Hunter Academy’s Battle God - Chapter 97

[Translator –  Daniel Shin]

[Proofreader –  ilafy]

Chapter 97

Martial Spirits’ Mountain.

It was a place that was very familiar to Shin YuSung, but there was a sense of nervousness on his face.

– Chirp, chirp!

The birds chirped from deeper within the forest.

Rustle. Rustle. Paf!

Leaves crunched and branches broke beneath his feet. Shin YuSung slowly walked through the grassland that looked like a massive jungle.

‘I mustn’t relax…’

All of his senses were on high alert.

BOOM!

He heard someone’s steps coming from behind and reacted like lightning.

The moment he turned his head to the sound, he came to a realization…

‘It was a fakeout!’

He quickly poured his concentration into his senses, and his thoughts raced while the world seemed to come to a stop around him.

‘Where is it?’

He tried to find a trace of whatever had made the sound.

He felt a spike of fear rise within him from a blind spot as a killing intent that resembled a sharp blade was directed at him.

The opponent didn’t seem interested in hiding their presence.

BOOM!!

Shin YuSung crossed his arms and blocked the fists, but the force of the blow knocked him back, and he rolled along the ground.

BOOM!!

Although Shin YuSung had become stronger, he was struggling with the opponent’s strength.

‘Ugh… As expected… It’s still too early.’

Crumble.

The dust that had been kicked up from the brief encounter gradually cleared, and the opponent appeared.

“HAHAHA! To think that you’d stop a punch that contained 20% of my strength! As expected from my student!”

Fist King Yu WonHak.

Shin YuSung began feeling good from his master’s laughter.

“Master, thank you for coming at my request…”

As Shin YuSung greeted him while staggering, Yu WonHak patted his head like when he was 5 years old.

“There’s no need to be that formal! You’ve gotten quite strong. To think that you’d learn the fourth form on your own…”

Shin YuSung lowered his head when he saw the proud expression on Yu WonHak’s face.

“It’s all thanks to your teachings, master…”

Yu WonHak seemed happy to see Shin YuSung—he was in a better mood than usual.

“I saw the duel, but there are still a few areas where you’re lacking.”

Yu WonHak had seen Shin YuSung and Adela’s duel. Thanks to that, he’d immediately noticed a problem with Shin YuSung’s Black Dragon’s Body Armor.

Yu WonHak looked around before choosing a direction to walk in.

“Ehem! This isn’t a good place to explain, so let’s walk.”

“Yes! Understood!”

Shin YuSung followed him, a smile on his face.

Tap tap.

“There are a few colleagues I want to introduce to you, master.”

Shin YuSung spoke excitedly, but Yu WonHak burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! To do that, they’ll need more experience.”

Yu WonHak pointed toward the sky, up to the highest point, where every hunter strived to reach.

“In order to garner my attention, you would need to at least reach the 20th floor of the Tower.”

Shin YuSung was just a 1st-year student of the Academy, so asking him to clear the 20th floor of the Tower was unreasonable, but Shin YuSung nodded.

“Master, just leave it to me…”

Hunter Club, the weekend.

Most students enjoyed the weekend, but Shin HaYoon didn’t take a day off.

“The graduating class and 2nd years all finished the requests. What about the 1st years?”

Lee Hyuk dripped cold sweat at Shin HaYoon’s question.

“SungHyuk… hasn’t returned yet. He said that it’s going to take another day…”

“To think the S class would struggle with a request like this…”

Shin HaYoon looked at the other documents with a cold expression on her face. It seemed like she’d lost interest in the 1st-year S-class Min SungHyuk.

‘It seems like she’s in a bad mood.’ 

“Maybe… Elevating students based on their Traits is an old way of thinking,” Shin HaYoon mumbled in a low voice while tapping the table.

Shin HaYoon’s opinions changed due to Shin YuSung. From Shin HaYoon’s point of view, Traits were meaningless. What mattered was how strong someone was, but Shin YuSung had shown incredible power with an F-rank Trait.

He was the first irregular she’d seen.

It seemed like he’d left a deep impression on Shin HaYoon.

“Of course… I’m sure no other F class student is as strong as my little brother…”

After organizing the documents, Shin HaYoon spoke to Lee Hyuk.

“The documents I asked you for?”

“Here.”

Lee Hyuk gave her the list of 1st-year students that were in Shin YuSung’s party. 

“The participants are Su… Mire, and Kim EunAh. These two, right?”

Lee Hyuk nodded at Shin HaYoon’s question and pointed to the end of the document.

“Yes. As for the ones that are at the bottom… it seems like they’re reserve members.”

