BCGWR Chapter 29 Part 2

Seeing Han Ji-su’s bitter smile, Jung Ha-jin extended his palm to Toto. Usually, Toto would haughtily turn his head away when someone offered a hand, but this time, he scurried naturally onto Jung Ha-jin’s hand. Jung Ha-jin placed Toto on his shoulder and then asked Han Ji-su.

“Is the reason you want to go to a dungeon for skill training?”

“…Ah… yes. That’s right.”

Although the answer was rather awkwardly delayed, Jung Ha-jin, who had realized in just one day that Han Ji-su had a habit of pausing briefly before speaking, nodded nonchalantly.

“If there’s no compelling reason for you to go to a dungeon, I think I can help with Toto’s training. I am, after all, an S… an A-rank Esper with an S-rank skill.”

He, who never stammered, did so in an odd place, but Han Ji-su, lost in other thoughts, didn’t notice anything unusual.

Jung Ha-jin, who had momentarily shown signs of embarrassment, quickly returned to his usual self and waited for Han Ji-su’s reply. Han Ji-su, with downcast eyes, fiddled with the ring on his left middle finger and nodded.

If his words were true, he currently had no particular reason to go to a dungeon.

No, it would be more accurate to say that the reason he had always wanted to go to a dungeon had been forcibly forgotten, but Han Ji-su himself couldn’t know this fact.

‘…Is he really A-rank? Even if his skill is S-rank, is that possible?’

This was Han Ji-su’s pure impression after watching Jung Ha-jin use an ice spear attack skill from outside the Peace Guild Annex training room. Han Ji-su now understood why Jung Ha-jin had urged him to watch from behind the reinforced glass, made from dungeon-mined minerals, before he began sparring with Toto.

‘He’s impossibly strong….’

Thanks to his numerous experiences, he had seen A-rank Espers use S-rank skills a few times, but looking at the power of the skill Jung Ha-jin used, Han Ji-su was convinced it was by no means an ordinary S-rank skill.

No matter how high the skill’s rank, even if it was S-rank, if an A-rank Esper used it, the power would only be enhanced to a certain degree.

However, the skill Jung Ha-jin used didn’t seem that way at all. It was the first time since the SS-rank Esper Kim Hyun-ah that a skill’s resonance alone inspired such an overwhelming presence.

Furthermore, Toto’s S-rank shield was a powerful defensive skill that had never once collapsed into a dome shape. It had held firm even when blocking an S-rank boss monster’s attack skill in a dungeon, but now, receiving Jung Ha-jin’s ice spear attacks consecutively, tiny fissures began to appear in the shield dome.

Perhaps shocked that his shield had cracked, Toto, in the form of a long-tailed tit, opened his beak wide and trembled with his plump body.

As if he couldn’t believe what he saw, he flapped his small wings, flew up, circled the fissured area, and cried out anxiously, “Peep, peep!”

“Toto, it’s okay! Calm down! You know what you’re good at!”

“Peep…!!”

Hearing Han Ji-su’s encouragement, Toto seemed to remember something he had forgotten and began projecting his mana onto the shield. The bluish, smoke-like mana emanating from Toto’s body flew into the fissures in the shield and permeated them.

The existing fissures didn’t disappear, but the mana filled the cracks, making it seem as though the fissures had been repaired. Jung Ha-jin’s eyes narrowed as he watched Toto block the fissures. Then, he tilted his head, seemingly thinking for a moment, before swiftly drawing his hand through the air.

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