The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 15

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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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Chapter 15

Thirty minutes before the Oasis explosion.
Ding—

[Monster Subjugation Count]
Tae Eun-o – 10
Go Gyeol – 8
Ha Jae-yun – 6
…….

“Yeah, first place!!”
Eun-o threw himself face-down onto the sand with exultant joy, utterly drained.
“Finally it’s over….”
Jae-yun dropped beside him with a thud, his gaze drifting uncertainly across the field.
“I can’t believe we pulled that off…!”
Monster corpses lay scattered across the field.

[Time Remaining: 10:51:42]

Roughly an hour had passed since they’d entered the Gate.
Every monster Hyeon had arranged for them was dead.
“If I’d done it right, we would’ve won outright.”
Gyeol spoke with casual confidence, and Eun-o shot back, pointing accusingly and raising his voice.
“Come on! I was the one catching them—you just stole the last three kills!”
“It’s called strategy.”
“Strategy my ass. It’s just dirty play!”
Eun-o snorted, and Gyeol folded his arms across his chest, tilting his head thoughtfully.
“There’s still a long way to go, and you’re already collapsing like that. What happens if we get ambushed out of nowhere?”

[Subjugate monsters.]
[E-Grade or higher: 24/300]
[Boss: 0/1]

A quest barely a tenth of the way complete.
The Academy’s test only ended when the Gate was cleared.
Which meant they’d barely begun.
Gyeol let out a long sigh.
“Hell. When are we going to fill three hundred?”
“That’s nothing. We’ll be fine. And I’m completely fresh, honestly.”
Eun-o pushed himself up on his elbows but immediately collapsed back onto the sand.
“Ugh, dizzy….”
Jae-yun spoke up, his voice tinged with concern.
“Don’t push yourself too hard, please.”
“There’s only Jae-yun for me….”
A warm moment settled over them. Gyeol, meanwhile, paid it half a mind as he wiped blood from his hands with a handkerchief.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Hae-seong, who had been watching the three of them fight, approached slowly.
“You all did wonderfully.”
“Ha, thanks!”
“Thank you.”
Eun-o and Jae-yun each replied in turn. Gyeol merely dipped his head slightly.
“I heard that potions aren’t allowed during the test.”
Hae-seong pulled water bottles from his inventory and handed them out one by one.
Eun-o drank like it was water, nearly pouring it over his face.
“Ahh, I’m alive again!”
His color visibly improved, and he stretched out lazily.
Jae-yun sipped the water carefully, watching Hae-seong’s reaction, then hesitantly opened his mouth.
“By the way, you said Hae-seong was the instructor’s assistant…?”
“Yes, I originally handled educational support.”
“No wonder the coaching was so thorough.”
Go Gyeol raised an eyebrow as he spoke.
“Wow, you’re with the Association?! That’s impressive!”
Tae Eun-o gave a thumbs up.
Ha Jae-yun bowed respectfully at the waist.
“Thanks to your coaching, we managed our first combat without injury. I’m truly grateful.”
“Oh, no, really. I was just doing my job.”
Hae-seong waved his hands dismissively, his embarrassed face breaking into a smile.
“But wait.”
Tae Eun-o suddenly glanced around before opening his mouth.
“Where’d our instructor go? Shouldn’t he be here doing his job too?”
“Ah, well….”
Honestly, I don’t know either.
Hae-seong couldn’t push out the words lodged in his throat and trailed off with an awkward laugh.
Go Gyeol’s face clouded with dissatisfaction as he shook his head.
“Good riddance. All that man does is hover and backseat drive.”
Tae Eun-o grinned and asked, “Oh, describing yourself again?”

“What are you talking about?”
Go Gyeol blinked in confusion, clearly not following.
Tae Eun-o let out an exasperated laugh.
“Seriously, your lack of self-awareness is incredible, man.”
Ha Jae-yun, who’d been watching their bickering, carefully steered the conversation back on track.
“…But the way the instructor was calling out monsters earlier — doesn’t that confirm he’s Mental-type?”
Tae Eun-o tilted his head.
“What does that have to do with being Mental-type?”
Go Gyeol exhaled deeply.
“Haven’t you even read the Bible?”
“Oh, that thing you sleep with every night?”
As Tae Eun-o snickered, a vein bulged in Go Gyeol’s forehead.
“Who sleeps with it? I don’t sleep with it.”
“You do! And Lee Ha-je even bragged to me that he wrote the Bible! Like he’s some kind of fanboy! Ha!”
“You little—”
Go Gyeol kicked at Tae Eun-o. Rolling away, Tae Eun-o dodged the blows.
Ha Jae-yun ventured to ask, “So he used the Illusion Skill that Mental-types typically employ, right?”
Go Gyeol clicked his tongue and stopped kicking, then raised an eyebrow and continued.
“What’s the signature skill of Mental-types? Creating illusions, obviously. He used it as bait — just like he did a moment ago.”

