Junhyuk was breathing roughly while staring at the fallen Elidras on the ground. At first, they were difficult to deal with, but in the end, he was able to kill all of them.

They had sharp and quick movements and sharp tail attacks and, as their numbers increased, they started mounting combined attacks. They were surely shocking enemies.

While fighting them, he earned a lot. By making use of the living spirit, he got astonishingly faster. The Elidras were a good opponent for him.

Junhyuk was more skilled in swordsmanship than the Elidras, but they made up for their lack of swordsmanship with erratic movement. Because of that, he was able to improve his sword skills even further.

His opponents couldn’t fill the gap between swordsmanship with wild movement. That was something he learned.

To begin with the first one, he had been able to use what he had learned and slashed through it easily. Their wild characteristics could not match his skill, but as the number increased to ten, he met his match.

After being cut on the ribs and shoulder, he focused on the battle to push beyond his limitations and learned, on his own, how to suppress the living spirit to a part of his body. Willing the spirit to move a bit faster when it was suppressed, his own speed increased, and he forgot all about going slow.

He got much faster as he rushed toward his enemies. Multiple Elidras died by his faster speed through the suppressed spirit. But, by doing so, he felt even more tired.

“Whew! There is nothing in this world that is free.”

The faster speed by use of the suppressed living spirit required three times the normal energy expenditure. He had been able to kill the enemies in a short time, but he was now lying on the ground, waiting for his energy to return.

To recover, he would need to use the living spirit. If he kept suppressing the spirit, he would use more energy, so he slowly let the living spirit run through his arteries.

As he recovered slowly, he connected to Artlan through the Dimensional Communication Device.

“What happened?”

“I fought B-ranked monsters called Elidras.”

“Hm. Fighting other monsters along with the twin-headed ogres will help you.”

“Right. I want to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“This time, when I was fighting the Elidras, I tried to move faster and inadvertently suppressed the living spirit. However, by doing so, I used up my energy very fast.”

“You learned how to suppress the living spirit on your own?”

“Yes.”

Artlan was silent for a while before breaking out in very hard and loud laughter.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! It hasn’t been that long that you got the living spirit, and you learned how to suppress it so fast!”

After his hearty laughter, Artlan got serious again.

“You have a lot to learn about the living spirit. It’ll changed how you will it, so it all depends on how you use it and your imagination. You’ve just learned how to accelerate.”

“Can I use it at the Dimensional Battlefield?”

“No. You can’t use it there.”

He was disappointed, but Artlan continued, “Now you know how significant the limitations are at the battlefield.”

Junhyuk suddenly thought of Gongon. Even with his bare body, the hatchling had superior skills to others. Then, how strong was Gongon, really? The dragon was being limited, but he was still very strong.

Junhyuk kept panting as he slowly got up.

“Suppressed acceleration… are there other skills to learn? Can you give me hints?”

“There are a few other things, but you won’t be able to use them now. You learned acceleration, so focus on it. Master that skill first.”

“I understand.”

“Then, good luck.”

Artlan was done talking and disconnected. The living spirit had moved through his arteries while they conversed, and now, he was able to move around easily.

Junhyuk walked over to the Elidras’ bodies, looking for mana stones and bloodstones, but they only dropped mana stones, and there were twenty-two of them. He realized that the Elidras were different from the twin-headed ogres and thought that he would probably go against a B-ranked monster that only dropped bloodstones.

He emptied the crystal orb and filled it back up again with all of the bodies, including the Elidras’ this time. After that, he started wondering if he should get rid of some of the bodies now because if he filled it up with an endless quant.i.ty, he wouldn’t be able to empty it anywhere later.

“I’ll go talk to Elise this weekend.”

Junhyuk stopped thinking about the bodies and, as Artlan instructed him, practiced his acceleration. He demanded faster speeds from the living spirit, and, while it was suppressed, it travelled through the arteries in his legs at amazing speed.

Junhyuk ran and swung his sword.

Slash!

With boosted acceleration, he started swinging his swords. He thought of the Elidras mounting combined attacks and swung accordingly, putting all his might in his swings. Within three minutes, he was resting with his swords pointed to the ground, breathing hard again.

“Whew! Did I improve?”

The acceleration period had increased, which he was relieved about as he collapsed on the ground.

“I’ll rest until tomorrow morning.”

Junhyuk closed his eyes and unleashed the living spirit. It pa.s.sed quickly through his arteries and moved over to his veins. It would take the spirit six hours to go through it all, but he was relaxed now and focused on the spirit running through his veins.

Afte sessions of B-ranked monsters, the living spirit’s own willpower had increased, and Junhyuk could no longer control it while it travelled through his veins.

Junhyuk felt the spirit absorbing mana as it went on its path, and a smile appeared on his face. As he lay on the ground looking up at the sky, he felt for it. He didn’t fall asleep, but due to the spirit travelling through his body, he felt much less tired.

The twin-headed ogre was strong, and the Elidra was quick. He had dealt with them both, and on Friday, at 6:00 a.m., he saw the new monsters sp.a.w.ning and laughed hard.

