How to Live as a Fencing Genius Hunter - Chapter 20

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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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How a Fencing Prodigy Lives as a Hunter
Episode 20
Demon Realm (2)
The Unawakened hunters who had been running drills took a break.
“Thank you so much.”
“You’re Jeong, right? I heard from HuntNet that you were coming here.”
A few of them approached, offering thanks or pretending to recognize me.
Not knowing what to do next, I looked around awkwardly.
Fortunately, that uncomfortable, stilted moment didn’t last long.
Whirrr.
“Hunters, coming to work!”
The automatic door opened and a line of Awakened hunters appeared.
[Name: ???]
[Abilities: Body Enhancement (C), Electric Discharge (B)]
[Name: ???]
[Abilities: Body Enhancement (C+), Heat Ray (C+)]
[Name: Yeo Baek]
[Abilities: Body Enhancement (C+), Telekinesis (B+)]
My Status Window Ring chimed, flooding my vision with countless holograms.
They were all tall and broad-shouldered, powerful Awakened ones without exception.
But one stood out even among them.
The height of a stone pagoda and eyes blazing with intensity.
[Name: Choi Jong-hyeok]
[Abilities: Body Enhancement (C+), Earth Magic (A)]
It was Choi Jong-hyeok.
The one Soo Seong-min had called a madman.
He’d beaten and even killed hunters with criminal records without question.
I’d told myself he probably wasn’t genuinely a bad person, but I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
If I was being honest, I’d have preferred to be assigned to a different team.
“That’s the guy you need to watch out for.”
Lee Hae-il whispered softly to me.
“I know.”
Choi Jong-hyeok barely acknowledged the Unawakened hunters’ greetings before scanning the lobby.
“Good morning!”
“Quiet day today.”
If this place deserved to be called the Demon Realm — a mess of a department — then he was like its director.
I waited, wondering how he’d react to me, whether he really intended to beat me to death, and if I could even respond to him.
“New Awakened ones, did you clock in?”
“Yes sir!”
At his question, Lee Hae-il quickly raised a hand and stepped forward, and I took a step up as well.
Jeong Ho-min and the other Awakened hunters who’d been hanging around with him came forward too.
“You’re all Rehabilitation Types, right?”
Choi Jong-hyeok surveyed us with a gaze like stone.
The stare of an A-Rank hunter carried weight as if charged with physical force.
Even I felt my legs stiffen for a moment.
“Yes, sir.”
Lee Hae-il answered with visibly shaken confidence.
“What was your crime, and how long did you serve? You first.”
Choi Jong-hyeok pointed at Jeong Ho-min with his fingertip.
“Four years for assault and battery.”
Jeong Ho-min lifted his head, determined not to be intimidated by his intensity.

“Four years.”
Whether Jeong Ho-min held his head up or not, Choi Jong-hyeok turned his gaze to the Awakened hunters around him.
“Team Lead. Really, you can’t kill him this time? The Personnel Department might have Seong-min storming in.”
“We don’t have the personnel. From Team 7 onwards, each team lead is the only Awakened hunter they’ve got.”
“How long are you planning to tank solo? Even if you don’t like it, you’ve got to grit your teeth. That’s what a team lead does.”
They all clung to Choi Jong-hyeok like coaches pleading with a rogue director — judging by their pleas, his reputation for beating and even killing new hunters with records seemed to be true.
They looked just like coaches trying to restrain a disaster of a director.
“Four.”
Choi Jong-hyeok let out a grunt of understanding.
Then he raised a fist the size of my head.
“W-wait, hold on!”
Jeong Ho-min went out cold in a single blow.
“Next.”
Ho-min’s cronies fell in line after him.
“Aaaagh! Owww!”
Watching them get beaten senseless was oddly satisfying, yet it kindled a stubborn resentment in me.
Taking a hit or two wasn’t something I feared anymore.
What grated on me was the possibility of being lumped in with these contemptible fools.
“Jeong Jae-ha.”
Choi Jong-hyeok reminded me of a stern athletic trainer or a headstrong coach.
The sort who’s rigid about hierarchy and stubborn in his convictions—the kind people call a dinosaur, yet he holds to his beliefs with a sort of crude philosophy, however flawed.
If someone like that treated me the same as those thugs, my pride would take a real hit.
“Ten years for murder and involuntary manslaughter.”
But I wasn’t about to draw a blade in response.
Not because I couldn’t win.
It was because he seemed like the type who wouldn’t change his mind even if I did beat him.
“Jeong Jae-ha?”
Choi Jong-hyeok stepped in front of me.
“Can I ask you something?”
His shadow fell across my face.
“I caught some of it outside.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you stop them just now?”

