The Monarch Who Levels Up by Devouring - Episode 375: The Wall That Must Be Overcome
Thump— Thump—
Even after absorbing the new energy, his heart continued to pulse vigorously.
No issues at all.
–Do you have any knowledge in the medical field as well?
“No. Just a gut feeling.”
He had already crossed halfway beyond the mortal coil. There was no way something like arrhythmia would trouble him.
Talking about a dragon dying from a heart attack. What nonsense.
–Just now you clearly said something about your heart…
“Hoo. All that tension made me hungry.”
–My lord!
“Let’s go eat.”
Absorbing the Holy Power had taken a lot out of him.
In times like these, nothing beat a good meal.
He kicked his chair back and stood up, then opened the door.
“Guild Master.”
“Hong Yunsu?”
Wait, why is my senior waiting right outside the door?
Behind Hong Yunsu stood the entire Team Yellow Storm.
Every single one of them was fully armed.
Did they schedule a gate raid or something?
But their expressions were far too grave for that.
“Why do you all look so tense? Did you call an emergency meeting with me at the top and everyone else below?”
Even his carefully prepared joke failed to draw the slightest change in their faces.
What the hell?
Did something serious actually happen?
As he racked his brain, a memory from before the regression suddenly surfaced.
His sister hadn’t been kidnapped again, had she?
“I have a favor to ask.”
“Have you located your sister’s position?”
“Yesul is at home.”
Oh.
I see.
Heh heh. You completely misread that one.
Do you have any idea what kind of life this man lived before the regression?
He went around crushing criminals in the name of avenging his sister, only to fall into a trap and get brutally killed.
Of course the moment he starts acting this serious, my mind jumps straight to his past life!
“Guild Master. By any chance, do you have feelings for Yesul…?”
“My preference is for older women.”
Don’t twist this into something weird!
He spoke firmly to cut off Hong Yunsu’s wild imagination.
Hooo. So that’s how it is.
Why is the Goddess reacting to this?
I don’t want to give even the slightest opening to a man whose eyes roll back the moment his sister is involved.
“Is that really true?”
“Yesul is a cute little sister. Just a sister.”
“Hmm. What a shame.”
***
Excuse me?
“I was joking.”
First the Goddess, now even Hong Yunsu. Cold sweat poured down his back.
“The truth is, I’d like to request training from you, Guild Master.”
“You mean PT?”
“It’s shameless of me to ask, but my team members were in the middle of a gate raid when the news came, so we only found out late.”
“That’s understandable. Didn’t I already give Team Yellow Storm full autonomy?”
“By proper procedure, we should apply for PT and wait our turn, but…”
“Come on, that’s for joint training. Guild member training is a separate matter.”
They were making such a big deal out of nothing.
Sigh.
I thought something huge had happened.
If they’re volunteering for training, that’s actually great.
The more training instructors, the better, right?
“Jiyoung and Ping Lei will be thrilled.”
“I must express my sincere gratitude for the cooperation of your guild members.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll be happy just to have Team Yellow Storm joining in.”
Of course they will.
These are the kind of friends who feel pure ecstasy every time they get to train someone new—helping them taste hell, I mean, grow stronger.
Absolutely.
It’s not like they’re venting their resentment from getting beaten by me by mercilessly tormenting the trainees.
What a shame. If those children had observed the session, they probably wouldn’t have asked for training.
Shh.
There’s a Korean saying: “Ignorance is bliss.”
Sometimes the truth, once revealed, only makes the heart heavier.
Just look at how passionate these guild members are.
It would be cruel to ruin the mood by telling them the truth.
“Oh, right. Team Leader. I have something for you.”
He held out the Swiftness skill book obtained from the 68th floor trial.
Hong Yunsu’s eyes trembled violently.
“S-something this precious?!”
“Swiftness is a skill perfectly suited for wind ability users.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if you used it yourself, Guild Master?”
“I have fewer than twenty wind skills.”
Thanks to Devour, he possessed over two hundred skills in total.
But even if he filtered only for wind-attribute ones, the conditions still wouldn’t be met.
“Even if they were, it wouldn’t suit me.”
