Chapter 7: If There Were No Side Effects of Allure

Fwoosh!!

The 10th stage boss monster, the wyvern, was a beast on a completely different level from any of the previous foes.

Its overwhelming physical prowess, dragon-type abilities, and innate elemental engravings like pressure and magic-like attacks set it apart.

Even watching from the monitors, the candidates and instructors struggled to breathe as they observed the wyvern’s raw power.

“Is that even possible?”

“This isn’t something a candidate should be facing.”

Si-woo’s movements, as he evaded the wyvern’s onslaught, were already on par with those of a seasoned Hunter.

The gate’s interior had turned into a fiery hellscape.

The wyvern’s relentless barrage of wind slashes and flaming roars made it feel like they were battling within the very depths of a volcano.

But Si-woo wasn’t flustered.

His sharp brown eyes gleamed with a serpent-like glint as he scanned the wyvern’s movements.

Then, he found it—a small opening.

The wyvern, momentarily blinded by its own flames, failed to notice the gap in its defenses.

Without a second’s hesitation, Si-woo accelerated.

With a speed that seemed to tear the air apart—almost like teleportation—he closed in on his target: the wyvern’s right wing joint.

Slash!

Si-woo swung his sword with a confident smile, his blade aimed at the creature’s most vulnerable spot.

Clang!!

An unpleasant, grating noise echoed through the gate.

Even with Si-woo’s incredible technique, his sword barely managed to leave a scratch on the wyvern’s enchanted scales.

“Scales?”

The wyvern’s scales were more than just armor—they were practically magic themselves.

The same strike that had felled lesser monsters in a single blow had achieved nothing more than a shallow mark.

“!!”

The wyvern, now fully aware of Si-woo’s attack, spread its massive jaws wide.

Fwoosh!!

A turbulent surge of mana erupted within the wyvern’s maw, condensing into a devastating blast of fire aimed squarely at Si-woo.

Recognizing the imminent danger, Si-woo immediately reacted, using the wyvern’s body as a springboard to propel himself away just in time.

“Damn it!” he hissed, narrowly escaping the fiery torrent.

“Hoo!”

Si-woo wiped the sweat from his forehead, his breath ragged.

He had survived by a hair’s breadth, barely escaping the wyvern’s fiery attack.

As difficult as he had anticipated this battle to be, it was proving to be far more challenging than expected.

He recalled Saria’s earlier request:

“Bring it down to the ground. Once it’s grounded, I’ll kill it.”

Looking up at the wyvern soaring through the sky, Si-woo smirked bitterly.

“At this point, it’s no different from a fighter jet.”

Now tasked with grounding this living war machine, Si-woo couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

Saria couldn’t assist with this part of the plan, as she was preparing the magic needed to finish off the wyvern.

This meant Si-woo had to rely solely on his own abilities to strip the creature of its mobility.

“But that’s easier said than done,” he muttered.

The wyvern’s massive claws sliced through the air like blades.

If the troll’s punches from the 5th stage were like sniper bullets, the wyvern’s attacks were equivalent to anti-aircraft artillery.

Even a momentary lapse in concentration felt like it would send him flying under the force of the wind pressure.

The scorching heat from the flames mixed into the air was another hazard.

If not for his enhanced respiratory system, his lungs would have been cooked by now, forcing him to forfeit.

“It’s learning, too.”

Just as Si-woo had been studying the wyvern’s attack patterns, the wyvern was adapting to his movements.

Its attacks grew more varied, and it began anticipating Si-woo’s dodges.

Si-woo realized that if he dragged this out any longer, the one to fall from the sky wouldn’t be the wyvern—it would be him.

He made his decision.

“Is this even possible?”

He envisioned an image in his mind: a strike he had once witnessed his mentor deliver.

It was an S-rank Hunter’s technique, impossibly powerful and precise.

Could he, at his current level, even attempt a degraded imitation of it?

“No, it won’t work.”

The thought was dismissed almost immediately.

It was a bold idea, but a reckless one.

He had learned that taking on impossible challenges was only worthwhile when no other options remained.

Otherwise, careful calculation was the key to survival.

Recalling the lessons instilled by the VIP Hunters he had encountered, Si-woo brushed a hand over the back of his neck, grounding himself.

“I didn’t want to use this unless I absolutely had to…”

He hesitated.

Si-woo wasn’t confident in fully controlling this power, just as he had struggled to master the Symbol of Allure engraving.

But it was time to make a choice.

“This is my gift—something only I can give you.”

Si-woo channeled mana into the engraving on the back of his neck.

The engraving, a rose-like mark gifted to him during his time as a host by a VIP, began to activate, its power unfurling like petals in bloom.

Crackle!

The rose-shaped engraving expanded across his skin, and frost flowers began to bloom along its path.

For an ordinary Hunter, enduring the intense cold emanating from the engraving would have been nearly impossible.

Their movements would have slowed, if not stopped entirely.

But even as the freezing energy spread across Si-woo’s body, his movements remained as swift and fluid as ever.

“This is far more useful than I thought.”

The Symbol of Allure, located on his wrist, symbolized the energy of Yang, granting him resistance to Yin and cold energy.

Because of this, even as frost coated his skin, Si-woo felt not the biting chill but a refreshing coolness that pushed his speed to new heights.

Boom!!

As Si-woo’s appearance shifted, the wyvern responded with heightened aggression.

Recognizing Si-woo as a serious threat, the wyvern’s instincts flared.

It made its choice.

