I started following Joonghyuk and Jihye, who was a bit irritated by my presence but didn't want to argue since Joonghyuk was the one who invited me to his group.
We headed to B1 where it seemed Joonghyuk had planned something I couldn't imagine what it was. When we arrived at the area, he cleared it a bit, leaving a space that resembled a sword sparring area.
"Do you have a weapon?" Joonghyuk asked as he approached me with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Umm, I don't have a weapon," I replied while watching each of his movements in case he tried a surprise attack.
"Will you spar with him, master?" Jihye said, looking somewhat surprised but a bit annoyed at the same time that Joonghyuk wants to fight with me. "I don't think it's worth it, leave him to me."
Jihye approached me and handed me her sword while wearing a mocking smile that seemed to say, "I can beat you effortlessly."
"If I lose, what will you do with me?" I asked Joonghyuk, who was looking at me with very terrifying eyes.
"I will kill you"
Joonghyuk replied, who seemed not to be lying; even without using the lie detection ability, it was clear that this guy wasn't lying about killing someone.
so I couldn't hold back with Jihye, not even a little since he would notice, it seems he is someone expert in combat and observation.
"Sure, then we shouldn't take long to start," I said while handing the sword back to Jihye. "Let's fight on equal terms."
"Are you saying I need a weapon to defeat you? You look like a weakling," Jihye replied mockingly as she sheathed her sword.
As soon as she put it away, she lunged at me quickly, throwing a straight punch at my face, which I dodged by taking a small step back, but she quickly continued her attack with a kick to my head.
It seemed that Jihye was not an expert in hand-to-hand combat; she lacked a fighting style, just throwing punches wildly without knowing what she was doing. But she did it with speed and agility. It seemed like she was using the ghost walk ability. so that it is difficult to measure its distance.
before her kick connected with my head for being lost in thought, I decided to grab her foot and slam her to the floor.
Jihye let out a small groan when she fell to the ground but got back up and moved away from me.
"It seems you do have some skill," she said while using her Ghost Walk ability to approach me from behind.
She threw another clumsy blow, so it was extremely easy to dodge by simply stepping aside. "You should use your sword, don't you think?"
"I don't need it," She said, a bit annoyed to see that I wasn't taking it as a challenge.
Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to realize that it was an uneven fight since he hadn't yet taught Jihye how to fight without the katana he had given her.
"Jihye, use your katana"
He ordered her, to which Jihye obeyed and went for it quickly. which I didn't want to intercept her because I also wanted to test her sword skills.
Jihye, upon grabbing her katana, approached me, who didn't seem to have any stance, but rather fought according to her instincts. that's it....
DISAPPOINTING
When Jihye tried to make a slash, instead of backing away, I moved closer to the exact spot where I could kick her hand, causing Jihye to drop her katana, which fell to my side and I took the opportunity to take it.
I ran toward Jihye but at the last moment I backed away and she couldn't hear it thanks to the Ghost Walk ability
I put the katana on her neck, which decided the fight and the winner.
[The constellation Wanderer of the Two Heaven is surprised by your skill]
[You've been given 50 coins.]
The only reason I was able to be faster than her when slashes was because I had better agility stats.
I turned to look at Yoo Joonghyuk, who seemed satisfied but not entirely.
Jihye elbowed me in the ribs when she saw me get distracted looking the other way.
I groaned in pain when I felt her blow.
"Tch, how annoying," she said as she walked away from me, a bit annoyed.
"You pass," said Joonghyuk as he threw me what seemed to be a katana, which I accepted since I saw no reason not to. "You're from Japan, right?"
"Yes, I'm from Japan," I confirmed Joonghyuk's question, which didn't seem to have a double meaning.
"Alright, I'm leaving now, protect the access barrier. " said Joonghyuk as he walked away from us.
Jihye, who stayed with me, simply looked at me and said nothing, but it seemed like she wanted to kill me, or am I just exaggerating?
I decided to approach her, but just as I was about to reach her, I saw some small ants that seemed to be watching us. Feeling this type of gaze was a skill I acquired after spending time being watched, but this time it was strange because I had never been watched by an ant.
The most likely one was Gilyoung since he seems to have an affinity with insects, it's probably something Dokja is plotting, so it would be better to wait and see what happens.
Hey, what should we do while he's not here?
Jihye decided to ignore me but moved away from the place and approached some stairs nearby; it seemed she heard someone coming up, who was probably Dokja.
[Ghost Walk]
Jihye used her ability, so I decided to keep using the ability as well.
Jihye was behind Dokja with her sword pointed at his neck.
"I'm disappointed, Ahjussi," said Jihye to Dokja.
Many might think she is a good fighter, but in reality, Jihye didn't know how to use weapons well, she was possibly at an intermediate level.
"Put away your sword, let's talk," replied Dokja.
"Talk? Did you come with us on purpose?"
Before responding, Dokja glanced at me sideways as if he were planning something for the future. It seems that Gilyoung's ant did tell him about the fight I had with Jihye, there's no need to hold back anymore.
"yes" Dokja finally said
Jihye finally lowered her katana and started walking toward the access barrier. which Joonghyuk ordered us to protect
"What did you want to talk about?" Jihye asked.
"Why are you standing there?" Dokja said.
"Yoo Joonghyuk told us to protect this place," I answered Dokja's question.
"That's right, I can't let anyone pass, not even you," Jihye added while leaning slightly against the access door and placing her hand on her neck.
It seemed that Dokja, upon hearing that, became a bit tense, almost imperceptibly, but it was enough for me to realize that he had a bad feeling about what Joonghyuk was doing.
"I need your help."
Dokja said as he moved a little closer to be a few feet away from us.
"Our help?" said Jihye somewhat confused.
"Do you plan to finish off Pildu?" I asked Dokja, to which he seemed somewhat interested in how I could read what he was thinking.
"That's right, today I'll finish Pildu," he replied.
"Are you serious?" said Jihye while looking at Dokja, trying to see his soul. "You're not strong enough, you won't be able to get rid of them."
"Even with your help?" replied Dokja
It seemed that Jihye's pride was attacked, it seemed that she had already tried to deal with Pildu before but didn't succeed.
"I have a solution, I can do it if you help me."
"... Master told me to stay here"
"if you don't help, most of us here will die"
"People are going to die anyway."
"Did Yoo Joonghyuk say that?"
Jihye's once serene eyes were beginning to tremble more and more noticeably.
"The boy we talked to yesterday is dead. Do you understand?"
"I know."
"Maybe he could have lived. If he had done it, today he would be running toward us to tell us about Yoo Joonghyuk."
"That..."
"Yoo Joonghyuk killed him. He could've saved him."
Although he didn't want to interfere in this conversation between them, it seemed that Dokja was saying some very convincing words for someone like Jihye... Dokja is a bit sassy….
—---------------------------A/N—----------------------------------------------
Sorry if there are spelling mistakes, I didn't check how it turned out.
I hope you forgive me for this wait and also for the rushed nature of this episode.
I feel like I did many things wrong here in this chapter, but in the next one, it will get better.
If you have ideas, don't hesitate to share them, also share your opinions.
This chapter was too short for my taste and I'm not happy with how it turned out in the end, but it is what it is (Maybe in the future I'll rewrite it, but that's up to you).
Thank you for everything and for waiting.
Also Happy belated birthday to my queen Han sooyoung
Did you see Han Sooyoung's new art? (the one with the cat, where she has heterochromia?).
It's very good, could someone share where to download it?