Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Rigorous Sparring and Training
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“Lady Eres, why are you hitting my brother?”
Nayoung asked as she fed snacks into Eres’s mouth while he lay on her lap.
Nayoung had always loved kids and animals, and she fell head over heels for Eres’s adorable appearance. But since he was an incarnation overseeing the very existence of a world, she couldn’t treat him casually and had only watched from afar.
Then she learned Eres liked snacks and started luring him in with them. Like taming a wild beast, she approached patiently, gradually closing the distance until now she was second only to Jisuk in closeness with Eres.
“Hm? Why? Are you worried?”
“Yes. He looks like he’s suffering.”
Jisuk rarely made a sound from pain no matter what, but seeing him groan like that tugged at Nayoung’s heart. At first, she’d almost charged in regardless of incarnation or whatever, but Jisuk had stopped her, so she held back.
“Don’t worry. I haven’t seen a human as sturdy as him in ages.”
“But could you tell me what you’re doing?”
“That dullard won’t get it from words—he has to learn it with his body. Don’t worry. I’m just preparing him for the next threat.”
“Hmm…”
Nayoung tried to understand since it was preparation for what lay ahead, but she still hated seeing Jisuk get beaten over some ridiculous excuse.
As a small act of defiance, she braided Eres’s hair into pigtails, but it had no effect since he looked even cuter that way.
* * *
After a week of various basic physical training, I checked the prisoners’ records. In just a few days of basic training, their stats had noticeably risen. Compared to gains at the academy, it was an overwhelming training effect.
However, in that short time, their faces looked a decade older, utterly haggard. I could restore their vitality, but not their mental state.
“Today’s sparring training. We’ll do 5v5. Winners get the day off tomorrow.”
I pointed to the basic gear. Weapons suited to their skills and light armor had been prepared for each.
“Who are we sparring with, sir?”
Shin Muyeol looked at me. His eyes said, Surely not you?
“Not me. Hunters around your level.”
Hyeongbin, Sihwan, Minwoo, Jinu, and Yesl stepped forward. Changhui sat it out. With B-Rank healer Yesl already here, adding Changhui would unbalance things too much in our favor.
Changhui was currently dispatched to the Rose Guild and growing rapidly as an ace.
The prisoners sized up Hyeongbin’s group and seemed to think they could handle it, hurriedly donning their gear. I could see their determination to snag that day off no matter what.
“Same goes for Hyeongbin’s team. Lose, and special training awaits, so give it everything.”
Now it was time to gather real combat data within the World Tree’s nutrient sphere.
Hyeongbin took the front, Sihwan to the left, Minwoo to the right, and Jinu and Yesl in the rear.
Unlike Hyeongbin’s team, who hesitated to attack first, the prisoners pressed forward like they were venting all their pent-up stress from the past week.
“Fireball!”
Rapist-murderer Jeon Dong-gun unleashed flames at Yesl. That bastard’s hostility toward women wouldn’t change until he died.
The moment Yesl was targeted, guardian Hyeongbin’s stats rose. With his boosted stats, he swiftly launched himself, blocking the fireball with his shield.
“Charging in!”
Seeing the merciless barrage of flames, Hyeongbin charged at Jeon Dong-gun, who had cast the spell.
“Charging!”
Heo O-seong intercepted his path, colliding with Hyeongbin. Even against an opponent a rank higher, Hyeongbin didn’t budge.
But.
“Gah!”
A scrapper from the academy instructor days, Heo O-seong seized the brief recoil after impact to draw his sword and stab Hyeongbin’s thigh.
The blade hit bone. Without armor, it would’ve severed the leg.
“Heal! Shield!”
Yesl protected Hyeongbin.
“Tch…”
Heo O-seong clicked his tongue and retreated under follow-up attacks from Jinu and Sihwan.
Hyeongbin, Sihwan, and Jinu faced off against Heo O-seong and Yang Deok-su, but blocking the prisoners’ ruthless vital-point strikes stretched the three thin.
While the front line clashed fiercely, Jinu blocked Jeon Dong-gun’s repeated fireballs with his shield from the rear. Yesl’s shield was on Jinu, but since she’d spread shields across the whole team, the defense was thin.
The fragile shield shattered uselessly against the fireball Jeon Dong-gun had carefully charged. Flames spilled over Jinu’s shield, searing his flesh, but he steadfastly guarded Yesl without retreating.
Shin Muyeol went invisible to target Yesl, but Jinu spotted his footprints and summoned vines with a skill to attack. Even under attack himself, Jinu did his utmost to protect the healer Yesl.
“Argh! Stop! Stop it!”
Shin Muyeol had no standout skills and zero combat training, so he couldn’t handle even a single vine.
“You fucking retard.”
Choi Miran spat curses and sprayed poison mist into the clustered front-liners. A new skill I hadn’t seen before. She must’ve leveled it up in prison fights, where brawls never stopped.
The numbing paralysis mist slowed everyone’s movements.
“You bitch! You’re catching us in it too!”
