Chapter 134

[Translator - Hestia]

[Proofreader - Kaya]

Chapter 134: Shift in Perspective

“Ugh… Ughhh…”

A Dawn Guild member collapsed onto the ground, letting out a weak groan.

Right in front of him, the Death Cavalier had come to a halt.

The distance between them was a mere 30 centimeters. One more step, and he would have been crushed beneath its log-thick foot.

If he had sustained a fatal injury, his emergency teleportation spell would have activated automatically.

But if he had been flattened under the undead monster that resembled a basilisk, he would have been reduced to mush before the item could even trigger.

“Choi Hyungtae, don’t you think you’re going a little overboard?”

【I can control it to that extent.】

Looks like the side effect of his growing consciousness is acting up.

I’ll have to schedule a nice, private retraining session after this mock battle.

After incapacitating the Dawn Guild members climbing up the mountainside, they immediately descended toward the base camp.

A monster so powerful that even sixty people couldn’t handle it.

With just fifteen, they didn’t even stand a chance at holding back a mid 7 Star powerhouse like the Death Cavalier.

Snap.

“Hah. Easier than snapping a kid’s wrist.”

【My Lord, the way you casually make such inhumane remarks… Your personality is truly…】

“You don’t know what a metaphor is? Go back to elementary school.”

【I-I was actually the top student in my class once!】

After breaking the Dawn Guild’s flag at their base camp, they immediately turned their horse around.

〔Are you not going to save your subordinates?〕

‘I just need to take down the Phoenix Guild’s base camp.’

Rather than climbing the mountain, it’d be better to charge across the open plains.

If Fafnir and the Little Runts team were determined to stall for time, breaking through wouldn’t be easy for the enemy.

‘I trust my team.’

〔Trust, huh. That’s quite unlike you.〕

Kronos scoffed, unconvinced.

Yoojin didn’t respond, simply pressing forward.

A priest was supposed to value faith and trust.

It was only fitting that he upheld those ideals—even if they didn’t quite suit him.

〔Ugh. Stop. That really doesn’t suit you at all.〕

Ignoring Kronos’ grumbling, they neared the Phoenix Guild’s base camp.

A group of people stood in their way.

“I knew this would happen. I had a bad feeling about it.”

“Did Fafnir send you?”

“My master clung onto them persistently, so we split our party in half.”

Jang Miseon’s exhaustion was evident.

With Fafnir wearing the Dragon Scale Armor, his combat power was on par with an early-stage 6 Star.

And while Little Runts team lacked raw firepower, they were exceptional at creating variables, making them relentless at keeping the Phoenix Guild occupied.

If they hadn’t split their forces after spotting the smoke rising from the Dawn Guild’s base camp…

“We wouldn’t have been able to stop you at all.”

“Would stopping me even change the outcome?”

“It’s better than just standing around and getting steamrolled.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“We won’t go down easily.”

Five minutes later.

Most of the Phoenix Guild members, including Jang Miseon, were incapacitated or critically injured, forced to withdraw from the battlefield.

The Phoenix Guild’s flag snapped and fell to the ground.

＊ ＊ ＊

"Get another priest over here!"

"This is a disaster."

"If the teleportation spell had activated even half a second later, I would’ve died."

"This is brutal."

"Suffering this much damage in a mock battle for Hunters ranked 4 Star and below…"

The healing-type Hunters were drenched in cold sweat as they treated the injured from the mock battle.

Everyone who had been teleported shared one thing in common—

Their entire bodies had been crushed, as if they had been hit by a truck.

"Ugh…"

Lying there, Shin Yoosung let out a faint groan.

Both of his arms were broken from taking the Death Cavalier’s attack head-on.

The sheer force had crushed his body, tearing apart every muscle.

‘Damn it!!! I lost in a single blow? Me, one of the most promising talents in the Dawn Guild?!’

The result felt so unreal that rage boiled inside him.

"You’re awake?"

"You got taken out too?"

"Yeah, but at least I went down in less pain than you did."

Jang Miseon waved the one uninjured arm she had left.

Shin Yoosung's face twisted in fury.

Grit.

His teeth clenched so hard they creaked, resentment overflowing despite his battered state.

