96. My Buff is a Drug
96. My Buff is a Drug
"Haah, haah."
Park Yuri and Lanfang faced each other, breathing hard.
A pure 1v1 with no exclusive buffs, relying solely on their own strength.
Before long, Lanfang's combat power had climbed to nearly match Park Yuri's.
'Damn. The growth buff really does work wonders.'
Park Yuri caught her breath and asked,
"You're not... you're not using a buff, are you?"
"No. Neither of you has any buffs active."
"Hoo."
She sighed.
'She's gotten incredibly strong too, this one.......'
Was Lanfang growing that fast, or had she herself regressed?
Either way, it was a kick in the pants.
'After the exams, I'm gonna have to push my body even harder.'
Having made that resolution, Park Yuri shifted her attention.
"Are you just gonna spectate?"
"No, I'm in a support role. Want me to shoot a bullet or two at you?"
Clack—
Hye-yong raised the Burst Wolf and answered.
"You're... not gonna tell me you also have a firearms trait, right?"
"Of course not. This is just a gun."
"Are you a good shot? What if you miss without a trait?"
"Don't worry, I'll only use it when I'm sure. My main job is buffs and shields."
Hye-yong cast a shield on Park Yuri.
[ Divine Protection ]
Divine Power Shield Level 8
'A level 8 shield...... Isn't level 8 a pretty high number?'
Of course, what Park Yuri could see was just level 8, but there was a hidden function.
[ Divine Protection ]
Divine Power Shield Level 8
Shield performance increased by 10 levels (output hidden)
This was the bare minimum he needed to feel at ease in many ways.
"Lanfang! Attack Yuri. Yuri, don't dodge or counterattack."
"Yes!"
"Got it."
Lanfang rushed in and swung her blade tonfa at Park Yuri.
A shield materialized in front of Park Yuri, blocking Lanfang's attack.
Maybe because the shield performance was so good, Lanfang was pushed back slightly by the repelling force.
"Keep going."
Thud! Thud!
The shield held firm against the continuing attacks.
Hye-yong joined in, aiming his gun at Park Yuri.
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
Since she was right in front of him, every shot landed.
But all of them were blocked by the shield, losing their force and dropping harmlessly.
"How's that? Shield performance."
Internally, Park Yuri thought it was incredibly good and was even quietly impressed, but once again she answered insincerely.
"Well... it's not too bad, I guess."
"That's pretty much how it'll go. When you two charge in, strengthened by my buffs, I'll protect you with the shield. Don't worry about a thing and just go wild."
"What if the enemy targets you?"
"I have a shield too, so it's fine."
With a shield this solid, the fight didn't look bad at all.
An exam she hadn't even gotten her hopes up about—maybe they'd actually get a good result.
"Let's stop here for today. Meet again at the same time tomorrow, we'll work on our coordination one more time."
With that, they parted ways.
-
July 30th (Mon), 1:58 PM
Otherworld Waiting Room
"Hye-yong, hi!"
"Yo."
"You're here."
"Welcome!"
'Ah, this refreshing, youthful feeling.'
Hye-yong always made a point of arriving last on purpose.
To more thoroughly savor the atmosphere of a room where four girls—who probably smelled good even when they were sweating—were clustered together.
'Now that I think about it, how are they planning to handle the combat tournament exams?'
Na Hee-yeon was a ranged dealer, so she'd probably go into the sniper bracket.
The rest were melee combat types, so they'd likely do standard 1v1 matches.
'And it sounds like the three of them are talking about forming a team for the team battle.'
Still, he decided to ask.
"So how are you guys handling the combat exam?"
"Since you and Ah-young are sitting out, the three of us decided to go in together."
"Our goal is one win!"
Seo Ha-yoon declared with plucky ambition.
'Will they be okay on their own? They've improved a lot, sure, but they're still bottom-tier.......'
He'd held back, thinking this lineup was a perfect fit, but now that the time had come, he was worried.
If he frantically tweaked the buff holy relics he'd already made, he might be able to whip up some usable ones and hand them out in a day.