“Lee SiWoo, Amy… Well, the rest are okay. Fufu, they aren’t even Sevens, after all.”

Shin HaYoon was looking at the documents with a smile when her eyes stopped at someone’s name.

https://discord.gg/MaRegMFhRb

[Name: Kim EunAh]

[Remarkable: Chaebol Hair/Class Representative]

[Class: 1st year A]

[Trait: Electricity]

‘Hngh… Now that I think about it… The heir of the Shinsung Group… There’s quite an interesting rumor I think I heard before…’

Shin HaYoon was a member of the Shin-oh family that was famous for their hunters, so hearing a few rumors on the Shinsun Group was rather easy.

“Fufu, ah~ I remember~”

Shin HaYoon made a fishy smile while looking at Lee Hyuk.

“R-remember what?” Lee Hyuk asked in surprise.

Shin HaYoon shook her head.

“Ah~ It’s nothing important. Just a prank?”

*

The rabbits were jumping around while eating the grass, and a bottomless lake took up most of the view.

Yu WonHak spoke to Shin YuSung.

“YuSung! Look at this lake!”

“Yes! Master!”

He hadn’t had a lesson from WonHak in quite some time, so he smiled at the nostalgia of it. Yu WonHak crossed his arm and then raised his thick index finger.

“What shape do you think the Black Dragon’s Body Armor wave has?”

“The shape of the wave…?”

Shin YuSung fell into thought at Yu WonHak’s question. Until then, he’d only focused on maintaining the Black Dragon’s Body Armor—he’d never thought of its shape.

“I… I think that it probably looks something like this…!”

Fwoosh!

Shin YuSung raised mana from the palm of his hand that began pouring out in all directions and then disappeared. The mana that scattered away had a similar apparent destructive power to the one that the Black Dragon’s Body Armor had.

Yu WonHak clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“Tsk, Tsk. Emitting it like that, even though it might be strong, is a meaningless strength! Watch closely!”

Whir!!

Yu WonHak gathered mana in the palms of his hands and spread his hand toward the lake as if he were pushing something.

Pang! Paf!

The pure wave of mana reached the lake, and the impact had a meteoric effect.

BOOM-!!

A huge amount of water rose from the lake.

“That’s how you were doing it. Although it uses a lot of mana, its real destructive power isn’t that high.”

The strength that the Fist King showed was very destructive. If a normal person were hit with it, they would probably turn into dust and vanish.

Shin YuSung listened to Yu WonHak while making a serious expression. Yu WonHak smiled at the serious look.

“It seems like having good partners has increased the variety of your facial expressions. Okay, now watch closely!”

Swoosh!

Yu WohHak gathered mana in the palm of his hand and swung it with such speed that his hand was a blur. The wave boomed and created a huge hole in the lake.

Splash!

The lake was parted like the red sea. Although he had used less mana, the destructive power couldn’t be compared to before.

“See? The form of the mana changes depending on its usage! Now, try to apply it!”

“Understood.”

Nod.

Shin YuSung slowly summoned up his mana.

‘The form changes depending on the usage…’

He increased his concentration and tried to remember Yu WonHak’s words.

‘Then… what form suits the Black Dragon’s Body Armor…?’

He began thinking about how to get the best possible result.

Shin YuSung’s trait worked great in situations like that.

‘Think…’

The biggest issue while fighting against Adela was how much mana he used. He needed to optimize the amount of mana to maintain it as much as possible.

‘I need to reduce the amount of mana used without decreasing the effectiveness…’

After thinking about it for a while, Shin YuSung raised the mana from inside his body and used the Black Dragon’s Body Armor. 

Zzzt!!

Just like the first time, the mana scattered away in all directions. Shin YuSung tried to condense the mana.

Zzt! Zzzt!

The mana quieted.

Ssst.

The Black Dragon’s Body Armor’s energy became similar to that of a well-balanced Obsidian Stone.

“Is that the most optimized form you could think of…?” WonHak asked in a serious tone.

Shin YuSung nodded.

“Yes, master.”

After hearing his answer, Yu WonHak gave a satisfied smile.

“Well done.”

The student surpassed the teacher.

Shin YuSung’s potential was higher than Yu WonHak, the First King’s—that’s what he thought.

‘As expected, YuSung will…’

Maybe his student, Shin YuSung, would be able to fulfill his dream and reach the top of the Tower.

‘YuSung… I can’t wait for that day to come!’

Instead of speaking his honest thoughts, Yu WonHak burst into laughter while looking at Shin YuSung. 

https://discord.gg/MaRegMFhRb