Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 82

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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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82
Jung Jang-mi thrashed on my shoulder, screaming, but near the Gate there was only us and the Awakener Management Bureau official, so there was no one to hear her.
“What the hell?! Why aren’t you helping me! Aren’t you with the Awakener Management Bureau?! I’m reporting you!”
“Welcome.”
A familiar face greeted me. It was Geum Seok-ho, an official from the Awakener Management Bureau.
“How have you been?”
“Doing well, thanks to you. Congratulations on becoming S-rank. Ever since that F-rank hunter kept running Gates without rest, I knew Lee Ji-seok would become S-rank.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way, who is this person?”
Geum Seok-ho pointed at Jung Jang-mi.
“You know Hunter Jung Min-gi, right? This is his daughter. I was asked to provide her with some training.”
“What?! You two know each other! What’s your name?! I’m reporting you later! You’re done for! Actually, get ready for prison!”
“Indeed. She seems to need some proper education. Go on in.”
Geum Seok-ho covered his ears as Jung Jang-mi raged.
“Take care.”
Passing by Geum Seok-ho, the five of us—myself, Jung Jang-mi, Yang Sang-heon, Ye-seul, and Bae Na-young—entered the Gate.
Once inside the Gate, I set Jung Jang-mi down. There was no way out until we cleared it anyway.
“You think I’m going to listen to you just because of this?!”

