WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Retuned Zenith wants to Rest ◈
Episode 2:
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Although Yoon Seoha had clearly been surrounded by goblins, the battle turned out to be surprisingly easy.
“Pivot on your right foot.”
“Ignore the one in front.”
“Duck, lower your stance, and move in. Then stab its heart.”
All Yoon Seoha did was follow Yoo Kangmin’s instructions, yet she was cutting down the goblins with incredible ease.
She knew she normally couldn’t even handle two goblins properly. Even as she cut down her fifth, she could hardly believe what was happening.
“You’re stiffening up! Are you paying attention?”
“Hup!”
The battle wasn’t over yet.
The goblins were still charging at her, full of vicious killing intent.
“Step back, then…”
Yoo Kangmin stopped in the middle of his instructions.
Somehow, he felt that Yoon Seoha would move even without hearing the rest.
And in fact, Yoon Seoha was beginning to get a vague sense of how to move to avoid their attacks.
‘Well, look at that. She’s already absorbed some of what I taught her?’
Whoosh!
Yoon Seoha narrowly dodged a goblin’s attack, then rushed in and slashed its chest open.
She panted for breath.
With that last kill, she had cut down no fewer than six goblins.
She stared down at her sword in disbelief.
“Hah, hah.”
Breathing hard, Yoon Seoha instinctively searched for her next opponent.
The goblins flinched.
Feeling her gaze on them, they lost their earlier confidence and backed away.
Ding!
At that moment, a translucent notification window appeared before Yoon Seoha’s eyes.
[You have met a special condition.]
[You have acquired a new skill.]
[Intimidation (F)]
[Inflicts the ‘Cowed’ status on enemies with lower mental strength than your own.]
“I… got a skill?”
Yoon Seoha’s eyes widened.
Acquiring a new skill after awakening was far from common.
She had gone from one awakening academy to another, but had never acquired any skill besides Power Strike.
Yet simply following Yoo Kangmin’s instructions and defeating a few goblins had given her a new skill. Of course she was surprised.
[Intimidation (F) activates.]
What made it even more surprising was that it was a passive skill, which was said to be even harder to acquire.
Its effect was impressive.
The goblins let out frightened cries and took another step back.
“What are you standing around for?”
“I just got a new skill…”
“A skill? Be surprised later. This isn’t over yet.”
“Oh, right!”
Just then, almost before she had finished speaking, heavy footsteps came from inside the gate.
Thud.
Thud.
The goblins cowering under Intimidation moved to either side, opening a path.
A huge figure pushed through the gate’s black veil and walked out.
Its body was twice the size of an ordinary goblin’s.
It wore thick leather armor.
In its hand was an axe as large as a human torso.
It was a hobgoblin.
At its appearance, the frightened goblins cheered.
Meanwhile, the color drained from Yoon Seoha’s face.
“D-rank…”
A hobgoblin wasn’t a monster an F-rank hunter could handle.
Although classified as D-rank, it was close to C-rank.
That was because it was designated a “boss” that commanded goblins.
It looked down at Yoon Seoha.
[Intimidation (F) activates.]
[The target has high mental strength.]
[The target has resisted Intimidation.]
The hobgoblin’s lips stretched into a grin.
It seemed to be mocking Yoon Seoha for trying to threaten it.
Trapped with no way forward or back, Yoon Seoha bit her lip.
Everything about Yoo Kangmin was a mystery.
She didn’t even know why following his instructions made fighting goblins so easy.
But there was one thing she knew for certain: Yoo Kangmin wasn’t a hunter.
Which meant…
‘I have to protect him.’
Yoon Seoha raised her sword with trembling hands.
Her body was screaming at her to run.
Even so, she didn’t back down.
“I’ll hold it off. Run while you can.”
“…”
The look in Yoo Kangmin’s eyes changed.
Long ago, not long after he had fallen into the martial world, a nun had saved him from a group of bandits.
He hadn’t learned any martial arts yet and had been fleeing from them.
Though they had never met before, she had drawn Yoo Kangmin behind her and stood against the bandits with her sword.
“This humble nun will hold them off. Hurry and get to safety, young hero.”
At the time, he hadn’t understood.
Why would someone risk their life for a complete stranger?
It was the first act of compassion Yoo Kangmin had encountered in the martial world.
As he looked at Yoon Seoha’s back, he saw the nun from that day in her.
The foolishness of being unable to turn away from others.
The desire to protect someone weaker than herself.
‘The nuns of the Emei Sect were like this too.’
Kangmin clicked his tongue softly.
The hobgoblin roared and charged.
Yoon Seoha raised her sword.
The axe came down over her head.
She hurriedly lifted her sword to block it.
Claaang!
With a deafening crash, the longsword snapped.
Yoon Seoha flew backward and slammed into a shelf.
Clatter!
Snacks and drinks rained down on her.
“Ugh…”
She couldn’t put any strength into her arm after the impact.
Blood ran from her hand.
The hobgoblin approached her where she lay.
Its huge axe rose again.
Yoon Seoha tried to get up, but she couldn’t move.
Even then, she shouted at Kangmin.
“What are you doing…!”
Yoon Seoha gritted her teeth.
“Hurry up and run!”
Yoo Kangmin let out a short sigh.
“So much for living quietly now that I’m back.”
The hobgoblin’s axe fell.
At that moment, Kangmin vanished.
Thap.
Two fingers caught the axe blade.
“…!”
Yoon Seoha’s eyes widened.
Somehow, Yoo Kangmin was already standing in front of her, holding the hobgoblin’s axe between his fingers.
The hobgoblin strained so hard that its muscles bulged, but the axe didn’t move an inch.
