Chapter 97

Chapter 97

Clang!

“Ugh…”

Clang-!

Thud-!

“Ugh…”

Every time the two swords clashed, Young-jin let out a groan.

Though they were only blunt swords without blades, Young-jin was more terrified than ever before.

“Brother…

Clang-!

Swish-!

Thud-.

The swords clashed in midair, emitting a sharp ringing sound. Yeongjin’s hands, clenched with all his strength, released their grip. The sword flew from his grasp and fell lifelessly to the floor.

“I’ve reached my limit.”

Young-jin, his hair soaked through, slumped to the floor.

Do-jae picked up the sword that had flown away.

Nearly two hours.

He had sparred with Young-jin for an hour.

‘Did I underestimate Young-jin?’

I thought he’d give up right away.

But Yeongjin fought tooth and nail, pushing himself to his absolute limit as he clashed swords with Dojae.

Of course, Dojae had been gradually reducing his strength and speed to gauge Youngjin’s true skill level, but even so, Youngjin showed unexpected tenacity, revealing a different side of himself.

Damn-.

‘The Park-Ha-Gong Trio was somewhere between 10 and 20.’

Do-jae returned his sword to its sheath, recalling the trio he called the Peppermint Trio: Park Kyung-min, Ha Tae-seong, and Gong So-eun.

Their levels were 18, 20, and 12 respectively.

Considering the average level range for E-rank Hunters was between 10 and 20, they were unmistakably E-rank Hunters.

‘Better than Ji-yoon, who’s level 34…’

Ji-yoon’s level was 34.

And the Golem’s eyes showed Youngjin’s current level as 45.

Exactly the level of a C-rank Awakened.

A perfectly balanced, average C-rank hunter level.

‘Still lacking.’

But to Dojae, Yeongjin seemed somewhat strained protecting himself.

It’s not that C-rank hunters are weak anywhere.

From C-rank onward, the number of Awakened ones drops significantly, and it’s the baseline for facing high-tier monsters like Grade 4 species or above.

But as Song Deok-hoon said, if Young-jin’s brothers were targeting him, it was true his skills were insufficient for self-defense.

‘It’s not just his level, but he lacks any standout skills.’

His skill set played just as much a role in Young-jin’s situation as his level.

For example, Jang Ji-woo, the MID Shadow Corps agent who targeted Dojae, possessed skills like Stealth and High-Speed Movement, with stats heavily focused on Agility to match.

Because of that, even though Yeongjin and Jang Ji-woo weren’t far apart in level, the one who was more troublesome in combat was Jang Ji-woo, who specialized in stealth and assassination.

Furthermore, possessing special skills is crucial for healers and magic-users as well.

But Youngjin lacked such skills.

‘If only he had a skill specialized in growth, like his uncle did.’

Song Deok-hoon was famous as a hunter without a nickname.

The reason was that he lacked any skill that truly defined him.

He rose to the top tier of A-rank solely through his physical prowess. Without flashy skills or overwhelming strength, he had no nickname.

Some claimed he possessed the skill to challenge S-rank, but an S-rank title was beyond Song Deok-hoon, who lacked any distinctive traits.

After observing Song Deok-hoon through the Golem’s eyes, Do Jae understood.

Song Deok-hoon’s level was a staggering 151.

He also understood that such a high level was only possible because of the skill ‘Rapid Growth’.

“Young-jin, when we first met, you were originally a D-rank Hunter, right?”

Do-jae approached Young-jin, who was drinking water, and asked.

Youngjin gulped down cold water in one breath and replied.

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“But how did you even take the Extermination Corps officer exam? The minimum requirement was a C-rank Awakened, right?”

“Oh, that? After hunting Cerberus with my brother, I realized I had to do something. I spent a fortune. I tried everything—medicines that were supposed to be good for the body, treatments that were supposed to help mana flow, you name it. Still, I only managed to get to C-rank.”

“Really? There’s such a thing?”

“Yeah, but seeing how this is all I could manage, I guess talent really does play a part.”

Young-jin scratched his head and answered, looking embarrassed.

But a thought flashed through Dojae’s mind as he listened to Youngjin.

‘Talent is unavoidable. It’s a kind of luck. But in the end, he grew from D to C in that short time. That means forcing growth isn’t entirely impossible.’

And the most effective tool for forced growth was right in Dojae’s hands.

The ‘Sealed Memory of the Right Foot’.

The ‘Sealed Memory of the Right Foot’ extracted from the Death Knight, left untouched in the sub-space.

MID used this under the name Transcendence Stone to further enhance ordinary awakened beings.

There was no reason Dojae couldn’t do the same.

“Bro? Your eyes look really weird right now?”

“Are you good at enduring pain?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Young-jin slowly backed away.

The more he did, the closer Dojae moved in.

“It won’t hurt as much as you think, so don’t worry too much.”

“Huh? Wait… wait a minute!”

Young-jin turned and fled.

Do-jae grabbed Young-jin’s collar just as he did, simultaneously pulling the memory of his right foot, sealed away in the sub-space, to the surface.

***

Thud- thud-.

Squeak-.

Thud-.

“Manager Young-jin? Uh… What happened?”

Startled, Ji-yoon approached and asked as Young-jin collapsed weakly into the chair.

His face covered in salt, hair wildly disheveled, eyes unfocused.

Young-jin looked so bad he could have died any moment.

Then suddenly, he jerked his bowed head up and began laughing.

“Heh heh… heh heh heh heh. You’re all done for now… heh heh heh heh.”

