Chapter 488: A Sincere? Conversation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 488: A Sincere? Conversation
-You haven't truly lost until you're dead. But if you lose your composure, it's all over.
It was a phrase Vajra Divine Monk used to say like a mantra.
Though he always acted like a depraved monk, Kang Hyun-woo had taken his advice to heart.
After all, there was certainly something to be learned from the man.
His advice wasn't about unconditionally suppressing one's emotions.
Human emotions were like oil: they hardened when cold but would boil over at any moment when hot.
It meant that while you could harbor feelings of anger, killing intent, and resentment toward an opponent, you must never be consumed by them. You had to learn to control them.
That was exactly Kang Hyun-woo's current state.
The moment he saw the severely injured Yoo Ah-rin, he heard something snap inside his head.
But Kang Hyun-woo, having barely managed to hold onto the thread of his reason, raised his sword.
If he didn't, he felt he would show them not a lesson, but a one-sided beatdown.
CRASH—!!!
“Dieeeee!!!!”
Kiriel, having drawn out her demonic energy to its limit, gripped her spear and charged at Kang Hyun-woo.
An oppressive aura, incomparable to when she had fought Yoo Ah-rin, filled the corridor.
In contrast, however, what bloomed at the tip of Kang Hyun-woo's sword was not a distinct Aura Blade, but a faint Sword Qi.
It looked even dimmer than Yoo Ah-rin's.
To any observer, it was like throwing an egg against a rock, yet there was no hesitation in his steps.
Whoosh—!!!
The moment Kiriel's spearhead swung to slice Kang Hyun-woo apart.
He lowered his stance with incredible speed, immediately closing the distance while striking the shaft of her spear upwards from an oblique angle.
Clang—!!
“?!!!”
As the clear sound rang out, Kiriel lost her grip on the spear.
This wasn't simply because Kang Hyun-woo's physical strength was absurdly overwhelming.
It was the opposite.
Kang Hyun-woo had relaxed his strength to the utmost limit, swinging his sword only to find the most vulnerable point where Kiriel's force couldn't reach.
It was a technique that bordered on the divine.
Yoo Ah-rin couldn't close her mouth at the sight. But the one most surprised was none other than Kiriel herself.
'I... I dropped my weapon...?'
It was utterly unbelievable.
After making a contract with 'The Great One' and learning to wield demonic energy, her stats were practically on par with a player from the middle floors.
Except for Rusleck, the captain of the Celis Holy Knights, there shouldn't have been any player in the dungeon who could handle her.
Kiriel denied it again and again, but that didn't change reality.
“You seem to have plenty of time on your hands, getting lost in thought.”
“—?!!!”
After knocking the spear away, Kang Hyun-woo pivoted on his left foot, his body rotating with the fluid grace of flowing water.
The heel of his shoe then struck Kiriel squarely in the temple.
CRACK—!!
With the sensation of her skull cracking, Kiriel was sent flying sideways, crashing into the wall.
Because Kang Hyun-woo had held back, she wasn't killed instantly.
Even so, she lay limp on the floor, her body twitching intermittently, unable to move any further.
“...”
Yoo Ah-rin's eyes, which had witnessed the scene firsthand, trembled violently.
To think he had subdued Kiriel, the one who had driven her to the brink of death, in just two exchanges.
'...He's on a different level.'
An undeniable sense of awe filled Yoo Ah-rin's gaze as she looked at Kang Hyun-woo.
She had known he was strong, but she never imagined he was this strong.
There wasn't much of an age difference between them, so how could they be so far apart?
Of course, there were people in the world who had luckily awakened exceptional abilities and become S-rank hunters. But the ones dragged into the Tower were weaklings like her, who were below standard.
Moreover, the performance Kang Hyun-woo had just displayed was on a completely different dimension from other hunters who had gotten lucky with their awakenings and ran wild relying solely on their power.
It was so refined and beautiful that it was obvious at a single glance.
