18. The Arahan Guild (2)

The moment he saw what the Mid-grade Potion could do, Jeong Jinsu’s eyes flipped right over.

Heh heh heh. He’s taken the bait.

If a big guild like Arahan stepped forward to vouch for it, the Mid-grade Potion’s name recognition would shoot up fast.

— Was the visit to the Pantheon meant to steer things into this very situation?
— As if.

Regressor or not, Yujin didn’t remember trivia at that level of detail.

If that bastard hadn’t picked a fight, I wouldn’t even have remembered.

He’d worked out a few ways to push the Mid-grade Potion, but thanks to this unexpected run-in it had sorted itself out far more smoothly.

But anyway.

— Fafnir. You’re still not all warmed up, are you?
— Heh. If you mean to throw down one more round, I welcome it.

And so he had Fafnir’s agreement, too.

“Curious about the source of the Mid-grade Potion that’s about to hit the market?”
“Hahaha. Well, I’d be grateful if you told me.”
“Spar with me one round and I’ll tell you where it comes from.”

Jeong Jinsu’s cheek twitched and quivered.
Getting goaded into a fight by a Hunter who’d only just awakened must have stung his pride considerably.

“Regardless of who wins or loses?”
“Just getting a lesson from an Arahan team leader is opportunity enough. What more conditions would I tack on?”

The mocking edge in Yujin’s words provoked Jeong Jinsu further.

“Yongwoo. See to it the newbie’s all right.”
“Team Leader. Are you really going to spar with a 1st-Rank Hunter?”
“A mass-produced Mid-grade Potion. It’ll be a boon if Arahan learns its source first.”

The words claimed it was for the public good.
But now that he’d been goaded into it, Jeong Jinsu made no effort to hide the killing intent flickering at the corners of his eyes.

— He takes the bait the moment you say the word.
— The kids in the big guilds are all pride and nothing else.

Of course.

I needled him out in the open. It’d be no fun if he didn’t bite.

Jeong Jinsu drew his dedicated armaments one by one from a small subspace pouch.

A slender rapier.
And on top of that, light armor reinforced with monster hide.

— A speed-focused type, is he.
— If the hits pile up, it could get dangerous.
— Hmph. I’ll just ignore the piddling little attacks and bore straight in.

Fafnir shot back, full of confidence.

— Don’t get too comfortable. Your opponent’s a veteran who’s lingered a long time at the tail end of 3rd Rank.

From 3rd Rank on, advancing to the next stage required an enlightenment.
That said, it wasn’t as if you stopped gaining experience once you hit your level cap.
Earn experience equal to the requirement for level 50, and you gained one-fifth of the stats obtainable at that Stellar Rank.

Jeong Jinsu’s tier was 3rd Rank.
Leveling up past the cap granted one-fifth of the 15 bonus stats, which meant three spare stats to spend.

Stat-wise, you’ve got to figure he’s ahead of Fafnir.

He didn’t bother warning him.
Fafnir took pride in the strength he’d had in life.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing to let him feel, this time around, the gulf of twenty-five years.

“You’ll be using that summon as your champion again?”
“I’ve got to stay true to my role as a Priest.”
“Bear it in mind. Unlike a Hunter, a summon won’t enjoy the sparring system’s protection.”

A statement whose intent was perfectly transparent.

— You heard him? Repairing that body is a chore even for me, so try not to get smashed to bits.
— Heh heh. I’ll do my best.

Fafnir slid his right hand forward, gauging the distance to his opponent.
Jeong Jinsu was measuring the gap as well.

How fast was he when he reacted to that newbie’s thrust earlier?

The way he answered an attack was the classic in-fighter type.

In that case, just crank up the speed so that bulk can’t bring its destructive force to bear, and that’s that.

His judgment made, Jeong Jinsu lifted his foot.

— Tromp. Tromp.

The blue ghost-flame moved slowly, tracking his movements.

— Ohh. He’s a cut above that newbie.

Fafnir’s thought, no longer confined to Yujin, spread wide like a living voice.

“What is that? Did someone turn on the AC?”
“Right? It’s eerie.”

The team members watching the spar rubbed at their arms.

