Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Raid MVP
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'Fast...!'
Kim Jin-myeong and the C-Class homeroom teacher's hair stood on end.
They were B-rank players. Sure, as mages their physical abilities were lacking, but that was only when compared to others of the same rank. Having surpassed level 60, their agility was well over that mark too.
Yet Jae-hyeok was gradually catching up from behind.
'Level 1, and his stats are on par with ours?'
Of course, stats didn't translate directly one-to-one with physical prowess.
Just as someone with better posture could lift heavier weights despite equal strength, stats varied in efficiency based on how they were utilized.
But when the stat gap was several times over, no amount of technique or efficiency mattered.
'Just how grueling a workout regimen has he been through?'
Kim Jin-myeong was dealt a heavy blow upon realizing Jae-hyeok's stats were higher than expected.
The image of young Jae-hyeok silently swinging his sword beside his blind father flashed in his mind, filling him with pity.
The C-Class homeroom teacher, on the other hand, quickly regained his composure.
He had mistaken Jae-hyeok's skill for a movement-type ability.
'Judging by the stamina drain, is it [Sprint]?'
The A-Class students reacted the same way.
They chalked up Jae-hyeok's superior speed purely to his skill.
Which made it all the more absurd.
'...What happens if he gets there first?'
Why was that guy following them in the first place?
'He won't even be useful.'
The students' sneering faces suddenly stiffened.
They had run into dozens of kids who had fled the raid site.
Every one of them was a total mess, the picture of defeated stragglers.
"What? Where are the others? Why'd only you guys..."
"W-We were the only ones who ran! The teachers told us to!"
"Silla-kyung and Loren wouldn't help us, we had no choice...!"
"Damn it!"
The group hurried on. They cleaved through the forest obstacles using skills of their own, sprinting at full speed toward the sounds of battle.
And there, they saw him.
Jae-hyeok, who had arrived at the scene just a step ahead.
'That punk again?'
Ha Kyung-su scowled.
Already penalized demerits because of Jae-hyeok, the guy was really starting to grate on him.
'B-Class trash acting all high and mighty... Huh?'
Ha Kyung-su's jaw dropped wide open.
Spang-!
Jae-hyeok's hand blurred for a split second, then a flash of light stabbed into the Leech King's head.
In the blink of an eye, several times over.
[Weak point strikes successful 5 times in a row!]
[The target's weak point defense is compromised.]
"Fireball!"
"Chain Lightning!"
"Gucheon Sword."
The teachers, now joined by the A-Class homeroom teacher, didn't miss the opening Jae-hyeok had created.
They unleashed their skills while the Leech King faltered.
Thanks to them, the Leech King's massively swollen body deflated like a punctured balloon.
[Prevented [Leech King] from exploding.]
[[Leech King]'s explosion failed. Vitality and defense reduced.]
The acidic bile that should have rained down was digested inside the Leech King's body.
The toxic swamp's expansion was halted too.
'Good. No need for Awakening after all.'
With the crisis averted, Jae-hyeok turned to Da-hee and flashed a grin.
"Not bad for a benchwarmer, huh?"
Leech-type monsters had their organs all crammed into the sucker mouth on their head.
No particular spot stood out as a weak point.
But right now, the Leech King had an artificial one exposed.
"You set up the weak point nicely."
Jae-hyeok deduced it was Da-hee's handiwork from the shape of the wound.
She was the only one here who wielded the Three Swords.
"Eh...? Me?"
Da-hee wasn't in her right mind.
She hadn't even registered escaping death's door, too entranced by Jae-hyeok's iaido. She couldn't shake the beautiful sight from her head.
Spotting and striking the weak point the instant he crashed the fight? And chaining them without delay?
Even she couldn't pull that off.
Not even the teachers could.
Their attack marks were nowhere near the weak points.
Maintaining calm in the heat of battle to aim precisely was incredibly tough.
'Yaksha's son...'
Gulp.
The three teachers swallowed dryly, their gazes locked on Jae-hyeok like it was nailed there.
***
'My body's heavy again.'
Jae-hyeok was acutely aware something was wrong with him.
He'd been running at full tilt while constantly cycling mana, so yeah, he was tired.
But this wasn't mere fatigue or poor condition.
'It happened back when I fought that leech swarm too.'
He'd noticed the anomaly earlier.
'Seems like my stats drop after fighting monsters... Never heard of leeches having a trick like that. Did I pick up a curse?'
Even if it had been maintained for 200 years, Lion's Castle was still a Gate.
A volcano could erupt from the plains or a double Gate pop up out of nowhere—no big surprise.
Jae-hyeok had scoured plenty of spots hunting for a good training ground, so if he'd gotten cursed somewhere along the way, he'd just have to accept it.
'...This is a good sign.'
If there was a clear cause for the curse.
High chance it tied into a quest.
'A quest no one's found in 200 years.'
Jae-hyeok's heart pounded like twin hammers.
Swept up in fierce anticipation, he dodged the Leech King's headbutt and countered.
His pant cuffs burned away from the swamp's toxins, but he ignored it and pressed the assault.
[You have surpassed the limits of body and mind for 2,960 consecutive days.]
[Your body and mind, tempered through repeated endurance and overcoming, boast a high realm.]
[Resists low-grade status ailments.]
Which was why he wasn't poisoned.
"No way...?"
Not content with bounding across the contaminated swamp like flat ground, he shrugged off a C-rank boss's venom with his sturdy frame.
The students, dazed by Jae-hyeok's feats, seriously wondered if they were dreaming.
