The Awakened murmured.
“Whoa, whoa!”
“Oh, that was number six just now, right?”
“He blocked the right shoulder and countered, so yes. Number six. Parry Sixte Riposte.”
“That was the left leg just now. Septime. The numbers themselves are similar to English.”
“So we just need to match the movements with the numbers. Number five is the head, six is upper right, four is upper left…….”
They watched me play with Kim Gang-o with their mouths hanging open.
“Wow. Fuck. That is insane.”
I caught a glimpse of Lee Hae-il covering her mouth with one hand and gasping.
At this point, if she was not a woman, that would be the bigger problem.
“Jeong Jae-ha! Jeong Jae-ha! Jeong Jae-ha!”
Someone shouted my name repeatedly.
“Everyone! Do not cheer. Watch!”
I forcibly pulled down the corners of my mouth, which were trying to curl up, and continued the lesson.
“Do you understand now?”
“Yes!”
“We watched it very well!”
“Long live Parry-whatever Riposte!”
By the time I had shown the six defensive positions sufficiently, Kim Gang-o was twitching in a state resembling minced meat.
He was in no condition to fight any longer.
That was regrettable.
Not because Kim Gang-o was hurt, but because I could no longer fight an opponent who came at me with all his strength, trying to defeat me.
Feeling sorry, I raised my practice sword.
Then I thrust hard into his knee so that he could fall.
“Ugh!”
Kim Gang-o screamed and collapsed.
The makeshift sword fell from his hand.
I kicked it far away, then used my own practice sword to press firmly against Kim Gang-o's throat and subdue him.
“Kim Gang-o.”
Then I continued in a low voice quiet enough that no one else could hear.
“Do I owe you something? Why are you making a scene just because I did not teach you?”
“Ghk, gahk.”
“You are not better than me with a sword either.”
The desire for him to get back up and attack me again coexisted with the desire for him to disappear and never appear before me again.
“If you want to demand something from me, should you not be either more justified than me or stronger than me?”
“I will kill you! I will definitely kill you!”
Kim Gang-o screamed.
“Kill me?”
It was a scream that made me snort.
“The reason you could come here is because you thought I could not kill you. You are right. I cannot kill you. I have too much to lose.”
I knew because I had tried it once.
At that quiet murmur, Kim Gang-o's body flinched.
“Instead, I can beat you all day, like today. If you come looking for me again or I hear that you touched any of the people who came here to learn from me, you will get beaten again. In front of everyone.”
I stared into his eyes.
“……!”
Kim Gang-o trembled, then lowered his gaze.
“He made a makeshift sword and attempted to attack fellow trainees. I request severe punishment.”
I called an instructor over, handed Kim Gang-o over, and continued the lesson.
Everyone was so eager to learn that we continued practicing without realizing the time passing.
As I worked with each person, the strain on my right leg grew noticeable.
That strain also made me realize something else.
Even if I did not give it my all, fatigue would accumulate and cause a reaction.
I needed to catch Demon Beasts quickly.
Meanwhile, a few Awakened stayed behind after the lesson to practice more.
“Hooah, hooah. Wow, fuck, that was hard. Wow. Fencer Jeong, fuck, no. I mean, thank you. I really learned a lot.”
“Good work.”
Lee Hae-il was one of them.
“You did well.”
Her skill with a sword was fairly good.
Her footwork and sense of rhythm were good, and she closed in on opponents without fear. It seemed she would do well to learn sabre swordsmanship too.
I did not know why she dressed as a man when there were female model inmates, nor did I know how she had avoided being found out while going from detention center to prison.
In truth, I did not particularly want to know.
But Kim Gang-o's strange words and actions from earlier drew my attention back to it.
Even if he had anger-management issues, did it make sense for him to make a makeshift sword and come after me simply because I had not taught him swordsmanship?
And even though he called fencing nothing more than chopstick stabbing, he wanted to learn something from me?
It was strange.
