WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈
Chapter 90: Unidentified Power
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Pffft!
Watching Minjun’s rank assessment simulation in real time, Team Leader Jung Woohyun spat out the coffee he was drinking at Minjun’s unexpected move.
“Are you all right, Team Leader?”
Miru, who had been beside him, quickly pulled out some tissues and handed them to him.
“Y-Yeah. I’m fine, Miru.”
Wiping away the coffee, Team Leader Jung stared blankly at the monitor.
‘How did he even come up with something like that?’
The method Minjun had chosen could not exactly be called a standard strategy, but it was not bad.
The fact that he had tried something like that without any information about the monsters showed exceptional adaptability.
But that was not the important part.
Although Minjun’s records had placed him at A-rank, he had not yet officially cleared an A-rank or higher Gate as an A-rank Hunter. His experience as a Hunter was short as well, so Team Leader Jung had assumed there would inevitably be areas where he lacked polish.
And yet.
Even in a situation where the powerful winds made it difficult to keep his footing, Minjun was batting away the mana the monsters fired at him with his sword and even turning it against them.
‘It must be hard for him just to move right now.’
On top of that.
Wind was bound to be a major variable when fighting airborne monsters.
Yet.
Swinging his sword as though slashing with enormous claws, Minjun was gradually changing the direction of the fierce winds.
It was impossible, yet it was happening right before his eyes.
“Miru. Check the simulation system.”
“Yes!”
As Miru went to check the simulator, Team Leader Jung muttered quietly.
“Even if he’s A-rank... can a swordsman type Hunter normally use a technique like that?”
It was not as though Minjun had some unique skill that controlled the wind.
He had never even heard of an A-rank swordsman fighting that way.
In his judgment, someone would need to be at least S-rank to employ such tactics.
Unless...
‘Could there be an error in the system? Could it be malfunctioning?’
It was not an entirely unreasonable thought.
Perhaps a system error had processed the data incorrectly and produced an unintended result.
“No. Miru, I should check it myself.”
If it was such a critical error, it was right for him, the team leader, to inspect it rather than leaving it to an intern.
Team Leader Jung hurriedly rose from his seat and headed straight for the simulator’s main unit, sending Miru back to her station.
“If anything happens, tell me immediately. Got it?”
“Understood!”
Back at her seat, Miru checked the data being recorded in real time as she watched Minjun’s performance.
Her eyes gleamed with a strange intensity as she watched him.
As though she knew the truth.
* * *
‘Why is this working?’
Minjun had only thought it was worth trying once.
He had never expected it to succeed on the first attempt.
Still, if he were to form a hypothesis...
Dragons were originally a species capable of freely controlling mana.
Minjun had now grown enough that one could say he had caught up to the very tip of a dragon’s toe.
Perhaps that meant he could use, however faintly, some of the traits possessed by dragons.
The power was weak, but he could now even use Dragon Fear.
So it was not strange that he had suddenly gained an unexpected power.
However, the clumps of mana Minjun batted away flew somewhere completely off target.
Perhaps that was only natural.
He had never done this before, and fierce winds with constantly shifting directions continued to batter him.
Even so, simply deflecting the mana the enemy had released held great significance.
It might be difficult right now, but if he kept honing this technique, he would be able to use it effectively in real combat someday.
Even after his aim went wildly off, Minjun continued deflecting the clumps of mana pouring toward him to get a feel for it.
For the first few attempts, he could only knock the mana away. It did not come anywhere near the Gales.
But as he gradually began to get the hang of it, not all of them, but little by little, the clumps of mana Minjun deflected began heading toward the Gales.
Just as he thought he might finally see results.
Screeeech!
The Gales lightly changed direction and avoided every clump of mana Minjun had deflected. Then they began increasing their flying speed, trying to unsettle him.
‘Are A-rank Gates normally this difficult?’
Minjun had never entered an A-rank Gate before, so he could not help wondering.
But contrary to what Minjun thought, even A-rank Gates were not normally this troublesome.
The administrators had deliberately raised the difficulty to measure Minjun’s abilities from multiple angles.
Unaware of that, Minjun endured winds as fierce as a typhoon and watched the flock of Gales.
To make matters worse, the rain began falling even harder, turning the entire world hazy.
If he showed even the slightest opening, that enormous flock of monsters would surely slice through the wind and fly at him.
Everything was stacked against him.
Needing to create some kind of variable, Minjun wondered whether he should use an artifact again and reached toward his pocket dimension.
‘Damn.’
The pocket dimension that had opened without issue just moments ago was suddenly blocked.
To create an extreme situation, Team Leader Jung, who had been watching Minjun’s fight, had changed the settings in the middle of the simulation so he could no longer open his pocket dimension.
Since the theme of the first simulation was adaptability, he seemed determined to apply as many variables as possible this time.
But did Team Leader Jung know?
That Minjun had already experienced having his pocket dimension locked twice, something most other Hunters would struggle to experience even once.
So even in a situation that would have greatly shaken other Hunters, Minjun did not panic.
And one more thing.
Whenever Minjun found himself in an extreme situation like this, based on his experiences so far...
‘I have a feeling I might be able to use Dragon Speech.’
He still could not use it freely like Dragon Fear, but there were moments when he could occasionally use Dragon Speech.
One such situation was when Minjun was in a desperate, life-or-death crisis.
Whether it was coincidence or there was another reason behind it, he did not know.
