“Their performances are weaker than I expected.”
Saria evaluated the candidates’ combat abilities as she observed their battles on the large monitor.
The entrance exam, structured into 10 stages, was proving to be a formidable challenge.
Most candidates were eliminated by the 2nd or 3rd stage, and even those who were considered skilled or promising couldn’t pass the 4th stage.
“This two-person team format seems to be dragging people down more than I thought,” Saria remarked.
Si-woo nodded quietly in agreement.
The abilities of the candidates displayed on the monitor weren’t necessarily lacking.
Even if they fell short compared to Saria, the gap wasn’t huge—maybe three levels at most.
None of them should have struggled so much against something as minor as a kobold pack.
“They’re too concerned about their partners.”
Yet these candidates failed to show their full potential, their focus diverted toward accommodating their partners.
But Saria knew that the Academy didn’t care about teamwork or cooperative problem-solving.
If the Academy wanted to assess those qualities, they would have instructed the candidates to form proper teams beforehand.
What the Academy sought was compatibility under pressure.
How well could hastily matched pairs perform without hindering each other? How effectively could they exert their full strength?
However, many of the candidates misunderstood the test’s purpose.
Instead of focusing on clearing the challenges, they wasted energy on cooperating, which resulted in their inability to display their actual skills.
“Oh, but that one’s doing well,” Saria commented, her attention caught by a specific candidate.
Si-woo turned to look at the monitor, curious about who had impressed her.
The screen showed a lone figure.
“Wait, if one person’s been eliminated, shouldn’t the test be over?” Si-woo wondered.
Just then.
Slash!
Something sliced through the air.
The female partner, seemingly frozen in confusion, had no idea what had happened.
In the blink of an eye, invisible strikes cleaved through the monsters, striking their vital points with precision.
“An invisibility-type engraving?” Saria speculated.
“No, it’s not that simple,” Si-woo replied, analyzing the scene.
“Even the Academy’s cameras couldn’t detect them.”
If the Academy’s advanced monitoring systems couldn’t track this person, it meant that their engraving allowed them to suppress not just their mana signature but also their body heat.
A level of control far beyond ordinary invisibility.
Si-woo sharpened his focus, trying to catch any hint of movement on the monitor.
Would he find even a trace of activity? He watched the unfolding massacre intently, holding on to a faint hope of uncovering a clue.
“Nothing…”
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see anything.
He couldn’t discern what weapon the candidate was using or even how they moved.
Despite his desperate attempts to gather even the smallest bit of information, not even the shadow of the assassin appeared in his vision.
Realizing that further observation would yield nothing, Si-woo made up his mind.
He closed his eyes and refocused his concentration.
After a few more rounds of combat, it was finally Si-woo’s party’s turn.
Awakened by the examiner’s voice, Si-woo drew the sword at his side.
The blade, revealed from its scabbard, looked entirely ordinary.
It wasn’t a mystical enchanted sword imbued with special powers, but simply a mana-enhanced steel greatsword, sharper and sturdier than most weapons but nothing extraordinary.
“Unnecessary gimmicks would only get in the way of my swordsmanship.”
As his mentor had once said, magical tools were a hindrance to the type of swordsmanship Si-woo intended to master.
“The exam’s format should already be clear to you. Magical tools and items are prohibited, but for your primary weapon, C-rank equipment is allowed,” the examiner explained.
“Crena’s Staff, C-rank,” Saria stated.
“Mana-enhanced greatsword, D-rank,” Si-woo added.
“Understood. Please note that you may channel mana into the device provided to signal surrender. In emergencies, you can also forcefully terminate the golems.”
After listening to the lengthy instructions, Si-woo and Saria stepped into the gate.
At first, the unfamiliar sensation of the gate’s spatial distortion made Si-woo frown slightly, but it didn’t last long.
Soon, the environment beyond the gate filled their vision.
The oppressive dampness of a jungle greeted them, the air thick with the musty scent of rot and decay.
The ominous atmosphere hinted at the presence of monsters lurking nearby.
As they entered a goblin settlement, a scene they had only seen on monitors, Saria raised her staff, already preparing her magic.
“Time to get started.”
Saria began channeling her mana, deliberately taking her time, slower than usual.
If she were to get serious, she wouldn’t need any preparation time to cast her spells.
The only reason for her deliberate pacing was simple—she wanted to give her partner, Si-woo, a chance to shine.
“He’ll need more than just a minute, right?”
Having experienced Si-woo’s engraving firsthand, Saria had formed her conclusions.
A status effect engraving, one that specialized in charming others—this was how she interpreted the Symbol of Allure.
