A Breath of Fresh Air (3)
The observation room of In-Camera Scouting.
Experts gathered in a space that overlooked the first-floor explorers like a balcony. They were celebrities from various schools and sects, people whose faces frequently graced the media.
Yu Yul sat in the mentor's section.
"Ah~ So this is the one."
Someone spoke to Yu Yul. She looked in that direction.
"Pleasure to meet you. I am Kim Jeong-uk, the Korean Branch Manager of the Jepheral Academy."
Kim Jeong-uk. A man with a greasy impression extended his hand. Yu Yul shook it.
Since it wasn't her real hand anyway, she didn't care what touched it.
"Yes. Nice to meet you."
"Hahaha."
Kim Jeong-uk sat down. Adjusting his suit, he scanned the faces of the VIPs.
"There are quite a few people from the academies here. Well, it makes sense. Seo Ji-woo, Ryu Yeon-hwa, Yoon Hwa-rim... they're all overflowing with talent. I hear the pool of spellcasters in this season of Labyrinth Exploration NaN is exceptionally wide."
Yu Yul listened in silence.
Actually, she let it go in one ear and out the other.
"Well, we aren't particularly interested in them, though."
Silencing himself for a moment, Kim Jeong-uk stole a glance at Yu Yul. He seemed to be waiting for her to speak first.
Yu Yul remained quiet.
Kim Jeong-uk burst into a hearty laugh.
"Ah~ please don't think we're too high and mighty. Are Seo Ji-woo and Ryu Yeon-hwa not good enough? Absolutely not~ We simply have our eyes on someone else."
Yu Yul nodded.
"Haha. I also have something to say to you, Mentor Yu Yul. It will definitely be beneficial to you. Without a doubt."
Meanwhile, the simulation began.
Stage 1. The first runner was Seol Ha-woon.
Time limit: 1 minute 30 seconds. Opponent: Rock Golem.
"Hmm~ Quite tough right from Stage 1. A spellcaster facing a Rock Golem. It even looks like a granite-based one?"
Stage 1 monsters had simple patterns. The same went for the golem, but its base stats were incredibly high. This meant it was quite a brutal matchup for an Unrefined Mage to face one-on-one.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The golem charged. Staring at the massive, heavy body, Seol Ha-woon merely raised a single finger.
"Oho~ That finger-gun gesture. I've been wanting to see it in person..."
Kim Jeong-uk was a talkative man, and before he could even finish his sentence, the Mana Bullet was fired. The large-caliber round shattered the golem's core in a single blow.
"...Huh?"
Kim Jeong-uk blinked. He had apparently expected a fierce, slugging match with Mana Bullets spraying like a machine gun.
"W-Wow~ Bravo. Just as the rumors said."
He clapped his hands again.
Yu Yul did not react. Kim Jeong-uk glared at her slightly, looking a bit miffed.
"But, Mentor Yu Yul, aren't you being a bit too quiet? I am clearly your senior, and my ranking is higher too."
There were always people like this. Fools who mistook themselves for true mages just because the head of their academy was a Mage.
"I'm naturally the quiet type."
Fortunately, Yu Yul didn't hold grudges. She wasn't a petty, malicious person who would remember this moment just to seek revenge later.
"Haha~ That's fine. But we can still communicate well, right? Now, let's watch the rest of the explorers!"
Starting with Seol Ha-woon, sixty-nine contestants took their turns.
Some cleared it with ease, while others barely scraped by, and ten failed.
"...What the. Are they crying?"
It was Kim Jeong-uk's genuine reaction. The ten who failed gathered in the waiting room and sobbed. They must have realized they were going to be eliminated in the first tally. The VJs persistently shoved cameras in their faces.
"Oh... wow. Look at how sorrowful they are. They're practically wailing. Ohoho, my word. Are those tears or snot?"
Regardless, the evaluation moved on to Stage 2.
A gargoyle. The time limit was also 1 minute 30 seconds.
Once again, Seol Ha-woon went first, and once again, he cleared it effortlessly.
