Why did she suddenly ask to see my hand?
It was likely she had heard something from Kwak Seung-jae.
– There is a student at this school who has mastered Inferno Fist.
– And the student is most likely related to the missing prohibited items.
From the perspective of the disciplinary committee, they would want to identify the culprit as soon as possible.
The clues were the Thief’s Step, Hummingbird, the Invisible Ghillie Suit, and the burn marks that must have remained on the hand of anyone who used the Inferno Fist.
However, the Thief’s Step was not a reliable clue.
It was a universal skill commonly used by many long-range attack dealers apart from rogue-class people, so it was virtually impossible to pinpoint someone based on that alone.
The Hummingbird and Invisible Ghillie Suit were relatively easier to narrow down though.
Many might have learned Hummingbird but the number of people who could control it well enough to break through Kwak Seung-jae’s guard was probably no more than ten within the school.
Similarly, the Invisible Ghillie Suit was an expensive item that was not commonly owned by many.
Looking at these two things from Song Cheon-hye’s perspective.
I was quite skilled at using Hummingbird, and Seo Ye-in who was a close friend of mine possessed an Invisible Ghillie.
So she was thinking that I could have borrowed the Invisible Ghillie Suit from her.
It must have seemed like a fitting piece of the puzzle.
It was inevitable that she would be suspicious of me.
So, she appeared to be checking my hands for burn marks, suspecting me to be a prime suspect…
But would her plan work as she intended?
I asked her while feigning innocence.
“My hand? Why my hand?”
“Can’t you just show it to me?”
As she stubbornly moved closer with her gaze fixed downward, I clasped my hands behind my back.
The suspicion in Song Cheon-hye’s eyes only deepened.
She quickly moved to my back but I spun around in place to face her.
Song Cheon-hye tried to move behind me again and I rotated once more.
After a couple of such turns, I casually slipped my hands into my pockets.
“Ah!”
“Why are you so fixated on someone else’s hand? I need a reason to decide whether to show it or not.”
“That is…”
She struggled to find an excuse and was unable to respond easily.
She could honestly say, “I’m looking for a suspect,” but that would be akin to outright saying, “I think you’re the culprit”.
What if, like during the entrance ceremony and the ban wave, she ended up drawing a blank after accusing me? It would surely be a blow to her pride.
But I have to show my hand eventually.
If the disciplinary committee continues to focus on me like this, it could slightly hinder my freedom of movement.
So I actually needed to show her my unharmed hand right now.
So, I gave her an excuse.
“Why? Do you want to read my palm or something?”
Song Cheon-hye’s face lit up.
“That’s right. It’s just palm reading!”
I gullibly went along with it…
Thinking about it, offering to read palms right away seemed strange enough to be on the same level as showing my palm, didn’t it?
But I decided to pretend not to notice as raising objections would only take us back to square one.
It seemed that Song Cheon-hye’s realization and kicking off the covers would happen much later.
“……..”
Two soft hands clasped mine.
Song Cheon-hye earnestly began to knead and examine my hand.
She also subtly infused mana as part of her inspection to check to see if any magic or items were overlaid as a disguise.
Unsurprisingly, the result was a clean and healthy bare hand.
“……I’ll look at the other hand too.”
“Yes, please do.”
Palm reading requires looking at both hands, after all.
But there was no way the other hand would be scarred.
From the beginning, I hadn’t received any damage at all.
The doubts quickly faded away from Song Cheon-hye’s face.
She released my hand and posed a question.
“What did you do last weekend?”
“Do I really need to tell you that?”
“…No, you don’t. I misspoke.”
When I showed signs of displeasure, Song Cheon-hye blushed and immediately admitted her mistake.
She must have realized that questioning me like it was an interrogation in this situation was crossing a line.
Eventually, she bowed her head slightly and stepped back.
“Excuse me.”
“Wait a moment.”
“…Yes?”
As Song Cheon-hye was about to return to her seat, I asked her in a playful tone.
“Aren’t you going to tell me the results of the palm reading? Do I have any luck in love?”
“…You’re going to have a tough time ahead. A lot.”
She answered casually and moved away.
With that, I was at least temporarily cleared from the list of suspects.
However, even as Song Cheon-hye returned to her seat, the way she sneakily glanced at me suggested that she hadn’t completely dismissed her suspicions.
***
Thump! Thump!
Seo Ye-in was firing a pistol with just one hand.
On the other hand, she alternated between a bread bag and her mouth as she picked up and ate small mini donuts.
Considering her usually small appetite, she hadn’t bought many, but today for some reason, she kept eating more bread.
It seemed her body was demanding energy, likely due to the substantial mana consumption during her training.
Thump! Thump!
Since she was instructed not to use magic bullets, only streams of mana burst from the gun barrel and struck the targets.
It almost looked like she was shooting a water gun.
After repeating this for a while, Seo Ye-in’s eyebrows were slightly raised.
“……!”
She turned her head towards me, but realizing she still had food in her mouth, she just chewed silently for a moment.
Only after slowly sipping the drink I handed her did she finally speak.
“…. Learned it.”
“Already? That was fast.”
She learned the [Ejection] skill in less than half a day.
It was a speed that surpassed my expectations again.
Her talent was simply unbelievable.
