19. The Road Not Taken (1)

A middle-aged man, his bangs swept straight back.
A long scar gouged deep into his brow made for a striking impression, and on the desk before him sat a nameplate carved from ivory.

Baek Seonghyeon, Vice-President of Arahan

The nation’s number-one guild.
Arahan’s second-in-command, one of the country’s few 7th-Rank Hunters, slowly parted his lips.

“A mass-produced Mid-grade Potion, you say?”

“Y-yes. Yes. That’s correct.”

Jeong Jinsu had taken an unexpected blow from Yujin and gone tumbling across the ring in disgrace.
The moment the spar ended and he’d gotten hold of the contact information, he’d reported it up the chain.
He’d been summoned to the vice-president’s office before he could even erase the bruise on his face with a healing spell.

“In Team Leader Jeong’s estimation, how was the effect?”

“It mends a broken bone in no time — about on par with the potions that come out of gates.”

“I see. That matches the analysis from the footage recorded after the spar.”

Baek Seonghyeon was telling him, in his roundabout way, that he’d reviewed everything that had happened on the sparring field.

Jeong Jinsu bowed his head low.

“I-I’m so, so sorry, Vice-Guildmaster.”

“For what?”

“I sullied Arahan’s honor, so I’ll accept the consequences without complaint.”

— Tch.

A scoff slid out from between Baek Seonghyeon’s lips.

“And how exactly does Team Leader Jeong losing translate into Arahan’s honor?”

“To be defeated, in the guild’s own training hall, by a rootless 1st-Rank Hunter…”

“I wasn’t aware Arahan’s honor had grown so flimsy that a perennial 3rd-Ranker dropping a single match could diminish it.”

Baek Seonghyeon’s chill-laced voice cut Jeong Jinsu off.
Jeong Jinsu trembled, and as if bowing his head weren’t enough, dropped to his knees as well.

“Do you understand now what you did wrong?”

“I-I dared to bandy about Arahan’s honor without due cause.”

“I’d appreciate it if you never again let your lips run so loose.”

Baek Seonghyeon waved a hand.
Jeong Jinsu bowed deeply at the waist and backed out without ever turning away from the man.

— Beep.

The secretary came rushing into the vice-president’s office the instant she was called.

“The Mid-grade Potion. Look into funding it.”

“Understood.”

“And…”

Baek Seonghyeon let his words trail off.

— Tap. Tap.

The index finger of his right hand drummed against the armrest, over and over.
The secretary, knowing it was a habit that surfaced whenever he sank into thought, waited.

That fellow. He’s far from ordinary.

Before summoning Jeong Jinsu, he’d already studied Yujin’s fight through the CCTV installed in the training hall.
It was no exaggeration to say that not a single one of Arahan Guild’s affairs, great or small, escaped passing through Baek Seonghyeon’s hands.
He’d gone to the trouble of summoning Jeong Jinsu only to cross-check the footage against the man’s own account.

Even granting it’s a Unique trait — can a power really exceed its Stellar Rank?

The rankers of nations across the world flickered through his mind.
Arthur, the American Hunter who handled the Mythical Beast Phoenix.
Diana Sting, who possessed a Unique trait tied to spirits.
He called to mind a few others besides, but none of them fit.

There’s no Hunter who surpasses their Stellar Rank by two whole stages.

Fafnir’s power was anomalous to a degree that defied precedent.

— Tap.

His index finger came to rest, fixed against the armrest.

A Priest class. Then could he have received a Divine Beast?

The corner of his mouth twitched.
House Romanov, one of the Seven Great Families with Odin as its guardian star, summoned and commanded the Einherjar as familiars.

If.
If Yujin possessed a tremendous talent as a Priest, then…

He may well have received a Sacred Beast, or a Mythical Beast with the growth potential to reach Divine Beast rank.

At the plausible hypothesis, Baek Seonghyeon allowed himself a faint smile.
Fafnir’s incomprehensible combat ability.
If Yujin had been granted some hallowed existence, a Mythical Beast or something like an Einherjar, then it all made sense.

“Cheon Yujin. Investigate that man.”

“Understood.”

“Even the smallest thing will do. Don’t overlook so much as the color of his underwear.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Team Leader Jeong Jinsu is to be docked pay and demoted to a rank-and-file team member.”