“That human dies first.”

The wyvern soared high into the sky, then began a steep dive toward Si-woo.

Its massive frame combined with its momentum turned it into a deadly weapon.

Despite the impending danger, Si-woo stood his ground, raising his sword.

The blade, previously dull steel, began to glisten as frost seeped into it.

Si-woo’s enhanced vision, pushed to its limits, locked onto the wyvern’s wing joint—the same weak point he had targeted earlier.

His gaze was filled with nothing but the red glint of the wyvern’s scales.

The sight drew mixed reactions from the candidates and instructors watching.

Some sighed in defeat, already convinced there was no way to avoid the wyvern’s crushing dive.

Others cried out in fear, unable to imagine Si-woo surviving such an overwhelming assault.

But Si-woo smiled.

To him, the wyvern, its enormous wings spread wide, was not just a deadly weapon.

It was also a massive target.

Frost flowers bloomed once more, exhaling their freezing energy into the air.

The space around him dropped below freezing, and the power of his engraving condensed onto his sword, creating a phenomenon of pure cold.

Si-woo layered the advanced swordsmanship he had learned from his mentor with the frost’s effects, combining them into a single, deadly strike.

Jung Se-ah’s swordsmanship was the pinnacle of pure technique—a skill born from mastery.

Facing the scarlet wyvern, now dangerously close, Si-woo raised his sword high.

His mana reserves were stretched to their limits.

A single mistake would spell disaster, but Si-woo had no intention of faltering.

“Seollang Strike (Snow Wolf Slash).”

The frost-laden slash hurtled toward the wyvern.

It was the best attack Si-woo could deliver in his current state, augmented with freezing energy.

The exertion left him momentarily dizzy, but he didn’t waver, keeping his eyes locked on the wyvern.

Crack!

The frost that had coated Si-woo’s body spread to envelop the wyvern’s crimson scales.

For a moment, the wyvern seemed unconcerned, as though it intended to shake off the frost effortlessly.

But then…

“Good thing you’re not a dragon.”

Unlike a true dragon, the wyvern’s scales, while tough, lacked resistance to all elements.

The frost seeped into its defenses, making its once-impenetrable scales brittle, no different from ordinary ice.

Realizing its vulnerability, the wyvern’s eyes widened in alarm.

Shatter!

The once-pristine, unyielding scales cracked and shattered under Si-woo’s strike.

The elegant arc of Si-woo’s sword transitioned into a slash that tore through the wyvern’s wing joint, stripping the creature of its ability to fly.

“Haaa…”

Ignoring the wyvern’s guttural screeches, Si-woo stepped back calmly.

Positioning himself behind Saria, he sheathed his sword with a satisfied smile.

“Mission complete.”

“Thank you for pulling off such an impossible task,” Saria said, expressing her gratitude as she stepped toward the fallen wyvern.

She had completed her preparations long before, and now, it was time to finish things.

The wyvern, now grounded, glared at Saria with fury burning in its eyes.

Letting out a final roar, it lunged at her with desperate speed, attempting to retaliate.

It wasn’t too fast.

Saria could easily avoid it if she wanted to.

“Perfect timing.”

But Saria didn’t avoid the wyvern’s charge.

Crunch!

The massive wyvern’s jaws opened wide, its magically enhanced teeth glinting ominously as Saria calmly stepped into its pink maw.

With a smile, she accepted the attack.

Snap!

The sound of her being swallowed echoed through the gate.

Saria disappeared into the wyvern’s mouth.

The horrifying noise drew gasps and screams from the candidates watching the monitors.

While they stared in shock, unable to process the unexpected scene, the instructors wore puzzled expressions.

“The golem is still active?”

The exam system was programmed to automatically end the test if a candidate suffered damage beyond a certain threshold.

But the test wasn’t over.

As the wyvern began to turn toward Si-woo, some instructors jumped to their feet, alarmed by the apparent malfunction.

Crunch!!

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, wounds appeared on the wyvern’s body.

It looked as though something had bitten into it.

Rip! Crunch!

The wyvern’s flesh was being torn apart, piece by piece, as if it were being consumed by something invisible.

Watching the wyvern die in real-time, the candidates and instructors alike were frozen in shock.

“So that’s why she called her specialty ‘curse magic,’” one instructor muttered.

“Exactly,” another replied.

Emerging from behind Si-woo, Saria smiled, clearly satisfied.

“It’s an elemental curse, one of the most primitive kinds. There’s nothing more effective than reflecting the exact damage inflicted on me back to my attacker,” she explained.

Her illusion, acting as a proxy, had triggered a reflective curse, amplifying the damage and turning the wyvern’s attack against itself.

Although it seemed almost invincible, there were restrictions on her curse magic, especially those involving physical damage.

The most troublesome limitation was that it could be avoided.

If the target moved beyond the curse’s effective range, the curse would either weaken significantly or fail altogether.

“Thanks to you taking out its wings, though, it couldn’t escape the range,” Saria added.

She turned to Si-woo, her radiant smile back in place.

“So? How does it feel to trust me?” she asked playfully, curious about his response.

Si-woo, unfazed, replied calmly, “What do you mean? I told you—I trusted you from the start.”

The unexpected answer left Saria momentarily stunned.

Letting out a small sigh, she whispered a silent wish to herself.

“Please, no side effects from his charm… I really don’t want this short but intense partnership to be reduced to something as meaningless as allure.”

She hoped desperately that the connection they’d built wasn’t tainted by his engraving.