Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 30
‘New skill?’
And not a general skill, either, but a Trait Skill.
Hyeonjun was flustered, but he calmly checked the skill’s description.

– Analyzes a designated target.
The description alone didn’t tell him what the skill actually did.
At first glance, it didn’t seem much different from Discernment.
“We’ll be moving now.”
Just as Hyeonjun was about to test the skill out, Nam Jaewoon gave the order to move.
Hyeonjun left the lecture hall for the time being.
“Hello.”
On the way, Kim Changdong greeted him first.
Hyeonjun returned the greeting.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Same here. I assumed you’d been active as an E-Rank Hunter for a few years.”
The orientation had no restrictions beyond rank, but given its purpose, E-Rank Hunters who had been active for years didn’t bother to join.
Kim Changdong’s remark had come from exactly that line of thinking.
“I just took the test and passed a few days ago.”
“A few days ago?”
Kim Changdong was genuinely taken aback.
Not months, but days.
“Your Soul Circuit rank is…”
“E-Rank.”
Kim Changdong closed his mouth.
He had assumed, of course, that his stats were much higher and that he had far more experience.
But the reality was someone close to himself. No, someone who seemed even more capable than he was.
‘He’s far more impressive than either I or my master had imagined.’
Maybe he could become a good rival.
With a strange tremor in his chest, Kim Changdong bowed his head slightly to Hyeonjun.
“Please take care of me for the next two days.”
“You too.”
Kim Changdong stepped back.
Hyeonjun watched him with satisfaction.
‘It’s nice to see someone so well-mannered.’
Was it because of the rude brat standing beside him, or because they’d met before?
Set against Seong Sohui, Kim Changdong’s appeal only went up.
“How do you two know each other?”
Seong Sohui asked.
Casual speech, as always.
Hyeonjun clicked his tongue and answered in the same casual tone.
“We met once.”
“Birds of a feather. You and that dull guy must have something in common.”
“He’s a lot better than you, at least.”
“…What?”
Seong Sohui glared at him.
She was the kind of person who was fun to needle, because she bit back exactly as hard as you pushed.
‘It bugs me a little that she’s the same age as Hyeona… but she brought this on herself.’
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
From now on, whenever she picks a fight, I’ll make sure to get under her skin.
‘But if she knows Kim Changdong too, is she in the same guild?’
It was a curious thing.
Even for a major guild like Seongsam, having two E-Rank Hunters on the roster, however promising, was unusual.
Michuhol’s running a public F-Rank test had already struck him as groundbreaking, but Seongsam was moving far ahead of even that.
‘No wonder they’re the industry leader.’
Perhaps Michuhol starting from F-Rank was, in part, a response to Seongsam.
.
.
.
“The second stage is Practical Training.”
The place Nam Jaewoon led them to was Gymnasium No. 1, located inside the training facility.
Inside the gym were the training staff sent over from the Management Bureau.
“Practical training will be conducted across three subjects: Stamina, Basic Combat, and Skill Application. It’s training, but it’s also a test. You’d do well to give it your full attention.”
Nam Jaewoon lined the Hunters up in formation and then led them through a warm-up.
Once the warm-up was over, the Stamina training began.
“From here, all you have to do is run thirty laps around the gym.”
“Th-thirty laps?”
“Around this whole place?”
The sheer size of the gymnasium was enough to make even the Hunters murmur among themselves.
The track painted across the floor was several times larger than an ordinary athletics track.
“Run along the line at your own pace. Staff will be stationed at certain intervals, so if you’re struggling, you’re free to drop out.”
Nam Jaewoon took the lead and started running.
In no time, the gap between him and the rest widened.
The Hunters had no choice but to chase after him.
It was roughly the size of several soccer fields put together, yet completing a single lap didn’t take all that long.
That was how fast Nam Jaewoon was running.
“Huff, huff.”
Their breathing grew ragged, and sweat began to drip.
Five laps, ten laps, fifteen laps.
As time went on, more and more Hunters fell behind.
Even if they had Soul Circuits of E-Rank or above.
Keeping pace with Nam Jaewoon, who held a B-Rank Soul Circuit, was no easy feat.
‘He’s really running without mercy.’
Hyeonjun thought as he ran, his mind in a whirl.
Nam Jaewoon was running at a staggering speed, as if he meant to shake off every last one of the Hunters.
Far from pausing, he didn’t slow down even a little.
‘Hang in there.’
His body said it could still go on, while his mind was screaming at him to stop.
Hyeonjun tried to convince himself.
‘This is nothing.’
Compared to the grueling labor he’d pushed through to pay off his debts, this running drill was a piece of cake.
‘Where else could you find running this rewarding?’
This was a completely different world from the past, when no matter how hard he tried, no hope was ever in sight.
All he had to do was keep running hard, and a bright future was waiting for him.
