Apocalypse Hunter - Chapter 81

 

The drunkard was speechless when he sensed the “Star of Disaster.”

 

He had never come across anything of such magnitude.

 

“How-how is this even possible?”

 

Even seeing the character “harm” caused his hand to shake in fear. He had never before sensed such an ominous energy.

 

“I have no intention of stopping you from living a pathetic life. I just need a small portion of the sealing power at the Heavenly Power Temple. However, a Treacherous Spirit is currently blocking our way to the seal and we need the power of the Heavenly Wind. If you hand over the charm, I will leave you alone,” Zin said.

 

He didn’t expect anything from the successor. Although Zin had hoped that he could be of some help, he gave up that notion after noticing the stench of alcohol. He decided to just get the charm and leave. The drunkard soon realized that his violent visitor was not an ordinary person.

 

This visitor knew that he was a skilled sorcerer. He also had visited the Heavenly Power Temple, and had solved the Disguising Sorcery.

 

The drunkard realized that this visitor was an expert in the field of sorcery without being a sorcerer himself. This was no ordinary situation.

 

“Visitor, who are you?”

 

Zin sighed when he saw the drunkard’s willingness to talk.

 

“I am a witch hunter.”

 

“Im-impossible!” He bolted up in astonishment.

 

This visitor was someone to whom the drunkard should be talking while sober.

 

“Are you the witch hunter of the Successors?

 

Zin cringed at the name. “Hearing that always feels awkward, but yes, that’s correct.”

 

“I-I am Cho-Yul. It’s an honor to meet you, grandmaster.”

 

It was strange to be referred to as “grandmaster” by the drunkard. There were many types of devil hunters. Immortal hunters utilized sorcery and trained like monks, so they frequently referred to others as “master.”

 

The drunkard unseemly display before Zin was the of the greatest disrespect. He knew that he was wrong to be drunk in front of a grandmaster.

 

Zin calmed a bit at his change in attitude.

 

“I suppose you know how to respect your seniors. However, I am not here for your respect. Tell me where the charm is,” Zin demanded.

 

“The Heavenly Wind…I tainted it,” Cho-Yul said with a gloomy expression.

 

“What?!” Zin yelled furiously.

 

Cho-Yul had said that he was the one who tainted the charm. It wasn’t done so by others. Zin was about to explode in anger.

 

“Hold on, hold on! Please listen to me. I have my reasons.”

 

“If it’s not a valid reason, I’m going to snap your neck.”

 

Cho-Yul hesitated for a moment, then started to speak.

 

“It’s because of my fellow apprentice—”

 

“What do you mean by that?”

 

“My master, Goo-Yun, had two students.”

 

Cho-Yul’s words surprised Zin. Some devil hunters traveled with a successor, but some didn’t. It was unusual for a master to train two people to be successors. Cho-Yul began telling his story.

 

His master, Goo-Yun, had two successors: Cho-Yul and SoSeoLan. Cho-Yul felt inferior to SoSeoLan as a student.

 

“She was a very skilled sorcerer. On the other hand, I was unmotivated and not as talented. I started to learn sorcery when my master adopted me. My fellow student was a formal apprentice, but I wasn’t.”

 

Cho-Yul was a refugee who had lost his family. Goo-Yun had pitied him and adopted him. Cho-Yul began learning sorcery with SoSeoLan.

 

“She was extremely talented and had a great passion for sorcery. She was the perfect pupil.”

 

“Was there a problem?”

 

“She was overly greedy.”

 

SoSeoLan was jealous of Cho-Yul all the time, vying for their master’s attention whenever he tried to help Cho-Yul. Sometimes she would bully him when their master wasn’t around.

 

If you have no will to learn, then leave. Stop bugging me.

 

Get lost and die, you piece of crap.

 

Pig. You only like to eat and drink.

 

SoSeoLan was a studious person, but also a jealous one. Although their master knew about this, he couldn’t do much because he didn’t want to give up a talented pupil. Cho-Yul didn’t leave the master even though he was constantly persecuted by SoSeoLan. He continued to train.

 

“She was able to attain the highest level of sorcery at seventeen, but I wasn’t able to do that even after my master passed away. I was only able to get there two years ago.”

 

Zin remained quiet and listened.

 

SoSeoLan often said that she would become a great hero once she went out into the world. She believed that she could utilize her skills to the fullest potential. Goo-Yun didn’t particularly comment about her beliefs.

