Basic Rift Studies Lecture
Basic Rift Studies Lecture
Am 08 : 57
Nam Seo-hee pulled down her rolled-up sleeve and glanced sideways.
Dressed in a black school uniform that accentuated her snow-white hair and skin, Baek Ha-na looked down at the podium below, her expression cool.
A sharp gaze that contrasted with her alluring blue eyes—the kind even other women found captivating.
Baek Ha-na's appearance was so striking that, regardless of gender, anyone would be captivated at a glance. A cold beauty that made her hard to approach casually.
Nam Seo-hee cautiously turned her gaze to the opposite side.
The lecture hall could seat a hundred, but only eighty were enrolled, so there was more than enough room to keep to themselves without even trying.
But even considering that, the row where she and Baek Ha-na sat was conspicuously empty. Or rather, deserted—no one sat there but the two of them.
Not just their row, but the seats in front and behind.
It was good that the bothersome people who might cling to her were gone, but Nam Seo-hee was uneasy about the series of events that had led to this.
Saturday. She had parted awkwardly with Baek Ha-na over the matter of the Cession Battle.
Sunday. Baek Ha-na was busy with course registration, so they couldn't talk properly.
Monday. As if the awkward Saturday had been a lie, she had smiled and eaten breakfast with Baek Ha-na, sat beside her during the same lectures, and even chatted through lunch. It was great. It had been great—until the Practical Combat Arts lecture began.
Monday's final lecture, Practical Combat Arts, ran for three hours. The first hour covered how the course would proceed, the professor's brief introduction, and a Q&A session.
The next hour was spent moving to the sparring arena, where each student sparred individually with the professor, Kang Han-na. Of course, it was purely physical sparring without the use of abilities, and Kang Han-na only defended her spot.
It was a necessary session to assess what each student needed based on the recorded footage.
And the final hour: free sparring, conducted under the premise that understanding an opponent's capabilities was paramount.
However, despite the "free" label, Professor Kang Han-na added that everyone had to spar at least once. That's where the problem started.
Since it was a required subject, the class was split into two morning and two afternoon sessions, and by sheer bad luck, Kang Seok-ho was in the last session that Baek Ha-na and she attended.
As if she'd been waiting for the chance, Baek Ha-na challenged Kang Seok-ho to a spar. Unable to refuse, Kang Seok-ho suffered the same merciless beating from two days prior, reenacted right in front of everyone.
With icy cold eyes, Baek Ha-na relentlessly slammed her fist into Kang Seok-ho's face over and over.
The students who watched didn't even dare to make eye contact with Baek Ha-na until the lecture ended.
Fortunately, because it was class time, the merciless scene wasn't recorded, but too many people had witnessed it to stop word from spreading. That was why the seats around them were now empty.
But other classmates avoiding them wasn't a problem for Nam Seo-hee. The problem for Nam Seo-hee was that since yesterday's incident, Baek Ha-na had been in a bad mood.
-Screech.
Nam Seo-hee's gaze shifted at the sound of the door sliding open.
Through the half-open door, Baek Woo-jin walked in, clothed in deep black from head to toe, contrasting with Baek Ha-na except for his skin and glasses.
Nam Seo-hee slightly pulled back her sleeve to check the time.
Am 09 : 00
Exactly when the lecture was supposed to start.
-Click.
The open lecture hall door closed by itself.
At the same moment, a look of confusion crossed the faces of every student except Baek Ha-na and Nam Seo-hee. Claire, who always followed Baek Woo-jin into the lecture hall, was nowhere to be seen.
The students who, like Nam Seo-hee and Baek Ha-na, had taken this course solely to see Baek Woo-jin had all vanished during the first trial lecture—once Claire appeared.
After all, they didn't need to listen to content that anyone who graduated from a specialized school would already know. He had even emphasized several times that there would be a lot of assignments.
-Clack.
While the students were momentarily flustered by Claire's absence, the lock on the briefcase on the podium unfastened, and it opened its mouth wide. Then, bundles of paper as thick as a finger poured out through the gaping opening.
They floated in the air and then silently flew down, landing in front of the seated students.
-Clack. The briefcase closed its mouth, and Baek Woo-jin spoke to the students, who were glancing back and forth between him and the stack of paper that had landed in front of them.
