novelraw Chapter 56 : Chapter 56
Chapter 56 : Chapter 56
Chapter 56. The Ring (2)
Sundome.
A sparring technique where one stops an attack just before touching the opponent's body.
The straight Jo Ban-seok just threw was exactly Sundome.
A fist stopped 1 centimeter right in front of Riman's nose.
Jo Ban-seok retracted his fist as if bouncing back and said.
“Scared?”
Looking at Riman who couldn't even react despite having a fist thrown right in front of his nose, he said teasingly.
“Why are you scared? This is just a welcome greeting.”
“…….”
Riman still didn't speak or move.
Just staring at Jo Ban-seok quietly.
Jo Ban-seok judged such Riman as ‘frozen with fear.’
An even more triumphant air hovered on his face.
But James Kwon, watching this from outside the ring, thought differently.
‘…He didn't freeze with fear.’
That is…….
‘He didn't dodge because there was no reason to dodge.’
The moment Jo Ban-seok threw the straight.
James Kwon saw.
Riman staring at the flying fist without blinking an eye.
He didn't close his eyes, nor did he flinch.
Just watching.
It was nonsense.
Unless one is a skilled martial artist, one cannot keep watching an attack flying toward one's face until the end like that.
And that he didn't dodge even after watching until the end meant…….
‘He anticipated that the attack would stop right in front of his nose.’
Jo Ban-seok's fist was fast and accurate.
But Riman had precisely grasped the hitting point and distance of the punch in that fleeting moment.
‘Is that possible?’
He doesn't know.
Maybe he was just lucky.
Or maybe he really froze out of fear as Jo Ban-seok thought.
Anyway, the answer…….
‘We’ll know as the sparring progresses.’
Whoosh!
Jo Ban-seok's fist sprang out again.
Left hand jab.
This time it wasn't Sundome.
A punch clearly aiming for impact.
And this time……
Swish-
The jab grazed Riman's cheek by a hair's breadth.
“Tsk……!”
As the first serious strike missed, Jo Ban-seok's face crumpled slightly.
As if to vent that anger, from the next moment, he unleashed a barrage of blows.
Swish-swish-swish!
Ceaseless jabs and straights, hooks mixed in between.
But none of them reached Riman.
“Are you just gonna keep running away! Huh?!”
Riman showed no reaction to Jo Ban-seok's words either.
Just doing his best not to get hit.
Meanwhile, James Kwon watching the match from outside the ring was dumbfounded.
‘Footwork is a mess. There is absolutely no basic weight transfer.’
However……
‘He is dodging everything by seeing it.’
Tracking all attacks with eyes, and dodging with minimal movement.
Even if the body movement is a mess, he eventually dodges everything.
‘…At that level, isn't it almost at the level of predicting the opponent's movement?’
Meanwhile, Jo Ban-seok on the ring was also feeling a similar sentiment.
‘What is this bastard?!’
A feeling of throwing punches against fog.
Clearly right in front of eyes, and plugged it accurately, but damage doesn't go in.
But looking at Riman's movements, he seems to lack even minimal knowledge of martial arts.
‘What on earth is he?!’
Ding-ding-ding!
Like that, the 1st round ended.
Both Riman and Jo Ban-seok retreated to their corners.
Riman thought.
‘Since I can't use magic, I can't catch an angle to attack.’
He could manage dodging somehow instinctively.
But he couldn't get a feel for hitting.
Of course, Riman had no goal of becoming a master of martial arts.
But there was one thing he definitely felt from the battle with Ha Do-yeol this time.
That he should have at least one means to respond when enemies dig in with close combat.
Until now, he endured with barriers, evasion, and close-range magic, but a point where responding with only those becomes difficult will definitely come.
Of course, he succeeded in putting a knife in the belly directly in the battle with Ha Do-yeol.
But that was only because Riman knew Ha Do-yeol's personality, and the psychological warfare based on that worked well.
