Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Hero
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Do-yoon headed to the position-specific classroom along with Sophie. Starting today, he would be attending the same unarmed combat class as her.
"Hey, it's Han Do-yoon."
"Huh? Why's he here? Didn't he use to take spearmanship?"
The cadets buzzed with murmurs.
The area around Do-yoon grew noisy. It was something he'd expected. Do-yoon simply kept walking forward, eyes fixed ahead.
Since the tournament, the way people looked at Do-yoon had changed dramatically.
The cadets whispered as they watched the two walking side by side.
"I heard he was coming to our class. Does that mean both the top cadet and the runner-up will be in our class now?"
"And the top spot isn't just any top spot. I saw his match—it was no joke."
Aside from a tiny fraction of the upper ranks who envied and resented Do-yoon, most welcomed his growth and success.
In the Cradle, where countless races gathered, many cadets keenly felt the wall of talent and grew frustrated.
To them, Do-yoon—a human, and one with a mana handicap at that—had won through sheer effort. He became an idol and a beacon of hope.
Of course, Sophie had subtly steered her faction of cadets to foster this atmosphere.
"This means Sophie's already powerful faction swallows up the top and runner-up spots too."
"Nah, it's Han Do-yoon taking over Sophie's faction. Can't you see it? They're husband and wife."
Moreover, by being the first to greet Do-yoon after he stepped down from the ring, Sophie had publicly claimed her position as his woman.
With Torn out of the picture, no one in the Cradle questioned the bond between Do-yoon and Sophie anymore.
There were plenty of female cadets who harbored crushes on Do-yoon, but none dared challenge Sophie. She was stronger than any other woman in the Cradle, both in skill and influence.
And among the cadets, misconceptions about Earthlings kept piling up.
"Han Do-yoon's from some dimension called Earth, right? What kind of place breeds monsters like that?"
"It's just like anywhere people live. I heard it doesn't even have mana—what do you expect?"
"You really don't think? Didn't you see him smash the reinforced plate on mana test day? If he can do that without mana, it must be a brutal survival-of-the-fittest world."
"Or maybe it's a world full of natural superhumans."
"Isn't Han Do-yoon just freakishly strong? I heard he was a Sword Saint back on Earth."
"...Sword Saint? What's that supposed to mean?"
Rumors snowballed, growing wilder with each retelling.
Unlike the instructors who had observed cadets over long years, the cadets had zero background knowledge on the dimension called Earth.
There were a few other Earthlings in this intake, but as a rare race with nothing noteworthy about them, hardly anyone knew they were Earthlings. In the eyes of innate races, humans from Earth or other dimensions were just weaklings who all looked the same.
Of course, Do-yoon—with his innate senses—heard every whisper. But he forced himself to ignore it.
His face burned a little, but there was nothing he could do.
If Sophie mobilized her faction, she could quash the rumors. But she had no intention of doing so. She enjoyed this momentum boosting Do-yoon's reputation.
And above all, she herself misunderstood Earth as a dimension of superhumans.
The two soon arrived at the training grounds for class.
"Welcome, Cadet Han Do-yoon! A heartfelt welcome! Haha! Hahahaha!"
The unarmed combat instructor welcomed Do-yoon with a grin so wide it reached his ears.
Instructors from other classes envied the unarmed combat instructor. His class usually suffered from a drought of talent, but this intake had both the top cadet and runner-up.
Above all, the top cadet was a Boss Monster Killer.
'Han Do-yoon. He's definitely the Boss Monster Killer.'
The unarmed fighter Hwang Bo-jun, a Boss Monster Killer, and the spirit sorcerer Salamander. They were the mentor of the current Alliance's strongest hero, the Holy King, and the father of the Lion King, respectively.
Boss Monster Killers were the strongest heroes after the Great Hero generation—and they produced the strongest heroes. In essence, they were pillars of the Alliance.
And now, a Boss Monster Killer had appeared again after decades.
Major guilds burned with ambition. Smaller and mid-sized guilds fretted that war might break out. It wasn't hyperbole; a Boss Monster Killer was worth that much.
But talent, as a resource, had unique properties that couldn't be seized by force alone. The guilds knew this well.
Instead of wars of steel, they prepared wars of gold. Soon, a bidding war would erupt over contract terms to recruit Han Do-yoon.
'And I need to stay sharp amid all that.'
The unarmed combat instructor steeled his resolve in every way.
He was one of the instructors sponsored by the World Tree guild, a prime candidate to take Do-yoon.
He vowed to ensure Do-yoon signed with the World Tree and secured the best possible terms.
Of course, he would respect Do-yoon's wishes first. He just planned to diligently play the mediator between guild and talent.
But not everything was rosy.
'...Things are about to get really annoying now.'
The atmosphere in the Cradle lately had been off. Centered around major guild instructors, the tension of the scouting war was palpable in the air.
Because of that, he was already nursing headaches in multiple ways.
"Ahem, ahem!"
"...You're back again?"
