Each One's Preparation
The day after returning through the Black Gate via promotion, the entire association gathered.
Hana Rin sighed while staring at the chat she had sent the previous night.
"Ha."
It was a light reply, yet the mood behind it carried no lightness.
The guilt she felt after killing a villain?
Of course she felt it. How could she not? She was no emotionless monster. Still, it weighed nothing.
She was not crushed by guilt or remorse.
She still believed herself deserving of death. So why the complicated feeling?
Simple.
Hana Rin trembled as she recalled Do-hyun absorbing the Stone Spear in a single glance and even the Sharpness trait without hesitation.
It was not a wound to her pride or self-esteem, yet she could not help but be stunned by his overwhelming talent for analyzing and then creating his own abilities from those insights.
'He's truly terrifying.'
The worry that she might one day be left behind by Do-hyun grew stronger with every passing moment.
It had been less than half a day since he entered, and he had already reached E-rank promotion. She was now also a candidate, but would the next one arrive just as easily?
That thought kept swirling, clouding her mind.
That was why, even lying in the cute pajamas she always wore to bed, she could not calm herself.
She rolled around on the mattress in such a storm of emotions that her head kept bumping the pillow.
Hana Rin nodded to herself and shot upright from the bed.
'Yeah, I can't keep doing this!'
Instead of wallowing, she decided to research and grow stronger.
A little of the heaviness lifted from her heart.
'Yeah, I'll learn helpful spells. That should help.'
She had done her best and still fallen short, but she refused to spend the rest of her life lying still in regret.
As she thought that, Hana Rin dove into the deeper principles behind magic instead of the basic spells she already knew.
The foundation, lower-rank, and intermediate magic she was learning came straight from the hunter association's point-purchased textbooks.
In the end, magic was the process of understanding the principle and concept, then forging one's own law into a living spell.
She had heard that the other races followed the same path.
Most of them, after establishing their own law or rule, created their spell and trained it stage by stage. Hana Rin resolved to walk the same path.
'What am I lacking?'
The other races are better than Earth hunters? Because their hunter history is far longer.
If the same time were given...
Hana Rin could make the promise.
She would create magic superior to any other race.
With that vow burning in her chest, she prepared for the next stage.
The day before, she had already purchased the expensive textbooks on magic concepts, principles, and laws from the stone slab.
They cost a fortune in points, but it did not matter.
It was only an E-rank zone, yet Do-hyun was like a free bird that could leave anytime. To keep up with him, she had to be ready.
With resolve in her heart, she prepared.
To never fall behind Do-hyun.
And...
'I am number two.'
Beating Ji Yu-chan was just a bonus.
---
Ji Yu-chan felt almost the same after sending the chat.
When they first joined Do-hyun's party, he had felt embarrassed, yet secretly pleased.
He had grown together with someone stronger than himself. He never doubted they would keep going side by side. Who else would he team up with if not Do-hyun?
But after that Black Gate run, he finally understood how wrong he had been.
'Do-hyun can be ahead of us at any moment.'
He had overlooked that too much.
Once they were a party, he had wrongly assumed Do-hyun would stay with him forever.
So Ji Yu-chan admitted his mistake and burned with determination.
To stay beside Do-hyun meant facing the harshest terrain.
Do-hyun could leave anytime. To match him, he had to push to the absolute limit.
Only then could he walk the same path as Do-hyun.
Thinking that, Ji Yu-chan began analyzing videos.
He judged that training at the association could not be more efficient than what he could do now, and the judgment proved astonishingly accurate.
That judgment produced results nearly identical to Hana Rin.
'I need to create a sword law.'
Just as mages establish one law and apply it to the world, swordsmen establish their own law and apply it to their body.
If mages project outward, swordsmen fold it inward.
The basics of the swordsmanship he was learning were important, but finding his own direction came first, so he bought the advanced lectures from the point shop.
Of course, he went to the association and purchased the textbooks on stone slab.
Unlike Do-hyun's skill books, these were pure theory and theory formation.
