Hunter Academy’s Battle God

“Whaaaat?!!”

EunAh’s scream rang throughout the forest. The shock made her flail all over the place.

“Hey! Y-you said you’d prepare the tents! Why did you only bring one?!”

In contrast, YuSung was calm.

“This is a four-person tent. It’s plenty big.”

“Wh-who said anything about the size?! If there’s one tent… th-that means we have to all sleep together!” she spat out. 

“Is there something weird about that?”

But YuSung seemed to be genuinely surprised at her reaction. Why would many tents be better than one tent? It made no sense to the boy who had grown up on the Martial Spirits’ Mountain his entire life.

“Of course there is! It’s super weird! H-how is a girl… s-supposed to sleep with a guy in the same place?!”

“…But tactically, it’s more advantageous for all of us to stay together in the case of an ambush.”

“Who cares about that crap!”

“Just why are you so against the idea, anyways?” he asked innocently.

EunAh, eyes set in a death glare, slowly grew red at his question.

“Th-that’s because… y-you might do something…w-weird…”

Her voice had lowered to an ashamed whisper by the end of the sentence. Her head was bowed down. 

Sumire, who had been next to her, suddenly stood up.

“You’re wrong! Sh-Shin YuSung-ssi would never do something like that!” she shouted rather courageously. 

EunAh turned her face towards her and made a face. 

“…Huh?”

“H-hiek!”

—And so ended Sumire’s meager opposition.

EunAh glanced at the boy inside the tent with a distrustful gaze.

‘Even if he knows so little about women…’

Of course, like Sumire, EunAh also trusted YuSung to a certain extent.

‘Well… he really isn’t the sort of person to do anything like that, but still…’

She was rather staunch on this topic, however. The tent was a completely sealed environment, small enough that the occupants could hear each other breathe. What would happen if their bodies happened to touch in that space?

‘C-crazy!’

Just thinking about it made the blood rush to EunAh’s ears.

“N-no way! I keep thinking about it, but I just can’t accept it!”

YuSung fell into deep thought as she retained her stubborn attitude. Eventually, he made a decision and stood up from his spot.

“There’s no helping it, then. I’ll sleep outside,” he calmly declared.

EunAh was flabbergasted.

“Hey! D-don’t do that. Just wait a moment! There’s gotta be…”

“Don’t worry. I’m used to sleeping out in the wilderness.”

Sumire shook her head violently at his response. “Ah… b-but Shin YuSung-ssi, you’re the one who brought this tent…”

She aimed her tearful gaze towards EunAh, who immediately felt guilty about the whole situation. The A Class girl sighed.

“…Ugh, fine. I’ll sleep in here, okay? I’ll do it! I’ll sleep!”

Keeping her distance from YuSung, EunAh climbed into the tent and began to hesitantly unpack her belongings.

Not too far into in, however, she looked between YuSung and Sumire with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. Her extraordinary instincts were telling her that the two of them were dangerous in some way.

“…Hold it. I’ll sleep in the middle spot.”

Something dangerous would happen if the two were to sleep next to each other. Of course, there was no basis for this gut feeling—it was purely her instincts.

“Sure.”

YuSung agreed to her proposal without any fuss and moved his own belongings to the corner. 

At the same time, Sumire had summoned a death knight to stand guard outside of the camp.

“D-Death Knight-ssi! I’m counting on you tonight, as well.”

“I will obey you, Master… even if… I die.”

EunAh shook her head at the display.

“…Tch, didn’t you already die for her earlier?”

With that, their preparations were completed. It was still too early in the evening for them to sleep, however. YuSung slowly climbed out of the tent.

“We’re finished setting up, right? I’ll be off somewhere by myself for a bit.”

Sumire answered him enthusiastically. “G-got it!”

She had an idea of what the boy was going off to do.

‘…He’s training, isn’t he?”

Back during the theme park test, as well, she had seen him leave the hotel around this time of the day to train. She thought he was incredible for doing so. 

To YuSung, training had become an inextricable part of his existence. Sumire couldn’t imagine just how grueling his life had been for it to get to this point.

‘Sh-Shin YuSung-ssi… really is… amazing. Absolutely amazing.’ She smiled, pleased.

In comparison, EunAh let out an appreciative sigh as he left the campsite.

“Phew, good thing he’s gone.”

She immediately began to strip her clothes off—first, her jacket, then even the t-shirt she was wearing underneath it. Sumires eyes grew wide.

“…Eu-EunAh-ssi?”

“What? Never seen someone change their clothes before?”

She had taken out a cute pair of killer whale-embroidered pajamas. 

EunAh always enjoyed teatime at 6 PM every day and changed into pajamas before sleeping if she could help it. She was a much more delicate girl than she seemed.