 

His two students had opposite personalities. SoSeoLan wanted to make a difference in the world with her power while Cho-Yul wanted to remain in the background without drawing attention to himself. They didn’t get along.

 

When Goo-Yun passed away, he left an inheritance for both of them, but he didn’t tell them what the other had received.

 

“As soon as my master passed away, she demanded my inheritance, saying that she would make better use of it.”

 

“What a greedy woman,” Zin commented.

 

“I ran away from her.”

 

Even though Cho-Yul didn’t care much about the happenings of the world, he didn’t tell her where the inheritance was.

 

“Was the Heavenly Wind what you received?” Zin asked.

 

“Yes.”

 

As the second pupil, Cho-Yul was given the Heavenly Wind. It wasn’t too difficult to deduce what SoSeoLan received.

 

She must have Darkborn.

 

It wasn’t possible to split Darkborn into two, she was most likely the true successor.

 

“When did the master pass away?”

 

“About ten years ago.”

 

“Hmm…Didn’t you go to the temple only a year ago to retrieve the charm?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Then what were you doing during the first nine years?”

 

“I had no intention of getting it. I didn’t think it was an important item for me.”

 

“Mmm…Fine. I will ask you a question.”

 

Cho-Yul believed that he didn’t need excessive power, but there was no reason for him to live as a drunkard.

 

“So you’re telling me that you are not skilled. What kind of bullshit is that?” Zin realized that Cho-Yul was hiding something. “You do realize that what you said is nonsense, right? A sorcerer who has reached the highest level is both skilled and powerful.”

 

Zin had also been able to gauge Cho-Yul’s ability as a sorcerer when he had glanced at the sky to sense the evil energy.

 

“You reached the highest level after the master passed away. That means you are slightly behind her when it comes to sorcery, but not by too much.”

 

She reached that level when the master was alive, and Cho-Yul reached it after the master passed away. Reaching that level was a great achievement in and of itself. Cho-Yul had to be very talented.

 

“You are one of the emperor’s successors. Why are you living like this? Is there a reason you’re a drunkard?”

 

Cho-Yul had no reason to live as a bum. He might enjoy drinking, but Zin wanted to know what he was hiding.

 

“Well…” he paused for a moment, unable to continue because of his shame. “…My master taught both martial arts and sorcery. She excelled in these areas, but I wasn’t good at martial arts. However, I was more talented than her in sorcery. Cho-Yul had a miserable expression. “I am afraid of her.”

 

“You’re afraid?”

 

“Yes. She was always keeping tabs on me. She hated seeing me learn more skills. She loathed me. I wasn’t able to overpower her with strength. If she felt unhappy, she would beat me up under the pretense of sparring.”

 

“So you’re saying that you got scared of her and hid your true power?” Zin shook his head as he looked at Cho-Yul.

 

“It was a life or death situation for me!” he yelled, his face becoming red. “Her competitive spirit and jealousy are not what you think they are, grandmaster!”

 

“Hmm…”

 

SoSeoLan kept beating him up, he realized that he had to act dumb in order to survive. He acted as if he didn’t understand the master’s teachings. During training, he also made mistakes on purpose. SoSeoLan would despise Cho-Yul, but she wouldn’t beat him as if she was going to kill him.

 

I-I don’t understand what I learned today, sister. Master is going to test us tomorrow. What should I do?

 

You idiot! You don’t even understand this? Get lost and don’t interrupt me!

 

I really don’t know! I don’t want to get kicked out. Please show me how it works.

 

Oh, really? Then take my place and go work on the farm.

 

Oh, okay!

 

Cho-Yul acted dumb to survive. SoSeoLan treated him like a fool, but she didn’t show jealousy whenever he acted dumb.

 

“She believes that I will become a dangerous person. I haven’t come across her in some time, but I can sense that she is keeping an eye on me through sorcery.

 

She’s full of confidence, thinking that no one can stop her besides me, someone who trained under the same master. Therefore, this is my only way to stay safe.”

 

Cho-Yul lived as a bum because he was afraid that she would kill him at any given moment.

 

“What a pain in the butt successor…”

 

In the post-apocalyptic world, Immortal hunters were generally dangerous, avaricious people. They had Darkborn and possessed the ability to cast complex spells.

 

Cho-Yul tried his best to stay under SoSeoLan’s radar by acting like a fool.

