Chapter 169 – Senkun – A Mock Battle Against an A-rank Adventurer

The Adventurers Guild’s training facility was nothing but a space with a roof. Adventurers flooded the place, wanting to see a rank A fight, but were all locked out per Hikaru’s request. He didn’t want to let unrelated people know about his cards. They thought differently, however, saying “that kid probably doesn’t want others to see how he loses like a dog” and “he probably doesn’t want us to see him use dirty tricks”.

In the end, there were only a few people present in the training grounds; Hikaru and Senkun, Senkun’s friends, Gilliam the elf and Nargo. Lavia stayed in the lobby to fill out the party registration form. Hikaru asked Paula to come with him, though. Her healing magic might be needed. Jill—her face white as a sheet—was also there and the four members of the Four Stars of the East.

「H-Hikaru, just apologize!」

「Enough about that. I have something to say before we begin.」

「An apology, right?! Right?! A sincere apology! I’ll even go with you!」

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「Oh, give me a break.」Hikaru said, feeling weary as he shot a glance at the corner of the grounds. The four ladies were standing alongside the wall.「I need the other two guys to stay put and just watch.」

「Did I hear that right? You think I’ll let them back me up?!」Senkun said.

「I just want to eliminate that possibility. If they come at me all of a sudden, I might not be able to hold back.」

Hikaru checked the revolver on his waist. Once fired, it would spell disaster. It might not be that bad if Gilliam and Nargo had higher Vitality than the Earth Dragon, but Hikaru highly doubted that.

「Oh, I see… You really don’t know anything about rank As, huh?」Senkun was livid, his cheeks twitching.

「I’m gonna find out soon, right?」Hikaru replied.「Jill, the signal.」

「Hikaru…」

Jill was on the verge of tears. In her mind, Hikaru was still a novice adventurer. She thought that him clearing the dungeon was some sort of a mistake. Hikaru was party to blame as well—instead of clearing the misunderstanding, he made it so she would misunderstand and then used that.

「I-I’ll get some potions ready… Just don’t die, okay?」Jill stepped away from the fighters.「Fight!」she cried.

「………」

「………」

「What’s wrong, brat? Got cold feet facing an A rank?」

Senkun provoked him, but Hikaru could see through everything. The Man Gnome came to the training grounds a good five minutes before him. No one else was here in that time frame. In that five minutes, the man finished setting things up—his traps, that Hikaru could see clearly with his Mana Detection.

Land mines were buried in a five-minute radius around Senkun. Superfine wires hung in the air, wires that triggered the traps.

Senkun chuckled.「You know about our abilities, don’t you? Come on, now. There are no traps here.」

A practice sword with a chipped blade in hand, Senkun skipped from left to right. He knew where the traps were exactly. At first glance, it might seem that he was moving around carelessly, but he made sure not to step on any of the traps or touch the wires.

「Cool. You really make it look like there are no traps.」Hikaru was impressed.

「I told you, there’s none.」

「You managed to hide them well. Most people or monsters wouldn’t sense them.」

Hikaru had three points on Mana Detection. If he had one less point on it, he wouldn’t see the traps. He had never seen anyone else with three points on it like him. No one from the people he knew would be able to see Senkun’s traps.

「I see.」Senkun said.「You were sure you could see my traps, so you accepted my challenge. Yes, that must be it!」

「Nope.」

「Then what?」

「I was sure I could win.」

Hikaru took out a leather bag filled with stones from his pockets.

Senkun knew his fighting style was unique, something that others couldn’t simply copy. There were other stronger Man Gnomes back in his hometown, but he believed none of them could win against him in a fight.

No monsters could detect his traps. Not even those beings from other races.

Senkun wasn’t rank A for nothing. He’d fought in numerous battlefields. No matter the predicament he was in, his traps never let him down, protecting him from all enemies.

「H-How…」Senkun couldn’t believe his eyes.

「That’s the fifth one.」

The meek and harmless black-haired boy, Hikaru, hurled stones, each one hitting his traps accurately, triggering them. Senkun had set up various kinds of traps—one that paralyzed, one that caused an explosion, another that released lightning, one that nullified spirit magic, among others. These magic traps all required expensive catalysts and complex procedure to set up.

「And another one.」

To him, Hikaru was abnormal. Not only could the boy see the traps, each of the stones he hurled hit the traps square in the middle. His accuracy rate was insane. Even the observers were shocked.

「All that’s left are the wire traps.」

After getting rid of the traps buried in the ground, Hikaru started aiming for the wires. No one could believe what they were seeing. The boy hit every single one of them. When there were only two remaining, Hikaru clicked his tongue.

「Crap, I only have one stone left. Whatever.」he said as he threw the stone casually. It hit the first wire and then went straight for the second one, setting off the paralyzing traps before disappearing.「Now there’s only you left.」The black-haired boy took a step forward. Senkun let out a shriek.

