The Support Ate it All

Chapter 88: 5th Week Mentoring and Duel Battles (11)

I sat down with Hong Ye-hwa and the two of us reached a few agreements.

First on Hong Ye-hwas list of demands was for this weeks duel battles only, and all responsibility for removing stickers was to be left to Hong Yeon-hwa.

Given Hong Yeon-hwas current rate of growth, it was almost certain to end in failure, but she seemed to see significance in taking on a difficult role.

Naturally, the deal also included a deduction of 50 points from my duel battle score.

My demand, on the other hand, was the melting of the Millennium Iron Alloy.

I hoped that the president-level Hong Ye-hwa or a fire mage with a special trait would lend a hand.

Upon hearing everything, Hong Ye-hwa suddenly brought up her younger sister.

She mentioned that Hong Yeon-hwa possessed the special trait I was looking for.

Feel free to use her.

Although I hadnt yet asked for the persons consent, it seemed I had at least obtained her guardians (?) approval.

With that, the important parts of our agreement were concluded.

As a small bonus, I was requested to assist Hong Yeon-hwa in learning as much as possible.

This came with the complete transfer of the large rubys ownership to me.

Since the terms were vague and largely at my discretion, it was more of a request than a transaction.

However, considering the high value of the item received, I was intent on delivering equivalent value through my efforts.

Due to these complex reasons, I found myself participating in Hong Yeon-hwa and Dang Gyu-youngs one-on-one close combat training the following day.

Not that I did anything special; I merely stood at a distance in a corner of the round arena and watched their battle.

More precisely, I watched Dang Gyu-young unleash a variety of shadow magic attacks while Hong Yeon-hwa rolled around the arena floor trying to dodge them.

Ugh.

Kuk.

Aah!

Despite her best efforts to avoid even a single hit, it didnt seem easy.

Soon, a large shadow hand grabbed Hong Yeon-hwa and threw her forcefully.

She was sent flying in an arc before she tumbled and sprawled on the ground.

Before Dang Gyu-young could help Hong Yeon-hwa up and resume the battle, I interjected with a suggestion.

Senior-nim.

Hm? What is it?

Perhaps we could try a different approach.

A different approach? How so?

I was thinking that letting her attack might be more suitable for such the removing stickers training session.

It wasnt that Dang Gyu-youngs training method was entirely wrong.

The training method of drawing out potential through relentless attacks had traditionally proven effective, and I too had quietly made frequent use of it.

Indeed, Hong Yeon-hwas close combat skills had noticeably improved from just a few days ago.

However, if I had to point out one thing that was disappointing, it would be that her skills had mostly advanced in blocking and dodging.

Given that the objective of this weeks one-on-one combat was to remove stickers, it was necessary to practice attacking as well to achieve a proper balance between offense and defense.

!

Hong Yeon-hwas face lit up upon hearing this.

It felt much like a traveler discovering an oasis in the midst of a desert crossing.

After bracing herself for a week, or possibly the entire mentoring period, of relentless beatings, the suggestion of a different training method must have felt like an immediate reduction in her imminent suffering.

After some contemplation, Dang Gyu-young seemed to see the logic in my suggestion and flicked a sticker towards me.

Really? You give it a try. Lets see how you do.

She meant that she would decide whether to adopt the method based on my demonstration.

I didnt hesitate and slapped the sticker on my forearm.

In view of Dang Gyu-youngs lack of skill in teaching, it seemed appropriate for me as an experienced mentor to demonstrate at least once.

I pointed to the sticker and said to Hong Yeon-hwa.

Come and try to take it off. Ill just focus on dodging.

From Hong Yeon-hwas perspective, I was not as scary as Dang Gyu-young but still a challenging opponent.

Thus, her approach was cautious.

Once she closed in to a certain distance, she accelerated and reached out for the sticker.

Just as her fingertips were about to make contact, I used Thiefs Step and slid backward.

