25. My Buff is a Drug
25. My Buff is a Drug
May 17, 3:21 PM
In front of the Blessing Mage class
'Let's see, the Blessing Mage class should be right here.'
Hye-yong followed the map and found his way to the Blessing Mage class.
An instructor named Yoo Ji-ah had apparently been asking for him.
If the Blessing Mage instructor was curious about how a Blessing Mage student was doing, wasn't it only right to go see her?
And so he stood there now.
He opened the large door and stepped inside.
"It's been a while, Choi Hye-yong."
Just as he walked in, a desk sat right beside the entrance to the actual class area.
A male student with a stern, upright impression pushed up his glasses and greeted Hye-yong the moment he saw him.
Hye-yong glanced at his nameplate.
'Third-year... Jeong Han-yul.'
Jeong Han-yul said it had been a while and immediately lost interest, refocusing on the book he had been reading.
'Was that just his personality?'
Normally, people don't greet you and then instantly dismiss you.
If someone greets you first, shouldn't they at least wait for a response before moving on?
'I don't like it, but...'
Still, a third-year was a major senior here, so even though he'd been ignored, Hye-yong decided to return the greeting properly.
"Hello, sunbae-nim."
The instant Hye-yong greeted him, Han-yul's eyes changed in a flash. He snapped his book shut and shot to his feet.
Then, once again adjusting his glasses, he spoke to Hye-yong.
"You...! You can speak now?"
"Ah."
Hye-yong instantly understood.
Why the man had greeted him and then immediately dismissed him.
He had assumed he wouldn't get an answer anyway because of the aphasia.
"That's right."
"I see... You got better while we were apart. The instructor happens to be free at the moment. Go on in."
Jeong Han-yul sat back down and opened his book again.
He seemed a bit rigid, but Hye-yong got the feeling he wasn't a bad person.
[ Blessing Mage Class ]
[ Instructor's Office ]
'So the instructor named Yoo Ji-ah who was looking for me is in here.'
Knock knock knock!
He knocked, but there was no answer from inside.
Knock knock knock knock!
He knocked a bit harder, but it was the same.
"Instructor?"
Knock knock knock!
At this point, he began to wonder if anyone was even in there.
In the end, Hye-yong decided to just open the door and go in.
"Instructor, I'm coming in."
Stepping inside, he saw a casual office-like space.
By the window, a woman with her hair neatly tied up in a high ponytail was smoking a cigarette, her expression steeped in melancholy.
The fact that she wore her instructor uniform strictly by the book, exactly as shown in the handbook, confirmed she was the instructor.
The earphone cord trailing from her ears made it clear she'd been listening to music and hadn't heard the knocking.
"Haaah..."
Yoo Ji-ah exhaled a plume of cigarette smoke and glanced sideways through narrowed eyes.
She seemed to have sensed his presence.
The moment their eyes met, Hye-yong immediately greeted her and bowed his head.
"Hello, Instructor."
"Ah—! Choi Hye-yong student!"
She seemed surprised to see Hye-yong. Her eyes widened before she promptly stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray beside her and approached the sofa.
With both hands neatly folded, Yoo Ji-ah greeted her student with a smile so gentle it felt almost affectionate, her manners impeccable.
"I'm sorry. I didn't answer when you knocked, did I? I always listen to music when I'm alone and it's quiet."
It was hard to believe this was the same person who, moments ago, had been savoring a cigarette with a face that said life was shit.
"Have a seat over there, comfortably."
Instructor Yoo Ji-ah gestured toward the sofa.
As Hye-yong took a seat as she'd suggested, a certain buff was cast on him.
[ Warm Resonance ]
Stamina Stat +8 Levels
Fatigue Recovery +5 Levels
Warm Resonance Effect +3 Levels
'This is...'
The blessing was called Warm Resonance.
True to its name, the moment he received the buff, Hye-yong felt a wave-like resonance spreading deep inside him.
That wave slowly moved through his body, drawing forth feelings of warmth, comfort, and stability from his emotional center.
Not only that, but he physically felt his fatigue melting away.
'Incredible. So this is what a Blessing Mage instructor is like.'
What's more, this didn't seem to be her primary combat blessing—just a supplementary skill she'd casually cast on a whim.
She surely possessed far greater blessings than this.
"It's been a long time, Choi Hye-yong student. How has your academy life been lately?"
"It's been alright. I succeeded in a few raids, so it looks like I'll be able to move up to E-rank rather than staying at F. My aphasia is completely gone, too."