Still, each one cost two thousand points. He did not regret it for a second.
Instead, he treated the payment as completely natural and devoured the knowledge all day.
'First I must master the inner image.'
Mages create the inner image; swordsmen must analyze how theirs is structured.
So Ji Yu-chan tried meditation to understand his own inner image. At first he could not even grasp how, but he would improve bit by bit and become as strong as possible.
How much time passed?
'...This?'
It felt like something was clicking, yet the intense feeling was as elusive as a mirage.
And Ji Yu-chan did not realize, but faint platinum light had been flowing around him the entire time he meditated.
As he chased that feeling, Ji Yu-chan thought:
'Two is mine.'
Hana Rin, thinking the same thing at the same time and pace, was also slowly forming her inner image.
---
A full day had passed since Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan began pondering and creating their inner images.
The promised time had come. The moment the party was to enter the E-rank zone, everyone gathered at the association.
When Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan arrived first, despite the short day, they looked nothing like the people who had arrived yesterday.
Of course, forming an inner image or meditating to sense one was not something they could do yet.
At minimum, it was an area only A-rank hunters were allowed to enter, so it was natural they could not.
Yet the atmosphere was clearly different.
Should they say the power felt calmer and purer because they had broken through the theory for inner images or meditated to sense it?
Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan looked at each other with wary eyes.
'What's wrong with that guy? He got ridiculously clean...?'
'...Hana Rin was already excellent at mana flow, and now it's even more steady.'
They were subtly tense, each one guarding the other.
While they were exchanging looks, a familiar voice called out.
"Ah, a bit late. Sorry."
The moment Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan turned their heads toward the voice.
They felt a chill run down their spines, the sensation of standing in front of a beast.
The playful smile, expression, and every tiny movement were exactly the same as yesterday, yet Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan saw someone utterly different.
Every gesture was without a single unnecessary motion, every movement carried weight.
It was as if they were watching a process that had been completely deleted.
A chill ran down their spines. How could he change this much in one day?
But even more than that, when they looked into Do-hyun's eyes, both swallowed hard.
"...? Why are you two staring like that???"
Though the behavior was casual, they knew.
'Had his mindset changed...?'
'...He calmed down.'
The laughter that usually lived in Do-hyun's eyes was gone. In their place burned something fierce.
And seeing that fire, Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan realized this was no longer the time to watch each other.
Even when Do-hyun asked, both glanced at each other and nodded.
This time only a ceasefire.
It felt like they were saying as much.
But there was no choice.
To catch up to Do-hyun with eyes burning like that, they would have to burn themselves out. A temporary ceasefire was only natural.
Still, watching Do-hyun's eyes burn, Hana Rin asked carefully.
"Do-hyun Oppa, does this party have any real goals this time?"
Hana Rin, who had grown used to calling him Oppa, yet Do-hyun answered without hesitation and nodded.
The goal of this party?
Simple.
'Grow as much as possible.'
They gulped.
Even though Do-hyun was always the harshest when it came to training, this level of passion left them uneasy.
Before they could worry further, the E-rank zone guide party arrived.
Unlike the F-rank guide party leader Cheon Seong-min, the new guide was a tall, muscular man with a sturdy build and two more men behind him boasting equally solid muscle.
As they approached and introduced themselves.
"I am Park In-su, the E-rank zone guide."
Looking at the man who extended his hand, Do-hyun shook it and scanned the three of them.
『Jung Yoon』
『Trait: Warrior [E]』
『Kim Jin-ha』
『Trait: Healer [F]』
Two men with sturdy physiques.
One was a healer, the other a Warrior of E-rank.
The man who stepped forward with a sturdy build and sturdy body, introducing himself as Park In-su and offering a handshake, was.
『Park In-su』
『Trait: Greatsword Knight [D]』
'D-rank?'
While Do-hyun was thinking that, Park In-su spoke unexpectedly.
"With this entry, I am on the verge of promotion."
The sight of a D-rank hunter he had never seen before, except for the instructors, made Do-hyun smile faintly.
This E-rank zone looked more interesting than expected.