After her miss, Hong Yeon-hwa quickly stepped forward again, but I anticipated this and instead moved forward to meet her.

As a result, we ended up crossing paths.

!

Hong Yeon-hwa was taken aback and paused briefly on the spot.

Then she swiftly turned around and quickly chanted a spell and snapped her fingers.

[Combustion]

Bang!

A small flame explosion occurred, but I had already moved out of its range.

In that brief moment, she managed to cast another spell and lashed out with a whip made of lava.

I dodged by subtly shifting my body, while Hong Yeon-hwa kept swinging the whip.

She has improved.

When she faced Dang Gyu-young on Monday, she aimed directly at the sticker with the lava whip.

Unless you were a master of the whip, it would have been considered quite a stretch to aim at such a tricky target with an unfamiliar weapon style.

On the other hand, now she was using it solely to restrict my movements while attempting to remove the sticker directly.

It was good that she had found a more efficient method.

Still, she has a long way to go.

It seemed she had accumulated some experience in mid-to-close range combat, but she still needed much more practice to successfully remove the sticker.

As Hong Yeon-hwa continued her checks and we got somewhat closer, she reached out again.

I gave her just enough room to reach, but then just as her fingertips were about to touch me, I spun around and stepped out of range.

Ugh!

Frustrated, Hong Yeon-hwa lashed out even more fiercely with her lava whip.

She was combining her attacks with bursts of flame magic.

Bang! Boom!

The pattern repeated itself: Hong Yeon-hwa pressed on with various tactics and aimed for the sticker, while I dodged every attack.

Dang Gyu-young who was watching this let out a short exclamation of admiration.

Ooh

Youve learned a thing or two.

How did you dodge that?

At first, she was there merely to watch two kids bicker and take a light break, but she seemed to have realized something after watching me, and now she was watching my every move with earnest eyes.

Truth be told since I had firmly stated to Hong Yeon-hwa that I would only dodge, it wasnt necessary for the mentor to avoid all attacks.

If it were Dang Gyu-young, she would come up with a way to appropriately mix defense and evasion.

How effective this approach would be, would soon be experienced firsthand by Song Cheon-hye or Kwak Ji-cheol in their turn.

***

After todays mentoring session ended and I stepped out of the arena,

Hong Yeon-hwa looked as if her soul had partly departed her body.

Even if she had accepted not getting a single sticker, she thought she would land a few hits with the fire magic she used to keep me in check, but she hadnt managed to touch me at all.

She felt like she was overwhelmed with self-doubt. Like her skills were only this good.

At the same time, her gaze toward me was filled with fear.

Previously, it might have seemed like her magic attacks against me were blocked by something, but the one-on-one duel just now taught her something more.

If I set my mind to it, it was possible to not get hit at all.

When I looked at her facial expressions to guess her inner thoughts, it seemed as if she was thinking,

Such a monstrous person

She evidently did not want to linger near me.

She cast furtive glances around while trying to gauge my reaction before she hesitantly said,

Then, I should be going right?

She attempted to make a swift exit.

But I couldnt just let her run away.

There was still something I needed from her.

Hong Yeon-hwa.

At the sound of her name, Hong Yeon-hwas movements stopped abruptly as if someone had grabbed her by the nape of her neck.

Turning her head slowly, she asked,

Wha-what?

Lets go somewhere together.

Together? Where?

The color drained from her face as if the destination I had in mind was a place she dared not go.

Sensing that she might flee if I tried to drag her away without explanation, I felt the need to provide some motivation and a bit of context.

I heard you have [Aqua Flame].

Did you hear that from Unnie?

The very trait I sought Hong Ye-hwa for to melt the millennium iron alloy was this.

Aqua Flame.

It was a trait that manifests in an extremely small fraction of fire mages.

Even within the esteemed Hong family of the Ruby Magic Tower, it was rarely inherited.

