The Mountain King's True Power
One of the most common tropes among those who criticize the Mountain King, Kim Jong-phil, is this:
Premium supporting actor. Eternal second-in-command…
Even though every hunter who had actually fought alongside him sang his praises in unison, these haters would never admit it.
Just imagine how wild they must have gone when the Mountain King joined the Mir Guild.
Especially when the Mountain King promised he wouldn’t reveal his full power until League 1, they swarmed like starving wild dogs, drooling all over themselves.
Throughout his entire career, the Mountain King had been doubted like this.
However.
The raid team, including Kang Malsuk, was thinking something very different right now.
If anyone spouted that kind of nonsense in front of them now, they would gladly knock their teeth out.
Doubt? Are you fucking kidding me? After seeing that?!
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“S-save… gghhhk!!”
The members of Team 2 were sent flying by the massive stump attacks.
A perfectly formed lineup of tanks, dealers, and supporters was being crushed upon collision with the charging stumps, like a train smashing into them.
A few members of Team 1 tried to rush forward in the gap, but the grass rippled like waves and vines shot upward.
“Fuck!!”
“Dodge!!”
The vines danced like snakes, and the raid team tangled with them, dancing a deadly waltz. There was no hope.
Vines, roots, branches, stumps—even the grass covering the ground.
Everything was an enemy.
Every shade of green in this world was the Mountain King’s weapon and his fortress.
Look, another one of Team 2’s young tanks was flying through the air after getting hit by a stump strike.
The hand holding his shield was bent backward at a horrible angle. That was a retirement.
With that, every young hunter in Team 2 had been retired.
When they looked back, they saw Team 2 screaming and crying. The healer team was already rushing over to them.
Kang Malsuk thought to herself.
To think seven healers would be used for something like this…
“Hehe. Thinking about something else while I’m right here?”
“!!”
In that instant.
Kang Malsuk noticed the shadow falling at her feet. Stumps nearly the size of trucks were charging toward her like high-speed trains.
And there were five of them! The ones that had crushed Team 2 had only used two. Now five were coming at once!!
Kang Malsuk gripped her shield so hard it felt like it might shatter and clenched her teeth.
CRAAAAAASH—!
“Hngh!!”
Along with a thunderous sound like splitting timber, Kang Malsuk’s body staggered. The impact was dizzying.
How long had it been since she felt a shock like this? Was it when she blocked a Level 7 boss’s attack alone? Or when she took a Ranker friend’s 8th-class magic head-on?
One thing was certain—it was at least that strong, if not stronger.
Then another scream rang out from the side.
“Uwaaaaah!!”
A man tied up by tree trunks and screaming—it was the dealer she had clashed with earlier.
The tree trunks wrapped around him like the tentacles of a giant squid, spinning him around before slamming him down.
BOOM!!
A cloud of white dust rose from the ground.
She squeezed her eyes shut. That was definitely a retirement too.
If she hadn’t blocked the stump, she would have ended up the same way.
Even now, screams continued to echo. The forest moved like a living creature, snatching humans like catching mice. Even while dealing with Kang Malsuk, it was destroying everything around her.
Perfect multitasking. A terrifying level of area control, and an endless supply of magic power.
So this is the Mountain King…
A living legend. An unparalleled commander. The brain of the Three Kings.
Kang Malsuk felt a fresh wave of chills at the sheer weight of that title.
But the voice that followed immediately cooled her head…
“Oh ho, you’ve trained properly after all. Even when I let my guard down, your core is rock solid.”
“!!”
A voice coming from right in front of her.
Kang Malsuk raised her shield and tried to grab her mace—
Her eyes widened. A white robe was fluttering right before her eyes.
When did he get this close?!
“Malsuk, you see…”
“!!”
She desperately tried to pull out her mace.
But Kim Jong-phil’s foot kicked away the hand reaching for it.
“…Your spatial control, line maintenance, and defensive metrics are all top-tier even when compared to the best tanks. So why do you think someone like you can’t participate in the rivalry matches?”
“…?!”
“It’s because,”
Kim Jong-phil’s arm, reinforced by tree trunks, pushed aside her shield and grabbed the seam of her armor.
“You’re weak in ultra-close combat.”
