The Squint-Eyed Character's Exam Prep (4)
"More! More! Run harder! More!"
"Huff… hnnngh!"
Seong Hyeon gritted his teeth and sprinted around the field. He held a sword in one hand, and the heavy blade made every stride look even more exhausting. I chased right behind him.
"Hang in there, Hyeon!"
Lee Jiwoo's cheering voice rang out from the shade beyond the track. A quick glance her way showed a cluster of tiny water spirits gathered beside her. Kim Gabyul was there too, cradling Miho in her arms. The little fox had clearly given up resisting; she hung limp and simply enjoyed the petting.
I had been the one to call Seong Hyeon out here. Officially it was to prepare for the first midterms, but the real goal was to raise the protagonist's strength. As long as the protagonist remained at the academy, incidents would never stop coming. Already several had broken out in Seong Hyeon's class alone. Destroyed classrooms were routine; once someone had set off an explosion right in the middle of a lesson and turned the entire room into a wasteland. I almost felt sorry for Class 4's homeroom teacher, Yun Chaehee.
"Huff… hey! How much longer do I have to run?!"
Seong Hyeon, still pounding the track ahead of me, finally spilled his complaints.
"No matter how much you complain, I simply cannot stop!"
"What kind of answer is that…?"
In the end I caught him. The moment my hand closed on him he collapsed flat onto the track and gasped for air. When I stepped closer, my shadow blocked the sun; the scowl on his face eased a little.
"Haa… haaah…"
"With stamina this poor, reaching the absolute top ranks will be far too difficult, won't it?"
"Who… ever said… huff… I wanted the top ranks…?"
"Still, wouldn't it be nice to be among the very best?"
"It would be nice… but I never asked for this kind of training…"
Seong Hyeon muttered under his breath. I had pointed out his stamina, yet at this level it was already quite usable.
"Even so, you're better than when we started. Back then you were barely usable at all."
Lying on the track, Seong Hyeon shot me an incredulous look.
"That's because you work me so damn hard…!"
"If I hadn't, your stamina would never have improved this much by today, would it?"
"Well… yeah, that's true."
"I think the stamina work is enough for now. Shall we move on to swordsmanship?"
"Hah! Fine. Let's do that."
Once he had caught his breath, Seong Hyeon bounced to his feet and walked over to Lee Jiwoo. She held out a water bottle the moment he approached.
"Here! Drink up!"
"Thanks."
He accepted it with a grateful nod and gulped the water down. I stepped slowly into the shade myself. Kim Gabyul came over and held out a plastic bottle.
"Baek Sejin. Need water?"
The bottle bumped lightly against my chest.
…I suppose that means I should just take it.
"Haha, I'll gratefully accept."
Even though I had bought the water myself.
Seong Hyeon, Lee Jiwoo, Kim Gabyul and I headed for the training hall. We had been training together for several weeks now—ever since the incident with Kang Ha-seung, roughly. The purpose had been simple at first: raise Seong Hyeon's skill.
In the original story the protagonist faced crisis after crisis from the very beginning. Monsters had invaded the academy only two days after enrollment. The absolute peak had come during career experience week, when Behemoth's avatar awakened. Feeling the very ground beneath your feet—nature itself—collapse was not an experience one could find just anywhere. That brush with death had forced Seong Hyeon to grow; it was the episode where he finally succeeded in forming Aura for the first time.
My transmigration had changed everything, and for the better. Because I had already slaughtered a large number of the monsters, the invasion was far easier to repel. Because I had struck a deal with Behemoth's true body in advance, there were no casualties and not a single person died. The side effect was that Seong Hyeon's growth had lagged behind the original timeline, but that was fine. I could simply fill in the missing training myself.
Originally I had planned to meet him one-on-one. On the first day we did exactly that, and that was when I confirmed he could already produce a faint Aura. Then Lee Jiwoo and Kim Gabyul found out, and the group expanded. Four people now. Fortunately no one else seemed poised to join yet, though I could already see several faces hovering at the edges of the circle. If they were going to join anyway, training together after the first midterms wouldn't be so bad.
We used the academy field and training halls. Warna Academy stayed open on weekends for its students, so there was no better place. The academy ran dormitories; most students went home for the weekend, yet a few stayed behind to train their abilities. To close the gap between those groups, the academy had adopted this open-weekend policy.
The system had its drawbacks. Ordinary people could not enter, but any enrolled student could, which meant infiltrators were always a possibility. The academy limited weekend access to those who registered in advance, yet that alone could never stop someone determined to sneak in. Mana sensors, advance registration—every measure was still man-made, and therefore breakable by other people. Moreover, because any student could use the facilities, one's full strength risked being exposed to unknown classmates. That could hurt. Some exam subjects involved duels; if an opponent already knew your capabilities, the fight started at a disadvantage.
Even so, the field and training halls remained popular. Few places allowed you to use your powers so freely, and any other reliable training facility charged steep hourly fees. Students with money—like Seong Hyeon or Kim Gabyul—could build private halls at home, but not everyone who entered Warna Academy was wealthy. Academy facilities were free for enrolled students, so the burden was zero.
We had trained every weekend; this was already the fourth week. When we first began stamina drills, Seong Hyeon's endurance had fallen short of my standards. Yet true to his protagonist status, his stamina had already improved dramatically. His swordsmanship, under my direct instruction, had grown exponentially as well.
I finished organizing my thoughts and looked ahead. Kim Gabyul and Seong Hyeon were sparring. For safety they used wooden swords rather than live steel. Aura coated both blades. Thanks to our special training, Seong Hyeon could now draw Aura far more stably than before. And that was not all—Kim Gabyul had succeeded in forming Aura as well. A thoroughly satisfying result. If we simply continued like this, everything would be fine. Should I run into a fully restored Kang Ye-eun during the first midterms, the fight might prove quite difficult; having these two ready to handle any other enemies that appeared in the meantime would be a solid asset.
After the spar with Kim Gabyul ended, I watched Baek Sejin teach Lee Jiwoo swordsmanship and raised Aura around my own wooden blade. The Aura coating the wood trembled faintly. Still unsatisfying—no. Actually, it was quite satisfying. Reaching this level in roughly a month was a major achievement. Creating this Aura had demanded enormous effort: a little blood, a tiny amount of tears, and a vast quantity of sweat offered up as sacrifice.
I remembered the first time I accepted his proposal.
"Don't you want to become stronger?" That was how he had put it.
His sudden question had made me think long and hard. Of course I wanted to grow stronger. I accepted, yet I still worried that illegal black magic might warp my body, that I might end up like one of Moon Seyeon's monsters. Back then that was the image Baek Sejin projected—the mastermind behind everything, an executive of some evil organization, the final boss straight out of a novel. That impression had not changed. It had simply gained an extra layer: demonic drill instructor.
Our first meeting was legendary. Claiming he needed to test my stamina, he made me run laps until I collapsed. Then he fell into thought and spent the entire day on nothing but stamina drills. I dry-heaved several times before it was over. I staggered home a complete wreck, only for Lee Jiwoo to greet me. She took an interest, so the following week she joined the training. Apparently she contacted Kim Gabyul as well, because Gabyul showed up too and the group suddenly doubled. That was good news for me—more people meant Baek Sejin's attention would be spread thinner. For some reason that never happened, but still.
The suffering had been real, yet seeing the fruits of the labor now filled me with pride. I could feel how much stronger I had become. I still couldn't beat that man, Baek Sejin, of course. No one in this group had ever won a spar against him. Kim Gabyul seemed to handle him best, yet even she always lost in the end.