Chapter 19

On the way back to the dorms.

Shin YuSung was silently walking to the dorms while trying to organize the whirlwind of a day in his mind.

Flanking him were Sumire and Lee SiWoo. The three were connected together by the common thread of being in F Class. Lee SiWoo was shouting about what he had witnessed at the sparring arena as if still overwhelmed by it.

“The two living legends were there! And I got to see them with my own eyes!”

He was so excited that he started to babble. Sumire quickened her strides to match Shin YuSung’s own.

“You won against an A Class student. S-Shin YuSung-ssi, you really are… incredible.”

Peek.

While saying this, Sumire was staring at Shin YuSung’s hair like it was made of gold.

Whenever his hair occasionally fell on the ground, Sumire would pick it up and store it in her pocket, treating it like a precious treasure.

“If we have YuSung, who knows, even our F Class might be able to escape the benign last place during the intramurals!”

No matter how many years had passed after Gaon Academy had been established, F Class always managed to claim last place.

Of course, every once in a while an exceptional student was born out of F Class. But it was never enough to close the gap between it and the other classes.

Each class had 30 students.

There was a difference in overall skill that one student could not make up for.

Only the competition between the most skilled classes, S Class and A Class, could be called something of a close fight. Depending on what strategies were used, the upper-rank class fights occasionally produced unbelievably high-level matches.

On the flip side, the intramural exam was nothing but a history of failure for the lower rank classes. Lee SiWoo stared at Shin YuSung with glittering eyes.

“I believe in you, YuSung!”

Sumire also carefully opened her mouth.

“I-I… also believe in you, YuSung-ssi!” she said, glancing at him.

“Thank you,” Shin YuSung replied in a composed manner. He began thinking about the intramural competition. Shin YuSung had a pretty good idea of the skill levels of the Gaon students after finishing his match with the previous ‘Seven’, Park SuHyun.

‘…The biggest problem is the fact that there are 30 students per class. It’s nearly impossible for me to fight against all of them by myself.’

Even in A Class, 2nd in student ranking Kim EunAh was holding the fort. And what would happen if the skilled A Class students supported her?

The F Class students that Shin YuSung had seen during classes popped into his mind—they were all severely lacking proficiency in how they used their Traits.

Even if they all had F-rank Traits, there was a wide range of proficiency depending on how efficiently those Traits were trained.

‘But it’s not like I can train every single member of the class.’

There was a limit to how much time Shin YuSung could use to prepare for the intramurals.

‘What I need right now are a few people who can watch my back…’

Finishing his musings, Shin YuSung looked at Lee SiWoo and Sumire.

“Our next opponents are D Class, right?” he said.

“Hm? Yeah.”

Lee SI Woo glanced at Sumire as if looking for confirmation. Sumire opted to nod her head instead of opening her mouth.

Seeing the two respond, Shin YuSung smiled.

“I’ll make it so that we can defeat D Class. No, all of the lower rank classes.”

Those weren’t empty words.

Shin YuSung had the opportunity to observe the skills of Park SuHyun, an A Class student and a previous ‘Seven’. On top of that, Shin YuSung’s current student ranking was 3rd place—he was one of the top students—a Seven—of the Academy.

“R-really!?”

“Oooh! Nice! Nice!”

Sumire and Lee SiWoo’s eyes were sparkling.

“But, for this to happen, you guys are going to have to get stronger,” Shin YuSung continued while maintaining his smile.

Shin YuSung remembered every last bit of the torturous training that the Fist King had subjected him to over the years. It was a simple task to train these two.

“You can do it, right?”

Lee SiWoo and Sumire, for whatever reason, felt a chill crawl up their spines at the pleasant expression that Shin YuSung’s wore as he asked this question.

* * *

* * *

Academy City’s Hunter Association branch.

The Association president, Kang YuChan, took the chance to visit one of the branches while returning from his visit to Gaon Academy. Mei Lin dropped everything that she was doing to greet him.

“Mr. President? For what occasion…”

“Kukuku, I just thought I would drop by since I was in the area. I saw something incredible… but it turns out that there’s no one to talk about it with, hm?”

Quick on the uptake, Mei Lin nodded at Kang YuChan’s boisterous laugh.

“It looks like you’ve taken quite a liking to the Fist King’s disciple.”

“I’ve seen a lot of hunters in my time, but this is… the first that I’ve seen combat skills like that. Especially… how he utilizes his Trait!”

The F-rank Trait that Shin YuSung possessed was called [Heightened Concentration]. Kang YuCHan was highly impressed by the methods Shin YuSung employed in its usage.

Ranks for Trait were, at the end of the day, decided by the standards set by the Association. An S rank could be given to a Trait like Adela’s, which converted mana into ice. An A rank could be given to a Trait like Kim EunAh’s, which turned mana into powerful electricity but was harder to control depending on the user’s emotions.

The Association’s own rules and the device that scanned Traits were what decided which Trait was better or worse than another.

Those standards were not absolute. Therefore, how one used a Trait changed its effectiveness, even an F-rank one.

“Heightened Concentration… he managed to bring out a hundred times, no, a thousand times the power of a seemingly meager Trait, and he can control his mana to a degree which regular hunters couldn’t hope to achieve.” Kang YuChan remarked further while looking back on Shin YuSung’s fight.

