An Unexpected Spar
The dedicated gymnasium for awakened individuals was a place Mina had visited quite a few times before. "It feels like it's been ages since I came to a place like this."
"Have you used facilities like this before?"
"There was one on campus." Strictly speaking, it had been an auditorium, but given that it belonged to the Hunter department, the equipment had been excellent.
"After I actually got my hunter license, I was so buried in company work that I never even thought to look for a place like this."
After briefly examining the exterior, she saw the expected QR code scanner at the entrance. "This is for automatic payment, right?"
"Yes. The regional points will be deducted first, but since the purpose is testing, I'll handle a separate deposit."
While listening to Seok-jun, she held her hunter license up to the scanner. A notification informed her that roughly 500,000 won worth of points had been deducted. "F-five hundred thousand won? Is the usage fee really this expensive?"
"Part of it is because you're an A-rank hunter, but the maintenance and repair costs for the facility are also significant."
Apparently, awakened individuals frequently broke things while using their mana, so the fees had to be high. Once they stepped inside, the staff at the information desk, who had been watching the monitors, turned toward them with slightly surprised expressions.
"People are staring for some reason."
"It's rare for actual hunters to come here."
"Makes sense. Even low-rank gates are far more profitable than training here."
For a hunter, clearing gates—even low-rank ones—offered far more practical experience and money than visiting a place like this. Most people who used these facilities were either awakened without hunter licenses or students dreaming of becoming hunters.
The interior was as vast as a sports field, with a ceiling that seemed to cover the entire sky. The sheer size made sense once you considered the strength of awakened individuals. Besides, no single person could monopolize such a large space anyway. Green fences were set up at regular intervals, dividing the area into sections. Through the gaps, Mina caught glimpses of people struggling to wield their mana in various ways.
I used to spend so much time in places like this.
As she watched the mostly young-looking trainees grunting while practicing on the prepared dummies and equipment, she wondered if she had looked the same in the past. "Whew~ Hey there, pretty lady. Where'd you come from? Forget that parasite-looking guy and come play with me instead."
I never wanted this part to feel nostalgic!
One of the men who had been training approached her, whistling, and grabbed the fence in an exaggerated display of his muscles before speaking to her. The sight overlapped with memories of certain seniors who used to hit on her back when she was in university, pouring all her energy into mana training.
"This type is familiar too."
"Seok-jun?"
When she tried to ignore the man and keep walking, Seok-jun, who had been ahead, returned to her side and observed the man clinging to the fence with interest. "Oh, what? You talking to her? I've got business with the lady, so why don't you scram?"
The man scowled threateningly, but Seok-jun only replied calmly, "If you really want to talk to this lady, stop acting like a zoo monkey and come out properly."
"What? A monkey!?"
Seok-jun had provoked him instead. Naturally, the man grew angry, but Mina found herself inwardly agreeing with Seok-jun's words. Honestly, it was pretty similar. Why grab the fence so high and make things awkward when he could have just spoken normally?
"Fine! I'll open the gate, so get in here! Don't come crying after you get your ass kicked, you little shit!"
"Then I won't refuse."
"Wait a second, Seok-jun! If something happens—"
"Sparring and duels are fairly unrestricted in places like this."
Mina had tried to stop him, worried about what might happen if two awakened fought, but his unexpected reply came instead. "These facilities were built partly so people wouldn't fight outside using their mana."
"I had no idea!"
She belatedly realized why people around her had fought so often back in university. She had thought it was just their burning desire to become hunters, but thinking back, most of those spars had been over petty bets—like who would pay for the meal.
"Look at this guy, getting cocky just because I was standing still. Do you even know who I am before picking a fight?"
Standing still? Mina wondered when the meaning of words had changed. The one who had started the argument was clearly the man himself.
"I don't know who you are, and there's no need to. Let's begin."
"You think you can look down on an active hunter like this?!"
When Seok-jun urged him on with a nonchalant expression, the man finally lost his temper and charged. Thud! Wham! "Guh...ack?!"
"Oh."