Standing perfectly still, he showered the airborne gargoyle with Mana Bullets. The projectiles struck the gargoyle's weak point—precisely between its wing and shoulder blade.
"Wow~ Bravo~"
Kim Jeong-uk leaped to his feet and clapped once more. Representatives from other academies furrowed their brows as they looked at him.
"...At this rate, everyone's going to know we've already laid claim to him, right?"
Kim Jeong-uk whispered to Yu Yul with a smirk. Yu Yul merely nodded without a word.
The next monster for Stage 3 was the Cursed Dead.
An undead zombie-type monster.
Seol Ha-woon still didn't take a single step. He cooked the zombie from the exact same spot. He poured all his firepower into the creature, which was known for its durability, and ultimately burned its entire body to ashes. Rather than being pierced by the Mana Bullets, it looked as though it had been roasted by the sheer heat of countless bullet wounds.
To Yu Yul's eyes, his combat capability had definitely improved. Real combat in the labyrinth must have helped immensely.
"...He's a pure spellcaster, a rare sight in this day and age."
However, Kim Jeong-uk's expression had turned serious.
Rather than admiration, his face showed that he had detected something 'suspicious.'
* * *
"He's good."
In the explorer waiting room.
Lee Jun-ho watched the replay of Seol Ha-woon's monster hunt on the monitor.
His personal impression was to wonder if Ha-woon was specialized. Just like how in games, there were classes good for PvP and classes good for PvE.
Tap.
Beside him, Kang Hyun closed his notebook. Lee Jun-ho glanced over.
"Why are you putting it away? You were taking notes so diligently."
"It's meaningless."
"Meaningless? What do you mean?"
"That hyung doesn't have any patterns or routines."
"...Isn't just standing there and firing spells his pattern?"
"It looks similar, but it's different. The order of spell deployment, his eye movements, his behavioral reflexes, the way he gathers mana... and yet..."
Kang Hyun trailed off.
Seol Ha-woon lacked the habits—what spellcasters often called kuse. He had no patterns. There were no warning signs or precursors before his spells manifested.
It was as if he had intentionally erased all of his own rules and order.
"He's a spellcaster who is impossible to analyze."
"...Is that so?"
"If he were a normal person, he'd be someone without fingerprints."
"That's a bit goosebump-inducing."
Lee Jun-ho and Kang Hyun were public rivals. They had run into each other often, but they weren't particularly close.
Lee Jun-ho turned his head.
Seo Ji-woo was there. She also wore an incredibly serious expression.
Why is everyone on both sides of me acting like this? It's annoying.
Just then, Seol Ha-woon's Stage 5 monster was decided.
Lee Jun-ho smirked.
"Talk about bad luck. He got the Mana Spider?"
The Mana Spider. A B-Class monster that was particularly strong against spellcasters. It was more than fitting for the final stage.
Lee Jun-ho crossed his arms with deep interest.
* * *
Stage 5.
Somehow, he had made it all the way here, but his headache was severe. Using the combat-oriented Sequence put a heavy burden on his spinal cord.
Maybe I should have just failed earlier.
Still, In-Camera Scouting was a segment with a lot of screen time. To attract high-quality sponsors and scouts, he needed to showcase his capabilities as much as possible.
I put on the Rimless Glasses.
The opponent was a Mana Spider. Time limit: 5 minutes. The arena was a spacious cave. Stalactites loomed from the ceiling, and the eerie sound of dripping water echoed.
In the distance, the spider's appearance looked even more brutal up close.
It was the size of a bear, with thick, bushy hair covering its eight legs. It was the kind of appearance that would definitely be censored in the actual broadcast.
Screeech!
The creature moved between cobwebs as large as houses.
Thump!
I tapped the ground with my cane.
Mana rippled outward like a wave, and the structure of the space was instantly perceived. Grasping the terrain was essential.
Just then, the beast shot out a web. I deployed a crystal barrier. The threads stuck to the reinforced barrier.
Sssss.
The web dissolved the barrier. More accurately, it sucked away the mana.
