A S-Class Hunter With Great Agility - Chapter 172

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 172: Hamlet (2)

“Wait.”

At that moment, there was a voice mediating the fight.

“That’s enough now.”

It was Hong I-jo. He stretched out his hand and created black iron chains.

Clank.

The iron chains drew a line between me and Heo Gil’s puppets. It meant not to continue the battle any further.

“Both of you, injured.”

“….”

“Important operation soon.”

Did he mean we shouldn’t get injured since there wasn’t much time left before the operation?

‘But still….’

We hadn’t settled the victory. I couldn’t say I had beaten Heo Gil with just this much. If I couldn’t win, I wouldn’t be able to enter the church either….

“I also think this is enough.”

“…!”

At that moment, Yu-kyung walked out while clapping.

“Good work, both of you. It was more entertaining to watch than I thought. I think I understand why everyone goes crazy over Hunter ranking battles.”

Yu-kyung looked at Heo Gil and spoke sharply.

“Hey, mister. Put away those murderous skills of yours.”

“…The match isn’t decided yet, is it? There’s neither a winner nor a loser here.”

“Were you seriously planning to fight until one of you won? You’d both end up completely battered. Save some mana for once.”

Yu-kyung clicked her tongue. Then she glanced at the puppet scattered on the training ground floor and continued.

“You destroyed one puppet. Even a puppet with the same ability stats as an S-rank. Doesn’t this mean you’re at a level that can rival S-rank?”

“….”

“Besides, the fact that you brought out all four tragedies is proof that you were quite anxious too.”

If it was skill enough to make an S-rank anxious….

“I’m in favor.”

It was a sentence without a subject. However, the meaning contained within was clear.

‘I can enter the church.’

Finally, it was acceptance. I let out a sigh of relief.

“…But remember one thing.”

Yu-kyung tucked her platinum hair behind her ear. Soon she looked into my eyes and spoke with a serious expression.

“Never do anything reckless. This is advice from one Hunter to another.”

“….”

“If you recklessly pick a fight with the Bishop and the operation fails… or you get injured, this whole thing becomes meaningless.”

“…I understand.”

I nodded. As if that was enough, Yu-kyung didn’t add anything more.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and put them away.”

“Tch.”

Swoosh.

All of Heo Gil’s puppets disappeared without a trace. Having deactivated his skill, he grumbled.

“I never thought you’d disappear right before my eyes. If it weren’t for that skill, I would have won quickly.”

“That’s just an excuse.”

“…Maybe so. Anyway, I’m glad my expectations weren’t completely crushed.”

Heo Gil said this while looking around the training ground. The training ground with transparent ice spread wide looked as if winter had arrived.

Whooooo….

The wind of the snowy field dominated by the Mountain Lord blew. Heo Gil spoke up.

“…You’re really hard to figure out. Excluding S-ranks, you’re the first to draw out more than one puppet from me.”

He asked me.

“Don’t you think about getting re-evaluated?”

“…I think I’m still lacking.”

Re-evaluation isn’t something to decide lightly. It’s not like taking a certification exam where you can challenge it multiple times.

Since I couldn’t completely defeat Heo Gil right now, I needed to be cautious.

“‘Still’… You speak as if you definitely will later. Your stats won’t change though.”

I pretended not to notice Heo Gil’s suspicious expression.

What if I revealed that I could grow and got dragged away by some organization?

“Now, now, both of you sit here and let’s talk.”

Lee Cheong-ryu brought out a few more chairs. Heo Gil and I sat in those chairs, and the meeting that had been briefly interrupted resumed.

* * *

On the cold ice rink of the training ground. In an atmosphere quite different from the garden earlier, Yu-kyung spoke.

“Two people have already been decided to enter the church. But two people aren’t enough. Don’t we need at least one more?”

“Are you saying that me and this promising A-rank aren’t sufficient?”

Swish— Swoosh—

Lee Cheong-ryu skated on the ice rink, passing by the chair. I could see Yu-kyung’s forehead wrinkle in real time.

“…Could you sit down?”

“This is quite fun!”

“Haah….”

Lee Cheong-ryu still glided across the ice rink, speaking in a loud voice.

