Reading the Tell
Fast and precise.
That much was fine.
“Where you aim is plain as day, so speed means little.”
Every attack came in a straight line.
Like a fastball stubbornly aimed dead down the middle in baseball.
When the target was that obvious, the advantage of raw speed faded away.
“Can’t I just thrust so fast that even knowing where it’s going doesn’t help?”
“Even a supersonic strike could never deceive my eyes.”
Her tone left no room for doubt.
Yeondu looked faintly irritated as she raised her sword again.
“Hmm. Then, my lord, why not demonstrate for us yourself?”
Who, me?
“Mister, you’re a necromancer.”
“And at the same time, a disciple who learned my sword.”
“You iron-headed fool! Who dares claim to be your disciple?!”
“Th-this humble one also taught the great master a few techniques, sir.”
“Thief, shut your mouth.”
“Yeah. Know when to butt in.”
“Sorry, sir!”
I pretended not to hear the summons’ chatter and stepped up into the ring.
“Are you sure this is okay, Mister?”
“Sir Isra isn’t the type to make empty boasts.”
“Ugh. Whatever. Sparring with a total klutz…”
That was fair.
Yeondu knew exactly how catastrophic my athletic sense used to be.
That flat reaction of hers made perfect sense.
“Then begin.”
“I’m really doing this!”
Yeondu shouted as if trying to shake off her own unease.
Don’t worry.
I hadn’t climbed into the ring just because I trusted Sir Isra’s word.
Watching her move in the earlier sparring had given me the feeling I could handle it.
The instant Yeondu’s right foot twitched—
Blue particles streamed from her entire body.
The telltale sign of Acceleration.
I kept both eyes wide open and took in every detail of her movement at once.
The twist of her legs.
The angle of her arms.
Even before she triggered the skill, she was already feeding me a wealth of information about where she intended to strike.
Acceleration
Clang!
My shoulder went numb.
The force of a sword strike boosted by Acceleration.
Even catching it with the Imperial Sword Style, I couldn’t fully disperse the impact.
Still—
I had enough left for a counter.
Imperial Sword Style — Form 2
A flowing chain of strikes.
Clang— the practice blade lightly scraped Yeondu’s protective gear.
“Oh-ho. Your reflexes are quite respectable.”
Yeah.
The moment I countered, she immediately used Acceleration again and leapt back.
If her reaction had been even a tenth of a second slower, it would have been a clean hit.
“Mister! How did you do that?!”
“You mean the counter?”
“No, no! My attack! How did you block it?!”
“Sir Isra already told you. When you can see exactly where someone’s aiming, why wouldn’t you be able to stop it?”
“If it were that easy, every dog and cow would be blocking it!”
Apparently even B-rank hunters in Mir Guild had struggled to stop that same attack.
Hmm.
They just take hits from something this obvious?
The future of one of the nation’s top three guilds looked truly bleak. Bleak indeed.
“Yeondu takes a distinctive stance before she swings or charges.”
“A stance?”
“She lightly steps her right foot forward.”
“Ah.”
“Once you know that, you can read the timing of the attack and where she intends to strike.”
“How do you get the timing just from that?”
“The movement of bone and muscle makes it plain to see.”
Yeondu gave me a look that screamed How is that even possible?
Yeah.
It just works.
“Don’t tell me you blocked it the same way, Mister?”
“Yep.”
“Liar. That doesn’t make any sense.”
It’s all the Heavenly Martial Body, baby.
Heh heh heh!
“So what’s the solution?”
“If you control your body while Acceleration is already active, your movements will no longer be readable.”
“That sounds like those ‘anyone can master coding after reading a book for an hour’ stories.”
Yeondu’s lips jutted out in a pout.
“Well, with your sense, I expect you’ll master the control soon enough.”
“Really?”
“If my lord permits it, I would like to include Yeondu in the support team’s training sessions.”
“I’d love that! Please let me join!”
Yeondu’s eyes sparkled like stars.
How was I supposed to refuse a look like that?
“I’m fine with it. As long as Mir Guild doesn’t find out.”
“Really? You’ll let me train with you guys?”
“If they catch wind of it there’ll be hell to pay, so behave yourself.”
“Yay! Thanks, Mister!”
Hmm.
Maybe I should have made dropping the “Mister” a condition.
“Then we resume training.”
Sir Isra’s tone shifted completely.
“From this moment on, I will treat you not as my lord’s acquaintance, but as one more trainee.”
“Ah… ahaha…”
“Raise your sword. We still have plenty of time.”
Faced with Sir Isra’s sudden change in atmosphere, Yeondu took a step back.
“I kind of want to back out now…”
“You can come in whenever you like, but leaving is another story.”
Sir Isra’s training was pretty brutal, after all.
Hang in there.
Fighting.
An hour of nonstop training later.
“Hah… hah…”
Yeondu lay sprawled flat on the ring.
Drenched in sweat, she somehow didn’t look unfamiliar at all.
“I thought we were just warming up, and now it’s over.”
“That was a warm-up?”
“Indeed.”
“Hah… About that training offer… can I still back out?”
“You volunteered for the training yourself. Withdrawal is not permitted.”
Of course not.
You can’t take back a voluntary enlistment.
This is the training you chose. Grit your teeth and endure it with sheer spite if you have to.
“Could you maybe consider the position of the guy who got dragged into unscheduled training?”
“Haaah… Why are you fine, Mister?”