A fire mage possessing this trait gains an overwhelming advantage over all water and ice elements.

They can ignite flames even in the deepest parts of the ocean and bypass an opponents water-type defenses to inflict damage.

Moreover, once the rank reaches a certain level, it can somewhat affect even non-water defenses, making it a powerful trait by its very existence.

It was said that this trait had a significant influence on Hong Yeon-hwa receiving the title of a promising student at the Magic Tower Association.

However, there was one issue.

Your growth stopped at rank E, didnt it?

You heard about that too.

Hong Yeon-hwas expression darkened.

There was also a hint of annoyance at her sister who had revealed this embarrassing fact.

Traits as powerful as Aqua Flame were rare.

Yet, even such a potent trait would become useless if its rank was low.

From what I heard, Hong Yeon-hwas Aqua Flame had been stuck at E-rank for a long time.

She tried every possible means to break through, but with no success, she had almost given up.

For me, this was an ideal situation.

What if there is a way to break through to D-rank?

What? Really?

Yes.

Hong Yeon-hwa leaned in close and started bombarding me with questions.

Can you really break through? With Aqua Flame? Not any other trait? How?

She must have been so excited that she even forgot her fear of me

Its understandable to be thrilled at the prospect of finally finding the solution she had long been searching for and yearning for.

Still, it seemed best to wait until she had calmed down a bit before explaining.

I remained silent and watched her until Hong Yeon-hwa took a few steps back when she realized her excitement.

It seemed she had regained some composure, so I began to speak again.

Basically, the rank of skills and traits increases each time you overcome a barrier set by the system. You probably know this.

Yes, its common knowledge.

And the nature of the barrier you have to overcome varies depending on the unique properties of the skill or trait. You know this too.

Yes, Im aware of that too.

Take [Super Strength] as an example.

Given that the trait significantly enhanced ones physical strength, the barrier to overcome would be moving an object thats even heavier than what ones current rank finds challenging.

In the same vein, in order to overcome the barrier erected by [Aqua Flame], which has strong penetrating power against water and ice elements, it was natural that,

All you have to do is fervently burn an object imbued with intense cold using fire magic but thats where you hit a snag at E-rank.

Yes.

It was likely that Hong Yeon-hwa had already attempted this method.

Despite her earnest efforts, it was to no avail.

She began to wonder if there was another barrier she needed to overcome, so she tried various approaches, only to fail each time.

The method isnt flawed. Nor do you need to overcome a different barrier.

Is that so?

Hong Yeon-hwa was skeptical.

I spoke in a confident tone, so my words seemed plausible, yet she couldnt help but wonder since her inability to advance past E-rank was due to this very issue.

My explanation continued.

If youve set the right direction but still see no results, the cause is one of two things: either the quality is lacking or the quantity is insufficient.

In the context of Aqua Flame, this meant either the quality of the object being burned was too low or the quantity burned wasnt sufficient to warrant a rank increase.

.

Hong Yeon-hwa remained silent for a while.

It seemed she was comparing my words with her own memories.

I then asked her,

What did you use for your rank advancement attempts?

Ice golems, ice crystals, and

She listed a few ice element monsters and materials.

Given they were acquired with her familys resources, their quality was reasonably good.

However,

Even with those, your training sessions must have been short.

Right.

In the presence of Aqua Flame, all these would melt away in an instant.

It was impossible to extend the training duration.

Pouring endless amounts of ice element materials like this was like trying to fill a bottomless bucket.

Especially when there was no certainty that it would even work.

Therefore, the proposal I was about to make was something Hong Yeon-hwa couldnt possibly refuse.

What if there was an item that possessed strong cold energy but didnt melt easily?

!

It would surely be able to enhance the Aqua Flame.

Does such a thing really exist?

Hong Yeon-hwa asked, but instead of answering, I simply closed my mouth and started walking.

Hong Yeon-hwa followed closely behind me as if she was mesmerized by the possibility.