Speak of the devil—the unarmed combat instructor felt an unwelcome presence behind him.
It was the swordsmanship and spearmanship instructors, who persistently showed up every time.
Aware of their own shame, perhaps, they avoided the unarmed instructor's eyes and hemmed and hawed.
"Uh... We'd just like a quick word with Cadet Do-yoon..."
"Cadet Do-yoon said he has nothing to say. You heard it from him yourself."
"Things might be different now..."
"Haa..."
The unarmed combat instructor sighed and pinched his forehead.
It might seem rude before senior instructors, but they just cleared their throats awkwardly without retort. They knew they were being shameless.
These two couldn't let go of the treasure named Han Do-yoon and kept coming back.
Cadets from the other side said they were ending classes five minutes early every day lately. Pathetic.
"Please leave."
"Come on... You have both top and runner-up in your class. Don't be greedy—share a little. Huh?"
"They don't care about other cadets! Just let us talk to Han Do-yoon for a sec, just a sec!"
"Urgh...!"
It was always the same script. The unarmed instructor couldn't contain his rising blood pressure at the sound.
"The nerve...! Unarmed combat has suffered a talent drought all this time! And now we finally hit the jackpot once—greed!? How can you say that with a straight face!? You're going too far!"
"Hey, even so, hogging both top and runner-up is crossing the line, you punk! Especially with Han Do-yoon in the mix!"
"You have no right to say that! Han Do-yoon first chose spearmanship, and who kicked away that luck? Gotta be blinded by greed, tempting him to ditch fist arts for spear!"
"H-How do you...!"
"You stay out of it. Han Do-yoon uses sword and fists anyway—spear? You filming a comedy?"
"You leave too, senior!"
"Hey, you brat! After seeing that swordsmanship at the tournament, you still say that!? It was the most exquisite swordplay I've ever witnessed! Letting that talent rot in unarmed combat!? Han Do-yoon must come to swordsmanship!"
"He's a cadet who won't learn anything new wherever he goes anyway...!"
The commotion drew cadets' eyes to the entrance. It happened so often now that they just shrugged it off.
Do-yoon was the same. He sighed and focused back on Sophie's movements.
"Hmph!"
Sophie let out a strange grunt of focus as she unleashed a taut leg.
Kwachik!
A flawless high kick. The dummy's head shattered.
'As expected, feeding her the Vitality Pill despite the embarrassment was the right call.'
Do-yoon was immensely satisfied with the Vitality Pill's effects evident in Sophie's movements. The effort hadn't been wasted at all.
Sophie's kicks boasted needle-like sharpness from her Agility level 4, but the power behind them had always felt lacking.
This flaw stood out even more due to the shackle of Stamina level 1. Low stamina meant poor synergy between stats, so even her strength—Agility—couldn't shine fully.
But after Stamina reached level 4, the weakness was greatly mitigated. High stamina compensated for Strength and amplified Agility further.
Given Sophie's style, even raising her level 2 Strength to 5 wouldn't have yielded these results. The stamina elixir Vitality Pill had been perfectly timed serendipity for her.
Now, with just a little training under Do-yoon, she could serve as a proper Apostle out in the world.
Do-yoon shifted his gaze from Sophie and scanned the status windows of the other unarmed combat cadets.
But then, the commotion at the entrance grew louder.
"S-Senior...!"
"Hm? What're you doing here instead of your class?"
One instructor dashed into the training grounds. He was the unarmed combat instructor's assistant, a junior.
"The list of guild masters attending the inspection is out!"
"Oh, really? You ran all the way here just to tell me? I could've checked myself."
"W-Well... the list has..."
The assistant pulled a scroll from his robes and showed it to the instructors. The three scanned it from top to bottom.
"Whoa... It's stacked. Even the heavyweights showed up. Attendance wasn't this good at the kingdom summit."
"More importantly, the special note at the bottom!"
"Special note?"
The three instructors' eyes followed the assistant's finger downward.
They read the text, eyes widening in shock as they shouted.
"What the f...!"
"What's this guy doing coming here!?"
The swordsmanship instructor clutched his forehead and muttered in disbelief.
"Hah... The kingdom folks hyped up full guild master summons for info security pacts or whatever, and this is their big reveal...?"
"...In this case, guess the talent hunter guy's competent."
Do-yoon, listening to every word with his sharp senses, perked up with interest.
Sophie hadn't caught the details amid the noise and just asked Do-yoon curiously.
"Did something happen?"
"Yes. Something very intriguing."
"Huh? You can hear the content from this far?"
Wow... My hearing's pretty good too, but Earthlings really are different... she thought.
Do-yoon enhanced his hearing with mana and eavesdropped intently.
"No way that guy's got any justification to come here! The kingdom won't even stop him?"
"They'll make one up."
"Make one!? What justification does a hero from a neighboring country have to meddle in another nation's Cradle!?"
Two words lodged in Do-yoon's ears.
'Hero.'
It seemed he'd soon meet these so-called heroes for the first time.