"This is this week's assignment."
For a moment, the students melted at the rich voice that seemed to dissolve their ears, but they quickly snapped back to their senses, eyes widening when they realized Baek Woo-jin had handed out an assignment before the lecture even began.
"Submit it by this time next week."
Still, they felt a shred of relief at the fact that the deadline was about six days away. The thickness was a bit unusual, but it must be an assignment requiring basic knowledge about Rifts, after all.
Above all, Baek Woo-jin himself had emphasized several times during the trial lecture that he would only teach the basics.
Nam Seo-hee didn't think much differently from the other students. So, in a light mood, she tried to subtly close the distance to suggest they do the assignment together with Baek Ha-na.
'......?'
Baek Ha-na was tilting her head and staring intently at Baek Woo-jin.
"What's wrong?"
"......Nothing."
It seemed like it wasn't nothing, but since Baek Ha-na said so, Nam Seo-hee just nodded and subtly pulled her seat closer to Baek Ha-na.
"Ha-na."
"Shh."
"Oh, okay."
Nam Seo-hee immediately fell silent at Baek Ha-na's gesture—her index finger to her lips—telling her to be quiet.
Without so much as a glance at Nam Seo-hee, Baek Ha-na picked up her pen and prepared to take notes in her notebook. Watching her from the side, Nam Seo-hee blinked and then turned her gaze toward the podium.
Unless it was an alchemy or magic lecture that required memorizing and understanding complex formulas, no professor forced students to take notes. As the world developed, necessary lecture materials were posted on the course board in advance, and students could freely download and view them as needed.
However, Baek Woo-jin didn't provide such convenience to his students, even though this was an elective, not a required course. He told them to transcribe by hand if necessary.
But the students who had attended the trial lecture didn't feel the need to take notes. They had only brought writing materials to look diligent in front of Claire, and with her—the person they actually wanted to impress—absent, all but a handful were just staring blankly at Baek Woo-jin's back.
"The lecture will begin now."
As Baek Woo-jin turned around, a jet-black chalkboard revealed itself behind him. Then, a pure white piece of chalk rose into the air and began to leave marks on the board at a very rapid pace.
-Scratch, scratch.
With the moving chalk behind him, Baek Woo-jin stood facing the students.
"The cause of Rift generation has still not been identified, and since you all should know the signs that appear before they form, I won't explain them."
Nam Seo-hee appreciated Baek Woo-jin's deep voice and looked at the large glasses he wore. Then she imagined the two eyes hidden beneath those glasses.
All around her, many other students subtly bowed their heads to catch up on lost sleep or to think about other lectures.
Baek Woo-jin saw this but didn't comment, continuing his lecture.
"Low, mid, and high-tier Rifts each have their own characteristics. I'll explain those from next week onward. Today, I'll explain the Crystal, which is the core that forms all Rifts."
-Tap, tap.
The chalk, which had been moving rapidly, had returned to the starting point and lightly tapped the board.
"True to being the core that maintains the Rift and creates monsters, the Rift dissipates the moment the Crystal is destroyed. If you fail to escape in time, don't worry. Living beings, excluding monsters, are flung somewhere on Earth as the Rift collapses."
At the tapping on the board, the students briefly tried to focus, but once they confirmed this was content they had learned in specialized school, they averted their eyes again.
-Tap, tap. The chalk tapped the board again. But unlike the first time, the students didn't look.
"As the Rift core, the Crystal is hidden in the innermost area of the Rift or in an unexpected place. Unless it's a thematic Rift, for low-tier Rifts, you must destroy or reach the core within one week; for mid-tier, one month; and for high-tier Rifts, at least three months."
Nam Seo-hee, who had been enjoying Baek Woo-jin's voice as background music while studying his face, blinked. She had never heard that the Crystal had to be destroyed within a certain number of days.
"The reason is simple. If you exceed that period, the Crystal finishes learning and starts a new response to repel the intruders—you."
'......Learning?'
Nam Seo-hee's gaze shifted to the chalkboard. Her eyes widened.
The pure white marks the chalk had left on the jet-black board. She could say with certainty that she had never heard of any of these things anywhere.
