The Placement Exam (5)
Once the very last student had finished their match and we filed out of the Circular Colosseum, the stage stood empty once more, just as it had at the start.
"That concludes it. Everyone, gather around."
Lee Sudok called the first-years of Class 3 to him.
"Some of you will have posted a worse win rate than expected because the bracket luck didn't go your way. The placement exam exists purely to provide a baseline for ranking, so don't read too much into it."
A few students wore sour expressions. They had mid-tier ability but had run into students from the Magic Towers or prestigious clans and suffered losing streaks. This score isn't a measure of my real skill — that was the thought behind their grumbling about the placement exam system.
But honestly, it's fairer than you'd think.
Starting from a score bracket that didn't reflect your true ability might seem unfair in the moment, but the Dragon Slayer Academy was stuffed with mechanics and events designed to compensate for exactly that. Keep fighting through the PvP assessments week after week during the semester, and you inevitably drift toward the rank that matches your skill. Improve along the way, and of course you could climb even higher.
"I lost every single match of my own first-year placement exam and started at zero. Everyone laughed themselves sick at me. But I ground out my strength tooth and nail and stuck a blade in one snarky mouth after another, and by second year they'd all gone quiet. By third year, I could count on one hand the students who beat me in PvP. And now? Everyone but me is dead."
The further Lee Sudok's life story went, the paler the students' faces grew. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but that last line — everyone but me is dead — somehow sounded an awful lot like I killed them all.
Lee Sudok bared his teeth in a savage grin.
"So if you lost to someone stronger than you, don't waste time picking apart the fairness of the placement exam. Get stronger and take your revenge instead. That is the mindset befitting a student of this academy. The dungeon-clearance portion of the placement exam resumes after lunch. Assemble at the Dungeon Hall — do not be late. Dismissed."
Everyone's feet hurried toward the student cafeteria. Both body and mind had taken a beating, and hunger came with the territory. And with the dungeon-clearance exam still waiting after lunch, a hearty meal and a stockpile of energy were essential for a good result.
"Hey, Byungcheol! You coming to eat?"
One of Shin Byungcheol's cronies called out to him. Shin Byungcheol answered with a hand on my shoulder.
"You guys go ahead. I've got some business to discuss with this gentleman here."
"Business? Sure, whatever you say."
His crew told him to do as he pleased and wandered off. The "business" Shin Byungcheol mentioned meant handing over the intel he'd gathered during the PvP matches — in payment for the 5 silver he owed me from our bet.
He let out a half-joking lament.
"Aigh, how'd I botch that bet? C'mon, they've got sandwiches today, apparently."
"Sandwiches. Nice."
I turned around to bring Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in along, but neither of them looked particularly well, the aftertaste of defeat still hanging over them. Go Hyeon-woo was in especially rough shape — his complexion was so wan he looked ready to keel over at any moment.
Natural enough, considering he'd poured out what little internal energy he had in his duel with Jo Byeok. And that final technique he unleashed, Clear Stream — one glance was enough to tell it was an absolute monster of an energy hog. Even if his iron sword hadn't shattered, his own body would have hit its limits first.
"Hey."
"...Mm. Brother Kim. What is it?"
"Aren't you coming? To eat."
"I was lost in thought for a moment. Let us be off."
I stopped him just as he finally began to creak into motion.
"Actually, no. Go rest in the dorm for a bit. You're in no state for this."
"I can still manage."
"Managing isn't good enough. The dungeon exam comes next. Go recover whatever you can — I'll wrap up a sandwich for you."
"...You would do that? I am indebted to you once more, Brother Kim."
"Never mind that, just go. Don't be late."
"My thanks."
Go Hyeon-woo offered a brief word of gratitude and departed. If he spent the entire lunch hour circulating his energy in meditation, he could restore his drained Core to a state fit for the dungeon exam.
I turned to Shin Byungcheol and Seo Ye-in.
"Let's get lunch, just us three."
Just as Shin Byungcheol had promised, lunch was sandwiches — a ham-cheese-egg sandwich and a crab-stick salad sandwich.
It was bright spring weather, and sitting inside the cafeteria felt like a waste. So we spread out on the grass instead. Quite a few other students had gathered on the lawn in twos and threes besides us. It wasn't just because it was the first day of the semester — there was something about the weather today that lifted the spirits.
And yet Seo Ye-in sat there in her own little cloud of gloom, absently chewing her sandwich while watching a ladybug crawl across the grass.
