Chapter 154: Field Training (4)

After spending a night in the wasteland covered in sand and dust, the White Sparrow Corps members and Hall of the Demonic Way disciples set off on their journey once again.

The unit members, who had been so fascinated by Il-mok on the first day, had started to branch out, with some of them striking up conversations with other students.

"Huff... huff..."

A White Sparrow member cautiously approached a short-haired student who was struggling to maintain her lightness skill while regulating her breathing.

He opened his mouth to offer some advice.

"When using lightness skills, you should focus your internal energy on..."

But before he could finish his sentence, the short-haired disciple—Jeong Hyeon—had a complete meltdown.

"Hiiiiek!"

She let out a scream at the sudden approach of this unfamiliar man's voice and immediately tripped over her own feet, tumbling to the ground.

The startled unit member moved closer to help Jeong Hyeon up, which only made her face turn ghostly white in an instant.

“Hey! Hey, are you alright?!”

The unit member was about to grab Jeong Hyeon's shoulders and shake her, thinking she might pass out any second, when—

Smack.

Instructor Eun Ryeo had appeared and grabbed the unit member's arm.

"She's extremely shy around strangers. I’ll take care of her and catch up. You go on ahead.”

"Oh... is that so?"

The unit member who had only been trying to help nodded awkwardly at Eun Ryeo's brief explanation and walked away with a bewildered expression.

Once the strange man was gone, Jeong Hyeon finally collected herself and bowed her head low. “I-I’m so sorry, Instructor Eun Ryeo.”

"I'm fine, so don't worry about it."

Instead of helping Jeong Hyeon up, Eun Ryeo actually stepped back. The girl was already spooked, and getting any closer might just make her jump out of her skin again.

"Whew..."

Watching Jeong Hyeon let out a relieved sigh as she got up, Eun Ryeo pondered for a moment before speaking.

"I don't mind, but you'll have problems after graduating from the Hall of the Demonic Way. Whether it's a military unit or anywhere else, you'll eventually need to join some organization after completing your training."

"...I'm sorry, Instructor."

"You don't need to apologize to me. It's just that you'll need to gradually adapt for that time to come."

"I'll... I'll try my best."

Eun Ryeo nodded once at Jeong Hyeon's response as she kept her head bowed.

“We’d better get moving, or we’ll be left behind.”

Since everyone else was either using lightness skills or riding horses, they had already gotten quite far ahead.

They ran for quite a while using the dust clouds and footprints as markers.

Following the tracks and the dust cloud as their guide, Jeong Hyeon and Eun Ryeo ran hard and eventually managed to rejoin the group when they stopped for a break.

After rejoining the formation, Jeong Hyeon looked around quickly and started walking with a determined expression.

‘I-Instructor Eun Ryeo is right.’

She needed to practice interacting with people.

‘I-I managed it in the Theater Club… This shouldn’t be too hard…’

Remembering her Theater Club days, she steeled herself and headed toward where the unit member who had approached her earlier was sitting and resting.

Since she had wronged someone who was just trying to give her advice, Jeong Hyeon decided to apologize.

"I'm... I'm sorry about earlier."

When Jeong Hyeon bowed her head and muttered nervously, the unit member tried to get up, but—

"Hiik!"

Seeing Jeong Hyeon about to have another panic attack just from him moving, the unit member stopped with an awkward expression.

"Ahem. I'm fine, so don't worry about it."

"Th... thank you."

Jeong Hyeon bowed again and turned to leave.

"Hiiiek!"

She let out another startled yelp as a different warrior walked past her even though he was a good ten feet away.

"Hiiiek!"

After that, Jeong Hyeon kept stumbling and nearly falling every few steps whenever she got startled. The unit member stroked his scraggly beard and thought to himself.

‘What an interesting kid.’

When he looked around, he realized the interesting sights didn't end with just that one girl.

"Ohohohoho!"

From one corner of the campsite came the sound of a very bold woman's laughter.

Looking in that direction, he saw a female student covering half her face with a fan while letting out a stream of haughty laughter.

"Aren't you tired after using lightness skills for several hours?"

When a unit member near the woman asked this question, the fan-wielding female disciple—Bang Mi-hwa—burst into another bout of haughty laughter.

"Ohohoho. This much is nothing to Bang Mi-hwa!"

Never mind that her clothes were caked in sweat and dust, and her hair was a greasy, matted mess. She just laughed haughtily, as if none of it mattered.

The unit members around her looked at her with amused expressions, probably thinking it was just childish bravado from a young student.

"Ohohoho. As expected, none of you can take your eyes off me."

Her self-esteem was, as always, shooting through the roof.

"That's our Mi-hwa! How can you still be so beautiful even after sleeping rough and running all day?"

Ha Young was right there enthusiastically praising her.

The two of them were so brazenly confident that the warriors watching them couldn’t help but let out incredulous chuckles.

‘Ohohoho, they keep smiling at me. They must be hopelessly captivated by my charms.’

Of course, in Bang Mi-hwa's eyes, those weren't awkward chuckles but the smiles of men who had fallen head over heels for her.

Between Jeong Hyeon's shrieks, Bang Mi-hwa's narcissism, and Ha Young's shower of compliments, the rest break passed in a bizarre cacophony.

Then the White Sparrow Corps Leader, who had been timing things with an hourglass, stood up and shouted.

"Time's up! Get ready to move out!"

Following the unit leader's orders, they resumed their journey. After about an hour had passed, a strange sound came from the unit member at the very front.