The chill of the dead.
The faint-hearted would have flinched the instant they heard Fafnir’s thought, near to a ghost’s wail.

“A spirit? No. I can’t even guess what kind of summon it is.”

— If you’re curious, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

“As it happens, that’s exactly what I’m about—”

“—to do!!”

Kicking off the floor, Jeong Jinsu swung his blade at blistering speed.
Fafnir reacted almost at once, trying to shake off the blade that closed in instant by instant.
But the tip Jeong Jinsu thrust out wouldn’t let the retreating Fafnir slip away, and it scored across his chest.

— Skrrk!

Sparks scattered, and Fafnir, taking the full force loaded into the blade, wobbled.

— You look like you’re struggling. Shall I lend a hand?
— I’m still not warmed up, so wait just a little longer.

Fafnir, putting his confidence on display.
Yujin kept his holy power drawn up so he could step into the fight at any moment, and watched.

The body-art that Fafnir’s past life, Park Haneul, had mastered unfolded.

— Babababak!

Speed and force tremendous enough to set the air trembling.
The body fused with the Draconian corpse through the curse carved into it beforehand moved flawlessly, just as Fafnir willed.

And yet.

Fafnir’s movements were somehow clumsy.

— Hmm. This isn’t the feel I’m after.

— Hwoong! Hng!

His fists carved the empty air again and again.

The Draconian had a larger frame than a human.
When the arms housed in that body stretched out fully, their reach wasn’t much different from Jeong Jinsu’s striking distance.
That was the fundamental reason they weren’t connecting.

“Your strength and reaction speed are quick, but that body of yours is slow.”

Jeong Jinsu’s thin blade scraped across Fafnir’s frame once more.

A defense good enough that Yujin had needed to weaken it again and again with plague zombies just to crack it.
A Hunter who’d reached the tail end of 3rd Rank shattered the scales with a few swings of his sword, without any of that effort.

Only a tiny portion broke off, but the problem ran deeper.

The problem is that effective hits are landing on Fafnir at all.

Well, we’ll know once we watch.

Yujin observed with his arms folded.

— Clang! Cla-clang!

The sharp clash of metal on metal rang out, and the scales engraved with reinforcement circuits broke off one by one, clattering to the floor.

A one-sided fight.
For five minutes they traded blows without pause, but the only one taking damage was Fafnir.

Jeong Jinsu opened the distance, then caught his breath and swallowed his astonishment.

Is this really a 1st-Rank Hunter’s summon?

His thrusts were definitely landing.
The solid feedback in his hands was proof.
And yet, for all the ferocious assault, Fafnir’s movements hadn’t slowed in the slightest.

The undead trait of moving even when an arm or a leg is wrecked.
With no way to know that, Jeong Jinsu only figured Fafnir was tougher than he’d thought.
A summon far too good for a freshly-awakened Hunter to be handling.

And yet.

“What good is a sturdy body? If all you do is stand there, it’s meaningless.”

— Agreed.

Fafnir’s lips twisted.
It was an expression as vivid as a living man’s.

— I’m done adjusting, so now I’ll go at full strength.

Ohh, Yujin marveled briefly at the meaning behind Fafnir’s words.

Quick to catch on.

The Draconian’s corpse was far larger and sturdier than a human’s.
Brawny arms and legs.
The classic in-fighter’s build, and yet the soul housed in that body, “Park Haneul,” had originally been the out-fighter sort who favored swift movement.

Even as a Death Knight, he preferred quick strikes.

Setting aside the synchronization he’d cranked up through the soul-binding, Park Haneul’s combat style simply didn’t suit the Draconian’s body.

He’ll catch on quickly once he meets an opponent on his level.

That was why he’d used the Mid-grade Potion’s source as a pretext to goad Jeong Jinsu.
He’d figured even getting the hang of it after the spar would be quick, but Fafnir had managed it sooner than that.

As expected of my finest right hand.

With a smile, Yujin released the holy power he’d gathered.

“Unholy Blessing.”

The gloomy current rising from Yujin’s hand seeped into Fafnir’s whole body.
It was a holy spell newly acquired at the Pantheon.

Ohh.

A beginner Priest’s buff raises stats by a full 20%? That’s insane.

