episode_0021

5 days after the exam began.

Asel and the other two positioned themselves at the golem generation zone found through detection magic and repeatedly processed golems as soon as they were created. The interval between golem creations wasn’t very long, but thanks to the three people taking turns killing them, none of them felt fatigued.

“Oh, it came out.”

Elena, who was sitting on a rock, said. When his turn came, Asel immediately stopped what he was doing and manifested magic towards the golem.

[Thermal Incense Construction Burning (熱香築燔)]

Heat without visible form is released. The golem’s form melted away in an instant, and just before the core turned to ash, he drew out a magic thread and snatched it. A slight scorch mark was left, but the magic contained within was unharmed. Asel tossed the core into a roughly dug pit and resumed the work he was doing.

The work wasn’t anything special. It was a dismantling process to find out how that huge golem operated with just this small sphere by disassembling the core. As it required not only talent in magic but also delicate dexterity, Asel focused his entire mind on tapping and splitting the core.

“Knife.”

“Here!”

As he reached out his hand to the side and spoke, Elena handed him a dagger made of blood. Asel took the dagger and gently scraped the edge of the core. Elen, who was watching the scene, let out a hollow laugh leaning against a tree.

“…Can you figure that out by doing that?”

“I’ve already figured out about half of it.”

Asel replied, manipulating the knife carefully so as not to damage the magic contained within the core.

“A core created by a spellcaster at least of the 7th rank. Applied magic engineering to increase magic efficiency, and connected the spell formula externally. Simply put, this core is just a power source to move the golem, but the actual spell formulas and calculations needed to constitute the golem are all dependent on some external device.”

“……”

“If the external device is destroyed, all the golems here will stop operating and collapse instantly. Even if the power source remains, the spell formula that maintains that body will be shattered. That must be the only weakness of the infinitely multiplying golems.”

Asel looked into the split core with an interested gaze.

“The reason golems are continuously generated here is that a one-time activation movement spell formula is inscribed on the core. When the spell formula is manifested through the device, it moves to this location’s coordinates and activates the constitution spell formula. It’s a method of using earth and sand to create the body’s frame and changing its properties to have rock-like skin. It’s interesting.”

“…Asel, you sound really perverted right now.”

Elena said with a slightly disgusted expression. Asel lightly ignored her words and put the split core away in his pocket.

“If I get a chance, I’d like to meet the construction spellcaster who created this golem. They’re probably a mage who majored in magic engineering. I’m curious about how great their knowledge must be.”

“…From my perspective, the one who figures that out seems more impressive.”

Elen muttered that, checked on the newly starting to generate golem, and picked up her axe. Despite it being a double-edged axe much larger than her height, she lightly rotated the axe as if handling cotton fluff and swung it wide horizontally.

The golem’s waist was severed exactly along that trajectory. The golem, whose body was divided into upper and lower halves as soon as it was born, flailed its arms in confusion, but even those were neatly cut off. Elen split the golem’s upper body, with only the head remaining, in half and pulled out the core. The golem soon turned into sand and scattered.

“Is this 100 now?”

Elen muttered as she put the core into the pit they had dug.

Two days had already passed since they set up camp here. As they had focused all their effort on hunting golems during that time, excluding sleeping hours, it was natural that they had more cores than they could possibly use. With this amount, they could even smile and share a little if other participants came looking to loot.

‘They’ll pass the exam easily.’

Elen thought as she watched Elena, whose turn had come, drawing blood.

The academy’s entrance exam is infamous for its cruel difficulty. In fact, this year’s exam wasn’t easy if you only considered the difficulty itself. Although the golems’ durability was weak, their destructive power was strong enough to be compared to a skilled expert.

A power strong enough to shatter one’s entire body if one were even slightly careless. Facing them head-on was relatively easier, but the golems attempting surprise attacks were quite tricky. Some individuals even shot stone arrows from a distance.

Their appearance, as if copying the superhumans on an actual battlefield, was objectively not an easy opponent. Since the supervisors hadn’t even told them how many cores they needed to collect, the situation was bound to become even more discouraging.

But if they could be destroyed as soon as they are born like this, the story changes.

Golems before their designed intelligence is settled do not react at all even when an attack approaches. They only started reacting after some part of their body was cut or broken. Even that was just flailing in confusion. Such moving golems were frankly very easy to deal with.

This is the result. Piles of stacked cores. Considering that the activation condition for the device Asel told them about was 50 cores, they could all pass the entrance exam if they collected just 50 more.

Not much left.

Elen exhaled a long breath and slung the axe over her shoulder. Elena, who returned with a core, was reflected in her eyes.

“Now it’s 101!”

It was truly not far off.

*

It was always the case that injured people appeared in the academy’s entrance exam. The form of the exam differed every year, but the presence of combat was the same every year. It was a structure where minor or severe injuries were bound to occur.

Some people criticize such an exam structure as flawed.

It was true, actually. What academy on earth throws participants into a death game from the entrance exam and only rescues them when they are on the verge of death?

Other academies, excluding Luminus Academy, conduct their entrance exams solely through written tests and safe practical exams, regardless of whether it’s a non-combat or combat department. Because of this difference, the issue of the safety of Luminus Academy’s combat department entrance exam is raised every year.

But the dean never wavered in her resolve despite public criticism.

-The reason we are evaluated as the most outstanding among academies is because of that special entrance exam. It filters out the weak as a primary sieve. I want talents who can truly excel in war, not just mediocre riff-raff.

