Counterattack
Two days later.
Just as Elaine had announced, combat practice was underway.
It was a survival exercise held on Bukhan Mountain, pitting students against actual golems and magical beasts — and failing it, they said, meant disqualification as a hunter.
In most fiction, raw magical power was all you needed to steamroll everything. Reality, unfortunately, did not work that way. You had to know the affinities of every magical beast, and you had to train relentlessly so you never so much as grazed an ally. There was a reason people said the scariest thing on a battlefield was friendly fire. When people panic and tense up, they commit the stupidest mistakes imaginable. Even seasoned soldiers who'd seen real combat did it — so of course a bunch of teenagers with barely controlled magic were going to be a disaster waiting to happen.
"Alright. I'm your training instructor, Yoo Taehwan. No preamble — form up into teams of six, starting now."
A man built like a bear barked the order, a helmet tucked under one arm. Everyone scrambled into little clusters, while the kids with no connections and no talent wandered around in a daze. I'd followed Elaine without a second thought, so I just stood there blinking.
She'll round people up on her own, right?
"Pecia, say hello. This is Ji Hanyeong, this is Rudi, this is Park Hyeonsu, and lastly, this is Senior Choi Junsu."
Everyone else was too busy stammering to get a word out, so Elaine handled the introductions herself. The tall, stick-thin girl with glasses was Ji Hanyeong. The plump, rabbit-eyed girl looking terrified was Rudi. The kid in glasses muttering what sounded like a prayer under his breath was Park Hyeonsu. And the one standing with his arms crossed, looking us over one by one, was Choi Junsu.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Choi Junsu… senior?"
"Yeah. This exercise mixes all the years together."
Choi Junsu spoke up.
"You're all first-years, I see. Please follow my lead once we're inside the training grounds. It's dangerous in there."
His delivery was painfully stiff, the tremor in his voice barely held in check. It was almost pitiful. That was our senior? Out of hundreds of people, Elaine had somehow managed to cherry-pick every single idiot in the crowd. Was this what they meant by noblesse oblige?
Elaine answered with a bright smile.
"Thank you again for joining our team, Senior. We were worried we wouldn't have anyone with experience — this is a huge relief."
…
Surely she wasn't about to put that trembling sapling in charge. He was short for a guy, scrawny as a twig, and nothing about him inspired confidence. His estimated magic capacity wasn't impressive either.
Elaine pressed on through the awkward silence.
"Um… well, I've got plenty of magic, so I'll take the dealer role. Senior can hang back, provide rear support, and give combat orders. The rest of us protect him. How does that sound to everyone?"
Thankfully, she'd thought it through. While the cowards huddled together, she would personally beat everything into the ground — all while assigning roles and carefully preserving everyone's pride.
Ji Hanyeong, Park Hyeonsu, and Rudi answered in turn.
"Works for me."
"Same."
"I-I learned some defensive spells. I'll help."
And just like that, we had one main dealer (Elaine), one tank (Rudi), two extras, and one leader (Choi Junsu). I got lumped in with the extras, but I wasn't entirely useless — my mere existence was a source of joy for Elaine. So basically, I had zero intention of doing anything.
Once the students had sorted themselves into groups, the instructor continued.
"Each team enters through its assigned gate. Collect the ether stones scattered throughout Bukhan Mountain and make your way to an exit. Everything else, figure out yourselves and learn from it. For the record — if your life is in genuine danger, instructors will intervene. Any other injuries or illnesses, you're on your own."
The helmeted instructor swept his gaze over us.
"To get out, you either get hurt badly enough to nearly die, or you clear the course. Everything about the magical beasts and golems inside is in the manuals you already received — use them."
Nobody was going to volunteer for near-fatal injuries. The message was clear: sink or swim, give it a shot, find the stones somehow, and get out. In my previous life, a program like this would have sparked an uproar over child abuse and student rights. In a world where the entire planet was a battlefield, nobody cared.
"Move out!"
At the instructor's signal, the iron gates barring the entrances rose. I hadn't noticed before, but the walls encircling Bukhan Mountain were absurdly thick — easily over a meter. Probably mixed with magic-resistant materials. Even at full power, I figured I'd only manage to put a crack in them.
There were twelve open entrances total. The teams nearest the gates started filing in first.
"Huh? What the hell is that?"
As our turn approached, I stared with my mouth open. Every time a team entered, a translucent magic field flickered into place for a moment — and when it dropped, the landscape beyond had completely changed. Sometimes a cliff face jutted up. Sometimes it was thick with vines. Sometimes a stream appeared. It was different every time.
Elaine answered.
"It's a maze."
"A maze?"
"The Great Triangle Mountain Battle from the medieval era — the one where the archmages and the witches went all-out against each other. Triangle Mountain is Bukhan Mountain."
Whoever was responsible, the fighting had permanently warped the space. Apparently the world was full of places that had been twisted into dangerous labyrinths like this.
Ji Hanyeong asked nervously,
"So if we go in, we can never get out?"
"That's what the ether stones are for. Hold one and it'll guide you to a path. You can get out without one, but if you don't have a stone, the instructors will just send you right back in."
Elaine smiled with total confidence.
"Don't worry, though. In the entire history of the Academy, not a single student has died during training. Alright, Senior — shall we?"
