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Chapter 162

It is said that a Hunter must pursue aesthetics while keeping a distance from beauty.

Yeon-woo was one of those who found this assertion quite reasonable.

Enhancing one’s appearance through the effects of Mana and taking care of that appearance was perfectly fine.

Having the leisure to groom one’s appearance could also serve as a criterion to judge a Hunter.

However, in battle, one should not be bound by such trivial matters. If necessary, one must roll on the ground, and one must not forget the essence while being obsessed with the beauty of combat.

In a way, Yeon-woo’s decision to calmly use the strength of Shar and Tae-oh to reach Stage 6 was aligned with that principle.

Even if others pointed fingers at him for utilizing children and deemed it filthy and ugly, the children needed to become accustomed to such situations.

For a Hunter, what mattered most was stamina and mental strength.

While Tae-oh might not know, Shar needed to get accustomed to sharing that consumption. After all, in a sense, she was a key power that Yeon-woo could utilize as his daughter.

In reality, Yeon-woo predicted that Shar would have no problem passing Stage 7, but right now, Shar was busy panting and catching her breath.

There was obviously one reason for this.

‘Lack of experience.’

How much focus and strength would be required to face this level of enemy?

Each situation calls for a judgment based on experience, but the absolute quantity of that experience was lacking.

Since there were insufficient clues to make judgments about what one could do, it was natural to expend excessive strength and focus on a below-standard enemy, leading to her current struggles.

Alright, time to jump in.

With that resolution, Yeon-woo reached out towards the centaur who was galloping away on the training ground.

Shar was free to try various things, but her Mana was limited to half, so only half of it was available; meanwhile, Yeon-woo had no such problems.

Swoosh!!

Black chains shot out from the shadow beneath the centaur’s hooves and ensnared it.

Naturally, the centaur tumbled to the ground. Feeling the impact, it did not die, but its head burst open from Shar’s follow-up soccer kick.

“Alright. Time for Shar to rest now too. But did you at least get a bit of a feel for it?”

“Hack, hack… Yes, I realized how far I can go, but I definitely felt unsure about how much strength to let go… hack.”

Was it a wolf’s instinct? No, she was our daughter the Dragon. Has she transformed into a wolf too much?

Shar, panting with half her tongue out, stumbled over and collapsed behind Yeon-woo.

Shouldn’t you go in and rest?

That thought flickered, but there was no compelling reason to do so.

Yeon-woo grasped his sword and trudged toward the swarming mass of light before him. It was a pretty large size. A large magical beast seemed to be coming out.

“Here it comes!!”

Upon confirming that, Yeon-woo shouted grandly and hurriedly threw his body forward.

Rushing to get up from his tumble, he looked back.

“Well, this is manageable.”

Though the training ground was spacious enough for the centaur to run around, one couldn’t exactly call it vast. And in the center of that training ground was a gigantic rock club.

The human wielding the club was large enough that Yeon-woo had to look up for quite some time. Fortunately, it seemed that Shar managed to evade it safely.

No matter how much of a Dragon she was, being struck directly by an object of this mass would not leave her unscathed.

Yeon-woo looked up at the monster standing before him.

About 7m tall, with a massive physique. Its lower body was barely covered by a rag, and its wild beard and hair reminded one of a bandit. However, the most striking feature was its eyes.

“Not quite troll-level… is it?”

A cyclops with one eye.

The mythological giant loomed above Yeon-woo, peering down at him with that gigantic singular eye.

In the past, he might have been overwhelmed, but fortunately, Yeon-woo had experience—experience from battling giants many times larger than this.

“That’s why experience is crucial.”

Kieeeing, as Yeon-woo faced the higher-ranked magical beast of C-rank, the light of Aura Blade glimmered on the surface of his sword.

*

When facing a giant magical beast, it was generally necessary to select an appropriate attack method suitable for it.

One could chop at it as if cutting wood with an axe or aim to strike with enough power to cut it down in one blow.

In such choices, Yeon-woo typically favored the latter. He had both the capability to cut it down and the experience of having done so.

However, the monster before him, though termed an illusion, was a giant exceedingly close to reality.

Even if he thrust his sword through, it would penetrate like pudding; this giant was composed of a tough hide, bones, and muscles that sustained its form.

Of course, with Aura Blade, he could cut. He could, but severing the giant’s ankle, which was as thick as the columns of a temple, in one swing would be quite the challenge.

Extending its length would make it possible, but the Mana consumption in that case would be too high and inefficient.

Having made his judgment, Yeon-woo flicked his sword in an instant. A dark line was drawn horizontally.

The intense ego of an Aura user refusing the existence of something on the same plane left an elongated scar on the giant’s skin, like scoring a sausage.

