Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Ruler of Fire
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Chapter 116
"I'm dead."
Fighting two A-Rank hunters?
That was nothing.
Of all times, this had to happen when Thought Acceleration wasn't active.
Jeong-hyeon could only stare blankly at Ji-hee as she cast her spell right in front of his face.
Of all places, he was positioned between Ji-hee and the spirit she was targeting.
Memories flashed by like a lantern show before death.
What Jeong-hyeon saw was the scene from the Hunter Association's testing room, the first time he'd witnessed Ji-hee using her magic.
Even though she had the protective window behind her and there was no way he'd take damage, his Combat Sense had rung alarm bells like crazy in that memory.
Sure, he'd guided Ji-hee's magic quite a bit since entering this gate, but that was always under perfect conditions with thorough intent.
If her magic activated this defenselessly, at such close range, he was surely dead.
"Mother, Father. Your foolish child goes up early due to greed."
How desperate was he to even bid farewell to his late parents in advance?
Meanwhile, Ji-hee belatedly realized what she'd done and was utterly shocked.
His fight against those two trying to exert force on her had been astonishing, but she knew it too.
Ever since getting hit with the Trait Suppressor, Jeong-hyeon wasn't at full strength.
She didn't know how he could fight like that without his traits, but compared to before, his speed, judgment—everything had dropped.
So even if he'd told her to use her magic, she should've been extra careful, yet she'd blasted it right in his face?
"You're really useless, Choi Ji-hee."
Wasn't this just like that moment when she first awakened?
A moment she never wanted to remember, yet etched deep into her soul.
Gathering mana as naturally as breathing, and during that short time until it manifested as actual magic, Ji-hee had despaired thousands of times.
But at the end of that despair, a sudden question rose as she lifted her head.
"Am... I using magic? How?"
Her trait had clearly been paralyzed just moments ago.
That's why she'd thought she couldn't use magic.
So what was this magic she was using now?
Only after recognizing that question could Ji-hee finally observe everything.
It wasn't limited to her simple vision.
Her inside and outside.
In these moments flowing as slowly as if time had stopped, she could feel absolutely everything.
Enraged spirits, Yun-ho and Jeong Jun in agony.
Seung-yeon and Usik collapsed, mana swirling around her under her own will.
A fierce flame blazing wildly inside her body, yet quieter than ever.
And Han Jeong-hyeon staring at her with wide eyes in shock.
Strength entered Ji-hee's hand.
Only after seeing everything did she realize who she was.
"Save this man!"
- The Ruler merely commands.
At Ji-hee's command, it felt like the entire world bent to her will.
At least in this moment, it did.
An unknowable, warm voice swirled inside Ji-hee's body and vanished.
Like a spark leaping red-hot from the flame, then fading away.
Just like before, the mana that had clumped messily in one spot, ready to explode, began to change.
"What is this?"
Jeong-hyeon couldn't move his body, but he perceived it with his mind.
Like a bud blooming into a flower of tens of thousands of petals, the massive mana scattered into fragments.
Yet it artfully avoided both Ji-hee and Jeong-hyeon.
The spirit realm, once governed by the spirits' unknowable laws, now felt like a world made of Ji-hee's mana.
Because everything caught in Jeong-hyeon's eyes and senses was her mana.
Whoosh—
The spirits, who had seemed ready to pounce and attack the two at any second, hesitated in confusion this time.
And in the next moment, it was all over.
"What the...?"
Jeong-hyeon trailed off in a daze.
He'd thought he was done for.
Ji-hee's magic had unfolded right in front of him.
But he survived.
More than just surviving—
He had no idea what he'd just witnessed.
As he looked around the now-calm surroundings, Jeong-hyeon's gaze met Ji-hee's.
Ji-hee wore a blank expression, as if she herself didn't know what she'd done.
Two words slipped from Jeong-hyeon's mouth unbidden.
"「Ruler of Fire」?"
He'd initially thought it was just a flashy, unique trait name.
But was there a better way to describe her now?
Perhaps because he'd only ever seen her confident and bold side,
Ji-hee let out a small chuckle at hearing Jeong-hyeon call her trait in his stunned voice.
"What happened?"
"I... don't know."
Ji-hee shrugged.
She really had no clue.
It felt like she'd done something without realizing, but it happened so suddenly that she couldn't remember clearly.
"Could it be?"
Then, a thought flashed through Jeong-hyeon's mind.
Absurd as it was, there was only one variable that could cause this kind of change.
"Trait Suppressor?"
He'd found it odd from earlier.
Ji-hee, who was always anxious and timid about everything, had felt strangely stable after getting hit.
Of course, she'd panicked when threatened by Jeong Jun and Yun-ho—that was unavoidable.
But after he'd handled that, she'd changed remarkably.
"Ji-hee, try using your magic once."
"Huh? What for all of a sudden...?"
"Take a deep breath. Quick."
Despite her puzzled look, Ji-hee obediently followed as Jeong-hyeon urged her.
"For some reason, my mind feels at ease."
