ch41-ch60 · 052-ch52

Chapter 52: Hunter Exam 4

Next to the hall where the exam was being held, there existed a 'Management Monitoring Room' that oversaw the entire Association.

The walls of the dim room were covered with hundreds of camera feeds. Alongside them, vitals, magic power fluctuations, and scores of all examinees were calculated in real-time.

"B2 area combat commenced. Examinees are moving with assigned roles."

"F23 area, a civilian was injured due to coordination failure."

"C5 area, rescue complete. Score added."

The air in the room, dominated only by dozens of operators' flat reports and electronic beeps, suddenly changed.

"What is this magic waveform...?"

One of the operators' eyes went wide at the abnormal needle swing on their instruments.

"V17 area, high-energy reaction detected! Value rising rapidly... it's exceeded measurement limits! Getting an error!"

When the supervisor checked the monitor, the measuring device was indeed displaying an error.

It was rare, but it could happen when exposed to excessively high magic power — a common phenomenon particularly with S-Rank Awakeners.

"Could it be reacting to one of the S-Rank Hunters we asked to serve as examiners?"

"No, this data is being sent from inside the training ground. There was no reaction during registration, which means an examinee who possesses S-Rank-class magic power has 'suddenly appeared.'"

The monitoring room stirred.

The operator continued.

"Got the number! The center of the coordinates is... examinee number 100, Maeda Hagane!"

"The Hero of Aoba Town...!"

"But during the first test, the measuring instruments didn't —"

Descent Arts was a top global secret. Few didn't know Hagane's name, but few knew exactly what kind of Awakener he was.

As the operators buzzed with noise, the automatic door behind them quietly opened.

"—Thought the magic power had spiked, and it turns out to be them after all."

A weighty voice echoed, and the room felt as if the temperature had dropped several degrees.

The one who appeared was the Hunter Association President, Kenbishi.

"P-President!? Why are you here..."

"I wanted to see Japan's 'trump card' with my own eyes."

Kenbishi gazed at Hagane and Lumiel with affectionate eyes.

On the monitor, Lumiel's figure was bathed in silver light.

One of the operators prefaced with "if I may be so bold" before continuing.

"With this abnormal magic power... even if it is a virtual space, I can't imagine the examinees coming out unscathed. This isn't just about evaluation — the exam itself can no longer proceed as intended. Should we intervene with an S-Rank, or at least make contact —"

"Don't worry."

Kenbishi gently interrupted in a soft tone.

On the monitor, Hagane was whispering something to Lumiel, and she gave a small nod.

"Look. It seems he didn't summon her to show off his power ——"

◇◆◇◆◇

"Ponta, can you pull off what we discussed?"

"I-I'll do it even if you don't tell me!!"

At my signal, Ponta leaped out, and the goblin group that noticed him targeted him.

"Dammit!! Why do I have to play this role!"

Despite complaining, Ponta was fully committing to his 'shield role.'

His 'Hardening' skill couldn't be broken through by goblin-level attack power. But the low-intelligence goblins, not even realizing they weren't dealing damage, were relentlessly swinging their weapons at Ponta.

"Mizuki-san, now."

"Yes!"

We immediately put our hands on the concrete block in front of us.

"It's heavy, but...!"

I channeled magic power into it, adding physical enhancement.

As I lifted the rubble with a heavy grind, a civilian lying beneath it stared up with terrified eyes.

"Now! This way, everyone!"

'We're saved!' 'Thank you!' 'I was so scared.'

"I'll heal your injuries. 'Flame ——'"

Mizuki-san rushed to the boy, lighting a white flame in her palm. The flame traveled from her hand to the boy, and as it spread over him, his wounds reversed like rewinding video.

I was surprised... I'd thought it was just basic first aid, but her skill seemed to have enough recovery power to close deep wounds immediately.

"Let's save everyone at this pace!"

"Yes!"

Mizuki-san and I moved the remaining rubble and rescued all the civilians.

As soon as the rescue was complete, I signaled Lumiel.

"Strike ——"

Receiving the signal, Lumiel swept her hand, and the goblins surrounding Ponta were sliced into pieces and vanished.

The series of coordinated actions went smoothly, and I confidently laid out the plan.

"Ponta draws their attention, me and Mizuki-san handle rescue and first aid, and once everyone's evacuated, Lumiel wipes them out. This gives everyone a role and is efficient. I say we stick to this general format for the exam."

Incidentally, that's a lie.

It's actually not that efficient.

The fastest approach would be having Lumiel eliminate everything from the start while the rest of us focus on saving lives. But I'm worried about the evaluations for Ponta and Mizuki-san, so I settled on this format.

"That's the third group, right? Going smoothly."

"That's because my tanking role is excellent, riiight?!"

"True, without a good tank, it'd be tough."

In the direction of my gaze, I could see examinees in the distance shouting "I'll take it down!" and "I'm not letting you have the points!" as they charged into goblin groups.

'(Useless idiots, they don't realize the goblins are deliberately showing openings to lure them in...)'

Goblins are weak alone, but as a coordinated group, it's a different story.

The next moment, the examinees, surrounded by an ambush group of additional goblins, were toyed with and disqualified midway.

Mizuki-san muttered with a complicated expression.

"Should we have helped them?"

"No, they have to make it through on their own. We won't be able to help them in the real thing."

Guys who 'compete for kills on the battlefield' like that are better off not becoming Hunters in the first place. They deserve to be screened out.

I stretched out my right hand again and focused.

Now then, where should we go next?

"Next is that way. A lot of reactions from the shopping mall ruins."

Checking the direction of the reactions on the map, I saw a huge collapsed commercial facility standing there. Probably close to 30 people waiting to be rescued.

"The number of enemies will increase too. What do you think?"

"Let's go. To save as many people as possible!"

Mizuki-san was full of spirit. Reliable.

"Alright, let's go, Ponta. You'll probably get surrounded by about five times as many, but we'll manage."

"Five times!?"

The more he endures, the higher his evaluation should go.

Hang in there, Ponta. Don't lose, Ponta.

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Volume 1 is out now, thanks to all of you! Thank you so much.

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