Hunter Academy’s Battle God

Although Blue Dragon Sios had lost to Sardonyx, it was still a rank 7. Despite that, it would lose most of its former strength if it was revived as a bone dragon.

If it was a bone dragon, though, it would be able to resurrect for as long as the ‘core’, the equivalent of a dragon’s heart, was intact.

[Progress Rate until summoned 50%…]

[Conditions for the 'Body' have been fulfilled.]

[To go beyond 50%, something comparable to a dragon’s core is required.]

"Impressive," YuSung mumbled in surprise while reading Sumire's hologram.

"Is… is that so?"

"Although each entity is different, a bone dragon is a familiar spirit comparable to a rank 6 boss monster. Of course, we still need to find a core…"

Sumire's fighting capability had constantly been increasing since she obtained Laplace’s fragment, but she still felt uneasy, almost as if she’d committed a crime.

"B-but still… The dragon skull is a rare ingredient… It's something you obtained from soloing a raid. I cannot accept this for free… S-so I was thinking…"

After becoming a Seven, Sumire had been saving up whatever money she could after sending most of it to Japan.

Even if they were aiming to become hunters, most of them were students. Still, Sumire had received money for participating in the International Competition and had taken part in dungeon subjugations.

Thanks to that, she had saved up 30K USD.

"It… it's still not enough, but slowly…"

As Sumire showed him her balance, YuSung shook his head.

"It's okay, Sumire. I planned to use the skull to strengthen my party. Of course, I wasn't expecting it to be used for a summoning ceremony…"

YuSung didn't need hunter equipment in the first place, so he didn't mind how the skull was used as long as his party members became stronger.

"Sumire, we're all receiving a lot of help from you. You always cook for us. That's enough."

"Cook…" Sumire mumbled while making a moved expression.

Her cooking was enough. That meant he thought her cooking had almost as much value as a dragon skull, which had a minimum market value of five million USD.

"You like my cooking that much…" She knew how much YuSung liked her cooking, but she couldn’t help but feel moved.

"Yes. Just being able to eat your food is enough."

'Paying this debt with food…?'

On average, it cost her five dollars to cook for one person.

Five million USD was enough money for Sumire to prepare 961,538 lunch boxes with money left over.

If she cooked three meals a day, that should be 320,512 days.

878 years…

No matter how luxurious the food she prepared was, it would at least take 200 years.

She gathered some courage and said, "Then, to repay you for the skull, I'll cook for you! Is… is that okay?"

YuSung nodded at her. It was a miraculous moment when YuSung's dragon skull was exchanged for Sumire's food coupons.

"Sumire, take care of Adela until the day of the Tower's subjugation. Let her stay in your dormitory, please."

Thanks to EunAh's opposition, Adela ended up staying in Sumire's room.

'If it's Sumire…'

If they thought about it, EunAh opened her heart and thought she wanted to stay in the party thanks to Sumire as well, not just YuSung.

Unlike YuSung, Sumire was very social, so she would definitely be able to be friendly with Adela.

"Leave it to me!" Sumire replied with a smile.

YuSung also smiled. "Then, I'll leave it to you."

Sumire left the room, and YuSung looked at Gaon’s sunlit grounds.

'So…'

Whether it was building a party capable of subjugating the Tower or obtaining strength to fulfill his dream, YuSung was preparing everything step by step, but…

'Is it time?'

Since everyone had gotten stronger, he also had a wall he needed to surpass.

* * *

* * *

Sumire's dormitory was clean and organized.

Adela slowly looked around. "It's quite a clean room… It smells good as well."

The scent was from a diffuser that had a stick shaped like a violet flower.

Sumire smiled proudly as the diffuser she liked so much was praised. "Is… is that so? Then think of this as your house and stay comfortably!"

Adela silently sat on the sofa as Sumire tidied up a bit and changed. Then, they stared awkwardly at each other.

"This is your room, so I'll bathe once you're done."

"Aah…"

Unlike EunAh, who had bathing with a friend of the same gender on her bucket list, Adela seemed to want to bathe after her.

She'd spent a lot of time with EunAh but barely knew Adela.

