From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 117: Warning Pt. 5

"Can I ask what that just was?" Arthur asked in a subdued voice.

Drip.?

On his cheek, there was a drop of blood.

“That right there was…” Lee Jun-Kyeong said with a gasp.

He stood upright, suppressing the boiling mana and flames. He had succeeded in wounding the brat’s body, and he had succeeded in giving him a blow.

The thing that had made his wish come true was simple.

“The First Flame.”

The First Flame was the skill of the Demon King, and it was the skill that he had obtained from Reign of Fire reaching level 10 and the authority evolving.

He was only able to use it after acquiring Monarch of Fire. It required him to draw upon all of his mana with the mana stream and focus it all into the flames, which would then be focused into a single point.

That skill had succeeded in wounding Arthur’s body.

“The First Flame…”

Arthur laughed.

It was the first sincere smile Lee Jun-Kyeong saw on his face.

"That's a good technique."

Squelch!

As Arthur swung the fake Excalibur, blood and flesh splattered about. However, the boy only had a single scratch on his cheek.

“...”

On the other hand, Lee Jun-Kyeong's appearance was nothing to laugh at. All of his clothes were torn, and where they were torn and exposed, one could see split flesh and spewing blood.

“I got too excited,” apologized Arthur.

Even though it had been a spar, he still apologized for using excessive measures.

"You son of a—"

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong had no intention of accepting the apology.

Except.

Thud.

All he could do was fall forward.

Arthur approached Lee Jun-Kyeong, looking around with a panicked face.

Poke.

He slightly prodded at Lee Jun-Kyeong with the tip of his sword, but there was no response.

“A, are you dead?”

Although he had definitely been flustered for a moment, he then was able to feel Lee Jun-Kyeong breathe and his mana flow.

"That's a relief…"

Arthur patted his chest, sincerely relieved, and lifted Lee Jun-Kyeong from the ground. It had been so long since he had been able to compete with someone else, so he had gotten over-excited because his opponent’s power had been beyond what he had initially imagined.

He had excitedly raised the tempo of the spar to see exactly how far his opponent could keep up, but had lost control of himself.

‘Was it about half?’

Arthur was astonished. To think Lee Jun-Kyeong could keep up to that point.

Moreover, it wasn’t just anyone’s pace, but his own.

That was a frightening pace of growth.

As Merlin and he, along with the Round Table, had been interested in the Underdog, they had done an extensive amount of research on him.

It hadn’t been a full year since he had become a Hunter. Therefore, this was an insane growth rate.

‘This bastard isn’t the same case as us.’

Merlin and Arthur—no, Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t the same as any of the heads of the secret organizations or any of those truly powerful.

It just didn’t seem like he was experiencing anything similar to what they had gone through.

It was just a pure accumulation of strength, a pure proliferation of sponsorship that he was gaining.

"Oh, that's right."

Arthur stared at Lee Jun-Kyeong, who was on his back.

"You asked about the white lightning rodhead, right?"

Zeus.

Lee Jun-Kyeong had asked if he had faced Zeus. Arthur responded to the question to the current Lee Jun-Kyeong, who had already fainted.

“It’s impossible for now. But, still…” Arthur grinned. “Who knows? If you’ll be able to catch up to that bastard.”

As the ambiguous statement rang out within the secret training hall, he heard Merlin call out to him.

–Arthur.

***

The next day.

"Ugh."

Lee Jun-Kyeong woke up in the midst of excruciating pain. His whole body ached as if he had been skewered.

–Are you all right, master?

Hyeon-Mu had fought alongside him yesterday, and spoke to him from within the bracelet.

Lee Jun-Kyeong simply nodded, and the skull fell asleep again, most likely because of the incredible effort it had put into yesterday.

Lee Jun-Kyeong got up and pulled the curtains.

"Whew."

He took a breath, and his lungs filled and felt as if they were being revived.

It was mana.

The mana density within the Round Table was high and pure.

It might have been because this was Merlin’s territory, but his body seemed to be full of mana, and he used his mana stream to check on his physical condition.

Although he had become a pincushion during the spar with Arthur, fortunately, his body had been restored, most likely through Merlin’s ability.

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s mouth curled up into a smirk.

