How to Live as a Fencing Genius Hunter - Chapter 23

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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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A Fencing Prodigy’s Life as a Hunter
Chapter 23
Demon Slayer (1)
Yeo Baek couldn’t bring herself to believe what Jeong Jae-ha had just said.
‘He filled the Cavern with lava and killed all the Orcs?’
Even Choi Jong-hyuk, a team leader of considerable standing, wore a dazed expression.
‘It could have failed. The debris could’ve scattered in the wrong direction, reducing the inflow instead of increasing it. The Orcs could’ve all fled.’
She found it impossible to believe that such a strategy could work in reality.
‘Just how much nerve does this person have?’
Of course, the concept itself was sound.
But to execute a strategy based merely on ‘it might work’ was far too reckless.
Humans in reality possessed risk-avoidance instincts.
It was an evolutionary inevitability.
Those who made even a single mistake couldn’t pass on their bloodline, so only those who preferred low-risk, low-return over high-risk, high-return had survived to populate the world.
As a result, when Gates first appeared, all those who recklessly stepped forward with naive heroic ideals became sustenance for Demon Beasts.
In this brutal world, only S-rank transcendents could uphold their beliefs—whether ambition, compassion, or justice.
That established conviction trembled pleasantly.
‘It’s probably not courage so much as familiarity. Building a theory and staking years on it. That’s what athletes do.’
Yeo Baek wallowed contentedly in the delightful sting of defeat.
A promising newcomer always kindled a sense of responsibility in her.
‘This is good.’
It was work that gave life meaning.
“…I also spotted a C-rank Demon deeper inside. If you permit it, I’d like to attempt a hunt.”
When even Yeo Baek, absorbed in these thoughts, heard talk of hunting down a C-rank, her breath caught in her throat.
“You want to hunt a Demon? No—you saw one?”
Torn between ‘Jeong Jae-ha’ and ‘C-rank Demon,’ her attention fractured enough to ask an oddly phrased question.
“Yes. My Status Window Ring alerted me.”
“You’re D-rank. D-rank Demons were already difficult opponents for you. You’ll die instantly against a C-rank.”
“I appreciate your concern. I had no intention of overextending myself.”
Jeong Jae-ha continued his explanation with remarkable composure.
“I needed to report it first. And if we’re destined to face this Demon Beast eventually, I’d prefer to challenge it when A-rank and B-rank team leaders are present alongside us.”
Because Jeong Jae-ha had given her enough time to process, Yeo Baek felt she grasped his thinking.
‘He was worried you’d send only his team. That bastard Choi would do exactly that.’
This understanding made her like Jeong Jae-ha even more.
‘The kid’s got initiative.’
He clearly distinguished between what lay within his control and what didn’t, then gave his absolute best within the realm of possibility.
It was a virtue possessed by the finest Hunters who’d operated in the isolated Seoul of the Apocalyptic Period.
Before Choi could open his mouth, Yeo Baek quickly spoke with certainty.
“If a C-rank’s shown up, we need to hunt it—it might attract other Demons. But a C-rank isn’t a mere test; it’s a real Demon.”
She turned to one of the Awakened team leaders who’d come with them and made a request.
“Captain Yang. Take the Newcomers with you.”
“Understood.”
Both Jeong Ho-min and the other Hunters had eyes devoid of light.
As the excess adrenaline drained away, they suffered the crushing exhaustion that followed.

“W-wait. I’d like to stay.”
Just then, a beautiful woman with semi-curly hair cropped just below her ears shook her head.
“I want to hunt with him.”
“With him?”
Yeo Baek paused briefly, puzzling over what connection existed between the two, then nodded.
“Fine. Come along.”
What did it matter?
A Hunter just needed to kill Demon Beasts well.
Yeo Baek started toward the path that skirted around the Cavern.
“You said you wanted to hunt?”
At that moment, Choi Jong-hyuk spoke to Jeong Jae-ha.
‘Again? Why?’
Yeo Baek felt like screaming.

