A qualification exam that asks whether the examinee is qualified.
The qualification exam does not simply demand that examinees infer and solve problems.
It demands more than that.
If they focus only on solving problems to display their examinee number and earn bonus points, they may fail to notice it.
“Whoa, what are those guys? Blue?”
“They were red until yesterday, but they changed again in a single day.”
“How did they solve that many?”
“The fewer problems there are left, the higher the difficulty gets….”
At longest, a week. At shortest, within a day.
The core of the exam, which examinees are free to challenge from a week before until the day before the practical exam, lies in the fact that they must possess an admission ticket with at least one problem solved by the day of the practical exam.
Until then, their examinee number remains unconfirmed.
Only when the date of the practical exam arrives is it finally confirmed according to the examinee number on the admission ticket they are wearing.
“But they always go around as just the two of them, huh? They split up when they solve problems.”
“…”
In other words, until the day before the practical exam, ownership of an admission ticket is unclear.
So it is not impossible to steal someone else’s admission ticket and wear it yourself.
It was a blind spot in the qualification exam.
Examinees who failed to solve problems, or who began to feel their limits at some point, were inevitably tempted to focus on that blind spot and extort other people’s admission tickets.
“Should we secretly follow them?”
“…”
“You never know.”
However, there was no way Geumgang Academy had failed to notice that blind spot.
The fact that they had left it as it was meant that it was very much intentional.
“Ah, those bastards are moving too.”
“Tch, we had our eyes on them first….”
“We can’t let those guys take them!”
To begin with, Geumgang Academy had even explained that admission tickets should be kept on one’s person at all times.
Even though there was no way they didn’t know the large admission tickets would stand out.
In the end, that too was part of the exam, and part of what was demanded of the examinees.
Hunters who attack Gates, kill monsters, and protect the nation and humanity.
If they truly wished to become such Hunters, then they had to show the ability to either seize or defend something as simple as an admission ticket.
Because of that, the examinees’ vigilance could only rise as the day of the practical exam drew nearer.
Unlike those ordinary examinees….
“There’s no one who goes around with them, right?”
“I watched them for two days, and there wasn’t. Those two always go around by themselves.”
“They’re practically begging us to take them.”
A gentle-looking man and a demi-human woman with rabbit ears were walking boldly through the streets of District 23 with blue admission tickets on their bodies.
As if they had no worries whatsoever about having their admission tickets stolen.
To examinees who wanted to extort other people’s admission tickets, they could only look like delicious prey.
Of course, they had brains too.
“Hey, but those two have blue tickets.”
“So?”
“If they solved twenty-five problems, doesn’t that mean they’re stronger than us?”
“True…. Maybe the reason they move around as a pair is because they’re confident in their skills.”
They did not know the two’s exact abilities, but the examinees who had followed them for several days had realized that the speed at which they solved problems was far from ordinary.
So it was only natural for them to think that way.
But that was all.
“There are only two days left now. Are we really in a position to be picky?”
“We finally have a chance to get examinee numbers and bonus points, and you want to give up? I don’t.”
“It doesn’t matter if those guys are strong. If we overwhelm them with numbers, we win.”
“Besides, we’re not the only ones aiming for them. Others are too.”
“If we all attack together, we’ll manage somehow.”
“We can think about who gets to own the admission tickets afterward.”
“They’re going. Are you not?”
The tight time limit, overwhelming numbers, irrational camaraderie, group mentality, and so on.
The examinees had no choice but to make their judgment while being pushed along by such factors.
They saw this as an opportunity.
Meanwhile, admission tickets were worth money.
“I only came here to make some pocket money. I’m not really interested in passing.”
“How much could a blue one sell for?”
“How much did they agree to pay you?”
“Me? The person who commissioned me must be pretty rich. They said they’d pay quite a bit.”
“The really rich bastards just buy admission tickets with money, huh.”
Where there is demand, there is supply.
Every year in Academy City, people appear who try to use admission tickets as a means of making money.
Most of them were the sort who had entered the city full of dreams of becoming Hunters, only to feel their limits and fall into despair, or fall behind others.