Scuttle, scuttle.
I fired a barrage of Mana Bullets at the moving target. The bullets were caught in the webs and shriveled up.
I had imbued the bullets with the Flame of Cognition to detonate, but the webs had absorbed the mana first.
This was why it was called a Mana Spider. It fed on mana, making it a notorious natural enemy for spellcasters.
"...Hmm."
Can I win, or can I not? I believed the difference lay in whether one could 'overcome through control.'
The Mana Spider was impossible to overcome that way.
Even if I set up a defensive formation and waged a war of attrition, the chances of winning were uncertain. To make matters worse, there were only 3 minutes left.
Should I just give up?
Crackle—!
Suddenly, mana sparked from my cane like electricity.
The synchronization was complete. There wasn't enough time to check the item's changes.
I'll find out once I use it.
I tapped the ground with my cane.
Thud.
The ripple was much clearer. The resonance was transparent. The amount of mana flowing through the cane had increased.
No, it hadn't just increased. At this rate, it might be possible to compress mana with high density at a single point and detonate it.
Let's try it.
I closed my eyes. I sent my mana deep into the ground. At the same time, I activated Sequence.
Time slowed to a crawl. But the speed of my mana followed my Flame of Cognition.
Sssss.
The mana, traveling underground like an electric current, reached a specific coordinate—directly beneath the spider.
Pinpoint bombardment.
Rumble—!
An explosion erupted from beneath the earth. A torrent of high heat and high pressure, generated from a single point, swallowed the spider whole. Swept up by the shockwave, the creature's eight legs trembled before it went completely limp. Steam, smelling like well-cooked meat, drifted from its corpse.
"...Ah."
A sudden wave of dizziness made me stumble. I barely managed to stand upright by leaning on my cane.
One of the most basic theories of spellcasting: 'The further mana travels from the spellcaster, the harder it is to control.'
The mana consumption was far more intense than expected.
I looked up at the electronic scoreboard.
I had exceeded the time limit by about 5 seconds. Although I failed, a smile crept onto my face.
AC-0308.
You've gotten incredibly good.
* * *
The Mana Spider. It was a monster that 'pure spellcasters' found incredibly difficult to deal with. Here, "pure spellcaster" was one of the classifications of spellcasters. In English, a pure magician.
Perhaps in the 70s or 80s, when explorer theory was still underdeveloped, it might have been common, but in the modern era, where position play was firmly established, it was a virtually obsolete concept.
'A good spellcaster must be able to move as busily and quickly as any archer or warrior.'
This was a proposition fully proven by modern statistics and analytical technology. It was the knowledge advocated and led by corporations, guilds, schools, and sects.
Yet Seol Ha-woon stood at the exact opposite end of that spectrum. He was a pure spellcaster who completely defied modern theory. It was hard to find another counterexample; he was the very definition of a pure spellcaster.
And yet, such a man had incinerated a Mana Spider.
In Kim Jeong-uk's mind, while the spellcaster's personal mobility was lacking, the mobility of his mana was overwhelming. His mastery of manipulating mana was already at a veteran level, and yet he possessed absolutely no bad habits.
Now, what exactly were bad habits?
For those who were curious, here is a small example. Sometimes in the media, there are spellcasters who flail their hands, feet, arms, and legs when manipulating mana. They move their bodies to guide the path of the mana.
That was the result of incorrect learning.
Mana could move tens, hundreds, thousands of times faster than the human body. To restrict it by moving one's body was a dumbass move that only slowed down the mana.
And there were far more spellcasters like that than one would think.
On the other hand, Seol Ha-woon's mana had no limits. He knew very well that the speed of mana was proportional to the spellcaster's Flame of Cognition.
Therefore, he resolved everything from where he stood. Standing at a single point, he established his domain, and without lifting a single finger, he thoroughly controlled the entire space.
It was the purest form of a spellcaster.
"...Tsk."
Kim Jeong-uk rested his chin on his hand, looking grave. He was suspicious of Seol Ha-woon.
