Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Careless from Excitement
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Got careless from excitement.
“Damn it!”
A swordsman who knows how to use a spear. Against me, no less!
Clutching his throbbing chest, Ha Kyung-su staggered to his feet and glared at Jae-hyeok like he wanted to kill him.
“You fallen noble scum…! How dare you mock me?”
“How dare? Fuck off with that shit. Who the hell do you think you are?”
Jae-hyeok’s head tilted at an angle.
“And it’s not me who fell—it’s my house.”
As his eyes half-closed, his pitch-black pupils stopped reflecting the light.
An abyss-like darkness was revealed.
Startled, Ha Kyung-su unwittingly stepped back.
His hand trembled on the spear shaft as he fell into the illusion of being swallowed by the darkness.
“A fallen house? I’ll just raise it back up.”
Jae-hyeok knew it too.
That his declaration was nothing more than the empty words of a greenhorn.
So, frustratingly, he couldn’t shout it out loud but murmured it calmly instead.
“You arrogant bastard!”
Was it right to suffer all these humiliations from a guy who’d been level 10 just days ago?
Unable to accept it, Ha Kyung-su erupted in rage and swung his spear.
A flashy spear technique unfolded.
House Ha’s spear arts had an artistic flair. They flowed elegantly like a brush painting a ink wash, then punctuated with intense emphasis at times.
It made full use of the spear shaft’s flexibility to block the opponent’s path, whip them, trip them up, press the advantage, and then sever their breath at the decisive moment.
‘All flash, but incredibly practical.’
The Spear Lord’s personality must be the complete opposite of his son’s.
The type to calmly maintain clarity of mind and slowly drain the enemy’s blood until death.
Ha Kyung-su probably would never master House Ha’s spear arts.
‘You’ve got nothing left for me to learn.’
Jae-hyeok stepped back and thrust the spear ten times in succession.
He slipped through the gaps in House Ha’s spear technique—which traced storm-like trajectories—and pierced Ha Kyung-su’s ten fingers one by one in a godly display.
‘This bastard’s toying with me?’
Ha Kyung-su ground his teeth.
Normally, his grip would have slackened, and he’d have dropped the spear.
But he had consumed the elixir from his teacher just in case before stepping onto the stage, inflating his stamina stat for a short time.
His boosted defense allowed him to withstand the limited power of the magic-engineered weapon.
Whoosh!
Ha Kyung-su’s wrist bent at an unnatural angle, and the spear whipped like a flail.
At the same time, Jae-hyeok shot forward.
He dove into Ha Kyung-su’s guard, timing it to evade the flexible shaft whipping at his nape.
Crack!
Ha Kyung-su collapsed without even a scream, his uvula pierced by the spearhead charged with forward momentum.
His consciousness blurred.
The moment Ha Kyung-su sensed his defeat, the one-use artifact from his teacher cracked with a sound, anchoring his awareness.
‘I can’t lose after all this!’
Still in his collapsed stance, Ha Kyung-su swept the spear across the floor.
Thud, thud!
Bouncing repeatedly off the ground to build momentum, the spear shot up swiftly.
It was a surprise attack, hard to predict from the receiving end.
Ha Kyung-su thought he’d finally landed a counter, but Jae-hyeok’s foot was already gently pinning down his spearhead.
It was a butterfly-light motion.
Yet Ha Kyung-su’s spear didn’t budge, as if crushed under a boulder, while Jae-hyeok’s hair fluttered wildly.
Traces of mana operation.
Boom!!
Mana erupted from Jae-hyeok’s sole, slamming Ha Kyung-su’s spear deep into the stage.
‘Does that even make sense?’
Producing Thousand-Pound Drop-level power just from mana operation?
Ha Kyung-su tried to retrieve his spear in horror, but that foolish move left him unable to dodge Jae-hyeok’s thrust, piercing his chest once more.
“Guh…!”
“Spears are convenient. Long reach means a single thrust counts as a full hit, right?”
The terror of famed houses’ martial arts lay in their endless evolution.
And House Kang was a famed house among famed houses. Centuries of ancestral data were fully integrated into the family’s martial arts.
People understood House Kang’s martial prowess as iaido or swordsmanship, but in truth, it was closer to counter techniques.
Techniques to dismantle most skills and weapons in the world.
A true House Kang warrior could face all ailments with a single sword—and even without one, they were formidable.
Not to mention Jae-hyeok possessed all-master skills.
Before awakening, he handled weapons beyond swords at an expert level; after, he wielded all weapons at sword-level mastery.
Mastery level, that is.
To the world, it was bizarre.
The system called it Knight.
“Don’t talk spears, you mere swordsman!”
“I’m not a swordsman, you deaf fuck.”
“Fuck! Just shut up!”
Judging he had no chance like this, Ha Kyung-su deployed his first skill.
Stealth.
A technique to conceal one’s form and footsteps.
Plagued by drawbacks, it was still top-tier among assassin skills.
Ha Kyung-su vanished from the stage without a trace.
Gasps of admiration rose here and there, but Jae-hyeok just looked bored.
Thwack!
“Gahk!”
Jae-hyeok swung the spear like a baseball bat, and Ha Kyung-su reappeared in empty air.
His head smashed hard by the spearhead, he spun dozens of times and flew into the spectator seats.
A proper home run.
“Whoa!”
A person flying like a home run ball?
Straight toward us, of all directions!