Yet they could not leave Academy City and drifted along at the bottom as thugs.
There was no way they would let this opportunity slip by either.
And so.
“They just went into the alley!”
“That place is a dead end.”
“It’s pretty deserted too…. If we follow them in now, we can block the path and surround them.”
The enemy of my enemy is my ally, as they say.
The thugs and examinees, whose interests had naturally aligned, chased after the two.
The two, unaware of even that, walked of their own accord into an alley where people’s eyes could not reach.
It was like rabbits going into their burrow.
For them, it was the perfect opportunity.
“Idiots.”
The time to hunt the rabbits had come.
The hyenas openly snickered.
Soon, after surrounding the area around the alley, they each took out metal plates.
“Device On.”
So that weapons could be carried conveniently.
Roughly two hundred years after the Great Cataclysm, humanity had invented a technology that could perfectly compress weapons made of mana alloy without damaging them.
The crystallization of that technology was the Device.
As they murmured the activation phrase, the metal plates regained their original forms and transformed into weapons.
And then.
“Whoever takes them first owns them!”
Each of them gripping a weapon, they promptly rushed into the rabbit burrow.
However, what awaited them was a dead end.
“W-What the….”
“Wasn’t it here!?”
“Who said they came in here!?”
“They definitely came in here….”
“Where did those bastards go?”
“Hurry up and find them!”
As if they had sunk into the ground.
No matter how hard they looked, the rabbits were nowhere to be seen.
They were visibly flustered.
It was right then.
“Who are you looking for over there?”
“…”
A voice came from above their heads.
Startled by the sudden sound, they slowly raised their heads.
“Me? I’m right here.”
“…”
Atop the wall facing them.
The rabbits were looking down at them as if they were kings of the mountain.
At that moment, the gentle-looking man stepped from wall to wall and abruptly jumped down to the entrance of the alley.
“And now I’m right in front of you.”
“…”
The situation had been reversed.
Now the ones trapped with no way out were not the rabbits, but the hyenas.
However, there was no reason to be afraid just because a rabbit was blocking the way.
After all, it was only a rabbit.
The hyenas hesitated only for a moment.
“Take him down!”
“That little shit thinks he can act tough!”
Coming back to their senses, they moved.
The sight of over twenty hyenas trying to hunt a single rabbit was utterly ridiculous.
Of course, that rabbit….
“Grr.”
Only looked like a rabbit.
* * *
They were idiots, not even realizing they had been lured in.
But because they were idiots, they must have tried to target us without even gauging the difference between their abilities and ours.
‘Do they think numbers solve everything?’
Maybe if this were a fight between ordinary people.
But in a fight between people who handle mana, numbers do not mean much.
Just as a single hero saves the world, overwhelming strength crushes numbers.
A rabble like this has no way of dealing with me or Yeon Haneul.
In order to show them that.
“Device On.”
I took the metal plate out of my pocket.
A Device, a compressed weapon made so Hunters could carry it conveniently.
The Device, whose volume had been reduced without reducing its weight, responded to the activation phrase and regained its original form.
I drew the Navy Blue Sword.
Immediately after.
Whoosh!
The first guy to charge at me swung his sword in a wide arc.
There was rubber padding attached to the blade.
I probably wouldn’t die if it hit me, but it looked like it would hurt quite a bit.
Of course, I had no intention of getting hit.
‘The attack is too simple and honest.’
There was nothing distinctive about his swordsmanship.
It felt like he had only learned the basics.
There was no way I would fall to a sword like that.
I didn’t even need to rely on my evasion instinct.
That was also why I hadn’t used the alias Rabbit, but had instead used Lion Cub, which increased the power of the Beast King Style.
My current Agility stat was 68.
With the effect of the Navy Blue Sword added, it was 71.
To me, having entered the realm of the 70s in Agility, that attack only looked slow.
I avoided the attack with a simple step, then struck the guy’s back with the back of my blade.
“Keheuk!”
“You bastard…!”
As one person went flying.
In the meantime, another guy who had charged in aimed for my back.
It was a little late to swing the Navy Blue Sword.
But there was no need to swing the Navy Blue Sword; I could just strike him away with the scabbard.
