The Liberal Arts Department Has Many Peculiar Cadets (3)

The test had begun.

The allotted time was the original lecture period — two hours.

Good thing it isn't short.

First, I put as much distance as I could between myself and the other cadets. But simply hiding and running out the clock wouldn't clear the quest I was on. I used a brief opening to check the quest notification window.

Episode One's third quest. Exactly what it said on the tin — an event that required succeeding at a 2nd Awakening. Unlike the previous quests that wrapped up in a single test, this one would keep running until the awakening itself was complete. That was why the clear reward was so substantial. More than anything, the 2nd Awakening itself was the real prize.

But under normal circumstances, this was a quest I could never clear.

I've already completed my 2nd Awakening.

Unlike An ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yumin in the original, I already possessed my second authority — the Throne of the Shadow Mirror. So it might have looked like the current quest meant nothing to me. That was absolutely not the case.

I tapped the sub-quest highlighted in green on the notification window.

Because this wasn't a short-term quest, each evaluation came with its own sub-quest like this.

Rewards are still on the table.

And that wasn't all. The lectures and training meant for a 2nd Awakening were useful to me in their own right — for reinforcing my authority's skills down the line. Being able to receive Instructor Lee Suyeon's guidance was a massive advantage by itself. She was turning out to be even more impressive than what I'd known from the original story.

A training method like this from the very first lecture…

If it was a War World drill, nothing was more efficient for me. I slipped into the nearby underbrush and, for a moment, poked my head out to survey the terrain.

Jungle map. Even the terrain was working in my favor. Among the countless maps in Northern War World, this was a high-difficulty zone — but as a veteran of the original and a Grand Master of War World even in this reality, I knew every hazard this jungle had to offer.

No need to rush. Stay hidden as long as possible, and only move when perfect prey shows itself.

I still needed at least three kills to get a grade on the books, so pure hiding wasn't an option — but there was no reason to move recklessly either.

Everyone's under the same conditions right now.

Class 1 of the first-year Liberal Arts Department. All thirty-two of us had logged into War World on Mana Heart Link Mode. But Instructor Lee Suyeon had set things up beautifully — everyone's first authority was locked. In other words, everything beyond an Awakened's base specs was sealed. For the record, Class 1 had no 2nd Awakened cadets. Even among the High Class, 2nd Awakened were still rare, and those scarce few would never end up in the Liberal Arts Department, which was considered middling at best.

Rustle—

That was when it happened. Someone tripped one of the traps I'd set in a hurry. I carefully parted the long grass where I was hiding and checked who it was.

Jeong Siu.

I smothered every trace of my presence. In a normal spar or training session, running into him would have been like meeting the reaper. Jeong Siu's class was Thief, and he held a Wind-attribute authority — sharp enough to track a Horror Hole before anyone else. He closed to within three paces of the brush I was in.

"Ah, fuck… can't use my authority. This is complete shit."

But Jeong Siu wasn't himself right now. With his first authority locked, it was like suddenly losing one of the five senses — the disorientation hit hard. With those excellent ears sealed, his instincts had gone dull instead of sharp.

"Nobody here, right? God, this terrain is garbage…"

He scanned the area, but in the end he never found me. I watched him move off into the distance and let myself relax.

Low stats actually make it easier to hide my presence.

His Strength was probably over fifty. Even without his authority, a light straight punch from him could knock me out cold.

Well. He is on the list of people I need to take down today.

I focused my mind on the mana stone in my hand. Authorities were locked, but Instructor Lee Suyeon had handed each cadet five mana stones of different attributes. There were six attributes total for Awakened, so of course she'd excluded each cadet's primary authority attribute — five stones each. They were quite special. By channeling an Awakened's mana into them, you could draw on a portion of that attribute's power. Once a set amount of mana was charged, a skill would fire.

Instructor Lee Suyeon wants to open up the possibilities of other attributes for us.

In short, it was a test of each cadet's affinity for non-primary elements. And for me, the setup was more advantageous than for anyone else. Beyond the Light-attribute first authority that was currently sealed, I already held another authority of the Fire attribute.

I already held two of them.

Time to start racking up kills.

I carefully shifted my feet and moved.

