Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Snowfield Training
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“Ugh, I hate Mondays.”
“Man, I’m exhausted. Should’ve just rested properly over the weekend.”
The first-year Class B students were utterly drained from the morning.
It was the aftermath of relentlessly honing their skills and tactics all weekend without a break.
Lee Jin-seong, Du Bae-su, and Cheon Hye-ji looked the worst of the bunch.
They had ventured into a danger zone over the weekend.
It was only the entrance area where E-rank monsters appeared, but for the three of them, it had been a perilous adventure. When they were surrounded by dozens of goblins, their spines had truly chilled.
If they hadn’t run into a Martial Force patrol by sheer luck, they might have actually died.
‘…We survived, but got penalty points instead.’
Entering a danger zone without school permission was a violation of the school rules.
Lion’s Castle was, after all, a proper educational institution.
It even flew the slogan of ‘safely’ training players who would contribute to South Korea’s national interests and bring glory to the country.
Separate from encouraging competition among students, they made efforts to prevent accidents like students getting killed by monsters.
‘Even so, patrolling all the way to an E-rank zone?’
Lee Jin-seong and Cheon Hye-ji were indignant about getting penalty points despite nearly dying in that easy E-rank zone.
“Good morning.”
“Hey, Jae-hyeok.”
“…….”
Lee Jin-seong and Cheon Hye-ji, who had been grumbling nonstop next to Du Bae-su as he munched on hotteok to replenish his stamina, suddenly brightened up.
Right before first period.
Kang Jae-hyeok had barely made it to the classroom, looking radiant.
It was clear he hadn’t lifted a finger all weekend and had rested fully.
“Wasn’t Jae-hyeok always looking radiant?”
“Shut up.”
Du Bae-su’s tactless jab was dismissed by Lee Jin-seong and Cheon Hye-ji.
Why had they given up their golden weekend and suffered like hell?
All because of Kang Jae-hyeok.
They needed to raise their levels even a little to close the gap in skill with him, or they’d keep getting bullied.
‘We’ll show you how much we’ve improved.’
Not just the weekend—they’d nearly given their lives fighting goblins tooth and nail. Their levels had risen by a whopping two.
Compared to last week, the skill gap with Kang Jae-hyeok, who had rested up, was surely narrower now.
It wasn’t just them; the other students were conscious of Jae-hyeok too.
‘All that hard weekend training will pay off.’
Two hours later.
“Gahhhhh!!”
“Eek! Save me!”
“Kaaaaang Jae-hyeeeeok!!”
Class B’s confidence shattered to pieces.
Something was off.
They had trained hard over the weekend and leveled up, but somehow Kang Jae-hyeok felt even stronger.
Without a moment to prepare, they got their asses kicked, fell into worm nests, or landed in front of monster hordes.
Kim Jin-myeong watched fondly as they flew around like soccer balls.
‘Did the whole class do special training over the weekend?’
Last week.
Students kicked by Jae-hyeok and dropped in front of monsters had mostly landed on their butts or faces first, leaving them defenseless and giving the monsters the first strike, starting fights at a disadvantage.
But today was different.
Every student adjusted their posture midair and flew in to ambush the monsters.
As a result, their hunting speed had more than doubled.
Jae-hyeok was especially passive today.
Even when elite-grade monsters appeared, he just stood there blankly, watching the kids.
“Woooah!!”
The students cheered uncontrollably, thrilled at hunting an elite monster without Jae-hyeok’s help.
A thick smile spread across Kim Jin-myeong’s face.
‘Time to graduate from the desert.’
In truth, Class B had fully adapted to the desert since last week.
They had started monster hunting evaluations just four days after training began.
While they had kept pace with Class C in the swamp adaptation training, now they were hot on Class A’s heels.
‘All thanks to Jae-hyeok.’
Of course, he couldn’t overlook the other students’ efforts.
As their homeroom teacher, Kim Jin-myeong had closely observed each one.
He knew full well they had pushed to their limits.
Their innate competitive spirits were strong to begin with.
It might be because Jae-hyeok had whipped them so well, but they had developed at an astonishing pace with the burning desire to one day get revenge on him.
‘Though now it seems the desire to avoid beatings outweighs the revenge…’
…Is this right?
Shaking off the sudden doubt, Kim Jin-myeong reviewed the notes in his notebook detailing each student’s traits.
‘Should I advance the schedule?’
***
Tuesday.
Kim Jin-myeong showed up with nearly twenty instructors in tow.
“Starting today, we begin a new training.”
“Ooh!”
No students were surprised or scared about advancing already.
Having fully adapted to the desert, Class B brimmed with confidence.
The instructors handed out coats to each of them.
Black long coats with gold epaulets on the shoulders and a lion emblem on the chest as highlights.
Cool design and premium material.
Fine uniforms, but the fabric was thick, ill-suited to the tail end of spring.
“These are the academy’s winter uniforms. They have insulation functions, of course, and all sorts of protective spells woven in.”
Why winter uniforms already…?
Amid the murmuring students, Lee Jin-seong sighed.
“The next terrain adaptation training isn’t in the snowfield, is it?”
The snowfield had a notorious reputation as the fourth toughest in Lion’s Castle’s terrain adaptation trainings.
Blizzards raged 24/7, and the ground was all ice.
Visibility blocked, one slip could send you plummeting into a crevasse to your death.
‘That’s why there were so many new instructors today…’
‘They’re elites to protect us, right?’
A training requiring escorts.
