Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Harvesting Rewards
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'This is uncomfortable.'
Instructor Lee Dok-sa's private office, locked in a one-on-one meeting.
Actually, this worked out perfectly.
No need to track her down separately just to persuade her.
'Even so...'
It's not exactly comfortable.
No, of course it's uncomfortable.
'Hang on, why call me here and then go radio silent?'
At that moment, Lee Dok-sa set aside the documents she'd been reading and approached with a smile.
"I called you here, Siwoo, for the continuation of the tests. I expect proper answers."
"Understood..."
The atmosphere shifted in an instant.
"Panpagia. Today's training wasn't designed for subjugation. It was a test to enforce student discipline and evaluate their responses."
Her eyes narrowed, her tone sharpening openly.
"I know. Even if it was controlled, no one expected students to take down a B-rank boss monster."
"You grasp it well. And yet, your class subjugated that B-rank boss monster."
"They're outstanding A-rank students, aren't they? The miraculous generation, or so they say."
I quoted the news headlines with a smile.
"To be precise, you subjugated it."
"... "
Lee Dok-sa stared at me, her face devoid of any smile.
"Wasn't it you, Kim Siwoo, who convinced Baek A-rin to rally the students rescuing the injured and attack Panpagia? You who induced Kang Hwa-yeon to unleash her family skill [Inferno]?"
"That's right."
Without Baek A-rin, we would've been stonewalled from the start anyway...
If she's putting me in high regard, no reason to turn it down.
Time to sink my teeth in.
"...The reason you pulled it off is because you knew Panpagia's weakness."
What's her angle in asking me this now?
How did I come by that kind of intel?
That's what's eating at her.
"You're wondering how I knew?"
The 'National Seoul Hunter Academy' ranks at the top among hunter academies across the country.
No prior incidents of Purity Faction targets slipping through their tight surveillance,
but that doesn't mean the hunter-hating Purity Faction couldn't zero in anytime.
'In other words, a mere student like me knowing Panpagia's weakness is suspicious on its face.'
My fate here hinges on how I play this.
"Your premise is off. I didn't know it—I figured it out."
Lee Dok-sa stared at me like I'd lost my mind.
"You're claiming you deduced Panpagia's weakness in that split second?"
"Yes."
"And with full confidence in that weakness, you swayed Baek A-rin?"
Lee Dok-sa smiled like she was posing a riddle, prodding for more.
"I wasn't confident."
"What?"
"But I was certain we'd die if we stuck to Kang Hwa-yeon's plan."
"So you winged it and got lucky?"
She leaned back into the sofa, crossing her legs like she wasn't hearing a word.
A total 180 from how she acted in front of the students.
I'm a student too—is this treatment kosher?
'Our vibes just don't mesh...'
They say you instinctively repel people too much like yourself.
Still, I kept my smile as I replied.
"That's not 'luck,' Instructor."
"Oh?"
Lee Dok-sa arched one eyebrow.
"Then do enlighten me. How did you so brilliantly deduce the weakness?"
"That thing... Panpagia being an exoskeletal monster? Obvious at a glance. Even Kang Hwa-yeon clocked it and went with the textbook approach."
"And what approach was that?"
Lee Dok-sa grilled me on every tiny detail, like she was administering an exam.
Waiting for a slip-up.
Or maybe sizing up the student.
'Probably both.'
I pressed on calmly despite the pressure.
"...She targeted the mouth with ranged magic attacks. Textbook weak spot for exoskeletal types."
"You know your stuff."
"...I took it a step further. Her attacks weren't landing—there had to be a reason. So I watched it like a hawk. That's when I noticed its outer armor shifting slightly based on the magic type."
Lee Dok-sa stared blankly, urging me on.
"I figured those scales for the win, but when they broke, new ones covered up. Spotting the scale production on its belly? Pure improv."
"... "
Even after I finished, Lee Dok-sa held the silence, dominating the mood.
'Not enough to convince her, huh...?'
Instructor Lee Dok-sa, leg crossed, chin propped, locked eyes with me.
"By your account, you've got encyclopedic knowledge of skills and monsters, plus solid improv skills..."
[Serpent's Gaze]
That's when it hit.
I could see Instructor Lee Dok-sa's eyes slowly dyeing green from the bottom up.
'She's lost it!'
Does she see me as an enemy now?
Doesn't add up.
Lee Dok-sa might come off unhinged at times, but she's a real educator who cares for her students.
Suddenly attacking a student she's merely suspicious of?
'Do I counter?'
Hitting her now could pull me out of [Serpent's Gaze]'s range.
