Professor Kang's Graduate Temptation
Kang Dongsu, Graduate Program Scout.
A man who awakened as an A-rank hunter in his early twenties and snagged a professorship at Korea's top academy in his early thirties.
The secret to his overwhelming growth, acknowledged as a genius by all, was simple.
The right brush with death. And pushing to the absolute limit in real combat.
Staring at textbook print all day couldn't compare to facing a monster's killing intent head-on once.
That was why Kang Dongsu had tossed his cadets straight into the dungeon depths without warning.
But.
"Pfft... these crazy bastards."
Kang Dongsu's gaze was fixed on a translucent magical hologram panel floating in midair.
A real-time update board for the cadets' tutorial dungeon clears, thanks to the prep work he'd done on the dungeon beforehand.
He let out a disbelieving chuckle at the two names dominating the top spot with overwhelming numbers.
1st: Yoo Dohyun, Seol Eunha (Progress: 10 Clears)
Ten of them. Already.
Less than an hour since entering the dungeon, and that insane duo was mowing through low-grade dungeons like it was a massacre—not even worth calling a clear.
"While the second-place scrubs are barely at four."
Even the top record from Class 1—the elite of elites—was just four dungeons, scraped together by four-man parties struggling tooth and nail.
Yet these two were solo-clearing more than double that.
Could I smash dungeons at that brute-force speed back in my day?
Kang Dongsu stroked his chin, reminiscing about his own past.
Even in his first year, when his A-rank potential was blooming, that kind of speedrun madness was impossible.
Seol Eunha's raw power as top freshman was already legendary among the faculty, so that made sense.
But Yoo Dohyun... that guy's the real deal.
The corner of Kang Dongsu's mouth twisted upward in intrigue.
Now he got it—why Professor Cha Yura had smirked so meaningfully at that name tag on orientation day.
Why she'd subtly tipped him off to keep a close eye on Cadet Yoo Dohyun.
"Heh, heh heh..."
The golden age of hunters, when he and the current faculty had bled and battled—it was irreplaceable, or so he'd thought.
Looks like the true golden generation was just getting started.
Kang Dongsu rested his chin on his hand, eyes gleaming with fascination as he watched the top two names blink furiously on the hologram.
Shwoom—!
Seol Eunha and I emerged from the blue shimmer of the eleventh low-grade dungeon gate.
"Master, that's it?"
Sheathing her longsword in her embrace, Eunha asked in her usual dry tone.
Impressively, after slicing eleven dungeon bosses on my orders without pause, her breathing hadn't hitched once.
A true B+ overall stats monster.
I nodded with a satisfied smile.
"Yeah. The all-clear siren should blare any second."
"We're first, right?"
"No doubt."
I affirmed it without hesitation.
Tutorial-grade dungeons or not, eleven clears was insane.
In the original game, I couldn't party with Eunha at this point, wasting tons of time—but now that it was real, everything was perfect.
Eleven in an hour? World-record territory.
The payoff of breaking game constraints to form the ultimate party.
Eleven clears in one hour.
It shattered speedrun world records with room to spare.
I patted the inner pocket of my uniform lightly.
My Subspace Pouch was stuffed with ash fragments from the latest haul, plus artifacts and goodies from all eleven dungeons.
I'll sort the loot later in bulk~
I was grinning contentedly when someone tugged my uniform sleeve.
"Master."
Eunha stared up at me intently and spoke up.
"We've got time left. Can't you teach me some swordsmanship? Even a little? Please?"
"...Now?"
"Yeah. Something simple."
"..."
I couldn't just refuse.
Even I couldn't tell the girl who'd flawlessly diced eleven bosses without puking that I didn't feel like teaching~.
Ignoring her now would prick my conscience too much.
Plus, to keep exploiting her overwhelming power long-term, I needed to dangle the right carrot.
...Toss her something brutally hard, and she'll be too busy struggling to bug me about swordplay for a while.
The ultra-high-difficulty parry tech I'd barely grasped after 4,000+ hours.
Dump that as "basic training," and even the top cadet would be groaning quietly for ages.
Hey, I'm still teaching her, right?
She should be grateful I was sharing at all.
I put on a stern master's face and spoke.
"Fine. We've got time, so I'll teach you something special."
"...!"
A faint spark lit her emotionless eyes.
"But what I use isn't your standard swordsmanship. The trajectory's a bit different."
"Different trajectory?"
"It probably just looked like bouncing enemy attacks to you, but parrying has ranks and types."
Ether Frontier parrying wasn't just deflecting physical strikes.
Master the timing, method, and theory perfectly, and you could swat intangible magic too.
I'd ignored Lee Yeji's gravity magic with a parry before.
