The Automatic Rooting Range Is Too Wide - Chapter 104
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Auto Looting Range Too Wide Episode 104
Episode 104: Second Match (1)
* * *
The promised day had arrived.
Mincheol came out to the playground earlier than usual.
It was to polish his techniques one last time before his second match with the young man.
“It’s chilly since it’s dawn.”
Mincheol took out his practice spear from his inventory and began swinging it.
From the outside, Mincheol’s spearmanship didn’t look particularly impressive.
He only repeated thrusting and striking.
‘He said I need to become familiar with the spear first to beat that guy.’
Those were Cardmos’s words.
-Mastering spearmanship and becoming familiar with the spear are separate issues!
-You need to touch the spear often, use it directly in real combat, and increase your overall understanding of the spear as a weapon to beat that guy!
-Since you’re always swinging around twin swords, the spear is bound to feel unfamiliar!
At first, he wondered what this meant.
But when he thought about it slowly later, he finally understood.
‘Twin swords are weapons I’m familiar with. I can handle them naturally anytime.’
When sudden attacks came, or when urgent situations arose.
The twin swords moved like Mincheol’s own limbs.
The spear, on the other hand, was different.
Thought came first, then the spear moved.
Unlike the twin swords, it wasn’t instinctive movement but calculated movement.
Because of this, his movements were inevitably slightly slower.
‘So that’s why that guy said I think too much.’
To beat the young man, he had to solve this problem.
So Mincheol grabbed the spear whenever he had time.
It was to become familiar with the spear as a weapon by any means necessary.
Especially the sparring with Cardmos was a great help.
-Kuhahaha! To think the day would come when I get to beat you up!
-How dare you dodge this body’s techniques? Let’s see if you can dodge this too!
Cardmos beat up Mincheol without showing any mercy.
He still couldn’t forget it.
Cardmos’s appearance as he enjoyed beating him up.
‘Ugh, just thinking about that time makes my whole body ache.’
It was annoying when he was getting hit, but there was much to learn.
No, it wasn’t just much.
Every action of Cardmos was like a treasure trove of knowledge.
‘When using a spear, wrist rotation is especially important.’
‘You don’t need to put all your weight into it. If the speed is fast, the power will be sufficient.’
‘Accuracy is important. One accurate strike is more effective than messy attacks.’
Thanks to this, Mincheol was able to realize many things.
It wasn’t just techniques. Mincheol’s bad habits were also naturally corrected.
‘I have a habit of lowering my head when I start attacking.’
Cardmos had already caught that habit.
Only after getting hit on the forehead twice by him could Mincheol realize the problem.
‘He’s definitely an amazing person… but he’s too petty.’
After Mincheol purchased the Memory Stone of Sihae Yeomhwa, Cardmos rarely showed his face.
He was undoubtedly thoroughly sulking.
‘What kind of person sulks so easily?’
Whether Cardmos sulked or not didn’t matter, but in this state, he couldn’t receive the third Quest.
From Mincheol’s perspective, it was very troublesome.
He needed to complete the third Quest to learn a new skill.
‘How can I cheer him up?’
It was when Mincheol was lost in thought.
“Older Brother, you were already out here?”
A voice was heard right next to him.
The young man who had approached at some point whispered right into Mincheol’s ear.
“What a surprise!”
Mincheol jumped up in shock.
The young man covered his mouth with his wrist and chuckled.
For a man, his wrist was incredibly thin.
“Interesting reaction. You’re like a flopping fish.”
“Wh-what kind of comparison is that?”
At Mincheol’s grumbling, the young man’s eyes widened.
“You spoke informally last time. Why are you suddenly being polite?”
“I thought it wasn’t right to speak informally to someone I just met.”
“Don’t do that, just speak comfortably.”
“Even so, that’s…”
“Otherwise, I’ll just go home.”
The young man spoke firmly.
Mincheol asked back with an incredulous expression.
“You’re joking, right?”
“I’m going home.”
As the young man turned around, Mincheol hastily said.
“Alright. I’ll speak comfortably.”
Only then did the young man return to his original position.
“I’m curious how much stronger you’ve gotten in a week.”
“You can look forward to it.”
“Good confidence, huh?”
Actually, he wasn’t that overflowing with confidence.
When they first met, the young man felt like a wall to Mincheol.
A very high, massive cliff that he couldn’t even think of climbing.
But since they were about to fight, he couldn’t show his weak side.
Mincheol and the young man took out practice spears from their inventories. Then they faced each other and took their stances.
‘Tch, it’s exactly the same as last time.’
Mincheol clicked his tongue inwardly.
Even though a whole week had passed, he couldn’t feel anything from the young man.
It was completely different from when he met the Awakened from Seol-aeng.
He could feel a clear sense of intimidation from them.
‘Not being able to feel anything means… the gap is so large that I can’t even gauge it.’
As expected, he wasn’t someone who could be caught up to in just a week.
It was when Mincheol was having these various thoughts.
“Older Brother, you’ve really changed a lot in just one week?”
Suddenly, the young man’s eyes lit up with admiration.
“How is this even possible? Did you go through some life-or-death crisis?”
Even hearing praise, he didn’t feel particularly happy about it.
There’s a saying that while a novice cannot gauge an expert’s level, an expert can see right through a novice.
The clear difference in skill between them being revealed like this didn’t make him feel good.
“Then let’s begin.”
“Alright.”
