Eunseo hesitated at first and then said something unexpected, “I really want to see you tonight.”

His brain shut down because of what she said. Eunseo seemed reckless, and he was a little taken aback.

“Nothing’s happened, right?”

“Nothing special’s happened, but I really want to see you.”

He took a moment to think. Right now, he had to concentrate on the legend candidates. However, when he had made up his mind and was about to turn her down, she spoke up first.

“I don’t know what to do. I had counseling, but it didn’t help at all,” she said, and he knew he couldn’t turn her down anymore.

After a moment, he said, “Let’s meet tonight at six at Ilsan.”

He had to be home by 8:00 p.m., so he made the appointment accordingly.

“Thanks. Then, I’ll see you at Ilsan.”

Junhyuk hung up the phone and stared out the window. Then, he put on some clothes and went to the bathroom.

“Enter.”

There wouldn’t be any monsters coming, so he sat down and felt for his arteries. If the living spirit moved through his veins, he would be late for his appointment, so he told it to go through his arteries and got up.

That day, he had gained a lot from fighting the twin-headed ogres, and as he learned more through actual fighting, Junhyuk realized he needed to integrate that knowledge into the ways he grew.

He pulled out a sword and swung it. By being able to transfer the living spirit in his body to it, he felt like he could slash anything he wanted, even s.p.a.ce. Without stopping, he teleported and continued to practice his swordsmanship, planning on thwarting his future enemies.

When he teleported, he focused on the spirit. His attacks were aimed to destroy his enemies, and while it had dealt with twin-headed ogres, he wanted for it to be able to overpower champions.

He would deal with people on the same level as him eventually and he was feeling nervous about it.

Junhyuk teleported and used the Spatial Slash. The living spirit followed the Slash, and he was able to transfer his will to the spirit, so the attack on a completely different level from before.

“This is just on Earth. I need to check whether it works the same at the Dimensional Battlefield.”

Lowering his sword, Junhyuk exhaled deeply.

“Whew!”

Then, he closed his eyes, thinking about all the training he had done and said, “Exit.”

Appearing in the bathroom, he took a shower and changed clothes. Then, Junhyuk walked out and took a cab to Ilsan.

When he reached Ilsan, he called Eunseo, and she told him which restaurant to go to, so he went there. It was a high-end restaurant, and because he had gotten there ahead of her, he told the waiter her name for the reservation and took a seat at their table.

After a while, Eunseo opened the door and walked in. She looked at him while fixing her gla.s.ses and smirked.

He stood up to offer her a seat and then sat down again, staring calmly at her. She had always looked strong before, but now she seemed weak. Her physical appearance remained the same, but as he looked at her, he felt like he’d been ignoring her.

“Are you OK?” he asked her.

But she raised her hand and said, “I’ve already ordered for the both of us. Is that OK?”

“That’s fine.”

When she raised her hand, plates started leaving the kitchen, and she looked at him and continued calmly, “I’m trying not to take too much of your time.”

Junhyuk smiled bitterly.

“You don’t have to try.”

Eunseo stared at him and added, “The fact is that I don’t have much time myself.”

The food came out, and Eunseo ate while talking.

“An interesting event took place during this last monster attack.”

“What event?”

He had not heard about it, so he waited for her to elaborate.

Eunseo continued calmly, “Ghana doesn’t have an iron soldier, so they gathered novices and went monster hunting.”

“Just novices?”

“Yes. The army was also there, but the novices had a decisive role in quelling the monsters. In Ghana, they are treated as heroes.”

Junhyuk put down his knife and pondered for a moment. They weren’t hiding the novices, but displaying them.

“That’s an interesting occurrence.”

So far, the people that had been collecting novices had been hiding that fact from the public. This new development wasn’t going to seat well with those people, but there were places that not even Guardians could reach, and they had to make plans of their own and use the novices.”

“What is Guardians going to do?”

“There’s nothing we can do. They got the mana stones from the monster hunt, and by using those mana stones, we are making a ma.s.sive quant.i.ty of iron soldiers. We’ll be able to deploy them to over a hundred countries.”

“That’s good.”

Eunseo cut her steak and put the slice in her mouth.

“By glorifying novices and getting their help, every country would be able to remain safe. And, in the end, by fighting monsters with iron soldiers, Guardians would influence the entire world.”

“Maybe they’ll choose both options.”

“Yes. Countries can oversee novice teams and the iron soldiers. With cooperation from the police and the military, those countries will deal with the monsters.”

Junhyuk thought for a moment and asked, “Perhaps, did any more monsters appear after those novices took care of the ones in Ghana?”

“Yes, but the military in intervening now.”

Junhyuk thought of Agenchra. Their objective was to activate as many novices as possible and to activate heroes from them. When the novices killed the monsters, management sent more, which meant that they would send more monsters to where novices were gathered.

