After Returning, My Abilities are Infinite - Chapter 65

Episode 65. How could you take what belongs to us? (1)

“Cadet Yoo Ji-yeon, are you looking for someone?”

“Oh, no.”

The instructor asked Yoo Ji-yeon, who had been staring at the stands ever since she entered the auditorium.

“I was just thinking about how unreal it is that I’m graduating. Hehe.”

“Of course. Many cadets go through that. But you must always remember that graduating is not the end, only the beginning…….”

The instructor launched upon a rambling speech once he heard Yoo Ji-yeon’s reply.

Mr. Talk-too-much. It was the cadets’ nickname for that instructor.

‘Here we go again.’

Yoo Ji-yeon kept smiling as she glanced back at the stands, letting the speech go in one ear and out the other.

‘…Is he really not coming?’

He usually bragged that he finished a raid in two to three hours.

He used to tell her that she would become a greater wizard than current professional wizards. And that she should work with him instead of joining another guild.

‘If you asked me to join your team, you should at least show up.’

Whew.

Yoo Ji-yeon let out a sigh.

‘What am I thinking?’

She understood his situation, but she was still a bit upset. After Jeong Si-woo graduated, she didn’t have any close friends at the Academy, and the only family member who came to her graduation was her grandmother.

“Good luck, granddaughter!”

Scouts dressed in fancy suits and well-dressed parents of other cadets. Among them, Yoo Ji-yeon’s grandmother, who was wearing loose clothes, did not seem intimidated at all. She was beaming with pride.

Yeah, what was there to be upset about? She was going to show her grandmother how happy she was.

‘Let’s be happy!’

“Wow─!”

And that moment, a loud noise burst out from the audience.

“Which is why hunters… Hmm?”

The instructor cut off his endless speech and turned to look, wondering what was going on.

There had been a sudden roar from the spectators. Yoo Ji-yeon also turned her attention to the noise. What was it? Did anything awesome happen in one of the battles? Or did a famous hunter show up?

“Hey, stop looking at your cell phone and look over there!”

“Why? For what?”

“Shut up and look!”

Yoo Ji-yeon could hear similar comments around her, and she also looked.

“……!”

Her eyes turned wide open after a beat. It was the latter of her two guesses. People were ignoring the ongoing match and were staring at the famous hunter who had shown up over there.

“You’ve already changed into your combat suit from your cadet uniform. Oh, I should have taken one last picture with you in your uniform.”

“Oh, we can take one afterward! I’ll finish up in a minute and change back.”

“Will you? We need to take a picture. It’ll be nice to remember.”

“Yes! Of course!”

The man reached Yoo Ji-yeon and continued the conversation in a friendly voice. Her previously downcast voice was now full of energy.

“I’m not too late, am I? I came as soon as I could.”

“No, you’re not! I haven’t even taken my graduation exam yet, and I haven’t received my diploma either!”

“That’s a relief. Then I’ll be in the stands because I’ll be a nuisance if I stay here. Come over once you’re done.”

“Okay!”

He turned around and climbed the stairs. Yoo Ji-yeon kept staring at his back for a long time, and she couldn’t stop smiling.

“It’s an honor to meet you, hunter Jeong Si-woo. The work I do is…….”

“I heard you haven’t officially joined a guild yet. Are you interested in creating a guild?”

“When are you planning to go on your next raid…….”

The scouts and guild officials, who had been quiet so far, started to bombard the man with questions as if they were now news reporters. But he walked quietly without answering and sat next to an old lady.

Next to Yoo Ji-yeon’s grandmother, who was calling out her granddaughter’s name from her uncomfortable spectator seat.

* * *

I had come right in time because it was Yoo Ji-yeon’s turn next.

She was smiling brightly towards the stands, but she stopped smiling immediately and started to focus as her turn came up.

“Fight!”

At the instructor’s signal, Yoo Ji-yeon and the other cadet started to move. They were standing at both ends of the auditorium. Her opponent was a swordsman, traditionally the worst enemy of a wizard.

‘I haven’t seen Yoo Ji-yeon for quite a while.’

My schedule was tight for the last two years. So I rarely participated in raids with her or visited the Academy.

