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Boom!
The sand golem’s fist fell against the floor of sand.
“Argh!”
Hyun Woojung, a rookie A-class hunter, barely managed to avoid it by rolling on the ground. All the while, he stayed on alert, but it wasn’t easy preparing for the next attack. It was because a dense cloud of dust had formed, obscuring his vision.
“Behind you.”
Hyun Woojung turned back upon hearing Kang Inheon’s voice. Only then did he discover the golem’s presence amidst the dusty haze. Thanks to that, he was able to avoid the golem’s kick by a hair’s width.
“Ahhh! I almost died again!”
“I-it’s too fast!” The barrier maker, Jung Soohyun, yelled in shock.
From a common-sense viewpoint, it was an impossible speed. The golem would dart back and forth in the blink of an eye, even though the movement speed of giant golems would usually be slow and dull.
However, the golem, made of sand lumped together into a mass of rock, would only be second to an S-class monster when encountered in the desert. The entire expanse of sand beneath their feet was no different from the golem itself.
The golem suddenly transformed into sand and moved while plunging into the ground, its speed so fast that it was difficult for them to handle. It felt like confronting a shark in the ocean while being completely naked. They knew what to do in theory, but they couldn’t handle that speed once they faced it in reality.
“Haaa!”
Aiming for an opportunity, Hunter Lee Cheoljin jumped high into the air. He swung both arms back and used the strength of his entire body to make a big swing with his great sword. He was aiming for the golem’s core, but Inheon watched on with indifference. The swing seemed a little too short.
Clang!
“Ugh—!”
The rock wasn’t sliced, but the impact shot back through the sword as it was. Lee Cheoljin was ruthlessly flung to the sandy ground. Hyun Woojung yelled, “Physical attacks are difficult to execute properly!”
For a golem whose entire body was made of lumpy stones, physical attacks were akin to hitting a rock with an egg. Unless they attacked the core between the upper part of its neck and under its mandible, they wouldn’t be able to land a proper blow on it. However, as that was its vital point, it protected it with its solid chin and left almost no openings, rendering it difficult to aim at.
“Haa, ha…”
As was natural for a desert, the air was hot and dry. Sand stuck to their skin, which was covered in sweat, and further drained their energy. Lee Cheoljin wiped the sweat and sand from his eyes using his sleeve and exclaimed, “Ugh, this is so frustrating! Is there any way to shatter solid rock?”
“…What if we use consecutive ice and fire attacks…?”
The eyes of the three discussing their countermeasures headed towards Inheon. He nodded his head slightly.
Interpreting that as a positive sign, the hunters alternated between directing pulses of cold and hot properties at the golem. However, no matter how many times they subjected it to heat and cold, the rocks composing the golem refused to break so easily.
The movements of the hunters pouring out pulse slowly turned heavier, but that wasn’t the case for the golem. The rate at which rocks rained down from all four directions remained constant, yet their ability to evade them gradually declined in speed.
Although they managed to narrowly avoid them, they couldn’t stop scratches from appearing here and there on their bodies and faces. Their skin was torn by the flying rock fragments, and though blood oozed from the wounds, it quickly congealed with the sand before it could even trickle down. As the fierce battle lengthened, an urgent scream was heard.
“Ah! Uwaak!”
Even though Hyun Woojung saw the mass of rock flying above his head, he couldn’t avoid it. It wasn’t because he froze out of shock. A part of the sand golem had fused with the sandy ground and grabbed Hyun Woojung’s weakened legs.
Boom!
Inheon fashioned a lengthy spear with his pulse and thrust it towards the ground. A blue line appeared as the sandy floor split and fractured, freeing Hyun Woojung’s foot in the process.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Ugh!”
Bang! The rock fell to the ground. It was only after he narrowly dodged the rock that a barrier materialised in the air with a clang. If his foot hadn’t been released, he’d have been pinned to the ground and turned into powder.
“Ljj, tj, tjj…”
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“But…”
“It’s too fast.”
Indiscriminate attacks weren’t easy either, and they were too tired to plan out complicated attacks now.
“We can’t keep up with it at all…”
Inheon followed as well and shook his hair, which was clotted with sand. He had grown tired long ago. Still, he responded kindly, “Even if you don’t chase it, it’ll come after you on its own, you know?”
“…What?”
