C16: Academy Competition (2)
After that day Seo-joon continued his preparations for the Academy competition by increasing the progress rate of his lectures.
Currently, Seo-joon’s lecture progress was as follows.
<Chiron’s Lecture Progress 28.5%>
<Shakyamuni Lecture Progress 5.2%>
undefined<Xiang Yu Lecture Progress 27.1%>
Except for the Shakyamuni lecture, which is only 5.2%, the progress rate of the other two would soon reach 30%.
Compared to the others, the progress of the Shakyamuni Lecture was seriously lagging behind, but Seo-joon couldn’t hurry it.
‘If I keep working hard, it’ll increase someday. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I started early. ’
Seo-joon was able to understand the meaning of the mentor’s words but he didn’t have time to ponder over it now.
‘Before the competition, the progress rate of Chiron and Xiang Yu’s lectures must be over 30%, but…’
Of course, every time the progress increased, there was no sudden power or awakening. Nevertheless, the reason Seo-joon is obsessed with 30% was,
‘I could feel the difference between 19% and 20% more clearly than the difference between 20% and 21%.’
Academy competition is a competition where students the best in each academy gather. Although it was only the fourth division of the competition, it was not something to be taken lightly.
‘I can’t miss the prize money.’
With the 100 million won, Seo-joon could purchase Longinus’ spear sold at the Transcension Academy.
However, Seo-joon was not nervous since there were two weeks left before the competition.
Seo-joon only did his best to prepare during that time and two weeks later.
<Chiron’s Lecture Progress 31.7%>
<Shakyamuni Lecture Progress 6.8%>
<Xiang Yu Lecture Progress 33.4%>
Seo-joon was able to exceed his target of 30 percent.
“Here’s a list of academies participating in this competition.”
Seo-joon slowly looked through the list that Seo-yoon handed over.
[Mint Academy]
[Revenant Academy]
[Gochuri Academy]
[Dream Academy]
.
.
.
On a rough count, it seemed like 30 Hunter Academies were participating.
Other prestigious academies did not participate, as well as Korea’s three major hunter academies, Gaon, Hunter Mill, and Ale.
“They’re academies I’ve heard of.”
“Have you heard of them?”
“Yes, I’m very interested in Hunter Academies.”
“Oh…”
Seo-joon shrugged his shoulders and replied, and Seo-yoon looked sullen for some reason.
Seo-yoon opened her mouth when she looked at Seo-yoon thinking she had made a mistake.
“But you haven’t heard of our academy…”
“Haha…”
Seo-joon smiled awkwardly while Seo-yoon looked at him and opened her mouth again.
“I’m kidding. Anyway, don’t feel too much pressure. Seo-joon hasn’t trained for a long time.”
“Yes. I’ll think of it as an experience.”
That’s what Seo-joon said, but he was definitely going to win the competition.
“Let’s get going!”
Seo-joon took a strong step.
The academy competition was held at one of the professional hunter test sites in the metropolitan area.
Originally, there was only one professional hunter test site in Seoul. However, as time passed, it could not accommodate all the awakeners who overflowed, unlike before.
Eventually, it failed to meet the ever-increasing number of applicants for the Pro hunter examination every year, and the Pro hunter Association and the government led the expansion of the examination sites.
There are now about 100 professional hunter test sites nationwide. Of course, no matter how many awakeners there were, it was true that there were more than 100 of them.
Therefore, each test site specialized in subdivisions of test subjects, and the current Professional Hunter Test was conducted by moving around several test sites over several days.
The test sites were also used to host various competitions such as academy competitions.
At first, there was a lot of talk about it being a waste of tax money, but now that opinion disappeared.
As they arrived at the location Seo-joon was surprised by the crowd.
‘There are more people than I thought.’
The academy competition in which Seo-joon participated was the fourth division and Seo-joon honestly thought that only the related family members or the academy officials would be present.
Seo-yoon explained with a slight nod.
“People like to watch the competitions.”