As Young-jin spoke like a madman, Ji-yoon and the Park Ha-gong trio looked at each other, utterly confused.

“Hehehe. I can’t be the only one to suffer. Hehehehe.”

“Manager Young-jin, snap out of it!”

After that, Dojae came up with a blank expression.

While Young-jin returned utterly exhausted, Do-jae showed no sign of fatigue whatsoever, making them even more curious about what kind of training he had undergone.

They looked back and forth between Young-jin and Do-jae, their faces sinking deeper into confusion.

“Bugeul-nim. What happened between you and Director Yeongjin?”

Ha Tae-seong approached and asked.

One arm looked extremely unnatural—it was due to the prosthetic.

After the assault, they had retrieved the severed arm, but the amputation site was too badly decayed and infected to reattach it.

It was the result of being struck by Durahan’s rusted sword, and that was the nature of fighting the undead.

“Training. You’ll all take turns going through it soon, so keep that in mind.”

Dojae gathered the clothes and belongings he had brought from his place and stepped outside.

As soon as Dojae disappeared, everyone approached Youngjin and asked in trembling voices.

Ji-yoon and Park Kyung-min were especially flustered.

“Chief Yeongjin, what kind of training did you undergo? What was it that changed you so much?”

“Manager, what kind of training was it? Damn, Manager Bu-gil is terrifying. Tell us something. We need to know so we can either prepare ourselves or run away…”

As Park Kyung-min tidied his desk to pack his things, Ji-yoon glared at him.

In the end, he silently returned to his seat beside Ji-yoon, restoring everything to its original state.

“Hehehe… Training? That wasn’t training, it was hell…. Imagine if you had the flu, but then got enteritis and pneumonia at the same time. Your whole body shivers, your throat feels like it’s tearing apart every time you cough, and your stomach aches all day long? It felt exactly like that. Hehe….”

Young-jin stared blankly at the ceiling with hollow eyes, repeating his hollow chuckles.

“Manager Young-jin! What is it? You have to tell us properly so we understand!”

“Guys, let’s pack up quickly. Haven’t we paid back everything we owed to our boss?”

“The flu, gastroenteritis, pneumonia. It’s a miracle you’re even alive, Manager.”

“……”

The four of them, each lost in their own thoughts, sat facing Young-jin.

Yet one identical thought occupied all their minds.

‘Scary!’

***

“Where would you like to go?”

“Take us to Hannam-dong.”

Do-jae slumped back into the taxi’s rear seat.

A wave of fatigue had just washed over him.

‘I used over half my mana…’

Dojae’s mana pool was 260,000.

But now, his mana had been depleted to around 100,000.

‘Concentrating so intensely was incredibly stressful… At most, I can handle two or three people a week.’

Though he entered unscathed, so the guild members wouldn’t recognize him, what Dojae did to Youngjin wasn’t something just anyone could do.

He had accomplished the tremendous feat of making Youngjin grow in such a short time.

‘Only three levels… No, he didn’t do anything, yet his level jumped three times. That must be a huge change for Youngjin.’

Let’s rewind a little.

Dojae used the ‘Sealed Right Foot Memory’ to make Youngjin stronger.

He extracted mana from the sealed right foot’s memory and then used the golem’s nerves to implant it into Youngjin’s body.

In the process, Young-jin endured the exact same pain Do-jae had suffered.

However, making Young-jin strong in one fell swoop was by no means an easy task.

First, the mana from the sealed right foot’s memory refused to mix with Youngjin’s mana, and it raged so violently that even holding it in place with the golem’s nerves was a struggle.

Each time this happened, Dojae forced his own mana into the mix, trying desperately to blend the two, much like how the leaves of the Actria had neutralized Gelahan’s mana.

In the end, Dojae succeeded in absorbing the mana into Youngjin—the mana he used, the mana extracted from the sealed right foot’s memory, and the mana from the new foot, which was but a drop in the bucket compared to the other two.

‘If all that mana had been fully injected into Youngjin… he might have ended up half-mad like Kang Youngchan.’

He didn’t know exactly how MID infused mana into the awakened ones, but if it was similar to Dojae’s method, it seemed inevitable that some would suffer mental issues or become failures.

And Dojae suspected many more had died than that.

‘At least Youngjin’s body and mind were somewhat prepared to accept it, but I can’t guarantee the same for Ji-yoon or the others. I’ll have to either become more skilled at handling the golem’s nerves or modify the kids’ bodies and minds.’

Experiencing this double dungeon incident, Dojae resolved to train his guild members.

Being with him meant they’d likely face such dangers again.

This time, the dungeon was nearby, so they could dash straight there and barely avoid a situation where someone died, but still, Ha Taeseong lost his arm.

For someone who wielded dual daggers, losing an arm meant giving up a great deal.

Though it meant more hassle than originally planned, Dojae felt a strong desire to look out for his fellow guild members. He planned to provide them with appropriate training.

‘Things are going to get busy.’

While Dojae was deep in thought, the taxi gradually slowed down.

Then, coming to a complete stop, the taxi driver spoke.

“Would this be a good place to drop you off?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Do-jae began walking along the road.

It was a familiar road, having been here once before.

After walking for a while, he came upon the alley from that time.

The very alley where Ji-yoon and Yuk Hyeon-jae had been caught.

And a woman slowly descended.

“I’m sorry, Dojae. My mom really…”

The woman who approached, looking embarrassed, was Eun-hee.