The Academy’s FFF-Class Summons are SSS-class Hunters - Chapter 7

 “What a shame… He was a very hard-working person.”

 

 Jinhyuk overheard some conversation as he stood in front of the closed goblin battlefield.

 

 “Besides, isn’t he really strong?”

 

 “Against that kind of opponent, what can you do?”

 

 “I’m worried about the kid who went for revenge. I hope she finds the King Goblin and returns safely.”

 

 “She’ll die once she does.”

 

 It seems that the people talking over there knew something.

 Jinhyuk went over and asked.

 

 “What happened?”

 

 People told him the story as it wasn’t something to hide.

 

 Raytley, the goblin battlefield’s boss, went to the forest from dawn to capture some goblins.

 The forest had an enormous number of goblins like cockroaches, but they weren’t a problem since they didn’t form huge swarms.

 If you found a group and captured them all, that’s good enough for the whole day.

 

 But today must’ve been an unlucky day.

 The King Goblin, which wouldn’t exist normally, appeared and attacked Raytley.

 He hurriedly retreated knowing that it was an unwinnable opponent, but got seriously injured.

 

 Eventually, when he arrived at the village, he left a brief will and died.

 

 He said to never think of avenging him.

 

 “Hmm, that’s why the staff…”

 

 Jinhyu also heard about the relationship between the staff, Leira, and Raytley.

 Of course she’d want to avenge someone who was like a father to her.

 Raytley tried to stop her saying that it was an unwinnable opponent, but anger doesn’t subside that easily.

 

 “Well, that’s unfortunate. Not that it has anything to do with us.”

 

 And so Jinhyuk tried to move on.

 

 If it hadn’t been for Lill’s next words.

 

 “Mr. Jinhyuk, do you know what kind of monster the King Goblin is?”

 

 “No, it’s my first time hearing it.”

 

 Goblins were common monsters back on Earth as well.

 It was considered a beginner monster for being so weak.

 Although they were still a headache for kidnapping non-awakened hunters.

 

 Still, he had never heard of a monster called King Goblin.

 

 King of goblins, what is that supposed to be?

 

 “There are two cases where a king is included in a monster’s name. As the first word, or the last. If we take orcs for example, there are king orc and the orc king. These two are different monsters.”

 

 “Aren’t they the same thing?”

 

 “They’re completely different. A monster with a king after its name is literally a king, but a monster with a king on the front means they are under the ‘Gluttony Demon’.”

 

 The Gluttony Demon.

 

 Jinhyuk remembered the book he had read yesterday.

 

 One of the seven great demons who received powerful power from the cruel was the Demon of Gluttony.

 

 “The Demon of Gluttony, King Belzebub, can empower anyone and make them his own. So, he creates his own clan here and there, and creates a horde of monsters under that clan.”

 

 Belzebub – it wasn’t a word that was unfamiliar to Jinhyuk.

 Isn’t it the demon notorious for being the king of the flies in Christianity?

 If the demons in this world are closely related to the seven deadly sins of Christianity, that would surely be interesting.

 

 ‘What is this world?’

 

 There were many things that overlap with Earth.

 Jinhyuk was puzzled, but quickly dismissed it as something he can’t simply answer.

 

 “In other words, King Goblins belong to King Belzebub. Which in a way…”

 

 “Makes it a target for your revenge.”

 

 “That’s right.”

 

 Lilil was not directly harmed by the Seven Great Demons.

 But losing her family to the Cruel One, she wanted to get rid of everything that had to do with it.

 

 Was it a sense of justice?

 Possibly.

 A sense of revenge and justice mixed together and created a strange motive.

 Some might say it’s hypocrisy, but that did not matter.

 

 Jinhyuk was the same.

 If Lilil wants to, he’ll help. That’s all there’s to it.

 

 “The question is, how strong is the King Goblin?”

 

 Raytley was a strong man who easily captured goblins.

 I’ve never actually seen him do it, but seeing the way locals speak of him, there was no doubt in his strength.

 

 And he was helpless against the king Goblin, despite all that?

 The rifle might work against it, but if it didn’t, there was no chance of defeating it.

 Even if Lilil’s magical powers had grown, there was no way of telling how much stronger it got.

 

 “It’s better not to do anything dangerous.”

 

 “If Mr. Jinhyuk thinks it’s dangerous, we don’t have to.”

 

 “Mmm, but I still crave some King Goblin meat.”

 

 Jinhyuk did not know how the demon of gluttony strengthened goblins.

 However, strength in this world is determined by your magical strength.

 If the King Goblin is strong, it must also have enormous magical power.

 

 ‘And if I feed that to Lilil?’

 

 It was surely going to increase her magical powers significantly.

 

 ‘It’s a gamble, but it’s worth trying.’

 

 But just in case, it was necessary to check Jinhyuk’s power.

 If the rifle doesn’t work, Jinhyuk may have to fight using it.

 

 “Alright, Lilil. Let’s check which would consume more magical powers, between using a weapon or combat by hand.”

 

 Throughout this day, Jinhyuk checked weapons, magic, and martial arts to see how far they could go for the fight.

 Martial arts performed purely by hand seemed to be the most efficient out of all.

 All he could do was increase body strength, let alone use it properly, but that was enough to be useful.

 

 `Hwan-su-shin arts would… not work here.’

 

 The name, Hwan-su-shin arts, was given as it looked like seeing a fantasy animal.

 

 It is the most powerful martial art on Earth, and one of the skills that Jinhyuk put a lot of effort into learning.

