Chapter 30
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Approaching Darkness (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Ah, it's so boring. The girls just come in every time like, 'It's an honor to meet you, Matriarch!' 'Yes!' 'Understood!' 'Thank you!' That kind of stuff. I never even told them to do that. But the kids are so serious when they greet me, I can't joke around with them, so I end up getting serious too... Ugh."
"...Yes."
She's been talking to herself for a full hour already.
Yoon Ji-yeon must have been bored before I arrived, because she was unloading all the stories she'd bottled up.
"It's no fun. The daughters, I mean. If they never get a boyfriend their whole lives, they have nothing to talk about. I'm curious about that stuff! Ugh... Ah, I want a boyfriend...! My dying wish was to kiss someone before I go. Ah. But that doesn't mean I want to do it with you."
"I know..."
"...Ugh. Anyway. So, you deployed the mid-grade Mana Manual? That means you succeeded at breaking the rock?"
She was finally getting to the main point.
I jumped up from my seat and clenched my fist.
"Ah, yes! Want me to show you?"
"...Sure. Whatever. Show me."
Yoon Ji-yeon replied indifferently.
I stood in front of the rock and cast Mana Hyper-Condensation.
Kwajik!
With a deafening crack, the rock shattered into pieces.
I turned to her triumphantly, smirking.
But Yoon Ji-yeon frowned.
"Ha? Are you getting cocky about this? Wow. You've just taken your first steps."
"What? No way, how is this just first steps? It's way more than that. Like, a full-on sprint?"
Yoon Ji-yeon let out a short sigh and approached, hands in her pockets.
She came right up to my face and looked up at me.
I tilted my head back slightly.
"Fine. Let me explain why this is just first steps. Stick your fingers out."
"Fingers out...?"
I parroted back and extended my fingers.
Yoon Ji-yeon created a flame on her finger and drew a circle.
Then, with her other hand, she drew a triangle the same way.
Like a fire finger dance, a clear circle and triangle formed.
"Can you do this?"
"What? That's easy."
I confidently moved my fingers.
It required using both sides of my brain at once, so I failed the first few tries, but I finally succeeded.
I grinned at her.
"How's that?"
"Oh ho. Smirking? Try this then."
This time, she made a circle and triangle with one hand.
Her right index finger drew the circle.
Her right middle finger drew the triangle.
"Khmm...!"
The difficulty had jumped.
I cleared my throat and focused.
Creating two different shapes with one hand wasn't easy at all.
Whenever I thought I'd succeeded with one finger, the other would draw the same shape.
I kept trying, but no luck.
"Tsk tsk."
Yoon Ji-yeon clicked her tongue and drew shapes with all ten fingers.
All different shapes, too.
From stars to hearts, even a poop shape.
"I can do it with my toes too. Want to see?"
"No thanks."
I awkwardly averted my gaze.
'...She's impressive.'
A fleeting thought crossed my mind: Does this woman have ten brains?
Yoon Ji-yeon continued drawing shapes as she spoke.
"This training is for simultaneously casting two or more attribute magics. I developed it myself."
"Two or more attribute magics...?"
"Yeah. Watch closely."
The shapes, previously made of just flames, suddenly shifted to various attributes.
Wind, earth, lightning, water, ice, light—each boasting different colors.
"Whoa..."
I couldn't help but be genuinely amazed.
It was like watching a circus show.
Yoon Ji-yeon was probably the only mage who could wield ten attributes at once.
She giggled smugly.
"Impressive, right? Amazing. Mind-blowing. You wanna be like me. This is me."
"...It is impressive..."
I almost clapped without thinking.
Yoon Ji-yeon canceled her magic and crossed her arms.
"When you can handle at least five of these, you'll move to the next stage. Oh, heads up—this'll probably be harder than breaking the rock."
"...I can tell just watching."
"Idiot. Your physical condition might be top-notch, but your magic is still at the Yoon Family middle school level. Ah, what was that kid's name... Whatever. Anyway, the current matriarch learned this over three years in middle school."
The current matriarch could only be Yoon Soo-ah, the eldest sister of Yoon Ah-young and Yoon So-hyun.
An S-Rank Hunter and the world's greatest mage.
A technique she'd mastered in just three years.
Of course it would be tough.
"Alright then. Shall we start training?"
She summoned multiple summoning circles at once.
Each was red, blue, brown, white, and yellow.
Kugugugu-.
A faint earthquake rumbled as golems of different attributes appeared in each circle.
Flame Golem, Water Golem, Earth Golem, Snow Golem, Thunder Golem.
"If you don't take them all down simultaneously with their matching attributes, the golems will turn you into mincemeat. You'll probably get beaten half to death. And I'll be laughing at it."
"...Wait, hold on."
"I'll just watch. Do your best. Oh, and like last time, physical attacks won't work."
"Master?"
No sooner had Yoon Ji-yeon finished than the golems lumbered toward me.
I immediately cast Fire.
Hwaruruk!
It hit the Snow Golem.
The Snow Golem melted away powerlessly.
You must defeat them simultaneously using all five attributes.
As expected, ineffective.
The Snow Golem respawned.
The five golems surrounded me again.
"...Hold on a sec."
Kugung! Gung!
The golems started pounding me excitedly, like grinding sesame seeds for rice cakes.
"Kekekeke! Good! Good! Harder! Harder!"
And Yoon Ji-yeon laughed at the sight.
"...Tae-hyun. Is something wrong?"
Ah-young asked me worriedly.
I answered in a half-dead voice.
"No... Nothing..."
"...Good. That's a relief..."
In truth, the mental toll was huge.
I'd endured near-death agony dozens of times.
