Gear Adjustment (1)
“Yuri? What’s the matter?”
Yuri was the sub-dealer in the Flame raid party. Of course, it was a sub-dealer, but her skill with the ice-element spell was nearly all-purpose.
In reality, alongside the main dealer Yeon Soso, she formed the core of the team’s damage output. That meant her weight in the field team was enormous.
Yet while Soso, the main dealer, constantly shuttled between the field team’s office and waiting room, Yuri spent most of her time in the guild leader’s office when she was at headquarters.
As guild leader, she was always busy. And now she had summoned me for a private conversation.
Even Soso and Arin were there, along with the other members of the field team. Everyone turned to look at Yuri.
“What’s the matter, Guild Leader?”
I answered her in that calm, formal tone I reserved for guild and Association matters.
Yuri’s expression was exactly the same as always—ice-cold, purely professional. So I felt no discomfort addressing her.
Of course. If it were a private matter, she wouldn’t come knocking so openly…
After I answered, Yuri paused for a moment, then spoke again.
“I need a sparring partner. To adjust my gear, Nibis. Let’s talk about that for a moment.”
Father Stefano answered immediately.
“Ah, that explains it, Guild Leader. Nibis is an S-rank Ancient Gear. If it isn’t used regularly, it will be difficult to contain the overflowing mana.”
Team Leader Seo nodded in agreement.
“Having a sparring partner would be better than adjusting alone. Are you preparing for the cooperative mission?”
“Yes, Team Leader Seo.”
Yuri gave a calm nod. Then, as if answering the gazes fixed on her, she addressed the field team.
“We have two weeks until the cooperative mission, but this one will be on another level from the usual duties. So if there’s time to check everyone’s required Ancient Gear equipment, this is the perfect moment. If any costs for the adjustment are needed, go ahead and submit the paperwork to Finance at any time. I’ll approve it.”
I felt the weight of her position as guild leader. She conveyed the instructions in a calm voice.
She’s nothing like Soso.
Yuri had been famous as student council president at Eins. And, as she had said, every raid member received top-grade Ancient Gear.
Even those who had reached the realm of experts kept their blades meticulously sharpened. If the gear possessed will, it too needed regular familiarization and adjustment.
All the field team members nodded in agreement with Yuri’s words. Uncle Dong-hyuk shouted out.
“We’ll prepare properly, just as Guild Leader said! Since Guild Leader also supports A-rank gear!”
“I’ll leave it to you. After all, we’re only support party. We might not even participate in the direct boss raid. But field work is unpredictable at any moment. Please keep that in mind.”
It was an unexpected visit, yet Yuri spoke to the guild members with perfect composure. But her true business was, in the end, with me.
I wondered inwardly why she had singled me out so deliberately.
Sparring. Even if it wasn’t me, she could have pointed to Soso or another member…
But thinking it over, the available choices among the members were only Soso or me. She needed a partner she could use her ice-element spell to her heart’s content with.
And above all, I knew Yuri’s ice-element spell extremely well.
There was a two-year gap, but still…
Soso, sensing my concern, asked her quietly.
“Guild Leader, if you need someone, I can be your sparring partner.”
“I appreciate Team Leader Seo’s skill, but this time I need Lee Minsu. I want to test the newly conceived ice spell in actual combat.”
Yuri explained her reason. Optimization of the spell. Any circuit flaws. For magic, only someone who was also a mage—me—could give the right opinion.
Team Leader Seo answered in his place.
“That makes sense. Minsu’s magical theory score at Eins was almost perfect. Minsu would handle it perfectly.”
“Indeed. I read the post-raid report on capturing Jang Gyesin. I’m not a magic expert, but the way he combined trap spells and fire spells was astonishing. It proves that Brother Minsu is a truly skilled mage.”
Father Stefano said the same. I felt oddly awkward receiving the praise.
Yuri, the guild leader and S-rank hunter, had declared my student’s ability. Yet the elite members of Flame Guild showed no hesitation whatsoever.
Is she evaluating me too highly?
Once I realized her purpose was official business, the cautious looks Arin and Soso had been giving me softened slightly.
Especially Arin. When Team Leader Seo and Father Stefano praised me, she actually seemed pleased. She was smiling radiantly.
“Anyway, I came to deliver that message. I’ll send the detailed particulars by email. Please check them, Minsu.”
After saying that, Yuri turned and walked out of the office without looking back.
Wait a second. If it was just business, a company message or email would have been enough.
But then it occurred to me that, besides delivering the request to me, she had also passed along a few words to the field team. It was almost like a courtesy visit.
Well, she probably didn’t come just to see my face.
She was much less cold than when we were at Eins, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t distinguish public from private matters.
And it was good for me too. I also needed to adjust Wind Cutter. And if the sparring partner was S-rank hunter Yuri, she was the absolute best possible opponent.
Instead, I should have been the one asking her for help.
In this unexpected stroke of good fortune, I felt my mood lift.
“Senior, you look in good spirits. Don’t tell me you saw Guild Leader’s face…”
Arin’s question required another explanation.
***
Because of Yuri’s unexpected request, I ended up on an outing to a fairly distant location.
Seoraksan.
The drive was a little closer than the Pyongyang trip, yet it still took time. I was driving, as usual.
“It’s better to find a place where Nibis will enjoy it.”
Yuri, seated in the passenger seat, spoke. As she said, it wasn’t easy to find a spot to properly release the power of an S-rank Ancient Gear.
