Chapter 135
Chapter 135
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 135
Chapter Title: Noticeable Changes
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“Eh, it’s not like this is the first time you’ve seen me as a senior.”
Then Choi Seo-yoon leaned her face in close. I flinched in surprise and pulled my face back.
“Hey, hey. People might misunderstand.”
“Ah, sorry!”
She quickly stepped back. Then she placed a hand on her chin, like she was deducing something, and scrutinized my face.
“Hmm... You really do look better. Did you do something to your face?”
“No, nothing...”
In that moment, a thought flashed through my mind.
Could this be because of the elixir?
Just then, Choi Seo-yoon stepped away from me.
“You know, your height seems a tiny bit taller too. And your shoulders look a little broader. Hmm. You’re not wearing insoles or shoe lifts, are you?”
“What insoles? I don’t do that stuff.”
“Hmm. Yeah, I figured. Must be my imagination.”
Choi Seo-yoon smiled brightly.
Time passed leisurely like that, and we arrived in front of the main building.
Choi Seo-yoon made a slightly regretful expression and said to me,
“Then I’ll be off.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Have a great day, Senior!”
Choi Seo-yoon pumped her fist energetically in a cheering pose. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
“You too, fighting.”
After parting with Kim Seon-woo, Choi Seo-yoon walked down the hallway alone. Then she recalled Kim Seon-woo’s face from earlier.
His face was practically glowing today. He wasn’t wearing makeup or anything, so how could he change so much in such a short time? It’s not like he hadn’t washed in ages and finally did.
Slide.
Choi Seo-yoon opened the door to the 1st Year Class A classroom and stepped inside.
As soon as she entered, many students greeted her warmly, just like always.
“Seo-yoon~ I missed you!”
“Hey, what’s with that?”
“Hug me!”
“Acting all cutesy in the morning.”
Choi Seo-yoon playfully accepted their attention and sat down at her seat.
Once she was seated, a bunch of girls gathered around her.
“Oh, right. Seo-yoon, I’m in big trouble!”
A girl sitting in front of her exclaimed dramatically.
“Yeah. Yesterday, I met up with Tae-hyun and we went to the movies.”
Love talk first thing in the morning. Here we go again. But Choi Seo-yoon smiled brightly and pretended to be interested.
“The movies? What? You said you weren’t going, but you did anyway?”
“Yeah. But remember how I said I wasn’t that into him at first?”
“Yeah, I heard about it until I was sick of it.”
“But weirdly, after that day, Tae-hyun started looking super handsome. You know that feeling? Why is this happening to me?”
“......Huh?”
Choi Seo-yoon’s thoughts froze for a moment. It didn’t feel like someone else’s story. She’d definitely had a similar experience just now.
At that moment, a girl who’d been quietly listening beside her burst out laughing.
Choi Seo-yoon turned to the laughing girl.
“Ugh, look at her. She’s got love goggles on!”
Monday morning, the start of the week.
Practical training began.
The training was called “2-Person Special Stage Escape.”
It was an advanced version of the stage escape from the first semester midterm, where you gather hidden clues in the stage to defeat the boss.
For reference, unless you destroy the device maintaining the boss’s life force, you can’t defeat it no matter what you try.
“Alright, let’s divide into teams. Note that the stage difficulty changes based on your team members’ rankings, so keep that in mind.”
Jeong Hyeon, the demon teacher hiding his identity, announced the teams.
Time flew by, and the teams were set. Each team entered the artificial stage.
Woooong....
As soon as we entered the stage, a vast white space came into view. Like all escape stages, it was filled with mysterious decorations and objects scattered around.
“Wow, they made this really well.”
Yoon Ha-young, who was teamed up with me, looked around and muttered.
“Yeah, they put a lot of effort into it.”
This was an artificial stage designed by Jeong Hyeon himself.
Even though he hadn’t been here long, he’d designed a brand-new stage training ground of this quality on top of artificial dungeons.
Villain or not, I had to respect his professionalism.
“Oh, right. We’re on the same team, Seon-woo. Looking forward to working with you!”
Yoon Ha-young said with a bright smile. Her cheerful grin made me smile back naturally.
“Yeah.”
