Chapter 15: 13

Chapter 13

Yu HanNah hurriedly commentated on Sumire while watching her on the monitor in the broadcasting booth on the wharf.

“Due to the work of the skeleton that student Sumire had summoned, her team’s points ranking has been raised to the single digits!”

Yu HanNah slammed the table with her hands out of excitement and continued.

“It’s the birth-er, ahem! It’s the birth of a rookie contender!”

Yu HanNah had screamed loud enough that her voice had momentarily broken. Jin ByungCheol, who was next to her, had his mouth gaping open so wide that it looked like his jaw was unhinged.

“N-no way… but Sumire shouldn’t be that strong?”

The headmaster, Jin ByungCheol, had an idea about Sumire’s skillset; that was just how well she was known for being last place.

‘At best, her skeletons could run an errand… but this one is killing everything on the island!’

On top of that, the skeleton he had seen in the past at the sparring arena and the skeleton he was seeing right now were on completely different levels.

‘What’s going on? The skeleton that I was watching earlier was using the martial arts forms of the Fist King. Is this change in strength also due to Shin YuSung?’

While Jin ByungCheol was pondering this conundrum, Yu HanNah spoke up again with an impressed tone to her voice.

“Wow! So the students of Gaon Academy in even F Class are this strong? Student Shin YuSung, of course, but even student Sumire is displaying incredible skill!”

“Haha! O-of course!”Jin ByungCheol replied shakily.

Yu HanNah’s eyes shone from his response.

“If that’s the case, they’re just as— no, even more skilled than the Sevens from other academies!”

Because the main anchor of K Channel, Yu HanNah, had started gassing him up, the headmaster was preening.

“I already said that this is nothing for Gaon, didn’t I? Haha!”

Jin ByungCheol could feel thankfulness towards Shin YuSung welling up inside him, as promotion of the Academy was going swimmingly due to the boy.

‘I’ll have to do something for him after the exam ends… Yu WonHak, you’ve been a source of torment for me right up to your retirement! But you’ve finally given me a golden goose like this, huh?’

On the flip side, Yu HanNah gave a smirk while staring at Shin YuSung on the monitor screen.

“Fufu! An F-rank Trait? But with the skills to make someone with an S-rank Trait cry? And he has dazzlingly good looks? He’s a star to look out for!”

While she was thinking this, Shin YuSung was still being shown through the monitor to be fighting monsters and earning points.

He went fishing for ruby fish embedded with red jewels in the valley and he hunted jewel snakes in the forest. Currently, he was taking down moonstone bears along the mountain path.

It could be called nothing but a clean sweep.

Wherever Shin YuSung passed through, whole swaths of monsters were erased. He was even picking off the monsters that were in hiding as if he had an idea about all of their ecologies. Yu HanNah, who had been watching all of this, had gone past excitement and was currently dumbfounded.

‘Wait, how is this even possible? Is he a specially-trained hunter from a military unit?’

That wasn’t the end of the concerns regarding him. The students and academy staff, who had been watching the exam separately on the cruise liner, started to murmur amongst themselves:

“What the? Isn’t that the direction of Crystal Cave?”

“Is he actually going there on purpose?”

“Does the boss even net you any points?”

Currently, Shin YuSUng’s location showed that he was going towards the prohibited area. A commotion began.

“Um, uhh… isn’t that the Crystal Cave on Jewel Island…?”

Yu HanNah, who had been watching, and Jin ByungCheol next to her were both shocked and making a huge fuss.

“W-why is! A student going there? D-don’t tell me! Instructor Lin Xiao! Did you not tell the students about the Crystal Cave?!”

At the headmaster’s shouting, Lin Xiao, who had been watching all of this from a distance, quickly ran towards him.

“N-no! The last instructor told me that they explained the Crystal Cave to the students…”

“Did! I! Not! Tell! You! That! Student Shin YuSung! Had only been enrolled! A few days ago?!”

Jin ByungCheol was shouting every word in staccato in an effort to keep a lid on his anger.

“I apologize! I must’ve forgotten to do it because it was only one student!”

Lin Xiao bowed his head, but Jin ByungCheol’s temper ran even stronger.

“Even so, there are things you shouldn’t forget!”

The reason why such a racket was being raised was because of the rank 4 boss slumbering in the Crystal Cave. Despite this, Yu HanNah was more encouraged by this situation than discouraged.