The mist was thickest around Hyeongbin, Sihwan, and Minwoo, but nearby Yang Deok-su and Heo O-seong had no choice but to inhale it too.
“Shut up! You wanna train tomorrow or not?!”
“Hell no!”
Accustomed to rough handling from the week’s training, Yang Deok-su and Heo O-seong powered through the paralysis poison through sheer grit. It was possible thanks to the recovery from the World Tree’s vitality they’d benefited from so far.
Hyeongbin’s group stiffened, their movements sluggish, and they took hit after hit from the prisoners lunging at vitals.
Without debuff skills, Yesl cast heals and shields on everyone, but it wasn’t enough to protect four teammates under unilateral assault.
They were somewhat used to hunting monsters, but with so little PvP experience, it was a mess.
“Hold.”
At my signal, the prisoners withdrew, and Hyeongbin’s team collapsed to the ground.
“Oh! We won! We won! So we get tomorrow off, right?!”
Jeon Dong-gun shouted.
“Yeah. Rest from now until tomorrow. Meals are prepared—go eat.”
The prisoners headed back to the barracks in high spirits.
“There’s not much level difference between those five and you. But the gap in resolve and experience was huge.”
Hyeongbin and the others hung their heads.
“Day after tomorrow, I’m joining training. If you want, join me. No pressure. Not every Awakener has to become a Hunter.”
You can’t force someone without the will to become a Hunter.
While Hyeongbin’s team mulled it over and the prisoners enjoyed their day off, I prepared my personal training with Jaein.
“Ready?”
“Yeah. The chairman’s got a real knack for this stuff. Turning it on?”
“Yes.”
Iron weights were strapped to my wrists and ankles, and a steel vest hugged my torso. Beneath my feet lay a 10-meter metal disc.
“Entering all personnel!”
“Hup!”
My body was yanked toward the floor. The floor was a super-strong electromagnet Jaein had made, adapted from a junkyard scrap model.
Until now, I’d done personal training by lifting heavy objects. But with my increased strength, satisfying weights became too bulky and inconvenient. So I came up with this device.
“Ooh, that’s heavy.”
“...That pull’s gotta be tens of tons, right?”
“Can you crank it higher?”
“I’ll keep ramping it up.”
According to Jaein, by dumping new materials and money into it, it could generate magnetic force several times stronger than a standard electromagnet.
I considered weaponizing it, but it needed metal on the enemy and had to be within a meter for max power, so impractical.
The pull on the metal on my body grew stronger. Raising my arms got tough, and my legs shook.
I slowly moved my heavy body to step onto the electromagnet plate.
Seeing me walk, Jaein shook his head.
“Hoo!”
I deliberately avoided using aura or boost. The instant I lifted my right foot, my left ankle bone snapped under the near-100-ton load.
Pain surged, but the World Tree’s vitality plus my own regeneration healed it simultaneously as it broke.
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
Strength, which hadn’t budged lately, rose, firing me up.
Once walking felt natural, I did squats and push-ups, eventually handstand push-ups.
Seeing my training, Hyeongbin steeled himself, donned his load-bearing gear, and ran laps on the muddy field without a single complaint, the weight digging into his shoulders.
His younger teammates and Yesl followed suit.
I couldn’t protect them forever. Not like Sangheon or Yesl or Changhui—the other four wouldn’t keep up if their growth stalled. They’d gotten a taste now; I didn’t want to drag them along just to watch them die.
I was grateful they hadn’t given up.
“So, you think this counts as training? Let me help.”
Eres emerged onto the training ground and hopped onto my electromagnet plate.
“No more excuses to flick my head, right?”
“I’d hoped that would make you get it, but no dice, did it? You dullard.”
“You could’ve just told me.”
“You’re not the type who learns with his head, are you? Let’s get serious now.”
Eres, dressed in the kids’ clothes Nayoung bought, looked cute, but knowing her power, I tensed up and assumed a ready stance.
Eres flew at me without warning, kicking out.
Armor or aura were useless against Eres’s attacks anyway, so I didn’t bother.
Instead, I burned vitality for max boost, raising my stats, but I couldn’t dodge the strike gliding through space.
I raised my arm to block, and the muscles in that arm burst while the bones shattered.
Eres’s attack followed a different trajectory from before. It wasn’t destruction at the impact site or shock rippling inward.
The area around the impact took instantaneous trauma. Like every cell was hit at once.
“You were going easy on me this whole time?”
“You’re so slow, I finally had to use some real power.”
I swung my arm through the air. Already fully healed.
“What a brutishly tough bastard.”
Eres spread a crushing aura over me. Combined with the electromagnet’s force, multiple pressures pinned my body immobile. Then she attacked.
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
Over an hour of beatings left me breaking and bursting all over. Stats rose thanks to it, but I couldn’t grasp what her attacks were.
“That’s enough for today.”
Eres dusted her clothes and stepped off the plate.
“I can take more.”
“Time for cartoons.”
No helping that.