Shadows and Scars

The fluorescent lights of the free clinic buzzed like angry wasps.

Min-jun sat on a cracked plastic chair, watching a nurse dab antiseptic on Hae-won's fractured leg. His friend winced but kept up the chatter.

"You should've seen Ji-woo's face! She looked like she'd swallowed a lemon.

'Who'd believe a Mudeok?' Pfft.

Bet she's filing a report right now to save her own ass."

Min-jun said nothing. His system flickered at the edge of his vision:

[Skill: Emergency Triage (Lv. 1) - Proficiency: 24%]

He'd already reset Hae-won's dislocated shoulder in the guild van, hands moving with clinical precision he didn't recognize. The nurse hadn't questioned it—why would she? Mudeok weren't worth suspicion.

"You're quiet," Hae-won said.

"Still thinking about that thing in the tunnel?"

Its human eyes. The way it begged.

"No."

Recovery was a luxury porters couldn't afford. Two days later, Min-jun stood in the neon-drenched alleyways of Itaewon's black market, a hood pulled low over his face. The air reeked of fried food and ozone, the latter emanating from stalls hawking dungeon salvage.

A vendor with a cybernetic eye waved him over.

"New shipment from a C-Rank gate. Fresh venom sacs. No guild stamps."

Min-jun's [Appraisal (Lv. 1)] flickered:

[Item: Frostspider Venom Sac]

[Quality: Degraded (32% potency)]

[Market Value: 45,000 won]

"20,000," Min-jun said.

The vendor snorted. "You Mudeok are all the same. 40,000."

[Negotiation (Lv. 2) Activated]

[Vendor's Margin: 28%]

"30,000. Or I'll tell the next customer these came from a D-Rank gate."

The vendor's eye whirred. "35,000. Final offer."

Min-jun slid the cash across the counter.

[Negotiation → Proficiency: 18%]

The deeper he ventured into the market, the stranger the wares became.

A toothless woman sold vials of "Aurora essence" that made his system blare [Scam Detected].

A teen in a patched-up guild jacket offered maps to "unregistered gates," their coordinates scrawled on fast-food napkins.

At the alley's dead end, a stall glowed with stolen guild tech. The proprietor, a wiry man with burn scars, held up a cracked core.

"B-Rank. Ripped it from a lava wurm's carcass before Celestial Dawn showed up. 500,000 won."

[Item: Dungeon Core (B-Rank - Fire Affinity)]

[Corruption Level: 89%]

[Warning: Lethal to unregistered users]

"It's unstable," Min-jun said.

The man leaned closer. "For you? 400,000. Core's no good to me if it melts my face off."

[Negotiation → 22%]

"150,000."

"You think I'm desperate?"

Min-jun tapped the core's fractured surface. "The guilds track missing cores. How long until they find you?"

The man paled. "200,000."

"Deal."

Back in his apartment, Min-jun placed the core on his windowsill. The system's text pulsed red:

[Corrupted Core Detected]

[Assimilation Possible? Y/N]

He hesitated. The clinic's antiseptic sting still clung to his clothes. Hae-won's laughter echoed in his memory, brittle and forced.

Climb or die.

He pressed Y.

The core dissolved into his palm, fire flooding his veins.

[New Affinity: Fire (Partial)]

[Warning: Corruption Resistance (Lv. 1) Required]

His vision swam. When it cleared, the system glowed brighter.

[Skill Tree Unlocked: Elemental Adaptation]

A knock rattled his door.

"Kim Min-jun?" A woman's voice—Kang Ji-woo.

"Open up. Guild inspection."