Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Second Place and Morning Achievements
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"Yes."
"But we're in second place right now. Where's first?"
Jeong Jin-tae suddenly asked as if it had just occurred to him.
I pointed toward Yoo Ah-ra, who was standing in the distance with her arms crossed.
"Over there."
"Yoo Ah-ra's team? Ugh, first place might be tough."
I nodded.
It definitely seemed difficult. Yoo Ah-ra's team had two mid-tier students. But our team was all three bottom-tier.
If there wasn't a speed difference, that would be the weird part.
I needed to find some way.
There was still time until the end of the first semester, so something would come up.
As I pondered ways to take first, a small window suddenly popped up in front of me.
[The character 'Choi Seo-yoon' feels irritated toward you.]
[You acquire 1,000 points as a reward.]
Huh?
The final room on the first underground floor of the dungeon.
The boss monster, a giant wolf, was sliced in one stroke by Lee Seo-jun's sword and collapsed to the floor.
Jeong Jin-tae's mouth fell open in shock as he watched the battle from behind.
"Wow. Taking down the boss monster like it's just some regular mob."
I nodded at Jeong Jin-tae's mutter.
It was definitely impressive.
The giant wolf wasn't particularly high-ranked, but it was still the first-floor boss. And yet, he cut it down in one blow.
If I didn't know Lee Seo-jun, I wouldn't have believed he was an 18-year-old student.
[Team 3 clears Underground Floor 1]
[Week 1 Final Ranking - 2nd Place]
"Oh? Second place."
"Awesome! We're second!"
Yoon Ha-young and Jeong Jin-tae, who were always in the lower ranks, cheered at the second-place result.
In contrast, Lee Seo-jun's expression was subtle, and Shin Ji-hyuk seemed uninterested in the rankings as he blankly stared at the giant wolf's corpse.
"...It really was a giant wolf."
Shin Ji-hyuk muttered to himself and then glanced at me cautiously.
The confident attitude from moments ago was gone, replaced by a slightly deflated look.
Well, he'd been dismissive of the school-wide last-place student, only to get overwhelmingly beaten in his specialty of barrier removal. That must have hurt his pride.
[Dungeon Exploration Ends]
[All students, please gather at the assembly point.]
With the dungeon exploration class over, all the students gathered at the dungeon entrance.
Looking around, everyone seemed exhausted overall. I was pretty worn out myself.
Having spent the whole day on practical training, fatigue was inevitable.
"Alright! Good work everyone on today's dungeon exploration. You probably faced a lot of monsters from the first floor and built up a ton of fatigue. Make sure to manage your condition well for tomorrow's classes."
The students, piled with exhaustion, half-listened to Jang An-cheol's words.
Understanding this, Jang An-cheol didn't drag on.
While listening to Jang An-cheol, I opened my student handbook and checked the rankings.
[Dungeon Exploration Current Rankings]
[1st Place — Team 7 / 4 hours 11 minutes 22 seconds]
[2nd Place — Team 3 / 4 hours 42 minutes 52 seconds]
[3rd Place — Team 5 / 4 hours 44 minutes 05 seconds]
Today's rankings ended with second place.
But I wasn't satisfied at all.
We'd broken through the biggest obstacle of the morning—the barrier—faster than any other team, but we weren't even close to first, and we were only a minute ahead of Team 5 with Shin Young-jun.
At this rate, we might lose second to Shin Young-jun's team next week.
The good news was there was still plenty of time left in the dungeon exploration class.
Since it ran once a week for two months, we had seven more chances.
Seven times was enough to hold second and even snag first.
Glancing sideways, I saw Yoo Ah-ra peeking at Lee Seo-jun from afar.
Even after surpassing Lee Seo-jun for first, she didn't look happy.
Well, there were still many dungeon explorations left. No telling what might happen, so it was too early to celebrate.
"Still, we got second thanks to you."
I turned at the voice from beside me.
