In the eyes of an Alphaurin, the outcome of the situation already seemed all but decided. Jung Haseong had not only taken a direct blow to the liver, but also a side kick squarely to the temple.
‘Relying on the counterattack function built into the Sword of Sunset would be difficult. After all this time, the master’s magic power stored in the cylinder must be almost completely depleted by now.’
Whether in his homeland or in this world called Earth, the brain had always been regarded as one of the most vital and fragile weak points of any living creature. After taking repeated blows to such vulnerable areas, could Jung Haseong really cast another spell?
‘I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect that much from a primitive wizard.’
While the two S-rank hunters were locked in their fierce battle, Kim Giryeo was frantically typing out a message on his phone.
He desperately wanted to run away, just as his young disciple had suggested. But after seeing the scene unfolding before him, it was obvious that Korea’s top-ranked hunter was heading toward defeat. And with the frail body of an F-rank hunter, there was no possible way Giryeo could escape Kang Changho’s pursuit, no matter what he tried.
‘Please. Please check my message quickly. Please...!’
Giryeo finally sent the completed message.
And at that exact moment, Kang Changho seized his target by the hair.
Giryeo looked up from his phone and opened his mouth in shock.
“Aaargh!”
Jung Haseong.
As the wielder of one of the most common attributes on Earth, he should never have found himself in such a predicament. Yet because he had chosen to side with a certain scammer, Jung Haseong was now being subjected to brutal violence for the first time in his life.
Watching him, Giryeo wondered whether he should start shouting insults to draw the battle mage’s hostility toward himself instead.
Bubbling...
But then he sensed something.
Rather than the bubbling of boiling water, it felt more like air being blown beneath the surface of a cold sea.
Had Giryeo not sensed that flow, he would have acted on his thought.
It had been roughly two weeks since the second half of Jung Haseong and Kim Giryeo’s private lessons had begun.
And at the beginning of that second phase, an unnamed archmage had taught one particular spell to one of Earth’s weaklings—a spell he had been especially eager to pass on.
– Jung Haseong. From now on, watch my hands carefully.
More precisely, he had shown the pyromancer a beautiful glimpse of what was possible.
“This is the skill you should ultimately aim for.”
It was as though he had been born from fire itself.
The back of his hand glowed as brightly as heated metal fresh from a forge, and a crimson heat of 600°C slowly began to rise from it.
Whether this desire was something peculiar to Alphaurins, he couldn’t say. But in his homeland, there had never been many mages capable of wielding fire.
And the few eccentrics who did specialize in it tended to share the same ultimate goal.
They wanted their very bodies to become fire.
Not merely to resist flames, but to generate overwhelming heat within their own blood vessels and flesh, transforming themselves into miraculous all-purpose weapons that could torment an enemy for the simple crime of coming too close.
– At first, start by keeping the fire as close to your body as possible.
– Once you become a little more accustomed to it, the next step is to nurture the weakest flame you can create. Gently, as though you were petting an animal.
– It sounds ridiculous, but it isn’t wrong. As a fire-attribute awakener, you’ll need to gradually become comfortable with the danger of fire itself.
But it was still too soon...
What Giryeo had taught him was merely the basic principle.
That primitive magician had not even fully reinforced his basic magical barrier yet. If he attempted anything beyond that, his own body would burn together with the flames.
Snap!
Tak, tak.
A spark flashed briefly in Jung Haseong’s dark eyes.
Having surrendered his preferred distance, Korea’s number-one hunter had been forced entirely onto the defensive. And now he realized that he would never defeat Kang Changho through conventional means.
So, with the recklessness of youth, he made his decision.
“Huh?”
The instant Kang Changho completely closed the distance between them, Jung Haseong grabbed him and unleashed a fire spell.
With his opponent physically restrained, no amount of agility would allow Kang Changho to easily escape the technique.
It all happened in an instant.
The moment Jung Haseong caught his arm, Kang Changho realized he had fallen into a trap.
But by then, the spell had already been completed.
Whoosh!
A violent burst of complete combustion erupted from the spot where the two men stood.
The flames were a flawless blue.
‘It can’t be!’
Giryeo stared in shock.
Jung Haseong had unleashed such a powerful skill at point-blank range without excluding himself from its area of effect.
It was an outrageously reckless move.
And yet, surprisingly, the result was nowhere near as disastrous as Giryeo had expected.
“Huh?”
Cough, cough.
The fire mage emerged from the dissipating smoke, coughing after inhaling the scorching air.
His skin bore only minor, superficial first-degree burns.
More importantly, his desperate plan had succeeded.
He had inflicted considerable damage on his opponent.
Swish.
That familiar, unpleasant vibration sounded from somewhere nearby.
