Hunter Registration (3)
I thought it was vague. Sharing Hikaru's combat senses?
It wouldn't boost my physical abilities, so I figured there wouldn't be any dramatic change.
Dagger Arts
Sharing Hikaru's combat senses for 1 minute.
The moment I activated Dagger Arts, though, my vision changed.
My focus darted rapidly across Seokmin's entire body, mapping every weakness and vital point. Immediately after, the possibilities of what he might choose in the next instant split apart like phantoms, shimmering and wavering around him.
Is this how it works?
I swung the dagger lightly, and one of the branching phantoms solidified into sharp clarity. Seokmin chose exactly that possibility. Striking along that trajectory was almost effortless.
"…!"
For the first time, an attack connected. Just a scratch — but watching Seokmin's eyes twist with shock felt good.
He actually reacted to that.
Originally, I should have slit his carotid and ended him in a single stroke. But an A-rank hunter's reflexes transcended biological limits, and the blade only grazed his cheek.
Still, that was fine. By gauging Seokmin's skill, his possibilities were being revised in real time.
If I leave openings, the possibilities multiply too much. Finish this in one go.
All of that took one second.
Time Remaining: 59 seconds
Clang!
I relentlessly pursued the retreating Seokmin, swinging my dagger. Once again, multiple possibilities spread as phantoms, and Seokmin followed one of them.
Hikaru's combat senses exceeded anything I could have imagined. With a twenty-four-hour cooldown and only one minute of duration, I'd wondered if this was some kind of premature-ejaculation skill — but it was absolutely worth the price.
So this was the world Hikaru lived in. I felt like I understood, just a little, the effort it must have taken her to reach this level.
But I gritted my teeth.
He's seriously strong.
The title of A-rank hunter was no empty name — after that first hit, Seokmin didn't allow a single attack to land. Even deflecting the blade was becoming increasingly difficult. Already strong, Seokmin was growing faster and stronger by the second.
Time Remaining: 38 seconds
No matter how many possibilities I saw, none of them showed an attack landing on Seokmin now that he was fully focused on combat.
I completely changed my approach.
I don't need to land hits — I need to reduce the possibilities.
Corner his movements. Not after he moves, but by cutting off the possibilities themselves.
Horizontal slash. Thrust. Upward cut.
With successive attacks, the countless phantoms vanished one by one.
Time Remaining: 21 seconds
Every place he could plant his foot, every angle he could extend his arm — erased one by one by the path of my dagger.
By now he must have sensed something was wrong. But knowing didn't mean he could stop it.
Time Remaining: 5 seconds
Scrape!
This is it.
By letting the dagger glance off, only a single phantom remained. Every possibility had vanished, leaving only one movement.
Movement Zero.
Seokmin's face twisted with reluctance, but he had no choice but to take that path. I drew the dagger toward that point like flowing water. An elegant trajectory passed through Seokmin's neck.
Dagger Arts has expired.
Remaining Cooldown: 24 hours
"Hah… hah!"
I collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath. The sense of omnipotence — that I could do anything with a dagger — had vanished without a trace.
I'd hoped I might be able to train based on this sensation, but nothing of it remained in my body.
What a shame.
"…You have no idea how long it's been since I've been this surprised, Mr. Yoon Jiseong. Succeeding in killing me in just one minute."
Seokmin wiped the sweat from his brow and straightened his clothes.
Only the dagger's hilt remained in my hand. At the last moment, Seokmin had withdrawn the mana from the blade, dissolving the edge.
I answered with an awkward laugh.
"You never attacked once. If you had, I never could have pulled that off."
"This is only a measurement, after all. I can hardly go around killing Awakened with my own hands when Korea already has so few of them."
Seokmin had a talent for making even ordinary words sound chilling.
"Mr. Yoon Jiseong."
"Yes."
"Was that just now the inherent effect of a skill? Or did you activate something separately?"
I hesitated for a moment over whether to tell him, but I couldn't find a reason to hide it from a national agency. It wasn't Erotic Manga Avid Reader — just Dagger Arts.
"It's an activation skill. I couldn't fight like that right now even if you told me to."
"From what I saw, you showed no hesitation whatsoever about killing someone…"
"Th-that's a skill effect. It's not like I suddenly get the urge to go around murdering people or anything."
Seokmin nodded.
"I see. In any case, it was at a level hard to believe. I was about to report that the only salvageable skill was Stealth — and then I took a solid hit."