He didn’t raise his fist.
“There wasn’t anything particularly grand about my reasoning.”
“Nothing?”
“In truth, I even hesitated about whether I should interfere. Fresh as I am here, stirring up trouble would just be embarrassing, wouldn’t it?”
I lifted my head slowly and met his gaze.
Those eyes were as shuttered as stone—impossible to read what lay beneath.
Maybe Soo Seong-min was right. Maybe this man really was insane.
But the direct approach worked best on twisted people; that’s precisely why it was called direct.
“People have instincts, you know? This looked less like discipline and more like simple venting.”
“We stand in front of those ordinary hunters, don’t we?”
“Yes.”
“And if they shoot badly, a stray round could catch us?”
“Beating them doesn’t improve their marksmanship.”
“You think it doesn’t?”
If he’s a stubborn coach, then he has no choice but to respect a stubborn player like me.
“No.”
I led with the conclusion, then added the reasoning.
“No matter what you do, those who will cut corners will cut corners, and those who won’t won’t. Commitment comes from a person’s own goals, not from external fear.”

The brutal training montages in shonen manga are just props to underscore the hero’s passion.
Real training like that would kill you from rhabdomyolysis.
“An Unawakened hunter isn’t a conscript.”
There might be some logic to beating Rehabilitation Type Awakened Ones who refuse to work. But what I’d witnessed just now was pure violence.
Even before my awakening, I never stood by and watched that kind of thing.
“They’re all here to earn their own wages. I didn’t see the point in it, so I stepped in.”
I figured that much ought to be clear by now.
If he didn’t understand, then I’d misjudged him.
And if it came to Lee Hae-il catching a beating too, that would be truly unbearable—maybe I should ask Soo Seong-min about a transfer.
“I heard you were a famous player.”
Choi Jong-hyeok opened his mouth slowly.
“Now I understand why.”
He made that weighted remark and nodded.
Like countless mineral shards gleaming sharply on a sun-bathed stone, flickers of something strange kindled and faded from his eyes.

“Go out to the field as you normally would.”
He issued the command to the Awakened Ones surrounding him.
“I’ll take the new recruits on a training run.”
His low, cool voice echoed across the entire lobby.
I exhaled a silent breath of relief.
It seemed he had no intention of striking Lee Hae-il and me after all.
“Wait, just a moment.”
Jeong Ho-min, who had just woken, raised his hand.
“What is it?”
“Why don’t we get hit too? That’s unfair.”
Choi Jong-hyeok regarded Jeong Ho-min with eyes that held unmistakable contempt.
“I was going to skip the last three on account of time.”
He exhaled sharply and clenched his fist again.
* * *
We gathered equipment from the Saetbyeol Guild and followed Choi Jong-hyeok.
Each of us received one Submachine Gun and three Grenades.
I left the gun behind and took an additional Auxiliary Sword instead.
“Once you enter the Gate, do exactly as I say. If you don’t, you won’t need to worry about anything else.”
Beside the branch office building lay a spacious area enclosed on all sides by high temporary walls like those at a construction site.
Large doors stood at four cardinal points, and swarms of Unawakened Hunters in tactical combat fatigues carrying guns and laborers in work clothes carrying pickaxes crowded toward those entrances.
“Get out of the way, you laborers!”
The Unawakened Hunters advanced with their guns held high, swagger in their stride, and shoved the workers aside.
“Please don’t push.”
Gate Management Bureau officials in business suits and police officers checked identification by scanning barcodes on their smartphone screens.
“The Hunters are here!”
One of them caught sight of us and shouted.

“It’s Team Leader Choi Jong-hyeok!”
We didn’t need to wait in line; we entered the enclosed space through a separate entrance on one side.
Inside the temporary walls, the space was quite vast, and several large trucks and forklifts were visible in all directions.
Laborers shoveled Mana Stones onto hand carts, which the forklifts then loaded into the truck beds.
“Look over there, hyung.”
Lee Hae-il gestured toward the scene with interest.
“Machines break down too often inside Gates, so they have to carry everything by hand. When we air this later, we’ll have to interview about that too.”
As always, there were people working behind every stage to make that stage possible.

