179. Awakening Test (2)
Swish, swish!
Two summons stared at each other with their weapons leveled.
In that heavy tension.
—Oooooh, what is this?
—They’re fighting. The newbie looks like they’d taste good with blood.
A few summons from elsewhere gathered around.
They were Lamba and Dampir.
Then.
—Shh.
Aso placed her index finger against her lips.
—It’s a sacred duel. Everyone be quiet, and if you want to watch, stand quietly next to Dad and watch quietly.
—Tch, fine.
—Okay.
Dampir sat down beside Aso, and Lamba climbed onto Baek Jinwoo’s shoulder.
Even through that brief commotion, Aila and HunGyo did not lose their focus.
Wooooong!
A faint light began to glow from the tip of Aila’s spear as holy power started to swirl around it.
Sky-Piercing Spear Strike!
The moment it hit, it would explode and deal additional holy damage.
Then, in that instant.
The one who moved first was Aila.
Tah!
She charged so quickly it was almost as if her body had suddenly vanished.
Tatatatak!
Her spear flew toward HunGyo, tracing lines of light.
Swoosh.
HunGyo swiftly twisted his body and dodged the spear.
—You’re quite fast, but too straightforward.
Sssst.
The moment he stepped to the side, HunGyo lightly swung his sword and slashed at Aila’s flank.
Clang!
A collision rang out.
Aila had predicted the trajectory and defended against it.
—That was good.
At the same time.
Bang!
The effect of Sky-Piercing Spear Strike burst out, and HunGyo was pushed back.
—Hm, this won’t be easy.
—You told me to do it properly.
—You’re doing very well.
This time, HunGyo rushed in first, and Aila blocked his sword with her spear.
Kwa-gagagagaga!
Their strength was almost perfectly even.
“Hmm.”
Watching them, Baek Jinwoo stroked his chin.
This is unexpected.
Even if she awakened, he’d thought HunGyo would overwhelm her.
“Aso.”
—Yes, Dad.
“Who do you think will win?”
—Umm......
Aso hesitated.
Even after ten seconds had passed, she still could not answer easily.
For a genius like her to be thinking this seriously meant...
It was really difficult.
—Personally, I thought HunGyo would win, but look over there.
Before they knew it, the duel had grown intense.
And Aila wasn’t an S-rank summon for nothing.
Boom!
Judgement of Moonlight: She raises her spear and calls down the sacred judgement of moonlight. All enemies are stunned for 5 seconds.
With one burst of moonlight from her spear, she bound HunGyo in place.
Then she leaped up and hurled her spear.
Swaeaaaaak!
Heavenly Ascension: She throws her spear. At the point where it lands, it causes a massive holy explosion.
Kwa-gagagagagaga!
A storm began raging from the point where the spear struck.
—Guh!
Thud, thud!
If Jaggeo had not gotten up and absorbed the shock, the training ground itself might have been blown away.
“Ha.”
Well now.
It’ll be hard to spar in training grounds like this from now on.
Will we have to go into a nearby dungeon to do it?
—Kgh, she really is strong.
HunGyo nodded, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
—You’re impressive too, for enduring that.
The damage went in harder.
Champion’s awakening effect.
Deals an additional 200% damage to non-awakened targets.
Because of that, HunGyo’s condition was serious.
He only had about 10% HP left.
Just the fact that she had pushed HunGyo, who used to sweep through however many enemies alone, that far showed what a ridiculous summon Champion was.
And on top of that.
Kkagagagang!
No matter how much HunGyo swung his sword, since she was an awakened target fighting a non-awakened opponent, 50% of the damage was absorbed.
‘This is truly absurd.’
HunGyo bit his lip. But he could not give up.
Aila had already used all her major skills too.
Now it was truly time for martial skill against martial skill!
—I’ll start for real as well.
Whoong!
When he thrust his sword out again, the flow of the air began to change.
He deflected every spear thrust Aila unleashed while continuing to land small attacks.
—Oh.
Aso nodded.
—As expected, HunGyo. He’s experienced.
“Really?”