“I’ve gotten somewhat used to it.”
Sir Isra’s training style was the kind that pushed you right to the absolute limit.
If you didn’t wring every last scrap of oxygen from your lungs, you simply couldn’t last.
More precisely—
I could endure it only because Sir Isra had also taught me how to breathe properly.
“Haha. She will make an excellent rival for you.”
“Me and Yeondu?”
“Precisely. The talents of the support team do not quite measure up to hers.”
She just casually threw shade without batting an eye.
After finishing my shower, I stepped out.
“Hunter Park Minho! Please come again next time!”
The owner bowed a full ninety degrees.
He even got an autograph as a bonus.
“Wow. You’re a real celebrity now, Mister!”
“Hohoho. It is only natural that people look up to Master.”
Your reactions are only making me more embarrassed.
It hadn’t been a complete waste of time, though.
Reading Yeondu’s movements while she was accelerated by Acceleration had sharpened my full-body senses even further.
That must have been why Sir Isra had called me up into the ring in the first place.
Not bad.
No—
Honestly, it exceeded my expectations.
Receiving Yeondu’s first attack and immediately flowing into Form 2 for the counter—my arms and legs had moved naturally, without conscious thought.
It felt like the sword style had finally settled into my body.
“Okay, Mister. I’m heading out.”
“Sure.”
“Don’t stay out too late.”
“Why are you nagging me about something even my aunt doesn’t bother with?”
“Because I feel like it. Hmph.”
“And I’ll probably be a bit late tonight.”
Restoring the undead I’d lost fighting Turang was going to take several days.
Sigh.
Times like this, I envied those necromancers who could raise dozens of undead with a single spell.
Since I’d done unscheduled training, I needed to move a little faster.
“Hunter Market, please.”
I took a taxi straight to the Hunter Market and started looking for materials needed to craft undead.
“It’s the Guui-dong Necromancer!”
“Is he really A-rank level?”
“A C-rank? No way.”
“The Rift Authority wouldn’t put out an obvious lie.”
“The bodycam footage showed his undead combat power was insane.”
“But he’s a mage who also uses stealth and a sword? What’s going on with that?”
Murmur murmur—
I can hear all of you, you know.
“It is pleasing to see them praise my lord’s greatness.”
“This level of praise is still insufficient. When they realize Master has arrived, they ought to roll out a red carpet at the very least.”
Ingrid sidled up beside me.
Hey now.
Men and women should keep proper distance after the age of seven.
Skin contact is something reserved for lovers.
I subtly shifted away, and Ingrid shot me a sulky sidelong glance.
“Gah!!!!”
“Eek! You startled me.”
“Mage. Do not try anything.”
“Hmph. I was merely trying to support Master.”
“My lord is perfectly fine.”
“Someone worked him so hard that he looks exhausted.”
“Khh…!”
“Great Master, I’m so jealous!”
What exactly are you jealous of?
I let the summons’ chatter go in one ear and out the other as I wandered the Hunter Market.
“Huh?”
◈ Soul stone fragment used as a catalyst for undead enhancement
Wasn’t that a bound item?
How is it even for sale?
“Occasionally, when item enhancement fails, the binding is released.”
The shopkeeper kindly explained.
Apparently the only penalty for failed enhancement was a slight drop in the item’s durability.
Price per piece: fifty million won.
“That’s a bit expensive.”
“Gambling’s always like that.”
Chance of a Rare-grade result: 1%.
Magic-grade: 60%.
Common sense said that with that kind of money you’d be better off just buying a few Magic-grade items you actually needed.
But—
My case was different.
This was actually perfect.
“How many do you have?”
“Twenty-four.”
“I’ll take all of them.”
Soul stone fragments that acted as catalysts for undead enhancement.
Since warrior-type and mage-type undead each needed matching fragments, the success rate wasn’t a clean 100%.
Still, it was far higher than simply smearing the stuff onto their weapons.
An item I’d often picked up in the Challenging Realm.
Running D-rank gates now would be a waste of time, and with my rank raised I couldn’t even enter them anymore.
Crafting undead with these unbound soul stone fragments would give my forces a major boost.
Over a billion won vanished in an instant, yet I barely felt a thing.
A hundred thousand won in rent felt painful, but melting ten billion into undead crafting materials barely registered.
My sense of money had definitely gone weird.
Tsk.
Powerful Moss, Owlbeast bones, Runic Bear bones, garments steeped in lingering grudge, and more.
Buying the necessary materials in bulk burned another eight hundred million.
Nearly two billion gone in a single day.
Earning money was this hard, yet spending it was instant.
“I’ll take some with me now. Please send the rest to my address.”
“Yes, sir! Thank you!”
Shipping would take time, so I stuffed as much of today’s work materials as possible into the Death Space and subspace carrier.
“There are materials I have not seen before.”
“I’m going to make some new ones too.”
Just restoring the forces I’d lost would be boring.
Since I’d already blown a big chunk of capital, I might as well prepare properly for next time.
If I ever found myself in the same situation again, I wanted to win completely.
Turang, was it?
Fighting those Chinese hunters had given me a lot to think about.
Without my stealth skill, there was a real chance I would have lost after a war of attrition.
I was done with walking tightropes.
Overwhelming victory!
To crush the opponent flat, I needed to strengthen my own forces as soon as possible.
Winning without even lifting a finger—that was the only thing that would satisfy me.
“Haa.”
Looks like all-nighters are locked in for a while.