The dean said so at the ‘Is the Academy Alright Like This?’ meeting held every month. Some agreed with her opinion and some couldn’t hide their astonishment, but it was true nonetheless that her words were factual. Those who actually pass the entrance exam generally have a certain level of combat ability.

Furthermore, those who participate in Luminus Academy’s entrance exam are mostly those with pride in their own skills. Having been called a genius at least once somewhere, they quickly grasp the essence of the exam and strive to pass without getting hurt as much as possible.

Thanks to that, although injured people do appear, they don’t appear in large numbers. At most about 10 people. Going beyond that meant the exam’s difficulty was set strangely. This was the stage where the supervisors had to take responsibility and normalize the exam’s difficulty.

And that stage was today.

“Fuck.”

The chief supervisor of the exam. Loss cursed and looked inside the patient tent.

“Ugh…”

“Kuaaak! My arm, lightning keeps shooting out of my arm!! Save me!”

“…That damn Grace. Who the hell is Asel? Why did she attack me because I said I didn’t know!”

“My leg, my leg…!”

The inside of the tent was chaos. The few beds they had brought were already full, and they had reached a situation where more were being procured from outside. Even just the severely injured people were like this. If you added the number of participants who had given up on the exam halfway, nearly dozens of people were gathered here.

It was a clear and evident exam difficulty setting mistake. Loss tore at his hair and went outside the tent.

“I’m fucked.”

Curses kept coming out of his mouth.

Actually, he wasn’t greatly at fault. Accidentally setting the core to be inserted into the golem generation device as that of a slightly higher-level individual? No problem. At this level, he could have improvised by reducing the number of cores required for passing.

Allowing participants to loot each other? That wasn’t a problem either. Allowing looting in a test where participants had to find something was a tradition passed down through generations of the academy. Loss had simply followed that.

Then, what was the real problem?

“…This is a message from the field supervisor. Currently, Jin-jo, Lady Hargelin, and the Disciple of Genesis have taken positions at the golem generation zone and are massacring golems.”

Those bastards were the problem.

“Damn it, fuck.”

The situation where a large number of injuries first occurred? It was the moment Asel caused lightning to gather the participants. Participants who gathered there hoping the academy had prepared a special event clashed with each other, resulting in a flood of injuries.

The next is golems.

The more the number of golems decreases, the more violent they become, so it was natural that the danger of other individuals greatly increased as they had been massacring golems like that for several days.

Mistakes that could have been overcome with improvisation had escalated to an unavoidable level because of them. Thanks to that, injured people hit by golems overflowed.

But yes. He could understand this much. Mistaking the golem’s core was the supervisors’ fault, and they hadn’t explained that the golems become more violent as their numbers decrease.

“But fuck it. Why is Lady Baidel hunting participants instead of catching the golems she’s supposed to catch, yelling ‘Asel, Asel’!”

“Even if you yell at me…”

“Ah, fuck!”

Cursing was like breathing for Loss, a former mercenary. He had restrained himself while acting as an academy supervisor, but when a situation requiring him to take responsibility came, his old habits naturally surfaced. He chewed on his lip and pondered how to overcome the current situation.

It was then. The door to the supervisors’ outdoor meeting room set up outside the forest burst open. Loss was about to yell irritably at the unwelcome guest, but upon confirming the guest’s identity, he broke out in a cold sweat.

“…Lord Fernan.”

Fernan Clark. A professor in the academy’s combat department and a swordsman famous even within the academy for his graceful sword skills. A monster who had participated in numerous wars and recently reached the realm of Master.

He waved his hand towards Loss.

“Hello, Loss.”

“…What brings you here…?”

Loss asked. Fernan let out a chuckle and took in the supervisor’s flustered expression.

“Why do you think? I came to sort things out. Wow, looking at the tents outside, it’s quite a spectacle, isn’t it? No matter who the dean is, if there are this many dropouts, she’s bound to get angry, right? I think she’ll come running herself using magic, thinking the chief supervisor of the exam has lost his mind.”

“…I apologize. I will quickly sort it out.”

“No, no. Don’t do that. I’ll take care of it myself before the situation escalates unnecessarily. The dean herself has given me authority.”

At those words, Loss’s face crumpled.

“…I apologize for disappointing you.”

“Huh? Ah, are you perhaps thinking you’re fired? Don’t worry. The higher-ups have judged that this incident is entirely due to the participants. Something about the level of some participants being too exceptional. So it’ll be over if we just deal with them somehow.”

“…Are you going to kill them?”

“Are you crazy?”

Fernan glared at Loss with a serious expression. Loss immediately lowered his eyes.

“I apologize. I was being short-sighted.”

“Too short-sighted. Why would I kill participants? Do you want to see the academy disappear from the map? The dean would never tell me to do such a thing. Huh?”

“…I apologize.”

“Let’s do well, Loss. Anyone listening might think I’m some kind of pleasure killer.”

Fernan patted Loss’s back a couple of times and continued speaking.

“I just need to test our darlings myself. I heard Grace Baidel, that friend, is moving alone, and Asel, that friend, is moving with three people. First, I’ll test Grace, then I’ll go to those three people.”

“……”

“Ah, and the dropouts from the exam. They told me to make a separate list and submit it for now. They say they’ll determine passing status with a practical exam later, like other academies do. Because we have to avoid having too many dropouts.”

“Understood. I will follow your orders.”

“Good.”

Fernan grinned and tapped the sword at his waist.

“Then I’m off. Shall I see how capable our prospective disciples are?”

Saying so, Fernan left the meeting room and headed into the forest, spreading his aura. It wasn’t long before Grace’s presence was caught by his senses.

His figure instantly disappeared.