The Weakling's Challenge
“Weakling, huh.”
I mulled over the word.
Slowly.
Like savoring a rare delicacy, chewing it over again and again.
Five seconds passed. Then ten.
Jiyoung’s face turned pale as she shook her head.
“M-Master, what are you doing?”
“It’s been a while since I heard that expression. It just feels unfamiliar.”
“Come on, we’re all Platinum and you’re the only Gold, so we were just joking around.”
“Don’t say ‘we.’ I never agreed to that.”
“Ping Lei! Are you backing out on your own?”
“Fearsome senior sister, we never had that conversation, so please don’t drag me into it.”
“Enrique, why don’t you have a serious talk with Master too—”
“Aaaagh!”
The young boy’s scream cut Jiyoung off.
“So everyone really thought that way.”
“Do not misunderstand, Master. I merely joked about it during the celebratory meal after winning the promotion match—”
“So you did say it?”
“Ah.”
As expected of the two troublemakers from the faction.
Their performance was certainly reliable.
“Analyst.”
“Well, everyone did agree during the meal.”
“Thank you for your input.”
Resentful glares poured toward Thomas Miller.
“Then shall we check the skills of the seniors who reached Platinum before me, one by one?”
Thou wearest a smile as if to slay one of them.
At Nyx’s wistful voice, the guild members’ bodies trembled like aspen leaves.
The party returned to the guild house.
“What happened to the welcome party… why did it turn into a sparring match…”
Thomas Miller wiped the sweat from his brow with a troubled expression.
Jinho’s usual response to the “weakling” provocation was, as always, a sparring match.
Legal(?) violence.
The first opponent was, naturally, Jiyoung.
Gulp.
Jiyoung swallowed hard.
Thump— thump— Her heart pounded like a drum.
Perhaps from excessive tension, it felt as if her heart might burst from beating so fast.
“What’s wrong? Nervous about facing a weakling?”
“I feel like dying from how boring this is.”
“You’ll soon learn what it really means to feel like dying.”
A chilling smile gently colored Jinho’s lips.
The killing intent rippled outward.
The genuine anger of the master she had respected since the tutorial was intense enough to lower the temperature of the surrounding area.
It was the result of having taken one step into the realm of transcendence.
Jinho had reached the point where he could interfere with the laws of the world using nothing but emotion.
For Jiyoung, facing that anger was pure torment.
I didn’t provoke Master without thinking.
Jiyoung steeled herself.
The “weakling” provocation had slipped out, and while there was a legitimate excuse to tease her master, she had one more reason she hadn’t told anyone.
I wanted to show him my new ability.
The realization she had gained while Jinho was in America.
It was Jiyoung’s trump card that she had never shown to anyone else.
“I don’t know what you were thinking when you said that, but let’s add one restriction.”
“A restriction?”
“If you can make me take even one step back, you win.”
“Hehe, while we’re at it, how about one more?”
“Speak.”
“Don’t use your main techniques. You know, that martial art.”
“You mean the Hundred Beasts Emperor Martial Arts?”
“Yes. That, the power that handles darkness, and your transformation.”
The transformation she mentioned referred to Void Mirror.
Jinho let out a dry laugh, looking incredulous.
“From the way you’re talking, it seems you really think you have a chance.”
A dangerous light flickered in his eyes.
After the “weakling” comment came the second provocation.
His gaze sharpened as if trying to read Jiyoung’s true intentions.
“I’ll allow that much.”
He readily accepted her proposal.
“Yahoo!”
Forcing out an excited voice made some of the heavy pressure on her shoulders lift.
Even though the rippling killing intent was crushing her soul, laughter bubbled up instead.
“Here I come, Master.”
Hexagonal barriers formed in Jiyoung’s hands.
[Vibration Barrier – 10 Layers]
[Aegis]
Clack! Clack!
Instead of repelling each other, the touching barriers connected organically.
The barriers, which normally amplified their vibration coefficient and repelled one another, now merged smoothly into one.
Jiyoung kicked off the ground and deployed her Vibration Barriers.
She layered the barriers behind her back.
Using the amplified vibrations as propulsion, she charged at Jinho.
“What the hell is this?”
Jinho’s voice came out tinged with bewilderment.
It was a combat style he had never seen from Jiyoung before.
In her past life, Jiyoung—who had been a sub-tank and dealer—had never willingly taken the front line.
Contrary to his surprised expression, Jinho calmly responded to her charge.
Thorns sprouted from his arm and shot forward.
Thorns Missiles, further enhanced by the Blessing of Greed.
Each one carried power comparable to a 2-star Fireball spell.
The barrage of thorn missiles raining down from all directions was too fast and powerful for Jiyoung—who had invested all her spare stats into mana—to react to.
[Aegis – Absolute Guard]
Jiyoung’s arms moved like flowing water.
Boom! Boom! The hail of thorn missiles struck the shields in her hands and vanished.
Attacks poured in from multiple angles.
Even though the speed and range were difficult to track with the naked eye, Jiyoung reacted to each one.
“Whoa, that actually works.”
Admiration slipped from Jinho’s mouth.
—Are you just going to stand there dumbfounded?