The students, brimming with confidence moments ago, now swallowed dryly in tension.
“Class A entered the snowfield last week.”
Students about to protest that snowfield adaptation was a second-semester thing for first-years shut their mouths.
“And yesterday, they started hunting yetis without instructors—just the students.”
“…….”
The buzzing atmosphere sank in an instant.
Was Class B’s hard work solely because of Jae-hyeok?
They had enrolled in Lion’s Castle to become the best players.
They wanted to catch up to Class A and close the gap with Class C.
“If Class A can do it, what’s stopping us? We’ve adapted to swamps and deserts—blizzards are nothing.”
“Yetis? The non-maned ones are just E-rank. If we team up, we can hunt them fine.”
The students’ eyes changed.
Nodding in satisfaction, Kim Jin-myeong led them to the snowfield.
***
‘Isn’t this too early?’
The instructors, who had come at Kim Jin-myeong’s request, frowned.
Class B arrived at the snowfield, noses running and bodies shivering nonstop.
With their stamina and mana stats still low, they couldn’t adapt to the sudden temperature drop.
‘Push the training, and they’ll freeze to death.’
Snowfield adaptation was standard for first-years in the second semester.
Class A made sense—they’d entered with average levels over 20 and progressed fast—but what gave Class B the confidence to advance the schedule?
‘No way Teacher Kim is chasing Class A?’
‘A wren following a crane will tear its legs… At that point, it’s not ignorance; it’s senility.’
‘His wife has mana stone disease, right? I get obsessing over performance to some extent, but the kids could get sacrificed.’
Whiiiiiir.
As the instructors whispered, the blizzard intensified. The surroundings turned foggy white, visibility zero.
The snowfield entrance.
Class B had finally reached their destination.
Shiver shiver.
Clack clack.
The students trembled, teeth chattering nonstop.
“I-I can’t feel my skin.”
“My nose is running and frozen stuck….”
“Huh? D-Du Bae-su! Where’d your eyebrows go?”
Screams erupted from the kids.
They had mindlessly touched their frozen eyebrows.
They were gone, like they’d been shaved with a clipper.
“Quiet down. Eyebrows grow back—why the fuss?”
“We’re guys, dammit!”
“No law says guys can’t draw eyebrows, you hicks.”
Cheon Hye-ji scolded the boys.
She was fully made up today too.
Even when rescued from the swamp, she’d insisted on makeup first—in that sense, scarier than Kang Jae-hyeok.
“Keep circulating the Tai Chi Technique. Mana flowing through your body helps maintain body heat.”
Kim Jin-myeong advised the students diligently.
But with the snowfield’s cold numbing their senses, controlling dantian mana at will was no easy feat.
Nearly half failed to operate the technique and shivered harder in the intensifying cold.
Checking the time, Kim Jin-myeong signaled the instructors.
They placed hands on the students’ backs, aiding mana circulation.
“…….”
The mood finally calmed.
Class B’s levels were a bit higher than the instructors expected.
With the winter uniform’s insulation plus the Tai Chi Technique’s help, they gradually got used to the cold.
Regaining composure, the students stole glances at Jae-hyeok.
Worried he’d nag about needing to be spoon-fed.
But surprisingly, Jae-hyeok was quiet.
‘Guilt tripping me.’
Jae-hyeok was quite flustered.
He felt no cold at all.
Seemed like his knight trait resisting status ailments.
‘The system counts cold as a status effect?’
Made sense.
Status ailments meant any phenomenon hindering a player.
Cold causing poor condition or frostbite naturally qualified.
‘No wonder the desert felt cool.’
“Jae-hyeok, you weak to cold or something?”
Du Bae-su asked worriedly.
His moon-faced look, eyebrows gone, made Jae-hyeok flinch.
“Huh? Uh. A bit?”
“If it’s tough adjusting, want my coat? You being quiet’s dragging the whole class mood down—makes me anxious.”
“What about you?”
“I’m adapted. Guess my body fat insulates against cold.”
‘Yeah, right.’
If fat made you immune to cold, everyone would bulk up every winter.
Du Bae-su’s mana probably had cold-resistant properties.
“Nah, I’ll pass. Appreciate the thought.”
A kid who lost his eyebrows to cold worrying about unscathed me…
Feeling awkward, he broke a sweat—soggy.
The lead instructor watched intently.
‘Sweating in this cold? Condition’s bad?’
Perfect timing for a new Troll Lord spawn. Nearby monsters would clear out until it matured.
Great window to secure Kang Jae-hyeok.
‘Fortune smiles.’
***
Deep cave in the snowfield outskirts.
Scouts confirmed the Troll Lord respawn inside and hurried away.
A massive monster horde would soon swarm to protect the newborn—no time to dawdle.
“Takes over a month for a Troll Lord to mature, right?”
“Yeah. Let it sit till then for bigger raid rewards.”
“Thanks to the monsters guarding it.”
“Yeah, but Raid Squads 2 and 5 have dibs on this Troll Lord… Hope the monsters ditch instinct and just let it be this time.”
The squad leader vented honestly to the newbie.
Raid Squads 2 and 5.
Association factions.
Scouts loyal to Seol Su-ah felt no love for them.
“If monsters slack off, could third parties besides Martial Force target the Troll Lord?”
“A newborn’s level 59, barely C-rank—raid’s doable. But who at Lion’s Castle is dumb enough to target a C-rank boss and piss off Martial Force?”
“Total high risk, low return…”
“Suicide, plain and simple.”