103 – Friendly sparring (3)
Ryu Seung-hoon.
6Th place in Korea Academy rankings.
Holds the legendary job ‘Wind Ruler’.
Despite having a top-level legendary job, Ryu Seung-hoon did not perform well in his first ranking match at the Academy. He said that just because he took a high-performance job didn’t mean that everyone would become strong in an instant.
In particular, if the job taken did not suit the user’s aptitude, or the user could not utilize it properly due to lack of understanding, the reality was that it was worse than taking a rare class job.
Ryu Seung-hoon belonged to the latter group.
There was no problem with aptitude.
When he turned 20 and took awakening stones for the first time, he lacked understanding of his job.
His ranking at the beginning of the semester was 43rd.
If I didn’t even have the job of Wind Ruler, I would have fallen to the bottom.
But how do people grow?
Ryu Seung-hoon, who gradually gained a better understanding of his job, achieved the feat of rising from 43rd to 6th place at the end of his first semester. He was literally nothing short of a human victory.
And while rising rankings in a short period of time can lead one to become arrogant, Ryu Seung-hoon has consistently maintained humility. He also knew very well that he was still a frog in the well.
Among the top students who were confident that they could easily beat the Hero Academy students, he was the only one who prepared for sparring every single day. In addition, he even analyzed the practice videos of Hero Academy students from time to time. Because it is important to understand the other person’s abilities.
His friends around him looked at Ryu Seung-hoon pitifully.
I had a friend who sarcastically asked me why I was preparing since I wasn’t a participating member anyway.
Ryu Seung-hoon’s thoughts were different from theirs.
You never know how things will go in the world.
Among students ranked 1st to 5th.
It was even assumed that a student would be unable to attend due to some kind of accident on the day of the sparring. If that were to happen, he would be a pinch hitter as he was ranked 6th, so he thought it would be natural to prepare for a sparring match.
And it actually happened.
Kim Soo-han suddenly became unable to wake up from his sleep.
As expected, the Academy immediately requested Ryu Seung-hoon to serve as a pinch hitter.
Ryu Seung-hoon accepted the competition with a pounding heart.
He felt that all his efforts had not been in vain.
But even though he was mentally prepared, he couldn’t help but feel nervous because he would be playing as the first batter on the day.
That time when I was heading to Dalian.
An academy instructor approached Ryu Seung-hoon and handed him a pill.
“Huh? This is a drug I’ve never seen before. “I don’t understand why I received it.”
“···Don’t speak informally. Anyway, it would be good to take it before sparring. “It’s an artifact that temporarily increases abilities.”
“That’s cheating.”
“If you don’t get caught, it’s not cheating. Don’t worry, it’s a medicine made to prevent it from getting caught on the artifact inspection table. ···Well, if you want to be broken and humiliated by Lee Hyun-seong in a sparring that the entire nation will see, you don’t have to take it. For your information, I decided to take it for everyone except Iyu and students, so think about it carefully.”
“······.”
Ryu Seung-hoon held the medicine handed to him tightly in his hand and walked slowly, lost in thought.
The worries did not last long.
Ryu Seung-hoon, who had made up his mind before entering the sparring hall, threw his medicine on the floor and trampled it with his foot.
‘Cheating is cheating.’
Because I had no desire to win even by cheating.
***
‘······I should have just taken it.’
Ryu Seung-hoon felt a great sense of regret.
‘I expected to lose, but… This isn’t it…’
He didn’t think he could win against Lee Hyun-seong with his natural skills alone, but he still thought he wouldn’t lose too badly. That was enough. Because the main purpose of sparring is to show off your skills, not whether you win or lose. Even if I lost, it didn’t matter.
But I was left helpless and defeated, unable to do anything.
A new summon that has never appeared in the Hero Academy practice video, the 5-star monster Zombie Dragon, appeared from the very beginning.
‘How to beat the zombie dragon.’
Ryu Seung-hoon, who had lost his will to fight, let out a small, empty laugh.
‘Zombie dragons are also zombie dragons, but what on earth is Lee Hyun-seong? ‘What’s so weird about a summoner?’
I didn’t feel like fighting.
Not only was the zombie dragon the problem, but the human being Hyunseong Lee himself was also the problem.
Ryu Seung-hoon’s wind blade, which has grown dramatically recently, has become powerful enough to cut through steel. Of course, he couldn’t cut a person’s body, so at first he controlled his strength and targeted Lee Hyun-seong. But it didn’t work, so I continued to increase his power little by little. In the end, he raised his power to the point where he could cut through steel, but… There wasn’t a single scratch on Lee Hyun-seong’s body. All they did was tear their clothes.
‘Shall I surrender? If you surrender right away just because the attack doesn’t work, it will look like you don’t have much…’
Ryu Seung-hoon raised his head blankly and made eye contact with the zombie dragon. The zombie dragon looking down at him had his mouth shut and his cheeks puffed out.