Around then, Ji-hee realized she was different from usual.
The embers that used to rage wildly whenever she tried to use magic, tangled with her unstable heart, were now docile.
"Could it be...?"
As she took a deep breath and glanced at Jeong-hyeon, her face flushed red, and she hurriedly looked away.
Of course, it was just her misunderstanding.
Jeong-hyeon, thinking only of the Trait Suppressor and her trait, continued.
"Now, look over there and..."
Then, he suddenly stopped.
"What should I even say?"
Truth be told, he had no idea what magic to tell her to use.
Normally, magic followed set formulas.
That's why there were standard spells like Bolt, Bash, Strike, Wave, suited to each rank.
Arrange mana in a set formula, align it by rules, imbue properties, and manifest.
But Ji-hee didn't seem to use those conventional methods.
"The answer's in the problem, right?"
Her trait was 「Ruler of Fire」.
What if it wasn't just a modifier?
It cost nothing, and no one would get hurt.
If it worked, great; if not, oh well.
Jeong-hyeon cupped his hands to form a moderate-sized space and said,
"Ignore formulas. Just imagine hurling a fireball about this size."
"Uh..."
Ji-hee gave him a troubled look at his words.
Easier said than done—was magic that simple?
Jeong-hyeon, whom she never suspected had Mana Sensitivity, seemed like a non-mage hunter giving carefree advice to her who couldn't control her magic.
Still, she didn't want to dismiss it as nonsense outright.
She didn't want to let down his expectations.
After a moment's hesitation, Ji-hee gathered her mana.
"It won't work anyway."
She was pessimistic.
Ji-hee knew her magic was overly excessive.
But when she tried using the formulas taught by the Association's mages during mana gathering, control always went haywire, forcing out overpowered spells.
Formulas weren't formulas for nothing.
They were the safest way to use mana, born from countless trials and errors.
It didn't make sense that mana that rampaged even with formulas could be handled by just thinking "hurl a fireball."
The mages who'd trained her would've flipped if they heard this suggestion from the Association.
As if she needed to wreck buildings.
"Still, I don't want to disappoint him."
Ji-hee closed her eyes.
She pictured a fireball the size Jeong-hyeon had shown.
"Fly!"
When Ji-hee opened her eyes again, Jeong-hyeon was no longer looking at her.
Instead, he stared at a hole about the size of a soccer ball punched into a nearby spirit realm landmark.
"Did I do that?"
Ji-hee had seen the hole clearly but couldn't believe it.
Maybe Jeong-hyeon had secretly made it and was pretending to be surprised?
As she thought that, Jeong-hyeon urgently ran to Jeong Jun and Yun-ho collapsed on the ground.
"If you have any more Trait Suppressors, hand them all over!"
***
Seung-yeon grumbled, pressing her throbbing temple—still sore from the spear shaft—with her palm.
"Do we really have to drag those guys? It'll be tough on you, Party Leader."
"No choice. Who knows what else we might get if we hand them to the Association."
Naturally, she meant Jeong Jun and Yun-ho, each dangling by an ankle from Jeong-hyeon's hands as he dragged them along.
Jeong-hyeon had considered tossing them to the spirits since he'd already severed their tendons, but he exercised superhuman patience and held back.
He thought he'd extracted info quite thoroughly(?), but pros might see it differently.
After snatching their Trait Suppressors and getting annoyed again, he'd given them a few loving pats, leaving them with eyes rolled back, unable to rise.
He couldn't ask Seung-yeon to heal them either, so dragging them like this it was.
"But seriously, Party Leader, you took down both these guys? How?"
"Well... it was tough. Lucky they let their guard down."
"Those damn bastards..."
Seung-yeon and Usik woke up after everything was settled.
To them, they'd just blinked, and Jeong Jun and Yun-ho were beaten to a pulp on the ground.
Naturally, Jeong-hyeon fed them a story where he'd taken down the two, glossing over everything else with lies.
Truth was, Ji-hee was an S-Rank secretly nurtured by the Association, targeted by two A-Ranks with Trait Suppressors from China, and he was an EX-Rank who beat them easily.
How could he say that?
'Some stories are better left unknown. Right?'
Even outside the gate, they'd agreed: Ji-hee would secretly press the button Nam-sik gave her, Jeong-hyeon would call the Association to report, syncing their stories.
That way, even if the Association dispatched, the two wouldn't suspect.
The Association already got flak for not catching villains—sticking their noses in a gate without a report would look suspicious.
"Wow, my first time seeing real villains. Always just heard about them..."
Then, hearing Seung-yeon mutter beside him, a thought crossed Jeong-hyeon's mind.
"Knock 'em out again?"
With China as backup, they wouldn't send just these two.
There'd be a contingency team outside the gate.
If they pressed the button and stayed inside, what could they do?
Lounge until Association backup arrived, then exit.
Of course, he couldn't actually do that, but if things got dire, not a bad plan.
Lost in such thoughts, they soon reached the gate entrance.
Jeong-hyeon gave Ji-hee a glance and took the lead out of the gate.