The Transparent Mana
“What the hell is that guy even doing?”
“He’s just standing there with his hand open.”
The kids were snickering among themselves. But in the teacher’s eyes, it was clearly visible—the transparent sphere of mana coalescing above his palm.
Kellin had spent years researching mana classification. That was why she understood just how extraordinary this was. The mana most people possessed was blue. It was as fundamental as the fact that human blood was red.
But every now and then, there were those whose mana color differed from the norm. The variations were endless—red, green, white, and more. Among them, the rarest by far was transparent mana.
Generally, the color of one’s mana influenced its nature. Red mana was gentle and easy to handle, though its explosive power was weak. Blue mana was perfectly average in every way. In contrast, transparent mana possessed overwhelming destructive force but was incredibly difficult to control. The moment you tried to maintain a single shape, the mana would constantly try to leak outward. That made it far harder to manage than ordinary blue mana.
But this boy named Nam Doyun—what exactly was he? He had maintained that notoriously difficult transparent mana in a stable form for a full thirty seconds without any apparent effort.
Cha Jiyun and Radeon, who had held a blue mana sphere for ten seconds, were certainly impressive. Yet once those ten seconds passed, neither of them could maintain the spherical shape any longer. With that level of mana control, if they had possessed transparent mana instead, they likely wouldn’t have been able to form a sphere at all.
Yet Nam Doyun had done it for thirty seconds. And he didn’t even look strained.
That kind of mana control was something only active-duty Hunters could typically achieve. Just how early must he have begun training to reach this level? Five? Six? Perhaps he had awakened to mana before he even learned to speak. Even then, this level of control defied explanation.
Genius.
It was the only word that fit.
Kellin recorded her evaluation on the score sheet in her hand.
Cha Jiyun — 90 points
Radeon — 90 points
Nam Doyun — 100 points
She smiled faintly. This freshman class had brought in someone truly satisfying.
“Congratulations. You’ve passed.”
The teacher spoke to Nam Doyun.
“Thank you.”
Nam Doyun gave a polite bow. The other children immediately protested.
“What? What did he even do?”
“I didn’t see anything at all!”
The teacher frowned.
“Then would anyone who doesn’t understand why this student passed please raise your hand?”
In an instant, nearly every hand shot up. Only three students remained still—Radeon, Cha Jiyun, and Baek Yebin. They quietly stared at Nam Doyun.
Those three are definitely worth watching closely.
They probably hadn’t been able to see him forming a sphere with transparent mana. But they had clearly sensed it—that Nam Doyun had created something using transparent mana. For students at their level, simply being able to perceive it was already impressive.
The teacher smiled with satisfaction.
***
“Alright. The next examiner will be coming in shortly, so please wait here.”
As she spoke, the teacher slowly walked toward the exit. The students stared at her in confusion.
“Those who failed, please leave quickly.”
With those final words, she closed the door and left.
One boy stormed toward me, fuming.
“Hey.”
“...?”
I looked at him, completely lost.
“Did you bribe someone?”
What kind of nonsense was this? I ignored him lightly. He shoved my shoulder.
“How the hell did you pass when you didn’t do anything?”
“You only see what you know.”
“What?”
The boy started breathing heavily.
“Say that again. What did you just say?”
“I said, you only see what you know.”
“You son of a—”
He pulled his arm back. His fist flew straight toward my face.
“He’s the one who attacked first, right? If I get hit first it’s self-defense, so can I just kill him after one hit?”
Baek Yebin watched the scene with a delighted grin. She clearly had no intention of stopping it.
If that fist connected, there would be no counterattack. I’d die. My bones would be shattered beyond recognition.
Shhhk—
The fist was coming. I could see it clearly, but my body wouldn’t respond. Was I really going to die this pathetically?
Just as that thought crossed my mind—
Thud!
Suddenly the fist’s trajectory twisted. Someone standing right beside me had kicked the attacker away.
“Who the hell—?”
The boy looked up with a furious scowl.
“It was me. What are you gonna do about it?”
There stood Radeon, the youngest son of the prestigious swordsmanship family.
“N-nothing…”
The boy instantly lowered his gaze.
“Why not? Go on, speak up. Didn’t you have something to say to me?”
“I-it’s nothing…”
His voice shrank to almost nothing.
“‘You only see what you know.’ I agree with that.”
Radeon looked at me as he spoke.
“About what?”
“What you just did. You released transparent mana, didn’t you?”
