Chapter 344: 2nd Mentoring Session Part 1

In reality, saying that I had a lot of fun was half just to tease Dang Gyu-young.

Life in Hye-seong City had been rather monotonous.

Training, training, training every day, and then more training.

As I talked about it, Dang Gyu-young gradually began to look more and more bored.

But when I mentioned the Underworld Dragon King, she slightly furrowed her brows.

“The Underworld Dragon King? How did that happen?”

“He said he’s close with the chairman.”

“Since when?”

“I didn’t hear that part either.”

When and how the Hye-seong Group and the Underworld Dragon King had formed such a close relationship. That was something I had asked about before. But for some reason, the chairman had avoided answering.

Since I didn’t consider it a matter of great importance, I let it go.

After all, what really mattered was the fact that we had formed an alliance and that our goals aligned.

“……”

Dang Gyu-young fell silent and was lost in thought.

The connection between the two forces wasn’t known to the public, but it was extremely important information.

True to her position as the president of the Thieves Club, she began comparing it against her existing knowledge.

“As far as I know, that place has been pretty quiet for a defense city. For quite a long time too.”

“That’s what I heard as well.”

“Up until now, the leading theory was that the Meteor Dragon was in a dormant phase. But even that didn’t explain the movements of the Guardians… If they’re in an alliance, then everything fits.”

“That’s good for us.”

Because it meant we didn’t have to turn an ancient dragon, one nearing EX-rank, into our enemy.

Of course, the two major powers, the Corpse Dragon and the Blood Cult Leader, still remained.

Dang Gyu-young gave a slight nod as if in agreement, but then suddenly seemed to remember something and asked.

“But for a place that’s supposed to have been quiet… I heard that witch showed up there not long ago. Did you see her?”

“I did.”

“How was it?”

“She tried to kill me.”

“……?”

Dang Gyu-young blinked several times.

She had realized that I hadn’t just seen the Witch of Death from a distance but had been directly involved with her.

“How did that happen?”

“I ran into her while I was walking down the street.”

“What are you talking about? Why would you run into her just like that?”

“Bad luck, I guess.”

“Hey, hey, tell me the details.”

Dang Gyu-young lightly tapped my knee.

So, I calmly began explaining everything that had happened back then, step by step.

The Witch of Death had been wandering around Hye-seong City on a reconnaissance mission when she happened to spot me and approached me for a conversation.

She didn’t seem to hold a grudge over me defeating the Witch of Corruption, but it looked like she had decided she should eliminate me in advance for the sake of her master.

She also seemed to have realized that I was a Monarch.

As a result, a battle broke out between us, and as I managed to stall for time, the Underworld Dragon King appeared and came to my aid.

And in the end, even the chairman of the Hye-seong Group joined the battle, and together we succeeded in driving the witch away.

As she listened to my story, Dang Gyu-young reached out and started inspecting various parts of my body.

It was as if she was checking whether I had broken down anywhere or replaced any of my limbs with prosthetics.

“How did you come back alive in one piece?”

“You know I’m pretty good at running away.”

“You really are slippery like an eel. I don’t even know if I should be worried about you or not.”

Dang Gyu-young’s expression grew complicated.

She probably knew better than anyone just how good I was at evading attacks.

After all, she was the very person who had helped me train in [Distortion], and she had watched me clear all sorts of high-difficulty dungeons.

Still, since my opponent had been the infamous S-rank Witch, it was only natural for her to worry just a little.

Eventually, Dang Gyu-young let out a deep sigh. Then, as if deciding she needed to change the mood, she kept throwing me more questions.

“Haah, it’s all in the past now, so what can you do? So, you trained with a dragon, fought with a witch, and then what?”

“That’s about it.”

“You said you had fun, didn’t you? Tell me about that too.”

“Now that I’m trying to talk about it, there’s really not much. I played some mini-games with Father Seo.”

“Father? That’s a strange way to call him.”

Dang Gyu-young’s eyes narrowed sharply.

But since I had nothing to feel guilty about, I answered her calmly.

“He told me to call him that; what was I supposed to do?”

“Tch, do people usually call him ‘Father’? Or am I the weird one here? What kind of games did you play?”

“All sorts of stuff.”

“Was he good?”

“I won every single game.”

Dang Gyu-young smacked my arm with a slap.

“Hey, you should’ve at least let him win once! You called him ‘Father’, didn’t you?”

“The world of competition is a cold and ruthless place.”

“You really are… Whatever. And then?”

“We baked cookies together.”

“……Cookies, and then?”

“We were going to hang out some more, but the witch showed up and ruined everything.”

Dang Gyu-young nodded silently for a moment.

Then, while absentmindedly tracing lines on the bench with her finger, she broke the silence.

“……Hey, Kim Ho.”

“Yes, noona?”

“Let’s go to my family home over winter break.”

A sudden invitation to her family home.

I decided to start with the most important question.

“Didn’t you say you left home? That you were erased from the family register?”

“Pretty much. But once in a while, my dad still calls me over.”

“It sounds pretty serious. I don’t think I belong in something like that.”

“Don’t worry about that. And besides, it’s boring if I go alone.”

“If you’re bored, why don’t you take Shosho noona with you?”

At those words, Dang Gyu-young’s expression suddenly hardened.

Then she said in a strict, senior-like tone,

“Kim Ho, it’s not Shosho noona. You should be calling her Senior Jegal So-so.”

“We’ve already settled that. I’m calling her noona.”

“Argh, anyway, no Shosho! You’re coming, right?”

Dang Gyu-young grabbed my shoulders and shook me side to side.

