The doctor led YooJin to the back of the room where several canopy beds stood. Every one was empty except for the one at the far end.

YooJin pulled back the curtain and looked at the face of his friend.

For a moment, he felt his heart stop.

Very little of Liam’s face was not covered by bandages.

“How–” he swallowed. “How is he doing?”

YooJin turned when the doctor did not reply right away only to see him again gaze at Liam with a strange look in his eyes.

“Ah,” Yoon cleared his throat. “As I mentioned before, he will be fine. He sleeps now, likely because he is mentally exhausted.”

“What were they? Those things that attacked him. The ‘ghosts’. The alpha pun– TaeHyun said that he didn't know what they were and yet they knew how to fight them.”

The doctor nodded. “‘Apix Exspiravit’ or more commonly known as ‘ghosts’. Little is known of them despite the fact that so many have been captured and studies have been attempted to understand them. For a long time, we believed that they actually were ghosts or spirits as we know them from those horror stories but their behavior is much more animalistic, driven by a need for fuel. They are a nuisance more than anything, even when they attack a mind, the effect is temporary and the victim eventually returns to normal though perhaps, a bit changed. I’d like to say, a bit more self-aware.”

He turned to YooJin. “I heard that you found its dungeon.”

YooJin nodded, suddenly conscious of the odd look the doctor was giving him. “It was in the school my little sister was attending. Actually, she’s my niece but my mother had been the one to raise her after her mother died.”

The doctor nodded. “Tell me—what was the dungeon like?”

“I’m not sure how to explain it,” YooJin began, staring once more at Liam’s still body. “It was… beautiful. Kind of peaceful, there was an old traditional house on a hill, near a lake. There were these stone statues—”

“Stone statues?” Yoon repeated curiously.

YooJin nodded then stopped. “Wait,” he said as he went into his pocket and removed the object he had pulled out of the fireplace. He rubbed at the ash to reveal the back of a small figurine. At first it looked like a child but when he turned it around he saw an odd stylized face. An awkward carving of a wide mouth and angular pupil-less white eyes. The carving of the face was so noticeably different from the rest of the body that YooJin had to pause and wonder if someone had drawn over the original.

He handed it to Yoon. “They were like this except the faces of the others were of children.”

Yoon stared at the object in his hand for a long moment, his brows furrowed. “This is curious, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Do you mind if I keep it with me for a bit? I’d like to study it.”

YooJin nodded. “It’s not as though I have any use for it.” He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t even know why I picked it up.”

The doctor smiled and turned to place the object on a nearby desk.

“How did the dungeon just open at the school if the wiz–hunters –what was it? Latched them?”

“What you experienced was not an entrance opening but what we call a ‘dungeon break’. It is when a crack forms on the ‘dungeon wall’ or a rift of some sort is forced between our world and the dungeon. These are not very common and always happen with particularly powerful monsters, which is why this case is so unusual. ‘Apix Exspiravit’, despite the debilitating mental effect they have on a person, are very weak. As you’ve experienced yourself, a simple tap of a bound weapon into a ceramic container is enough to contain them. And not only that, there were two breaks from that dungeon. One in the Sunnyday kindergarten and the other in the GK department store. A double break is unprecedented and to think it happened with a ‘ghost’ dungeon…”

“And this here—this 'Academy' is where the wizard people– hunters come to learn to fight these monsters?”

He nodded. “Yes, and to control their mana. Otherwise, it’ll continue to manifest in arbitrary manners that will simply endanger themselves and others. Every alpha is monitored for mana bursts and when one is identified they are brought here to be trained.”

“Then what about me? Will I be required to train here too?”

The doctor shook his head. “I’m not entirely certain. As I said, you are an unprecedented case but I imagine that they will want to.”

“The alpha jer– no, TaeHyun–” he cleared his throat. “–asked me to become his omega. It has to do with me being a wizard. Why?”