But only for a moment—then she'd be on me.
Last thing I want: beef with Lee Dok-sa right now.
'If she's not attacking, why spring the skill on me outta nowhere?'
Then it clicked.
-This is the continuation of the tests.
The split second before her eyes turned fully green.
I yanked the smoke grenade from my back pocket.
Hiss—
Vision went black in a flash.
'If it targets everything in sight, then stay out of sight.'
From the pitch-black smoke, Lee Dok-sa's voice rang out.
"What the hell is this?"
"Instructor, what are you doing?"
"Excuse me?"
"The skill you pulled on the students earlier. Weren't you about to use it? I saw your eyes change color."
"... "
Brief silence, then she spoke.
"And?"
Lee Dok-sa's tone was even.
No hostility vibes.
'Explanation time.'
"Your skill's gotta have limits, right? Usually casting range or target restrictions."
"So you rolled the dice?"
"...No. Your skill's weakness is obvious."
"Obvious?"
She parroted, like prove it.
"You stared down your target earlier. And just now."
"... "
"Eye color shifting? Might as well billboard 'skill incoming.' I'd hide that flaw. But you look every time, which means..."
I swallowed hard.
"You can't use it without line of sight."
Yeah.
Short silence.
A breeze soon cleared the smoke.
"That glimpse earlier was fleeting. You pieced together a lot in the interim."
Her voice came from right behind me.
I whipped around. She stood by the window, back to her initial poise, smiling.
"I admit it. One skillbook only, but you're a genius, Siwoo."
Lee Dok-sa's test over?
"Still, good thing there's plenty I can teach you. You handled the skill I flashed well, but stay sharp. That's not my full arsenal, is it?"
She glided to the windowsill.
Soundless, like a serpent slithering.
[Silent Steps]
'[Silent Steps]...'
Her second skill.
True to name: walks without a sound.
I knew of it.
Just...
'Preemptively countering a skill she hasn't shown? Total red flag.'
Nah—even knowing it, I couldn't take her.
Lee Dok-sa reached the window and drew back the curtain.
She perched on the sill.
Sunlight poured into the wooden room, shifting the vibe.
Her long black hair danced in the breeze.
'A beauty like that changes the very air.'
"I didn't summon you today as just an instructor. This was a test, on behalf of the entire academy staff—including the principal—to decide your disposition, Siwoo."
"Pardon?"
Disposition?
What grim talk.
"The Panpagia weakness you uncovered was classified intel."
Makes sense.
Hologram data comes from clans, bought at huge cost.
With ironclad security and limits.
Constrained solely for academy training use.
'Now that I've cracked it, it's in countless eyes and ears—value's tanking.'
"Few know it, even among professors like me. You figuring it solo mid-training? Plenty suspicious."
Lee Dok-sa wagged her index finger as she went on.
"That said, I've ruled you possess the eyesight and judgment to spot it in that blink. Not my personal call—as the principal's delegated investigator."
"...Thank you."
She propped her chin on her hand, arms across her lap.
Gazed at my eyes with keen interest.
"Back in my academy days, they called me a genius with three skillbooks. Thanks to you, Kim Siwoo, we might have a one-skillbook prodigy on our hands."
...Her personality flips this wildly? Tough to track.
Gotta watch mine.
"You're not from a hunter prep school—no formal training. Someone teach you?"
Fishing for my knowledge source?
If she knew I'd memorized the whole setting bible, she'd keel over.
"This stuff's basic if you grind studies. One skillbook? Gotta pack the brain to make hunter."
"Hahaha! Spot on. Lacking vs. others? Effort's the fix."
She approached me as she said it.
"You and I have a lot in common, Siwoo."
"Thank you."
"Not a compliment."
I'd planned to bond over her past—scorned for three skillbooks yet dreaming of academy's top hunter...
Looks like it happened organically.
"Ah! Almost forgot your score."
'Right, that.'
Current vibe? She'd probably greenlight a rec letter from Professor Kang Geom-seon.
Mission accomplished—score's secondary.
Lee Dok-sa grabbed a document, slashed lines, and jotted notes.
"I'll propose better than a 10."
"Huh...?"
10 points floored me.
No one's ever scored it.
Better than that?
"A professor buddy of mine's hunting a student for his lab right now..."
?
No.
This demon.
What sadistic pitch!!
Grad student trap.
Classic cliché—hell follows.
Reading my face, she cleared her throat.
"Kidding. Better than 10? 11 points."
"Pardon?"
"11 points. My score for you, Siwoo. Academy's all-time first-test high."