The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 28

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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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The Strongest in Our District (28)
As Jang Ga-in sheathed his sword, Dimitrion lowered his blade and drew several ragged breaths.
“Huff… huff… Thank you. I never knew that thrusting with a sword could contain so much variety and such subtle transformation.”
“The Thrusting Technique I taught you is one of the ultimate skills called Geuk-seom, and it already incorporates the Mysteries of Transformation within it. If you practice diligently, you’ll be able to see a whole new world of swordplay. Now get going.”
“What? You’re telling me to leave? Isn’t swordplay more than just thrusting? There’s cutting, blocking, and—”
As Dimitrion continued with a reluctant expression, Jang Ga-in cut him off with a click of his tongue.
“You’re going to need a long time just to digest the thrusting technique I taught you, and now you want cutting and blocking too? You don’t have the capacity to absorb anything more right now, so stop being greedy and go.”
“I wasn’t being greedy, it’s just that this might be the last chance for even a taste, but… no, never mind. In any case, thank you. Thanks to your instruction, I feel like I’ve cleared away some of the excess in my swordplay.”
When Jang Ga-in frowned, Dimitrion stopped complaining and bowed his head deeply.
“If you just keep practicing what I taught you today, your skills will improve quickly. You won’t end up on the wrong side of forest monsters or mercenaries anymore.”
“Thank you.”
“Now I need to get back to my own training, so off with you.”
“Yes. I’ll see you next time.”
Dimitrion bowed deeply to Jang Ga-in before heading toward his attendant, Ego-edan.
Ego-edan had prepared water and a towel, and beside him stood Mogoya Dafaron with a somewhat dazed expression.
“Master, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, so stop making a fuss and bring me that water.”
“Here it is.”
“Thank you.”
Dimitrion drank the water, then poured the rest over his head.
Hisssss.
White steam rose from his head and body like what one might see in the depths of winter.
“Gasp! M-master, how hot is your body?! It’s like pouring water on hot coals.”
Dimitrion too seemed startled by the steam rising from his body, his eyes widening slightly.
“My body is this hot without even using an Aura! Ego-edan, how long was I receiving instruction from Jang Ga-in?”
“Roughly five minutes.”
“What? Five minutes? That’s really all it was? It felt like at least thirty minutes of instruction.”
“No, master. It was truly only about five minutes.”
“Unbelievable! In just five minutes, my body became a burning ember!”
Dimitrion watched as the steam rising from his body gradually dissipated, then poured more water over himself.
Ordinarily, when a person’s body grows hot, they sweat, but his sweat was evaporating before it could even flow down his skin.
* * *
Ho So-ya, captain of the Wyvern Mercenary Corps, discovered a trap hidden in the undergrowth and grinned wickedly.
“Just as I thought. I had a feeling there’d be a trap around here somewhere.”
“The trap is made so skillfully it must have been set by the Dwarven Race, right?”
“Right. There’s definitely a village of the Dwarven Race somewhere in this area.”
“If we just find the village, we’ve struck gold.”
“Heh, true. A goldmine absolutely full of treasure. The problem is we can’t handle it ourselves.”
“Haha, that’s true.”
“Captain, there’s bait and a snare here as well.”
At that moment, another subordinate proudly displayed the fruits of his search, shaking a snare hidden between the trees.
“Let me see. The snare is quite sturdy too. They’re using wild boar entrails and blood as bait, so it looks like the Dwarven Race is hunting monsters in this area.”
“Captain, the bait looks fresh, which means they probably didn’t set these traps long ago.”
“Based on how the blood is congealed, I’d say it’s been about two hours. So they’ll come back this evening or tomorrow to check if they’ve caught anything. Hunora.”
“Yes, captain.”
“Plant Spirit-Controlling Magical Tools—one near the trap, one near the snare, and one more along that path where I see the monster’s footprints below the rocks.”
“Understood.”
“Captain.”
At that, another subordinate tilted his head.
“What is it?”
