I'm the first new student in two years?
I'm the first new student in two years?
Combat Training.
The only class in the Academy's regular curriculum you can't run away from.
Mandatory.
Common to all grades.
Skip it, and you can't graduate.
'Fuck. Graduation again.'
This school threatens you with graduation no matter what you do.
10:00 AM.
Academy training grounds.
It was wide.
Fucking wide.
Big enough to fit three soccer fields.
Students were standing in lines.
Since it was a class where all grades gathered regardless of their major, there were a lot of people.
I was at the very back.
The furthest corner.
Obviously.
"Alright, today is the Combat Major selection training."
The Instructor raised his voice at the front.
Muscular with scars.
A typical retired knight type.
"There are booths for each major in front. Look around yourself and choose one by the end of the day."
There were booths lined up.
[Swordsmanship]
[Spearmanship]
[Archery]
[Chivalry]
[Spirit Arts]
[Druid]
Students flocked over in droves.
Swordsmanship booth.
It had the most people.
Obviously.
Because swords are the most popular in this romance fantasy world.
Because you look cool holding a sword.
I watched the crowd from afar.
'What should I pick?'
The selection criteria were clear.
Few people.
No attention.
Low physical exertion.
Swordsmanship? Out of the question. You have to run around.
Spearmanship? Even more out of the question. You need arm strength.
Spirit Arts? Have to make a contract. Too annoying.
My gaze stopped at the very last booth.
[Druid]
There was no one in front of the booth.
Literally no one.
"Yaaawn-"
One Instructor guarding the booth was sitting on a chair, yawning.
"..............."
Fuck.
Perfect.
That is the utopia I've dreamed of.
No people.
No attention.
Physical exertion?
It'll obviously be extremely low.
If you're a Druid, you just grow plants and play, right?
[Druid: A combat major that uses natural mana to manipulate plants and control the natural environment.]
[Note: Under review for closure due to lack of applicants.]
'Under review for closure.'
It's not just that there are no people; it's on the verge of disappearing.
'............Even more perfect?'
Suddenly, it started looking much more attractive.
And there was one more decisive reason.
Past life.
Game.
My main character was a Druid.
Who am I?
The man who cleared the 'Lord of the Abyss' raid as a Druid.
And that, too, as 'Korea's first'.
Step-
Step-
I walked to the Druid booth.
The Instructor saw me.
Stopped yawning.
Rubbed his eyes.
"............Student?"
With an expression like, 'A person actually came?'
"I'm here to apply for the Druid department."
The Instructor looked at me.
His mouth hung open.
"............For real?"
"Yes."
"This is Druid, you know?"
"I know."
"It's growing grass, you know?"
"Yes."
"Swordsmanship is over there."
"I came to do Druid."
The Instructor hesitated.
Then he started rummaging through a drawer.
"W-wait a second. Where was the application form? It's been two years since I took it out."
'Two years?'
It meant there hadn't been an applicant for two years.
The Instructor pulled out a dusty application form.
He blew on it to dust it off.
"May I ask the reason?"
"Because I've played it a lot in games."
"............What?"
"Druid is my main. About 5,000 hours of playtime?"
The Instructor stared at me blankly.
I was serious.
Fucking serious.
I filled out the application.
[Reason for application: I have a lot of interest in nature.]
I compressed 5,000 hours into one line.
The Instructor took the application.
His hands were shaking.
"W-wait a moment, please."
He took a small communication Crystal Ball out of his back pocket.
As he poured mana into it, the Crystal Ball glowed.
"Hello? Professor? It's me. I'm at the training grounds right now."
He started a call with someone.
His voice was trembling.
"That is...... a new student has arrived."
"A Druid applicant."
Silence flowed from the other side of the Crystal Ball.
And.
"What?!!"
A shout erupted, loud enough to make the Crystal Ball ring.
I stepped back one step.
'Fuck. What the?'
The Instructor pulled the Crystal Ball away from his ear and frowned.
"Yes, yes. It's real. They are standing in front of me right now."
"............."
"The name is Ian Valentine, currently a second-year student......"
"Bring them here immediately!!"
'Huh?'
"Professor, you're in the middle of a class......"
"Is the class important or is the new student important?!!"
The Instructor looked at me.
He had an apologetic expression.
"............Student, do you happen to have time right now?"
I wanted to say, 'No, I don't,' but there was desperation in the Instructor's eyes.
'............What the hell. These people.'
I was dragged away.
To the corner of the training grounds.
