Uncle Inom

The Vampire Castle had once been a human kingdom.

Even if it had been warped beyond recognition by Rasty, its bones were still those of a human fortress.

Which meant I knew its layout—and the shortest route to the top of the castle—all too well.

But this was, after all, a test, so I wound my way up more circuitously than usual before arriving at the topmost floor. Vampires lurked here and there along the way, but I moved past them so quickly that I'd only actually felled a handful.

"It is easy, yes. If you stick to the standard route, I'd say just about anyone can pass."

If admission were the only goal, anyone with even a decent measure of talent would make it through.

"Hmm... I'd estimate around thirty."

Thirty.

That was about what it would take to fill a single class. Twenty at minimum, forty at most—I doubted it would go beyond that.

A fork in the corridor on the blood-soaked top floor.

Having recalled my sword once more, I came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to a halt at the junction. The route changed depending on which way I went from here.

"Turn left here and another vampire awaits. It's a mandatory stop for the Annihilation route. The right path leads to the heart of the castle—where the Blood Stone rests."

Shriiing.

The silver blade radiated a light of purification even amid the crimson haze.

"And it is the final destination of the Blood Stone destruction route."

Three paths it was.

Instead of answering, I marched straight down the corridor where a narrow strip of crimson carpet stretched onward. Whether that carpet had always been red, or whether it had been dyed by blood when the castle changed hands, I never bothered to find out. One thing was certain, though: merely standing on that crimson carpet placed constraints on how my body could move.

As if the blood in my very flesh were rejecting its master.

At the end of the carpet stood a door painted in blood-red. Its sheer size and presence exuded a majesty that demanded reverence at a glance. I gripped the handle.

I released the handle without a moment's hesitation. As things stood now, if I fought a hundred times, I'd lose ninety-nine.

"As you can see, there's a hidden boss inside. Like I said earlier—if you're curious, feel free to challenge it yourselves."

The final boss guarding the Blood Stone destruction route—not the Annihilation route—was a vampire viscount. Excluding the Progenitor, it was the strongest monster the first stage could produce.

The viscount wielded blood magic and defended the Blood Stone to the last, but I, running multiple layers of Aisha's swordsmanship, crushed the vampire beneath a falling meteor of blades and shattered the stone.

It sounds deceptively simple put that way, but the battle had stretched on for quite some time. Right now I was operating at the level of an ordinary user, and the swordsmanship I employed was Aisha's in place of my own. Because of that, it took a full twenty minutes—a long time—yet even so, I managed to subdue the enemy without taking so much as a single wound.

Messages flooded my entire field of vision.

Leaving the crumbling Blood Stone behind, the dimension peeled away, and before I knew it, I was back in the Dimension Space Implementation Chamber.

The questions came pouring in the instant the messages settled and I returned to my original spot.

I first confirmed that the Metamor which had manifested the trial was functioning normally again, then answered.

"The grade exists to give you all a sense of competition. A B+ is a perfectly respectable score. As for why the only reward is the admission ticket—that's because I haven't set up the reward table yet."

It's a test—no reason to preload rewards from the very start.

That would drain the fun out of it, and motivation along with it.

"When you all actually take it, there will be real rewards, and the difficulty will be far higher than this. It won't be nearly so easy."

Well... Leo or Vlack could probably breeze through it anyway.

After confirming that the trial of Progenitor Rasty's castle had concluded without a hitch, I returned straight to my office.

The chat was in an absolute riot. Viewers, desperate to take the entrance exam the very second it opened, were flooding in messages that even three moderators could barely contain. The mods had become superhuman—each managing the chat with a full Setting Room at their disposal, five minutes per sweep—and it still wasn't enough.

The viewer count had just blown past one million again.

...Maybe I should hire more moderators while I'm at it.

"Everyone, calm down. I'm afraid it's still a bit much to accept the majority of you right away."

"Can anyone do it? Well, you could say yes—or you could say no."

My cryptic answer had left the viewers more than a little prickly.

But it really was true.

"Now, listen up. When I first started ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my lectures, what was my criteria for selecting students? They were fans who watched my stream."

Fans of my broadcast. The reason I'd started lecturing in the first place was a desire to give back to the viewers who watched and supported me. That was why, after borrowing Leo's building, I'd run the classes in the style of internet lectures.

Along the way, I'd even used mana stones to screen out talented individuals and teach them separately.

"To prove you were a fan, I set the bar at thirty hours of watch time, or a 10,000 won donation—but honestly, it meant nothing. Conditions like those, anyone can meet."

Among those who cleared the bar, I'd distributed mana stones by lottery. The winners solved the problem inscribed within the stone and earned the right to be lectured by me directly.

On the surface it looked plausible enough, but the truth was that it was a pure game of luck. Fan or not, anyone with luck and talent could sit in on my lectures. In fact, the nine people attending my lectures right now couldn't all be called my fans from the start. Half of them hadn't come through the lottery at all—I'd taken them on personally—and some of them probably hadn't cared a whit about me, only joining because fortune smiled on them.

Though that might have changed by now.

"Back then, circumstances forced my hand. Now, things are a little different."

Magic flooded the office. Blue mana swirled around me, gathering its light and tracing a single great circle with me at its center.

"I will continue holding my lecture broadcasts. But the condition for entering the Academy is purely and simply talent."

Those whose talent demanded direct instruction from me—something beyond merely watching from the outside. Those were the people I wanted, and those were the people I would give a chance.

Those without talent need not despair. The reason they couldn't attend my lectures in person wasn't a lack of qualification—it was that they had no need to.

Listening from outside or listening from within—

For them, the difference was negligible.

Still, denying everyone a chance from the very start would have been too harsh.

"From this moment, invitations will descend across the continent. Catch one, and you'll be given a simple question—this is a small trial for our fans, so don't worry."

Anyone who'd watched my stream for even a single week would know the answer.

"Answer correctly, and the invitation will transform into a ticket granting entry to the waiting room inside the Implementation Chamber. It's soulbound, so don't even think about tossing it. Use it, wait your turn in the waiting room, and step in when the person ahead of you finishes."

Admitting thousands, tens of thousands would inevitably take some time, but the trial itself wouldn't drag on all that long. I'd brought plenty of Blue-Red Stones as a precaution, and I'd be lending a hand myself at the start.

"Oh—and no fighting once you're in there. Otherwise, Uncle Inom will go Inom! on you."

Uncle Inom.

One smack of the uncle's Inom!, and a person crumbled into a pile of sand.