Chapter 13
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: What Happens When Skills Pile Up (1)
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Cheon Da-eun moved her steps toward the familiar training ground to calm her frustrated mind.
A vast corner of the training ground. Inside the now-deserted training area after classes had ended, a familiar figure came into view. It was Kang Ihyeon. He was engrossed in something, a bit separated from where the other students would usually be.
'What the hell is that guy doing?'
Kang Ihyeon was wearing blue gloves that shimmered more brilliantly than before, firing off shards of ice into the air repeatedly. He looked just like a kid playing with a toy.
Cheon Da-eun's brow furrowed sharply.
She had just come from passionately defending that student's potential in front of the other instructors. Even facing Seraphina's mockery head-on.
And yet, the person in question was here wasting time on something so pathetic. A cold rage bubbled up from deep within her.
'I... stood up for you amid all that ridicule. And you're here slacking off?'
She approached Kang Ihyeon with icy steps. Sensing her presence, he stopped fiddling with the gloves and turned around.
"Ah, Instructor."
"Kang Ihyeon. What the hell do you think you're doing right now?"
"Pardon? Oh, this is a new Freezing Magic device I made. Just testing its performance..."
"Device? Performance testing?"
Kang Ihyeon lifted the gloves with a bewildered expression, trying to explain, but Cheon Da-eun cut him off.
"You don't have time for games. Have you forgotten how dire your record is? The evaluation is in three days—right around the corner. And you're messing around with some toy?"
"B-but you know this is my trump card for real combat, right...?"
"Trump card?"
Cheon Da-eun scoffed. She took another step closer, lowering her voice. Her icy gaze seemed to pierce right through him.
"What about the condition of the body wielding it? Gear is secondary to basic mana control. No matter how impressive a momentary burst might be, if your fundamentals can't keep up, you'll be screwed in the mock rift evaluation to come...!"
Just as her sharp words were about to continue, Cheon Da-eun unwittingly drew in a breath at the sudden wave of scent hitting her.
The thick, masculine musk wafting from Kang Ihyeon's sweat-soaked training uniform. The raw aroma emanating from his heated body after training.
'...Ugh?'
In that instant, Cheon Da-eun's face flushed bright red. The reprimand she had been about to deliver scattered in her throat.
That intense, primal fragrance made her head spin. Her nose tingled inexplicably, and a faint heat stirred in her lower abdomen—a thoroughly perverse sensation that overwhelmed her.
It might have been something a loose woman, or even any ordinary woman with experience, could brush off lightly. But for Cheon Da-eun, who had devoted her entire life to training, it was a different story.
Like a thief who starts late and fears more, her first encounter with such primal pleasure—even if just a faint taste—made her react like a cat with its fur standing on end.
'Wh-what the hell is wrong with me...?'
Unconsciously, her gaze drifted to his nape. Sweat beaded there, glistening. An indecent urge rose to get closer... to inhale that thicker scent.
"In-Instructor? What's wrong?"
"...You stink."
She forced herself to act nonchalant, scowling as she snapped at him. But she couldn't hide her heated cheeks or trembling voice.
"The sweat stench is overpowering. It's disgusting. Stop this and go to the showers right now."
"Pardon? Ah... Yes, understood!"
Kang Ihyeon, puzzled by the sudden non-reprimand reprimand, nodded anyway and hurriedly removed the gloves.
Cheon Da-eun stood there with a rigidly cold expression until he vanished from sight, but inside, she was still lost to the lingering scent at the tip of her nose.
'Lately, I've been feeling more and more off.'
Even after Kang Ihyeon's figure disappeared, Cheon Da-eun remained rooted in place for a long while. A strange itch tickled one corner of her chest.
It was absurd. He was just a student who had barely become an adult. Seven or eight years younger than her.
And they were in an instructor-student relationship, no less.
At first, she thought it was mere interest—or anticipation—from his unexpected growth.
Her once-labeled straggler disciple refusing to give up in harsh conditions, blooming his talent. Admiration as a fellow hunter for his grit and potential, or pride as his instructor.
'...But is that really all it is?'
This wasn't a one- or two-day thing.
And it was only getting worse as time passed.
As if her body itself craved her own disciple.
Normally, she would have recoiled in disgust at such reactions, but even she couldn't ignore how her barriers were steadily crumbling.
Her response to his scent earlier. The dizzying haze that nearly made her lose her mind, paired with that strange heat blooming deep in her gut. It was too sticky and impure to call mere joy at her disciple's progress as his teacher.
Perhaps.
A tiny suspicion raised its head in Cheon Da-eun's mind.
At this age, have I finally met my 'mate'...?
