Chapter 12

The waterfront between the cruise liner and Jewel Island.

Yu HanNah monitored Shin YuSung at the booth she had installed on the wharf.

“Ah, Student Shin YuSung is monopolizing the points by taking all of the monsters out!”

Yu HanNah was usually not all that high-strung when doing pre-recorded news, as opposed to live news. However, today, she was different.

“Hey, what was that skill just now? Is that a Trait that summons a shield?”

Until now, she had found star students of exceptional quality, but this was the first time that she had seen someone blazing a trail with his bare hands.

It was impossible to keep going on with the program because of Shin YuSung’s unique skill set. The headmaster, Jin ByungCheol, started butting in to explain.

“He is expelling mana from his palm. Of course, this isn’t the regular method of mana expelling that the students use! It’s a modified version that the Fist King cooked up. Huh huh!”

“So he created a shield just by expelling mana?” Yu HanNah asked, surprised.

Jin ByungCheol laughed loudly and nodded his head.

“Of course, it isn’t as easy as it sounds! You need to be at the height of concentration! To pump out mana at such a high pressure in the middle of combat!”

“So you’re saying that student Shin YuSung did that?”

Yu HanNah’s eyes were twinkling with anticipation. Jin ByungCheol preened and started to boast for some reason.

“Well! Isn’t it obvious that’s the case, as he’s the disciple of the Fist King? You could say he’s worthy of being called a student of Gaon Academy! Hahaha!”

“Ohh! Makes sense!”

Jin ByungCheol had slipped into the booth and effortlessly become a guest host for the program.

“The question here is—can Shin YuSung become a Seven through this exam? That’s what we’re watching for. As the headmaster, I still think it’ll be difficult for him.”

“Well, why do you believe so when Shin YuSung is this strong?” Yu HanNah replied with a natural conversation starter.

Jin ByungCheol started to brag about Gaon Academy once more.

“Well, that’s because the skill level between the upper rank and lower rank classes is like night and day! Here’s a question—what era do we live in? That’s right, the era of teamwork! One’s ability to work in a team is just as important as their skill as an individual. If one wishes to become a Seven, there is little point in doing well on your lonesome in a 2-man exam!”

Even Yu HanNah was taken in by his eloquent words.

‘What kind of headmaster speaks this well… I heard he even goes on TV sometimes.’

She regained her composure and started to mutter again.

“…Then how low are the points of the student he was partnered with?”

When she asked this, Sumire’s score appeared on the monitor screen.

[Hanajima Sumire – 0 Points]

“Oh my god! Miss S-Sumire has zero points? What? Is this a bug? A calculation error?”

Shockingly, the total number of points Sumire had was 0. If the exam ended like this, it would be hard for Shin YuSung to become a Seven—no matter how high his own score was.

Like Jin ByungCheol had said, there was an incredible gap between the skill levels of the students in the upper and lower rank classes. Against monsters like Adela, one of the Sevens, one couldn’t be saddled with a 0-pointer like Sumire and earn the same number of points.

At this moment of desperation…

“Then we will check on her ourselves!”

Losing to her curiosity, Yu HanNah switched the monitor screen from showing Shin YuSung to Sumire.

* * * *

Inside the peaceful forest of Jewel Island.

Sumire was muttering under her breath while tearfully staring at a carbuncle.

“W…waah… I’m an idiot… Even though Shin YuSung gave me his hair…”

What happened was simple. Sumire had taken out the tissue containing Shin YuSung’s hairs; she then dropped them on the ground before she could take one out.

The carbuncle that was passing by at the time did not miss the opportunity.

“Kyarbunk!”

It had stolen the tissue by picking it up from the ground with its mouth.

“Ah!”

Sumire, whose face had gone pale, slowly approached the carbuncle while murmuring hesitantly:

“A-ah! That’s mine… um, technically, it isn’t really mine, but…”

The funny thing was that the carbuncle didn’t make any move to run away, as if it knew that Sumire was weaker than it. Instead, the carbuncle was confidently staring her down in a menacing manner.

“Grrr…”

The carbuncle started to growl with the tissue in its mouth. Sumire flinched and moved a distance away, then pulled out some clover flowers and offered it to the monster.

“Don’t be like that… don’t you want these flowers instead of that tissue?”

* * *

Sumire was pleading to a carbuncle, the weakest monster on Jewel Island, with a listless expression. The carbuncle flaunted its status as the victor by languidly munching on the clover flowers.

“G-good! Good boy! I’ll just… take the tissue, then?”

Sensing an opening, Sumire stretched her hand towards the tissue. The carbuncle, who had been munching on the flowers, raised all of the hairs on its body.

“Kyah! Kyarbun!”

“Kyahahak! I’m sorry! I won’t take it!”

