Sweat glistened on the arms and legs and face of the man striking at a wooden dummy in the corner of the room. By now, Shiwoon had been training in what was essentially a dojang for three weeks. For three weeks, he had been repeating the same two actions, over and over; he thrusted and he cut. Break down the art of the sword into its simplest form, melt down all of the more complex manoeuvres that one may give a name to, and what a person could do with a sword was mostly thrusting and cutting. True, one could strike with the hilt. But that was a move Shiwoon found rarely practical. It was not sharp like the blade's edge; the dullness of the hilt meant that it was only better than an open palm strike.
Thrust and cut. Absorbed thoroughly into the repetition of these two simple actions, Shiwoon kept striking the dummy without care for the world. All that mattered was the sword.
"Shiwoon."
The gruff voice of the instructor snapped Shiwoon out of his reverie. He turned back, bowed politely. "Yes, instructor."
"In case you didn't notice," the instructor said, "the dummy is nearly broken."
It was true, Shiwoon saw as he looked more closely at the wooden dummy that had been his training partner for the day. Lately, his partners broke down more and more quickly.
"I guess it's time for you to start sparring."
It was pleasant news, but hardly a surprise. Shiwoon would be lying if he said that he didn't think he was ready to start on actual combat practice. Looking around at the other trainees, he had long since thought himself overdue to be moved onto the next step.
Still, it never hurt to be polite to the instructor. "I am honored, instructor."
The instructor scoffed before beckoning for one of the trainees who had only recently moved onto live sparring, a woman with light grey hair tied up into a bun. If he wasn't mistaken, this woman's name was-
"I'm sure you know of each other, but this is Yun Jinhee. This guy here is Kim Shiwoon. You two will spar for one bout, first."
Yun Jinhee wielded a long sword with two hands. Shiwoon thought to himself that it was not going to be an easy fight. The fact was that anyone who still held onto a sword, and had been recognised by the instructor, had more than a modicum of skill. They bowed to one another in the ring before adopting their stance, seeming like perfect mirrors.
Shiwoon decided to take the initiative; even if he was hit, he thought, he could endure. Yun Jinhee seemed a little taken aback by his aggressive move, but she remained calm enough to swat away his first stab.
No matter, he thought, it is inevitable that the first stab does not succeed. He spun on his heel even as her parry threatened to send him off balance, forcefully setting root in place as he slashed diagonally at her, the momentum lending power to his blow.
She struggled to block the cut, having expected him to fall off balance. He had her now, he thought, and with an instinctive growl, Shiwoon began to press his advantage.
Stab, stab, stab, over and over and over again, pushing his sword forward in order to force her to move to block, leaving her little leeway to dodge. And just as she got used to the frantic rhythm, he slowed and put his body behind the next thrust like he was a knight charging with a lance. Yun Jinhee was sent hurtling towards the edge of the ring, just barely managing to avoid falling off. Before she could get to her feet, he dashed over and pointed his sword at the nape of her neck.
"Victory for Kim Shiwoon." The instructor announced.
Shiwoon did not forget to offer a hand to help Yun Jinhee get back up before they bowed to one another.
The instructor stared at Shiwoon for a few moments before sighing. "We'll set you up with someone more appropriate."
By six o'clock, Shiwoon had fought most of the advanced trainees. He could feel his limit quickly approaching amidst the constant victories. The last bout had him only just barely managing to beat Choi Minsik, and even then he had only done it with the slightly underhanded method of throwing his sword into the air at the last second and using the moment of shock to aim an open palm blow at Choi Minsik's face. With such a winding blow, Choi Minsik had found himself disoriented and unable to keep up with the spar afterwards. If Shiwoon was being honest, Choi Minsik was the perfect level of opponent for him.
But the instructor appeared to disagree. Perhaps the instructor simply wanted to see Shiwoon get his smug face beaten in. Shiwoon could see no other reason for the instructor to ask him to spar with Kang Seok.
Kang Seok. He arrived earliest at the training hall every day and was always the latest to leave every night. Sporting a buzzcut that highlighted his smooth, round head, the mean and vicious expression that seemed to line his face at every moment was more than enough to dispel any similarity to Buddha. He wielded the sword too, and of all the trainees in the training hall, he was said to be the one closest to graduating. Choi Minsik and Park Sua had noted that Kang Seok was living proof that the instructor had much higher standards than the instructors of courses past.
Shiwoon could not deny feeling more than a little excited. Outmatched though he was, he felt as if it was a rare chance for him to experience what a genius would be like.
