Noble Hunt
"561 eliminated, 312 eliminated, 1143 eliminated."
"1234 eliminated, 1009 eliminated, 213 eliminated."
"715 looks dangerous. We'll process disqualification."
"487 and 390 are facing off."
The first-year faculty meeting room. A massive screen displayed the cadets split across multiple feeds. With every single first-year participating in this massive exercise, no one could afford to relax. Each class had magic, martial, and external professors assigned, meaning roughly thirteen instructors per cadet. Even so, tension never eased. Professors were human, after all, and fatigue had its limits. What if a cadet fell into danger while someone dozed off or glanced away for even a moment?
Absolutely not.
Every professor in the room stayed glued to their seats, watching the cadets without pause.
"It'll be quiet for a while."
"From the third day onward, they'll naturally assume it could drag on indefinitely."
On the first day after being dropped on the uninhabited island, everyone was too busy panicking and assessing the situation. By the second day, they grew accustomed and began encountering variables—managing food supplies, choosing where to stay, unexpected battles, betrayals. After three days of that, without exception, everyone was drained. Even cadets determined to eliminate others hit their physical limits around the seventy-two-hour mark. That was when the realization finally sank in.
Ah, so sheer motivation alone solves nothing.
The exercise was designed to sharpen cadets' ability to perceive cold reality, reflect on their actions, and account for variables—all skills essential in real combat. And without a doubt, the one currently showing the most outstanding performance was...
"How is that even possible?"
"It really doesn't make sense. Did he actually live in the mountains for ten years?"
"That can't be right. Even if he lived there before entering Mirinae Academy, he'd have had to start at age seven at the latest. It's impossible."
It was Lee Seokhyun.
"He went hunting on the first day and immediately smoked the meat to secure food."
"The next part is what looks truly artistic. He climbed straight into the trees and focused on scouting. He clearly knows what's important."
"That glove... it seems influenced by Arachne's Breath. Where on earth did he get something like that?"
Normally, three professors pooling their information would sketch out a clear picture. But Lee Seokhyun had none of that. Unknown origins, unknown family relations, no information on main or sub skills. They couldn't even determine where his current weapon had come from. How could a seventeen-year-old who had just enrolled pull off that kind of performance?
Every other top-ranked cadet performed exactly as expected, offering no surprises. Only Lee Seokhyun remained an onion with no end to its layers.
"On the first day he conserved stamina, then from the second day onward he moved quickly, stringing webs between trees."
"He built a web nest and attached a single thread to the center, keeping it tied to one hand at all times."
"That's Lee Seokhyun's insane creativity at work."
If any part of the web trembled, the vibration traveled straight to his hand. As long as he remembered which web was where, it was no different from carrying a map. Of course, he also needed the ability to distinguish whether the vibration came from a person, an animal, or natural phenomena. Lee Seokhyun met every condition with ease, making the madness possible.
"6 and 7 are facing off."
The moment Lee Hwaryeong announced that Lee Seokhyun and Benras were confronting each other, every gaze in the room snapped to one section of the screen. The looks scattered just as quickly. They couldn't risk something happening to their own assigned cadets while watching someone else's.
Envious.
The professors quickly resigned themselves to reality, dreaming of the day they would become their department's representative professor. Meritocracy wasn't applied only to cadets—it was an everyday fact of life at Mirinae Academy, equal for everyone.
Finally, a big fish.
There was no bigger fish than this. If Benras, ranked seventh in the first year, was eliminated this early, another commoner name could be added to the very top ranks.
Benras seemed to sense something ominous and hurriedly opened his mouth, pointing an accusing finger.
"You... you're not seriously trying to eliminate me, are you?! A commoner like you!"
"Quick on the uptake. I don't think the rest needs saying."
I scratched my head and looked down at him. The moment our eyes met, his pupils trembled and his body shook like a leaf in the wind, broadcasting just how terrified Benras was.
"You cowardly bastard, were you waiting for the right moment to target me?!"
"I wasn't targeting only you. I just... hoped anyone would come along, and you conveniently walked right in."
That was enough talking. I loosened the webs wrapped around my hand and tied them to a nearby branch. A terrified prey and me with both hands free—the outcome of that combination was obvious.
"Hiiiiiiik! D-don't come any closer!!!"
I needed to shut his mouth first. If he kept screaming like that, flies might gather.