“There’s only one of it and three of you, so why do you keep thinking you all have to run after it?”
“…Ah!”
Hyun Woojung, who had been evading the airborne rocks, emitted a sound akin to shattering stone.
“We can guide its course of movement and wait for it!”
“So digging a trap?”
The hunters exchanged glances. Lee Cheoljin jumped high into the air again and swung his sword.
Clang!
Although the sound of impact was loud, far from slicing the rock, Lee Cheoljin’s body was thrown far back instead. However, this time, it was an intended result.
“Kuuu!”
The golem burrowed into the sand. In the most literal sense, the golem reached the spot where Lee Cheoljin had been propelled in the blink of an eye.
It tried to drag Lee Cheoljin, who hadn’t yet taken on a defensive posture, into the sand, but it was blocked by a hard wall of sorts. Jung Soohyun had already wrapped a barrier around the area where Lee Cheoljin fell.
The golem, which couldn’t drag in its prey, attempted to escape outside the sand, but even its attempt was blocked. However, as it continued to go bang! bang! against the barrier, the shock ended up tearing it.
The golem soared out from the sandy ground again. At that very moment, Lee Cheoljin stabbed his sword into the inner side of its neck.
“Hahaha!”
“It’s wedged in!”
Though that only lasted for a moment as the golem lowered its chin and cracked the blade of the sword. It was unbelievable that a blade imbued with pulse could be broken so easily. Lee Cheoljin was speechless. He was once again amazed by Kang Inheon, who didn’t infuse pulse into his weapons but instead crafted them entirely from it.
A fist made of stone flew from above Lee Cheoljin’s head again, but Jung Soohyun, who was prepared for the golem’s attack, had already erected a barrier.
Hyun Woojung, who was behind them, ran across the sandy ground and jumped up.
With all his might, he thrust his spear into the golem’s neck, taking advantage of its lowered head, which exposed its nape.
Clang!
Finally, the spear was driven into the rock. With both the front and back of its neck wedged between a sword and a spear, it seemed as if its core had finally been pierced.
Is it over? The hunters remained breathless.
“Kuaaa!”
However, contrary to their expectations, the golem didn’t fall. Rather, it ran even wilder than before. Boom, boom! The rocks it threw flew indiscriminately.
“Ugh, that crazy…!”
Their exhausted bodies couldn’t evade all the rocks, and as the barrier weakened, it proved unable to withstand a large rock, tearing apart. Jung Soohyun barely managed to avoid it before catching sight of another flying rock, and he shut his eyes tight.
However, what actually flew above his head were small and neatly cut stones. Amidst the flying rocks, Inheon only sliced through the hazardous ones and said, “Use the shortcuts now.”
“Oh…”
The sword and spear stuck in the front and back of its neck were already imbued with the hunters’ pulse, so there was no need to aim again. As heat and coldness were alternately unleashed, the pulses of the same attribute embedded in the golem’s neck responded with the same temperature.
“Kuo, kuooo!”
Cracks began to form along the golem’s neck. As the cracks slowly deepened, they emitted a reddish glow that resembled a flame.
“Get down.”
The hunters laid down on the ground, and the instant the barrier was cast—
Boom! The golem exploded.
A strong sandstorm had formed. The giant golem transformed into real sand and dispersed into the air. The only figure left standing amidst the dissipating dust was Inheon.
“Ha…”
As Lee Cheoljin gazed at him with a blank expression, he received a mouthful of sand and belatedly started coughing and spitting it out. It was only when the sandstorm subsided that the hunters truly grasped their victory.
“It’s over! It’s all over!”
“I almost died…”
“D-did we clear it?”
Everyone looked at Inheon as they remained spread out on the sandy floor, not even having the strength to get up.
“Well…” Inheon smiled as brightly as the desert’s sunlight and continued, “Shouldn’t you finish the review as well for it to be considered a clear?”
“…What?”
“Try it again with only the three of you.”
Inheon looked somewhere in the air.
Ruuumble!
Another sand golem rose from the floor of sand. It was even bigger than the last one. Looking at the golem, the hunters screamed in shock, “N-no, Inhunter-nim!”
“We don’t even have the strength to lift a finger!”
“Let us rest for ten—no, just five minutes…!”
“You’ve lost some stamina, but since you’ve familiarised yourself with the attack strategy now, the balance will be right.”
