Rank 2 monster, Boss Ghost Rabbit.
It was appearing not only where Do Gyeonu was, but all throughout the woods around the Mirage Hotel as well.
The evaluators moved the Screen Eyes, observing the examinees engaged in fierce battles against the Boss Ghost Rabbits.
[What splendid muscles you have! Proof that you’ve trained hard, I see.]
[Kuaaaang!]
[But my muscles aren’t about to lose either! This’ll be worth going a round!]
Yong Haerang of the Righteous Yong Clan.
With knuckle-shaped Devices in his hands, he charged at the creature without fear and started trading blows.
[Oraoraora!]
[Kuaaaang!]
[Hyaa! It’s guts! Guts!]
As if he were thrusting his hands into a bonfire to pick out roasted chestnuts from within.
Yong Haerang’s fists moved so fast the screen could barely keep up.
The Boss Ghost Rabbit’s fists were no different.
“He’s… overflowing with passion, yes….”
“The Righteous Yong Clan is especially fiery this year.”
“Doesn’t it feel like we’re watching the strongest beings in the setting fight?”
“That does?”
“I think I understand how you feel. As a fellow man, I understand.”
“Instructor, you’re a woman.”
“What do men and women have to do with being a man? A man is a man.”
“Ah, yes….”
There was something about Yong Haerang’s battle that made a person’s heart burn hot.
As a result, by the time they came to their senses, the exam control room was filled with heat, and sweat was trickling down the evaluators’ necks.
“L-let’s move on to the next examinee.”
“Ah….”
The evaluators, who had no resistance to that heat, hurriedly switched the screen.
Those who had been watching Yong Haerang finally bring down the Boss Ghost Rabbit sighed in disappointment.
But only for a moment….
[When that muscle rabbit charged in while covered in protective coloration… just thinking about it is seriously horrifying. Ugh, it gives me chills.]
Their attention shifted to Min Arin of the Magic Min Clan, who appeared on the screen.
The Boss Ghost Rabbit lay collapsed near her.
“What on earth… did she do to it?”
“Beats me.”
Had it been burned?
The Boss Ghost Rabbit had lost its white fur and was charred black, roasted whole.
Smoke was even curling up from around its corpse.
[Sigh, even taking out the mana stone is a chore.]
Min Arin prodded through the corpse with her wand and pulled out the mana stone.
Just then, from the edge of the screen, examinees were approaching her.
She noticed their presence as well.
“She’d better run quickly.”
“That examinee could fly, couldn’t she? Escaping should be easy.”
“But she won’t be able to pick up the mana stones dropped by the Ghost Rabbits that appeared with it.”
As if overturning the evaluators’ expectations….
[Hmm….]
After sweeping her gaze over the examinees, Min Arin tapped the ground with her wand.
Including the mana stone in her hand, the mana stones on the ground floated up into the air.
[If you can take them, then try.]
[….]
[From me, Min Arin.]
With a hmph.
Min Arin provoked the examinees.
She fought them while keeping the mana stones floating in the air.
The result was her victory.
[Hmph, you’re nothing special.]
Min Arin collected the examinees’ mana stones as well, then moved off riding her wand.
The mana stones flew after her.
“Her techniques are very clean.”
“And her firepower is strong. Not bad.”
“If she can transport mana stones like that, she won’t have to go back and forth to exchange chips like the other examinees.”
The evaluators voiced no objections to Min Arin’s skill.
It was then that the screen changed.
[Kuaaaang!]
[I’ll block its attacks, so everyone, please deal with the boss!]
Unlike Do Gyeonu, Yong Haerang, and Min Arin, the people on the screen were facing the creature as a party.
Among them, the woman standing at the very rear of the party drew the evaluators’ eyes.
“That examinee is….”
[I’ll cast an attack power enhancement buff!]
Blonde hair in braids, blue eyes.
The female examinee with an exotic appearance was supporting the examinees with magic cast through the staff in her hand.
“I heard an imperial princess of the Grace Empire applied. That must be her.”
“Her name is… no, what is Her Highness’s name?”
“Is there any need to address her so respectfully? She isn’t high in the line of succession, and if she enters Geumgang Academy, she’ll be our student.”
“And this is Korea.”
“It’s not Korea. It’s A-ca-de-my Ci-ty.”