But that was an act without a future.
In sports terms, you'd have to call it hard doping.
They were clearly that strong in that match and performed well, so why not now?
If someone asked that, the other party members would instantly have nothing to say.
'Well, it'll probably be fine like this for this exam.......'
Of course it would be nice to win, but the stated purpose of this exam wasn't just winning.
Your rank, your opponent's rank, how skillfully you fought based on ability compatibility.......
The instructors would watch the combat and score it based on those considerations.
Choi Ah-young's reasons for sitting out herself were probably multifaceted.
'She might have thought it was better not to take the exam than to take it.'
This team, composed of D, E, and E ranks, would likely get bonus points just for putting up a decent fight.
'Should I just let this one slide and give them something with a growth buff on a holy relic next time?'
Not quite at Lanfang or Kwon Jin-ah's level, but he could probably hook them up with adaptive stat growth efficiency at around level 4.
The function would be hidden, of course.
On the surface, the holy relic Hye-yong would give them was just a mental stability ring that applied a Comfortable Feeling level 1 buff.
'But even doing that, the fact that I can make holy relics at all would be shocking enough.'
He didn't know about the others, but Choi Ah-young would definitely notice.
That only someone with the Holy Relic Maker trait could make holy relics, and that the Holy Relic Maker trait inherently cuts blessing performance.
— Hye-yong, did you pivot into becoming a holy relic maker?
If she asked that, would he have an excuse ready?
'Let's think about it slowly after exams are over.'
For now, Hye-yong decided to just offer some words of encouragement.
"I hope it goes well for all of you. Fighting."
-
Teams were submitted on July 31st.
On August 1st, the day of the exam, the match tables would be revealed.
The reason they got it done just one day in advance was, according to them, to prevent tampering like a past match-fixing incident by keeping it strictly confidential until then.
And so, the day of the exam.
Our opponents were a team made up of D, D, and C ranks.
Han Seokwon, Choi Jinsu, Kobel.......
Two Koreans with one foreigner of unknown nationality mixed in.
'Just one look and it's a sausage fest.'
Against opponents like these, they'd win.
Park Yuri maybe not, but in Lanfang and Hye-yong's case, they were full-on camouflage ranks.
Much stronger than D-rank, they just hadn't raised their rank yet!
Would those two D-ranks over there be the same?
No, it was far more likely they weren't.
"We're in Group A."
He'd worried they might be matched against a team with party members of a similar rank, but since the groups were different, there was no need to worry.
When Hye-yong, who had been scanning the match table, said that, Yuri came over and snatched the chart to look.
"It's true. We're up first."
"Doesn't that mean we need to head to the exam area right now?"
"We have a little time, but let's go ahead and wait there."
The total number of first-year students was roughly 600.
With so many people taking the exam, they split them into groups.
Because every single battle had to be watched and judged by the instructors.
Moreover, there were quite a few monitors around the facility that played announcements for students or Awakened-related news, and for team battles, you could expect the match footage to be broadcast across the entire facility.
'So that means the entire student body gets to watch us fight.'
Of course, not everyone would watch.
The higher-ranked folks wouldn't give a shit about some low-tier brawl.
And some students would be spending that time doing more exam prep.
But as far as spectacles went, a considerable number of people would be watching.
'This time, I'll just secretly make the shield strong and use everything else moderately.'
Right now, Hye-yong's party was also composed of D, D, and C ranks.
It wouldn't do to overwhelmingly crush a team that included a B-rank, for example.
They just needed to put up a good enough fight to get a satisfactory score.
So he'd lowered the buff he planned to give Lanfang to a level 8 standard, and told them to use the holy relic only for the shield if things got truly dangerous.
By lowering the buff performance like that, it seemed like he could squeeze the shield into the same page.
Then, he'd just use a firearm proficiency increase buff from a holy relic, provide gun support, and that was it.
'Seems pretty perfect to me.'
If they win, they win. If they lose, they lose.
Hye-yong decided to take the exam with exactly that mindset.
