Chapter 56. The Ring (2)
Sundo.
A sparring technique where one stops an attack just before touching the opponent's body.
The straight Jo Ban-seok just threw was exactly Sundo.
A fist stopped 1 centiter right in front of Riman's nose.
Jo Ban-seok retracted his fist as if bouncing back and said.
“Scared?”
Looking at Riman who couldn't even react despite having a fist thrown right in front of his nose, he said teasingly.
“Why are you scared? This is just a welco greeting.”
“…….”
Riman still didn't speak or move.
Just staring at Jo Ban-seok quietly.
Jo Ban-seok judged such Riman as ‘frozen with fear.’
An even more triumphant air hovered on his face.
But Jas Kwon, watching this from outside the ring, thought differently.
‘…He didn't freeze with fear.’
That is…….
‘He didn't dodge because there was no reason to dodge.’
The mont Jo Ban-seok threw the straight.
Jas Kwon saw.
Riman staring at the flying fist without blinking an eye.
He didn't close his eyes, nor did he flinch.
Just watching.
It was nonsense.
Unless one is a skilled martial artist, one cannot keep watching an attack flying toward one's face until the end like that.
And that he didn't dodge even after watching until the end ant…….
‘He anticipated that the attack would stop right in front of his nose.’
Jo Ban-seok's fist was fast and accurate.
But Riman had precisely grasped the hitting point and distance of the punch in that fleeting mont.
‘Is that possible?’
He doesn't know.
Maybe he was just lucky.
Or maybe he really froze out of fear as Jo Ban-seok thought.
Anyway, the answer…….
‘We’ll know as the sparring progresses.’
Whoosh!
Jo Ban-seok's fist sprang out again.
Left hand jab.
This ti it wasn't Sundo.
A punch clearly aiming for impact.
And this ti……
Swish-
The jab grazed Riman's cheek by a hair's breadth.
“Tsk……!”
As the first serious strike missed, Jo Ban-seok's face crumpled slightly.
As if to vent that anger, from the next mont, he unleashed a barrage of blows.
Swish-swish-swish!
Ceaseless jabs and straights, hooks mixed in between.
But none of them reached Riman.
“Are you just gonna keep running away! Huh?!”
Riman showed no reaction to Jo Ban-seok's words either.
Just doing his best not to get hit.
anwhile, Jas Kwon watching the match from outside the ring was dumbfounded.
‘Footwork is a ss. There is absolutely no basic weight transfer.’
However……
‘He is dodging everything by seeing it.’
Tracking all attacks with eyes, and dodging with minimal movent.
Even if the body movent is a ss, he eventually dodges everything.
‘…At that level, isn't it almost at the level of predicting the opponent's movent?’
anwhile, Jo Ban-seok on the ring was also feeling a similar sentint.
‘What is this bastard?!’
A feeling of throwing punches against fog.
Clearly right in front of eyes, and plugged it accurately, but damage doesn't go in.
But looking at Riman's movents, he seems to lack even minimal knowledge of martial arts.
‘What on earth is he?!’
Ding-ding-ding!
Like that, the 1st round ended.
Both Riman and Jo Ban-seok retreated to their corners.
Riman thought.
‘Since I can't use magic, I can't catch an angle to attack.’
He could manage dodging sohow instinctively.
But he couldn't get a feel for hitting.
Of course, Riman had no goal of becoming a master of martial arts.
But there was one thing he definitely felt from the battle with Ha Do-yeol this ti.
That he should have at least one ans to respond when enemies dig in with close combat.
Until now, he endured with barriers, evasion, and close-range magic, but a point where responding with only those becos difficult will definitely co.
Of course, he succeeded in putting a knife in the belly directly in the battle with Ha Do-yeol.
But that was only because Riman knew Ha Do-yeol's personality, and the psychological warfare based on that worked well.
If an unfamiliar enemy engages in close combat like this, the result couldn't be guaranteed.
