Chapter 77: Amongst Men, Kim Ji-Hee; Amongst Horses, Mandong (1)

Inside a collapsed department store.

Riiiiip!

"

Hah... hah... hah!

" Kim Ki-Rok panted heavily.

After slicing through the spirit with a mana-infused sword, Kim Ki-Rok leaned against the blade he had driven into the floor as if it were a walking stick, then stared at the door leading to the exhibition hall on the fifth floor.

He had entered the building with ten other Hunters, but they had all been annihilated by a pack of spectral monsters that had suddenly ambushed them from all sides, leaving him as the sole survivor.

"Fuck this unbalanced, shitty game," Kim Ki-Rok cursed.

These spectral monsters lacked a physical form, so normal weapons had no effect on them. Unless it was a weapon sheathed in mana, they could be slashed tens or hundreds of times without incurring any damage.

On top of that, these spectral monsters could appear anywhere, at any time, making it impossible to predict their ambushes. The only way to defend against such a surprise attack was to keep one's entire body constantly wrapped in mana, which meant a colossal consumption of mana.

After a deep breath to gather himself, Kim Ki-Rok set off again. He cut down a spectral monster emerging right through the corridor wall, then lifted his right foot and kicked the door open.

Boooom!

A craftsman had recently rented the exhibition hall to display his crowning work—an S-Class enchanted weapon that he had poured all of his heart and soul into—which drew the interest of the Hunter community.

Naturally, the Hunters Association and the government had stationed hundreds of Hunters to guard against an attack by Awakened criminals, but they had been powerless to stop them because of the spectral monsters that devoured mana so intensely.

At the sight of Kim Ki-Rok breaking down the door and charging into the exhibition hall, the Awakened criminals who had been diligently packing away the goods all froze in their tracks and turned their heads to stare at him.

However, they were quickly ordered to get back to work. "What are you all doing? Hurry up and get back to packing those."

Unlike the other Awakened criminals, who were busy storing away all the artifacts and enchanted weapons for transport, the bald man with a large body was glued to his smartphone and looked relaxed despite the sudden intruder.

Slowly raising his head, the man observed Kim Ki-Rok who was still breathing heavily, then said with a faint smile, "Yo, it's the Phoenix Guildmaster."

"Son of a bitch," Kim Ki-Rok cursed. "So you're the one behind this, Ma Ak-Soo?"

The bald man, now confirmed to be Ma Ak-Soo, slipped his smartphone into his back pocket as he got up from his seat.

"Hm? It looks like you didn't bring anyone else with you?"

Kim Ki-Rok had brought allies with him, but they'd all been killed by the spectral monsters on their way here.

"Ah... so they're dead," Ma Ak-Soo muttered with a smirk.

Gritting his teeth, Kim Ki-Rok kicked off against the ground. He was planning on closing the distance and taking off Ma Ak-Soo's head in one go, but his sword never managed to reach its target.

Instead, a giant orc spirit dropped from the ceiling and landed a punch that sent Kim Ki-Rok flying. He slammed into the wall, coughing up blood. The ambush had come from an unpredictable direction and was impossible to avoid.

Ma Ak-Soo laughed cheerfully at the sight of Kim Ki-Rok coughing up blood as he struggled to get to his feet. "Ah! Seeing the Guildmaster of the Phoenix Guild being treated like this really puts me in a good mood."

"

Cough! Cough! Coooough!

Did you gain the Spiritualism Skill from clearing a Gate?" Kim Ki-Rok spat out through bloodstained lips.

"Hm? No, I'm not the owner of this skill," Ma Ak-Soo swiftly denied.

"What?" Kim Ki-Rok choked in disbelief.

"It's all thanks to this kid," Ma Ak-Soo said as he pulled forward a mask-wearing child who had been standing behind him and roughly patted them on the head.

The child was wearing a mask and their hair had been cut short, so Kim Ki-Rok couldn't tell whether the child was a boy or a girl. However, judging from the spectral monsters that were hovering around the child, he could tell that Ma Ak-Soo's words were true.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"They're[1] a Spiritualist named Il-Ho," Ma Ak-Soo revealed.

Kim Ki-Rok frowned. "Is that an alias[2]?"

Ma Ak-Soo shook his head. "No. Their name really is Il-Ho. They are the result of all our long years of research. Well, they were just a test subject at first, but that has now changed, hasn't it. I guess you could call it our finest product."

Kim Ki-Rok's face hardened in disgust at this revelation. In contrast, Ma Ak-Soo's lips widened in a smile. He tapped Il-Ho on the head once more and gave the order, "Il-Ho. Kill him."