Just yesterday, I got smashed by the golems 23 times.
I'd barely reached the point of handling three at once, but four was my wall.
I'd withstood all sorts of hardcore training before, but this one had me raising both hands in surrender.
Failure meant pain close to death.
Even during class, I fiddled with my fingers to make shapes on the sly.
The more complex the shape, the harder it was.
At first, I succeeded in making four shapes with two hands.
Then Yoon Ji-yeon, who was scratching her belly, turned around.
Because of that, I had to start from scratch.
After class, I asked Ah-young.
"You. Can you make shapes with all five fingers?"
"Huh? Oh. Did you start the mid-grade Mana Manual already?"
Yoon Ah-young drew the shapes more easily than I'd expected.
As expected of a genius.
Ah-young nodded, giving me a look of sympathy.
"I know, right... It's brutal."
"...You..."
For the first time, I felt a sense of camaraderie about class.
If Yoon Ah-young had cleared up to mid-grade, she'd been through all this too.
She suddenly seemed even more amazing.
I moved my fingers again.
"Right. Tae-hyun. Have you picked a sparring partner yet?"
"Sparring...? Oh, tomorrow?"
"Yeah. It counts toward evaluation, so be careful."
"Have you?"
I kept making shapes as I asked.
Ah-young pondered for a moment before answering.
"Hmm... Not sure. I can't decide."
Meaning she had plenty of opponents but couldn't choose.
Thinking about it, sparring with heirs from the 20 great families was invaluable experience.
It was bittersweet.
"I see. No one's asked me."
"Huh?? No way. You're rank 29... Ah. You don't check Messenger, do you?"
"Messenger?"
Come to think of it, Hunter Network had a messenger for cadets to communicate.
After regression, I'd checked it early on but stopped since it didn't seem helpful for training.
I logged into Hunter Network.
You have 1,584 unread messages.
"Whoa... What the?"
Ah-young leaned in curiously to look too.
A ton of cadets had sent me personal messages, from recent ones back to old.
Most were invitations to study groups or trades to benefit the class.
'202 from Irina. Crazy.'
I hadn't replied once, yet she kept sending steadily. She must have nothing better to do.
58 from Mitsuda.
And one to Yoon Ah-young.
Hey? Let's be friends~
I'd read and ignored that one.
Watching it with Ah-young now felt awkward.
Scanning through, nothing useful as expected.
Then, one caught my eye.
Spar?
Lee Jung-tae.
In my previous life, my direct superior, tragically murdered by the 'Black Mask.'
"...Lee Jung-tae? Whoa. From Lee Jung-tae. He messaged you too, huh."
"...He's famous?"
"Duh. Famous for dojo storming."
The messenger had a cadet community where real-time rankings were visible.
43 Wins in 43 Matches. Wow~
Lee Jung-tae, who had been outside the top 50 after the first tournament, was now right on my tail.
Class rankings could change anytime based on grades, spars, and achievements.
I was fixed because I'd never sparred, while Lee Jung-tae had only done spars.
True to form, he was dojo-storming spectacularly.
A desire welled up to break that win streak.
"Better not accept. Nothing good comes from it."
"Hmm... Yeah?"
Well. Lee Jung-tae was the top martial artist in the year.
Most who accepted probably wanted to see his skills up close.
I was the same.
The 18-year-old Lee Jung-tae.
I was curious.
I messaged Lee Jung-tae.
OK
My first Messenger reply.
Soon, Lee Jung-tae read it and simply replied ''.
Simple and good.
The academy's Colosseum.
A venue set up for quarterly spars.
Cadets had to spar periodically.
Or it affected their grades.
I entered the prep room and donned protective gear.
Hologram-based full-body protection.
Class C waiting room.
Cadets with matches today were warming up.
Those with early slots were already sparring.
My venue was 4th floor, room 410.
The Colosseum had separate massive tournament sets and mini sparring sets.
Today's was sparring.
The mini sets were lined up in the huge building.
The number was insane.
Looking down, many cadets were already fighting.
'Time's almost up.'
Hunter soldiers on leave and civilian tourists lined the paths.
Max 30 spectators per sparring ring.
Popular ones had lines out the door.
I headed to the 4th floor, room 410.
When the ring came into view, I couldn't help but be shocked.
Not just full capacity—there was a line outside.
"Oh. He showed. Class C Vice President."
"That's him? Looks normal."
"Hey. He showboated at the tournament and stole rankings. Time for a reality check today."
I ignored their whispers and entered the ring.
It resembled a boxing sparring setup.
30 spectators seated around it.
Music played, hyping the sparring atmosphere.
Cadets could even bet points.
I checked the scoreboard.
Overwhelming odds for Lee Jung-tae.
At that moment, Lee Jung-tae entered the ring.
Cheers and applause on a whole other level erupted.
"Lee Jung-tae!!!"
"Crush him!"
"Time for showboat education!!!"
They cheered passionately for Lee Jung-tae.
'...What the.'
I didn't check the community much, but apparently I was known as a showboat in other classes.
Stealing rankings by showboating at the tournament.
In a place like this, if you weren't strong, you became a target of envy fast.
Unproven cadets were easy prey.
I'd ignored the petty provocations since I didn't check community, leaving me blind.
Honestly, trivial taunts I wouldn't bother with—but today, I wanted to show them.
Whether my tournament success was showboating or not, make them see with their own eyes.
The digital referee's voice rang out.
Fighters enter. Both players, prepare for battle.
Cheers rose as Lee Jung-tae and I headed to the center.
A one-on-one with my former superior.
My heart pounded.
(To be continued in the next chapter)