We exchanged a few casual greetings.
Kwak Seung-jae took in Seo Ye-in and Chattering Sloth one after another before finally turning his gaze to Dang Gyu-ri.
A flicker of interest appeared in his eyes.
“…A freshman?”
“Yes, senior. My name is Dang Gyu-ri.”
“I’m Kwak Seung-jae. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your relationship with senior Dang Gyu-young?”
“She’s my cousin.”
Dang Gyu-ri answered with a faint smile.
Kwak Seung-jae slowly nodded.
“I see. I asked because both your demeanor and your skills make it feel as though she’s returned.”
“I get that a lot.”
Dang Gyu-ri looked momentarily caught off guard, but she smoothly played it off without letting it show.
Kwak Seung-jae still seemed to harbor his suspicions but apparently had no intention of pressing the matter any further for now.
Instead, he turned to me with another question.
“You know why I’m here.”
“I can’t say I have any idea.”
It was obvious to anyone, really, but I decided to play dumb for now.
Kwak Seung-jae began explaining as if the matter had nothing to do with us.
“While I was carrying out my patrol duties, I received word that a dungeon on Floor B had been cleared without authorization. Right around then, I detected three presences on the move.”
At this point, we’d practically been caught red-handed.
It seemed he’d been steadily improving his skills over winter break as well.
Even last year, whenever he played cat and mouse with Dang Gyu-young, he supposedly managed to catch her two or three times out of ten, so this year would probably be about the same.
Kwak Seung-jae swept his gaze over us one by one again.
“Three people clearing a B-rank dungeon… That wouldn’t be easy even for third-years. There can’t be more than a handful of students in the entire Dragon Slayer Academy capable of it.”
He added that narrowing down the suspects through process of elimination would reduce that number even further.
For example, anyone who had already earned authorization to clear B-rank dungeons, or model students with no history of breaking school rules, would have been crossed off the list of suspects.
In the end, it seemed he’d concluded that the three people he’d detected were “Kim Ho and his crew”.
But what he said next was somewhat unexpected.
“I could have caught you on the spot, but I chose not to. Do you know why?”
While we were still underground, he could have caught us in the act.
Since it was so late, there wouldn’t have been many students attempting dungeon clears, either, which would have made it easy to single out the culprits.
Not only had we not bid on any dungeons, we didn’t even have the necessary authorization.
Dang Gyu-ri in particular was a first-year, so she wasn’t even allowed to enter the underground floors yet.
But now it’d be tricky to bust us.
After all, we could just insist we were out for a walk.
If he searched our inventories, he’d find the random boxes, but even the Disciplinary Committee could face backlash if they tried to force a search without good cause.
They’d need much more concrete evidence, and “I saw these guys coming out!” wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Of course, Kwak Seung-jae had to know that perfectly well.
And yet he hadn’t made a move, which meant—
“It seems you have something you’d like to discuss with us separately.”
“That’s right.”
“And I assume that’s a big part of why you waited for us here.”
“It’s a suitable place for a quiet conversation.”
Kwak Seung-jae readily nodded.
At this somewhat changed side of him, a curious look crossed Dang Gyu-ri’s face.
I was thinking much the same thing, so I asked him directly.
“I didn’t expect you to make us an offer like this, senior.”
“The old me would never have compromised. If someone broke the school rules, they deserved to be punished accordingly. However…”
“……”
“Now that I’m in a position where I have to lead a group, I find myself understanding senior Oh Se-hoon’s methods.”
He added that he’d learned there were times when one needed to be flexible depending on the circumstances.
I nodded.
“What would you like us to do?”
“You can think of it as a continuation of what happened last year.”
Just before the second-semester final exams, the Disciplinary Committee had been challenged by the Black Faction and the Archery Club.
They hadn’t exactly been lacking in strength, but to make absolutely sure they were prepared, they’d approached Dang Gyu-young and me for help in exchange for a deal.
This time, he intended to propose a similar arrangement.
Kwak Seung-jae continued.
“This year’s members are unquestionably more skilled than their peers. However, it’s also true that we lack an overwhelming force like senior Oh.”
That made sense. The guy had been capable of taking on several parties by himself, so his absence was bound to feel all the more significant.
And Kwak Seung-jae apparently believed we could fill a considerable portion of that gap.
“So you’d like us to lend a hand.”
“Of course, nothing has been decided yet. There’s a fairly good chance the year will pass without anything happening.”
“Still, it can’t hurt to prepare in advance.”
“Precisely.”
Naturally, there was no way he would ask for a favor like this without offering anything in return.
He’d turned a blind eye to our trip into the deeper levels, but that was separate from anything that might happen going forward.
Kwak Seung-jae seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he made me an offer.
“I should be able to make reasonable accommodations for you going forward as well. Though there will be exceptions if the other members strongly object or if the faculty catches you.”
“We’ll just have to make sure we don’t get caught.”
“I’d appreciate it even more if you simply followed the school rules. Aside from that, just like last year, I’ll provide you with some of the confiscated items. What do you say?”
As compensation for helping defend the temporary storage facility during the second semester, we’d received a necromancer’s grimoire, which we used to increase the number of slots for Dang Gyu-young’s [Shadow Extraction].
If we could regularly get our hands on similar items, the deal would be more than worthwhile for us.
So I smiled and said,
“We’ll give it serious consideration.”
“Good. We’ll leave it at that for today.”
Kwak Seung-jae said he would contact us again later, then turned to leave.
But as he was casting a spell, he looked back at Dang Gyu-ri and asked,
“…You really aren’t Dang Gyu-young sunbae?”
“I’m not.”
“I see. Then I’ll be on my way.”
Rrrrrrumble…
A wooden door suddenly rose from the ground.