-
August 1st (Wed), 9:59 AM
Combat Exam Waiting Room
The combat exam was conducted inside the Otherworld.
Usually, the Otherworld you enter via Transition Stones closes when everyone leaves, but there was a way to keep the entrance open, they said.
Even if some freak accident happened and a student killed another, inside the Otherworld, the worst outcome was a few weeks of unconsciousness, so it was considered safe.
Even injuries healed cleanly the moment you exited the Otherworld, making it an excellent place for a knockdown, drag-out fight.
Plus, the facility side had prepared special safety measures, so they could relax about accidents.
'There were monitors in the outer waiting room too. All the kids who were gathered must be watching, right? Kinda nerve-wracking.'
Bwee-ree-ree-reek! Bwee-ree-ree-reek! Bwee-ree-ree-reek!
As they stood in the waiting room, three terminals went off simultaneously.
[ Group A, Team 2, please enter. ]
Reading it, Hye-yong submitted his terminal to a designated storage spot.
"Shall we go, then?"
"Alright, let's go!"
"Let's do our best!"
Burning with fighting spirit, the three advanced together into the Otherworld.
"Oh?"
The space inside the combat exam area looked like a war zone.
Not metaphorically—it genuinely looked like a battlefield straight out of a movie.
Broken rifles rolling around, crushed steel helmets, the wreckage of flimsy buildings.
The interior had clearly been staged.
'Feels like something out of a World War I film. Nice atmosphere.'
As they walked down the straight path, a female instructor blowing a bubble with her gum waved at them.
"Take an anklet. You already took off any anklet artifacts beforehand, right?"
The instructor began her explanation.
"This specially-made artifact is enchanted with Protection magic that mitigates damage that directly touches your body."
"But if it mitigates damage above a certain threshold, this little red flashing light here goes *poof* and shuts off."
"That means you're dead, so quietly exit the exam area."
"You'll feel a sharp stabbing pain and a slight electric shock, so don't worry about not noticing."
"Ah, and don't hide this artifact."
Oh, so that was how it worked.
Pretty thorough preparation.
There were two types of shields: one was based on divine power and the other on magic power.
Protection was a magic-based shield.
If a divine power-based shield felt like it blocked all damage entirely, a magic-based shield felt like it reinforced the Mana Barrier that Awakened naturally possessed.
Naturally, blocking damage from the outset was far more stable than taking the hit and then mitigating it, so Blessing Mages were preferred when it came to shields.
Since mages had plenty of other spells too.
Not that the two shields couldn't be stacked.
'Protection is going to be incredibly useful for a combat exam like this.'
He'd wondered what would happen if he got completely blindsided by a bullet and popped, but with this, it seemed like he could shoot to his heart's content.
"Walk forward and you'll find the other team. The moment you meet, the fight begins. Stay sharp, and give it your all, you little shits."
Leaving the instructor's encouragement behind, the three walked onward.
To face opponents they had to fight with real weapons and killing intent.
-
As they walked down the path, a wider space opened up ahead of them.
The moment they registered that, the six of them came face to face.
As soon as they met, nearby debris surged toward Lanfang and Park Yuri.
Wondering what that was, he used a shield to block it, and the debris fell away harmlessly.
A boy with dark skin and black hair was visible, frowning as he lifted objects such as the surrounding stones.
'Whoa, that's telekinesis.'
He'd only seen it in videos; this was the first time seeing it in person.
The boy launched the stones with telekinesis once more.
But the shield hadn't even ended yet.
Once again, they were blocked harmlessly.
"What the hell! That shield's way too tough!"
"A shield like that must drain massive energy! Just pound on it! Keep pounding and his energy will run out!"
Well, he wasn't so sure about that.
Hye-yong's blessings operated on a fundamentally different mechanism from other Blessing Mages.
The divine power consumption wasn't that high in the first place.
Hye-yong cast his exclusive blessings on Lanfang and Park Yuri.
〔 Lanfang, go ahead and run wild with confidence! 〕
〔 Yes, Master! 〕
Lanfang gripped her weapon tight and sprang forward.