A boost figure that drew admiration of its own accord.
A novice holy spell amplified at most one or two stats.
The targets he could buff were limited to the undead or job classes that handled impure power, but for Yujin, who made the undead his mainstay, that was no restriction at all.

Then this time…

He poured the holy power he’d drawn up in succession into Jeong Jinsu.

As the Unholy Blessing took effect, Jeong Jinsu’s movements grew sluggish too.

Stay out of it, you useless Constellation. I’m the one who slaved to earn that. Don’t go taking credit when all you do is watch from the gallery.

“Is he really 1st Rank?”

Leaving the suspicion brimming in Jeong Jinsu’s eyes behind him, Yujin triggered his next holy spell.

Black tattoos sprouted over the scales.
A pattern resembling a thornbush etched itself densely across the body.

“Run wild as you please.”

— Now that’s an order to my liking.

— Thud! Thud!

Each time Fafnir shifted his legs forward and back, the ring heaved.
A mass running into the hundreds of kilograms.
The undead built atop the Draconian corpse scattered blue ghost-flame in every direction.

A deep shadow loomed over Jeong Jinsu’s head.

A stat reduction’s nothing.

He’d cleared countless gates while stuck for ages at 3rd Rank.
Adapting to dulled senses was an easy matter for a veteran like Jeong Jinsu.

He deflected the enemy’s attack with dazzling footwork, and his thin blade lashed out at lightning speed, raking wildly at the scales.
As the impacts piled up, the flesh exposed between the broken scales was torn away by the blade’s edge.

Now it’s almost done.

And in that very instant, just as Jeong Jinsu was certain of victory.

— That’s right. My way of fighting isn’t to keep distance from the enemy.

Fafnir hurled himself, on his own two feet, into the hail of blade-strikes.
He took grievous wounds, flesh ripping away to bare the bone, but his movements didn’t slow.

A dead man’s body, not a drop of blood flowing.
Short of severing an arm or a leg, the dead never stop.

Fafnir’s raised shoulder rammed into the torso of Jeong Jinsu, who’d just recovered his blade.

“Kuhk!”

With a choked grunt he was flung several meters back, lost his balance, and tumbled across the floor.
For a single instant, it was a blow hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs.

Jeong Jinsu sprang straight back up as if rebounding off the floor and righted his broken stance.

Looks like he’s adapted, in his own way.

The corner of Yujin’s mouth quirked.

After that, the shape of the fight changed a little.
Rather than gauging distance, Fafnir bored in unconditionally, trying to land one solid blow.
Jeong Jinsu, by contrast, roamed across the ring and answered defensively.

Wounds mounted on both of them.
Moving more recklessly, Fafnir had hardly an intact scale left, and a great livid bruise had settled across Jeong Jinsu’s face too.
Hidden by his armor and out of sight, but the impacts had piled up on his body as well, leaving him bruised here and there.

— Kwaang!

Fafnir’s momentum shifted, and as Yujin’s buff did its work, the scale of victory began to tip to one side.

Me, lose?

Flames of fury kindled over Jeong Jinsu’s eyes.
Stuck forever at 3rd Rank he might be, but he had the pride of someone who’d held on a long time at the nation’s number-one guild.

I’ll win. No. I have to win!

There’s still a chance. My feet are faster.

If he overpowered the wide-open Yujin, he could turn the slipping spar back around.

The moment he steeled his resolve, Jeong Jinsu’s direction shifted, and skimming perilously past Fafnir, he tore toward Yujin in the rear.

— Oh no. At my speed…

Fafnir’s thought rang out, as if at a loss, and a vicious gleam of exhilaration shone over Jeong Jinsu’s eyes.

Knew you’d do that.

You thought I wouldn’t see even that far ahead?

When Yujin flicked his fingers, the holy power swollen by the accumulated impacts exploded with a savage force.
A pale shockwave slammed mercilessly into the back of Jeong Jinsu, who’d just slipped past Fafnir and surged forward.

“Khk!”

With a strangled cry, green light spilled from the ring and shielded his body.

A heavy silence pressed down on the sparring field.

“What did I just watch?”

A beat late, an Arahan Hunter’s cry of disbelief burst out, and the frozen time began to move again.