“Ah,” said the doctor, a small smile on his face and it was then that YooJin noticed small lines around his eyes. He had originally thought the doctor was around his age but looking closely, he could now see that he was likely in his forties.

“Like you, TaeHyun is an unusual case himself. Beyond the fact that all wizards were alphas there was also one other factor that tied them together and that is that their first manifestation occurred after their first sexual encounter with an omega.

“In other words,” he said, seeing the look of confusion on Yoo Jin’s face, “no wizard is a virgin. All the wizards here have at least one paired omega or visit omegas regularly as their physical relationships with their omegas is how the mana within them are stabilized. This led us to speculate that pheromones must play some sort of role in mana control since no betas have manifested as Saerims. TaeHyun is a special case for he was born with a mutation that makes him more tolerant of pheromones, meaning that if an omega spills their pheromones he, unlike other alphas, will not react. And thus, for this reason, he is the only one who has never had a pair but recently, he has shown signs of mana destabilization. This means simply that he cannot always control it the way that he used to. That is probably why he came to you with that proposal.

“As a friend, I know that he cares little for pairs and relationships, which is why he still has not paired despite his state. But the fact that you manifested as an omega wizard is something even he couldn’t overlook. He’s quite accomplished, you see and he always seeks to improve his mana control. If he must pair, I imagine that pairing with an omega wizard is the most attractive prospect.”

YooJin scoffed. Now it made sense why that alpha had proposed that plan. He needed YooJin—no, the wizard omega YooJin—to stabilize his pheromones so that he could be stronger and control these dungeons. He looked up suddenly, an idea sparking in his head. “Can you make money doing these dungeons?”

The doctor blinked in surprise, not having expected that turn of thought. “Well – yes, I believe so. Quite a bit of money depending on the dungeon.”

YooJin nodded, storing that information in his head. He then turned his gaze back to the bed. “You said at the hospital something about Liam’s case being rare?”

The doctor walked over and stood beside him. “Though we do not have much of an understanding of the ‘ghosts’, we do know they do not attack children and it is speculated because of their youthful ignorance. Based on the babblings of those affected by a mental attack, the ‘ghosts’ seem to be feeding off of guilt but a mature type of guilt, of actions done with complete awareness of the consequences. Though children do feel guilt, the majority of them do not understand the potential impact of their wrongdoings. That is the belief, anyways, from what was observed. We have tried to test the theory but to no avail.”

He looked down to gaze at Liam’s sleeping form. “It is rare for an adult to be free of such guilt. A person like this must have lived a life free of reproach.”

YooJin moved his eyes till it landed on his friend's bandaged face. “If anyone has,” he said softly, “it would be Liam.”

“I… Why do you say so?” asked the doctor but YooJin couldn’t help but feel that the doctor had already agreed with him.

“You speak with such certainty so I am curious,” the doctor added with a small smile.

YooJin peered at him longer and wondered if he should demand from the man why he seemed so curious about him and yet seemed to play the role of a stranger. Could they have known each other before? YooJin didn’t know much about Liam’s life before they met, no one did, really. He had always kept his past a secret. Or perhaps the doctor had fallen in love with him at first glance though… he found that hard to believe given that Liam’s face had been unrecognizable.

YooJin peered at the doctor more closely, wondering if perhaps he should be more cautious about what he disclosed but… something about the doctor made him seem oddly trustworthy and if YooJin trusted anything in his life, he trusted his gut.

“He owns an omega strip club called ‘Canes’” he said slowly.

The doctor looked up sharply. “A strip club?” he repeated softly.

YooJin listened for any censure in his tone but heard only surprise. “He hires omegas and beta women who don’t have homes. He takes care of them and their families, houses them, protects them. All of his money and time goes to his employees and the club. I couldn’t count the number of people he has helped in the ten plus years I have known him. I don’t even know all he’s given up to help them, all I know is that his actions had given back to many their freedom and an another chance at life. Including me.”

He met the doctor’s eyes steadily. “His mere existence is a form of comfort to me. If I can, I’ll do anything to help him.”