An H-bomb was dropped right atop my head. That was how I would describe my current situation.

  Imagine this. You were an everyday nobody, the worst of the bunch who was constantly losing in life, and one of god’s favorite children pulled you to their house and told you that they were dying. Of course, everyone knows that this person is one of god’s favorite children. I was sure that if things got out of here and she really died, then people would hunt me down as if I had killed Jesus today, and he even came back after 3 days.

  “You… what do you mean?” I asked, my voice shaking a little. It was a crazy thing to hear. Who drops that on someone after asking them their name? She had no manners, this S-Ranked Hunter.

  Seraphina Vahn’s reaction was back to being almost ice-like. Her face betrayed any possible emotion that could come up in a person as she started telling me about her condition.

  Mana Frostbite. It was a curse in the last National Raid two years ago.”

  The National Raid. For years, the entire world had been suffering at the hands of these other-dimensional monsters that popped out of the gates. After the first great cataclysm, and now that we had managed to regain our strength so much, when there were gates that needed the power of an entire country, that was when National Raids were announced. A joint effort for humanity, beyond just guilds. Seraphina, though young, had been experiencing National Raids since she awakened 7 years ago at the age of 18.

  “Two years ago, the fight with the Silent King took more than just the strongest S-Ranked Hunter from us. When the battle had ended and everyone was on the ground, I was the only one capable of still standing. The aftermath of Silent King and Takarin’s clash was that intense… the entire place was about to be crushed without the core.”

  “The gate would have collapsed?” I gasped.

  Sometimes, very few times, some gates had their cores absorbed by monsters. When those monsters died, those gates would also collapse and trap the hunters inside in another dimension forever.

  “We would have lost all the S-Rank Hunters in our country. So… for a few minutes, I instead used myself as the core to keep the gate open and let everyone escape.”

  “You!” I yelled almost instinctively. “That’s crazy! You would have turned into a monster like those—”

  Seraphina nodded. “It was my duty. I don’t regret it for a second.”

  “But… even now, everyone thinks that was a dungeon which closed on its own! Why didn’t—” I swallowed my words on my own. If the people of our nation had heard that Seraphina Vahn had used her own body as the core for the gate, then it would have caused an uproar. Mostly out of worry, but it would have still caused a problem. There would also be a lot of people worried about an S-Ranked Hunter being tainted by the powers of the gate and turning into a corruptor.

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  I let out a breath.

  “I…” Seraphina continued. “I don’t know when I will die now. Slowly, the authority of Ice is eating up my body after being in touch with the power of the gates. My mana circuits, my entire core, are slowly freezing over.”

  I gulped.

  How terrified must she be?

  Heck. I was worried about how shitty my life was, but I didn’t think an S-Ranked Hunter would be suffering in this way.

  I gently reached ahead. It was another instinctive movement. Slowly, I placed my hand on hers.

  And it happened again.

  [Skill Symbiotic Bond has detected a highly compatible partner (98.7%). Requesting confirmation from target...]

  “Again…” Seraphina said. “I don’t know why or how, but something about you is making my chest feel warmer.”

  I could notice it. Just barely, just barely, her breath was a little heavier than before. Hotter than any other time.

  “I want to know. I have no hopes left. Nothing. I… want to know if you can do something.”

  “My skill…”

  I shook my head again.

  It was a skill that bound people’s lives together in some way. It was difficult to get it to work, but all these new messages were making me more hopeful than before. It had never said something like finding a partner, let alone a highly compatible one.

  What was the reason, I didn’t know.

  But… My life. One that was almost left with nothing. Compared to the life of this girl in front of me.

  “Whatever it is,” Seraphina continued. “Money, power, strength, I’ll give you anything. Can we please try to use this skill? You name your price.”

  I shook my head.

  My price. There was nothing anyway. I guess she didn’t know the specifications yet. But for me, it was worth a try, and something I didn’t want to tell her either.

  It could either result in her life extending thanks to the life force I had left, or mine being completely reduced to how little she had left. Whatever the case.

  Once the symbiotic bond was formed, it was likely that she and I would die together. I was sure that she didn’t have these ideas. No one did. For most support skills, everything was cancellable.

  But not this shitty F-Ranked skill.

  My life, which was about to end anyway. Why couldn’t I do it? If I were going to become a citizen again, I had no idea what I would do. So, for my last skill as a hunter, I could at least do this. Maybe it would work.

  “Let’s do it,” I said.

  [Skill: Symbiotic Bond is activating]

  [Host has started the procedure. Requesting confirmation from the target]

  [Target: Are you sure you want to enter a symbiotic bond with the host?]

  Seraphina looked at me with surprise in her eyes.

  “You… what will you take from me? I’ll not refuse, but I’d like to know.”

  “Hah…” I chuckled. “Perhaps you can give me a smile?”

  That was the only response I could think of.

  Seraphina furrowed her brows, but figured she wouldn’t be getting an answer from me. Or perhaps it was her desperation.

  [Confirmation acquired]

  [Symbiotic Bond can now be formed between the host and the target]

  [Please initiate Lip-to-Lip contact to start the bond]

  “Oh…?”

  “Huh…?”