The Guild (1)
The rhythm of our relationships was accelerating. The more I regressed, the stronger the urge I felt the moment I met someone—wanting to immediately bend them over and claim them. This time around, it had only been a week. A full week since I was summoned from the tutorial. And here I was, sprawled naked across the bed.
Yoo Dahui had gotten me drunk and pounced on me.
Zzack—zzzzzz—
“……”
Birds chirped outside the window, and my body felt heavy, drained, as if I had spent the entire night with my eyes wide open. I was exhausted, sore in every muscle. Zzz—
But the one next to me was sleeping peacefully.
Somehow, anger bubbled up inside me.
“Aaaah…”
A vigorous, firm morning. I reached out and squeezed Yoo Dahui’s chest once before pushing myself up from the bed, just like a father drawing strength from his daughter’s smile. After washing up, Yoo Dahui was still asleep.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
[1005th Cycle, Lobby Assembly by 9:00 AM]
The broadcast alarm rang.
“Uuuung… What was that broadcast just now…?”
Yoo Dahui stirred under the blanket and woke up. Really, she was too beautiful to speak. “The assembly is at 9:00.”
“9:00?”
“Yeah.”
Yoo Dahui glanced at the clock and shot up instantly. The beautiful curves without a single thread covering her made my eyes light up.
“It’s already 8:30.”
“Ah. Really?”
“Why didn’t you wake me up…!”
“I didn’t have a watch. How was I supposed to know?”
Yoo Dahui dashed off to the bathroom at full speed. The sight of her running away made me harden again. I quietly followed into the bathroom.
In the large mirror, my reflection showed me—scarred torso still visible. When I asked Pluto, he said the wounds were etched into my soul and could never be erased.
“Haa…”
Yoo Dahui, who had scolded me for coming in, looked down at my lower body and let out a long sigh. Her hips swayed as she did. Her face was already flushed red.
“Sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry about? It’s my fault for squeezing you so much and making you hard.”
“True. It’s my fault.”
Throb—
“Aaaah…”
I didn’t hold back and thrust my cock deep into Yoo Dahui’s body. I felt the wet heat and gave one light thrust. Again and again, I filled her womb with my seed that she had already taken.
After sharing the moment in the bathroom, we gathered at the dormitory lobby. Other players were waiting. We almost arrived late because of the sudden heat. At 8:59, Baek Seon-woo was thirty seconds slower than us. Then Choi Sung-yoon appeared.
“Everyone seems gathered. Let’s move to the testing ground.”
We immediately headed to the testing ground. The schedule felt tight because we were taking a test that should have been done yesterday. We still had things to do today.
On the raised platform, Elena ascended.
Clang—clang—
With the clank of her armor, she radiated presence.
“Haa…”
Her moan echoed through the ‘sound amplification’ microphone. A few players murmured.
“What?”
“That just now…”
“No way.”
Elena spoke with forced calm, similar to previous cycles, but the atmosphere was completely different. It felt way too loose compared to back then. The teams were split. Even though dates differed, the teams remained the same. 142nd. Goblins, orcs, kobolds, and humans. But this time, everything was completely different from before.
I have confidence that I can beat these idiots.
“Let’s go. You idiots.”
The test began immediately. Second corridor. The goblin felt a bit stronger than before, but I smashed its head easily. The golem was the same. I drained their vitality a little and shattered them instantly. Since the goblin party cleared too easily, everyone entered the test with courage.
It ended way too quickly. “Surprisingly, it ended fast. Whoo! Hah! Take a short rest during lunch and continue with the next education…!”
Elena ran off as if she had urgent business. Players who knew her usual self gave her strange looks.
“This is ridiculous.”
I wouldn’t say that from her perspective, but still.
During lunch, we took a break and gathered the weakest races in a classroom-like room. Baek Seon-woo and Kang Hana, who were of a higher level, were there too, but they would advance to the next stage soon.
“It feels similar to the world I originally lived in.”
Yoo Dahui muttered while looking around the classroom. The writer’s imagination was too poor. About forty new players sat quietly in the classroom. Humans made up the largest group with eleven.
Screeech—
The instructor entered. Familiar yet strange face. I remembered it was the same Choi Sung-yoon instructor who had taken me around for the 1-star tournament. The woman stood on the podium and greeted us.
“Hello. I’m Lee Eun-jeong.”
Kerk! Ker ker!
Kong! Kong!
Four goblins and three orcs made noise. They were happy to see us. Lee Eun-jeong welcomed them too.
After a short greeting, she got straight to the point.
“We don’t have much time for you. You might think it’s sudden, but for ‘us,’ there is no time. ‘Lacking’ is a more accurate word.”