If an unfamiliar enemy engages in close combat like this, the result couldn't be guaranteed.
And among magic, there was also a lineage that strengthens the body to engage in hand-to-hand combat directly.
‘The magic of Gnosion Magic Tower was that kind, probably.’
He couldn't use magic of that lineage right now.
But there was sufficient probability that he would be able to use it at some point in the future.
Because Riman's body was already a heterogeneous body capable of using magic of various lineages.
If he thinks of laying the foundation of martial arts in preparation for that time, well, this kind of training wasn't a bad thing.
‘While building stamina, let’s lay at least the foundation of fighting simultaneously.’
Around when he was setting up future plans in his head like that.
James Kwon came to Riman and asked.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“…Did you perhaps learn martial arts before?”
“No, no way.”
James Kwon accepted it.
Certainly, Riman's movements were absolutely not those of someone who learned martial arts.
“…Want to continue?”
“Yes.”
Honestly, it was a bit regrettable to come down from the ring without landing a single hit.
Eventually, the 2nd round began.
Ding!
From the 2nd round, Jo Ban-seok was also serious.
Because he also sensed that the appearance Riman showed was somewhat unusual.
“Phew…….”
A short sigh, a short probing war.
The string of tension that was pulled tight snaps.
Close combat begins.
This time too, the first strike is Jo Ban-seok.
Lowering the upper body, taking steps quickly, he digs in heavily.
At that moment, everything was visible in Riman's eyes.
Where Jo Ban-seok would come in, in what way, and where he would throw his fist.
Simultaneously with all information being recognized, those paths were calculated instinctively.
But even if the calculation is done by instinct, how to use that result is up to the will.
Until now, Riman used that prediction only for evasion.
But he didn't want to do so now.
This is sparring.
Although a fight, not a life-or-death struggle; a truly unfamiliar and precious moment for Riman.
Unlike in real combat, getting hit a few times here doesn't mean death.
If he wants to test, he must do it now.
So just for this time-
‘I’ll dig in.’
For the first time, Riman's upper body leans toward the opponent.
Not dodging, but rushing in.
Not widening the distance, but following up.
The movement paths of two bodies standing at different points overlap for the first time.
A clash bursts out.
Pow!
“…Eh?”
“Huh?”
Interrogatives as if dumbfounded popped out from the spectators' mouths.
Because Riman was hit squarely in the face and fell backward.
The sparring ended so futilely.
“What?”
“He goes down in one shot like that?”
James Kwon was equally dumbfounded.
‘He dodged well all this time, then goes down in one shot like this……?’
He hurriedly crossed the ring and ran to Riman.
Riman rubbed his face with his glove and said.
“Oh my, I got got.”
“Are you okay?”
“Mr. James.”
“Yes.”
“How much is the registration for boxing lessons?”
“Yes?!”
While James Kwon and Riman were talking like that.
Jo Ban-seok was staring blankly at his own fist.
That fist that just struck Riman's face.
He knew what the spectators, and even James Kwon, didn't notice.
That his fist almost didn't touch Riman.
‘That guy, the moment the fist touched, he pulled his face back at a speed similar to the fist.’
At the moment of impact, he pulled his face back sharply to mitigate the damage.
Instantaneous response capability at a nonsensical level.
But what was surprising wasn't just that.
Jo Ban-seok rubbed his left jaw.
‘On top of that, in that short moment, his fist grazed my jaw.’
The jaw itself isn't a vital point.
But the shock plugged into the jaw is transmitted directly to the brain.
In other words, a part where one faints straight away if hit properly.
Riman plugged an attack into the opponent's vital point in that fleeting moment of getting hit in the face and pulling his face back.
Of course, due to clumsy body movement and weak stamina, it didn't reach a decisive blow.
But the fact itself that he even attempted such a thing in that short moment was evidence that his latent talent was immense.
‘If that guy had just a little more power, the one who fell would have been me…….’
Jo Ban-seok muttered inwardly looking at Riman.