“Her name is here. If you leave out the middle surnames… it’s Lisa Grace.”
Approximately two hundred years ago, during the era of the Great Cataclysm, the otherworldly empire of Grace appeared in this world along with the World Tree.
Looking at a member of that empire’s imperial family, the evaluators each sank into thought over how they ought to treat her.
“Still, her skills aren’t bad.”
“Compared to the children of the Ten Great Clans, she lacks impact, though.”
“It can’t be helped. Unlike them, who must have trained relentlessly since childhood to become Hunters, she would have been raised in a greenhouse.”
“Why on earth is she trying to become a Hunter? She could just live comfortably in the empire with her status as royalty.”
“Exactly.”
“She must have her reasons. A reason for wanting to become a Hunter.”
* * *
At that time.
Yeon Haneul, who was up in a tree, caught the falling bundle.
“Whoops!”
Honestly….
Do Gyeonu’s ideas were truly ingenious.
She had never thought this strategy would actually work.
After checking the mana stones inside the bundle, Yeon Haneul gave a bitter smile.
It was then that she heard voices.
“This way! It fell this way!”
“It has to be somewhere around here!”
Examinees passed below the tree.
It seemed the examinees who had been watching the situation from afar had begun searching in order to steal this bundle.
“Mm, what should I do….”
If she stayed here any longer, they would discover her location.
She had to leave without being noticed.
However, Yeon Haneul also had to keep receiving the bundles Go Eunbi sent.
Each time, they would pursue her, and their numbers would only grow.
“I should deal with them first, then go.”
If so, it would be better to reduce their numbers in advance while there were still few of them.
Besides, they surely had chips or mana stones as well.
She was already in a situation where she had to gather enough chips for three people, so if she could procure their chips, the burden would lessen.
Having made that decision, she deliberately revealed her presence.
Fwoosh!
Yeon Haneul spread the mana within her body.
At that, the examinees searching the area sensed the energy and gathered.
“It’s here.”
“There she is!”
“She’s alone!”
The examinees pointed at her.
Yeon Haneul looked down at them with an impassive gaze.
Soon, she hopped down like a rabbit from the branch she had been standing on.
Her white and blue hair fell, swaying upward in a shimmering wave.
“She’s coming!”
“She’s coming to us on her own.”
“Her admission ticket is black! Be careful!”
Since she was wearing shorts underneath, she did not worry about anyone seeing under her skirt.
Yeon Haneul watched the examinees looking up at her from directly below.
Whoosh!
At that moment, someone activated magic.
A fireball was rushing toward her.
Heat instantly warmed the surroundings.
Yeon Haneul did not panic.
“Device on.”
Gripping the bundle tightly so it would not fall.
As she dropped from the tree, she infused mana into the metal plate held in her right hand.
Recognizing the activation phrase, the metal plate—her Device—regained its true form.
Yeon Haneul swung down the iron hammer, larger than her own body, with all her might.
───!!
The fireball exploded.
Scattered embers swallowed her.
However, with a barrier wrapped around her body, she suffered no damage at all.
Before anyone knew it, she had broken through the flames and was right before the ground.
“Uh…?”
“S-she’s falling!”
The examinees’ faces came into view.
Yeon Haneul deactivated her Device.
“Device off.”
The iron hammer returned to a metal plate.
The weight of the Device did not change, but thanks to the massive hammer disappearing, she could comfortably adjust her falling posture.
Twisting her body from the stance in which she had swung the hammer down, she pulled the hand holding the Device back behind her shoulder.
“Device on.”
“…!”
The metal plate returned to an iron hammer.
Naturally falling into a downward-swinging posture, she brought the iron hammer in her right hand down toward them with all her might.
Crunch!
The examinees struck head-on by the iron hammer were buried along with the collapsing ground.
Dust billowed up, obscuring the surrounding view.
“Ugh….”
Amid the pained groans of the examinees from within.
Whish!
Crunch!
Having located the examinees through her detection net, Yeon Haneul swung the iron hammer without hesitation.
The examinees had no choice but to be helpless against the iron hammer that suddenly appeared from within the dust.
* * *
Rabbit hunting was not fun at all.
Rabbits were so wary that simply approaching them was a task, and they were small and swift, making them difficult to chase.