Just before his entire body could be consumed by the flames, Kang Changho had escaped the fiery prison by pouring his remaining mana into the muscles of his calves.
But Jung Haseong’s attack had been an all-or-nothing gamble.
And Kang Changho’s right arm—the part that had remained trapped in the flames the longest—had suffered severe damage.
“—...”
Swish.
It was strange when you thought about it.
Despite both his personality and his intimidating physique, Korea’s third S-rank hunter was a man who almost always smiled.
Looking back, Giryeo couldn’t remember ever seeing him openly display anger—not even something as simple as furrowing his brow.
Apparently, Kang Changho had been telling the truth when he said he had never truly become angry before.
He might experience mild irritation or discomfort, but whenever something displeased him, he usually responded by lifting the corners of his mouth into a faint smirk.
“...This really isn’t what I expected.”
But even a man as habitually cheerful as Kang Changho could not simply endure the pain of having his arm burned.
Before long, the large man’s expression visibly twisted.
Like most Earthlings, he reacted to the burning pain in an entirely ordinary way.
He grimaced.
Unlike Kim Giryeo, after all, Kang Changho’s pain receptors were still functioning perfectly well.
But at that moment, the distortion of his expression was the least important thing.
“The power of your skill has increased.”
Kang Changho quickly retreated exactly ten paces.
Once he had opened enough distance between them, he looked down at the burned muscles of his arm and spoke.
Body-enhancement skills naturally strengthened the body’s defenses as well.
And Kang Changho, like any modern person, had no particular fondness for being injured. For that reason, he had always carried equipment that further increased his defensive ability.
That was why he wore so many accessories on his hands.
After encountering an S-rank fire-attribute awakener in the past, he had become convinced that with those precautions in place, he could withstand most flames without much difficulty, even if he took them head-on.
But...
“Not long ago, you could barely control your own ability. You were struggling even with the brake... and now you can suddenly use something like this?”
He had been injured by an opponent he had assumed posed no serious threat.
Kang Changho continued examining his damaged arm with obvious interest, then praised Jung Haseong’s growth.
Apparently, the yellow-haired teacher had been giving him some very useful advice.
“Anyway, the more I think about it, the stranger this gets.”
But as usual, Kang Changho’s calm demeanor was statistically a very bad sign.
One of his arms might have been burned nearly beyond use, but the rest of his body still functioned perfectly well.
More importantly, unlike hunters who regularly consumed potions during frequent dungeon expeditions, Kang Changho had an ample supply of healing items to spare.
Material resources mattered even in the middle of a battle.
And if the fight continued like this, its eventual outcome was obvious.
Thump, thump, thump.
Someone’s heart pounded as though it were about to burst.
The hunter, whose massive physique resembled that of some wild predator, slowly began to walk forward.
But then—
One step.
Two steps.
The Earthling sorcerer, who had been advancing with complete confidence as though ready to resume the battle at any moment, suddenly froze.
His hand rose to his face.
“—...”
Drip.
A thin red line ran down from the outer corner of his eye.
Kang Changho was suddenly crying blood from his right eye.
Blood.
Out of nowhere.
Blood.
Realizing what had happened, Kang Changho covered the bleeding eye and turned his head.
There was only one person who could have launched an attack this unexpected.
“It worked!”
At the end of Kang Changho’s bloodshot gaze stood Kim Giryeo.
Clutching the body of his cheap smartphone tightly, Giryeo silently celebrated.
An enormous incident had broken out, with S-rank hunters openly exchanging blows.
Earlier, in his panic, Giryeo had blurted out that someone should call 112.
But once he thought about it rationally, what could low-ranked awakened police officers possibly accomplish in a situation like this?
<Sent Message[Recipient: Seo Esther]
[Hunter, you told me before that you still owed me a debt. Then could you repay that debt right now? I mean Kang Changho. Please put a powerful curse on Kang Changho. As soon as you see this message.]
[This is really urgent.]
In order to save Jung Haseong, who was clearly at a disadvantage, Kim Giryeo had finally called upon one of the connections he had been saving.
Fortunately, the curse sorcerer who owed the alien a considerable favor was currently outside a dungeon.
That meant she was able to answer his request at exactly the right moment.
And yet not so much as a single strand of Seo Esther’s hair could be found anywhere on this white-sand beach.
Then where, exactly, was she granting her benefactor’s request from?
“—...”
Kang Changho recognized the culprit almost immediately from the sheer intensity of the skill.
“Today... I heard the Magic Tower Guild is holding some kind of mana-resource event.”
The target of the curse muttered seemingly unrelated information as he adjusted the corners of his mouth.
Perhaps the inflammation and localized bleeding caused by the curse hurt less than the burns inflicted by an S-rank hunter, because his sneer remained intact.
