Hong Yeon-hwa's Worries

Quicksand.

A summoning spell for flowing sand, with two main uses.

The first was to desertify the surrounding terrain, pulverizing solid rock into fine grains and chaining the result into earth-attribute magic.

"Grruaaah—!"

As the ogre bore down on Gwak Ji-cheol, a massive wall of sand surged up between them. Its club smashed into the barrier and broke it apart in a spray of grains—but the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scattered sand promptly regathered and raised a fresh wall in its place.

Undeterred, the ogre plowed forward, smashing through wall after wall.

"Grruh?"

Then it suddenly glanced down. The whole area had turned into a pit of quicksand, and its legs were sinking deeper with every step.

'Good start.'

Flexible defense and foot-binding, all through sand magic. The only problem was—

'The rank's way too low.'

Thanks to all the spells he'd drilled at the Emerald Magic Tower, Gwak Ji-cheol had managed to recall the right tool for the situation, but he'd only ever learned it; his actual proficiency lagged far behind. The desertified zone was narrow, and the ogre was sinking barely ankle-deep.

'Still, sand has its uses.'

The moment the ogre hauled itself free, more sand swirled together in front of it and built yet another wall. The beast swatted it aside like a fly and swung its club.

- WHUMP!

"Ugh……."

Gwak Ji-cheol flung himself clear by a hair, then scrambled to work the sand again. I tossed him some advice.

"You're still only trying to block. That's why you've got no breathing room. Stop blocking—deflect."

"And how exactly am I supposed to— ugh!"

- WHAM!

I punted Gwak Ji-cheol out of the way, and the very next instant the club came down right where he'd been standing. He rolled head over heels, popped back up, and reset his stance. The ogre moved to press its attack, but I stepped in between them.

"Deflect it like this."

"Grruaaah—!"

As the beast flailed its arm in irritation, I layered Wind Force and Twister into the swing—

- THWACK!

—and its arm's trajectory veered sideways. It was the same move I'd shown off against Mok Jonghwa's wooden golem. Having demonstrated that much, I stepped back to leave the two of them to it.

"Now then, do try to copy that."

"No. How am I supposed to do that."

But whether it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked feasible to Gwak Ji-cheol or not, the ogre had no intention of stopping. He leaped over a club sweep, then leveled his staff at the beast. Sand clumped together in midair, trying to spill the attack aside—but as expected, it was far too clumsy.

Right before the blow landed, I punted Gwak Ji-cheol out of the way again.

"Ugh."

"Again."

"Can't you quit kicking me already?"

"You want to get hit by the ogre, or by me?"

Gwak Ji-cheol's eyes darted between the ogre and me.

"……Let's keep going like this."

His conclusion: better a boot than a club to the head. Truthfully, I could have gone easy on him, but I deliberately didn't.

'Baby him, and he'll never learn.'

If it had been Seo Ye-in, she'd have watched once and copied it on the spot, but Gwak Ji-cheol had been through round after round of trial and error without catching on. Who knew how much longer the conventional approach would take? Request or no request, payment or no payment, I had no intention of sinking that much time into him.

Hence my decision.

'Cram it in, crash-course style.'

And the time-honored method for crash-course learning: inject enough pain to make his whole body twist.

- WHAM!

"Ugh."

Gwak Ji-cheol took another boot and went tumbling across the floor.

"Up. We keep going."

Yet he scrambled to his feet and squared off against the ogre all the same. His eyes blazed with fresh, venomous determination.

The Gwak brothers' request was, at the end of the day, secondary. This was the final week of mentoring, which meant my top priority was growing my own skills.

So even while punting Gwak Ji-cheol across the arena, I kept tormenting the ogre with wind magic and Point Explosion, and—

—that was enough to push each of my new skills up a single rank. Wind Force and Twister had plateaued at C-rank, but even so, I had to keep grinding without slacking if I wanted to reach B-rank quickly. The rank work would continue for the rest of the week.

The catch was that Dang Gyu-young's time for supervising us was limited. She was a third-year and a club president, busy enough just managing her own schedule—and she had the Black Market to look after, too.

