The Support Ate it All

In the clearing, where there had not been even a single breath of wind, a fierce gale began to rage without pause.

—WHOOO—

Hair and hems fluttered nonstop.

Just from drawing it the slightest amount, the power contained within had already been released.

Staring at the sacred relic, I asked Go Hyeonwoo,

“What does it say to do now?”

“It says I must seize it with my hand.”

“That got a lot harder all of ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) a sudden.”

Han Somi tilted her head at that.

She mimed reaching forward with her hand and asked,

“Can’t you just pull it over again with grasping from empty space? Like, whoosh?”

“I already tried. It does not work.”

Fair enough. If it was a sword that could release that much power, it would naturally resist outside interference as well.

Which meant he had to walk over and grasp it physically with his own hand.

Soon, Go Hyeonwoo spoke with a resolute look.

“Then I shall go. Please watch over me.”

And he began moving toward the sacred relic.

Calmly, one step, then two…

At first, nothing happened beyond the violent wind.

But once Go Hyeonwoo moved within a certain distance—

—WHOOO—

The gale gathered around the sacred relic and formed a shape.

It looked like a swordsman with a single sword hanging low.

Its features were not visible, but somehow it still felt like it was glaring this way in warning.

Come any closer, and it would cut him down.

“…!”

Go Hyeonwoo’s face hardened further, yet he continued stepping forward, and the wind-formed swordsman scattered apart as suddenly as it had appeared.

And from that point onward, the real beginning started.

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Sword energy came surging in with the gale.

Go Hyeonwoo immediately swung his own sword to meet it and knock it aside.

But the sword energy kept flying at him without giving even a single moment’s rest.

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Go Hyeonwoo continuously unfolded sword forms in response, and for a while it looked like he was barely succeeding in defending himself.

But his feet had stopped.

More than that, his body was slowly being pushed backward from the recoil generated every time he collided with the sword energy.

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Even so, the sacred relic mercilessly kept firing sword energy at him.

Han Somi could not bear to watch anymore and drew her sword, trying to step forward—

“I’ll help!”

“No.”

I grabbed her arm at once and stopped her.

Han Somi shot a frantic glance at Go Hyeonwoo, then asked me,

“Why not?”

“You know this is sect business. Even being allowed to witness it is already an exception on top of exceptions. If you interfere, that crosses the line completely.”

“…That’s true.”

“And for a one-man challenge, interfering only makes it backfire.”

The contents could change into something far harder, or the attempt might be canceled outright.

And for the record, “interfering” did not only mean blocking sword energy together with him. It also included buff effects like raising his rank with [Amplification] or putting [Sylphid Armor] on him.

From beginning to end, he had to overcome it purely with his own strength.

I calmed Han Somi down.

“Let’s just watch. Whatever result comes out.”

“…Okay.”

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Meanwhile, Go Hyeonwoo was still fully occupied with beating back the howling gale and the sword energy.

He would look for an opening and take one step forward, only to get struck by sword energy and pushed back, then push ahead again, then get driven back again.

He kept making no real progress like that, until suddenly he paused as if a thought had occurred to him.

“…!”

Then he slowly backed away and returned to our side.

The sacred relic also stopped firing sword energy, likely because the challenger had moved outside its range.

That much made sense, considering nothing had happened to either Han Somi or me the whole time.

While taking a brief rest, Go Hyeonwoo retrieved the sword he had been using up until now—then put it away in his inventory altogether.

Han Somi practically had a question mark floating over her head.

“Huh? Why the sword?”

“I believe not using one is the correct answer.”

At that, I nodded in agreement too.

“That’s definitely the right answer.”

“Huh? Why? Why?”

“If you want to fill your hands, you need to empty them first. That thing’s basically going to bring the Blood Wind to him. But if he’s already holding another sword in his hand? There’s no way that looks good.”

To put it another way, it would be like going to propose to Dang Gyu-young while carrying Seo Ye-in on my back and holding Hong Yeonhwa’s hand.

At that, Go Hyeonwoo and Han Somi exchanged a look, then turned to me and each offered a comment of their own.

“But if we follow that analogy, Brother Kim, are you not already in the heterodox path?”

“That makes you a total lewd demon. A complete playboy.”

Naturally, as always, I was shamelessly confident.

“I can pull it off, so I do. Try it yourself if you’re confident.”

“…Given my own capabilities, that would be somewhat difficult. I shall attempt it without the sword.”

Go Hyeonwoo let out a helpless little laugh, then turned around.

And once more, he began walking toward the sacred relic.

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

The moment he entered its range, sword energy came roaring at him again as expected.

This time, though, compared to before, the force had clearly weakened a level.

As expected, putting the sword away had been the correct answer.

Not that it had suddenly become easy.

After all, now he had to divert sword energy barehanded.

Fortunately, Go Hyeonwoo had gone through something similar during an Austerity Quest.

He calmly took up a sword stance, then unfolded sword forms as if he were holding an invisible blade in his hand.

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Diverting the oncoming sword energy and scattering it apart, Go Hyeonwoo continued stepping forward.

Until now, he had done little more than march in place. But now, even if only little by little, he was actually closing the distance to his target.

Anticipation filled Han Somi’s face as she watched.

“Is it working? Is it working? Success? Possible?”

“Too early to tell.”

The sacred relic’s estimated rank was S+ or higher.

There was no way a challenge to obtain a sword like that would continue in the same pattern the whole time.

And sure enough, once Go Hyeonwoo had closed roughly a third of the distance—

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!!

The power of the sword energy visibly intensified.

Not only that, but the flow of it seemed to twist strangely, which meant some kind of change had been added to it.

The difficulty had abruptly multiplied several times over.