[Sumire, take care of Adela until the day of the Tower's subjugation. Let her stay in your dormitory, please.]

She’d gathered her courage after hearing YuSung’s request, though.

"Then, rather than waiting alone, why don't we take a bath together?"

"Together…?" Adela tilted her head at Sumire's proposal.

"Yes! Although the bathtub isn't that big, both of us should be able to enter!"

After thinking about it for a short while, Adela nodded. "It's my first time bathing with another person… but I don't mind."

* * * *

Steam rose from the bathtub. Adela was the type of person who took many showers, but Sumire preferred the Japanese style of sinking into a tub.

"How's the temperature?" Sumire asked with a smile.

Adela nodded as if she recognized the true meaning of a bath. "It feels like my tiredness is going away… It seems like taking baths after subjugations will be better than taking showers."

There was an awkward silence after they finished talking. They just looked at each other until Sumire opened her mouth as she looked at Adela’s body.

"Woah… Adela, you have good skin. You don't have any imperfections, and it's really white…"

Sumire began tickling Adela. "On top of that, it's really soft~" She was being playful because she wanted to get close.

Adela ended up laughing from the tickles. "Ugh, ah…" Because of her pale skin, even if her face slightly turned red, it was extremely apparent.

"It's my first time seeing you embarrassed…"

Adela's reactions grew more extreme after a few changes of emotion. Sumire seemed to be having fun teasing her.

"Why don't we put some foam on each other? If you’re okay with it, of course…" Sumire began asking for more things to get closer to Adela.

"Although it's a bit embarrassing… Sure. I feel like it's going to be a good experience." Adela submerged all of her body other than her eyes. Sumire had seen a familiar scene when she entered the bathtub with EunAh.

The bathtub was an interesting place.

EunAh and Adela were both very confident, but why did they both feel embarrassed inside a bathtub?

'She might be cuter than I thought…'

Thanks to that, Sumire's scary and cold image of Adela started to change.

* * * *

After finishing their bath, Sumire and Adela sat on the bed.

"There isn't anything better than this before sleeping!"

Of course, that was because Sumire had insisted they watch a horror movie together.

In reality, watching a horror movie in Sumire's house was a long-standing tradition.

[3. Watching a horror movie while eating cookies.]

It was number three on EunAh's bucket list. That list had been one of the biggest reasons for Sumire and EunAh getting closer.

It was a humble goal for someone who was the heir of a big conglomerate, but Sumire was the first same-gender friend EunAh had made.

"This is a horror movie that's quite popular in Japan. It has a ghost that appears from the TV and curses you…" After giving her a brief explanation of the story, Sumire turned on the TV.

"I see." Adela didn't seem that interested until the movie started. She was never interested in things like watching movies.

[ZZ, ZZZ!]

[Kukuku…]

As the movie started, a ghost emerged from a TV while holding a katana.

"Woah…" Adela exclaimed in surprise.

"Huh? Why is a ghost holding a katana…?" Sumire, on the other hand, was surprised at the unexpected direction the story was taking. That wasn’t the only weird thing about the movie.

[Ssss! Chuee!]

As a black alien came out and began dripping saliva, Sumire's doubts became a reality.

"There's something strange with this movie!"

Only then did she check the title.

[Space's strongest alien VS Samurai curse ghost!]

What Sumire wanted to see was a movie that was called something like ‘TV's Curse’ or something, but she ended up picking a third-rate parody by mistake.

[I'm… Samdako, Jun Connor. I came out of the TV from the future to save you.]

After saying that, the ghost drew a sword.

BZZT.

A somewhat recognizable blue light began shining from the katana.

"Oh…" Adela was watching the third-rate parody movie with great interest.

"The alien is strong enough to conquer the universe, but if it's a laser weapon capable of cutting through the hardest steel like that… There's… definitely a chance."

Adela had become so immersed that she was analyzing the movie.

"I see. I understand why Samdako went to the future…"

"To protect Jun Connor, Samdako needed a technology from the future capable of killing the alien."

Adela was seriously moved by a third-rate movie's bad settings. Sumire smiled at her.

'I guess it doesn't matter since she’s having fun…'

The night with Adela in the dormitories was more entertaining than expected.