Without delay, dozens of spectral monsters gathered around Kim Ki-Rok at a single gesture from the masked child.

When Il-Ho pointed at Kim Ki-Rok, the spirits all sprang forward as one.

Kim Ki-Rok gritted his teeth and wrapped the blade of his sword in mana once more.

***

"

Gaaaah!

At that time, I really thought I was going to die—hm? No, I actually did die, didn't I?" Kim Ki-Rok muttered to himself as he rubbed his chin.

He really

had

died.

He first met Il-Ho as a Hunter and not a businessman. What happened after he had lost his life? No doubt, with S-Class magic weapons and a stash of various A-Class artifacts in hand, Ma Ak-Soo had likely dominated the Awakened underworld and become the worst criminal in Korea.

With the strongest, most terrible Spiritualist who could control such powerful spectral monsters following him, there would have been no one in the underworld who could have stopped Ma Ak-Soo and his gang.

"Mister," a young girl's voice suddenly piped up from beside him.

Kim Ki-Rok immediately offered a pack of chocolate chip cookies to the little girl who would never again go on to become the masked child, Il-Ho.

"Here's our dear Ji-Hee's favorite chocolate chip cookies." Kim Ki-Rok held out the packet with a smile.

"Yeeeah!" Kim Ji-Hee cheered.

Although she was very excited to be offered the cookies, Kim Ji-Hee didn't take it from his hands. Rather, she couldn't take it.

Kim Ji-Hee looked between the stuffed rabbit that she was holding in her left hand and the pitch-black staff that she was holding in her right hand. Having seemingly made up her mind, she leaned to the side and began lowering the staff to the ground.

"Hold on!" Kim Ki-Rok shouted, urgently scooping Kim Ji-Hee into his arms as he hurriedly opened the wrapper and slipped a cookie into her mouth.

"Here. And have some juice, too." He popped open a kid's drink, decorated with a silly little penguin, and brought it to her lips. It looked a lot like a mother bird feeding her chick. Oddly enough, Kim Ki-Rok seemed well-practiced at it.

After watching the duo with a blank look in his eyes, Jang Bo-Hyun turned to focus on the battlefield once more. Forty-eight human spirits were clashing with the trolls, while four human spirits and one Pegasus spirit were focused on the Ice Troll Lord.

"Among Ji-Hee's spirits, there are four people and one mount especially worth noting," Kim Ki-Rok suddenly advised him.

"I'm assuming that one of them is Mandong, and another is the Archwizard Kan Cho-Woo who has signed a contract with Miss Ji-Hee?" Jang Bo-Hyun speculated.

"That's right," Kim Ki-Rok confirmed. At the sound of a huge explosion, he got up from his seat, still holding onto Kim Ji-Hee.

Cradled in Kim Ki-Rok's arms, Kim Ji-Hee opened her mouth and requested, "Mister. Cookies."

"Here you go," Kim Ki-Rok said with a smile as he pulled out another cookie and placed it on her tongue. Then he turned back to Jang Bo-Hyun and continued their conversation. "Then, regarding the other three... Well, first is Sir Ronald. You see him right there, swinging that massive sword near Kang Seh-Hyuk."

Standing beside Kang Seh-Hyuk, a translucent spirit was swinging a massive, tangible greatsword as he attacked the Ice Troll Lord.

Kim Ki-Rok elaborated, "He's not quite an Aura Master, but he did reach the rank known as Aura Knight, just one step below that. By the way, that giant sword is C-Class, and the gloves he's wearing are made from spirit mana stones, letting spirits and spectral monsters grasp physical objects."

"So you're saying that the greatsword and the gloves that he's using are real physical items?" Jang Bo-Hyun remarked in surprise.

"Yes, but the mana that Ronald is receiving from Ji-Hee is still somewhat lacking, so the force he can exert is less than half of what he could when he was alive," Kim Ki-Rok admitted.

With a grunt of exertion, the greatsword covered in a deep blue veil of mana was swung at the Ice Troll Lord's ankle.

Boooom! Cracracrack!

The huge greatsword made it halfway through the troll's ankle before it got stuck. The Ice Troll Lord let out a pained roar as it suffered a serious wound for the first time in this fight.

Kim Ki-Rok continued explaining, "After Kan Cho-Woo and Lord Ronald, the third spirit that you should watch out for is Token."

"Tokeni-oppa!" Kim Ji-Hee piped up with a cheerful smile as she waved with the hand that was holding the stuffed rabbit.

Taking the interruption in stride, Kim Ki-Rok added, "Yes, nicknamed Tokeni-oppa. Now then, let's see where he is... Ah! There he is, on its shoulder."