Choi Junsu answered with darting, restless eyes.
"Stay sharp, everyone. That place is no joke."
His shaking legs started moving. It felt less like heading out for student training and more like some grand leap of destiny — a last desperate charge.
Still, at least he's taking point.
At a glance, he looked ready to burst into tears, bolt, or just collapse on the spot. But maybe the role really did make the person — Choi Junsu led us forward and strode into the entrance with surprising dignity.
"Alright, all six of you stand inside this circle for a moment. You, the girl, and Glasses — stand still! Wait, why are there only five— hey!"
While the instructor frantically stopped Ji Hanyeong and Park Hyeonsu, Senior Choi Junsu vanished. And in the next instant—
Whoosh—!
A white curtain swallowed my vision.
We were supposed to wait for the maze to shift before entering. He'd been so nervous he'd just charged straight ahead. By the time the curtain lifted, the landscape had already changed.
"Ahahahahaha!!!"
Elaine laughed like this was the best thing she'd ever seen. We'd barely stepped inside and already one person was missing — the party's leader, no less.
"Wh-what do we do? Will Senior be okay?"
The chubby girl fretted with anxious eyes. The glasses boy answered. I'd already forgotten his name.
"He's a third-year. He'll figure it out. The teams are basically a formality anyway — solo action is allowed once you're inside."
The tall stick-thin girl nodded. I'd forgotten her name too.
"Let's just get ourselves out fast. Being stuck with only first-years is already nerve-wracking enough — who has the bandwidth to babysit a senior on top of that?"
Elaine's expression tightened for a second. Even if this was just training, a noble girl like her was never going to approve of coldly abandoning a teammate.
But I was just as pissed. I muttered toward the stick girl and the glasses boy.
"…We go find him and then we leave."
The stick girl rounded her eyes.
"Huh? Why?"
She looked exaggeratedly shocked. There was a distinct edge of irritation in her voice, the kind that said here we go with the annoying nonsense. She was so desperate to finish the exercise that nothing else registered.
The glasses boy wore a similar look. But I couldn't understand them at all. Hadn't Choi Junsu stepped up for the team's sake? He'd been scared himself, yet he'd claimed the leader role and tried to help based on what little experience he had. When someone shows you goodwill, the normal response is gratitude and reciprocity. Especially from these two.
I said,
"If it hadn't been for that senior earlier, you two would've been the ones who vanished. You were about to keep walking."
"I stopped."
"So did I."
"The instructor stopped you."
"Like I said. We stopped."
"…"
Without Choi Junsu, you two could have been the ones out in front! Were they genuinely not getting it, or just pretending not to? These people were a net negative for the human race.
We stood there glaring at each other for a moment. Elaine, who'd been watching me with a fond look, turned to the chubby girl.
"Rudi, what do you think?"
"I think we should go look for him."
Elaine's face lit up even brighter.
"Majority vote, then. Let's go."
I stared blankly at Elaine as she started ahead. Go? Just like this? With people who were fully prepared to ditch whoever was next to them at the drop of a hat?
"We're going our own way."
The stick girl and the glasses boy, who'd been whispering behind us, spoke up. Elaine turned around with an incredulous look.
"Huh?"
"He screwed up and got himself separated. I don't buy into this, so you two can go rescue him or not — whatever."
"…Not looking for him doesn't mean you'll get out any faster. You don't even know where the ether stones are."
"We'll manage. Good luck."
The stick girl and the glasses boy brushed off Elaine's attempts to stop them and vanished into the jungle. Privately relieved, I stood there thinking for a moment.
…This was all well and good, but this was the exact plot beat I'd seen a hundred times in games. Was this training ground actually safe?
"But are we really going to be fine without Elaine? She's from a magic house — she would've been solid firepower."
At the stick girl's — Ji Hanyeong's — worry, the glasses boy Park Hyeonsu snorted.
"What good would that do? I already know where the ether stones are."
Park Hyeonsu's father was the caretaker of the Bukhan Mountain training zone. He already had every piece of information locked down — the numbers and types of magical beasts, the golem positions, the maze layout. He could have cleared the exercise solo without breaking a sweat.
Honestly… and she was the one acting like she was doing me a favor.
If they'd just followed his lead, he'd planned to get all of them bonus points. Even a girl from a prestigious house wouldn't have this kind of granular field intel.
But Elaine had looked at him like she was pitying him — and on top of that, she'd tried to run the party however she pleased. He'd never even acknowledged her as the leader.
"Yeah, that whole 'I'll specially let you onto my team!' thing was pretty ridiculous."
Ji Hanyeong agreed with Park Hyeonsu. At first she'd thought it was just a joke, but hearing him out, it started to feel like Elaine had been looking down on her. How dare some noble house openly snub people like that. It was infuriating.
"Hey there, friends."
Suddenly, a tall figure appeared ahead of them. A man draped head to toe in loose black robes — like a disheveled reaper.
Park Hyeonsu threw out an arm to shield Ji Hanyeong.
"Who are you?"
A wind stirred through the quiet jungle. His black clothes billowed, and a thick, metallic scent rolled out with them. The man curled his lips into a pleased smile.
"I got separated from my team, you see. I overheard that you know where the ether stones are. I'd appreciate it if you'd let me tag along."