Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 83

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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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83
Jung Jang-mi’s stubbornness rivaled that of an A-rank Hunter, even if her magical prowess didn’t, so she never altered her combat approach throughout the ordeal.
She’d dash to create distance, and only when the ogre grew fatigued would she cautiously approach and cast her spells. Despite the abysmal efficiency, she displayed profound resistance to engaging the monster in close quarters.
This worked the first few times, but her stamina depleted and her running speed faltered.
“Hah… hah…”
The distance between the exhausted Jung Jang-mi and the ogre steadily contracted.
The enraged ogre swung its club toward Jung Jang-mi’s head.
“Kyaaaah!”
With her stamina exhausted, Jung Jang-mi couldn’t even think of dodging the incoming club—only a scream escaped her.
Crack!
I fired aura from my palm like a bullet, simultaneously obliterating the ogre’s head and its club.
As the club shattered, fragments struck Jung Jang-mi’s forehead, drawing blood.
“Five minutes rest.”
“You… you crazy bastard! I almost died!”
I watched Jung Jang-mi clutch her forehead and curse, but to me it sounded no different than a neighborhood dog barking.
“A scar on a young woman’s face? You’re gonna take responsibility for that?! You psychopath! Say something!”
After cursing for a while, when I simply stared back without responding, Jung Jang-mi couldn’t contain her frustration and sat down on the ground to rest.
Once the rest period ended, Yang Sang-heon brought another ogre. Jung Jang-mi’s combat style remained unchanged, and neither did my approach.
“Hyung, what are you two doing? Are you competing to see who’s more stubborn?”
“If she keeps hunting in that state, you think she’ll live long?”
“…I understand what you mean, but will someone that stubborn actually change?”
“She will if she doesn’t want to die.”
Hunter Jung Min-gi had sacrificed his life and future across both his previous and current existence to protect the nation. I owed him a considerable debt. Turning his daughter into a proper Hunter was a cheap way to repay it.
Jung Jang-mi, pushed beyond her limits and wracked with agony, retched.
“Done vomiting? Sang-heon, bring the next one.”
Jung Jang-mi no longer had the energy to curse at me or even glare. Ye-seul continued approaching to cast healing spells or moistened her mouth with water, but Jung Jang-mi barely responded.
Ye-seul seemed dissatisfied as well, but after overhearing my conversation with Yang Sang-heon, she said nothing.
* * *
After clearing the Gate over two days, Yang Sang-heon dropped off the bedraggled Jung Jang-mi at the Rose Guild.
“Dad! That bastard!”
And before even half a day had passed, she’d brought Hunter Jung Min-gi with her.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok, is it true you assaulted and abused my daughter? That’s not the case, right?”
Though he appeared angry as a father, his expression didn’t suggest he greatly doubted me—as if he questioned whether Jung Jang-mi frequently used him this way.
“If you call the training she underwent assault, then yes, it was assault. If you call it abuse, then it was abuse. Yes, I did it.”
“…What?”
At my straightforward admission, both Hunter Jung Min-gi and Jung Jang-mi wore dumbfounded expressions.
“You said to educate her.”
“That’s… true.”
“Knowing her personality, you wouldn’t have sent her to me if words alone would have worked, right? As long as her limbs remain attached, the training is bearable. Since it’s come to this, I’ll keep her for about a month.”
“Ah… no! Still, you can’t treat a girl that harshly!”
“Hunter Jung Min-gi. Are you planning to keep that girl as a Hunter? If she enters a Gate in that state, she’ll either die within a few years or kill someone else through her own mistake. Is that what you want to see?”
Hunter Jung Min-gi fell silent.
“Ah… Dad! I’m Jung Jang-mi! Your only daughter! You’re going to leave me with that bastard again?”
“Then quit being a Hunter. That way you won’t have to go to Hunter Lee Ji-seok.”
“… That’s not how it works! I’m going to be a Hunter!”
“Think carefully. Do you want to be hated and keep your daughter alive? Or do you want to maintain your image as a good father while sending your child to her death?”
“…I’ll be counting on you.”
After his deliberation, Hunter Jung Min-gi gave up and turned away.
“Dad! No!”
I grabbed Jung Jang-mi as she clutched at Hunter Jung Min-gi’s arm and pulled her away.
“Ow! It hurts! It hurts!”
“Hunters don’t whine like that.”
“Dad!!! Dad!!!”
“You’ve still got energy if you can yell like that. Let’s head back into the Gate. Should we go for Undead this time?”
“No! I don’t want to!!!”
I dragged the screaming Jung Jang-mi into the Gate. Since I didn’t need anyone else this time, we entered alone.
“But why do you hate close-quarters combat so much? You’re fast and have great dynamic vision—you’d be perfect for it.”
I sat on a rock and asked Jung Jang-mi, who lay sprawled on the ground.
“…”
“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. We can just keep doing Gates like this, just the two of us.”
Jung Jang-mi lay there and tilted her head up slightly to look at me, her expression clearly annoyed.
“Dad… he came home injured every time when I was little.”
Jung Jang-mi gave up and began her story, gazing at the sky.
“Hunter Jung Min-gi?”
“Yeah. Dad wasn’t S-rank from the start either. But he fought without sparing himself, determined to kill everyone who killed Mom.”
“I see….”
Hunter Jung Min-gi’s wife was caught in a Gate Break not long after giving birth to Jung Jang-mi. While fleeing with the young child in her arms, a horde of monsters approached. She placed her baby in a car and, crying out loudly, lured the pursuing monsters far away.
“Mom died because of me, and Dad came home injured every single day. It was all my fault.”
