The Dreaded First Day of School

So after clocking out of work, I now had to clock in for school.

My soul was crumbling, but there was nothing to be done about what had already happened. I sighed and began the walk to campus. All around me, other students trudged along just as deflated as I was.

Seriously — school the second work ends? What is wrong with people. You're the kind of guy who'd post on social media about how nice it is to slack off at your dad's company. That's completely different from this. ...So the argument went, anyway.

Here and there, snippets of conversation drifted past me. Apparently the Association was cracking down hard on the guilds ever since the Tak Yoonil incident. God, it's insane. I think they've audited our guild five times this month alone.

I made my way to school with the eyes of a man walking to his own funeral.

—Master, this is rather cozy.

'Well, it is a sheath.'

—How long, exactly, must I remain in here?

'What, feeling cramped?'

As I carried Baekhong at my side, the Heukcheon Demonic Sword floated in the air beside me, turning its question on me. A homeless person finally getting a home and then complaining it's stuffy. Put that way, it was a little sad, honestly.

Right as that thought crossed my mind, my phone buzzed.

I sent her the list of materials I was missing.

I opened the design she'd sent over. She was taking this customization business far more seriously than I'd expected. I typed back a grudging promise to do my best, and a moment later another message arrived.

My face brightened at that. I'd jotted down as many Fiend dens as I could remember in my notebook, but plenty of entries had gone fuzzy. While I was at it, I cleared out the rest of my messages too.

I fired off an acknowledgment to Erciel. Guess I'm brewing potions for her today, then. I'd need to set a few aside for the Sun Guild as well — Park Unhyeok had promised to pay me well, and I intended to make sure he did.

With all that running through my head, I reached the school before I knew it.

Instead of heading to the classroom, I made for the auditorium. It was the opening ceremony, after all, which meant starting the semester with the Headmistress's address. The hall was already half full; too lazy to hunt for anything better, I dropped into a seat at the far edge.

After a moment, a strange feeling settled over me. The last time I'd first landed in this world, I'd been sitting like this too — alone, nobody around me — and I remembered deliberately provoking Hong Yuhwa just to catch her attention.

Things are a lot different now.

The starkest difference was in strength. I had grown strong enough that if I fought Hong Yuhwa a hundred times, I'd win ninety-five of them.

"Saving this seat for someone?"

A bright voice rang out. I turned to find Erciel standing there, glittering gold in the morning light.

And here I'd thought I'd put actual effort into my social relationships, and yet no one had come anywhere near me. Was I that scary?

"I don't think that's it."

Erciel giggled and took the seat beside mine.

"It's more like... awe, I suppose? Big names always draw a crowd, but the moment you're a step beyond that, people stop coming close. And above all, what you did as an intern — taking down Tak Yoonil — was the deciding factor."

"...That's already making the rounds?"

"The people involved have kept it quiet, so the general public has no idea. But anyone who matters knows. You do realize that's why the guilds are circling you like hawks right now?"

"Well, they were circling me before, too."

"...Say, do you happen to know when the potions might be ready?"

Erciel stared at me like I was utterly hopeless, then changed the subject. We traded small talk for a while until Seo Yebin stepped out in front of the assembly. The students' chatter died down, and she began her address.

"You all worked hard over the break. Some of you worked very hard, and some of you worked less — but the experience you've gained now will, in the days to come..."

"Mind if I sit here?"

At the blunt question, I nodded, and Kim Ara settled into the seat on my other side. I looked at her and activated my talent, Perusal (−).

She's gotten far stronger.

What struck me most about her stat window, unlike mine, was that every physical attribute had been consolidated into a single special stat.

Primordial Force. The power wielded by those of Giant blood. The gulf between Kim Ara before her awakening and Kim Ara now was staggering — efficiency alone put her at more than twice her former self.

And then there's the talent: Heaven-Sundering.

The power to seize what exists and what does not, and simply tear them apart. A Kim Ara who wielded that talent properly was a monster, plain and simple — with it, she could rip the connection between mountain and earth clean away, and throw the mountain besides.

It also made her, in a way, the last person anyone could afford to resent.

"Guess you trained hard?"

"Yeah. I was with Papa all break."

"...I see."

Paewang was a man of eighty parts excess, but he kept public and private ruthlessly separate. He'd almost certainly put Kim Ara through hell over the vacation. This was a man who believed every drop of sweat shed in training meant one less drop of blood shed in battle.

"Hey. Has Papa been saying weird things to you?"

"Weird things?"

—Let no one speak strangely to my son-in-law.

