Difference in Level
“Let’s begin.”
As Gu Jinwoo laid his palm on the water that had risen to waist height,
Hssss.
The surface trembled, and gentle ripples began to spread.
It was a movement unlike a violently crashing wave. It flowed slowly, at measured intervals, and the water swayed as though it were alive and breathing.
Paht. Paht. Paht.
Between those ripples, droplets imbued with mana were born one by one.
Paht!
They were by no means ordinary water.
Swswswsw-
The droplets wriggled, gradually taking shape, and before long they had transformed into figures identical to Gu Jinwoo himself.
Not just shape, but color and body temperature as well, reproduced perfectly.
An ability of the highest caliber when it came to duplication.
“Kang Juhyuk, I’ll show you why I’m called one of the disasters of the Republic of Korea.”
Gu Jinwoo threw himself forward as if diving into the water.
Plunk!
At the same time, the copies did the same.
Plunk! Plunk! Plunk!
Watching it, Juhyuk smiled.
“Oh?”
So he can use his head.
The bastard knew.
A direct confrontation wouldn’t let him block my attacks.
So he’d chosen a method like this.
He had figured out that my awakening was the body-enhancement type. He’d decided I couldn’t handle a large number all at once, and now he was trying to force me down with tactics instead of brute force.
Not a bad judgment.
No matter who I was, I couldn’t handle them all at once.
But.
I wasn’t like ordinary body-enhancement users.
Kang Juhyuk pulled a blue stone from his pocket.
It was a mana stone he had obtained after killing the boss of an A-Class gate not long ago.
I was going to sell it fresh at the Hunter Auction when I had time and make a tidy profit.
Guess I’d have to use it once and then sell it used instead.
“Gu Jinwoo, I’ll specially show you the difference in level.”
Plunk.
Juhyuk dipped the hand holding the mana stone into the water.
No one present could understand why.
What the hell is he trying to do with a mana stone?
Everyone was still puzzled when,
Kwa-rururururu!
the mana stone began sucking up the water like a drainage pump.
“?!”
“?!”
Everyone watching froze in shock.
The mana stone they knew was nothing more than a support tool that strengthened the user’s mana flow.
You can even use it like that?
Yi Myeon, from the White Tiger Guild, stared with her mouth hanging open, unable to close it.
She had mana stones of her own, too.
But she had never once seen them used like this.
Shwaaaa!
As the mana stone greedily drank up more and more water, Gu Jinwoo’s true body and his copies, hidden beneath the surface, all sprang upward at once.
Paht!
It was less than a second, but Juhyuk had already counted them all.
Twenty.
Gu Jinwoo had staked everything on this single strike.
He’d overused his mana to create this moment. He’d spent so much that his presence was nearly impossible to feel, even at close range.
I get what he was trying to do.
It was dangerous.
He had to admit that it was the best play available to the man.
However.
It was an absurdly reckless plan.
Gu Jinwoo’s ability was derived from the Great Sage Gregory.
An ability that borrowed the help of a water spirit.
But if he couldn’t control his mana, danger came with it in equal measure.
The higher the level of power the user employed, the greater the constraints the spirit demanded in return.
And besides.
The plan Gu Jinwoo was trying against me was the same technique Gregory had used when he first faced me.
Thud-thud-thud-thud- Paht!
Twenty Gu Jinwoos leaped at once.
Juhyuk didn’t like the current situation, but he had no intention of making trouble any worse. He wanted to end this as quietly as possible.
I’m still eating, so I’d rather not see anything nasty.
He had no choice but to end it without killing him.
With that thought, Juhyuk adjusted his stance.
The real body is obvious.
The one in the safest position of the bunch.
He found it in an instant, then took the lid off a bottle of makgeolli from his pocket and flicked it lightly with his finger.
Spinning in the air, it came right back into his hand, which he shot forward and casually snapped out.
Whoosh!
Kang Juhyuk’s target was one of the twenty Gu Jinwoos.
The one hiding himself while the others rushed Juhyuk all at once.
No matter how high you jump, you’re still in the palm of my hand.
Thwack!
The Gu Jinwoo at the very back took the makgeolli cap square in the face.