“If a monster comes along, it might destroy the traps we’ve set. Wouldn’t it be better to bury the bait—the blood and entrails—so they don’t interfere?”
“No, since we’re here anyway, it’d be even better to catch the monster too. Leave it as is.”
“Ah, understood.”
Captain Ho So-ya went to a thickly overgrown area while his men were setting up traps to capture the Dwarven Race, planted a Spirit-Controlling Magical Tool in the ground, and spread a Camouflage Net wide over it.
As he spread the net and chanted the spell activation, patterns emerged on the net until it looked just like thick undergrowth.
When his men returned after finishing the trap setup, he slipped under the Camouflage Net with them and hid.
“Captain, Baron Javedera forbade the enslavement and sale of the forest tribes. Can we really keep hunting like this?”
Though they were concealed by the net, their voices still carried outside.
“Because the Baron banned slave hunting, the black market prices for slaves have more than doubled. We do the same work as before, but now we make more than twice the money. So why wouldn’t we?”
“But if we get caught, we might face punishment.”
“As long as we don’t get caught, what’s the worry? And if you’re really that concerned about it, we can just take the goods to another territory and sell them there.”
“Ah, that’s right! Even if it’s a bit farther, we can go to another territory and sell them.”
Ding.
The alarm spell triggered.
“Quiet! No more talking from here on. Something’s heading this way.”
The moment the commander’s words ended, the voices inside the camouflage net fell silent.
After a moment of stillness, several armed Dwarven warriors emerged.
“What? The alarm spell definitely went off, so why aren’t any of the traps or snares triggered?”
“That’s strange.”
“Dimitrion, it seems we must have misheard the alarm.”
“No. I distinctly heard the alarm sound myself.”
“Is that so? But there’s nothing caught in the traps or snares, is there?”
“A human with the intelligence to notice and avoid traps and snares would leave none caught. That’s all.”
“Yes! H-humans, then… I see. Everyone, prepare for combat!”
While the Dwarven warriors heard Dimitrion’s words and hastily raised shields and drew weapons to survey their surroundings, inside the camouflage net, Commander Ho So-ya and his mercenaries exchanged urgent hand signals.
When Ho So-ya’s rapid signals finished, his subordinates quickly nocked arrows and drew their bowstrings.
Whoosh.
Just as they were about to release and fire, something tore the camouflage net and ripped it away.
“Gasp!”
“He was definitely right there just a moment ago—when did he—!”
The one who’d torn away the camouflage net was Dimitrion, who had been standing with the Dwarven warriors just moments before.
“Damn it, what are you doing! I’ll handle this one—you, open fire!”
Ho So-ya drew his blade and charged at Dimitrion while barking orders at his subordinates.
“Yes, sir!”
Whish, whish-whish… Ting, ting, ting-ting…
But the arrows failed to pierce the Dwarven warriors’ shields, which were already braced, and the Dwarves advanced toward the mercenaries with shields raised.
The mercenaries dropped their bows and drew weapons to meet them.
Rumble, rumble…
The moment the Dwarves charged, the ground beneath the mercenaries suddenly stirred like a living thing.
“Gasp!”
“W-what? Why is the ground—?”
In that brief moment, the mercenaries lost their footing and stumbled, and the Dwarves’ swords and spears came crashing down upon them.
‘How is this possible?’
Even as Commander Ho So-ya barely parried the incoming blows, he felt the ground churning beneath him, panic flooding his mind.
He’d planted a Spirit-Controlling Magical Tool beneath his feet—so why was the ground shaking so violently?
Could it be magic instead of Spirit Art?
A Dwarven mage?
His thoughts spun in confusion, but he had no time to look around—he was too busy fending off the attack bearing down on him.
Thud.
Finally, a blade pierced his chest plate, shattering it, and the impact sent him sprawling backward across the ground.
“This damned—”
Ho So-ya dodged the incoming thrust and poured his Aura into his own blade.
