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Memorize - Episode 52
052 Our Oppa (Hyung) Has Changed
"Oppa. I'm sorry."
"Oppa. We're sorry..."
As we were walking through the forest for a while, I heard small mumbling voices from the kids behind me. At that moment, my face, walking at the very front, twitched. Even though I couldn't see my own expression, I knew it probably wasn't a good one.
"Sigh..."
The kids showed signs of anxiety at my sigh tinged with regret, which they had never heard before. I turned my head towards the kids who had come up beside me. And after taking a breath, I opened my mouth while maintaining our current walking pace.
"The battle with the scorpions gives me a lot to think about. It's not even three or four, but you struggled with just one or two... In a way, I'm thinking that maybe the way I'm treating you now might be a bit wrong."
"O-oppa. That's not..."
"I'm talking right now."
When I snapped in a low voice, I saw Yoo-jung hurriedly close her mouth. Her eyes were trembling slightly, as if she might burst into tears if pushed a little more. However, since I had said we wouldn't return to the city until we achieved results, I needed to steel my heart.
"I've always tried to make the best judgment in any situation. I rejected countless offers from clans and chose you because I was confident in my judgment. But now. For the first time, I'm not confident in my judgment. I've believed until now that the direction I want is also beneficial for you, but I think that might have just been my arrogance."
My tone contained a seriousness it had never had before. After signaling not to interrupt, the kids were silently listening to my words. Hyun was focusing on my words with a serious face, while Yoo-jung and Sol lowered their eyes with worried faces, looking at each other alternately.
"I cared for you all so much. Yoo-jung, when you said 'we' as we left the city, I was very happy, though I didn't show it outwardly. But I didn't know that feeling would come back as a boomerang like this. No. Maybe I knew and turned a blind eye. Of course, while I'm responsible for sticking to that approach despite this, I think there's clearly a problem with your attitudes in following it too. The things I've been worried about since the Trial of Passage are now being revealed one after another."
Ahn Hyun listened to my words and became gloomy, biting his lips. However, they couldn't say anything. They would know well without needing any explanation. Breaking the formation and putting Sol in danger, stopping spells midway when a tail came flying, blankly watching while a comrade was fighting, fighting recklessly without thinking about distributing power, and so on.
I stopped walking and turned around. Yoo-jung and Sol looked like they might burst into tears at any moment. I decided to wrap things up here for now. Because...
"Honestly, I want to go back to the city even now. I want to form at least a minimal caravan and start again. But on the other hand, I still want to believe in you. Is that okay? Can you not disappoint me anymore?"
At my question, Ahn Hyun's face became speechless. However, I could glimpse an angry look, as if he was gritting his teeth inside. Hyun definitely had something different from the other two. What I wanted wasn't an apology saying "sorry," but anger asking why they couldn't help but act that way then.
I continued speaking in a strong voice.
"From now on, I'm changing the keeper formation. We'll form a triangular formation centered on Sol. I'll take the lead, so Hyun and Yoo-jung, stand on each side."
"..."
Ahn Hyun stood beside Sol with a silent face. He seemed to have steeled his resolve, gripping his spear tightly. Yoo-jung slowly glanced at me before moving to the remaining side position. Sol sent an uneasy look at the mention of changing the keeper formation, but I spoke firmly with an impassive face.
"I'll explain only once, so listen carefully. The triangular formation doesn't mean there's no keeper. If I had to say, each person forming the formation could be considered a keeper."
"You mean the formation must absolutely not be broken, right?"
I turned my head briefly to look ahead. I had heard something slowly moving. After carefully examining the front, I gave a signal only to Hyun. Hyun also seemed to understand my signal, subtly shifting the direction of his spear. I started walking slowly again.
"That's right. Don't just use sensing for evasion. Focus on reading the opponent's sword path, parrying, and looking for openings. If this formation breaks, it literally means Sol falls too. Maintain the formation as if your life depends on it. We form a battle array to help each other and for coordination, otherwise it's no different from just going alone."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"And one more thing. There's a reason I deliberately took the lead, not just to act as a guide. What do you think it is?"
