Junhyuk always worried on Fridays. He didn’t care about his own summoning, but the fear of the experts and novices not returning was always on his mind.
He found out that many had not come back. Twenty novices and four experts had been killed in the Dimensional Battlefield.
He sighed and asked Eunseo to take care of them. After pushing the results from his mind, Junhyuk focused on practicing the new swordsmanship. It would be nice if he had time to spend mastering Aksha’s Longsword, but he wanted to learn more about Dentra’s Magic Sword so that he could use it.
Junhyuk emptied his mind and focused entirely on his training. It was important to be strong in the Dimensional Battlefield, but he wanted to be strong on Earth as well.
Eltor had to be scheming things at that exact moment.
Junhyuk got used to the basics of Dentra’s sword with ease. After that, he called Ling Ling.
Ling Ling was a wind user, and she had a greater understanding of wind energy even without her powers. She entered the training facility and saw Dentra’s Magic Sword.
“That is…!”
Junhyuk showed her the sword and said, “I just got it. It can control the wind.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
Surprised, Ling Ling stared at it. For her, that sword was like gaining wings, but he couldn’t give it to her. The sword had been expensive, and even without its wind powers, it was still a strong sword. It could diminish the damage of an enemy’s magic attack.
Yagi had had magic-based attacks. If his enemy was a mage, the sword would be even more effective.
Junhyuk needed help from Ling Ling, and by helping him, she might become the next hero. He was willing to give her a loyalty ring to bring her to his side.
He knew her weapons weren’t as strong as his. The Blood Rune Sword had gotten powerful after the upgrades. Now, it could be used against any hero.
Because he was willing to have her join him, he wanted to learn more about her.
“Its energy has to do with wind, so I’m looking for advice from you on how to use it.”
Ling Ling stared at his new sword and asked, “Can you really buy something like that?”
“It’s possible, yes.”
The sword had cost an exorbitant amount of gold. Ling Ling’s eyes beamed like a child who had discovered a new favorite toy.
Junhyuk smiled and said, “Tell me how to control the wind, and I’ll teach you how to use this sword.”
“There’s a specific swordsmanship?”
“Yes, I’m currently learning it.”
Ling Ling told him everything she knew with passion, and Junhyuk sifted through what he could and couldn’t do.
He knew he couldn’t use the sword like Ling Ling could, but Dentra’s Magic Sword had the highest attack stat of all of his swords. Ling Ling had helped him.
—
Charles Rockefeller was having a glass of wine while looking at a screen. The footage on the screen was showing powered people displaying their powers.
Charles looked at a man standing next to him and asked, “This is fun, isn’t it?”
The man adjusted his glasses and answered, “We didn’t expect this.”
Charles set his wine glass down and said, “Can I see it in person?”
“I’ll make arrangements.”
The man left, and Charles emptied his wine glass while looking at the screen.
There were twelve powered people on the footage—two champions and ten experts—and he was worried about whether he should go public about them or not.
The helicopter was ready, and Charles got on it. The blast of the rotors drowned everything, and Charles looked at the man sitting in front of him, the person with sole authority over the P-Project, Arthur.
They had put a stop to the P-Project after talking to Junhyuk. After Elise went to Guardians, they had to find new people to head the project. One of them was Arthur.
After the P-project was halted, Arthur insisted that he wouldn’t continue the research, but that he wanted to continue observing the infected. They couldn’t give up on the infected. Arthur insisted that they come up with an antidote for them.
Until he received Arthur’s call, Charles had forgotten about the P-Project, but after checking the material Arthur had given him, he was astonished.
The infected had powers now, but their research was focused on creating an antidote to treat them.
“Are they in control of their faculties?”
“Yes, but they are odd.”
Charles took a moment to think and asked, “Why aren’t they being summoned to the battlefield?”
“I don’t know, but none of them have been summoned yet.”
“We can’t lose them, right?”
“Yes.”
“They haven’t fought any monster waves, so how did some of them become champions? What happened?”
Arthur adjusted his glasses and said, “While we were observing them, they began to fight to come up with a ranking system. Some of the people displayed their powers, and the two who are now champions became their leaders. They fought each other and activated new powers.”
“Can sparring activate powers?”
“Well… I haven’t looked into it.”
Arthur had brought news of them to Charles for a simple reason: he wanted more money for research. To make up his mind, Charles would need to see them in person.
They flew for a while and arrived at a desert facility. The security around it was tight.
There were researchers outside waiting for Charles. He got out, and Arthur followed him. Charles wasn’t worried about his safety.
The place had both champions and experts, but they were simply infected people. Charles had an expert with him, Mark, who had items crafted from monsters by Guardians. The place was crawling with his own private army for his protection.
Arthur guided Charles inside the lab. They had to go underground to see the infected.
Charles got in the elevator and headed down. He arrived at a theater from where he could see them sparring safely. Charles wanted to see them. There were twelve of them there. No novices.
Charles’ eyes beamed as he looked through the glass. He wanted to appraise the product.
Stepping forward, Arthur ordered the sparring session, “Begin!”
Two women stepped forward, two experts, which meant they each had two powers.
Charles watched them use their powers. All of them used powers fueled by the green energy, but Charles didn’t care. Nowadays, it was getting hard to find freelance powered people. Guardians was gathering them all.
Things would continue that way until the waves stopped.
If Charles got himself a new hero, he wouldn’t have to worry about Junhyuk.
So far, all heroes had sided with Junhyuk, but there was no guarantee that things would continue that way in the future. That was why Charles was there.
The experts sparred without holding back. Suddenly, they stepped back, and their wounds were quickly healed.
“Is that the R-potion?” Charles asked.
“They were injected with it.”
“So, they can put their lives on the line.”
“Yes.”
Light injuries were healed almost instantaneously. Looking at them, Charles smiled.
The champions were the last to spar. They saluted him, and Charles gave them a light nod.
The two had strange powers. One of them specialized in attack, while the other specialized in defense. Charles was astonished by what he saw. The champions didn’t fight simply by using their powers. Their bodies had been injected with the R-potion, so they fought viciously.
Charles smiled and said, “I like them.”
Their powers were superior, and they looked better than trained agents. After a while, however, Charles frowned.
“They only have two powers?”
Arthur replied, “Cooper specializes in defense, and he can create a green sphere to contain the enemy, but he doesn’t use that while sparring. Denver specializes in offense. He has a shotgun-like power, but he doesn’t use it while sparring either. I will show you those powers soon.”
Charles nodded, and Denver and Cooper saluted him.
He smiled wide and said, “This is incredible. Their minds seem to be intact.”
Charles had heard that the dimensional managers knew about the infected powered, but their powers didn’t seem dangerous. Nobody within them had the ability to create tears like last time.
Charles clapped hard. He was going to invest in them, and they, in turn, would help him.