Crack, crrrack!
Yoo Kangmin tightened his fingers, and the axe shattered under the pressure.
It crumbled like a cracker, a sight so strange it hardly seemed real.
“Kr, krrrk?!”
The hobgoblin staggered backward.
Yoo Kangmin took the broken sword from Yoon Seoha’s hand.
“Let me borrow this.”
“What?”
Holding the broken sword, Yoo Kangmin took one step toward the terrified hobgoblin and swung.
He didn’t use any martial form.
He didn’t even put internal qi into it.
He simply slashed with the sword.
Thud!
The hobgoblin fell to the floor in two pieces, even though it had been well beyond the sword’s reach.
‘It reached that far?’
Step, step.
Yoo Kangmin walked over to the hobgoblin’s already lifeless body and lightly stepped on it.
Crunch!
The hobgoblin’s corpse was crushed until its original shape was almost impossible to recognize.
“Krrk?”
“Kreek!”
Horrified by the sight, the remaining goblins tried to flee through the gate they had come from.
But Yoo Kangmin had no intention of letting them go.
He swung the broken sword sideways.
A streak of wind shot out of the convenience store.
Red lines appeared across the goblins’ necks.
Thump.
The monsters all collapsed at once.
Silence fell.
Still sitting on the floor, Yoon Seoha looked up at Kangmin.
“You…”
Yoo Kangmin looked down at the sword hilt left in his hand.
“Standard issue? Or did you buy it yourself?”
“S-standard issue.”
“Good. I won’t need to pay you back.”
“Just…”
Yoon Seoha stared at Yoo Kangmin.
“Who are you?”
Yoo Kangmin didn’t answer.
He spotted a can of coffee on the floor and picked it up.
After checking it for dents, he headed toward the convenience store’s entrance.
“Wait! The Association will be here soon!”
“That’s why I’m leaving.”
“At least tell me your name!”
Yoo Kangmin left the convenience store without answering.
Sixty years had passed since he had left home that morning.
He didn’t want to waste any more time here.
Screeech!
Not long after Yoo Kangmin disappeared, several vehicles stopped in front of the convenience store.
Armed hunters rushed inside through the broken entrance.
“Hunter Association!”
“Check on the civilians first!”
“Where’s the gate?”
“Wait.”
“What is this?”
The hunter in the lead stopped at the sight of the convenience store floor.
Goblin corpses.
A shattered axe.
And a hobgoblin crushed almost beyond recognition.
“That’s… a hobgoblin?”
“Is it over?”
The other hunters who had come in were also speechless.
“Who did this?”
Yoon Seoha looked toward the open entrance.
Yoo Kangmin had already disappeared without a trace.
“I…”
Yoon Seoha looked at the pulped hobgoblin.
“…don’t know either.”
“You really don’t know?”
“No.”
Yoon Seoha repeated her answer.
“Today was the first time I’d ever seen him.”
The Hunter Association’s official in charge at the scene gave her a doubtful look.
“So a complete stranger gave you instructions during the fight, and you simply followed them, Hunter Yoon Seoha?”
“Yes.”
“And as a result, you killed six goblins by yourself?”
“That’s right. I managed it by moving the way he told me to.”
“But we’ve confirmed ten bodies.”
“I-I’m telling you, I didn’t kill the others!”
The official’s expression grew even stranger.
They had confirmed from her registration card that Yoon Seoha was an F-rank hunter.
Her only combat skill had been Power Strike.
Even her past raid records showed that she had never fought two or more goblins alone.
Yet this hunter had suddenly killed six goblins without even using a skill.
It wasn’t an easy story to believe.
“I got a new skill too.”
“A new skill?”
Yoon Seoha opened her status window.
[Intimidation (F)]
The skill hadn’t existed until a short while ago.
Its acquisition time also matched the time the gate had appeared.
“I got it while I was following that man’s instructions.”
“…”
The official was silent for a while.
“Let’s do this. We’ll record Hunter Yoon Seoha as having dealt with the gate that opened here. We’ll also give you credit for defeating the hobgoblin.”
“B-but…”
“If someone else did intervene, as you say, and that person wasn’t a hunter, it could actually cause problems for him.”
“…”
“You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“Ugh…”
Yoon Seoha couldn’t accept it, but the thought that Yoo Kangmin might get into trouble left her with no choice but to agree.
“You can collect your reward from the Association any time after this.”
“…”
“That concludes the investigation. You can have your injuries treated at a hospital designated by the Association.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes. Thank you for your efforts.”
The official gave her a brief bow, then went over to another staff member.
The Association staff cleared the scene with practiced hands.
Numbered tags were attached to the goblin corpses.
Mana stones and byproducts were separated, and the cost of the damage to the convenience store was quickly calculated.
The fight in which Yoon Seoha had risked her life was being reduced to a few lines in a report in no time at all.
“…”
It all felt like a dream.
Even now, she could hardly believe she had really cut down those goblins.
Yoon Seoha looked down at her still-trembling hands.
A translucent window appeared above them.
[Intimidation (F)]
It wasn’t a dream.
The new skill was still there in her status window.
“Just… who was he?”
She wanted to know more about Yoo Kangmin.
She didn’t even know his name.
Yet because of him, it felt as though her whole life had changed.
Perhaps that was why a possibility occurred to Yoon Seoha.
“What if…”
What if, just what if…
She could receive proper instruction from that man.
‘Could I become stronger too?’
As her sense of emptiness faded, a small hope began to rise in its place.
Yoon Seoha looked at the entrance through which Yoo Kangmin had disappeared.
She wanted to find him.
The man whose name she didn’t even know.
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