Lee Eun-jeong jumped straight into the main topic and skipped all the small talk.
“What we need to learn today is the ‘use of mana.’ More precisely, how to use ‘mana’ through the System.”
Mana, qi, inner energy, energy, ether—each dimension had various kinds of energy. The System summarized all of them as ‘mana.’
“From the first floor, monsters are incredibly strong. Without using mana, you can’t progress at all. Plus, on the 0th floor only weak undead appear. So I could’ve gone alone, but here you can’t. If players don’t team up, hunting is often impossible. Especially for weak races like us, you have to stick together more.”
With regular physical stats, you could hunt, but it was extremely inefficient. If you were going to hunt outside the registered safe zone or aim for a boss, you needed an efficient long-term hunting method for players.
“That is the ‘mana use method.’ Mana helps you realize physical stats, power, and various techniques. For example…”
A wooden dummy appeared in front of Lee Eun-jeong. She placed her hand on it and stood still. It looked that way to us. Then the dummy exploded.
BOOM!
“Like this.”
Lee Eun-jeong opened her palm, as if she hadn’t moved at all. “I’ll show you again. This time with something different.”
A wooden dummy appeared a short distance away. Thanks to the System’s assistance, no preparation was needed. It appeared in mid-air like a game. Lee Eun-jeong extended her hand toward the dummy. She pulled her arm back and thrust it forward, as if shooting a beam. Boom!
Blue mana flew and shattered the dummy’s upper body. It had been broken with mana.
“You can use mana like this too.”
The traces of the dummies vanished in an instant, as if they had never existed. Lee Eun-jeong looked at us and continued.
“It’s really a simple technique. A trivial thing that even toddlers can’t do. Honestly, you can’t use it in real combat.”
Those who couldn’t master this simple method would fail. Goblins, orcs, kobolds—everyone would drop out. Dropping out meant rolling around the entire day. Even if they mastered this, they couldn’t change the result of death. “Is this how it’s done?” “…For the first time in a while, a talented human has entered.”
Baek Seon-woo mastered mana right away. The blue mana gathered at his fingertips was probably inner energy or qi at its core, but what he needed was higher-level education.
“I’ll move you to the upper class. Wait a moment.”
Lee Eun-jeong immediately slotted Baek Seon-woo into the upper class. Maybe because she had one less burden, her expression was light. Kang Hana was relatively slow. Her abilities were supernatural, so artificial manipulation was far from enough. Still, she would master it faster than us.
Her basic physical stats were different.
“I’ll explain the method. If you listen and follow well, it will become possible someday.”
Lee Eun-jeong didn’t expect anything from us. Neither from me nor Yoo Dahui, nor from the other weak races. There was nothing to expect back. “Ugh, it’s not working? I don’t get it at all.”
“I explained it very easily. Even if you start using mana after hearing my explanation, you’ve only gotten about 10%. I’m dividing it into ten stages.”
Yoo Dahui frowned. Lee Eun-jeong had explained it simply, but it was too hard for a newbie like us to use mana right away. Everyone just groaned while concentrating. ‘Aah, damn it.’
I felt something leaving my body, but nothing was visible. Mentally and physically, I was exhausted. What talent is this? I don’t understand why I’m doing this here.
‘Regressing and living off the system would’ve been much easier.’
Outside the academy, I could freely grow. Learning such stupid mana use was enough while dying. Originally, the academy was doing this bothersome thing to help new players survive as much as possible. Regressors who died could start over without needing the academy. ‘Wow, I’m so smart.’
Today, I would make Yoo Dahui join the guild. By blowing on Elena, I would insert Yoo Dahui into the phantom guild, changing her starting point to the 1st floor. Joining a guild allowed early academy graduation, which was so sweet. If I had a sponsor, I should suck them dry. The day’s education ended. Kang Hana would probably advance to the upper class tomorrow. The rest were at a standstill. Especially Yoo Dahui seemed heavily wounded. It was because of what Lee Eun-jeong had said. “I expected you to be super strong, but it feels like you have no talent at all? The advantage of being a regressor reached its limit. I’ve hit a wall and now have to grind again.” But… Yoo Dahui glared at me. The relationship that had to be reset every time I regressed was slowly becoming too much for both of us. Keeping the memories of the two of us alone was insanely hard.
“Elena, to my room.”
Elena came to my room not long after. She wore a robe, probably wanting to keep coming to my room secret from the outside.
“Why did you call me?”
“The guild. I want to join the guild.”
“What? With your skill?”
Elena looked at me with a contemptuous gaze.