Jung Jang-mi glared at me with venom.
“We won’t help you until we clear this Gate. And I’ve made sure no one enters until just before the break, so if you don’t want to be stuck here for days, you’d better cooperate.”
“… Really?”
Yang Sang-heon, listening from behind, asked.
“What did you think that load on your back was?”
“Uh….”
Yang Sang-heon turned to look at the massive backpack on his back.
“You can start whenever you want. We just need to make sure you don’t die.”
“Hmph! Even if I die, I won’t do what you say!”
Jung Jang-mi sat down on the ground.
“Do as you please. Yang Sang-heon, lay out the mat. Let’s rest.”
“…Yes.”
Yang Sang-heon pulled out a mat from his backpack and spread it, then retrieved some coffee.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had such a peaceful moment. How have you two been while we were gone?”
“Oh, you know. Just getting by.”
“Yang Sang-heon worked very hard. Filling the void left by Lee Ji-seok.”
Yang Sang-heon answered halfheartedly, and Ye-seul added her comment.
“Him?”
“Yes. Not long after the chairman disappeared, Bae Na-young disappeared too, so our mothers were very worried. But Yang Sang-heon visited them every day and reassured them that everything would be fine.”
“Ahem…. No need to mention such things.”
Yang Sang-heon’s face turned red.
“And I’ve been leveling up diligently too. Did you know Yang Sang-heon became B-rank?”
“I didn’t know. You’re already B-rank?”
“Yes. I put in some effort.”
“You’ve worked hard. I’m especially grateful you looked after my Mother.”
“Oh, come on. Why are you saying such embarrassing things?”
“Hey! Are you two really going to leave me like this?!”
“How have you been doing, Ye-seul?”
“I’ve been managing alongside Yang Sang-heon and Hyung-bin—entering Gates and helping with Rigen administrative work. Yang President has been very considerate, so I’ve been getting by comfortably.”
“Brother, brother, something seems off between Ye-seul and Hyung-bin.”
“Huh? The two of them?”
Well, if they like each other, I can’t really say anything, but isn’t Ye-seul too good for him?
“Ah… it’s not like that.”
Ye-seul rarely showed embarrassment. Though her expression hardly changed at all.
“Hey! An ogre! An ogre’s coming!”
Jung Jang-mi spotted a single ogre lumbering toward us from a distance.
“It’s only D-rank. You can handle one on your own.”
“Are you insane?! How is a mage supposed to fight an ogre alone?! There’s no tank!”
As the ogre drew closer, anxiety etched itself across Jung Jang-mi’s face.
“Huh? Is that so?”
“Brother, that’s normal. You’ve just been pushing us too hard.”
“But thanks to that, everyone can handle this much, right? No one got hurt… no one died. Isn’t that enough?”
I was about to say no one got hurt, but Yang Sang-heon’s incredulous expression made me rephrase.
“Kyaaah!”
Jung Jang-mi rushed toward us, and I stepped forward, releasing my aura as a threat.
“Get back. Fight.”
“…Understood! I messed up! Let’s fight together! Together!”
Intellectually, she knew I wouldn’t harm her, but facing such a dense aura head-on, her resolve began to crumble.
“If you don’t want to get hit by me before the ogre hits you, go fight. And if you don’t shoot before it gets any closer, I’ll have a hard time dealing with it.”
“Mom!”
Even as the ogre closed to arm’s length, Jung Jang-mi only screamed and took no action.
“I don’t understand how you expect to become a Hunter like this…”
I pushed Jung Jang-mi away.
“Hey! You’re really leaving me behind?! Hey, you bastard!”
I led the group away from Jung Jang-mi, creating distance.
“Brother…”
The ogre looked back and forth between our split group, then charged toward us.
I unleashed my killing intent along with my aura.
The ogre flinched and averted its gaze. Even if the Destruction God had stripped it of reason and driven it to attack humans, most monsters still instinctively avoided dying pathetically. Perhaps even when reason was lost, some final instinct remained.
The ogre turned and headed toward the easier target—Jung Jang-mi.
“Damn it… Fireball!”
Jung Jang-mi finally gave up on fleeing, and a fireball materialized in her hand—far too large to be what one would expect from a D-rank hunter.
“Huh…?”
Yang Sang-heon’s eyes widened in surprise.
“I had a feeling. There’s no way Jung Min-gi’s daughter would be that weak.”
The enormous fireball left Jung Jang-mi’s palm, hurtling through the air with violent force, yet it appeared to shrink dramatically as perspective distorted it.
“Is it getting smaller right now?”
Yang Sang-heon asked, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
“Yeah, it’s shrinking rapidly the moment it leaves her hand.”
Normally, magic and mana that separate from the human body become difficult to control and gradually lose potency. But this was severe.
“Jae-in doesn’t do that, does she?”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Then how did she even reach D-rank?”
“I should probably help her….”
As I stepped forward to assist, I saw Jung Jang-mi fleeing instead.
“She’s definitely a mage, right?”
“Yes, she’s incredibly fast.”
“High agility?”
She squeaked as she ran, the distance between her and the ogre widening steadily. Moreover, her stamina seemed excellent—she didn’t slow her pace at all.
“Huff… gasp…”
The ogre ran out of breath first.
“Die!”
Jung Jang-mi, now close to the wheezing ogre, unleashed fire from her hand again. Though the fireball shrank the moment it left her palm, the distance had closed to mere meters, so it struck the ogre’s head before diminishing significantly. The impact was forceful enough to knock the creature backward.
“Phew…”
“Hey! You really didn’t help?! I’m telling Dad about this!”
From the way she was complaining, she didn’t seem exhausted at all.
“Bae Na-young, why is she like that?”
“Her magic control isn’t very good.”
“What?! Do you know how to fix it?”
“Sit down. When using magic, you need to understand the principles behind it to increase its power. First, you must feel the flow of mana and understand where it travels, how it circulates, and the mechanism by which magic is released.”
Bae Na-young crouched on the ground and began explaining while drawing diagrams with a stick.
“…”
Jung Jang-mi’s eyes had lost focus, staring blankly at the ground.
“Look, see? When you use a skill, you feel mana circulating through your body, right?”
Bae Na-young persisted, explaining with earnest dedication for quite some time, but Jung Jang-mi understood nothing.
“You okay?”
I tapped Jung Jang-mi’s shoulder. She remained unresponsive, her mind still adrift from Bae Na-young’s magical lecture.
“Well then, keep doing it like you did before. You’ll get stronger with practice.”
If the mind is weak, the body must bear the burden.
“What if I die doing this?! Will you take responsibility?!”
Jung Jang-mi snapped back to awareness.
“Don’t die. Don’t die.”
I left Jung Jang-mi to her dramatics and sat down on the mat.
“Yang Sang-heon, go bring some ogres here.”
“…Yes.”
Yang Sang-heon, who had started to protest, simply lowered his head and trudged away.
“If you don’t bring them back within ten minutes, you’re getting special training too.”
Yang Sang-heon, who had been walking slowly, burst into a full sprint.
Before three minutes had even passed, Yang Sang-heon dragged back five ogres.
“Well done.”
I approached the pack of ogres and delivered a punch to each one’s solar plexus.
“Gack…”
I controlled my strength carefully, aiming only to knock them unconscious without rupturing their bodies, but two of them died anyway. When only one ogre remained, I returned to my seat.
The last ogre tried to flee, so I blocked its escape route and jerked my chin toward Jung Jang-mi. When the confused ogre just stood there, I threatened it with aura, and it charged at Jung Jang-mi as if fleeing.
“Screech!”
Another chase between the ogre and Jung Jang-mi began.
When Jung Jang-mi tried to run toward me, I shot aura from my fingertips at her feet.
“Aaah! You crazy bastard!”
“Come closer and you’ll get hit.”
“Damn it! You son of a bitch!”
Seeing my eyes and realizing I wasn’t joking, Jung Jang-mi flipped me off sharply with a curse and changed direction. Then she ran again until the ogre was exhausted.
“I suppose that counts as a hunting method too…”
After catching three more this way, even Jung Jang-mi, with her exceptional stamina, was breathing hard.
“Why don’t you try getting closer, dodging attacks, and using magic instead?”
I approached Jung Jang-mi, who was sprawled out on the ground, and spoke to her.
After observing her for quite some time, I realized that Jung Jang-mi wasn’t just fast—she also had excellent dynamic vision. There were several instances when she got quite close, but she didn’t need my help at all. The way she instinctively evaded attacks was better than many D-rank hunters.
“Huff… huff… I hate it… I won’t do such crude things!”
“Hunting is a crude profession.”
“I’m going to… huff… huff… support from the rear…”
“Your magic weakens at distance. How do you plan to stay in the back?”
“My uncles catch them and I finish them off… As my level rises, my magic will develop too.”
“Ah, so that’s how you became D-rank? By riding your uncles’ coattails?”
If you could get stronger by riding coattails, who would suffer? That approach has limits to growth. You need direct experience fighting stronger enemies.
“What would you know… People with talent like you wouldn’t understand.”
“Me? Talented?”
“Jang-mi, Lee Ji-seok started with an F-rank skill and struggled a lot to get here. What he goes through in training is several times harder and more painful than what you’re doing.”
“…”
“You have far better talent and background. You’ve got connections, uncles who give you rides.”
“Everyone only looks at Father anyway. What’s so good about that?”
“You’re talking like you’re full. People without connections would curse you out.”
“…”
Jung Jang-mi fell silent, catching her breath.
“Support from the rear is fine, but no matter how I look at it, you’re a vanguard fighter. You have acceleration magic too, don’t you?”
There had been several instances during critical moments when I’d suddenly moved faster.
“…Yes, I do.”
“Perfect. Just use a hit-and-run style—get in, strike, and retreat. It’s similar to what Yang Sang-heon does.”
“…No! I won’t! I’m a mage!”
Despite her youth, a woman over twenty years old lay sprawled on the ground throwing a tantrum. It was clear how indulgently Hunter Jung Min-gi had raised her.
“Do as you like. Try it this way all day today. Yang Sang-heon, bring the next one.”

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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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