"Hm, are you certain you are applying for the S-grade magic beast?"
"I am. Is there some kind of problem?"
Seong-hyeon operated his device and checked his personal information.
A branch-line origin from the Hangeom Family.
That was all the information about him.
"You did not press it by mistake or make an error, correct? If you wish to withdraw from the exam...."
"That will not happen."
Seong-hyeon was the one more flustered than Yohan, if anything.
He cleared his throat and continued explaining the exam.
"Understood. In that case, please move to the first floor now. The exam will take place in the first-floor auditorium. Before going to the auditorium, you will also make preparations in the armory."
The people began moving to the first floor behind Seong-hyeon.
During that time, voices criticizing Yohan could be heard.
"What is he, challenging S-grade all by himself?"
"Must be a bastard full of bluff."
"Stupid fool."
Yohan could not understand them.
Was this not, literally, an exam where one only had to show what one could do?
He simply had to show everything he could do, and prove whether or not he was a Hunter, whether or not he was a person suited to Pluton.
"Now, before we go to the auditorium, you will collect weapons."
At Seong-hyeon's words, one applicant who had doubts raised his hand.
"Is a weapon truly necessary when we have Ego Weapons?"
"Well, only those who want one need to take one."
"Will it be reflected in our exam scores?"
"What will be reflected in your scores begins from the moment you enter the Gate."
Hearing that, the applicants stood blankly without even glancing at the armory.
"Then, well, what need would there be for a weapon when we have Ego Weapons?"
"Exactly."
Unlike the others' reactions, Yohan entered the armory.
"Is he out of his mind? He's facing an S-grade Dullahan, and he's stopping by that useless armory?"
"Really, why did he even apply to sacred Pluton?"
After entering the armory, Yohan looked around to see what kinds of weapons were there.
From arms such as swords, bows, and spears to modern weapons like guns and bombs. There was nothing missing.
"It's been a while since I held these."
Among them, Yohan took daggers and concealed weapons.
Then, out of habit, he tucked them into his clothes where they could not be seen.
When Yohan came out of the armory, the others' sneering grew worse.
"What? He went in and came back with nothing?"
"Why did he go in? What a waste of time."
Seo-yun and Mi-yeong, however, looked at Yohan with different eyes.
"Have you taken everything you need?"
"Yes."
When Yohan answered Seong-hyeon's question, Seong-hyeon checked the number of people.
"Everyone is gathered. In that case, we will go to the auditorium. If you have questions on the way, ask them."
The applicants' interest was focused only on exam scores.
"Ten people are going in to hunt a D-grade magic beast. Is there no disadvantage in that?"
"There is not. Since we are only assessing your capabilities as Hunters, please act freely there."
"What happens if it is too easy and we defeat the boss quickly and come out?"
For just a moment, Seong-hyeon looked disgusted at this question.
"Even if that happens, it will not affect the exam. This is not a fight over who kills the boss last. Do you understand now?"
"Yes."
When Seong-hyeon and the applicants arrived at the auditorium, Warp Gates were placed there one by one.
Holograms floated above the Warp Gates, and each one was marked with a grade from S to D.
"Everyone, please stand on the Warp Gate that matches your choice."
At Seong-hyeon's words, the people busily climbed onto their respective Warp Gates.
"It would not be like this in reality, but for the exam, if your HP reaches 0, you will automatically come outside the Gate. I wish you all good luck."
When Seong-hyeon operated his device, the Warp Gates began to glow.
Then, starting with the place where the D-grade magic beast had to be hunted, people disappeared, and soon after, Yohan was also transferred through the Warp Gate.
"Ah, I told you I don't want to ride this again."
His stomach churned, and unable to endure it, he retched.
When he stopped retching and looked around, countless corpses were piled up.
Several gravestones stood around him.
The full moon softly illuminated the surroundings, and several dead trees had been planted there.
It truly displayed a graveyard, the holy ground of a Dullahan.
"Technology sure is nice."
It was virtual, but touch, smell, and hearing had all been implemented.
NEIGH—!
At the horse's snort, Yohan looked toward the place where the sound had come from.
There, a Dullahan sat atop a horse, holding its own head in one hand.
Dullahan.
A mythological figure called the Phantom Knight.
When the Dullahan raised its sword, numerous skeleton soldiers rose from the ground.
Their number was enough to cover the entire virtual space, and no matter where he looked, it was full of skeleton soldiers.
Each individual skeleton soldier also belonged to B-grade magic beasts.
Soldiers riding skeleton horses, soldiers using bows and swords.
Before the overwhelming numbers and the countless arms that emerged, Yohan smiled faintly.
'As expected! This is just like hunting Hunters!'
Yohan dodged the attacks of the skeleton soldiers charging at him one by one as he retreated.
"What a sight."
With his back to a tree, Yohan looked toward the Dullahan and saw the wave of skeleton soldiers and the Dullahan radiating light.
'Shall I see what my ability can do?'
He extended his hand forward.
"Come out, Yeongcheol."
Yohan's shadow climbed up his legs, reached his fingertips, and took the shape of a sword there.
To test the basic sword form, Yohan swung his sword against the skeleton soldiers.
CLANG—!
CLANG—!
No matter how much it collided with the skeleton soldiers' arms, there was not a single scratch on Yohan's Yeongcheol.
'Its hardness is above steel.'
