Free Web NovelChapter 307: Every Time I Try to Show You Respect, You Just Have to Open Your Mouth
Yes, he began to spin.
Not his entire body, but rather, he violently whipped the impossibly long neck of the Sway Eel head around.
Under his incredibly precise control of strength, in a mere fraction of a second, the Sway Eel head atop his neck was spun into an absolutely massive fan.
At this exact moment.
Watching this unfold, the expressions on the faces of the three rookie hunters on the battlefield involuntarily began to contort with growing horror. They cried out helplessly:
"I-Instructor...?!!!"
Unfortunately, by the time they realized this piece of equipment possessed an incredibly unique function...
It was already too late.
Once the Sway Eel got spinning, the potion that had just been poured down its neck instantly erupted from the Sway Eel’s mouth like a geyser. The very next second, the immense centrifugal force atomized it into a cloud of green mist.
"Wululululululu—!"
Wide-Range!
Accompanied by that bizarre warble, the green mist showered down upon the group.
The Lance, who had suffered internal injuries earlier, rapidly began to recover his condition. The Tachi and Light Bowgun, who had also sustained minor bruises from being crushed together in the pile-up, were similarly restored to perfect condition.
However, their expressions involuntarily began to transition from horror into something utterly indescribable.
By the end of it.
Realizing they couldn’t dodge it at all and having already been evenly sprayed from head to toe, the only thing left on their faces was pure numbness. freёwebnovel.com
The man, after pulling the exact same stunt with a bottle of Energy Drink, glanced around. Confirming that their injuries and stamina were fully restored, he stepped back without hesitation, pushing the three of them forward to the frontline.
Finally, he decisively chugged a bottle of Demondrug to give the trio a wave of buffs, before immediately barking at them:
"You’ve been buffed! Now get in there!"
As his words fell, he had already retreated to his original spot.
Although it seemed as if nothing had changed, the Sway Eel, which was still continuously bobbing back and forth without any wind, told everyone that what just happened was no hallucination.
It was just that the eyes of the three rookies on the field, experiencing this for the very first time, looked a little dead inside.
He watched as the three hunters on the battlefield, pressured by yet another charge from the Great Jagras, were forced to set aside their meaningless inner turmoil and resume the fight.
Meanwhile, Andrew had actually fully anticipated this absurd stunt from his master.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to prophetically pull Hoshimi Miyabi out of the splash zone right before Sapphire Star initiated it.
After all.
While every hunter knew this was simply a function of the equipment, to Hoshimi Miyabi...
She had no idea this was an armor skill effect.
Although Andrew himself was already completely used to it, he knew perfectly well deep down just how absurd and surreal Sapphire Star’s actions looked to anyone else.
Looking at Hoshimi Miyabi in his arms, who had been staring intensely at the battlefield with absolute focus from start to finish...
"Uh..."
Even though the sheer spectacle of the scene made Andrew want to give up on explaining entirely, for the sake of his master’s image, he still tried to clarify:
"My master is actually always incredibly reliable when encountering real danger. It’s just that when there isn’t any danger, his behavior can seem a little... uninhibited."
After racking his brains, Andrew ultimately chose not to let the word ’absurd’ slip out of his mouth.
But to his complete surprise.
As Hoshimi Miyabi turned her head to look at him, her eyes held absolutely none of the anticipated disgust or revulsion toward Sapphire Star’s surreal actions.
There wasn’t even the basic confusion and shock that Andrew had expected.
In those bright eyes, Andrew only saw sheer amazement at a technique she had never witnessed before, along with a sense of admiration that he had thought absolutely impossible—and frankly, inappropriate—to appear.
She didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with it at all. Instead, she spoke in a tone of pure awe:
"As expected of a mighty warrior worthy of being your master, Andrew! To think of using such an unconventional method just to achieve the fastest possible simultaneous recovery of stamina and condition for his actively battling teammates on a rapidly changing battlefield!"
"?"
What kind of mental gymnastics was this?
So this completely absurd behavior could actually be interpreted like that?!
Hearing Hoshimi Miyabi’s explanation, Andrew was stunned for a moment.
But Miyabi’s train of thought didn’t stop there. Instead, she subconsciously crossed her left arm over her chest and rested her right hand lightly on her chin, murmuring in deep thought:
"If I can master this technique and use it on the battlefields we face after returning to New Eridu, combined with my speed, it would definitely drastically increase the survival rate of the ordinary operatives fighting alongside me!"
At this thought, Hoshimi Miyabi’s eyes suddenly grew even brighter.
She looked at Andrew and asked:
"Andrew! This technique, and that equipment—can I seek guidance from your master and learn it?"
