“Yoon,” came a deep voice from in front of them and YooJin peered around to see an older man in his late fifties sitting on a tree stump, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. A small dagger was in one hand and a block of wood in the other.

Despite the multitude of gray strands that littered his otherwise black hair, his sharp jaw, sinewy shoulders, and strong arms all indicated that age was hardly a factor to him.

YooJin’s gaze wandered further down to where the ties that should have held his dark blue robes closed sat loose at his sides, exposing the man’s bare chest and YooJin could easily make out numerous scars upon his chiseled abdomen.

“General Shin,” said the doctor with a smile.

“Ex-general,” the older man responded quietly, shifting slightly in his seat and it was then that YooJin noticed a sheath tied to his belt and what was obviously an impressive sword within it.

“What are you doing here so early in the day, doctor?”

“I am showing YooJin around the village. He is new to the Academy. YooJin, this is General Shin Gu, he is a warrior and quite an accomplished one. The party he led in his time saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives though most were not aware of it.”

“Yoon,” said the old man, obviously trying to stop the doctor from retelling the story but the doctor simply ignored him.

“Several decades ago, there was a dungeon that opened up in a small town in Japan. From it emerged what the Japanese called the jorōgumo or spider woman. Historically, this dungeon had opened several times in their history but the monster had always come quietly to and fro, hardly making her presence known except to a few unlucky bystanders. However, in this particular instance, she laid eggs before disappearing.” The doctor suddenly paused for effect. “Suddenly there was an infestation of two foot spiders in the southern regions of both our countries.” He paused again, seemingly reminiscing about the time. “I must have been twenty or so then and was attending a conference in one of those cities. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen.”

“Yoon,” the old man said again but again the doctor ignored him, his eyes bright with remembered excitement.

“You see, being so young, they did not use any ploys to lure people into their trap like their progenitor, they simply attacked. Hundreds of giant spiders with faces of little girls wreaking havoc on our streets.”

“Unfortunately, at the time, the Japanese hunter’s headquarters were in Hokkaido and portal travel was at its infancy. Several hundreds of people lost their lives before Shin and his party found their nest and drew the offspring back, eliminating them using a particularly strong form of fire magic. He had made such an impact that he had, at least for a while, bridged some of the political strife between our two countries. In fact, he had become a bit of a celebrity in those small Japanese towns and because of that, Nao, who came from that small town where the dungeon originated, decided to study here, all because of Shin.”

“Enough,” said the old man but YooJin could make out a small blush on his tanned skin. “There is no point in bringing up old news, long forgotten. I am now just a retired hunter.”

The doctor shook his head. “To force you to retire all because of tradition then place you as a guard to an obsolete dungeon.”

“Dungeon?” asked YooJin suddenly. He then noticed the small cave opened behind the stump Shin had been sitting on. The opening was small, hardly three feet in height and mostly hidden by overgrown foliage. 

The older man nodded, placing his hand briefly on the hilt of his sword as he too looked back. “There is an old record of a physical dungeon opening on the Academy grounds around the time of its inception. That cave is its entrance.”

“Have you been inside?” YooJin asked, peering at it curiously.

Shin nodded. “When I was first placed here to guard it. It is quite deep, going far into the mountain. It is made up of several paths and each one is entirely empty save for a single stone throne in the final room.”

“If it’s empty, why have a guard in the first place?”

The old man gave him a small smile but did not answer, instead turning back to the doctor. “You two should continue on. I’m sure you still have a lot to show him.”

He then sat back down on his stump and resumed his whittling, looking up once briefly to meet YooJin’s eyes before speaking, “Welcome to the Academy, wizard.”

~

Upon YooJin’s first gaze of the Academy building, it became immediately evident that the building was incredibly old. Decorative stone walls appeared to spring out from within the mountain with multistory levels and curved roofs adorned with floral and creature designs intermixed with crystals that shone beautifully in the sunlight.

The building blended with its surrounding natural elements, the supports carved as though true trunks of trees and in some places, real trees sprung up directly through the expansive building while reliefs of meticulously painted leaves spanned the entirety of the roof and the trimming at bottom of each floor, broken up only by the occasional image of a flower or animal or legendary creature. 

“Silla architecture. Incredibly rare,” said Dr. Yoon as he stood beside him.

Silla? Yoo Jin vaguely remembered the term in a long forgotten history class.

The doctor smiled upon seeing the confused look on his face. “The Silla kingdom fell in 935 and this building was claimed to have been built around the 600s as were the first records of Saerims in our country,” the doctor continued, graciously ignoring the dumb look on YooJin’s face.

“Oh,” YooJin replied, nodding. “Ah.” History was not really his thing.

The doctor chuckled.

“What are those?” YooJin asked, pointing down onto the grounds in front of the building. Wooden forms that looked like scarecrows stood in two neat rows.

“Training dummies,” he replied. “For those that become hunters, physical training is just as important as mana control.” Yoon paused and looked at the watch on his wrist. “In fact, it is about time we witness one of those exercises.”

Just as the doctor finished speaking, a line of five young alphas came out from within the building and headed immediately for the dummies. They were all dressed in ancient warrior clothing.

“It is tradition that they’ve kept alive,” the doctor explained. “You’ll learn soon that tradition is responsible for a lot of decisions here in the Academy.”