“Ah, so he really is Mental-type then!”
Tae Eun-o exclaimed in realization, lifting his head from where he lay on the ground.
“But aren’t Mental-types supposed to be really weak?”
“That’s why he just summoned the monster and then took off.”
Go Gyeol scoffed, then glanced casually toward Hae-seong.
“We’re supposed to train under that instructor until graduation — is he actually trustworthy?”
“Well… it’s difficult to discuss him when Sa Hyeon isn’t here.”
Hae-seong offered a troubled smile.
“What I can tell you is….”
He paused, clearing his throat.
An extraordinarily rare Mental-type Awakener.
It was statistically true that their Ability Values were lower than other Awakeners.
But Sa Hyeon was different.
His numbers exceeded those of most combat-type S-grade Hunters.
Even Hae-seong had never heard of a Mental-type Awakener possessing such Ability Values before.
And on top of that, his hunting methods were remarkably skilled.
Hae-seong spoke with conviction.
“You can trust him.”
…….
At the certainty in his voice, Go Gyeol fell silent, his face lost in thought.
Eun-o spoke with a cheerful lilt in his voice.
“Well, if the Vice-Chairman is saying it like that, there must be a reason!”
“That’s right.”
Jae-yun nodded earnestly.
Gyeol still looked skeptical, but reluctantly shrugged his shoulders.
Eun-o stretched his arms overhead and sat up.
“Ah. No more monsters? I’m getting a little bored.”
“They could be drawn by the scent of the corpses. It might be wise to stay alert.”
The moment Hae-seong finished speaking.
Boom—!
A crash echoing from far away.
“Huh?”
“What was that noise…?”
“Didn’t it sound like something breaking?”
The students all turned toward the sound at once.
But still, only endless desert stretched before them.
There was no way to know what had happened.
‘Could it be Sa Hyeon?’
The thought crossed Hae-seong’s mind.
He’d seemed to be looking for something in the office earlier, and had even wandered off a moment ago before disappearing. It felt like he had something urgent to attend to—
Hae-seong had seen his combat style before, so he supposed a noise of this magnitude was possible.
He was just about to open his mouth to reassure the students.

Wheeee—!
“!”
“Ahhh! You scared us!”
“What is that sound?”
A warning alarm suddenly shrieked.
Before anyone could even process what was happening.

[Gate Grade has fluctuated (D→B).]

A notification window appeared.
Hae-seong’s heart dropped.
“!!”
The Gate Grade changed?! Just like that?!
It was an extremely rare Gate anomaly.
And normally it would rise by just one grade, but it had jumped two grades.
This was a crisis.
And on top of that—
“O-our Ability Values just dropped by half a grade…?”
Jae-yun ran his fingers through his hair in distress.
The students who had been A-grade were now downgraded to B-grade.
“This is bad…!”
Hae-seong immediately pressed the emergency call button on his Hunter Watch.
Sa Hyeon received their location instantly.
B-grade Hunters clearing B-grade Gates was something that happened fairly often in the field.
But that was only for professional Hunters.
For Awakeners who hadn’t even been awakened for a month yet, it was impossible.
However, the real crisis was only just beginning.
Scritch-scritch-scritch—
An ominous sound of sand grinding against itself rang out.
“Everyone! Below us! Be careful!!”
Hae-seong shouted.
The students braced themselves, ready for the attack.
A speed entirely different from the Golden Mole from before.
The sound drew closer rapidly.
Scritch-scritch-scritch-scritch—
Burst!
Finally, the sand exploded upward.
A red shadow flickering through the dust.
“Damn, it’s massive!”
Eun-o’s jaw dropped open.
Shriek!
A colossal body, easily three meters across.
Hard carapace burning with a searing red glow. A long, barbed stinger dangling from its tail.
Hae-seong’s mouth fell slowly open.
“A, a Giant Invicta?!”
The fire ant variant—a Giant Invicta—snapped its mandibles threateningly.
Hae-seong swallowed hard against the tremor in his breathing and shared the status window with the students.
Ding—

[Monster Information]
Name: Giant Invicta (GIANT FIRE ANT)
Grade: B-
Traits: Pack hunters. The stinger on its tail sprays lethal venom.
…….