"I'm not sure."
I saw Yoo-jung and Sol tilting their heads, watching me speak somewhat off-topic and Hyun answering. Currently, we were moving at less than a quarter of our initial speed. After briefly scanning the trees around us and the large rocks we were passing by, I gripped my sword tightly that I had been holding loosely.
"It's because... situations like this could arise!"
I swung my sword hard, infused with mana, at a large rock we were about to pass. Immediately, the rock split open and red blood gushed out all around. Their stealth was decent enough to avoid the kids' sensing, probably an Assassin job, but they couldn't fool my eyes.
"Shit! Jong-min!"
"Crazy!"
After dealing with one by swinging my sword, three people instantly descended around us. Two men and one woman. Judging by their appearance, they were undoubtedly scruffy vagrants. They must have been planning to ambush us. However, since I had targeted and dealt with one first, they revealed themselves thinking they had been discovered.
Yoo-jung and Sol showed surprised looks again, but Hyun was relatively calm. It was because I had given him a hint beforehand. Although they had shocked faces at the fact that they were fellow humans, Yoo-jung and Sol quickly drew their weapons upon seeing the vagrants exuding killing intent.
"You bastard! How dare you kill Jong-min! Uwaaa!"
"Didn't you say they were new users! How did they detect the stealth?"
"Calm down. We underestimated them too much. You there. How did you know we were hiding in the rock?"
A female user addressed me, but I didn't respond. After analyzing the shouting vagrants, I quickly relayed the information I had gathered to the kids.
"These are what we call vagrants. Do as you learned in the academy. Don't exchange words at all and think of them as monsters. The moment you think of them as fellow users, you'll hesitate. Kill them without burden. One shield swordsman, one axe warrior, and one mage. We have the advantage both in numbers and job composition. Sol. What are you doing? The battle has begun. Do you have an idea who to take on?"
"Ha...? You're kidding. They're just newly hatched chicks after all! Let's crush them all!"
"Wait a moment...!"
Hearing my words, the warrior roughly picked up his axe and began charging. Soon after, the swordsman also raised his shield up and followed behind the axe warrior. The woman who looked like a mage in the back seemed to have tried to stop them, but realizing it was too late, she gritted her teeth and quickly began casting a spell.
I looked at them with a pathetic face. Apparently, these people were also showing signs of being novices who hadn't been in the Hollow Plane, and as vagrants, for long. If the shield bearer had broken our formation first, and then the axe warrior had pounced, they might have thought it could work, but they were charging at us just as haphazardly as we had been. They were clearly underestimating us, knowing we were new users.
At that moment. I saw the two users rushing towards us slightly close their eyes. At that instant, I quickly opened my mouth to the kids.
"It's a Light magic! Everyone close your eyes!"
Simultaneously, the female mage stretched out her brightly glowing hand towards us and shouted in a thin voice.
"Light!"
Being a basic magic, she seemed to have completed the spell faster than Sol. Soon, we could see a sphere of light forming in front of our group and then bursting with a flash. It seemed to have been burst with the purpose of obstructing our vision. The problem was, we had already mastered sensing.
As I slightly turned my head, I could see Yoo-jung and Hyun taking defensive stances with their eyes closed. At the same time, Sol was also gritting her teeth and chanting a spell. Yes. This was exactly the kind of response I wanted to see.
After taking a moment to observe the kids, I looked at the vagrant in front of me with a chilling face. Despite being directly hit by the Light magic, when I stared straight at him, the axe warrior slowed down his charge with a flustered face. However, the shield swordsman, being behind, hadn't seen this and changed his course to the left midway. He seemed to be targeting Yoo-jung.
These guys were also lacking in basics, so-called idiots. The hidden assassin and the female mage seemed quite skilled, but the two rushing forward were completely useless.
Just as I was about to swing down my sword, I saw a long spear suddenly thrusting from the side. The axe warrior, not expecting an attack from the side after the Light burst, turned his body with a desperate face. Ahn Hyun had succeeded in interfering with the warrior's path with an exquisite thrust while keeping his eyes closed.