‘…What on earth is that guy really?’
With eyes completely different from before going up to the ring, he stared at Riman for a long while.
* * *
“So you started both gym and boxing?”
“Yes.”
A few days later, Ji Byeong-seo's apartment.
The two were eating lunch boxes Riman brought at the table.
“But that friend called Jo Ban-seok, just hearing the story his personality seems extremely bad, isn't there any harassment or something outside the ring?”
“Ah that…….”
That day when the sparring happened.
Riman encountered Jo Ban-seok one more time in the shower room.
Jo Ban-seok entered huffing and puffing with an expression as if he had something to pick a bone with.
Saying ‘Hey you!’ and walking in confidently, he fell down as soon as he stepped into the shower room.
“I pulled the water under his feet with magic.”
“Then wouldn't he get angrier……?”
“After knocking him down about three more times, he just left, maybe because he was embarrassed.”
“Wow, that’s mean.”
Actually, Jo Ban-seok became a bit polite since then.
“By the way Mr. Leman, if you want to make your body strong, isn't there another faster method?”
“What kind?”
“Well, like enhancement procedures, or human body modification.”
Riman shook his head and said.
“I shouldn't receive them.”
“Ah, can your body not withstand it?”
“Not that, the moment I receive a procedure or modification, I become unable to use magic.”
“What?! Really?!”
“Yes. Since magic is originally a study established on the premise of a ‘pure human body,’ if the flow of mana inside the body gets disrupted due to enhancement procedures or modification, so if one ‘deviates from a pure body,’ activation itself doesn't happen.”
“Aha…….”
“So about that.”
“Yes?”
“Is there perhaps no drug that increases muscle mass? Honestly, exercise takes too long…….”
“Uh…….”
Ji Byeong-seo, who pondered for a moment, said.
“If you are willing to give up having descendants, I can manufacture drugs based on anabolic steroids for you.”
“Steroids, isn't that… a drug where hair loss and sexual dysfunction are basic?”
“Exactly.”
“Ah seriously.”
The two giggled and started cleaning up the finished lunch boxes.
Meanwhile, Ji Byeong-seo suddenly said as if something came to mind.
“No, there might be.”
“Yes?”
Ji Byeong-seo rummaged through the bookshelf and took out an old notebook.
“I have designed a muscle enhancement drug quite a long time ago. Probably there is a recipe somewhere here…….”
Ji Byeong-seo's finger, flipping pages for a while, stopped soon.
“Found it.”
“Really?!”
“But there are a few problems.”
“Is it a material supply related problem?”
“Yes. The fruit of the 'Eye-opening Flower' is absolutely necessary, but this appears only in literature and I haven't seen the real thing in the market.”
“Hm…….”
Do I have to go to something like a VIP exclusive auction house somehow?
“And clinical trials haven't been done either.”
“Hm.”
This wasn't a problem.
As far as Riman remembered, drugs made by Ji Byeong-seo had never shown side effects even once.
“That doesn't matter.”
“And…….”
“There is more?”
“If medication guidance is not followed properly, you might die.”
“What kind of drug is like that……?”
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
“Are you sure that phrase is used at a time like now?”
“Ah and.”
“More?”
“There is also the problem that it's not a drug that can just be made, but requires some additional facilities…….”
“Hmm…….”
And although Ji Byeong-seo didn't say, there was one more problem.
That there were currently quite a lot of delayed pharmaceutical requests.
As rumors spread that Ji Byeong-seo's drug effects were quite decent, the workload increased drastically.
So even today, despite saying let's eat a meal, they made do with lunch boxes because there was no time.
Of course, if Riman asked him to make the drug somehow, he was a person who would make it regardless of order.
But that was too conscienceless.
‘Only if he can digest the increased workload quickly can he make the drug I need quickly too…….’
At that moment.
‘Ah.’
A certain place flashed in Riman's head.
A space fully equipped with facilities and a laboratory capable of making various drugs.