"Hmm?"

"Someone's approaching."

A Squad Leader, who had also noticed something, muttered to himself.

The moment he spoke—

"Finally, some real action!!"

—Dokgo Pae suddenly shouted with glee and started sprinting straight ahead.

“P-President Dokgo… st-stop…”

With Gwak Sul by the scruff of his neck with one hand.

But Dokgo Pae was forced to stop before long.

"Stop."

A middle-aged man had leaped forward to block Dokgo Pae's path.

It was the same man who had first raised the alarm earlier, the Squad Leader of the First Squad of the White Sparrow Corps.

“I don’t need you to coddle me! A true warrior should grow through real combat!"

Dokgo Pae shouted this at the man blocking his path and tried to charge forward again, but the man was faster.

Swiiish.

In an instant, the squad leader's spear shot out in a blur and stopped right in front of Dokgo Pae's throat.

“Those are nomadic tribesmen passing by, not our targets. More importantly, if you disobey a superior’s order, you’ll forfeit your head.”

A disturbingly joyful smile spread across Dokgo Pae’s face at the man's threat.

"I welcome a sparring match anytime!"

Clang!

As if his body had been itching for a fight, Dokgo Pae drew his greatsword and struck at the squad leader's spear, and they began to exchange moves.

Of course, the duel didn't last very long.

Dokgo Pae may have been second in his class, but he was still just a student.

Thwack!!

The squad leader's spear easily found an opening in Dokgo Pae's Nine Swords of Solitude and struck his side.

(TL Note: Reminder, the word Dokgo could be translated as Solitude. I’m using Nine Swords of Solitude and Dokgo’s Nine Swords interchangeably to ease up the narrative.)

"Guh..."

Even as the intense pain momentarily knocked the wind out of him, Dokgo Pae swung his greatsword again.

Thwack!

And again, the team leader’s spear found an opening and slammed into his body. He wasn't using the blade but swinging with enough force to break bones.

In just a few seconds, Dokgo Pae was covered in bruises all over his body and finally collapsed.

“Hoo… Thank you for the guidance! Please take care of me again next time!!!"

Despite getting the crap beaten out of him, he was shouting with the most delighted expression imaginable.

It was the behavior of a certified madman, but none of the students or the warriors seemed surprised.

"The kid who got dragged away earlier was called 'Dokgo,' wasn't he?"

“Hmm. I heard the heir of the Dokgo Family was in this batch. That must be him.”

"Seeing how he's already ignoring superior orders like that, his mastery of the Dokgo’s Nine Swords must be pretty impressive."

The Dokgo Family's batshit crazy personality was already notorious throughout the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

And so the journey continued.

During the process of moving and resting, it was only natural that some of the Hall of the Demonic Way disciples and unit members would have episodes and go berserk due to the side effects of their Demonic Arts.

But when you compared the frequency, the students were having breakdowns at a much, much higher rate.

This was quite strange considering that the side effects of Demonic Arts get stronger as one's level increases, but it also made sense in a way.

Humans are creatures of adaptation. If someone stays at a certain level for a long time, they naturally adapt to those side effects and learn to control them.

Those who were greatly affected by Demonic Arts’ side effects were usually those whose levels had developed rapidly.

The more talented someone was in martial arts, the greater their risk of suffering from side effects.

Even within the White Sparrow Corps, most of the more experienced members had either already adapted to their own side effects or had weakened side effects thanks to surpassing the Extremity stage.

That's why the side effects were particularly prominent among the Hall of the Demonic Way disciples, who were at the age of fastest growth and emotional instability.

"...But this batch seems particularly severe."

Even taking that into account, the Corps Leader shook his head with an expression that said he couldn't get used to it.

When the sun had completely set and everyone was preparing to camp for the night, the Vice Leader nodded at the Corps Leader's observation as he surveyed the scene.

"The last batch was relatively well-behaved, except for the second son of the Baek Family and a disciple named Mak Ho-yeol."

“This year, we’ve got at least four who are just as bad, if not worse.”

The two men’s gazes settled on a single point in the distance.

To a disciple who had left the campsite and was heading somewhere through the darkness—Il-mok.

“Hah… to be taking a bath every single night out here even in these conditions."

It turned out that Il-mok was, of course, included on their list of certified lunatics.

***

The next day, they were up at the crack of dawn and running for half the day. By the afternoon, they reached a town that was fairly large for the Xinjiang region. This was their first destination.

Since their targets were bandits raiding the route between Turpan and Hami, they took some time to resupply in Turpan.

They stocked up on food and water for themselves and their horses, and visited the local branch of the Divine Cult to gather information. By the time they were done, the sun was already beginning to set.

“The area where the bandits usually appear is wide open, with nowhere to hide. If we move as a large group, they’ll spot us from a mile away and run. Therefore, we will now split into six teams and move under the guise of merchants,” the Corps Leader explained once all preparations were complete.

The sixty-six of them—thirty-eight warriors, four instructors, four assistant instructors, and twenty students—were divided into six teams of eleven.

The plan was to spread out and advance from Turpan to Hami, sweeping the area where the bandits were known to operate.

"I'll distribute these signal flares to each Squad Leader. If you set them off too early, the enemies might escape, so fire them after you've gotten reasonably close or after combat has begun."

Il-mok watched the Corps Leader rambling on in front with a bored expression on his face.

‘Six squads means a one-in-six chance of meeting them. This time I might just end up taking a leisurely stroll.’

A faint smile touched his lips at the thought of not having to fight.