The day Villains had nearly killed him inside a Gate, when he had nearly been trapped forever in the Dragon Sword Garden, and when Sia’s rampage had nearly cost him his life.
Like a miracle, Minjun had escaped each crisis through Dragon Speech.
‘So this time too.’
It would be possible.
So this time, he would recreate that miracle.
But there was one variable.
Unlike before, even if Dragon Speech failed this time, he would not die.
Even if he failed to deal with those monsters and suffered critical injuries, this was only a simulation. Minjun would not actually suffer any real harm.
To use Dragon Speech now, he would have to completely deceive himself into believing he was in genuine danger.
‘And on top of that.’
A thought suddenly flashed through Minjun’s mind.
He had never properly tried it before, but what if he used Dragon Fear first, as though warming up before using Dragon Speech?
Like an athlete warming up before a match, what if he thought of Dragon Fear as preparation for using Dragon Speech?
The instant that thought occurred to him, Minjun immediately used Dragon Fear.
Dragon Fear, which overwhelmed lesser creatures and instilled in them a terror as though death were imminent.
Its intense aura began spreading through the fierce winds across the entire rocky mountain.
* * *
Meanwhile.
After confirming there was no error in the rank assessment simulation system, Team Leader Jung returned and sat before the screen again.
“Miru. Don’t you think Hunter Minjun isn’t the type to fight in ordinary ways?”
“Pardon? I... don’t really know.”
As an ordinary person, she could not be expected to know. But Team Leader Jung had watched countless Hunters go through simulations and had seen many Hunter combat patterns.
Yet Minjun somehow felt different from the others.
He had previously watched footage of several A-rank swordsman type Hunters participating in simulations, but none had shown a combat pattern similar to Minjun’s.
On top of that.
By now, even an A-rank Hunter should have been starting to get pushed back. Yet Minjun was holding on remarkably well.
Not only that, even though access to his pocket dimension had been cut off without warning, he showed no sign of panic, as though he were a machine.
‘What is he?’
With greater focus than ever, Team Leader Jung stared so intently at the monitor displaying Minjun that he seemed ready to bore a hole through it.
Then, shortly afterward.
Beep. Beep.
“Team Leader!”
An unfamiliar signal began sounding from the machine.
It was a sound he had never heard before while running this simulation.
What that signal meant was...
“It says an unidentified power... has been detected?”
“What?”
That could not be.
This simulator was the culmination of data analysis technology developed by authoritative experts worldwide, who had spent years analyzing and compiling vast amounts of data gathered from Hunters.
It had data on individual Hunter stats, uncommon skills, and even various artifacts. The likelihood of finding unidentified data anywhere in the world should have been close to zero.
In theory, no matter how rare a skill a Hunter used, the system should have been able to recognize it.
It should have.
But why?
Why was it detecting an unidentified power?
Without realizing it, Team Leader Jung clutched at his hair.
In a way, it was only natural.
Among Earth’s countless Hunters, who besides Minjun could wield the power of dragons?
Miru asked Team Leader Jung, who was staring anxiously at the monitor.
“Team Leader, what should we do?”
“Wait, Miru. Let me think.”
This was not something he could decide immediately.
‘Should I tell them to stop the test, even now?’
If an unidentified power had been detected, the reliability of the results could be called into question from that point onward. There was no reason to continue the test.
But.
‘No.’
Team Leader Jung soon changed his mind.
From another perspective, this was an opportunity.
Did they not need to collect data on what results occurred when an unidentified skill activated?
“Let’s keep watching for now.”
For that reason, he chose to continue the simulation.
But not long afterward.
“What? What is it this time?”
The signal he had heard before began blaring again, while at the same time the monitor started to crackle with static.
Bzzzt.
At the very moment the monitor was crackling.
Inside the simulator, Minjun was using Dragon Speech.
Along with Dragon Fear.
* * *
A little earlier.
Minjun began releasing Dragon Fear toward the flock of Gales.
He had successfully cast Dragon Fear, but because his proficiency with it was still low, it did not have any meaningful effect on them.
Minjun had never thought Dragon Fear alone could turn the tide.
While continuously releasing Dragon Fear, Minjun attempted Dragon Speech.
[Fall.]
But Minjun’s Dragon Speech did not work.
Meanwhile, the flock of Gales flew low, waiting for Minjun to show a clear opening.
If Dragon Speech continued to fail, it would only be a matter of time before Minjun was overwhelmed.
Never taking his eyes off the flock of Gales watching him with sharp gazes, Minjun kept trying Dragon Speech.
‘Why isn’t it working?’
As repeated attempts failed, Minjun urgently scattered sword aura around him to buy time.
‘Come on. Just once. Work just once.’
Minjun gritted his teeth and attempted Dragon Speech again and again.
And finally.
[Fall!]
The final Dragon Speech he forced out, squeezing every last bit of strength from his body.
The moment he uttered it, Minjun instinctively knew he had finally succeeded.
And at the same time.
The Gales, which had been flying so confidently just moments ago, lost their balance in midair and began to fall.
It was a fall, not a landing, so they would likely suffer no small impact and be rendered unable to fight.
Now that Dragon Speech had worked on them, the tide had completely turned.
‘Now I can finish this.’
Just as Minjun tightened his grip on his sword and prepared to deal with the fallen monsters, the boundary between reality and illusion suddenly shattered. The world warped, and strange patterns began flashing.
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