“…!”
Since it was the scabbard, I could swing it without worrying.
I smacked the guy across the cheek.
‘His face looked like it turned all the way around….’
It’s fine. He won’t die from that much.
If he does die, well… I’ll have to run like hell.
Meanwhile, the others kept charging in without even giving me time to check whether the fallen guy was alive or dead.
“He’s only one person anyway! Push him!”
“Hoo….”
It was a chore to consciously strike over twenty guys with the back of my blade.
I infused mana into the Navy Blue Sword.
I switched it to reverse-blade mode.
The positions of the edge and the back of the blade changed.
‘This will make it easier to fight.’
Now it felt worth beating them up.
I blocked one person’s attack while dodging two others.
“…What!?”
Their eyes widened in shock.
It seemed that had been a decisive attack.
To me, it only looked slow.
The movements of the three were far inferior even compared to the triplets.
“Keheuk!”
Meanwhile, the Navy Blue Sword, switched to reverse-blade mode, struck one guy in the chest.
His bones were probably broken, making it hard for him to breathe.
He was unable to fight.
I took my eyes off him and attacked the two whose coordination had collapsed.
Thud!
The impact felt excellent.
The guy who failed to land his attack slammed his body into the wall beside him.
Then he lost consciousness and slid down the wall.
He looked exactly like he had been hit by a tranquilizer dart.
Was this the beginning of the incident?
‘And I’m the culprit.’
And she was a culprit too.
“This little shit!”
“Attack together!”
The space was too narrow to swing a sword.
Avoiding the guys who came aiming for that gap, I kicked off the wall, then kicked off the opposite wall again and landed behind them.
Then, as I struck the backs of their heads, I looked up at Yeon Haneul, who was keeping the guys in check from above.
First Rank wind elemental magic.
The nonlethal bullets Yeon Haneul created at the tip of her index finger targeted the guys.
In that way, she covered me while also controlling the situation so they could not escape the alley.
Then, at that moment.
“You cowardly little…!”
“…!”
A guy who seemed to have joined late appeared behind Yeon Haneul.
The distance was too close for Yeon Haneul to respond with magic.
But she had trained in hand-to-hand combat as well.
Unlike a mage who only knew how to use magic, she was also skilled at handling weapons.
“Device On.”
“…What!?”
Yeon Haneul twisted her body and avoided the attack.
Before anyone knew it, she was holding a metal hammer bigger than herself in one hand.
When she swung that hammer….
Crack!
A terrifying sound rang out from above.
I could see the guy get hit by her metal hammer, sent flying, and plummet downward.
I immediately jumped up from the ground.
Tak! Whoosh! Smack! Thud!
Before the guy’s head could hit the floor, I rotated my body and kicked him in the side.
Like that, I sent him flying into a pile of garbage bags.
‘He won’t die this way.’
I clicked my tongue as I looked at the guy buried inside in a bizarre posture.
Yeon Haneul seemed even worse than me.
“Thanks, Gyeonu.”
“Uh… sure.”
And yet she said it so calmly.
With an awkward expression, I decided to deal with the rest of them.
There were still quite a few left.
I would have to rampage a little more loudly.
I heated up my mana circuits.
Crackle!
“…Spark?”
“Wait, that’s…!”
Even if they realized it now, it was too late.
They should have known who they were messing with.
I grinned as I looked at them.
“Divine Sword… Do Clan….”
“If that hits you the wrong way, you might die.”
Blue mana spat sparks.
Azure Thunder.
It coiled around my sword.
“So don’t die—for my sake.”
Lion’s Wild Dance
A sword art freely swung for the sole purpose of facing the enemy before me.
The blade, growing stronger with every rotation, surged toward them.
* * *
“So don’t die—for my sake.”
“…”
“Mm, that was cool. Really… dra… ma…”
After the situation had more or less settled.
Yeon Haneul, who had come down below, spoke the moment she saw me, wearing an absurdly solemn expression.
The corners of her mouth were twitching as if she were holding back laughter.
“It was just like a scene from a drama… pfft…”
“Yeon. Ha. Neul.”
