The Support Ate it All
Chapter 90: 5th Week Mentoring and Duel Battles (13)

Whoosh!

A small pillar of fire blazed intensely in front of Hong Yeon-hwa.

Within the flames, an ingot emitting a black sheen began to melt ever so slightly from the outside.

Hong Yeon-hwa’s gaze was fixed on this scene, seemingly lost in thought.

Her blank expression, arms crossed, and one foot tapping the ground spoke volumes about her feelings.

Why won’t my rank increase?

It had been three days since she took up Kim Ho’s suggestion to start melting Millennium Iron Alloy in the blacksmith’s workshop.

The rank of her [Aqua Flame] trait remained unchanged and stubbornly stuck at E-rank.

Of course, Hong Yeon-hwa was aware that ranking up a skill or a trait wasn’t something that happened overnight.

If it were, the world would be overflowing with S-rank heroes.

But still, there were expectations.

E-rank is just one step above F and was practically the beginning.

Logically, the growth rate from this point should be fast.

Furthermore, considering the efforts Hong Yeon-hwa had put in the past, she had expected to rank up within a day or two at most.

But with no progress after three days, impatience and negative thoughts started to creep in.

Am I being deceived?

What if the promise to help her rank up her trait was a lie?

What if all he wanted was for her to use her fire magic?

What if he had intended to use her as a portable furnace from the start?

And what if Kim Ho was comfortably resting somewhere else while she was stuck here?

As these thoughts crossed her mind, Hong Yeon-hwa felt an overwhelming sense of futility.

Her rest times had already been reduced due to mentoring, and now, even that reduced free time was being spent in a corner of the workshop.

She had been enduring all this solely with the aim of enhancing her trait, but when she started to think that it was all useless, her motivation quickly dropped.

Should I just give it up?

Hong Yeon-hwa began to reconsider everything from the beginning.

Kim Ho didn’t sign a formal contract with her; he had simply decided to use her on a whim with the claim that, “I can help you grow your trait.”

Sure, she had followed him rather meekly, so she wasn’t entirely without fault. But it wasn’t too late to back out now.

If I don’t want to do it, what can he really do?

But the moment the image of Kim Ho’s icy face flashed through her mind, Hong Yeon-hwa shivered with a chill.

All those encounters they had in various places.

How he effortlessly broke through her fire magic, how he threw Baek Jun-seok to the ground with a flick, how he easily caught and tossed aside the twin trolls’ hand axe…

What would happen if she refused to continue?

Hong Yeon-hwa quickly shook her head to dispel these thoughts.

Whatever might happen, wrong is wrong.

Yes, let’s quit.

Her resolve hardened even further.

Just as she was about to extinguish the pillar of fire,

A notification popped up in the corner of Hong Yeon-hwa’s vision.

[The rank of ‘Aqua Flame’ increased. (E->D)]

“Uh…?”

Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes widened in sheer astonishment as she gazed blankly at the rank-up before her.

It-It actually works…?

Her previously stalled thoughts began to whirl once more, as a myriad of emotions took hold of her mind.

The overwhelming joy and relief of finally breaking through the barrier of “Aqua Flame” despite all her efforts.

The confidence and anticipation that this method could propel her beyond just a D-rank.

And then, there was her gratitude towards Kim Ho.

“Ahem, ahem.”

Embarrassment followed her gratitude, and Hong Yeon-hwa found herself coughing awkwardly alone.

Kim Ho had purely intended to help by sharing the technique and even provided the precious materials to do so, yet she had rashly judged and doubted him.

Well, he might be a bit scary, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person.

She decided to be more cooperative with him in the future.

Her hand gestures as she cast the Fire Pillar skill showed her enthusiasm.

The now brighter flames quickly melted the ingot.

Whoosh!

***

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Hong Yanhua arrived at the arena at the appointed time for her final challenge in the sticker duel battle.