—Yeah, Aila’s stronger in terms of raw build, but HunGyo definitely has the edge in technique. That’s why he’s scary too. If Aila properly learns spearsmanship from HunGyo, how far do you think she’ll rise?
“......”
She’d definitely be absurdly broken.
And if her latent ability got drawn out too?
Maybe another unofficial EX-rank summon could be born.
‘Making even low-rank ones broken was HunGyo’s specialty in the first place.’
Kwa-gagagagaga!
Five minutes passed, then ten.
The two kept fighting the whole time.
But what had changed?
Compared to Aila’s HP gradually decreasing, HunGyo’s HP was staying almost the same!
While dragging out the fight, HunGyo steadily chipped away at Aila’s HP bit by bit.
—Ha.
Aila let out a breath, sounding frustrated.
—This won’t work.
She clearly had strength and durability, and yet...
She simply could not deal with that sly, slippery movement.
HunGyo’s movements were cold and perfect, as if he were reading the flow of the entire battle.
‘Amazing.’
So from now on, someone like him will be teaching me spearsmanship?
Thinking that way, even being pushed back did not make her feel bad.
Clang, clang!
Sword and spear collided.
She could already see that continuing further would not change the result, but in that moment, she still gave it her all.
How much time had passed like that?
Swoosh!
The tip of HunGyo’s sword touched Aila’s neck.
Hoo.
A faint breath trembled from her lips.
—I lost.
Aila acknowledged her defeat.
—Good work. This was a valuable experience for me as well.
HunGyo nodded.
At the same time.
—Waaaaaaaah! Amazing!
Lamba shouted in excitement.
Clap clap clap clap clap!
Aso and Dampir sat side by side, clapping.
That little duo was surprisingly cute too.
“Aso probably doesn’t need to spar, right?”
—I think that will be fine.
HunGyo said as he approached.
Jinwoo patted his shoulder a couple of times as if to say he had done well.
“How was it, trying it yourself?”
—It’s incredible. Awakening, if it’s possible.... It absolutely has to be done. Honestly, if she had learned the spearsmanship I’ll teach in the future to even just 3-star proficiency, I wouldn’t have been able to win.
“Hmm.”
Awakening, huh.
Doing it would be good.
But the problem is how to do it.
—Th-that.... Actually, I got a feeling, my lord.
That was when HunGyo carefully spoke up.
“Hm? A feeling?”
—Doesn’t the instructor skill I learned open the latent abilities of summons?
Yeah.
That’s right.
Instructor: Opens the latent abilities of other summons and amplifies their growth speed.
That skill.
The broken skill that turned E-rank HunGyo into EX-rank, and the source of everything he was!
—I never thought that the target of this instructor skill could be myself. Because I had already learned my greatest latent ability, the Instructor skill.
Right.
That’s true.
‘Instructor’ is HunGyo’s latent skill.
But why that?
—But right now, that very Instructor skill is telling me something. That with this skill, I still haven’t drawn out my true ability yet.
Huh?
“What do you mean? Say it a little more simply.”
In other words......
HunGyo muttered with a serious expression.
—It says it will tell me how I can awaken.
Huh?
HunGyo can awaken?
“Really?”
That’s huge.
—Ooooh?
Even Lamba’s eyes widened.
—You’re trying to get even stronger from there?
Aso muttered, sounding slightly dissatisfied.
But.
Baek Jinwoo alone smiled more brightly than anyone else.
“What’s the method? Just say it! I’ll do anything!”
* * *
Awakening is similar to opening latent abilities. If you resolve a kind of deficiency, lingering regret, or trauma?
That becomes the trigger for awakening.
Look at Aila.
Failing to protect her world when it was destroyed had remained as regret and sorrow in her heart, and in the end, didn’t she awaken in order to accomplish that very thing?
—Up to now, my lord, I have only seen the latent abilities of high-level summons opened twice.
Hoo.
That was true, actually.
HunGyo and Explosive Dragon Sorcerer were just so strong that they had carried us this far.
The others were still only at the level of having their endgame runes equipped.
Of course, even that alone made them incredibly strong.
The ones who had opened their latent abilities?