It was because he remembered what happened yesterday.

He had given one blow to that arrogant little brat.

Although it wasn’t a terribly strong blow, he was still satisfied just by having been able to land one.

After all, that brat was the head of a secret organization.

This was proof to Lee Jun-Kyeong that he had become that strong, and he felt better thinking about the blank expression that the brat had made as he stood with a scratch on his cheek.

‘Such a refreshing morning.’

Then, Lee Jun-Kyeong’s expression hardened. Someone was looking at him from outside the open window.

It was an unfriendly gaze.

Lancelot.

Bow.

Lancelot bowed to Lee Jun-Kyeong, who was trying to close the curtain. He took it all in as he closed the curtain, not able to tell whether it was an apology or provocation.

“Whew.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head.

While he didn’t have any great feelings of ill will toward Lancelot, he couldn't help but think that the knight would have ill feelings toward himself.

As an aristocrat and a knight, Lancelot had been humiliated by him in front of everyone.

The problem had existed because of his overwhelming pride in the first place.

‘But he was humiliated in front of Merlin.’

He very well expected what feelings the knight had toward himself.

"Today..." Lee Jun-Kyeong muttered as he looked at the time.

Merlin wouldn’t have been ready by this point yet.

Therefore.

“I should go outside for a bit then.”

He had thoughts of going out from the Round Table.

When Lee Jun-Kyeong was about to leave the room after dressing roughly.

Flinch.

He suddenly felt a huge energy from outside the door.

He was able to roughly guess who it was just from the unignorable flow of mana that emanated from the gap in the frame.

Knock, Knock.

Before Lee Jun-Kyeong was even able to ask who it was, a voice sounded out, “This is Gawain. Is the Underdog here, by chance?”

***

Lee Jun-Kyeong walked down the streets of England, his face betraying his uncomfortableness.

It was because of the unexpected company.

"Are you uncomfortable?" the man asked.

“…”

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t reply to the direct question.

The Knight of the Green, Gawain.

He was rumored to be the most decisive and cruel among the Knights of the Round Table, but the feelings Lee Jun-Kyeong could feel from him at this point…

‘Regardless of what it is…’

He hoped it would disappear soon.

He seemed to refuse to leave no matter how many times Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to hint that he was unwanted. Even though Lee Jun-Kyeong had even left the Round Table and walked among the streets, the knight followed him around like a leech.

Lee Jun-Kyeong eventually asked him, “Why in the world are you doing this?”

While it wasn’t something he should be saying to someone who had offered to help guide him around England, merely guiding him around wasn’t a task that someone like Gawain, a Knight of the Round Table, should be lowering himself to conduct.

"I just wanted to show the Underdog the beauty of England," the knight said as if nothing was wrong.

Gawain continued to speak to Lee Jun-Kyeong with a warm smile, his expression contrasting with his notoriety.

He finally said, "I heard from Merlin."

“…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s expression hardened as he looked at him.

If the knight had heard a story from Merlin, then there was only one thing that the Mage would have told the Knights of the Round Table.

“I heard that you traveled this far to warn us about the crisis in England.”

It seemed that Merlin had understood it that way, but it wasn’t just England’s crisis.

The impending crisis was one in which the existence of not only mankind but also the world was at stake.

Although it had been overcome in the past, Lee Jun-Kyeong was still anxious.

‘There’s no Demon King this time.’

Tthe Demon King hadn’t emerged in the midst of the crisis caused by the cataclysm, but he had still quietly played his own role.

He had used his power to change many things wherever he had needed to be.

Now it seemed as though there would be no Demon King, so it was his job to take on that mantle.

As such, Lee Jun-Kyeong felt as though he would explode on the inside from the pressure.

That was why he had even engaged in a fight that was well above his own level in order to gauge his own strength.

Fortunately, it seemed he had grown to some extent, even if it wasn’t up to the level of the Demon King.

‘Who knows? If you’ll be able to catch up to that bastard.’

Lee Jun-Kyeong laughed when he recalled the words of Arthur that had sounded as if they had come from a dream.

"Ah."

Soon, Lee Jun-Kyeong realized his mistake, and his expression hardened once again.

They were in the middle of talking about the crisis in England.