Hearing Hye-yong's words, Yoo Ji-ah looked genuinely delighted, as if the good news were her own.
"Choi Hye-yong student. Your aphasia really is cured! I was deeply moved today to be able to hear your voice. When I heard Instructor Baek Yun-seo had taken you under her wing, I couldn't quite believe it... but things have truly turned out well. Congratulations."
"Thank you."
They had only exchanged a few words, but he could tell she was an exceedingly kind person.
'I'd thought he'd just been ignored and persecuted his whole life as a worthless F-rank failure.'
But it seemed the Blessing Mage instructor had pitied him and looked after him to some extent after all.
"But, Choi Hye-yong student, how exactly did your aphasia—which never improved no matter what you tried—end up being cured? Was there a special trigger?"
A special trigger.
There certainly had been one.
That the Choi Hye-yong who lived in another world had possessed the Choi Hye-yong who lived in this one...
But that wasn't a reason he could explain to the instructor.
'It's probably for the best to just stick with the reawakening story.'
He couldn't remain a failure forever just because he'd been one until now.
Ultimately, Hye-yong also needed to raise his rank and forge connections with new people.
He couldn't guarantee that his three years in this facility would be the end of the journey.
No, just looking at the scale of the modpack's story, what came after graduation seemed far more important.
In the modpack, he simply became a hunter, but here the setting was changed so he'd become a public servant—though that wouldn't change things drastically.
At the very least, he needed to graduate with good grades.
'If something like a buff that increases growth speed were revealed to the world, it'd be absolute chaos. I really can't stand that kind of thing. Since I'm telling an instructor, she's definitely going to grill me left and right. I need to disclose my abilities only to an appropriate degree.'
Hye-yong sorted out his thoughts.
"I had... a reawakening. I think that was the trigger."
"A reawakening?"
Yoo Ji-ah was considerably surprised.
Even for an instructor, reawakening seemed to be a rare occurrence.
"It's not a common thing... but I see. Indeed, Choi Hye-yong student, considering the talent you possessed, your abilities grew abnormally little—to a degree that simple lack of talent couldn't explain. So it was all for this."
Yoo Ji-ah, who had been sitting across from him, abruptly reached out and took Hye-yong's right hand, pulling it toward her and clasping it in both of hers.
"I-Instructor?"
"You endured well, Choi Hye-yong student. It must not have been easy to not give up even when there was no progress at all... It seems you're finally receiving your reward."
She smiled as if she truly thought it was wonderful.
Instructor Yoo Ji-ah seemed to have put considerable effort into guiding Choi Hye-yong, whose skills and stats hadn't grown at all and who had been suffering from severe aphasia.
But no matter what she did, it probably never worked out.
Because, like Seo Ha-yoon and Chae Hwa-ra, Choi Hye-yong was also a being bound by the force of the slapdash settings Hye-yong had created.
'An instructor who genuinely cares about her students, huh. I'm getting kind of choked up here...'
If Bwitgwitgak's world hadn't been attacked by the Virus, Hye-yong wouldn't have been summoned here in the first place.
The character Choi Hye-yong, modeled after himself, would have lived on in this world as an independent personality.
Hye-yong suddenly became curious.
If he hadn't possessed the body of the character Choi Hye-yong, what kind of life would the original have lived?
'I'll live diligently.'
As he thought about that, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
"I'll see you in the third semester, Choi Hye-yong student."
"Thank you, Instructor. Goodbye."
He said his farewell to Yoo Ji-ah and stepped outside.
He had assumed that if he said he'd had a reawakening, she would definitely interrogate him about what buff he'd obtained, but she had only congratulated him and hadn't asked what he'd gotten at all.
"Choi Hye-yong."
As he was about to head outside, Jeong Han-yul, still sitting exactly where he'd been, spoke to him.
"It's not just the aphasia that healed. You've changed a lot. Your face looks better, and your stride is confident now."
Jeong Han-yul's gaze swept over the pistol on Hye-yong's thigh.
"Seems you've figured out your own way to survive, too."
Having said that much, he looked back down at the book he was holding.
"Do well starting from the third semester, Choi Hye-yong. Don't make the instructor worry about you for nothing."
His tone was somewhat commanding and gruff, but Hye-yong could vaguely sense it.
Wasn't this just his way of showing support and encouragement?
"I'll do my best, sunbae-nim."
And with that, he exited the Blessing Mage class.