“B, B-?!”
Jae-yun’s voice wavered.
And there wasn’t just one.
Shrill cry!
A throng of them encircled the space, dense and suffocating.
Gyeol’s mouth curved into a smile.
“Well, aren’t we screwed?”
The massive body radiated waves of scorching heat.
Jae-yun shuffled backward, rubbing his arms frantically.
“It’s so hot…!”
Hae-seong swallowed and found his voice.
“…there are too many of them. I’ve called for Sa Hyeon. We just need to hold out until he arrives.”
“That guy’s Mental-type. What’s he going to do when he gets here?”
Gyeol twisted his lips.
Tension had begun creeping across his face, despite the earlier confidence.
“You’re right! We’re the combat types—we’ve got this!”
Eun-o spoke with unshakeable certainty.
The Invicta twitched its antennae toward them. Eun-o didn’t flinch.
“Just how strong is a B-Grade monster anyway…!”
He bared his teeth and charged straight at it.
“You insane bastard! Don’t just run in blind like that!”
Gyeol shouted urgently, but it was already too late.
Eun-o launched himself into the air.
He drew an invisible bowstring and aimed at the Invicta’s waist.
As he released, the attack shot through the air and—
Clang!
—bounced clean off.
“What?! That didn’t even work?!”
“Eun-o! The Invicta’s weak point is its waist! Slice through there!”
Hae-seong called out loudly.
“Got it!!”
Eun-o clenched his teeth and grinned.
If the bow won’t work, then steel will.

[‘Formless Sword (A- → B+)’ Skill Activated!]

The skill’s grade lowered by the Gate Diversion.
At that moment, the monster lunged at Eun-o.
He sidestepped its attacks with swift precision, targeting only its waist.
“Come on! Just—go in!”
Yet only shallow grazes appeared.
After scoring the blade across it many times over.
Evil—
A blade that split through Invicta’s torso.
“Got it!”
A smile bloomed across Eun-o’s face in that instant.
Screech—!
Invicta’s blood sprayed across his forearms and shoulders.
“Ugh!”
Eun-o plummeted, clutching at his shoulder.
“!! Hey, Eun-o!”
Gyeol rushed forward without hesitation.
Jae-yun and Hae-seong hurried after him.
“Damn… it stings like hell…”
Invicta’s blood had melted into the flesh near Eun-o’s shoulder, leaving a severe burn on his right arm.
“Just a moment—I’ll pull out the Emergency Kit!”
Hae-seong reached for his inventory.
Shriek—!
The monsters gave them no respite.
Led by the wounded Invicta, the pack tightened its encirclement around them.
Hae-seong clenched his jaw.
‘Not this again.’
The metallic taste of blood lingered at the corners of his mouth.

Am I really just going to stand here useless again?

Helplessness crashed over him with overwhelming force.
The space thrummed with tension.
Screech—!
In that same moment, Invicta lunged forward.
Whoosh—! Roar—!
A violent gust swept across the sand.
“Ah!!”
Vision clouded by the scouring wind.
They squinted against the sting, eyes opening slowly.
“!!”
“Gasp…!”
“What… what is this?”
The heat had vanished as if washed away.
The pack of Invicta lay collapsed, blood bubbling from their bodies.
Annihilation.
“…Is this a dream?”
In the moment Jae-yun muttered in a dazed voice, his eyes met those of a figure standing askew atop the Invicta corpses.
Breathing undisturbed, posture perfectly still.
He swung his weapon in a broad arc.
“Been searching for you quite a while.”
Between the hot blood scattering through the air, Sa Hyeon’s crimson eyes gleamed with terrible clarity.

S-Rank Instructor Devours the Academy 15

Author
Baek Ru-ga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yun Tae-ri
Cover
Tong

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0016

© 2026, Baek Ruga

※ This e-book is a work protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of the contents of this work may be reprocessed in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

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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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