I sat down with Hong Ye-hwa and the two of us reached a few agreents.
First on Hong Ye-hwas list of demands was for this weeks duel battles only, and all responsibility for removing stickers was to be left to Hong Yeon-hwa.
Given Hong Yeon-hwas current rate of growth, it was almost certain to end in failure, but she seed to see significance in taking on a difficult role.
Naturally, the deal also included a deduction of 50 points from my duel battle score.
My demand, on the other hand, was the lting of the Millennium Iron Alloy.
I hoped that the president-level Hong Ye-hwa or a fire mage with a special trait would lend a hand.
Upon hearing everything, Hong Ye-hwa suddenly brought up her younger sister.
She ntioned that Hong Yeon-hwa possessed the special trait I was looking for.
Feel free to use her.
Although I hadnt yet asked for the persons consent, it seed I had at least obtained her guardians (?) approval.
With that, the important parts of our agreent were concluded.
As a small bonus, I was requested to assist Hong Yeon-hwa in learning as much as possible.
This ca with the complete transfer of the large rubys ownership to .
Since the terms were vague and largely at my discretion, it was more of a request than a transaction.
However, considering the high value of the item received, I was intent on delivering equivalent value through my efforts.
Due to these complex reasons, I found myself participating in Hong Yeon-hwa and Dang Gyu-youngs one-on-one close combat training the following day.
Not that I did anything special; I rely stood at a distance in a corner of the round arena and watched their battle.
More precisely, I watched Dang Gyu-young unleash a variety of shadow magic attacks while Hong Yeon-hwa rolled around the arena floor trying to dodge them.
Ugh.
Kuk.
Aah!
Despite her best efforts to avoid even a single hit, it didnt seem easy.
Soon, a large shadow hand grabbed Hong Yeon-hwa and threw her forcefully.
She was sent flying in an arc before she tumbled and sprawled on the ground.
Before Dang Gyu-young could help Hong Yeon-hwa up and resu the battle, I interjected with a suggestion.
Senior-nim.
Hm? What is it?
Perhaps we could try a different approach.
A different approach? How so?
I was thinking that letting her attack might be more suitable for such the removing stickers training session.
It wasnt that Dang Gyu-youngs training thod was entirely wrong.
The training thod of drawing out potential through relentless attacks had traditionally proven effective, and I too had quietly made frequent use of it.
Indeed, Hong Yeon-hwas close combat skills had noticeably improved from just a few days ago.
However, if I had to point out one thing that was disappointing, it would be that her skills had mostly advanced in blocking and dodging.
Given that the objective of this weeks one-on-one combat was to remove stickers, it was necessary to practice attacking as well to achieve a proper balance between offense and defense.
!
Hong Yeon-hwas face lit up upon hearing this.
It felt much like a traveler discovering an oasis in the midst of a desert crossing.
After bracing herself for a week, or possibly the entire ntoring period, of relentless beatings, the suggestion of a different training thod must have felt like an imdiate reduction in her imminent suffering.
After so contemplation, Dang Gyu-young seed to see the logic in my suggestion and flicked a sticker towards .
Really? You give it a try. Lets see how you do.
She ant that she would decide whether to adopt the thod based on my demonstration.
I didnt hesitate and slapped the sticker on my forearm.
In view of Dang Gyu-youngs lack of skill in teaching, it seed appropriate for as an experienced ntor to demonstrate at least once.
I pointed to the sticker and said to Hong Yeon-hwa.
Co and try to take it off. Ill just focus on dodging.
From Hong Yeon-hwas perspective, I was not as scary as Dang Gyu-young but still a challenging opponent.
Thus, her approach was cautious.
Once she closed in to a certain distance, she accelerated and reached out for the sticker.
Just as her fingertips were about to make contact, I used Thiefs Step and slid backward.
After her miss, Hong Yeon-hwa quickly stepped forward again, but I anticipated this and instead moved forward to et her.
As a result, we ended up crossing paths.
!
Hong Yeon-hwa was taken aback and paused briefly on the spot.
Then she swiftly turned around and quickly chanted a spell and snapped her fingers.
[Combustion]
Bang!
A small fla explosion occurred, but I had already moved out of its range.
In that brief mont, she managed to cast another spell and lashed out with a whip made of lava.
I dodged by subtly shifting my body, while Hong Yeon-hwa kept swinging the whip.
She has improved.
When she faced Dang Gyu-young on Monday, she aid directly at the sticker with the lava whip.
Unless you were a master of the whip, it would have been considered quite a stretch to aim at such a tricky target with an unfamiliar weapon style.
On the other hand, now she was using it solely to restrict my movents while attempting to remove the sticker directly.
It was good that she had found a more efficient thod.
Still, she has a long way to go.
It seed she had accumulated so experience in mid-to-close range combat, but she still needed much more practice to successfully remove the sticker.
As Hong Yeon-hwa continued her checks and we got sowhat closer, she reached out again.
I gave her just enough room to reach, but then just as her fingertips were about to touch , I spun around and stepped out of range.
Ugh!
Frustrated, Hong Yeon-hwa lashed out even more fiercely with her lava whip.
She was combining her attacks with bursts of fla magic.
Bang! Boom!
The pattern repeated itself: Hong Yeon-hwa pressed on with various tactics and aid for the sticker, while I dodged every attack.
Dang Gyu-young who was watching this let out a short exclamation of admiration.
Ooh
Youve learned a thing or two.
How did you dodge that?
At first, she was there rely to watch two kids bicker and take a light break, but she seed to have realized sothing after watching , and now she was watching my every move with earnest eyes.
Truth be told since I had firmly stated to Hong Yeon-hwa that I would only dodge, it wasnt necessary for the ntor to avoid all attacks.
