The Spar (2)

A rebellious glint flickered in his eyes.

I was a little taken aback by the sudden challenge, but after the surprise passed, I felt something surge in my chest.

This bastard…?

Of course, I couldn’t just say that out loud. I smoothed my raised eyebrows and spoke with a deliberate smile.

“Well… if you want me to show you, I suppose I can. My opponent will be…”

“I’m Kim Jin-hwi.”

“…Mr. Jin-hwi, right?”

“Since we both use the Fire Element, we should have some immunity to each other. That means we can show our skills… without holding anything back—”

“Hey! Kim Jin-hwi!”

It was Han Yu-jin. She rushed over, bowing her head.

“I’m sorry, Team Leader. He hasn’t rested properly since coming back from the gate yesterday.”

Then she turned to Jin-hwi.

“Hey, Kim Jin-hwi. He’s not even your team leader. What do you think you’re doing?”

“No, I just—”

“Ah, it’s fine.”

I cut in before the pointless argument could drag on.

“If my skills are to be evaluated, I suppose I should have proven my qualifications first.”

“Han-gyeol, no, Team Leader. Jin-hwi’s just tired, so don’t take it that way… please,” Baek Seung-hoon chimed in, sensing the chill in my words. Choi Yoon-sik just stood behind them, not knowing what to do.

“No, no. As a fellow Fire Element senior, there were some things I found lacking, but I couldn’t point them out since he wasn’t my team member. Since fate has brought us together like this, I can help him out a bit, can’t I?”

Jin-hwi’s already raised chin tilted up even higher. Then he took a deep breath…?

“Fine. I’ll take this opportunity to watch and learn from your skills, sunbae-nim.”

“Hey! Kim Jin-hwi!”

“Don’t be so hard on him. In any case, both Mr. Jin-hwi and I have flame immunity… But I also use the Lightning Element. Considering the risk of injury and the spirit of this spar, it’s probably best if I stick to just fire, right?”

“…Lightning?”

“Yes. Lightning. I took a quick look earlier, and I don’t think that protective gear will hold up. I’d rather not get anyone hurt.”

“…Do whatever you want, sunbae-nim.”

He chickened out, the bastard.

Judging by the look in his eyes, I expected him to charge right at me, shouting that he didn’t care and to bring it on.

If he had, I would have gladly welcomed it and hit him with a few small lightning bolts.

For the record, I couldn’t use Death Beam because he’d probably actually die.

If I fired that, it would cause a major incident. Judging by the amount of magic I could sense from him, he wouldn’t be able to take it.

“Alright. Then, Seung-hoon, Yu-jin, how about you two step back a bit.”

“Haaah…”

The two sighed as if giving up and moved away. They retreated even farther than for the previous spar, creating a much wider space.

Now, it was just him and me in this clearing.

I was the first to speak.

“Hmm… where should I start? First, the point about properly controlling the shape of your flames?”

Swoosh—

As I raised my right hand, a stream of fire swirled into the shape of an arrow.

The twist of the flame strands, the stability of its form, and the amount and density of the magic churning within it.

I remembered the first time I ever made a flame arrow. Back then, it took me a long time to create an arrow far cruder than this one.

“The way you were just spraying it indiscriminately a moment ago… it’s too inefficient. And dangerous. You wouldn’t hit a thing unless you were at close range, and letting monsters get that close is incredibly risky. Instead of that—”

I flicked a finger on my right hand again. Another flame arrow instantly appeared.

“It’s much better to create a shape like this and fire it.”

Whoosh—

The two arrows streaked past either side of Jin-hwi’s head.

He flinched and tried to dodge, but the two arrows curved with him, rendering his movement useless.

“To be honest, I don’t use that many different forms myself. I just stick to a few that suit me well.”

At that moment, a curtain of fire flared up, hiding him from view. The massive wall of flame shot up nearly two meters high.

But he couldn’t handle its size, and the magic within the flames began to dissipate, giving me an opening to interfere.

Still, even after knowing I was holding back….

I sliced my hand down, and the curtain of fire split apart with a rip, like drapes being drawn open.

Through the gap, I could see Jin-hwi gathering his energy.

I peeled a bit of flame from his curtain and formed an arrow. Since it wasn’t my own magic, the power contained within it was pathetic.

But I still had enough control to hit the sphere of fire he was forming between his hands.

Boom!

“You son of a—”

Undeterred, Kim Jin-hwi charged at me.

Half of me thought, This motherfucker? and the other half, Not bad.

I could have ended it by sprinkling a little lightning, but now it was a matter of pride. I didn’t want to use the Lightning Element.

I’d just have to trust his protective gear and his flame immunity.

Fwoosh— A newly formed flame arrow shot toward him without hesitation.

Pow—!

“Aaargh—!”

Thankfully, he blocked his face with his arm. So his arm was on fire.

I quickly withdrew my magic and gestured to Baek Seung-hoon. He seemed to get the message, as a water bomb came pouring down.

I quickly helped him out of the protective gear—

“He’s fine? Aside from being a little scorched.”

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t startled. It seemed he hadn’t taken much damage, probably because I’d withdrawn the magic instantly.

“You’re right. Wasted my mana for nothing.”

But if he was this scorched after being hit with a water bomb right after that brief burn, was his flame immunity level a bit low?

Han Yu-jin rushed over in a panic.

“Really! I knew this would happen! Why do you keep doing this!”

