Main Character Hides His Strength

e of Sungchul’s brow shot up.
If he wasn’t lying, it was an impressive growth.

‘This guy… he’s quite impressive.’

As soon as Jungshik finished speaking, he began to swing his Blade of Swiftness at a fearsome speed, and his goons surrounded Sungchul, all with a dangerous expression on their faces.

Before long, ten thousand swings had been finished.
Jungshik wiped off his brow with a towel that was presented by one of his subordinates and checked over his stats.

“Oh wow.”

Jungshik smiled with great satisfaction.
He immediately gathered his gang and shouted.

“Gather around.
From now on, it’s time for hellish training.”

Sungchul was no longer on his mind.
He was soaked in excitement at the prospect of strengthening his faction that he had already forgotten about Sungchul’s existence.
Sungchul left the group of men who were swinging blades with fervor and began thinking to himself.

‘We need those kinds of people at times too.’

Jungshik’s faction would probably grow at a scary pace under Jungshik’s authority as long as he obtained a way of raising their strength.
However, Hakchul had been given the same cards yet his group didn’t show any particular attempt to follow through with it.
They just stared blankly from a distance like cattle, while Jungshik’s group trained diligently.
They might be 5 times larger than Jungshik’s group, but at this rate, comparing the two factions will be like comparing heaven and earth.

“Hey! Don’t screw around! Hurry! Hurry up and do this so we can sweep up those annoying bastards”

Jangshik’s sharp commands drew a clear vision of the future for Sungchul.

‘Hakchul’s faction is soon going to get eaten up by Jungshik’s faction.’

If Jungshik didn’t get his hands on the common quest list, his faction would never have had enough strength to overcome such large numbers.
There might be a bloodbath before the actual rank match between the factions.
This was one of the basic natures of humans.
However, this was aligned with Sungchul’s objectives.

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‘I have to use everything available to me in order to kill the Tam Tam and secure Blanche Plaza to number 1 during the rank match.
This is the most surefire way to getting all the Palace Tokens I need into my grasp.’

He made his way out of the plaza as the sound of Jungshik group’s martial cries faded away.

–
The Rank Match was but a few days away, it was a rigorous training process.
The Preselected were physically exhausted, but with the danger of death looming over them, and Sungchul’s guidance, they had managed to become fighters capable of holding their own in the next 5 days.
They were now fighters that had an average strength, dexterity, and vitality higher than 25.
This was the greatest force that Sungchul had for the upcoming Rank Match.

He watched over his preselected who had grown enough that he let out a content smile as he brought out some prepared gifts.
It was a slab of meat wrapped in leaves; this was the reward he had received six days ago.
Other summoned had greedily eaten their shares on the day they received it, but Sungchul was different.
He had flavored the meat with salt and pepper, then fermented the meat in a dry location after wrapping it in leaves.

“Wasn’t this from a week ago? It must be rotten by now…”

Sunghae dried off her sweat and looked over the meat.
Sungchul silently unwrapped the leaves.

It looked completely dry at first glance and parts of it had turned black, but for those that knew their meat, it told a different story.

“Dry aging?”

One of Sunghae’s brows shot up.
He nodded and wrapped the meat up again.

“I don’t mean to boast, but I am confident in my cooking.”

In reality, Sungchul was a master chef, due to this sub class: High class Chef.
His skills would’ve embarrassed even chefs of the royalties.

He placed the wrapped meat on top of a wide flat stone then grilled it patiently at a slow rate.
The cathedral was filled with a delicious aroma.

“Wow~ That smells awesome.”

Yungjong wiped off some drool with his sleeves and begged to have a piece.
The two bodyguards and even the wealthy princess, Sunghae, was not an exception.
They all waited for it to be cooked, their eyes glued to the meat.

It had been two weeks since the mass summoning which had brought them here, and all this time, they only managed to eat hard bread and apples.
No one had eaten proper food in a long while, and now that the greatest chef had prepared some food for them, how could they not start losing their composure?