Shin Byungcheol, by contrast, was wolfing down sandwiches one after another as if a beggar had taken up residence in his stomach. With his mouth stuffed full of something that was a mix of ham-cheese-egg and crab-stick salad, he opened it anyway.
"Guahfwah mwogah gunggumhoshin—"
"Swallow first, then talk. Is that so hard?"
Stung by my rebuke, he gulped down his orange juice in great glugs, slammed the empty bottle on the ground, and tried again.
"Sorry. So what was it you wanted to know? You went 1 and 2, right? Want me to feed you intel on the kids in the 300s?"
"Nope. I can raise my score whenever I feel like it."
Score was something you could climb at will, after all. Besides, this bracket was so low-level that analyzing the opponents there was pointless.
"Ohhh... confident, are we? Then?"
"Top tier."
"Top tier, huh... that's mostly what I was looking at anyway, but, well."
Shin Byungcheol flipped through a notebook with a slightly troubled look.
"See, the thing is, there are so many skilled ones it's hard to know where to start. I told you on the train, remember? This year's first-years are a golden generation unlike any before."
"Just the Four Major Factions. The standout prospects."
"Ah, that narrows it down. Let's see..."
The Four Major Factions. Beyond official organizations like the student council and the Disciplinary Committee, the Academy was home to countless clubs founded around shared interests and goals. Broadly speaking, most of those clubs fell under one of four factions:
The Murim Alliance, the Magic Tower Association, the Guild Coalition, and the Knight Order.
Even in a golden generation bristling with talent, narrowing things down by the Four Major Factions would surface one or two standout names per faction. Shin Byungcheol riffled quickly through his notes and organized the contents.
"First up... by our read, the Murim Alliance's strongest card is Moyong Jun. You can probably guess from the name — grandson of the Sword Saint, Moyong Hyeonseong. Practiced exactly the way you'd expect of a great clan's favored scion: rock solid fundamentals. He went 2 and 1 in PvP, but that one loss was to Han So-mi herself. It was neck and neck right down to a decision — a 3% margin."
"3% is basically nothing."
"Exactly. Different rules, might've gone the other way."
If it had been a prolonged match rather than the Five-Minute Limit rule, the result could well have flipped. They were effectively equals.
"We've also heard there's one more over on the Black Way side, but they didn't show themselves in this PvP. Either they were hiding their strength, or it's just rumor — one or the other. We're digging into it, but for now just take Moyong Jun as the top of that pile."
"Okay. And the Magic Tower Association?"
Shin Byungcheol flipped a few more pages.
"That one used to be a two-horse race between Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa, but when Song Cheonhye joined the Disciplinary Committee it became one-horse. The rankings had them about even — until Hong Yeonhwa lost to you and slipped a bit. Seriously, how did you pull that off?"
"Just got lucky. Next?"
It wasn't as if I could brag about having an S-rank Elemental Resistance, after all. When I deliberately changed the subject, Shin Byungcheol shot me a suspicious look but moved on. Next up was the Guild Coalition — which, as one might guess, was the faction his own club belonged to.
"Uh, you seen the kid who walks around with a cat on their shoulder?"
"A few times, passing by."
"That's not actually a cat. It's a tiger."
"Figured as much."
"...You're not even surprised. Lame."
Shin Byungcheol looked genuinely deflated by my dry reaction. It was hard to imagine anyone at the Dragon Slayer Academy strolling around with a mere house cat on their shoulder. Most likely they kept it shrunk down with a size-reduction skill or the like in daily life.
"Beast Tamer, or Druid?" I asked.
"Druid. They can use earth-and-wood magic too."
"So there's overlap with the Emerald Magic Tower."
"That's what I heard. Magic's more of a side branch for them, though."
"Is that all the Guild Coalition has?"
"Well, that's... not all."
Before answering, Shin Byungcheol darted a glance at Seo Ye-in. She was sipping her iced green tea while watching a squirrel scamper up and down a nearby tree. When I gave a small nod to signal it was fine, he dropped his voice so no one around could overhear.
"...You two only, since this is worth 5 silver at least. We've got one more who's seriously good with a bow. Hid their strength in the PvP and only used daggers — still went 2 and 1."
"You're not inflating your own side's stock, are you?"
"No, no. Holds up against any of the other prospects, no contest."
Anyone bold enough to declare that much was probably telling at least some of the truth.
"Noted. Who's the Knight Order's standout?"
