After playing the game of throwing Seo Ye-in a few times and coming outside, Ahn Jeong-mi who had been waiting greeted us.
“Kim Ho-nim, young miss. You two worked hard.”
She was polite and businesslike as always, but there was an emotion in her eyes that could not be hidden.
A perfect game against an ogre.
Not even 1% damage was allowed.
Even though the ogre was weakened, this was an encouraging result in her eyes.
It could be considered the best record for a first-year student.
Of course, the scores were impressive but there was another reason why Ahn Jeong-mi was so moved.
“Your teamwork was truly outstanding.”
Seo Ye-in who had never even glanced at her partners before worked perfectly with me.
When I was charging the crystal, she quickly dealt with the goblins that were in the way and focused her attacks on the ogre’s legs to restrain it.
And when she was charging, she made full use of my support to evade the ogre’s attacks.
“Seems like there was a reason Kim Ho-nim recommended Feather Walk.”
The synergy between Feather Walk and Wind Force was particularly impressive. This allowed Seo Ye-in to be swiftly moved out of danger so that she could adjust her position for a better shot.
Seeing such unexpected efficiency must have made Ahn Jeong-mi who had diligently taught this Feather Walk even more satisfied.
In many ways, she must have thought it was a good decision to allow this temporary pairing between us.
For now, this much is enough.
There was another purpose for the temporary pairing with Seo Ye-in.
It was to address the lack of motivation in this lazy girl.
I spoke in a casual tone.
“But we still couldn’t finish off the ogre. Such a shame.”
“…”
Seo Ye-in stared at me intently.
She must have been curious.
If we had continued fighting after the critical hit with the shotgun at the last moment, would we have been able to bring it down?
Soon, Seo Ye-in gently tugged at my sleeve.
“Do it again.”
To elaborate on what was omitted in her words, she meant going back into the dungeon and taking on the ogre properly.
However, I slowly shook my head.
“Let’s call it a day for now.”
As unfortunate as it was, Seo Ye-in and I were only a temporary pair.
Since it was about time for Kwak Ji-cheol to come to his senses, I should continue practicing with him.
After all, my agreement with Dang Gyu-young was to just score points and come back.
“…”
The grip on my sleeve gradually weakened.
A half disappointed and half sulking emotion could be barely seen in her expressionless face.
I let out a bitter smile and said,
“Today isn’t the only day. You know this is also part of the midterm scope, right?”
“…”
“The ogre will appear again.”
“…!”
And when that happens, the ogre won’t disappear even after the crystal charges.
When Seo Ye-in was intrigued and looked at me, I suggested,
“Practice a lot in advance. Dodge a lot and hit a lot.”
The more she practices, the more proficient she will become at evading and that will make it easier to find the right timing to attack.
The more she gets used to hitting the weak spots, the faster we can deplete the ogre’s health.
Seo Ye-in nodded her head.
“Okay.”
The motivation that had been at rock bottom all along started to swell.
And Ahn Jeong-mi who had been watching us couldn’t hide her admiration.
She exchanged a look with me.
– So there was such a clever trick…!
– I told you I’d find a way.
– Thank you.
– Consider the debt repaid with this.
Thanks to Ahn Jung-mi’s performance art, I was able to skillfully finish the cookie-shaping challenge and this was my way of repaying her.
Moreover, if Seo Ye-in approached the mentoring with enthusiasm, that would be good for me too and I would be killing two birds with one stone.
The results of our training will be confirmed during the midterms.
Since we achieved perfect scores in the strategy battle, I easily surpassed the highest side quest achievement of 90%.
Side Quest: 8th Week Strategy Battle
▷Objective: Clear the strategy battle dungeon
▷Achievement: Average Health: 100/90%
▷Rewards will be enhanced.
[Please select your reward.]
▷Wind Cutter
▷Shooting Star
▷One Point Explosion
Wind Cutter was a wind attribute attack skill that slashed enemies with sharp gusts of wind.
Being a simple type of skill, it could be seamlessly linked with various wind skills making it reliably effective.
Shooting Star was a non-attribute attack skill that struck enemies with a large star-shaped mass of mana.
The main star was just a simple projectile, but it would split into smaller stars upon hitting the target or while flying and scatter in all directions.
