What Changes and What Doesn't (2)
The four of them emerged from the Ant Nest just two and a half hours after entering.
Outside, the sun still hung high in the sky.
Well, well. S-Class, all right. They really were fast.
"Shall we head back, then?"
"Sounds good."
Jeanne hugged the two doll bodies tightly to her chest and followed behind Lee Jun. Siara dangled along without a care in the world, while Timothy looked to be deep in thought—his head, apparently, still tangled up over the rewards on the third floor.
"The trip back should be comfortable enough."
No camouflage cloak this time. At this point, it didn't matter whether people swarmed them or not. They only needed to make sure no one was lurking near the building before slipping out.
"Um, Oppa?"
"Yeah?"
Lee Jun, on the verge of stepping outside, stopped at Jeanne's call. She stood rooted in place, the dolls still cradled in her arms.
"Jeanne?"
"I think you should use the camouflage cloak."
"Ah, I don't think it's necessary here—"
"I think you should use it. You never know."
"Er… fine."
Jeanne sounded oddly firm about it. Well… there was no harm in being careful. He'd do exactly as she said.
"Here, hold on to me."
"Yes."
With a soft flutter, Lee Jun spread out the camouflage cloak and slipped out of the abandoned building with Jeanne in tow.
"Hmmmmmm…."
"…?"
Siara's gaze felt oddly prickling on his back.
The four of them soon reached the site of Taesan's joint training. In the distance, Seo Yoon and Choi Jeong-hyeon were visible, hunting monsters in smooth rhythm with Kang Tae-san's commands.
Definitely not D-Class ability. Not even close.
Her position was that of a warrior who could fluidly fill a tank's role as well. Her fighting style—one hand on a shield, the other on a sword—made that role plain. And for mobility's sake, she didn't wield anything oversized either. Just big enough to cover her entire upper body.
She blocks well even with a shield that size.
Shields, as a rule, got easier to block with the bigger and thicker they were—that was how you distributed the impact of a blow. Which meant, conversely, the smaller the shield, the greater the burden on the user. Harder to hold the line, in other words. The only reason she could manage it was that Choi Jeong-hyeon's stats were solidly respectable.
Excluding fixed stats, a total of 269. Seo Yoon had entered at a combined 291 as a B-Class hunter, so this was genuinely decent. Enough to carry her at least from upper C-Class into the tail end of B-Class. If nothing had gone wrong at the Talent Stone test, she would already have earned her promotion.
Looks like she's adapted well to the prosthetic arm, too. No need to worry too much.
And next was Seo Yoon. She had improved dramatically since her first training session with Lee Jun. Her stamina, especially. All that grueling early training focused purely on endurance seemed to have paid off.
"The frontline hunters really are impressive."
"You think so too?"
"Yes. Siara probably understands the body better than I do, but from what I can see, they're remarkable."
"Then that's the truth of it. You've got a good eye."
Jeanne had always had a talent for analysis. Even without taking the field like Lee Jun did, she could earn her keep through analysis alone. And on top of that, she shone in combat—truly a gifted talent.
"You think so?"
"I do."
"I see."
At Lee Jun's praise, Jeanne seemed mildly pleased. Not enough to be obvious, but there was a faint reaction there.
She really has changed. I don't know what brought it on… but thank goodness.
"Shall we crash their party, then?"
"Us too? Won't that cause a commotion?"
"Think of it as fan service. Everyone seemed pretty fond of you."
Kang Tae-san was putting the two through their paces, so it was only fair to return the favor from this side. Simply watching Jeanne fight would broaden anyone's tactical horizons.
"Let's start with… that ogre over there."
It was the monster Park Heon-woo and several other hunters were grappling with. Typical Kang Tae-san—he'd driven the hunters right to their limits. They didn't look in danger of injury yet, but their focus would shatter before long. Kang Tae-san looked about to step in, so they'd go in first.
With a smooth lift of the camouflage cloak, Lee Jun sent a signal toward Kang Tae-san. The man spotted him, exhaled through his nose, and stopped where he stood. Go on then, show me.
Lee Jun raised a single pistol in his right hand and took aim at the ogre.
{Did you pick that one because of the debt from before?}
…That was part of it.