There was nothing better to see for the general public since they could watch things that they would have only seen in movies, cartoons, or videos in real life.
The students are basically prospective hunters. There was only a level difference, but they were not different from the real hunters.
No matter how many awakened people are in the midst of an era, the opportunity to see hunters fighting was rare.
“And there will be quite a mix of scouts. People from guilds, mercenaries and maybe some government officials will be present.”
“I see.”
Seo-joon nodded.
All the students attending Hunter Academy prepare themselves for the professional hunter test. And if they pass the professional hunter test, they will work as professional hunters.
Pro hunters mostly worked in teams so most of the people here wanted to get the talented students in their guilds early since the students who participated here were considered promising students at each academy.
At that moment some people stared at Seo-joon and began to groan.
Seo-joon was puzzled, but he could guess the reason from the voice he heard soon.
“Well, then I’ll be watching from the stands. Do well!”
Seo-yoon hurriedly fled, panicking.
‘It’s not because of me, but because of you.’
Come to think of it, people didn’t like Seo-joon but he just shook his head and headed to the waiting room before the competition.
The waiting room was full of students since up to four people were allowed to participate from each academy, and 30 academies were participating.
However, there was only one student from Dream Academy, so 117 students participated in the competition.
Seo-joon glanced at the gathered students for a moment and looking at their proud faces and weapons he thought they were definitely the best students in each academy.
On the other hand, all Seo-joon had was an iron bar that could be seen on construction sites so he was bound to stand out.
“What is that guy? Where is he from?
“Some rural academy had him participate to make their name known.”
“I feel sorry for him. He must have been forced to come. Why would he enter such an academy in the first place?”
Thanks to his trained body, he could hear all the groaning. If it was the past Seo-joon, he would have been depressed.
‘Should I just listen to the lecture during the waiting time?’
But for the present Seo-joon they were just like a neighborhood dog barking.
Seo-joon looked around for a suitable place. In the meantime, he heard a murmuring sound coming toward him, but he ignored it and picked up his smartphone and started listening to lectures of the Transcension Academy.
‘I’m glad that I did my daily assignment before coming here.’
“Hello…”
When he looked up wondering what it was, someone was sitting right next to Seo-joon. The small-sized, dwarf-looking man looked quite young, like a high school student.
When Seo-joon looked at him, he carefully opened his mouth.
“You’re a student participating in the competition, right?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too. Ah! My name is Lee Min-ki.”
“I’m Kim Seo-joon.”
Seo-joon then turned his eyes away. It was because there was nothing else to talk about. In fact, he didn’t know why he was talking to him.
All of the people gathered here were competitors and he was not from the same academy. No, even if they belonged to the same academy, their competition has not changed since there could be only one winner.
It was normal to have a war of nerves, let alone to introduce yourself.
“Hey! I told you to get lost.”
A roar broke out from somewhere.
Seo-joon’s gaze naturally turned toward the sound and there was a huge man like a voice confronting a student.
“It’s Jang Deok-cheol. He’s a promising member of the Gochuri Academy. As you can see, he uses an ax as his main weapon.”
Min-ki’s voice was heard then and Seo-joon turned his head to look at him.
Why was he explaining things that he didn’t even ask?
Seo-joon turned his head again and looked at the giant man and he didn’t know if it was because he was listening to Min-ki, but a large axe came into his eyes behind the giant’s back.
“Do I have to leave if you want me to?”
The voice of the man who was confronting the giant followed.
“Lee Chul-min, the rising star of Mint Academy. Unusually, he uses double daggers.”
At the same time, Min-ki’s explanation was also heard but Seo-joon kept an eye on the situation in front of him,
“Do you want to give it a try now?”
“You were the one who started the fight. It seems that there are only muscles in your brain, right?”
“You punk!”
Jang Deok-cheol shouted at Lee Chul-min’s provocation and reached for the axe hanging from his back but just then a voice was heard.
“Why don’t you be quiet?”
In a heterogeneous atmosphere, all the students in the waiting room looked at it.
