Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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7
Jung Yo-han drew his sword with lightning speed and severed the heads of two charging goblins in one fluid motion.
While the remaining goblin struggled to comprehend what had happened, the Instructor blocked its escape route.
Before it stood a master who had slaughtered two of its own in an instant. Behind it were six humans. Neither option looked promising to the creature.
“Who wants to go first?”
The Instructor looked at us and spoke.
“I’ll go first.”
I stepped forward immediately.
By isolating them one at a time, each student would face a one-on-one combat evaluation.
Most modern people have never taken a life. Moreover, even as a monster, the goblin was humanoid in form. It was natural to feel fear when wielding a weapon.
This test was meant to prove the minimum capability required of a Hunter—whether we could kill a monster or not.
As I approached with my knuckles wrapped, the goblin tensed visibly and gripped its rusted dagger tightly, lowering its stance.
As the distance between us continued to close, the creature made its decision. It charged low along the ground and swung its dagger at me.
Had I come immediately after awakening, it might have been different, but having raised my skills and stats somewhat at the Academy, the goblin’s movements appeared painfully slow.
I deflected the swinging dagger with the back of my left knuckle and struck the goblin’s head with my right fist. Its skull caved in, and the creature slammed against the cave wall.
“Wow….”
My teammates gasped in admiration from behind.
“Lee Ji-seok, well done without hesitation. You learned about the location of mana stones in Monster Theory class, didn’t you? Extract it.”
“Yes.”
I drew the mana stone extraction dagger from my belt, cut open the goblin’s chest, and extracted the stone without hesitation. I held up the small red mana stone, no larger than a fingernail, to show the Instructor.
“Good. Seol Young-hyun, Oh Chang-sik, extract the mana stones from the other two.”
The Instructor pointed to two other students.
While we had extracted mana stones from beast-type monsters under the professor’s guidance during Monster Theory class, this was our first time extracting from a humanoid goblin’s heart, so the students were tense.
Seol Young-hyun managed well despite his nervousness, but Oh Chang-sik couldn’t hold back his nausea and ended up vomiting.
“Vomiting won’t prevent the stone from being extracted. Once you’re done, extract it again.”
At the Instructor’s words, Oh Chang-sik, having finished vomiting, managed to extract the mana stone. I too recalled my previous life, when I had suppressed my gag reflex to extract stones.
“We continue forward.”
Following the one-on-one situations Jung Yo-han had arranged, the other three students hunted their goblins without issue. Only Oh Chang-sik, who had vomited earlier, failed to kill his goblin in combat and was instead wounded, forcing Jung Yo-han to dispatch the creature himself.
In the end, Oh Chang-sik abandoned the graduation exam and merely followed behind us.

My face fell, but I couldn’t bring myself to try again. In a way, this was normal. If anything, it was the Hunters who casually killed creatures resembling humans that were strange.
It seemed that becoming an Awakened One dulled one’s resistance to killing monsters.
The other students, excluding Oh Chang-sik, grew nervous at first but gradually adapted to hunting. They gained confidence in their actions and began to enjoy hunting goblins under the Instructor’s guidance.
We continued exploring the Gate, hunting, mining mana stones, and resting in cycles.
“Something’s odd….”
“Instructor, what’s wrong?”
Seol Young-hyun, mining mana stones with an expressionless face, asked in response to the Instructor’s murmur.
“There are too few. Goblins.”
We’d progressed quite far, but there were definitely fewer than expected. In such cases, it was highly likely that goblins had gathered in groups.
“It seems the goblins are congregating in a horde. We’ll strengthen our vigilance and move slowly.”
The Instructor reached the same conclusion as I had. The trainees swallowed hard and gripped their weapons tightly.
Meanwhile, I wasn’t particularly tense. With a hardened body, there was no way goblins could kill me, and besides, this Instructor was a B-rank Hunter. He could handle a hundred goblins alone.
As we progressed further, Oh Chang-sik’s complexion grew increasingly worse, apparently from prolonged stress and tension. He’d been in this heightened state for far too long.
Still, I couldn’t stop our progress just because of one person.
“Relax. There’s a B-rank Instructor here—what are you so nervous about?”
“Y-yes…. Yes….”
I spoke hoping he’d calm down somewhat, but my words didn’t seem to reach him.
When the Instructor raised his fist, everyone stopped. A horde of goblins appeared ahead.
“Hide over there. In a melee, it’s harder to protect you. If any goblins approach, block them according to the Healer’s instructions.”
Everyone nodded.
The Instructor moved quietly in a different direction from where we’d come and began attacking the goblins.
The screams of dozens of goblins and the clashing of weapons filled the air, and Oh Chang-sik covered his head.
“Eeek….”
He’d completely panicked.
Then a few goblins approached our position.
“Aaaahhh!”
Seeing this, Oh Chang-sik screamed and bolted in the opposite direction from the goblins, and they heard his cry and discovered us.
“You damn bastard!”
The Instructor’s deep fury reached even us. He couldn’t come defend our position now without potentially drawing the entire goblin horde down on us.
Fortunately, only three or four goblins approached us, and the trainees and Healer engaged them. Honestly, this was nothing difficult if we handled it calmly.
“I’ll bring him back.”
If I left Oh Chang-sik to his own devices and he died encountering another goblin horde, I’d have to return carrying his corpse. So I broke away and pursued him.
“If things get bad, get out of there! You don’t need to risk your life for that guy!”