“Kyaaak! What do you think you’re doinggg…!”
There was no doubt about it.
Yeon Haneul was making fun of me.
And I was not the kind of person who would just stand by while being openly teased.
I kneaded her face and gripped her rabbit ears hard.
“You…”
“That’s what you get for teasing me.”
“Hmph, you tease me all the time.”
“I’m allowed to. You’re not.”
“Wow. What a double standard.”
Yeon Haneul looked utterly dumbfounded.
I shrugged at her and decided to stop the squabbling there.
Then I looked down at the guys who had been beaten by us and collapsed.
“Ugh…”
Groans could be heard from all over.
That was how badly they had been done in by us.
“Wasn’t it you, Gyeonu, not us? If you think about it, they ended up like that because of the sword art you used.”
“And you didn’t swing that sledgehammer?”
“Still less than you, probably?”
Yeon Haneul acted prim.
But no matter what she said, the fact that she had fought alongside me and swung that sledgehammer did not change.
There was no point trying to hide it.
The condition of the guy who had been slammed into the pile of trash earlier did not lie.
In any case.
It was time to handle the aftermath.
“Haneul, can you use magic that makes objects float to remove their admission tickets?”
“I can if I use wind elemental magic. But why?”
“What do you mean, why? Obviously, they have to pay the price for targeting us.”
“Ah, right… I see. That’s just like you.”
“Make them come to me with magic.”
I asked Yeon Haneul.
Though she looked reluctant, she complied without complaint.
Whoooosh!
All of a sudden, wind swirled around us.
The wind, moving according to her command, tore the admission tickets attached to the chests of the fallen guys.
“Ah…”
“M-my admission ticket…”
They tried to grab hold of their admission tickets, but with their current strength, it was impossible.
Before long, the admission tickets that had left them gathered toward me one by one.
“…”
The gazes of the guys who had lost their admission tickets all turned toward me.
I smiled as brightly as I could.
“If you were prepared to take what belonged to someone else, then of course you were prepared to have yours taken too, right?”
“Y-you, what are you going to…”
“Just watch helplessly from there.”
“Gyeonu, that’s something only villains…”
“It’s fine when I do it. Villains aren’t allowed.”
“Mm, okay…”
There seemed to be around thirty admission tickets, to the point that I had to hug them with one arm.
I threw those admission tickets with all my strength.
Whoooosh!
Even though I had not said anything, she caught on and raised a wind for me.
The admission tickets soared high into the air.
Then, they began to fall.
With them in my sight, I thrust my sword repeatedly.
Lion’s Soaring Ascent (獅子 飛昇)
A sword art combining speed and illusion.
Planting both feet firmly on the ground so that my body would not sway.
I loaded mana into my sword and the arm gripping it, then violently pierced the falling objects.
Once the number of attacks surpassed twelve.
Grrrrr!
The mana I had released until then condensed, taking on the form of a lion.
Now that lion soared high.
────!!
The lion’s form, having gained physical force, swallowed the admission tickets.
They were torn to shreds just like that.
“Ahh…”
“M-my admission ticket…”
“H-how…”
“Sniff…”
Glittering powder scattered through the air.
The powder could not even settle on the ground before it was swept away by the wind and flew off somewhere.
I decided to comfort the guys who were staring at the scene in utter despair.
“My heartfelt congratulations on failing before you even got to take the exam.”
“…”
“You didn’t seem to have the talent to be a Hunter anyway, so isn’t it a relief that you got eliminated early? I hope you find a good way to make a living from now on.”
“Sniff…”
At my words.
They were moved and shed tears.
“Waa…”
Yeon Haneul was also impressed.
* * *
Two days passed after that.
[Confirming examinee number…]
[Examinee number confirmed.]
[Geumgang 1532]
[Clear!]
[Color: Blue(29) → Black(30)]
Yeon Haneul and I solved every problem and changed our admission tickets to black.
Then the date changed again, and the day of the practical exam approached.
[Your examinee number has been finalized!]
[Do Gyeonu – Geumgang 1532]
[Color: Black(30)]
[Your exam location will be announced.]
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss