The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 16

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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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16
Chapter 16. The Logic of Force
***
‘Blink.’
The world folded.
My vision dissolved into black static, then reassembled.
Yu Hye-sung’s back appeared before my eyes.
Spatial leap.
A mage’s secret art—reducing physical distance to zero.
It required about two seconds of casting time, but I’d prepared it before he brought his axe down.
“······!”
Yu Hye-sung’s senses must have screamed.
A surge of mana erupting suddenly from behind.
He instinctively twisted his body and tried to retrieve his axe, but the laws of inertia were impartial—even to a B-Rank Hunter.
He lifted the axe he’d just brought down.
‘Too late.’
I drew my blade horizontally.
Not a simple slash.
A single strike layering the acceleration of Slash onto physical abilities enhanced by Synchronization.
Crack—!
The sound of air tearing.
The blade’s dull edge, wreathed in blue Aura, struck Yu Hye-sung’s shoulder with crushing force.
“Ugh!”
A dull thud.
Yu Hye-sung’s body spun like a top.
If he hadn’t deployed a defensive barrier with his Aura, his collarbone would have shattered.
He lost his balance and staggered, falling onto one knee.
Thud.
The massive Battle Axe planted itself in the ground.
It served as a brace, keeping him from collapsing entirely.
But the outcome was clear.
“Hah… hah…”
Only ragged breathing filled the Training Ground.
The thick mist was slowly dispersing.
The landscape emerging beyond the haze.
An examiner on his knees at my feet, and an examinee holding a blade to his throat.
“······.”
Yu Hye-sung lifted his head, eyes bloodshot, and looked up at me.
“Space… magic?”
“Something like that.”
I answered briefly and sheathed my sword.
Click.
The blade sliding into its scabbard rang out with unusual clarity.
Yu Hye-sung exhaled, as if hollow.
“Ah… damn. This is pathetic.”
He tried to rise by gripping the axe haft, but his legs gave out and he sank back down.
He’d poured every last bit of his Aura into that final Reforce Fang.
“… I lost.”
It sounded like a declaration.
An examiner admitting defeat to an examinee.
There was no precedent for such a thing.
I met Yu Hye-sung’s gaze.
There was no servility in his voice.
No sense of forced deference either.
He lost, so he acknowledged it.
That was all.
The plain acceptance a warrior shows when facing a stronger warrior.
I felt it.
“A monster. Mixing swordplay with magic, no less. What Awakened Class are you?”
“On the battlefield, does profession exist?”
I looked down at him and spoke flatly.
“You’re not wrong about that.”
He laughed sharply and extended his hand.
“Come on, help me up, will you?”
I took his hand and pulled him to his feet.
Thick, rough palms.
The texture of calluses forged through rolling across countless battlefields came through in my grip.
“Wow… you’ve lost it.”
“Insane! He beat that?”
“Yu Hye-sung the Hunter? Seriously?”
The survivors who had been silent erupted in cheers.
The fog had obscured the actual fight, but the result stood plain before their eyes.
The examiner Yu Hye-sung was on his knees.
That single fact alone was enough to make me an object of reverence in their eyes.
“Kim Do-jin… who exactly are you?”
Lee Seong-chan stared at me with a blank expression.
His eyes were trembling visibly.
‘It’s gotten noisier than I expected.’
I steadied my breathing.
I’d planned to hold back just enough to coast through, but Yu Hye-sung’s genuine effort had raised the stakes.
Still, I had no regrets.
There were limits to how much could stay hidden anyway.
Ding—
Just then, a clear chime sounded from the speakers in the Training Ground.
[The 25th regular Hunter Qualification Examination has concluded.]
[Surviving examinees, congratulations. All of you have passed.]
The closing announcement.
The Hunters whose tension had been wound tight finally collapsed to the ground.
Some burst into tears. Others thrust their fists toward the sky.
The end of two days and one night that felt like hell.
Yu Hye-sung brushed the dust from himself and tapped my shoulder.
“Excellent work. You’ve passed.”
He said only that, then turned away.
***
Outside the Gymnasium was deafening.
The Draft taking place now that the exam had ended.
A kind of auction house where guilds competed to recruit among the successful candidates.
But the scouts couldn’t enter the Gymnasium itself.
Access was restricted by order of the Hunter Association.
They stood beyond the glass doors, their eyes gleaming like hyenas eyeing prey.
‘Two hundred applicants, seven passes.’
The worst pass rate on record.
But precisely because of that, the survivors’ level was exceptional.
The seven who remained were premium merchandise to the scouts.
Click.
The Examination Room door opened, and a Ranger walked out.
Choi Do-hyeon. The archer who had survived until the end in Group C.
His expression had frozen rigid.
“Hunter Choi Do-hyeon. Final Rank: E.”
His rank was announced through the speakers.
The waiting room stirred.
E Rank.
Most of the successful candidates received this Rank, but given the difficulty of this exam, it was a harsh assessment.
Yet it was fair.
He had survived to the end, yes, but at every critical moment he had been preoccupied with fleeing or hiding.
The Hunter Association’s evaluation criterion wasn’t ‘survival’—it was ‘contribution.’
‘He should be grateful it wasn’t F.’
“Next. Examinee number 006, Hunter Lee Seong-chan.”
At his name being called, Lee Seong-chan sitting beside me jumped to his feet.
He seemed nervous, washing his face with his palms, then suddenly turned his body toward me.
And he bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
“Thank you so much!”
His voice rang out loud and clear.
All eyes in the room turned toward him.
“If it weren’t for you, I’d have died in the first round. Or worse — I’d have run away. My life, my qualification, everything is thanks to you.”
His fists clenched so hard the veins stood out on the backs of his hands.
I waved a hand lightly.
“Lift your head. It was your own feet that carried you through.”
“But still—”
“A tank never shows his back. Go in there with confidence and accept what you’ve earned. You deserve it.”
At my words, Lee Seong-chan’s eyes began to glisten.
He bowed once more and made his way toward the Examination Room.
His back looked far steadier than before.
“Lee Seong-chan, Hunter. Final Rank: C.”
The scouts waiting outside pressed against the glass window, tapping their radios frantically.
A newly certified Hunter receiving a C Rank was extraordinarily rare.
His performance against the Mirror Golem, and that raw grit he’d shown facing Yu Hye-sung.
Even the Association had acknowledged his worth.
Lee Seong-chan emerged from the Examination Room and gave me a thumbs up.
Good guilds would be calling him soon enough.
“Next. Examinee number 032, Hunter Kim Do-jin.”
Finally, my turn.
I stood.
The hall fell silent as if someone had doused it with cold water.
Every gaze fixed on my back.
I walked forward, absorbing their attention in silence.
Click.
I opened the Examination Room door and found something unexpected.
It was nothing like the other examinees’ assessments, where a single desk sat lonely in a bare room.
Association officials in formal suits blocked the hallway.
“Is this the place?”
“No, Hunter Kim Do-jin. You’ll come this way.”
“Why?”
“A special examination has been arranged. We’ll escort you to the VIP room.”
I followed them without question.
We rode the elevator to the top floor.
The old military barracks converted into this building still bore rough marks of its past throughout.
At the end of the corridor, before a pair of heavy double doors.
The handle was not polished gold, but tarnished brass, worn dark by countless hands.
Creak.
The door opened.
A venerable Reception Room.
A fireplace burned with living flame, and an old yet dignified leather sofa sat waiting.
And in the center of it all, three people stood.
Yu Hye-sung.
Beside her, a sharp-featured woman—Choi Seon-a, Vice-Master of the Guardians.
And sunk deep into the sofa, an elderly woman.
‘……’
My breath caught.
An unexpected heavyweight had entered.
Wrinkled skin, hair white as fresh snow.
Yet from that frail frame emanated an aura that dominated the very air of the room.
Like an ancient tree sending down roots—a presence steeped in years of life.
‘Jung Eun-jin.’
The name escaped my lips unbidden.
South Korea’s first S-Rank Hunter, and the first Healer.
Undeniably, a legend of the first generation.
What was she doing here?
In that instant, a thought flashed through my mind.
Why the massive guilds like Invictus had sent scouts flooding in.
It wasn’t simply about selecting promising prospects.
‘Jung Eun-jin appeared in the twenty-fifth recruitment exam.’
Hyenas who caught wind of the rumor came flocking.
“You’re here.”
Yu Hye-sung greeted her warmly.
He was supporting Jung Eun-jin as she moved.
“Allow me to introduce you. This is the Association Chairman.”
“I’m aware. I’m Kim Do-jin.”
I bowed respectfully.
With reverence in the gesture.