Sumire eventually caved to the hard stance the carbuncle had taken and pulled back her hand. This was the first time in the history of Gaon Academy where a student wishing to become a hunter had lost to a carbuncle. Sumire had a baffling lack of ability that one could expect from the student with the lowest student ranking.

“So, it’s come down to this…”

Sumire sighed, then pulled out one of her own hairs. She dropped it on the ground.

Rrrip!

At that moment, a grotesque skeleton crawled out of the dirt. However, the skeleton had the same passive posture as Sumire.

“S-skeleton! Steal the hairs from the carbuncle!”

As Sumire looked at the skeleton and gave it a command, it slowly approached the carbuncle, just like how Sumire had a moment ago.

It seemed like a summoned skeleton copied both the physical capabilities and the personality of the owner of its hair.

“…Clack? Clack?”

The skeleton stretched out a bony hand towards the carbuncle, just as Sumire had. The monster growled once more and raised its hairs.

“Kyaoh!”

Both the skeleton and Sumire were frightened by the monster.

“Clack clack!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“H-Hiie!”

Sumire, who had been reduced to a blubbering mess, kept pushing the skeleton to do something.

“S-skeleton… you’re a summoned creature! Go and steal that tissue back!”

At that, the skeleton’s arm, bizarrely enough, snapped and fell.

Plop!

“Clack! Clack!?”

“Kar-karbunk!”

In the end, the carbuncle was surprised by the grotesque scene and ran away. No matter what method she had used, Sumire had eventually gotten Shin YuSung’s hairs back.

Sumire quickly ran towards the tissue and carefully picked them up. She checked that the hairs were still in there, then let out a sigh of relief.

“Uu, Shin YuSung-ssi’s hairs! Huuu, what a relief…”

She stared at the hairs as if they were a treasure.

“With these, even I can do it!”

Sumire grinned in a fragile manner, and as if handling something precious, she picked up one of the hairs from the tissue and dropped it on the ground.

Rip! Rrrip!

Just as before, a skeleton crawled out of the ground. But the atmosphere surrounding it and its posture were completely different.

Excited, Sumire looked at Shin YuSung’s skeleton and, with great effort, shouted:

“Skeleton! Kill the monsters and collect the jewels!”

Sumire didn’t realize right then.

To a skeleton who had the personality and physical capabilities of Shin YuSung, there was no such thing as moderation.

* * * *

Snap!

Shin YuSung’s skeleton ended the life of a gem snake slithering along the ground with one swipe of its foot.

“As expected of Shin YuSung-ssi’s hair! Skeleton! You’ve grown really strong!”

Sumire started hopping around to express her sincere happiness, but this was only the beginning of its hunt.

Flick!

With one hit, the skeleton made a carbuncle it had found in the grass lose consciousness and ripped out the jewel in its head.

“Bwooooo!”

Crash! Snap! Tear!

The skeleton even took down the pearl elephant that it had found while walking around in less than a minute. It then mercilessly snapped off the pearl tusks from the monster.

“U-um……”

Even though it was a skeleton that Sumire had created herself, she was watching the unimaginable performance it was giving with a shocked expression.

“I, um, think that this is enough jewels for now…” she muttered.

But Shin YuSung’s skeleton didn’t know the meaning of satisfaction. It was like a demon that was summoned from hell to farm jewels.

Its greed knew no bounds, to the point where it did not hesitate in stealing the prey of D Class students.

“Clack clack, clack!”

The skeleton defeated two gem snakes and a baby salamander, then stole all of the jewels and ran away.

“What the hell, were Sumire’s skeletons always that strong?”

“That posture, it’s a bit like Shin YuSung’s?”

“Did the skeleton learn martial arts from Shin YuSung? In one day?”

A total of 4 people.

The two teams who had decided to cooperate and hunt the monsters together were whispering amongst each other in shock. Sumire saw the students and bowed to them multiple times.

“S-sorry! I’m sorry! That the skeleton took the jewels from the monster you guys were hunting and ran away…”

The student who responded to her apology was none other than the student from D Class who had been beaten to a pulp by Shin YuSung—Ju HaJin.

“Er, t-there’s no helping it if the skeleton took them… we should be living our lives while helping each other, right?”

His usual hot-blooded personality had disappeared, leaving a pacifistic one behind. It seemed like seeing Shin YuSung in the skeleton’s posture brought back his terror towards the boy that had been deeply carved into him.

Due to this, Sumire could leave without too much trouble.

“Ah, skeleton! Let me go with you!”

If there was something that was a shame in all of this, it was that Sumire was being dragged around by her own skeleton. Even so, the speed at which the skeleton was earning points was comparable to Shin YuSung’s.

This was when the last place began turning the tables.