It looked like they were testing the novices, but it didn’t feel like those were their real intentions.

“They must be waiting!”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” Junhyuk thought his ideas were too undeveloped to reveal, so he changed the subject. “By the way, who did you meet in your last trip to the Dimensional Battlefield?”

Eunseo put down her knife and fork and said, “Among the allied heroes, there was a very strong hero. She had just become a hero, and the lower part of her body was that of a horse.”

“Was it Gyulsean?”

“Ah! Do you know her?”

He smiled bitterly. Kaljaque, who used to be in his team, was now fighting Sora and giving her easy victories. Gyulsean, his previous enemy, was now a hero and helping Eunseo’s team achieve victories. It was all very interesting.

“It’s important to befriend allied heroes, but don’t forget you have only one life to give. You have a counterattack power, so you’ll be able to escape dangerous situations, but you can’t really run away like Sora.”

“I know.”

“Don’t step in front of an enemy. Keep yourself safe.”

Eunseo smiled at him. It was a rare smile from her, and he smiled back.

“Thanks. You are comforting me.”

Junhyuk was curious about why she had wanted to see him that night. Was it because of the glorification of the novices or for her to get some comfort? After finishing her light meal, Eunseo got up and asked, “When can I see Sarang?”

He thought for a moment and said, “It is not good to procrastinate, so this weekend should be good.”

“Really?”

He smiled at her.

“Have I ever told you a lie?”

“No. I trust you and I’ll wait.”

Junhyuk walked her out and went back to his place. His watch said 7:40 p.m.

He turned on Max’s cell phone and opened the app that connected to Ganesha. Through it, he watched videos of the novices in Ghana. There were five people with powers.

They were adoring those novices and making videos of their actions in Ghana. In the videos, the monsters attacking them were giant snakes.

As the ferocious snakes attacked, each novice displayed a different power. The snakes were being hit by military weapons, but the novices rushed toward them. A novice seemed cut and full of muscles, suddenly dashing toward a snake and hitting its head. The shock torn the snake apart, and Junhyuk frowned as he watched.

“It seems to be a basic damage power, but the low-ranked monster disappeared with the attack, so I can’t tell much about it.”

It could just be a simple rushing power, or something else. He couldn’t tell.

A snake had disappeared without much effort, so the other snakes turned toward the novices, and a woman stepped forward.

The African woman extended her hand, and the slithering snakes slowed down. Meanwhile, another novice stepped in. The novice jumped way up, and slammed against the ground. It was a simple attack, but the shockwave generated from the attack killed the snakes around. The shockwave had a ten-meter radius from the novice’s point of impact.

The remaining snakes rushed at the novices, but another novice stepped forward with a raised hand, and the snakes slammed against each other. They had lost their sense of direction, and Junhyuk frowned.

A power that made monsters lose their senses might work against heroes, and he was curious about it.

The snakes gathered together, and a fat African man stepped forward. Rolling himself into a ball, he rushed toward the snakes. As he slammed against them, he bounced off toward another snake. He struck the snakes five times before stopping and smiling.

The large snakes were already torn to pieces, but Junhyuk was able to learn the man’s power.

“Some kind of bludgeoning power with a five-hit combo?! That could be dangerous for him.”

If the man tried to attack heroes with that power, regardless of the damage, he would die. Junhyuk thought he wouldn’t be seeing that man again next time.

Another video had all five of them making a TV appearance, but Junhyuk wasn’t interested in watching it, so he turned off the app and checked the time. It was 8:00 p.m.

Junhyuk went to the bathroom and said, “Enter.”

He saw a newly-appeared monster in front of him and frowned.

“It’s not a twin-headed ogre.”

He already knew twin-headed ogres were B-ranked monsters, but he had never seen what was in front of him at the moment. It had the head of an alligator and broad shoulders and strong legs. Its tail was wagging behind it.

As it saw Junhyuk, it pulled out its weapon from a holster behind it. It was a saw-bladed sword.

Junhyuk knew the monster was smaller than the twin-headed ogre, but also probably stronger.

“It gets boring fighting only twin-headed ogres,” he said and closed in, swinging his sword down.

Clang!

The twin-headed ogres had not been able to respond to him because of the living spirit within his body, but this monster was different.

“Tsc! You are quick!”

Clang, clang, clang!

Junhyuk parried the saw-bladed sword with his duals swords and frowned.

“You can speak?”

“Yeah, I can speak.”

Stepping back, Junhyuk asked, “What is the name of your species?”

“Elidra is the proud name of my species.”

“I have some time. Shall we play?” Junhyuk smiled as he asked.

The twin-headed ogres had enough power to break through his armor and shatter his bones, but this new monster was fast, and its quickness was incomparable to the twin-headed ogres.

From then on, he would also be dealing with Elidras, and he wanted to know more about them as he swung his sword.