She was no mere wielder of authority.
She was a hero—the one who had saved more lives than anyone since the Gates first opened.
Her unique trait, Seraphim’s Wings, performed miracles that brought the dying back to life, but the cost was paid in the caster’s own vitality.
The deep wrinkles etched across her face were as numerous as the lives she had saved.
“It’s good to see you, Kim Do-jin. Please, sit.”
Her voice was like wind crossing parched, cracked earth.
Yet her gaze remained clear.
Eyes that had witnessed all the world’s ugliness without becoming tainted—deep and transparent.
“Senior, please take care.”
“Eun-jin, don’t strain yourself.”
As Yu Hye-sung’s voice cut through the air, the old woman gently shook her wrist.
“I’m fine.”
Jung Eun-jin settled onto the sofa.
Choi Seon-a across from her set down the folder.
“Let’s get straight to the point. Your Rank cannot be measured, Do-jin.”
……
“Your mana control ability and combat sense exceed A-Rank standards. Our current ranking system simply cannot contain you. That’s the conclusion.”
Choi Seon-a adjusted her glasses.
“So the Association Chairman has decided to issue you an A-Rank License under her authority.”
A-Rank.
The highest ceiling a starting Hunter could receive.
No word could adequately describe such extraordinary treatment.
Yet I remained unmoved.
“Surely the Association Chairman didn’t come in person just to hand out a single License.”
At my words, Chairman Jung Eun-jin set down her teacup.
A soft clink echoed through the room.
“You’re perceptive.”
She leaned forward.
“Kim Do-jin, you know that Gates have become currency, don’t you?”
It was an abrupt question, but I nodded.
“Yes—Mana Stones are the lifeblood of modern society.”
“Exactly. That’s why people fear Gates while craving them. Private guilds especially. They pick and choose only the Gates that turn a profit. Dangerous ones that yield no money are left to rot.”
I understood her point.
People saw only numbers.
I sat with her words in silence, turning them over in my mind.
Even before the return, this problem had been raised repeatedly.
Tae Yoon created the Blade Guild for precisely this reason.
“Gate appearances have increased dramatically in recent times.”
Chairman Jung Eun-jin’s voice grew heavier.
“And the monsters emerging from them grow stronger with each appearance. We understand so little. Or perhaps we simply don’t wish to understand. We want to believe that humanity can coexist with the Gates as long as Mana Stones continue to flow. But···”
She reached out and gently grasped my hand, trembling slightly.
Cold to the touch, yet full of strength.
“We may be marching toward our own destruction.”
I know the ending of this world.
That future reduced to ash.
And so I could not help but shudder at her insight.
While most people were intoxicated by immediate gain, this old woman stood alone, sensing the approaching apocalypse.
“We need a Hunter like you.”
Her eyes deepened.
“What you showed in the exam—that is the kind of Hunter this era desperately requires. Eyes not swayed by greed, seeking only survival and destruction.”
Choi Seon-a, who had been standing a step behind, spoke up.
“The Guardians Guild, which I belong to, maintains a friendly relationship with the Hunter Association, but our roots are private. We have limitations in what we can do. We have to mind the board, manage our stock price. The Association needs the power to move independently, without those constraints.”
With those words, a scene suddenly came back to me—Kim Dae-han persuading me in the hospital room before my regression.
In the end, the Hunter Association wants the age of Gates to end too.
Before my regression, I couldn’t have known their true intentions.
I listened quietly to their words and gathered my thoughts.
I understood the Association’s reasoning.
And I realized it connected to the same concerns Tae Yoon had wrestled with before my regression.
I took a light breath.
Then I looked directly into Jung Eun-jin’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, but I must decline.”
Yu Hye-sung clicked his tongue and crossed his arms.
His eyebrows twitched faintly.
“Is it about the money, after all?”
Hunter Choi Seon-a also narrowed her brow and let out a sigh.
Her eyes could not hide the disappointment.
Association Director Jung Eun-jin simply gazed at me without speaking.
Her stare was neither sharp nor disappointed.
It was a gaze that seemed to pierce right through me, quietly and steadily.
Silence stretched between us for a moment.
“It’s not about money, then.”
“No. Mana Stones hold no interest for me.”
At that moment, Yu Hye-sung let out a hollow laugh.
“Then what exactly is the problem?”
I answered at once.
“The Hunter Association is too weak.”

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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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