World-Saving is a Skill

Chapter 114

Chapter 114

The forest, crowded with trees that were dried to the bone and on the verge of death, was burning in black flame.

No, it was not the forest that was burning. This small world itself was dying, completely wrapped in pitch black flames.

— Ga… aaah…

“Where do you think you are going?”

Corpses that had already died once were dying all over again in front of me. The blazing eyes of hatred, fixed on everything that still lived, were growing dim.

“Going by the schedule, this should be the last one.”

I looked at the burning world, then murmured as I stared at the core of this Erosion Zone that was meeting an unavoidable end, Paradoxical Flame clinging all over my body.

I had heard from Choi Seung-gi that the spear I would be using was finally complete. The Association President had also informed me that he planned to announce tonight that the ownership of the crown would be handed over to me.

It seemed the two weeks I had spent in Cheorwon were finally about to come to an end.

“It was pretty easy and fun while it lasted though.”

I gave the core of the Erosion Zone, which had lost everything and gone back to being a motionless corpse, a little kick with my foot. It crumbled into ash and scattered.

“Grade 3, nine of them. Grade 2, four.”

That was the result I produced by running around the northern part of Gangwon Province all by myself. Thanks to this, the threat in the northern half of Gangwon, which had once been classified as North Korean territory and more recently had been crawling with monsters, had for the most part disappeared.

On the media, they kept saying that this was something only I could have achieved. They said it was a result that would have been impossible if I had not kept trading blows on equal footing with Choi Yeoreum, eventually gaining the upper hand.

But my personal opinion was different.

Anyone on the level of Lee Se-eun or Kang Hoon could have produced the same result. After Jaun Valley was destroyed, the level of threat present in Cheorwon had already dropped considerably.

“Well, this kind of thing does not matter that much.”

Since the Erosion Zone had been cleared, a reward chest appeared. That was the end of my morning’s work.

I picked up the chest, turned my back on the still burning Erosion Zone, and headed back to Jannabi’s Cheorwon branch.

“Hi, friends. Our fun sparring time is back.”

After lunch I went to the training area where Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon were practicing. I grinned at the two of them as I spoke.

“Mr. Jung, you go first today.”

“Damn it.”

Muttering that, Jung Oh-hoon got up from his seat. He looked haggard, yet his eyes had become vicious enough that it was embarrassing to compare them to how he had looked before we came to Cheorwon.

“Everyone would get stronger if you could do it just by glaring like that.”

When I made fun of him, Jung Oh-hoon raised his rifle and spoke.

“Seriously, I am really itching to put a bullet in your forehead!”

There was no signal. Jung Oh-hoon immediately lifted himself slightly into the air and pulled the trigger of his rifle, aiming at me.

“Focus, and look straight at your opponent. Maintain your stance and your breathing.”

Dodging the attack as I closed the distance, I struck Jung Oh-hoon in the side with the shaft of my spear. He went flying with a whoosh, corrected his posture in midair, and fired.

Bullets deflected by my spear thudded into the surroundings. The magazine in the rifle dropped away. The spare magazine he had prepared floated up on its own in midair and slipped into the rifle in an instant.

“…”

Then Jung Oh-hoon’s eyes lost focus for a moment. There he goes again. I opened my mouth to say something, and he suddenly slapped himself across the face.

“Good. You are doing well.”

“It hurts less if I hurt myself than if I snap out of it after you beat me up!”

Both Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon had been spacing out like that a lot lately.

Their bodies were completing themselves too quickly, so their minds could not keep up with their physical growth. That was the phenomenon. It was the side effect people dressed up and called a state of selfless absorption.

In fact, in Han Sang-ah’s case, she had experienced it once before.

In any case, the fact that they were going through that meant the hellish work of the past two weeks was bearing fruit. It also meant this was the most dangerous time.

“Once you let your mind be completely swallowed up by that, it is all over.”

All that effort and pain would turn into meaningless wasted time. I had warned Jung Oh-hoon and Han Sang-ah countless times.

They were crossing weapons with an opponent, then suddenly felt as though they were drifting away from the world and sinking into the unconscious with a peaceful mind.

They were looking at their opponent, but their eyes were seeing something beyond. Their bodies moved on their own, repeating attack and defense naturally.

I had not become strong that way. Even if there was another path, I did not know how to grow strong like that.

“Your bodies are complete. Now catch up. Clinging to a wild horse’s mane and surviving on its back is not what you call riding.”

You had to tame the wild horse. You put it under your control and make it move exactly the way you want, to the places you want, at the speed you choose. That was riding.

The two of them already had bodies like splendidly grown wild horses. If they succeeded in taming those bodies, they would be able to ride them anywhere.

Once you succeeded in taming a horse one time, it meant you could do it again and again in the future.

Because you knew the method and the feel of it.

That was what I wanted from them. I did not want them to hang on by their fingernails on the back of some rampaging wild horse like everyone else.

“Good work.”

With a solid crack, the spar ended when my spear shaft smacked into Jung Oh-hoon’s head.

“You got much better.”

“I know that too.”

He had improved in every way. Lying flat on his back on the ground, Jung Oh-hoon spoke.

“If this is really the right way, why do you think other Hunters don’t do it?”

“Because it is unbelievably hard. And because people like secret tricks.”

Secret tricks to become rich. Secret tricks to lose weight. Secret tricks to raise your grades.

People think there is some special hidden secret in everything. But that is not always how things work.

No. In fact, cases where people succeed through some special secret are rare.

“Next, Han Sang-ah.”

At my words, Han Sang-ah rushed at me with her sword, drawing it and swinging in one smooth motion. It was a swift sword. To ordinary Hunters, all they would see was a flash of silver, then their head would be rolling.