“Hmm. It’s such a valuable skill book… I’m not sure if I should accept it.”
“I’ll make you work hard enough to match its value.”
“Feel free to use me as much as you like.”
Look at this guy.
Spouting lines he’s going to regret.
Did you hear that, Goddess?
You’re making me officially witness unnecessary things.
Even verbal contracts hold power.
While Hong Yunsu learned the Swiftness skill book, Jinho called in the guild members who would serve as training instructors.
It hadn’t been long since he called them.
The guild members gathered, all wearing bright red hats.
Their eyes gleamed with a predatory glint as they stared at the members of Team Yellow Storm.
“Kids. This isn’t the training ground.”
***
If their eyes are already rolling like that from the start, what are we supposed to do?
Let’s at least separate work from personal matters, kids.
That doesn’t sound like something the contractor should be saying.
Why not?
Where else would you find someone who separates public and private matters as cleanly as I do?
* * *
“Owl Number Seven!”
“Aaaaaagh!”
“You still have energy left, huh?!”
“Aaaagh!”
Team Yellow Storm had five members.
So why were there seven owls?
It was because Shin Junseok’s team had joined.
Five martial artist players from Team Mugeuk had additionally joined the training.
It would be too much of a hassle to run the session twice.
“Junior. You’re obviously including us too, right?”
When he casually mentioned Team Yellow Storm, Shin Junseok had immediately taken the bait.
“Of course. You’re the seniors who walked the path of martial arts long before me.”
“Haha. Hearing you say that, Junior, makes this old man feel rather embarrassed.”
Shin Junseok, who had been laughing awkwardly, was now.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Screaming at the top of his lungs in front of Ping Lei, his face flushed bright red.
“Do you think training is a joke?!”
“Aaaagh!”
“Perform Mana Twist one hundred times!”
“Agh!”
Wait a second.
After watching the training for a bit, he hurriedly stepped in.
A spark of hope flickered in Shin Junseok’s eyes.
It looked like he was expecting special treatment.
Nope.
Not happening.
There’s no favoritism just because you’re my senior.
“Owl Number Seven is an internal energy user. Understood?”
“Aaaaaagh!”
“For internal energy users, it’s not Mana Twist. It’s Internal Energy Twist.”
“Aaaaaagh!”
What’s the difference between Mana Twist and Internal Energy Twist?
Both pushed the user’s energy to the absolute limit.
However, while overdoing mana would only result in an exhaustion debuff, internal energy practitioners could fall into qi deviation if handled carelessly.
Which meant they needed to be trained with more delicacy.
“I, the head instructor, will personally… ahem, guide the internal energy user.”
The light of hope in his eyes quickly faded.
In its place rose a sticky emotion—resentment.
Now, now.
This is all for your sake, Senior.
A junior who cares about his senior should be understood, shouldn’t he?
“Owl Number Seven! Are you not performing the movements correctly?!”
***
“Aaaaaagh!”
It didn’t take long for the entire guild to hammer the movements into their heads and become excellent instructors.
* * *
After completing the brutal PT course.
Shin Junseok and Hong Yunsu washed up thoroughly and headed to a nearby bar.
“Hoo. Seriously. My teeth are grinding.”
“I feel like the sound of that damn whistle is permanently stuck in my ears.”
“Didn’t the program feel exactly like military field training?”
“I got a player exemption and never went to the military.”
At Hong Yunsu’s sharp reply, Shin Junseok awkwardly gulped down his beer.
“Krr. Now I feel a bit more alive.”
Hong Yunsu also brought the cup to his lips and took a sip.
“Boss, another round.”
One glass, two, then three.
While Shin Junseok downed 500cc glasses in one go.
Hong Yunsu across from him drank slowly, savoring each sip.
Their drinking styles were completely different.
However.
Despite the age gap and different environments, the two shared a deep friendship with Jinho as the bridge between them.
“This is it. That tingling carbonation hitting the throat!”
“You’re supposed to savor the taste of beer.”
“My friend, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Downing it in one shot is the best way to enjoy beer.”
The two men bickered back and forth about the proper way to drink beer, but at some point, the playful expressions on their faces vanished completely.