I replied while swaying slowly like a reed,

“It’s not like I have to decide right now. Summer break isn’t even over yet.”

“You do have to decide now. Otherwise, you’ll just run off there again, won’t you?”

“I am considering it.”

“See! I knew it!”

Training with the Dragon King had been beneficial, and there were still things I hadn’t gotten around to doing.

When she heard that, Dang Gyu-young shook my shoulders even harder.

“Winter break! My house! Come!”

“With this… kind of method… you can’t… win me over… you know?”

Even as I was being violently shaken, I still said everything I wanted to say.

While we were going back and forth like that, a train rapidly approached from a distance and came to a stop.

Then, as the doors opened, a familiar head of red hair stepped out. It was Hong Yeon-hwa.

“……”

Judging by the slight irritation in her eyes as she looked around the platform, something must have happened on the way here.

But the moment she spotted me, her face instantly brightened like nothing had happened.

And as she came running over in quick strides, she lost her footing and fell flat on her face with a loud thud.

I walked over and helped Hong Yeon-hwa back up.

“Why are you in such a hurry? It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

“I-I just… I was so happy to see you…”

Even as she rubbed her knee, Hong Yeon-hwa looked genuinely overjoyed.

***

We made our way to the parking lot located behind the station.

There was a single car parked there, and when I turned my head at the sound of jingling keys, I saw a set of car keys hanging from Dang Gyu-young’s finger.

When I stared at her suspiciously, she spoke up first.

“I didn’t steal it. I rented it.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“No, your eyes were totally suspicious.”

Well… I had kind of been thinking that, so I quickly changed the subject.

“Should I drive?”

“No way. I’m the mentor, so I should be the one driving.”

With that, Dang Gyu-young took the driver’s seat.

I got in the passenger seat, while Hong Yeon-hwa who was glancing around nervously quietly sat in the back seat.

Since it was just the two of us in front, it seemed like she still felt awkward around Dang Gyu-young.

But we’d be living together for almost a month, so things would probably get better in time.

As we were driving, Dang Gyu-young broke the silence.

“For this mentoring program, I was actually planning to just go wherever the school assigned us, you know. But then the number of participants got cut in half.”

Originally, there were supposed to be four mentees under Dang Gyu-young, and if she’d had to look after all of them, it probably would’ve been total chaos.

But with Kwak Ji-cheol and Song Cheon-hye dropping out due to their own circumstances, it had become possible to have even more focused mentoring.

That was why Dang Gyu-young had changed the location as well.

Since it was something I welcomed, I nodded my head.

“With just the two of us, you’ll probably have time left over even after mentoring.”

“Mhmm, so I was thinking of squeezing in some training whenever I can too.”

On top of that, the place we were headed to apparently wasn’t a bad spot for a third-year to train either.

She had probably taken that into consideration when choosing the location.

I asked the two of them,

“You both cleared [Hardship], right?”

“Of course.”

“Mhmm.”

Dang Gyu-young and Hong Yeon-hwa immediately gave affirmative answers.

Well, it had been a month already. It would’ve been weirder if they hadn’t cleared it by now.

Given how driven they both were, it probably hadn’t even taken them more than a week at most.

“I’ve reset my cooldown, so let’s take turns activating it during mentoring.”

“Sure. So what comes next for me?”

“Did you get the [Shadow Mark]?”

“Yeah. That thing was seriously annoying.”

Dang Gyu-young made a tired face and shuddered slightly.

She had probably been tormented by those orbs of light throughout all three stages of Hardship.

Every time she tried to do something, they would flash and erase her shadows.

To make things worse, the number of orbs doubled with each stage. So by the third stage, there must have been four of them constantly flashing without pause.

Still, she toughed it out and managed to get it.

A powerful trait called [Shadow Mark].

Since it allowed her to create shadows even within light, she wouldn’t be affected by her environment at all.

Wasn’t that more than enough of a reward for all the hardship she endured?

Of course, the moment she activated stage four, the suffering would begin all over again.

“There’s probably something else coming up next, but I won’t know for sure until I try it.”

“True. Well, I guess we’ll see later.”

Perhaps thinking it made sense, Dang Gyu-young nodded without hesitation.

Next, I turned to Hong Yeon-hwa and asked her.

“How was it for you? The Hardship.”

“Well, uh… you know the Fire Pillar, right?”

“It’s completely become your main skill now.”

“Mhmm, they told me to create a derivative skill from that…”

Since she had covered her weak points with three defensive spells, Hong Yeon-hwa’s next goal was to further enhance her offensive power.

And because Fire Pillar was her main skill, I had advised her to try creating a skill that could link with it. Conveniently enough, her Hardship quest had given her a similar objective.

“You haven’t finished it yet, right?”

“I’m about… halfway there?”

“Alright, take it step by step.”

“Okay.”

Hong Yeon-hwa nodded her head.

The car gradually headed toward a more secluded area and soon turned onto a mountain road.

After driving along the winding mountain path for quite some time, the car finally came to a stop in front of a small building that looked like a pension.

As Dang Gyu-young got out of the car, she spoke.

“We’re here, guys.”

Following after her, I stepped out and looked up at the pension.

Even at a glance, it looked large for just three people to stay in, and it appeared stylish and recently built.

Right nearby, there was a staircase, which seemed to lead to a training ground meant for mentoring.

“It really is in a great location. Senior, your networking skills are impressive.”

“You keep forgetting, but I’m the club president, you know?”

“As expected of the president.”

Since she deserved to be proud, I kept praising Dang Gyu-young without holding back.