I Became the Academy’s Hidden Skill Master – Chapter 16

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shio
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Turning back time to when Lee Seok-Hyun was occupied with professors over course registration,

Mijuran was using magical communication to contact her kingdom.

“You achieved 4th place.”

“Yes, Father.”

“It’s a very good start. When this father was first born, I only had a small room, but look at me now. Through repeated growth, I unified the continent and established a kingdom. Yet, you’re already 4th, so there’s absolutely no need to rush.”

“Thank you for your kind words.”

The contact was with her father, King Mirad of Mudanad.

He continued with encouraging words before shifting to a more serious tone.

“So, do you really intend to do that?”

“You mean about Ungbak?”

“Yes, I’m worried it might be too dangerous.”

“But I have no choice.”

“I trust you’ll handle it well.”

After ending the communication with Mirad’s words, Mijuran prepared to head to the mountains.

The mountain guardian bear, Ungbak.

Originally, she wouldn’t have attempted to defeat it, but Lee Seok-Hyun had completely changed her perspective.

Ranks 1 to 5 were understandable, and she naturally assumed the representative speaker would come from among them.

But when an unknown person, ranked 6th, suddenly appeared and became the representative speaker,

Mijuran realized she had been living too complacently.

‘Why didn’t I consider rising from below?’

She had never imagined being pushed out of the top 5 ranks, though there might be some back-and-forth within them.

But what if there were more people like Lee Seok-Hyun? What if there were many with unknown potential?

Despite being 4th, the anxiety of possibly being caught up to quickly sent chills down Mijuran’s spine.

This anxiety spurred Mijuran on, leading to her rash attempt.

‘Father said I could go slowly, but…’

As the only princess of the Mudanad Kingdom and a fiercely competing heir to the throne, she didn’t want to show weakness already.

She couldn’t sit idle when there was a guaranteed jackpot if she could just defeat it.

‘I’m wearing chain mail, and the axe is dwarven-made, so I should be able to defeat it.’

Mudanad’s combat style typically involved wearing light armor and wielding heavy weapons, making their compatibility with Ungbak quite good.

Considering she could dodge what needed to be dodged and deliver a powerful strike, it could even be considered ideal.

She was already imagining herself defeating Ungbak and claiming the spoils.

‘I can definitely do it, I can.’

Impatience and tension.

These two factors clouded her judgment and made her act hastily.

‘Found it…’

After well over three hours, she finally discovered Ungbak.

She should have rested briefly before challenging it, but

with her judgment thoroughly clouded, she ended up

“For the glory of Mudanad!!! El Rataaaaaa!!!”

confronting Ungbak without any real plan, which was her first and worst mistake.

“Guooooooooh!!!”

There were two points Mijuran had overlooked.

First, Ungbak’s senses, honed from hunting wild animals, had already detected her presence.

Second, Ungbak’s combat sense was far superior to what Mijuran had imagined.

“Huh?”

There was no way Ungbak wouldn’t dodge an axe swung widely with both hands while she was essentially advertising “I’m here!” by shouting.

Swoosh – Bang!

As the axe, having only cut through the wind, got stuck in the ground and wouldn’t come out, Ungbak raised its hand high.

‘I’m going to die.’

Mijuran regretted not wearing a helmet to prevent visual obstruction.

That swing wasn’t something she could block, even if she coated herself with mana.

Ungbak roared again, filled with anger at the ambush and joy at the prospect of an imminent meal.

“Guooooooooh!”

So this was how she would die, fleeting and in vain.

As she was about to close her eyes, experiencing a brief life flashback in that short moment,

“Wake up!”

Whirrrrrr.

Something like spider silk wrapped tightly around her body and the axe stuck in the ground, then flung her backward.

As soon as Mijuran hit the ground, she let go of the axe and rolled, attempting a stable landing technique.

When she came to her senses, she heard a familiar voice in her ear.

“So much for convenience, trying to take on a boss with a newbie who doesn’t even know the patterns, ha…”

“Wh…what…?”

“Get your act together. I’m not good at taking care of newbies.”

First-year rank 6, representative speaker.

“L-Lee Seok-Hyun?”

He was glaring at her with an extremely displeased expression.

Faced with that sharp look, as if seeing an enormous nuisance, all traces of his quirky behavior from the speech gone, Mijuran became dumbstruck and couldn’t say a word.

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At first, it seemed good.

No, he thought it was good.

‘Why did I look for someone else when I could have handled it alone, even if it was difficult?’

Mijuran had been exactly what he wanted just a moment ago.

A main character, a martial arts major with steep early growth.

This looked good on paper, but there was a fatal flaw.

‘She’s too much of a newbie.’

The fact that she didn’t know even the basics.

The reason he had watched quietly when she made her first charge was that he thought she had a countermeasure.

‘Wasn’t it common sense to feint an attack from the front while rotating your body clockwise and swing the axe to land an effective hit if you’re shouting and drawing attention with your first charge?’