“How was the training effect?”
“My reaction speed increased by about thirty percent.”
Hong Yunsu opened his palm.
Whiiiir—
A violent whirlwind spun fiercely above his hand.
The flow was intense enough to be visible to the naked eye.
It rotated at terrifying speed, yet not a single breeze stirred inside the bar.
Proof that he had achieved perfect control over the flow of air.
“Compressing it that much in just 0.5 seconds.”
Shin Junseok muttered in admiration.
There were three teams under the Yeokcheon Guild.
The direct team that Jinho had personally built through hard work, Team Yellow Storm, and Team Mugeuk.
The direct team, led by first disciple Lee Jiyoung, often moved together with Jinho.
The later additions, Mugeuk and Yellow Storm, naturally ended up working together frequently.
That was also when these two had grown close.
They raided gates together.
And because they sparred whenever they had time, the moment Shin Junseok saw the compressed wind, he could immediately tell how much Hong Yunsu had improved.
“I gained quite a lot myself.”
The cup floating gently in the air.
“It’s become incredibly smooth.”
“After receiving this training, releasing my internal energy has become much easier.”
Shin Junseok, who had already broken through several walls to reach the Harmonization realm.
Upon entering the realm of Ganggi Sangin, he could now move objects using internal energy without lifting a finger.
It was a technique known as Air Grasping.
***
“Before, I would have shattered the cup instantly.”
“Indeed. Your internal energy control has become that refined.”
Air Grasping itself didn’t have much practical use in real combat.
It was almost useless against enemies of similar level.
It also consumed a considerable amount of internal energy.
It was occasionally used to retrieve a dropped weapon.
But since Shin Junseok’s hands and feet were his weapons, he rarely had any need for Air Grasping.
“The important thing is that my internal energy control has become this smooth.”
Training alone didn’t increase his stats.
He hadn’t consumed any spiritual medicine either.
If his ability scores had risen, that would have been even stranger.
“In this training, I gained something more important than visible specs.”
Shin Junseok was certain.
Through this training, the ‘wall’ that had been blocking his path had become clearly visible.
He couldn’t cross it immediately.
The next realm was the Profound realm.
Both his body training and total internal energy were still insufficient.
There were still many hurdles to overcome before reaching Profound.
But simply recognizing the wall was a massive step forward.
“Junseok. If I told you to take this training again, could you handle it?”
“That sounds like you’re picking a fight.”
“It’s just a figure of speech. You love harsh training, don’t you?”
“The effect was definite, but I’ll have to decline a second round.”
Really.
The way they precisely identified the limits of a person and pushed them exactly to that point—there was no better word than demonic.
The head instructor Jinho and the rotten Ping Lei were one thing.
But even kind-hearted people like Jiyoung charged their eyes with full malice and pushed them so hard it was unbearable.
Still, the results were undeniable.
“If it hadn’t been effective, I would’ve cursed out our junior.”
“Just what kind of mind could come up with such a horrifying training curriculum?”
“Who knows. Our junior’s perspective is so broad that I can’t even guess.”
The more painful it was, the stronger they became.
Even though the two men grumbled together, neither regretted receiving the training.
“RP in the 1,500 range. We might actually be able to break through it.”
The average RP for both Yellow Storm and Mugeuk was around 1,300.
Considering that the average for Earth-side players was below 1,000, that was an incredibly high figure.
Hong Yunsu chewed loudly on dried squid as he replied.
“Isn’t that goal a bit too high, my friend?”
“Our junior is currently maintaining the 2,000 range. Still, shouldn’t we at least reach 1,500 to save face?”
“Especially after we trained like dogs.”
RP 1,500.
In the World Tree Alliance, that was the level of the elite royal guard.
The two men didn’t know this, but.
Before the regression, among Earth-affiliated players, those who had surpassed 1,500 on the 60th floor and above were extremely rare—countable on one hand.
The future was changing due to Jinho’s intervention.
It was a goal that would have been considered impossible in his previous life.
Yet the standard of these two, who had endured such brutal training, had risen that much.
The future timeline was diverging from the one before the regression.
The seeds Jinho had sown were quietly sprouting in places unseen.