She was convinced that this particular entrance exam would be exceptionally difficult for him.
If they were tackling a regular gate, Si-woo’s engraving could have been useful for charming female monsters and turning them to their advantage.
But in the controlled environment of this exam, the Academy had chosen golems modeled after monsters for safety purposes.
Golems had no gender.
“Poor guy, talk about bad luck.”
To Saria, luck was the most critical quality for a Hunter.
Awakening an engraving was a stroke of luck in itself.
But what really mattered was which engraving and what rank one received, as it dictated how the world would treat them.
While it was possible to grow stronger through learned techniques—like mastering mana control or studying swordsmanship—those were secondary factors.
The crux of a Hunter’s potential lay in their engraving and its rank.
“I’ll buy him about 2 to 3 minutes.”
Saria’s decision was part calculation, part sympathy.
While she considered Si-woo’s engraving to be useless as a Hunter, she also recognized its value from a guild’s perspective.
The ability to naturally attract people and gain their favor.
An appearance that stood out even among the sea of beautiful Hunters.
A charisma that drew people in, paired with an instinctive ability to command attention—these were qualities that made Si-woo’s engraving incredibly appealing to someone like Saria, who envisioned leading a guild as a business entity.
“Might as well build some rapport with him here.”
“Alright, let’s get started, shall we…?” Saria murmured, ready to begin.
Just as Saria was about to speak, it happened.
“…Huh?”
The once smooth and natural flow of mana suddenly warped.
The mana, which had been flowing like a breeze, began to swirl, condensing into a vortex.
It compressed to an impossible density that even Saria, with her extensive experience, could not handle.
And all of it centered around a single person.
“Hoo…”
The mana’s focal point was Si-woo.
The mana gathered at his heart, where it was transformed into fuel for his body.
It flowed through his veins, starting from his nervous system, enhancing every aspect of his physiology.
Through precise electrical signals, his nervous system’s processing speed was pushed to its limits.
This enhancement technique was nothing unusual for melee-focused Hunters.
It was a standard skill to use mana to strengthen the body:
Muscles became denser and stronger.
Bones became harder and more durable.
A human body was reshaped into something closer to a monster.
But what Saria saw… this was different.
“That’s… enhancement?”
Saria, who could read mana flows with her advanced abilities, stared in disbelief.
What Si-woo was doing was similar in principle yet vastly different in execution.
Ordinary Hunters used enhancement to focus on physical elements like muscles and bones.
However, Si-woo’s enhancement didn’t stop there—it encompassed his entire nervous system, including his brain.
Parts of the body that were normally beyond human control were reshaped to optimize combat performance.
“How… how is he doing that?!”
Before Saria’s chaotic thoughts could settle, Si-woo moved.
With a boom and a powerful gust of wind, he launched forward from his position.
Even Saria’s mana detection, sharp enough to read most movements, couldn’t track him.
In the blink of an eye, Si-woo reached the heart of the goblin settlement and began to unleash a breathtaking display of swordsmanship.
“Wha…”
What Saria’s eyes could register were only afterimages of the blade.
His movements were too fast, too fluid to comprehend.
The only thing she could truly recognize was one fact:
Si-woo’s enhancement had pushed him into a league far beyond ordinary Hunters.
Tap.
With each light step, a goblin’s death was assured.
There were no screams.
Before a cry could escape their throats, the goblins were beheaded, their deaths sealing their silence.
Any goblin witnessing the carnage didn’t even have time to react.
Tap.
Slash!
With every strike, Si-woo’s blade robbed the goblins of their vocal cords, leaving them voiceless in their final moments.
Each soft footfall was accompanied by a slash, scattering blood through the air.
A gentle breeze swirled, carrying with it a spray of red as if flowers were blooming in the air.
The scene was identical to the assassin’s movements they had witnessed on the monitor earlier.
A flash of silver glinted. Death followed.
Every swing of the mana-infused steel sword reduced the goblin numbers exponentially.
To an uninformed observer, it might have seemed as if an A-rank Hunter had casually wandered into an F-rank gate for a stroll.
Saria stood frozen, even forgetting to breathe as she watched the overwhelming gap in skill.
When she finally snapped back to her senses and remembered this was an entrance exam, her device beeped, delivering the cold, hard truth:
<Stage 1 cleared. Completion time: 58 seconds.>
“Hoo…”
Si-woo wiped the sweat from his forehead and approached Saria with a calm smile.
Finally, the moment he had been waiting for arrived. He couldn’t hold back his words any longer.
Glancing at the staff she still gripped tightly, he remarked with a polite smile:
“Looks like it really wasn’t necessary after all.”
That tedious method.