I Became the Academy’s Hidden Skill Master – Chapter 17

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shio
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He tightly gripped the axe in his hand and assessed the situation once more.

Ungbak was in perfect condition, while he only had a single dwarven steel hand axe.

In a way, this could be seen as even better than his original plan.

After all, Arachne’s Breath alone would have eventually hit its limits when it came time to land the final blow.

He slowly unwound the spider silk while grasping the axe and gradually closed the distance with Ungbak.

‘Well, I had countermeasures for everything anyway, but this is much better.’

As soon as he pulled out the axe, Ungbak retreated two or three steps and began sniffing the air.

Knowing what this meant, he immediately spoke up:

“Mijuran! Erase your presence and smell, and climb the tallest tree you can see nearby!”

Ungbak, realizing Mijuran’s axe had come to him, was now searching for her location.

It knew there were two attackers and that one side’s strength had weakened, so it was targeting Mijuran.

This was a typical strategy of sacrificing flesh to gain bone—it planned to dodge his axe strikes a few times and kill the weaker one first.

He wasn’t stupid enough to fall for such an obvious ploy.

Swish swish swish.

Mijuran seemed to have some sense, as she understood the intent of his words and moved hurriedly without replying.

“Guooooooh!”

Ungbak let out an angry roar when it could no longer detect Mijuran’s presence.

“Stop yelling already, how many times is this?”

Tap tap tap tap.

As soon as he finished speaking, he approached Ungbak and swung the axe.

It was an ambiguous size between a one-handed and two-handed axe.

If wielded properly, there was no weapon with better balance.

‘She swung it too hard and got it stuck in the ground.’

Originally, axes had their center of gravity shifted to one side, so recklessly attacking with full force often leads to trouble.

If one used just the right amount of force and calculated the withdrawal, an axe could be considered the best offensive weapon.

Slash!

He dodged Ungbak’s left front paw attack by moving his body to the left, then prepared for the follow-up attack.

Not stopping there, he swung the axe with his left hand while retreating, deeply cutting Ungbak’s left flank.

The key was to switch the axe to the left hand when dodging left, and to the right hand when dodging right.

Without doing this, the attack range wouldn’t be properly secured.

If it had been Arachne’s Breath, he would have repeated dodging until the spider silk could dig into the skin.

But the dwarven steel axe sliced through Ungbak’s hide like cutting through water.

“Huff! Huff! Huff! Guo!”

As damage accumulated, Ungbak moved its body more roughly, unlike its earlier leisurely pace.

Bang! Thud! Bang!

The sight of the ground shattering like tofu wherever Ungbak’s front paws touched sent chills down his spine.

‘This is brutal.’

Unlike the gradual accumulation of damage he was inflicting, even a single hit from Ungbak would be fatal.

He steadily attacked Ungbak from below, like methodically felling a large tree.

He created openings by cutting the flanks and severing the knee joints to lower its body.

He never cut deep enough to reach bone, as that would make follow-up movements difficult, instead continuously inducing sustained bleeding.

It was a repetition of cutting and dodging, cutting and dodging.

The important point here was to focus all attention on evasion rather than attack.

If he allowed even one hit due to excessive greed, his bones would be crushed and he’d suffer irreversible damage.

“Guo…o…!”

Thud!

After repeating this for about 10 minutes, Ungbak could no longer withstand the pressure and fell to its knees.

‘Right now!’

Like an executioner beheading a condemned prisoner, he quickly moved behind it and raised the axe high.

He gripped the axe short, putting full force into both hands for a powerful swing.

All of Ungbak’s front paws were mangled and it was barely breathing, so this seemed like the best judgment.

“Uoooooh!!!”

But this was Ungbak’s trap.

Just as the axe was about to reach its neck, Ungbak suddenly twisted its body and opened its mouth.

Seen from afar, it would have looked like someone crazy enough to want to jump into a bear’s mouth.

“Damn it!”

To think it had been waiting for this moment, enduring until all its limbs were unusable.

Having swung with all his might while gripping the axe short, it was impossible to change the direction of his body.

He immediately let go of the axe and used both feet to kick Ungbak’s body, trying to create as much distance as possible.

Crunch.

The spot where he had just been was replaced by Ungbak’s ferocious teeth.

Drip.

Blood trickled down, possibly from an injury caused by Ungbak’s flailing arm attack as he dodged.

His heated body was concealing how exhausted and injured he really was.

As a result, the bleeding worsened, but it couldn’t be helped.

‘Its situation isn’t good either.’

Because he had let go of the axe swung at close range, it was now firmly embedded in the center of Ungbak’s chest.

Moreover, its limbs were obviously impaired, and he could hear its very labored breathing due to continued blood loss.

However,

“I’ve won.”

“Guoooooooh!”

Crunch crunch crunch.

As he pulled strongly with both hands, the axe embedded in Ungbak’s chest slowly began to cut deeper into its body.

‘Originally, I was planning to stab it with nearby rock fragments or something.’

The axe made things much easier.

The reason he had focused solely on evasion from the beginning was to wrap spider silk around its body.

The true value was demonstrated when reconnecting the spider silk wrapped around its entire body to the embedded axe.

Its arms and legs could no longer move, nor could it tear off the spider silk.

Ungbak could only watch as the slowly tightening spider silk squeezed it and the axe dug deeper into its body.