“One more person is needed, huh. Actually, I think the same way. Who would be good?”

“…I can’t go for now. I already have a proper defeat on my record.”

Admitting defeat is painful. Especially for an S-rank Hunter like Yu-kyung.

“My ability didn’t work for some reason. I think it’s right for me to step aside.”

Her face was expressionless. But her pride must have been greatly hurt before making that decision.

Heo Gil continued her words.

“I’ll say it again, but that’s probably not because you’re weak. If that were the case, all of us here would be annihilated just by standing before the Bishop.”

“…I know that too. Judging that it was because I was weak would be absurd.”

“Right. But the opinion that you should step out of this operation…. I agree. There’s no need to use a hand that’s already been tested, is there?”

Yu-kyung smiled bitterly at that. Soon, as if giving up, she lightly raised both arms.

“Fine. I’ll step out. Wow, I never thought I’d experience this kind of situation in my life. At least not in the past 10 years.”

“….”

“I want to quickly figure out what exactly the problem was….”

Yu-kyung gritted her teeth. Then she said while suppressing her anger.

“Actually, over the past few weeks, I collaborated with Nabi Guild and did some experiments to find out why my ability didn’t work. They drew my blood, tried to soak me in strange solutions…. I nearly died. I’ll never ask that crazy scientist for such favors again.”

‘They did that too.’

Well, being S-rank Hunters and Guild Leaders, they would have made various efforts to find the cause.

“What were the results?”

“…We didn’t get any results. It just felt like getting a health checkup.”

“You were extremely healthy.”

Yeon Na-yeon added with a calm face.

“…Mm.”

If even the Guild Leaders couldn’t figure out the cause…. I hesitantly spoke up.

“About that problem. I have one theory I’ve been thinking about.”

All the Guild Leaders’ gazes focused on me at once.

“…Could Lee Cheong-ryu sit here first?”

“Huh? What’s this about? Now I’m too curious to bear it.”

Lee Cheong-ryu glided on the ice rink and approached near the chair.

Having finished his skating performance, he finally sat in the chair and began listening attentively to my story.

“Whew….”

I took a deep breath.

‘I might be wrong. No, there’s a high probability I’ll be wrong. But now isn’t the time to hesitate. Even if I’m wrong, it’s worth discussing.’

It was a problem I’d been pondering day and night during recent training. Why did only my attack work on the Bishop?

I cleared my throat and began the story.

“I mentioned this before. There were others besides Guild Leader Choi Yu-kyung whose attacks didn’t work on the Bishop. Japan’s top hunters also couldn’t attack him.”

Japan’s S-rank Hunters.

Hanasaki Ren and Sakura Mei.

‘Their attacks also couldn’t reach the Bishop.’

“Was it because they were weak? No. Just as Guild Leader Choi Yu-kyung’s attacks didn’t work not because she was weak, it would be the same for them.”

“Hmm…. That must have been quite a shock there too. It would have been powerlessness felt after a long time.”

“Yes.”

The grief of losing a companion and the shock of being unable to do anything would have come together.

I nodded and continued the explanation.

“What’s important here is that even then, I was able to attack the Bishop.”

Lee Cheong-ryu stroked his chin and said.

“Really, why though—? The only difference between them is just A-rank and S-rank. Maybe he’s using an item that ‘nullifies damage above S-rank’?”

He theorized with sparkling eyes, proving his personality of enjoying deduction.

“I’m not sure. I’ve never even heard of such an item in the first place….”

Then Yeon Na-yeon arranged her pink hair and refuted.

“There’s something that became certain from the earlier battle. Among the skills you have, there’s an S-rank one, right? You must have tried using it on the Bishop too.”

“….”

“At that time, did it work?”

Yeon Na-yeon asked me. I answered briefly.

“…Yes.”

“As I thought.”

She crossed one leg over the other.

“Then the hypothesis that it nullifies S-rank and above doesn’t hold either.”

“Hmm….”

Lee Cheong-ryu nodded as if it made sense. I likewise agreed with Yeon Na-yeon’s words.

“Yes. There are too many contradictions to explain this situation as simply an item’s effect.”