Since it was impossible to know where the small stars would fly, it was somewhat difficult to deal with.
And then there was the highly anticipated One Point Explosion.
It was a non-attribute skill that pointed to a point in the air and instantly compressed and exploded mana which dealt damage.
Additionally, the reason this skill was a crucial piece of Spiral Explosion was,
Ignore Defense.
Depending on the rank of the “One Point Explosion” skill, it could ignore a certain percentage of the enemy’s defense mechanism and inflict damage.
This trait would be fully applied to the future Spiral Explosion combo as well.
Therefore, there was no need to hesitate about what to choose.
[Acquired ‘One Point Explosion’.]
It wasn’t too late to consider other things after completing the Spiral Explosion.
Now, just one piece remained for it to be completed.
I just needed to learn one more skill.
Of course, there was still quite a bit of time left until that opportunity would come,
I should raise my rank in the meantime.
By making good use of the mentoring event.
I returned to where my team members were.
Kwak Ji-cheol had regained his consciousness, but he was still sprawled out in one corner.
Song Cheon-hye and Hong Yeon-hwa had also finished their first challenge and were outside, but their mood didn’t look very good at a glance.
The reason was obvious—it was likely because the results of their first challenge had fallen short of their expectations.
Still, I thought it would be best to hear it directly from them, so I called over Song Cheon-hye who was the closest.
“Genie of the lamp, genie of the lamp, come over here for a moment.”
“!!”
Since winning three wish tickets from our last bet, I have been calling Song Cheon-hye “Genie of the lamp” instead of her name.
Knowing this, Song Cheon-hye’s face quickly turned red as she glanced around nervously.
As a member of the disciplinary committee, it wouldn’t do her any good if it became known that she had been betting with other students.
It would be even worse if it got out that she had lost so many times that I had accumulated three wish tickets.
So, Song Cheon-hye hurriedly dragged me to a corner.
“Don’t call me that.”
“I’ll call you whatever I want. If you don’t like it, then win.”
“There are plenty of other nicknames. Why ‘Genie of the lamp’?”
“Really? Should I change it if you don’t like it? Maybe I’ll use a wish ticket.”
“…On second thought, I think ‘Genie of the lamp’ is quite nice.”
Song Cheon-hye quickly backed down.
The thought of me using a wish ticket to give her a strange nickname and call her that in front of others?
Just imagining it made her shudder.
Realizing she had no chance on this topic, Song Cheon-hye swiftly changed the subject.
“Why did you call me?”
“What’s with the mood? Didn’t go well?”
“…As you can see.”
“You guys tried to take down the ogre, didn’t you?”
“How did you know?”
When Song Cheon-hye asked in surprise, I responded nonchalantly.
“Both of you are quite skilled, and you have a sense of rivalry with each other.”
So instead of cooperating, they probably just tried to take it down and compare who did the most damage.
Also, it would be less troublesome than running around charging the crystal, and there would be bonus points.
So the two of them must have competitively unleashed their magic, but
“It was oddly tough. It should’ve been weakened and yet …”
“Not as easy to take down as you thought?”
Song Cheon-hye narrowed her eyes as if she was sensing something in my tone.
“You’re implying you knew it would be like this.”
“I came up with a hypothesis.”
Of course, calling it a hypothesis was just a way of explaining it—it was really based on experience.
If she hears everything and asks, “How did you know that?”, it would be bothersome to explain further, so I laid the groundwork in advance.
“The rank does drop due to the [Weakened] rule, but it seems not all stats drop evenly.”
“…!”
For example, attack-related abilities such as speed and destructive power have been significantly reduced compared to the original Ogre, but its high defense and health have remained almost the same.
In other words, while it had become much easier to dodge its attacks, taking it down was still difficult.
Song Cheon-hye seemed to have felt something similar, so she didn’t dismiss my words as nonsense but appeared to be comparing them with her own experience.
“This needs more verification, but it’s certainly possible. So, do you think the ogre can’t be defeated?”
“Well, that depends on how it’s done.”
For this week, the methods to defeat the ogre were very limited.
The fact that its health remained the same was a problem, but there was also an unexpected time limit.