And finally,

He had managed to defeat Ungbak.

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While wrapping bandages he had brought in advance around his arm, he called out to Mijuran, who was hiding nearby.

“You can come out now.”

“Umm…”

Rustle rustle.

Unlike before, Mijuran looked at him with a very timid attitude.

Her eyes revealed that she had never imagined things would turn out like this.

An expression mixed with frustration and helplessness showed she felt like she had only been a burden and couldn’t do anything.

Though it was pitiful, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“Thanks for letting me use the axe. Since I’ve used it, mind if I use it a bit more?”

“Fe-feel free to use it.”

“Thanks.”

Her mood being down was one thing, but the byproducts were another matter.

He skillfully dismembered Ungbak’s body, collecting its claws, hide, and internal organs.

The meat had such a strong odor that it felt like it would rot one’s nose.

“Since I killed it with your axe, I can share some of it with you. Is there anything you need?”

Of course, he had no real intention of giving her anything but asked out of courtesy.

It was basic human decency to show to a newbie.

“Ah, no, it’s really fine.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Well then, thank you very much.

He put the head and claws into the ultra-small dimensional pocket.

While the hide was expensive, the head could be sold for a very high price as a high-end decoration, and the same was true for the claws.

While he was doing this, Mijuran hesitantly hovered around, closely observing his actions.

“What?”

Feeling burdened by her behavior, he asked her directly.

“It’s nothing, just… um… I’m grateful…”

Mijuran immediately expressed her feelings honestly.

Knowing that the word “grateful” encompassed many things, he silently nodded.

From saving her life to teaching her the perfect coping method afterward.

And most importantly,

‘The victory reward.’

The reason why Victory’s Predator was overpowered was because of its insane condition of only needing to ‘win’ against a strong opponent.

No matter how many people fought, or even if she received help from others during the fight, as long as the concept of an initial battle was established and she won, it was enough.

In other words, Mijuran had gained an incredible advantage by having her life saved and activating her main skill while doing nothing.

Even someone without much conscience would feel grateful in this situation, so he could understand her feelings.

“Alright then… I guess I’ll see you in class later.”

“Mmm…”

Having confirmed the reward and collected all the byproducts, there was no reason to stay any longer.

Mijuran’s mental care was her own business, and there wasn’t much he could do for someone who still couldn’t get her act together.

“Oh right, keep today’s events a secret.”

“Huh?”

“If rumors spread about defeating Ungbak, say that you did it. You can do that much, right?”

If rumors spread about defeating Ungbak, it would likely become troublesome even if he tried to sell the items secretly.

People would ask how he managed to sell the internal organs at a high price, or how he defeated it, and so on.

To prevent such issues, attributing this achievement entirely to her would solve most problems.

No matter how reckless someone might be, they wouldn’t dare question the princess of Mudanad about the Ungbak incident.

“Oh, um, then I’ll definitely do that.”

Mijuran, still seemingly unable to gather her thoughts, responded positively to everything he said.

It was surprising to see this side of her, given her reportedly rough and fiery personality.

‘I thought she was described as tomboyish.’

Right now, she looked every bit like a young girl.

Well, that was enough idle thoughts. He decided to leave the place.

“Thanks. I’m really going now.”

“T-take care!”

“You too.”

After ending the awkward, textbook-like conversation, he passed by her and descended the mountain.

It was time to diligently sell the byproducts.

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As Mijuran watched Lee Seok-Hyun defeat Ungbak, one question arose in her mind.

‘He’s ranked lower than me?’

When Woo Do-hyun took first place, she thought it was understandable.

He was clearly stronger than her now and was called a sword genius.

She could also accept Meiri being second and Bellos Belon being third.

And because of that, she didn’t doubt her own fourth place.

She was confident that there were no hidden strong ones among the first-years better than her.

She was sure that a fair evaluation had been made since everyone would have shown their all during the entrance exam.

All of that shattered to pieces after meeting Lee Seok-Hyun.

‘He defeated Ungbak without using his main skill or sub-skills.’

While it was possible he didn’t have sub-skills yet, the main skill was a different story.

In her case, it was a passive type, but Lee Seok-Hyun didn’t seem to have anything like that.

During the fight, he showed no special characteristics, just attacking solely with the axe.

It was a level of skill that made her doubt if he was really the same age.

A well-trained knight…? No, rather than that…

A beast raised in the wild.

A genius who smoothly executed untrained movements.

This seemed closer to the truth.

There was a brief moment of crisis, but even that was turned into an opportunity with quick thinking.

Lee Seok-Hyun had hunted Ungbak so perfectly that she wondered if even that crisis had been calculated.

His method of never rushing, steadily tightening the noose until death.

‘Did he really live in the mountains? How else could a person…’

Mijuran chuckled softly even as she thought this.

The chances of someone living in the mountains passing the Mirinae Academy entrance exam were practically zero.

‘So he’s a genius who also learned weaponry…Was he secretly raised by some organization and ambitiously presented?’

How strong must his backing be for him to defeat Ungbak with just an axe without using any skills?

She stared at Lee Seok-Hyun’s retreating back, endlessly expanding her imagination.

Lee Seok-Hyun was a man impossible to categorize.

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[Shio here~!

Seriously, what type of mountain training did Seok-Hyun do? Actually, are we sure that it was “mountain training” and not some type of DBZ time chamber session?]