"I refuse to accept this. I didn’t lose."

"I don’t remember us agreeing that the winner is whoever gets hurt less."

"Y-You… That’s exactly what you were implying!"

"Let’s settle this properly later."

"You… You knew, didn’t you?"

"I had a rough idea. But I’ve never seen a monster like that before."

Jang Miseon glanced up at the tent's ceiling and let out a short chuckle.

"What’s so funny?"

"All that talk about being the ‘Rising Stars’ of Dawn, the ‘Next’ Sword Saint… Look at us now."

"You little—"

"Now do you get it? Do you understand why I kept going near the border zones?"

"You were trying to figure out how to defeat that thing?"

"What? No way. I went there to learn from it."

"...You were serious?"

Jang Miseon had once mentioned wanting to take Fafnir as her master.

At the time, Shin Yoosung thought she was just making excuses to build connections with Cheon Yoojin.

But now…

After experiencing it firsthand, he realized—

There wasn’t even an ounce of falsehood in her words.

"I want to learn too."

"Are you serious?"

"Both of us got wrecked by a first-year Awakened Hunter. There has to be a reason for that."

"Oh my, ‘wrecked’ is such an unpleasant word. I lasted longer than you did."

"Goddamn it, let’s fight right now!"

"Later. Once you recover. I’m taking a nap."

With that, Jang Miseon ended the conversation on her own and surrendered to the effects of the medicine.

Her soft, rhythmic breathing followed.

"…She actually fell asleep?"

Shin Yoosung stared at her in disbelief before turning his head away.

Even the slight movement made his entire body scream in agony.

Tears welled up in his eyes, but he held them back.

'Now’s not the time for pride.'

Back when he first heard that Song Myeongseok had lost to Jang Miseon, he hadn’t believed it.

They were the three brightest rising stars in the country—he thought he had a good grasp of their relative skills, even without direct combat.

'Back then, I just assumed Song Myeongseok was in bad condition that day. But I was wrong.’

Thanks to the training she received from that so-called Master, Jang Miseon's skills had improved dramatically.

That was how she managed to utterly crush Arhan's rising star.

'I don’t care about pride.'

If Jang Miseon was growing stronger through special training, then he couldn’t afford to sit around doing nothing.

The fact that their opponent was just a first-year Hunter didn’t matter.

'Once this mock battle is over…'

As Shin Yoosung was gathering his thoughts, a low voice reached his ears.

“Son, can you breathe now?”

“Cough—Cough. Feels like I inhaled a mouthful of glass dust. I’m dying here.”

“Then you’re still alive.”

“D-Dad, this isn’t exactly a private setting, you know?”

“My only son just came back looking like ground meat. I’m not so uptight that I’d bring up formality right now.”

Shin Hyungsik swallowed his boiling rage beneath a calm expression.

There were too many eyes on them.

Even with just the Dawn Guild members present, he had to maintain his composure.

But with Phoenix Guild Hunters also sharing the space, he had to suppress his emotions even more.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I wasted all that training.”

“You did well enough. The problem was your opponent.”

“…Still.”

“Get some rest, son.”

At his father’s gentle voice, Shin Yoosung, who had been barely holding on, finally let his head droop.

His chest rose and fell slowly.

Confirming that his only child was safe, Shin Hyungsik let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“Are you alright?”

“It’d be a lie to say I am.”

“I apologize. It was my suggestion to involve Black Company in this joint training.”

“It’s fine. I knew what you were aiming for when I accepted, so there’s no need to explain further.”

Shin Hyungsik’s voice was calm as he responded to Kim Youngsoo, the Phoenix Guild’s leader, standing beside him.

He wasn’t the type to let personal emotions interfere with official matters.

“Cheon Yoojin… He’s a monster.”

“I’d only heard stories before, but seeing him fight in person was something else.”

“Did you hear anything from Jang Miseon?”

“You know how she is. She said she ‘got something’ but refused to tell me anything.”

Kim Youngsoo let out a hearty laugh.

Shin Hyungsik gave him a sidelong glance before sighing wryly.

“Hmph. Even if we had known in advance, I doubt we could’ve prepared for it.”

“If I’d realized the gap in power was this big, I wouldn’t have even suggested a mock battle for the 4 Star and below bracket.”

