The Skill Maker

“What are you going to do? Give up?”

“No way.”

“Yeah? Then I won’t hold back!”

His fist moved at a fast pace and was targeting Hyun-Soo’s chin.

It wasn’t as fast as before where his fist appeared right in front of him in a blink of an eye.

It was fast, but it was slow enough for Hyun-Soo to dodge it.

Thanks to their attack being slower than before, Hyun-Soo managed to avoid getting hit and getting embarrassed.

‘I can’t fall to the ground first.’

The opponent has to be the first one to fall at least.

Hyun-Soo’s expression suddenly turned cold.

‘A solution. What’s the most effective method?’

“I like that look!”

‘Thanks for the compliment, but take this!’

Hyun-Soo called out Invisible Attack and materialized it.

‘A really thick hook!’

He created a thick hook on purpose so that it wouldn’t disappear when it collides with Jack’s fist.

And he immediately threw it towards Jack.

“I told you, your long-distance attacks won’t work!”

Jack noticed Hyun-Soo’s attack and tried to block it with his fist right away.

However, Hyun-Soo didn’t use the attack just to make it collide with Jack’s fist.

“Huh?”

‘Okay!’

The thick hook was flying towards Jack’s wrist, not his stomach.

Clank!

It’s probably because the hook was thick, but his skill hooked onto Jack’s wrist and pulled back.

“H-huh?”

Tap, tap, tap!

Boom!

He was suddenly pulled back, which caused him to lose his balance, but as he started flailing his arms, he regained his balance.

‘That’s not all!’

Hyun-Soo threw a skill he prepared while Jack was losing his balance.

The skill flew towards Jack’s ankle.

Jack managed to regain his balance but his mind was all over the place during that brief moment.

And during that time, he gave Hyun-Soo a chance.

‘Hook and pull!’

His upper body was pushed back while his lower body was pulled forward.

Hyun-Soo’s eyes looked at Jack’s body, which was falling back.

“Huh?!”

Boom!

He might’ve been able to regain his balance right away, but Hyun-Soo targeted that moment and succeeded in the attack that came after.

The sound of his heavy body hitting the floor filled the room.

“Woah…he fell.”

A voice filled with a bit of confusion broke the silence.

It was Eugene, who was forced to be the referee.

“His back didn’t touch the floor, but should this be counted as one…?”

He didn’t fall because Hyun-Soo used a reasonable skill.

It was more of a convenient skill.

But the monsters didn’t exactly fight fair and square.

‘Using the chance that you’re given is a skill too.’

Jack also had a surprised look on his face, but he wasn’t angry about the fact that he was attacked by an absurd skill.

A C rank hunter beat an A rank hunter.

If they were to fight using everything that they had, then Hyun-Soo would definitely lose.

But, that didn’t apply here.

‘Ha…ha ha. I really did it.’

He wanted to teach him a lesson, but realistically, his chances weren’t very high.

‘But I did it.’

“Then, we’ll count that as Hyun-Soo getting a point. Are you going to continue?”

“Forget it. This is enough for me to confirm it.”

Jack extended his arm out towards Hyun-Soo.

“What are you doing? Pull him up.”

“Oh, right.”

‘Is it over?’

He thought he would have to keep fighting until the end, but it finished sooner than he expected.

‘Wasn’t he trying to beat me up?’

But Jack said he wanted to stop here and didn’t continue the fight.

The fist that put his arm in pain opened and grabbed Hyun-Soo’s hand.

Hyun-Soo pulled his hand and helped Jack stand up.

“You were pretty good. They said Yoo-Na brought you here, but you’re not totally useless.”

Jack looked at Hyun-Soo and said it.

Jack was no longer looking down on Hyun-Soo.

“You too.”

When Hyun-Soo responded, Jack smiled and returned to where he was standing earlier.

“I knew I had an eye for talent. Good job. I’m sure you sweated quite a bit. Do you want me to tell you where the shower room is located? There’s a sauna too. It’s pretty awesome.”

Hyun-Soo’s eyes lit up when Eugene mentioned sauna.

He felt an odd pain on his arms and upper body.

‘I don’t know what kind of skill it was, but the pain is still there.’

But if he sat in a tub of hot water and released some sweat, then the pain will most likely go away.

Hyun-Soo followed behind Eugene.

“What? You’re ending it already?”

The other hunters that were watching asked in a startled tone.

“I’ve checked his skills, so there’s no need to continue.”

“But, still…”

“It’s tiring.”

“You ended it because you aren’t in a good condition today, right? He was just lucky, right?”

‘Jeez, I’m sure it’ll put him in a bad mood since he can hear it…’

Hyun-Soo didn’t leave the room yet, but the others started talking amongst themselves.

“I was honestly going to beat him up real good at first, but he’s pretty promising. After checking, he’s pretty skilled, so there’s no need to continue the fight. If he came here by completely relying on Yoo-Na, then I would’ve beaten him up, but that wasn’t it.”

“But still, our plan…”

“He’s not bad. No, something amazing will come out of him if he’s taken care of.”

“Aren’t you complimenting him too much? You’re so optimistic. Well, if you think that way, then it must be true. But I’m not sure if the others will think of him the way you think of him.”

Since Eugene didn’t translate, Hyun-Soo couldn’t understand the long sentences.