“Now, both of them are coming at same time?!”

At first, only the twin-headed ogres came out, so he was expecting more waves of twin-headed ogres. But this time, a twin-headed ogre and an Elidra sp.a.w.ned at the same time.

Junhyuk thought that the two monsters would fight each other, but they both rushed toward him. He had not expected them to work together, much less use combined attacks against him.

Using its strength, the ogre pushed him and tried to find an opening while the Elidra kept him distracted. Junhyuk suppressed the living spirit and accelerated.

By using acceleration, he could kill his enemies easily, but he got extremely tired in the process, and even drinking from the basin wouldn’t recover his energy. He chose to slash the enemies quickly and let the living spirit travel through his arteries to recover his energy.

While the living spirit went through his arteries, it absorbed mana and, during that short time, it let him recuperate very fast. Junhyuk killed the ogre and the Elidra, and after that, within the time limit, he killed all the other monsters.

In the end, however, he almost collapsed from exhaustion.

“Still very difficult.”

As the enemy numbers increased, so did their combined attack skills, and he had had a tough time, but he managed to deal with all of them.

Lying on the ground, he closed his eyes and went over the battles in his mind.

“The summons to the Champions’ Battlefield stops time, so it won’t matter.”

With closed eyes, he willed the living spirit to travel through his veins. It went slowly, and as he felt for it, his muscles recuperated. He felt each sinewy part and smiled.

“Interesting enemies.”

With the combination of strength and quickness, they had taught him a lot about combined attacks and how to find openings. And by using his powers, he had learned more about how to use them.

“The problem is my powers haven’t evolved enough yet.”

He had killed the monsters without using the force field, but meanwhile, he thought seriously about how to sell the monster bodies.

“If I can make money from them, I will sell them. If not, I’ll let them disappear.”

He thought the B-ranked monster bodies would bring him money and help out Elise in the process.

His mind wandered, and he laughed. He had engaged in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle while focusing on the living spirit for two hours. He was growing up fast.

Now, he was able to let the living spirit run through his veins while thinking of other things. He knew that if he thought of other things the spirit would slow down, and that focusing on the living spirit made it absorb more mana and travel faster, so he decided to focus on it.

In the previous battle, the allies had been defeated soundly, and they were hoping he would be victorious in the Champions’ Battlefield. They would be betting on him to try to get better items for themselves. It was a gamble, but he wouldn’t refuse the situation.

The 3,000G he earned for every kill wasn’t important, but the victory reward was, and this time, he planned to learn about how to use the enhancement stones. Junhyuk lay comfortably and focused on the spirit travelling through his veins.

—

The living spirit had also grown. It travelled through his veins three times and it only took five hours to do it. Junhyuk opened his eyes at one in the morning, returned home and showered. Then, he called Sarang.

“Brother, why did you call me first?”

“Me? I won’t be able to connect to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“My training facility has been built, but there is no reception there. I plan to train there and go directly to the Champions’ Battlefield.”

“Where is that place? Why won’t phones work?”

He laughed and answered, “After I come back from the Champions’ Battlefield, I’ll tell you. It’s a special place.”

“Are you going to win?”

“If nothing has changed, I will win. I’ve already fought those enemies, and we are superior to them.”

“The heroes are counting on you. Do well!”

“Don’t worry.”

He thought of something and added, “And Sat.u.r.day, we’ll meet Eunseo together.”

“Really?”

“Yes. She wants to meet you, and I’ll also show you my training grounds.”

“Whoa!”

He thought of Eunseo and told her, “If you have any problems, call me anytime.”

“May I?”

“Of course! Don’t worry. Just call.”

“Your facility has no cell reception.”

He took a moment to think and said, “Send me messages.”

“Hm, sure. Big brother, win and return safely.”

“Right.”

Junhyuk hung up and ate his lunch. Planning to skip dinner, he teleported to the bathroom and said, “Enter.”

He wanted to train harder and, as he entered, he lay on the ground. Junhyuk had the option to practice his powers, but he wanted to grow the living spirit more, so he lay there and sent it through his veins.

After finishing up, he focused on practicing his powers.

There was just an hour left before he went to the Dimensional Battlefield, so he trained hard for that hour and, at 8:00 p.m., he sat on the ground and closed his eyes.

The living spirit was still running through his arteries when he felt the bright white light pierce his cornea. He was being transported to the battlefield and, as he slowly opened his eyes, he checked out how much gold he had: 232,760G.

He had only killed a few on the last battlefield, and his coins did not increase. Smiling bitterly, he summoned his equipment as he heard a soft voice.

[The explanation on the Swamp of Despair has been deleted by request. The victory item for this Swamp of Despair is a sack of random items. Inside the sack, you’ll find random items from magic items to rare items, so do your best to win.]

The items inside would bring him a nice amount of gold. If he got lucky, he might get rare items, which he would use right away.

Junhyuk couldn’t lose. He had to win.

[Champion Junhyuk Lee deployed.]