“Attacks should always be flexible. I'm sure I told you this last time. Just because you're a swordsman doesn't mean you have to rely only on your sword. As long as you can attack the opponent, it doesn't matter if you use a headbutt.”
But Kang Hyun-woo, as if completely unimpressed, averted his gaze from the collapsed rubble and continued his advice to Yoo Ah-rin.
Seeing this, Yoo Ah-rin once again felt the gap between them.
It was a natural reaction.
From Kang Hyun-woo's perspective, Kiriel probably wasn't even a proper opponent.
Ssk-
“You're a mess.”
Kang Hyun-woo crouched in front of Yoo Ah-rin and checked her condition.
There wasn't a single spot on her that was unharmed.
He had administered first aid with holy water and by striking her acupoints, but it was certain she would be spending some time in a hospital.
“I got you an elixir and taught you swordsmanship so you wouldn't go around getting beaten up. If my first disciple ends up like this, what does that make me?”
“...I'm sorry.”
At Kang Hyun-woo's piercing words, Yoo Ah-rin unconsciously bowed her head.
He wasn't wrong about anything.
It was an incredible stroke of fortune just to have a master of Kang Hyun-woo's caliber help with her training, and he had even gone out of his way to procure a precious elixir for her.
Thanks to him, she had reached the Peak Realm and gained a bit of confidence that she had grown stronger.
But it didn't take long for her to realize it was all a delusion.
She was still weak.
'...This is no different from back then.'
The painful reality that she was nothing but a candle in the wind without the protection of the Clan Leader and Luciel stabbed at her heart.
Flick!
“Ugh?!”
“You're making a face like you're thinking useless thoughts.”
Kang Hyun-woo flicked her on the forehead.
“To look at your face, you're the chicest person in the world, but your insides are so soft. How did you even manage to kill people in the Tutorial?”
“...I'm not soft.”
“Yeah, right.”
Kang Hyun-woo chuckled as he watched Yoo Ah-rin mutter under her breath.
“Why do you think I brought you with me?”
“...Isn't it because of my body?”
“...”
Sharp, aren't you?
“Hmph, was one flick not enough?”
At that moment, Yoo Ah-rin's eyes trembled faintly.
Kang Hyun-woo sheathed her sword for her and took a step back.
“I'm kidding, just kidding. Of course, I brought you here because I liked your talent.”
“...It seems even the Clan Leader makes mistakes. To waste your time on a failure like me.”
“A failure?”
“You not only passed on a high-level martial art but also gave me a precious elixir. Yet I couldn't even land a proper scratch on my opponent and lost pathetically.”
A self-deprecating smile spread across Yoo Ah-rin's lips.
Seeing her expression, which seemed steeped in self-loathing, Kang Hyun-woo stroked his chin as if pondering for a moment.
Squish-
“?!!”
He suddenly reached out and grabbed Yoo Ah-rin's breast.
It wasn't just placing a hand on her chest.
Squeeze, squish-
He blatantly squeezed and kneaded her breast.
Yoo Ah-rin's eyes went wide, and her face turned beet red, looking as if it would explode at any moment.
She was so flustered that she could only stammer, unable to say a word.
“How about it?”
Kang Hyun-woo asked with a playful face as he fondled her breast.
“If, as you said, I really recruited you because I was after your body, do you still think I made a mistake?”
“...”
Of course, that wasn't the reason, but Kang Hyun-woo didn't bother to correct her.
“Don't get swept up in a single win or loss. It's not a big deal. What a martial artist should truly fear isn't defeat. It's a meaningless dog's death.”
Failure is the mother of success.
It was a famous proverb that everyone knew.
Kang Hyun-woo also agreed with it to some extent.
As long as you don't lose too much, sometimes a defeat isn't so bad.
No, perhaps it's a necessary experience.
Kang Hyun-woo recalled the events of just a few months ago.
The memory of when he faced Ma Paeseon, the 6th Elder of the Heavenly Demonic Cult and a master of the Extreme Demon, and fled without even putting up a proper fight.