A young man holding a short spear had climbed onto the Ice Troll Lord's shoulder and was drawing his right arm back for a thrust. He then used the strong elasticity of his body to snap the spear forward, as if his entire body had become one giant bow.

The moment before the spear was about to hit, the young man twisted his wrist to add some rotational force to the blow.

The Ice Troll Lord's raging scream was cut short as half its face disappeared in an instant.

"Tokeni-oppa used to be a mercenary," Kim Ki-Rok revealed.

Kim Ji-Hee shouted excitedly, "Tokeni-oppa, the mockery[3]!"

Kim Ki-Rok raised an eyebrow. "Hmmm? I thought you knew how to pronounce mercenary, Ji-Hee?"

"Mister Ronald said that since all he does is play games, he's not a mercenary any longer, he's just a mockery!" Kim Ji-Hee explained.

Well, can't help that.

Kim Ki-Rok patted Ji-Hee's head and corrected himself, "That's right. He's Tokeni-oppa, the mockery. As a mercenary, he was one of the top experts, with a strength just below that of an Aura Knight. And finally, there's the pretty lady flying through the air over there."

Above the battlefield soared a beautiful woman, busily waving her hands in intricate gestures.

Kim Ki-Rok introduced her, "She is the vampire, Raident von Schutzendier Huntvar Agnilli Arghan Kashmaria."

"Huh?" Jang Bo-Hyun said with a look of confusion.

"Raident von Schutzendier Huntvar Agnilli Arghan Kashmaria. Those of us in DG Guild just call her Miss Maria, or Maria-unni, Maria-nuna, or Maria for short."

Jang Bo-Hyun shook his head. "No. I'm not talking about her name. Did you just say that she's a vampire?"

"She is indeed a vampire."

Flustered, Jang Bo-Hyun gaped, silently opening his mouth repeatedly as if he had forgotten how to speak. After barely managing to collect his wits, he asked, "Are vampires really an otherworldly species?"

"They are one of the races found in the other dimensions, yes."

"So do vampires really feed on human blood?" he asked with a morbid curiosity.

"Vampires don't consume human blood exclusively. They can survive on the blood of anything—monsters, livestock, whatever. Maria explained that her race once fought with humans because they found their blood the tastiest. However, now that they coexist with us through diplomatic relations, they just drink monster or animal blood."

After processing this information, Jang Bo-Hyun asked, "In that case, what is Miss Maria doing with all of those hand gestures?"

"She's performing blood magic."

Right as Kim Ki-Rok finished his explanation, the green streams of blood that the Ice Troll Lord had shed onto the snow shot up into the air, coalescing into bubbling spheres.

When Maria pointed her finger at the Ice Troll Lord, a long tentacle-like appendage shot out from the blood sphere, flying through the air at an extreme speed and diving right into its wounds.

With a snap of her fingers, Maria had the tentacle explode.

The troll bellowed in agony and lifted its gaze skyward, but it had no way to strike. She was flying out of reach, and on the ground below, Sir Ronald was already swinging his giant sword at the troll's uninjured ankle.

Opposite of Maria, who had positioned herself in the sky to the right of the Ice Troll Lord, Kan Cho-Woo was floating in the sky to the Ice Troll Lord's left as he rained spells down upon it.

"Fire Arrow!"

Boom boom boom boom!

Meanwhile, Mandong the Pegasus was different from those four. Rather than attacking, he was stationed at the site where injured Hunters had gathered, using his healing skill to treat them.

"So what do you think?" Kim Ki-Rok asked.

Turning his head in response to Kim Ki-Rok's question, Jang Bo-Hyun blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Don't you think that catchphrase suits them," Kim Ki-Rok boasted proudly.

"

Ah, ahahaha...

" Jang Bo-Hyun laughed awkwardly as he glanced down at Kim Ji-Hee, who was still munching on a cookie in Kim Ki-Rok's arms.

Noticing his stare, Kim Ji-Hee looked back up with a bashful smile.

"It does fit," Jang Bo-Hyun reluctantly admitted. "Amongst men, Ji-Hee; amongst horses, Mandong."

Kim Ji-Hee truly was the strongest of all humans, and Mandong, the best of all horses.

1. Ma Ak-Soo seems to be purposefully concealing the child's gender. ☜

2. Il-Ho can also mean first or number one, which is why Kim Ki-Rok thinks it might be a fake name. ☜

3. This was a difficult pun to translate. In Korean, a slight change to the second syllable of the word turns mercenary into toilet. This would be difficult to translate directly, so I had to find an insult that sounds somewhat like mercenary. ☜