“…!”

Go Hyeonwoo’s face hardened, but he kept swinging his hand like a sword, continuing to unfold his forms.

He was still barely dissolving the sword energy, but the problem was that his feet had stopped again.

Just like at the beginning of the challenge, he found himself repeating the same spot over and over.

Go Hyeonwoo’s face grew more and more impatient, until—

He got greedy.

He stepped forward at the moment he should have been unfolding a form.

And that wrong judgment led to a fatal result.

—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Go Hyeonwoo was hit head-on by the sword energy and blasted backward.

He staggered and barely recovered his stance, but then failed to keep himself upright and dropped to one knee.

“Ghk…!”

“Go Hyeonwoo!”

Han Somi immediately drew her sword and sprang forward.

I followed after her, ready to send in Sylphid and Dark Clouds as well, but—

—….

The Blood Wind Sword (not) had stopped its assault as abruptly as a lie.

Soon after, the small section of blade that had been revealed slipped back into the sheath.

And the clearing, which had felt as though a typhoon were raging through it, recovered its original stillness.

“So it failed.”

The challenger had effectively been rendered combat-incapable, and then both Han Somi and I—outsiders—had stepped in on top of that.

Go Hyeonwoo answered my words with a bitter smile.

“I expected as much from the beginning. One cannot be filled after the very first spoonful.”

Right now, he had only barely met the minimum qualifications needed to challenge it.

If he wanted to earn ownership of the sacred relic, he would have to grow far stronger than he was now.

Still, even if he understood that in his head, his heart clearly had not accepted it so easily, because Go Hyeonwoo stared at the sacred relic with complicated eyes.

“Cough.”

Then he gave a small cough and wiped the blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth with his hand.

It looked like he had taken serious internal damage from the sword energy just now.

So I said,

“Let’s treat you first.”

[‘Bestowal’ will be used.]

[The target is granted ‘Retrocovery’.]

The next moment, Go Hyeonwoo was fully restored.

With a faint smile, he offered proper thanks.

“Thank you, Brother Kim.”

“Let’s stop here for today and challenge it again later.”

“I can still do it now.”

“No. The right move is to leave at least a three-day gap.”

[Bestowal] had a cooldown of twenty minutes.

On the other hand, [Retrocovery] had a cooldown of three full days, and that cooldown was applied based on the target it had been bestowed upon.

So if he got injured again before then, I would have no way to help him.

Waiting and doing it later was the smarter option.

I gave Go Hyeonwoo a light scolding.

“You should know three days is already short. If you’d gone to the infirmary, it would’ve been at least a week.”

“That is a fair point. I would also have needed time to recuperate.”

“And it’s not like doing it again right away would guarantee anything anyway.”

“……”

If he challenged it frequently, he might accumulate a certain amount of experience.

But when he was still this lacking in ability, all repeated attempts would do was pile failure on top of failure.

I pulled out the Challenge Book from my inventory.

“Don’t rush it. For the time being, focus on improving your skills.”

“…I shall do that.”

Go Hyeonwoo slowly nodded.

Han Somi, standing beside him, clenched her fist and shouted,

“I’ll help too!”

Full support!

*****

While the sword-wielding couple set their sights on a reattempt, I spent a busy week in my own way.

Bong Jaeyeong had already caught up with the lesson progress and needed another assignment from me, and I kept sparring with Seo Ye-in and helping her with rank grinding.

Then, around the time the weekend came—

[Invitation] came off cooldown.

Originally, it should have taken another two to three weeks.

Back when I had used it on father-in-law and mother-in-law candidate number three, the cooldown had been a full forty days.

Then the instant I used [Time Allocation], [Déjà Vu] activated and cut it down to roughly sixteen days.

And after school started, when I had a little breathing room and used [Time Allocation] once again—

[‘Déjà Vu’ is activated.]

[‘Time Allocation’ is activated.]

That absurdly low probability had broken in my favor not once but twice.

Was it because Seo Ye-in was next in line?

Had Lucky Charm’s luck influenced it again?

In the middle of sparring, I abruptly accused Seo Ye-in.

“Why do you keep cheating?”

“…?” She blinked. “I didn’t.”

“You can deny it all you want. I already know.”

“I’m innocent.”

Of course, there was nothing bad about the cooldown coming back sooner than expected.

So I brought up Invitation to Seo Ye-in.

“The Kim HoLand admission ticket is back again.”

“…Kim HoLand.”

“Want to go in?”

“Leaving immediately.”

Rarely for her, her gray eyes were full of motivation.

Even if she had never said it outright, it looked like she had been waiting for this all along.

She had yielded the first attempt to Dang Gyu-young, then unexpectedly the next one had gone to Grandpa Mo Yong, and after that I had left for the Ruby Mage Tower.

“Good. I’m using it right away.”

The moment I activated the skill, a notification message appeared.

[‘Invitation’ will be used.]

[Cooldown 6 days 23:59:58]

Seo Ye-in’s gaze also shifted into empty space. Naturally, a message like this must have appeared before her as well.

[The Sovereign’s Invitation has arrived.]

[Will you accept the invitation?]

[Accept/Decline]

By now, after several Invitations, I had gathered a bit of data, so I added an explanation.

“When you go in, strong seniors will be waiting for you.”

“Strong seniors.”

“It’ll probably be one-on-one tutoring. Just follow what they tell you to do, and watch carefully when they show you something.”

“Understood.”

*****

Not long after entering the inner world, Seo Ye-in tilted her head.

“…?”

Just as Kim Ho had said, the great hall was filled with strong seniors.

And among them, the ones who stepped forward to greet her were two people.

“One-on-one tutoring…?”