The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 147

"Ah, right. But how did you get in here? I asked Cheon Yuhwa… no, Alice, to make sure no one could just come into the dungeon."

A dungeon is a completely isolated area from reality, so no matter what happens inside, it doesn't affect reality, and people in reality have no way of knowing what's happening in the dungeon.

That's why using an empty dungeon as a training ground was now a commonly used method.

Because there were almost no places in modern society where one could use their power to their heart's content without caring about what broke.

So, as always, he had borrowed Cheon Yuhwa's power and chosen a suitable dungeon, but since Uriel had come in so confidently, Lee Shin couldn't help but wonder how she had gotten in.

'Did she call Cheon Yuhwa after all?'

But Uriel's personality was more reckless than Lee Shin had expected.

"I just forced my way in. Logically, even if a few people were guarding it, there's no way they could have stopped me from coming in."

"Hmm… well, now that I think about it, that's true."

The two talked about this and that, and slowly cleared up the chaotic atmosphere that had been created by Uriel's sudden intrusion.

"But you asked me to help you, what exactly do you want me to help with?"

"Ah, that. You see those guys over there?"

Lee Shin pointed his finger at the five people who were staring blankly at them from a distance.

"Just help those guys with their training. Well, even if I say help, just being a sparring partner and giving some advice is enough, so don't worry. Ah, and while you're at it, help me with my training too."

"It doesn't seem like an easy job to be called 'while you're at it'… but, well, it should be fine. I understand."

Despite Lee Shin's words, which were a blatant request for her to work her bones off, Uriel's eyes sparkled as if she were happy, and she nodded her head coolly.

"So what was the original training method you were planning on?"

"Hmm, well, I've tried it once before. But since the number of people has increased this time, I'm thinking of trying a new method…"

At Uriel's enthusiastic question, Lee Shin kindly explained his training plan one by one, and Uriel's eyes sparkled as she began to listen to his explanation.

"Sigh, you guys are in big trouble now."

"Right, it's become a much bigger deal than I thought."

While Lee Shin and Uriel were talking, the two who had been stealthily distancing themselves from her while watching her, looked at Eun Yeonwoo and said with pity.

"What do you mean all of a sudden?"

Eun Yeonwoo was flustered by Arachne's and Baek Hyunwoo's sudden words and asked back.

The deep light of pity in the two's eyes was too bothersome to be dismissed as just meaningless nonsense.

While Eun Yeonwoo's mind was getting complicated by the two's words, Lee Hyunseok clapped his hands as if he had realized something and looked at the two who were rubbing their foreheads.

"Ah, is it because the intensity of our training will be stronger if we get treated by Uriel-nim's ability? But if that's the case, I think it'll be fine."

"Huh? Why do you think so?"

At Lee Hyunseok's words, Arachne tilted her head as if she didn't know.

At that, Lee Hyunseok said as if it were obvious.

"Well, a healing ability is basically an ability that returns a damaged part to its original state. But if you just use that, your muscles won't grow, so you probably won't use it except in really urgent situations, right?"

Regeneration using aura is the process of returning a wounded part to its original state.

But for muscles to become tougher and stronger, they need to be healed from a wounded state, not just returned to their original state.

It was common sense that anyone who was even slightly interested in their body would know.

Based on that common sense, Lee Hyunseok's words were a very reasonable argument.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

But Baek Hyunwoo, who was faced with that argument, looked at Lee Hyunseok with a puzzled expression, as if asking what he meant.

"Uh, was I wrong about something?"

At Baek Hyunwoo's reaction, Lee Hyunseok was flustered and asked back.

While the two were looking at each other in confusion, the one who saved them was Arachne, who had been listening to their conversation next to them.

"Ahaha! I see! It's true that if you think about it normally, it would be like that!"

Arachne, who had understood the situation first, laughed loudly at the two.

At Arachne's laughter, everyone looked at her with curious eyes.

Although they hadn't been able to start properly because of Lee Shin's and Baek Hyunwoo's spar, the reason they had come here was for their training, after all.

So they couldn't help but be interested when Arachne laughed like that, as if she knew something.

At that, Arachne composed her breathing and opened her mouth.

"It's true that if it were a normal healer, the effect of the training would be halved, so they wouldn't use their ability on someone who has finished training."

"Right?"

"Yes, but Uriel is the exact opposite. She uses her ability so actively that she'll pour out heals as soon as even a slight wound appears."

"Uh… is it for a reason like training one's mental strength or something?"

Lee Hyunseok, who had heard Arachne's words, was stunned for a moment and then said the answer he had thought of.

At that, Arachne playfully shook her head.

"No, it's just that the recovery from Uriel's ability is a little different from other healers' recovery."

"What's so different about it?"

At Eun Yeonwoo's question, Arachne met the eyes of the five one by one and said.

"Uriel can use both the recovery that regenerates a wounded muscle to its original state and the recovery that makes a damaged muscle stronger, as if fast-forwarding time using the body's nutrients. She said she just had to use her aura with a slightly different knack."

"…What?"

At Arachne's words, which were completely beyond their common sense, they were at a loss for words and closed their mouths.

"Huh? Other healers can't do that?"

At Arachne's words, Baek Hyunwoo was surprised, as if he hadn't known.

"Of course. Most of them just restore the wound."

"Hmm, I didn't know. I just thought they weren't doing it because they weren't close to me."

At Baek Hyunwoo's words, Arachne looked at him with disbelief.

"Even so, does it make sense for a guy who uses aura just like them to not know that?"

"Ahaha, as you know, I'm a bit lacking in sense in that area."

"Is being unable to do it something to be proud of?"

For reference, Baek Hyunwoo was also above average at applying aura to others' bodies.

While the two talented people were chatting and laughing.