“That’s right! The ruler of Jewel Island lives in the Crystal Cave. There’s a reason~ that the area has been blocked off for the lower rank classes! Isn’t that so?”

Its identity was the crystal golem.

As the ruler of Jewel Island, it was a monster whose body was entirely composed of crystals. Its incredibly high defense coupled with its massive size meant that a run-of-the-mill student couldn’t even scratch it.

Lin Xiao waved his arms around as if trying to deny the reality before his eyes.

“C’mon, headmaster, would he really fight the golem? That monster won’t even wake up if he doesn’t enter the cave!”

“Ahem! It would be a relief if that was the case, but…”

Jin ByungCheol was giving a disapproving look at Lin Xiao. Right then, Yu HanNah glanced at the monitor, stood up again, and cried:

“Hey! He’s actually going inside?”

“What?!”

Jin ByungCheol forgot that this was a broadcast recording and shouted. Lin Xiao’s face grew pale.

“Is he… actually trying to hunt down the golem? Or does he not know that the golem is there?”

While he was muttering this, the headmaster scowled and yelled as if trying to devour the other man:

“What are you doing?! Just standing there and doing nothing! Go after him immediately!”

“I-I will!”

Lin Xiao started running towards the Crystal Cave, face stark white. If Shin YuSung got hurt from his mistake or had to quit the exam, Lin Xiao had to take responsibility for it—even if he didn’t have a way he could.

Yu HanNah, on the other hand, pursed her lips in excitement at the entertaining circumstances.

‘I can already see the ratings! And the money!’

She licked her lips and gave orders to the camera staff.

“Send a few more drone cameras to the cave. I, Yu HanNah, will promise you that you will be filming a legend.”

If Shin YuSung actually defeated the crystal golem, that would be the best situation for K Channel.

* * *

The entire cave was emitting a bright blue light; there were crystals of various colors that were hard to look away from. Shin YuSung followed a stream running through the cave to the center of it, watching the water as if he was mesmerized.

“This place is…?”

The Crystal Cave of Jewel Island perfectly matched the conditions for a dungeon that his master had given him.

[YuSung-ah! Do you know what a really scary dungeon is like?]

10 years old.

As the still-young Shin YuSung shook his head, the Fist King Yu WonHak grinned, laughed in a way that sent shivers down one’s spine, and continued.

[It’s a place that suddenly becomes quiet! No matter how many beasts and monsters crawl around in a dungeon, it’s dead quiet wherever the really strong guys live!]

Like his master had described, the Crystal Cave was silent and tranquil.

Plip. Plip.

It was so quiet that the sound of water droplets falling from the stalactites could be clearly heard by Shin YuSung.

He followed the stream and kept walking into the Crystal Cave.

‘We have enough points.’

Shin YuSung had an overwhelming amount of points. On top of that, if he combined it with the jewels Sumire had gotten, they were first place among the lower rank class students.

He was certain about this because he had checked his points before entering the Crystal Cave.

‘However…’

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Exam scores were not what was important to Shin YuSung.

Vwoo—vwoo vwoo—

The drone camera had belatedly caught up to Shin YuSung, making loud noises along the way. Everything Shin YuSung was doing was slated to be broadcast by K Channel; this exam was a proper debut for him. If he couldn’t captivate the audience right here and build his prominence, it would be impossible for him to participate in the International Competition.

‘…In that case, I can’t be satisfied with just this.’

That was the kind of person Shin YuSung was.

Even when the Fist King had scared him by telling him that strong hunters existed all over the world, even when his entire body had been turned into a rag by a rank 2 monster—Shin YuSung’s goal was always the same thing.

‘…The strongest hunter.’

Strong hunters were a dime a dozen all over the world, let alone Korea. Not everything the Fist King had said had been a lie.

If he wanted to prove himself and become the pinnacle of all of these hunters, he couldn’t be satisfied at just this level.

He needed to leave a strong impression if he wanted to be completely acknowledged. Shin YuSung grinned as his thoughts reached this conclusion.

‘I understand now.’

Until just a moment ago, Shin YuSUng was curious as to what feeling had led him to the cave. But now, he could clearly see what it was.

Shin YuSung wanted to fight stronger opponents and prove his worth; he was eager to reach a place higher than where he currently was.