Defeated by a 1st-Rank Hunter.
A worm who didn’t know his place, who’d gone so far as to invoke Arahan’s honor. Such a man had to be punished, and thoroughly.

Only now, as if finally satisfied, did Baek Seonghyeon break into a bright smile.

His business at the Arahan Guild was done.
He’d promoted the Mid-grade Potion.
He’d seen the efficacy of the extra holy spells he’d obtained at the Pantheon, and he’d put Fafnir through his first real combat.

Whew. The returns are so good I almost feel sorry about it.

Mr. Park Seonguk.
It was foul knowing you, and let’s never meet again.

— My apologies for reducing the body you so painstakingly made for me to a tattered rag.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s a bit of a hassle, that’s all.”

The Eldritch Dragon.
Like a Lich, so long as there’s life force enough, it can be restored to its original form no matter how badly it’s broken.
He just hadn’t managed to make a Life Force Vessel yet, so he couldn’t bring that regenerative power to bear.

All I need is for the Darkness Orb I ordered from my business associate to arrive.

The Darkness Orb isn’t a common item, but since ‘dark mage’ is a niche job class, the trade in it barely moves at all.
He should be able to get hold of one soon enough.

“How’s it feel — your first real fight in thirty-five years?”

— I’ll admit it. I was far too arrogant, and far too green.

In the early days of the Great Cataclysm, only a tiny handful of Hunters had broken past the wall of 6th Rank.
The truly exceptional 5th-Rankers.
A supreme realm reachable only by Hunters who’d crossed countless lines between life and death.
In his time before death, Fafnir had been a gifted Hunter, one who’d stood at the very forefront among a great many.
He hadn’t bandied about the Seven Star for nothing.

— Master. Right now, what Rank is the strongest Hunter in the entire world?

“9th Rank.”

Dmitri, Russia’s Sorcerer King.
Chang Wufei, China’s Martial King.
At present, only two among the heads of the Seven Great Families had reached the 9th Stellar Rank.

— A great deal has changed while I was clinging to a tree, wailing my laments. Cruelly so.

Fafnir’s thought came laced with self-mockery.

“If you’re not confident, say so. I’ll let you go anytime.”

— Heh. You’ve a fine sense of humor. You think I’d shrink back over something like this?

Hearing Yujin’s provocation, Fafnir answered with confidence.

“Good. That’s the minion I know.”

— Bzzzt!

He pulled out his phone at the buzz, and a text had come in from a familiar number.

the Scraps — Kang Minho

Boss. The goods from the last hunt all sold.

Cheon Yujin

Good work. Shall we grab dinner this evening?

the Scraps — Kang Minho

Sounds great to me. I’ll send the money right away.

The sum was transferred to his account within ten seconds.
Yujin broke into a grin.

“A hundred and fifty million in three days, huh.”

— You’re not adding an extra zero, are you?

“Why would I bother?”

— If you’re bluffing, I’ll let it slide.

“Will you look at this guy. Thirty-five years breathing fresh air, and you’ve lost all sense of money?”

The items that came out of gates were expensive across the board.
Even low-grade mana stones held mana inside them, so corporations were snapping them up, and for the next five years or so the fever of gate inflation wouldn’t be dying down.

— Unbelievable. In my day, being a Hunter meant living on nothing but the pride of risking your life to protect people!

“Hey, minion. How far back are you reaching for stories?”

— Oh, the vanity of passing years.

“It’s easy to earn, but just as easy to spend.”

To reinforce the undead, he needed medicinal herbs found only in gates or the borderlands.
He’d earn plenty of money, sure, but to draw out the full effect of his necromancy he’d have to spend just as much.

“Right. Fafnir. Do me one favor.”

— You could simply give an order. The fact you call it a favor makes it ominous.

“You’ve got the Eye of the War God, don’t you.”

— Indeed. A trait that lets me read the heart of any martial technique.

Unlike the Martial-Mage trait, this was Park Haneul’s S-grade trait, one that had carried over even before the regression.
Not something granted by the System.
It had been inherited because it was a sense Park Haneul had been born with.

“I know your specialty’s hand-to-hand, but if you put your mind to it, couldn’t you pick up spearmanship in no time too?”

— Master. To draw out this body’s strength to its fullest, grappling suits it best. There’s no real need to use a spear.

