Even With My Middle School Syndrome, I Wanted to Become a Hunter
After consuming the **Heavenly Elixir Samsgyetang**, the inner energy I and Da-yeon possessed had exploded in explosive growth.
Even though it had been boiled into soup, the efficacy of the elixir had not diminished in the slightest.
After several days of diligent training, I successfully absorbed the inner energy that the elixir possessed into my own body completely.
Of course, the inner energy elixir Kim Na-yeon had given me was a low-grade one with only a short shelf life, but in my current stage of merely accumulating inner energy, it was an absolutely tremendous item.
A one-year accumulation of inner energy increases fivefold, but a five-year increase from a fifty-year base is nothing more than a mere ten percent rise.
In short, it is the absolute difference in the total quantity of inner energy.
But I still got angry and pelted Kim Na-yeon’s side with a barrage of punches.
“Think about the guild’s finances...!”
Of course, a mere palm-sized honey fist on a body without inner energy would never have inflicted any damage on Na-yeon’s well-trained physique. She simply laughed with a hehe and kept gently pinching my cheek.
“We hunter dreamers need to become strong as soon as possible. Your sister grew thanks to Yeon-ssi, didn’t she? By the way, how about thinking about our guild’s finances too? You’re so cheeky for such a little thing. Uu, look at how full your cheek is with complaints.”
“Ugruk.”
How troublesome. A hard-to-handle subordinate.
“Guild... no, the guild’s scale needs to grow as well, right? Since I arrived here, I haven’t seen any activity like receiving quests or recruiting guild members.”
“Um... just like Yeon said, but it’s a brand-new guild that’s just gotten off the ground, and honestly, we haven’t even decided on the guild name yet? If it were normal, it would be the perfect time to recruit members and such... Well, I suppose there are various adult reasons why proper guild activities have been delayed.”
Adult reasons.
I must be too young to explain the guild’s internal affairs.
Of course, it is true that this body is still as helpless as a newborn regarding the knowledge of this world.
But from now on, I will properly learn not only martial arts but also the operations of hunter guilds, and someday I will reshape this guild into the Heavenly Demon God Sect.
“Anyway, it’s time to enter the new training curriculum. Starting today, I will teach you the basic forms of martial arts. Na-yeon unnie, sit next to Da-yeon.”
As soon as the afternoon training session began, I sat the two of them—Da-yeon and Na-yeon—on the floor in front of me with my arms crossed and stood there.
After closing my eyes and organizing my thoughts, I looked at the two of them with a flashing gaze.
“Martial arts, fundamentally, is a technique that harms people. Although there are those who talk about refining body and mind in the righteous sects...”
“Yeon-ssi has so much weird knowledge.”
“I really don’t act like a kid when I say things like that.”
Da-yeon giggled, and Na-yeon chimed in with a comment.
These children—what do they think I am?
This way, the reputation of the Heavenly Demon God Sect’s supreme being would never stand.
“...as the saying goes, ‘Even in a crowd of three, there must be one who can teach me.’ Since an eighty-year-old old man learns something from a three-year-old child...”
“Uu... Yeon-ssi sometimes says such difficult things.”
“Where did you learn that? Did you dig up some ancient Chinese practical manual or something? Heh, no way! Knowledge from my past life...?”
“...Hah, hahaha. If that’s the case, I have no choice. Hou Long-beop, you guessed correctly. This lord is a monster who has lived three hundred years in my past life and the supreme being of the Heavenly Demon God Sect...”
“Da-yeon, did you and Yeon-ssi watch ‘Even With My Middle School Syndrome, I Wanted to Become a Hunter’ yesterday?”
“Oh, ‘Even With My Middle School Syndrome, I Wanted to Become a Hunter.’ Yeon-ssi and I watched it together!”
“Really? Kuku, unnie knows that too. It’s the ‘middle school syndrome’ protagonist concept, right?”
I heard an absurdly enormous sound with no hint of embarrassment.
I asked in shock.
“W-what...? The protagonist of ‘Middle School Hunter,’ ‘Dark Fire Master,’ wasn’t actually the dark lord hiding terrifying power...!”
“Oh, Yeon-ssi didn’t know? Sorry! Unnie spoiled it?”
“Kyaaaa!”
I wanted to lay that cheeky young cult leader and Hou Long-beop flat right then, but three hundred years of cultivation would not break so easily. However, because the brain of this young body is soft, there is a tendency for it to act according to the emotions the body feels, even a little.
Anyway, even if I knew they wouldn’t believe me, why did I ask?
At this point, I had to brand into their bodies that I am their master.
I looked at Lee Da-yeon and instructed her.
“The young cult leader will now perform one thousand push-ups.”
“Eee...!”
“Even if you accumulate inner energy, you can’t teach anything if the basic posture isn’t correct.”
Da-yeon made a sad face, but since she had followed my words without complaint so far, she obediently began.
“Yah, yah!”
“As long as I am your master, you can skip many processes. Even while cultivating the basic posture, operate your inner energy a little at a time and try it.”
After watching Da-yeon’s tiny hands extend forward and throw punches into the air, I walked over to the blankly sitting Kim Na-yeon.
“And Hou Long-beop, Na-yeon unnie.”
“Yes! Hou Long-beop!”
“...Well, Na-yeon unnie, stand up.”
Swoosh.
