Chapter 003
Chapter 003
Clang——!!
The shattered dagger scattered into the air.
An unprecedented situation where an examinee personally destroyed their own work after passing the exam.
"......"
"......"
"Hah."
The exam hall was as cold as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped on it.
Only Kang-hyun had an expression that suggested he felt completely relieved.
"Phew. This damn piece of junk. Breaking it feels so satisfying."
A dwarf has his pride.
I can't leave such a shoddy piece of work in the world under my name.
"—Kang-hyun!"
Lee Se-rin jumped out in a panic. Her face was paler than her fluttering silver-white hair.
"S-sorry. He recently injured his head, so he's a bit sick... I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Professor!"
Kang-hyun furrowed his brows at the remark that openly treated him like a patient.
Instead, Professor Kim Se-young stopped Lee Se-rin.
"No. It's fine. I was a little surprised, though."
For some reason, Professor Kim Se-young looked at Kang-hyun with a satisfied expression.
"Skilled craftsmen are bound to be a little crazy in the head. Examinee Kang-hyun is perfectly entitled to be that way. I can understand."
"...? Thank you?"
Is this... a compliment? Or is she beating around the bush saying I'm crazy?
Lee Se-rin made a dubious expression, then quickly snapped back to reality.
"Hy-Hyun-ah. Let's go quickly. Mom said she's coming to pick us up."
"Huh? Wait a second—"
Kang-hyun, grabbed by Lee Se-rin, went "Uh-uh-" as he was dragged out of the auditorium.
The two disappeared like the wind.
The auditorium was buzzing.
Park Jin-cheol asked futilely, watching Professor Kim Se-young pick up the scattered dagger fragments.
"Professor. To think you actually let him break it. What are you thinking? What about the second evaluation?"
The Production Specialization Department exam is divided into the first and second rounds.
The first evaluation checks the product with the naked eye, and the second evaluates its actual performance.
Naturally, examinees had to take the second evaluation with the product they made in the first.
"The dagger is completely shattered, so how can he take the second evaluation?"
"Hehe."
"Professor?"
Kim Se-young picked up a fragment with her fingers.
"Assistant Park. That dagger from earlier, wasn't it truly amazing?"
"Well... yes. It wasn't something that should come from an examinee's level."
Park Jin-cheol nodded.
The dagger's center of gravity, length, grip.
A solid foundation could be felt in everything.
It wasn't that he couldn't use techniques.
He restrained himself because it wasn't necessary.
He's at an age where he'd love to show off his skills, yet that was incredible restraint.
It was as if a seasoned swordsmith with decades of experience had made it.
"Honestly, looking just at the result, it wouldn't have been strange if it received a Hero grade. The fact that it came out as Rare grade must mean the original state was that bad."
"Was it to that extent?"
"Assistant Park, you saw it too. Honestly, making Rare-grade equipment? That improves as you learn."
Rare-grade equipment appears about once a month when students reach their 2nd or 3rd year at Lumen Academy.
Even Assistant Park Jin-cheol could produce one Rare grade out of five if he focused.
However, in Kang-hyun's case, the level of difficulty was on a different dimension.
"......But how do you make a Rare grade with that lump of iron?"
You can hammer iron to make a sword.
But if someone told you to make a tree out of trash, who could do it?
What Kang-hyun just showed was almost at that level.
"That's why student Kang-hyun is special."
Limited time. Limited materials.
A mess of a weapon.
"Student Kang-hyun showed results beyond his limits in such a terrible situation."
If so—
"If he were given proper materials and an environment, aren't you curious about what would come out? Huh?"
"That is truly..."
After thinking for a moment, Park Jin-cheol nodded.
"I am curious, though."
"Right? It was worth breaking, wasn't it?"
As the assistant and professor were spouting nonsense together.
A man in a black suit quietly interjected.
"Professor Kim Se-young?"
"Yes?"
"I will report the commotion just now to the Department Head."
"Ah."
Professor Kim Se-young's face dropped instantly.
A commotion of this magnitude naturally had to be reported to the Department Head.
The ensuing reprimand was also a given.
'...Professor. You really did that without thinking about the consequences.'
Park Jin-cheol shook his head, looking at the deflated Kim Se-young.
Like she said, skilled craftsmen are bound to be a little crazy in the head.
Park Jin-cheol and the other teaching assistants began to calm down the chaotic exam hall.
"There was a brief commotion! We will continue the evaluation shortly, so examinees, please stay in your seats!"
"If you leave without permission, you will be disqualified immediately! Do not move!"
Despite the strict control of the teaching assistants, the heat of the exam hall did not easily subside.
Guild headhunters who were watching began to secretly send messages, and examinees kept whispering about the unprecedented situation.
And among them, there was a girl who stared for an unusually long time in the direction Kang-hyun had left.