I dodged the blade, but still gave some ground. The moment the sword passed by, a vicious pale blue lightning spread along its path. Even if you avoided the first strike, if you did not notice the lightning that followed, you would be hit.

“I feel like I have seen that trick somewhere.”

“I am copying you. The result is a bit different though.”

Han Sang-ah was diligently studying me. She had managed to produce things like that attack as her own results.

“It is only natural that it is different. The direction of our fighting styles is different.”

I kept the blue trajectory going for a long time. I was working on the premise that I would be fighting long battles. But Han Sang-ah had no reason to maintain it for long. She had to end the fight as quickly as possible.

That was the only difference. In her own way, she was modifying my specialty so that it fit her and absorbing it well.

As the spar dragged on, Han Sang-ah’s eyes went unfocused in the same way as Jung Oh-hoon’s.

“Hey.”

In this aspect, Jung Oh-hoon was better. Maybe it was his experience. He could pull himself out of it, but Han Sang-ah still could not.

I closed the distance and slapped Han Sang-ah’s cheek. Her head snapped to the side, then she came back to herself.

“Sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry to me about.”

“You have a long way to go~”

Watching from the side, Jung Oh-hoon teased her. Han Sang-ah ignored him and kept her focus on the spar.

“It is Kang Hoon.”

While I was sparring with her, I saw Kang Hoon approaching with several other Hunters and glanced that way.

“Yoo Chan-seok, focus on me.”

Right, that is what I should do. At Han Sang-ah’s words, I immediately turned my attention back to the spar. When we finished, Kang Hoon came over to me.

“Both of them are growing at an incredible speed. The difference from two weeks ago is dramatic.”

“They both worked hard.”

“With a good teacher, the students are bound to show results.”

I gave him a big smile.

“Thanks to your consideration on several fronts, we have been able to stay here comfortably. I think it is about time we went back.”

I had no intention of staying in Cheorwon any longer. At the most basic level, the reason I had come here was to kill time while the preparations I needed were completed.

“I figured as much, but it is still a bit sad. Well, the goal you three are aiming for is too famous. And Jannabi already got a lot of help from you.”

Kang Hoon did not seem to have any intention of using his position as a partner Hunter to pressure me.

“I think I was finally able to repay the help I received from Hunter Lee Se-eun.”

If Lee Se-eun had not helped me when I first became a Hunter, I might have had no option but Taebaek.

“You are right. If we part ways with a smile, we can greet each other with a smile when we meet again. You worked hard. I will make sure the terms are good, so if you ever feel like it, contact us any time.”

After he finished speaking, Kang Hoon held out his hand. I took it and shook it.

“I have already arranged your ride back.”

Soon after that, Han Sang-ah, Jung Oh-hoon and I got in a car and headed back to Seoul. It was time to start working again. The first person I had to see was, of course, Sa Seung-hee.

“I heard that you went up to Cheorwon. I see you came back today?”

As soon as I walked into the main Hut branch in Ikseon-dong, Sa Seung-hee dried her damp hands on her apron and greeted us.

“Yes. All the preparations are more or less finished now.”

At my answer, she looked at the three of us sitting in front of her. I asked my question right away.

“Samhyeoldong, right?”

Sa Seung-hee nodded.

“It is the grade 1 Erosion Zone in Pyeongseong City in South Pyongan Province.”

In terms of distance, it was much closer than Jaun Valley, which had been located way out in Changchun.

On top of that, the monsters that appeared in that Erosion Zone were all specialized in strengthening other undead.

“Even undead from grade 3 Erosion Zones are enhanced until they are close to the level of grade 2 undead.”

If undead from a grade 2 Erosion Zone were strengthened by undead from Samhyeoldong, the threat level would shoot straight up. Of course, that did not mean they would reach the level of monsters from a grade 1 Erosion Zone.

“There are just so many of them after all.”

There were a lot of grade 2 Erosion Zones. If all of those monsters got stronger, you ended up with undead that were both high quality and high quantity. Cheap and hearty, like a big bowl of gukbap.

“They also have a kind of command structure and act in an organized way. On top of that, they lead around the undead they have strengthened in packs…”

“That is why we need the crown?”

At my words, Sa Seung-hee nodded.

“If we try to attack, they will almost certainly respond in a systematic way. The three of you here will be fine.”

A grade 1 Erosion Zone raid brought in a lot of Hunters. There was no guarantee that all those Hunters would be fine when they ran into strengthened undead.

Listening to the explanation, Han Sang-ah spoke up.

“There is one more problem. The government is throwing money around to keep Hunters tied to Korea. And Hunters are the type who prefer safe income if they can get it.”

We would not know the exact numbers until we actually tried to recruit people, but at the very least there was no guarantee we could gather as many Hunters as we had for Jaun Valley.

“The same goes for skill level.”

Jung Oh-hoon added that. Many of the more capable Hunters had taken safe jobs that promised good pay.

“What about strong Hunters from overseas, like Adakawa Nanami?”

At Sa Seung-hee’s question, Jung Oh-hoon shook his head.

“With Jaun Valley, even if there were complications, people at least recognized that it was on Chinese soil, right?”

Now that Korean Hunters had cleared the Erosion Zone and most of the development was being carried out by Korean companies and capital, that region was practically Korean territory. Until then, though, it had been abroad.

“But Samhyeoldong used to be under North Korea’s effective control, and now it is Korean land. Those people are foreigners, right? If they cannot pass the new, stricter entry procedures this time…”

Trailing off, Jung Oh-hoon drew his thumb across his own throat.

It was an awkward situation to bring in foreign Hunters in as well. There were all kinds of difficulties.

Still, obstacles of this level were not worth calling hardship.