As she neared the arena, she noticed Kim Ho already waiting for her and he turned his head slowly upon sensing someone’s approach.

Their eyes met and he immediately remarked,

“You’ve ranked up.”

“How did you know!?”

Hong Yeon-hwa exclaimed in surprise.

She hadn’t told anyone yet. Had he installed some kind of crystal ball in the workshop?

Kim Ho responded nonchalantly,

“It’s written all over your face.”

“On my face?”

Turning away, Hong Yeon-hwa pulled out a hand mirror and examined her reflection from every angle, then slightly furrowed her brows.

…. It looks the same to me.

She couldn’t spot any difference from her usual appearance.

Of course, she was the only one in the dark; everyone else had long since noticed the change in her.

Throughout the week, she had been walking around with a look of utter dejection, but since yesterday, she had been all smiles and her lips were slightly raised in a constant grin.

Such a drastic change couldn’t have happened without some good news.

Especially since Kim Ho had been closely monitoring her activities that week, he quickly deduced that the “good news” must be her trait rank-up.

“If you reach C-rank, the ingot will completely melt.”

“Really?”

At that, Hong Yeon-hwa felt a tinge of disappointment.

She had subtly asked the president of the blacksmithing club and discovered that the ingot was an alloy of Millennium Iron and Black Mithril.

Even though she now knew how to advance her trait, opportunities to work with such high-grade metals were rare.

If the ingot were to completely melt, it would mean a stop in her trait growth for some time.

But still, reaching C-rank is no small feat.

It was not so long ago that even D-rank seemed impossible for her.

There’s no use in being greedy; better to take a positive view of things.

“……”

Kim Ho ended the conversation there and turned his gaze towards the arena, and Hong Yeon-hwa began to pass the time by looking in the same direction.

The arena was covered by a translucent membrane that was virtually indistinguishable from a wall, so it provided an excellent opportunity to gather her thoughts.

What soon came to mind was the pair of Song Cheon-hye and Kwak Ji-cheol who were likely already in the arena.

I wonder how many stickers they’ve managed to take off.

Since the close combat training with Dang Gyu-young was conducted one-on-two within set times, there was little chance of encountering other team members.

As a result, there was no way to know how much Song Cheon-hye and Kwak Ji-cheol had improved over the week.

However, Hong Yeon-hwa surmised they probably hadn’t advanced much more rapidly than herself.

One, or maybe two?

“Argh!”

At that moment, Kwak Ji-cheol was flung out of the arena with a cry of pain.

The safety system installed in the arena had determined he was unable to continue and forcefully ejected him from the match.

Hong Yeon-hwa looked on with disdain.

He hasn’t changed at all since Monday.

If you’ve been through those hellish one-on-one sparring sessions for a week, you should at least have more tenacity, but judging by the timing of his ejection, he didn’t seem to have changed much from the first day.

Had there been any progress at all?

On the other hand, it was quite some time later that Song Cheon-hye walked out of the magic circle.

Compared to Monday, when Kwak Ji-cheol retired early and she followed soon after, this time she had managed to hold out on her own for quite a while.

“……”

Song Cheon-hye moved on without giving so much as a glance to Kwak Ji-cheol who lay groaning on the ground.

As a team member who failed to play his part and got retired prematurely, it was no surprise she felt not the least bit of pity towards him.

As she passed by, she and Hong Yeon-hwa made eye contact and exchanged cold glances for a short period of time, but the two did not say anything to each other.

Just as Song Cheon-hye was about to walk past Kim Ho as well,

“Song Cheon-hye.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s talk.”

Song Cheon-hye lightly nodded her head in approval and the two of them walked off to a quieter section of the stands.

Hong Yeon-hwa watched them with a curious eye,

What’s the relationship between those two?

The pairing was quite unexpected.

All Hong Yeon-hwa knew was that during the placement test, Kim Ho had avoided a confrontation with Song Cheon-hye.