Explosive Dragon Sorcerer - True Devour
Rune Dwarf - Luxury Crafting
Only those two.
Even then, it was less that HunGyo had made them do it and more that he had simply guided them. They were the ones who accomplished it themselves.
“But?”
—I believe it will work if I open a total of five latent abilities, including those two.
“Then three more?”
—Yes.
Ah.
HunGyo’s dream is to become good at training others...
So had the fact that he still had not properly opened latent abilities until now remained as a kind of deficiency?
“But you’re still doing that even now.”
—I think I must begin in earnest from now on.
“If it’s three, who will you do it with?”
—Lamba, Gale Slayer, and Aso.
—Uwaaaaaaah! Me?
Lamba, who had been listening, jolted in shock.
—I don’t need that, do I? Hahahaha, I’m already perfect as I am! Do you know how outstanding my performance is in every dungeon?!
She was avoiding it because she thought it might mean another round of brutal training.
HunGyo glanced at Lamba as if she were pathetic.
—Hoo!
Letting out a faint sigh, he said,
—Don’t worry. There won’t be any need to swing a staff.
—Eh? Then what?
—For now, that is all I will say.
—Hooeek?
Hmm.
Lamba’s latent ability...
What could it be?
Back during Battle of Summoners, it had never been opened.
In Lamba’s case, the Wind Pressure skill itself was so broken that... it got patched quickly.
‘As for Gale Slayer.’
Clones.
That was the real reason Gale Slayer was broken, but strangely enough, its ability still had not been opened.
‘If he just learned Clones?’
Every PVP match would become a ten-second stomp.
Dozens of Grim Reapers would split apart, each wielding a scythe and dealing splash damage all at once.
Only then would he truly become, just like his name, the Gale Slayer.
‘And lastly, Aso.’
In Aso’s case, she would probably need to master a specific martial art all the way.
Something like the Heaven-Breaking Divine Art she learned this time, or Mugeuk Seonin’s Clear Heaven Heart Technique.
Things like that...
It was going to get rough from here on out.
“So what do I need to do to help?”
—For now, there is nothing needed. If something comes up later, I will ask separately, my lord.
“Got it.”
As expected.
Our HunGyo.
He really is dependable.
* * *
“Hoooo.”
After watching the sparring match once, Baek Jinwoo immediately headed back down the mountain.
Where to?
The main training ground!
Now there were two training grounds in Yoobaek City.
Baek Jinwoo’s private eco-friendly training ground and SKY’s dedicated training ground.
From now on, they had agreed to call the former the “rear training ground” and the latter the “main training ground”.
The main training ground was overflowing with excitement.
Now that they had the goal of reaching the 50th floor of the Tower of Trials, everyone was running toward that alone!
‘I should give the rookies some consulting too.’
But before that.
There was one thing to do.
Clap clap clap clap!
Baek Jinwoo clapped his hands as he approached.
“Guild Master!”
“Big brother!”
“Oh, you’ve come?”
The guild members all stopped what they were doing and greeted him warmly.
Especially the rookies.
Patter patter patter!
They immediately ran over, lined up side by side, and looked at him with bright, eager eyes.
What is this?
“Why do they look so disciplined? You’re not bullying them or anything while I’m gone, right?”
“No way.”
Hong Ari walked over with a smile.
“We’re all pretty close. Of course, we still keep proper manners between classes, but there’s nothing like that old-fashioned military stuff. They’re just like this because they respect you.”
“Oh, really?”
That made sense.
After all, they were waiting for consulting.
Good, then.
‘I’ll just handle it all at once today. I should do some one-on-one interviews too.’
“First of all, today is summoning day. If I pull anything good for your combinations, I’ll give it to you as a gift, so everyone gather around.”
“Summoning?”
“A gift?”
“Really, big brother?”
Everyone’s interest was piqued.
It had to be.
Shararararak!
What Baek Jinwoo scattered across the floor were none other than 1,282 Top-grade Summoning Scrolls!
They were the ones he had already possessed, plus the ones he obtained as rewards from the 60th floor.
As they watched the summoning scrolls scatter across the floor, the guild members’ eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out.
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