Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: First Day at Grand Royal Academy
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***
The morning sun shone warmly inside.
...That wasn't just a saying; the genuinely hot sunlight was what woke Cheon-seong from his sleep.
“……”
His whole body ached as he pushed himself into a sitting position.
It felt as though heavy sandbags were plastered all over him.
Brushing back his messy hair, he first stretched out wide.
*Crack, pop!*
The chorus of bones cracking at once made him instinctively frown.
'Damn, that hurts.'
Every small movement sent a jolt of pain through his muscles, as if his entire body was bruised.
“Wouldn't sparring twice kill me?”
Muttering what sounded like a joke, he checked his condition anew.
He thought he’d gotten used to muscle soreness after training like a madman for two months, but it seemed the aftereffects of yesterday's duel hadn't faded. The pain he felt now was a completely new kind of agony.
It was as if his body was an experiment to see just how much more it could hurt.
Still, a smile soon found its way to his lips.
The feeling of waking up in a rather clean dormitory, instead of a shabby inn, wasn't bad at all.
“It's a real relief to have a private room.”
Starting from C-Class, students were given private dormitory rooms. D-Class students shared a room with one other person in a separate dormitory building. As someone who preferred being alone, this was the most satisfying thing for him right now.
As he stretched to wake himself up, he gently gazed into the air.
*
ㅡㅡㅡㅡ
Name: Han Cheon-seong
Gender: Male (20)
Title: None
Height · Weight: 178cm, 67kg
Current Continental Influence: 172
*Stats.
[Strength 12]
[Agility 21]
[Stamina 19]
[Mana 10]
[Luck 5]
*Traits Owned [1]
[Spearmanship Lv.4]
*Skills [0]
ㅡㅡㅡㅡ
*
“Hah…”
A sound of admiration escaped him.
A sense of fulfillment welled up deep inside him.
The numbers shimmering clearly in his status window had changed completely. All his stats, except for the fixed stat Luck, had entered the double digits.
He was especially satisfied that his Mana had increased from 2 to 10.
“…I was worried my mana would barely rise, so this is a relief.”
Realizing once again how important it was for a trait to level up, his gaze fell blankly on [Spearmanship Lv.4].
He had estimated it would take at least half a year to reach level 4.
But he had achieved that... in a single day.
Even now, he found it hard to believe he had grown at such an incredible speed.
It felt like he had obtained a fortuitous encounter, the kind only protagonists in martial arts novels experience.
“That's right. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a true fortuitous encounter.”
For someone like him, who had no special privileges or cheats and whose only trait was Common, the evolution of a trait's level was akin to the most valuable treasure one could obtain in this world.
Of course, there were special items that could be obtained during practical training, but for him at this moment, that was just a pipe dream.
…
After waking up, he washed up in the private washroom and changed into his student uniform. As he skillfully slung the iron spear onto his back, a faint smile lingered on his lips.
*Click.*
It was a little past 8 a.m. when he left his room.
Conveniently, as one would expect in a novel's world, classes started at 9 a.m. sharp, and right now, he was pleased with even that.
*Thud.*
*Thud.*
He saw several students as he descended from the high-rise dormitory.
Students were leaving their rooms one by one, heading toward the academy.
The C-Class uniforms, just like his, were prominent.
Since this dormitory building housed students from C1 to C5, everyone seemed full of determination on this first day.
‘Come to think of it, this is different from D-Class too.’
On the day the entrance exam results were announced, he had hoped for B-Class, but a part of him had also wondered if he might be assigned to D-Class.
In the worst-case scenario, he would have been in D-Class.
And the D-Class students had a completely different level of determination. While some, like the C-Class students now, were burning with the joy of having passed, nearly half of the others didn't show as much enthusiasm.
The majority possessed Common traits, so they were keenly aware of how difficult it would be for them to advance to a higher class.
In the worst-case scenario, he might have had to leave the dormitory among them.
That was how much Spearmanship was stigmatized in this world.
‘Thinking about it, it's strange.’
After reaching Spearmanship level 4, he began to wonder why the trait was so undervalued in this world.
Although its grade was Common, the feeling he got from mastering Spearmanship suggested there was something more to it than its rank.
The more he handled the spear, the more he felt its superiority. To him, it clearly felt like an incredibly strong trait.
Besides, his clash with Leonhardt yesterday was proof that Spearmanship was by no means a bad trait.
That outcome would have been impossible without a spear.
So why was the sword, another close-range weapon, rated favorably, while Spearmanship, which could defeat the sword, was rated so poorly?
...As he pondered this blankly on his way to the academy, he easily found the answer.
*Thud.*
He blinked, and a dry laugh escaped him.
‘Spearmanship... has no traits that could be called higher-tier versions.’
The reason was remarkably simple.
—There were no higher-grade Spearmanship traits above the Common one.
Strangely, in this world, no higher-tier Spearmanship traits existed.
