How to Live as a Fencing Genius Hunter - Chapter 6

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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 Genius Lives as a Hunter
Chapter 6
Chief Examiner (1)
My Estoc pierced straight through the Jack O’Lantern’s neck.
Crack-crack-crack!
A satisfying recoil traveled up my wrist as something tough yet brittle gave way.
The Jack O’Lantern twisted its grotesque face and shuddered violently.
The thrashing of its massive three-meter frame yanked my body along with it.
I weighed the choice: push forward at the risk of danger, or retreat for safety.
I watched the tempestuous urge to keep charging and made my decision.
Whoosh!
Retreat.
I stepped back lightly and drew the Estoc clear.
Competitive spirit is good, but greed is dangerous.
There was no need to overreach against an unfamiliar opponent on a stage that wasn’t real combat.
The rightness of my choice became clear the moment I withdrew.
Shriek!
[“—–!”]
The Jack O’Lantern thrashed in its final death throes, coiling its body and lashing four spiked whips in all directions.
Anything within five meters of it would have been reduced to powder.
Flicker, flicker, flicker!
Inside that pumpkin-like head, an orange glow leaked from its eyes, nose, and mouth, blinking ominously.
Boom!
The explosion followed.
Fragments of the pumpkin head scattered in all directions like grenade shrapnel from a video game.
I moved to take a defensive stance, then threw myself flat against the ground instead.
Too many fragments—there was no way to block them with a blade.
I’d need to be at least fifteen meters away to call it truly safe.
“Phew.”
Thud.
The headless Jack O’Lantern staggered and collapsed to the floor.
“Is that a success?”
I turned to look at Hong Si-yu and Ji In-hwi.

“…….”
“……!?”
Both hunters wore distinctly uncomfortable expressions.
The moment I saw that awkward look, understanding dawned.
I’d seen expressions like that from my coaches many times during training.
‘Well, Jae-ha. You did well, but…’
That was the face they made when I’d swept through all my opponents in a match drill alone, leaving the kids behind me without a single chance to draw their swords.
“……You performed excellently.”
So it seemed I’d been blessed with perceptive instructors both then and now.
“Your Hit and Run Tactic, your knock-back inducing attacks, your evasion of the final explosion—all of it was superb.”
Ji In-hwi managed a smile and nodded his approval.
“As a reward for setting a good example, I’ll award you five points for attitude.”
He gave me the attitude points as promised.
“Thank you.”
I bowed deeply, set down the Estoc, and descended from the stage.

“Could he have watched hunting videos?”
“If that were all it took, our new recruit mortality rates wouldn’t be so high. People who haven’t experienced it can never pull it off.”
“But he did pull it off.”
“His swordcraft itself is probably second nature to him.”
Fragments of conversation between Hong Si-yu and Ji In-hwi drifted toward me.
“Wow! That guy is seriously incredible.”
“That scorpion bastard was bragging about how he’d win, talking all that trash—guess it was all bullshit? His movements are on a totally different level.”
Those voices were soon swallowed by the roar of the Awakeners gathered here.
“Jung Jae-ha! Jung Jae-ha!”
My name echoed through the crowd, and whistles rang out from all around.
I raised a hand in acknowledgment.
The sound of my name being called and the admiring gazes turned my way were intoxicating.
“Damn, that’s terrifying. You’re saying he sliced people up with skills like that?”
“Isn’t he the only murderer here? Do murderers get model prisoner status?”
“The kids who died back then—I knew some of them…….”
I could afford to ignore the murmurs of condemnation drifting through the crowd.
It felt like I’d returned to my days as a professional athlete.
I also noticed an oddly persistent gaze following me.
A pretty-faced guy with coarse, dark hair that had a slight wave to it.
That same punk who ran with Kim Gang-o’s crew was staring at me with an almost enchanted look in his eyes.
He was staring so openly that I found myself meeting his gaze without thinking.
Eyes that sparkled like sunlight shattered against waves.
“……!”
The guy flinched and turned his body.
“Huh?”
That’s when I saw it.
As he turned, the distinctive line of sports underwear showed at his ribs.
How does that even work?
The Detention Center had kept men and women separated from the start.
We’d been together for at least a few months—I have no idea how this wasn’t caught.
Or maybe he’s just a pervert.
Honestly, given the backgrounds of the people in this place, that’s far more likely.
“Well then. We’re going to begin the Demon Beast Sword Technique in earnest now. As you just saw from Jung’s demonstration, the fundamentals hinge on thrusting.”