It was 2-person teams, so if I’d gotten stuck with someone I wasn’t close to, it might’ve been awkward, but this was a pretty satisfying matchup.
Of course, Yoon Ha-young’s high ranking meant the stage difficulty would be ramped up accordingly.
But that was fine.
With the Outsider’s benefits, this stage training was basically a playground for me.
“Hmm. What should we start with?”
“Let’s find the clues first.”
I scanned the surroundings and quickly began searching for clues to navigate the stage.
Thanks to the Outsider’s benefits, it didn’t take long to find the escape clues.
Once I gathered the incomplete magic circles hidden around the room and completed the pattern, light flashed, and a door opened.
“Wow, it’s amazing every time I see it... How do you find them so well?”
Yoon Ha-young gazed at me and murmured quietly.
“Observation is key. If you observe carefully, you can do it too.”
It was all thanks to the Outsider’s perks, but I gave a plausible answer and entered the next stage.
The next stage was a monster + trap field.
As soon as we entered, the magic circle glowed brightly, and various monsters started pouring out.
Yoon Ha-young swiftly fired ice arrows, taking out the surrounding monsters.
I also manifested magic to dispatch the monsters in front one by one.
Even so, the monsters kept coming endlessly. That meant there had to be a special device supplying them somewhere. We needed to deal with that first.
Using the Outsider’s benefits, I looked around and spotted a device glowing blue across a long bridge in the distance.
“Just in case, cover me from behind.”
“Got it.”
I reinforced my body with mana and dashed toward the bridge. My body felt lighter and faster than usual.
Was it because my strength stat had increased so much?
Filled with surging confidence, I charged straight ahead.
At that moment, hidden traps detected my approach and unleashed a barrage of magic.
Fire arrows, ice spikes, wind spears, and more. It was a overwhelming number that would be impossible to dodge normally.
But with my sharpened instincts from the stat boost, the attacks looked slow to my eyes.
I evaded them with minimal movement, without even needing to dodge dramatically.
“Phew.”
I could definitely feel the change in my physical abilities.
—Graaaargh!
Then, at the end of the bridge, a massive bipedal wolf with white fur appeared—a “White Wolfman.”
Wolfman-type monsters specialized in close combat, and while my close-quarters skills had improved, there was no need to fight one head-on.
I compressed an appropriate amount of mana in my hand and released it toward the creature’s head.
Boom—!
The compressed magic orb shot out with a blue afterimage, striking its head dead-on and exploding.
“......Hmm.”
I blankly looked down at my palm.
Was it just my imagination? Today, manifesting magic felt smoother somehow.
My mana sensitivity had sharpened, maybe? That last cast felt about 0.5 seconds faster than usual.
“Nice.”
After crossing the bridge, I quickly destroyed the surrounding special devices.
More monsters popped out to attack me, but I took them down easily.
Soon, the summoning magic circle vanished, and no more monsters appeared.
Yoon Ha-young ran up to me a bit late.
“You seem to be in top form today?”
“Yeah, feels like it. Everything’s going smoother than usual.”
“Yeah, your face even looks more lively today.”
Choi Seo-yoon had said something similar. The elixir must have caused some changes in me.
I used the selfie camera function on my smart student handbook to check my face.
“Hmm.”
......And it got even more handsome?
I asked Yoon Ha-young,
“Do I look more handsome than usual today, by any chance?”
She looked a bit flustered at my question.
“Uh, huh? Um. You just look vibrant and good!”
The morning stage escape training ended.
We took first place with time to spare.
Second was Lee Seo-jun’s team.
I finished in 32 minutes 04 seconds, while Lee Seo-jun took over 53 minutes.
He seemed to have expected this to some extent and just laughed it off.
Third was Yoo Ah-ra. Fourth, I didn’t know.
As expected, Jeong Hyeon looked shocked and reacted with surprise at the results.
The gap between first and second was huge, so it was understandable.
Anyway, once morning training ended, it was lunchtime. I headed to the cafeteria with Yoo Ah-ra and Yoon Ha-young.
“Overwhelming again. How do you do it?”
“Well.”
“Ugh.”
Yoo Ah-ra glared at me sharply. Yoon Ha-young glanced around cautiously, then started gushing to Yoo Ah-ra about my performance today.