It was more natural to think that swordsmanship was not the problem. Kim Gang-o was wary of a situation in which someone escaped his control.
“…….”
I had no interest in what was hanging between Lee Hae-il's legs.
“Lee Hae-il.”
“Ah, yes! Hyung!”
But even if it was only two hours, she was a student I had taught. If she showed decent talent and passion, then as a fellow swordsman, she deserved my attention.
“This may be presumptuous, but I once had a friend who learned fencing with me.”
“Yes. Ah, you can speak comfortably, Hyung.”
“Thank you. Hmm. That friend worked extremely hard, and even I could tell he really loved fencing, but he was not particularly talented. In the end, he never got to compete on the world stage.”
“Yes.”
“But as he kept learning that diligently, he became good at teaching. He eventually became an instructor at a large fencing club in Gangnam.”
I thought I had spoken too indirectly.
“Teaching the wives of company owners, he earned far more than most gold medalists. I do not know what happened to him now, but in any case, he remained in the industry longer than I did.”
So I simply said it directly.
“Get out. You can do it. Even if you cannot do it immediately, do not give up the desire to get out. Do you understand?”
Lee Hae-il stared at me for a moment, then nodded deeply.
“Yes, Hyung.”
***
Hong Si-yu kept her promise.
“Do you mean early graduation?”
As part of his punishment, Kim Gang-o was immediately processed for early graduation.
“Yes. I heard Hunter Hong ordered it.”
“Then where will Kim Gang-o go?”
“There is a black Guild that took thirty people from the previous cohort, only for all of them to die within one month. Its participation in the program was denied this time. I heard he was sent there.”
The remaining two weeks before the Tutorial passed in an instant.
We continued studying swordsmanship, shooting, hunting theory, and first aid.
The six additional lessons were held as scheduled too.
Then that day arrived.
Over a thousand Awakened sat around the auditorium where we had first gathered.
“All right! A month has already passed.”
Hong Si-yu spoke energetically into the microphone on the stage.
“Tomorrow is already the final test, the Tutorial. You will enter a Gate and gain direct experience fighting Demon Beasts.”
This time, no one talked or caused a disturbance.
Everyone knew how powerful an Awakened Hunter she was.
“All right. Before I explain the rules of the Gate where this Tutorial will be held, Pumpkin Forest, we will first tally the interim scores. The top student before the final practical exam is……!”
She made a comment meant to build up anticipation before the interim tally, but no one was nervous.
“……Yes! Fencer Jeong.”
Hundreds of pairs of eyes looked at me as though it were only natural.
“Just wait.”
The members of Kim Gang-o's gang, seated in a corner without Kim Gang-o, ground their teeth. Lee Hae-il, sitting beside me, nodded.
“Hyung. Congratulations!”
“Thank you.”
Lee Hae-il had completely cut ties with that group.
She stayed by my side during class and ate meals with me too.
In first-aid and shooting classes, I sometimes received help from her.
‘Hyung. Let us practice what we learned today later.’
Thanks to that, I even received bonus points in first-aid class.
After the additional Attitude Points over the past two weeks and the interim evaluation, my score had surpassed sixty points.
Even if I completely botched the practical exam, I had enough points to enter a major corporation or public institution.
Of course, I intended to go to Saetbyeol Guild.
“Fencer Jeong. Please come up here.”
At that moment, Hong Si-yu called me.
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
“What are they giving him?”
The Awakened murmured as they watched me.
I stood up and climbed onto the stage.
Hong Si-yu opened a velvet box.
Inside was an ivory-colored ring.
“This is the prize for the top student of the Tutorial. Ah, I am not giving it to you yet, so do not get your hopes up. Put it on your left middle finger.”
Unsure, I put on the ring.
Hummm.
My vision grew dizzy, then returned to normal.