"He's a duke's son, even if the house fell. Probably ate spirit elixirs like candy."
Ha Kyung-su offered his own take.
It sounded plausible.
With only three ducal houses in Korea, their vaults were bound to overflow with rare elixirs.
Kyaaaaaoooo!!
Riled by the nonstop barrage from Jae-hyeok and the teachers, the Leech King vomited a massive swarm of leeches from its mouth.
Jae-hyeok's pitch-black eyes darkened further.
Focus honed to the extreme.
He instantly scanned the postures, positions, and trajectories of the falling leeches overhead.
Thud-!
Leaping with all his might, he crushed them underfoot as he closed in on the Leech King.
It was like climbing to the heavens on a staircase of leeches.
"No way... That's really a freshman?"
"And not even A-Class..."
The three teachers let out successive gasps of admiration.
They weren't slacking either, pouring on the attacks relentlessly, but right now, no one could deny Jae-hyeok was the raid's star.
Proof: the Leech King's aggro was thoroughly fixed on him.
***
Tskakakakak!!
Iaido was just one motion in swordsmanship.
Mastering iaido naturally meant a high realm in swordsmanship overall.
Perched atop the Leech King's head, Jae-hyeok swung his blade in ordinary fashion.
Sharply, smoothly, swiftly, heavily.
Mana flowed freely, lending capricious variance to his sword path as it endlessly slashed and stabbed the Leech King in succession.
Kyaaaaaaa!!
The Leech King bucked wildly, but Jae-hyeok was tenacious. He repeatedly planted his leading foot to keep balance. He wouldn't be shaken off.
[Struck the exact same spot 5+ times. [Leech King]'s weak point exposed.]
[Struck the exact same spot 5+ times...]
[Struck the exact same spot...]
Now the Leech King had weak points everywhere.
Vivid ones dotting its head.
"No way."
"Sword Ghost level...?"
A-Class gathered the nation's top prodigies.
One by one, they realized Jae-hyeok's swordsmanship had reached master realm.
Even Ha Kyung-su, who had been rationalizing it away with elixirs, was long past words.
Technique honed to the limit, independent of stats.
The swordsmen felt awe.
'Tough bastard.'
The wilder the Leech King thrashed, the more Jae-hyeok suffered.
Clinging to the slippery monster drained his stamina and mental fortitude by the second. With his muscles starting to cramp, he was nearing his limit.
But he gritted his teeth and endured.
The risk of being crushed if he fell didn't faze him.
He trusted in the self that had swung the sword to exhaustion every day for eight years.
'All I can do is hold on anyway.'
Boss monster.
Overwhelmingly superior defense and vitality to normal mobs of the same rank.
C-rank meant levels 40 to 60.
Unawakened Jae-hyeok struggled to land meaningful hits.
'I'm not the damage dealer right now.'
Tank and supporter.
Jae-hyeok was holding aggro on the Leech King while boosting allied firepower—that alone had slashed the raid's difficulty.
The teachers and students bombarded it freely, unhindered.
Kiyaaaaah!
Assailed at its growing roster of weak points, the Leech King finally screamed.
The momentum was theirs. Once Da-hee's group recovered and rejoined, their DPS would overflow.
Holding out until then was key.
"Kang Jae-hyeeeeok!"
...Or not. No need to hold any longer.
The B-Class kids were swarming in.
"Why're you guys here?"
"You're one to talk—what're you doing up there?"
"Whoa, that guy's gone and climbed the boss's head now."
"Lee Jin-seong's back must be jealous."
B-Class students were level 1.
Low attack power, scant mana—skills maybe two or three times max.
But it was enough.
A total onslaught from forty-strong!
Unable to weather the accumulating damage, the Leech King let out a pitiful wail and collapsed.
[Defeated [Leech King].]
[Miraculous achievement!]
[Player 'Candidate' claims 1st in C-rank raid contribution rankings!]
[All stats +5.]
[You are afflicted with Lion's Curse.]
[Amazing achievement!]
[Claimed 1st in C-rank raid contribution rankings with stats halved!]
[All stats +2.]
[Failed to gain EXP due to Lion's Curse.]
[Failed Awakening condition due to lack of EXP gain.]
Kuuuung...!
The Leech King's massive corpse hit the ground, shaking the forest.
"Waaaaah!!"
Some cheered, some collapsed with legs giving out. Others shed tears of relief.
Da-hee bolted straight to Jae-hyeok.
She wanted to thank him first thing.
"Ah..."
Da-hee froze in place.
Jae-hyeok standing atop the Leech King's corpse.
He looked just like Duke Kang Dae-guk, as she'd seen him in her childhood.
'Come to think of it.'
She'd received favors from the duke and his son in succession.
Was this fate?
'...No.'
The duke, and the duke's son.
They simply helped people.
As long as House Kang existed in Korea, second and third Chae Da-hees would arise in droves.
Her ties to them were nothing special.
"Thank you."
I will become like them too.
Renewing her vow, Da-hee bowed deeply to Jae-hyeok.
"You and my friends owe you a huge debt. I won't forget this grace today—I swear to repay it."
By now, everyone was looking at Jae-hyeok.
The raid's success hinged on him.
The savior of Da-hee's group—what would he say?
"Yeah? Uh, sure."
Jae-hyeok answered with an awkward look. He'd been focused on the ring the Leech King dropped under his foot.
"That's yours anyway."
Only after Kim Jin-myeong sidled up and whispered did Jae-hyeok relax.