However, Hyun-Soo made an assumption through the few words that he was able to pick up.

‘It sounds like a compliment.’

It didn’t seem all that bad.

‘I guess I got acknowledged.’

This was his first step in adapting, which Hyun-Soo was expecting.

***

Invisible Attack.

It was a C rank’s developed skill.

Hyun-Soo hunted quite a lot of monsters through this.

‘It’s an amazing skill.’

He was able to feely control its damage, range and use.

It was a well-rounded skill.

On top of that.

‘I won a round against an A rank hunter.’

It was a surprise attack, but he made Jack fall on the ground first.

It would’ve been great if his back landed on the ground, but making him fall on the floor was a pretty big improvement in his opinion.

‘Even though it was a surprise attack, if I didn’t have Invisible Attack, then I wouldn’t have succeeded.’

He was pretty surprised by its power and use.

What would happen if it became an A or S rank?

He didn’t know how it would develop.

Raising its rank was a pretty big achievement, but what would happen if it evolved again and that skill leveled up?

‘I might end up having a really strong skill.’

Invisible Attack could be used in many different ways, so it couldn’t be categorized as an offense skill.

Its use depended all on Hyun-Soo.

Depending on how he used it, the skill changed.

‘I just don’t know how to fulfill the requirement for developing the skill.’

Anyways, it was enough for now.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want a stronger skill.

It was obvious that he wanted a much stronger skill.

But the skill in its current state was more than enough for now.

***

“Hyon-Sso! Hyo-Na!”

“Oh. Hey.”

As soon as he entered the cafeteria, Katrina stood up and waved towards Hyun-Soo and Hyuna.

“I heard something fun happened while I wasn’t around.”

“Yeah.”

“Hurry up and tell me.”

“You already heard it from Eugene.”

“It’s different when hearing it from someone that actually experienced it!”

“It’s difficult to say it in English. I’m tired. I don’t want to.”

How was he supposed to explain all of it?

‘It might overwork my brain.’

Maybe it’s because he listened to English audios every day after arriving at the base.

He was able to somewhat understand in English, but he still had a hard time speaking.

If the sentences started getting long, then he would pick out words that he recognized.

Because of that, Hyun-Soo’s sentences were getting shorter and shorter.

‘As long as they understand.’

However, Hyuna was improving her English at a fast rate.

She was able to use high-quality vocabulary because of it.

Thanks to that, she became really good friends with Katrina.

“That’s mean. Then I won’t tell you either.”

She was very cold towards him when they first met, but now she was treating him like he was her friend.

‘There are times when I’m unable to understand since she starts sulking at odd parts…’

It was very comforting for him to have someone that greeted him first when he was surrounded by people that treated him coldly.

‘I guess they’ve heard the news seeing as how the atmosphere changed.’

After filling his plate with baked beans and sausage, I quietly glanced around.

Since it was past lunch time, there weren’t that many people in the cafeteria.

The few that were there glanced over at him briefly and then turned their heads back.

‘They’re not openly showing signs of disgust like they did the first time. Hm…’

It was the same type of disgust one would give when someone desires something that doesn’t belong to them.

The hunters had the same look on their faces and Hyun-Soo clearly remembered them.

‘But it decreased after the fight.’

After the fight, there were rumors that Hyun-Soo successfully passed the test.

Katrina was the one that started it.

She started speaking English really fast and Hyuna tried her best to translate it.

That’s when it happened.

Their eyes towards Hyun-Soo softened.

‘They’re still pretty unfriendly towards me though…’

Maybe it’s because he proved his skill.

The other hunter’s unfriendliness wasn’t as intense or violent as he thought.

But they chose to ignore him.

Even though their unfriendliness died down after the fight, it didn’t mean they started being friendly towards him.

‘Of course there are exceptions.’

Eugene and Katrina were the exceptions.

Brad and Jack tend to greet Hyun-Soo when he greeted them first.

But others ignored him.

They purposely did that, so he knew they were still being unfriendly towards him.

Right when he placed a crispy piece of bacon on his plate and turned around.

Gasp!

Their eyes met again.

The way they turned their heads was noticeable.

‘Jeez, this is…’

A bitter smile appeared on Hyun-Soo’s face.

But he acted like he didn’t see them and after turning his head, he walked back to his seat.

“Hyun-Soo, you brought the same type of food again? You have to eat vegetables too.”

“How can I use my strength just from eating pieces of grass? Go easy on me.”

“I told you that tasty foods aren’t good for your body. I thought you said you had to take care of your body!”

After saying that, Hyuna grabbed the salad that was on her plate and placed it on Hyun-Soo’s.

Hyun-Soo quietly ate the vegetables that his worrying sister gave him.

“Hey, Katrina. What was the thing you wanted say earlier?”

“I’m not telling.”

“Jeez. Don’t be like that…”

‘They’re so similar.’

Even though Hyuna was younger, their mental age seemed similar.

After Hyuna asked a couple of times, Katrina gave up and started talking.

“Since Yoo-Na is back, we’re going to officially go on a hunt. While she was in Korea, we only took care of requests, so we decided to go on one.”

“I’m the one that made that request.”

Eugene raised his hand.

“And one more thing. I recommended that you be included.”

“Me?”