Appearances aside, Kang Seok was surprisingly diligent and well mannered. Going by the way he looked, Shiwoon had expected the man to be an insufferable bully. Instead, in the sole conversation they had shared one late night when everyone else had left, he had been left with the distinct impression that Kang Seok was a misunderstood man.
Not that it mattered in a spar. There was nothing to misunderstand in an exchange of blows. Both men bowed politely to one another before taking up their stance. The instructor yelling 'start' marked the beginning of their bout.
Even as Shiwoon had begun charging in, Kang Seok had done the same thing, only he had sprung forward even more quickly. Kang Seok's sword dug into Shiwoon's flesh first, while Shiwoon's missed by the slightest of margins, as Kang Seok twisted his body after landing the blow, reinforcing it even further. Shiwoon's shoulder hurt; if it was not a wooden sword and if it was not a spar, he wondered if Kang Seok would have broken his shoulder with the attack.
Shiwoon threw a slash at Kang Seok, hoping to regain some of the initiative and swing the fight back into his favour, but Kang Seok dodged and quickly grabbed onto Shiwoon's arm with his left arm while pointing the sword at Shiwoon's neck with his right.
"Victory to Kang Seok."
He knew he looked bitter even as he bowed to Kang Seok. He had already known there was a difference in their combat ability, but to think it was this large…
"Don't be disheartened," Kang Seok said, "I've been here longer than you have."
Shiwoon nodded. He had heard that Kang Seok was nearing three months now and many of the other trainees had noted that this was an unusually long time to complete the training course. Hunters were typically ready within one and a half months, two months tops. There were rumors that Kang Seok was the overly cautious type, though they did not use such kind words.
As they left the ring, the instructor went to Kang Seok first, pointing out something that Kang Seok seemed to take very seriously. After that, the instructor came to Shiwoon.
He laughed at Shiwoon first before saying, "How's it feel, knowing you aren't the hottest kitten in the room?"
"I've always known that."
"Doesn't hurt to get a reminder. From now on, you will spar with Choi Minsik." The instructor looked at his watch; it must not have been seven yet, because he continued speaking. "You'll be going as a porter for an E-rank Portal some time this week or next. Just stay behind and watch how the pros do it."
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'Ah, professional attachment. Are Tuesdays lucky days for me?'
"Yes, instructor." Shiwoon said, flashing his teeth in a grin.
Seven came quickly, and the instructor left on time as always. Once the instructor’s back could not be seen from the dojang, the training intensity dropped noticeably, with all too many of the trainees content to go about the spars and practice in a routine manner. Choi Minsik, for his part, continued to maintain the same level of seriousness that he had earlier, but an hour later, he waved to gesture that he wanted to take a break.
“It’s almost time to go home anyway,” he said, “so let’s just sit and rest for a bit.”
Choi Minsik set his axe on the floor before sitting down in the ring, prompting Shiwoon to do the same. “Say, Shiwoon,” he said, “we might be leaving soon.”
“That’s good to hear. Congratulations.”
Choi Minsik stared into Shiwoon’s eyes for a moment before smiling. “Thank you. It means a lot.”
Shiwoon thought for a moment before asking, “So, when will you be leaving?”
“I think I’m ready and the instructor’s already given his permission. The next time an E-rank Portal opens with an empty spot, I’ll be going along.”
“I see.” Shiwoon turned to look at Park Sua. “Ms. Park too?”
Park Sua was still whacking away at a wooden dummy in the corner, her blows now far more powerful than when Shiwoon had first seen her. At the very least, she produced shrapnel with every hit.
“She’s really improved, hasn’t she?” Choi Minsik pointed to her with a grin. “She’s gotten permission too. Because of her Skill, she’ll probably become a Hunter real soon.”
Shiwoon nodded.
“You’ve improved a lot too, you know,” Choi Minsik said, “sometimes I wonder what you are trying so hard for.”
As Shiwoon turned to Choi Minsik, surprised by the bearish man’s words, he saw that Choi Minsik had already stood up. The man gave him a thumbs up. “I’m done for the day.”
“Good night, Mr. Choi.”
Choi Minsik waved goodbye before walking over to Park Sua.
As always, they left together; you only needed a pair of eyes to notice that the two shared an uncommon bond.
“Say, junior,” he heard a gentle voice interrupt his thoughts, “do you want to have a spar?” Shiwoon turned his head and saw that it was Kang Seok who was speaking to him.
