The Skill Maker

Someone spoke as they recalled how Hamilton acted politely until the end.

Like they mentioned, Hamilton’s actions were clear.

Since I’m not powerful enough, I’ll come back later.

In simple terms, if he had enough power, then the situation would’ve ended differently.

If Kim Yoo-Na didn’t appear and he had more men with him, then he wouldn’t have given up that easily.

In order to fulfill his desire, he was willing to come back.

He felt that will from Hamilton.

‘What kind of skill does Ariel have exactly…?’

What kind of skill and position was she in that he would barge in here and use his men to meet with her?

How powerful was she that Kim Yoo-Na and the other crews were keeping quiet about her and trying to hide her?

He had a lot of questions, but now wasn’t the time to ask.

Hyun-Soo decided to ask at the right time.

“Whew, at least I was able to warm-up.”

“You’re right. It was way better than playing basketball.”

Once a hunter spoke while catching their breaths, another hunter added to the conversation.

They were right.

It was an intense warm-up that it couldn’t be compared to basketball.

The excitement they felt just now must’ve not died down because their shoulders and chest continuously moved up and down.

“Yoo-Na! That was great timing.”

A person went up to Kim Yoo-Na and showed the palm of their hand.

Clap!

The sound of hands. .h.i.tting each other filled the room.

“How did you manage to come at the right time? Thanks to you, the issue didn’t get bigger.”

Many of the clan members weren’t at the base today.

Even though a couple of them were here, if Hamilton brought a lot more men, the situation could’ve gotten a lot worse.

“I was going to come back yesterday, but something came up…I got a call from Eugene while I was finishing up so I rushed over here.”

The task she had to finish. A bitter smile appeared on her face when she mentioned that he couldn’t finish whatever she had to take care of.

“Should you go back then?”

“No, I managed to finish the things I needed to take care of, so it’s fine.”

“Jeez, leader…it’s problematic when you’re too capable, you know. There’s too many people that asks for your help.”

Right, right.

The others nodded in agreement even though they said it as a joke.

With an embarra.s.sed expression, Kim Yoo-Na told them to stop, but her eyes were still cold. However, it was intimidating at all.

“Hey, rookie. You’re amazing. Really super, super. Is that why you’re a Super Rookie? If we stay like this, he’ll most likely surpa.s.s us. I’m suddenly feeling worried.”

Their target must’ve changed from Kim Yoo-Na to Hyun-s…o…b..cause they suddenly said an embarra.s.sing nickname.

“Super Rookie?”

A confused look appeared on Kim Yoo-Na’s face since this was the first time she was hearing it.

Hyun-Soo was going to tell her that it was nothing special, but the others were faster.

“Yoo-Na, the rookie that you recruited is like a monster.”

“Just now, I think he performed a major counterattack. The guy that went up against the rookie, he’s a guard, right? If they’re a Shadow Guard, then I’m sure he hired someone that’s stronger than the average hunter.”

The members a.s.sumed that the ranks of the men in the suit and the guard were A and B.

Since they went up against the A rank hunters, it would make sense that they would be in those ranks.

However, since the enemy had more people, they were probably B ranks.

But the guard was different.

The Shadow Guard also stayed close and it’s obvious that they were way more skilled than ordinary guards.

That’s why it’s safe to a.s.sume that they’re an A rank.

And a B rank going up against them?

Kim Yoo-Na smiled.

“You think I would’ve recruited anyone to the clan? He’s the one responsible for putting me back in this position.”

The other hunters were the ones that were shocked by Kim Yoo-Na’s reaction.

Her usual expression was cold and stern.

But when she smiled, all of their attention was on her within seconds.

They didn’t know she would react that way so after they stuttered, they laughed out loud.

“Hahaha! Is that so? So you already knew. So that’s the reason why you didn’t take part in it at all in the beginning!”

No matter what the truth was, Kim Yoo-Na had a small smile on her face.

She didn’t say very much and it was as if she was indirectly saying that she didn’t care what the others thought about her.

‘Does Kim Yoo-Na really know everything?’

And obvious question popped into Yoo-Na’s head.

Now that he thought about it, Kim Yoo-Na didn’t ask anything since the beginning.

It’s a good enough reason to think that it’s weird…

‘Is she acting like she doesn’t know despite of knowing it?’

That was a possibility.

How much did she know?

Or maybe she really does know everything and is acting like she doesn’t know.

Even though he didn’t know the truth, he wasn’t worried.

Was it because she was a really reliable person…?

“That’s true. Yoo-Na isn’t really the type to favor anyone. Our leader can be extremely straightforward at times.”

“What do you mean at times? She doesn’t hide it.”

“…..”

While they were joking around, Hyun-Soo stayed quiet and acted like he was interested in something else.

It’s because he felt that the situation would only get worse if he said the wrong thing.

Hyun-Soo felt extremely embarra.s.sed for some reason.

More than before.

Not long after, the staff came out of the building.

A few of them cleaned up the mess that was made from the unexpected fight and others made a request to the hunters that were involved in the fight.

“It’s for data collecting purposes. Think of it as a journal.”

Of course Hyun-Soo was included as well.

Hyun-Soo was confused since he didn’t know what was going on, so Kim Yoo-Na explained.

“It’s his first time, so of course he doesn’t know. Go explain it to him!”

“That’s right, Yoo-Na. It’s better for the leader to help if possible.”

“On top of that, it looks like he has questions. Well, you see, about our clan name…”

A smile appeared on Kim Yoo-Na’s face as the hunters were mischievously joking around and laughing.

Even though it was a smile, it was different from before.

Her eyes weren’t smile, but the forced smile on her face was a cold smile.

“I understand that you’re having fun, but do it moderately. If you’re so free that you have time to joke around, sparring wouldn’t be such a bad idea since it’s been a while.”

“Oh, wow, look at the time. I should go write it before I forget. I’ll see you later! See you at dinner!”

“Rookie! Good work!”

The effect was amazing!

The hunters were scared that they ran away.

Because of that, Hyun-Soo was left along with her.

Hyun-Soo was nervous for a moment but relaxed when Kim Yoo-Na just helped out with writing the report.

“You said that they looked like they just appeared out of thin air, right?”

“Yes.”

“Hm, not that long ago, there wasn’t a person that had this kind of characteristic.”

She wrote them down as “New Mercenary Soldier” and was deep in her thoughts.

“There’s a high possibility he hired them to prepare for this. It looked like they barged in without much thought, but if you and the others weren’t outside when it happened, the situation would’ve turned out differently.”

Next to the “New Mercenary Soldier” description, the word, intention, was added.

“I’m sure Gracovich was behind this. Thanks to him, things could’ve gotten worse…”

Kim Yoo-Na drew an “x” on top of the new soldier.

“I’m sure he was saving for it, but thanks to that, things worked out.”

There was a huge difference between experiencing it while knowing and experiencing without know anything about it.

Kim Yoo-Na was tapping on the paper with the pen while pointing that out.

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

There was one thing that popped into his head.

It was the clan name that Gracovich mentioned.

Up til now, Kim Yoo-Na and the other members never properly said the clan’s name.

All they said were our clan, my clan and were vague about the clan name.

Honestly, Hyun-Soo ignored it because the name wasn’t all that important, but someone mentioned the name.

On top of that, it was a grand name. It was called the Clan of Blood and Iron.

“What is it?”

“About the clan name…what’s the exact name?”

It didn’t make sense that the clan members didn’t know when an outsider knew it.

Hyun-s…o…b..amed himself for being uninterested.

It wasn’t a hard task, so he thought he would get a reply immediately, but Kim Yoo-Na actually hesitated.

It looked like her face turned red.

“Are you referring to the clan name?”

“Yes. I heard it being called FE. Is that short for something? Was it made based on the element symbol?”

Fe was the symbol for iron.

Gracovich did mention blood and iron, so it was pretty convincing.

But that probably wasn’t the answer because Kim Yoo-Na slightly shook her head.

“That…”

The way she hesitated wasn’t like her.

Hyun-Soo patiently waited for her answer.

‘Why is she hesitating like this?’

When he was starting to feel strange, Kim Yoo-Na finally opened her mouth.

“…It’s short for Fiery Empress.”

With a really red face, she spoke extremely quietly.

This was the first time he was seeing her like this after they’ve met. He wasn’t exactly sure what she was embarra.s.sed about.

However, when he kept on thinking about the words that Kim Yoo-Na mentioned, he got an idea as to why she wanted to hide under a rock.

“Fiery Empress, huh?’

Just from the name, he had an idea where it came from.

Was it really Kim Yoo-Na that gave that narcissistic-like name?

‘No way.’

Her face was so red that it looked like it was going to blow up and just from that, he could easily tell that she didn’t.

He was sure that the members aggressively voted for that name.

And he had an idea why Kim Yoo-Na didn’t mention the clan’s name all this time.

‘Right…to say it with her own mouth is quite…it’s…’

Let’s protect her rights.

Along with her pride, mentality and health.

Hyun-Soo looked at her with pity without knowing and when Kim Yoo-Na noticed, she coughed.

And she quickly tried to change the subject.

She must’ve been embarra.s.sed because after coughing a few times, Kim Yoo-Na took a deep breath.

She calmed herself and then spoke.

“When a.n.a.lyzing the information that you provided, the guard really must be an A rank…there’s a high chance that they’re very capable. I’ll have to check the database regarding this.”

After mentioning Gracovich’s name, Kim Yoo-Na mentioned that they seemed to be updating the database too often lately and released a deep sigh.

“But. How was it?”

“…About what?”

“This person. They fought against you. And you took an overwhelming victory.”

It was true that he left a deep injury on their waist.

However, since they were an A rank, if Kim Yoo-Na didn’t step in, it was difficult to predict how the battle would turn out.

The difference in rank couldn’t be ignored.

‘But, I have an odd feeling that I wouldn’t have lost.’

Whenever he blocked their attack and the more aggressive his opponent was, something within him started wriggling.

Having the heart to win.

And pleasure.

If he were to give a name, that would be it.

“You weren’t scared even though your opponent was an A rank?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

He recalled being happy by the fact that a good sandbag appeared since he had a new skill he wanted to test out.

‘Now that I think about it, it’s a bit of a crazy thought though…’

But it was true.

And he was able to take them down just from using Blade Fist alone.

Within that moment, he couldn’t see anything else.

He felt the shock from the collision through his arms and it caused his heart to beat so fast that it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.

“You’ve really grown. What a relief. That you’re showing positive results through this place.”

Kim Yoo-Na finished writing the report based on Hyun-Soo’s information and after gathering the paper, she closed the notebook.

“Yes, I’m also thankful about it.”

If he remained in Korea, would he have been able to grow this much?

‘No.’

Hyun-Soo was extremely pessimistic about that.

He was sure that he would’ve lived on hiding without getting the chance to really show his power.

It would be different from how he interacted with the members here.

Of course there were probably groups that were as good as this one.

However, after he awakened as a hunter, the things that Hyun-Soo experienced within that short period of time…

‘It was a nightmare.’

It was such a nightmare that he couldn’t be positive about it no matter how hard he tried.

‘Just thinking about it again makes me feel unpleasant.’

Hyun-Soo quickly erased the unpleasant thought that was filling his head.

He suddenly remembered the question that he had forgotten.

Gracovich was looking for someone.

That’s the reason why they invaded.

That person’s name was…

“Who’s Ariel?”