Chapter 4
He quickly changed into his sportswear and settled down in the stadium.
Other aspiring athletes who were exercising gathered with interest.
“This is Celeste’s first battle since her last battle with the director, right?”
“Yep. It was great. She fought quite well against the director.”
“By the way, you said her opponent was a veteran hunter?”
“It’s an ordinary person with no superpowers.”
“Um, I don’t know if he’s going to be her opponent. Ordinary hunters aren’t strong, are they?”
Their chatter made director Kim gulped.
Then he looked towards Yoo Seodam holding his 11,000 won sword and felt something was different.
‘This guy…suddenly provoked her. His personality has changed a little after coming back from the hospital.’
Director Kim also heard the provocations against Celeste because he is fluent in Italian.
‘I defeated your father.’
And the words were true.
To a certain extent.
99 rounds, 99 loses.
When they sparred, Seodam was always defeated by Salvatore.
It was only natural.
How can ordinary people win in a fight using just a single wooden sword?
However, in their last spar they fought with 100% of their equipment and superpowers.
Yoo Seodam defeated Salvatore.
‘I’m curious about the outcome of this confrontation.’
Yoo Seodam is different from other ordinary hunters.
He was a hunter who could make better use of hunting items than anyone else in the world, and at the same time was the pinnacle of Ordinary hunter.
However.
The use of tools was significant in this battle.
Anyone in this position knows it.
The reason ordinary hunters were able to survive in the hunter industry was not because they were good at fighting, but because they were good at hunting.
To put it simply, the battle between the veteran ordinary hunter and the super-skilled aspirant can be thought of as “Home Alone.”
Kevin was able to defeat the adults by using various tools in the house, but if he was caught by the burglars he would easily be incapacitated.
Yoo Seodam’s current situation was similar to Kevin’s.
A Kevin without tools.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
As soon as the words fell everyone quieted because they could feel the sharpness of Celeste who’s spirit had suddenly changed.
A battle between a hound and a beast’s cub who has lived on the battlefield all his life.
“Huu…”
Yoo Seodam breathed out deeply.
I felt as if the world had slowed down.
Tat!
Yoo Seodam got into position.
Then Celeste with a blank expression brandished her sword.
Rather than trade blows with her, he will find a gap to attack.
In a way, it was too easy to read the thoughts of a veteran hunter.
However, I was confident because Celeste had beaten three ordinary hunters with swordsmanship.
Schick!
“…!”
Looking at the trajectory of the sword, which swung quite sharply, Celeste avoided with just a slight twist of her body.
The swordsmanship of superhumans was different from the swordsmanship of the old days.
They avoid inevitable attacks with superhuman reflexes and movements, and strike with unstoppable force.
She twisted her wrist slightly and aimed towards Seodam.
After dodging to the side he swung his sword from inside his hand as if he was a spinning electric fan and aimed for Celeste’s head.
At the moment there was an opening as if the sword had been bent.
Celeste lowered her head in a hurry with a surprised look, but she had already entered the range of Seodam.
Seodam, who was thrusting the sword into the neck of the retreating Celeste, stopped.
The result was too overwhelming.
Celeste’s eyes opened wide.
“You must be feeling better now, right?”
“…Yes!”
Celeste’s eyes suddenly changed.
As if a storm was brewing, Celeste, whose spirits had changed again, rushed at Seodam wielding her sword.
There’s no proper rule, but this stance was used to deal with monsters and not humans.
Obviously, Celeste was stronger and faster.
In addition, unlike Seodam, who has never learned swordsmanship professionally, she wholeheartedly trained her family’s swordsmanship from an early age.
But.
Celeste’s attacks didn’t reach Seodam a single time.
The trajectory of all her swings were grasped at a glance like a picture in the eyes of Yoo Seodam.
The situation had already been predicted two steps before she even wielded the sword, and it was so clear that it was beyond the third step and what the consequences would be in the fourth step.
In his mind, the swordsmanship of Gilitender was dancing.
He couldn’t copy it perfectly just by looking at it once.
But just knowing it, and understanding even 1% or 0.01% was fine.
The fact that he simply recognizes that World’s swordsmanship, which is different from modern times, using his swordsmanship talent, showed the power of Swordsmanship (A+).
Yoo Seodam is obviously weak.
No matter how hard ordinary people trained without “mana,” the limit of the body was clear.
‘I’m sure I’ll catch him!’
However, Celeste couldn’t catch Sedam.
Like a hair away, like a tease.
Her sword couldn’t reach Sodam even as it grazed his sword and was an inch away.
‘No way, how…’
The other person is just an ordinary human.
And she is a person of the D-Rank.
If she set her mind to it she could travel 50 meters in less than three seconds.
Despite the obvious difference in abilities it was not possible to win.