If it were Dang Gyu-young, she would co up with a way to appropriately mix defense and evasion.
How effective this approach would be, would soon be experienced firsthand by Song Cheon-hye or Kwak Ji-cheol in their turn.
***
After todays ntoring session ended and I stepped out of the arena,
Hong Yeon-hwa looked as if her soul had partly departed her body.
Even if she had accepted not getting a single sticker, she thought she would land a few hits with the fire magic she used to keep in check, but she hadnt managed to touch at all.
She felt like she was overwheld with self-doubt. Like her skills were only this good.
At the sa ti, her gaze toward was filled with fear.
Previously, it might have seed like her magic attacks against were blocked by sothing, but the one-on-one duel just now taught her sothing more.
If I set my mind to it, it was possible to not get hit at all.
When I looked at her facial expressions to guess her inner thoughts, it seed as if she was thinking,
Such a monstrous person
She evidently did not want to linger near .
She cast furtive glances around while trying to gauge my reaction before she hesitantly said,
Then, I should be going right?
She attempted to make a swift exit.
But I couldnt just let her run away.
There was still sothing I needed from her.
Hong Yeon-hwa.
At the sound of her na, Hong Yeon-hwas movents stopped abruptly as if soone had grabbed her by the nape of her neck.
Turning her head slowly, she asked,
Wha-what?
Lets go sowhere together.
Together? Where?
The color drained from her face as if the destination I had in mind was a place she dared not go.
Sensing that she might flee if I tried to drag her away without explanation, I felt the need to provide so motivation and a bit of context.
I heard you have [Aqua Fla].
Did you hear that from Unnie?
The very trait I sought Hong Ye-hwa for to lt the millennium iron alloy was this.
Aqua Fla.
It was a trait that manifests in an extrely small fraction of fire mages.
Even within the esteed Hong family of the Ruby Magic Tower, it was rarely inherited.
A fire mage possessing this trait gains an overwhelming advantage over all water and ice elents.
They can ignite flas even in the deepest parts of the ocean and bypass an opponents water-type defenses to inflict damage.
Moreover, once the rank reaches a certain level, it can sowhat affect even non-water defenses, making it a powerful trait by its very existence.
It was said that this trait had a significant influence on Hong Yeon-hwa receiving the title of a promising student at the Magic Tower Association.
However, there was one issue.
Your growth stopped at rank E, didnt it?
You heard about that too.
Hong Yeon-hwas expression darkened.
There was also a hint of annoyance at her sister who had revealed this embarrassing fact.
Traits as powerful as Aqua Fla were rare.
Yet, even such a potent trait would beco useless if its rank was low.
From what I heard, Hong Yeon-hwas Aqua Fla had been stuck at E-rank for a long ti.
She tried every possible ans to break through, but with no success, she had almost given up.
For , this was an ideal situation.
What if there is a way to break through to D-rank?
What? Really?
Yes.
Hong Yeon-hwa leaned in close and started bombarding with questions.
Can you really break through? With Aqua Fla? Not any other trait? How?
She must have been so excited that she even forgot her fear of
Its understandable to be thrilled at the prospect of finally finding the solution she had long been searching for and yearning for.
Still, it seed best to wait until she had cald down a bit before explaining.
I remained silent and watched her until Hong Yeon-hwa took a few steps back when she realized her excitent.
It seed she had regained so composure, so I began to speak again.
Basically, the rank of skills and traits increases each ti you overco a barrier set by the system. You probably know this.
Yes, its common knowledge.
And the nature of the barrier you have to overco varies depending on the unique properties of the skill or trait. You know this too.
Yes, Im aware of that too.
Take [Super Strength] as an example.
Given that the trait significantly enhanced ones physical strength, the barrier to overco would be moving an object thats even heavier than what ones current rank finds challenging.
In the sa vein, in order to overco the barrier erected by [Aqua Fla], which has strong penetrating power against water and ice elents, it was natural that,
All you have to do is fervently burn an object imbued with intense cold using fire magic but thats where you hit a snag at E-rank.
Yes.
It was likely that Hong Yeon-hwa had already attempted this thod.
Despite her earnest efforts, it was to no avail.
She began to wonder if there was another barrier she needed to overco, so she tried various approaches, only to fail each ti.
The thod isnt flawed. Nor do you need to overco a different barrier.
Is that so?
Hong Yeon-hwa was skeptical.
I spoke in a confident tone, so my words seed plausible, yet she couldnt help but wonder since her inability to advance past E-rank was due to this very issue.
My explanation continued.
If youve set the right direction but still see no results, the cause is one of two things: either the quality is lacking or the quantity is insufficient.
In the context of Aqua Fla, this ant either the quality of the object being burned was too low or the quantity burned wasnt sufficient to warrant a rank increase.
.
Hong Yeon-hwa remained silent for a while.
It seed she was comparing my words with her own mories.
I then asked her,
What did you use for your rank advancent attempts?
Ice golems, ice crystals, and
She listed a few ice elent monsters and materials.
Given they were acquired with her familys resources, their quality was reasonably good.
However,
Even with those, your training sessions must have been short.
Right.
In the presence of Aqua Fla, all these would lt away in an instant.
It was impossible to extend the training duration.
Pouring endless amounts of ice elent materials like this was like trying to fill a bottomless bucket.
Especially when there was no certainty that it would even work.
Therefore, the proposal I was about to make was sothing Hong Yeon-hwa couldnt possibly refuse.
What if there was an item that possessed strong cold energy but didnt lt easily?
!
It would surely be able to enhance the Aqua Fla.
Does such a thing really exist?
Hong Yeon-hwa asked, but instead of answering, I simply closed my mouth and started walking.
Hong Yeon-hwa followed closely behind as if she was srized by the possibility.
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