Moreover, they were not ordinary rabbits but monsters, so they were skilled at concealing their presence, and they even used protective coloration to block physical attacks.
It was not that she could not deal with them, but she had no desire to spend all day and night roaming through the forest to hunt rabbits that gave her no stimulation whatsoever.
It would only be a waste of time.
Furthermore, in order to get a suite room, even a simple calculation meant she had to hunt several dozen or even several hundred rabbits.
‘I don’t want to. I don’t want to do this. It’s not fun at all. I didn’t apply here just to hunt rabbits. I applied because they said there’d be lots of fun things once I entered the Academy. And when it comes to Ghost Rabbits, I killed so many back at the clan that I got sick of them….’
Of course, there were many types of Ghost Rabbits, and some were monsters classified as superior individuals.
Rank 2 monster, Boss Ghost Rabbit.
That creature would be enough to draw her interest and provide a suitable stimulus.
However, it was a monster that appeared only when certain conditions were met.
Waiting around quietly for a creature that might appear who knew when or where did not suit her temperament.
And so….
“Thanks! I’ll make good use of the mana stones and chips you gathered!”
“Ugh….”
“G-give them back….”
“Ah, that was fun!”
Somewhere in the forest.
Nam Yuri of the Alchemy Nam Clan had single-handedly ambushed examinees who had formed a party to hunt Ghost Rabbits.
The examinees tried to resist her by taking advantage of their superior numbers, but it was of no use.
She overwhelmed the battle by transforming her own body or swinging her enormous scythe.
“Device off.”
Nam Yuri returned the scythe larger than herself to a metal plate.
Putting it into her back pocket, she searched the pockets of the examinees collapsed on the ground.
Humming as she did.
“Found them! You gathered quite a lot, didn’t you?”
If she extorted chips this way, it would also save her the trouble of securing a high-grade room.
After checking her spoils, Nam Yuri smiled brightly.
“That’s ours, give it back….”
“Nope. From now on, it’s mine.”
“Please….”
“Are you asking me for a favor right now?”
“….”
“Don’t ask me for favors. I really hate that.”
The brightly smiling face vanished without a trace.
Nam Yuri’s face had gone stiff.
The words she spoke in a gentle tone carried a warning.
The examinee sensed it instinctively and no longer pleaded with her, lowering his eyes.
Only then did Nam Yuri withdraw her pressure.
“If you want them back, take them from me with your own strength. Then I’ll be going!”
Changing her expression as easily as flipping her palm, Nam Yuri bid farewell to the examinees who could not even move properly.
She left to attack other examinees.
Crackle!
“Hm?”
At that moment, light flashed from one side.
Nam Yuri, who had been walking along and then stopped, turned her head toward where the light had flashed.
“….”
Someone wreathed in blue electricity was facing a Boss Ghost Rabbit.
“…Amazing.”
Though he had caught the Boss Ghost Rabbit off guard, he had brought it down with a single strike.
The person responsible did not stop there, and was even taking down the examinees who had gathered around him all on his own.
Nam Yuri was impressed by his skill.
She did not know who he was.
But from the way blue electricity scattered whenever he swung his sword, she could guess his identity.
“He’s from the Divine Sword Do Clan.”
Blue Lightning, the symbol of the Divine Sword Do Clan’s swordsmanship.
Seeing Blue Lightning for the first time, Nam Yuri found her gaze naturally stolen away.
“If he has a black admission ticket….”
Nam Yuri had heard things too.
Among the examinees with black admission tickets, there was only one person from the Divine Sword Do Clan.
“So he’s Rabbit.”
Rabbit, Do Gyeonu.
The lion who could not hunt even a single rabbit.
The stories about him were famous.
“He doesn’t look like that at all….”
Recalling the anecdotes about him, Nam Yuri murmured softly.
In her eyes, he, who was toying with the examinees all on his own, did not look like a mere rabbit.
If one were to call that a rabbit….
“Is he a mutant?”
He had to be a mutant rabbit.
Not a weak rabbit, but a rabbit like a swift lion.
“It’d be fun to play with him!”
It would be far more stimulating than boring rabbit hunting.
Thrilling.
Enough to make her feel alive.
That was the moment Nam Yuri took an interest.
Her violet eyes sparkled.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss