novelraw Chapter 113
Chapter 113
Chapter 113
We were in the car on our way to Cheorwon.
After we took care of the monsters in the foreigner residential district, the things I said into the camera had some effect, but it was hard to say they worked perfectly.
People argued back and forth over whether my statement was right or wrong.
There were also people saying that, with things as serious as they were, a Hunter like me should not be running around outside at all, and of course there were people saying the opposite.
Overall, about forty five percent of people agreed with what I was doing. The rest either opposed me or did not really care.
“This alone is already something.”
At the very least, I had created a situation where even the people who hated me could not openly tear into me while I worked.
“But that means failure is not going to be allowed.”
That was Han Sang-ah’s opinion from the passenger seat.
“Of course not. We always repeat this tightrope walk where one failure means it is all over.”
That was why I became this famous and why my voice carried this much weight. You cannot get big rewards if you never accept risk.
“The connection between Hunters, the Association, and the government has already turned into a complete ecosystem.”
On top of that, there were the Descendants of Dangun. If you wanted to move freely without being crushed by the pressure of that finished ecosystem, there was no avoiding choices like this.
“We are almost there.”
Cheorwon. One of the fiercest battlefields in Korea. Waves of monsters, spreading Erosion Zones, and the Hunters who held them back.
We arrived at Jannabi’s Cheorwon branch.
“I heard this used to be a golf course.”
There was nobody crazy enough to come to Cheorwon to play golf anymore. Jannabi had ripped this place apart and rebuilt it as a base of operations.
“Even the wind feels rotten.”
As the wind rushed past, I could faintly smell the scent of rotting corpses. Far to the north, I could also feel the grudge of undead pressing at the edge of my senses.
“And the numbers are insane.”
It was just about perfect. Here, I felt certain this place could be a great training ground for Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon.
“Hunter Yoo Chan-seok.”
I saw a man approaching with a few other Hunters and greeted him. Even without an introduction, I knew who he was.
This Hunter was Kang Hoon, Jannabi’s First Team Leader.
“Nice to meet you. I am Yoo Chan-seok.”
“I am Kang Hoon.”
He had a massive warhammer slung across his back. His forearms were covered in scars, and his face looked like it had taken the full brunt of the years head on.
“I watched your match with real interest. That proud fellow Choi Yeoreum must have felt incredibly rotten after that one.”
Her position was safe, and she had not lost, but in truth it was no different than losing.
“We will provide plenty of lodging and supplies, so stay without worry.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
Kang Hoon crossed his arms and went on.
“We can support you with three Jannabi teams, five Hunters per team.”
It was less support than I had expected. To be honest, I had not been expecting a lot anyway. The government had already put defense of its own territory forward as the highest priority, and the people who had seen foreigners turn into monsters agreed with that stance.
Jannabi would feel pressured if they tried to openly ignore that atmosphere. Either way, fifteen Jannabi Hunters would be much more helpful than sixty mediocre Hunters.
“Oh, and the operation will be handled here at the branch by our own operating team.”
After hearing that much, I smiled, nodded, and spoke.
“Thank you for the operating team's support. But there is no need for Jannabi’s Hunters to step out on the field.”
At my words, Kang Hoon let out a short scoff.
“Bold. Of course, the skill to back it up is there for you guys.”
He thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright, we will do that. You are free to move as you wish, your operational freedom is guaranteed. Call the operating team when you need them. We can grab lunch sometime later.”
“Out here, the two of you are going to have a hell of a time.”
At my words, Jung Oh-hoon let out a drawn out groan.
“You really know how to make a guy look forward to things.”
Looking forward huh. At his words, I smiled as clear as dawn dew on grass and pulled a large box out, setting it on the ground.
A heavy thump rang out.
“Save me.”
Realizing from the sound that the box I had taken out weighed more than it had any right to, Jung Oh-hoon immediately put on a regretful expression and looked at me.
“Who said you were going to die?”
Han Sang-ah cracked the lid open and gave a simple verdict.
“I thought you had something amazing prepared when you said you had a plan ready.”
“There is nothing amazing. There is no royal road in training after all.”
The sweat you spill now can replace the blood you spill later. It is a simple rule. At my words, Jung Oh-hoon looked offended.
“Then this is no different from what Sang-ah and I have been doing.”
“What are you talking about? The level I will push you to is completely different.”
It is very hard for someone to train themselves all the way to their own limits. You need another person’s help.
Even if Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon helped each other train, once you are exhausted yourself, it is hard to help someone else with real intensity.
On top of that, these two were not capable of controlling their own training at a proper level. They would either train too little and get no real benefit, or train too much and break their bodies.
“I will open the gate to the hell you two need to walk through with my own hands.”
And if they succeeded in walking that hell through to the end, they would be reborn completely.
If they failed, that was the end.
“If you cannot endure, you can go home in tears after hearing that line you always hear on audition programs, that you cannot continue with us.”
I finished taking everything out. Looking at the pile, Jung Oh-hoon offered his impression.
“Is this a gym?”
Dumbbells, barbells, plates, kettlebells, all poured out one after another. Every single one was a special product.
“Is building up the body really enough? Of course, you would need to use mana just to lift this weight anyway.”
At Han Sang-ah’s question, I shook my head.