KWAAAAAAAAANG—!!
The Mountain King’s grappling technique, wrapped in spirit energy, slammed into her. The ground shook. The impact was strong enough to cause a small earthquake.
Buried inside a massive crater, Kang Malsuk muttered with a hazy mind.
“You… said you… couldn’t do… close combat…”
“Hehe, get rid of your stereotypes. Anything can happen on the battlefield.”
The standard was set by the Fighting King and the Ten Thousand King. It wasn’t that the Mountain King was lacking.
Watching the Mountain King turn away with a flutter of his robe, Kang Malsuk thought:
Washed up?
More like a monster, isn’t he?
‘He’s not lacking at all even compared to Rankers…’
Kang Malsuk, still buried in the ground, fainted.
It wasn’t just the ones getting beaten who were shocked.
Up on the hill, Park Su-bin and Yu Ri-ra were squatting with their mouths hanging open stupidly.
“Ah… ah…”
“Ah…”
If anything, this side might have been even more shocked.
They had been with him every single day for the past few years, yet this was the first time they had seen him like this!!
“W-was our grandfather always that strong?!”
If Yu Ri-ra was struggling to process the fact that her supporter—who always smiled kindly with a “hehe” and granted any request—had been hiding this kind of power…
“Wow… it’s perfect…”
Park Su-bin was in pure admiration at the area control achieved through various plant-based magic, the natural chaining of crowd control, the attacks using stumps and vines, and finally the surprise grappling move that retired Kang Malsuk.
“What makes that possible is—”
“What made that possible is—”
The two spoke at the same time, their gazes turning in the same direction.
A stag standing beside the Mountain King. The owner of the mysterious green-glowing antlers.
It was Vita, the strongest existing plant-type spirit.
“Top-grade Wood Spirit Vita. The highest-ranked spirit in the plant category and the guardian deity that protects the World Tree. Its specialty is…”
Lee Shin said while crunching on popcorn, noticing the stares from Ri-ra and Su-bin.
“Doing everything with plants.”
“!!”
KWAAAANG—!!
The forest rose up.
Startled, Ri-ra and Su-bin turned to see Vita roaring toward the sky.
I am nature.
I am the mountain.
Therefore, my master is the king of this mountain.
Behind Kim Jong-phil, who flew forward with his white robe flapping, vines surged upward like a waterfall.
Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk had gone to the kingdom in the sky with just one beanstalk? Vita seemed intent on guiding those arrogant brats there using these very vines.
The vines began pounding the ground violently.
“T-that’s cheating!!”
Yu Ri-ra pointed at Vita with trembling eyes.
“That thing is way too strong! It’s totally cheating!! Wasn’t Grandpa supposed to be an intelligence-type? A commander! You know, the unparalleled commander!”
“He is a commander. A commander of trees.”
“How is that a commander in any way?!”
“Why wouldn’t it be? To the old man, those trees are his soldiers. That’s why he’s the Mountain King. The king of the mountain.”
“She’s right, sis… The captain is controlling everything over there.”
“Eh?!”
In Park Su-bin’s eyes, the battle between the Mountain King and himself looked remarkably similar.
If Su-bin used his sphere to perform ‘preemptive defense’ and attacked afterward with the giant’s arm made of magic power,
Then Kim Jong-phil manipulated spirits to change the terrain, cornered his opponent, and delivered powerful strikes using stumps or vines.
Su-bin could guarantee it—no one else could do that.
Strategy and tactics were the basics. Long-range multitasking, understanding of distance, the operational range of magic power, the total amount of dominance that could be projected.
And finally, the brain capable of commanding a massive collective like a forest.
It was a feat that could only be performed by the Mountain King.
Suddenly, goosebumps ran down his spine.
Su-bin looked at Lee Shin with wide eyes. Did he know this would happen when he sent me to the Mountain King…?
Even under that gaze, Lee Shin just kept munching on popcorn.
“Hehe, now you understand why people never complained about the old man’s performance, right?”
Even with his incredible performance using four-person airborne units and various crowd control abilities, no one ever accused the Mountain King of breaking his promise.
Why? Because he hadn’t summoned Vita.
Wind spirits? Water spirits? Those were just side branches.