On the verge of tears, she carefully removed the remaining pieces of protective gear still clinging to his body.

Ah, so they were a couple.

…Did I split them up by bringing Yu-jin onto my team?

…

So what?

*

In the end, the group that went to the restaurant consisted of the four from the other team, minus Kim Jin-hwi and Han Yu-jin, and me.

Yu-jin said she’d come after seeing Jin-hwi to the guild hospital.

With both of them gone, I took the chance to quietly ask Seung-hoon.

“Jin-hwi was charging at me like his life depended on it earlier. Do you know why?”

“Ah, that… Um… well, it was just something said in passing, but Jin-hwi and Yu-jin are dating, you know?”

“Yeah. I figured as much.”

“Their elements, fire and wind, are a good match, so they were talking about how nice it would be if they were on the same team someday. Ridiculous, right? It’s not like they get to decide. You have to have skills like you. Ah, you were really strong, by the way.”

“Was I?”

I hadn’t even brought out my demonic horns, let alone my demonic wings. Not to mention I hadn’t summoned my spirits either.

“Yeah. You were crazy strong, right?”

“Wow, I was seriously impressed,” Choi Yoon-sik added, backing him up.

“The way you shot those arrows, cleared away that wall of fire, and then made another arrow from it to blow up his fireball. Honestly, it was obvious you were holding back.”

“You think so…?”

“And you’re even buying us all this beef. I mean, you’re buying a meal for people who aren’t even on your team, yet I don’t hear any thank yous?”

“Thank you!” “Thank you!” the other two, sitting at the next table, chorused. I gave them a casual wave and turned back to Seung-hoon and Yoon-sik.

“This might be hard to stomach while you’re eating, but I’ll give you a rough idea of our upcoming schedule. Or should we wait until she gets here?”

“Maybe we should? No, wait, there she is.”

Just then, Han Yu-jin walked into the restaurant.

“I’m sorry!”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Ms. Yu-jin. Please, sit here. We were just about to talk about our schedule.”

“Ah, yes!”

“Okay, so it’s the beginning of October, the start of the last quarter of the year. We’re going to take it easy this quarter. When a team is first formed like this, you have to get used to working together, right? Just like how you all got a feel for gate conquests as trainee team members, our team will also have a probationary period to get into the swing of things.”

Usually, the quarter in which a team is formed is treated as a probationary period, and even training contributes to your contribution points.

As a side note, my interview would be conducted at the end of the year and released at the start of the next, which would grant me 1000 contribution points for the first quarter.

“So, this quarter, we’ll be alternating between conquests and training. You can think of our real activities as starting from the first quarter of next year. Any questions?”

“What kind of training will we be doing?”

“Right now, I don’t know what we’re lacking… so we’ll probably do a conquest, find our weaknesses, and then work on improving those areas. Still, Seung-hoon, you keep practicing your form manipulation and stability.”

“Okay. I’ll work hard from now on.”

“And that’s all of us from Elemental, just the four of us. It’s a small team, right? We’ll gradually add more members as we continue with conquests… and we’ll also have one person coming from Merci Academy. So we’re not a complete team yet, but there’s something we should discuss in advance.”

This was important.

“How hard do you want to work in the guild? What I mean is, how often do you want to go out on gate conquests?”

The required contribution points per quarter was 3000.

It was possible to just meet the 3000 points and then slack off. Anything less would incur a penalty, so that was out.

My succubus life meant I preferred a relaxed schedule, but who knew? Maybe one of them was ambitious—

“I don’t have a preference,” said Han Yu-jin, abstaining.

“I’ll go with whatever you decide, Team Leader,” said Choi Yoon-sik, also abstaining.

“I’d prefer to take things a bit easy…” said Baek Seung-hoon, casting one vote for a relaxed pace.

With one vote for ‘take it easy’ and two abstentions, ‘Let’s take it easy’ won.

Naturally, all eyes turned to Seung-hoon.

“What, what! Honestly, the base salary is huge… We could use that time to train more and make gate runs safer, and also—”

“Hyung, you don’t train. You’re always out drinking.”

“What do you mean, ‘always drinking’? You came with me, how can you say that? You were always right there, mooching drinks off me—”

As you could tell from him calling the 20-year-old Baek Seung-hoon ‘hyung,’ Choi Yoon-sik was a minor. He was 19.

“What are you talking about? Anyway, the Team Leader must have his own preferences. Is it right for you to just say, ‘Let’s take it easy~’ like that?”

“It’s not like I said we have to do it that way, just that I’d prefer it. Obviously, if Han-gyeol—I mean, the Team Leader—says, ‘We’re going hard!’ then I’ll go along with it.”

“Hmm… Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t really believe you, hyung.”

“Aish, this kid is making me sound weird.”

“That’s enough. Honestly, I don’t really mind either. Hitting our quota and then using the rest of the time for personal training isn’t a bad idea.”

“See? Yoon-sik, you’re still in high school so you wouldn’t know, but non-Awakened kids our age are all living as university freshmen, just drinking all the time. Just like how they play around freely and then start preparing for jobs in their third or fourth year, we can also take it easy for now and go hard later.”

“…Is that true?”

“Not for those reasons, but I have other business to attend to as well.”

For instance—

“No matter how I look at it, you’d be a perfect fit for our Yua Dokjon guild… Not that I’m insisting you join.”

—the business of seducing the young master of a conglomerate?