“Ah…”
He had an intuition of what he was going to do.
What better way to see a dragon puffing out its cheeks?
“It’s a mess.”
Ryu Seung-hoon, who predicted that the breath would fly, turned around and started running.
It didn’t matter whether it was ugly or not.
An artifact that prevents instant death was installed in the sparring hall, so he wouldn’t die, but his entire body would melt after being hit by the zombie dragon’s breath.
***
The zombie dragon clenched his mouth and soon spewed out a large amount of light green liquid. It was a breath that had the effect of corroding everything it touched.
The wet liquid spread in all directions, covering the sparring hall.
“Ugh!!! “It f*cking hurts!!!!”
It also accurately hit Ryu Seung-hoon’s leg.
When Ryu Seung-hoon’s legs began to rot and rot, he rolled around on the floor and screamed.
Of course, other places were fine.
This was thanks to Lee Hyun-seong warning Yong-yong in advance to only aim for the legs.
“Hmm. Aren’t you going to surrender? Yongyong, next time aim for the arm.”
─If everything rots, won’t there be any parts left to eat, master?
“···I’m not going to eat that. “I’ll give you snacks when I get home, so just be patient.”
─I understand.
That was when Yongyong puffed out his cheeks again.
Ryu Seung-hoon, who had tears in his eyes, waved his hands in the air and shouted in a hurry.
“Ha, surrender! Surrender! Surrender!!!”
Ryu Seung-hoon begs for his life and continues to shout surrender.
“Blow the whistle quickly, f*cking instructor!”
Beep-!
In the end, only after cursing was thrown out did the instructor blow the whistle to signal the end of the sparring.
At the same time, Lee Hyun-seong quickly approached Ryu Seung-hoon.
Ryu Seung-hoon was so scared that he rolled to the side and tried to run away.
“Hey, hey! “I surrendered!”
“I didn’t come here to fight.”
Lee Hyun-seong stopped Ryu Seung-hoon, who was rolling around on the floor, by trampling him and summoned a dwarf from the encyclopedia. And after he was handed the top-quality recovery potion, he poured it on Ryu Seung-hoon’s legs without hesitation.
“Huh? “Why potions…”
“I think it’s a temporary measure. “Isn’t it difficult to endure the pain until the healers arrive?”
“Thank you, thank you…?”
“What am I thankful for? “Since you haven’t taken any medicine conscientiously, you should do this.”
“Uh, huh? Medicine… “It’s my first time hearing this…”
“Yes, you have your own position, so let’s say this is the first time. Anyway, good job.”
Lee Hyun-seong placed the empty flask on Ryu Seung-hoon’s bedside and then returned to its original position. This was because he started the next sparring immediately without any break.
Healers rushed over and arrived much later and helped Seung-Hoon Ryu out of the sparring room.
Afterwards, the student whose turn was next trudged into the sparring hall.
The second sparring partner was Lee Yu-na.
***
The audience began to stir.
Ranking: Ryu Seung-hoon ranked 6th.
Because the talented person that many large guilds were looking at was defeated without any success.
“Even the monster summoner was able to summon a 5-star monster. “This is new information again.”
“I see. “It’s a zombie dragon…”
“It’s a little disappointing. “A 5-star dragon that can only contract with one dragon ends up being a zombie dragon.”
“Isn’t a zombie dragon great enough?”
“Compared to evil beasts or divine beasts, there is no choice. And there are many more powerful 5-star monsters, but zombie dragons are a bit…”
“Still, according to known information, it is possible to mass-produce top-level 4-stars. Isn’t that enough to be the greatest talent of all time?”
Each guild was making various evaluations of Lee Hyun-seong.
They say he is a talent worth recruiting.
I don’t even think about the person who would give me rice cake.
And at that time, Lee Yu-na was entering the sparring arena.
“You must be a student.”
“Even if it were a 5-star monster, it would be too much for the Judge of Light.”
“Especially because it’s a zombie dragon. “If you’re both undead and a monster, you get a double counter.”
“Hmm… “This isn’t a good match, but it’s really bad.”
“We should boldly exclude zombie dragons at full power and fight only with 4-star monsters. “I heard you have quite a few top-tier 4-stars, so you won’t be defeated helplessly, right?”
A significant number of audience members were confident that Lee Yu-na would win.
The Korean Academy officials were the same.
The Hero Academy staff all looked at them pitifully with arsenic in their eyes.
And without delay, the whistle sounded, signaling the start of sparring.
Beep-!
Lee Hyun-seong immediately opened the encyclopedia and summoned one more beast next to the zombie dragon.
─Big.
─Ha.
─Ha.
─Hot!
─Lee.
─Body.
─River.
─Rim!
─···What are my lines?
It is so huge that it occupies half of the sparring hall.
Hydra, a five-star monster with nine colorful heads… No, Yongsik collapsed one side of the audience and revealed himself.