Jung Jang-mi had witnessed her father return covered in blood from fighting in rage day after day as a child. And she believed it was all her fault. It was enough to leave deep trauma.
“Dad felt sorry for not being able to pay attention to me when I was young, so now he takes my side in everything.”
“That must have been hard on you.”
“Then I awakened too. I thought I could finally help Dad. But my magic is useless like this. And if I fight up close, I remember Dad coming home covered in blood, so my body freezes up.”
“You could just quit being a Hunter.”
“No. I can finally do something that helps Dad.”
Now I was beginning to understand this girl a little better.
“But why do you act so rudely to people?”
“When did I?”
Ah, so it’s just a habit ingrained in her.
“Got it. Your resolve to be a Hunter hasn’t changed, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then it’s simple.”
I cleared the remaining monsters in the Gate and headed to the Hospital.
“Oh? What brings you here, oppa?”
Bae Na-young, who had been treating a mana addiction patient, greeted me.
“I brought a patient.”
“Huh?”
I explained the situation to Bae Na-young, whose expression showed confusion.
“At that level, she shouldn’t feel much resistance, so it should be fine.”
My Mind Control skill had reached near-mastery, allowing me to make such requests. Lately, I’d been reading neuropsychiatry and psychology books as a hobby to improve the skill. The books were thick enough to use as weapons, with text so small it was hard to read, yet oddly engaging—whenever I focused on them, I could barely hear anything else.
“Are you sure this is okay? Really?”
Jung Jang-mi looked at me and Bae Na-young with anxious eyes.
“Just stay quiet. You’ve heard of hypnotherapy, right? It’s like that.”
Bae Na-young placed her hand on Jung Jang-mi’s head and concentrated.
Jung Jang-mi fell into a hypnotic state, and her hand dropped limply.
“You’re not afraid. Your father’s image isn’t one of suffering in battle, but of a proud victor. You have ability. Monsters cannot touch you.”
Bae Na-young whispered gently and withdrew her hand.
“That’s it? This will actually work?”
When Jung Jang-mi opened her eyes, she didn’t even remember falling into the hypnotic state.
* * *
The hypnosis had succeeded.
Jung Jang-mi watched the attack through to the end and counterattacked with magic.
She leaned back to dodge the ogre’s club. Then, with her right hand clad in gloves that Jae-in had crafted, she snapped a short punch through the air, and a fireball erupted from the tip, flying toward the ogre’s head. The gloves functioned similarly to a staff, enhancing magical efficiency and reaction speed.
Boom!
The ogre’s head charred black as it tumbled backward.
Before, even firing at maximum output from a distance would lose power in transit, but at this close range, reduced output still delivered devastating force. As a result, the ogre went down in one hit.
“Yes!”
Delighted, Jung Jang-mi jumped in place and performed a back tuck.
“That’s not a mage. Magic boxing? That’s more accurate.”
Yang Sang-heon, watching her, spoke.
“Her class changed anyway. She’s a Battle Mage now.”
“Is that possible? I thought once a class was set, it couldn’t change.”
“It happens occasionally. Jae-in’s class changed too. From Elementalist to Elemental Smith.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
Class changes weren’t common, but they did occur. Yet I still didn’t understand why my own class hadn’t manifested.
* * *
“Why that face at twenty-five? Did you eat something bad?”
Jung Jang-mi openly pointed and laughed at another Rose Guild party member’s face, now recalibrated to match her actual strength.
The hunter being pointed at, knowing she was Jung Min-gi’s daughter, could only laugh awkwardly without retorting.
“Lee Ji-seok, your kid… seems to have the same lack of manners?”
Jung Min-gi furrowed his brow as he spoke.
“That’s something to address at home. I’ve already made sure he pulls his weight as a Hunter and instilled the importance of teamwork. He won’t embarrass himself as a Hunter anywhere.”
“Ugh….”
“It seems you’ve been too lenient with him. If he doesn’t even recognize what’s wrong with his own behavior, that’s a serious problem.”
“That… would Bae Na-young be willing to provide psychological counseling?”
“Since it involves correcting fundamental personality traits, it probably won’t work well. And if done wrong, it could be dangerous.”
“Sigh… I’ve been doing this for twenty years, and it never gets easier.”
“Hang in there. For character education, either seek professional counseling or take your time exploring options.”
“Right, thanks.”
Jung Min-gi gripped my hand firmly.
* * *
After returning from Tellus, I spent a peaceful month handling minor assignments and training Jung Jang-mi, all while refining what I’d learned from Eres in my spare moments.
I absorbed the subtle life force of nature and breathed it into my mothers. These days, their wrinkles were steadily fading and their muscle mass had increased considerably. To the eye, they looked at least ten years younger.
I cultivated the habit of using life force to sense my surroundings in daily life. As I observed the life force of countless people, I realized that each person’s life force pattern felt as unique as a fingerprint. I could easily distinguish those I saw frequently.
Finally, I honed the boost technique that used life force to elevate my stats. Unfortunately, the boost percentage didn’t increase beyond forty percent, but I halved the time it took to enter boost mode from my normal state.
“Hmm….”
I opened the notebook where I’d written down things to accomplish in this life. I never expected to become this strong so quickly. Thanks to that, I had things written down, but I needed to reconsider the things I’d abandoned as impossible.
I sensed Bae Na-young approaching and closed the notebook.
“Oppa, what are you doing?”
“Oh, well… I was thinking about going abroad for a bit.”
“Why abroad?”
If I told Bae Na-young about my past life, she would probably believe me without doubt. But would that be a good 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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