There was nobody else in the dojang. Everyone else seemed to have left while he had been lost in his thoughts, if they hadn’t already gone home before that. Still, there was no reason for Shiwoon to decline. Sparring with Kang Seok had been a good experience, even if he had been defeated too quickly to glean anything from it.
No matter what he opened with, he could not find a way past Kang Seok. His most successful bout had been only five exchanges long, and even that had been painstakingly achieved after opening with a feint charge to bait Kang Seok in, followed by a ferocious flurry of slashes that he had hoped would put Kang Seok off balance. It had, for a moment, but Kang Seok quickly matched Shiwoon’s blows before overwhelming him with superior strength and speed. After countless spars had passed, each one ending in Shiwoon’s defeat, Kang Seok finally raised his hand to signal a stop.
“You are still too undeveloped,” Kang Seok said, “though you have built the right fundamentals.”
Coming from Kang Seok, whose swordsmanship seemed to have been sharpened to steely perfection, Shiwoon thought that the words sounded all too sarcastic, though Kang Seok seemed to mean them.
“What do you mean, senior?” Shiwoon said in between desperate gasps for air.
“Do you know how Hunters get stronger?” Kang Seok asked. “Why training doesn’t include weightlifting?”
“By fighting monsters.”
Kang Seok shook his head. “By fighting monsters that threaten your life.”
“What?”
“Hunters only grow stronger when they fight monsters that pose a challenge.” Kang Seok thought for a moment, before adding with a grimace, “Or other Blessed.”
“Is that why you are still here?”
Kang Seok snapped his fingers and pointed at Shiwoon. “Exactly. I can still derive some challenge from sparring against the people here.”
Shiwoon tilted his head. “Then why doesn’t everyone just stay in training?”
Kang Seok shook his head. “Other humans plateau. Besides that, it doesn’t form good habits for the Portals.”
“I see.”
Kang Seok sighed. “Anyway,” he said, “you need to go out and get some practical experience to graduate from the course. After you go on a trip into the Portal, you’ll know what I mean.” He stepped out of the ring and walked towards his bag, which rested on a shelf near the entrance where everyone else’s would have been.
Seeing Shiwoon follow hesitantly behind him, even though Shiwoon’s bag was within reaching distance of Kang Seok’s own, he sighed. “You’re going to miss this great senior when he’s gone.” He threw the bag to Shiwoon.
“Are you leaving, senior?” Shiwoon asked carefully.
“Are you not? It’s nearly ten.” Kang Seok said.
‘Ah!’ A brief sense of panic that time had surged by him without him even knowing filled him, and Shiwoon began to hastily make his way towards the door. And then he stopped.
“Where are the lights, senior?” He asked.
Kang Seok was already walking to a spot near the door. “It’s here. Just get out first.”
As they waited in the lift lobby, Shiwoon decided to ask again. “Are you leaving, senior?”
“Everyone does, in the end. You don't grow in the comfort zone.”
They went their separate ways outside the building, waving goodbye and saying the usual pleasantries like ‘thank you for the hard work’ and ‘see you tomorrow’.
The following days were filled with clear skies and tough training. Every day, he would return home, riddled with bruises from his bouts with Choi Minsik. Without using any tricks, his win rate against Choi Minsik had at first been an abysmal 20%; after a few days of sparring, he managed to raise it to a more respectable 35%.
When he was not busy being beaten by Choi Minsik, he would stare at Kang Seok as he sparred with the other trainees. Kang Seok always won, but there were trainees who gave him a decent fight. The instructor personally stepped in sometimes, and in those cases Kang Seok’s winning streak would finally be put to an end. Still, his form with the sword never wavered even as he was pressured. It was as if his body had memorised every movement he needed to make.
On Saturday, Kang Seok did not appear. Neither did he show up on Sunday. The instructor came in on Monday to inform them that Kang Seok had been part of an E-rank team that had gone into a Portal on Saturday. After successfully clearing the Portal, he had been officially recognised as E-rank.
Shiwoon thought that he would miss Kang Seok's presence; there was something inspiring about a man who trained as hard as Kang Seok did. But he did not know the man well enough to feel sad over the departure and Shiwoon's days did not change because of it.
The next day, he received a call in the morning from the Monitoring Bureau to report to Sinwol-dong, an unimpressive neighborhood in Seoul that he could not remember ever passing by. He scrambled to get ready, after hearing that he had three hours to get to the Portal or he would be left behind. The taxi driver had been initially frustrated by the vague directions - the driver wanted to know where exactly in Sinwol-dong they would stop - but Shiwoon had told him that they would know where to stop once they got there. Sure enough, they eventually reached an area cordoned off by yellow tape. There was an unimpressed crowd, making their way around the cordon, and Shiwoon thought that if he stepped off he would likely hear them grumbling about the disruption this was all causing to their day.