Since I was the best hunter among the five of us, neither the Instructor nor the Healer worried about me.
Oh Chang-sik was running in a panicked state, barely able to breathe, so I caught up quickly.
“Hey! Stop!”
I called from behind, but getting no response, I grabbed his nape and slammed him to the ground.
“Are you trying to get everyone killed because of you?!”
“Run…. We have to run!”
He’d completely lost his mind. It wasn’t common for someone to panic this badly in a goblin Gate.
To avoid further panic, I strangled him from behind and knocked him unconscious.
I hoisted Oh Chang-sik onto my shoulder and turned back toward my teammates when a goblin wielding a short sword appeared. I set Oh Chang-sik down against the wall and faced the sword-wielding goblin.
It was just one. I approached the goblin thinking I’d dispatch it quickly and return, when an arrow suddenly flew from the darkness. It wasn’t just one after all.
If I dodged, Oh Chang-sik leaning against the wall behind me might get hit, so I stood my ground. The arrow lodged in my thigh. My protective suit, designed for mobility, had plenty of gaps, and it found one perfectly.
However, with the Solid Body skill I’d acquired, the goblin’s crude arrow didn’t penetrate deeply. I smashed the short sword-wielding goblin’s head in while the arrow remained embedded.
Then I yanked out the arrow stuck in my leg and threw it to the ground. I looked around briefly, but the archer had already fled and was nowhere to be seen.
Since I needed to bring Oh Chang-sik back, I abandoned pursuit. As I tried to return to where my teammates were, the wound from the arrow felt warm and sticky, and the world began to spin.
This sensation was poison.
Goblins were said to use poison, but I hadn’t worried since it was usually crude. This one seemed to be of surprisingly high quality.
“Hah…”
I knelt on the ground for a moment and caught my breath. Paralysis began spreading through my entire body, and I couldn’t move freely. When cells die or fall away, my Regeneration skill restores them immediately, but this type of poisoning doesn’t damage the body—instead, recovery takes far longer.
“Kiek.”
Damn it. Through my blurred vision, I saw the bow-wielding goblin approaching from behind. It had waited for me to collapse.
Thinking I just needed to endure until the poison detoxified, I covered Oh Chang-sik with my body and wrapped my hands around my neck.
The cautious creature fired another arrow from a distance, and it lodged in my side. The poison began spreading further through my body.
It slung its bow across its back and drew closer, unsheathing a dagger and striking down at my back.
The goblin’s strength wasn’t great and its dagger was crude, so it didn’t penetrate deeply, but the damn thing didn’t stop stabbing at my back.
After stabbing repeatedly without the blade sinking in, it gave up on my back and shifted its target to my neck, which I was protecting with my hands.
The moment the dagger pushed through the gaps between my fingers and pierced my neck—
[Skill Acquired: Poison Resistance (F)]
With a pleasant notification sound, the paralysis in my body began to lift.
For a long time, I’d thought skill acquisition was just luck, but now I understood why the skill appeared at this moment. The Regeneration skill accelerates its evolution as the user approaches death. The stress of knowing I’d die if I didn’t expel the poison had granted me the Poison Resistance skill.
The moment the creature pulled its dagger out to stab my neck again, I twisted my body and seized its throat.
It panicked and brought the dagger down at my face, but I caught it easily in my hand. Then I applied force and snapped the creature’s neck.
After dealing with it, I’d consumed so much vitality regenerating the dead cells from the poison and the wounds from the dagger that my legs gave out.
I desperately clung to consciousness when I saw the Instructor and other party members running toward me from behind.
Thinking I was finally safe, I simply collapsed.
* * *
“In recognition of your spirit of sacrifice and courage in throwing yourself forward to save a comrade, this commendation is hereby awarded to you.”
“Thank you.”
On graduation day, I received the commendation from the Principal on stage.
It was because I had protected Oh Chang-sik, who had fallen behind during the practical exam.
I’d been at the very back when I enrolled, but at graduation, I ascended beyond the front row and climbed onto the stage itself.
I hadn’t particularly wanted to stand out, but realizing how differently I was living compared to my previous life felt surprisingly good.
Though I hadn’t grown particularly close to anyone, my classmates came to congratulate me and each said a few words.
“Lee Ji-seok, are you planning to join a Guild?”
Jung Yo-han extended his hand for a handshake. The Instructors, who had seemed like demons before, now used formal speech with the new Hunters.
“No, I’m planning to move alone for a while.”
“The dangers are… you’ve already learned enough about them, haven’t you? I’ll spare you the usual lectures. If you ever need help later, contact me. Even if it’s not one of the top ten Guilds, my recommendation letter should be useful at smaller ones.”
Jung Yo-han handed me his business card. He seemed concerned because my only skill was Regeneration.
“If you ever need assistance, feel free to reach out. Thank you.”
Not that such a situation would arise.
Even the Healer couldn’t fully restore them—Chu Kang-min and Instructor Heo O-sung bore scars on their faces and were missing teeth, their expressions twisted with displeasure as they watched from a distance.
They were people I’d never see again anyway. I dismissed them and turned my attention to the commendation certificate and official Hunter license in my hands.
With this, I could finally enter a Gate. Now the real journey begins.
The moment I stepped out of the Academy, I accessed the Hunter app to prepare for Gate entry.
I knew I was rushing, but having lost so much time at the Academy, I wanted to make up for it.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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