And among magic, there was also a lineage that strengthens the body to engage in hand-to-hand combat directly.
‘The magic of Gnosion Magic Tower was that kind, probably.’
He couldn't use magic of that lineage right now.
But there was sufficient probability that he would be able to use it at so point in the future.
Because Riman's body was already a heterogeneous body capable of using magic of various lineages.
If he thinks of laying the foundation of martial arts in preparation for that ti, well, this kind of training wasn't a bad thing.
‘While building stamina, let’s lay at least the foundation of fighting simultaneously.’
Around when he was setting up future plans in his head like that.
Jas Kwon ca to Riman and asked.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“…Did you perhaps learn martial arts before?”
“No, no way.”
Jas Kwon accepted it.
Certainly, Riman's movents were absolutely not those of soone who learned martial arts.
“…Want to continue?”
“Yes.”
Honestly, it was a bit regrettable to co down from the ring without landing a single hit.
Eventually, the 2nd round began.
Ding!
From the 2nd round, Jo Ban-seok was also serious.
Because he also sensed that the appearance Riman showed was sowhat unusual.
“Phew…….”
A short sigh, a short probing war.
The string of tension that was pulled tight snaps.
Close combat begins.
This ti too, the first strike is Jo Ban-seok.
Lowering the upper body, taking steps quickly, he digs in heavily.
At that mont, everything was visible in Riman's eyes.
Where Jo Ban-seok would co in, in what way, and where he would throw his fist.
Simultaneously with all information being recognized, those paths were calculated instinctively.
But even if the calculation is done by instinct, how to use that result is up to the will.
Until now, Riman used that prediction only for evasion.
But he didn't want to do so now.
This is sparring.
Although a fight, not a life-or-death struggle; a truly unfamiliar and precious mont for Riman.
Unlike in real combat, getting hit a few tis here doesn't an death.
If he wants to test, he must do it now.
So just for this ti-
‘I’ll dig in.’
For the first ti, Riman's upper body leans toward the opponent.
Not dodging, but rushing in.
Not widening the distance, but following up.
The movent paths of two bodies standing at different points overlap for the first ti.
A clash bursts out.
Pow!
“…Eh?”
“Huh?”
Interrogatives as if dumbfounded popped out from the spectators' mouths.
Because Riman was hit squarely in the face and fell backward.
The sparring ended so futilely.
“What?”
“He goes down in one shot like that?”
Jas Kwon was equally dumbfounded.
‘He dodged well all this ti, then goes down in one shot like this……?’
He hurriedly crossed the ring and ran to Riman.
Riman rubbed his face with his glove and said.
“Oh my, I got got.”
“Are you okay?”
“Mr. Jas.”
“Yes.”
“How much is the registration for boxing lessons?”
“Yes?!”
While Jas Kwon and Riman were talking like that.
Jo Ban-seok was staring blankly at his own fist.
That fist that just struck Riman's face.
He knew what the spectators, and even Jas Kwon, didn't notice.
That his fist almost didn't touch Riman.
‘That guy, the mont the fist touched, he pulled his face back at a speed similar to the fist.’
At the mont of impact, he pulled his face back sharply to mitigate the damage.
Instantaneous response capability at a nonsensical level.
But what was surprising wasn't just that.
Jo Ban-seok rubbed his left jaw.
‘On top of that, in that short mont, his fist grazed my jaw.’
The jaw itself isn't a vital point.
But the shock plugged into the jaw is transmitted directly to the brain.
In other words, a part where one faints straight away if hit properly.
Riman plugged an attack into the opponent's vital point in that fleeting mont of getting hit in the face and pulling his face back.
Of course, due to clumsy body movent and weak stamina, it didn't reach a decisive blow.
But the fact itself that he even attempted such a thing in that short mont was evidence that his latent talent was imnse.
‘If that guy had just a little more power, the one who fell would have been …….’
Jo Ban-seok muttered inwardly looking at Riman.
‘…What on earth is that guy really?’
