Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Special Training
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Clang-!
"Ugh..."
Clash-!
Thud-!
"Argh..."
With every exchange of their two swords, Young-jin let out a pained groan.
Though they were using blunted practice swords, Young-jin had never been more terrified.
"S-Sir..."
Clash-!
Whoosh-!
Clatter-.
The swords met in mid-air with a sharp ring. The grip on Young-jin's hands loosened, and his sword flew from his grasp, falling limply to the floor.
"This is my limit."
Young-jin, his hair soaked with sweat, collapsed to the ground.
Do-jae picked up the fallen sword.
Nearly two hours.
That was how long he had been sparring with Young-jin.
‘Did I underestimate him?’
He had expected Young-jin to give up quickly.
But Young-jin had fought tooth and nail, squeezing out every last bit of his strength to meet Do-jae’s blade.
Of course, Do-jae had gradually reduced his own power and speed to gauge the extent of Young-jin's abilities, but the unexpected tenacity he showed revealed a new side of him.
Click-.
‘The Park-Ha-Gong Trio were between 10 and 20.’
Placing the sword back in its rack, Do-jae thought of Park Kyung-min, Ha Tae-seong, and Gong So-eun, whom he called the Park-Ha-Gong Trio.
Their levels were 18, 20, and 12, respectively.
Considering the average level range for E-Class Hunters was 10 to 20, they were undeniably E-Class.
‘Young-jin is better than Ji-yoon, who’s at 34, but…’
Ji-yoon's level was 34.
And according to the Eye of the Golem, Young-jin's current level was 45.
Right at the level of a C-Class Awakened.
A typical C-Class Hunter with evenly distributed stats.
‘It’s still not enough.’
But in Do-jae’s eyes, it seemed insufficient for Young-jin to protect himself.
It wasn't that C-Class Hunters were anything to scoff at.
From C-Class onward, the number of Awakened dropped significantly, and it could be considered the threshold for being able to face high-grade monsters of Grade 4 or higher.
However, if Song Deok-hoon was right and Young-jin's siblings came after him, it was also true that his skills were disappointingly inadequate for self-defense.
‘It’s not just his level; it’s that he doesn't have any standout skills.’
Young-jin’s condition was defined not only by his level but also by his lack of skills.
For example, Jang Ji-woo, the MID Shadow Unit agent who had targeted Do-jae, had skills like Stealth and High-Speed Movement, with stats focused on Agility to match.
For that reason, although their levels weren't far apart, Jang Ji-woo, who specialized in stealth and assassination, was the trickier opponent in a fight.
Moreover, having special skills was crucial, as was the case for healers or mages.
But Young-jin had no such skills.
‘It would have been better if he had a skill specialized in growth, like his uncle.’
Song Deok-hoon was famous for being a Hunter with no nickname.
The reason was that he had no defining skill to represent him.
He was a man who had climbed to the peak of A-Class with nothing but his physical body, so he had no flashy skills or overwhelming power to earn him a moniker.
Some claimed he possessed skills that rivaled S-Class, but the S-Class title was out of reach for the unremarkable Song Deok-hoon.
After seeing Song Deok-hoon with the Eye of the Golem, Do-jae understood.
Song Deok-hoon’s level was a staggering 151.
And he realized that the reason he could achieve such a level was due to a skill called ‘Rapid Growth’.
"Young-jin, you were originally a D-Class Hunter when we first met, right?"
Do-jae approached Young-jin, who was drinking water, and asked.
Downing the cold water in one gulp, Young-jin replied.
"Ahh. Yes, I was, wasn't I?"
"Then how did you take the exam for a position as an officer in the Suppression Corps? The minimum requirement should have been C-Class Awakened."
"Oh, that? After hunting Cerberus with you, sir, I figured I couldn't go on like that, so I spent a ton of money. Potions that were good for the body, treatments that were supposed to help the flow of mana—I tried just about everything. Still only made it to C-Class, though."
"Really? Things like that exist?"
"Yes, but the fact that this is as far as I got must mean there really is such a thing as natural talent."
Young-jin scratched his head and answered sheepishly.
But something in Young-jin’s words sparked an idea in Do-jae’s mind.
‘Talent can’t be helped. That’s a kind of luck, too. But he still managed to grow from D-Class to C-Class in that short time. That means forced growth isn’t entirely impossible.’
And the most effective tool for forced growth was right in Do-jae's hands.
The ‘Sealed Memory of the Right Foot’.
The item he had extracted from the Death Knight, which he had left in his Subspace without absorbing.
MID had used this, under the name Transcendence Stone, to further enhance ordinary Awakened.
There was no reason Do-jae couldn’t do the same.
"Sir? You have a really strange look in your eyes right now."
"Hey, do you happen to have a high pain tolerance?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Young-jin slowly began to back away.
The more he retreated, the closer Do-jae came.
"It probably won't hurt as much as you think, so don't worry too much."
"What? W-Wait a minute!"
Young-jin turned to flee.
As Do-jae grabbed the collar of his shirt, he simultaneously pulled the Sealed Memory of the Right Foot from his Subspace.
***
Trudge- trudge-.
Creeak-.
Thump-.
"Director Young-jin? Wh-What happened to you?"
As Young-jin collapsed limply into his chair, a startled Ji-yoon rushed over to ask.
A face slick with sweat, wildly disheveled hair, and unfocused eyes.
Young-jin looked so unwell that it wouldn't have been surprising if he dropped dead on the spot.
