The training ground Jung Se-ah had chosen was an utterly barren space.
“This is the sturdiest place around.”
A location designed to ensure that even an all-out duel between A-rank Hunters wouldn’t bring the building down.
After confirming the facility, which prioritized nothing but safety and durability, Se-ah lightly swung her wooden sword.
Having held a wooden sword instead of a real one for the first time in a while, she felt an odd sense of discomfort.
“Well, this will do just fine.”
There was no warning.
The moment Si-woo finished preparing, Se-ah’s sword was already mid-swing.
It was like facing a bugged character in a broken video game, where the frames seemed to skip entirely.
As though the entire sequence of motions had never existed in the first place, Si-woo hastily recognized the approaching light brown wooden sword and scrambled to defend himself.
Boom!!
“Urgh!!”
A swift slash aimed at the back of Si-woo’s head.
The speed, akin to teleportation, was deadly enough to become a weapon on its own.
Barely managing to block Se-ah’s light strike, Si-woo immediately enhanced his nervous system.
His overheated optic nerves began to track the path of the sword.
Following the flow of power, Si-woo perceived the trajectory of Se-ah’s blade and successfully redirected her strike.
As though targeting a butterfly falling from the sky, Si-woo’s sword traced an arc toward her.
Finding an opening for a counterattack, his blade slashed sharply toward Se-ah’s neck.
But the graceful butterfly had no intention of exposing its vital points so easily.
Her seamless sword dance swirled beautifully through the air.
The path Si-woo had just identified as his opportunity was obliterated in a single strike.
The sheer brilliance of the trajectory she created, one that he couldn’t have imagined even in his wildest dreams, sent chills down his spine.
Clang!!
Deflecting all of Si-woo’s strikes, Se-ah landed with an elegant motion, then darted forward like an arrow.
The air tore apart with a deafening roar.
The concrete floor, reinforced with magic, couldn’t withstand the force of Se-ah’s leap and shattered beneath her.
Witnessing the scene, Si-woo quickly made his decision.
His conclusion to retreat was already too late.
Facing Se-ah, who had arrived before him with the force of a gale, Si-woo could only focus entirely on defense.
From the beginning, no other options existed.
“Ugh!!”
One strike.
The single slash that Si-woo endured with his body caused him to groan in pain.
A strike from a martial artist who had reached the level of an S-rank Hunter purely through skill and effort, without relying on an engraving, easily pierced through Si-woo’s defenses.
Si-woo threw himself backward, doing his best to redirect the impact into the ground.
“Haah…”
It was clear: though Se-ah wasn’t wielding a real sword, she had no intention of taking this spar lightly.
She left no room for distractions.
“Focus solely on this battle.”
It was her own form of kindness.
The burning intensity in Si-woo’s mind began to cool, leaving behind a sharp clarity.
His mentor was giving her all for his sake.
“In that case, it’s only right for a disciple to fight with everything he’s got, isn’t it?”
“That’s more like it. Now I can start having some real fun.”
Noticing Si-woo’s determined expression, Se-ah shrugged off her leather jacket.
Her combat style was speed-oriented.
By changing into an outfit that allowed her to perform at 100% of her capacity, she signaled that this spar was about to escalate.
Si-woo pushed all his senses, including his optic nerves, to their limits.
Yet he saw nothing.
-!!
Startled, Si-woo hastily retreated.
He couldn’t see.
He couldn’t feel.
He couldn’t hear.
Despite pushing every sense to its peak, his mentor had completely vanished from his field of perception.
Trusting his instincts, he threw himself to the side.
After all, if it was his mentor—Jung Se-ah—she was capable of moving at a speed so fast even he couldn’t comprehend it.
Boom!!!
As if answering his trust, a devastating slash struck the spot where Si-woo had been standing moments ago.
“You’re even using mana now?”
“What are you talking about? The rule is to only use physical reinforcement, no mana, right?”
Si-woo let out a hollow laugh at Se-ah’s calm response.
A slash that flew in without even the faintest trace of wind or sound.
Achieving such a near-miraculous feat without the aid of mana was astonishing.
When using a force of 10, it’s natural for about 10% of that power to dissipate in the process of swinging the blade.
However, Se-ah’s technique reduced that loss to an extreme degree.
What would normally result in a loss of 10% was minimized to a mere fraction, less than 1%.
The inability to sense anything was simply a byproduct of this technique.
The true essence lay in eliminating the loss of power altogether.
Understanding the core of the skill, Si-woo made a judgment:
This is something I can replicate.
“The most crucial part isn’t all that different from what I learned before.”
For the past six months, he had been taught by Se-ah.
The pinnacle of swordsmanship, forged through sheer determination and grit.
Having caught a glimpse of that peak, Si-woo began crafting the miracle he had just witnessed with his own hands.
He understood it. And he began to absorb it.
Amid the strange sensation of this process, Si-woo couldn’t help but laugh.
“She’s more of a magician than an actual magician.”