“That’s all right. Anyway, I must apologize once again for the rudeness of the Knights. Moreover, I must thank you for your sublime grace and will,” Gawain said, bowing in an old-fashioned manner.

“It was nothing,” Lee Jun-Kyeong responded, shaking his head. However, he continued, “Though, it doesn’t seem as though that was all you had to say.”

Gawain clearly still had something else to say. If it was something like an expression of gratitude, then he could have just said it on the spot when he had visited the room.

Moreover, there was no one else here.

Gawain had made such a fuss to guide him to a certain place, but they were currently in a remote alley in the midst of England.

“It seems as though while you had said you had wanted to show me the beauty of England, you have just brought me to a deserted place,” Lee Jun-Kyeong finished.

There was nothing beautiful here.

There was no one here.

Lee Jun-Kyeong exposed a little edge.

He thought, just maybe, the knight had been trying to get even for his knocking down of Lancelot, but the Gawain he had gotten to know for this brief moment didn’t seem to be that sort of person.

“Arthur,” said the knight.

A name had come out of the knight’s mouth that Lee Jun-Kyeong had never expected to hear.

"I know that you competed with Arthur yesterday."

“…”

“There are only a few people who know Merlin’s secret. However, I am one of those who are privy to it.”

Gawain could see that Lee Jun-Kyeong was on edge and quickly continued, “Moreover… I had wanted to compete with Arthur one day, but it was just a small desire, as I never received a chance.”

‘Please.’

Lee Jun-Kyeong desperately hoped that Gawain wouldn’t say what he had planned next, as he had guessed what the knight would most likely say next.

The deserted alley, now that he paid attention to it, seemed to be surrounded by a veil of mana.

Moreover, looking at his bubbling mana…

“Will you do me the honor of a spar?”

He knew this would happen.

***

He wondered if it was because they were all called knights or if it was a characteristic of the British, but these men, whom for the life of him he couldn’t understand, all desired to compete in a spar against him.

It wasn’t just Gawain, but during Lee Jun-Kyeong’s time in the Round Table, even Galahad had requested it from him.

Moreover, to his surprise, even Lancelot asked again. Seemingly having truly realized something, the knight had approached him, apologizing while also secretly requesting a spar this time.

After Lee Jun-Kyeong delivered Excalibur to the Round Table, all he had done was fight.

“Spars. Spars. Is that all they do here?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head.

Although he hadn’t started this journey with the intention of resting, he didn’t think it would have meant he’d be stuck fighting to this degree.

In any case.

“It’s another necklace. While there haven’t been any big changes…” Merlin said, smiling as she handed him her necklace again.

"It will be of great help to you one day. I’ve blocked any skills that could be used to track you or cause you any harm.”

She was someone he couldn’t put a finger on.

The gift that Merlin offered him was her necklace, which was the item he had originally borrowed.

Though, it was a necklace that felt a little more special than before.

"Thank you,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he accepted it.

Then, Merlin asked a question, "May I know your next destination?"

“…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head in response. Although he had already decided on his next destination, he had no obligation to inform her of it.

Merlin responded curiously, however, “By chance, if you have the time… would you be able to stop by the Nile?”

“The Nile?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said with a puzzled look.

He was perplexed because the name had come so suddenly out of the blue.

“I still remember when the Hunter from the Nile from back then, Inebu, caused a disturbance,” Merlin explained.

That was right.

During the Battle of Champions in England, Inebu had visited him while he was injured and had asked him to come to the Nile in broken Korean.

Moreover, he had heard that the Hunter would be going back to receive punishment when he returned to the Nile.

“Why are you asking about that all of a sudden? Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.

“Inebu’s desperation just came to mind. Even when I had transported him back, he had asked once again for us to ask you to come to the Nile.”

“...”

“I heard that his punishment had just been completed over in the Nile. If you have the time, then…” Merlin asked once again.

“I’ll consider it,” Lee Jun-Kyeong replied.

Thank you.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong turned around after finishing up the conversation. Now that he had received Merlin’s goodbye, he was about to leave as he was being seen off by the people of the Round Table.

–Go well.

A voice came over from afar.

–Firework.

That word.

Smirk.

Apparently, Arthur had decided to give that nickname to Lee Jun-Kyeong.