Then, he suddenly snapped his head up and began to laugh.
"Hehe... Hehehehe. You guys are all dead now... Hehehehe."
As Young-jin spoke like a madman, Ji-yoon and the Park-Ha-Gong Trio looked at each other in confusion.
"Hehehe. I can't be the only one to suffer. Hehehehe."
"Director Young-jin, snap out of it!"
Behind him, a stoic Do-jae walked in.
While Young-jin had returned completely exhausted, Do-jae was not disheveled in the slightest, which only made them more curious about what kind of training he had undergone.
With looks of utter confusion, they glanced back and forth between Young-jin and Do-jae.
"Vice Guild Master. What happened with Director Young-jin?"
Ha Tae-seong approached and asked.
One of his arms looked very unnatural; it was a prosthetic.
Although they had retrieved his severed arm after the raid, the decay and infection of the wound were too severe for reattachment.
It was the price of being struck by the Dullahan's rusty sword; such were the risks of fighting the undead.
"Training. You'll all be taking turns from now on, so be prepared."
Do-jae gathered his clothes and belongings from his desk and headed out.
As soon as Do-jae was gone, everyone crowded around Young-jin, asking in trembling voices.
Ji-yoon and Park Kyung-min were especially frantic.
"Director Young-jin, what kind of training was it? What could have possibly changed a person this much?"
"Director, what was the training? Wow, damn, the Vice Guild Master is scaring me to death. Please tell us. That way we can either prepare ourselves or run away..."
Park Kyung-min started clearing his desk to pack his things, earning a glare from Ji-yoon.
He eventually put everything back and silently returned to her side.
"Hehehe... Training? That wasn't training, it was hell... Imagine if you caught the flu, but then got enteritis and pneumonia at the same time. Your whole body would be shivering, your throat would feel like it's tearing apart every time you cough, and your stomach would ache all day long, right? It was exactly like that. Hehe..."
Young-jin stared blankly at the ceiling with hollow eyes, chuckling intermittently.
"Director Young-jin! What was it? You have to tell us properly so we can understand!"
"Guys, let's pack up. Haven't we paid back everything we owe the Guild Master by now?"
"The flu, enteritis, and pneumonia. It's a miracle the Director is still alive."
"......"
The four of them stood before Young-jin, each lost in their own thoughts.
But one thought was shared among them all.
‘Terrifying!’
***
"Where to, sir?"
"To Hannam-dong, please."
Do-jae leaned back heavily in the taxi's rear seat.
A wave of fatigue was washing over him.
‘I used over half my mana...’
Do-jae's mana pool was a full 260,000.
But now, it was depleted to around 100,000.
‘The stress from focusing all my mental energy was intense... At most, I'll be able to handle two or three people a week.’
The guild members wouldn't know, since he had returned looking perfectly fine, but what Do-jae had done to Young-jin was no simple feat.
He had accomplished the incredible task of making Young-jin stronger in such a short amount of time.
‘Only a 3-level gain, huh... No, to gain 3 levels without doing anything must be a huge change for him.’
Rewinding time a little.
To make Young-jin stronger, Do-jae had used the ‘Sealed Memory of the Right Foot’.
He had extracted mana from the Sealed Memory and then, using the Nerves of the Golem, injected it into Young-jin's body.
In the process, Young-jin experienced the same agony Do-jae had once suffered.
But making Young-jin instantly stronger was by no means an easy task.
For one, the mana from the Sealed Memory refused to mix with Young-jin's, and it thrashed about so violently that it was difficult to even hold it in place with the Nerves of the Golem.
Each time that happened, Do-jae forced his own mana into the mix, trying to blend the two, just as the leaf of Arcturia had neutralized Gellahan's mana.
In the end, he succeeded in having Young-jin absorb the mana, though it was a drop in the bucket compared to the mana Do-jae had used and the mana extracted from the Sealed Memory.
‘If I had managed to inject all the mana into Young-jin... he might have ended up half-crazy like Kang Young-chan.’
He didn't know how MID injected mana into the Awakened, but if their method was similar to his, it seemed only natural that there would be failures or subjects with mental issues.
And Do-jae suspected that the number of people who died would have been even greater.
‘Young-jin’s body and mind were at least somewhat prepared to accept it, but I can't say the same for Ji-yoon or the others. I’ll either have to become more adept at controlling the Nerves of the Golem, or I'll have no choice but to condition their bodies and minds.’
After the dual dungeon incident, Do-jae had resolved to train his guild members.
As long as they were with him, they were likely to face such dangers again in the future.
This time, the dungeon had been close by, so he had just charged straight there and managed to avoid any fatalities, but Ha Tae-seong had still lost an arm.
For him, a dual-dagger wielder, having only one arm would force him to give up a lot.
It would be more troublesome than he had originally planned, but since they were his guild members, he felt a strong desire to look after them and decided to put them through some proper training.
‘I’m going to be busy.’
While Do-jae was lost in deep thought, the taxi gradually slowed down.
When it came to a complete stop, the driver spoke.
"Is it alright if I drop you off here?"
"Yes, thank you."
Do-jae began to walk along the street.
He was familiar with the path, having been here once before.
After a short walk, the alley from that time came into view.
The very alley where Ji-yoon and Yook Hyun-jae had been caught.
And a woman was slowly walking down toward him.
"I'm sorry, Do-jae. My mother can be so..."
The woman approaching with an embarrassed expression was none other than Eun-hee.