"Deflecting physical blows is basic. What I'll teach you today ignores the laws of physics."
"Ignores physics?"
"Yeah. Bouncing mana itself, or a spell's flow—stuff without form."
Eunha furrowed her brow slightly, trying to process.
Slicing magic with a sword. Aura-free, even.
Tough for a fresh academy cadet's common sense.
I drove it home to her dazed expression.
"...Simply put, it's physically dispelling. Strike the spell's core to sever the mana flow."
"Hmm..."
She tilted her head at my explanation.
"Sorry, Master. I don't get it from words alone. Am I still lacking?"
"Nah, it's supposed to be hard. You can't just hear it and get the feel."
Showing once beat explaining a hundred times—but.
No martial arts cadet here can fire high-level magic like that...
Wait, there was. Exactly one.
The guy overseeing this field test on the city outskirts.
"...Eunha, follow me. I just thought of a great live demo."
"Cadet Yoo Dohyun. Did I hear that right?"
City outskirts, open lot clustered with low-grade dungeon gates.
Professor Kang Dongsu, monitoring cadet progress via his hologram board, doubted his ears.
Eleven clears in one hour.
Until the record-smashing duo emerged and approached him, he'd been inwardly proud.
Spotless uniforms—not a wrinkle. He'd been about to praise their hard work.
Then the boy dropped pure absurdity.
"Yes. Could you fire one high-killpower ranged spell at me, Professor?"
"During a field test? A fresh first-year asking a prof to blast attack magic? Mind explaining that ridiculous request?"
"Need an educational demo for Cadet Seol Eunha."
Educational demo.
Kang Dongsu's eyes flicked to Eunha beside him.
The top enrollee nodded faintly, her stoic face affirming the boy's words strongly.
What the hell are these kids?
He sized up the boy with intrigued, sharp eyes.
No mana from his body.
Not some bulky, trained physique either. If anything, on the skinny side.
"You serious?"
His voice dropped lower.
"My spells aren't kid fireworks. Even Class 1 kids could get seriously hurt—or worse. You sure you can handle it?"
"Yes. It's fine."
No hesitation. Instant reply.
Kang Dongsu frowned, double-checking.
"No magic tools or decent armor—just bare flesh. Miss, and you die. Still want it?"
"Exactly what I want. Oh, and to make sure Eunha sees and learns clearly, something fast and vicious—hard to dodge, please."
At this point, it was conviction beyond bravado.
Kang Dongsu huffed a short laugh, then nodded.
Perfect chance to probe the boy Cha Yura had hyped.
"Fine. You asked for this demo yourself—any injuries are on you, Cadet Yoo Dohyun."
Crackle—!
As he slowly raised his right hand, eerie blue sparks danced from his fingertips, scorching the air.
Lightning attribute.
Prioritizing overwhelming speed over raw destruction.
For a one-hit-wonder boy with flimsy HP, it was a nightmarish matchup.
"Here it comes."
Tsss—!!
A eardrum-shredding burst, and the blue bolt shot from his hand like a starving beast straight for the boy's heart.
Speed that'd char a normal cadet before they registered the flash, let alone the trajectory.
...I see it.
But to eyes that'd frame-by-frame mastered monster patterns over thousands of hours, it was just a fast straight-line attack.
The boy drew his sword in a crisp motion, slashing the air.
No magic tools—just pure barehanded swordplay.
Clang—!!
A sharp metallic ring, and reality shattered.
The bolt lunging at Yoo Dohyun whipped 180 degrees midair, reversing straight back at Professor Kang Dongsu.
"...!?"
Boom—!!
The deflected lightning slammed into the professor. Smoke and dirt billowed everywhere.
Lightning's pure electrical energy—no mass.
Yet he'd reflected it barehanded, no aura, just physical prowess with a metal lump.
"Haa..."
Kang Dongsu emerged from the haze, exhaling lowly.
Taking his own bolt defenselessly left only a singed hem—otherwise unscathed.
A-rank hunter tankiness.
But his eyes shook like an earthquake.
Oblivious to the prof's shock, Yoo Dohyun turned to frozen Eunha behind him and tapped his sword lightly.
"See that? That's the core of bouncing lightning magic. Read the flow, strike at precise timing, reverse the mana direction itself."
Eunha gaped, eyes flicking between fading blue sparks and the boy, lost in awe.
Demo assistant nailed the motivation boost.
As the boy sheathed his sword contentedly.
"...Cadet Yoo Dohyun."
"Ah, yes?"
Kang Dongsu approached, dusting smoke, eyes gleaming like he'd found buried treasure. He swallowed dryly and spoke dead seriously.
"Any chance... you'd consider grad school under me?"
"...Huh?"