"Is there a problem?"
Just then, PD Kim A-rang approached. Kim Jeong-uk glanced at her.
"PD Kim."
"Yes?"
"In your written notes, you mentioned that the spellcaster Seol Ha-woon was a rough diamond."
"He is a rough diamond. Is he not?"
Ha! A scoff mixed with annoyance escaped his lips.
"A rough diamond means an unrefined mineral. It refers to something that contains impurities but holds shining potential within."
"That is... exactly what I meant? Seol Ha-woon has less than a year of experience as a spellcaster."
"...You don't need to play dumb with me. I understand it's a concept for the broadcast, but still."
"Pardon?"
PD Kim A-rang looked at Yu Yul, her eyes pleading for help.
Yu Yul spoke.
"It's not a year."
"See?"
"Seven months."
She actually reduced the number. When they first met, Seol Ha-woon had confessed he was in his fourth month as a spellcaster, and three months had passed since then. Therefore, seven months was the more accurate figure.
Kim Jeong-uk glared at Yu Yul with furrowed brows.
"...Are you certain?"
"In my personal opinion, he might have even inflated it himself."
"Inflated it on purpose?"
Yu Yul thought about Seol Ha-woon.
The talent he had shown during his interview was merely dismantling a cheap artifact. It was the result of a sudden pivot when he had originally just tried to light a piece of paper on fire.
Above all, the first time Seol Ha-woon had visited David Han's bookstore was a mere four months ago. Therefore, Seol Ha-woon was a newborn spellcaster of at least four months, and at most seven.
"...It's nothing. It must be somewhere between six and seven months."
Whether it was four months or seven, there was no doubt he possessed extraordinary talent.
"Hmph..."
Kim Jeong-uk crossed his arms seriously. Suddenly, his brow furrowed as he turned back to Yu Yul.
"Mentor Yu Yul."
His gaze was overbearing. His face was already greasy, but his burning pupils made it even worse.
He was the kind of man who looked like he would shed butter instead of tears.
"I have something serious to discuss with you."
"Ahem~ Then I'll leave you two to talk."
Yu Yul barely suppressed her rising irritation, while Kim A-rang turned away, clearly holding back a laugh.
"Now then!"
Clap. A grand speech began with the sound of clapping hands.
"I would like to have a deep conversation about the spellcaster Seol Ha-woon. Assuming he is indeed in his seventh month..."
Kim Jeong-uk was passionate. He spat as he spoke, as if pouring his very soul into it.
"...Yes, I know. I know what you must think of him, Mentor Yu Yul. But this is for Seol Ha-woon's future."
There were always strange people like this. Madmen who thought whatever they wanted and judged however they pleased.
"Just get to the point."
As if he had been waiting for those words, Kim Jeong-uk said,
"Please let Seol Ha-woon go."
Yu Yul replied,
"I never held onto him in the first place."
"......"
The corner of Kim Jeong-uk's mouth twitched.
He clearly didn't believe her. What a tiring man.
"Yes, I understand. Considering Seol Ha-woon's talent, you'd naturally want to keep him close. Mentor Yu Yul, is your goal to establish your own school? If so, we, the Jepheral Academy, can help you. We can act as your connection. A school doesn't change because of a single individual. If a Mage emerges among your disciples, your school will instead be swallowed by them—"
"Do you think,"
Yu Yul cut him off.
"Seol Ha-woon has the qualities of a Mage?"
"...Well, that is for our Headmaster to judge. You know who our Headmaster is, right?"
The headmaster of the Jepheral Academy was Jepheral. He was a Mage. In Yu Yul's eyes, he wasn't a particularly outstanding one. His skills were slightly above average at best.
This meant that not all mages were created equal.
"Whatever. Do as you please."
Yu Yul stood up. Kim Jeong-uk smiled.
"Are you truly fine with this? I heard from PD Kim that Seol Ha-woon holds a very deep master-disciple affection for you."
Yu Yul adjusted her eyebrows and said,
"I'm not the type to keep disciples."