Kim Seo-jun devoted himself to training all weekend.
Joo Gwang-sik called him several times, pestering him to come over or practice sparring together, but he refused every time.
It was impossible to train properly with Joo Gwang-sik around.
Currently, Kim Seo-jun possessed five Mysteries.
Including the martial arts he had yet to awaken, he had a total of seven to rotate through in his training, and there was no way he could show that to Joo Gwang-sik.
He had to exclude Cheonbeon-gu from his training list, since he still couldn’t control it.
From Friday evening to Sunday night, Kim Seo-jun went nowhere but home, the rooftop, and the nearby park.
Training, and more training.
He trained even harder, not wanting to seem weak when meeting his old comrades again.
The reward for his efforts appeared as an increase in his stats.
[Kim Seo-jun]
-Mana: 114 / Inner Power: 101
-Mysteries: Yeokbalsan Gigaese (17%) / Solar Divine Art (19%) / Telekinetic Veil (3%) / Suragukseom (3%) / Mind’s Eye (3%)
Both his mana and inner power had increased, albeit little by little, and the mastery of his Mysteries had risen ever so slightly.
Encouragingly, his Solar Divine Art was now on the verge of reaching 20% mastery.
‘Once it hits 20%, there should be an extra effect, right?’
Normally, it would grant a 5% increase in mana, but he felt a peculiar expectation that there might be some kind of bonus effect.
With such thoughts, Kim Seo-jun sat atop the training room mat at the academy, waiting for his turn.
It was already Wednesday, having passed Monday and Tuesday.
Today marked the start of the final evaluation, so each grade was holding a tournament in the training room in turn.
In the morning, the first-year Class C and Class D had finished their tournament, and in the afternoon, Kim Seo-jun’s Class A and Class B were in the midst of theirs.
“Park Woo-hyuk wins. Yu Mi-ae, you should pay a bit more attention to your strength. Just because you awakened a support-type Mystery doesn’t mean you’ll never have to step into direct combat. Hunters must always have at least one final means to protect themselves, no matter the situation. Do you understand?”
As Professor Shim Jae-deok, acting as the referee, offered his advice, Yu Mi-ae, who had just finished her match, bowed her head.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Next, Joo Gwang-sik. Lee Chan-seong. Step forward.”
At the call, Joo Gwang-sik stepped forward, grinning slyly at Lee Chan-seong, whom fate had matched against him again.
“Let’s have a good match, friend.”
“Friend? Don’t kid yourself. Today won’t be as easy as last time.”
Since the day Joo Gwang-sik had first transferred and the two had a rough scuffle, neither had picked fights with the other.
However, Lee Chan-seong’s anger toward Joo Gwang-sik hadn’t faded in the slightest.
When the two students faced each other, Professor Shim Jae-deok gave a warning.
“The match will last three minutes. If either declares surrender within that time, the match ends immediately. Don’t use lethal force, and control your mana well. If things look dangerous, I’ll intervene right away.”
Even though he’d repeated these words thirteen times already, Shim Jae-deok showed not a hint of annoyance.
Compared to the old Professor Shim Jae-deok, it was a remarkable change.
He no longer ran half-hearted classes or only cared about wealthy students.
To be precise, Shim Jae-deok had completely changed since the 57th Rift incident.
‘Whether that’s his true self or just an act, it’s not a bad change.’
Kim Seo-jun silently watched this transformation in Professor Shim Jae-deok.
“Alright. Get ready.”
As Professor Shim stepped back a few paces, the bell on the judges’ table rang, and the three-minute countdown began.
At the sound, Lee Chan-seong hurled himself forward.
Though he was a large man, he moved with surprising speed thanks to his mana-filled state.
Yet Joo Gwang-sik just watched, smiling, as Lee Chan-seong charged.
“Today, I’m going to take you down!”
Lee Chan-seong shouted and suddenly veered off, stopping short with his foot, then whipped his body around to unleash a spinning back kick like a bolt of lightning.
Both of Lee Chan-seong’s eyes glowed golden.
His Mystery was ‘Sharp Turn.’
It allowed him to instantly change the route of his attack right in front of his opponent, a useful power for catching enemies off-guard with unpredictable moves.
But it was useless against Joo Gwang-sik.
He snatched the incoming kick as if to show off, then swung and tossed Lee Chan-seong aside like a fishing rod.
“Huh?”
Lee Chan-seong soared through the air, unable to control his strength, and tumbled with a loud crash.
“You think anyone would fall for such an obvious attack?”
“You bastard!”
Lee Chan-seong jumped up and charged again, using his Sharp Turn Mystery with only a two-second cooldown to keep up his assault.
But Joo Gwang-sik, not using any Mysteries at all, dodged or deflected every one of Lee Chan-seong’s attacks.