Vita was the Mountain King’s alpha and omega.
As the ground was being devastated, Baek Yeon-woo, who had been calmly watching the battle, finally spoke up for the first time.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“The Mountain King captain… he’s way stronger than when we saw him in the rivalry matches, isn’t he?”
“Ah, well said, Yeonu. I forgot to explain that part.”
In truth, there was a difference between combat power in rivalry matches and in reality.
It was slightly restricted by the Bureau, one might say.
“Look at that. Fights at the highest level are decided in an instant. Let your guard down even a little and it’s over. But if you turn that into a rivalry match? It wouldn’t be fun at all.”
“…So they make them weaker on purpose?”
“What the Bureau wants is a ‘show’ and ‘sports’ that promotes hunters widely. Sports need to be competitive. A good example is those guys over there.”
“…?”
Lee Shin’s finger pointed toward the healers who were busy treating the injured.
“They can fix fractures and external injuries in the blink of an eye. That’s why we can even do real combat training like this. But think about it. If even these healers can do this much, what about the top-tier healers?”
“…!”
“Those guys can bring someone back as long as they’re still breathing. They’re basically zombies. So what would happen to the balance of the rivalry matches?”
“…I get it now.”
To make the matches more intense, the rivalry matches had no choice but to be regulated. They entered with debuffs that gradually wore off over time.
It was a kind of balance patch.
“Therefore, this is their true combat power in ‘unauthorized gates’~”
“Wait, is that why you brought us to North Korea, Captain?”
At Su-bin’s question, Lee Shin gave him a sly smile.
“Just going to gates controlled by the Bureau isn’t a good choice. You have to drag out every last drop of your potential like this. That’s how you become a good hunter.”
This was real combat.
Every character had a limit stat. No matter how many points you used, you couldn’t grow beyond it. The only way to raise that limit was through ‘training.’
And there was no better training than real combat.
“Alright, explanation’s over.”
Lee Shin pointed over there and jerked his chin.
“You guys go too.”
“??”
“??”
“??”
Over there? Into that mess?
“For real? Like, actually?”
“We have to go fight too?”
“…Over there?”
Yu Ri-ra’s mouth hung open dumbly, Park Su-bin tilted his head, and even Baek Yeon-woo looked slightly surprised.
Lee Shin burst out laughing. What cute kids.
“Seeing something once is better than hearing it a hundred times, and experiencing it once is better than seeing it a hundred times. What are you waiting for? You think I’m joking?”
Go get beaten and come back.
Lee Shin smiled wickedly as he pushed the kids’ backs.
The three stumbled awkwardly onto the battlefield.
A short while after the kids left, a voice came from behind.
“You said there was a method, but I never imagined it would be this ‘direct.’”
“Oh, Hyung Yu-shin, you’re here.”
Kim Yu-shin plopped down beside Lee Shin.
“I was surprised at first, but the more I think about it, the more effective it seems. The battles in the canyon and real field combat are qualitatively different. The only issue is the pain and injuries… but we have a lot of healers.”
Kim Yu-shin’s gaze turned toward the healers. Holy, magic, shamanism, and even drug-based healers.
They were gathered like a general hospital. Most fractures or internal damage should be no problem.
On top of that, Lee Shin shook a pocket in front of him.
“I filled one subspace pouch completely with top-grade potions. We’ll hunt monsters during the day and run real combat at night. An infinite cycle. How great is that?”
Breathing? Teamwork? Team chemistry?
If they keep getting beaten together, they’ll naturally match up.
What if they don’t?
Lee Shin could say with confidence—they would. They had no choice but to.
Because they would keep getting beaten until they did.
“Hehehe. Getting beaten together and matching up. Nice!”
In that sense.
“You should get ready too, Hyung.”
“Really… I can never stop you, Representative.”
Kim Yu-shin shook his head.
But Lee Shin saw it—the corners of his mouth were turned up.
This hyung was excited.
The next day.
Kang Malsuk and the raid team, who had been forcibly dragged back to their feet in just one day, stood with their souls having already left their bodies.
Before them stood a silver knight.
“Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Hwarang Kim Yu-shin was smiling brilliantly.
We want to cry, though…
Spring camp?
To hell with spring—this place was hell.