"Say, young man," the taxi driver said with a worried expression, "are you really going to go in there?"
Shiwoon smiled as he paid the taxi driver the sum denoted on the meter. "That's what Hunters do." He could feel his skin tingling after saying that; still, it felt good to say something he could be proud of. He could hear the ahjussi (uncle) going ‘ohohoh’ as he left the taxi and walked towards the police officer.
“Sir, this is a restricted area. Civilians are not allowed to come in.” The police officer said with a stern brow and a frown.
“I’m a future Hunter.” Shiwoon said proudly.
The police officer chuckled. “Well, I’m a cop right now.”
Shiwoon turned back to look at the taxi driver, who hadn’t driven off just yet, and who was presently snickering in the safety of his vehicle. He could almost hear the man mocking him for even uttering the cheesy line earlier.
Shiwoon took a deep breath. He took out his employee pass - wait, where was his pass? Had he left it at home? It was possible - he had been frantically going about his morning routine and even eating a sandwich had cost him too much time - but that wasn’t the issue right now. How was he going to prove that he was here on official business?
“Officer,” he said with his sweetest tone, “my name is Kim Shiwoon. I’m currently undergoing the Hunter Conversion Course.” He made sure to emphasise the word ‘Hunter’, before continuing, “They sent me here today to be a porter.”
It was possible that the tone Shiwoon had thought was his sweetest was not, in fact, sweet at all, because the officer seemed to be even angrier than before. “Are you trying to mess with me? Just go back already, it’s not safe here. Go back.”
“What do I have to do to make you believe me?” Shiwoon said, exasperated. “Look,” he pulled out his phone, “the Bureau called me in the morning.”
The police really did only trust evidence; at the sight of the Monitoring Bureau’s number, the police officer thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “It’s true the Monitoring Bureau called you,” he said, “but look at your attire. How on earth are you even a Hunter?”
Shiwoon just gaped at the police officer.
‘Incredible. It’s just incredible how untrustworthy I look.’
Shiwoon looked down at his attire and knew that he wouldn’t have trusted him either, in the shoes of the police officer. If someone knocked on your door, claiming to be a serviceman, while wearing an ordinary white T-shirt and a pair of jeans instead of the company uniform, you wouldn’t open the door for them either. But only Hunters were allowed to wear the black suit without a tie; he had been informed of that in no uncertain terms on his second day of training, when the instructor had chewed another trainee’s ears out for daring to wear the attire when she had not become an official Hunter yet.
“Are you stupid,” the instructor had yelled at the poor girl, “or did you not read the agreement? YOU WEAR NORMAL CLOTHES UNTIL YOU’RE CERTIFIED!”
Apparently, it was not the first time the instructor had had to chide someone for wearing the Hunter uniform - why such a common outfit had become the universal attire for a Hunter, Shiwoon still did not understand - and Choi Minsik and Park Sua had simply shook their heads with a rueful smile while watching the man lose his temper.
He’s just doing his job, he’s just doing his job - chanting the phrase over and over in his mind like a mantra, Shiwoon took another deep breath and forced himself to smile. “Officer, if you’ll contact the Monitoring Bureau personnel inside, they’ll inform you that I am here to be a porter. Please, officer.”
The police officer’s face turned pale, before flaring up in red. “Are you crazy? You want me to disturb a bunch of Hunters because of you!?” He took out his baton, waving it at Shiwoon. “Go away, you punk!”
Frustrated, annoyed, humiliated; all the emotions coursing through Shiwoon at that point were negative. In a clearer state of mind, he would like to say that he would not have done what he did next. But maybe he would have. Regardless, it does not change the facts of what really happened.
Shiwoon took the chance to duck under the yellow tape, running into the restricted area. The police officer, stunned for a few seconds by the sudden and unexpected move, chased after him while hollering words that made the onlooking spectators want to wash their ears out with soap.
“Hey, you!” The police officer yelled, before stopping in his tracks and somehow removing his right boot in an instant. He threw the boot at Shiwoon’s head; it was perfectly on target.
The harm to Shiwoon’s pride was far greater than the actual pain he felt; still, all he did was stare incredulously at the police officer who was chasing after him with only a single boot on the left foot.
Still parked right before the cordoned off area, the taxi driver laughed in his car. “Is that what Hunters do?”