A Teacher's Grace
“U Hyo-chung!!”
“Good luck, brother!”
‘Rabbit Grass Borrowing’
When U Hyo-chung wishes you luck, the unique trait ‘Unwished Fortune’ applies to you for 24 hours (output +20%, cooldown 7 days)
U Hyo-chung charged at the wraith alongside me. As a bonus, he'd activated the relationship reward trait on his own without me even asking.
-Uwoong!!
The mid-grade wraith guarding the vine roots anchoring the classroom spotted our charge and heaved its massive body upright. It was different from the low-grade ones I’d fought before. Its cobalt-blue bulk gleamed with a hard, metallic sheen. Long, gorilla-like arms ended in huge, round fists. True to the distinct traits of mid-grade wraiths, it looked incredibly tough.
Superhuman strength and durability. Against an enemy with those two qualities, the counter was set.
“Gotta tie it up and beat it down, right?”
“Obviously.”
U Hyo-chung and I exchanged glances, biding our moment.
-Oooororororoo!!
A bizarre roar echoed through the classroom serving as the anchor point, and a massive fist flew at us with speed unfit for its bulk.
“Now!”
We leaped left and right in unison as we ran side by side.
-Kung!
The next instant, a floor-shattering blow.
<It's coming again!>
As Gemma said, the wraith twisted its waist, swinging the downward fist sideways in a bizarre arc.
<Deflect it!>
I lowered my stance and gripped my staff—cloaked in the new Spirit Lord Transformation Tonnerre shotgun—with both hands at a slant.
-Kaaang!
The strike curved in an arc rather than a straight line. The fist clashed against the shotgun barrel, its angle bending ever so slightly as it slammed into the wall. The power could've pulverized an arm, but by coating the surface and my shoe soles with ectoplasm at minimal viscosity, I minimized the impact.
“Grandpa!”
Seizing the opening from the wraith’s lost balance after overcommitting its weight into the punch, U Hyo-chung’s grandfather, U Jeong-guk, briefly materialized. It would’ve been impossible for long-dead ancestors like Shin Yun-bok or Mun Ik-jeom, but not difficult for a recently deceased ancestral spirit.
-Tatat!
U Hyo-chung stepped on the detective's laced hands, and the 2-meter giant unleashed amplified ancestral strength, hurling his grandson into the air at absurd speed.
“Lucky strike!”
-Kwang!
U Hyo-chung's handcuffed fist smashed the arm embedded in the wall.
-Chil-chik!
-Orooo!!
Handcuffs sprouted from the wall, binding the wraith's arm, unleashing a furious roar. It probably wasn't hurt much, but U Hyo-chung's cuffs were sturdy.
“My turn.”
-Tang! Taang!
I suppressed its other hand aiming for the landed U Hyo-chung with a shotgun double-tap. The wraith's hollow eyes turned to me next.
-Ororo!
The wall-bound wraith tried to kick me with its leg—but
“Don't... touch Taeyang!”
Mun Hee-jeong's hurled hedgehog doll rapidly swelled, swallowing the leg whole.
-Pfoing!
Even with its full-force kick, I felt no impact. The keychain doll possessed by Mun Ik-jeom had engulfed the entire leg, turning it into a cotton swab. While savoring the 100% pure cotton plush sensation over my body, Shin Sua moved.
“Landscape painting—Bamboo Grove...!”
Tiny Shin Sua swung a massive brush taller than herself, ink droplets from its tip staining the floor.
-Kuooh!!
Thinking Shin Sua's attack did it no harm, the wraith hesitated, then stretched its arms to crush me and U Hyo-chung. That was the trap.
-Chwaaak!!
The moment it stepped in the pooled ink, black bamboo shoots erupted one after another, skewering its legs like spits.
-Oooorororooong!!!
In the end, the wraith was pinned—only one arm and its head free to move.
Detection complete.
Augmented Reality (AR) activated.
Spirit Core position projected.