‘I was looking for…’

An opponent who he could prove himself against.

Rrrumble!

As if responding to his emotions, the massive cave started to shake. There was something odd about the blue light emitting from the ceiling.

Shatter!

The vibrations caused large and small crystals to fall from the ceiling.

Boom! Bababam! Boom! Booom!

Smoke began to form and sway as the crystals fell and their innate mana sizzled away in the water.. The crystals that had fallen everywhere started to create a shape, finding their place in the whole.

Shin YuSung’s eyes traced along the crystals that were forming a body.

Its height was at least a couple dozen meters.

The ruler of the cave spit out a mighty roar from the crack that served as its mouth.

“Gguuuuhhhk!!”

The creature that had appeared in such a showy manner was the actual ruler of Jewel Island, the crystal golem.

‘Will my punch go through?’ Shin YuSung thought while looking up at the golem.

The crystal golem’s body was composed of crystals as hard as diamond.

Squeeze!

Shin YuSung clenched his fist. Even the disciple of the Fist King had never fought a rank 4 monster before.

Even so, Shin YuSung smiled in a relaxed manner. It was hilarious to imagine someone like him, aiming to become the strongest hunter, hesitating against an opponent like a golem.

[YuSung-ah, what you really have to be afraid of is not defeat!]

As the words of the Fist King he had suddenly remembered had said, there was not a single person out there who had succeeded in everything they had done. Humans grew stronger through their experiences of failure.

[What a hunter really has to be afraid of is giving up!]

Tup!

Shin YuSung kicked the ground and started a frontal assault. The crystal golem threw a gigantic punch at him.

Bam! Rumble! Rrrumble!

Its fist hit another fist, and a sudden competition of strength arose between the fighters. Shin YuSung twisted his body and deflected the golem’s fist.

Boom!

At the same instant, crystal shards flew towards him from the ground. Shin YuSung used the golem’s craggy arm as a ramp and ran towards its head at an incredible speed.

Tup! Tap tap tap!

“Kuguuuuhk!!”

With a heinous cry, the golem tried to match Shin YuSung’s assault by moving its body.

However, it was too late.

Tup!

He had already leaped up to the golem’s face.

‘I’ll smash it!’

As Shin YuSung tried to stabilize his stance, the crystals on the ground that were smashed into powder began soaring towards Shin YuSung’s body.

They were flying through the air as fast as bullets.

‘I can…’

Shin YuSung used his Trait to stretch his concentration to the utmost. As the mana flowed throughout his body, his senses became sharper through his focus. Shin YuSung mistakenly thought that the world had slowed down.

‘See them.’

The shards that had been as fast as bullets were now flying too slow for Shin YuSung.

Wooooosh!

Shin YuSung tilted his head, and the sharp crystal shards flew past him by a hair’s breadth. He had done this effortlessly while in midair.

Now, it was his turn to attack.

“Take…”

Shin YuSung pulled his right hand back. As there was nowhere for his foot to brace against, it was harder to transfer power to his punch. However, that didn’t matter.

He had thrown a countless number of punches after becoming the disciple of the Fist King. No matter what sort of disadvantageous situation he was in, Shin YuSung could not be stopped.

“This!”

As his concentration had been heightened, Shin YuSung could feel his fist cutting through the air’s resistance. The mana that had been spread throughout his body brought out all of his skills to their limits.

Battle God Style Third Form – Heaven-Shattering Fist Strike

Crack!

Shin YuSung’s punch hit the golem right on its head.

All he needed was one strike. Shin YuSung did not make any other attacks.

Astonishingly, despite being as hard as diamond, a crack had formed in the crystal. The core in its head had been split in half.

Craaaack!

Eventually, the crystal golem lost the force that was driving it. Its crystals began to fall as if it were a crumbling sandcastle.

Bam! Bababam! Craaaassh!

Shin YuSung took out the split core from amongst the pile of crystals.

Crumble!

As the core was removed, the crystals dissolved into mana and started to turn into smoke.

Fshh!

A complete victory against the ruler of Jewel Island, as well as a rank 4 boss monster. It was hard to believe that Shin YuSung, the owner of an F-rank Trait, had done this.

Vwoo vwoo

The drone hovered around him; its camera had recorded the entire fight.

____

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