Chapter 21

[Forest of Spirits]

It was one out of the dozens of dungeons that Academy City managed. Out of them all, it was one that the academy students were the most reluctant to conquer.

“Sumire. Do you know why the students dislike the Forest of Spirits?” asked Shin YuSung with a smile on his face.

Sumire shook her head, mouth firmly shut.

“It’s because undead-type monsters appear here,” Shin YuSung smoothly continued.

“U-undead?!”

Sumire curled up into herself and began looking around the Forest of Spirits. Her arm that held onto Shin YuSung’s sleeve was trembling.

‘…So even a necromancer can be afraid of the undead,’ he thought, looking at the girl.

The reason why students didn’t like undead monsters was simple. The ones who were not active hunters generally used low-grade weapons that were not imbued with the Tower’s magic.

Because of this, it was hard for them to deliver fatal blows to the undead monsters that had resistance to physical damage.

Several times more effort was needed to defeat an undead monster of a similar rank to a regular monster. If one didn’t have specific Traits like Kim EunAh or Adela, it would take too much time to defeat any of them.

Shin YuSung, a hunter who used martial arts, had bad compatibility with the undead monsters. But he had found a way to conquer the dungeon, [Graveyard of Despair], through Sumire.

If he wanted to win the Black Dragon’s Hide from the competition that the Hunter Association was hosting, it was necessary for him to confirm Sumire’s abilities.

“Uuu… I—This is the first time I’ve gone to an actual dungeon. So my s-skill might fail…”

The air was rancid and the ground was moist, causing the dirt to sink under every step they took.

Terrified, Sumire stuck close to Shin YuSung and walked throughout the forest.

‘…She isn’t going to rip my clothes again, right?’

While Shin YuSung was thinking dubious thoughts about Sumire, a blue light swayed somewhere in the forest.

Click. Squish. Squish. Click.

The footsteps of something stepping on rocks and dirt could be heard.

“Huh, huhh?”

Sumire pointed into the depths of the forest, eyes several times wider than usual.

“A h-horse! It’s a skeleton horse!”

To be exact, it was a skeletal horse.

It was a monster born from a cursed horse that had been revived as a skeleton. The blue light that had been seen was from the skeletal horse’s eyes.

The monster looked at Sumire and shook its head. A bone-chilling sound rang throughout the forest.

Clackclackclack—

Bone rattled against bone.

Because it was a rank 3 monster, if Sumire didn’t have Shin YuSung’s hair, she had no chance of defeating it with her skills.

‘Thankfully, there isn’t a death knight riding it.’

If there was a death knight—or even the rank 4 boss Dullahan—riding the skeletal horse, Shin YuSung had been planning on stopping his training with Sumire and fighting it with his full might, but the opponent was a single skeletal horse.

“Sumire. You’re going to try and tame that skeletal horse.”

Tup!

Shin YuSung kicked off the ground and ran into the body of the horse.

Crash!

Even though it was a simple tackle, the skeletal horse swayed under the boy’s strength. Shin YuSung did not miss this opportunity.

Boom!

He crouched down and kicked the front legs of the monster. The skeletal horse fell down and began to flail around.

Shin YuSung easily suppressed the monster by holding it by its neck bones.

“Okay, it’s your turn.”

Every time the skeletal horse began to struggle, Shin YuSung tightened his grip on the neck. An unusual resolve began to well up in Sumire at the sight of the monster.

‘…I-I have to become more comfortable as soon as possible.’

Click! Clack!

Sumire hurriedly approached the skeletal horse as the savage sounds of bones rattling against each other began emanating from the monster.

“Snarl!”

The skeletal horse gnashed its teeth to scare Sumire, but she was not cowed.

“…It hurts, huh?”

Sumire stretched out a hand towards its head. She was close enough to be in danger of getting hurt by the skeletal horse if it attacked, but the monster did not bite her.

“…I’m sorry. We weren’t trying to hurt you.”

Sumire gently pet the head of the skeletal horse. Even though this was the first time that she had used her Trait after arriving in Korea, a purple glow emanated from her hand as if she was familiar with using it.

Traits and Skills.

Both were powers that hunters were born with.

One could use them without having to figure out how.

Shine!

As Sumire petted the horse with the hand emitting purple light, the monster swiveled its glowing blue eyes towards her as if it could understand what she was saying.

“It’s alright. G-good boy?”

Sumire gave a faint smile towards the skeletal horse. Shin YuSung, seeing the docile actions of the monster, loosened his grip on its neck.

As he did so, the skeletal horse stood up and bowed its head towards Sumire, as if showing her its subservience towards her.

“R-really? You want me to ride on top of you?”

Sumire was able to communicate with the skeletal horse, perhaps through her Skill. She sat atop the monster with some hesitation. The horse stood still, as if waiting for her orders.

It had completely acknowledged Sumire as its master. Shin YuSung, watching all of this, nodded.

‘As expected…’

As he thought, Sumire was the hidden ace needed to easily conquer the [Graveyard of Despair].

Sumire, still on the horse, glanced at Shin YuSung—who was deep in thought—before carefully opening her mouth.

“Umm… Shin YuSung-ssi, would you like to ride it as well?

