C10: First Battle (1)
– 20km walk. [20km/20km] (Completed!)
– 500 squats. [500/500] (Completed!)
– 200 push-ups. [200/200] (Completed!)
– 300 sit-ups. [300/300] (Completed!)
undefined– 150 chin-ups. [150/150] (Completed!)
“Whoa…I finished today’s tasks!”
Seo-joon nodded satisfactorily as he looked at the five ’Completed!’ reflected on the smartphone screen. And the sun was still in the middle of the sky.
“It seems like my completion speed is getting faster and faster.”
Just a few weeks ago, he had to spend the whole day to complete the tasks but now he could finish them before his break at work was over.
He was almost three times faster and Seo-joon knew better than anyone that all those things didn’t make sense.
Even so, Seo-joon’s body was transformed in just a few weeks while other people would need one year of training.
However, perhaps because of the task correction effect of the Transcension Academy, Seo Jun was able to shorten the time of one year to several weeks
He could get stronger just by listening to the lectures there.
“It’s an interesting academy no matter how I think about it.”
Seo-joon burst into laughter while staring at his smartphone.
“I think I can do Xiang Yu’s assignment today.”
It has been a week since Seo Jun took Xiang Yu’s lecture, but only three days since he started doing the assignments. In addition, he has only attended the lectures twice.
There were several reasons for that, but he didn’t expect that Xiang Yu’s task would be to swing a spear 5000 times.
Xiang Yu said just swing the spear, but without a certain speed, strength, and sense of purpose, the swings won’t be counted. Above all, he had a hard time getting a weapon classified as a spear.
Of course, if he went to a Hunter-only store, they would have it there and it was available not only to professional hunters but also to students but Seo-joon didn’t have the money to buy it.
Professional hunters’ equipment was not worth a penny or two, and Seo-joon was in a hurry to pay for his living right now.
So Seo-joon swung a long stick seriously and fortunately it counted.
In fact, it was preferable to call it a staf rather than a spear, but as Monkey King said, the difference between the two was not so great among the transcendents.
“I want to get a proper spear, but…”
Still, staffs and spears were quite different.
‘I wish I could get a practice spear at least.’
“Come to think of it, don’t they sell items at the Transcension Academy?”
Since they have lectures and ads they should also have a store.
While Seo-joon thought about it, he looked around the Transcension Academy.
<Training equipment made by successful students.>
“Oh, there is!”
Seo-joon clicked on the link with a trembling heart. Then, pictures of various weapons were listed one after another.
[Imitation] – Misteltein.
[Imitation] – Excalibur.
[Counterfeit] – Spear of Longinus
.
.
“Wow… is this just for training?”
Seo-joon was fascinated and admired them.
Seo-joon had no eye for weapons, but all of them were unusual. He wouldn’t know if they were genuine if the word imitation wasn’t in front of them.
It was only then that Seo-joon could recognize that the works made by successful students were the same as those made by transcendents.
‘I could get tens of billions of won if I brought them to reality and sold them.’
Seo-joon clicked on Longinus’ window. It is said to have stabbed Jesus when he was on the cross.
<We are measuring the appropriate price by calculating the causal rate··>
.
<100,000,000 ￦>
“This law of causality is…”
It was 100 million won. Of course, even considering that it was an imitation, it could be considered that 100 million won would be a free gift.
As he said, in reality, it was worth tens of billions. However, it was an amount that Seo-joon couldn’t even dream of.
“I’d rather close my eyes and get a loan to do business with this…”
And at the same time as he thought about it, a notification window popped up on the smartphone screen.
(This product was made for junior students by successful students and secondary sales are strictly prohibited.)
“Of course it is.”
Seo-joon smiled.
It may be nothing more than a warning, but since he experienced the Transcension Academy, he did not know what would happen if he ignored it.
“After all, it’s money…”
However, as Seo-joon was now, he could only earn money from the monster bodies’ transportation work.
As his daily wage was 200.000 won he needed to work 500 days without spending anything.
Of course, if Seo-joon participated in dungeon raids, he could earn several times more than he does now. However, dungeon raids by non-professional hunters were prohibited by law.
“That’s why I was going to enter an academy…”
Cadets attending the government-approved Hunter Academies will be issued temporary certificates with the consent of officials.
In the early days, there was a lot of talk about whether the government was supporting the Hunter Academies. However, as the awakened age began, the Professional Hunter Association itself accepted these restrictions to protect their benefits.
So Seo-joon was going to enter a Hunter Academy to make money and train at the same time, but now all of that has gone wrong.
“I can’t help it for now.”
Seo-joon shook off his disappointment.
“Break time is over! Back to work!”
And just in time, a cry came to announce that the break time was over.
The transportation of corpses did not mean merely carrying them, to be exact they only transported the useful parts since not all monster bodies were valuable.
Therefore, the useless parts of the body had to be picked out and removed, and of course that was the job of the carrier.
Only the horns, teeth, tendons and leather were valuable from the 4-star manticore corpse.
Seo-joon skillfully dismantled the bodies of manticores.
He split the leather smoothly and removed the tendons. He stuttered when he first started this job but got used to it after 9 years. Now, he could dismantle most monsters’ bodies with his eyes closed.
“Hey, how can you find a tendon so quickly? Are you a clairvoyant?”
“Haha, I just thought it was around here, but it came out right away.”