"Sniff, sniff. Kang-hyun, that human... for some reason, he has a strange smell..."
Twitch, twitch—
"......Sniff."
Her pointed ears moved slightly.
'The smell of damp beard. Musty coal, and...'
A strange smell was coming from the human named Kang-hyun.
What the girl was talking about wasn't a physical scent smelled by the nose, but a strange odor seeping out from the depths of the soul.
'The smell of scales?'
To think a human soul would smell like scales.
It was a peculiar thing.
"Examinee number 135, Evangeline."
"Ah, yes!"
Surprised that her turn had come so soon, Evangeline hurriedly submitted her equipment.
"W-what I made is something the deep history of the Feline Race boasts of-"
Evangeline pushed that question to the back of her mind.
Because right now, she had her own problems to deal with.
Vroom—
The black car carrying Kang-hyun and Lee Se-rin sped down the road.
"Kang-hyun, did you do well on the exam?"
Lee Se-rin's mother, Lee Se-young, was a woman with silver-white hair similar to Se-rin's and soft eyes.
"Mom! Kang-hyun must be totally crazy! He broke his dagger in the exam hall?! No, and what was that skill just now? You never practiced at all, so how did you make such a dagger—"
"Oh my. Hyun-ah, is that true?"
"Uh, sorry. What was that?"
Kang-hyun was distracted by looking out the window.
'What a truly fascinating world.'
Square skyscrapers stretching high into the sky and artistically sculpted, sophisticated streets.
Humans were walking peacefully between them.
'Everything I see... is powered by mana.'
In Kang-hyun's eyes, the intricately moving mana was clearly visible.
Things like the transparent mana plate held in the hand of the human walking over there, or the character plates emitting a soft glow on the outer walls of buildings.
Even the car Kang-hyun was currently riding in was operating through a smooth and complex mana stone engine.
'...Is this usually visible?'
Kang-hyun glanced at Lee Se-rin.
There was no sign of that in Lee Se-rin, who was complaining to her mother for a long time.
'Can other people not see it?'
It was strange.
The strange heat that flowed from his heart when he was hammering during the entrance exam.
He felt that the fact he could see mana with his eyes now was connected to that.
'I'll have to look into it slowly.'
Lee Se-rin's voice pulled Kang-hyun out of his thoughts.
"—I'm asking how you're going to handle the second exam now that you've broken it!"
"Second exam? What are you talking about?"
"The Production Specialization class has a second exam! Hey, you didn't just break it without even checking that, did you?"
"......"
Kang-hyun shut his mouth.
Lee Se-rin clutched her forehead with a despairing expression.
"...Please tell me you had a plan before you broke it."
"......Hmm. Sorry."
He didn't know.
He really didn't know.
No matter how much he searched his memories, not a single line of information about the second exam came up.
Then there is only one conclusion.
'It means the original owner of this body didn't know at all either...'
He couldn't even guess how uninterested he was in the entrance exam.
'Why did a guy who didn't even know how many exams there were apply to the Production Specialization Department in the first place?'
Going to a club the day before the exam.
Making a mess of the result.
And then applying to the Production Specialization Department?
It makes no sense at all.
Only then did Kang-hyun close his eyes and start rummaging through the body's memories, pretending to be deep in thought.
All sorts of memories started to surface.
Kang-hyun frowned and began to filter out useless information.
The atmosphere of the club, the face of a woman he met secretly, the deep oak scent of Sapphire Blue...
'Oh, this is good information.'
If you hate alcohol, you're not a dwarf.
Kang-hyun engraved the name Sapphire Blue deep in his heart.
While swimming in the sea of memories for a while, he was finally able to fish out one most essential piece of information.
'This guy. He gave up metallurgy at 14 for some reason.'
The reason wasn't clearly visible yet. It was blurry, as if submerged in fog.
It felt like the body didn't want to recall it.
But it was clear that that memory was the cause.
Screech—
The car stopped smoothly.
"Go inside first. And... Hyun-ah. I'll look into the second exam, so just wait."
Lee Se-young added in a worried voice.
"...I know you didn't want to get into the Production Specialization Department, but please think of your parents."
'Think of my parents?'
Kang-hyun didn't know anything, but he nodded for now.
"Yes. Don't worry."
The place where Lee Se-rin and Kang-hyun got off was a detached house with a yard.
It was excessively large for just three people, including Kang-hyun.
Kang-hyun followed Lee Se-rin into the house without a second thought.
'Is this my room?'
It was a room in the corner of the second floor that felt familiar.
"Sigh. I have so much to say to you, really? So much, but..."
Lee Se-rin looked down at Kang-hyun's hands with a complex gaze.
The palms, abused by hammering, were flushed red.
"Just wait a moment. I'll go get some ice."
While Lee Se-rin was away for a moment.
Kang-hyun slowly looked around the room.