Zero commission.
A future where every item he got from a dungeon turned into cash, dropping straight into his bank account.
‘I’ll earn a bundle and find Mom’s cure in no time!’
A smile spread across Hyeonjun’s lips.
Lifting his head, which had been drooping, he fixed his eyes on Nam Jaewoon’s back and ran on, teeth clenched.
And so it went for a while.
[You can analyze the target.]
A message appeared before his eyes.
‘Huh?’
Hyeonjun nodded without thinking.
[Activating .]
At that moment, the world slowed down.
Only Nam Jaewoon turned gray.
‘What’s that?’
A blue line had settled across his body, like a vein.
Hyeonjun sensed instinctively that it was Mana.
‘It looks like thread.’
Threads of Mana, docile as if time itself had stopped.
But soon, something changed.
Each time Nam Jaewoon’s leg pushed off the ground, the blue threads converged toward his legs.
When his arm swung, another set of Mana threads shifted over to that spot.
‘Is the Mana helping him run?’
Hyeonjun fixed his eyes intently on the faint shifts in Mana produced by each running motion.
Then the whole sequence naturally began to settle into his mind.
That was when the change happened.
[You have acquired .]
‘⋯⋯What?’
A string of information windows popped up in front of the bewildered Hyeonjun.

-Passive Skill. Allows you to run faster and more efficiently.
‘I learned a skill?’
Just then, a piercing headache stabbed through Hyeonjun’s head.
It wasn’t severe, but it wasn’t exactly bearable either.
‘Why is my head suddenly⋯⋯.’
Analysis came to mind on its own.
I gained a new skill after seeing a world this alien. There’s no way it comes without a price, is there?
[Do you want to deactivate ?]
Hyeonjun deactivated the skill.
The world that had slowed down regained its original speed.
The headache, too, faded away slowly.
‘A good skill, but not one I can use carelessly.’
Hyeonjun focused on running again.
Whether it was the effect of the skill he had just acquired, he could feel his posture had subtly changed.
It settled into his body so naturally, as if he’d been running in this form his whole life.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, but this is much better.’
His speed had increased, yet his heart rate was gradually steadying.
Only then did Hyeonjun begin to notice his surroundings.
He had started at the very back, yet before he knew it, no one was around him except Nam Jaewoon.
‘Huh? When did everyone fall behind?’
Soon, the voice of a staff member announced that they had completed thirty laps.
Nam Jaewoon stopped running.
Hyeonjun followed his lead and slowly eased his pace.
“⋯⋯.”
Nam Jaewoon caught his breath faintly and looked at Hyeonjun.
Doubt lingered in his eyes.
‘Something’s different.’
He could tell just from the brief glimpse he’d caught while running.
That Hyeonjun’s running had changed considerably from when it started.
‘Did he copy my form after watching me?’
It was so close to identical that calling it mere imitation wouldn’t quite fit.
It would be more accurate to say he possessed a Running skill.
‘Running is a passive skill, so it should have been obvious from the start.’
If he had picked up the Running skill midway through, it would make sense.
But is that too far-fetched a notion?
‘I can’t quite make sense of this.’
Nam Jaewoon decided to let it slide.
His role wasn’t that of a scouter; he was the proctor.
The evaluation belonged to the officials watching this scene.
Whatever abilities a Hunter had were none of his concern.
“You run well.”
Nam Jaewoon approached Hyeonjun and said it offhandedly.
He hadn’t run at full strength, but it was a pace that would have been hard for E-Rank Hunters to keep up with.
He hadn’t expected anyone to follow him to the end, yet there had been exactly one person who did.
“Thank you.”
“You changed so suddenly that I thought you must have picked up the Running skill partway through.”
“Haha⋯⋯.”
Hyeonjun laughed awkwardly and turned away.
He was about to catch his breath and head back to where the Hunters were gathered when—
Whispers from the staff members reached his ears.
“Did Team Leader Nam just praise him?”
“I’ve never seen Team Leader Nam act like that.”
“I thought he was just a stone-faced guy, but apparently not.”
Hyeonjun pretended not to hear and walked past them.
The corners of his mouth twitched.
It was clear he had done well.
‘Yes!’
Hyeonjun came back grinning from ear to ear.
Kim Changdong, still catching his breath, stared at him in disbelief.
‘He ran all that and he’s still smiling?’
Even I gave up because it was too much.
He kept pace with Nam Jaewoon’s tempo all the way to the end, and he still looks like he has energy to spare.
“Ugh…!”
Seong Sohui, too, spotted Hyeonjun and flew into a rage.
‘I was sure there was no need to be on guard against him!’
Sohui, who burns with the will to win, had checked the list of participants in advance with the help of her teacher, Yun Mihui.
Only a handful of them were worth watching, and naturally the name Hyeonjun hadn’t even registered on her radar.