Of course, I had no time to wonder what story that guy actually had.
“A demon beast’s bones and muscles are difficult to cut through even with the strength of an average body-enhancement Awakener. That’s why we use a Longsword to target the joints, nerves, or lungs…….”
I had an obligation to pay careful attention to these classes if I was going to make it into the Sambyeol Guild.
“……In one month’s time, there will be a Tutorial. By then, you need to be able to take down Jack O’Lanterns with nothing but a sword. Once those things start absorbing flames and detonating, it becomes truly unmanageable.”
Screech.
That’s when Kim Gang-o returned during the practical training session.
He seemed to have enjoyed his time in the infirmary.
“Damn it.”
He didn’t even look my way.
* * *
This cohort of the Rehabilitation Hunter Service System had roughly a thousand people, divided into five groups of two hundred each, attending various classes.
There was a “social adaptation education” class that explained how the world had changed while we were in prison.
“Now then, everyone. Why shouldn’t we deceive others…….”
I’d expected to hear something like an elementary school ethics lesson, and that’s exactly what happened.
Of course, thinking about guys like Kim Gang-o, more than half the people here probably did need to learn that first, so I couldn’t really complain.
“Last hour was rough. If we pushed through more material instead of wasting time like that, everyone could get jobs faster and earn Demon Stones.”
Every other class was useful.
“Those Gate Management Bureau bastards are all deadweight anyway. So. That’s why today we’re going to learn the Dislocation Treatment—fixing both broken bones and broken resolve. Kim Gang-o. Come to the front.”
“What?”
“All right. Before we begin the practical, I’m first going to dislocate Kim Gang-o’s shoulder.”
“No, no, no…… Aaaaaah!”
There was a first aid class where we learned the Reduction Technique to set broken or dislocated bones, Hemostasis to stop bleeding, and a few other field medical skills.
A Hunter dressed like a battlefield physician ran the class, using only hardened criminals as teaching materials.
“Lee Hae-il.”
“Prisoner 244, Lee Hae-il!”
“Good job. You set it well.”
That pretty-faced one—presumably a cross-dressing woman or a sexual deviant—turned out to be an unexpected star of the class, and I did pretty well too.
“You did well too, Jung. Did you study sports rehabilitation as well?”
“Yes.”
“Of course—the national team is different. Attitude point: one!”
Anyway, I was someone who’d studied under a doctor and done practical training for over three years in modern rehabilitation medicine, so this was familiar territory.
“A Gate is a dimensional space where demon beasts emerge, and each one has its own rules and conquest strategies…….”
There was also hunting theory class, where we learned about demon beasts, Demon Stones, and Gates, and sword technique training—my favorite.
Because Hong Si-yu had emphasized it so many times, quite a few Awakeners were showing genuine enthusiasm.
“Hah!”
Lee Hae-il was one of them.
That creature—whether he or she—stayed after class and swung a metal practice sword.
But then he drove his knee forward with terrible force—a real blade would have severed his leg clean through, at least halfway.
Looking closer, I saw the problem lay in how he held the hilt.
My fingers itched to teach him.
“Well…”
How rare to find someone working hard at something they loved.
True, he still looked like part of Kim Gang-o’s thuggish crew, but I’d always believed there were no bad people among those who loved the blade.
Kim Gang-o didn’t count as a person anyway.
So couldn’t this Lee Hae-il have a chance at rehabilitation?
“The grip.”
“Sir?”
“Relax your grip. Wrap your hand around the lower part—try it.”
I tossed the words over my shoulder as I left the gymnasium.
“Yes, sir!”
“When did you ever see me before?”
An enthusiastic answer came back.
I didn’t mind.
I could feel the muscles around my cheeks lifting upward—seemed I was quite pleased, actually.
“Ready? Fire!”
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The final class was marksmanship.
Unusually, the shooting course didn’t use rifles like the K2—we trained with submachine guns like the MP5 instead.
“Those kinds of rifles will be carried by the regular Hunters who follow behind you.”
Worse, we were made to shoot left-handed, not right.
“Why are you learning to shoot? So that when you’re swinging a blade and suddenly a bunch of little ones come pouring out, you can rake them with fire. It shouldn’t get in the way of wielding your sword.”
I didn’t score well in that class alone.
“So even you have things you can’t do, Jung?”
No—it wasn’t just a matter of poor marks. I was dead last.
“How exactly did you manage to make it look like this?”
The instructor looked at my submachine gun during the field-stripping exercise and laughed awkwardly.
“Even if we asked you to, you couldn’t make it worse.”