The helplessness of that day was still vivid.
He had consoled himself by calling it a step back for two steps forward, leaving Cheon Yeo-hwa behind as he escaped to another world.
At the time, he had tried to win a mental victory by telling himself he hadn't lost yet, but deep down, he already knew.
It was an undeniable defeat.
He had fallen into such self-loathing that a Heart Demon had nearly formed, but in the end, he used that day's defeat as fertilizer to grow stronger quickly.
And finally, he had proudly seized victory against Ma Paeseon.
“Losing isn't shameful. What's truly shameful is tucking your tail between your legs and running away like a scared mutt.”
“...”
“And you should consider yourself lucky. If it were my Grandmaster, you would've been beaten to an inch of your...”
Kang Hyun-woo paused.
Vajra Divine Monk always acted like a depraved monk and would hit people on the head with his wooden fish at the drop of a hat, but he would never hit a woman like Yoo Ah-rin.
He was the kind of depraved monk who would tell his disciple how sexy the female disciples of the Emei Sect were.
“By the way, why are you suddenly calling me Clan Leader?”
“...Huh?”
“You used to call me Master just fine. Suddenly, I'm feeling a distance between us. Are you saying you've learned everything there is to learn?”
“N-No, it's not like that...”
Yoo Ah-rin looked up at Kang Hyun-woo, who was still kneading her breast, with a troubled expression.
As Kang Hyun-woo had said, her face alone gave off the chicest vibe in the world, but when it came to sexual matters, her immunity was close to zero.
Moreover, with her body in a mess from injuries and blood loss, it was only natural for her to be flustered and stammer, unlike her usual self.
“Well... I guess it could be burdensome to call someone who's only a year older 'Master' every single time.”
Kang Hyun-woo nodded as if he understood and continued.
“If it's really a problem, you can call me Oppa. Of course, if your Grandmaster heard, he'd probably have a fit, screaming about blasphemy against one's master or something, but who cares what a dead man says.”
Kang Hyun-woo continued speaking nonchalantly with a sly smile, but Yoo Ah-rin, whose senses were sharpened from the aftermath of the battle, saw it clearly.
For an instant, a faint trace of longing flickered in his eyes.
A brief silence fell in the suddenly strange atmosphere.
Squeeze, squish-
“...Before that, could you please take your hand off my chest—”
Just as Yoo Ah-rin, unable to bear it any longer, was about to speak.
“Kiriel.”
“?!”
A stranger's voice echoed softly through the corridor.
Yoo Ah-rin's gaze immediately shot toward the pile of rubble.
Standing there was a mysterious man who, like Kiriel, had horns, wings, and dark skin.
He looked down at the battered Kiriel with cold eyes and muttered.
“What is the meaning of this pathetic state?”
“...I'm... s-sorry...”
“Where did you put the authority of The Great One— What is this...?”
The man's face contorted for a moment as he looked at Kiriel, and then his head turned.
“Was this your doing?”
“What's that now?”
Kang Hyun-woo frowned at the man's gaze, which was fixed on him with displeasure.
Of course, he was still groping her breast.
It wasn't Kang Hyun-woo's intention.
It was just that his right hand had developed an independent thought process and was moving on instinct.
Right. That was complete bullshit.
“...A filthy hound of a god, I see.”
Noticing the lingering demon-breaking energy on Kiriel's wounds, the man concluded that Kang Hyun-woo was a cleric.
It was an absurd misunderstanding, but no one present had any intention of correcting him.
Only a murderous hostility was directed at each other.
But that too was brief.
“Kiriel.”
“B-Bishop...”
“Shut up. If you hadn't been chosen by The Great One, I would have snapped your neck with my own hands.”
The man berated Kiriel.
“That's...”
Kang Hyun-woo focused on the object in the man's hand.
No, it wasn't an object at all.
It was a familiar face.
“...Rusleck?”
It was none other than the head of Rusleck, the captain of the Celis Holy Knights.
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