“What?!”
The room instantly erupted into murmurs.
“He probably couldn’t form a sphere, but he managed some other shape, right? Like a triangle or a square?”
“You said you felt transparent mana. But you couldn’t see what shape it was?”
“Actually, I felt it too, but I couldn’t make out the shape. The teacher seemed to see it, though.”
“.....”
“Creating any shape at all with transparent mana is already amazing. It doesn’t have to be a sphere to pass. That’s incredible.”
“I didn’t actually make any other shape.”
“Then what? You really made a sphere?”
“.......”
I didn’t feel like answering.
“Hmm—well, if you don’t want to say, you don’t have to.”
He waved his hand and returned to his seat.
But something had been bothering me for a while now. I turned toward Cha Jiyun. The moment I did, she whipped her head away.
Ever since I created that transparent mana sphere, I had been feeling her gaze on me. Whenever I looked back at her, she would turn away as if she had never been watching.
What was that about…?
Creak—
The door opened and a new teacher entered. Behind him, students who had passed from the other testing rooms poured in.
“You can sit over there.”
It seemed we would be taking the next test together with students from the other rooms, just like before. The newcomers took the empty seats.
“Hello, everyone.”
Kaleido scanned the remaining students one by one. When his eyes met mine, he gave a satisfied smile.
“Well, there are some familiar faces from the first testing room, and quite a few new ones. Anyway, let’s skip the formalities and get straight to the test details. This exam consists of fighting a monster and winning. Those who succeed will pass.”
“We’re fighting real monsters?”
The students looked puzzled. Fighting actual monsters could result in irreversible injuries. To use that as an entrance exam seemed extreme.
“No. You will be fighting holographic monsters. However, if the system determines that you have taken a blow that would have been fatal in reality, you will be disqualified.”
“Do we fight alone?”
“No. You will fight in teams of two. The pairings have been arranged according to similar skill levels. This allows us to assign monsters of appropriate difficulty to each pair.”
“What exactly is the standard for ‘similar skill level’?”
“I’ve grouped students whose abilities appear roughly comparable in my professional opinion. Of course, that’s only according to my judgment. If you’re unhappy with your partner, you may switch. There will be no penalties.”
At those words, every gaze in the room turned toward two people—Cha Jiyun and Radeon.
“Obviously those two will be paired together, right?”
“Yeah. Honestly, who else here is even on Cha Jiyun’s level besides Radeon?”
“I will now announce the teams. Team 1 will be OOO and OOO…”
He continued down the list.
“Ah, I really wanted to team up with Cha Jiyun.”
Students kept stealing glances at her.
“Dream on. With Radeon here, how could you possibly pair with her?”
“Team 9 will be Radeon and Baek Yebin.”
The room immediately buzzed with noise.
“What? Radeon and Baek Yebin? Then who’s Cha Jiyun paired with?”
“Team 10 will be Cha Jiyun and Nam Doyun.”
“Huh? Why…?”
The students looked back and forth between me and the teacher with doubtful eyes.
“He’s definitely talented, but… not that talented, right?”
Even Radeon tilted his head in confusion.
“Teacher, may I ask a question?”
He raised his hand high.
“Yes, go ahead.”
“The higher the team number, the stronger the students in your opinion, correct?”
“That’s right.”
The teacher smiled.
“Then the monsters will get stronger the further back we go?”
“Presumably, yes.”
The teacher smiled again.
“And naturally, the stronger the monster, the higher the score?”
“Correct.”
Radeon strode over to me.
“Want to switch? I’m in Team 9. Wouldn’t that be much easier for you to pass?”
“.....”
“Of course, I know you’re impressive. I’m not looking down on you. But Team 10 will probably face an incredibly powerful monster. Don’t you think that’s too much? It seems like the teacher might have misjudged your level.”
“....”
He was right. The monster for Team 9 would almost certainly be much easier than the one for Team 10. The probability of passing would skyrocket. He could take on the stronger monster in Team 10 to aim for a high rank, while I could slip into Team 9 and just clear the passing threshold. It was a good deal for both of us.
“Sure, let’s—”
Just as I was about to agree—
Click, click.
I turned toward the sound. Cha Jiyun was walking straight toward us.
“How about it? Wouldn’t it be much better to team up with me?”
Radeon spoke to her. She remained silent, simply staring at me. Then she said,
“....I will team up with this person.”
Just… why?