The instructors, impressed by Si-woo and Saria’s performance thus far, nevertheless believed they had reached their limit.
“No matter how skilled they are, they’re still just candidates. They’ll hit their ceiling at Stage 7,” one instructor remarked.
“Are those going to show up now?”
“Yes, we set them to appear starting at Stage 7,” another replied.
From Stage 1 to Stage 6, the monsters were purely physical threats or relied on overwhelming numbers.
They were designed to be manageable, provided the candidates met the basic criteria.
Even professional Hunters wouldn’t struggle too much against these creatures.
Stage 6 represented the upper threshold of “manageable monsters.”
But at Stage 7, things changed.
“The introduction of monsters that use engravings.”
These monsters possessed abilities that mimicked engravings, making them far more dangerous.
Even for active Hunters, defeating such creatures was a daunting task, requiring more than just good engraving compatibility.
<Stage 7 begins.>
As soon as Si-woo and Saria entered the gate, something prickled their senses.
A faint citrus-like scent filled the air.
The aroma instinctively relaxed their tension, loosening Saria’s shoulders despite her heightened focus just moments earlier.
Her crimson eyes dimmed as her rationality began to fade.
“Without magical tools, subduing hypnosis-type monsters is impossible,” one examiner commented grimly.
The monster for Stage 7 was a Smoker, named for its ability to emit gas laced with pheromones.
As its name suggested, it relied on gaseous attacks to influence its targets, manipulating their minds and instincts.
“The Academy is cruel, aren’t they?”
“No kidding. This is more like a graduation exam than an entrance test.”
It wasn’t designed for all candidates to succeed. Most of the instructors agreed on that.
The Academy considered Stage 6 the highest a candidate was realistically expected to clear.
Beyond that, the focus shifted to evaluating their situational adaptability—their ability to remain composed under extreme conditions.
“Smoker’s threat level is only D-rank,” one instructor noted.
“Yeah, but they teach students how to kill it without gas masks around their second year. Until then, it’s basically untouchable.”
Unlike earlier stages, the instructors watched the monitor with minimal expectations.
“At least Kang Si-woo seems unaffected,” one instructor observed.
“Well, he is a charm-type engraving holder. He probably has innate resistance to status effects, unlike Saria,” another reasoned.
“But he won’t last long.”
The Smoker’s gas grew denser the closer one got to it.
Without gas masks, the most effective strategy was to attack the Smoker from a distance, eliminating it before its gas could overpower them.
“With Saria incapacitated, there’s no way to recover from this,” one instructor commented.
“By the way, what status effect did they program into this Smoker’s gas?” a new instructor asked, sounding uneasy.
“Hypnosis,” the veteran instructor replied nonchalantly.
In previous exams, the Smoker had relied on gas that caused sleep or paralysis.
However, in this two-person team test, the Academy’s twisted customization introduced hypnosis instead.
This choice wasn’t random—it was designed to force candidates to deal with the conflict of their partner being turned against them.
The new instructors were unnerved by how far the Academy would go to push its candidates.
The logical course of action for Si-woo was to forfeit.
In real life, retreating would have been the most prudent decision.
“Wait, what?”
To their surprise, Si-woo showed no interest in the surrender device.
Instead, he calmly unbuttoned the cuff of his white shirt, revealing the faint purple glow of his engraving beneath.
Click.
The button came undone, and his wrist was fully exposed.
Si-woo channeled mana into his engraving.
Until now, he had deliberately suppressed its power, keeping its influence to a bare minimum to avoid affecting those around him.
But now, he released its full strength.
As his engraving activated, its charm ability spread throughout the gate, targeting every presence of reason within the subspace.
The instructors exchanged confused glances.
They all knew that charm abilities didn’t work on golems. Si-woo himself had demonstrated this by relying solely on his swordsmanship up to this point.
Why, then, was he using his charm ability now?
“Is this some kind of… desperate last stand?”
It wasn’t.
Something did exist within Si-woo’s range of influence—something capable of reason.
Saria.
Already under the effects of hypnosis, her mental defenses were completely gone, leaving her entirely vulnerable to Si-woo’s charm.
The situation had shifted, and the instructors watched in stunned silence as Si-woo’s engraving came into play in an unexpected way.
“Get a grip.”
“!!”
At the sound of Si-woo’s voice, Saria’s body reacted instinctively.
The Smoker’s hypnosis was utterly overpowered by Si-woo’s charm engraving.
The Smoker’s danger level might have been D-rank, but Si-woo’s engraving was at least B-rank, if not higher.
While his engraving might not work against true monsters like his mentor, it was far more than enough to neutralize the effects of a mere hypnosis-based creature like the Smoker.
“Hah…”
Saria’s consciousness returned, her mind slowly clearing under Si-woo’s influence.
But even so, she wasn’t entirely herself.
“Hmm, this feels… heavy.”
Si-woo recognized the look she was giving him—it was one he had often seen in the past, back when he lacked control over his engraving and its power spilled out uncontrollably.