Paewang's words surfaced in my memory. Ever since that first meeting, he'd kept saying... odd things. Clearly he wanted to link me and Kim Ara together.

"Hard to say."

"Oh."

Kim Ara tilted her head for a moment, then seemed to understand something and gave a small nod.

By the time our conversation wound down, the Headmistress had finished and the vice principal had taken the stage.

"Good to see you all. Do your best this semester."

Two sentences — that was it — and he trudged off the stage looking thoroughly bored, descending to a roar of cheers from the students.

Then Instructor Seo Wooju planted himself in front of us.

...You've got to be kidding me.

"Aw, come on, it's the first day!"

The quick-witted students were already sensing that something had gone very wrong. This school truly was the worst kind of sadistic, because while it could be reasonably lenient on ordinary days, it went out of its way to grind you into the dirt on the first day of term.

Well, anyone who was going to figure it out already had. Yes — our school had no concept whatsoever of "easing in" on the first day. On the contrary: precisely because it was the first day, they pushed you that much harder.

Instructor Seo Wooju flashed a grin.

"Today's first class is a war of seizure. You will enter a labyrinth, find 'a certain object,' and then make it out through the exit."

Villains. Absolute villains.

It was called a war of seizure because you were meant to fight each other for that object, obviously. Plenty of people would rather camp the exits than bother hunting for it first.

"Shall we be off, then?"

Instructor Seo Wooju led us outside. The artificial island Korea Hero Academy stood on was obscenely vast, so we waited for shuttle buses.

A short ride later, we arrived at our destination. Across a wide meadow, a facility of gray walls wound itself into a colossal maze. The students' faces went stiff — the labyrinth was far bigger than anyone had expected.

"I'll explain the rules now. The war of seizure is, exactly as it sounds, a contest to claim a 'relic' inside this labyrinth. Some of you will know this already, but you're also free to use force or talents to steal someone else's relic."

Instructor Seo Wooju crossed his arms and went on.

"This labyrinth was built because gates and old dungeons produce relics like these. When you go hunting for a relic in the field, most of the time you'll be competing with other guilds — and occasionally, villains or Fiends will show up to claim one for themselves. So this class has two objectives: how well can you protect a relic from your enemies, and how well can you take one from them."

His gaze swept over us.

"Everything that happens inside the maze will be monitored by our professors and instructors via drones. How you conduct yourselves in there will factor into your grades. It counts heavily toward your midterm evaluation this semester, so give it your all. Now — I'll call the first group of entrants."

With that, he began calling students up ten at a time. Each group of ten was escorted off somewhere by an instructor, until my turn came around.

"Put this on your eyes."

The instructor handed me a black cloth. Blindfolded, I followed him into the interior. The sounds of people faded away one by one.

"Wait here."

"Yes, sir."

I waited in silence, absently stroking the hilt of Heukcheon. Funny how fiddling with the hilt like this settles the nerves—

—Hngh... M-Master, you can't just— just start touching me like that out of nowhere.

'......'

When Heukcheon's face flushed red, all I felt was a profound, weary exasperation. I stared at her for a long moment, opened my mouth to say something — and stopped, because a speaker mounted on the labyrinth wall crackled to life.

—The war of seizure begins now.

I abandoned what I'd been about to say and started walking. After a short stretch, a fork appeared.

Which way first?

Left or right, I'd end up where the relic was either way. The labyrinth was designed that way from the start.

Footsteps. Faint, but rising past the edge of my sharpened senses. I crossed my arms and waited for whoever it was to approach.

Just so long as it isn't Kim Ara.

I was strong now. Among the students, I could count on one hand the ones capable of handling me: Kim Seohyun, Kim Ara, and maybe Saint, who'd come over from America.

Against a mage, barring freak variables, I was something close to their natural predator. If you asked who could actually fight me, the answer was really only the warrior types.

Kim Seohyun was a jack-of-all-trades, but I held the advantage; Saint was awkward to deal with, since his holy power let him self-heal and cling like a zombie you couldn't peel off.

But Kim Ara, unlike those two, was someone I could genuinely lose to. She'd awakened her Primordial Force far too early, and fighting the woman she'd become was still premature for me. Whatever I tried, she could simply crush it with raw power.

And there, at the far end of the passage, my opponent revealed herself. A stone sword loomed, bigger than its wielder's own body, above expressionless violet eyes and hair that spilled down to her waist.

......

I was, quite simply, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at a loss for words.

Of all the people I could have met — I just had to run into Kim Ara.