“Let’s go.”
Choi Jong-hyeok led us toward the center.
When we arrived, we found a Gate far larger than what we’d seen in the tutorial.
A reddish fissure split the air like a blade.
[Demon Realm (A+)]
Incheon’s largest Mining Type Gate.
“This gives me goosebumps all over. Is it really okay?”
One of Jeong Ho-min’s group asked Choi Jong-hyeok.
I too felt considerable pressure.
Air thick with Mana flowed out from the Gate, bearing down on us.
“The Demon Realm has some very powerful Demon Beasts, but there are far more you can handle.”
Choi Jong-hyeok glanced at my hand and continued.
“The Rank displayed is that of bosses or field bosses, so don’t mistake it for the average.”
We continued walking toward the Gate.
“Cheorhyeol gunners, this way!”
“Saetbyeol laborers, please come this way!”
Countless laborers and Unawakened Hunters flowed in and out, but when they saw us, they parted left and right to clear a path.
“Entering.”
Whooooosh!
The moment we stepped through the Gate, my vision swam briefly before steadying again.
“Damn. Damn it.”
Jeong Ho-min and his group exhaled exclamations laced with curses.
The overwhelmingly spectacular sight before us left no room for the cursing to register.
“Hyung. It’s a waterfall. A lava waterfall.”
I recalled the Grand Canyon I’d seen during a competition in the United States.
The Gate called the Demon Realm was far more crimson, scorching, and savage.
Lava cascaded like a waterfall down the massive canyon carved from black basalt.
Though we were inside a cavern, there was no sense of claustrophobia.
The ceiling soared so high it vanished from view, and the corridor stretched hundreds of meters across.
“That section belongs to Cheorhyeol, that one to Cheonsa, and over there—that’s the Murim crew’s mining zone.”
Choi Jong-hyeok gestured as he walked.
A large flag bearing the Saetbyeol Guild’s emblem was planted there.

