Chapter 31. Duel with Kali

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ㅡElimian’s Consideration.

When Chunsung was suddenly made to wear the earrings, he was initially flustered.

Because Kali approached without any sense of distance. But afterwards, the method of activating Elimian’s Consideration was already conceptually grasped from his knowledge of the novel.

Because the original author was such an explanation fanatic, it was impossible not to know the usage method.

And the moment he recognized it, he could realize.

‘This is insane.’

He let out a groan at the unbelievable burden applied to his entire body, but his surprise was even greater.

If yesterday’s duel with Leonhardt had given him rapid growth, now the magic engineering item ‘Elimian’s Consideration’ gave him continuous growth.
It was like presenting a more concrete path for him to move forward on.

…He could train while giving himself a sudden burden as if overworking his body. And he could advance his limits unbelievably.

It was very significant that he could quickly reach an extreme state that couldn’t be easily reached through normal training.

He couldn’t even begin to guess how much his training efficiency would increase.

“Student Han Chunsung.”

“Yes, Instructor.”

A smile unconsciously formed on his lips at Kali’s call.

…Of course, he wouldn’t be able to use this magic engineering item entirely as he wished, but if he maintained a good relationship with Kali, wouldn’t he be able to use it quite often?

With that hope, he looked at her, and Kali curled her lips strangely.

“I’m going to help with Student Han Chunsung’s training for a while. What do you think? Are you willing to accept?”

“…You mean you personally, Instructor Kali?”

“Yes. I’m going to help you personally.”

At Kali’s immediate answer, Chunsung found himself blankly staring at her without realizing it.

It felt exactly like the saying that good things come all at once.

He had been wondering how much he could use these earrings today, but if Kali said she would personally help with his training, time wasn’t important.

Overwhelming experience points that couldn’t be converted into value seemed to shimmer before his eyes.

“I… It would be an infinite honor if you would allocate time for me, Instructor.”

He expressed his gratitude with an answer that even he thought was excessive.

He felt so grateful to Kali that his heart truly felt that way.

“Alright. You don’t need to flatter me that much. I’m just curious about Student Han Chunsung’s skills. Rather than saying I’m allocating time, I’m just using time because I want to use it that way.”

Thinking that every single word she said was beautiful, Chunsung’s gaze gradually went to the interior space.

Although it was called Kali’s personal training room, the scale of the training room was not small at all.

It looked spacious enough for four or five people to each take their place and train. As expected of an instructor with the title of Blood Dawn.

The support she received from the academy and the empire felt enormous.

“Then since I said I’d help you directly. I should be quite helpful to Student Han Chunsung, right?”

“…Ah, yes.”

When Kali suddenly said something strange, he wondered what she meant.

“I heard properly about your duel with Student Leonhardt yesterday. A battle between sword and spear, that is. So, I think it would be more helpful to recreate that scenario now.”

As she said this and casually picked up a sword lying nearby, Chunsung unconsciously swallowed.

‘…This duel.’

It seemed it wouldn’t be ordinary.

Nevertheless, he immediately nodded.

“If you’ll do that, I’d be grateful.”

“Heh… It’s good to see you still have confidence. Then Student Han Chunsung, without wasting time, let’s prepare right away.”

Tap.

As Kali lightly moved with those words, Chunsung lightly untied the spear on his back and followed her steps.

Rustle.

The characteristic coldness of iron flowed familiarly through his hand from the spear he gripped skillfully.

And soon, as he straightened his posture on the ground that felt harder than other spaces, Kali naturally stopped opposite him.

As she loosened her wrist while holding a longsword in one hand, an indescribable composure was felt from her appearance.

“You can make the first move like in a duel, or make any kind of attack. Come at me with full force, you don’t need to think about me at all. Student Han Chunsung, you understand what I mean, right?”

“Yes. I understand.”

Even as he answered immediately, a small laugh escaped him.

It was a word telling him not to worry about her, but he had no intention of doing so from the start.

ㅡKali Ishtar.

Who was she?

She wasn’t someone for whom it mattered whether I used my full strength or not.

She was a named character even among the named characters of this world. The title ‘Blood Dawn’ was a title given to only about twenty beings in this entire empire. In other words, she was one of the strongest in this world.

It was known that the number of monsters who had lost their lives under her hands was uncountable.

There was no need to hesitate in exerting my full strength at all.

“…”

As he calmly settled his breath, he lightly rotated his waist and both hands holding the spear as if loosening them.

Swish swish swish!

The spear rotated continuously around him as if drawing a circle, enveloping his body. While stretching as if loosening unused muscles, he slowly tensed up.

Although it had been just a day since he properly held a spear, holding it now made him feel strangely at ease.

