—A location with a scenic view of Gaon Academy. The room was filled with the highest-quality sofa and various other appliances. Amy was speechless at the sight.
"Th-this is a luxury good worth 10 million won. That too! Everything's so high quality and from a designer label…"
"EunAh paid for everything."
In contrast to her excited demeanor, YuSung's answer was calm.
"EunAh?! Damn… at her level, I bet even the furniture must've cost at least a hundred million…"
"Yeah, you got it. Around 400 million."
"Gah! F-four hundred million won?!" Amy had blown past shock and reached a stupor. "Huhhhh… I bet there isn't a place on campus as extravagant as this room."
YuSung nodded in assent, and fell into thought.
"It's too much, isn't it? Maybe it isn't too late to get a refund for this…"
"Hiiek! No, no way in hell!" Amy fiercely shook her head. "This is the best! Especially this massage chair!"
She smiled brightly and sat on the aforementioned chair, enjoying a massage. It was odd to see a massage chair as one of the furnishings in a classroom meant to be used by students, but EunAh had been adamant about buying quite a number of items, including it.
"It's amazing enough that a first-year managed to nab a room for their personal use… and to think it's one of this class… I bet that none of the older students can match this! We're the first to have a room this luxurious."
Amy let out a sigh like a deflating balloon as she melted into the seat of the massage chair.
"…Mmm, this place is better than my dorm room. No, it's much better. I wanna live here instead."
She was so infatuated with the chair that there was drool running down her mouth in ecstasy. Amy reached for the glass of iced coffee next to her and took a sip.
"My mind is blown. This is surely… heaven. Oh! Party Leader-nim, you should take a seat as well!"
She indicated to the chair next to her, eyes sparkling. YuSung complied and sat down.
Rumble rumble.
His body slowly began to melt under the incessant rhythm of the massage chair. Amy thoughtfully handed him a carton of banana-flavored milk.
"Amy, you're right. This really is…"
As YuSung was enjoying his taste of heaven, Sumire had finished cooking in the kitchen that had been installed in their room. She brought over a plate for the two of them somewhat self-consciously.
"I-I made sandwiches since they're easy to eat! They aren't as delicious as the chicken you had before, but…"
Amy's eyes grew wide.
"Whoa! You put pork cutlets in the sandwich? And you made those in the kitchen? This owns!"
—A clubroom filled with luxury goods. Sitting on a massage chair with banana-flavored milk in one hand and a pork cutlet sandwich in the other hand… Nothing was quite as relaxing or healing to YuSung as that.
"Phew, aren't you nervous, though? Tomorrow's the day of the Representative Selection… Adela's going to participate!"
—A girl with a perfect win record.
Even among the students with S-rank Traits, Adela was considered the strongest among the first-years. It was natural to be worried. Amy laid down on the massage chair and began muttering to herself with a serious expression on her face.
"I've been hearing that Inno Academy's representatives aren't slouches either! Uh, hehe… I'm sure you'll be able to defeat them with one blow, Party Leader."
Amy looked at YuSung and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.
Like she had said, the ones chosen by their academies to participate in the Selection were all strong. YuSung didn't care about that fact, however.
"It doesn't matter who the opponent is."
He was going to do his best, regardless of who he was fighting. His plan was to display every ounce of his skills to the audience to prove his strength.
YuSung had managed to unlock the fourth form of the Battle God Style. In that sense, he was at his strongest. No matter what Traits those he faced off against had, YuSung had his own weapon—one that he had polished and sharpened alongside the Fist King.
"…Because I'll be giving it my all."
He gave an earnest reply from his massage chair.
Amy also looked at him with an earnest look in her eyes.
"I can't believe you said something that sounds that cool, even when the vibration from the massage chair is making your voice shake…"
For some reason, she seemed to be impressed by him.
"Seriously, do you want to try doing a collab broadcast with me? With your looks and personality, I bet…"
Sumire, who had been watching them talk to each other, picked up a sandwich of her own and insistently murmured to herself:
"I-I'll work even harder… to not cause Shin YuSung-ssi any trouble…"
She glanced at her bare ring finger and began to let out an ominous laugh.