“Ghk!”
At that moment, the other twenty Gu Jinwoos leaped like frogs and surrounded Kang Juhyuk.
Wiiiiing.
Their bodies erupted in brilliant light, and then
Kuaaahhh-
they exploded.
Bang!
* * *
The instant Gu Jinwoo’s clones detonated, a towering pillar of water shot upward.
It was more than twice the height of the villa Juhyuk lived in.
The force was so immense that all the nearby cars were flung aside, the fire hydrant anchored in the ground was ripped free and sent spraying water into the air, and a utility pole tilted sideways, sending electricity surging through the floodwater.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
No one could get close.
Only Kang Juhyuk walked through water that had receded to shin height, lifted the collapsed Gu Jinwoo, and slung him over his shoulder.
“This bastard is a real pain in the ass.”
Unlike Gu Jinwoo, who had been reduced to a mangled wreck, Juhyuk looked completely unharmed.
Watching them, Yi Myeon swallowed hard.
This is insane.
He survived an explosion that powerful?
No, it wasn’t just that he survived.
He didn’t even have a scratch on him, not even a single hair out of place.
What kind of ability did he use?
No one there knew the answer except Kang Juhyuk.
Not the White Tiger Guild members hiding in the shadows who had witnessed him from close by, nor Choi Junhyuk and Lee Minho, who had been watching the fight from above.
Not even the residents of the villa.
“Hm?”
Juhyuk looked at the cracked Hahoe mask, through which a face could just barely be seen, then smiled faintly and fitted the broken pieces back into place.
I thought the guy’s speech sounded a little sloppy for a Korean.
So he was a foreigner after all.
He couldn’t see the details because the face was hidden behind the mask, but he had thought the skin visible through the gaps looked awfully dark.
Juhyuk let out a long, unconscious sigh, then walked toward the White Tiger Guild members and muttered under his breath.
“Your plan using feints and gaps was good. But if your opponent’s awakened body is strong enough to withstand explosions, then that kind of method is reckless, so don’t do it again.”
Juhyuk scratched the bridge of his nose and went on.
“Ah! Of course, you couldn’t have known my body was this tough, haha!”
If Minho had seen this, he probably would have clicked his tongue in irritation.
Uncle, stop giving unsolicited advice. That’s just a total old-man nuisance!
“And your ability’s biggest strength is using the terrain. When you’re fighting someone around your level or stronger, you should look for a better place.”
The young old man, Kang Juhyuk.
He didn’t stop talking.
“Still, attacking on a day with this much rain was smart. You can replenish water on the fly and keep fighting. Honestly, if I’d fought you in a place like an aquarium, it probably would’ve been fun.”
He meant that sincerely.
“You’re not perfect, but someone with your level has enough potential to join a hero party. Too bad you ended up working with villains.”
Juhyuk slowly lowered Gu Jinwoo to the ground and leaned him against the wall.
He’d shown him enough to make it clear what happened if he came at Juhyuk, and he’d spared his life, so there was no need to go looking for revenge.
If our guild doesn’t hit White Tiger tonight.
White Tiger had already said they’d throw pride away and apologize.
I should talk it over with the master later, slowly and properly.
There was no need to force a pointless fight.
“Hey, take this guy with you.”
When Juhyuk gestured, Yi Myeon and two hunters carefully stepped forward and carried Gu Jinwoo away.
* * *
“Is everything you just told me true?”
Kim Jaegyu, the head of the NIS Second Branch, asked in disbelief.
“Yes. After roughly ten minutes of combat, Kang Juhyuk subdued the hunter Gu Jinwoo. He was then handed over to the White Tiger Guild members.”
Gu Jinwoo was one of the hunters known as the Seven Calamities of the Republic of Korea.
An existence with a strange power that no nation, no law, and not even a guild could suppress.
He possessed such overwhelming combat strength that he could subdue disaster-class monsters alone, and the mere news of his appearance would trigger chaos like a natural disaster, which was why people called him a calamity.
And Kang Juhyuk took him down all by himself?
It was unbelievable.