To think he had to party with an axe DPS who didn’t even know these basics!

How much would he have to teach for her to function properly?

He hurriedly shot out spider silk just before Mijuran was about to die, pulling her and the axe towards him.

‘Why do I have to clean up after others here too?’

The horrifying possibility that he might have to lead others again, after thinking he had graduated from that in the anthill, was slowly surfacing.

“Listen carefully, Mijuran. Ungbak is an intelligent animal. Knowing it’s been ambushed, it won’t carelessly come this far.”

Regardless of whether Mijuran had come to her senses or not, he shared the information he had and explained the strategy for defeating Ungbak.

Having come this far, it was a foregone conclusion that they would defeat it together, so it was unavoidable.

As much as he wanted to send her back, she wouldn’t listen anyway.

‘It must be even more so because of her main skill.’

Mijuran’s main skill, [Predator of Victory], was an overpowered skill that could increase stats and skill proficiency by defeating strong opponents.

Because of this, it was advantageous for her to rush quickly in the early stages.

But still, to come to defeat Ungbak without any plan…

It was fortunate he had arrived quickly; otherwise, he might have been dealing with a corpse.

“See how it’s not doing anything and just sniffing around? It’s trying to find your location by smell right now. At the same time, it’s slowly moving towards an open area to prepare for an ambush.”

“Uh…huh?”

“You didn’t even know this?”

If one had to engage in a reckless raid, researching basic information like habits and patterns was essential.

But for a complete novice who didn’t even know this to freeload on his efforts? It was truly infuriating.

He immediately excluded Mijuran from his plan of sticking to main characters and receiving benefits.

There had never been any honey dripping from newbies.

‘Since we can’t activate United Will with just two people, we need to deal with this thoroughly and calculatedly.’

United Will required a minimum of twenty people, so it couldn’t be activated.

Therefore, the only option was to clear Ungbak together with Mijuran.

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say. Don’t make any judgments on your own, leave everything to me, or you’ll die like you almost did just now. You know you would have died if I hadn’t saved you, right? Just nod quietly as if you’re repaying that debt, understand?”

Overwhelmed by his words, Mijuran nodded without resistance.

He thought she probably wouldn’t hear much after having seen her life flash before her eyes, but there was no immediate alternative.

“I’ll draw its attention first. Ungbak prioritizes targets in front of it. So while I’m engaging it, you should suppress your presence as much as possible, then throw your axe and embed it in its back. Simple, right? Just stay quiet and when you see an opening, fling the axe, got it?”

After explaining once normally and once in simpler terms, he immediately rushed towards Ungbak.

Knowing there was someone else targeting Ungbak besides himself, he couldn’t afford to respond leisurely.

If more people joined, the spoils would have to be divided further, which would definitely be a loss.

“Guooooooh!!!”

“I want to cry too!”

If one thought of Ungbak as difficult, it was a spiritual beast serving as the mountain’s guardian. But if viewed simply, it was just a talented circus bear.

That is, if one could disregard the fact that it saw humans as food and had tenacious vitality and ferocity.

Bang!

‘Ungbak has a habit of alternating left and right when swinging its front paws, probably something it naturally learned to chain attacks smoothly, which makes it easy to predict its next move.’

Dodging Ungbak’s left front paw attack by moving to the left, he quickly distanced himself from the right front paw and swiftly wrapped spider silk around its waist and neck.

Once wasn’t enough, but by continuously moving clockwise and wrapping, he could create a sturdy rope.

However, this wasn’t the real objective.

“Uoooooh!!!”

As Ungbak turned its body to chase him, at the very moment it showed its back to Mijuran—

“Now!”

“Uh…ah!”

He signaled Mijuran to throw the axe. As soon as he heard her battle cry, he knew it had failed.

Thud, roll roll roll, ting tiring.

The axe that fell near Ungbak with a clear sound collapsed weakly on the ground without fulfilling its original role.

Even considering her nervousness and near-death experience, this was too much.

He hadn’t expected much, which was why he told her to at least hit the back, but how could she miss completely?

“Hey, Mijuran!”

“S-Sorry…”

“Forget it. Just stay there and watch quietly!”

He should have just asked for the axe instead of telling her to throw it from the beginning.

“Uooooh!”

“I want to cry even more.”

He dodged Ungbak’s right front paw swing and retrieved the fallen axe from the ground.

Thanks to his mind and body training, the dwarven-made compressed steel axe felt as light as a feather in his hands.

“I’ll just do it alone.”

It was time to properly educate a newbie.

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[Shio here~!

I take it back, Mijuran has had her best girl title revoked. I expected a battle hardened barbarian princess, and got a newbie. I guess I’ve been spoiled by Elga from Taming the Villainesses.

Anyways, it’s time for some supplementary classes! Hope you guys enjoyed reading.]