“What? What kind of punk…”
Jang Deok-cheol turned his head almost to kill him, as if he was angry at the thought of being ignored. However, after seeing the one who spoke, he hurriedly closed his mouth.
It was a man with a sharp impression and a cold air.
“Lee Jun-hwan?”
Jang Deok-cheol muttered, and at the same time, the entire waiting room began to stir.
“What? Lee Jun-hwan is here?”
“Didn’t he say he wasn’t going to participate?”
However, the man called Lee Jun-hwan did not care about the people’s voice at all. He just looked at Jang Deok-cheol and said,
“Do you use the waiting room alone?”
“Hmm…!”
Jang Deok-cheol, who had been acting like he was going to break everything until just now, coughed and avoided looking at him.
It wasn’t any different than Lee Chul-min.
Seo-joon looked at Min-ki without realizing it, and Min-ki opened his mouth with a slightly surprised look.
“Lee Jun-hwan is a prospect of the Revenant Academy and actually the winner of this competition.”
“Winner?”
Not a favorite?
When Seo-joon tilted his head, Min-ki immediately continued.
“Yes. Originally, he said he wouldn’t participate because the competition was low in quality, but I guess Revenant made him an offer. I don’t know what conditions he was offered, but as long as Lee Jun-hwan participates, his victory is confirmed.”
“It must be amazing that the academy made him an offer.”
Min-ki nodded and said,
“You know the Sword Saint, right?”
“Wouldn’t it be strange not to know?”
“Haha, that’s true.”
Min-ki smiled awkwardly and continued.
“I heard that his granddaughter offered to scout him.”
“What? Seo-yoon?”
“Seo-yoon?”
Min-ki tilted his head for a moment.
“Oh, the conversation went astray.”
Seo-joon shook his hands slightly and fixed his words while Min-ki looked at Seo-joon in wonder and continued.
“But for some reason, he refused. I can’t believe he turned down the offer of the Sword Saint granddaughter. It means that he is confident in his skills.”
No. Maybe it’s not necessarily because of that.
Seo-joon forced himself to swallow the words that were about to pop out, then he smiled inside and asked Min-ki.
“You know the others well.”
Those gathered here were just students. Although they are called promising students at each academy, they are still students.
Of course, prospects at prestigious academies are known to be more famous than regular professional hunters. However, not all academy prospects were like that.
Seo-joon, who knows well about the academies, knew a little about promising students, especially if it was an academy in the fourth division.
“He… I’m interested in this and that…Haha.”
Min-ki answered while scratching his hair. He looked like he was hiding something but Seo-joon didn’t care.
However, he turned his eyes and looked at Lee Jun-hwan, who was sitting indifferently.
Lee Jun-hwan, who gives off a sharp impression.
‘He’s a promising star that Seo-yoon scouted…’
While Seo-joon was thinking that way, Lee Jun-hwan is currently in a pretty bad mood.
He took a quick look around him and everyone lowered their eyes and avoided him.
‘I can’t believe I have to compete with these low-level guys.’
Lee Jun-hwan went beyond his bad mood and began to get annoyed.
In fact, Lee Jun-hwan had no desire to participate in the competition. To be exact, he had no intention of attending an academy that was in the fourth division.
Nevertheless, the reason why Lee Jun-hwan participated was because of his uncle’s request to reach the third division.
‘If I knew this would happen, I would have accepted her offer.’
He felt a lot of regret after refusing the Sword Saint’s granddaughter’s offer. He should have used her well before throwing her away.
At that moment, Lee Jun-hwan suddenly felt a pair of eyes on him. When he turned his eyes he saw a guy in a loose outfit and holding an iron rod staring at him.
‘Fuck. Even bugs like that are participating?’
Lee Jun-hwan was annoyed and turned his eyes away.
The one who was looking at Lee Jun-hwan was none other than Seo-joon.
‘How much will the progress of the lecture increase if I fight him?’
“The competition will begin soon, students! Everyone, please get ready!”
Seo-joon stood up at the cries of the officials.
