Chapter 41
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Academy's Summer Vacation (10)
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After airing out the room and having Seo Yeon rinse her mouth with some water she drank, they called in the dungeon manager who worked at the Intermediate Goblin Dungeon.
"I never imagined someone would get hurt this badly here."
"Ahaha... Did you hear about it from Roina and Na-eun, by any chance?"
"Yeah. They said you beat the Hob Goblin without using any skills, but you let your guard down at the end and got seriously injured."
I had definitely used the skills Composure and Insight, which rely on mental power, but to Na-eun, it must have looked like I wasn't using any skills at all.
"It might be weird to ask now, but this is the place with that dungeon, right?"
When the dungeon manager glanced at Seo Yeon, who was holding my hand beside me, I naturally turned to look at her too. Seo Yeon, catching both our gazes, spoke up.
"Yeah. This is a recovery room set up near the warp gate. If there's an accident in the dungeon, they bring you here to recover first, and only after you're fully healed can you head back to Utopia."
"Got it. It's been a while since I've had to use this place. They said the friend who brought you here is pretty skilled, so no major issues. Get a good rest today and head back to Utopia tomorrow. And if something like this happens, the dungeon manager has to patrol more often and report any changes in internal mana levels or dungeon alterations to the management office, so keep that extra workload in mind."
They'd sent decent personnel to what was classified as an intermediate dungeon, and yet serious injuries occurred.
When reporting the reason, I'd have to prove that I deliberately fought without using skills, which would complicate things.
If there were no traces of mana at all, it might be different, but Roina and Na-eun had sliced through more than half the goblins while actively using their skills.
"Yes. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Your health comes first."
The dungeon manager left the room, and Seo Yeon pouted her lips.
"Even entry-level and beginner dungeons have more injuries than you'd think."
"Really? Have you ever been called out for support?"
"Yeah. If you have healing skills, the first thing they do is have you treat minor injuries from those dungeons. There were tons of students like that at the start of the semester."
"At the start of the semester..."
It must be cases where students at Global Academy, relying blindly on their Status Window after enrolling, charged into dungeons without fear, miscalculated the power gap, got careless, and got hurt.
Now during summer break, they'd have mastered their skills sufficiently and formed groups to run dungeons together, so the injury rate should have dropped a lot, right?
"Ah! Sian, this is basically the start of the semester for you, isn't it? Huh? You could get hurt."
I'd been thinking about others for a moment, but Na-eun must have thought I looked downcast, as she started rambling on.
"Exactly, this is your first injury today, after all."
"Hehe. Good..."
"Good what?"
"I wanted to be the one treating you the first time you got hurt."
I wasn't sure if I should find Seo Yeon's line of thinking endearing or a little scary.
Should I be grateful that Roina and Na-eun had called her?
"Did Roina and Na-eun head back to the dorms?"
"Yeah. They said they'd come pick us up tomorrow morning."
"I should thank them. They must have had a hard time getting dragged into my mess."
"Yeah. I should thank them too."
Seo Yeon grinned brightly as she spoke, then started pushing me to the side on the bed.
"There's an empty bed right next to you?"
"No way. I wanna sleep next to you."
Pretending to sleep, I shifted my body over, and Seo Yeon climbed onto the bed.
"Sleep tight. I'll watch over you from the side."
"Yeah, yeah. I remembered something I have to do tomorrow, so I should sleep early."
I stroked the sky-blue hair covering Seo Yeon's forehead once, then closed my eyes.
It felt like the first time in ages I'd fallen asleep feeling the warmth of my lover's body.
I woke up in the morning and stretched my body.
Thanks to Seo Yeon's healing skill working perfectly, there was no discomfort when I moved.
"Sian, is your body okay?"
"Yeah. Is the manager on night duty sleeping?"
The manager, who had to pull night duty because of us, emerged from the duty room right as we mentioned them.
"Looks like you're all good. Grab your gear and head back."
"Yes. Thank you."
I recovered all the gear I'd been wearing yesterday and headed to the warp gate.
This is the first time I've stayed over a full day before heading back.
I stepped in first, and Seo Yeon followed right after.
"Do we need to report our return or something?"
"Logging it on the pass terminal should cover it. Since your healer came back with you."
This was my first time with an experience like this, so I wasn't sure.
The first thing on today's agenda was asking Mr. Torres to inspect my gear.
"Wanna grab some food? I'll drop my gear off at the dorm and come."
"Yeah. I'll wait at the entrance."
As she said that, I saw Seo Yeon fiddling with her smartphone. Probably contacting Roina and Na-eun?
I returned to my room, sorted my gear, and headed down.
As expected, Roina and Na-eun were standing next to Seo Yeon.
"Na-eun, thanks for now. Oh, can I speak casually?"