Lee Chan-seong tumbled to the ground eight times, and even ended up hitting himself with his own hands in four comical moments.
When three minutes had passed,
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding
The bell signaling the end of the match rang out.
“Joo Gwang-sik wins. Lee Chan-seong. To become a Hunter, you can’t let your emotions get the better of you so easily. Because of that, you didn’t even show half your true ability. On the other hand, Joo Gwang-sik took you down several times with minimal effort. I expected more from you given your talent, but this match was truly disappointing.”
Lee Chan-seong, stung by Professor Shim’s sharp criticism, looked utterly defeated.
“Next… Kim Seo-jun, Lee Seong-su. Step forward.”
At last, it was Kim Seo-jun’s turn.
Kim Seo-jun stepped forward, and his opponent faced him.
Lee Seong-su was from Class B, but belonged to Go Han-seok’s gang along with Lee Chan-seong.
“The match will last three minutes…”
Immediately, Professor Shim gave the usual warning.
“…Prepare yourselves.”
The moment he stepped back, the match began. Just then—
“Argh! I—I surrender!”
A shocking situation unfolded before anyone could process what happened.
Before anyone could even figure out what was going on, Kim Seo-jun had already circled behind Lee Seong-su and twisted his arm.
“I—I said I surrender!”
Only after Lee Seong-su shouted did Professor Shim, snapping back to his senses, hastily declare the match over.
“Kim Seo-jun wins. As for Lee Seong-su, it’s… hard to give advice.”
He would’ve said something if he’d actually seen anything, but he hadn’t, so what could he say?
Yet, as Kim Seo-jun returned to his seat, his expression seemed a little strange as well.
‘What? I only moved lightly, so why couldn’t he even react?’
Kim Seo-jun hadn’t used the Swift Thunder God Steps, nor had he manipulated his mana in any special way.
He just used about 10% of his inner power for a quick movement, not wanting to stand out, but Lee Seong-su didn’t even react.
From the looks of it, it seemed almost no one had properly seen his movements.
Just to be sure, he glanced at the match timer.
[02:56]
The match had ended just four seconds after it started.
Considering Lee Seong-su surrendered twice and Professor Shim declared the end a beat late, the whole thing must have taken barely a second.
Moving a distance of ten meters, circling behind his opponent, and twisting his arm—all in just a second.
Since surpassing 100 inner power, this was Kim Seo-jun’s first actual sparring, and even he hadn’t realized that just 10% of his inner power would be this overwhelming.
When training alone, it was hard to feel the speed, but facing an opponent was different.
‘Whoa. Next time I use inner power, I’ll need to break it down into tenths, not full increments.’
Despite trying to be careful, Kim Seo-jun felt like smacking his own head for standing out again.
Someone flashed a bright grin at Kim Seo-jun.
“Wow, Kim Seo-jun. You’ve really been grinding your teeth, huh? So aggressive from the first round. I see you’re determined to give your all in every match. Fine. I’ll join you in that resolve.”
Joo Gwang-sik had misunderstood, thinking Kim Seo-jun had just used a huge burst of mana to overwhelm his opponent in an instant.
But there was no need to explain that it was nothing of the sort, that he’d barely used any strength and it was over just like that.
*****
It was well past 4 p.m.
After hours of the in-class tournament, all matches except the finals had concluded for Class A’s 43 students and Class B’s 45 students.
The finalists were, of course, Kim Seo-jun and Joo Gwang-sik.
By that time, the students fighting for 3rd and 4th place in a separate area had already finished, and the final ranking was set.
Kim Seo-jun stood facing Joo Gwang-sik, waiting for the bell to start the match.
However, Professor Shim Jae-deok wasn’t initiating the match, instead conferring intensely with the panel of professors.
Soon, he called over even the spectating professors, and after a lengthy discussion, they all returned to their places, smiling.
Shim Jae-deok stood between Kim Seo-jun and Joo Gwang-sik, cleared his throat, and spoke.
“We’ll end the tournament here. Both Kim Seo-jun and Joo Gwang-sik will serve as first-year representatives of our 3rd Academy and participate in the Academy Competition. That is all.”
As everyone looked surprised at the sudden announcement, Shim Jae-deok continued.
“All the judges have personally confirmed the skills of Kim Seo-jun and Joo Gwang-sik, and we acknowledge that both are more than qualified to represent us without needing to decide a winner. Since five first-year representatives are required anyway, holding a final match would only exhaust them needlessly. I trust no one has any complaints. Understood?”
“Ah…”
“Yes!”
“I agree with the professor!”
“Me too!”
Rather than complaining, the students actually welcomed the decision.
While it was a bit disappointing not to see Kim Seo-jun and Joo Gwang-sik face off, it would have been a loss for the 3rd Academy if someone got hurt in an unnecessary contest.
And so, the first-year tournament came to an end.