Lee Seo-jun was looking at me. It seemed like he was talking to me. I smirked at him.
"What do you mean, thanks to me."
"No, seriously. If you hadn't dispelled that barrier so fast, we'd have been way later. That alone saved us at least 30 minutes."
No arguing with that.
Not being used to praise made it awkwardly embarrassing.
"Apart from that, I didn't do much."
"That's enough. I strategically put together this team comp for the handicap points anyway. You did more than enough—hell, more than that."
Lee Seo-jun gave me a self-deprecating smile.
"If anything, I fell short. I should've capitalized on that chance to take first or pull away from third."
"Hey, the first week of dungeon exploration just ended. Save the self-blame for the end of the semester."
Lee Seo-jun smiled at my words.
"You're right. There's still plenty of time."
"Ugh, I'm beat."
After finishing everything, I returned to the dorm.
My energy drained all at once. I shuffled slowly and flopped face-down on the bed like usual.
Sinking into the soft bed sheets, my body went limp, and my eyes grew heavy.
Ah, bliss. If only time stopped right here.
"Hmm..."
Lying there dazed, today's dungeon class came to mind.
It was practically Lee Seo-jun's one-man show. He'd taken down almost every monster by himself.
I'd contributed by dispelling barriers, but it was nothing compared to Lee Seo-jun.
Still, as time went on, even Lee Seo-jun would find it tough handling everything alone.
Stronger monsters appeared the deeper underground you went.
"Why'd he put together a team like this?"
In the original story, Lee Seo-jun's team consisted of three mid-tier students and Yoon Ha-young.
With their high average ranking, they smoothly took first from week one, per the original flow.
But my intervention changed the team comp, leading to second place.
I worried a bit if this change would affect the future.
But complaining now wouldn't help. The team composition was something I'd left to Lee Seo-jun anyway.
"Sigh."
Maybe I should check how much mana I've accumulated.
[Activating unique trait 'Outsider's Benefit.']
[Checking stats.]
[Stats]
Stamina: 44.09
Strength: 34.05
Mana: 24.4
Speed: 30.04
Agility: 32.02
Dexterity: 28
"...It builds up so damn slowly."
I'm growing steadily, but seeing the stat screen always makes me impatient.
Maybe because I experienced ample mana in my previous life.
No, before that, I need to build mana faster to clear other achievements quicker. It's frustrating.
"...Maybe knock out the easy achievements one by one."
Nothing beats points for getting stronger. And nothing beats achievements for earning points.
Sure, there's the fame system for points, but it's conditional, complicated, and involves messy relationships.
Yeah, let's tackle the easy achievements first.
Easy achievements.
What were they?
I sat up in bed.
Then I opened the memo app on my smart student handbook.
Yeah, let's sort them out one by one.
Late at night past midnight.
Even after quitting time, two female teachers remained in the school office. They sat in chairs, watching a video.
"Oh? This is that Kim Sun-woo kid?"
"Yeah. I was shocked too."
The video was from today's 2nd Year Class A dungeon exploration training.
In it, Kim Sun-woo was using mana to dispel a barrier. About a minute passed.
Then, like magic, the barrier lost form and vanished completely.
"No way. This is edited, right?"
Assistant teacher Kim Yoon-jin muttered in disbelief while watching.
No matter how skilled at barrier removal, dispelling one that fast was nearly impossible.
"Why would I edit it? Here, watch again."
Lee Hee-young rewound to the part where Kim Sun-woo touched the floor and replayed.
"Exactly 1 minute 14 seconds. From touching down to full dispel! Isn't it amazing?"
At Lee Hee-young's reaction, Kim Yoon-jin gave her a baffled look.
"No, Teacher Lee Hee-young. Amazing? Maybe you don't know support magic well, but that's not genius level. That's... impossible. Just... straight-up impossible."
Lee Hee-young blinked at Kim Yoon-jin's words.
She'd expected simple praise, not this unexpected response, and was flustered.
"...Huh? That much?"