* * *
“Yes. I’d like to.”
I answered the question while thinking it through.
This gambit had worked even under Fist.
Drawing on the wisdom of how I’d lived until now and the knowledge gained from the situation before my eyes, I form my own hypothesis and decide by combining reason with intuition.
I do it very quickly.
It was my specialty.
“What are you—?”
Lee Hae-il jabbed my ribs as if to ask why I was doing this.
“You want to hunt?”
Choi Jong-hyuk’s thick brows twitched.
“Isn’t it the Hunter’s job to hunt?”
I smiled calmly and pointed toward the depths of the cavern.
‘Show me that even if this country hadn’t faced such misfortune, you’re humans who have the right to survive.’
I understood perfectly what he meant.
Don’t think of Awakening as anything special—treat it as work.
That’s what he was saying.
“Of course it’s dangerous, but won’t it stay dangerous tomorrow and the day after?”
I couldn’t accept it.
Now and always, I’ve loved the blade.
Power and skill, wealth and honor, tension and excitement, cheers ringing in my ears loud enough to burst, and the pride of doing work I’ve chosen.
Those things made me truly alive.
“I’d like to face what I’ll encounter soon anyway, and do it while the senior team leader is here.”
Being a Hunter wasn’t a means of survival or a trivial security measure.
It was the path to meeting Jae-ha, and a dream I’d chosen anew.
The blazing heat of fierce contests and the cold effort required to sustain them—that’s happiness.
I’m the type who overwhelms both the naturally gifted and the hardworking through sheer enjoyment.
“If I can’t participate, I ask permission to observe. I’ll follow without getting in the way.”
No matter how strong an A-rank Hunter is, they can’t steal the perspective with which I see reality.
If this place is a demonic hellscape, then I’ll become a demon or an angel or whatever I must—I’ll sprout wings to escape.
“If you want to, then try.”
Choi Jong-hyuk smiled coldly, crisp and stark as ink-wash painting.
“There!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
[Flame Demon (C-rank)]
The encounter with the demon didn’t take long.
It was waiting for us as if from the far side of the cavern.
A C-rank was definitely a C-rank.
Four massive horns crowned its head, blazing with flame, and it stood nearly four meters tall.
Unlike the lean D-rank demon, this was a thick-muscled brute—its forearms were heavier than my entire torso.
I had no sense of how much power and force lay behind that form.
“Take it however you—”
“I can’t hand that over to a Newcomer just like that, though?”
As Choi Jong-hyuk was about to speak, Yeo Baek cut in urgently.
“I’ll sever an arm and a leg for you.”
In other words, she was offering to do most of the work.
I was grateful for it.
“Didn’t they say they’d try to take it themselves? Team Leader Two.”
This time too, Team Leader Choi Jong-hyuk wouldn’t let it rest.
“Choose one—either an arm or a leg.”
But he was underestimating me badly.
As an A-rank Hunter, he had the right to, but no matter how strong, anyone who underestimates their opponent ends up feeling foolish.
“I’ll take a leg.”
If he’d truly wanted to make this harder on me, he shouldn’t have let me choose the leg.
“Good thinking.”
Yeo Baek released her power without letting Choi Jong-hyuk torment us further.
[Name: Yeo Baek]
[Abilities: Body Enhancement (C+), Telekinesis (B+)]
It was my first time seeing Telekinesis in action.
When I narrowed my eyes, a subtle aura like faint threads flowed from her body, barely visible.
With a breath-stopping surge of force, that aura transformed into an impossibly massive hand that extended outward.
Crack!
[“—–!”]
The C-rank Demon Beast’s leg shattered in a single blow.
A wave of anguished mental energy rang out, and lava and flame cascaded like a waterfall.
Even the Amber Wyvern I’d barely managed to capture seemed insignificant before her.
“Should I have cut higher up?”
Yeo Baek was studying me.
“Thanks to your consideration, it’s more than enough.”
I picked up the Estoc with a warm sense of satisfaction.
This trust, this anticipation—it never got old, no matter when it came.
The blood that had cooled when I’d made that calculated move earlier was warming again.
I rose with the sword, and I was a swordsman who had earned trust through steel.
I had come to the Demon Realm Gate, and here I was receiving that same trust from someone again.
The translucent blade that Hunter Ji In-hwi had forged gleamed as it caught the reddish light of the Demon Realm Gate, heated like molten metal.
“I’ll be cheering for you. If it looks really dangerous, I’ll jump in right away, so don’t be too tense.”
Yeo Baek encouraged me.
“You’re completely insane, you know that? But I guess I’ve heard similar things myself.”

