Taming Unconscious Strength
After finishing his spar with Mina, Seokjun pulled out a whiteboard and began to draw. "First, I'll explain exactly how I subdued you, Ms. Mina."
What he sketched first was Mina's sneakers and the rope springing up in front of them. "Wow, you're really good at drawing."
"I once dreamed of becoming a painter."
She nodded, convinced. Even though the drawing was fairly rough, the scene was instantly clear. "Getting back to the main point, you must have known I fight like this, Ms. Mina."
"Right?"
It was a shame she couldn't ask more questions, but she focused on his continuing explanation. "Anticipating that, I generated the rope not beneath your feet but right in front of you. What did you do then?"
"I stepped backward, didn't I?"
She had known that if her feet were caught by his rope, her magic power would vanish and she'd be completely immobilized. Yet even with that knowledge, she had somehow ended up caught by Seokjun, who had closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
"So why do you think I still managed to catch up to you?"
"That..."
Mina closed her eyes for a moment and replayed the scene in her mind. She had definitely tried to retreat while avoiding the rope, keeping her rapier forward to check his advance. But he had come at her far faster than expected and was suddenly right in front of her.
She had felt it many times while spending time with Seokjun, but his raw strength was formidable compared to an ordinary person. The hunter who had picked a fight with him had been a hulking, muscular man whose rank she couldn't determine, yet Seokjun had taken him down with ease. Still, it was true that he fell short of an A-rank hunter who could freely reinforce their body. That was why Mina had assumed he wouldn't be able to catch her, yet he had.
That could only mean Seokjun's magic power had already nullified hers. Since she had specifically stepped back to prevent exactly that, it was all the more confusing.
"Ah!"
Mina suddenly recalled the brushing sensation against her calf when she had retreated. "Was there already a rope behind me?"
"Correct."
He drew a rope hanging loosely in a loose semicircle on the ground behind her legs. "After confirming you couldn't control your physical abilities, I installed it separately so that even if you touched it, it would slacken easily."
"So that's why I didn't realize I'd made contact."
"If the rope had been tightly secured, you would have noticed right away, but that would have injured you severely."
A shiver ran down her spine at his words. The force behind her retreat had been that of an A-rank hunter's physical ability, but the instant she touched his rope she would have been reduced to an ordinary person's body. If that had truly happened, the outcome would have been anything but pleasant, no matter how she looked at it.
Another realization followed. "Then when you grabbed my hand or held onto me..."
"I was also demonstrating how a person subdues an armed opponent. That was part of it."
Even after losing momentum to the rope, she had been on course to slam into the fence. By catching her and shifting the rope, he had prevented the collision. "If you had controlled your strength properly, Ms. Mina, it should have ended with a single step backward."
"Ugh, you're right."
She had only lightly kicked off the ground to retreat, yet when she regained her senses she had flown far enough backward to reach the fence. "It's only natural. You lack real combat experience."
"But I've never even considered using magic power on another person."
Using magic power against someone was essentially the same as declaring an intent to attack them. Besides, Mina's magic power created swords, making it even more threatening to people.
Seokjun shook his head. "That's true, but since becoming an A-rank hunter, doesn't it feel like your body isn't obeying you the way it should?"
"...It does."
Mina thought she understood what he was getting at. Even during her time at Hanshin, her memories and experience were overwhelmingly tied to office work rather than hunter duties. At Hanshin, B-rank hunters weren't treated as combatants. It had actually been easier to move freely back when she attended university and cleared gates as a B-rank.
"Right now, Ms. Mina, you're like a child whose strength has suddenly become overwhelming."
"Am I really that hopeless?"
She had felt dissatisfied with how awkward her movements seemed, but hearing it described that way made her embarrassed.
"It's not something to feel discouraged about. Do you remember fighting the Strong King?"
"I remember it clearly."
There was no way she could forget that incident easily. Even after awakening and becoming a hunter, that had been the first time she poured out her full power until her magic ran completely dry in such a short span.
"Back then, your magic power distribution, pace control, and usage were remarkably precise."
Mina knew she had moved more freely in that moment than at any other time. "But that was all thanks to you, Mr. Seokjun."