To shake off his unpleasant feelings, Mincheol initiated the attack first. He thrust his spear toward the young man’s neck.
The young man wasn’t one to simply take it lying down.
The young man also moved his spear to deflect Mincheol’s attack.
An endless exchange of offense and defense.
Mainly, Mincheol tried to break through while the young man tried to block.
‘…I can see it.’
Within that exchange, Mincheol could feel that he had changed.
Unlike before, he could read the young man’s movements. He could see the trajectory of his attacks.
‘There are many. Damn many.’
Mincheol realized why he couldn’t read anything from the young man’s stance before.
There were too many possibilities.
He had fallen into the paradox of being unable to read anything precisely because he was buried in too many trajectories.
‘I can win!’
Gaining confidence, Mincheol took a step forward.
“Oh?”
Surprise appeared on the young man’s face.
“Ooh?”
When Mincheol took another step forward, he exclaimed once more in admiration.
“You really are amazing.”
Suddenly, the young man’s atmosphere changed.
Mincheol quickly caught that change. And he awakened all his senses.
‘Something’s coming.’
Right after that, their spears became entangled.
The young man twisted both hands. The spear shaft rotated in place.
Thunk.
With a light sound, Mincheol’s spear was deflected downward. Because of that, Mincheol’s torso was completely exposed.
Without hesitation, the young man thrust his spear tip into Mincheol’s solar plexus.
* * *
The moment their spear shafts became entangled, Mincheol felt déjà vu.
‘This is exactly the same situation as before.’
That’s why he could react. Beyond that, he could counterattack.
Thunk.
In the instant his spear shaft was deflected downward, Mincheol didn’t resist.
Instead, he used that force in reverse to rotate his spear shaft.
Then he gripped the end of the spear shaft and struck down with all his might.
It was a counterattack executed half a beat faster. It was too late for the young man to block.
‘I won!’
It was when Mincheol was certain of victory.
Suddenly, the spear the young man was holding became blurred.
‘Huh?’
At the same time, there was a sound of air being torn apart.
Right after that, the spear shaft broke in two and Mincheol was sent flying backward.
“Cough.”
Mincheol lay sprawled on the ground, clutching his chest.
Sharp pain was spreading from his chest outward.
‘What was that just now?’
It was too fast for him to see properly.
However, he vaguely sensed it.
‘The spear shaft rotated.’
The spear shaft spun rapidly around the young man as the center.
Like the blades of a blender spinning.
‘Damn, I didn’t know he was hiding this kind of technique.’
Mincheol sprang up from where he lay and said.
“Ah, I lost again. As expected, one week isn’t enough to win.”
To be honest, Mincheol hadn’t really expected to win with just one week of practice either.
So he had set his goal lower. To land at least one effective hit on the young man.
Even that had failed though.
“What was that just now? How did you do it?”
Mincheol asked the young man.
But something about the atmosphere was strange.
Unlike Mincheol who looked relieved, the young man’s expression was serious.
Soon the young man let out a deep sigh and said.
“I lost.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I ended up using a technique seriously without realizing it.”
The young man bowed his head deeply as if embarrassed and said.
“So this is my defeat.”
“How can that be? If you won, then you won.”
“But…”
Mincheol waved his hand dismissively and said.
“Hey, do you think I’d be happy winning like this? Don’t talk nonsense and let’s call it my loss.”
At Mincheol’s firm attitude, the young man smiled broadly.
“You really are amazing, Older Brother.”
“Amazing my ass. I lost in the end.”
Saying that, Mincheol picked up the broken spear shaft.
“I’ll have to buy a new one.”
Since it was broken exactly in half, it was in perfect condition to grip and swing with his hands.
Without realizing it, Mincheol acted as he would when holding twin swords.
He gripped the spear shaft and swung it through the air several times.
“Older Brother, wait a moment.”
Then the young man called out to stop Mincheol.
“How did you just do that?”
“Do what?”
“The way you swung the spear shaft looked exactly like… swordsmanship?”
“Ah, was it obvious?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I originally use twin swords.”
Mincheol said without much thought.
But the young man’s reaction was different.
“What do you mean? Weren’t you a spearman?”
“No, I’m a swordsman. To be precise, a dual swordsman.”
At those words, the young man’s eyes shook greatly.
“Then why did you practice spear techniques?”
“Uh… Just because? I thought I might end up using a spear sometime.”
Since they weren’t close enough to discuss Memory Stones, Mincheol glossed over it vaguely.
“So you sparred with me using spear techniques that you just practiced in your spare time, not even in real combat?”
“Uh… I guess so?”
Wondering if he might be angry, Mincheol watched the young man’s reaction carefully.
“You improved this much in just a week with spear techniques that aren’t even your main weapon? I couldn’t even do that.”
The young man was muttering to himself with a stiffly hardened expression.
Mincheol spoke to the young man to try to calm him down.
“Uh… It’s not like I never used a spear in real combat. I used it once or twice.”
“…You drew out my full power with a spear you’ve only used once or twice?”
But the situation didn’t particularly improve.
“Let’s do it again.”
“Do what?”
“Let’s fight again. But this time, please use dual swords instead of a spear.”
Mincheol just blinked, wondering why he was acting like this.
But thinking about it, Mincheol became curious too.
What would happen if he fought with dual swords instead of a spear?
Would he be able to land effective hits as originally planned?
“Alright, let’s give it a try.”
Mincheol said while gripping the broken spear shaft.
It was the start of the second round.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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