Chapter 310
S-grade Holder Do Jae-hyun (4)
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Korea is a powerhouse in the Holder world.
Currently, it’s considered one of the world’s best alongside the United States and Japan.
It has produced numerous high-ranking Holders, including five S-grade Holders, and the three major domestic clans, known as the top three clans in Korea, are making notable achievements in the international Holder community.
Excluding China, which has cut off exchanges in the Holder world and turned towards domestic focus, Korea essentially possessed the world’s second-strongest Holder power.
Even in terms of absolute number of Holders, it doesn’t fall behind.
It has the fourth-largest number of Holders after the United States, China, and India.
Considering Korea’s situation with a relatively small population compared to other countries, this was certainly strange.
Perhaps the realm where talent is born isn’t proportional to population size.
Korea was precisely the anomalous region where Holder-birth talents converged.
‘…They’re making a fuss.’
However, there were those who viewed Korea unfavorably.
Jean Lemaire.
France’s one and only S-grade Holder, and the person specially invited as a judge for Do Jae-hyun’s S-grade promotion examination this time.
He came at the request of Bill Clark, the president of the International Holder Association, but he had been looking inside the exam room with an uncomfortable expression throughout.
In fact, Lemaire didn’t like this exam from the beginning.
The reason was simple.
Korea, called a Holder powerhouse, wasn’t a country he particularly liked.
‘Korea takes S-grade too lightly.’
He didn’t know how they became a Holder powerhouse in such a short time, but Korea was particularly proud of their abilities.
The fact that they produced five S-grade Holders was simply because five talents happened to be there, but they push it as if it was due to their educational power or upright administration.
No wonder, since the birth of Yoo Eun-seol, the youngest S-grade Holder, three A-grade Holders from Korea have already taken the S-grade promotion exam.
Including this Do Jae-hyun, it’s the fourth time.
Originally, even entering the examination stage for S-grade Holders is very difficult and complicated.
The S-grade promotion exam is hard to see even once a year worldwide.
Considering these points, one could gauge how frequent Korea’s promotion exams were.
‘… S-grade isn’t such an easy rank.’
Lemaire didn’t like that.
French Holders have only been given the opportunity for promotion exams twice so far, and he is an S-grade Holder who succeeded in promotion through that narrow gap.
It’s a rank that should never be treated lightly.
Yet Korea has been pushing for S-grade exams every time, and since Yoo Eun-seol, no Holder has passed the exam.
Naturally, the perception of it could only get worse.
‘How good could Do Jae-hyun be?’
The same goes for Do Jae-hyun, the protagonist of this exam.
Lemaire thought that Korea was again indulging in their unique ‘star Holder making’, overpackaging a promising talent who was just a little outstanding.
Moreover, this time it’s a 21-year-old rookie Holder.
They’re challenging for S-grade Holder promotion, presenting a student Holder who hasn’t even graduated from the academy yet as if he’s the world’s best Holder.
It’s even being said that he’s Korea’s Liam Hendricks, which was increasingly ridiculous and frustrating to think about.
“Then, we’ll start the second examination.”
The second examination began amidst such uncomfortable gazes.
Do Jae-hyun stood in front of the group of golems.
The second examination is evaluated through special magic golems made of straw.
The Holder being examined can choose the type they want, and Do Jae-hyun was choosing the ‘group of golems’… That is, a wide-area target.
And seeing this, Lemaire snorted.
‘He’s making the worst choice.’
He too was well aware of the straw dummy test in the second examination.
It’s a form of test mainly given to direct combat types, an evaluation item where one must show the utilization of their main rune.
Most of the judges evaluating this are S-grade Holders from various countries, so the standards are high and strict.
Therefore, one must utilize their possessed rune to the extreme to convince the judges.
In this respect, Do Jae-hyun’s choice of golem group was the worst.
‘For attack-type warrior classes, choosing a single golem is the best. Because you need to show the maximum damage you can pour out. I guess they don’t even teach that before the exam in Korea.’
Although he’s known to be a Multi-Holder with various abilities, Do Jae-hyun’s main class is assassin class or attack-type warrior class.
And the greatest strength of such classes is, of course, ‘attack power’.
In the exam, one needs to show their powerful attack power, and for this, choosing a single golem was naturally the best option.
Yet Do Jae-hyun deliberately chose a group of golems.
He’s not even a mage class proving his ability through wide-area magic, it was an incomprehensible choice.
“From now on, the rune I’ll show you is ‘Plum Blossom Sword Technique’.”
Moreover, he’s not even drawing a long sword, nor utilizing a contractor.
The weapon he pulled out was just two small short swords.
And then he declared that he would show a very common and ordinary rune called [Plum Blossom Sword Technique].
‘His arrogance reaches the sky.’
As Lemaire is also an examiner, he knows brief information about him.
[Wave Sword Technique] and [Water Sword Technique].
Martial art runes said to have been created by Korean academy professors themselves.
Do Jae-hyun’s main runes are clearly these two runes passed down by his teachers.
This is probably known not only to Lemaire but also to other S-grade examiners.
Yet he suddenly pulls out short swords and says he’ll use [Plum Blossom Sword Technique], a degraded version of the [Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique].
It could only be seen as arrogance.
Swoosh- Chut chut-
Pat bababa-.
Nevertheless, Do Jae-hyun steadily prepared for the evaluation.
Unknown energies gathered around him.
It wasn’t magic.
No flow of magic could be felt from him as he took his stance.
Only the precursory energy that appears when using certain skills.
It could be understood that he was about to use some powerful skill.
And then.
“Fall.”
When he finished preparing and uttered a short command.
Chut- Pababat-!!
Pat- Pat…!! ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Skang, kang, kang…!!