Roughly an hour had passed.

"Ghhk… kuhh… s-save me!"

A cadet was thrashing in a swamp, half-sunk. Classic jungle — still one of the worst terrains even inside War World.

Idiot. Of course there's a swamp if you go that way.

War World's terrain respawned fresh every time, but certain rules still held. In a jungle map, any spot with a higher density of Water-attribute mana than the surroundings was guaranteed to have a swamp.

Detecting that Water mana isn't easy, of course.

Unless you were a Water-attribute Awakened, you needed prior Water training or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a special item. At the cadet level, people were busy enough drilling their primary attribute — no one practiced secondary ones. Which made this a perfect honey trap.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mana stone in my grip was heating up. I had no affinity with Water, but I used the Fire-attribute mana stone in reverse. Monitor the mana flowing over a set interval; if the injection rate drops, something nearby is suppressing Fire.

Fire's counter is Water.

Which meant a swamp thick with Water energy could be found the same way. My Intelligence and Mana weren't high enough to catch those flows with pure finesse — but simply watching the mana values displayed on the system profile made it easy enough.

I finished charging the Fire-attribute mana stone.

The authority forged from the gold medal — my retest reward — Fire Blazing from the Mana Heart. It came with a useful passive: Firepower Training.

That's why the Fire mana stone heated up so much faster.

Every mana stone was charge-based. Cadets clumsy at converting foreign-attribute mana would take far longer. You could always abandon the stones and fight bare-handed, of course — but even a weak skill packed with mana hit harder than raw physical force.

"So long."

I took aim at the cadet stuck in the swamp. A fire arrow streaked from the mana stone.

"Aaaagh!"

A sharp bang, and the cadet was retired.

Three kills from this swamp alone, then.

Not bad. For me, it was free points with almost no stamina spent — and barely any mana either. If I'd fired the authority's skills directly, the mana cost would have been steep. But all I was using was the passive, Firepower Training. Directly casting the active skills of Blazing Fire was out of the question. Completing a Fire-attribute second authority as a non-Mage, with the stats of a total nobody, was effectively impossible right now.

Someone at Instructor Lee Suyeon's level would notice something off immediately.

My true nature as Unknown — as a villain — had to stay buried at the academy. An authority that could form infinite skills was far too conspicuous. Anyone with half a brain would play it natural for now.

The best approach is already decided.

Follow the current 2nd Awakening sub-quests. Then, at a natural point when enough of those sub-quests were complete, present the Blazing Fire authority as my 2nd Awakening. A Holy Knight class paired with Fire wasn't a bad combination at all — as a growth path inside the academy, it was the ideal choice.

Bottom line: thanks to Firepower Training, I had a better offensive option in this test than anyone else in Class 1.

As long as I don't get ambushed.

My physical ability, on the other hand, meant a single clean hit from anyone in the class would put me down. More than half the cadets had already been retired, though. Moving was getting easier.

If I can just lock down the high ground, first place is absolutely within reach.

I moved carefully — but quickly.

The first lecture period was nearly over. Thirty minutes remaining.

With Game Master privileges, Instructor Lee Suyeon had been freely spectating the test. She checked the remaining count.

"Six left, then."

As expected, the surviving cadets were converging on the high ground. She had announced that anyone who simply hid on the outskirts would have their throat cut by her personally — so avoiding the edges and seizing good ground was mandatory. And Lee Suyeon was watching the cadet who had claimed that high ground first with particular care.

Lee Junwoo…

She had already observed him directly across two prior tests, but she still couldn't fully pin down his skill or talent. In pure ability, there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were High Class cadets who had already finished their 2nd Awakening. But just now — watching Lee Junwoo lie in wait at that swamp — Instructor Lee Suyeon had been genuinely surprised.

A Holy Knight, applying a non-Light elemental attribute that fluently?

He was still an Awakened who hadn't even completed a 2nd Awakening. But she had seen all of it — exactly how Lee Junwoo was handling that Fire-attribute mana stone.

If I'm right about this…

Several cadets had shown unexpected sides in this test. But the Lee Junwoo of this moment was the one who most perfectly fulfilled the purpose of the entire exercise.