The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 37

"We've arrived."

Not long after Lee Shin and Eun Yeon-woo followed Kim Jae-hyun into the forest, a wide clearing that seemed to have been used as a campsite in the past appeared.

On the outskirts of the clearing, five people were positioned, and in the center, two people stood, looking at the just-arrived Lee Shin and Eun Yeon-woo.

"Haa, thanks to you, brother, I've been marked by my superiors. Why on earth did you drag me all the way here?"

Eun Yeon-woo grumbled, looking at the five team leaders standing on the outskirts and Cheon Yuhwa and the unidentified man in the center of the clearing.

At his reaction, Lee Shin replied with his usual smiling face.

"You were already half-marked from the moment you were assigned to me anyway."

"......"

At the objective and factual point that he couldn't deny, Eun Yeon-woo shut his mouth.

"And the reason I brought you here is..."

He said, flicking his forehead.

"Just understand it as me wanting to broaden your perspective a bit."

Lee Shin had brought him along with the simple thought that if he just showed him something, he might want to get stronger, but he decided to hide his true intentions for now and wrap them up nicely.

Fortunately, his choice didn't seem to be wrong, as Eun Yeon-woo shut his grumbling mouth and sat down on a nearby tree stump.

At that, he smiled lightly and walked toward the center of the clearing where Cheon Yuhwa and the man with the unidentified light purple hair were standing.

She stood there, smiling at him with a slightly more lively smile instead of her usual mask-like one, and the man looked at him with eyes that showed no emotion, as if he had no interest in him.

Meeting those eyes, he examined the man's appearance.

Even in the faint moonlight, his skin was so white it seemed to glow, and his cold eyes and closed lips exuded a sharp aura around him.

"Hmm~"

Facing the man standing in the center of the clearing, Yeonhwa, he expressed all his emotions with a light hum.

"Hello. I thought you'd come alone, so this is unexpected."

At her words, he replied with a broad smile.

"It's for a similar reason as yours."

Saying so, he glanced in the direction of the team leaders and Kim Jae-hyun.

She smiled faintly at his words.

But since Lee Shin had predicted this much from the beginning, he decided to just let it go.

'I didn't expect this, though.'

He looked at Yeonhwa and asked.

"It seems you're about to do something interesting?"

"Yes, since I'm the guild master, I've been handling a busy schedule, so it ended up like this. This friend is Yeonhwa, and it seems you'll be sparring with me in the morning and with this friend in the evening."

"Isn't that different from the promise?"

"Oh? You're asking that even though you can already feel it?"

She said with a smiling face.

And through that smile, Lee Shin could see a piece of her emotions behind the mask.

It was the exhilaration of revenge.

'But what did I do? There's nothing that comes to mind.'

Lee Shin thought about it for a moment, but it was natural that he didn't know.

The person she was getting revenge on and feeling exhilarated about was him and not him at the same time.

It was the future him, the source of her headaches.

"This friend is as strong as I am."

"Ah, as expected."

It was just a single sentence without any basis, but he just nodded in acceptance.

From the moment Lee Shin saw him from a distance, the instinct deep inside him had stirred and emerged, whispering in his ear that he was an incredibly strong person.

And now he could understand why.

"I didn't know an nameless [King] would be in a place like this."

He said with a broad smile.

Then, everyone who heard his words had a look of astonishment on their faces.

"The Sword King, Mumyeong..."

"That's the strongest martial artist who achieved numerous victories with just one sword."

Although they had thought he was an unusual person, the unidentified man was a figure far beyond their expectations.

In particular, Jo Yu-hyeon, the only martial artist among the team leaders, couldn't close his gaping mouth.

"Haa."

Yeonhwa let out a small sigh, whether he had heard the team leaders' words or he just didn't like the current atmosphere.

Then, he looked at Lee Shin.

His eyes looking at him were no different from the beginning.

There were no thoughts, just extreme indifference.

"I was asked by this person to spar with you only in the evening while raiding this dungeon. So, what are you going to do?"

"Of course I have to accept. When else would I get an opportunity like this?"

Yeonhwa looked at him, who had suddenly started speaking informally to him, with transparent eyes.

At the look that asked 'why the informal speech', he replied with a broad smile.

"What can I do, you spoke informally too?"

"...Draw your weapon."

At his words, instead of answering, Yeonhwa just uttered that one sentence and drew the wooden sword from his waist, gripping it in his hand.

Sreureung-

Although it was clearly a wooden sword, the moment it was gripped in his hand, it was emitting a sharpness that could be compared to a real sword forged by a master.

"Yes, I understand~"

He nonchalantly gripped the tutorial spear he had put in his inventory.

He had already been wearing the light armor under his clothes since he was eating, so there was no need to prepare separately.

Puhaha-

Gripping the spear and swinging it lightly, he felt something funny and laughed lightly.

It was a laugh born from the slight amusement that the first place his armor, received from Geum Hyun-mo, was being used was not a dungeon but a spar with a person.

"Hoo."

Although Yeonhwa interpreted that laugh with a different meaning.

***

'He's raising the corners of his mouth in anger again.'

Cheon Yuhwa laughed inwardly, seeing Yeonhwa's mouth corners faintly rise as he rushed toward him.

Yeonhwa’s appearance, closing the distance toward him while even unfolding his footwork, was a sight hard to imagine from the unmotivated appearance he had shown at the beginning.

But she had expected this situation to happen from the beginning.

If she was the one who had been most affected by Lee Shin’s provocations and had ground her teeth, then it was Yeonhwa who had fought with him the most.

'This is what you call a cat-and-dog relationship, I guess.'

She thought, looking at the two.

Yeonhwa, who had closed the distance to him in an instant, lightly raised his wooden sword.

In that instant, a strong scent of flowers, strong enough for everyone present to smell, flowed from his sword.

