually.

“But it is possible because you have a good understanding. The basics are important in anything. I’ll take care of the rest…”

“W-what do you mean you’ll take care of the rest…?” wMPkEj

“Well, try using that brilliant understanding of yours to guess. Now that you know that you’ll have to use your ability consecutively in the dungeon, rest until your hand is completely healed.”

Sa Hyeon gently covered the malfunctioning Yisun with the quilt after laying him down on the bed. Yisun was so flustered that he almost forgot for a moment about Sa Hyeon’s shocking behavior of forcibly admitting him to the VIP ward despite the doctor’s assurances that he only had a fractured bone and that it would heal quickly.

“Again, there’s no need for me to be hospitalized……. I can attend the meetings.”

“What if you get too comfortable and twist it, won’t it break again?” bKpYqN

“It doesn’t break that easily…”

This time, Sa Hyeon didn’t even pretend to hear him. Yisun looked quite dissatisfied, muttering under his breath about how he wasn’t even sleepy, as Sa Hyeon pulled back the blanket he’d thrown aside.

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“Sometimes… I feel like you get a kick out of making a fuss over things on purpose just to see my reaction.”

The question of whether he was making fun of him was phrased as euphemistically as possible. Yisun thought he was being very polite, but for some reason, he didn’t get a response from Sa Hyeon. Wondering if he had offended him, he glanced up to look sideways at Sa Hyeon, only to catch his slightly puzzled expression. He was blinking slowly, as if what Yisun had said had surprised him, before coming to some sort of realization. xPydNK

“It should be?”

“…Yes?”

“I find them amusing. Your reactions.”

Yisun’s expression subtly changed. Was this some highly advanced form of sarcasm? He wasn’t sure how to react, so he simply looked away, a little flustered. QKdz7d

He even went as far as covering his face with the blanket, indicating the end of this conversation.

Min: Decided to change the title of the 2nd volume back to its original meaning ‘return’. At first I took liberties to clarify the implicit meaning and used ‘back to work’, but it doesn’t fit the 1-word title format that the volumes have going on for now. Also changing “A Crack” into “Rupture” for the same reason. Other than that, veery chill, lowkey soft chapter introducing us to the 5th dungeon, I hope you enjoy reading~~