The Return of the Talented Monopolist is Special

“Please, stop! Please! I beg you!”

“No, no. That kind of reaction is unacceptable.”

“Aaaah!”

It was the moment Yujin returned for the fifth time to face the Lion Spirit.

When the Lion Spirit saw Yujin, who had defeated it a second time and continued toward the Ice Cave, it was filled with resentment, but it accepted it.

Yujin had almost reached the level of the young Jade family head, so the Lion Spirit thought, “A genius has emerged in this generation.”

Of course, Eldora also seemed to have great potential, but in the Lion Spirit’s eyes, Yujin was far superior.

However, its thoughts had changed by now.

“Come here. Don’t you have a stronger curse? Hmm?”
“What a psycho of a kid…! Who in their right mind would want to be cursed?!”
“Use all your power. Come on! Hurry up! Ugh, this is boring.”

Yujin snatched the large sword the Lion Spirit was holding.

The hundred years spent in Pencel meant nothing in front of Yujin, who had mastered the mystical senses at the second star and had learned the Ghost Steps.

Shwish! Shwish!

Yujin, using the Ghost Steps he had learned, swiftly dodged the Spirit’s attacks and closed in on it.

“Checkmate.”
“Nooo!”

The Lion Spirit screamed in agony.

***

Two hours were left of the six-hour limit for the Lion’s trial.

Thud—

Yujin stood at the entrance of the Ice Cave again.

As he moved further inside, bloodstains and traces of rolling and running appeared on the floor, scattered without any discernible order or pattern.

“Raul probably made it to the middle, the Inse brothers were in the middle as well, and Eldora must have reached the latter stages.”

Inside, “they” would be there.

“I just need to avoid their attacks and pass through the cave to clear the trial.”

Yujin had a rough idea of what to expect, but since he hadn’t experienced it firsthand yet, he couldn’t afford to relax.

Thud, thud.

Yujin stepped further in.

The glowing stones that had once illuminated the entrance began to decrease, and as he went deeper, their number significantly diminished.

He considered taking one, but the glowing stones were fixed to the floor and wouldn’t come off.

“It’s eerie. The cold makes it even worse.”

It wasn’t completely dark, but it became difficult to see anything beyond the shadows.

“Huff…”

His exhale was the only sound in the silence.

“…!”

Six red dots lit up ahead.

They were eyes.

The moment they spotted Yujin, they slowly began to rise and then suddenly charged at him.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

From the darkness, the six glowing eyes advanced menacingly toward him, and their appearance was terrifying.

“I can’t run and lead them to a brighter area. They won’t follow me to a place with light.”

Yujin fully activated his mystical senses.

Since it wasn’t complete darkness, there was no need to rely solely on his hearing.

Wooooom!

With the activation of the mystical senses, his Atom began to spin, and his vision rapidly cleared as his aura gathered around his eyes.

What appeared before him was…

“Ice statues. Fully armored knights.”

The massive knights, clad in chainmail, were exactly as he had heard about from his past life.

Meanwhile, Yujin only had a large sword in his hand and was dressed in nothing but his undergarments.

In other words, just one strike from them would be fatal, and physically destroying the statues would be incredibly difficult.

Given their momentum, their power level seemed to be between mid to late second star.

“Three of them charging at me in the dark? Definitely not a fight to engage in… I need to find a way out fast.”

As the red eyes closed in on him, Yujin took his position, making sure not to make a single mistake.

“Krrr!”

The leading ice statue swung a large iron sword down toward him.

Swoosh!

Yujin quickly rolled to the side to dodge the attack, but another ice statue was waiting there.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

Yujin rolled again and skillfully dodged between the statues that were trying to cleave him in half.

At first, he hadn’t thought it would be too difficult, but upon facing them, he realized that they were much faster than expected.

And one unexpected factor was…

“The ground is so slippery…”

Running barefoot on the icy floor was a struggle in itself. It made movement much harder.

So, Yujin opted for rolling and throwing his body to move.

Yujin initially thought that he could just avoid the three moving ice statues and head straight forward.

But every time he passed one, another one was waiting, and when he passed that one, another would swing its iron sword to strike.

The only relief was that these statues were using pure physical strength and not aura.

It was clear that the trial was designed to test evasion, agility, and the ability to expand one’s senses in the dark.

However, Yujin knew better.

“The true nature of the Ice Cave trial will slowly reveal itself in the next stage.”

Yujin began to prepare himself.

At first, the slippery floor made movement difficult, but that had changed now.

In just a few minutes, numerous grooves had appeared in the floor, making walking and running easier.

“This is much better than the oil-slicked duels I had with Gung-Gwi during training.”

By now, the ice statues had regained their positions and were preparing to attack Yujin.

Yujin stepped into a groove made by the iron swords and focused his aura on his legs to leap forward.

Recalling the harsh training he’d gone through, Yujin smiled, his expression growing brighter.

“Kooo!”

This time, all three ice statues charged at Yujin simultaneously.

The acrobatics Gung-Gwi had taught him, the movement prediction skills from the Golden Sword, and the stamina training from Tuo-Gwi all came into play.

Thud, swish! Thud, swish!

After narrowly dodging the statues’ swinging swords, Yujin threw himself between their legs and quickly passed them.

However, this time he tried a slightly different approach.

“Let’s mix acrobatics and Ghost Steps. If I combine their strengths, I might create my own unique technique.”

The acrobatic movements specialized in evasion, while Ghost Steps enhanced speed with agile lower body movement.