 

“So why did you take the Heavenly Wind with you? Why did you taint it?” Zin asked.

 

“About a year ago, she visited me in person. It seemed like she was plotting something very evil. It didn’t feel normal.”

 

A year ago, she had stopped keeping an eye on him and visited him directly. When he saw her, Cho-Yul freaked out. He had been able to speak bravely because he was drunk, but he had actually been scared to death.

 

“If I had the charm on me, she would have taken it from me.”

 

Cho-Yul didn’t have the charm at that time. Had he not mentioned the master, she would have killed him to find out the location of the inheritance.

 

She didn’t know what the inheritance was, and figuring that out would take a while. Cho-Yul became scared when it seemed like she was actively searching for his inheritance.

 

He wondered why an already powerful woman would want the charm.

 

For the first time, he decided to take action. He returned to the Heavenly Power Temple and retrieved the charm with the intention of preventing SoSeoLan from laying her hands on it.

 

Furthermore, he tainted it, fearing that she would steal it from him.

 

He then gave it to other people so that it would be touched by many unclean people. As the charm passed from person to person, it lost its holiness. If a charm wasn’t properly taken care of, then it would lose its power.

 

“If you search the village warehouse, you’ll find it somewhere. However, I verified that it has lost its power as a charm.”

 

“Hmm…” Zin couldn’t bring himself to be angry at him. What Cho-Yul had done was his way of standing up to the abusive SoSeoLan. Zin could not rebuke his actions, because he did not give up the charm to an evil person.

 

It was sad that he couldn’t do much, being a weak person. Zin knew what Cho-Yul had to do next.

 

“Your evil master’s corpse deserves to be dug up and beheaded,” Zin muttered with a bitter smile.

 

“…”

 

All of a sudden, he had started cursing Goo-Yun. Even though Zin had cursed his master out of nowhere, Cho-Yul was not angry.

 

He knew what he needed to do.

 

“Yes, I was used as a puppet to kindle the competitive spirit and jealousy of my fellow student so that she could reach her full potential.”

 

Cho-Yul might have acted like a fool, but he was no such thing. A man should be considered smart if he acted dumb in order to survive.

 

Goo-Yun did not intervene when his two pupils were fighting because of jealousy and hatred. More specifically, he should have stopped SoSeoLan from beating up Cho-Yul, but he didn’t.

 

SoSeoLan gave her best because she was fiercely competitive. Cho-Yul’s enemy was not only her, but his master as well. The master told him where the Heavenly Wind was, but he didn’t give it to him.

 

“However, the fact that my master gave me a new life doesn’t change.”

 

“…”

 

“It makes me sad that you would speak of him in such a way.”

 

He knew that he had been used as a puppet, but he didn’t want to deny that fact.

 

“You are a rare type of a fool,” Zin criticized harshly.

 

“Well, this world needs my kind of a fool, you know,” Cho-Yul chuckled.

 

Zin smiled at the joke. There were some sorcerers who acted like morons. At first, he had been both astonished and furious when he heard what the emperor’s successor had done.

 

Although the fact that the charm had been tainted was painful, Cho-Yul didn’t seem to be the horrible person Zin had originally thought he was.

 

There was no reason to criticize a person who lost because he lacked talent. At least, Cho-Yul tried his best under his circumstances.

 

“Let me ask you one more thing.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Even though Cho-Yul’s master had used him as a puppet, SoSeoLan was an uncouth and hot-headed person. She was most likely very evil.

 

“So what is your fellow student trying to do with the power of an Immortal hunter?” Zin asked.

 

Cho-Yul became gloomy. “Have you heard her name mentioned elsewhere?”

 

“No, I haven’t.”

 

“I see. As far as I know, she leads the Group, a group of Reavers.”

 

“…What?”

 

“I think they are causing quite a disturbance these days. I activated the Disguising Sorcery for that reason. I think she’s called by ‘Asura’ these days.”

 

Zin was astonished as he listened to what Cho-Yul was saying. He remembered that name. He had heard that name when he was mopping up the Reavers couple of days ago.

 

I heard that the name of the leader is “Asura.” He has six arms and held machine guns in each hand…

 

Back then, he had disregarded how the Reaver leader had described the appearance of the Group’s leader. Now that he thought about it, it was a very unique name.

 

Asura. The name sounded quite magical.