Further into the corner.
There was a small building in a place almost like a forest.
[Druid Department]
It was a bit of a stretch to call it a building.
It was closer to a hut.
Ivy was climbing up the walls, and moss was growing on the roof.
The door burst open.
"Where?!"
A woman ran out.
There was a leaf stuck in her hair.
"Where is the new student?!"
"Here they are."
The Instructor pointed at me.
"............."
The woman's gaze locked onto me.
She looked at me.
From top to bottom.
From bottom to top.
And her eyes welled up.
'Why are you crying?'
"It's been two years."
The woman grabbed my hand.
With both hands.
Tight-
"A new student has come after two years."
'Ah.'
This person must be the professor of the Druid department.
"Student. What's your name?"
"I'm Ian Valentine."
The Professor stopped.
She looked at me.
"Good."
"............Yes?"
"No, it's too good. Even the name is good."
'What does the name have to do with anything?'
The Professor grabbed my hand.
With both hands.
Tight-
"Ian. Student Ian."
"It's been two years."
She shook my hand.
Fucking hard.
"A new student has come after two years."
I wanted to say, 'Could you please let go of my hand,' but the words wouldn't come out.
At that moment.
More people came out of the hut.
"Professor, what is it, why are you yelling?"
"They said it's a new student."
"............A new student?"
"A Druid new student."
Three people came out.
They all looked like upperclassmen.
They looked at me.
"............."
"............."
"............."
"Hey."
One of them opened their mouth.
"Is our department not getting closed?"
"Of course not! A new student has arrived!"
"Crazy!"
The three of them cheered.
The Professor cried.
I was standing in the middle of it all.
'Ha. I chose Druid to live quietly. Why are there such trials even here?'
I stared blankly at the sky.
It's blue.
In the dormitory, I'm the only man, so I get attention.
At the Academy, I'm an invisible person.
In the Druid department, I'm a VIP because I'm the first new student in two years.
The sky is really blue.
"Our junior."
One senior approached.
They grabbed my shoulder.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Ian."
"Ian. Good. I'm Thor, a third-year. Nice to meet you."
Another one approached.
"I'm Hana, a fourth-year. I'm in my graduating year. If you hadn't come, this department would have ended after I graduated."
The last one.
"Riel, second-year. We're classmates. Let's get along."
'I had a classmate?'
The woman named Riel chuckled.
"I was alone too. To think I'd get a classmate. It's good."
"............."
I stood awkwardly in the midst of that welcome.
I felt like I should smile, but since I have squinty eyes, there was no change in expression even when I smiled.
'Why are the people here so warm?'
At the Academy, I'm treated like I don't exist.
Here, I'm treated like a savior.
How on earth am I supposed to explain this massive sense of dissonance?
After the welcome ended.
The first Druid major training.
The location was a grassy patch in the corner of the training grounds.
While Swordsmanship was showing off a flashy demonstration in the middle.
Druid was done at the very edge of the training grounds.
Almost at the very end of the booth.
The Professor stood in front.
"Alright, Student Ian. Let's start with the basics."
There was a flowerpot in front.
A seed was planted.
"The basics of a Druid is to let mana flow into nature. You're not giving it power, you're letting it flow."
I placed my hand over the flowerpot.
In the game, it only took one button press.
Reality was different.
I concentrated.
I felt the mana inside my body.
It was faint.
It was thin like a thread.
I tried to send it to my fingertips.
"............."
It didn't work.
Again.
"............."
It didn't work.
10 minutes.
20 minutes.
Sreureu (Rustle).
Something moved from the seed.
Just a little.
Green.
A small sprout.
It was the size of a fingernail.
"Oh! It came out!"
The Professor smiled brightly.
The seniors clapped.
"Oh, the junior's got skills?"
"20 minutes is fast. It took me an hour at first."
"You've got talent."
I looked at the sprout.
It was really small.
At that moment.
Woong-sung-woong-sung (Murmur)-
A commotion arose in the center of the training grounds.
I turned my head.
People were flocking to one side.
Towards the Swordsmanship booth.
Someone was standing in the center of the training grounds.
Black hair.
A long sword over the school uniform.
The scabbard was black.
There was no one within a 5m radius.
Like there are no mobs in a boss room.
Siegfried von Waldstein.
I saw him for the first time.
The character I had only read about in the original work was right in front of my eyes.
The Instructor shouted.
"Swordsmanship major demonstration! Student Siegfried!"