Mina blinked, trying to process what had just happened. The man had swung his fist with great momentum, but it never connected. Instead, Seok-jun dodged and landed a clean hit to his jaw, sending him flying backward. The man collapsed limply, the word "KO" practically written in the air above him.
"I thought he might lack real combat experience, but I figured he could at least serve as a training dummy. Apparently not even that."
"A training dummy..."
She had wondered why he bothered accepting the provocation, but it seemed he had wanted to demonstrate something through the fight. "More importantly, could you press the emergency bell over there?"
"Ah, got it."
Before long, the man was carried out on a stretcher by the medics who arrived. Now, Mina and Seok-jun stood facing each other inside a fence farther away from the previous spot.
"Do you know what type of mana the man who was just taken away had?"
"That guy? Wasn't it reinforcement-type?"
At least, that was what it had looked like, given how focused he seemed on physical training. "It was telekinesis-type."
"How did you..."
"When I first saw him training, he was moving objects without moving his body."
Telekinesis was a fairly common manifestation among awakened, so it had been easy to identify. Still, his well-trained physique had made him seem like a good example for her. That was why he had accepted the provocation when it came. "As you saw, he was useless."
"What exactly were you trying to show me?"
"When facing another awakened or hunter, what do you think is most important, Mina?"
Mina pondered his question but couldn't come up with anything. "Umm, I don't know."
"For example, when you face a monster, what do you consider first?"
When she didn't seem to know the answer, he continued, prompting her to recall her past encounters with monsters. "How they attack, or where their weak points are. Something like that?"
There were plenty of other details too—gate ecology, how to respond based on a monster's intelligence, and so on. "What do you think those things have in common?"
"In common... information?"
Monsters came in countless varieties with countless countermeasures, and without the right approach, they were often impossible to kill. "It's the same with people."
"Ah! Is it because of mana?"
"Yes. Every person's mana is different."
Some, like the man from earlier, were easy to identify at a glance. Others, like Suji's, were complicated and troublesome, requiring specific conditions. "If you don't know what kind of mana your opponent has, it's the same as not knowing what weapon they're using."
Therefore, in battles between awakened, the top priority was figuring out what kind of mana the opponent possessed. "The basics are drawing out your opponent's full strength with minimal effort, but there are plenty of people who just charge in blindly like that guy."
"Hahaha."
Even the medics had been surprised when they arrived, asking if the man had really passed out. "So rather than facing someone else, it would be better for you to experience it directly, Mina."
"Directly?"
"You and I are going to fight."
"Whaaat!?"
Mina stared at him in shock, but he looked back at her calmly, as if he meant every word. "Um, you're not going to use weapons?"
"I can't exactly shoot an MPB at you, can I?"
"R-right?"
MPBs were clearly lethal weapons, so he had no choice. While talking with him, Mina tensed up and created a rapier from her mana, gripping it tightly. Seok-jun's mana was the nullification type called Rule Zero. If it so much as touched her, she wouldn't be able to create weapons, and her physical abilities would drop to ordinary human levels. She had already seen him fight A-rank hunters and even S-rank monsters, so there was no room for carelessness.
"We'll begin now."
"Okay!"
But having watched him fight before, she did know one thing. First, below!
As expected, plants sprouted right in front of her feet and grew rapidly into ropes that shot toward her ankles. She had seen him use his mana to emerge from the ground like this multiple times. "Your intention wasn't bad."
"Huh!?"
But the next moment, she was startled to find Seok-jun right in front of her face. She tried to swing her rapier, but his hand had already wrapped around hers, pinning it in place. "If you get too tense, your intentions become obvious."
"Eek!"
Then the world flipped upside down in an instant. And so, with her rapier taken away, Mina found herself dangling upside down near the fence. "Ugh, let me down now. Kyaa?!"
She was startled when the ropes suddenly vanished and she began to fall, but Seok-jun caught her first. "Augh, aren't you being a little too merciless?"
"I don't particularly enjoy taking it slow during training."
"Was that a matter of preference?!"