"Of course. Even a skilled support wizard needs three minutes for that. And I'm talking S-rank or higher support wizards. Not A-rank—S-rank."
That level?
Lee Hee-young, who'd only cared about manifestation magic, hadn't realized it was that impressive.
"Nah, aren't you overreacting? It was just a school assignment barrier—maybe made easy to break."
"Teacher, I set that barrier. And I didn't make it easy. That kid has innate talent for parsing magic formulas."
"...I didn't think it was that big a deal."
Lee Hee-young muttered blankly.
Then, Kim Yoon-jin spoke firmly, as if resolved.
"That kid needs to switch to support."
"Pardon?"
"Kim Sun-woo, he's in manifestation, right? Convince him to change majors tomorrow."
"Convince him to change majors? To support?"
Kim Yoon-jin looked at Lee Hee-young incredulously.
"Of course. With talent like that."
"Teacher, I don't think so."
Lee Hee-young's voice turned cold.
"What? Forgot what I just said? He has innate support talent. He needs to switch now."
"What are you talking about? Sun-woo is a manifestation kid with potential. Switching to support? Absolutely not."
Lee Hee-young, who loved manifestation magic, snapped emotionally.
"Teacher Lee Hee-young, I get how you feel. But this is talent wastage. He needs to learn support."
"Who decides that? Sun-woo has plenty of manifestation talent too."
"Plenty for manifestation, sure, but historic-level for support. Teacher, this is a national loss. He has to go support! Can't waste that talent!"
But Kim Yoon-jin's love for support magic matched Lee Hee-young's for manifestation.
Lee Hee-young stared straight into Kim Yoon-jin's eyes.
"Sun-woo's got manifestation talent too? I taught him myself, I know."
"Oh, really? That's why he's school-wide last in manifestation?"
"What?"
Lee Hee-young shot up from her seat.
What started as sharing Kim Sun-woo's exam footage had escalated into an emotional showdown.
"You think he just came last? He mana-burned out using compressed implementation. And you don't even know that!"
"Don't make stuff up, teacher. And even if you're right, talented manifestation wizards are a dime a dozen. Talented support wizards are rare."
"What? Talented manifestation wizards everywhere?"
Lee Hee-young glared at Kim Yoon-jin menacingly.
Kim Yoon-jin glared back undaunted.
"Oh my, that's not wrong. Why get mad? Manifestation's honestly simple."
"Hey."
"Hey?"
7:30 a.m.
With first class at 9 a.m., the school was still empty of students, creating a quiet atmosphere.
I walked the hallway and opened the door to the 2nd Year Class A classroom.
Slide.
Opening the door revealed an empty space. As expected for early morning, no one was there.
"......As expected."
Ding!
[You have achieved 'First to Class'.]
[You acquire 500 points as a reward.]
Yes!
Just like in my past experience, arriving first unlocked the achievement.
This world hid achievements in even trivial things. Last night, based on past memories, I'd memoed every achievement I'd encountered.
All thanks to the 'Memory' trait from my previous life.
"Next up..."
I unpacked my bag and stepped into the hall.
Then headed to the cleaning supply closet at the end.
For reference, the cleaning closet was for janitorial staff. The magic academy didn't make students clean like other schools; it was the janitors' domain.
I grabbed a broom, dustpan, and mop from inside.
Then started sweeping the hallway with the broom.
About 20 minutes into cleaning,
A message appeared.
[You have achieved 'Snail Girl'.]
[You acquire 1,000 points as a reward.]
"Got it!"
I stopped cleaning as soon as I confirmed the message.
My goal was achievements and points anyway. No need to go beyond once I had them.
1,500 points in a short time.
Considering the effort, pretty good haul.
Keep stacking like this, and I could buy a decent trait soon.
Now, return the cleaning tools.
As I gathered them to head back, footsteps approached nearby.
"Kim Sun-woo?"
A clear voice called my name. Turning, Yoo Ah-ra was looking at me.