On the way back to the subway with Kim Seo-jun, Joo Gwang-sik slung an arm around his shoulder and said,
“It’s a shame, isn’t it? I really wanted to have a proper fight with you. Well, let’s save it for the Academy Competition. So don’t lose to anyone before we meet again, got it? Hahaha!”
Joo Gwang-sik sincerely wanted to face Kim Seo-jun in the Academy Competition.
After parting ways, Kim Seo-jun took the subway home, smirking to himself as he mulled things over.
‘Professor Shim Jae-deok… you’re a curious one.’
Kim Seo-jun knew.
He knew that Professor Shim had subtly tweaked the bracket to prevent him and Joo Gwang-sik from facing each other early.
He also knew that, after ensuring both reached the finals, Professor Shim had deliberately convinced the other professors to have both of them represent the academy.
‘If you thought I’d trust you completely because of that, you’re mistaken.’
Since he believed people never truly change, Kim Seo-jun had no intention of letting down his guard against Professor Shim Jae-deok.
*****
Another two days passed, bringing the weekend again.
Kim Seo-jun decided to stay home and focus solely on training for this weekend as well.
‘Let’s get the Solar Divine Art mastery up to 20% before the weekend’s over!’
Starting Saturday morning, Kim Seo-jun went up to the apartment rooftop.
Though it was still early, the sunlight was already intense. He spread a mat in the shadiest spot and sat down.
He first invoked the Yang Duality Mind Technique, then began controlled breathing with one part of his mind.
The other part busied itself with various thoughts.
Meeting his fallen comrades from the previous world here brought him immense joy, yet he also worried about repeating the same tragedy.
It was a feeling similar to when he first reunited with his parents.
Now, he had resolved to protect them no matter what, and since he’d also equipped them to handle crises in their own way, he could rest a bit easier, but in the beginning, he’d been plagued by anxiety over the possibility of reliving those painful events.
That didn’t mean he harbored the delusion of being able to protect all his comrades as well.
Trying to look after even his old comrades was excessive, meddlesome, and an unrealistic hope.
‘Family comes first, comrades second.’
If it came down to it, family would always be his top priority.
‘Se-ah is the daughter of a prestigious family—she should have the means to protect herself.’
Just thinking of Han Se-ah made his heart thump for no reason.
Even in his previous life, though he’d harbored feelings for her, he’d never once confessed.
The same was true for Han Se-ah.
She quietly stayed by Kim Seo-jun’s side, offering generous advice as a precious comrade.
‘What about Yeager?’
There was less than a week left to give Detective Choi Kyung-moon an answer.
At the moment, Kim Seo-jun was leaning slightly toward joining Yeager’s team.
Still, he hesitated to decide, since joining Yeager would mean keeping it a secret from his parents.
He could tell them he’d be doing important work for the nation, but he couldn’t say a word about Yeager.
‘Even if I could tell them the truth, if I said I was joining Yeager, my parents would freak out, wouldn’t they?’
To his father, Yeager was nothing more than a ‘group of lunatics,’ so there was no way he’d allow Kim Seo-jun to join.
In that sense, maybe keeping it a secret was for the best.
‘Sigh… I’ll feel better once I make up my mind.’
It was while Kim Seo-jun was pondering this with one side of his mind, split by the Yang Duality Mind Technique.
Thud
A wave, as if a heavy stone had been dropped into a calm lake, rippled through Kim Seo-jun’s body.
‘What’s this…?’
A refreshing sensation surged from his chest and dantian.
Startled, Kim Seo-jun quickly stopped the Yang Duality Mind Technique and focused his mind on checking his physical state.
[Kim Seo-jun]
-Mana: 115(+6) / Inner Power: 104(+5) / Control: 100(+5)
-Mysteries: Yeokbalsan Gigaese (17%) / Solar Divine Art (20%) / Telekinetic Veil (3%) / Suragukseom (3%) / Mind’s Eye (3%)
Without realizing it, he had achieved 20% mastery in the Solar Divine Art.
Because of that, a 5% increase in both mana and inner power had been added.
‘But what’s this “Control”?’
A new “Control” stat had suddenly appeared next to Inner Power.
And it was already maxed out at 100 the moment it appeared.
Wondering what this meant, Kim Seo-jun brought up the Solar Divine Art’s description window.
He couldn’t help but be shocked.
[Solar Divine Art]
-Absorbs the energy of nature through breathing and stores it in the dantian, granting enhanced physique, destructive power, heightened senses, and regeneration.
-‘Adequate’ control is applied across all fields.
-Reuse cooldown: –
-Use penalty: Rapid decline of internal organ function due to vaporization of oxygen in cells
*Upon achieving 2-star mastery, mana +5%, inner power +5%, and control +5% are permanently increased.
The Solar Divine Art, now at 20% mastery, had changed significantly.