It was still an unresolved mystery to her why Kim Ho who would have likely won had conceded the match.

She originally thought that was the end of the contact between the two, but seeing them talking alone like that suggested otherwise.

Driven by growing curiosity, Hong Yeon-hwa continued to steal glances at the two.

– ……!

– ……!

Even with mana-enhanced hearing, the distance was too great to eavesdrop on their conversation, but it was still possible to guess the level of their relationship based on their attitude toward each other and facial expressions.

They don’t seem very close.

The reluctance in Song Cheon-hye was apparent when Kim Ho started the conversation with her, and even now her face remained stern and cold.

Another point of note was that Kim Ho seemed to be the one leading the conversation.

Each time Kim Ho casually threw out a remark, Song Cheon-hye would snap back or visibly bristle in response.

It was hard to imagine the monster-like Kim Ho being at a loss with anyone.

He seemed to interact effortlessly even with the senior third-year students.

Then, suddenly, Song Cheon-hye pointed in Hong Yeon-hwa’s direction.

Feeling like she was caught, Hong Yeon-hwa quickly averted her gaze and wondered,

Are they talking about me?

What could they possibly be discussing that involved her?

Her curiosity was now doubly intense.

Hong Yeon-hwa considered sneaking closer to catch even a snippet of their conversation but just as she was contemplating this, the discussion ended. Song Cheon-hye turned away with a speed that seemed to whip up a cold breeze and went to sit in the stands.

Ah, I’m so curious…

Should she casually ask?

Since it seemed to be about her, wouldn’t it be alright to ask?

Hong Yeon-hwa was worried over and over again, but since the other party was Kim Ho, she couldn’t bring herself to ask him.

But for some reason, Kim Ho approached her first and started speaking.

“I asked how many stickers they got.”

It seemed that what Song Cheon-hye had been pointing out about her was related to the sticker duel battle.

Hong Yeon-hwa was also very curious about this, so she was grateful for the information.

“What did she say? How many?”

“Not even one.”

They used up all three attempts without peeling off a single sticker?

It seemed like this week’s duel battle was exceptionally difficult.

She had thought about it several times already but suddenly asking a mage to engage in close combat was an incredibly tough demand.

But what can she do? If there’s anyone to blame, it should be herself for choosing the path of an all-rounder mage.

In any case, since Song Cheon-hye and Kwak Ji-cheol ended this week with zero, it meant,

Just one. If only I could peel off just one.

It meant she would have the upper hand over them.

Hong Yeon-hwa’s heart raced with a mix of excitement and worry.

Three might be out of reach, but perhaps one.

But… could she really do it?

Even just one didn’t seem easy at all.

No, I have to do it.

Hong Yeon-hwa took a deep breath and calmed her mind.

Glancing sideways, she saw Kim Ho nod his head slightly in response.

Together, they stepped onto the teleportation circle.

Entering the round arena, the foundDang Gyu-young was standing leisurely in the same spot as always.

In a position that made her look defenseless at first glance.

But Hong Yeon-hwa knew better from their countless battles.

The moment the battle begins, that seemingly defenseless posture leaves no room for finding even the slightest opening.

And there was another person who showed no openings right beside her.

Fortunately, she was on the same side as that person this week.

Just as their eyes met, Kim Ho offered a brief piece of advice.

“Just like yesterday.”

Do as you wish, unleash all you’ve got.

I’ll be here to back you up.

Hong Yeon-hwa felt a peculiar sense of relief at those words.

Normally, she felt intimidated by Kim Ho’s mere presence, but at this moment as they stood together against this “Strong Enemy”, he couldn’t have been more reassuring.

I can do this.

With a light swirl of the staff in her hand, a round magic circle was etched at her feet.

Soon after, the manifested magic was fully absorbed into Hong Yeon-hwa’s body.

[Fire Pillar]

[Overheat]

Whoosh!

Hong Yeon-hwa’s entire body was enveloped in bright flames.

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