Not only had he handled the A-Class monster earlier, and not only had he arrested Kim Honggyeom, an A+ rank hunter, but now he had subdued a being called a calamity.
Kang Juhyuk’s reports always go beyond anything I can imagine.
The news Choi Junhyuk had brought wasn’t limited to that.
A new discovery for humanity.
Mana stones, the loot obtained from killing monsters.
Up until now, everyone had thought they were merely devices that amplified mana.
“What? Juhyuk’s mana stone has a special power?”
“Yes, sir. Mr. Juhyuk stated his intent to sell the mana stone on the spot, so we immediately purchased it. He also explained exactly how to use it.”
“……”
“This one is a mana stone with the unique skill of the Giant Turtle.”
Junhyuk handed over a blue mana stone about the size of a fist.
“If you pour mana into the mana stone in your hand, it begins to swallow up the surrounding water. Then it can manifest the skill with power proportional to the amount absorbed.”
Kim Jaegyu tilted his head and sent his own mana into the stone.
Swsw.
The surface is sparkling.
But that reaction was no different from any other mana stone.
Not just the NIS, but the Hunter Association had also spent years researching mana stones and how to use them.
After decades of work, the conclusion they had reached was that they were little more than accessories that amplified an artifact user’s mana.
The amount of mana increase varied by size, but mana stones were scarce worldwide and expensive enough that they were not items just anyone could use.
“So I’m supposed to pour water on it?”
Choi Junhyuk gave a short nod.
He gestured to the hunters who had come with him, and a bespectacled man of small stature brought a bucket brimming with water over to Kim Jaegyu.
Thunk.
“Please put it in.”
Jaegyu set the mana stone in without hesitation.
Plunk.
And in just a few seconds, everyone in the room went wide-eyed.
“?!”
Kwa-rurururur!
The mana stone began to churn and swallow the water in the bucket.
Shwaaa-
Then, in an instant, the water vanished as if it had evaporated.
Kim Jaegyu lifted the mana stone that remained alone in the bucket.
Gulp.
“…And how do you use it?”
“Just infuse mana into the mana stone again.”
It was absurdly simple.
Infuse mana.
Make it swallow water.
Then infuse mana again.
Anyone who isn’t an idiot could do that.
Of course, the condition was that you had to be able to use mana, but weren’t all hunters and awakeners able to do that?
How did we fail to find something this easy until now?
When Kim Jaegyu breathed mana into the stone as though pouring it in,
Shwaaa!
the mana stone activated and suddenly formed an Aqua Shield with a turtle-shell pattern.
“!!”
He cautiously reached out to touch it.
It was as solid and unyielding as a shield made of steel.
And unlike a normal mana shield, it enveloped the entire body rather than a specific part, making it far more useful in battle.
“Are the other mana stones used like this too?”
When Kim Jaegyu asked,
Choi Junhyuk shook his head.
“No. Mr. Kang Juhyuk said that the method is different for each mana stone.”
“How did Mr. Juhyuk learn how to use mana stones?”
Even after the scientists of the world had spent decades researching them, they hadn’t found a way.
“He didn’t answer that.”
“……”
“And not all of them, but he said that as long as he knows which monster produced it, he can explain most of them himself.”
Jaegyu’s face flushed red.
Ten years? Twenty? No, it had been more than thirty years since anything had excited him like this.
What an incredible event this is!
For the first time in the world, they had figured out how to use mana stones.
And in the Republic of Korea, which was called a backwater for hunters, no less.
That meant Kang Juhyuk had opened the path to turning Korea into the strongest hunter nation in the world.
Kim Jaegyu raised his head and looked at the Taegeukgi hanging in a frame on the wall.
“What are his conditions?”
“Three, sir.”
“Three?”
“Yes. First, pay him money appropriate to the information. Second, don’t bother him. Third, guarantee the safety of his younger brother, Lee Minho.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
To think he would share such priceless information for so little.
Kim Jaegyu gave a short nod, then smiled with a cigarette between his lips.
“From now on, if Kang Juhyuk asks for something, give him everything he wants.”
“……”
“This isn’t just for our NIS. It’s for the future of the Republic of Korea.”
“…Understood.”