If he hadn't accurately measured the volume of her magic power and the strength it could produce, then built a meticulous plan around that, she doubted she could have fought with everything she had even now.
"Even so, the fact that you understood my instructions and carried them out exactly was due to your own sense, Ms. Mina."
Even when told such things, it was rare for hunters to immediately adjust their magic power output to the exact amount required.
"In truth, this is something you could have learned naturally by using a lot of magic power."
"There were... quite a few things going on."
Listening to him, the cause became obvious. While other A-rank hunters naturally grew skilled at distributing and controlling their magic power through frequent gate clears, Mina had almost no opportunities to do so. She couldn't say she had never used magic power at all, but when compared to hunters who relied on it constantly inside gates, her proficiency was inevitably lower.
"Knowing how to handle people is important, but fundamentally you must be able to apply your power at the right place and time."
She could readily agree with his statement, but the real issue was how to achieve it. "Should I start roaming around clearing gates again?"
"That's not feasible."
Mina agreed with Seokjun's decisive tone. Gates did not appear simply because someone wished for them, any more than magic power did. A detector could alert you to their appearance, but that was all.
"You'd have to account for wandering aimlessly for at least two months."
Gates appeared at unpredictable intervals, sometimes simultaneously in multiple locations, sometimes with long stretches of silence. Their timing and location could never be confirmed in advance.
"Ahaha, that's why people often joke that I'm practically a nomad."
It wasn't entirely a joke. Plenty of hunters lived out of their cars, much like the car-poor who made vehicles their homes, traveling from gate to gate. She knew it was mostly B-rank hunters who lived that way, but many A-rank hunters who hadn't joined major guilds did the same.
"Then how should I train?"
The question was how to raise her magic proficiency without clearing gates. "Didn't you already mention the Strong King incident?"
"Ah! That's right!"
Since Seokjun could measure her magic power volume precisely, he would be able to determine exactly how much she needed to use.
What he brought from the corner of the fenced area was a sandbag. "First, it's important to understand how much of your physical ability your magic power can draw out."
She had found it odd that the green fence reached all the way to the ceiling, but it seemed it was meant for hanging the sandbag. "Start by hitting the sandbag lightly."
"How much force would be appropriate?"
"How much strength did you usually use when swinging your sword at monsters?"
"Um, I don't remember consciously adjusting it."
Since they were monsters, and any hesitation might get her killed, she had always cut them down without mercy. "Imagine you're swinging your sword at the sandbag now and strike it."
Mina took a deep breath and recalled the times she had slain monsters. If she thought about recent cuts...
"Now that I think about it, the strength I used each time I cut a monster down was different."
Recalling the Strong King, the Freeze Golem, the Cursed Hornet, the Frenzy Bison, and the goblins one by one, she realized she had unconsciously adjusted her power according to each monster's strength and size.
"That's actually a good sign. What matters for you, Ms. Mina, is bringing that unconscious domain into the conscious realm."
"The conscious realm..."
"For now, the Cursed Hornet fight seems most suitable."
"Understood."
It had been nearly two months, so the memory should have grown faint, but perhaps because of everything that had happened since meeting Seokjun, the events of that day remained vividly clear.
Thinking of that massive wasp, she punched the sandbag.
-BAAAANG!
THUD!
The sandbag erupted with a deafening noise, shaking the ceiling it hung from as it flew to the opposite side before swinging back and swaying violently. The explosive sound that literally reverberated through the entire gym like a bomb going off caused everyone training inside to freeze. A heavy silence fell.
"What was that sound?"
"What the hell?"
"What is that noise?"
"Did a bomb just go off?"
The voices that followed were searching for the source. People nearby had already figured out the cause and were staring in her direction.
"It seems the increase in your total magic power was the problem after all."
Her total strength had reached A-rank levels, yet she was still operating her magic power the way she had as a B-rank. That was why she couldn't control her force. Seokjun assessed her power calmly, but...
"S-Seokjuuuun..."
The sandbag that had taken her punch looked intact for a moment before belatedly tearing in half from the middle, spilling its filling everywhere. There was no mistaking who had caused that sound.