Week 5 Mentoring, PvP (13)
— Fwoooosh!
A small pillar of flame blazed fiercely before Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes. At its heart, an ingot with a deep black sheen was melting away, ever so slowly, from the outside in, and her gaze kept drifting helplessly back to it. The sulky pout, the arms crossed over her chest, the one foot drumming against the floor — every part of her laid bare exactly how she felt.
'Rank. Why. Won't. You. Go. Up.'
It had been three days since she'd been swept along by Kim Ho's suggestion and started smelting the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron alloy in the Blacksmith Workshop. And through it all, Aqua Flame hadn't budged an inch from E-rank — same as ever. Granted, even Hong Yeon-hwa knew that skill ranks didn't climb overnight; if they did, the whole world would be crawling with S-rank heroes. But there were such things as reasonable expectations. E-rank sat a single step above F, practically the very first stage — growth was supposed to be fastest there, if anywhere. Factor in all the effort she'd poured into the trait over the years, and she'd expected a rank-up within a day or two at most. Yet here it was, day three, without so much as a whisper. Impatience was giving way to darker thoughts raising their heads.
'Have I been played?'
What if the promise to raise her trait's rank had been a lie? What if all he'd really wanted was her fire magic on call? What if his plan from the very start had been to use her as a portable furnace — and while she stood here sweating, Kim Ho himself was off somewhere resting easy? The moment the thought finished forming, a crushing wave of futility washed over Hong Yeon-hwa.
Her free time had already shrunk thanks to mentoring, and what little remained of it she was now spending in a corner of a smithy. She had endured all of this on the sheer conviction that her trait would finally grow — and the instant that conviction looked like a fool's errand, her motivation drained away at a dizzying pace.
'Maybe I should just quit.'
Hong Yeon-hwa tallied it up from the beginning, point by point. Kim Ho had never signed any contract with her; he had simply appeared out of nowhere, announced that he'd show her how to grow her trait, and put her to work however he pleased. It was on her, too, for trotting after him like a duckling! But even now, it wasn't too late.
'What could he even say if I told him I don't want to do it anymore?'
But the instant a vision of Kim Ho's frosty face flashed across her mind, Hong Yeon-hwa shuddered with a chill. Everything she'd witnessed whenever their paths had crossed: punching clean through her fire magic, hurling Baek Jun-seok flat onto the ground, plucking a twin troll's hand-axe out of midair and flinging it back like it weighed nothing... If she said she refused to do it anymore, what on earth would happen to her?
She shook her head furiously to shake the thought loose. Whatever might happen, the answer was still no.
'Right. I quit.'
Her resolve hardened all the more. And just as she raised a hand to dismiss the flame pillar, a notification blinked to life in the corner of her vision.
The rank of Aqua Flame has increased. (E → D)
"Huh...?"
For a long moment, Hong Yeon-hwa could only stare at it, wide-eyed and dumbstruck.
'It... it actually worked...?'
Then her stalled mind lurched back into gear, and a torrent of emotions crashed over her all at once. The elation and relief of finally breaking through the Aqua Flame wall that no amount of effort had ever dented. The conviction, and the thrill riding on it, that this method could carry her past D-rank — and higher still. And beneath it all, gratitude toward Kim Ho.
"Ahem. Ahem."
Embarrassment came hot on the heels of that gratitude, and Hong Yeon-hwa descended into a fit of pointless throat-clearing. He had shared the method out of a pure desire to help, had even handed her the chance to use priceless materials — and she had repaid it by doubting him, leaping to the worst conclusions.
'To be fair, he is a little scary... but he doesn't seem like a bad person.'
From now on, she resolved, she would be that much more cooperative with him. Her wrist flicked as she cast Fire Pillar, brimming with renewed vigor, and the crisper, more vivid flames devoured the ingot in short order.
— Fwoooooosh!
Sunday.