The shocking results of the mock battle.

Everyone had already recognized the sheer power of Fafnir, Yoojin’s contracted warrior and the ‘summon bestowed by a Constellation’.

But the sudden appearance of the Death Cavalier, an undead creature no one had even heard of, had completely blindsided both guild executives monitoring the match.

“It was a Basilisk, wasn’t it?”

“That seems to be the case.”

“Controlling undead that aren’t even in the Association’s records… What a terrifying ability.”

“That thing’s sheer charge alone is comparable to a 7 Star.”

A massive beast had rampaged across the battlefield, knocking down even the most talented Hunters from the nation’s top three guilds as if they were bowling pins.

For the Dawn Guild’s master—who had suffered the greatest losses—the impact of the Death Cavalier’s performance was especially seared into his mind.

“Withdrawing that enormous undead, only to redeploy it at the right moment… That was quite the clever maneuver.”

“Strategic insight aside, his movements alone were on par with a 4 Star martial-type Hunter.”

“But isn’t he supposed to be a priest? How does he have that kind of physical ability…?”

A jack of all trades?

In the Hunter world, that was no compliment.

Bonus stats were limited.

The higher one’s rank, the more stat points were granted, but there was always a hard cap.

Once a Hunter reached their level limit, penalties kicked in, preventing infinite growth.

For someone to move like Yoojin, they’d need at least the physical stats of a 4 Star martial-type Hunter.

‘But it wasn’t just his raw physical ability. He wasn’t relying on stats—he had complete control over his own body.’

Anyone who had only seen his movements would have mistaken him for a seasoned martial artist.

The split-second maneuvers Yoojin displayed during the mock battle…

They weren’t something that could fool Shin Hyungsik, a man who led one of the nation’s top three guilds.

Kim Youngsoo quietly observed him.

'Looks like he hasn’t realized Yoojin can manifest Aura yet.'

That was the information Jang Miseon had shared.

When he first heard it, he couldn’t believe it—he had asked her to repeat herself three times.

‘A priest handling undead was shocking enough. But on top of that, he could manifest Aura? If he were something like a Paladin or Monk, that might have been plausible. But a Hunter who controls summons this powerful could never be a Paladin.'

Watching the mock battle unfold had only solidified his conviction.

Either Yoojin had consumed an expensive elixir…

Or he had a skill that enhanced his physical abilities.

Perhaps he possessed an innate trait like Martial Body.

Whatever the case, one thing was clear—

Even with high physical stats, Yoojin’s true strength lay in his ability to command the undead.

“So the rumors that he single-handedly wiped out the Rakshasa Guild wasn’t an exaggeration.”

“Seems that way.”

“And he’s only been a Hunter for a year?”

Shin Hyungsik’s thoughts grew heavier.

His son’s humiliating defeat?

After witnessing Yoojin’s power firsthand, it was clear—losing had been inevitable.

“If Cheon Yoojin’s growth doesn’t slow down… the fight for the nation’s number one spot won’t be between just the two of us.”

“That does seem likely.”

“You already saw this coming, didn’t you?”

“I considered the possibility, but… I didn’t expect ‘that’ level of monster.”

Yoojin’s abilities were unfathomable.

Shin Hyungsik silently reassessed Black Company’s value, ranking them far higher in his mind.

“You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

“As long as it’s not the Arhan Guild, I don’t care who takes first place.”

“So should I take this as your decision to ride the wave with Black Company?”

Kim Youngsoo chuckled.

The answer was clear.

“I’ll need more time to think.”

“You won’t have much.”

“And what exactly do you mean by that?”

“The Romanov clan has been making moves quietly… They’ve been in contact with Arhan Guild.”

Shin Hyungsik’s eyes widened.

The weight of that information was immense, especially since it was a ‘card’ Kim Youngsoo had been saving.

“I’ll take my leave. Take your time sorting out your thoughts.”

As Kim Youngsoo walked away, Shin Hyungsik unconsciously slipped a hand into his pocket.

An empty pocket.

He had quit smoking five years ago, but today… of all days… he found himself craving a cigarette.

[Translator - Hestia

[Proofreader - Kaya]