What would happen if he combined the two?

Swoosh…!

It was a bit awkward at first, but the results were surprising.

“Kuuu…”

It was like water flowing through rocks, Yujin swiftly navigating between the ice statues.

With more practice, he could see even greater potential.

Looking ahead, he saw a few glowing stones illuminating the area, so he ran toward them.

The ice statues followed him, but as they neared the glowing stones, they let out frustrated sounds before vanishing back into the darkness.

“Huff, huff…”

A mist began to rise from Yujin’s body. The battle in the water hadn’t been easy, but the effects of his mystical senses had significantly enhanced his capabilities.

And then…

“Two paths.”

Ahead of him, two tunnels branched off—one to the left, and one to the right.

On the left tunnel’s floor was written “Challenge” in faint black letters, while the right tunnel had “Pass” written there.

“If you don’t challenge, you will not achieve.”

That was the family motto of the Pencel family.

There was no reason to hesitate. Yujin chose the left tunnel without a second thought.

***

“Huh… It really is true.”

“…?”

Clark, who was watching the crystal ball, let out an exclamation.

The reason Yujin had been going back and forth through the icy waters and magical traps was because of his mastery of the Ghost Steps.

The ancestors of the Pencel family had designed the lake’s magical traps in a way that allowed one to learn Ghost Steps while avoiding them.

Of course, Yujin had figured this out from his past life memories and had intentionally gone back and forth through the lake to acquire the Ghost Steps.

“Such great observational skills. Discovering a technique like Ghost Steps in the water… honestly, it’s something that shouldn’t be possible…”

From the way they looked at Yujin, it seemed like they believed he had realized the magical traps were tied to the Ghost Steps.

Of course, the path and movements of the Ghost Steps embedded within the traps had been something Yujin had learned on his own, so they were half right.

“And he quickly passed through the ice statues. He made good use of the grooves in the floor.”

Clark kept praising Yujin, and Sirius, who was watching, looked slightly uncomfortable.

“…Haha.”

But Clark didn’t mind and continued to praise Yujin.

“And it seems like he’s mixing Ghost Steps with his own technique. It looks like he’s already mastered the Ghost Steps. This is… really something. Haha!”

Clark was simply happy that a rival had appeared for Eldora, and he was now cheering for Yujin.

Sirius, however, made up his mind at that moment.

“I have no choice. It’s still just the trial phase, but I’ll have to feed him the blood of the Black Dragon…”

Because as things stood, there was no way he would catch the eye of Jade.

***

After choosing the left tunnel, Yujin continued further. The path started narrow but gradually widened as he went on.

There was plenty of room to run.

It would certainly be physically demanding, but a smile lingered on Yujin’s lips.

“I’m using what I learned from my masters, honing my senses and mastering Ghost Steps. I’ve even tried combining Ghost Steps with the techniques I’ve learned. By the time the test ends, I’ll be even more skilled.”

He had already gained so much, even though the test wasn’t over yet.

Of course, his mind was a bit cluttered from accidentally glimpsing the memories of the Mad Demon, but…

Yujin was the type to act quickly rather than overthink things.

He knew how to distinguish between important and unimportant matters in any situation.

At that moment, distant sparks flashed in the distance.

It seemed like one of the earlier participants was in a battle.

“It must be Raul, if it’s stage two.”

Yujin picked up the pace, curious about how Raul fought.

Just before he reached the point where the narrow path would suddenly widen, Yujin spotted a rabbit sitting next to a glowing stone, its ears perked up.

“Stop! Are you here for stage two of the test? The left space is already in use, so go to the right. Also, tell me which weapon you want. I’ll provide it.”

The rabbit was sitting in the middle of the tunnel, with a transparent magical barrier splitting the space into two. It seemed to be in place for situations where multiple participants might appear at once.

However, Yujin couldn’t shake the feeling that the rabbit’s voice sounded familiar.

“That voice… you’re a lion spirit.”

The rabbit hurriedly averted its gaze and pointed again to the right path.

“Oh, no. Just tell me what weapon you want and hurry to the right! All the tests are ready.”

“This time you’re in rabbit form. Quite versatile. You can have copies of yourself stationed in multiple places at once.”

“No, I’m not! You psycho… Ugh!”

The small rabbit quickly covered its mouth, as though it had made a mistake.

Then, suddenly—

Bang!

A loud shock echoed from the left space, followed by—

“Aaaah!”

A scream was heard.

Yujin moved closer to the entrance, noticing that in stage two, glowing stones had been placed to light up the area so participants could fight with better visibility.

“Raul, huh? Looks like he’s almost on the verge of death.”

Yujin enhanced his vision and saw that Raul’s sword had split in two, and he was retreating in front of the ice statues.

There were about ten ice statues now.

Their numbers had increased more than threefold, which was likely why this was stage two.

Even though these statues didn’t use aura, fighting multiple opponents at once was always difficult.

Especially since—

“Spears, swords, staffs, maces, staves, daggers… they’re all equipped with a variety of weapons.”

When the enemies carried such a wide range of weapons, it became even more problematic, as there were many variables to consider.

However, the rabbit… no, the lion spirit, shook its head and muttered.

“Failure in the challenge. If he had just chosen ‘pass,’ he would have gotten through the lion’s trial, but he made a foolish choice. Tsk.”

It then spoke into the crystal ball in its hand.

“Raul Pencel, Raul Pencel is considered to have failed the challenge. I will proceed to rescue him…”

At that moment, Yujin shouted.

“Wait!”