The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 55

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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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Academy Absolute Professor Episode 55
Dungeon Expedition
What did he just say?
Ma Chul-ung is Seo Hae-in’s team leader?
Wait, before that—
Ma Chul-ung is joining the Professor’s new guild?
“Uh…”
“Huh.”
The students’ breath seemed to deflate from their lungs all at once.
It was the sound of every trace of intoxication vanishing.
And that meant something else entirely: this fledgling guild could leap directly into the ranks of the nation’s top three in one stroke.
Yun Tae-sung’s Big Star!
Han Baek-san’s Hanla Guild!
Cha Ha-rang’s Cheonlang!
Until now, the presence or absence of an S-rank Hunter had been the very yardstick measuring the big three.
‘Wait, if that’s the case—’
Yun Hyun-jong’s eyes widened, his mind working fast.
‘He said teammates learn the same martial art. Seo Hae-in is supposed to master the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber. But Ma Chul-ung is the team leader? Could it be that Hunter Ma is also learning the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber from the Professor?’
Creak.
That’s when Kang Hyun stood up from his seat.
“Since introductions are done, I’ll be heading out.”
No point in sitting around at the kids’ gathering longer than necessary.
“A superior should know when to slip away—that’s tact, isn’t it?”
Kang Hyun didn’t bother with a lengthy introduction of Ma Chul-ung to the students.
Just a face to see.
That alone would be stimulus enough.
‘That should settle any sense of being left out.’
He was done coddling them.
If they kept whining, he might even take back the meager opportunity he’d given them.
“Drink as much as you like tonight—this covers it. Return it at tomorrow’s dawn training.”
Whoosh.
Kang Hyun flicked a pitch-black card onto the table and turned to leave without hesitation.
Ma Chul-ung followed silently behind him, his lips pressed firmly shut.
After their footsteps faded and exactly ten seconds of silence had passed—
“…This is insane.”
Gwak Do-jin ran his hands through his hair.
“What’s the Professor’s real identity? Did you all see it? How Ma Chul-ung deferred to him.”
“…!”
The one most shaken by all this was undoubtedly Cha Yu-sik.
He’d seen Ma Chul-ung from a distance a few times in the past.
That unbending man, who never bent his spine even before his own father Cha Ha-rang—was he bowing respectfully to Professor Kang Hyun?
“At any rate, it seems confirmed that Hunter Ma Chul-ung is learning the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber from the Professor.”
Cha Yu-sik nodded at Yun Hyun-jong’s deduction.
“Has to be. Even if it was counterfeit, he was serious enough to burn thirty billion won on it.”
As that thought sank in, the measure of how exceptional Kang Hyun truly was became visceral.
The Imperial Sword Form, the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber, and the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
Cha Yu-sik was certain of it now.
‘What he’s giving us is only the tip of the iceberg.’
Surely the truly precious martial arts were hidden away, kept for disciples alone?
“Hah.”
His already muddled thoughts grew more tangled still.
‘Cheonlang…’
Did I really have to inherit it?
Wouldn’t it be better to let my brother have it all, and live as harmonious brothers instead?
Somehow…it felt like he was kicking away with his own feet the chance to ride on the back of a dragon ascending to heaven, having struggled as the head of a snake.
“I think we should call it a night.”
Cha Yu-sik gathered his outer robe and stood.
“Let’s go inside and think up a team name. Something that sounds decent.”
“Sounds good.”
“Ah, ah…so I’m…on the same team as Hunter Ma Chul-ung?”
Seo Hae-in still had that dreamy look about him, his mind wandering elsewhere.
In truth, dopamine was already coursing through him far more potently than alcohol ever could, making further drinking pointless.
* * *
“Are those the ones, then?” Ma Chul-ung asked as they stepped outside.
Ma Chul-ung posed the question.
“The fortunate ones receiving direct instruction from you?”
“That’s right.”
“I noticed the second son of Cheonlang Guild is among them.”
“Does that bother you?”
“Not at all.”
The corners of Ma Chul-ung’s mouth curved upward with interest.
“I’m curious about his choice. Will he take Cheonlang with your help, or will he build a team under you—one that will dwarf Cheonlang itself in the future?”
Ma Chul-ung had already decided it as fact: Cha Yu-sik would become Cheonlang’s successor.
It was a matter of faith in his companion.
For someone learning martial arts from Black to fall short in the succession itself would be absurd.
‘That would be interesting.’
Ma Chul-ung had always been a lone wolf by nature, preferring solitude to collective work.
Since awakening as an S-rank Hunter, countless major guilds had offered astronomical sums to recruit him, yet he’d never once accepted.
Why?
It was tiresome.
The very idea of being controlled by someone else repulsed him.
So why had he agreed to Kang Hyeon’s proposal?
Because of the team system.
As long as those who mastered the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber were the strongest, he didn’t care how the team was structured—or even if it was left to its own devices.
‘I’ll make my organization a den of madmen obsessed with the blade.’
And every day, he’d push to make the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber stronger and stronger.
Five tigers summoned forth by Kang Hyeon.
He would create tigers far more powerful and formidable than those.
Kang Hyeon understood his heart and cheered him on.
In fact, aside from the Heavenly Divine Scripture, Kang Hyeon had only cultivated martial arts to Grand Completion.
Grand Completion.
It was the realm where one perfectly understood and embodied all the principles and techniques of a martial art, drawing out the full 100% of power written in the Secret Manual.
For most martial artists, achieving merely this level was enough to spend a lifetime earning renown as a master of the Martial World.
But in that pinnacle realm where true monsters crawled about in abundance?
‘Grand Completion is where it truly begins.’
From that point onward, one must break free from the confines of the Secret Manual.
Even if two martial artists achieved Grand Completion in the same art, the destructive power diverged like heaven and earth depending on how sharply each refined it further, infusing it with their own nature and philosophy.
In fact, if Ma Chul-ung devoted his entire life to obsessing over nothing but the Five Tiger Single Slash Saber?
He might well surpass Kang Hyeon’s achievement in that one martial art alone.
‘Of course, reaching that height would demand true bone-deep conviction and madness.’
“So.”
Kang Hyeon turned his head.
“Where are you hitting a wall?”
Since Ma Chul-ung was helping build the structure, he intended to teach with equal sincerity.
* * *
Several days after Kang Hyeon cleared the blocked acupoint and sent Ma Chul-ung on his way.
Kang Hyeon leaned deep into the research lab sofa, swirling his on-the-rocks glass.
‘Asura.’
The demon of destruction that turned the Martial World into hell.
That creature had spoken.
Wait, it said.
Soon I will lead an army and cross over into your world.
A prickling sensation.
The venom squirming within his body confirmed that the arrival of that thing was truth.
And so, he found himself wondering.
What connection existed between the Martial World and this one?
‘Why did I go to the Martial World, and why do Dungeons in this place yield byproducts of the Martial World?’
Now that he thought about it, since coming here he’d never once experienced a Dungeon.
“Lee Se-ah.”
“Yes!”
“Remember when you said the state would have many favors to ask? Is dungeon clearing one of them?”
“Yes, it was! Why?”
Anticipation flickered across Lee Se-ah’s face.
“Pull up the full list for me and we’ll take a look.”
“Really? Just a moment!”
Lee Se-ah’s cheeks flushed with color as she hurried out of the room.
Her excited voice drifted back from the corridor, speaking with Director Kim Hyung-seok, and within minutes she returned clutching a thick sheaf of documents.
“I’ve gathered the complete list!”
Normally, A-rank dungeons and higher were hotly contested prizes that major guilds scrambled to claim clearance rights for.
But recently, with S-rank Hunters frequently away on overseas assignments, domestic forces had grown considerably depleted, and moreover, the list Director Kim had provided focused almost exclusively on infamously avoided dungeons with abnormally high disappearance rates.
“There’s an A-rank in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, an S-rank in Gangwon, and undersea dungeons along the South Coast too…. Just counting the major ones, there are over ten locations.”
“Why so many?”
“Haha, honestly, even if you take on just a few of these, it would be an enormous help to the nation. Where should we plot your route?”
“Never mind.”
