Episode 6
“Gyuil-hyung! Are you really not going to have a drink?”
“You gotta drink on a day like this.”
“Hyung, it’d be a bummer if you bailed.”
The members of Team 01 took up the posture of breaking soju glasses.
Today was a monumental day—not only had they defeated the Warlock Lizardman, but everyone had made it back alive.
They couldn’t just let a day like this pass by.
However, Nam Gyuil waved his hands at his teammates.
“I’m not feeling too great today. I’m not in the condition to drink. Let’s drink together later.”
He shook off his teammates’ invitations and parted ways.
Everyone looked disappointed, but Nam Gyuil put it all behind him and headed to the market.
There, he purchased various expensive ingredients.
Plants obtainable from Gates.
All sorts of medicinal herbs.
Meat obtained from butchering weak monsters.
He spent nearly 3 million won.
He returned home and placed the black tail obtained from the Warlock Lizardman on the table.
Then he rummaged through the sink cabinet and found a kitchen knife.
“Now, shall I try making a mid-grade elixir!”
He chopped the ingredients he’d bought at the market and the black tail with the kitchen knife and put them in a pot.
Then he added a small amount of water and turned on the gas stove.
Fwoosh!
The mid-grade elixir ingredients boiled in the pot.
As heat was applied, the black tail emitted a pungent smell and melted away.
A full day passed like that.
All the ingredients were more or less boiled down, and the elixir was complete.
When he opened the pot lid and checked the contents, he saw a murky-looking liquid.
A greasy aroma stung his nose.
Well, the smell was terrible, but anyway, the mid-grade elixir was complete.
Clatter.
Nam Gyuil ladled the mid-grade elixir into a bowl.
And plugging his nose with his index finger, he gulped it down.
‘Wait, this taste?!’
For some reason, the mid-grade elixir tasted like oxtail soup.
Recalling spicy kimchi and white steamed rice, he drank every last drop without leaving a single one.
Then he sat cross-legged on the floor and entered mana cultivation.
He calmly gathered mana toward his heart.
At that moment, the purity of his mana skyrocketed beyond Nam Gyuil’s imagination.
‘It’s not just the purity that increased.’
The total amount of mana was increasing steeply as well.
It felt as if every single muscle fiber was imbued with a powerful energy.
His mind became clearer, and he felt his blood circulation flowing more smoothly than before.
“Hoooo.”
He exhaled his final breath and finished his mana cultivation.
‘How much stronger have I become?’
A surging desire to check his body state, which had clearly changed from before, welled up within him.
Nam Gyuil got up from his spot and stripped off his clothes.
He examined his body with the naked eye.
‘My muscles have grown.’
A more solid physique than before caught his eye.
Especially, his abs had become defined.
The muscles in his forearms had developed rapidly, splitting into two branches, and his calves had grown by at least half compared to before.
He went to a full-body mirror and checked how his back had changed.
“This is amazing.”
His back muscles were so solid that they reminded one of armor.
His shoulders had broadened compared to before.
Just as his upper body had developed rapidly, his legs had changed too.
His thigh muscles bulged out in two strands, and the strength in his legs had increased compared to before.
A slight smile formed at Nam Gyuil’s lips.
‘The effect of the mid-grade elixir is incredible?’
At this rate, he must have become several times stronger than before.
‘If I get just a little stronger… Couldn’t I do it too?’
He meant the Mana Sword.
It was a technique used by the swordsmen of Arnia.
Its characteristic was coating one’s weapon in mana to greatly increase attack power.
If one’s total mana was sufficient, they could also coat their armor in mana to increase defense.
The strong of Arnia fought like that.
If he mastered only the Mana Sword, he wouldn’t have to fear any monster that came at him for a while.
Nam Gyuil clenched his fist tightly.
‘Let’s become even stronger from now on. Until I can use the Mana Sword!!’
***
Nam Gyuil went to work at the Hunter Bureau.
He scanned his work QR code, arrived at Team 01, and sat in his chair.
“Loyalty! It is a good morning, sir.”
Hong Sinu smiled brightly while saluting.
Yesterday his expression had been gloomy, but now that they had closed the Gate safely, he seemed to have gained hope that he could be discharged with all his limbs intact.