Hong Yeon-hwa arrived at the Arena at the appointed hour to make her final attempt at the sticker PvP. As she neared the ring, she found Kim Ho already there waiting; sensing her presence, he turned his head slowly. The moment their eyes met, he came right out with it.
"Your rank went up."
"How did you know!?"
Hong Yeon-hwa jolted and shot back the question. She hadn't told a soul yet. Had he planted a scrying orb in the workshop or something? Kim Ho answered as if it were nothing at all.
"It's written all over your face."
'My face?'
Hong Yeon-hwa spun around, fished out a hand mirror, and turned it this way and that to study her reflection. Then her brow creased slightly.
'...Looks exactly the same to me.'
She couldn't spot a single difference from usual. Of course, she was the only one who couldn't; everyone around her had caught on long ago. The girl who had spent the entire week looking half-dead had been wandering around since yesterday with the corners of her mouth permanently curled up in a quiet grin. Nothing short of very good news could produce so sudden a change — and Kim Ho, who had kept close tabs on her movements all week, needed no time at all to guess what that "good news" was: a trait rank-up.
"The ingot should be fully melted by the time you reach C-rank."
"Oh?"
A faint shadow of disappointment crossed Hong Yeon-hwa's face at that. Just recently she had asked the Blacksmith Club president, ever so offhandedly, and learned that the ingot was an alloy of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron and Black Mithril. Even having learned how to grow her trait, chances to lay hands on metal that high-grade wouldn't come around often — and once the ingot was gone, her growth would stall again for the foreseeable future.
'Still, C-rank is nothing to scoff at.'
Until just days ago she hadn't even been able to crack D. Being greedy wouldn't conjure up more opportunities; far better to look on the bright side.
Kim Ho let the conversation die there, his gaze drifting toward the ring, and Hong Yeon-hwa looked the same way to pass the time. A semi-transparent barrier shrouded the arena floor — a wall in all but name — but it made for a fine chance to collect her thoughts. What soon rose to the surface was the Song Cheon-hye and Gwak Ji-cheol pair, facing their PvP one step ahead of her.
'I wonder how many they'll peel.'
The close-quarters sparring against Dang Gyu-young was scheduled one person at a time, so the group's members rarely crossed paths — which meant she had no way of knowing how much Song Cheon-hye and Gwak Ji-cheol had grown over the week. But if she had to guess, she doubted they'd improved faster than she had.
'One? Or two?'
"Gwaaagh!"
Right at that moment, Gwak Ji-cheol came flying out of the ring with a strangled scream — the safety enchantment had ruled him combat-incapable and thrown him out. Hong Yeon-hwa regarded the spectacle with contemptuous eyes.
'He hasn't changed a bit since Monday.'
After a week's worth of those hellish one-on-one bouts, even his toughness should have hardened somewhat, but judging by how quickly he'd been launched, he looked no different from day one. Was he actually making any progress at all?
Song Cheon-hye, by contrast, emerged through the teleportation circle a good while later. Compared to Monday, when she had followed Gwak Ji-cheol out practically on his heels, this time she had held out alone for quite a stretch.
"..."
Song Cheon-hye didn't spare a single glance for Gwak Ji-cheol, sprawled on the floor groaning, as she walked on. He had failed in his duty as a teammate and retired early — of course she wasn't pleased. As she passed, her eyes met Hong Yeon-hwa's, and for a brief moment the two exchanged frosty looks, though neither said a word. Song Cheon-hye was just about to brush past Kim Ho as well when—
"Song Cheon-hye."
"What do you need?"
"Let's have a word."
Song Cheon-hye gave a small nod of assent, and the two of them walked off to a quiet corner of the stands where foot traffic was thin. Hong Yeon-hwa watched them go with an odd look in her eyes.
'What's the deal with those two?'