Kim Yun-ju, analyzing the wraith through the lenses worn by the four club members gathered here, reported the results.
A blue grid drawn by augmented reality appeared over the wraith's form. Countless points formed by intersecting horizontal and vertical lines. One glowed with brilliant yellow light.
“Finish it quick, delinquent!”
Shin Sua urged me on, gripping her brush tight to maintain the ink bamboo. A folding screen unfurled behind her, revealing a painting within: Brothel Brawl. The red aura that tormented me with drunken haze during the duel now invigorated my whole body.
“Enemy-turned-ally buff, huh.”
<What're you babbling about, you lunatic.>
Fueled by boiling battle lust and energy, I charged the wraith.
-Ooooh!!!
The wraith thrashed its limbs in resistance, to no avail. Mun Hee-jeong shrieked hysterically but kept yanking its legs with the massive hedgehog doll.
-Kwaang!
-Keueeek!!!
‘Rabbit Grass Borrowing’
The sharp bamboo shards from the leg-powered snap 'accidentally' flew into its eye because of that.
“Super lucky!!”
-Tatat!
Boosted by the interface message and U Hyo-chung's cheer, I wall-ran up onto its bound arm.
-Oroo!!!
Blinded, it swung its remaining arm at me.
-Buwoong!
But a fist powered only by forearm wouldn't reach me.
“Bayonet.”
Spirit Lord Transformation variant. A long bayonet grew under the shotgun muzzle.
The wraith forcibly extended its arm to block me. I targeted the thinnest part and swung.
-Seogeok!
-Kung!
The ancestor-powered fist thudded harmlessly to the floor. I aimed the shotgun at the nape where Kim Yun-ju marked the Spirit Core.
-Ooororoo!!
With a ghostly wail, ancestor power concentrated there, thickening the flesh over its weak point. Desperate to prolong life by shrinking limbs and torso. I decided to end that pathetic body mod and diet.
-Pook!
I slashed the swollen nape like excising a cyst with the max-length bayonet and jammed the muzzle deep. But penetration wasn't enough yet. Tonnerre's firepower couldn't destroy the deeply hidden Spirit Core. Passepartout could pierce it, but with the fight ongoing, I couldn't burn all resources recklessly.
“First time in real combat, but...”
Still, I had a way to boost the firepower.
“Soul Overlap.”
-Thump!
Chanting the activation, the new power surged through my veins.
-Hwaak!
Skin heating like fever, massive spirit power—double the usual—boiled up.
<You, that hair—>
“Problem?”
My hair, reflected in the wraith's glossy metallic skin, blazed gold. Whatever. Visuals didn't matter now.
-Chil-chik. Reload.
A bright glow formed at the muzzle buried in its flesh.
“Hunt complete.”
-Taang!!
An ear-shattering boom severed its head from body. I leaped down from the dusting corpse, feeling Mun Hee-jeong's gaze.
“You're back...”
She huddled knees together, clutching her lower belly, trembling in a lewd pose. Biting her lower lip, her dazed eyes on me—flawless enough to record as a man sans ulterior motives, but what 'back'?
Never heard of combat euphoria in games. Anyway, glad my early-game relation with Mun Hee-jeong wasn't bad.
“Handle the rest.”
“Don't show off. I could've done it alone.”
“Always so full of bravado.”
As Shin Sua drew twin swords from the screen and charged the vine roots with U Hyo-chung, I sat on a chair, slowly steadying my breath.
“That was close.”
I didn't like how the erosion space had drained so much spirit power that I needed the new trait. Still, no real anxiety over burning over two-thirds of our 15 minutes. We never planned for these four to clear all three anchor points anyway.
“This one's done. How about the others?”
I checked the other teams' progress via the Great East Map's ancestor communication to Kim Yun-ju.
* * *
“Die.”
Seol Romi pinned her skirt with one hand to hide her underwear, hoisted her long white leg high, then slammed it down with full force.
-Kwajik!
The axe blade grown from the heel of her signature red high-tops crushed the wraith's face, turning its body to scattering dust.