"Shut up."
I shoved a hard fruit from my pocket into Benras's open mouth, then kicked him in the stomach and sent him crashing to the ground. The best outcome would have been for him to hit his back on impact and pass out, but the seventh-ranked student wasn't that easy.
Whoosh—thud.
The instant I kicked him, Benras curled his body and rolled, landing in a stable stance. Before he could regain his senses, I dropped from the tree and moved behind him.
He's a first-year, so he won't be able to use skills with his mouth blocked.
Whether main skill or sub skill, the most important factors when activating a skill were image and will. You had to picture the skill, decide how to manifest it, and possess the will to use it. Those still unskilled at skill activation struggled greatly to control their will. The workaround was shouting the skill name aloud. Once they gained proficiency, a single thought would suffice, but not yet.
"Ubuub-ubub!!!"
"Yeah, I understand how you feel."
Benras really couldn't activate his skill because of the fruit stuffed in his mouth. The moment he could only make baby-like babbling sounds, the match was already decided.
I leaned left and drove a right straight into his jaw. Twisting right, I followed with a left hook to his liver. Stepping back briefly, I spun my body and delivered a high kick to his head with my left foot.
"Ubuub-eup..."
Thud.
After just three strikes, Benras foamed at the mouth and collapsed unconscious.
As expected.
No matter how much stamina training and monster combat instruction cadets received, there was one thing they were never properly taught.
How to take a hit.
Nobles were especially guilty of this. Many houses only gave the briefest instruction—or none at all—on how to minimize pain or respond after being struck, all because of the complacent belief that "a noble shouldn't be hit." Commoners, constantly oppressed by nobles or whipped for mistakes during labor, were at least somewhat accustomed to it. Nobles had no such experience, so they either curled up or failed to respond properly when struck. Of course, time would eventually solve that, but for first-years it was still far in the future.
Srrrrk.
A portal opened beneath the unconscious Benras, swallowed him whole, and vanished. The professors had eliminated him early to prevent wild animals from harming him while he was unconscious.
"This is taking too much time, though."
After confirming no presences nearby, I climbed to the top of the tree and reviewed my plan again. I had spread webs everywhere and rushed toward any spot that seemed like a human reaction, capturing nobles when I found them. At first it had seemed like the best approach, but after trying it a few times I realized how inefficient it was.
Even if I can tell it's a person, I still have to go find each one individually. I'm wasting too much movement.
No matter how quickly I handled one, if the next target was far away, I would waste movement, drain stamina, and risk the cadet already being gone by the time I arrived. None of it was good.
The ideal situation would be nobles coming to find me on their own.
But that's not going to happen so easily.
Even if I spread a rumor about something that would tempt nobles, commoners would naturally be tempted by it too. In the end, I needed something that only appealed to nobles. Something like that couldn't possibly...
...exist.
Most commoners wouldn't care, but nearly every noble desperately craved it. That kind of fortunate item really did exist.
I'll go with this.
Judgment and action were best when swift. I immediately revised my plan and moved.
Day six of life on the uninhabited island. While most cadets were avoiding combat and conserving their strength to endure as long as possible, a strange rumor began circulating among the noble cadets.
"That can't be real."
"But they say it's true! The professors said it themselves! They said it came from S-class!"
"Still, it's way too sudden..."
"Really? Then don't follow me. I'll go alone."
"N-no! I'll go with you! I'm coming too!"
Some didn't believe the rumor, but they were quickly swept up by the enthusiasm of those who did. The credibility of it coming from S-class and being spoken by professors—despite the unknown source, those two points made the noble cadets believe the rumor completely.
"But is it really true?"
"You already agreed to follow, and you're still doubting?"
"It just sounds too far-fetched... Leaving behind the greatest honor obtainable from the first assignment feels... weird."
"Are you seriously not thinking? That's exactly proof it's a double-layered trap. Stupid commoners would ignore it, but they knew we'd think deeper, so they said it that way!"
To nobles, honor was as precious as life itself. Any noble who had heard that since childhood would naturally go mad at the words "greatest honor." Normally they might have dismissed it as nonsense, but the extreme environment and the uncertainty of when it would end clouded their judgment and turned the rumor into a concrete goal.
They moved toward the mountaintop at the center of the island in search of the greatest honor said to be there.
The era of great honor that Lee Seokhyun had created was about to begin.