Hearing praise right in front of me felt kinda embarrassing.
Yoo Ah-ra listened quietly, then glanced at me.
“......But you seem different today somehow.”
I knew what she meant, so I spoke first.
“My skin looks better, right?”
“No, not just that. Your whole vibe is different.”
“Vibe?”
“Yeah. Didn’t your frame and height grow a bit?”
They probably had, even if just a tiny bit.
But it was subtle enough that most people wouldn’t notice. Both Choi Seo-yoon and Yoo Ah-ra were quick on the uptake.
How do they know things even I don’t?
“I did grow a little. Is it noticeable?”
“Nope, not at all.”
“Then how’d you know?”
“Well...”
Yoo Ah-ra trailed off for a moment.
Then she cleared her throat and continued.
“I see you around school a lot.”
True, but she wasn’t the type to pay attention to anyone who wasn’t on Lee Seo-jun’s level, so it felt unexpected.
“Oh, right. So what happened with your guiding teacher? Are you going with Wizard Choi Il-hyeon?”
“Choi Il-hyeon? The weirdo?”
Yoon Ha-young chimed in.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“Gasp. I heard he was coming as an external teacher, but it was because of you, Seon-woo?”
“Seems like it. But I’m already registered with Teacher Lee Hee-young, so I’m not sure what’ll happen.”
“Oh...”
Yoon Ha-young sighed briefly and nodded.
“The situation’s kinda awkward now.”
“Awkward? More like totally unpredictable.”
According to the original story flow, Choi Il-hyeon was supposed to appear much later.
But he showed up way too early, so events related to him were now a mystery.
“Speak of the devil, there they are.”
At Yoo Ah-ra’s words, I turned to look. Sure enough, Choi Il-hyeon and Lee Hee-young were there, just as she said.
The two were sitting on a park bench, having a serious conversation.
Looks like they hadn’t given up on me yet.
Even so, for him to come find Lee Hee-young directly. Considering the original Choi Il-hyeon’s lack of social skills, this was pretty surprising.
After school. At Lee Hee-young’s summons, I headed to the faculty office. When I opened the door, all the teachers looked at me with eyes full of curiosity and interest.
“Ooh~ Hero’s choice time.”
“Choose wisely.”
I hadn’t even heard from Lee Hee-young yet, but they were already dropping hints about why I was called.
So they’re making me choose, huh.
Talk about pressure.
When I reached Lee Hee-young’s spot, Choi Il-hyeon, who had a paper cup in his mouth, waved his hand to greet me.
“I saw your stage escape today. Impressive.”
“Ah, thanks.”
“Your observation skills are way better than mine. And I don’t exactly lose out in that area.”
Then Lee Hee-young smiled at me.
“Seon-woo, have a seat here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I sat down.
The two sat across from me, gazing intently into my eyes.
“You’ve probably guessed why we called you.”
“Yes.”
“Technically, the teacher registration is already done and can’t be changed, but I wanted to respect your opinion, so I got special permission from the department head.”
That was kinda touching. She seemed thrilled to be with me anyway.
“It’s fine. Just say whatever. I’ll respect Seon-woo’s choice.”
I looked at the two of them and opened my mouth.
“......I...”
I stepped out of the faculty office.
Choi Il-hyeon followed behind me.
“She’s a great teacher. Treat her well.”
“I plan to.”
In the end, I chose Choi Il-hyeon.
Like the protagonist in a melodrama, torn between two people, I made the tough but inevitable choice.
I felt a little bad for Lee Hee-young, but I couldn’t help my own greed.
For one, Choi Il-hyeon’s magic style had a lot in common with mine.
He specialized in manifestation magic while actively using reinforcement magic too.
He was also pretty skilled in support magic, so it could help even when I was in my “Kim Jin-woo” persona.
Of course, my magic talent wasn’t exceptional, so learning from him wouldn’t skyrocket my skills, but I figured it’d be great for honing practical senses.
Plus, considering future story developments, getting close to Choi Il-hyeon early could bring various benefits.
Then a sudden curiosity struck, and I asked Choi Il-hyeon,
“But why do you want to teach me so badly?”
Choi Il-hyeon was a man who endlessly researched for his one goal.
For someone like him to pause his research and teach me, there had to be a reason.