Chapter 228 - Chapter 228 (1/2)

When the System was still around, it did mention something about what Beru was talking about. There could be only one occupying the position of the general of the army.

So, Soldiers that recently reached the Marshal grade must establish a hierarchy with the one before it – didn't the System say something like that?

If he were to assume the general of the army was the Grand-Marshal, then indeed, Beru, as the recently-promoted Marshal, possessed the qualification to challenge Bellion.

Perhaps befitting an ant-type monster familiar with living in a large community, Beru wanted to establish the proper pecking order between the Marshals, it seemed.

'Marshals going at it, huh...?'

Just to make sure, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to his other Marshal, Igrit, but the black knight politely declined the proposition. It seemed that he wasn't interested in establishing the hierarchy between the Marshals at all.

Unsurprisingly, once the black knight quietly took a step back, the other guy to catch Jin-Woo's attention was Bellion standing next to him.

The current leader in charge of the army 130,000-strong was Bellion right now. Only Jin-Woo was above him in terms of hierarchy, as the master of the army itself.

After meeting his liege's gaze, Bellion bowed his head slightly.

Since he was in the presence of his master, he had lowered his posture as much as possible, but still, he was a good head taller than Thomas Andre. This giant calmly answered his boss's querying eyes.

"I shall follow your will."

Follow his will, he said.

Jin-Woo formed a slight smirk at Bellion's answer.

His voice was, of course, very humble. However, it wasn't all that difficult to read the underlying message that he'd face the challenger head on, as long his master gives the permission.

Jin-Woo sneaked a glance behind him, and Beru standing there had already extended his claws while visibly burning with fighting spirit himself. He must've also read the message, too.

"Kiieeehk!"

While Bellion was doing his best to mask his magic energy as much as possible, Beru was the opposite and didn't hold back any of his horrible magic energy emission.

'Hmm....'

Jin-Woo pondered for a moment or two before making up his mind.

"Alright."

He knew pretty much everything there was to know about Beru, but Bellion was a different story. Knowing the extent of his combat prowess would prove to be an invaluable data in deploying the army correctly in the future.

It was also obvious that Jin-Woo's heart would sway towards allowing the challenge to go through.

"However, I shall be the one judging when to end the bout."

After receiving his master's permission, Beru's expression was now overflowing with ecstasy. Moved almost to tears, his eyes began sparkling brightly as he cried out.

"I am humbled and deeply honoured by your inscrutable....."

"Stop it."

"....I thank thee, my king."

On one side, Beru celebrating his opportunity. On the other side, Bellion calmly getting ready for the upcoming challenge.

It was as if these two were the plucky challenger going up against the incumbent champion in a sports movie. But before these two could start duking it out for real, there was something Jin-Woo had to confirm first.

He summoned out a single 'Kamish's Wrath' and loaded a bit of black aura on its tip. Then, he lightly swung it towards the forest.

Kwa-jajajajajajajak!!

The black 'howl' shooting out from the shortsword swept up a portion of the forest. However, the damage wasn't as severe as he thought. Jin-Woo nodded and stored the weapon away.

'With this much....'

It seemed that he didn't need to worry about the surroundings getting destroyed unduly during the battle of the two Marshals. The ground had been hardened sufficiently enough by the condensed Mana and it would survive the upcoming warfare without a doubt.

'…....'

Jin-Woo gazed at the earth with a somewhat lonely expression before raising his head. His eyes were already filled back up with anticipation as he looked at his two Marshals.

"Well, then...."

Both the Grand-Marshal and the newbie Marshal waiting for their master's order nodded their heads simultaneously.

"We are ready, my liege."

"Give us your order, oh my king!"

Jin-Woo chuckled and addressed the two.

"Get to your positions."

***

Meanwhile, back in the Korean Hunter's Association.

The activities taking place inside the Association's emergency response conference hall were a lot more bustling than before, even though the so-called emergency situation had come to an end yesterday.

"The international media is still hounding us, demanding us to release an official statement already, sir!"

"The American Hunter Bureau is requesting us to release the information on Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim's current whereabouts!"

"The Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disasters are asking us if it's okay to bring back the evacuated citizens."

"The Hunter Channel's famous 'The Jimmy Show' wants to interview Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim...."

"Jimmy or whatever can kiss my a*s!! If he's able to, tell him to find the guy and try his luck there!"

The number of calls flooding the Association was inconceivably high. It was a small miracle already that their phone lines hadn't broken down yet.

As for the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, even though he breathlessly issued one order after another, he also didn't forget to spit out groans repeatedly as he stared at the stacks of official inquiry documents on his desk.

"Fuu-woo...."

The things he had to do was as tall as Mount Tai at this moment. No, hang on – if it was only as tall as that legendary mountain, that would have actually been preferable.

The thing was, Mount Tai had actually formed a long-a*s mountain range, and after overcoming one mountain, he'd be facing another one, and another one after that, and yet another one was waiting for him….

His work had piled up to the extent he couldn't see the end now.

It was so serious that even he was feeling dizzy from the craziness of it all when he was supposed to be a rank A Hunter!