YooJin turned to look at him curiously. He swore that he had heard a slight tone of censure behind the doctor’s words.

“They’re wearing the green robes, these would be the archers.”

YooJin turned his gaze back to the group and sure enough he could see the top of a bow sticking out from behind their backs. The five students had lined up about twenty yards away from the dummies. Only one woman stood apart from them. She was significantly older, small and frail, her back somewhat hunched as though she could barely hold herself up. He recognized her immediately as the woman from the previous night.

“Ah, Chief Tak is responsible for their training today,” said Yoon, with a small smile, “this will be a treat.”

Curious, YooJin trained his eyes on the small woman. He watched as she hobbled forward and shooed away one of the boys that tried to help her.

A soft laugh escaped the doctor’s lips. “Still as stubborn as ever.”

The woman then yelled something inaudible to the young alphas. The alphas then nocked an arrow into their bows but did not raise them. The woman yelled something again and the alpha on the far left stepped forward, his body facing the dummies and his bow now held high.

Just how interesting can it be, YooJin wondered as he gazed at the scene before them and leaned against the railing. All the alpha had to do was hit the dummy that stood only twenty yards away. It wasn’t even that far of a distance.

The old woman raised her hands, palms up in the air before turning them and dropping her hands as if pushing something into the ground. Suddenly, the ground beneath him trembled and YooJin quickly grabbed at the railing. 

He watched with wide eyes as the ground above the first alpha rose and began to undulate. The other students stepped back, scrambling away from the first in shock as he fell to the ground, having lost his footing.

“What–” said YooJin, his eyes wide with interest. He watched as the alpha scrambled onto his knees and launched himself toward the bow he had dropped but it was simply carried away by the still moving earth.

When it became evident that the young alpha would not be able to complete his task, the ground stilled and Yoo Jin turned to face the doctor.

“It is rare,” he said, still gazing at the scene before them, “but occasionally there will be a Saerim that is born with the ability to contain air. This is particularly difficult as the technique and amount of mana needed to restrain and manipulate it is unimaginable. Air is not tangible and it is thus difficult to wrap our minds around how to contain it. Chief Tak is the only one who has been capable of doing so in the past century.”

That tiny woman….

“Look,” said the doctor, “you’ll now see a demonstration from someone who is a bit more experienced.”

And sure enough, a tall figure, wearing similar garbs but of a dark blue, walked into the field. Yoo Jin couldn’t see his face as he wore a cloth about his head and his bow was still strapped to his back. He watched in awe as Chief Tak repeated her earlier motions and the ground rolled beneath the newcomer. But the man held his footing, legs shoulder width apart and knees bent. He nocked an arrow into his bow, his eyes presumably locked in the direction of the training dummy. Then the ground beneath the dummy also shook and the figure swayed as though dancing. He raised his bow just when the ground beneath him cracked open. 

Yoo Jin watched as the bowman narrowly missed the violent wave of air that shot up from the ground by flipping onto his free hand, the other still grasping his bow, before rolling back onto the ground, one leg bent and the other knee flat against the grass, his bow raised once more. 

He sent the arrow flying. 

And hit his mark exactly.

Yoo Jin let out a loud whoop and all heads beneath them turned in their direction.

“Ah,” said the doctor, laughing softly. “Normally, cheering is not allowed. Again tradition.”

Yoo Jin gazed back at the group, watched as the tall alpha removed the cloth and met his eyes.

He paused. Staring back at him was no man.

It was a female alpha.

One he recognized.

“It’s her…” he said.

“Hmm?” said the doctor as he turned to him. The class below them continued with their exercises.

“She was with the other two alphas last night,” said Yoo Jin.

“Sera Ri?” said the doctor as he peered back at the figure who was now standing beside Chief Tak. “That is odd, I don’t know her personally but from what I have heard, she tends to be a bit of a recluse. She is one of our top hunters. Even if she did have friends, Won-il and Seok would not be the type of people I’d peg her to be around.”

“She seemed pretty friendly with them,” said YooJin.

“If that is true then, I would be very cautious of her. She isn’t someone you want as an enemy. I would even venture to say that she is as powerful as TaeHyun though her status is not as high.”

Yoo Jin stared at him curiously. “Why? Does it have to do with seniority?”

The doctor frowned. “No, I’m afraid not. Sera is thirty, she’s been here longer than TaeHyun by a number of years and she has always exhibited great control and power. It’s simply because she is a woman.”

“But,” said YooJin, his brows scrunched in confusion, “she’s an alpha.”

He nodded. “It was said that secondary genders did not exist during the earlier part of the Silla Dynasty, there were only men and women, the latter of which were considered the inferior gender. In the ancient texts, only male alphas were identified as hunters here in the Academy. In a sense, I think they tried to continue that tradition by refusing positions of power to women. Chief Tak is the only female chief and yet, she is still not one of the seven council members despite her arguably being the strongest hunter to have graced these walls this century.”

“You mustn’t be too worried about your meeting with the council tomorrow,” said the doctor upon seeing the look on Yoo Jin’s face. “Having TaeHyun backing you is a significant advantage. His family is exceedingly powerful. In every generation at least one member of his family has sat on that council. He is not a man the current members would want to anger.”

“However,” the doctor continued, his voice grave as his gaze met his. “I recommend that you still be cautious as their reverence for tradition seems to border on the extreme and tradition is something that is immensely difficult to break.”