Hunter Academy’s Battle God

The sunbathed waterpark…

Lee SiWoo was laid down leisurely on a pool chair under a parasol.

“Hm, I never expected those two… to play together so well,” he mumbled.

Shin YuSung turned his gaze towards the swimming pool at the other boy’s words.

“Hahaha!”

“H-hiiek!”

Amy, excitedly pursuing Sumire.

And Sumire, running away in fear. 

Shin YuSung began watching the two, but then suddenly, a beep came from his Pocket.

 “This is?”

Ring! Voom!

[Extracurriculars Mission]

[Requester– Jin ByungCheol]

[Request Location– Busan, Metro City]

[Request Type– Daily Patrol]

[Request Reward– 200SP]

A hologram shot out of his Pocket as soon as Shin YuSung checked his message. 

“Wow! The reward is 200SP? And the requester is our headmaster, on top of that?!”

Lee SiWoo, who had read the contents of the hologram next to him, began to shout, a surprised expression on his face.

Shin YuSung stared at the figure for a long while, hemming and hawing to himself.

“…Is 200SP a lot?”

“Of course! How many outing passes can that get you? There isn’t a single thing you can’t do at the Academy with this many points.”

“I see.”

Shin YuSung nodded, not showing any strong emotions. Lee SiWoo was puzzled by the other boy’s reaction.

“YuSung-ah, how many points do you have right now?” 

“Around 600?”

“D-damn…”

The SP he had earned from getting a new record in the training room, the 150SP he had earned from winning the spar against Park SuHyun, and the points he had earned from the complete victory during the intramurals… Shin YuSung had managed to gather an incredible amount of SP—an amount that regular students would have trouble gathering even if they took a whole year.

It was no surprise that Lee SiWoo would be taken aback.

“Wow, that’s almost three times as much as me!”

Shin YuSung narrowed his eyes as he read through the details.

‘A mission sent directly from the headmaster. He probably didn’t send me this for the SP reward.’

As evidence, the location written on the mission was Metro City in Busan, where the Representative Selection would be taking place. Shin YuSung gave a relaxed smile as he saw where the mission was going to be held.

‘…I definitely have to participate in it.’

Moreover, his task when he got there was to patrol the city. There was no better mission for him to take if he wanted to garner the favors of its citizens.

Shin YuSung pressed the [Accept] button that was on the hologram. As he did so, it fizzled out into pixels and disappeared.

“Phew– that was really fun! I wish we kept going!”

“Huuuu… I-if we kept going… I would’ve died.”

Amy looked chipper while Sumire, on the other hand, looked like a wreck. The two began to make their way back from the pool.

Lee SiWoo supported his chin on his arm and began to mumble to himself.

“…Hmm. YuSung, you’ll be pretty busy, then. You have to get ready for the Representative Selection and also go on city patrol at the same time…”

Amy’s ears perked up at his words.

“Oh, the city patrol! Right, right~ Team Leader-nim, you’re going on an extracurricular activity to Metro City, yeah?! I heard EunAh is going there, too…”

She began to snicker, eyebrows wriggling. Lee SiWoo looked at her, puzzled.

“Hey, YuSung just got that message. How do you know about it?”

“Puhaha! Information is the lifeblood of all broadcasts! There isn’t a single thing I don’t know that goes down in the school!”

Amy began boasting about herself, back straightened and hands on her hips. She seemed quite excited about the topic.

“Anyways, I’ve been thinking about this, but the combination of Team Leader-nim and EunAh sounds really interesting…”

Amy was quite friendly with her fellow classmate. Kim EunAh wasn’t the type of person who opened her heart up easily to others, but she seemed to let her guard down somewhat for Amy.

“Oh yeah, now that you mention it… You’re both in the same class, right? What kind of person is she?” Lee SiWoo asked, swinging his legs in the air above the pool chair. Amy groaned and began to think deeply on the matter.

“Uhh…EunAh? Umm, that is… sh-she’s a really great person!”

Lee SiWoo snorted as Amy slightly fudged her answer. He began to press on it further.

“How is she great?”

“Uh… she’s rough on the outside, but she’s surprisingly considerate? Ah, I guess this might only apply to me, though. Mmm… so what I’m trying to say is…”

Amy short-circuited.

Even to someone good with words like her, she was having too much difficulty trying to describe Kim EunAh succinctly.

* * * *

The waterpark was crowded.

—But only for a moment.

