Swordsmanship Training # 2
Swordsmanship Training # 2
I focused on the lesson.
"The Void Princess possesses a truly terrifying ability. She can create gates. Dozens, sometimes hundreds of them, unleashing monsters en masse."
Ooh.
"Where those monsters come from is unknown... At any rate, that is her most infamous ability, but there is something even more frightening. It is her second phase, where she retreats to the far rear and unleashes a barrage of devastating long-range magic. That, in truth, is the most terrifying part."
Long-range too?
"Positioned at the very rear, the Void Princess laughs madly and destroys everything. Most of her attacks are area-of-effect. Even if you try to intercept her... she can teleport freely, making her exceedingly difficult to catch."
"Hmm."
I'm getting the gist.
Basically, she's a summoner who not only lets monsters run absolutely rampant, but also deals insane area-of-effect nuke damage from super-long range at the back. And on top of that, this bastard uses teleportation freely, denying any approach.
That.
Does VP have a conscience?
"Totally broken."
"That's why she's an S-rank monsterkin."
Exactly how strong are these S-rank bastards?
"No, but, how do you even catch something like that? If one shows up, doesn't the whole city just get annihilated, end of story?"
"That sounds like a question you could ask Cadet Ryu Cheon-hwi behind you."
"Huh?"
"Cadet Ryu Cheon-hwi's father was the chairman of the Ryuseong Group, was he not? I understand he played a major role alongside Sovereign Commander Kim Ik-su during the defense against the Void Princess."
Seriously?
—Swiik.
I immediately turned around to look at Ryu Cheon-hwi.
"Heh."
Arms crossed, the guy smirked.
This bastard... he acts aloof, but he absolutely loves this stuff. He's the type who enjoys hearing praise about anything related to himself.
"Is that true? Ryu Cheon-hwi?"
"Since you lack even common sense, I shall explain specially for you: it is the truth. The father you insulted... is a great man who practically saved Korea. Do you understand now? You insulted such a father."
"Bullshit. You started it."
"You little—!"
Hey. Great man or whatever, if you screw up raising your kid, you get insulted.
"Anyway. Even such an S-rank monsterkin has a weakness."
"Ohh! What is it! So humanity did have an answer after all!"
As I listened, the story got so interesting I got absorbed right away. They're not going to pull out nukes, are they? If you're fighting to protect a city, using nukes means total disaster. That defeats the purpose.
"The Void Princess's weakness is... precisely that displaying such overwhelming combat power causes her to run out of energy quickly."
"Run out?"
"Once her energy is exhausted, she retreats. And she doesn't reappear for a while."
What the hell.
"So we just get pummeled until it's over?"
"Not exactly."
At that, Instructor Maikes smiled and explained.
So, apparently, the key is to just have S-rank Awakened who can move or charge at high speed push her relentlessly. If you just charge in with the single-minded intent of sticking to her no matter what, she soon runs out of energy from spamming teleports and magic and then leaves.
"Sounds super easy?"
"Easy is... not the word I'd use. Without those S-rank Awakened, the monsters that pour out become a serious problem. Still, Void Princess forces you into a binary choice simply by appearing."
So she was just a pain-in-the-ass bitch.
Fan club membership canceled.
"At any rate, she appeared sporadically like that, then at some point stopped showing up. Ah, the last time she was observed was 16 years ago in Seongnam. She caused a terrorist attack at a research lab there and vanished without a trace."
"Hmm."
Her last known appearance was 16 years ago.
But she committed a terrorist attack at a research lab?
What was in there?
"At the time, many heroes, hunters, and civilians lost their lives... It was a truly tragic event. Now, let's take a look at some footage from that period."
—Click.
A video started playing immediately.
—BOOM!
—CRASH!
—KUUUWWWWOOOOOO!
The atmosphere was sheer chaos, like a total madhouse. Swarms of mid-sized monsters roared as they destroyed buildings, and over there, what looked like some kind of aircraft was flying around. The camera zoomed in, and I could make it out.
It was the Void Princess, flying at high speed.
The screen switched.
—Ahahahahahaha! Do you think you can kill me with something like that? You'll never catch me unless you move faster!
This was someone's action cam footage. They were endlessly chasing her, but VP just kept running, leaving behind mocking laughter.
Insane game of tag.
Anyway, I watched the video with interest. She definitely had a big chest. An overwhelming amount of bounce. Well, this makes me have no choice but to become a fan again. Kidding, of course. The hell with this terrorist bitch.
—Click.
Playback ended.
"All right, then. So now we know just how diverse the world of monsterkin truly is."
—Scratch scratch.
Having said that, Instructor Maikes then had us take notes while he explained the types and power structures of monsterkin appearing in Korea, their technological capabilities, threat levels, history, known intelligence, weaknesses, and countermeasures.
Since monsterkin are a species we heroes fight face-to-face for real, drilling this information into our heads was truly essential. It's knowledge meant for direct field application, so to speak.
They all seriously do look like aliens, though.
"But what the hell are those guys?"
Some monsterkin with ant-like heads were wearing communist t-shirts and holding AKs? They were so terrifying I couldn't bear it, so I wrote them down and trapped them inside my notebook.
"Take proper notes, as this will definitely be on the midterm."
"Yes, sir."
* * *
"Ahh man, lunchtime! Lunchtime! Si-hoo! Let's hit the buffet today!"
"Oof... buffet today?"
—Tap tap.
Si-hoo stood up and stretched, tapping his shoulders as he spoke with half-lidded eyes.