"Wait a minute…"

Eun Yeonwoo, who had been mulling over Arachne's words, muttered with a pale face.

"If she can heal the body's wounds…"

At Eun Yeonwoo's words, Arachne nodded her head.

"Yes, the intensity of the training you'll receive will skyrocket. Considering that Oppa's personality… in the worst case, you might not even be able to faint at will?"

It was a terrifying statement, but none of them could deny Arachne's words.

Because even they thought that Lee Shin would be capable of that.

"Besides, the reason I said you're in big trouble isn't because of that."

But unfortunately for them, Arachne's words had a follow-up.

"There's a bigger problem than this?"

Eun Yeonwoo looked at Arachne with a face that was now half-resigned.

At that, Arachne, feeling a little guilty, scratched her cheek with an awkward expression and avoided Eun Yeonwoo's gaze.

"Hah, what's the problem now?"

At that, Eun Yeonwoo urged Arachne on.

Because it was more unsettling to hear only half of it and not the rest.

"Hmm… if I had to say, Uriel's personality is the problem."

"Personality?"

As Eun Yeonwoo asked back, as if he didn't understand, Arachne nodded her head.

"Yes, personality."

At Arachne's serious tone, Eun Yeonwoo, feeling that it wasn't a joke, quietly looked at her.

"What's her personality like? Is it very bad?"

"No, her personality is good. Among the kids I've seen, she's the kindest and most friendly. But… should I say there's a slightly twisted part?"

Arachne tapped her thigh with her finger, thought for a moment, and then opened her mouth.

"So, how do people usually help a beggar?"

"…They'd take money out of their wallet, I guess?"

For Eun Yeonwoo, for whom being a miser was a daily routine, the act of giving money to others was unimaginable, but he knew that was what was generally done according to common sense, so he said that.

At Eun Yeonwoo's words, Arachne nodded her head.

"Yes, that's what people usually do. But she's different."

Arachne glanced at Uriel and said in a voice mixed with a sigh.

"If she decides to help a beggar, she's the type of person who will catch the beggar, wash him cleanly, feed him, and then educate him so that he can live on his own without becoming a beggar again."

"…Instead of giving a fisherman a fish, you teach him how to fish, something like that?"

At Eun Yeonwoo's words, Arachne nodded her head.

"Yes, basically, that's right. The problem is that Uriel's method is so spartan that most people would be sick of it."

"What?"

"On top of that, once she starts, it's a vicious spartan education that never ends in the middle, no matter how much you beg her to stop. And now that even that Hyung is with her…"

With Baek Hyunwoo's testimony added to Arachne's words, it was impossible to even run a happy circuit.

Eun Yeonwoo turned his head and looked at Lee Shin and Uriel talking happily.

Uriel was a supporter who best suited the word 'all-rounder'.

She could create a barrier that could easily withstand numerous bombardments, she could give a buff that would turn an ordinary person into a superman, and she could also heal someone who had been playing in the river of the underworld.

What would happen if her ability was mixed with Lee Shin's malice and invested entirely in their growth?

O-ssak-!

Eun Yeonwoo, at the sensation of having peeked into a deep abyss, quickly shook his head to get rid of the thought that had briefly filled his mind.

And, although slightly different, the other four also did something similar to Eun Yeonwoo.

While they were preparing for the future to come.

"By the way, why did you do that just now?"

"Huh? What?"

Arachne asked Baek Hyunwoo stealthily.

"In the spar just now, you counterattacked Oppa's attack as if you were going to die with him. I know you're like that in a real fight, but you're usually so careful about that in a spar."

Baek Hyunwoo likes to fight with other people.

That's why in a spar, he acted rationally and controlled himself.

Because he also knew that if he let his guard down even a little, he would easily cross the line of a spar.

And there was no way Arachne, who had been watching him continuously, would not know that.

Baek Hyunwoo avoided Arachne's gaze for a moment and looked at the empty air.

It wasn't that he was avoiding the answer, but that he was thinking about how to say it, so Arachne didn't rush him and quietly waited for his next words.

After a short time, Baek Hyunwoo chuckled and said.

"I was really scared when Hyung sent his killing intent at me head-on. To be honest, I really thought I was going to die."

"What do you mean all of a sudden?"

At Arachne's words, Baek Hyunwoo repeatedly clenched and unclenched his empty hand, as if reliving the sensation of that time.

"That's why I threw my fist. Should I say I didn't throw it because I wanted to, but that I moved reflexively because of my past experiences?"

Although the words were a bit long-winded, the conclusion was simple.

He was scared of Lee Shin's attack, and because of that, his body had moved on its own; it was a simple story like that.

Arachne, who had been lost in thought for a moment at Baek Hyunwoo's words, looked at Lee Shin and said.

"Hmm, if you're right, it seems fighting that Oppa might be more helpful than I thought."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

Arachne said softly, with her chin slightly propped up.

The color of Arachne's hair, as she said that, looked darker and more somber than usual.

"It's a chance to properly feel the fear of death. Where else would we get an experience like this."

Arachne's words were not arrogance, but a simple fact.

Too much talent makes one see a crisis not as a crisis, but as an opportunity.

That's why they had never once felt the pressure of death that other Players had cultivated by continuously going to dungeons.

Of course, Arachne's words were crazy words that were completely detached from common sense.

"Hmm, well, since Uriel is here, it seems it'll be fine even in a 'just in case' situation."

Baek Hyunwoo wasn't a normal person either.

When they had finished their short conversation, Arachne, who had regained her usual expression, said with a smile.

"Then shall we make a bet on who gets used to that pressure first?"

"Isn't that disadvantageous for me? You're an assassin."

"So you're not going to do it?"

"No, of course I have to."

And so, the two chuckled at each other and approached Uriel and Lee Shin.

It was the beginning of their full-fledged training.

(End of Chapter)