'Ugh! Cheon Da-eun! What indecent nonsense are you thinking?!'
Cheon Da-eun shook her head vigorously. The thought sent chills down her spine. This couldn't be. Impossible. Harboring such thoughts about her disciple? She had to shut it down decisively.
Scolding herself, Cheon Da-eun forcibly severed her thoughts.
Right—the important thing was the upcoming exam.
Confirming her student's growth was top priority. Especially testing the instantaneous mana output of those gloves he made firsthand.
The Freezing Magic gloves that could be a key variable in the evaluation.
She needed to verify if she could really trust his gear.
Regaining her composure, she headed toward the men's showers where he had gone. No one should be around anyway, and she had to check the item now rather than later.
She thought so casually.
Upon reaching the shower entrance, the sound of running water roared from inside.
As expected. And near the entrance, on the shelf baskets for personal items, his sweat-drenched training uniform from moments ago and those blue gloves were tossed in haphazardly.
'Just check and go...'
But the moment she approached the basket to pick up the gloves, a far more concentrated version of that training ground scent assaulted her nose. Sweat, body heat, and the unmistakably youthful male musk mingled thickly, emanating from the basket.
'Ugh, again...!'
Cheon Da-eun held her breath without thinking. Her face heated up once more. The sweat stains on the uniform, the intertwined scent...
The suffocatingly dense aroma tried to numb her reason.
'Why is my body reacting like this?'
Her mind grew chaotic again. She had only come to check the gloves' mana output, so why was her heart pounding like this, her body responding on its own? Getting this flustered in front of her disciple's clothes soaked in his scent...
'Is this really just admiration? Am I... really a pervert...?'
Self-loathing surged alongside the alluring, unpleasant yet strangely magnetic fragrance that made it hard to think straight.
Her eyes rummaged through the basket. Beneath the sweat-soaked uniform lay crumpled black drawers.
A piece of fabric that had touched his most intimate area. The scent wafting from it was incomparably richer and more blatant than the rest.
Gulp.
She swallowed dryly. Her reason screamed warning signals furiously.
'No. This is insane. An instructor sniffing her student's underwear...!'
But her body was already under instinct's control. Like a magnet's pull, her hand extended slowly. Her trembling fingers finally touched the soft fabric. She even fancied she felt a faint remnant of his body heat.
'...Ah.'
The last thread of reason snapped. Entranced, she picked up the drawers. Without hesitation, she brought them close to her face.
Sniiiiif... Haaaa...
Breathing in deeply, the intoxicatingly sweet stench—sweat, young male pheromones, and perhaps traces of other fluids—burrowed deep into her lungs.
A type of intense pleasure she had never experienced jolted every nerve in her body.
A tingling tightness gripped between her legs.
Dazed, forgetting her surroundings, she buried her face in the underwear again and again, focusing solely on that scent. Like an addict.
Once, twice...
Cheon Da-eun buried her face in the underwear like a drug user inhaling deeply, desperately. Deeper, more. As if afraid to miss even a whiff of that dense aroma.
"Haaaa... A little... more..."
Her mind felt bleached white. Ethics, her responsibilities as an instructor, cold reason—all melted powerlessly before this vicious fragrance.
Unbeknownst to her, heat flared hotly between her legs, soaking wet.
Inside her stiff uniform, she felt her underwear growing damp, but to the current Cheon Da-eun, even that was faint background noise.
She was so immersed in his scent that she didn't even register her pussy getting wet.
Squeeeeak—
Right then, the shower water from inside cut off.
"Huh?"
Startled, Cheon Da-eun swallowed hard.
She couldn't get caught. Absolutely not.
But this scent from the drawers in her hand...
Just give it up and leave?
'No.'
She knew it was a crime.
But just one pair of panties. As long as she didn't get caught, it was fine.
For Cheon Da-eun, who had always revered the logic of power, deciding was easy.
Reflexively, she shoved the drawers deep into her uniform pocket. Her heart pounded wildly, but she forced her expression to stay icy.
Leaving the gloves untouched in the basket as originally planned, she stiffly turned and exited the showers as if nothing had happened.
Shhhh. Creeeak. Drip.
"What was that?"
I came out because I heard footsteps, but no one was there.
I rushed to dry off, worried, but the changing room shelves were empty nearby.
On the shelf in my basket: the sweat-soaked training uniform and the Freezing gloves I'd been fiddling with earlier, right where I left them. Nothing wrong. I must've been paranoid.
Toweling my wet hair, I glanced around—empty space.
"Ugh, cold. Back in I go."
I turned the shower on again amid the rising steam.
'No one else training today anyway...'
Mana replenishment after training.
Isn't it about time to summon the clone?