‘Then why do I keep losing to a guy like that?!’
Stomping her feet, Sohui lets her fury spill out without restraint.
Even though this wasn’t a contest that decided a winner, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had lost.
‘That’s it. Next time, I’ll win by any means necessary.’
Sohui glared at Hyeonjun with eyes blazing like embers.
***
The Management Bureau’s conference room.
On the screen, the lecture hall of the National Hunter Training Center was being projected.
People began filing into the conference room, one after another.
“Why do they insist we come in person? They could just stream it privately online, I don’t get it.”
Baek Jehyeok plopped down into his chair and started complaining right away.
“If they make us come see it in person, the competition heats up more, that’s why.”
Kang Daewoong sat down beside him.
The Bureau’s intentions were simple.
Like an auction, they wanted to stir up competition on the spot and drive up the market value of Hunters.
Once a certain amount of resources went into it, even the guilds wouldn’t simply leave Low-Rank Hunters to fend for themselves.
“Since they’ve spent the money, they’ll be sure to look after this properly.”
“It’s not a huge expense, but I suppose that’s the idea.”
The empty seats were filled one after another.
Before long, Director Choi Jaeil of the Management Bureau appeared.
“Thank you all for giving up your valuable time.”
It was a gathering of executive-level Hunters, not quite guild masters, but ones whose names were known to the public to some degree.
Choi Jaeil offered a polite greeting, briefly explained the orientation process, and relayed the situation on site.
“The written exam is currently in progress on site. There’s still some time left before it ends, so I’ll take any questions you may have.”
“How many of them already belong to guilds?”
“Apart from five from Seongsam and one from KS, the rest don’t belong to any guild.”
The Director answered a question from one of the executives.
The Hunters began murmuring among themselves.
“Six, and Seongsam has five of them?”
“Seongsam really is quick off the mark.”
“So that’s why Michuhol held the F-Rank Entrance Test.”
At these remarks, Baek Jehyeok flared up.
“Hey, watch what you’re saying. We weren’t spurred on by Seongsam, got it?”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
The executive who had been annoyed a moment ago readily admitted it, looking a little sheepish.
Baek Jehyeok clicked his tongue for no reason and looked away.
“Ho ho ho, all of you, please stay and watch our Sohui shine~”
Yun Mihui said in a nasal, syrupy voice.
Kang Daewoong furrowed his brow and clucked his tongue.
“I just hope she doesn’t embarrass Changdong.”
“Ho ho ho! Even if the sky falls and the earth turns over, that will never happen~”
The two of them glared at each other.
Under the presence the First-Generation Hunters gave off, the other executives had to swallow nervously.
“Ha ha, you two, calm down and take a look at the screen. They say the test has just ended.”
The large screen flickered on, and the E-Rank Hunters seated in the lecture hall came into view.
On one side of the screen, a results table listing the exam scores appeared.
“Oh.”
“……”
“Wow.”
“Changdong was the one who studied well.”
Kang Daewoong said this as he fixed his gaze on Yun Mihui, who was seated across the room.
Seong Sohui’s pitiful score.
He had meant to let it pass, but one look at that face made it impossible to simply move on.
“Whoa, what’s with the twelve points? Did you just fill in the bubbles and fall asleep?”
He had been about to bring it up himself, but Baek Jehyeok beat him to it.
‘Since when is this guy so eager to be helpful?’
Kang Daewoong grinned with satisfaction and played along.
“Even if you guessed, you couldn’t get a score like that.”
“I wasn’t great at studying either, but I never scored that low.”
“Shut your mouth!?”
Yun Mihui flared up at once.
Baek Jehyeok merely shrugged, while Kang Daewoong snorted beside him, struggling to hold back his laughter.
“Who’s that one?”
“He scored over ninety, didn’t he?”
Then, at another score, the hunters began to stir and murmur.
When Kang Daewoong read the name, his brow twitched.
‘Go Hyeonjun?’
It was the same name as the hunter he had met with Changdong the other day.
Could it simply be a coincidence?
‘Go Hyeonjun, an E-Rank… I doubt that’s a coincidence.’
If that were the case,
then it was already hard to believe.
Judging from that fight, I had assumed he was a veteran who had been through the grinder for several years.
But to find out he had only recently become a hunter…
‘And yet he fought like that.’
At most, his experience could only be a year or so.
Kang Daewoong looked forward to seeing what he would show here, anticipating it nearly as much as he did his own disciple’s progress.
“He’s the only one who scored over ninety.”
“He looks pretty decent, doesn’t he?”
“What’s a theory score worth, anyway?”
“Being good at studying doesn’t mean you’re good at catching monsters, either.”
While the hunters were still exchanging opinions about Hyeonjun’s score,
the screen switched over to the gymnasium.
The practical training, which began with basic stamina, produced results that defied everyone’s expectations.

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