I didn’t know exactly at what level Yoo Ji-yeon was right now. Would she be able to easily defeat the skilled swordsmen in her senior class?

“This should be boring.”

“Huh? What?”

But a scout next to me spoke out of the blue.

“I said this is going to be boring. His opponent is Yoo Ji-yeon, and what can a swordsman do? It’ll just be a waste of time…….”

“What are you talking about? Although she’s a promising wizard, it’ll be hard to deal with a swordsman.”

“You never sat in on any of Yoo Ji-yeon’s tests, have you?”

I felt a prick of guilt at those words.

“She’s no ordinary wizard prospect. Everyone who’s sat in on her tests probably knows that the cadet over there is wasting his time.”

And just like the scout said, the cadet with the sword looked nervous, while Yoo Ji-yeon seemed very relaxed.

“Ahhh!”

The cadet hesitated for a long time, then he lifted his sword high and charged ahead. Yoo Ji-yeon looked at him and waved her hand. I could clearly see her mana moving. That is…

“Ughhh….”

Yoo Ji-yeon muttered something as if she were chanting a spell, and suddenly the cadet was jerked up into the air like a fish caught on a hook. The sword he was holding broke into pieces, and a dull hitting sound rang out several times.

“…….”

The cadet’s body was twisted this way and that way until he went limp. It looked like he had lost consciousness. There were bloodstains on his previously clean combat suit. She didn’t let him off easy just because it was a sparring match.

Snap!

Yoo Ji-yeon snapped her finger, and the cadet held up in the air plummeted to the floor.

The instructors and medical officers standing by rushed over. The spectators became silent. Even most of the scouts and guild officials did not know what magic she had just used.

“What was that, just now?”

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“It’s always like that with all of Yoo Ji-yeon’s matches. No matter what you see, you can’t figure out what it is. I was looking forward to finding out something at last today, but jeez; I have no clue!”

Once her match was over, numerous people stood up from their seats. It seemed like most of them had come here to watch Yoo Ji-yeon fight.

I didn’t have anything else to see either, so I stood up and scratched my head.

‘I was definitely going to name it the Jeong Si-woo Division… But it looks like we have too many talented people.’

I won’t become obsolete, will I? I smirked as I went down the stairs. Yoo Ji-yeon was waving her hand. She looked so calm for someone who had just finished fighting.

* * *

I returned home after the graduation ceremony.

And I added another name to the whiteboard in the living room.

-Yoo Ji-yeon-

-Sung Hyun-woo-

-Han Yeon-soo-

-Zhang Wei-

Yoo Ji-yeon was going to officially join the group and hunt with us. So I had already gathered three of the Five Heroes.

Han Yeon-soo and Zhang Wei were already complete. And Yoo Ji-yeon was talented enough so that she would advance at a tremendous rate just by accompanying me on some raids. And Sung Hyun-woo was… Well, he was stronger than me when he was angry.

‘But not the Martial God. I still need to find him.’

Even if I couldn’t find him, he could become stronger somehow. But not as strong as the great man in my past life. I was the one who created most of what hunter Kim Seung-hyun was. And he was my most prized accomplishment in the past life.

At the last moment, even the Great Overlord admitted that it was hard to deal with the Martial God.

‘I still have a lot to do. And it’s quite important to find the Martial God.’

plans on the whiteboard. Next to it, based on my knowledge of the future, I wrote down information that hadn’t been disclosed yet and information about things people would rave about.

Squeak. Squeak.

And among the plans and information of the future, I erased things that seemed unlikely to be of much help or things that were too unrealistic to carry out.

The board full of letters was gradually erased, and only a few lines illustrating a plan and some future information remained on the whiteboard.

“With this… I can find the Martial God and also practice fighting with Yoo Ji-yeon.”

The Traveler cut in when he heard me speak.

[Wait. You’ll find him in no time if you just learn how to train your Ki. You don’t have to go through so much trouble.]

“But it’ll take a long time.”

[It’s a process that everyone has to go through to utilize Martial Arts. And at your level, it won’t take that long!]

“It took two years to learn a simple shield technique, didn’t it? I don’t have much time. I’m going to move as fast as possible and get everything done.”

[I won’t teach you even if you ask me to later.]

“I have the Akashic Records, so I don’t have to learn from you.”