{Hehe, more sensitive about owing money than I expected?}
Living in debt is just uncomfortable, that's all.
BANG—
The ogre's head lurched forward once. Good grief, that thing was solid. One ordinary magic round wasn't going to do it, apparently.
"Jeanne. Ready?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
As Jeanne answered, Lee Jun swept the camouflage cloak aside.
"An ogre's old hat by now. Let's go with Protocol 3."
"Protocol 3? Standard ogre response, big-fist ogre response, or black rock ogre?"
"Look at you, cracking jokes and everything."
"I just felt like it."
Protocol 3 in Lee Jun's stingy manuals was always the same. Protocol 1 was the textbook approach; Protocol 2 aimed at exploiting variables. And Protocol 3 was a strategy he'd added so the other Arcana members could fight without him. You know what 3 is. It basically meant: handle it yourselves, whatever's fine. They were hardly the type to struggle against ordinary monsters anyway, so the number was slapped on out of laziness.
BANG—
With Lee Jun's shot as the signal, Jeanne deployed her skills with practiced ease. She, too, had trained up a repertoire of skills precisely to avoid relying on her unique ability. Unlike Lee Jun, who couldn't use mana at all, Jeanne—bound by the Triplets Paradox—could still use skills.
Her output's climbed even higher than before.
Once, her power had been barely functional. Now it outstripped A-Class. Not the flashy skill sets befitting an S-Class, but more than enough firepower to shore up her weaknesses. A practical skill composition, rapid judgment, and… the presence of Siara and Timothy right beside her. There was no longer a single gap in Jeanne's game, from monster combat all the way to fighting people.
To think they planned a terror attack against someone like this.
Liberation struck him as even more idiotic the more he thought about it. No—was it brave? Either way, they were certainly fools.
"Not going to fight?"
"What—when did you get here?"
"What do you mean, 'when.' I was over there the whole time."
Kang Tae-san had somehow appeared right beside him, watching Jeanne's battle alongside Lee Jun.
"Mighty impressive."
"Right? And that's without using her unique ability, mind you."
"Tch. You sound like a doting parent bragging about their kid."
Kang Tae-san clicked his tongue at this unfamiliar side of Lee Jun. But in doing so, one question resolved itself: Lee Jun's former comrades—and what they meant to him.
"Still, I'm glad. You look well."
"About what?"
"You used to never run with a party, you know. Don't know what wind blew through you, but starting a company, training successors, even coming out hunting together like this—it's fresh, is all."
"…Well, I needed time too."
Given enough time, people go numb. Ten years had passed, and then he'd come back. After that much… grief should wear itself down until you can't feel it anymore. There were still things he flinched away from, even now. But he seemed, at least, a little better.
{Honestly, I can't even imagine what you used to be like….}
Silhouette was curious, but she couldn't so much as mention the words "previous timeline"—not with Jeanne over there with her ears practically perked. Better to suppress the urge to peek at his memories too, just in case. She could look later, on her own time.
{Hmph. And it's all because of her, of course.}
Whoosh—
Jeanne, mid-battle with the ogre, suddenly glanced back. She stared at Lee Jun for a few seconds in that position, then returned her focus to the hunt.
Unbelievable. She actually caught that.
{…….}
See? Gossiping behind someone's back—cut it out.
{…Tch.}
For the time being, Silhouette would have to watch her mouth.
"Phew~."
A whistle escaped him of its own accord. He was in a good mood, somehow.
{Haah… seriously.}
What? Just bear with it for a while.
{…Still, it's not the worst thing.}
There was no irritation in Silhouette's voice. Wait—normally, teasing her this much would've earned at least one reaction.
{What's that supposed to mean? I'm extremely cool and considerate. Who said anything about being annoyed?}
Those are the exact opposite of your usual descriptors, though? Did something actually happen?
{You've sighed less today, that's all.}
……?
Who has?
Me?
{Yes.}
Less sighing… Lee Jun searched his memory. Today, the entire day—setting aside combat—how many times had he steadied his breathing…
"……."
Not once.
Since squaring off against the Shovel Tiger, not a single time all day.
Have I… gotten a little better?
