Chapter 15
Trot trot.
As Shin YuSung stepped out of the cave, the warm afternoon sun’s rays made the golem core twinkle in the light. At the same moment, the golem’s mana, which had been stuck on Shin YuSung, blew away in the wind.
A tranquil forest was spread out before his eyes.
The sound of a loud siren broke the silence, however, ringing over the entirety of Jewel Island.
Wee-oow!
The siren sound, after catching the attention of the people on the island, turned into the voice of a female teacher and started to give instructions to the students.
[Today’s first Jewel Scramble on Jewel Island has concluded. To all students who participated in this exam, please gather around in front of the cruise ship.]
Lin Xiao belatedly exited the cavern as Shin YuSung tried to make his way towards the cruise liner. The older man gently placed a hand on Shin YuSung’s shoulder before talking to him in a friendly manner.
“YuSung-ah! A-are you hurt anywhere? This Lin Xiao will gladly help you if you are!”
He was fretting over Shin YuSung with an apologetic expression on his face as if trying to make up for the mistake he made in not letting Shin YuSung know about the cave.
“I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt anywhere.”
“Ha, haha! R-right? As expected of the Fist King’s disciple… no! I’ll have to say ‘as expected of YuSung-ah’ from now on!”
Lin Xiao laughed boisterously as if trying to prove it. On the inside, however, he was sweating. It was an expected reaction since his job as an instructor would have been in danger if Shin YuSung had gotten hurt by the golem.
Seeing Lin Xiao let out a sigh of relief, Shin YuSung gave him a calm reply.
“Instructor, you’re looking a little nervous. You’re breathing incredibly fast as well.”
“Hm? Me? I was just worried that one of my students was hurt… it must have gotten to me, hahaha!”
“Thank you for your concern. It wasn’t a very strong opponent, though.”
Lin Xiao couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable discomfort as Shin YuSung gave him a mysterious smile and passed him by.
* * * *
Jewel Island. In front of the cruise liner.
The lower-rank students were all gathered on the shore to hear what score they got on their exam. The beautiful, blue sea was spread out before their eyes, and the cool breeze was reminiscent of a vacation spot, but the students had very clearly nervous expressions on all of their faces.
“These really are unusual results.” The female professor who taught Dungeon Studies commented and pushed her glasses up her face.
Slip.
Sumire was mumbling with a nervous expression while clutching tightly onto Shin YuSung’s uniform.
“…I-I should be fine this time. I got Shin YuSung’s hair… and the skeleton was really strong, too. Even though I, sniff… lost sight of the skeleton…”
It seemed to be that Sumire was clutching onto Shin YuSung’s clothes in a subconscious manner. Her hand was shaking so violently—as if an earthquake was happening in the area—that one of the buttons from Shin YuSung’s shirt managed to fall off.
Plink.
‘…At this rate, my clothes are going to start ripping.’
Eventually, he took Sumire’s hands off of his uniform.
“You’ll be fine. You did your best, after all,” he said.
“R-really? But still…”
As Sumire was about to say something else pessimistic, the large monitor that had been placed on the wharf displayed the students’ scores.
[1st Place–Shin YuSung (F Class)]
[2nd Place–Sumire (F Class)]
[3rd Place–……]
Shin YuSung, who had placed first, already had a good idea of the results because he had been counting his points. But Sumire was looking for her name starting from the very bottom.
120th place. 68th place. 13th place. No matter how far up she went on the rankings, she couldn’t see her name. Sumire started making odd exclamations.
“Ah, ah? Ah!”
Her wandering gaze eventually reached the top, at second place. It was an unimaginable, shocking result.
“…Ahh? Ahaha!?”
Sumire was so happy that she had grabbed Shin YuSung’s hand with her own without a thought and was hopping in place.
“Second place! I’m second! Shin YuSung-ssi!”
As Shin YuSung gave her an awkward smile, Sumire finally checked her hands and, blushing, mumbled:
“Um, o-of course! This wasn’t due to my skill! But entirely because of Shin YuSung-ssi’s hairs…”
While a flustered Sumire was fumbling her words, Lee SiWoo had found his own at some point in time. He leaned his head towards Shin YuSung and began to speak.
“YuSung-ah! You got first place! You really are amazing!”
But, smiling with an awkward expression, Shin YuSung didn’t reply back. Contrary to the stories that the Fist King had hammered into him during his training, it was much too easy for Shin YuSung to get first place in the Academy exam.
The gap was so large among the lower-rank classes that, exempting his partner, Sumire, the point difference between Shin YuSung and the students in 3rd place was so large that it was hard to compare the two.
‘…I was so worried, though.’
Now that the exam had ended, the difficulty level of it was low enough that Shin YuSung considered it trivial.
‘…Compared to the training I did with Master, it’s way too easy.’
Shin YuSung had reached the highest degree of skill, irrespective of his Trait, due to the limit-breaking training that he had received.
If one wanted to compare themselves to Shin YuSung, they had to at least have the same amount of skill as a Seven.
‘The hunters that Master mentioned must be the students who are a part of the Sevens, right?’
When the Fist King had taught Shin YuSung, he had always made him fight opponents of a higher level than him. Because of that, Shin YuSung had unknowingly started to crave a fight with a strong opponent.
‘I want to fight one as soon as possible.’
* * *
* * *
Lee SiWoo approached Shin YuSung—who was lost in thought—with cat-like strides, then latched onto him in a friendly manner.
“YuSung-ah~ looks like you’re deep in thought! Are you possibly enjoying the taste of victory?”