“The representative of the Korean Magic Tower must be sitting comfortably at headquarters right about now...”
What was the greatest advantage of curse magic?
Some would point to the sheer variety of effects that could be inflicted on a target.
But the true power of a curse was revealed through its “range.”
Esther was an extraordinary psychic.
From the upper floors of the Korean Magic Tower building in Guro-gu, Seoul, she was capable of extending her influence all the way to the shores of Incheon on the West Sea.
But the stronger a curse was, the greater the price demanded for that performance.
And among all those drawbacks, one particular problem stood above the rest.
“Huh.”
Sincerity.
Whether in this tiny planetary system or in an alien homeland, the principle remained the same.
When it came to curses, the ‘individual’ was such an important component that even the slightest lack of genuine feeling could cause the spell to fail altogether.
And such failures were hardly rare.
“Seriously...”
A primitive sorcerer from Earth had managed to cast a curse across dozens of kilometers, crossing the distance between cities...
Kang Changho clutched his head and began to speak, his words little more than an expression of sheer exasperation.
“Right. I knew Esther had some kind of close relationship with you, Kim Giryeo. But how can someone go this far?”
“Uhm...”
“This is way too powerful.”
“Hmm?”
“Honestly, I’ve never even had a proper conversation with Representative Seo. I deliberately avoided her. And after all that consideration on my part, this feels like being stabbed by a complete stranger I just happened to pass on the street...”
The reptilian-eyed man could not help but feel genuinely offended by the strength of the curse.
There was a reason for that.
Kang Changho had already learned that awakeners possessing the skill (Curse) tended to be highly sensitive to emotional fluctuations.
With people like that, provoking unnecessary resentment brought no benefit whatsoever.
That was precisely why he had deliberately avoided meeting the Guild Master of the Korean Magic Tower.
Kang Changho and Korea’s second-ranked hunter had never once met privately.
Not even once.
Given his natural personality, if he had dealt with Esther face-to-face, she would probably have developed a grudge against the large man within seconds.
So, in a sense, avoiding her had been a wise decision.
Or at least, that was what he had thought.
The alien archmage had solved the entire problem simply by swallowing his pride and approaching her first.
“I never thought of it that way. It really was a good decision not to meet Hunter Esther in person. Just from the way she behaves, I can already tell we’re fundamentally incompatible...”
As anyone could now see, Kang Changho’s strategy had failed.
If the strength of a curse-type awakening skill changed according to the caster’s anger, then wasn’t it easier to simply avoid situations that might provoke those emotions instead of awkwardly trying to win the person over?
That had been Kang Changho’s reasoning.
So he had spent all this time avoiding Esther.
And in truth, he had done an excellent job of it.
However...
<New Message[Sender: Seo Esther]
[I did what you asked. Did it help? I’m worried because I don’t know what’s happening, but I didn’t want to call you recklessly.]
[I’ll keep the curse active until you contact me again, Giryeo-ssi. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.]
The belief that no resentment could form as long as two people never met—
Only someone who fundamentally misunderstood curse-wielders could believe something like that.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Seo Esther possessed a far milder temperament than most typical curse users.
Even so, a faint current of irritability still ran through the very core of her personality.
A man, because he was a man.
A woman, because she was a woman.
A child, because they were young.
An elder, because they were old.
Perhaps it was because of the provocative media of the modern age, or perhaps there was some other reason.
Whatever the cause, that sorcerer fundamentally felt no affection whatsoever for the members of society around her.
There was always some reason to dislike them.
To Korea’s second-ranked hunter, the world itself was living proof of the theory that human beings were inherently evil—a collection of everything dreadful about mankind.
But Esther’s personality was an enormous advantage when it came to using her skill.
Even when she had little or no direct relationship with the target, if it was for the sake of repaying a benefactor, this S-rank curse-wielder could sincerely condemn a complete stranger and wish misfortune upon them at any time.
“—...”
And to make matters worse for Kang Changho, Esther’s personal values placed criminals at the very bottom of humanity.
Thud.
His blood boiled within him.
Before long, Kang Changho found himself in a position he could never have imagined: being steadily cornered by Korea’s highest-ranked hunters, Seo Esther and Jung Haseong.
And in a way, perhaps this could be seen as the reward awaiting someone at the end of a selfless act.
Look.
Wasn’t the enormous egoist who had always placed his own interests above the safety of others now collapsing according to the will of someone who had spent his life enduring every imaginable kind of harm and loss?
‘Once this is over, I’ll make sure to bribe the curse-wielder generously...’
Of course, his motives were hardly pure.
But even if the numbers behind his rank had been falsified, Kim Giryeo was still officially registered as an S-rank hunter in South Korea.
To anyone unaware of the hypocrisy behind his actions, he would simply look like a remarkably virtuous man.
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