Lee Jun's breath control was a compulsion. Its cause was… too exhausting to even put into words. And yet today, even pressed shoulder to shoulder with his former comrades, nothing had gone wrong.
"…Have I changed too?"
Talking to himself had grown rarer these days, too. There were still occasional compulsive bursts of muttering, but overall, the frequency really had dropped. Maybe he genuinely was getting better.
"Yeah. This is a much better look on you."
Kang Tae-san pressed a firm hand down on Lee Jun's head with kindly eyes. His own version of encouragement. He did the same thing to his own son, apparently. Then he turned toward his guild members training off in the distance.
"You lot! Is that the best you've got? Put some weight into it!"
He'd probably found his own moment a little cringe-worthy just now. Still… it had been encouraging. Genuinely.
I'm getting better.
Was it going numb, or recovering? He couldn't say for certain. But at least for now… things seemed to be getting better.
The joint training run by Kang Tae-san dragged on a full six hours before it finally ended. Brutal. Genuinely brutal.
"We're all about to die, sir."
"Khekhekhekhe. That's how everyone gets stronger."
Seo Yoon and Choi Jeong-hyeon were completely wrung out. The only ones still standing were Kang Tae-san, Lee Jun, Jeanne, and the two dolls—in other words, everyone who'd trained properly was flat on the ground.
"Don't any of you forget to eat your herbs when you get back."
"…Yesss…"
Exhausted replies crawled out from every corner. Watching them, Kang Tae-san smiled with evident satisfaction.
That man is a pervert, isn't he. A conditioning pervert….
Then Kang Tae-san handed Lee Jun two packets of herbs as well.
This was… Gangsaengcho?
"Feed it to those two as well. Otherwise they'll suffer for it with muscle soreness."
"How should we process it before giving it to them?"
"Process it? Why would you process it? They have to eat it raw or you lose all the nutrients."
"……?"
I'm sorry, what?
"Hold on—you've been feeding it to them raw this whole time?"
"Good medicine is bitter to the tongue, as they say. Endure this much and you become a strong hunter. That's just how it works."
"……."
Eaten unprocessed, the toxins in Gangsaengcho spread through the body. Not that the toxins were harmful, exactly—if anything, they helped relax the muscles, so taking it after conditioning could prevent soreness. The problem was that it was unbelievably bitter. Bitter enough that a normal person would pass out from eating it. Even hunters occasionally collapsed after trying it raw… and he just fed it to them plain?
"……."
For some reason, Lee Jun felt a pang of pity for Taesan's new recruits. Well… it was Taesan they'd chosen, not Seolwon or Samhwa. What could you do.
"…Please tell everyone to hang in there."
"I'll pass it along."
Having said his piece, Lee Jun checked on the two collapsed on the ground. Choi Jeong-hyeon lay sprawled flat on her back, while Seo Yoon sat upright, catching her breath. Only because she couldn't bring herself to lie down—she looked every bit as spent.
"Are you both all right?"
"Yes… yesss…."
"Taesan's training truly is… grueling. I feel my inadequacy…."
"He's the abnormal one, so don't let it bother either of you."
Siara, who'd been watching the two of them, poked Lee Jun in the ribs with a grin.
"Heehee. It's like watching Jun from back in the day."
"…Pablo did drill me relentlessly, I'll admit."
Pablo had been Lee Jun's training officer. She'd been every bit the fanatic about physical conditioning, too. His current emphasis on stamina could be traced straight back to her.
"All right, let's rest a bit before heading ba—"
Thud… thud…
"……?"
Just then, an entirely unexpected figure approached the group.
"Leaving already?"
Long white hair swayed on the breeze.
"What brings you here, of all places?"
"We just happened to finish our own training. I thought we might have a little chat."
The Guildmaster of Seolwon. Yoon Seol.
"…You're serious?"
"Yes. This time I'm serious."
Behind her, Lee Hyeon-ah could be seen sprinting over. Ah—another ambush appearance, then.
Why do all the guildmasters of the major guilds… seem to be missing a screw somewhere?
Watching Yoon Seol's guileless expression, Lee Jun thought to himself: Lee Hyeon-ah… might be having an even harder life than he'd imagined.