"Impossible...! How can novices use sensing...?"
"It's possible."
Looking at the warrior who had thrust his belly forward in front of me while avoiding the spear, I answered briefly before immediately stabbing my sword. Thud. Along with the sound of leather armor tearing, I felt the sensation of flesh being ripped through my sword. Their method of coming in conjunction with Light was quite good, but their carelessness was a fatal flaw for them. Looking at the warrior coughing up blood with a dumbfounded face, I turned my head to the side.
Clang clang clang!
A harsh noise of metal scraping against metal rang out around us. Yoo-jung had also raised her dagger vertically and was blocking the shield swordsman's charge with a stable retreating stance. The shield swordsman was also gaping at Yoo-jung, who had blocked his charge.
"Im... impossible... my strength is clearly..."
In reality, the shield-wielding user had higher strength. As they pushed against each other with their weapons locked, Yoo-jung was gradually being pushed back. However, he had overlooked Yoo-jung's mana ability score. Yoo-jung suddenly opened her eyes wide and let out a powerful shout while raising her mana with all her might.
"Yah!"
She compensated for lacking strength with mana. Yoo-jung was diligently applying the basics she had learned at the User Academy. As if complementing her strength and further increasing her weapon's cutting power and hardness, her dagger began to hum and emit darkness. Only then did he try to attack with the sword in his other hand, but at that moment, a long spear shaft passed through between me and Sol again.
I twisted my sword once to pull it out and immediately swung it again to cut off the axe warrior's neck. And the spear Ahn Hyun had thrown split the air and pierced into the exposed side of the shield swordsman.
The shield swordsman looked at the axe warrior's head that had fallen to the ground and the spear stuck in his own side, then dropped his shield with an unbelieving face. Seeing the user whose front was now open, Yoo-jung showed a conflicted look in her eyes for a moment, but soon bit her lip hard and plunged both daggers into the body of the user she had been facing.
"Cough."
I don't know where they heard that we were new users, but from my perspective, these guys were no different from new users themselves. They were clearly people who had just passed 6 months or at best hadn't even spent a full year. I don't know how they became vagrants, but right now these guys were showing the end of vagrants who couldn't adapt to the Hollow Plane. They were in a truly miserable state - lacking in skill, not training, and not even trying.
Looking at the user collapsing, Yoo-jung soon made a vicious face as if she had resolved something. She seemed to be doing it deliberately because I was watching her. Her two hands gripping the daggers plunged into the guy's chest were visibly shaking.
However, there was still no time to rest. One female mage still remained. She had been quiet for a while, seeming to be preparing some big magic, but unfortunately, Sol had already finished her spell as well. Sol raised her brightly glowing staff and then unhesitatingly shouted the activation word at the female mage who was sweating profusely.
"Shackles!"
As bright light filled the forest like a flash going off, the female mage snorted and continued chanting her spell while forming a hand seal with one hand. And seeing that sight, my eyes lit up. What the woman had just shown was double casting. To prevent interruption of her spell midway, she was chanting the spell with her mouth while forming a mana resistance seal with her other hand.
As it required a certain level of concentration, not just anyone could do it, which meant the mage before us was a user with some skill. However, the woman had overlooked one thing. That was Sol's mana ability score.
"Wh... what? Im-impossible! My mana ability score is over 60!"
Her hand forming the seal gradually became messy, and soon she screamed, giving up the spell she had been maintaining to focus on mana resistance. It was a fairly quick judgment, but from the start, she was no match for Sol, who possessed an ability score of 75.
She resisted for a moment, but Sol's binding spell wasn't offset and clung tenaciously. I briefly held back Hyun and Yoo-jung who were about to rush forward again. This was because Sol was also exerting herself while maintaining the mana connection to the binding spell. I wanted to let them experience what a mana-based battle was like for the first time.
Eventually, we could see the result as the female user collapsed. Unable to resist Sol's mana to the end, she lay rigid with a blank face, her mouth agape.
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