It seemed unnecessary for me to stay by her side for the D-rank [Magic Bullet] task.
She also said that she would almost get it.
“I’ll head in first. You can manage the rest, right?”
“Mhm. See you tomorrow.”
Seo Ye-in gently waved her hand.
As I left the training center, the sound of magic gunshots continued to echo behind me.
***
And the next morning,
Seo Ye-in arrived at school looking twice as sleepy as usual.
She opened her mouth opening slightly and yawned slowly.
And then she said in a languid tone.
“I raised it by one rank…”
“[Ejection]?”
“Mhm…”
She had reached E-rank on her own with the [Magic Bullet] D-rank, even though she just learned [Ejection] yesterday.
She was clearly talented but I could imagine how hard she must have worked while out of my sight the previous night.
I nodded my head in acknowledgment.
“Well done.”
This gives us an extra day.
Originally, I planned to spend another day teaching her [Ejection], but since Seo Ye-in had already surpassed that stage on her own, there was no reason to delay.
“Let’s go right after class.”
To update our score.
***
After school,
I had to wake up Seo Ye-in who had spent the entire class fast asleep.
And then she groggily followed me to the dungeon building.
Fortunately, by the time we arrived, she seemed mostly awake.
Before entering the dungeon we quickly devised a plan and stepped into the teleportation portal.
[Timed attacks will begin soon.]
[Remaining Time: 5:00]
“Let’s do this.”
“Mhm.”
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Start!]
[Remaining Time: 4:59]
Tututututu!
Right at the start, Seo Ye-in fired several magic bullets into the air.
The quiet swamp echoed with the sound of gunshots.
“Keruk?”
“Kruruk. Kek!”
Soon, the area became as noisy as a disturbed beehive.
Goblins began to pop their heads out from all over the place right from the start.
Startle the snake by hitting the grass.
The startled snake would either coil up even more or reveal itself to bite its foe.
As expected, the leader snake made its appearance.
Thud
“Grrr…”
Although it descended upon hearing the commotion, the beheader goblin could not discern our location and looked around in confusion.
On the other hand, Seo Ye-in had been preparing from the moment she fired the magic rifle into the void.
The long barrel was now aimed at the creature.
Almost as soon as it discovered us,
Twang—!
A magic bullet was fired with enormous force.
And then a blue streak was drawn between the rifle and the beheader’s head,
Bang!!
The creature’s head and even its waist bent backward as it fell.
It was so powerful that even after falling it rolled several times.
“Grrr…”
The beheader goblin was knocked into a dazed state with just one hit, unable to regain its senses.
If there was a health bar above its head, it would have been close to 0%.
This was completely different from before when it had taken four or five hits to finally fall.
The finishing blow was mercilessly delivered to the creature as it floundered and crawled on the ground while trying to prop itself up.
Bang!!
She can easily get a score of 900 points.
A high-grade magic rifle, combined with a perfectly shaped D-rank [Magic Bullet] and an E-rank [Ejection], unleashed formidable destructive power.
While many aspects still needed improvement, in terms of single-shot firepower, it could rival even the most promising students.
With the right use of surprise tactics, it seemed possible for her score to ascend rapidly up to the 900-point range.
“Well done. Let’s go.”
Tututututu!
The power of her twin pistols had also increased significantly.
Previously, it took her several precise shots to take down a single goblin, but now one or two shots were enough to bring them down.
As Seo Ye-in sprayed bullets in all directions, the goblins dropped one by one like flies.
Soon, the totem came into view.
Seo Ye-in maintained her running speed, then aimed her pistols and fired rapidly.
Tututut!
The totem shattered into pieces and dispersed.
Dungeon cleared.
[Remaining Time: 1:20 seconds]
+ [Goblins Killed: 28]
+ [‘Strong Enemy’ Killed: 120]
—————
[Remaining Time: 3:48 seconds = 228 points]
+ [Clear Bonus: 500 points]
—————
[Total Score: 728 points] * 0.8 multiplier
= 582 pt
We saved a lot of time by swiftly killing the beheader goblin.
The number of goblins she caught along the way also contributed to a significantly better record than our previous attempt.
I also easily accomplished my strategy battle quest as well.
“Perfect. High five.”
As I raised my open palm, Seo Ye-in lightly touched it with her own.
A silent high-five. Clap.
“Huh? You smiled.”
“……?”
Seo Ye-in tilted her head in confusion.
It seemed she hadn’t realized it but a faint smile had briefly graced her lips.
Seo Ye-in silently touched her lips with her fingers.
***
Next was the single dungeon.
Compared to the double dungeon, there were slight differences in the layout and monster placement.
Naturally, each had to be tackled individually.
“There shouldn’t be any major difficulties in the single dungeon. You’re more than capable of getting a high score on your own.”
“Mhm.”
“But just in case, try practicing a few times before entering.”
“Alright. Thank you.”
Seo Ye-in stepped into the teleportation portal to enter practice mode.
I too scanned my student ID on the device.
However, unlike her, I was heading straight into the real challenge, not the practice mode.
It was all already in my head.
[Timed attacks will begin soon.]
[Remaining Time: 5:00]
The newbie support was a success.
Now, it was time for the veteran (stagnant water) to shine.
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