As the school’s celebrities, Adela and Kim EunAh, walked out, the crowd split apart as if there was a forcefield around the two.

1st in the student rankings: Adela Ortensia.

2nd in the student rankings: Kim EunAh of the Shinsung group.

Kim EunAh was griping to herself—her cheeks were puffed, and sunglasses were perched on her face.

“Lee ChaeHyun. I should’ve taken the chance to thoroughly beat her up…”

Adela didn’t show any reaction to the other girl’s grumbling and walked on, white dress swaying in the breeze. An exotic atmosphere exuded from her, seeming to transform the waterpark in Busan into the seas of Milano.

—A mysterious transfer student from Italy.

Adela talked to Kim EunAh in Korean, not even turning around to look at the other girl.

“It was just a test.”

A frosty voice.

From the start, Adela wasn’t the sort of person who cared about other people’s issues. Since she was little, the only thing that she had pursued was strength—nothing else interested her.

Kim EunAh twirled a lock of hair around her finger, a cool expression on her face.

“…Is that so?” 

She began to ask a question to Adela, voice dry as a desert.

“Even if she brings up my comatose brother?”

Step step.

For a while, the only sounds echoing throughout the area were the shuffle of footsteps from the two women. Even as they both wore expressionless faces, the atmosphere had grown much heavier.

The period of silence only lasted a moment.

“…Hm. Well, don’t strain yourself. I thought that was how you’d respond. And…”

Kim EunAh brushed off Adela’s nonexistent reply as if it was no big deal.

It was a very odd reaction, considering her fiery personality. Instead, Kim EunAh looked at the item in her hand and smirked. 

“I already had my revenge.”

Kim EunAh spun the Pocket around her index finger. The Pocket, just barely hooked around her finger, was not her own.

“See this?”

A Pocket performed various functions:

It was your student ID at Gaon, it made video calls for you, there was a dimensional pocket connected to it, your SP points were directly fed into the device by the Academy, and it also acted as a debit card. There were countless other functions to a Pocket aside from those.

“She’ll be suffering for a while, now that she’s missing this. How dare she cross me?”

The owner of the Pocket hanging from her finger was none other than Lee ChaeHyun. Kim EunAh had managed to take revenge for her brother being badmouthed after the test had ended.

It truly showed the extent to which she would hold a grudge.

Adela sighed.

“Did that make you feel better?”

“Ah~ better?”

The corner of Kim EunAh’s mouth went up at the other girl’s question.

“It felt damn good, you know?”

* * *

* * *

Right before going back to the Academy…

It was the last night that they would spend in the theme park.

Shin YuSung was currently holding his body in a stance in a forest far from the hotel, honing his breath. It was a familiar enough process to him, even if it looked like an eccentric habit to other people.

It was his nightly training.

Shin YuSung concentrated on the mana spreading out from his hands.

‘…Contain as much mana as possible, using as little concentration as possible.’

This was the teaching the Fist King had left him for the fourth form.

But the fourth form seemed difficult, even to Shin YuSung, who was blessed with a physique from the gods.

If he heightened his concentration, his widespread senses would dissipate, and if he lowered his concentration, the contained mana would dissipate.

It had been an hour since he had started his training.

Blue mana was undulating around his form.

Woosh.

He had succeeded in containing all of the mana he had released from his body. However, this was where the real challenge began.

‘Slowly begin releasing more mana…’

If he wanted to perform the fourth form successfully, he had to raise the intensity of his mana while maintaining his senses.

The problem was that the difficulty of controlling one’s mana grew exponentially as more of it was released.

Vmm vmm!

He increased the output. The blue mana around Shin YuSung’s form began to vibrate; it was on the verge of losing its form.

“Keuk…”

The mana suddenly began to strain his body.

Shin YuSung clenched his jaw as an incredible amount of pain swept through him.

Flash!

The mana that Shin YuSung had contained scattered into the wind. The pain had broken his concentration, and he had failed in performing the technique.

‘As I thought, I still can’t…’

Shin YuSung clenched his fist, then looked up at the moon. Shin YuSung had left the care of the Fist King and had left his home. The location of his fights had changed, and so had his opponents.

But the moon in the sky looked exactly the same as the one that had shined down on him on the Martial Spirits’ Mountain.

‘..The moon and the Martial Spirits’ Mountain…’’

Shin YuSung slowly leafed through one of his memories from years past. It was as clear in his mind as the moon that lit the night sky.