And at that moment.

He quickly kicked off the ground.

ㅡ!

As he lightly kicked off the ground, he was instantly accelerating rapidly.

Opening moves.

Since he couldn’t exert full strength from the start, he needed a warm-up.

Gradually building up the heat of the duel by receiving it with his body. It was right to exert full strength when he had fully absorbed that heat.

Clang clang clang clang!

The trajectory of the spear thrust along his extended hand clearly had less heat than yesterday.

It lacked the fierce heat of when he was competing moment by moment with Leonhardt.

Of course, it was natural that the spear tip couldn’t show the same sharpness as then.

As his spear and Kali’s sword tip met like that for a moment, suddenly Kali’s sword bent strangely.

A movement as if striking upwards from below. The sword tip was accurately aimed at the spear tip.

The moment he thought they would meet.

“…!”

Screech!

At the completely different sound like a rupture, he instinctively relaxed his strength and hurriedly withdrew his body.

Swish…!

The strength he couldn’t fully release traveled along the spear shaft and struck his entire body intensely.

“Ugh.”

For a moment, even his vision shook and he couldn’t move.

In that vision, he saw Kali calmly retrieving her sword.

“It’s certainly sharp. The sense is there.”

Despite her soft voice, Chunsung felt a great chill in his heart and guts.

‘The dimension… is different.’

It’s often said that the level of instructors is incomparable to students. No, even comparing is ridiculous.

That was common sense among common sense in this world.

But. The feeling I got facing Kali now felt like it was destroying even that common sense.

Kali wasn’t even pressuring me now like she did in the classroom. Moreover, Kali wasn’t even properly manifesting her Talent.

Yet the situation was like this.

Not only did my spear not reach her, but she sharply thrust to read the trajectory of the spear in an instant and cut off the flow itself.

As if brushing the spear tip… by striking the spear shaft with her sword rather than the tip.

She completely broke the flow of the spear continuing by defeating the attack in one breath.

…She existed at a height that made it ridiculous to compare her to the protagonist Leonhardt.

“The spear is certainly strong. From its reach, to attack speed, to the power concentrated on one point… Many people look down on Spearmanship, but I don’t think that way.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. That’s why I see limitless potential for Student Han Chunsung to develop. And now. You’re putting a burden on yourself with Elimian’s Consideration, right?”

At her questioning as if knowing everything, I had to pause for a moment.

My breathing was abnormally labored.

It was true that my attacks were less sharp than yesterday due to the extreme control of breath going into each attack.

And without time to think, I was opening my mouth.

“I’m sorry, Instructor. If you thought I was being arrogant…”

“No. Isn’t it arrogant to try to train with such a burden even against me? I think that mindset is admirable.”

As Kali gently shook her head and spoke, I exhaled briefly and immediately completely removed the burden being applied to me.

Breathing became much easier and my body found more naturalness.

And beyond that, I decided to give myself more leeway. To make the most use of the power given by these Elimian earrings.

Thinking about it, I really had been short-sighted.

Against none other than Kali, when I should be giving my all and it still wouldn’t be enough, I had entered the duel with a handicap. How foolish of me.

I should consider it extremely fortunate that Kali didn’t look at me seriously.

“It seems you’ve released it without me saying anything.”

“Yes. Rather, I changed the effect to assist me.”

At my words, Kali slowly smiled and nodded.

“Then from now on, I’m going to use my Talent too. Should I tell you in advance? I’m curious if Student Han Chunsung can cope even a little.”

“I know to some extent about Instructor Kali’s Talent from various sources… You don’t need to explain.”

“Really? This is unexpected. Was Student Han Chunsung always so interested in me?”

As Kali asked teasingly in a subtle tone… I couldn’t laugh at her playful voice.

She had just stated that she would use her Talent now.

That meant. The gates of hell had just opened for me.

How could I laugh?

The Talent she possessed had reached level 9.
The name of the Talent was ‘Oscillation’.

It could be seen as a Unique Talent belonging to the ‘superphenomenon’ category, which is not restricted to any armament in the ability system category.

And the signs of that Talent slowly began to appear in my eyes.

Woong-!

The sword Kali was holding was slowly vibrating.

Gulp.

Even as I swallowed, I calmed my mind in one breath.

I instill an absolute sense of crisis in my heart.

My current mindset was completely different from the duel with Leonhardt.

The mana manifested from my entire body had already enveloped the entire spear shaft, and mana was faintly manifested in my arms and legs as well.

Nevertheless, I really couldn’t let my guard down at all.

‘The moment I clash with that sword…’

I’ll probably die.

I had to approach this duel with the thought that I was going to die now.