“Cough! Congratulations, Vice Guild Leader. You’ve really recruited an impressive talent. The way everyone has been talking about it on the broadcast made me curious to see how good she really is, and frankly, she seems to be much better than the rumors suggested.
Controlling that many summoned creatures at once must not be an easy task.”
“Hehe… Is it really this chaotic? It’s still too early to be surprised.”
Kang Yeon-su shrugged dismissively at the other executive sitting behind him, acting as if it was no big deal.
However, the laughter spilling out was uncontainable.
“Heheh, our Skeleton Knight didn’t even take a single step! Isn’t that just so cool, Ryu-hwa?”
“… Yeah. Well, she is strong, I guess.”
The executives who had placed their hopes in their own disciples had to swallow their bitter smiles while watching Kang Yeon-su laugh heartily.
Especially Seok Ryu-hwa, who had shown great confidence in the representative selection, was feeling increasingly impatient.
‘How can she grow to that level in such a short time? What’s up with that monstrous Werewolf and her summoned creatures?’
Moreover, she didn’t even pull out the black Drake and the gigantic Golem that they had encountered during the great beast hunt.
‘Is that Skeleton Knight really the strongest summoned creature? It looks even weaker than before… Surely monsters don’t adjust their power levels…’
Seok Ryu-hwa had many questions, but she shook her head forcefully and clenched her fist towards her disciple, Hwa-ryeon, who was waiting in the wings.
Hwa-ryeon, though receiving her master’s encouragement, had her own resolve filled with determination for the representative selection today.
“Someone should be executed for clapping for that filthy monster handler, shouldn’t they? Just because she has a pretty face, everyone treats her like a goddess… Tch.”
Even though it was her first time seeing Lee Yeon-hee today, she had already heard enough about her to make her ears ring.
The sly woman who had snuck into the guild by buttering up Kang Yeon-su, signing the contract one day and immediately participating in the representative selection the next—Hwa-ryeon was none too pleased.
“Good. I’ll show that b*tch what kind of dominant ace the White Knight Guild has.”
She shot a murderous glare at Lee Yeon-hee with her burning eyes.
‘Open your eyes nicely, will you?’
I never understood why she looked at the world as if she wanted to tear everyone apart.
Anyway, Hwa-ryeon participated in the second match.
Her opponent was Shin Hee-won, who made an impression in her red full-body armor.
A disciple of Cha Mu-yeol, she was a pure tank who enjoyed melee combat with a base of [Thorn Shield].
‘Hee-won, it’s been a while…’
Old comrades I had forgotten about started to come to mind one by one.
Hee-won was someone I had gone on a few dungeons with and left a good impression with her calm and steady demeanor.
As Hwa-ryeon entered the arena, Joo-ah and Ah-rin took a few steps forward to show their interest.
“Wow—Is that the psychopathic Hwa-ryeon?”
“The aura she radiates is incredible…”
“She seems famous, huh?”
“I’ve heard stories about her here and there. They say she pierces skills just by locking eyes.”
“Oh dear… We should be careful.”
Yeon-hee realized that there was more to watch out for in the White Knight Guild than just Jo Gi-man.
The match was about to start.
“SSSSSS- Hoo—”
Hwa-ryeon let out her unique breath, and then quickly manifested twenty fire arrows in the air.
– Wow!! Twenty simultaneous incantations!!
– What a natural talent.
– Damn… that talent should be given to someone with a better personality, like me.
‘That’s definitely something to be jealous of.’
It’s one thing to quickly fire or overlap spells, but manifesting the same magic in multiple instances simultaneously is a whole other level. And twenty? That’s definitely the realm of talent.
Pufff–Boom!!
Several fire arrows struck Shin Hee-won’s armor, creating a terrible fiery storm.
‘Ugh… That must hurt. But it’s an opportunity for Hee-won.’
Her ability allowed her to absorb the opponent’s attacks and return a percentage of the damage to the caster.
Magic was no exception, and it was clear that her rune composition centered around “Rune of Thorns” for counter damage.
As expected, Hwa-ryeon’s protective shield visibly thinned due to the counter damage she received.
A ridiculous situation where if you succeed in attacking, you also take damage.
– Hmph!
But Hwa-ryeon paid it no mind.
Although she didn’t have the participation list, she had researched the likely participating Hunters and surely had countermeasures prepared.
Wuuuuuuuu—
‘Huh? Is she just planning to overwhelm her with brute force?’
But Hwa-ryeon didn’t seem to have any particular strategy. More likely, she didn’t think it was necessary.
– Wow!!
This time, she manifested thirty fire arrows and created a figure-eight pattern in the air.
The spectators were wildly excited by the amazing performance, and even Shin Hee-won began to evade attacks instead of taking them head on like the first turn.
‘The shield of Rivisenax that restores magic power upon a hit… I’ve heard there are several other effects as well. In one-on-one situations, it’s definitely overpowered.’
The clash of spear and shield didn’t end as easily as one might think.
Typically, tanks might be on a slightly lower tier than the damage dealers, but that was exactly the situation we had.
However, Hwa-ryeon was only using fire arrows, while Shin Hee-won was putting everything she had into her defense, so it was clear who was at an advantage.
– Kyaahahaha!! I wonder how long you’ll keep up, you filthy hedgehog!!
It was obvious that Hwa-ryeon was overflowing with confidence.
But it’s human nature to root for the underdog.
The spectators and I were all cheering for Shin Hee-won.
– Wow… The blessing of ‘Rivisenax’ is amazing. Look at how her magic is recovering.
– I’m so jealous… damn. I’m pouring 30% of my income into mana potions.
– If you happen to meet a good deity, life becomes breezy. Damn it.
There were many who showed envy and jealousy, but when you’re human, such reactions are inevitable.