[Why aren’t you sleeping? This is the first break you’ve had in a while.]

The Fist King asked this to Shin YuSung, all the while digging a finger into his ear. The boy was looking outside the cavern entrance at the moon with a dazed expression on his face.

[I can’t sleep.]

[…A-hum. Why so?]

—A bonfire and a warm blanket.

—A cave that shielded him from the elements.

That was the equivalent of a five-star hotel on Martial Spirits’ Mountain, but Shin YuSung continued to stare up at the moon.

[…I don’t know.]

Seeing the boy’s wilted figure, the Fist King clicked his tongue and stood up from the blanket. He began to stare at him with wide, unblinking eyes, cradling his chin with his worn and torn hands as if he were a dainty maiden.

[Is it because you failed the training?]

The Fist King’s words were right on the money.

Shin YuSung had failed in the training that the Fist King had given him, which was why the rest period he had gotten the day after hadn’t appealed to him at all. The Fist King finally dropped his exaggerated pose at the boy’s listless demeanor and began to scratch his head.

[…Well, it happens. But still, you little brat, is there any reason for you to be so depressed because of one failure?]

Shin YuSung’s eyes were still affixed to the moon in the sky as if it was calling out to him. It may have been the case that he was never looking at the moon in the first place.

[I want… to become stronger.]

Shin YuSung had a goal.

Due to this goal, he endured the martial Spirits’ Mountain’s harsh training. The greatest revenge he could enact upon the Shin-oh family that had abandoned him was to prove that even someone with an F-rank Trait could become the strongest hunter in the world.

And Shin YuSung also wanted to get stronger for the Fist King, who had taken him in, for the man’s reputation and for himself.

Just as this goal was a great motivator for him, it was also what was causing Shin YuSung to be so anxious.

Whenever he failed, whenever he was resting because he was tired, Shin YuSung was afraid that someone would end up surpassing him.

The Fist King saw this state of Shin YuSung as very unfortunate.

[…Brat, you’re worried?]

The Fist King’s voice was kind.

Only then did Shin YuSung tear his gaze away from the moon and to his master. He nodded.

[I am.]

Yu WonHak had always seen Shin YuSung as a child who had matured too quickly for his age. But at times like these, he couldn’t help but think of the boy as someone of his rightful age.

[YuSung-ah. If you want to become stronger…]

The Fist King had approached Shin YuSung  at some point and was petting the boy’s head.

[You have to take a break sometimes.]

—Rare words of comfort from his master.

Shin YuSung really liked the warmth coming from the man’s calloused hands.

[But…isn’t Master the one who told me to do my best every day?]

Spirits lifted, Shin YuSung asked the older man a question, laughing. Yu WonHak scratched his head.

[Tch, not a single cute bone in your body. Yeah. What I wanted to say is… you need to loosen up your shoulders every once in a while.]

[Now that you say it like that… I think I know what you’re trying to tell me.]

Shin YuSung smiled.

The boy was pushing his limits to the point where the Fist King was getting worried. Due to this, he constantly pushed past those limits and grew stronger, but in exchange, he had never had a proper moment to relax before.

The greatest effort and passion didn’t always bear the greatest results. Sometimes, as his master had told him, the solution was to take it easy.

Shin YuSUng, at age 17, decided to believe in those words.

‘…Relax.’

Shin YuSung renewed his stance with a new resolve in his head.

Fwoom.

He then tried his best to erase the desperation in his heart. All that was left was peace and tranquility. The more desperate he was, the more unnecessary power he used, leading to a negative effect on his mana control.

‘—And peace.’

Shin YuSUng easily recalled the break that he had experienced earlier that day. It was noisy and rambunctious, but it wasn’t bad. No, it was tremendously fun.

Woosh.

Mana began to flow around Shin YuSung once more, but something was different.

‘The least amount of concentration possible. The largest amount of mana possible. And then…’

The only difference was his change of heart, but even his breathing had adjusted itself; the mana flowing around him had also shifted slightly.

An unknowable confidence began to surge from Shin YuSUng’s body.

“More!”

Flash!

A blue light began to fluctuate inside his body, then covered Shin YuSung in a protective veil.

Sssst! Flash!

The light then disappeared. Even so, Shin YuSung stared at his body with a  bewildered expression on his face.

“I actually… succeeded.”

It had been three years since he had learned the third form.

Even if it was an instant, he had finally succeeded in using the Battle God Style’s fourth form.