Even to himself, he chuckled at the absurdity of having such an extraordinary mentor. Lifting his sword, Si-woo looked at her.
“So, you’re going to keep going?”
“I don’t have any broken bones, so yes.”
“Good. It’s starting to feel worth it to raise you.”
Se-ah settled into her stance.
It was the same posture that had produced her soundless slash.
Revisiting it.
Reconstructing it.
Si-woo steadied his stance, mirroring the figure in front of him like a model to emulate.
He imitated her breathing, infused his mana into his body that had been trained to its limits, and focused entirely on execution.
For a moment, standing there was unmistakably a reflection of Jung Se-ah herself.
The younger version of her, from a time when she was still honing her craft, seemed to be staring back at her.
“As I thought, my eyes weren’t wrong.”
Even in such an unbelievable situation, Se-ah smiled.
This was the first time Se-ah had ever demonstrated the technique.
Yet, for Si-woo, it was enough.
Using the foundation of everything he had learned so far, he successfully replicated it.
A talent even Se-ah herself didn’t possess pulsed within him.
She hadn’t given the technique a name yet. It was still incomplete, and thus remained nameless.
The gazes of the two intertwined midair.
The instant they pushed off the ground, it was as if they had vanished from the world entirely.
However, to Se-ah’s eyes, everything was crystal clear.
“If you think you’re going to die, take your opponent down with you.”
She saw her disciple pouring every ounce of focus into his attack, never forgetting the lesson she had once drilled into him.
As Si-woo rushed toward her with all his might, Se-ah didn’t respond with words—she answered with her sword.
She found the flaws in his technique.
She refined, improved, and evolved it.
In the fleeting moment before their swords collided, his incomplete swordsmanship transformed.
It sublimated into a singular, unified skill.
The slash became soundless, and even the gust of air it stirred vanished.
A strike that approached the realm of the superhuman, devoid of mana, brought about this phenomenon.
Thud.
Se-ah’s sword struck first.
No—she had struck at least three times before Si-woo’s blade even grazed her.
A clean cut appeared on Si-woo’s side.
“If this were a real blade, you’d have died on the spot.”
Si-woo, having failed in his attack, collapsed to the floor.
Though he hadn’t landed a proper hit, he came away from the spar with a critical realization.
“Regret is something you can deal with after you’ve taken action.”
Noticing the brightness in Si-woo’s expression, Se-ah allowed herself a faint smile and asked:
“Have you made up your mind?”
“Yes, I don’t think I could ask for anything more.”
“Good. As long as you don’t regret it, that’s enough.”
Se-ah picked up a piece of paper that had fallen from Si-woo’s pocket—a partner application with Saria’s name written on it—and handed it to him.
“If she’s the daughter of the Arkineth Guild Master, it wouldn’t hurt to get closer to her. Someone like her can teach you things you’d never learn in the Academy.”
As she said this, a spark flickered in Jung Se-ah’s eyes.
Over the past six months, Si-woo’s body had undergone a transformation, sculpted by Se-ah’s expert hands like an artist crafting a masterpiece.
Just looking at his broad, confident shoulders was enough to make her heart race.
His physique struck a perfect balance: defined but not overbearing muscles, with a sleek line leading from his torso to his waist.
The faint outline of his abs under his t-shirt made Se-ah unconsciously lick her lips.
Even lying flat on the floor, he looked like a scene straight out of a magazine spread.
“He’s grown far too perfectly… and that’s a problem.”
The thought of taking him right then and there crossed her mind.
Unlike her two rivals, who simply admired him from a distance, Se-ah had been physically sparring with Si-woo, molding him into her ideal image.
It was only natural for such thoughts to arise.
She wanted to pin him to the ground at that very moment.
The desire to claim this perfectly ripened fruit filled her mind, and the faint glint of red in her eyes betrayed her growing hunger.
“Haa…”
A sultry sigh escaped her lips.
Fortunately, as Si-woo began to sit up, the sight of his sweat-drenched abs vanished from her view, helping her regain a semblance of sanity.
“Can you stand?”
“Ugh, probably?”
Si-woo replied, gripping his side, which throbbed with pain, and picking up his wooden sword again.
The resolve in his amber-brown eyes sparkled beautifully, capturing Se-ah’s attention once more.
Turning away from Si-woo’s determined figure, Se-ah reached for something other than her wooden sword—a real blade.
It was a treasured sword she had discovered in an S-rank gate.
“As your entrance gift, I’ll show you something just once.”
A gift only she could give.
The technique, now perfected after countless trials and errors.
Her blade sliced through the air, dominating the space around her.
The One Slash, complete and unparalleled, ruled the battlefield.
Si-woo, his eyes capturing the soundless slash that seemed to skip over the intermediate steps, exclaimed in admiration and spoke to Se-ah.
That he was the luckiest person alive.
In response, Se-ah, wearing a sly smile, replied with equal fervor.
“Me too ♥”