Sungchul finally cut open the leaves wrapping the meat with his beginner blade and revealed the meat within.

Chiiiiik-

The meat juices and the aroma stuffed within the leaves exploded out and melted the last few bits of awkwardness between them.
Sungchul expressionlessly acknowledged the meat and nodded his head.

“It’s good to eat now.”

With a cheer, they began their feast.
Delicious food always improved the mood; the four preselected gathered here forgot their differences and fully soaked in Sungchul’s world of delicious flavors.
Conversation flowed freely and the participants stopped judging one another.

“I’m really grateful, Mr.
Yungjong.
Thank you for saving me.”
“No! It was nothing! Haha! I just did what I had to.”

Before Sungchul noticed, it seems like the two had gotten much closer than before.
Sungchul noticed the vial of Divine Elixir of Escape that Yungjong had been discreetly fidgeting in his grasp.
He smiled, amused, before shoving another piece of meat into his mouth.

‘They say the creature called man will willingly give a woman he loves his liver or his gallbladder.’*

His cooking skill was something Sungchul was smug about.
Not that he was trying to brag, but a rare smile formed on his lips.

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However, Sungchul suddenly noticed someone’s gaze from behind him.
It was Ahram; he had avoided everyone after being punched by Yungjong, but he suddenly appeared on the final day before the rank match.
He stared at the happily feasting Yungjong and Sunghae, before disappearing into the darkness again.

“Kim hyung! Is something wrong?”

The excited Yungjong called out to Sungchul.
Sungchul calmly memorized the direction in which Ahram had disappeared to as Yungjong called him again.

“What’s wrong? Kim hyung.”
“Ahram came by and looked over you and Sunghae before leaving.”
“That bitch? Me? Why?”
“I don’t know why, but you better be careful.”
“Pfft.
What can that kid do to me? Even Sunghae is strong enough to step all over him.”

Yungjong felt Sunghae’s gaze and exaggerated a bit.
She laughed a bit and motioned for him to rejoin the feast.

He definitely wasn’t wrong.
Over the last five days, Yungjong had become much stronger, and Ahram simply stared blankly from the corner of the training center and did nothing.
However, There was something that bothered Sungchul.
He recalled the red-headed female mage with a freckled face in charge of Ahram.
She had been rather skilled.

‘That woman couldn’t possibly be called out for revenge? No… that kind of thing…”

That kind of event was unthinkable.
The Summoning Palace explicitly forbids anyone from touching the summoned physically without proper permission from the Palace.
Strictly speaking, the existence of the preselected were also illegal, but that was easier to pull off because no mage directly used their strength on any of the summoned.
To harm the summoned meant to challenge the authority of the Summoning Palace.
They say there is a fine line between bending the rules and breaking it, but the consequences of the two offenses were vastly different.

There was no way that a mid-rank mage would give up their lives for another, but there were always exceptions… Or so Sungchul thought as he cautioned Yungjong.

“There is no reason not to be careful.”
“Pssh.
You should also be careful, hyung.
That brat doesn’t like either of us.

Yungjong smirked before returning to the feast.
The joyous sounds of laughter rang out from the forsaken cathedral.

–

Clunk!

The iron gates of the Plaza opened with a suffocating dread.
Hundreds of summoned watched quietly with hushed breaths as the monster slowly revealed its form through the massive gates.

“W… what is that?”
“Th-that’s crazy…”

It was a massive primate with crimson light emanating from its fur.
The humans trembled before every one of them retreated from the dominating presence of the massive monster.
The grotesque creature’s tire-sized eyes gazed across the humans standing around its feet.
Their terrified faces filled its blue eyes.

“OOKIKIKI!”

The monster revealed its teeth with a wide smile and started to laugh.

Tam Tam.

The worst monster of Pacman rules had arrived at the Blanche Plaza.