"Huhee…"
Even if every member of YuSung's party had their own method of relaxing, he managed to spend a fruitful break with them the day before the Representative Selection.
* * * *
—The beautiful emerald sheen of El Nido's oceans. Adela leisurely walked on the surface of the waves. Whenever she stepped onto the water, ice would form beneath her foot.
Hsssss.
From the depths of the ocean was something that was aiming for her. It headed its way towards the surface in her direction.
Rooooarr!!
An enormous spray of water spouted from a patch of water in front of her, revealing a fish the size of a whale leaping into the sky.
Splaaaash!!
The identity of the building-sized monster was the rank 4 boss, Taishi. It had escaped its dungeon and into the oceans of El Nido in the Phillippines, feeding on various marine life in the area and destroying the ecosystem.
The Taishi hid itself after sinking back into the ocean; there was no clue as to when it would attack.
Sploooosh!
The Taishi again emerged from the ocean in a giant spray of water. One could lose their balance and fall into the depths just from the waves that it created with its massive body.
Craaaash!
Adela faced the oncoming waves and lazily stretched out her hand.
Whoosh!
A cold chill began to emanate from her hand.
Creak!
The waves were frozen in an instant.
In fact, both the Taishi and the ocean surrounding it had frozen like a glacier.
Flap! Flapflap!
The Taishi wagged its frozen tail, trying to wriggle its entire body to break free of the ice, but it was all meaningless. Adela languidly approached the monster and laid her hand on its head.
Crack!
And that was the end of the hunt.
The Taishi had been transformed into an enormous hunk of ice.
Adela was way too strong. After absorbing the 10,000-Year-Old Crystal, she had become even stronger than before. It was why she had never searched for a party member before.
The girl looked up at the sky with a dazed expression on her face. The sunlight glinted off the ice laid out in front of her, creating a breathtaking sight.
But Adela didn't stop to admire the view. With an expressionless face, she entered through the portal to return back to the portal zone. Her homeroom teacher, So HaeJung, was already waiting for the girl when she arrived.
"Six minutes and 22 seconds… a new record."
"It was only a rank 4 boss."
Adela's reply was serene, even in the face of her instructor's praise.
"Taking the monster so lightly… even Association members would have a hard time dealing with it."
Even as she said so, So HaeJung knew that they were no match for the girl. Rank 4 boss monsters were strong enough to warrant a city-wide warning if one happened to appear in a city.
But Adela's opponent in the Representative Selections was YuSung. So HaeJung looked at her student with a bitter expression on her face.
"…You're thinking of going back to Italy if you win here, aren't you?"
Adela did not have an immediate answer in mind to that question.
The reason she had come to Korea in the first place was to find strong opponents and become stronger herself.
But if she defeated YuSung, there would no longer remain anyone in Korea who could be a match for her.
"I might," she eventually replied. So HaeJung nodded.
"I see… I know you aren't sure yet, but I did still think you were going to do so."
The instructor felt regret as she heard those words, but there was nothing she could do about it. She understood the longing Adela felt more than anyone else in Gaon.
So HaeJung stood up from her seat and handed the S Class student her participation pass. She smiled.
"It won't happen, though."
YuSung's victory seemed certain to her. Those resolute words caused Adela to look right at her homeroom teacher.
"…Instructor, do you think I'm going to lose at the Representative Selections?"
Her question wasn't borne from her ego but sincere curiosity. Adela was fascinated by her certainty—no one had ever been sure she would lose before, including the woman standing before her.
"That child has something you don't have…"
It was something So HaeJung felt instinctually, solely from the perspective of a hunter.
Hunters grew stronger as they faced their own failures, didn't falter, and endured many trials to overcome them. One had to fall in order to learn how to stand up.
She had only talked to YuSung for a short period of time, but she could tell he had experienced those falls.
Mana refined to an extent greater than most, and a physique polished to a near-perfect sheen… She knew that regular training could never give him either of those traits—he had earned those as a result of brutal training that had pushed him over his limits.
'The reason why he could endure such harsh training was probably because of…'
His goal.
She didn't know what that goal was, but So HaeJung could see the yearning clearly in YuSung's eyes. It was an emotion that Adela, who had detached herself from everything, had never experienced before.