"!"
Hearing that Hoshimi Miyabi wanted to learn this, Andrew’s brain involuntarily blue-screened for a second before he reflexively asked:
"Y-you actually want to learn that?!"
After receiving a confused but affirmative reply from Miyabi, Andrew instantly couldn’t sit still anymore.
A mental image involuntarily surfaced in Andrew’s mind.
During a massive crisis involving the very survival of New Eridu, Section 6—led by the Void Hunter, an essential human combat asset and the hope of New Eridu—deploys in full force to collectively confront the dangers of the Hollows.
Panic-stricken ordinary citizens cheer the arrival of the Void Hunter, only to see four combat operatives in Section 6 uniforms step onto the battlefield—except the person leading them looks a little bit off from the Section 6 Chief in their memories.
What they see is the tallest member of the team, courtesy of an elongated neck, sporting a Sway Eel head wildly flapping in the wind.
In the ensuing battle, this exalted master would occasionally spin around like a top, all while spraying out unknown liquids from her mouth that looked suspiciously like spit.
The mental image was too beautiful; Andrew didn’t dare to keep looking.
Moreover, as the youngest Void Hunter in New Eridu and someone overflowing with charisma, Hoshimi Miyabi possessed an astronomically large fanbase.
If her rabid fans ever found out that he was the reason their beloved Lady Miyabi went on a single external dispatch mission and devolved from a Fox Thiren into such an impossibly cursed Sway Eel Thiren, they would absolutely tear him apart alive within minutes!
No, wait, he wouldn’t even need to wait for the fans.
The moment they got back, the deputy chief of her squad—that pink-haired woman with glasses named Yanagi—would probably be the very first to grab her Ethereal blade to pick a fight, demonstrating what it meant to leave three knife wounds and six holes in him, just to prove that even an intelligence officer could throw hands when thoroughly pissed off.
That woman wasn’t nearly as easy to fool as Hoshimi Miyabi!
For the sake of his future safety in New Eridu, Andrew looked at Miyabi, who was brimming with enthusiasm over the Sway Eel headpiece, and began frantically trying to dissuade her:
"No, no, no, you don’t need this method."
"Trust me, there are plenty of other items and methods here that can achieve the exact same thing! There’s no need to limit yourself to this specific one!!!"
While Andrew was frantically playing damage control on the sidelines, the trio on the battlefield was hitting their stride.
After requiring only two more identical potion-spraying rescues from Sapphire Star—and managing to hold out much longer each time—the increasingly coordinated trio finally completed their very first large monster hunt, finishing it off with a flashy Spirit Helm Breaker from the Tachi main.
As the monster collapsed, the three of them finally let out a sigh of relief before immediately embracing each other in an excited, cheering hug.
It went on for quite a while.
Once they had calmed back down, the three finally released their embrace and looked with immense anticipation at Sapphire Star, who had been silently watching them from the sidelines the entire time.
Meeting their expectant gazes, Sapphire Star slightly lowered his head. The Sway Eel head bowed along with it, exuding an unusually imposing aura.
He nodded and slowly spoke:
"The Great Jagras hunting request has been confirmed complete. However..."
Before the three could even celebrate, that subsequent ’however’ from Sapphire Star, followed by his stern tone, caused the trio—who had been feeling pretty good about themselves—to instinctively lower their heads.
They watched as Sapphire Star directly raised a finger, listing out their flaws one by one:
"The mistakes made during this hunt are too numerous to count. The coordination between the three of you was riddled with holes and severely disjointed, and even your techniques with your Dragon-hunting weapons leave much to be desired."
Under the scathing critique from Sapphire Star, acting as both instructor and examiner, the trio’s excited hearts gradually cooled off.
Even their heads, previously dizzy with the joy of a successful hunt, involuntarily hung low.
Seeing the three crestfallen figures before him, Sapphire Star decided that was about enough and abruptly shifted his tone:
"Therefore, after becoming independent, fully-fledged hunters, you must not neglect your daily training. If you want to become elite hunters, you need to remember to correct all the issues I just mentioned!"
Meeting their eyes, which were once again revealing flashes of pleasant surprise, a smile tugged at the corner of Sapphire Star’s mouth.
He nodded and steered the conversation once more:
"But regardless, nicely done."
"At least for now, enjoy your first day as true hunters, shouldering the responsibility of maintaining the balance of nature!"
Hearing this, the heads of the three crestfallen rookies snapped up instantly, their eyes betraying a subconscious need to double-check if they had heard the delayed praise correctly.
When Sapphire Star nodded again, confirming that their ears hadn’t deceived them, the three hunters immediately beamed with joy.