“Ah, the thing is. I want you to learn it and then coach me.”

Fafnir stared at Yujin with a blank expression.
Had a dead man’s face ever been this expressive?
Or was it that Fafnir’s thought had been intense enough to move muscles that should have stiffened solid?
The moment he heard Yujin’s request, curses in every language he knew rose up in his head, and after superhuman forbearance, Fafnir spat out the gentlest of them as a thought.

— That’s insane!

A blazing blue ghost-flame glared at Yujin.

Yujin’s next destination was the Hunter Market.
The settlement from the hunt had come in, and it wasn’t far from Yeouido, so the route worked out nicely too.

— You’re really serious, then.

Fafnir, who’d retreated into the Ring of Black Darkness, didn’t bother hiding his displeasure.

— I was serious from the start.
— I can’t imagine you’ll have much occasion to be swinging a spear.
— You’ve got to prepare for the worst in everything.

Naturally.
Even before the regression, more than a few enemies had broken through his undead legions to come for Yujin’s life.
He’d been hounded so badly that he’d picked up enough know-how to put down a goblin or two with ease, hadn’t he?

— If you’re going to learn spearmanship, what’ll you do about stat distribution?
— My physical stats don’t fall behind a Martial-line Hunter of the same level.
— But you don’t have a Unique trait like the Martial-Mage one.
— Among the holy spells, there’s one called Life Drain.

A deviant holy spell that boosts physical ability by plundering and absorbing a monster’s life force.
Its original purpose was to convert the seized vitality into healing, but Yujin had mainly been making use of its secondary option: accumulating biological matter to reinforce the body.

— There’s a spell like that among the Priest-line skills?
— My stats are going up either way. Might as well have a use for them.
— That’s reasonable enough, in its way.
— If I prove useless even after you teach me the spear, just say so. I’ll quit clean.
— If you put it that way, Master, I can’t very well refuse any further.

Fafnir came around, just barely.
He could have ordered it outright, but unless it was truly necessary, he intended to respect Fafnir’s wishes.

From the higher-tier undead on up, combat power varies with the soul’s autonomy.

Naturally.
Just as a person’s efficiency shifts with their condition, higher undead with distinct egos were affected too, in ways seen and unseen.
The proof was that, before the regression, all of Yujin’s mainstay undead had possessed a clear self-awareness.

I’ll earn loyalty that wells up from the heart.

The undead Yujin crafted were, by default, imprinted with affection, or with obedience.
Which meant that with just a little effort, the bond of their souls swiftly grew stronger.
And even setting that aside, he had no desire to bend at will the resolve of a forgotten hero who’d thrown away his very life to save people.

I’ve talked him into it, so now I just need to find that skill book.

Yujin headed for the skill-book sales floor.
The countless skill books discovered inside gates were lined up on the shelves.
Each one had a locking mechanism so it couldn’t be used before purchase, but since any Hunter could check an item’s information, examining a skill book’s composition was no trouble at all.

— Master. Do you have a particular spearmanship style in mind?
— Nothing in particular, but it’ll have to be one without a Martial-line restriction.

Occasionally, supplementary magic and niche martial arts come without a job-class restriction.
The efficiency is lower, but among the skills you can learn without limitations, there are some surprisingly decent ones.

Like Light, or the Rolling Dodge Technique.

A light-source spell.
And a body technique used for evasion.
The Rolling Dodge Technique in particular is a ridiculous-looking move where you roll along the ground, but in a pinch it was tremendously useful as an evasion skill.
In his past life Yujin had learned it too, and used it any number of times in dire straits.
Apart from looking undignified, it was useful.

This time around, I’ll learn a body technique that’s dignified and powerful both.

While he was quickly skimming the skill books for sale at the market, Yujin’s eyes came to a halt at a certain spot.

“Found it.”

A faint exhilaration seeped into his voice.
A half-transparent item-description window shimmered before his eyes.

Yes. This is the one.

It was an item description that read as no more than basic self-defense at best, and yet Yujin let a smile show.

If you master Verdian-Style Basic Spearmanship to perfection, you can learn the Epic-grade spearmanship Death Spiral.

Those were the words of James Rothschild, England’s Spear Ghost.
A hidden element that wouldn’t be uncovered until the distant future.

I’ll gladly take this fortuitous encounter.

This, right here, was a regressor’s privilege.