He’s a demon! the Man Gnome thought. Only someone working for an evil god could do something like this!

「I-I’m Senkun, an A-rank adventurer!」

「I know.」Hikaru said.

His knees grew weak. He wanted to just slump down on the spot. Boldly, Hikaru sauntered towards him.

「Fine. I’ll use my last resort!」

Senkun held out a magic stone from his hand and reached for the practice sword. As he rubbed the stone on the sword, the weapon started glowing.

Astonished, Hikaru stopped in his tracks. Like he said just now, he had no stones left.

Senkun was applying a trap on his weapon. He planned to strike his opponent with the sword to trigger the trap. He couldn’t just throw it, as he wasn’t sure he’d hit Hikaru.

The trap would set off a huge explosion. If he hit his target with it, it would blow his opponent up along with him.

「Hey, that doesn’t look good.」

Senkun would stop at nothing to defeat his foe. While his gear might look plain, it had magic buffs that increased his overall defense. Still, he might suffer serious injuries. Or worse—one wrong move, and he could bite the dust. But he didn’t hesitate.

「All right, that’s enough.」

「True that.」

Gilliam and Nargo stopped him.

「Wh-What are you doing?! We’re in the middle of a mock battle!」

「You call this a mock battle?」

「True that.」

「I guess that thing’s bad news.」Hikaru said.

「You bet. It’s just like Senkun to, like, do this. He used the same thing to take a down a Blue Wyvern. I was sure he was a goner back then.」

「True that.」

If Gilliam didn’t stop him, there would’ve been immense casualties.

「Okay, then.」Hikaru said.「Since you interfered, that means I win, right?」

「Bullshit! I won’t let it end like this!」Senkun cried.

「Calm down, dude. This boy’s bad news. I sense crazy amount of mana from that thing on his waist.」

「True that.」

「…What?」

Gilliam hit the mark. Hikaru frowned slightly, covering the revolver with his cloak.

「Shit. So he can do more than just destroy my traps, huh?」Senkun flopped down on the ground.「I lost. I’ve never lost like this before.」

「You specialize in traps. You usually don’t use hurriedly constructed ones like these, right?」

「So you knew, huh? Man, screw this shit. What’s your name?」

「Hikaru.」

「What’s you rank? You can’t be rank B. I would have recognized you. C, then?」

「Nope. E.」

「Come again? I didn’t quite catch that.」

「I’m rank E.」

Senkun glared at Jill. The receptionist nodded, shaking.

「That’s just ridiculous! How can a monster like him be rank E? What’s the guild doing?!」

「I-I-I-I-I’m sorry!」

「Don’t lash out on her. It’s not her fault. Sure, she’s a bad drunk, she judges people by their looks, and she’s also grumpy, but she puts effort in her work.」

「Hikaru, are you covering for me or not?!」Jill cried out with teary eyes.

「Tsk. Whatever. A hundred million, right? You can have it.」

「I would’ve expected a bit of a resistance.」

「A man never goes back on his word. The amount is nothing to me, anyway. You can have the pretty lady too.」

「She’s not even yours in the first place… Eh, whatever. I don’t really care about her.」

「I heard that! You got guts!」Selica yelled, but Hikaru ignored her.

「By the way, are you a Man Gnome?」Hikaru asked.

「Yeah.」

「Do you know Unken? You have similar names.」

Senkun gave a sudden jerk.「He was a talented man, famous in my hometown. I got sick of the place though so I left. I don’t really know much about him. I heard he was here, so I decided to be an adventurer in Ponsonia.」

「I see. What about Kaglai?」

「At least address the empire’s ruler with his proper title. He’s a distant relative of mine.」

「Really?」

「Yeah. We see each other sometimes. Do you know him?」

「I don’t.」

「Of course.」

Senkun thought Hikaru was in no way acquainted with the Emperor. Kaglai was an exceptionally quick-witted Man Gnome. His intelligence made many think he possessed supernatural powers. An elite among the elite, he belonged to a key family of Man Gnomes in Quinbland.

「All right, then. We’re leaving.」Hikaru said.「Paula.」

「O-Okay!」

「I can still get stronger! The next time we meet, I’ll prepare traps that you can’t see!」Senkun said as Hikaru walked away.

Hikaru didn’t answer. He simply waved his hand.

「Sarah.」Selyse called her friend who witnessed the fight beside her.「Did you see the traps?」

「Nope. I just felt there was something there. I couldn’t see them clearly like Hikaru did.」

「Yeah… I thought Hikaru had some kind of a plan when he accepted the challenge.」

「Who would’ve thought he’d fight head-on?」

Sarah laughed, but her eyes were dead serious.

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