"You gotta go on Monday. If you don't charge up on Monday, you can't survive the whole week."
"Then shall we hit the buffet? Oh, but Geun-cheol."
"Hm?"
"I noticed you couldn't take your eyes off that picture of the Void Princess."
"Oh, that."
I recalled it again.
"It was massive."
"Huh?"
"Her chest."
"What?! Geun-cheol!? What are you saying!"
Why's he reacting so sensitively?
"What? Why?"
"Geun-cheol."
Suddenly, Si-hoo narrowed his eyes, looked at me, and spoke in a low voice.
"Is that your kind of thing, maybe?"
"No, what the hell are you talking about?"
'That kind of thing'?
Any guy likes a big chest. Period.
"Type or whatever, how could you dislike a chest that huge?"
"Uh, uhh?"
"Aren't you the same, Si-hoo? Of course you'd like it. All guys do. The bigger, the better. The bigger, the better."
I said that.
"Heh... heheheh. Yeah. Everyone likes it. Yeah. True."
Si-hoo, who had shifted demeanor again, answered with a chuckle. See? This guy was definitely thinking about big tits in his head. That's why the laugh came right out.
"Yeah. I like them too."
Even a confident smile.
"Yeah. This guy knows what's up. The bigger, the better. Bigger is better."
"Bigger is better... Oh. But Geun-cheol. The Void Princess is a monsterkin."
"Yeah, she's a monsterkin. I'm just saying her chest is my type, not that I actually like her."
Though it's a fact she was pretty.
"And 16 years ago, that thing happened... maybe."
"Hm?"
"Oh. Never mind. Geun-cheol. Let's go eat."
"Let's go eeeat!"
Just thinking about going to the buffet already had a stupid grin spreading across my face. What should I eat today? Last time I went with a Chinese food concept, so maybe I'll try a Japanese concept this time?
As I was about to go.
—Click clack.
"Kim Geun-cheol. Going to eat now?"
Leona approached with her arms crossed, expressionless, and called out to me.
"Yeah. Leona. Time to eat now. Want to come with?"
"I have company. Anyway, well... it, it's about that, right?"
"About what?"
"The Void Princess terrorist incident... *sob*! Never mind! Go enjoy your meal...!"
Suddenly, Leona cried out as if wailing, then went pattering off at a run.
What the hell was that? Why does Leona always look at me with pity and act like she's about to cry?
"Si-hoo. What's up with that?"
"Ah... never mind. More importantly, Geun-cheol? What exactly happened with Leona over the weekend?"
"Well, about that. Over the weekend, I called her to brag about my sword aura..."
As I headed to the buffet with Si-hoo, I told him what happened. The Fire Tribe story. Si-hoo grumbled, asking why I didn't call him, but I definitely did go to his room to get him, didn't I?
"Hey, man. I knocked on your door and shouted your name and you didn't answer, so how could I call you?"
"Huh?"
"What were you even doing then? Sleeping?"
"Ah, ah! That's right! I think that was exactly when I had fallen asleep!"
"See. Told you."
He was asleep, but who's he blaming?
"Alright then, buffet entry!"
We entered the wide-open interior of the buffet.
—Bam.
At the same time, the overwhelming scent hit us.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the protagonist and absolute monster of that horrific crime novel, perceived everything around him only through scent. For him, with only his sense of smell developed to an extreme, the entire world was fragrance. And so, he could grasp all things through his nose.
That's exactly what I'm doing now.
"Smell."
The fragrance.
The scent of food seeps into my nostrils and is absorbed into me. And then, within me, it all forms into clear shapes and materializes...!
"Si-hoo! Japanese food! Today's Japanese!"
"Geun-cheol, I want tonkatsu!"
"Tonkatsu?! Are you an elementary kid getting his tonsils out or what! Let's eat Japanese!"
"Why do we have to match menus!"
I immediately grabbed Si-hoo's wrist and dragged him toward the Japanese section. But the moment we arrived, I couldn't help being shocked!
"Holy fucking shit!"
The chef handed me a treasure box!
"They're giving out eel bento! Is this real life! And what's with that tempura next to it! It's a feast, a feast! Si-hoo, it's a feast!"
"Geun-cheol, please, keep it down...!"
"Keep it down? Are you disrespecting the people who made this food right now?"
"Please!"
"Okay, okay. Let's get our food fast and go. Oh, they have tonkatsu here too."
"Ah. Japanese cuisine does have tonkatsu."
Enjoying the joy to the fullest like that, we picked the menus we liked, loaded up, and headed to a table.
"Wow. I seriously come to school just to eat."
"Hehehe. Geun-cheol. Are you that happy?"
"Of course I'm happy. The two of us Real Men Crew eating Japanese food together—how could I not be?"
"That's true."
Si-hoo looked satisfied too.
"Hey. Si-hoo. So what's next period?"
"Probably that sparring thing?"
"Sparring?"
"Yeah. That's what I heard. We put on protective gear and spar with each other so they can assess our skills."
"Sparring, huh... But do heroes who hunt monsters really need to spar with other people?"
"Geun-cheol. There are monsterkin out there with limbs just like humans. And villains are basically superhuman criminals. Sparring is important."
Ah. Right.
"Sigh... Si-hoo. I'm seriously worried about this."
"About what?"
"I'm worried I'm too strong, and I'll hurt my sparring partner."
"Pfft! P-please! Please, Geun-cheol! Don't make me laugh while I'm eating!"
I'm serious.
Because my 'talent' should be at that level.