Of course, even considering that, Seo-joon’s work speed was incredibly fast.
‘Is this also the effect of the lectures?’
Seo-joon continued his work with more excitement and Man-Cheol, who was looking at Seo-joon.
“What the hell happened in the hospital…?”
Man-cheol shook his head and walked to the pile of dead bodies. Suddenly, however, the pile of manticore bodies shook.
“Huh? What is it?”
Man-cheol approached the bodies and just as he was about to check,
“Kieek!”
Suddenly, a creepy scream leaked out of the pile of corpses. It was a sound that should never be heard from there.
“What’s going on?”
“What was that?”
The people who were working stopped and looked in the direction where the sound was heard from.
“What is it?”
And it wasn’t different in Seo-joon’s case.
Just as people were looking, something suddenly came out from a pile of dead bodies. It was a ferocious quadrupedal monster with a large size.
“Oh my god!”
It was none other than a manticore.
“Manticore!”
“Why is there a living manticore here? Weren’t all of them dead?”
“There’s no time for that! Everyone, run away!”
The scene quickly became a disaster as people started fleeing in confusion.
Seo-joon instinctively turned around and ran away since only an awakened could deal with monsters.
More than 100 years ago, when the early awakened appeared, people knew and believed so but over time, research was done, and it turned out to be untrue.
To be exact, the only ones who could deal with monsters were those who could use mana.
People called them hunters and praised them as heroes in the early days of the cataclysm.
Seo-joon was an awakened person and was qualified to use mana but he couldn’t. Even though he took lectures it was still impossible for him.
So Seo-joon ran away without thinking while turning his head slightly and looking at the manticore.
“Old man!”
“Run away, Seo-joon! Don’t worry about me and run!”
“Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
Seo-joon saw the manticore roaring toward Man-cheol, who was closest to the pile of corpses and he stopped running.
“What are you doing? I told you to run away!”
Man-cheol shouted at Seo-joon but Seo-joon didn’t listen. He could survive if he ran away because he had been training.
However Man-Cheol, who is only an ordinary person, will soon be caught by Manticore and his body will be torn to shreds like a piece of paper.
‘What about the hunters? Park Seo-yoon was here before.’
Seo-joon shook his head right away. Since there was no hunter around he had to save Man-cheol.
Seo-joon clenched his fist, he was worried for a moment but he acted quickly.
While looking around he found an iron bar thrown randomly and ran and grabbed it. It was a long iron bar that was common in construction plates.
Seo-joon clasped the iron bar. He couldn’t catch the manticore since he couldn’t use mana so he had to distract it until hunters got here.
Above all, even if you can use mana, the manticore is a four-star monster and even professional hunters will struggle against it.
However, since he had been training so far, he would be able to distract it for a while. Nevertheless, some hesitation and fear hold Seo-joon back.
Just then, like a hallucination, Shakyamuni’s words were heard into Seo-joon’s ears.
[You’re the universe. A universe that observes the world, thinks about where it came from, what this world is, and where it is going now.]
His emotions calmed down immediately. Although his heart was beating as if it would explode his head and reason were cold like ice.
Seo-joon kicked the ground without any hesitation and narrowed his distance with the manticore.
‘He noticed it?’
Man-cheol suddenly turned to Seo-joon.
“Kieeaek!!”
After the manticore roared, a tremendous amount of killing intent struck Seo-joon and made his mind ache but he didn’t stop running.
The manticore also rushed at Seo-Jun as if scratching the floor with all four legs.
The distance between the two narrowed quickly and a creepy feeling of pressure struck Seo-joon as the manticore swung its sharp front foot towards him but just then he heard Chiron’s words in his head.
[If you think, judge, and move or it’ll be too late! Move the moment you see it and leave the judgment to the senses! That is the sixth sense!]
Seo-joon looked straight at the approaching manticore paw but didn’t feel anything. However, when Seo-joon recognized the action, his body leaned back as far as he could and the manticore front paw passed by the front of his eyes.
“Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”
The manticore who was angry that its attack missed roared even more fiercely.
Seo-joon put strength in his legs and jumped up.
“Kieek?”
The manticore was taken aback when Seo-joon disappeared from its view.
‘An opening! But how should I attack?’
As if to tell the answer, Xiang Yu’s voice was heard.
[Reversal divergence does not simply mean power, it’s about the spirit. Don’t doubt a single stroke of yours will split a mountain.]
Seo-joon gripped the iron bar even tighter.
At this moment, Seo-joon did not think about any offensive methods like swinging, stabbing and cutting.
[Reverse divergence! The power to split a mountain!]
There was a tremendous explosion along with the dizzying pain felt in his hand and a while later as the thick cloud of dust dispersed.
“Oh, my God…”
“How…”
There was an unknown silence.
The fleeing people stopped and looked at the amazing scene as the manticore was split into two and couldn’t even be recognized.
As there was no need to run away now, people just stared blankly at the presence standing at the center.
<Chiron lecture progress +10% (21.5%)>
<Shakyamuni lecture progress +2.6% (5.1%)>
<Xiang Yu Lecture Progress +13% (19.7%)>
At that moment, Seo-joon’s smartphone rang loudly and informed him of something. It was only then that Seo-joon came to his senses.
“What?”
And tilted his head.
“Why was it pierced?”
Seo-joon was puzzled by the situation in front of him.