'It's normal. It's just the kind of room a human boy of this age would like.'
A few comic magazines stuck on the desk, workbooks and reference books thrown aside after being solved a little.
It was a room with nothing particularly strange.
But no matter how much he searched the room, there was strangely nothing related to metallurgy.
There wasn't even a summary of the characteristics of various materials.
'Tsk. This guy, he really had no intention of getting into the Production Specialization Department, did he?'
When he rummaged deep in the drawer, a crumpled piece of paper appeared.
The paper was yellowed, as if it were quite old.
"What is this?"
[Medical Certificate]
Name: Kang-hyun
Diagnosis and Opinion: Acquired Mana Insensitivity
Disease Classification Code: M30-004 (Mana Nervous System and Activation Disorder)
"...Mana Insensitivity?"
Zing—
For a moment, his head throbbed, and some memories passed by like a panorama.
A hospital room, 14-year-old Kang-hyun, a doctor... and Acquired Mana Insensitivity.
'Ugh... I see. Mana Insensitivity, huh...'
Kang-hyun rubbed his temples and frowned.
Mana Insensitivity.
It was one of the incurable diseases that appeared later in life, where the patient could neither feel nor manipulate mana.
The problem was that to make equipment with a grade, one had to know how to imbue and manipulate mana.
"Tsk. That's why he gave up metallurgy..."
The taste in his mouth is bitter.
In the blurry memories, the despair, sadness, and frustration of 14-year-old Kang-hyun felt stinging.
'The original kid didn't want to give up metallurgy either.'
He ran away.
Like himself in his past life.
"Don't worry, kid. I, this old man, will walk the path you wanted to walk until the end for you. Watch closely."
It's a path I've already seen to the end once, isn't it?
It was a bit of a shame that the years built up over hundreds of years were gone, but I can just build them up again.
'That aside... what on earth is the mana I see right now?'
Kang-hyun should also have Mana Insensitivity, but the reason why mana is visible so clearly like now is clearly—
"Ivan. It must be that guy."
The red lizard must have done something.
Normally, he would have considered it unnecessary meddling, but with the situation like this, it was hard to say anything.
Rustle—
When he heard someone outside the door, Kang-hyun quickly hid the medical certificate.
Lee Se-rin and Lee Se-young didn't know that Kang-hyun had Mana Insensitivity.
He had been hiding it perfectly.
Kang-hyun also had no intention of letting them know about the Mana Insensitivity.
'It would only bring unnecessary worry.'
It would be best to burn or throw away the medical certificate when the time is right.
Then now, what needs to be solved is...
'How to handle the fact that I broke the equipment in the first exam, that's it.'
Kang-hyun scratched his head and pondered.
Honestly, he was confident he could enter the Academy with ease.
He could easily beat the brats trembling at forging like twisting a baby's wrist.
"......Ah. That would work."
Kang-hyun, having thought of something, nodded.
"I brought the ice... what are you doing right now?"
Lee Se-rin, who returned with ice, looked at him with an incredulous gaze.
Kang-hyun, who was lying on the floor writing something in a notebook, answered.
"I'm writing a petition to submit to the big shots at the Academy."
"...A petition?"
"Yeah. Telling them I'm a real genius with great skills, so please let me take the second exam."
"...?"
Do people usually call themselves a genius like this?
Lee Se-rin, who was about to retort, shut her mouth, remembering Kang-hyun showing god-like skills in the exam hall.
Seeing a Rare grade pop out even though he hadn't practiced, she wondered if he really was a genius...
"Let me see. Let me see how you wrote it."
Lee Se-rin snatched the petition and started reading. The more she read, the more her expression twisted strangely.
"...Hey. 'I, as the unprecedented genius in the history of Lumen Academy'?"
"It's true, isn't it? Is there anyone else who made a Rare grade besides me? There isn't."
Kang-hyun was proud.
No, he decided to be shameless.
Since he decided to play among the brats, he had to be thoroughly shameless.
"And the next line, 'Eliminating such a talent is a disgrace to the Academy and a huge loss'?"
"Doesn't it sound humble when you read it?"
"......Hyun-ah."
"Why."
"You injured your head a lot, didn't you."
Thwack.
Lee Se-rin thrust the petition in front of Kang-hyun's nose.
"Then read this again. See if it's a sentence written by a normal person."
Kang-hyun took the petition and read it slowly from the beginning.
"......."
"......."
"It's well-written."
"Get out."
At that moment, footsteps were heard in the hallway, and the door opened.
Bang—!
Lee Se-young entered the room with a bright expression.
"Se-rin, Hyun-ah! I got a call from Lumen Academy!"
Kang-hyun and Lee Se-rin, who were bickering, turned their heads sharply.
"They want to talk about what happened during the entrance exam, so they want us to come visit tomorrow!"
It was unexpected good news.