‘…A-adorable,’ Sumire thought, though she couldn’t voice the opinion aloud. She was staring at the pajama-clad girl.

“What are you looking at me so intently for?”

“Huh? Oh, n-nothing! I just thought they suited you really well.”

Sumire also changed into her skull-patterned pajamas. EunAh took that time to crawl up to the entrance of the tent.

Thump.

There, she sat cross-legged at the mouth of the tent and looked up at the moon in a daze.

“The air’s really nice.”

Sumire gave a little smile at the other girl’s non-sequitur. She crawled up next to EunAh and sat down.

“It is. The moon is really bright, as well.”

EunAh snorted.

Pat.

She stretched out her arms behind her to support her weight. Then, suddenly, she struck up a conversation with Sumire.

“So what made you come all the way here from Japan?” she asked.

“Oh, th-that’s because…”

Sumire opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. EuAh let out a languid yawn.

“…Yawwwwn. S’fine. I just threw the question out there. No need to answer it if you’re uncomfortable talking about it.”

“That’s… a-actually, I made a mistake, and my whole class got hurt because of it.”

* * *

* * *

“Because of you?” EunAh asked, as if she couldn’t believe the other girl. Sumire confirmed the truth of her statement with a nod, a bitter expression on her face.

“Our whole class went on an excursion together to a dungeon. My abilities… ran wild there.”

It had happened a year before she had come to Korea.

Sumire was controlling the undead with her powers, but they had suddenly spun wildly out of her control. It had been a distressing accident for her.

The reason why that happened was simple—it was because Sumire had gotten too greedy and had done something that exceeded the boundaries of her abilities. 

Her desire to show just what she was capable of in the undead-themed dungeon was palpable. The results, however, had been gruesome. Her Trait had called all of the undead in the dungeon to her, but she couldn’t control them.

By the time the Association hunters had arrived at the scene, Sumire was the only person there who was unharmed.

It was unknown what the reason was, but the undead were carefully protecting the unconscious Sumire.

30 people were injured, including the teacher in charge. Thankfully, no one had died, but Sumire quickly turned gloomy after the incident.

Her words, which were already few, grew even fewer. Everyone in her school either shunned her or was afraid of her

“E-everyone in my class… avoided me. I understand why. No one would like someone who hurt them…”

For someone with a fragile personality like Sumire, it was impossible for her to continue to stay in Japan after everything.

“…So I ran away.”

She didn’t have the courage to try and mend the relationships she had with them, so she ran away. Sumire smiled bitterly as she recounted her tale.

“…I see.”

EunAh’s response was calm.

Sumire, who was looking at the other girl, suddenly widened her eyes.

“Um, Eu-EunAh-ssi?”

EunAh turned her head to look at Sumire. The Japanese girl pointed at her shoulder and carefully said:

“Th-there’s a centipede on your shoulder…”

She checked her shoulder.

“Kyaaaak!!”

EunAh was in tears and running away. 

Sumire laughed and disposed of the centipede for her.

The two girls were slowly growing closer and closer together.

* * * *

The dark, shadowed forest…

YuSung looked up at the moon in the sky and took his stance. He channeled his mana, starting from deep within his body and gradually spreading outwards to the rest of it.

Woosh!

A single gust of wind from the first shook the trees and made the blades of grass dance along the ground.

YuSung began maintaining a slow, steady breath. 

Then, he waited… Until it was time for his mana to burst forth.

‘Now.’ 

And he let it explode.

Ssst!

A blue light began to shine from his body.

Aura, refined by mana, began emanating from him in order to protect him.

Sst.

Battle God Style Fourth Form – Black Dragon’s Body Armor

The aura from his body shifted its hue to a deep black before covering his entire body. An incredible, marked improvement from before—YuSung had never managed to reach this level in his techniques in the past.

‘I need to focus on the feel of the mana flowing through me…’

However, he was still unable to maintain the Black Dragon’s Body armor for more than a short period of time.

Flash!

The black aura surrounding him dissipated, and the technique was dispelled. YuSung caught his breath as he kneeled on the ground, braced on one knee for support.

‘…So the problem is time.’

He clenched his fist in frustration.

As long as he devoted all of his efforts to his training, he was on track to properly master the fourth form. However, the Representative Selection was not too far off in the future.

YuSung didn’t feel a sense of urgency about the fact, however. 

The Fist King had always impressed into him the importance of taking a break and relaxing. He had properly learned the man’s lesson when he had hung out with his party members.

It was the best advice anyone could give YuSung, who had always had a sense of urgency and desperation within himself. 

‘Time to head back.’

The grinning boy’s footsteps were lighter than ever.