After bidding us one final farewell, Kwak Seung-jae stepped through the door and disappeared somewhere beyond it.
Rrrrrrrrrumble…
As the wooden door sank back into the ground, Dang Gyu-ri glanced at it before turning to me.
“…You think he figured it out?”
“About ninety percent.”
***
That night, we went our separate ways after a short walk, then met up again the next day to finish opening the boxes we hadn’t gotten to.
Once we were seated together somewhere quiet, I pulled the dungeon clear rewards from my inventory.
[Descent of the Feathered Serpent Random Box (B+)]*6
Before I could even say anything, Seo Ye-in reached out.
She picked up one of the random boxes and stared down at it for a while.
“……”
Then she slowly lifted it and placed it on top of my head.
She even added,
“Don’t move.”
“Why not?”
“I need to balance it.”
“Now? You suddenly want to balance it?”
“Mhmm.”
Meanwhile, Chattering Sloth brought over another random box and stacked it on top of the one already sitting on my head.
Then Seo Ye-in added another, followed by Chattering Sloth again, the two taking turns building a tower of boxes.
Holding myself perfectly still so the tower wouldn’t topple over, I asked,
“Is there any meaning behind this?”
“No.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“I wanted to.”
Seo Ye-in answered with absolute confidence.
Chattering Sloth’s eyes gleamed with equal confidence.
I knocked over the tower of random boxes, then reached out with both hands and pinched the two troublemakers by the nose.
“Are you supposed to mess around with someone’s head or not?”
“Dot suposed to.”
“Are you reflecting on what you did?”
“Led go ob my nose.”
I let go of their noses, then lightly flicked each of them on the forehead.
Then I picked up one of the boxes scattered across the floor.
“You even got your messing around out of the way, so I can expect something good now, right?”
“……”
But Seo Ye-in merely kept tilting her head, offering no real answer.
So I asked again.
“What, not feeling it today?”
“…A little?”
She tilted her head slightly again, then gathered up the other five random boxes and handed them back to me.
“Put them away.”
“You want to open them one at a time later?”
“Mhmm.”
“Who am I to argue with our lucky charm?”
These were B+ rank boxes, after all. If Dang Gyu-ri or I opened them recklessly and ended up pulling something like a teacup, it would be a huge waste.
Even if it meant opening them only one or two at a time whenever the opportunity arose, it was better to guarantee B+ rank or higher rewards.
We’ve got plenty of time anyway.
[Descent of the Feathered Serpent] was the last weekly dungeon we planned to tackle during this dungeon clearing period.
For the time being, we intended to focus on strengthening our foundations.
After that came the duel battle period, so we still had several weeks before the next dungeon clearing period rolled around.
There wasn’t much chance of the random boxes piling up to the point where we wouldn’t know what to do with them.
So I did as she said, putting all but one back into my inventory.
“What are we getting out of this one?”
“……”
Even then, Seo Ye-in remained noncommittal.
A moment later, she turned to exchange glances with her mirror image.
“Possible?”
“…Probably.”
Chattering Sloth seemed equally uncertain but apparently decided it was worth a shot and picked up the random box.
Of course, as always, there wasn’t the slightest hesitation in her hand as she opened the lid.
The next instant, all color drained from our surroundings as if the world had turned black and white, and the ticking of a clock echoed through the air.
Tick—tock—tick—tock—
With an effect this dramatic, there was only one kind of item it could be.
Something time-related.
Even at the lowest, it should be guaranteed to be A-rank.
Half nervous and half excited, we waited for a while until the black-and-white surroundings finally returned to normal.
And where the random box had been, there was now a rolled-up sheet of parchment.
[Quest Scroll – Time Oblivion]
It was an item that granted a trait upon completing the assigned quest.
Time Oblivion is pretty good.
Its effect was simple: whenever a skill or trait activated, there was a very low chance that it wouldn’t go on cooldown.
Like [Deja Vu], the chance was somewhere between three and five percent, but having it would definitely be a boost to our combat power.
After a brief moment of consideration, I made my decision.
I should give this to Seo Ye-in.
Of course, I was the one who needed that effect the most.
A good number of my skills and traits were cooldown-based, after all.
Still, there’s no harm in taking the roundabout route.
[Time Oblivion] wasn’t a unique trait, which meant I could [Copy] it and also share it through [Bond].
In other words, even if I let Seo Ye-in have it first, it would eventually make its way to me anyway.
Besides, it won’t be much use at first.
At lower ranks, its already low activation rate would be even lower.
She’d probably have to raise it to at least B-rank before it started triggering every now and then.
And our super-genius levels things way faster than I do.
Even with the same amount of training, Seo Ye-in’s skills and traits tended to improve much faster than mine.
So I casually held out the scroll and asked,
“Want to learn it?”
“I want to.”
Apparently quite interested, Seo Ye-in readily accepted it.
She looked ready to use it on the spot, but I stopped her for a moment and opened my inventory.
Then I pulled out the one item that could never be left out whenever the word “quest” came up.
The “red book”.
“Since we’re doing this anyway, let’s throw in a challenge too. That way, it’ll rank up a bunch as soon as you get it. You know how it works.”
“…I take back wanting to learn it.”
Seo Ye-in slowly began backing away, but I’d already anticipated that and cut off her escape route.
I grabbed her firmly by the shoulder and held out the Challenge Book.
“You change your mind the second something looks a little hard, huh? That’s becoming a bad habit.”
“…Cancel.”
“Come on, use it. Scroll first~”
“…Help.”
She shot Dang Gyu-ri a pleading look for help, but all she got in return was an amused, interested gaze.
Meanwhile, Chattering Sloth offered a word of encouragement from beside her.
– Hang in there, original.
If you get stronger, I get stronger too.
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