"I hope that…"
Adela placed the pass in her Pocket and walked towards the exit.
"…what you said comes to pass, Instructor."
* * *
* * *
Italy. A suburb in Florence…
Two muscular old men were giving each other death glares as they sat at a weathered, old bar with a long history.
But suddenly, the mood broke, and the two broke out into wide grins. The man with silver hair began shouting uproariously.
"Perché è così tardi?!" (What took you so long?!)
"Kuhaha! It just happened like that. I enjoyed raising a disciple a lot more than I thought I would, you know!"
The man was the Fist King, who was also called the strongest hunter in the world. The person sitting on the opposite side of him was named Arden Ortensia. He began replying to the other man in fluent Korean, which had become an official language of Italy.
"…Still, not a single bit of contact for over ten years. How saddening."
Arden smiled softly while pouring brandy into his glass. Yu WonHak himself lited the brandy, bottle and all, into his mouth.
Gulp gulp!
He wiped his mouth and turned his gaze back to Arden.
"More importantly…! I heard that you raised your granddaughter into a real monster."
"…Ah, Adela, you mean?"
Arden smiled sadly.
"Unfortunately… I never taught her anything at all. The basics, at most. That child was strong as soon as she was born."
Yu WonHak poured more brandy into Arden's empty glass and began listening attentively to the other man.
"How about I hear some praise about your granddaughter from you, then?" His face showed his interest.
"Hahaha. Don't tell me your goal is to spy on her, you sneak!"
"Kuhaha! What a grandiose goal!" Yu WonHak laughed uproariously. "I was just curious. You know, your granddaughter and my disciple… Who's the stronger one?"
Arden tilted his glass to his lips and took an elegant sip of the brandy, then slowly opened his mouth to speak.
"That child is a genius, plain and simple. She had complete control over her Trait when she was five."
"Interesting. Hunters who have great Traits are a dime a dozen, though—the fact that you're making such a big deal out of it means that there's some other potential lying within her, right?"
Arden nodded at the man's observation.
"Right. Like you said, there are plenty of hunters out in the world who have strong Traits, but the ability to use one's Trait practically generally comes from experience, no?"
"Correct. All of the experience a hunter has built while on active duty can determine if they win or lose at a crucial moment."
The Fist King acknowledged this fact and crossed his arms, nodding his head.
Arden continued to talk, his tone serious.
"Adela never needed that experience. It felt like she knew how to do everything as soon as she was born."
Yu WonHak's gaze also turned serious. "…As soon as she was born?"
"Yeah. Adela easily countered an attack pattern she had never seen before without even an ounce of surprise."
Arden smiled proudly as he recounted the story.
"She was seven when this happened. Can you even imagine that? A seven-year-old?"
The listener snorted. "That's amazing. I'm sure she'll be a tricky opponent… if you aren't just bluffing."
"…Even your disciple will have a hard time being a match for Adela," added Arden. "That child was born to be a hunter. Even I've never seen talent like that before."
"Kuhaha! We won't know until they fight each other, won't we? You have to see just how incredible YuSung is with your own eyes to realize that…"
Yu WonHak was trying to praise his disciple, but before he could go any further, Arden cut him off.
"No, I don't need to see him to be certain of that fact. As soon as I saw my granddaughter, I realized that there were geniuses who were above the other geniuses."
"Look, I'm telling you, my YuSung defeated a rank 2 monster when he was nine years old…"
The Fist King tried once more to brag about his disciple. But Arden, already deep into the throes of praising his granddaughter, cut him off again.
"No, really. My Adela is…"
"Argh, you!"
Eventually, Yu WonHak shouted.
Even so, the two hunters, reunited after many years, nursed their drinks and talked about their granddaughter and disciple for a good, long while.
.
.
[CHECK OUT OUR NEW PROJECTS: 'Evolving As A Space Monster After Reincarnating' & 'I Can Copy Talents' ]
20 Advanced Chapters are currently available in Patreon, make sure to visit and support our team.
PATREON:
patreon.com/Immortal_author
KO-FI:
https://ko-fi.com/immortalauthor
DISCORD:
https://discord.gg/KscfBegBPT