That pairing had caught her completely off guard. All she knew was that Kim Ho had dodged his match against Song Cheon-hye during the placement exam. He would surely have won had they actually fought — why he had abstained remained an unsolved riddle to this day. She'd assumed that was the beginning and end of their connection, but watching them talk alone together, apparently not. Her curiosity swelled and grew, and she kept stealing sidelong glances at the pair.
"......!"
"......!"
They were too far away for even mana-sharpened hearing to catch anything, so the content of the conversation was lost on her — but from the way they carried themselves, she could take a fair stab at the relationship.
'Doesn't look like they're close.'
Even when Kim Ho had first approached her, Song Cheon-hye had looked like she was being dragged into it, and even now, mid-conversation, her face stayed frozen stiff. And then there was the matter of who held the reins: every time Kim Ho lazily lobbed out a remark, Song Cheon-hye would either snap back at it or tremble with barely leashed fury. Well — it was hard to imagine that human monster ever being the one floundering. He even traded words with the third-year seniors like it was nothing.
Then, without warning, Song Cheon-hye pointed in Hong Yeon-hwa's direction. Hong Yeon-hwa flinched and looked away.
'Are they talking about me?'
What in the world could the two of them be discussing that would bring her into it? Her curiosity doubled on the spot. She was still debating creeping closer to catch a word or two when the conversation ended; Song Cheon-hye snapped her head away hard enough to whip up a cold gust, then marched off to sit in the stands.
'Ugh, I'm dying to know...'
Should she ask, breezy as you please, in passing? It seemed to concern her, so surely it wouldn't be strange to ask? Hong Yeon-hwa went back and forth on it, but with the other party being Kim Ho, she couldn't quite summon the nerve. And then, of all things, Kim Ho came over to her first and opened his mouth.
"I asked how many stickers those two have."
So that was what Song Cheon-hye had been saying moments ago when she pointed at her — something about the sticker PvP. It was exactly what Hong Yeon-hwa had been aching to find out, and she could only be grateful he'd offered it up.
"What did they say? How many?"
"Couldn't peel a single one."
Three attempts, all spent, and not one sticker to show for it? This week's PvP really was monstrously difficult. She had thought it plenty of times already, but demanding that mages suddenly fight up close was a brutal ask to begin with. Then again, whose fault was that? If she wanted someone to blame, it was herself for choosing the path of an All-Rounder mage.
Either way, with Song Cheon-hye and Gwak Ji-cheol closing out the week at zero, that meant one thing.
'One. If I can peel just one.'
—she would stand above them. Hong Yeon-hwa's pulse quickened, half with excitement, half with worry. Three might be beyond her, but a single one... And yet — could she actually pull it off? Even one didn't feel easy.
'No. I have to make it happen.'
Hong Yeon-hwa drew one deep, steadying breath and stilled her heart. When she glanced sideways, Kim Ho answered with a small nod, and together they stepped onto the teleportation circle.
Inside the Circular Colosseum, Dang Gyu-young stood in her usual spot, perfectly at ease — so relaxed that, at a glance, she seemed utterly defenseless. But Hong Yeon-hwa knew better, having been on the receiving end more times than she could count. The moment battle was joined, that unguarded posture would leave not the faintest opening to exploit. And standing right beside her was one more person who never showed so much as a crack. Thankfully, this week that person was on her side.
Kim Ho's gaze met hers just then, and he said one short thing.
"Same as yesterday."
Do it however you like — unfold everything you have, and I'll shape my support around it.
The words settled over Hong Yeon-hwa like a strange sense of reassurance. Ordinarily, Kim Ho unnerved her just by standing nearby — but in this one moment, shoulder to shoulder with him against a formidable opponent, no one could have felt more solid to lean on.
'I can do this.'
Hong Yeon-hwa gave the wand in her hand a light twirl, and a round magic circle inscribed itself beneath her feet. The spell it conjured next poured into her body without a drop going to waste.
Fire Pillar
Overheat
— Fwoooosh!
Vivid flames swept over Hong Yeon-hwa from head to toe.
[91] The Support Eats It All