+
[Name: (Unregistered)]
[Awakened Ability: Physical Enhancement]
[Unique Skill: (Display restricted to protect the wearer's personal information)]
[Lunge]
[Retreat]
[Advance]
[Balestra]
[Parry Sixte Riposte]
[Flèche]
.
.
.
+
What was this?
Blue messages appeared in my vision.
Most of the fencing techniques I knew were listed in a row.
The same content appeared in the PowerPoint window behind me.
Perhaps due to the display restriction message, only a few Unique Skills were visible there.
“Whoa.”
“What is all that?”
Over a thousand Awakened looked at the screen in awe.
“Fencer Jeong, would you like to use one of the techniques displayed as a Unique Skill?”
At Hong Si-yu's words, I lightly performed a Lunge.
[Lunge (Lunge)]
TAAK!
The word Lunge appeared semi-transparently at the edge of my vision, then disappeared. I shot over ten meters forward and stopped at one end of the stage.
“Huh?”
An indescribable sensation washed over me.
It was ideal.
This was the one or two times that appeared only after repeating a movement hundreds or thousands of times, until I no longer knew which repetition I was on.
My best and most perfect attempt was here.
“You feel it, do you not?”
Hong Si-yu smiled.
“It is the Status Window, an artifact jointly developed by Dr. Seo Na-gyeong of Saetbyeol Workshop and Samjeong Psionic.”
“The Status Window?”
“It artificially recreates the status window visible to high-ranking Natural Awakened. It has functions such as movement assistance through Skill Conversion and limited communication. It will be loaned to you only for this Tutorial, while the top student and runner-up will receive one.”
She looked as though she were asking, ‘How is it? Amazing, right?’
I almost burst into mad laughter.
“It is an extremely expensive item, so please be careful not to lose it. A person from the cohort before last tried to smuggle one out and sell it, then was assigned to a Guild with an eighty-percent death rate.”
The price was not the issue.
How cruel.
She had told me not to get my hopes up.
Then she let me feel something like this.
I could tell what this ring—or, more precisely, the Status Window's Skills—gave me.
My best.
Just as a character in a game always used the same Skill, it allowed me to demonstrate my best at all times.
I could not even explain how brilliant that was for a swordsman.
“Now, I will explain the rules for Pumpkin Forest, the Tutorial Gate.”
I could feel the sensation of drawing out that best with every passing moment.
I remembered Hong Si-yu saying two weeks ago that she would reward me generously.
I had not known she meant this generously.
I wanted to use it in real combat as soon as possible.
Even waiting for Hong Si-yu's explanation was unbearable.
***
“They say he is the temporary top student.”
“I knew it.”
The silver-haired woman smiled as she worked the artifact gauntlet in her hands.
“It is Oppa. Someone who lightly laughs away both the talented and the hardworking—the one who enjoys it.”
The reel at the gauntlet's wrist slowly turned, drawing in an incredibly thin silver thread.
Before her lay the corpse of a Demon Beast cut into dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pieces.
Strangely, human arms, legs, and heads had sprouted from various places on the corpse.
“He must have received a Status Window Ring by now, right? I heard Si-yu took a few through the Association.”
“Did General Manager Jeong not arrange for them to be taken out?”
“Huh? I know nothing about that.”
The silver-haired woman puffed out her cheeks with an innocent expression.
“General Manager Jeong.”
The man in a black suit held out a large towel and frowned as though he had witnessed something unpleasant.
“Status Window Rings are good. They can show you Demon Beast ranks, and they display most Skills. Do they display names too?”
“Every registered Demon Beast species appears, and personal names can be configured.”
“Then I should change mine. He might see me.”
“If that happens, it will be a major incident.”
“I know, I know.”
“Still, are you certain he will take the top student position in the Tutorial too? There are a thousand participants. There is no way to know what variables may arise.”
The man in the suit voiced his doubt.
“Variables?”
General Manager Jeong let the air out of her cheeks and answered seriously.
“Do you know why Oppa was the best?”
“Pardon?”
“Because he was a variable himself.”