The flower of the sword became a beautiful dance and fell upon the golems.
Unbelievably fast speed and movement.
Intense destructive power that destroys everything it scrapes.
An overwhelming attack range that scrapes off all targets.
Something never seen before…
However, an ultimate skill close to perfection was unfolding.
“That…”
“What kind of skill is that?”
All S-grade Holder examiners, including Lemaire, widened their eyes.
Even though they were clearly standing and watching, it felt like they needed to stand up.
That’s how shocking the skill Do Jae-hyun showed was.
“Huu….”
And after slashing the last golem.
Do Jae-hyun slowly lowered his weapon and caught his breath.
Starting from the leftmost golem at the front, he had used his skill while digging in, and before he knew it, he had swept through all the golems and returned to the rightmost golem next to it.
And near the heart of the test golem developed by the academy…
<Damage: 70/100>
-Instant death for D-grade or lower monsters
-Critical wound for C-grade monsters
-Unmeasurable for B-grade or higher monsters
Such measurement results were being recorded.
Instant death for D-grade or below, critical wound for C-grade, and damage varying depending on the monster’s nature for B-grade and above.
It indicated that it was an attack that reached almost the highest level of damage that could be inflicted with an area-of-effect skill.
And above all.
‘…They’re all the same.’
Jean Lemaire blankly looked at the damage figures of the golems.
They’re all the same.
Without a single misaligned figure, all recorded the same damage value of 70.
In other words, it meant that Do Jae-hyun, who used the skill, handled it perfectly.
It was like saying that even though it was an ultimate skill he had never seen before, its completeness had reached the extreme.
Lemaire, in a daze, shifted his gaze to Do Jae-hyun.
Having cleanly finished the skill, he was smiling while slowly putting away his weapon.
“This is the ultimate skill I personally developed, ‘The Falling Blossom Aesthetics’. Currently, there are two users: myself and my master, Holder Yoo Eun-seol. It’s a skill currently in the process of being registered with the academy.”
Ultimate skill [Falling Blossom Aesthetics].
[Plum Blossom Sword Technique], which was called a degraded version of martial arts and treated as a low-grade rune.
From within it, Do Jae-hyun created this skill by himself.
Moreover, by demonstrating the overwhelming performance and effect of this skill, he proved that he could handle it more perfectly than anyone else.
The second evaluation of the S-grade promotion.
It was the most suitable appearance in terms of ‘Rune Utilization’.
And then.
“Pass…”
The word ‘pass’ comes out of Jean Lemaire’s mouth.
The French S-grade Holder who had been dissatisfied with this test from the start of the evaluation and had been looking at Do Jae-hyun most unfavorably.
However, among all the examiners gathered in the examination room, he was the first to declare passing the second evaluation.
That’s how overwhelming the skill is.
That’s how much it broke prejudices.
“…It’s a pass.”
Do Jae-hyun was showing results that made even those who disliked him acknowledge him.
***
Ippotranslation
***
The second evaluation also ended smoothly.
The ultimate skill [Falling Blossom Aesthetics] created from the [Plum Blossom Sword Technique] rune.
This was a skill that even my master Yoo Eun-seol coveted, and I’m quite proud of it myself, so I thought there would surely be good results if I showed it.
And the result was unanimous.
After showing the ultimate skill and briefly explaining the process of creating it, I immediately passed the second evaluation.
In fact, I had planned to show the utilization of the [Brave Eternal Wave] rune as well, but it became meaningless when it turned into a ‘Pass without needing to see more!’
‘Anyway, that’s a relief.’
The rune utilization evaluation is an item that assesses how a Holder handles the rune and how deeply they are researching it.
In that sense, creating an ultimate skill means nothing less than utilizing that rune to the extreme.
Considering these points, I confidently showed it in the second evaluation, and I’m glad the result was good.
“The third evaluation is the combat ability assessment.”
And I moved on to the next evaluation without delay.
Combat ability assessment.
A test that evaluates a Holder’s dungeon clearing ability, combat sense, and simple strategy utilization.
While the evaluation items for S-grade promotion vary slightly depending on the category, for me, who is in the direct combat category, it was an almost essential evaluation item.
“The evaluation dungeon has been decided as the Ogre’s Forest.”
Advanced dungeon <Ogre’s Forest>.
A very unique form of dungeon where almost no monsters appear except ogres.
However, since the rank of ogres starts from B-grade, and occasionally monsters like Black Ogres or Twin-headed Ogres of A-grade also appear, the difficulty of clearing was quite high.
And because the clearing format is simple, it was also the most suitable dungeon for the third evaluation.
“From now on, you can hunt the monsters in the dungeon in any form. You can directly hunt the monsters, or show your tanking ability through drive hunting, but… Please note that the evaluation score may vary depending on Holder Do Jae-hyun’s combat style.”
The examiner cum association employee delivering the final precautions.
With those words, the full-fledged third evaluation began.
Graaaa-.
Grrrr…!!
As soon as I passed the entrance, a group of ogres had already gathered.
“…Ah.”
Seeing that sight, I was about to draw my sword immediately, but then I stopped moving due to a thought that suddenly flashed in my mind.
Then, drawing up my magical power, I quietly declared.
‘Call of Contract.’
Swoosh, swish swish-!
Magical power gathers on the back of my hand, and the [Law of Contract] rune moves.
And from beyond, the contracted one who was sleeping was summoned.
The protagonist was….
-What, I’ve been summoned? Oh, Do Jae-hyun? Ah, right! Hey! Do Jae-hyun! Do you want to die? Who gave you permission to use my magical power like that! I almost collapsed from magical power depletion back then…!!
The fourth contractor and the first necromancy contractor.
It was Vampire Countess Ripley.
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