Of course, just as the hunters had familiarised themselves with the attack strategy, the golem would’ve also learned their attack pattern from earlier, but they needed to solve applied problems in order to complete the review.
Inheon leisurely backed away and yelled out “fighting”.
“No, don’t go!”
“Aargh, save me!”
The voices of the rookie hunters could be faintly heard. As he went past the designated area, the hologram shook. The surroundings underwent an instant transformation, shifting from the desert where the golem had been to an ordinary training centre with researchers and staff.
“Good work!” A researcher handed Inheon a cold ionic drink. He briefly thanked them as he accepted it, “Thank you.”
“Was it hot?”
“Not really. I think we’ll need to raise the temperature about 10% for optimisation.”
The interior temperature set for the rookies’ training couldn’t even be considered a warm-up exercise for him, so despite it being a desert setting, Inheon hadn’t even broken a sweat.
The newly established virtual reality dungeon system was suitable for hands-on training. Although it was virtual reality, the brain perceived everything from the temperature felt to the attacks suffered as real, so if you were to die in there, you could actually die for real. Like freezing to death inside an inoperable cold storage.
Inheon checked the hunters’ attack patterns through the monitor. Despite the three of them all being tired, they were doing better than before. He had stayed with them in case they got hurt, but he believed that this much was good enough. Despite having whined about not having any actual experience, they were, after all, A-Class hunters.
Should we go underwater next time? While Inheon was deciding on the next training location, one of the researchers said, “Inhunter-nim, I really admire you…”
When Inheon looked at them, they continued, “I’ve been to various hunter companies, but this is my first time seeing a top hunter looking over newbies’ training.”
The other researchers nodded their heads as well. “Since their admired Inhunter-nim is teaching them himself, the newbie’s motivation is no joke.”
“It’s only natural that their skills are making quick progress…”
“I don’t have the ability to fly yet, so please don’t put me on too high of a pedestal,” Inheon responded indifferently, and the researchers raised their voices.
“How do you manage to teach them so well that it repeatedly fills us with admiration?”
“There are other things you can be modest about, but this is certainly the most expensive out of all the donations Inhunter-nim has made!”
The researchers hit their chests at Inheon’s excessive humility. Usually, the higher ranked a hunter was, the more they’d only focus on their personal training instead of watching over the training of new recruits. There were training instructors as well, but many hunters thought of that position as a demotion. It was only natural since clearing high-level dungeons was the best way to earn the most money and rise to fame.
Thanks to Inheon, top hunters in every company began overseeing the training of new recruits, the act spreading as if it were some kind of trend. While most of them couldn’t hold out for long and fizzled out, Inheon always remained consistent.
However, Inheon listened halfheartedly to the praise that was directed at him. His objective wasn’t as pure as people thought, so he had no interest in what the world thought of him.
The reason why Inheon watched over the rookie hunters’ training was so that they would choose December. Hunters were instinctively drawn to the strong. They were drawn to those who were strong and to the desire to become stronger. So, they were loyal to those who made them strong.
In the beginning, December’s drawing mechanism towards other hunters was weak. So, Inheon did what he could. In order for the company that Juwon started to be the best. It was one of the few things he could do for Juwon since long ago. Although, now that he was able to do other things for himself and was capable of doing as much as he wanted, he began to grow a little—no, actually, very unenthusiastic.
“I had even sent in an application to the department of early childhood education.”
“…What?”
“The low birth rate was too severe, so I changed career paths. Still, I guess I can’t escape my aptitudes.”
As Inheon cracked a nonsensical joke, dumbfounded laughter burst out from here and there. The corners of his lips curled up, and he smiled as well, all while watching the training video.
orcinus comments:
No Juwon this chapter, but he’ll be back soon! I feel like Inheon is slowly getting infected by Juwon’s bad jokes though…
I first read yy on Christmas 2022, and I came out absolutely shattered, but I decided to reread and tl it around march 2023 since I thought I recovered and could read it joyfully… I came out even more shattered and the second reread made it automatically soar into my top novels 😭
Thank you for translating. I agree with your thoughts on how shattering, and how good this story is! It is like when you think you are very learned in a subject & then you experience that moment that make you go back to the basics.
Thank uuuuu
Thank you for the chapter 💝
Yes(s &Yes 😁) this novel has very high position in my list Best of the best