Yohan swung his sword, shook off the skeleton soldiers, and scattered smoke bombs.
While the skeleton soldiers floundered, Yohan climbed up a tree.
'Now, shall I try transformation?'
After all, Yohan's sword was his shadow.
Since his shadow had become a sword.
He knew it would be able to become something other than a sword as well.
When he concentrated and pictured the shape of a thin thread, Yeongcheol responded and became a fine thread.
Looking at the shadow rippling as if alive, Yohan smiled.
'I might be able to finish this sooner than I thought.'
After finishing his preparations, Yohan made a sound and came down from the tree.
Reacting to the sound, the group of skeleton soldiers approached Yohan with clattering noises.
Yohan took out a dagger with thread attached from inside his clothes.
'They're not at a level where I need to perform a routine. At most, they fall under C-376. They're nothing but corpses with no intelligence.'
Having finished his classification, Yohan threw the dagger between hundreds of skeleton soldiers.
Whoosh.
THUNK.
The dagger passed between the soldiers and lodged in a tree.
The skeleton soldiers ignored it and continued approaching him, thinking only of killing Yohan.
'Good. If I keep this up, it should work.'
Yohan personally entered the midst of the approaching soldiers.
Then, turning somersaults through the air, he kept embedding daggers.
THUNK, THUNK, THUNK—!
He then smashed the head of an approaching soldier while throwing another dagger.
After not much time had passed, the skeleton soldiers became unable to move from where they stood.
They had been fixed in place by the threads formed from his transformed shadow.
"Now is the only one left that headless bastard?"
Seeing that the skeleton soldiers could not move, the Dullahan dismounted from its horse.
Then it drew the greatsword at its waist and held it in one hand.
The posture in which it held the sword was unmistakably that of a knight.
One hundred and one ways to kill a knight.
Yohan wondered which one to use among the countless methods for ending the Dullahan that surfaced in his mind.
'I've wanted to try this once.'
While Yohan was nodding to himself, the Dullahan took one step forward.
"You'd better not move. I've already laid the groundwork."
Threads had been densely installed in front of the Dullahan.
The Dullahan swung its sword with all its might to cut the threads, but the threads did not break.
Instead, the threads coiled around and clung to the Dullahan's body.
"I told you not to move."
Yohan picked up one dagger embedded in the ground.
Then, when he pulled it, the threads began tightening.
The skeleton soldiers, unable to move because of the threads, began having their bones crushed by the threads that tightened more and more.
CRUNCH—!
With a chilling sound, the threads that had crushed the skeleton soldiers began gathering in one place.
That place was the Dullahan's armor.
As the gathered threads wrapped around the Dullahan's body, it became unable to budge.
"Now, shall we try it?"
Yohan slowly took a dagger out from inside his clothes and went in front of the Dullahan.
Then he took the Dullahan's head and shoved it upside down into the empty armor.
"How does it feel to look at your own body?"
Then he stabbed the dagger into the neck area and fixed the head and torso together.
"Hm. Looks good."
When Yohan finished, a large hologram appeared above his head.
Seeing the letters written on the hologram, he turned around and found a door like a Gate formed there.
Yohan dusted off both hands and went outside the Gate.
"I am back."
"Yes.... I was monitoring you."
Seong-hyeon looked at Yohan as if he could not believe it.
'He took down the Dullahan, which is said to be the most troublesome opponent in the exam, single-handedly. His handling of the skeleton soldiers was perfect as well.'
While continuing to think about Yohan, Seong-hyeon monitored the others.
"Is that what monitoring is?"
On the holograms floating above the portals where people had stood, their figures were being displayed.
At the Warp Gate for the D-grade magic beast Kobold, which was said to be the easiest to resolve, they were still struggling fiercely.
They gave one another orders on how to deal with the group of Kobolds, but because of stubborn pride, they acted individually.
By contrast, on the side hunting the A-grade magic beast Cerberus, Mi-yeong and Seo-yun were coordinating with each other as they raided the magic beast.
"Yes. That is correct. Yohan, I also watched your performance closely."
"Yes, well, I suppose you did."
"Are you not curious? About the exam result, or your score?"
"I obviously passed, so what is there to be curious about?"
One of the qualities a Hunter had to possess was self-esteem and confidence, not obstinacy.
Through the results of this exam, Seong-hyeon could immediately see that Yohan possessed what they did not.
"Have you ever faced magic beasts before? Your actions were as if you already knew that magic beast."
"Today is my first time seeing magic beasts."
"Is that so?"
Seong-hyeon could not find any lies in Yohan's words or eyes.
Because of that, he had no choice but to think that a person with natural talent had been in the Hangeom Family.
While the two were talking, the A-grade magic beast Cerberus seemed to have been hunted, because a Gate Clear hologram appeared.
Then Gate Clear appeared one after another, and people began coming out of the Gates.
"It was pretty easy, right?"
"Right. It wasn't hard."
The applicants who came out of the D-grade Gate spoke while watching Seong-hyeon's expression.
"When did he come out?"
"I don't know. Didn't he just get eliminated from S-grade right away and come out?"
"Looking at him, that could be it."
Seong-hyeon quieted the noisy surroundings.
"Now, I will announce the exam results."
The applicants all looked at Seong-hyeon with anticipation.
"Passed: Yohan, Hangeom Seo-yun, Bakma Mi-yeong. Failed: everyone else."
At his single statement, silence settled over the exam site.