"Lee Seonghyun. Basically on par with Moyong Jun. Son of a renowned Swordmaster, trained the orthodox way under his father — steady, by-the-book. Honestly, those two are the only ones I'd call in a league of their own. Want me to run through the tier below them too?"
"No, this is plenty. They really are heavy hitters."
"Told you? The fight for the top of our class is going to be a bloodbath."
Even for me, someone who'd run through the Dragon Slayer Academy hundreds of times, seeing this many powerhouses pile into a single class was a first. At this point, the weight of the guesswork leaned heavily toward the EX-rank quest's influence — though who knew how formidable the enemies to come would have to be to explain it.
Shin Byungcheol closed his notebook and asked,
"Hey, real question though. Why do you want all this?"
"Market research, more or less."
"Market research? You selling something?"
"Something like that."
If I could figure out which prospect each of the Four Major Factions planned to pour their backing into — and what hidden pieces they'd be desperate for —
Then deals become possible.
Corner the market on the hidden pieces they wanted first, then trade. For artifacts of equal worth, or for stakes and privileges on their side. A rough picture was already forming of how to set up the board once the placement exam wrapped.
"Aww, c'mon, just give me a little more. Now I'm dying of curiosity."
"Hey, you've got a message."
"Huh?"
Shin Byungcheol, who'd been badgering me, looked down. His pocket was sparkling and blinking. He fished around, pulled out his student ID, and read the words floating up on its back, haltingly, out loud.
"You... where are you... right now... come to... the clubroom... or else... your hair... — Ah, crap, right. I totally forgot."
"Someone sounds furious. Who is it?"
"Our club president. A very... very scary person."
He shuddered as if the mere memory sent chills down his spine. The problem, of course, was that he'd apparently just crossed that terrifying person — but that was his problem to solve.
Shin Byungcheol packed up at once and stood.
"Gotta run. If I don't get there fast, who knows what'll happen to my personal safety."
"Yeah, see you later."
And he sprinted off at full speed.
Seo Ye-in, meanwhile, was still quietly munching her sandwich even after he'd gone. She'd patiently nibbled her way through almost all of it, at least.
"..."
Her gray eyes fixed on me. I still couldn't read what was going on behind them, but right now there was an unmistakable heaviness to her.
Go Hyeon-woo, Seo Ye-in, Shin Byungcheol. Beyond my ultimate goal of raising EX-rank heroes, these three were special to me — they were the first connections I'd made since receiving the Regression Quest and entering this world inside the game.
Somehow, leaving her moping like that didn't sit right with me. And if I wanted to lift the mood, there was one simple but reliably effective method.
"You dropped a cookie on the train yesterday, remember?"
"...?"
When the friction between the Disciplinary Committee and Shin Byungcheol had flared up, the cookie she'd given me had ended up on the floor. Her look came back asking, what about it?
"Song Cheonhye sent over a dessert coupon by way of apology."
Song Cheonhye was the type to settle her accounts cleanly. Because I'd abstained from the PvP, her opinion of me had plummeted to roughly Shin Byungcheol's level — but a promise was a promise, and apparently she'd decided it had to be kept. The dessert coupon had arrived the instant lunch break began: a ticket exchangeable for any dessert served at the student cafeteria, regardless of price. And what I'd picked with it was—
"Ta-da."
I pulled a neatly wrapped paper box out of my inventory. Inside was a single slice of fresh cream cake studded with fruit. I hadn't realized when ordering, but seeing it up close, this was no ordinary dessert. Calling it a work of art wouldn't have been an exaggeration. Priced per slice at what a top-tier restaurant charged for a full meal — and with a limited-quantity premium stacked on top, one step slower and even the coupon wouldn't have covered it.
It must have looked extraordinary to Seo Ye-in too, because her gaze locked onto the cake. I held out a disposable fork, and she accepted it in a bit of a daze.
"Technically it started out as your cookie, so you've got a share in it. Let's eat it together."
"...Thank you."
After the short word of thanks, she carefully cut off a corner with her fork and put it in her mouth — and her eyes widened, just a fraction. I tried a corner from the opposite side and found myself nodding along.
No wonder it costs that much.
The harmony of sponge, fresh cream, and fruit was very nearly perfect. The cream in particular was less like cream and more like eating a cloud. The sweetness was restrained, just right — and for Seo Ye-in, who preferred subtle flavors, it seemed to land exactly on target.
For a while, the two of us traded forkfuls in silence. When the cake was down to little more than crumbs,
"Hey."
Seo Ye-in opened her mouth.