‘Clearly…there has to be…an answer!’
For Celeste, fighting was a series of multiple choice questions choosing the correct answer.
Question 1. Choose the best answer to defeat your opponent.
Number 1? Number 2? Number 3? Number 4? Number 5?
She just chooses one of those options, and wins.
That’s what is known as a ‘genius.’
But.
‘I don’t…see an answer…’
No choice was the answer.
It was as if she was presented a multiple-choice question with subjective answers.
‘Don’t tell me, this guy is really…’
When she thought that far she bit her lips.
In the end she decided to use her trump card.
‘If it was a battle of strength I’ll definitely win…!’
Celeste’s swings began to contain a heavy and powerful force.
It seemed like she was trying to bait a battle of strength, but Yoo Seodam who has been hunting for 15 years, would he fall for it?
“Huh…”
The thrusting sword was pushed lightly to the side and quickly fell to the side of Celeste before Yoo Seodam aimed at her neck.
“…”
After a brief silence the aspiring athletes who were watching the battle erupted.
“C-crazy.”
“What the hell?”
“Wasn’t he an ordinary human?””
“No, obviously the movement is almost normal. It’s similar to me, but I don’t think it’s E-rank…”
“…So he beat a D-rank with pure swordsmanship head on?”
“No matter how experienced he is does that make sense?”
Does it make sense?
Of course not.
Director Kim knows to some extent the abilities of Yoo Seodam.
He really had no talent for swordsmanship.
It was no exaggeration to say that he was a pyrotechnician, and not even good with an aether blade.
‘What the hell happened to him while he was in the hospital?’
Celeste also looked at Yoo Seodam with a puzzled look on her face.
This all started with an exchange that she thought was just baseless provocation.
But she could feel it.
Dismissing the remark as mere provocation, this man’s swordsmanship was too special.
After the battle with Celeste I went to the gym every day to train my stamina.
Like a miracle the talent Swordsmanship A+ that I acquired was much more surprising to me than I originally thought.
There is no one who does not know the word ‘enlightenment.’
However, how many people have experienced it?
To be honest, I’ve rarely experienced it in my entire life.
Even that was triggered in extreme situations where I could die if I didn’t kill.
However, after gaining the talent of swordsmanship it was possible to gain enlightenment whenever I did the act of simply holding a sword.
Have you ever experienced this thrilling feeling in your life?
Only those who were one with the sword could go on training without even realizing their muscles were in pain.
The pace of my swordsmanship’s growth was so enormous that just swinging, stabbing, and cutting I felt a sense of accomplishment.
It wasn’t just me that changed.
Celeste who used to wield a sword while showing an indifference to everything else also started to annoy me.
“What is it this time?”
“…Let’s spar.”
After a moment of thought, I replied.
“It’s troublesome.”
“Yes…”
Then, she walked to a corner with her shoulders drooped.
Somewhat feeling sorry for her, I called her back.
“Wait. I’ll spar with you after I’m done.”
“Yes!”
Replied Celeste with a bright smile.
Then, after ten minutes of sparring lightly, I defeated her.
“Uwu.”
It’s already been a month.
She, who timidly and gently asked me every day for a spar, was defeated easily.
At first I thought she wanted to spar because she couldn’t accept defeat.
But on the third day I realized something.
It was a very fine difference that I could sense because I had the talent Swordsmanship A+.
She was learning swordsmanship from me!
Of course I can’t handle the sword properly either, but she remembered the ‘sword dance’ I had unfolded.
She was trying to imitate it and somehow actually made it work.
It was truly a crazy talent.
I also thought her challenge was not so bad.
It was more helpful to check my progress than to wield a sword in the air randomly.
We could test each other on a variety of skills.
Besides, Celeste wasn’t just getting beaten up.
After every defeat she would exclaim ‘ah!’ and went to a corner to meditate, and every time there would be a tremendous spirit fluctuation.
She must have learned something.
Director Kim burst into laughter when he saw me and her sparring.
“You’re teaching better than I am, aren’t you? That little girl is suddenly so enthusiastic. Why don’t you take care of it?”
“If you pay me, I’ll try.”
Teaching her.
I don’t think it’ll be bad.
“By the way, Seodam. Are you going to keep hunting?”
“I should.”
I was with the guild ‘Lost Day’ for 12 years.
However, the very day I was sentenced to a short life.
I was kicked out of the guild.
Just because they didn’t want to keep a hunter who was no longer useful.
“The guild…He won’t accept you again? Why? Weren’t you going to be back on track once you were discharged?”
The director doesn’t know the state my heart was in.
Not only that, most don’t know.
It was because I didn’t say.
“I haven’t even told him about my discharge. If he asks, I won’t accept it. What would an F-Rank hunter even do there?”