“Of course it is not enough.”
I used my spear to carve huge shapes into the hard ground.
“The Formation of Divine Protection?”
“Yeah. But this one is a little different.”
It was a construction method researched purely for training. It was several times more sophisticated than the blessing constructions I had used in the past. Over the course of nearly five hours, I completed the blessing formations.
“When you use mana, pressure is applied in proportion to the amount of mana you use.”
You have to use mana to lift heavy weights. When you use mana, your body becomes heavier. The formation was tuned to make your body heavier in a way that matched the mana you consumed.
If you used mana to lift ten kilograms of weight, about nine point five additional kilograms would be added.
That way, the chain of repeated effort formed a perfect loop.
“Are we not going to die like this?”
It was a construction method created for training. It had safety measures to that extent. If the person under its influence really became endangered, they would immediately be released from the effect.
This formation had been carved only in the training halls of the royal knight order in that other world, the order that guarded the king at his side.
Thinking about how I had almost been framed as a traitor while uncovering this brought back some vivid memories.
“You absolutely will not die. It will just be hard enough to feel like dying.”
“How did you even come up with things like this?”
I smiled at Han Sang-ah’s question and answered.
“By understanding mana, analyzing it, and applying it in your own way.”
There was no reason to tell the truth. I could just say I had developed it. That was enough. Han Sang-ah grabbed a dumbbell with one hand, the one marked one hundred fifty kilograms.
Her face, which almost never changed expression, turned pale.
“This is…”
Her hand shook as she slowly lifted the dumbbell.
“Magnificent right?”
“I feel like… I am going to die!”
She finally managed to lift it with everything she had, then dropped it to the ground and gasped for breath.
She did not make jokes or speak in metaphors. If she said she felt like dying, she meant it literally.
I handed notebooks to the two of them.
“What are these?”
“Your morning schedule.”
Their schedules were different from each other. I had written them myself. They matched each person’s current limit exactly.
“What about you?”
“I need to focus on clearing out Erosion Zones and removing Erosion Cores.”
I had no intention of letting these two take care of Erosion Cores. That was my job.
“If we do this in the morning, what about the afternoon?”
“After lunch, once you replenish the mana you spent, you will come play with me.”
At that, Jung Oh-hoon let out a heartfelt sigh.
“I am so happy.”
“Seeing you so happy really warms my heart. Alright, work hard then.”
With that, I stood and headed into the building, toward the operators’ office.
“Hunter Yoo Chan-seok?”
One of the operators sprang to his feet.
“Hello. It’s Yoo Chan-seok.”
“Ah, yes! Hello. I am Ha Taehyun, operating team leader of Jannabi’s Cheorwon branch.”
So he was the team leader. After we finished our greetings, I spoke.
“How many identified Erosion Cores are there?”
“Including ones around Hoeyang, Pyeonggang, and Imnam Reservoir, there are fifteen.”
Fifteen? I looked slightly surprised at that number.
“That is more than I expected.”
“That count excludes grade three and ungraded. At least there are no grade one Erosion Cores.”
I clicked my tongue at that. There were fifteen grade twos?
“In the last eight months, six new ones formed, which brought the total to fifteen. The monsters coming out of grade two Erosion Zones are a problem, but worse were the monsters flowing in from Jaun Valley and Samhyeoldong.”
Monsters produced by grade one Erosion Cores traveled down through Erosion Zones formed by other cores. They moved all the way here. But we had already dealt with Jaun Valley.
“Now the problem monsters are the ones coming from the Samhyeoldong Erosion Zone then.”
And that Samhyeoldong core would also be under the influence of Gonsalok, producing undead type monsters.
For some reason, I felt like I knew what kind of grade one Erosion Core Sa Seung-hee would introduce to us next.
“The monsters of Jaun Valley were ghosts, each individual very powerful. But the monsters from Samhyeoldong are different in method and much trickier from our perspective.”
The undead of Samhyeoldong were not each as strong as grade one monsters. Instead, they created special structures that buffed other undead.
They acted like a living buff. On top of that, they could reconstruct completely destroyed undead and raise them again.
That was why the line had never been able to push forward and had only barely held. Buffs and revivals. They had packed in nothing but the most annoying tricks.
“Right now, we have discovered about three hundred Samhyeoldong monsters in our operational area.”
Even so, the situation had improved a lot.
“Until recently, we were barely holding the line. If Hunter Lee Se-eun were still stationed in Cheorwon, we would already have pushed the Erosion Zones back at least to Gosan County.”
Well, I guess I could think of it as filling Lee Se-eun’s empty spot.
“Understood. Then I will be counting on your operating support.”
Once we finished talking and they sent the relevant data to my phone, I immediately prepared my weapons.
“I’m not like the other Hunters.”
You cannot handle a grade one Erosion Core alone. But I could smash grade two cores by myself just fine.
“For grade two, all I need to do is jump into the core, set it on fire, and wait.”
From my perspective, the gimmicks of a grade two Erosion Core were no big deal. I could ignore them, set the inside of the core on fire, wait a little, and the job would be done.
After that, in the mornings, Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon followed the schedules I had given them, and in the afternoons they sparred with me.
In the mornings, I roamed the Erosion Zones, smashing every Erosion Core and monster I saw.