It was an incomprehensible thing from a common-sense perspective, but no one present questioned the sudden scent of flowers.

It was a fact that everyone who played Pantheon knew that a strong scent of plum blossoms, strong enough to cover the smell of blood, remained in the place where Mumyeong had swung his sword.

'Is he aiming for the weapon first?'

Lee Shin could roughly grasp his thoughts, seeing him swing his wooden sword toward the spear gripped in his hand.

The thought of making him drop his spear and then attacking the defenseless him with his wooden sword.

Probably, it was also to get revenge for being teased a little before the spar began.

'He seems more petty than I thought. I thought he'd just let go of such a provocation.'

It was an attack he could have dealt with if he had put his mind to it, but he decided to just play along with his thoughts.

An interesting thought had come to his mind.

He looked at him, smelling the scent of plum blossoms.

He was ignoring him now, and his vision was narrowed by a slight anger.

This was worth a try.

As soon as he thought so, he raised his internal energy and began to act.

Kaaang-

Just before Lee Shin could swing his spear, his wooden sword struck his spear.

At that, the spear gripped in his hand was made to look as if it had been futilely dropped from his hand.

Seeing the spear in his hand being flicked away, he thought to himself that it was a good thing he had seen the party members fight today.

'If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have been able to pull off such a realistic facial expression.'

As proof, Yeonhwa didn't feel any sense of incongruity from him and was immediately swinging his sword.

Swoosh-

His stance, the shape of his hand, the position of his sword.

In a fleeting moment, Lee Shin’s eyes confirmed all of those things and predicted where he was going to attack.

The place Yeonhwa was aiming for was his side.

A part where there were no bones, so it would hurt if hit, but there would be no special aftereffects.

Pajijik-

In other words, for him, who was not afraid of pain, it was a place he could ignore.

'Well, if it were a real sword, I would have paid a little attention to defense, but there's no need for that now.'

Lee Shin finished his thoughts briefly and lightly clenched his empty hand, which had lost the spear, into a fist.

Just because the spear was gone didn't mean he was powerless.

Unlike other martial artists who trained in only one weapon, countless cards were gripped in his hands.

He added strength to the fist made with his right hand and, changing the internal energy he had drawn up into [Lightning], wrapped it around his fist.

Flame Lightning Tree God Spear.

It was originally a martial art used with a spear, but this kind of light change was more than possible.

After all, it was a martial art he had created.

"What is that..."

"Was he really just playing around when he fought us last time?"

The team leaders, who were far away, let out a chuckle, seeing him take a fist stance with [Lightning] wrapped around his fist.

The guess that had risen when he had held a spear instead of twin swords at the beginning had now turned into a certainty as they saw his current appearance.

'Is he using his fist instead of a spear?'

It was an unexpected situation, and Yeonhwa was also surprised.

Yeonhwa had expected him to use a spear since he had taken it out, but as soon as he dropped the spear, he had attacked with his fist as if he had been aiming for it.

'And this guy, he's up to LV.2.'

His fist, wrapped in a golden-glowing current, extended swiftly toward his face.

'But it's just a trick.'

Swoosh-

Yeonhwa’s sword, which had been about to attack him, swayed lightly like a petal falling from the sky, changed its direction, and pushed his fist away with the end of the sword hilt.

With that small movement, the trajectory of Lee Shin’s fist, which had been extending toward his face, was twisted and extended into the air.

As he had intended.

Grin-

And as he had intended.

'Now.'

The moment the spear disappeared from Lee Shin’s mind and the fist took its place, he used the twist he had created.

Like a soccer player, he extended his right hand straight and twisted his body, sending his attention to his leg.

Yeonhwa’s eyes widened as he confirmed his foot.

Pajijijik--!!!

A golden light, larger than the one that had wrapped around his fist, shone from his foot.

It was natural.

Unlike the applied version created from a momentary flash of inspiration, the current one was the fruit of his continuous efforts.

Lightning Flash Step.

Putting all of that into one step, he kicked the tip of the spear that was falling from the air hard with the top of his foot.

Then, the spear, literally shot like a thunderbolt, flew toward Yeonhwa.

An attack that pierced the feint of a feint.

Even Yeonhwa was a little late in responding to that unexpected attack.

Jureuk-

His spear, which had pierced right next to Yeonhwa’s head, soared into the sky.

"Oh? It missed?"

Lee Shin said, smiling slyly, but everyone present, including Yeonhwa, could feel it.

It wasn't that he had missed, but that he had deliberately missed.

"Haa. I'm ashamed of myself."

Yeonhwa lightly wiped the blood flowing from his cheek and let out a small sigh.

Distancing himself from Yeonhwa, Lee Shin took out a new spear from his inventory.

It was a new rare-grade spear made by Geum Hyun-mo.

"I was drunk on past glory and was careless."

Hwoooong-

Saying so, Yeonhwa lightly swung his wooden sword in the air.

In that instant, everyone, including Cheon Yuhwa, widened their eyes in surprise.

From his wooden sword, which had been swung in the air, a fragment of sword energy, the same light purple color as his hair, had momentarily appeared.

"From now on, I'll be serious."

"That's how you should be."

Lee Shin’s eyes, as he said so, were looking straight at Yeonhwa, and he answered with a bright smile.

Hwareureuk-

Flames bloomed from the tip of the spear gripped in his hand and revealed themselves.

His other power, [Flames], which was the counterpart to the [Lightning] he had shown just now.

Thwack-

In that instant, Yeonhwa rushed at him and swung his sword, and Lee Shin also responded by swinging his spear.

Kagagagak--

The sword and spear clashed, making a sound as if they were grinding against each other, and from the two clashing weapons, petals of plum blossoms and flames scattered into the air.

(End of Chapter)