Snapping to attention, they delivered a solemn salute to the legendary hunter of the New World standing before them—the Sapphire Star, who had taken care of them countless times during their training:
"Yes, Instructor!"
Watching this scene unfold, Andrew couldn’t help but sigh in nostalgia.
Back when Sapphire Star had taken him on his first true large monster hunt, the scene had played out exactly like this.
When this guy actually got serious, he was incredibly reliable.
It just would have been a lot better if the monster he had taken Andrew to hunt back then was a normal Great Jagras, instead of an Anjanath.
After excitedly summoning their Wingdrakes, the three turned back to look at Sapphire Star, who remained standing exactly where he was, and asked:
"Instructor, aren’t you heading back with us?"
Faced with their invitation, Sapphire Star merely shook his head and replied:
"No, you guys head back first. I’ve still got two guests waiting here for me to entertain."
"Understood!"
Seeing this, the three didn’t press the matter.
Knowing that Sapphire Star certainly had his reasons, they nodded in response, fired their Clutch Claws, and securely latched onto the talons of the Wingdrakes hovering above.
The next moment, the three were hoisted into the air by the flapping wings of the Wingdrakes, flying off toward the wooden ship on the distant cliffside.
Watching the three fly away, Sapphire Star shifted his gaze and immediately locked onto the exact location where Andrew and Hoshimi Miyabi were standing.
He then spoke in a cool, flat tone:
"You two visitors of unknown identity. Care to reveal yourselves for a chat?"
A gentle breeze swept past, leaving only the Sway Eel twisting softly in the wind.
Seeing his master put on such a profound, dramatic act, Andrew felt a pang of regret for reproducing all those classic novels from his memory back in the day.
However, Andrew wasn’t surprised in the slightest that they had been discovered.
After all, from the moment he had approached this battlefield, he hadn’t made any attempt to sneak around or hide his presence.
Couple that with Hoshimi Miyabi, who fundamentally didn’t know the meaning of the word ’hide’.
Andrew would have actually found it unthinkable if the other party hadn’t noticed them.
Now that Sapphire Star had pinpointed his location, Andrew stopped hiding.
Even though Andrew always had an endless stream of inner complaints whenever he thought of Sapphire Star, the moment he actually stood before the master he hadn’t seen in so long, his heart was filled with nothing but the joy of reunion.
Back when he had first arrived in this world, completely alone and with nowhere to turn, Sapphire Star—acting as his master—had undeniably become one of the people closest to him.
Counting the days...
Between his time in the Forbidden Lands and his subsequent stay in New Eridu, it had been nearly four years since he had last seen his master.
Suppressing the sentimentality and excitement swelling in his chest, Andrew walked over and stopped in front of the unmoving Sapphire Star. freeweɓnovel.cøm
Taking off his helmet, Andrew gazed at the old geezer whose presence had grown incredibly familiar over the years, an unconscious smile blooming on his face.
Facing his master, who was only slightly shorter than him in height, Andrew smiled and spoke:
"It’s been a long time, Master. I hope you’ve been well?"
"Running into your beloved disciple you haven’t seen in ages so suddenly—are you feeling pleasantly surprised?"
Just as Andrew was eagerly anticipating what kind of reaction his master would have, Sapphire Star—who was still standing with his arms crossed like a martial arts grandmaster—got a clear look at the newcomer’s face and instinctively blurted out:
"Didn’t you die, kid? It’s been ages since your seventh-day mourning passed, and your spirit is actually still coming back?!"
"?"
Confronted with this suddenly explosive remark, a momentarily stunned Andrew watched as Sapphire Star took two steps back, as if a sudden realization had hit him. With a voice laced with terror, he said:
"Wait, you’re not turning into a vengeful ghost coming back to haunt me just because I took the opportunity to swipe all those precious Decorations of yours, are you?!"
"Come on, for the sake of all our years as master and disciple—just for a few Decorations, there’s no need for that! Really, no need!"
"#"
Staring at the Sway Eel head wobbling back and forth in tandem with Sapphire Star’s movements, Andrew—who just moments ago had been trembling with the excitement of their reunion—now found his mind consumed by nothing but pure, unadulterated rage.
Andrew’s fists were quietly clenching tight.
"You old geezer! Every single time I try to show you some respect, you just have to open your mouth!"
Looking at Sapphire Star, who was now putting on a cowering and guilty act in front of him, Andrew completely lost his temper and roared:
"Who gave you the right to curse me and spread rumors that I’m dead?! I’ll still be alive long after the day you suddenly drop dead back at the base!!"
"And you actually swiped my Decorations...?!!!"
____
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