Even though Lee SiWoo had just come back from taking his test, his chatterbox personality was ever-present. He kept talking without showing any indication of being tired.
“Hm, come to think of it… With your grades, being a Seven is pretty much assured. That’s gotta leave some sort of impression on you!”
“U-um…”
Sumire, who had lost her chance to talk, stood slightly away from Shin YuSung and carefully stretched out her hand.
“Umm, h-here? Shin YuSung-ssi?”
He looked at Sumire’s wriggling fingers, which were showing her embarrassment.
“What’s this?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“Oh! These are the leftover hairs from Shin YuSung-ssi! Since the exam is over, I thought I should return them to you…”
Sumire offered the napkin containing the hairs to Shin YuSung. With a bemused expression, Shin YuSung grabbed the napkin and shook out the hairs.
“Oh, that… just throw it away.”
Sumire began to scream in surprise, eyes wide open, as the strands of hairs fell onto the ground.
“U-uwaaa! Nooo! Throwing away something so precious!”
She crouched down and started pawing at the ground in search of the hairs, eventually finding them. With both hands, she held the hairs as if they were cherished objects. She looked up at Shin Yusung.
“Then, can I, um…take these hairs for myself?” she asked.
Lee SiWoo, who didn’t know the context of Sumire’s actions, shivered at the sight.
“Ugh…”
On the flip side, Shin YuSung, who had gotten used to this behavior, merely nodded with a defeated look on his face.
“Um, sure…”
In this manner, the first exam that Shin YuSung had taken at Gaon Academy had ended in success.
* * * *
The day when the new student rankings were being announced.
Park SuHyun had to force his way through the throng of noisy students to check the notice board.
[9th Park SuHyun (Class A)]
“W-what?”
Park SuHyun didn’t care all that much about his grades, but being a Seven was very important to him
“I’m ninth?”
His grades were in seventh place just one exam ago, meaning that he was a Seven. But now, he had been pushed down to ninth place, far below the Sevens. Park SuHyun scanned the notice board with a puzzled expression.
‘Who on earth…’
[1st Adela (S Class)]
[2nd Kim EunAh (A Class)]
Perhaps because of their previous scores, the powerful Adela and Kim EunAh had maintained their first and second places in the rankings. But the problem was with the rankings below them.
[3rd Shin YuSung (F Class)]
[…]
[6th Sumire (F Class)]
Shin YuSung and Sumire, mere F Class students, had become Sevens.
“How did F Class students…?!”
On top of that, Park SuHyun recognized the name written next to third place from somewhere.
‘…Shin YuSung?’
He had forgotten about the existence of F Class Shin YuSung after the exam; he had thought that he would be in for some light exercise on the day of the spar.
‘But that F Class is a Seven?’
Moreover, YuSung was in third place—much higher up than his own ninth placement. Kim EunAh’s voice suddenly began replaying next to Park SuHyun’s ear.
[Is that so? I think you’d lose against him.]
Her words were neither a lie nor a taunt. If Shin YuSung’s skills were high enough to be placed as a Seven, Park SuHyun had to consider the possibility that he could be defeated in this fight.
‘Shit… if I lose a fight against an F-rank Trait…’
To someone like Park SuHyun, who took great stock in his own prestige, there was nothing more terrifying to him than losing to someone inferior. While he was biting his lip and fighting a headache at the thought, he heard Lee SiWoo’s cheeky voice saying something next to him.
“Wow! You really are a Seven! On top of that, you’re third place! But that guy, Park SuHyun, is only ninth place. Why did he challenge you to a match?”
Lee SiWoo’s ranking was incomparably lower than Park SuHyun’s, but he was putting the other boy down by bringing up Shin YuSung.
‘That little…’
Unable to endure it any longer, Park SuHyun approached Shin YuSung and Lee SiWoo.
“Were you looking for me? What did you say?” he said.
At Park SuHyun’s furious face, Lee SiWoo started to sweat then ran away.
“Sorry!”
Park SuHyun glared at the fleeing Lee SiWoo for some time but then redirected his gaze towards Shin YuSung and started to size him up.
Seeing the missing button that Sumire had torn off of his shirt, he clicked his tongue and adjusted his glasses.
“So the appearance of the Fist King’s disciple is rather shabby, it seems.”
Shin YuSung respected the Fist King, Yu WonHak, more than anyone else. His face froze as Park SuHyun brought up his master’s name in such a manner.
But the angry Park SuHyun did not stop his jeering.
“Furthermore, you’ve become one of the Sevens despite being an F Class student. Ha! Did the Fist King pull some strings?“
“You should watch what you’re saying.”
Park SuHyun felt a shiver down his spine at Shin YuSung’s frigid voice as it rang out around them.
‘Why is this guy’s presence…’
Shocked by Shin YuSung’s demeanor, Park SuHyun took a subconscious step back. Shin YuSung looked down at the other boy with a cold glare.
Just as their clash of wills was about to spiral out of control, Kim EunAh, who happened to be passing by at the time, got in between the two.
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“Hey, is there any reason you guys are trying to glare each other to death in the middle of the hallway? You guys are going to spar later on~ just decide it there!”
With a smirk in her tone, Kim EunAh chastised the two. With no other option available, Park SuHyun left the area.
“Fair enough. I look forward to the match.”
Shin YuSung did not respond to Park SuHyun’s words. The reason that he had accepted the match in the first place was for the SP and a chance to fight against someone from the upper-rank classes, but that was no longer important to him.
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