“Yeah, it is a good morning.”
Nam Gyuil acknowledged the salute and sat down.
As always, he placed his dagger and shield on the desk and put his clasped hands behind his head.
‘Maybe I’ll do some training in a bit.’
Just then, Hwang Ilsu hurriedly opened the door and came in.
Hong Sinu quickly saluted.
“Loyalty!! It is a good morning, sir. Staff Sergeant Hwang Ilsu.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Hwang Ilsu gave a rough reply to Hong Sinu’s greeting and approached Nam Gyuil.
“Gyuil-hyung. Major Bak Huiryeong is looking for you.”
“What?”
Nam Gyuil blinked and unclasped his hands.
Major Bak was looking for him?
He hadn’t done anything wrong, so it definitely wasn’t a reprimand.
If there was something to tell him, they would have used a messenger.
Then there was only one reason.
‘It’s probably to ask how we closed the Gate without any deaths, let alone injuries.’
Moreover, his performance had been the greatest when rescuing the National Hunters captured by the Lizardman. They would want to know how he had grown stronger.
Nam Gyuil got up from his chair.
He had no intention whatsoever of speaking honestly.
‘I can’t talk about the Akashic Records. If I told them, people who were jealous or wanted to exploit me would come swarming.’
He just needed a claim that Major Bak could listen to and accept.
Nam Gyuil headed to his office.
“Staff Sergeant Nam Gyuil. I’ve come because you called for me.”
“Ah, yes.”
Major Bak Huiryeong of the Hunter Bureau. He looked at Nam Gyuil while sitting on a plush sofa.
“The reason I called you is none other than to ask how you closed the Gate this time.”
“Understood.”
“Report in detail. I want to know exactly how you fought.”
“Yes, sir!”
Nam Gyuil reported in a steady voice.
“While tracking the Lizardman, I discovered its location, prepared a trap, dispersed them with a decoy, and then carried out the operation.”
“And then?”
“The junior National Hunters rescued the kidnapped Team 07 National Hunters, I destroyed the core, and then we all escaped together.”
“Surely that’s not all?”
“Yes, that is all.”
“Who took down the boss monster?”
“I defeated it alone.”
“What I’m curious about is how you suddenly got stronger. And how you took down the boss monster alone.”
That was the intention behind Bak Huiryeong’s question.
What training had he focused on? What ability had he used to catch the boss monster?
If there were any know-hows or secrets to his strength, reveal them all.
He was planning to use this chance to strengthen their forces a bit.
That was his mindset.
Nam Gyuil had no intention of revealing the truth.
If he talked about know-hows or secrets, enemies who envied him might appear around him.
Also, people who wanted to exploit him would appear, and someone might even commit crimes using that know-how.
‘The knowledge of the Akashic Records must be revealed only after I’ve become strong enough.’
Only when he could handle whatever anyone did.
Nam Gyuil made up a plausible yet generic story in front of him.
“I fought according to the Hunter Bureau combat manual.”
“The Hunter Bureau combat manual?”
“The Warlock Lizardman had been victorious against Team 07 before fighting our Team 01.”
“So?”
“The Warlock Lizardman was intoxicated with victory and disregarded our Team 01. That complacency continued even during the battle. I seized that opening and was able to win.”
The Hunter Bureau combat manual said to fight by making monsters let their guard down. It was only a generic instruction because research on monsters was insufficient.
Still, it wasn’t entirely wrong, so it had raised the survival probability ever so slightly.
Bak Huiryeong blinked.
“The monster underestimated its opponent too much… and you won because its complacency made the operation easier?”
“Yes, sir. That’s correct. If the National Hunters who entered first hadn’t been there, the monsters wouldn’t have let their guard down, and the operation would have been difficult.”
Nam Gyuil answered in a clear voice.
Bak Huiryeong tilted his head.
‘If the Hunter Bureau combat manual had been effective, the probability of being discharged with all limbs intact would have been higher than 37%.’
He began to suspect whether Nam Gyuil might be lying.
When Bak Huiryeong looked at him with doubtful eyes, Nam Gyuil added one more thing.