Kim Na-yeon, a towering 180 cm tall, stood up, and I looked up at her face.
Tap, tap.
After lightly jumping in place a couple of times.
Stomp.
She retreated a step and assumed a stance.
She lowered her posture slightly, right arm extended forward and downward, left arm extended upward and backward.
**Heavenly Demon Starfighting Stance.**
The core technique of the Heavenly Demon’s enemy-suppressing fist, of offense and defense as one.
“Now, attack me.”
“Eee...!”
Na-yeon’s face fell.
“That’s not allowed...! If something happens to Yeon-ssi’s pretty face...”
“...Isn’t sparring unusual among hunters?”
“Of course, we do light sparring. But it’s been less than a month since you stabilized your body!”
“Na-yeon unnie thinks of me as a child she still needs to protect. Now I am also a hunter, and with the inner energy I have stored in my small body, I can fight sufficiently.”
“Ugh... using mana to fight...?”
Na-yeon looked troubled for a long time.
Then she nodded.
“Okay. I’ll trust Yeon-ssi’s ability that made unnie strong. Instead, unnie won’t use mana.”
“Hm, good.”
I smiled slightly and flicked the fingers of the outstretched arm.
She seemed to think she would just play with the kid while relying on her trained body, but I needed to engrave that mistake into that massive frame.
Of course, in a one-on-one fight, weight class is absolute.
Normally, there was no way I could land a blow on Na-yeon with this small body.
Thud, thud.
“Fwoo!”
Na-yeon kicked her feet hard and spread her arms, breathing heavily.
It felt like she was saying ‘come at me anytime.’
I grinned.
From now on, it was legitimate beating. No, it was training time.
“Sniff, sniff.”
“Na, Na-yeon unnie, I’m sorry. It must have hurt a lot?”
“Yeon-ssi is so mean. How could he hit unnie so mercilessly? And unnie is the tank; you should have endured it, but why does this tiny hand hurt so much?”
“Uhm, from now on I’ll explain.”
I had to comfort the sniffling Na-yeon for quite a while, who was sitting down in a way that didn’t match her size.
***
With a **CRACK!** sound, the video playing from the office screen froze and went blank.
Among the two watching the video output from the hologram screen, the black-haired young man with a mischievous expression shook his head.
“As you can see, this is the result.”
“The officially announced thing is only the excavation of victims’ bodies. What exactly are we hiding?”
“Well, depending on how you interpret it, it might not be that strange. Information control between hunter guilds is important. Hiding each other’s special techniques or power isn’t unusual.”
On the other side, the blue-haired A-class hunter, Kim Do-yoon, fell into thought.
“It’s been a week since I arrived here, and it’s not easy to catch a tail.”
“Sur-yong Guild can’t move publicly. Even if bad rumors spread, it’s South Korea’s largest guild, after all. The **Blood Demon** of Lee Myeong-won.”
With a playful laugh, the young man said that.
His name is Kim Jin-seong.
Master of the Suryong Guild.
One of the five S-class hunters in South Korea.
Actually, he wasn’t young enough to be called that.
According to rumors, he was well past the age of forty.
Kim Do-yoon asked with disbelief.
“...By the way, even Lee Myeong-won... Don’t all S-class hunters stay young?”
“Umm... the only way is to ask you to try it yourself. Once you’re A-class, you’ll have chances to face special items, right? Even if you’re not an awakened person blessed by a Constellation from birth, there are cases where you become S-class by obtaining the Realm Essence. Like me and Lee Myeong-won.”
Kim Jin-seong also became an S-class hunter after being B-class when his name started circulating.
How had he done it?
Officially unknown, but among the old timers, there was a rumor that he grew by obtaining rare Level Uppers in high-difficulty gate raids of A-rank and above.
“Kim Jin-seong Hunter and Lee Myeong-won are, in a way, symbols of envy among other hunters.”
“We weren’t born S-class, so we are symbolic figures to those who want to become strong. Haha, I won’t claim I’m that amazing, though.”
After saying that, Kim Jin-seong shifted his gaze back to the screen the drone was transmitting.
The drone was destroyed and still only outputting noise.
“...Lee Myeong-won. I have been keeping a long eye on him. Thanks to the existence of the laboratory discovered by Hunter Kim Do-yoon, that suspicion is becoming conviction. I may have to move myself in the near future.”
“Frontal breakthrough?”
“No way. I have no intention of fighting the Blood Demon head-on, so I need to use this old man’s wisdom well.”
“Hahaha...”
Kim Do-yoon laughed awkwardly.
Kim Jin-seong, who looked like a young man, calling himself an old man and making casual talk—it was a speech that the newly young Kim Do-yoon really couldn’t get used to.
“...By the way, the ancient species’ sanctuary. The size is huge. There’s no guarantee that the ancient species won’t awaken anytime soon.”
“Why do you think they built the laboratory there?”
“It’s a region with naturally high mana density. If we exclude the potential threat of ancient species, it’s the optimal place for forced awakening experiments.”
“......”
“Anyway, investigating the Blood Demon from inside Seoul must have been very dangerous. The Suryong Guild’s base here is safe, so please take your time to rest.”
“I am grateful for your kindness.”
In the master’s office of the Suryong Guild, where Kim Do-yoon had left.
While staring at the screen still only outputting noise, Kim Jin-seong murmured quietly.
“...Lee Myeong-won, why did you change?”