Kang Hyun set down his whiskey glass.
“Just guide me through all of them.”
“…… All of them, sir?”
Lee Se-ah’s expression went blank for a moment.
“What, do you have a problem with that?”
“N-no, of course not! I’ll map out the route right away!”
* * *
From that afternoon onward.
Kang Hyun’s extraordinary journey began.
Zing!
[Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province]
[A-rank Dungeon]
[Clear Time: 12 minutes]
“Done.”
“Already?”
Lee Se-ah’s mouth fell open.
How long had it been since the management bureau had moved aside the association employees guarding the dungeon entrance and sent Kang Hyun in?
Moreover, an A-rank dungeon typically took at least a full day even when dozens of elite Hunters formed a party and entered together.
Crash-crash-crash!
And the sheer volume of loot he’d brought out.
“I think we’ll need to call a truck?”
“Contact Taejeong Mulsan. Tell them to haul it away.”
“Yes, understood!”
[Gangwon Province]
[S-rank Dungeon]
[Clear Time: 25 minutes]
“This one’s a bit spacious. Next.”
[Yeongjong Island, Incheon]
[S-rank Dungeon]
[Clear Time: 18 minutes]
Each time a Gate’s light extinguished and the dungeon collapsed, staggering quantities of byproducts came pouring out.
“Hmm.”
Kang Hyun stroked his chin thoughtfully.
For one thing, the magical beasts inside the dungeons were specimens he’d never encountered before.
Yet strangely, whenever he killed them and split open their bodies or rummaged through their nests, items reminiscent of the Martial World kept emerging with surprising frequency.
Fragments of Ten Thousand Year Blood Marrow Stone, or Ice Snow Plum—materials for Huashan’s potent medicines.
‘The magical beasts have nothing to do with the Martial World, but the byproducts alone are connected….’
Could the dimensions be overlapping halfway?
Since he had no way to know the answer yet, he’d have to investigate slowly over time.
‘Either way, it’s straightforward.’
The difficulty of the dungeons remained consistent thereafter.
Even with most of his Inner Strength sealed away due to Asura’s toxin, clearing the dungeons posed no real obstacle.
As a result, only Taejeong Mulsan ended up exhausted.
– Professor, what is all this?
Just hearing Yun Tae-sung’s breathless voice on the phone was enough to gauge how delighted he was.
“I’ve been clearing some dungeons. I plan to do runs periodically from now on, so categorize and stockpile everything carefully. We’ll sell them when the Taejeong Market opens.”
– That’s exactly right! Ah, you know that land you asked me to look into last time?
“Yes.”
– There’s an isolated island in the southwestern waters of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. I found it.
“Oh, really?”
– It’s an island where a resort development project was planned but fell through. The basic infrastructure work was left incomplete, and it’s been abandoned for years. Apparently, access is so poor that all the developers gave up on it. The harbor’s small, and the shipping routes are inconvenient.
Kang Hyun’s lips curved upward.
‘Perfect.’
– The island’s roughly a million pyeong in area… but the real problem is the climate. Since it’s in the Philippines, it’s hot and humid. There’s typhoon risk in summer too.
“That’s not a concern.”
A pleasant climate would be convenient, but Kang Hyun had Array Formations to regulate the weather anyway.
It would be fiendishly difficult, but once he found a disciple to inherit the Martial Arts of the Array Ghost grandfather in the future, they could install everything gradually together.
“Do you have photographs?”
– I’ll send them to you.
A moment later, a green island sat on the tablet screen, surrounded by blue ocean.
The thought that came instantly was:
‘This is it!’
If he built Taejeong Mulsan here?
Couldn’t it become both a symbolic resort destination for the world’s wealthy and massive guilds, as well as a black market?
One should always dream big, no matter what!
– With all the local legal procedures and taxes included, long-term lease is possible for less than 32 billion won. Up to 99 years.
Yun Tae-jung felt no burden at the cost.
That was cheaper than a single building in Gangnam.
The drawback was that he couldn’t own the land outright, but that was unavoidable given Philippine law.
They couldn’t sell the land entirely to foreigners anyway.
Kang Hyun nodded.
“Proceed with 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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