Even when I was a member of Lost Day I had no choice but to collect as many hunting requests as possible with a business card showing my 15 years’ seniority.
This was a real dilemma.
If F-Rank hunters invest less money on equipment and hunt monsters they would have to settle for lower level monsters.
If I want to catch higher level monsters I have to spend a lot of money on equipment.
In the end, no matter how good a F-Rank hunter’s performance was, they made little profit.
So I was half deserted from the guild, who was seen as useless to management.
I was forced to work because I didn’t force myself out.
However, all I could do was use a sword, so I had to hunt to make ends meet.
That’s how it was.
But from now on it will be different.
Because I became a hunter who hunts very special beings.
Sitting in the middle of the studio apartment with my back turned, I took a deep breath.
An intangible energy rose in the body.
This is ‘mana.’
No, not Earth’s mana, but the one from the Parallel World.
All of Earth’s hunters used mana, and to get them they had to absorb aethers from hunting monsters into their bodies.
However, since even this required talent ordinary humans could not even absorb 1% of aether into their body and instead it dissipated into nature.
Geniuses on the other hand could absorb 100% of such aethers.
I was at the level of an ordinary human and there was only about 1% of aether in my body.
However, it is now possible to absorb something similar to aether, and perhaps even more mysterious ‘natural energy.’
At best I wielded and swung swords, but I couldn’t accumulate mana in my body.
It was foreign to me, and I didn’t know the principles behind it.
Even now I couldn’t collect a lot of energy.
It felt like I was piling up sand called Mana with chopsticks, and it was impossible to hold it.
I’ve gained a lot of stamina.
Apparently I had suffered considerable muscle atrophy during my stay in the hospital.
My level was 19, but my ability level seems to have dropped considerably.
Restoring those muscles, at the same time, combined with good abilities, will enable me to improve even if I couldn’t reach my limit.
I can’t hope to reach the limit in just a month.
I’d need at least a few months of exercise to be able to rebuild my muscle strength.
But this is enough.
The equipment repair and preparation was finished, and unlike before, it has been efficiently prepared to accurately weigh 20kg.
A shotgun, a rifle, and an aether blade that has been repaired.
I took a deep breath after rearranging the other ammunition.
I’m almost ready for my next mission.
“I’ll like to take another mission.”
< Do you want to check your list of missions? >
“I could choose?”
Well, hunter’s got their own mission to choose from.
It’s nothing strange.
[Show a list of targets with more than 15% chance of success in hunting.]
Shortly, countless texts printed out in front of me.
I gave a puzzled look.
“What is all this?”
#Dad_turned_out_to_be_the_best_gigolo
#Modern #Return #Gigolo #Teen #Harem #Slice_of_life
#I_opened_a_store_in_the_Joseon_period
#Alternativehistory #Reincarnation #Shop #Monopoly #Military
#A_princess_who_came_back_wants_to_live_peacefully
#Romance_Fantasy #Return #Indifferent #Relaxing #Obsessed_ML
#SSS-class_lucky_hunter_survives
#Fusion_Fantasy #Lucky #Growth #Teen #Dimensioning
As I looked at these like it was some sort of joke, the Client spoke.
< I summarized the information according to the current norm. >
“This is the norm?”
< Everyone who uses SNS is the norm. >
“…That’s a little harsh.”
I’m the only one who doesn’t use SNS, but isn’t that too much?
Then when I saw something strange I opened my eyes wide.
“…What. ‘Modern?’ What is this?”
< The level of ‘Protagonist Hunter’ is low, so information is not available. >
“Oh, come on. You can at least tell me the plot.”
< Body must be directly transported, so as not to interfere with the plot. >
“Ugh…Fair enough. Still a little summary would help.”
< Tag a text to check the level of the protagonist. >
I tagged the texts as she told me to, and soon my face crumpled.
“Crazy…”
All of them were high leveled protagonists.
I think a level 33 protagonist is the most I can handle.
Even the modern stuff that looked quite interesting, the level of the protagonist was high enough to make a “psh!” noise comes out of my mouth.
After searching through the list for a long time, I found a protagonist who I could deal with.
#I_Am_One_With_The_Sword
#Fantasy #Eccentric #Growth #Merciless
It was a protagonist related to the sword.
Wouldn’t it be better to have a sword-related talent if I’m going to hunt?
Moreover, the title alone made me feel as if the main character would live and die by the sword.
Yes.
Wouldn’t it be possible that the talent ‘Sword Intent’ which is commonly seen in martial arts would come from this “I_Am_One_With_The_Sword?”
If I’m lucky I might absorb that talent.
“Okay. I’ve decided on this. Send me right now.”
[Traveling to the land of Kevilon. The world of the Level 40 protagonist, Holy Sword Barette]
…Wait, why is it this protagonist?