-Clap, clap!
Wrinkle creased her smooth forehead at the applause from behind.
“You fight well, as expected.”
The voice belonged to Gong In-myeong. His sprawled, limp form screamed slacker, making her swallow her rage lest she look the fool.
“Cut the empty flattery. It's annoying.”
Gong In-myeong flinched at the sharp killing intent in her curt sentence.
-Teol-keok!
Seol Romi slumped onto the cold training hall floor, replaying the fight.
After the school fell to resentment erosion, Gong In-myeong had led her elsewhere. A map club senior gave the solution, he'd said. What bullshit. But she'd encountered the anchor point and its mid-grade guardian as he claimed.
A specialized wraith with wheels on its massive head, racing at impossible speeds.
“...”
Seol Romi had been toyed with by its wall-and-ceiling runs treating them as ground. She won for one reason.
“Sleepy... wake me in 10.”
Gong In-myeong, lying there.
“Get up yourself.”
Gong In-myeong's Spirit Lord Transformation Traveling Without Path manifested Confucius's war chariot via skateboard. As it replicated the sage's youthful specialty, its output was absolute: a destructive charge pulverizing all ahead. The chariot rammed the side of the rampaging wraith dangling upside-down from the ceiling. Seol Romi merely finished the floored foe—piercing the map club senior's relayed weak point via Gong In-myeong's mouth.
-Eudeuk!
Her molar cracked from clenching too hard, but Seol Romi ignored it. She'd believed speed surpassing all would let her flee her past shadows. That manifested as the axeless blade in her sneakers. But now she knew: she was still a slow turtle. Her rival Gong In-myeong was far ahead. Today's gap confirmed it. He'd crushed the invisible-speed wraith in one go, even yielding the kill as if mocking her.
“Still not enough.”
I'll get stronger. Someday—
Seol Romi shook her head, banishing nightmare shadows.
“Map-making Club, was it.”
More pressing than inferiority now. The 'senior' who led Gong In-myeong here wasn't ordinary. Nor that guy nagging her thoughts lately.
“Kim Taeyang.”
He'd relayed Gong In-myeong's position and lured him to join the map club.
“Something's up.”
That delinquent's face—lurking behind every irritation—kept surfacing. He'd erased his tan and dyed his hair black to play tame, but he couldn't fool her eyes. She'd uncover his secrets soon.
Seol Romi resolved, severing the vine roots with her axe blade.
* * *
“Why two places, not just one...”
Yeom Jin-gwan muttered in dismay. Only 10 minutes in, and two anchor points were already destroyed. With reduced anchoring, spirit absorption slowed; the massive mole-shaped Reverse Ethics Armament's digging gradually slackened.
“How could such nonsense...!!”
Not just anchors: an unknown commander herded students, smashing low-grade wraith wholesale, diluting resentment density and straining erosion maintenance.
“Can't end like this.”
But Yeom Jin-gwan had one hope left.
“Move! Hurry!”
He rallied all remaining low-grade wraith to one spot via the heretic flag: a narrow pass limiting student entry numbers. The two teams that broke anchors wouldn't reach in 5 minutes. Nearby students couldn't breach the wraith barricade. Even past it, the final anchor held a final mid-grade tougher than most high-grades. Dozens of first-years couldn't fell it. Now, just wait for the underground hole.
So he thought.
-Kwang!
-Kiiiiiik!!!!!!
Until 80% of gathered low-grades were pulverized in one blow.
“Who...!!”
Yeom Jin-gwan bellowed unheard.
“Someone with this power left in the building—?!”
Sharing survivor vision via ghost spear, he identified the attacker and screamed.
“Jin-gwan. It's your teacher. Heard the gist on broadcast en route.”
The Class A homeroom teacher who should be at a meeting next building—
“Since you're watching, come out now and I'll smack you once efficiently then end it. A man's promise.”
—Jang Han-nam grinned murderously.
A Teacher's Grace End