My submachine gun resembled the twisted idol of some ancient god.
It felt unfair.
I’d followed the manual exactly, watching the presentation that appeared in front of me—so why on earth was this happening?
“My apologies. I’m simply not mechanically inclined. I can’t handle anything more complex than a Fencing Mask.”
I raised both hands in surrender.
I could manage pulling the trigger well enough, but maintenance like field-stripping and reassembly were beyond me.
Now that I thought about it, I’d probably destroyed several BB guns as a child.
“Can’t be helped.”
In the end, I gave up on marksmanship.
Though truthfully, marksmanship gave up on me first—but I told myself I was the one doing the quitting.
Having me keep my hands off firearms was safer for everyone on my side anyway.
I’d just have to earn more points in swordwork.
Two weeks passed that way.
“This is where I check it?”
I opened the app slowly and looked at my score.
“Wow. Sir, how many points have you collected?”
“Thirty points from medals, five from the first day of swordwork training, three from the First Aid course, one from theory class, and more from the swordwork lessons… so forty-three total.”
I’d already scraped together half of the eighty-five I needed.
Kim Gang-o had ten points.
Of course, I couldn’t let my guard down.
I’d practically abandoned the shooting courses.
I needed more points before I could relax completely.
Ding.
[Hunter Hong Si-yu: Jung.]
[Hunter Hong Si-yu: Before dinner, could we talk for a moment?]
A message came through on the app.
* * *
“You called for me?”
I climbed to the top floor of the Center.
“How’s your leg been lately?”
“I’m hoping things will improve gradually.”
“With your skill, you’ll recover quickly.”
Hong Si-yu sat on a large sofa in the spacious room.
Her short red hair looked vibrant and full of life, but I remembered the sight of her spewing flames.
“I’ve flown around here and there myself, so I know—even catching a few dozen Demon Beasts makes a huge difference.”
My personal file was displayed on a monitor in the corner of the room.
“Seeing how you took down that Golem, I don’t think it’ll take long. Just hunt a hundred Jack O’Lanterns over a month or two after finishing the Tutorial, and your legs should be completely healed.”
“I hope so.”
“If you’re lucky enough to catch something like an A-Rank Dragon, you could recover in one shot.”
She glanced at that monitor, then brought up the subject of my legs.
At first I thought it was small talk to break the awkward silence, but as she continued, it became clear advice.
“It doesn’t seem like the condition is that bad right now, does it?”
“I can handle training without issue. Even a full sprint for about five minutes is no problem.”
“That’s good to hear. Actually, I had a proposal for you.”
“What kind of proposal?”
It seemed like she was leading into the main point.
“You must notice some trainees showing talent in swordplay, right?”
“Yes, there are a few.”
“If you gathered all the talented ones from here and there, you’d have dozens, wouldn’t you?”
“Probably. We’d exceed that.”
“Would you be able to organize an after-school program in the afternoon just for those trainees? Your swordplay is honestly far superior to our instructors.”
The proposal felt wonderful.
Even when I was in detention, many people condemned me.
They asked whether it was right for an athlete to draw a weapon against civilians, no matter the circumstances.
I’m not sure if gangsters count as civilians, but frankly, disarming multiple armed opponents alone and unarmed is virtually impossible.
It was unavoidable to protect my sister and myself.
They insisted that even after my release, I should be barred from coaching work, and in my heart, I believed it was likely to happen that way.
Wasn’t that an era where the very fact of controversy became controversial?
Yet now, a remarkable Awakener who spearheaded government projects was asking me to teach someone how to wield a sword.
For me, this situation itself was deeply satisfying.
“Of course, I’m not asking you to work for free.”
Hong Si-yu seemed ready to pay me proper wages.
“Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Two hours every evening after dinner. 250,000 won per hour, so 1.5 million won per week. How does that sound?”
1.5 million won a week worked out to nearly 80 million won annually.
That was top instructor rate at a major fencing club.
It was a figure worth considering even to officially recruit ‘gold medalist Jung Jae-ha’.
Besides, I had no home or place of my own right now.
My house was in Seoul, and Seoul had been overrun by Demon Beasts.
To find Chae-ha and live together, I’d need to rent at least a small studio, so earning nearly 3 million won over the two weeks until the Tutorial was truly grateful.
“And I’ll add some points too. Since you don’t have hunter experience, I have to set the rate at external instructor level, which feels a bit awkward.”
Moreover, Hong Si-yu said she’d give me additional points.
It was the perfect chance to completely recover the points I’d lost in shooting class.

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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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