The cyclops was not idle either. Howling in pain, it swung its rock club downwards.

Yeon-woo’s silhouette, moving like sliding on the training ground, soon reappeared at the opposing ankle.

Boom!!

The training ground exploded, and shards flew towards Yeon-woo.

Even though his body was reinforced with Aura, he felt sharp pain from the stones striking his skin. It was an impressively brute force.

Perhaps furious over Yeon-woo’s action, the cyclops dropped to one knee and hammered the ground with the rocks in succession.

It was aiming to intercept Yeon-woo’s path towards the foot.

In that moment, Yeon-woo, panting, came to a halt.

The cyclops thought now was the chance, swinging the rock down with all its might.

Boom!!

The stage erupted.

With this level of power, precisely striking like this, it must be dead. Even in its illusions, this was what the cyclops thought.

In mid-air, Yeon-woo’s and the cyclops’ gazes met. Although it was on its knee, the cyclops towered to a height that no awakened one could reach without exploding Aura.

As the cyclops panicked and raised the rock to strike the airborne Yeon-woo, its arm suddenly felt as if it were stuck in a sticky swamp, unable to lift.

Glancing down, he saw his own arm stained black. It looked as if it had been devoured by shadows.

Kieeeing, the silver lines of Mana fluttering around Yeon-woo crumbled.

Stepping onto a platform that materialized in the air, Yeon-woo shot towards the cyclops’s face.

“Hello, and goodbye.”

Adding propulsion to the Aura Blade.

He targeted the weakest part of the giant’s body.

The black line completely split the brain contained within the massive head, connecting to its giant eye.

With the cyclops’s head split in two, the brain matter flowed out before its body melted down into Mana.

Yeon-woo, landing amidst the pool of dim shadows that had taken shape on the ground, stared down at the puddle.

The swelling shadow immediately morphed into a grotesque shape. Upon closer inspection, it was the form of Yeon-woo, crushed beneath the rock.

‘If I let this out as it is, there’s no way it would pass broadcast restrictions.’

With a swift decision, Yeon-woo scattered the shadows.

That technique, what was it called again? Oh right, it was the method utilizing the deceptive Elemental Mana taken from the bald deceiver named Louis.

The dark Elemental Mana that Yeon-woo could use after contracting with Tae-oh was a subclass of the principle of Deception, focused on creating a clone. A clone exceedingly close to the entity itself.

But just because it could create a clone so similar did not mean that all abilities would be identical.

The current clone could muster not even 10% of Yeon-woo’s original capability.

Unlike the shadow arm that was worth trying, it was utterly useless for combat.

So he simply used it as bait. As it was fundamentally still dark Mana, using a clone created from Deception as a material for shadow magic was not too much of a task.

It was the ultimate bait that would be incredibly hard to detect.

With abilities like this, it was no wonder that rumors spread about Louis being unkillable.

Anyway, passing Stage 7 was straightforward. From now on, it would be uncharted territory. One could speculate that it was likely the appearance of a Student at Stage 8 or 9.

‘I just hope it’s stage 9.’

If I had to face Yang Mi-ryeo at Stage 8, what could possibly await at Stage 9?

For Yeon-woo, it would be easier to face two trolls than to deal with powerful Hunters like Yang Mi-ryeo who were several times more bothersome.

Although it felt somewhat strange to say so, Yeon-woo sighed with relief as he looked at the swarming mass of light before him.

“What’s next?”

Well, it wasn’t bad. As he had faced people more than monsters for quite some time, this was a refreshing experience after a while.

*

– Ah, the versatility of swords shines here! Student Choi Yeon-woo overcomes Stage 7 and sets a new record for Stage 8!!

The thunderous applause filled the audience. Although the sound wouldn’t reach Yeon-woo, people began to chant his name nonetheless.

Amid all this exuberance, Baek In-hwa sat in the stands.

She wasn’t feeling great. The writing she was watching had suddenly vanished, and an apologetic note appeared; meanwhile, Choi Yeon-woo had disappeared somewhere, and she hadn’t even heard any stories.

While it wasn’t bad for Choi Yeon-woo to perform in his own way, something… Something felt really off.

At that moment, the door to the stands opened, and a familiar face walked in.

A black ponytail that bounced with each step, impressive and at the center of events—the girl at the heart of it all.

Kim Yoo-min strutted in nervously sat down in her chair and timidly greeted Baek In-hwa.

“Ah, hello?”

Usually, she would chat with her lively demeanor, but thinking to herself, “What’s wrong today?” Baek In-hwa felt a pang in her chest.

“……?”

What’s going on? Did I catch a heart condition…?

(To be continued)

 

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