“Lee Hae-il.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Tell me about the types of Gates.”
He asked while moving forward.
“Gates fall into two broad categories: Summoning Type and Fixed Type. Summoning Types release Demon Beasts and then close, while Fixed Types remain open and continuously spawn them.”
“What about Mining Type?”
“Mining Type refers to a Fixed Type Gate that meets certain conditions—including a sufficient quantity of Mana Stones—which we deliberately keep open rather than closing.”
“Continue.”
“We deliberately avoid defeating the boss so the Gate stays active. We only hunt the respawning Demon Beasts and mine Mana Stones from inside.”
“What work categories exist?”
Lee Hae-il tensed as he answered.
“Awakened Hunters who take down powerful Demon Beasts. Unawakened Hunters who hunt creatures weak enough for firearms. And non-combat laborers—porters—who extract the Mana Stones.”
Choi Jong-hyeok gave a nod so slight it was barely visible.
“Right.”
That was probably his way of giving praise.
He led us deeper into the Saetbyeol Guild’s territory.
The corridor narrowed and split like branches.
[Mana Stone Mining Zone]
A holographic message appeared in my field of vision.
“The cart’s broken!”
“Kim! Put some more muscle into it!”
True to the message, porters were mining Mana Stones in various cavities scattered throughout the zone.
How much farther did we walk?
[Demon Beast Hunting Zone]
The message in my Status Window changed.
“From here on is the hunting zone.”
Choi Jong-hyeok stopped at the entrance to the deep hunting ground.
“This is where hunts haven’t finished yet. We go deeper, take down Demon Beasts, and expand the mining zone as we go. That’s our job.”
“I have a question.”
Jeong Ho-min shot his hand up eagerly.
“I’m not done talking.”
Choi Jong-hyeok’s eyes flashed as if he wanted to snap that arm off.
“S-sorry, sir.”
Jeong Ho-min crumpled instantly.
“For now, you’ll work as Awakened team members under existing Awakened team leaders. As time goes on, you’ll become leaders yourselves and operate independently.”
Choi Jong-hyeok continued.
“Whatever happens down here stays down here. If someone dies, the Demon Beasts eat the evidence. But if any of you try to pull something strange, I’ll kill you myself.”
He regarded Jeong Ho-min’s clique.
“Some of you I know, some I don’t. But I hate criminals. However you ended up committing those crimes, the fact that you broke society’s peace disgusts me.”
They bowed their heads as if crushed under stone.
“I don’t know why you were awakened. We pulled you out because this country needs Hunters and Mana Stones, but don’t forget—you’re convicts.”
Choi Jong-hyeok stared at us as if ready to devour us whole.
“If you abuse your newfound strength to bully and look down on the porters or unawakened Hunters, I won’t let it slide. Same goes if you cause trouble at a bar nearby.”
Choi Jong-hyeok seemed to be the type who grew viscerally angry at the recklessness of the strong.
Among the martial artists I’d known before, many emphasized character training far more than technical skill.
Especially judo and aikido practitioners—I’d often heard them say that unchecked power itself was fundamentally wrong.
But I kept my eyes up the entire time.
“…If you pass today’s entrance exam, that’s what will happen.”
Because of that, I could understand his meaning more quickly.
“What did you just say?”
“What does that mean?”
Jeong Ho-min and his group stirred restlessly.
“Boss?”
“Quiet.”
I pulled Lee Hae-il behind me.
“Seems like the supervisor’s standards are a bit higher than I expected.”
I had a sense of what was about to happen.
Choi Jong-hyeok turned his body without expression and stomped his foot.
Boom!
And we learned just how versatile an A-Rank Hunter’s Earth Magic truly was.
Crrrumble!
The tightly sealed rock wall crumbled into sand and flowed away, revealing a new chamber beyond.
“My God……”
A wave of scorching heat rolled into the passage.
Beyond lay a cavern far larger than any we’d seen before.
It seemed two or three times wider than an Olympic soccer field.
The floor was rough and jagged, littered with large and small rock pillars and sunken terrain, and a stream of lava flowed through it.
[Flame Bat (F)]
[Volcanic Orc (E ~ E+)]
[Demon of Flame (D- ~ D+)]
The chamber was crowded with Demon Beasts of various sizes.
There were at least hundreds of orcs, and scattered throughout were demons that towered a head or more above the orcs.
“The demons are born where the lava pools with mana. So they keep driving those volcanic orcs to create more lava pools,” Jeong Ho-min explained, his face growing pale as he stared at the sight.
Jeong Ho-min’s face had gone pale as he gazed upon the spectacle.
“We need to kill all those creatures and drain the lava so the porters can enter and mine the Mana Stones. Of course, each team must be capable of securing a single cavern.”
Choi Jong-hyeok stomped his foot once more.
Shhhhk!
The sand that had collapsed flowed behind us, forming a tight grating once again.
“From now on, you must kill every Demon Beast in this cavern. Only then can you leave this chamber and become a member of the Saetbyeol Guild’s Demon Realm branch.”
Choi Jong-hyeok passed through the iron grating as if it were water.
“If you don’t make it out, you’ll either be killed by the Demon Beasts or drown in the rising lava.”
Something like a smile played at the corners of his mouth.
There was a sense of pride in it—the satisfaction of setting the world right as it ought to be.
“This is bullshit! Who gets told to die right after joining?”
“Let me out! Let me out!”
An Awakened One from the Scorpion faction rushed at the iron grating in panic.
But the grating that had let Choi Jong-hyeok pass easily held firm against the Hunter.
“I wish you ill fortune.”
Choi Jong-hyeok stomped his foot once more.
Sand poured in, filling even the gaps in the grating until it became a solid wall.
“Show me that you are worthy of survival—that you are the kind of human beings who would have had no such misfortune in this country.”
The wall even pushed forward, sealing off the passage behind us.
“Wha—boss, what do we do now?”
Lee Hae-il asked in confusion.
“You heard him.”
I wasn’t particularly tense.
I’d seen the terrain with its steep elevation changes, and I’d heard about the rising lava.
The Flame Bats worried me a little, but I could leave those to Lee Hae-il.
“Let’s go kill them all.”
I could handle the demons myself.
I’m D-Rank now, so I can overcome a gap of D0 or D+ through skill alone.
The orcs are the real problem, but…… I have an idea.

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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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