Moments before, the sudden assault and the trembling ground had left him no room to channel his Aura, but now that he’d regained his footing on stable earth, he could wield it again.
A blade infused with Aura would cut through both the enemy’s steel and flesh alike.
Shwoom! Clang!
But when his Aura-infused blade met the enemy’s steel, instead of cutting, it rebounded sharply from the impact.
“Gah!”
The rebound nearly dislocated his wrist and shoulder, and he almost lost his grip on the sword.
‘A Superior-Grade Aura!’
“Who the hell are you?”
“Are you simple? Here you are, sword in hand, asking for introductions.”
As the opponent thrust his blade forward, Ho So-ya reflexively brought his own down to parry.
Whistle.
But his sword cut only through empty air, and the opponent’s blade, thrust again, pierced his chest.
“Ugh!”
By instinct, he wrenched his chest backward, keeping the wound shallow, but he had no strength left to block the next attack.
As death seemed certain, something strange happened—the opponent’s form left an afterimage and vanished from view.
Spinning his head to follow the afterimage, Ho So-ya caught sight of a man charging toward his subordinates who were still locked in combat with the Dwarves, blade raised to strike.
“Get away!”
At his shout, his subordinates fortunately reacted swiftly to the warning.
Clink, clink-clink, thud, thud-thud.
His subordinates, seasoned upper-tier mercenaries versed in Aura, pushed back against the Dwarven warriors and countered the man’s assault, blocking blades or meeting them with their own strikes.
Splatter, wheeze…….
Then suddenly blood erupted from the chests, throats, and heads of his men.
“What? Why is there blood all of a sudden…….”
Ho So-ya watched his subordinates cry out and stumble, and could not find words to continue.
When had those vital spots been pierced? He hadn’t seen it happen.
Even the falling men wore expressions of confusion, as though they too could not comprehend what had occurred.
‘Surely… surely it wasn’t just me who didn’t see it? How could that be? They were the ones being struck!’
Ho So-ya moved to call out to his men, anguish rising in his chest.
Click.
But no words came from his mouth.
Why couldn’t he speak all of a sudden?
His chest had been pierced, but not deeply—it shouldn’t have threatened his life.
Ho So-ya sensed something wrong and tried to lower his head to look at his chest.
But his head would not obey; instead, the ground rushed up to meet his face.
Thump.
Only when his face struck the earth did he realize his body no longer answered to his will.
‘Surely… that shallow wound I thought I’d received just moments ago—was it deeper than I felt?’
If it had been deep, if it had struck the heart, then his heart had been run through.
‘I’d wondered why he suddenly stopped attacking me and turned toward my men instead—now I understand. There was no need to continue attacking me!’
Only then did the knowledge that he was dying truly settle upon him.
Even as death came, his thoughts continued to flow, which held a strange fascination—but that fascination did not last long before everything suddenly sank into an abyss of darkness and severed.
* * *
After cutting down all the mercenaries, Dimitrion felt a peculiar hollowness wash over him.
“They certainly seemed like upper-tier mercenaries wielding Aura… yet it was too easy!”
It had been ten days since Jang Ga-in taught him the Thrusting Technique, and he had trained like a madman.
He had begun to embody that profound and vast teaching, however slightly, when word came that mercenaries had appeared near the village of Ho-uwan.
Just how much had his strength grown in those ten days?
To satisfy his curiosity and to keep his promise to the Clan Leader, he joined the battle alongside the Dwarven warriors—yet it had ended far too easily.
“Even in my previous state, I wouldn’t have struggled against mercenaries of this caliber, but I never could have felled them so cleanly.”
He retraced the attack he had just executed.
He had woven the Thrusting Technique that Jang Ga-in taught him into his usual attack patterns.
And because of that, not a single one of them had evaded the Thrusting Technique he had learned.
A chill crept up his spine.
‘In merely ten days of training, I’ve changed this much!’
He could not fathom how far he would advance once he had fully mastered the Thrusting Technique that Jang Ga-in had imparted to him.

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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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