Association staff, stunned by the absurd situation, broke into a sweat catching him to avoid injuring the student.
Jae-hyeok smirked as he watched, then signaled the referee. The man finally snapped out of it and shouted in a trembling voice.
“Kang Jae-hyeok wins!”
“Wooooaaahhh!!”
“Crazy! B-Class beat A-Class!”
“Why’s he so good with a spear?”
“He was actually a spear master. Hiding his power all along.”
“How’d he detect the stealth so easily at the end?”
“Bloodline skill holders are on another level.”
Cheers poured in.
Mostly from students.
A flashy spear-on-spear exchange.
And an unexpected outcome.
Students, lacking discernment, focused only on the result.
Especially B-Class toppling A-Class—it ignited them.
Realizing A-Class wasn’t invincible, they harbored dreams and hopes.
In contrast, active players were deathly silent.
They were shocked that Jae-hyeok’s eyes never once gleamed gold.
Proof that his spear arts weren’t skill-based but pure technique.
‘I thought the Yaksha’s son being good with swords was a given…’
‘But spears too, at near-sword level. Overwhelming a higher-level foe with technical superiority.’
In truth, Jae-hyeok’s stats were far superior to Ha Kyung-su’s.
But he hadn’t gone all out.
It was advantageous to hide his full strength in public, and he intended to observe and learn as much of House Ha’s spear arts as possible.
Plus, Ha Kyung-su had elixir and artifact buffs. Having endured Jae-hyeok’s attacks multiple times made his stats seem relatively high.
“Handling two weapon types at mastery level is a huge merit. He’ll turn into a monster as he levels up.”
“He’d breeze through National Treasure Candidate trials too. Though the Association will probably keep delaying it.”
“Better that way. I hope that kid harbors even more resentment toward the Association. Then guilds can compete to recruit him without them snatching him.”
A new genius’s emergence invigorated the industry.
Major guild reps cast favorable glances at Jae-hyeok.
The poise of the strong.
A far cry from the jackals eyeing House Kang’s martial arts without knowing their place.
Of course, not all gazes were friendly.
“Deliberately beating the Spear Lord’s second son with spear arts… That goes beyond mocking the young master—it’s meant to humiliate House Ha.”
“As expected of House Kang blood—such low-class behavior. We must show him his place!”
House Ha retainers glared murderously at Jae-hyeok.
But their rage and killing intent subsided like a lie in moments.
“The low-class act was Kyung-su’s.”
A man half-reclined in his chair, pamphlet over his face.
Ha Jeong-il, the Spear Lord’s brother and Ha Kyung-su’s uncle.
“How long since the kid left home, and he’s already tainted? That’s why immature brats shouldn’t enter Lion’s Castle. They pick up filth in the dirty political arena where the government, Association, guilds, and foundations clash.”
Tsking, he peered down at Jae-hyeok through a gap in the pamphlet.
‘Kids with convictions will only take what benefits them.’
He approved of the attitude seeking to learn House Ha’s spear arts.
Hadn’t expected him to judge the family’s arts by one fool.
‘Can’t even gauge how fast he’ll grow.’
***
“Wow, Kang Jae-hyeok… Denied being a swordsman, and turns out he’s a real spear master.”
“Why not a spear master then! What the hell are you, Kang Jae-hyeok?!”
“S-So cool! How much bloody training to wield not just swords but spears that well?”
Do-jin’s group enthusiastically welcomed Jae-hyeok back to the seats after leaving the stage.
“You can do it too if you work hard.”
Every day, every day, every day.
Each swing of Jae-hyeok’s sword severed an enemy’s neck.
First clash: the neck thrusting a sword.
Second: swinging a spear.
Third: shooting arrows and guns.
Magic, poisons, curses, holy arts, spears, axes, blunt weapons, whips, flails, meteor hammers, three-section staffs, etc.
The enemies Jae-hyeok beheaded over ten thousand times daily attacked him with every weapon and method in existence.
That was what it meant to delve into House Kang’s martial arts.
“Yeah? Then I’ll start spear practice tomorrow.”
Do-jin’s face lit up at Jae-hyeok’s words that hard work made anything possible.
Yu-jin envied his simple nature anew.
But Jae-hyeok took it seriously.
“You’d be better off practicing archery, not spears. Mastering arts focused on concentration and mana control will help you get used to footwork.”
“Okay! I’m off to book the archery range!!”
“Wait. You know not to slack on greatsword training, right?”
“Of course! I’ll cut sleep in half!”
“…Can Do-jin sunbae really learn archery with that personality?”
“He’s in for some suffering short-term.”
“I-I’ll book the archery range too!”
Jae-hyeok and Yu-jin, who’d been chuckling heartily, abruptly stopped smiling.
***
The top-floor spectator seats, off-limits even to the five great guild masters.
Seol Su-a, who had watched Jae-hyeok’s duel from behind the blackout curtains, ordered her aide.
“Withdraw White Shadow Unit from the tomb.”
Her senses spanned all of Lion’s Castle.
She couldn’t scrutinize every detail, but she instantly detected major anomalies.
In other words, she had noticed Deodor’s revival.
The mana surge when he opened his eyes days ago had been quite strong.
So she dispatched White Shadow Unit and received reports that Deodor was targeting Jae-hyeok.
She’d agonized for days over what to do…
‘I believe you can handle it.’
In that moment, she set aside her worries.