"…Didn't you see through the Stealth immediately?"
He was evaluating Stealth highly. That was a bit unexpected.
"My seeing through it and the skill's actual capability are separate matters. Ordinary Stealth ends at concealing one's appearance, but yours made even a portion of your presence vanish along with it."
Seokmin pushed up his glasses, as if replaying the earlier situation.
"Your skill level is probably 1, correct?"
"Huh? Ah, yes."
What was I supposed to say when it just read 57% with no level at all? Explaining was a hassle, so I just went along with it. Plenty of hunters never fully disclosed their Awakening abilities anyway.
As for people who outright lied and claimed they'd Awakened with a completely different ability, like me… well, I wasn't sure if anyone else had gone that far.
"If the skill level rises further, the effect shouldn't be bad at all. Hitting the jackpot on both skills — you're quite fortunate, Mr. Yoon Jiseong. I believe you can look forward to a high rank."
"Haha… thank you."
I clenched a fist inwardly.
When enrolling in Korea University's Hunter Department, the initial classes were divided by hunter rank. Classes got reshuffled after every evaluation based on performance, but if I had a choice, I wanted the best one.
"We'll finish the measurement with a mana inspection. Would you stand on that platform and take hold of the crystal orb?"
He set down his tablet and pointed to one side of the room. A cylindrical device slowly emerged from the wall. At a glance, it didn't look much different from the level measuring device from earlier.
"Just step inside."
I nodded and entered the machine. Looking down, I saw footprint shapes on the platform. I placed my feet accordingly and rested my hands on the crystal orb in front of me.
Hummm.
A low vibration sounded as the crystal orb glowed white.
Oh, neat. Alchemists made this, right?
I waited like that for a while. Unlike level, mana seemed to take a bit longer to measure.
"…Mr. Yoon Jiseong?"
Seokmin's voice suddenly turned grave. He closed his mouth as if carefully choosing his words, then asked cautiously.
"Can you… feel mana, by any chance?"
"Uh… I'm not sure. What exactly does mana feel like?"
At my answer, Seokmin's expression turned pitying.
"If you don't know that… then it seems you haven't Awakened mana, Mr. Yoon Jiseong."
"What?"
What was he talking about?
"I-I used a skill, though? Don't you need mana to use skills?"
"Not necessarily. There are skills that consume stamina instead of mana, or skills with long cooldowns that have no cost at all. The System is still an uncharted domain humanity hasn't fully analyzed, so nothing that happens should really be surprising."
Seokmin's voice barely registered in my ears.
I was a mana eunuch?
Mana wasn't just for using skills — it was essential energy for reinforcing the body and weapons as well. Without the ability to use mana, you were destined to fall behind.
"Ahem. Please don't take it too hard. Being unable to sense mana isn't that rare a phenomenon."
"…How common?"
"Roughly one in twenty people can't sense mana."
A mere five percent. And I'd hit that jackpot.
"Th-that said, there are cases of late Awakening as well."
Seokmin called out hurriedly. At those promising words, I lifted my head. Looking relieved, he began to explain.
"Most Awakened who can't feel mana never become active hunters, but there are documented cases of people who Awakened mana later in life by entering Gates and fighting monsters. Of course, that comes with the condition of actually working as a hunter."
Seokmin emphasized that last point.
"In your case, Mr. Yoon Jiseong, your life shouldn't be particularly at risk even in low-rank Gates. You have excellent close-combat ability and a top-tier escape skill, after all."
Right. There was no reason to sit here wallowing.
My ability was none other than Erotic Manga Avid Reader. If they could obtain this power in exchange for living as a mana eunuch for life, every hunter in the world would gladly castrate their own mana.
And he said mana can be acquired later, too.
I forced a smile and spoke.
"You don't have to put it that way — I was planning to work as a hunter anyway."
"That's welcome news. Do you happen to be planning to enroll in Korea University's Hunter Department, Mr. Yoon Jiseong?"
"Yes, that's right."
"If you'll simply give us permission, we'll handle all the tedious paperwork on our end. Your current university, transfer processing, hunter certification — all of it."
"Oh, really? Then I'd be very grateful."
The hassles were gone. Now only one thing remained.
Even without mana, I'd still displayed martial prowess enough to stun an A-rank hunter. Holding onto that anticipation, I asked Seokmin,
"So then — what's my rank?"