Like the strategy battle where Seo Ye-in had just scored points, once the crystal charging was complete, the ogre would disappear during the battle.
There were two main ways to solve this problem.
One, keep moving out of the sanctuary’s range to reset the crystal charging and extend the time.
Two, use a skill with power far exceeding the first-year level, like Inferno Fist.
In other words, there was no other way to defeat it.
So, what I wanted to say was,
“Rather than focusing on something uncertain, wouldn’t it be better to first master the basics?”
Competing with Hong Yeon-hwa on who was stronger could come later.
That could be done after both had avoided well and charged their crystals.
Song Cheon-hye cleared her throat, perhaps feeling a little uncomfortable.
“Hmm, hmm. That’s true. Thanks for the advice.”
“Make sure to talk it out with Hong Yeon-hwa.”
“Will do. By the way, it must be tough for you too.”
Our eyes turned to one place at the same time.
To Kwak Ji-cheol, who had just managed to stand up.
Song Cheon-hye hadn’t yet fully grasped my skills, but she seemed to acknowledge that I was good at dodging and escaping.
Since I had easily defeated Jo Byeok, there shouldn’t be any major issues against the ogre either.
On the other hand, Kwak Ji-cheol was just a burden.
Moreover, with the rule of two crystals, even if one person was exceptionally good, it would be hard to succeed if the other couldn’t hold their own.
So in Song Cheon-hye’s view, it looked like I would suffer along with him.
This was also why Dang Gyu-young had said the pairing wasn’t balanced when she teamed us up.
I shrugged as if it didn’t matter.
“He’ll improve after taking some hits, right?”
“Aaaah—!”
Kwak Ji-cheol’s scream echoed.
The next moment, a club as big as a person’s body came crashing down at him at a terrifying speed.
Smash,
[Kwak Ji-cheol: – %]
[Crystal: 17%]
The second attempt also ended in a miserable failure.
Kwak Ji-cheol became unable to fight and was expelled from the dungeon, while Dang Gyu-young revealed herself by releasing her stealth.
“No improvement. I wonder if he’ll just keep getting knocked down.”
“He won’t be down forever.”
The other team members were exceptionally skilled, but even Kwak Ji-cheol had a score in the 600s.
In a place where future hero candidates gathered, having mid-level skills still meant he had basic competence.
So, it wouldn’t be long before he realized he couldn’t go on like this.
How many more hits he would take from the ogre until then was anyone’s guess.
Dang Gyu-young seemed to have a similar thought and she decided to observe for now.
Then she asked me,
“What about you now?”
“I’ll just finish what I was doing.”
Skill training.
In the first attempt, Kwak Ji-cheol was rendered unable to fight and I looked for a new pair, but since the side quest was cleared, that was no longer necessary.
Continuing like this would suffice.
I flung Kwak Ji-cheol’s crystal to the other side of the cave.
As the distance between the crystal and the sanctuary increased, the connection was cut off and the charge quickly diminished.
[Crystal: 11%]
[Crystal: 6%]
[Crystal: 1%]
Unless the crystal was retrieved and recharged, this strategy session would continue endlessly.
In other words, it meant I could play a never-ending game of tag with the ogre.
“Grr?”
The ogre was oblivious to its imminent future and just let out a dumbfounded cry as it stared at the direction the crystal flew.
When I pointed at that guy with Root, mana the size of a fist gathered around its waist and started gradually compressing into a smaller and smaller form.
The mass of mana compressed into a tiny sky-blue dot and then,
Boom!
It exploded right there.
“Grr…”
The ogre twisted its waist in apparent pain.
On closer inspection, a small wound was left near its waist.
A shell that Seo Ye-in had barely pierced with her magic bullets had been punctured with just one use of an F-rank spell.
Of course, in terms of sheer power, the one point explosion skill was far inferior to a gunslinger’s shot, but
It has armor-piercing ability.
“Grr…”
Thanks to inflicting this wound, the fact that I was the enemy seemed to be firmly imprinted in the ogre’s mind.
The creature charged at me while swinging its club wildly.
I leisurely stepped aside before pointing directly at it again.
Once again, mana gathered, compressed, and exploded.
Boom!
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