Take the Common trait 'Swordsmanship,' for example. It was known to have tens, even hundreds of higher-tier versions.
This meant that even within Swordsmanship, the trait differed for each person who received it.
A simple example was Leonhardt's Legendary trait, 'Sword of the Azure Sky.'
A sword that held the blue sky. It was a swordsmanship with an absurd concept that, as the trait's level increased, would one day truly allow him to contain the very heavens within his blade.
But Spearmanship…
“Strange. Why doesn't Spearmanship have any?”
The more he thought about it, the more he felt a deep sense of regret.
If there were higher-grade Spearmanship traits, he could have aimed for them and developed his skills even further.
It would mean there was a guide or a pioneer for him to follow.
How long had he been walking, lost in thought?
He had arrived at the academy.
—Grand Royal Academy.
As the largest institution of its kind, the sophisticated exterior he saw upon entering felt new, even though he had seen it yesterday.
‘Maybe it’s because things are going well, but everything looks different.’
He could truly see everything in a positive light.
[C1 Class]
When he reached the classroom where he would be spending the next six months, the door was already open.
“...”
He took a calm, deep breath before entering. Then, he walked into the classroom with confidence.
*Thud.*
“Oh?”
“He's here!”
“That's Han Cheon-seong, right?”
Strange murmurs immediately followed. As soon as he entered the classroom, he could feel the blatant stares directed at him.
Even with those gazes on him, he wasn't particularly flustered.
He had anticipated that the outcome of yesterday's duel would surely spread throughout the academy.
Receiving the various stares, he calmly looked around.
‘He should be here.’
He searched for David, and it didn't take long to find him.
David was looking at him with a slight smile.
“Yo, Han Cheon-seong.”
He called out, and Cheon-seong naturally walked over to him, taking the empty seat next to him.
“David. I'm really sorry about yesterday.”
“Nah, it's fine. What's there to be sorry about? An A-Class student came looking for you, how could I hold you back? Anyway, tell me about it. What exactly happened? What's this about you dueling Leonhardt, this year's top student? Honestly, I've heard a lot of talk, but I still don't really get it.”
As soon as he sat down, David asked with eyes full of curiosity. He wondered how to answer before deciding to keep it simple.
With the rumors already spread, it would be ridiculous to make clumsy excuses or act overly modest.
“It just... happened that I ended up fighting Leonhardt. And the result wasn't bad. It all ended well. By the way, David, have the rumors about yesterday's duel really spread that much?”
“More than you think. One of our classmates saw you leaving with the A-Class students. Plus, I heard the instructors are already talking a lot about the duel's result.”
“Among the instructors?”
“A few of them stopped by our classroom before you got here. To see you.”
As David said this with a smirk, Cheon-seong momentarily froze.
‘Am I really that big of a deal?’
He had expected the duel to have a significant impact.
He had anticipated the interest from his classmates, but he hadn't expected multiple instructors to come to this classroom just to see him.
That kind of attention was originally meant for Leonhardt.
Top of the entrance exam, a Legendary trait, and various other rumors—of course, the instructors would be very interested in Leonhardt.
That shouldn't have changed, even after yesterday's duel… But now, that attention, which should have been focused solely on the protagonist…
Was now directed at him as well. It felt somewhat bewildering.
Honestly, having reached Spearmanship level 4, he was confident. Confident enough to remain composed under all the attention and even consider it natural.
‘I'm definitely strong, but…’
That didn't apply to everyone.
The students' traits were incredibly varied, and there were countless traits against which he would be at a disadvantage.
It meant there was a chance he could even lose to a fellow C-Class student.
“Han Cheon-seong. Yesterday, I expected you to be strong from what you said, but I never imagined you'd be able to match Leonhardt.”
“Saying we 'matched' sounds pretty grand…”
“No, the duel yesterday really happened, right? Then you're already beyond the C-Class level. By the way, the examiners at the entrance exam must have been blind to assign someone like you to C-Class.”
As David praised him so genuinely, all he could do was offer an awkward smile.
“Putting it like that… makes me a little embarrassed.”
His idle chat with David was cut short.
*Click-clack.*
Suddenly, a different set of footsteps echoed.
He turned his head and saw a woman entering the classroom.
Hair as red as a blazing flame.
A face made even more beautiful by the faint smile she wore.
Most notably, she wore the black suit characteristic of an academy instructor, not a student uniform.
“Is it because it's the first day? You all look so eager.”
At the confident and captivating voice that followed... he could only stare blankly.
‘Why…?’
Why was that woman in a C-Class classroom?
It was a completely unexpected situation.
—Kalli Ishtar.
An instructor with a Unique trait said to be close to Legendary.
A powerhouse originally known as the Crimson Dawn.
And an examiner who had left a rather good impression on him during the entrance exam.
And now, she…
had just walked into a C-Class classroom.