With eyes completely different from before going up to the ring, he stared at Riman for a long while.
* * *
“So you started both gym and boxing?”
“Yes.”
A few days later, Ji Byeong-seo's apartnt.
The two were eating lunch boxes Riman brought at the table.
“But that friend called Jo Ban-seok, just hearing the story his personality seems extrely bad, isn't there any harassnt or sothing outside the ring?”
“Ah that…….”
That day when the sparring happened.
Riman encountered Jo Ban-seok one more ti in the shower room.
Jo Ban-seok entered huffing and puffing with an expression as if he had sothing to pick a bone with.
Saying ‘Hey you!’ and walking in confidently, he fell down as soon as he stepped into the shower room.
“I pulled the water under his feet with magic.”
“Then wouldn't he get angrier……?”
“After knocking him down about three more tis, he just left, maybe because he was embarrassed.”
“Wow, that’s an.”
Actually, Jo Ban-seok beca a bit polite since then.
“By the way Mr. Leman, if you want to make your body strong, isn't there another faster thod?”
“What kind?”
“Well, like enhancent procedures, or human body modification.”
Riman shook his head and said.
“I shouldn't receive them.”
“Ah, can your body not withstand it?”
“Not that, the mont I receive a procedure or modification, I beco unable to use magic.”
“What?! Really?!”
“Yes. Since magic is originally a study established on the premise of a ‘pure human body,’ if the flow of mana inside the body gets disrupted due to enhancent procedures or modification, so if one ‘deviates from a pure body,’ activation itself doesn't happen.”
“Aha…….”
“So about that.”
“Yes?”
“Is there perhaps no drug that increases muscle mass? Honestly, exercise takes too long…….”
“Uh…….”
Ji Byeong-seo, who pondered for a mont, said.
“If you are willing to give up having descendants, I can manufacture drugs based on anabolic steroids for you.”
“Steroids, isn't that… a drug where hair loss and sexual dysfunction are basic?”
“Exactly.”
“Ah seriously.”
The two giggled and started cleaning up the finished lunch boxes.
anwhile, Ji Byeong-seo suddenly said as if sothing ca to mind.
“No, there might be.”
“Yes?”
Ji Byeong-seo rummaged through the bookshelf and took out an old notebook.
“I have designed a muscle enhancent drug quite a long ti ago. Probably there is a recipe sowhere here…….”
Ji Byeong-seo's finger, flipping pages for a while, stopped soon.
“Found it.”
“Really?!”
“But there are a few problems.”
“Is it a material supply related problem?”
“Yes. The fruit of the 'Eye-opening Flower' is absolutely necessary, but this appears only in literature and I haven't seen the real thing in the market.”
“Hm…….”
Do I have to go to sothing like a VIP exclusive auction house sohow?
“And clinical trials haven't been done either.”
“Hm.”
This wasn't a problem.
As far as Riman rembered, drugs made by Ji Byeong-seo had never shown side effects even once.
“That doesn't matter.”
“And…….”
“There is more?”
“If dication guidance is not followed properly, you might die.”
“What kind of drug is like that……?”
“With great power cos great responsibility.”
“Are you sure that phrase is used at a ti like now?”
“Ah and.”
“More?”
“There is also the problem that it's not a drug that can just be made, but requires so additional facilities…….”
“Hmm…….”
And although Ji Byeong-seo didn't say, there was one more problem.
That there were currently quite a lot of delayed pharmaceutical requests.
As rumors spread that Ji Byeong-seo's drug effects were quite decent, the workload increased drastically.
So even today, despite saying let's eat a al, they made do with lunch boxes because there was no ti.
Of course, if Riman asked him to make the drug sohow, he was a person who would make it regardless of order.
But that was too conscienceless.
‘Only if he can digest the increased workload quickly can he make the drug I need quickly too…….’
At that mont.
‘Ah.’
A certain place flashed in Riman's head.
A space fully equipped with facilities and a laboratory capable of making various drugs.
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