But then – Woo Jin-Cheol was busy shaking his head to get rid of this drowsiness, until he ended up hearing something spoken by a subordinate that simply could not be overlooked, no matter the circumstances.

"Just why did Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's summons have to come out from there...."

This employee's words were tinged with a certain amount of dissatisfaction. Woo Jin-Cheol's drowsiness was driven away in an instant. He immediately made this employee stand at attention before him.

"In that case, do you, Mister Seong-Won, think it would have been better if monsters came out from that super-massive Gate yesterday? Is that what you're saying?"

"Pardon me, sir? Ah, no, that's not...."

The subordinate couldn't hide his fluster. Woo Jin-Cheol let his sharp scolding fly, regardless.

"If the phone calls you've been receiving until now weren't about TV stations asking for interviews but relatives of the deceased Hunters asking for the news of their loved ones, do you really think you can continue working with just the thoughts of things being too hectic for you?"

The subordinate employee couldn't even meet Woo Jin-Cheol's glare.

Even if you were nominally an employee of the Hunter's Association, as long as you hadn't worked out in the field, you'd never really understand it.

They would never understand just what Hunters had to go through during emergency situations.

They would never understand just what kind of things unfolded and got buried inside dungeons, enshrouded in the darkness where no one could see you.

Going through all the potential scenarios that could've gone down during the raid of the super-massive Gate, what happened yesterday was easily the best result one could ever hope for.

Over one hundred thousand monsters popped out, but no one got injured. Nothing was destroyed. Not only that, all those monsters were absorbed into Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's fighting force.

Just who could've imagined it?

Indeed, no one could've dreamed such a result that far exceeded one's expectations.

That was how Woo Jin-Cheol got to endure, with a smile on his face, all these mountains of work that probably required him to go through a few sleepless nights to finish.

But to think, there was an employee of the Hunter's Association busy complaining about yesterday's events just because his body became a bit fatigued.

How could he even dare to say something so nonsensical?

If Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was present nearby, Woo Jin-Cheol would've stepped up to slap some sense into this employee well before the young Hunter had a chance to get angry.

That was how deeply Woo Jin-Cheol understood what Jin-Woo was going through.

The Association President temporarily stopped his employees, and while taking a sweeping look at them, he began speaking with a loud voice.

"I know full well how flustered you all are after Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim suddenly vanished on us."

However, there must've been a good reason why Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had to disappear on them like that, when he was a man possessing a strong sense of responsibility.

"In a way, the person most confused by yesterday's event could very well be Seong Huner-nim."

Didn't someone say once that, with great power comes great responsibility?

Some line from a movie Woo Jin-Cheol watched a long time ago kept repeating itself in his head. However, that line helped him to imagine the weighty burden now pressing down on Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's shoulders.

'I've been around Hunter-nim for a while now, but yesterday was the first time seeing him that tense.'

Indeed, Jin-Woo didn't seem to know what was about to take place next.

It didn't matter who, anyone in his shoes would've thought of quickly getting the heck out of there when the Gate one was ready to die defending against instead suddenly began spewing out his own summons. What's more, they then began swearing their allegiance out of nowhere.

Who could be foolish enough to point the fingers of blame on him?

Right now, the Association's job was to share the load until Hunter Seong Jin-Woo finished sorting out his confusion and returned to explain the current situation.

The Association had to perform the role of a sturdy, dependable shield for Hunters, regardless of the time or the circumstances.

"If we at the Hunter's Association can't even understand what Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is going through, just who else will??"

The employees listening to the passionate speech from their President forgot all about their fatigue, the corners of their eyes moistening quickly.

As for the employee complaining like a little kid because summoned creatures came out from the Gate, he lowered his head to Woo Jin-Cheol and apologised as his own nose reddened considerably.

"I'm sorry, sir. I was being thoughtless. I am truly sorry."

Woo Jin-Cheol wordlessly patted this guy on the shoulder and had him return to his post before sitting back down.

"Fuu-woo...."

He only shouted for a little while, yet there were at least twice as many documents as before piled up on his desk now.

'…...'

He shifted his gaze away from the stacks of paper, his mind still worried about Jin-Woo who'd no doubt be stuck in all sorts of dilemmas even now.

'I wonder, what is Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim doing now?'

***

With a bright face, Jin-Woo got to a distance quite far from the two Marshals.

Igrit came to stand next to him.

Other Shadow Soldiers also spread out into a giant circle and created enough room for the two Marshals to move about unrestricted. Standing on the opposite end of that circle to his opponent, Beru extended his claws until they couldn't be extended anymore and screeched out loudly.

"Kiiiiiieeeeehk-!!"

Meanwhile, Bellion wordlessly unsheathed the sword mounted on his hips. So far, he seemed to be a type of swordsman similar to Igrit, but then...

'Mm...?'

Jin-Woo's gaze was fixed to Bellion's sword now. The blade looked rather uniquely-shaped.

'Hang on, can I even call that a blade?'

As a matter of fact, the blade resembled the body of a centipede in that it was made up of dozens of connected sections.