 

 ‘Still, if you use Hwan-su breathing technique, you can get it to be pretty effective even with low spiritual energy.’

 

 Jinhyuk strengthened his body with Hwan-su breathing technique using his spiritual energy.

 Today’s experiment showed that it was possible to raise his strength to at least four times.

 

 ‘The goblin meat seems to have some effect.’

 

 Last time, a single shot of a bow was enough to deplete her magical power.

 But it seems that the goblin meat now allows about three shots.

 

 If this was up to him, he’d rather use special weapons, but somehow even those consumed magical powers.

 It’s as if someone deliberately placed a restriction on them.

 

 ‘The System···’

 

 Could the secrets of The System be uncovered one day?

 It wasn’t something that interested him, but still something he wanted to figure out one day.

 

 “Mr. Jinhyuk, I’ll head to sleep first…”

 

 Lilil seemed tired after spending a lot of mana.

 

 What must it feel like to use up mana from such a small pool?

 

 Jinhyuk couldn’t empathize with her as he lacked such a trait, but with Lilil’s face looking tired more than ever, he somewhat understood how that must be like.

 

 “Yeah, good work today. Get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow’s a day for the big battle.”

 

 After working hard to check your powers, and with an important day ahead, Lilil was right to get a good rest.

 

For Lilil to have a decent amount of magical powers to work with, King Goblin was a must-kill.

 

 Because after that, it’s a trip to the capital for the admission.

 

 ‘Well, I’m not too concerned.’

 

 Call it the King Goblin, it’s still just a goblin.

 Jinhyuk didn’t think he’d lose.

 

 Jinhyuk laid comfortably next to Lilil. He fell asleep as he watched Lilil in her sleep.

 

 The night got darker.

 

 Even in the darkest night, a person was running through a forest without sleeping.

 

 It was Leira.

 

 “Where are you, King Goblin!”

 

 Leila’s body was drenched in sweat from running non-stop, with fatigue evident all over her face.

 Despite that, she did not stop and kept running.

 All that was in her mind was wanting revenge on the King Goblin.

 

 ‘I know that it’s impossible.’

 

 Leira wasn’t stupid.

Raytley, who’s several times stronger than her, was beaten by a King Goblin.

 There was no way of defeating the King Goblin for someone who didn’t even get any academy education.

 

 But she was upset.

 Leira wanted to stab it, even just once.

 What was the point of seeing a broader world through the academy without trying that?

 

Raytley was all there was for her world.

 

 The world meant nothing without him.

 

 ‘I don’t care if I die.’

 

 Time passes – dawn comes close.

 

 And the dawn ends with a morning sunshine.

 

 It was only then that Leira was able to face the King Goblin.

 

 And her anger quickly subsided the moment she faced the King Goblin.

 

 “You… human.”

 

 A goblin that was several dozen times larger than Leira.

 

 An eerie magical energy was felt through her skin, along with the smell of the blood of all of its massacre.

 

 “And a puny… one.”

 

 There was no winning.

 No matter how hard you tried, there was no way to win.

 

 In the moment faced with great fear, anger became meaningless.

 Every inch of her skin from head to her legs trembled.

 She trembled beyond her control.

 

 I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die

 

 Even though nothing has happened yet, her life flashes before her eyes.

 

 Was she abandoned by her parents,

 Or simply got lost.

 

 There was no way of telling why she was left alone and wandering the streets.

 

 Raytely was that ray of light in a world that was all just darkness.

 

 And the King Goblin killed that ray of light.

 

 After that flashback, Leira instinctively threw herself into the goblin.

 It wasn’t that her fear went away.

 It was only for a moment, but seeing Raytely in the flash simply revived her anger.

 

 “Attack… huh?”

 

 The sword she swung with all her might – rather than it cutting off King Goblin’s shoulder, the blade shattered instead.

 

 “Weak… No magic… in sword… No match.”

 

 The King Goblin grabbed Leira and threw her to the ground.

 

 “Ughh!”

 

 Did her spine break?

 She could not feel her body.

 All she could see was King Goblin’s laugh.

 

 “Children… come… Breeding… tool.”

 

 Goblins came out of the bushes at King Goblin’s words.

The goblins, who were always just tools to make money, were now looking at her as a tool.

 

 Fear.

 

 But with a broken spine, she couldn’t even tremble in fear.

 The goblins let out an eerie laugh and grabbed Leira’s body.

 

 Is this the end?

 Can’t do anything?

 

 A mixture of anger, fear, despair and helplessness shook Leira’s spirit.

 Her broken spirit, which wasn’t that strong from the beginning, opened up a void to be filled.

 

 -Are you frustrated?

 

 A voice spoke to her.

 

 -Are you frustrated about your weakness? Do you want to be stronger?

 

 Yes,

 I want to be stronger.

 

 There was no room to care about the mysteries of the broader world.

All she wanted was to destroy the damn goblins right in front of her eyes.

 That’s all that mattered

 

 —Okay then, let me, as the great one, give you a special strength.

 

 At that moment, Leira saw power. 

 

 Magical power so evil that would make you go crazy just by looking at it.

 

 Accepting such power was definitely going to make her stronger, but lose all control of yourself.

 

 No. That would be going too far.

 After seeing the chaos and madness of such magic, Leira no longer wanted to accept it.

 

 —Too late. This magic is already yours. Didn’t you say you want it? What a confusing reaction.

 

 Struggling to to reject, the evil magic seeped into her body. It felt as if it was piercing through her heart.

 

 Disgust.

 

 But that disgust soon disappeared.

 

 And that was the last thing Leira ever remembered.