So some would say it was more comforting to think that those who didn’t receive talent must have sinned in their past lives.
‘If that’s the case, what sin did I commit to end up as a skeleton…?’
For a moment, as I got lost in thought, the match began to lean sharply to one side.
Shin Hee-won’s sturdy shield began to crack.
‘Hwa-ryeon… You really have insane talent. Had you not died so suddenly, you would have been a great help. If so, maybe Yeon-hee wouldn’t have died either.’
From what I remembered, Hwa-ryeon was found dead right before the Orc Legion Commander appeared.
To be precise, only her clothes were found, but considering the blood scattered around, it was reasonable to assume she had died.
It wasn’t just Hwa-ryeon.
Many talented individuals in the White Knight Guild went missing within a month before and after the appearance of the Orc Legion Commander.
I didn’t know what chaos had happened, but if Jo Gi-man was involved, there was only one thing I needed to do.
‘Get stronger as fast as I can.’
Once again, the conclusion led back to that.
And I had to deal with the competitors and grow as quickly as possible.
Starting with the Lizardmen and Great Evils, and extending to the captain of ‘DOH’ and the Great Beasts.
At least it was fortunate that both the leader of ‘DOH’ and Jo Gi-man had been quiet lately.
“Oh no, she might really get killed… Shouldn’t someone intervene?”
Bae Joo-ah was genuinely worried as the match had been heavily lopsided, eventually ending with Shin Hee-won’s concession.
Siiiiiiii—
Shin Hee-won’s full-body armor had turned red hot, like the summer sun, and she was panting heavily while lowering her face mask.
“G-Good job—”
“What? That girl is weak! She trains every day and this is all she’s got? If she stays in the training area just once more and gets noticed, I’ll roast her head off.”
“Ugh…”
Hwa-ryeon, who had shot off an unnecessary brutal remark at her opponent, didn’t even look back, giving us a thumbs up with a smile.
“Oh my, is she doing that because of Yeon-hee?”
“Y-Yeah, it seems so… I wonder why she’s acting that way towards me… Could it be that she doesn’t like that I participated right after joining?”
“Oh, come on now. The moment you sign that contract, you’re part of the same guild.”
‘If you think of it as her parachuting in, that makes sense. Still, she’s going overboard.’
The executives watching from above were already bickering over Hwa-ryeon’s behavior.
Cha Mu-yeol, acting as the facilitator, seemed indifferent, but other executives voiced strong objections to Seok Ryu-hwa.
– Are we just supposed to let that Hwa-ryeon act like that? If someone like her is to represent the guild in the future, our prospects seem grim.
– It’s obvious she’ll tarnish the reputation of our guild.
– Perhaps we should just send her off to operate independently…
Seok Ryu-hwa seemed to be exercising patience, but upon hearing the term “independent,” it triggered an explosive argument between him and the instigating executives.
– You’ve got to be kidding. Isn’t it the members that are so engrossed in bickering amongst themselves, distracted by what the Guild Leader tosses their way? So what if she’s an S-rank Hunter? If she only focuses on money-making missions, her skills won’t improve!
– Wh-What?! Is that all you have to say?!
– So what are you gonna do about it?
Without Jo Gi-man reigning in the situation, it was complete chaos. Yeon-su just shrugged at me, giving a look that said there was no right answer.
It seemed they didn’t impose restrictions on disputes of that level.
‘Must be tough being them.’
They couldn’t just suppress their guildmates by force like that. It was clearly a matter of management and politics.
Regardless, the subsequent rounds of the top 16 and top 8 went smoothly.
Because Hwa-ryeon’s performance was so intense, the other matches were painfully boring.
Our top 8 opponent turned out to be an assassin class we hadn’t seen in a long time, but once again, it was cut off right at the Alpha-Rank Summoned Creature Trio.
“Ah, I concede!! I concede!!”
“Crack?!”
Alpha Rakan looked at me with a puzzled expression, as if he couldn’t comprehend why an opponent who could still fight was stopping.
‘It’s just a game. For goodness’ sake, how many times do I have to repeat this isn’t about life and death?’
I can’t wait for the full moon to arrive to actually communicate with Rakan… On a regular day, he’s practically fish-levels of intelligence, making it impossible to hold a conversation.
‘Fortunately, it seems that Sang-min’s disciple isn’t participating… So it’s just Hwa-ryeon and that guy left.’
Although there was one more person who caught my eye, it wasn’t for the reasons of being a formidable opponent.
‘I can sense the scent of an evolved creature from that bastard…’
As I looked at the crowd having fun around him, I figured out it was once again Park Jin-gon’s disciple.
‘He can’t keep hiding forever. He’ll reveal his claws soon enough…’
We watched through to the very end of the top 8 match before having dinner with Joo-ah, Ah-rin, and Yeon-su.
“It’s nothing special, right?”
Yeon-su commented as she brought us to a rather upscale Japanese restaurant.
“Ah, no! It was super entertaining!”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s right!”
It was evident that the scale wasn’t as large as expected from the start.
Many probably gave up and headed to the dungeons due to Hwa-ryeon’s presence.
“Well, we always do things like this. No need for elaborate pretenses. I cut all that out.”
“Wow, I think that’s great.”
“Yeah! I love practical stuff!”
Joo-ah made good conversation, complimenting Yeon-su, while Ah-rin also did her best to help.
“By the way, Yeon-hee.”
“Yes, sister… I mean, Vice Guild Leader…”
“Oh come on. Just call me sister when we’re alone. Anyway, that’s not important. Il-wol, how does he become stronger? Is it like leveling up through evolution, just like monsters?”
“U-Um…?”
“You change so much every time I see you. From the hardware to everything else. You seem to have considerable weight now, and is the pressure I feel from you right now something related to skills your summoner possesses?”
“U-uhm…”
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