A graying old man like Kang YuChan looked as excited as a little kid when the topic of hunters was brought up.

“He utilized all of the senses in his body during the fight! …Now that I think about it, how did that child manage to pass the training from the Fist King when even S-ranks couldn’t do so?”

Mei Lin muttered the name of the Trait that Shin YuSung possessed as the man asked the question.

“Concentration…”

“Correct. He overcame his limits through his Trait. Due to it, he could endure Yu WonHak’s training and managed to evolve his Trait.”

As Yu WonHak had said.

Shin YuSung did not need a moment to consciously use his Trait. In order to survive Yu WonHak’s training, his Trait had to continuously surpass its own limits. It had eventually turned into something as natural as breathing.

Kang YuChan had managed to fully analyze Shin YuSung after watching him fight only one spar.

“A device probably can’t pick it up, but he probably has something other than an F-rank Trait…”

Mei Lin looked interested in Kang YuChan’s explanation.

“I thought that evolving one’s Trait was only something that… hunter who cleared dungeons or the Tower could achieve.”

“Well, that’s how it usually goes. It’s rare for students to experience true danger. Speaking of…”

Kang YuChan continued talking to Mei Lin with an unusually serious tone.

“Can you, the manager of the Academy City branch, keep an eye out for him and report back to me if anything strange happens?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“And about the Dungeon Raid Competition we’re hosting…”

Kang YuChan turned a mana-filled gaze towards Mei Lin, who flinched. There was a pressure exuding from the glare of one of the strongest hunters in the world.

He continued calmly.

“…It looks like the dungeon where the Silver Moon Blade is in is rather advantageous for the Chinese team. Huh huh, it’s probably a coincidence, right?”

“I-I apologize! T-that’s…”

Mei Lin had accepted a certain kind of trade with the headmaster of Skyscraper Academy. In exchange for Mei Lin, the Academy City branch manager, ‘slightly tipping of the scales’ in their favor, she could obtain a large sum of money.

“I get it. You want to give more opportunities to the standout students. In fact, I actually went and gave Yu WonHak some insider info as well! It happens, it happens! Huh huh!”

Kang YuChan laughed, “huh huh!” with his hands behind his back—a typical reaction from him. ,

In a cold sweat, Mei Lin bowed her head.

Kang YuChan looked down at the woman and began to make a request with a distinctly colder voice.

“But still, it’s a competition hosted by the Association. Shouldn’t the president, at the very least, be notified about any circumstances that come to pass in it?”

“I will keep that in mind for next time.”

“Kuku, don’t get too bothered about it. It’s just the teasing of an old man.”

With his hands still behind his back, Kang YuChan strode out of the Association building.

“Phew…”

Only then did Mei Lin relax. She let out her held breath.

“To think that President-nim is taking interest in a first-year student…”

He had initially sought out Shin YuSung out of curiosity because of his title as the Fist King’s disciple, but the boy’s skill was what had entirely captivated the man.

Mei Lin sat on the chair and crossed one leg over the other. Her cheongsam followed the curve of her hips and legs.

“…Shin YuSung, huh.”

Mei Lin put the boy’s name on the Academy City list of individuals to watch out for.

* * * *

An unfamiliar ceiling in Gaon Academy.

Park SuHyun strained his heavy body and sat up. He placed his palms on his head to quell the headache and tried to organize his memories.

What was certain was that he had lost against Shin YuSung during the match. And he was sitting on one of the infirmary’s beds.

‘This is the infirmary…’

This was the first time that this had happened to Park SuHyun since he had enrolled in the academy. It was rare for someone with Sevens-level skill like him to be so thoroughly beaten that he had to be shipped off to the infirmary.

But Park SuHyun had been thoroughly beaten.

‘I lost… to an F-rank?’

It was hard to believe.

Park SuHyun’s Trait, which controlled power, could be exercised to its full potential in a setting like a pool filled with water. On top of that, he had snuck in the shield hunting gear to the match.

Even with all of that, he had lost to Shin YuSung because of the overwhelming difference in skill.

“Ggh…”

Park SuHyun grabbed his shoulder.

Even though the nanomachines finished his treatment, he could still feel the pain of the blow. Park SuHyun had ruined a lot of things for himself by losing to Shin YuSung. If he had won against him, he would’ve been about to make a strong impression on the Shinsung group’s granddaughter, Kim EunAh. He also would have been able to earn back the honor of a ‘previous Seven’.

‘…But everything got messed up.’

Grind–

Park SuHyun gritted his teeth in rage.

It wasn’t his style to take things lying down. Even if he had to cheat, even if he was insulted, he used every method possible to get revenge. That was his style.

‘F Class…’

Park SuHyun, with a grimace, started to think. How could he use his wealth and status to deal a blow against Shin YuSung?

‘I need to knock that smug asshole down a peg or two, no matter what…’

Standing up from the bed, Park SuHyun smirked as if remembering something.

‘Come to think of it; there are the intramurals…’

As his thoughts reached that point, a face appeared in his mind—a way to enact revenge without dirtying his own hands. That was Park SuHyun’s specialty.