Doing it in the middle of Seoul would cause serious trouble.
In that sense, Seoraksan was a rugged mountain in Korea. Its very name carried the image of snow, making it ideal for using her new spell.
It also summons gates occasionally.
Like the Southeastern Contaminated Zone. Seoraksan was a former site of a large gate that had been cleared. Regular maintenance was required, but since it was the winter off-season for climbing, there would be opportunities to test the gear’s power against suitable monsters.
Actually, for ordinary civilians it would be almost suicidal.
No, even for ordinary hunters. Entering a dangerous mountain where monsters appear in winter was insane.
But for Yuri, S-rank hunter and ice mage, there was no problem. She never felt cold in the first place. And as a monster, she would only be feared by the monsters themselves.
I don’t mind the cold either.
On the contrary, the ever-roiling mana made the cold weather even more helpful.
Above all, the Ancient Gear I had just contracted, Wind Cutter, seemed to be looking forward to the place intensely.
“It’s quite a strange one. That Wind Cutter.”
Yuri said to me. As the words implied, the window had been rolled down, yet a constant gust of wind whipped through the car interior.
“If it’s uncomfortable, I can calm it down.”
“No. Ancient Gears contracted recently take quite some time to get used to. I have no intention of interrupting that process.”
Wind Cutter was wind-attribute. For Yuri, that sensory experience probably wasn’t unpleasant.
High-level ice-element spells like Snowstorm or Blizzard required injecting a significant amount of wind-attribute mana into the circuit.
In that respect, Wind Cutter is unusual.
Originally, my Ruby and Yuri’s Nibis were opposites—fire and ice. But the wind-attribute Wind Cutter matched well with either.
That’s why I forced myself to buy Wind Cutter.
A+ rank Ancient Gear. As a high-grade item, it inherently boosted mana capacity.
Fire-element spells consumed enormous mana. With my enhanced Blue Flame, chronic mana shortage was unavoidable.
Even after unlocking the first stage of binding… I’d still collapse from a single spell, like when I captured Jang Gyesin.
Even after reducing mana consumption through trap spells, it had still been enough to make me faint.
So the doubled mana from Wind Cutter would be a great help for future spell casts.
But that was only one of Wind Cutter’s advantages.
The most important thing was that it would allow me to multiply the power of fire spells through wind-attribute casting.
According to theory, I could raise Blue Flame’s power and increase its explosive force.
The fuel for fire spells was mana. But since the fire created from mana was truly fire, oxygen was still required for combustion.
And Wind Cutter could supply that oxygen to its limit. Therefore, this Seoraksan outing was an excellent opportunity for me.
With Yuri around, there would be no need for a fire engine.
Undying Butterfly’s Flame Scale. The fire spell that had defeated Yuri in the sparring match. I intended to use it again during this outing.
With Wind Cutter, that spell could evolve into a new form. No— it absolutely had to.
Sensing my slight excitement, Wind Cutter’s wind wrapped around me again.
Wind Cutter is the opposite personality of Ruby in every way.
Unlike the overly lively Wind Cutter, Ruby was an extremely calm Ancient Gear.
When I had evolved her to her third form to defeat Doubtful Monster, I had once seen her spiritual appearance rising in my mind.
The grown form of the Vermilion Bird’s egg had been a shrine maiden with long red hair.
The sight of that shrine maiden who worshipped fire had been both sacred and deeply serene. Exactly like the calm way she always conveyed her will to me.
But… why did Ruby save me?
Even now, with that same calm feeling, she was rather taciturn. Even when I asked, she would not answer.
However, I could now sense Ruby’s mood. She was quite displeased with the wind wrapping around my body from Wind Cutter.
I ignored Ruby’s will for the moment and focused on driving. Then, from the hunter-exclusive radio channel set to the proper station, a broadcast began.
“In a terrorist attack in New York, nearly one hundred people were killed. The American Hunter Association has estimated the incident as the work of a villain and has requested investigation cooperation from the Korean Hunter Association…”
Ordinary broadcast followed. This was Earth in 2027, the world I had been reincarnated into—a place where villain terrorism had become normal.
Neither I nor Yuri were shaken much by the news. Among all those countless terrorist incidents, there would surely be ones connected to Red Lake.
I can’t chase every single one. I must concentrate on events that seem likely to involve Red Lake as much as possible.
As I thought this, the announcer continued.
“Next, we have an update. A-rank villain João Soriano has escaped from Saint Helena Special Prison…”
And at those words, my body stiffened instantly. João Soriano. The name was all too familiar to me.
It was a pivotal episode from the original Aca Hunter. The important villain the protagonist Si-woo would confront in that episode.
Even without Si-woo, the story keeps moving.
And not only that. The moment I heard that name, I realized the choice of Seoraksan as the gear adjustment location was anything but coincidence.
The place where the original Si-woo had gone before participating in the S-rank dungeon cooperative mission was Seoraksan.
Yuri had created Flame Guild to replace Si-woo’s work, so perhaps something could happen even in this Seoraksan I had come to for training.
Original Si-woo had discovered an ancient dungeon at Seoraksan. After driving for quite some time, we finally arrived at the Seoraksan National Park parking lot.
“Shall we get out?”
As I stepped out of the car and began walking with Yuri, she suddenly reached out and took my hand.
Startled, I said without thinking, “Guild Leader? Why…?”