“I thought there would be difficulties in carrying out the operation since I hadn’t long been discharged from the hospital, but I didn’t expect to win because the monsters let their guard down. It was a stroke of great luck.”
“Oh? Right. It hadn’t even been three days since you were discharged from the hospital and returned.”
Bak Huiryeong scratched the back of his head.
Upon hearing Nam Gyuil’s words, he felt he had misunderstood needlessly.
‘Where would there be a secret to getting stronger for a guy who just got out of the hospital? Besides, suddenly getting stronger in such a short period makes no sense.’
Then this accident-free result was one of two things.
‘Either Nam Gyuil’s combat experience shone through, or he was simply lucky.’
Anyway, since there seemed to be no secret, he decided to give praise to boost morale.
Bak Huiryeong got up from the sofa and patted Nam Gyuil’s shoulder.
“You accomplished a great feat this time.”
“Thank you for the praise.”
“Thanks to your performance, we rescued the Team 07 National Hunters, so a generous bonus will be attached to this month’s salary. Look forward to it.”
“Yes, sir. I understand.”
“All right, you may go now.”
Nam Gyuil took his leave, came out of the office, and let out a long breath.
‘That more or less got me through it.’
He hadn’t expected to be called in like this on just the first accident-free day. If he kept maintaining an accident-free record until discharge, what kind of reactions would everyone show?
A snicker escaped him for no reason.
“Now I should go train.”
Nam Gyuil rubbed the back of his neck and headed to the training room.
There, he swung a wooden sword, focusing on correcting his basic stances.
Bwoong, swish.
The swordsmanship he trained in was the sword art of Arnia.
Among them, he honed the sword art of the Imperial Knight Order.
The swordsmanship of Arnia was fascinating.
Each stance was repeated to the point of brutality to create a perfect posture.
The movement of changing from one stance to another served as an attack, and sometimes was used for defense.
Only when one could perfectly use the 15 stances could they be considered to have properly learned it.
Of course, the training was not easy to that extent.
‘Still, let’s tidy up the basics first. When the swordsmanship is complete, I’ll move on to Mana Sword training.’
No matter how good a technique Mana Sword was, it could only be used after swordsmanship was complete.
Even a powerful attack was useless if it didn’t land properly on the enemy.
Therefore, his current goal was perfect swordsmanship.
Whoosh, whoosh.
Nam Gyuil swung the wooden sword without noticing the passage of time.
Having trained like that for who knew how many hours.
His breathing grew rough.
Panting breaths filled the training hall, and his muscles screamed.
Looking at the clock, three hours had already passed.
He hadn’t rested even once until then.
‘It’s almost lunchtime.’
He should catch his breath and fill his stomach.
Nam Gyuil put the wooden sword back in its place and headed to the cafeteria in the Hunter Bureau.
While putting side dishes on his tray and looking for a place to sit, he saw Hong Sinu waving his hand from over there.
“Staff Sergeant Nam Gyuil! Over here.”
The Hunter Bureau cafeteria was spacious, but the safe return rate of National Hunters was low, so there were so few people that not even half the seats were filled.
Nam Gyuil sat where his teammates were.
I Chanu, who was picking up his spoon and chopsticks, threw a question.
“Hey, what did Major Bak ask that you’re only showing your face at lunchtime? Is it something serious?”
“No. The talk ended quickly. I was doing personal training until now.”
“What training did you do for so long?”
I Chanu tilted his head.
He had an expression that said he couldn’t understand something.
I Chanu shoveled rice into his mouth and asked.
“No matter how much I train according to the Hunter Bureau training method, I don’t get stronger. Is it different for you, hyung?”
Nam Gyuil smirked instead of answering.
There did exist training methods on Earth to improve Awakeners’ skills.
‘The problem is that they were all wrong.’
Since they trained in incorrect ways, it was impossible for the National Hunters’ skills to improve.
The training they had done until now had all been bogus methods with no effect.
That was the decisive reason that made the probability of being discharged with all limbs intact fall below 37%.
Nam Gyuil put his arm on I Chanu’s shoulder.
“Chanu.”
“What is it, hyung?”
“From now on, just sit back and watch from the sidelines how strong this hyung becomes.”