I hesitated for a moment before opening my mouth.

“…So what I want to say is, the difference between me and all of you isn’t just rank—there’s one more thing.”

This was the first time I openly spoke about this fact. I had always hesitated.

‘Besides the reason that they don’t understand well and just avoid it… I was also a bit scared.’

The reaction when I brought up this topic was never good.

It had become a kind of trauma. When I quit school and no longer had to introduce myself, I actually felt relieved.

“I’m a shaman. Besides mana, I have one other power. Since before awakening… Maybe since I was born.”

Spiritual power.

Whether it exists or not. A mysterious power that no one except the person involved can prove.

“It’s called spiritual power. Basically… you could say it’s the power to see ghosts and drive them away. Sometimes I often know the future in advance too.”

Breaking the silence, Yeon Na-yeon asked.

“…Is it like a Prophet Hunter?”

“It’s different. They look into the future like looking at a crystal orb, but we just ‘sense’ it intuitively. Suddenly one day. Of course, the divine spirits often tell us too.”

“….”

“Well, the operating method is different but you could say the results are similar. Though I hate to admit it.”

I blinked a couple times. Then I chuckled.

‘What am I even saying right now.’

This was a world where ghosts had disappeared. Divine spirits were out of the question.

Though my spiritual power had returned quite a bit while using skills, it was nothing compared to past glory.

‘But I have to make them understand. Only then can I tell them what I’ve deduced.’

In the current situation, this really was the best option. I moved my lips once more.

“You might not believe it. It’s not something that can be scientifically proven in the first place….”

“No. I believe it.”

Heo Gil shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s a world where monsters run wild. A world where one human can collapse a mountain. So it wouldn’t be that strange if a power called spiritual power existed.”

“….”

“I can understand why you were reluctant to explain. That guy over there is already making a face like he doesn’t know what you’re talking about…. This is why young folks are…”

Lee Cheong-ryu was tilting his head in confusion. He muttered quietly.

“Shaman? That wasn’t in the information I wrote down…. There really are many gaps, despite my efforts.”

What’s he talking about. As I wondered, Lee Cheong-ryu smiled brightly again.

“Hmm! Anyway, you have another power besides mana, right? And that’s the difference between us!”

“Yes. To summarize, that’s correct. Actually, that part is the most important content in this story.”

Being a shaman, ghosts. These weren’t important topics right now.

What mattered was simply that I had ‘spiritual power’ and other Hunters did not.

I spoke with complete honesty.

“I suspect the Bishops are spiritual entities.”

Like ghosts, beings in a soul state without physical form.

“If they’re spiritual entities, it would explain why other people’s attacks simply ‘pass through’ them and only my abilities with spiritual power work.”

“….”

“Because spiritual power is the force that catches ghosts.”

There was other evidence besides that. The Bishops had vanished from where they stood several times, suddenly ‘sinking into the ground.’

This strange phenomenon could also be easily explained if they were in a soul state.

“…That’s a plausible deduction. No, it’s much more credible than the story about using items.”

“I think the same. Now that I mention it, when I attacked the Bishop too…. I got the feeling that ‘there was nothing there.'”

Heo Gil and Yu-gyeong supported my opinion.

Especially Yu-gyeong, who had watched me work as a shaman for a long time, understood faster.

Of course, there were still contradictions to fully establish this logic.

“There is one thing that bothers me though. For spiritual entities, they also bled like people. I’ve never seen ghosts like that in my life.”

So….

“Rather than confirming our deduction right here and now, I think it would be good to test it once during this operation.”

“Test? How?”

Heo Gil asked back. I extended one hand and quietly chanted.

“…Talisman Arts.”

Flicker.

A golden flame blazed up. Soon, yellow paper appeared above my palm.

[Item]

Talisman (S)

— The heart that clumsy wishes possess tends to be more delicate and produce greater power.

Attack Power Enhancement +20%

00:01:00

It was the talisman I had used just moments ago.

‘If my deduction is correct….’

This very item would become a good method to break through this situation.

“When you all attack the Bishop, let’s try using this once. It’s an item that contains my spiritual power.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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