"Sure. Then I'll do the same. I think I reacted slowly because you fought better than I expected. You two are dating again, right?"
Since she was somewhat of a lifesaver, it felt better to speak casually rather than keeping distance, and Na-eun seemed fine with it too.
Hearing Na-eun's words, Seo Yeon came to my side and took my hand.
"Yeah. Thanks to you. Really grateful."
Seo Yeon beamed beside me, and Na-eun slowly nodded.
"Good. Things will be less annoying now. No more of that nonsense where she dumps him first and ends up suffering more like an idiot, right?"
"Ugh. Stop, it's resolved now, so it's fine. Sian, Na-eun, let's go eat."
We loaded up our trays with nutritious foods at the cafeteria and ate together.
Seo Yeon seemed to be eating—or not—while watching me eat, while Na-eun cleanly finished the similar portions she'd taken like me.
When Na-eun and I finished, Seo Yeon started eating a bit faster, so I asked Na-eun.
"Na-eun, did you get any penalties or anything because of me?"
"Not really. There's no reason for someone who went into a dungeon clear to get penalized just because someone got hurt during it. Plus, the injury happened after the clear, so it's an ambiguous situation anyway."
Fighting zombies that stop when you smash their heads or goblins that die from a heart stab made me underestimate the Hob Goblin's tenacious vitality, even after stabbing its heart.
It's important to fight a variety of enemies for real experience.
What we learn at Global Academy is helpful, but it's mostly focused on skill-based combat explanations.
"Then, Roina and Na-eun, could you spar with me sometime?"
"Sure. Sounds good. I thought your swordsmanship was pretty impressive too. It'll be good experience for both of us."
She accepted my suggestion right away, so yesterday's fight must have left a good impression on Na-eun.
Even though I mostly just stabbed goblin hearts.
Maybe because I didn't use skills?
"You two are getting close...?"
Seo Yeon, who had paused mid-bite, looked back and forth between Na-eun and me.
"Well, we've cleared a dungeon together once."
"I... I'll go with you guys next time. Just the two of you."
She was shooting Na-eun what looked like jealous glances, but weren't they best friends?
Before sparring with Na-eun, I went to Mr. Torres to request gear maintenance.
I considered buying bullets too, but I still had two spare magazines, and hadn't even used up the basic ones, so I'd do that later.
"You blocked Hob Goblin attacks head-on three times, right?"
Mr. Torres said as he examined the armor.
The sword didn't seem particularly dulled, but maybe the armor was lacking?
"Yes. The third one was a proper hit with a blunt weapon, and it hurt quite a bit."
"Honestly, you've grown too fast, Sian. A student who was doing entry dungeons just recently is already tackling intermediate ones—and one-on-one with a Hob Goblin, no less. Without proper combat skills..."
"I do have evasion skills... but yeah, I took some hits."
Without Composure and Insight, I wouldn't have even considered fighting it.
"Buying better gear is one option, or modifying the armor effects is another. You know wearing all five spreads the effect across your whole body, right? We could adjust it to concentrate on just the armored areas for better durability, but what do you think?"
"Can you leave the head protection? The first hit was to my head."
If I'd taken that head hit without armor effects, I'd probably be out of the fight entirely.
"So, weaken protection on other body parts except the head?"
"Yes. Please do that."
With Composure and Insight, I could block with my wrist or torso if needed.
"Then the commission fee is 200,000 gold... Hmm... 100,000... Gotta factor in labor costs too!"
Mr. Torres glanced back at Seo Yeon standing behind me and started lowering the price, clearly minding her.
I turned slightly, and Seo Yeon gave a bright smile, but I wondered what face she'd made when I wasn't looking.
"So, sword maintenance and armor mods for 100,000 gold?"
"Yeah. Next time, bring your girlfriend along again."
"I will."
I held out my watch for payment and left the gear shop.
"He tried to charge that much when you got hurt because of armor performance issues. Total scammer, right?"
"The performance itself wasn't bad. I expected lighter gear to have weaker protection. Not knowing the three-hit limit was the regrettable part."
Seo Yeon stared at me, perhaps finding my calm explanation intriguing.
"What?"
"You look way better now than when you were blindly grinding solo based on just Possession. Like you're freed from quests?"
To that extent, I was planning to spar with Roina and Na-eun to complete a quest right now.
We were heading straight from the gear shop to the training room where Na-eun waited.
"By the way, whose Possession did you do? There weren't any matches for compatibility, right? It'd been stagnant for half a year—how'd you find one?"
"I'll keep that a secret."
"You'll tell me later, right?"
Maybe because she felt guilty, Seo Yeon backed off without pressing like before.
Exactly as I'd planned to take the initiative.
"Yeah. I'll tell you later."