[You’ll regret it, you really will!]

“Okay.”

I left the angry Traveler behind and looked straight at the plan. He would tell me later anyway if I didn’t pay attention to him. Even now, it felt like he was anxious to teach me.

I tried hard not to laugh as I wrote down the plans on my notepad.

[Chungbuk Giant Dungeon]

[Discovered within the next three years]

[Was famous as a treasure dungeon in the media.]

[Tremendous rewards, but due to its incredible difficulty, many hunters died while attempting to clear it.]

[Also known as the Hunter’s Grave in the hunting industry.]

.

.

.

[Known to be containing the person-searching Artifact, Heavenly Eyes.]

I could find someone, practice fighting alongside Yoo Ji-yeon, and develop my skills.

It was like killing three birds with one stone.

Based on my memory, I prepared the next raid by drawing a map of the Chungbuk Dungeon’s location, thinking this would probably be the first time the entire Jeong Si-woo Division fought together.

* * *

The next day, I sent a group text message. I had even made a group chat room, but I quit using it because it became a mess.

I would message the chat room one more time in Chinese for Zhang Wei, and Sung Hyun-woo would say strange things that I didn’t understand, and most of all, Han Yeon-soo would text me nonstop whenever I didn’t reply in the chat room. So I just got rid of it.

“How the hell did you find this?”

“I was lucky.”

As soon as she arrived, Han Yeon-soo exclaimed admiringly. A huge hole hidden in the bushes in the countryside that was located on the outskirts of Chungbuk. It was simply impossible to find unless you were lucky.

Han Yeon-soo didn’t suspect anything and believed what I said as she kept saying things like: “Mr. Si-woo is so lucky.”

“This is quite impressive.”

“Wow, other hunters say they can’t get jobs even after they join guilds. But everything goes well whenever you’re with Si-woo.”

“Hahaha.”

Zhang Wei and Yoo Ji-yeon kept complimenting me.

“You’re good at taking advantage. Good job.”

“…….”

Except for Sung Hyun-woo, who noticed how I found this place. Feeling slightly guilty, I signaled him to be quiet.

“Hm, hm. It looks like everyone’s here. Shall we get going?”

With this combination, clearing the dungeon would be easy. That’s what I thought as I stepped briskly towards the dungeon.

And when we arrived in front of the dungeon and entered it, the pop-ups came.

[Name: Abandoned Dragon Lair]

[*The dead dragon’s resentment encircles you.]

[* To escape the dungeon, two of the people who enter must die.]

[*Otherwise, to leave, you must completely clear the dungeon.]

“Um, Si-woo. This dungeon….”

I met an unexpected obstacle.

“It looks like it has an owner.”

“…….”

Inside the dungeon entrance, there were marks of a guild that I had never seen before. And the words ‘Second attempt failed’, and a date was written. Also, ‘Third attempt scheduled’ was written next to it with another date.

The second attempt failed a week ago, and the date for the third attempt was…….

“Hey, who’s there!?”

It was today.

“How could you enter a dungeon that’s being cleared by another guild? There are unspoken rules for these kinds of things!”

A mean-looking man was angrily walking towards us.

Hmm, this isn’t good.

I quickly started to think. Information about the future, apologizing for entering the dungeon, the hierarchy among hunters…….

And before long, I found the most appropriate answer in this situation.

“Implicit rules?”

Among hunters, the best strategy was always to be shameless.

“It looks like you guys broke those unspoken rules.”

“What?”

Sung Hyun-woo, Han Yeon-soo, Yoo Ji-yeon, and Zhang Wei looked at me incredulously.

‘Hey, you guys shouldn’t look at me like that. You should act along or chime in for this to work well.’

I had no choice but to perform alone as I sharply retorted

“How could you take what belongs to us without a word?”

“……?”

“Besides, you’ve tried to clear this dungeon twice and even came in for the third time. The nerve! If we let it slide that many times, you should have stopped on your own accord.”

“How did you know about the two attempts? Wait, who the hell are you…….”

“Who am I?”

[You’re a good actor. I’d be willing to give you the Best Acting Award.]

Hm.

Who was I? I thought for a moment, then came up with an idea.

“I’m the original owner of this dungeon.”

[Great improvisation as well.]