"They use Rifts for other purposes. Mostly the guys operating in the underworld do this. But the problem is how they managed to maintain the Crystal while preventing monsters from being summoned. The answer is simple."
-Bang—!!
"It's because the Rift core, the Crystal itself, decided it no longer needed monsters. The humans who had slaughtered all the monsters protecting it reached it, but they did not destroy it. Therefore, it simply concluded there was no need to create more monsters."
Baek Woo-jin's explanation continued without pause. But Nam Seo-hee couldn't hear his words now.
'A new entity...? What's labyrinthization...... Guardian?'
"So, in the case where you fail to destroy or reach the core within the time limit, this, too, is simple. Based on the data of monsters killed by humans, it grants resistance to existing monsters or creates entirely new entities."
Baek Woo-jin, who had been continuing his explanation, turned his head to the left.
"I'll take questions at the end."
It seemed someone had raised their hand.
'No, that's not the point.......'
Nam Seo-hee hurriedly opened her notebook and grabbed a pen.
She wasn't the only one. Most of the students who weren't sleeping sensed something was off and, like her, hurriedly opened their notebooks and grabbed pens.
"It would be fortunate if it ended there, but the Crystal doesn't stop learning. Therefore, the most dangerous case is when one raid party pretends to be cautious, but proceeds at an excessively slow pace due to abundant supplies."
Baek Woo-jin saw the students start writing busily, but he continued his explanation just as he had when they had been idle.
"The Crystal calculates the raid party's speed and transforms the paths ahead into a maze. Then, the party's speed decreases further, and the Crystal, having obtained richer information, creates a custom-tailored entity designed to crush the human group threatening it."
The students scribbled busily, and Baek Woo-jin kept lecturing without pause, as if his throat were never dry.
-Tap. The chalk gave a final tap and settled back into its original place.
"I'll take questions now."
No sooner had Baek Woo-jin finished speaking than a male student who had been scribbling with his pen raised his hand.
"Kim Yeong-hun. Go ahead."
"Uh......."
The male student who raised his hand, Kim Yeong-hun, was momentarily flustered, as he hadn't expected the professor to know his name, but he quickly composed himself and asked.
"Uh, I want to clarify beforehand that I'm absolutely not trying to disparage you, Professor. It's just... I've never heard that Crystals can learn. Is this from a recently published paper?"
Every student except Baek Ha-na waited for Baek Woo-jin's answer.
"I also looked to see if such a paper existed, but there wasn't one."
"Pardon? Uh, then......?"
"I said no such paper exists. Next."
Kim Yeong-hun blinked blankly, and the other students' reactions weren't much different.
Just then, Nam Seo-hee carefully raised her hand.
"Nam Seo-hee."
The corners of Nam Seo-hee's lips quivered.
"Go ahead."
"Y-yes...."
She drew a breath, then spoke.
"I'd like to ask if this is content you are preparing as a separate paper."
Because if not, it could put Baek Woo-jin in a very difficult position, and Nam Seo-hee had to ask.
"I'm not preparing a separate paper. However, I have prepared a place to prove it, for those of you who doubt the truth of my words."
"That—"
-La la la la~♪
A beautiful melody signaling the hour flowed from the ceiling speaker.
-Screech. The closed lecture hall door opened, and Baek Woo-jin turned around.
"The next lecture is a joint practical exercise, so gather in front of the sparring arena."
Baek Woo-jin packed up the briefcase he had brought and silently left the lecture hall.
-Tap, step. Nam Seo-hee stared blankly at the open door Baek Woo-jin had just walked through.
"Oh no!!"
"......?"
Nam Seo-hee came to her senses at someone's scream and turned her head toward the cry.
"Ahh!!"
"I haven't even written half of it!!"
"Wh-who wrote it all down?!"
As everyone looked at the board and screamed, a sudden chill ran down her spine. She quickly turned her head to the board.
"Ah......."
A short sigh escaped Nam Seo-hee's lips.
The board, which should have been full of white chalk marks, had been wiped completely clean.
'Ah......!!'
Nam Seo-hee, looking utterly dismayed, widened her eyes and quickly turned to the side.
"Ha-na......?"
The seat next to her was as neatly cleared as the wiped board. Nam Seo-hee couldn't find Baek Ha-na anywhere in the lecture hall.