* * *

* * *

The top floor of the Hunter Association building.

Kang YuChan laughed heartily as he looked out of the window of the office.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“So the competition is tomorrow. Huh huh.”

These students were nothing but newly-formed sprouts to someone like the Association president, but he knew very well that the students currently developing were the next generation of hunters that had to conquer dungeons, climb the Tower, and stop villains.

“Too bad, I wanted to watch over the competition myself, but I’m too busy these days. There are a lot of… outstanding students among the first-years this year.”

The smiling Kang YuChan changed his expression, narrowing his eyes into slits.

“Let’s make sure that we keep accidents to a minimum. Especially for the foreign students.”

The biggest issue relating to the Dungeon Raid Competition was the fact that there was the risk of casualties happening from it.

Death was a familiar concept to hunters.

The Association was not liable for any casualties among the participants, but the ones who were competing were the elite among the elites from each country. If someone among those MVPs were to die, it held the danger of becoming a diplomatic incident at the worst.

“We will supervise them with the utmost responsibility.” Mei Lin placed her hands on top of her briefcase and replied to him.

Ju HimChan*, an active hunter also in charge of the proceedings, lit the fire on his passion.

“These students are the future of the hunter world! We will make sure the Competition goes off without a hitch so that there is no blemish on the Association’s reputation!”

Looking at the two, Kang YuChan gave a pleased smile.

* * * *

Choten Academy, called the greatest academy in Japan, was located in Tochigi prefecture in the Kanto region—it took up an incredibly large plot of land on a wide-open plain.

Fist King Yu WonHak.

Korea’s Hunter Association president, Kang YuChan.

To catch up to Korea, who was leading the raid against the Tower, Japan poured a lot of resources into the development of hunters. As proof, Choten Academy’s facilities were top-notch.

The various clubs using this plot of land as their “clubrooms” were the pride and joy of Choten Academy.

But, even among those numerous clubs, if one asked the students which club was the most famous one, everyone’s response would be the same.

The hunter club.

It was unique in that it called itself a hunter club, despite every student at Choten being a hunter.

Its members boasted enough skill to warrant it. As proof, the students who were in the hunter club were made up of the three strongest first years in Japan.

The student who was the president of the best-of-the-best hunter club was Kuroki Seiji.

“Tomorrow, we’re finally leaving for Korea.” He said with a low tone of voice.

Seiji had won many awards in various raid competitions up until now, but nothing had ignited his passion like this.

The reason why Seiji was so excited was none other than the location where the competition was being held.

‘…South Korea.’

After the Outbreak released monsters into the world, a large number of dungeons and gates opened in Korea. A depressing amount of them had cropped up, when compared to the population and size of the country.

Many nations expected Korea to fall, but Korea had turned this moment of crisis into opportunity.

One aspect that they were lucky in was that Korea had a lot of hunters who had awakened S-rank Traits when compared to the population.

Second, they systematically divided the conquering of dungeons by difficulty, gave ranks to hunters based on their achievements, and used this system to manage the hunters while reducing the number of casualties to a minimum.

Third, the nation stepped down and gave full support towards the hunters and corporations sponsored strong hunters—much like how they supported sports teams.

Fourth, the numerous dungeons, the systemization of hunters, and the support of the nation and corporations. Because all of these conditions were met, the hunters called the greatest generation were born.

These conditions fed into each other.

Eventually, Korea managed to reach the halfway point of the Tower before any nation in East Asia.

‘…I’ll have to observe their skills, if only to prepare for the international competition.’

Seiji opened his eyes.

As his long eyelashes parted, a glowing white light started to emit from his eyes. A dangerous atmosphere began to form in the grasslands.

“Roooaarr!”

“Screeech!”

“Hissssss!”

A tiger with red fur.

A large bird with a beak made out of steel.

A 5-meter long, venomous snake.

Seiji talked to his two other teammates in a quiet voice.

“Start.”

Sakura, an archer, raised her bow at Seiji’s command. A pleasant breeze blew her cherry blossom-colored hair behind her.

Woosh! Shnk!

Faster than the speed of light, Sakura’s arrow pierced through the snake’s head—it was the power of her Trait.

“Rooooaarr!”

As the red tiger began to charge at an incredible speed, the swordsman Kirishima Isshin placed a hand on the sheath of his weapon.

When the tiger was a hair’s breadth away and started to open its jaws, Isshin drew his blade.

Snk!

A perfect unsheathing.

Tear!

As Isshin’s sword drew an arc, the body of the red tiger split in half. The bird, even with its low intelligence, looked at the members of the hunter club and tilted its head as if it had realized that it was at a disadvantage.

“Screeech!”

The steel-beaked monster cried out and began to flee. Seiji, the leader, did not move. Instead, three shadows erupted from his body.

The shadows, which were the same size as Seiji, were all moving differently and were swinging swords or throwing shuriken.

It only took three seconds for these shadows to find and hunt down the bird.

Seiji turned his back towards the defeated monsters and began to shout at his club members.

“We’re going to Korea!”

A deep passion was burning in his eyes.

##TL/N: unrelated but it’s fun that seiji has shadow powers despite being the hot-blooded stereotype

* HimChan is also how the adjective ‘strong’ is pronounced in Korean.