“No, I just don’t understand.”
Among physical stats, there was Agility.
It didn’t merely increase the body’s speed—it also enhanced reaction time to external stimuli and dynamic vision.
The movements Jiyoung had just displayed required an Agility stat of at least 200.
His doubt lasted only a moment.
Jiyoung’s offensive immediately followed.
“How about this?”
Keeping roughly three meters between them, she slammed her hands together.
The moment the ten-layered barrier shields collided—
BOOOOOOOOM—!!!!
An enormous shockwave, incomparable to before, crashed into Jinho.
It was the wave of twenty stacked Vibration Barriers.
The attack was powerful enough to make his sixth sense blare a warning.
Grind.
Jinho gritted his teeth against the impact crushing his entire body.
His metal gauntlets warped, and even his dark aura was being crushed by the amplified force.
The pressure felt like being squeezed in a hydraulic press.
It works on Master too!
Jiyoung’s body trembled with rising confidence.
The concept of combining Vibration Barriers in her hands and maintaining their form through layering.
She had gotten the idea from watching how Jinho utilized his abilities.
The Blessing of Greed granted by the constellation Baal.
Jinho overlaid that power onto essences or objects to change their form or strengthen them.
Maybe I can actively use the concept of a “shield” too?
Jiyoung had never been satisfied with her position.
Sub-tank and dealer.
While her barriers’ defensive power surpassed most tanks, she could never become a main tank due to issues with aggro management and reaction speed.
The same applied to her role as a dealer.
Stacking Vibration Barriers amplified their power into a formidable attack.
But only if the opponent stood still and took it.
If they moved out of range before she could layer multiple barriers, she couldn’t deal significant damage.
That was why—
Jiyoung had studied the fusion of blessings and abilities, using her master Jinho as a model.
Aegis.
According to myth, it was an absolute shield that could block any attack.
Jiyoung attempted to combine the concept of Aegis with her Vibration Barriers.
At first, it didn’t go as planned.
While the barriers themselves were strengthened, they didn’t respond dynamically.
Then Jiyoung focused on the shape of a “shield.”
What if she layered the Vibration Barriers and fixed them into shield form in both hands?
Maybe I can bring out the properties of a shield!
A new application of power that had never occurred in her past life.
It was a possibility she had discovered while chasing after Jinho’s back.
The technique she had just demonstrated was the result of months of solitary training.
I did it!
Once caught inside an amplified barrier, escaping was difficult.
Even though his main skills were sealed, the sight of Jinho struggling was proof enough of her success.
“What? How can she hold her own against Master?”
Ping Lei’s voice was filled with shock.
It spoke for everyone present at the guild house training ground.
Even Thomas hadn’t noticed Jiyoung’s hidden trump card.
Jiyoung was confident of victory.
Either she would push him back here, or he would be forced to use those two skills.
She wanted her master Jinho to personally acknowledge the fruits of her training.
“Impressive. As expected of my first disciple.”
At that moment—
Jinho’s calm voice echoed in Jiyoung’s ears.
“But it’s still not enough.”
CRACK!
The repeatedly amplified power of the barriers was torn apart to the sides.
UUUUUUUUNG!!
A ringing echoed in her ears.
If she relaxed even for a moment, she felt like she would vomit up the airplane meal she had eaten.
The pressure felt like every bone, muscle, and cell was being squeezed.
Jiyoung’s new method of utilizing her ability was that threatening.
—Why are you so surprised?
—I’ve never seen Vibration Barriers applied like this before.
—Not even in the future you experienced?
—Yeah.
Jinho conversed with Nyx through telepathy.
The Wall of Lamentation.
That title meant an insurmountable “wall.”
High Ranker Lee Jiyoung had strategically deployed barriers rather than taking the front line, controlling the flow of battle.
A method of ability usage he had never seen in the future.
It was easy to imagine how much Jiyoung had pondered and researched.
At the same time, he felt a spark of hope.
While some—like Rene Davis—adapted to the changing future in negative ways, there were also people like Jiyoung who wrote new histories.
However—
—That doesn’t mean I can go easy on her.
If she truly wanted to defeat him, she should have added more restrictions.
He simultaneously activated superhuman strength and dark aura.
Finding the intersection points of the amplifying vibrations, he blocked them with both hands.
How many times had he fought back-to-back with the Wall of Lamentation, High Ranker Lee Jiyoung?
Neutralizing Vibration Barriers by targeting their amplification points was nothing to him.
“H-How?!”
“Show me that confidence more often from now on.”
Stepping on the ground with his right foot, he released the earth energy he had drawn up.
[Earth Release – Earth Dragon Out of Water activated.]
A stone dragon surged from the ground, jaws gaping ferociously.
Jiyoung reinforced her defense by layering both shields, but—
Boom! Unable to withstand the stone dragon’s charge, she was sent flying backward.
“Kuhk!”
With a short scream, Jiyoung’s head drooped.
Though the barrier spread across the training ground absorbed most of the impact, even a fraction of the force behind Earth Dragon Out of Water had knocked her unconscious.
“Next.”
When he swept his gaze over the remaining guild members, they all avoided his eyes at once.