Lee Hae-il chimed in.
……
Choi Jong-hyuk fell silent.
Several lights flickered in succession across his dark basalt eyes, and though his expression made clear he disliked this situation thoroughly, he took a step back to the side.
“……Do well. If you don’t, this place will be your grave.”
He was probably thinking he’d watch this young fool meet his end.
“Yes. Thank you for the advice.”
I could see it underneath his consciousness—the mockery that said ‘this kid doesn’t know fear and is running wild; he’ll only come to his senses after he meets his match and gets a bloody nose’.
I agreed entirely.
Maybe someday I would meet someone like that.
But I hadn’t yet.
Honestly, it seemed I wouldn’t anytime soon.
Because I was so looking forward to that day.
I took a step toward the demon of flame.
“Come on, let’s have some real fun.”
My lips stretched so wide my cheekbones ached.
I spun the Estoc idly as I spoke.
A pleasant tension ran from the crown of my head down my spine.
Crush the opponent in front, prove myself to the one behind.
It felt like a exhibition match against the coach before the new director of my new team.
“Ha!”
That was worth laughing about.
Laughter burst from me as every muscle in my body coiled tight with anticipation.
The oppressive heat, the killing intent like a razor scraping across skin, the presence of the demon before me—everything was crystalline.
That electric sensation, the kind that said one mistake meant death—that was what it meant to be alive.
[“-, -. -!”]
The demon of flame shrieked as it regenerated one of its legs.
Lava and flame poured from inside its carapace, forming a spindly structure like a prosthetic limb.
It could maintain its balance immediately, but the leg would limp.
[Warning! ‘Melting Claws’ anticipated.]
At the same moment, a warning appeared in my Status Window.
Whoosh!
Metallic claws grew long, then were engulfed in flames and heated to incandescence.
If the D-rank demon’s claws I’d seen before were daggers, this one’s were short swords.
Add the strength that came from a four-meter frame, and those claws could cleave my Body Enhancement-enhanced body in half in a single stroke.
But I had already captured a C+-rank Amber Wyvern stronger than this thing.
When I was F-rank, I’d used the Gill O’Lantern to trigger an explosion, driving it to the brink of death.
Now that I was D-rank, it seemed I wouldn’t even need that explosion.
[Lunge]
Whoosh!
I sprinted as if folding the ground beneath me and closed in on the demon of flame.
The demon lowered its body and swung its right hand at me.
Screech-screech-screech!
Glowing red metal claws scraped shallow furrows across the basalt floor, sending sparks flying.
The speed was nearly that of an oncoming car.
“Watch out!”
Yeo Baek’s shout rang out like a scream.
“Nice work, brother!”
Lee Hae-il’s cry was no scream at all.
[Jeong Jae-ha’s Unique Skill]
[Prise de Fer]
I deployed the technique I’d used when blocking the Amber Wyvern’s tail, adapting it for this moment.
Originally a move meant to push when blade met blade, it could be applied even against masses far greater than my own.
Screech-screech-screech!
The rigid edge of my Estoc intercepted the Melting Claws of the flame demon’s right hand.
I extended my wrist and arm fully, twisting to dissipate the impact, then sidestepped and pivoted my body.
Converting the demon’s force directly into rotational momentum, I spun clear and slipped past its arm.
“Got you.”
I’d seized the opening behind the flame demon.
Its intact right knee joint appeared at nearly the height of my chest.
The perfect height to drive a blade through.
Thunk!
The recoil made my wrist tingle.
Nothing like a D-rank Demon Beast.
Indeed, this C-rank Demon Beast was formidable—its four-meter frame moved with such speed and ferocity.
I was certain a standard-issue blade would have been useless.
But the Estoc that Hunter Ji In-hwi had forged for me pierced through the superheated stone carapace.
Flame and magma poured out like water from a burst balloon.
[“—-!”]
The flame demon staggered, collapsed forward, and braced itself on both hands against the ground.
“……!”
In the distance, I glimpsed both of Choi Jong-hyuk’s eyebrows twitch.
I’d seen that expression dozens of times before, from countless sparring matches.
Throughout my life, many had disliked my character.
But no one had ever disliked my skill.
Plenty had looked down on me—players, coaches, managers—yet in the end they all wore that same face.
The hollow resignation of forced acknowledgment.
Even as a Hunter, seeing that expression on him made me laugh all over again.
I couldn’t contain my elation.

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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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