At this level, his charm wasn’t much different from a form of hypnosis itself.
“I’ll have to release her quickly.”
“Use wind magic to clear the smoke,” Si-woo instructed firmly.
“Yes…” Saria responded, her tone almost robotic as she complied.
Whoooosh!
At Si-woo’s command, Saria unleashed a gust of wind magic, dispersing the thick smoke that had blanketed the dungeon.
The obscured environment of the gate became clear to Si-woo, and with it, the source of the gas was revealed.
In the center of the dungeon stood the Smoker, its form now fully visible.
“?!”
Caught off guard by the sudden clearing of the smoke, the Smoker moved to react.
Against an ordinary Hunter, this might have been enough to exploit a mistake and escape.
But for Si-woo…
Slash!
There was no room for errors.
Si-woo’s strike landed with precision, cutting down the Smoker in an instant.
The device chimed, signaling the completion of the 7th stage.
<Stage 7 cleared.>
As Si-woo suppressed the power of his charm engraving, he calmly buttoned his white shirt cuff.
The faint purple glow of his engraving dimmed, and the overwhelming allure that had temporarily clouded Saria’s mind dissipated to the point of being nearly imperceptible.
Saria blinked, her expression still slightly awkward as she regained full control of her thoughts.
“…I heard about it, but experiencing it feels strange,” she admitted.
“There shouldn’t be any lasting side effects,” Si-woo reassured her.
“…Huh? Are you sure about that?” she asked, her tone skeptical.
“Yes. If there are side effects, we’ll know in a few days at most,” Si-woo replied casually, avoiding her confused gaze.
After Stage 7
Following the intense challenge of the 7th stage, the 8th and 9th stages turned out to be unexpectedly manageable.
Even so, neither Si-woo nor Saria allowed themselves to relax.
No matter how straightforward the preceding stages had been, they both knew what awaited them at the final stage:
Stage 10.
“Do you think they really designed this to be beatable?” Saria asked, her voice tinged with doubt.
Si-woo hesitated before responding, also unsure.
“They wouldn’t use anything too extreme, right? It’s just a replica,” he said, trying to reassure both Saria and himself.
“Still… putting a dragon-type monster in the Academy entrance exam seems insane, doesn’t it?”
Si-woo fervently nodded in agreement.
The Academy wasn’t unreasonable enough to place an actual dragon in the entrance exam.
While the test was notoriously difficult, it wasn’t designed to pit newly awakened candidates against an A-rank dragon-level threat.
“Besides, it’s not even possible to fully replicate a dragon as a golem.”
The technology to create golems currently capped at replicating C-rank monsters.
Even B-rank wyverns couldn’t be recreated at a functional level for widespread use, let alone dragons.
“If they could make a dragon golem, no one would need Hunters anymore,” Si-woo pointed out.
“That’s true. If it were possible, golem engineers would rule the world, not Hunters,” Saria agreed.
Despite their banter, both of them knew that the final challenge wouldn’t be as straightforward as the previous stages.
There was no way the Academy would let them clear it easily.
Checking the remaining rest time, Si-woo began meditating.
As he closed his eyes and focused, Saria quietly approached him, watching him intently.
“By the way, Si-woo,” Saria began.
“How long are we going to keep speaking so formally to each other?”
“…What?” Si-woo asked, surprised by the sudden question.
Saria hurriedly offered an explanation, more of an excuse than a proper reason.
“W-well, we’re the only ones who made it this far, and honestly, I don’t think anyone else will. Our admission is basically guaranteed, so isn’t it time we dropped the stiff formalities?”
“Ah, a familiar routine.”
It had been a while since Si-woo had heard such a transparent excuse.
Her clumsy approach was obvious, but it was endearing.
Nodding in understanding, he decided to respond as she wished—in casual speech.
“Alright. How about this, then?” Si-woo said casually.
At his response, Saria’s face lit up with a radiant smile.
“Yeah, this feels way more comfortable for me, too!” she replied cheerfully.
Just as Saria finished speaking, their devices buzzed.
It was a notification asking if they wanted to challenge Stage 10.
All they had to do was press a button, and the final test would begin.
“Oh, right,” Si-woo said as he pulled out a mana potion provided by the Academy.
“Here, drink this,” he added.
“Huh?”
“You’re running low on mana, aren’t you?”
While she hadn’t completely run out, it was true that restoring her mana before facing the wyvern was a wise choice.
Saria accepted the potion from Si-woo, intending to thank him.
But before she could get the words out, he beat her to it.
“Do your best, mage. I trust you,” Si-woo said with a confident smile as he stepped through the gate.
For a moment, Saria stood frozen, staring at the gate he had just entered.
“…Hah.”
She had hoped to fluster him with casual speech, but instead, she’d been completely outmaneuvered.
Despite the lingering embarrassment, she felt oddly content and fulfilled.
Pushing aside her swirling emotions, Saria followed after Si-woo, throwing herself into the gate.
For now, the wyvern battle awaited.