Siegfried drew his sword.
Sreureu (Slide).
There was no sound.
Because it was too fast.
Shu-ook (Whoosh)-
Once.
The steel alloy dummy slid.
The top half slid off.
Kung (Thud).
It fell to the floor.
The cut cross-section was as smooth as glass.
"Wooooah!!"
Cheers erupted.
I didn't cheer.
My hands had gone cold.
That guy.
Elise's man.
The man of the woman I said "if your pretty face swells up" to at night.
'Fuck. If I get hit by that, I'm split in two immediately.'
Deng-gung (Clang)-
My head and body would be separated immediately.
"............"
I looked at the flowerpot in front of me.
The sprout the size of a fingernail.
Suddenly, it looks incredibly precious.
Over there, a steel dummy is split in two.
Over here, one sprout.
'I like this extreme gap.'
I was serious.
Staying as far away as possible from that sword-swinging is my survival strategy.
Let's just grow grass and live quietly.
In this corner where no one pays attention.
Night.
Dormitory Warden's room.
Roll call over.
Curfew lock over.
Today's work finished.
I turned on the game console.
Click.
[STAGE 49 — Guardian of the Old Tree]
New boss.
It was a Druid type.
A boss where a giant old tree moves.
'Catching a Druid boss as a Druid.'
It's a bit ironic, though.
Casting Vine Bind, laying down Poison Herb ground, and rotating Natural Recovery.
I memorized the patterns and chipped away at it one by one.
Click-click-click—
[Guardian of the Old Tree HP: 34%]
It was going well.
At that moment.
A thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"................."
The hand holding the controller stopped.
'Usually, when you look at transmigration stories.'
'The protagonist becomes able to use the abilities they used in the game in reality, right?'
Like the skill tree being applied.
Or game knowledge being converted into real magic.
Or 5,000 hours of experience being manifested in actual combat.
'............Fuck, by any chance.'
'Me too?'
Since I can't pause the game console—
I just put the controller down when the boss was far away.
I got up from my seat.
There was a flowerpot by the window.
The one I got from today's training.
The sprout the size of a fingernail was peeking its head out.
'Should I try it?'
I stood in front of the flowerpot.
The incantation for when I used the Druid ultimate in the game came to mind.
The spell I recited thousands of times during 5,000 hours of playtime.
I took a stance.
I stretched my right hand forward.
Left hand on my chest.
I took a deep breath.
"Mother of the Earth."
Low and grandly.
"Bless the roots where the source of life dwells."
I put strength into my voice.
When I recite this incantation in the game, the whole screen turns green and a giant tree rises up.
"Gather the energy of all things into one, and on this land, an eternal forest of life—"
I opened my eyes.
"............."
1 minute.
Same.
5 minutes.
Same.
10 minutes.
Absolutely nothing happened.
"............."
I looked at the sprout.
The sprout looked at me.
'Fuck. That's my life for you.'
'As if that would happen.'
I lowered my hand.
'Yeah. There's no way.'
'It's my life.'
They say other guys get a skill window as soon as they open their eyes after transmigration.
That they're max level.
That they're the world's strongest.
I don't have anything like that.
'But fuck. So what?'
I sat back on the bed.
I grabbed the controller.
On the screen, the Guardian of the Old Tree was swinging its arms.
The boss's HP started going back up.
'Ah, fuck, this bastard is healing again.'
Click-click-click—
It works here, doesn't it?
At least in the game, I'm a max-level Druid too.
Vine Bind.
Poison Herb ground.
Natural Recovery.
A world where 5,000 hours of playtime shines.
[Guardian of the Old Tree HP: 28%]
Chipped it down.
[21%]
Chipped it down more.
[14%]
"Die."
[7%]
[3%]
The feeling of victory at my fingertips.
Kung-kung-kung (Knock-knock-knock)-
Suddenly, I heard the sound of someone knocking on the door.
'............At this hour?'
1:00 AM.
Knock-knock.
"Dorm, Dormitory Warden senior......"
A woman's voice.
It was a different voice.
It wasn't Elise.
An unknown voice.
"The water pipe in the 3rd-floor bathroom burst......"
"............."
[Guardian of the Old Tree HP: 3%]
I looked up at the ceiling.
'Every time.'
'At 3%.'
'Why every time at 3%.'
It's seriously so unfair.
Ha.
"Yes. I'm coming."
This is the Dormitory Warden.
This is my life.
I picked up the Toolbox and went up to the 3rd floor.