With the day's mentoring session wrapped up—meaning no event bonus either—I moved straight into my next round of training: resuming the interrupted mana cultivation to make the elixir's energy truly my own.

And so I was trundling along toward the Training Center when—

'Someone's following me.'

I could feel a presence at my back. At first I wondered if the Swordsmanship Club had started moving, but that didn't seem to be it; even the most careless tail wouldn't stick this close. The footsteps trailed after me, then slowed to a hesitant crawl whenever they got too near, then hurried along again the moment the distance opened up.

Before turning to check, I ran through the usual suspects in my head. Seo Ye-in was the type to march straight up and quietly tug at my sleeve. Dang Gyu-young would close the distance, plant a hand on my shoulder, and ask, "Hey, where you off to?" Song Cheon-hye would speed up to walk beside me, and if I kept ignoring her, finally blurt out, "Excuse me!"

The footsteps behind me matched none of them. Which meant, by process of elimination—

'Has to be Hong Yeon-hwa.'

That would certainly explain the fidgeting. She wanted to say something, but for whatever reason she couldn't work up the nerve.

'No helping it, then.'

I'd have to take the initiative. I kept walking, feigning ignorance, then abruptly spun around and shouted.

"WAAAH—!!"

"!!!"

Just as predicted, Hong Yeon-hwa stood behind me. She was so startled that her whole body locked up stiff, eyes stretched wide as a rabbit's. The next moment she scrambled backward like someone who'd forgotten how legs worked, and very nearly toppled over—

—but right before she went down, I caught her with Wind Force.

"You okay?"

"I-I'm f-fine……."

"Then why were you creeping along behind me like that? Suspicious."

"Sorry……."

"Nothing to apologize for. What's up?"

Hong Yeon-hwa answered haltingly.

"W-well……. My sister says thank you, and that you should stop by the club room sometime when you're free……."

It wasn't hard to guess what Hong Ye-hwa was thankful for: the 4-on-4 PvP, where Hong Yeon-hwa had broken Bukgung Han-seol.

Since entering Dragon Slayer Academy, Hong Yeon-hwa hadn't managed a single eye-catching result, and the main reason was that she'd dropped her placement match and started at 600 points. Next to the other rising stars mowing down 900-point powerhouses in an unstoppable streak, there was simply no comparison—and I'd wager more than a few people were saying she was the least of the promising rookies.

As president of the Ruby Magic Tower, Hong Ye-hwa must have seethed every time she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heard talk like that. And then, in this match, Hong Yeon-hwa had taken a clean win off Bukgung Han-seol. A perfect game against a 900-point opponent, no less. It was rain after a drought—no, an ice-cold soda cracked open at exactly the right moment. I could practically picture Hong Ye-hwa's beaming face.

And the person who'd contributed most to all of it—

'Yours truly.'

We had traded favors to melt the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron alloy, but the fact remained that Hong Yeon-hwa's Aqua Flame had ranked up because of it. Without C-rank, she could never have held such an overwhelming elemental advantage over Bukgung Han-seol. On top of that, she'd spent all of last week sparring with me, sharpening her improved Fire Pillar until her magic circle work grew remarkably polished. That was a large part of why she'd spent the whole match toying with Bukgung Han-seol.

For all those reasons, Hong Ye-hwa had no choice but to thank me.

"And……. she says there's something she wants to consult you about, too."

What that consultation would be about was equally obvious: Hong Yeon-hwa's Aqua Flame, stalled at C-rank once again. I'd already let slip the hint that further growth would require 'a dungeon crawling with ice-attribute monsters'—which naturally meant the Underground Floors. So of course she'd want to hear the details.

But I slowly shook my head.

"Sorry, but I won't have time for a while. Tell her I'll definitely stop by soon."

"Okay. Got it."

Where the Underground Floors were concerned, my focus had to be on countering the Swordsmanship Club. So even if we did talk about Aqua Flame, actually seeking out an Underground Floor dungeon would inevitably get pushed to later. Besides, Aqua Flame was C-rank and plenty strong as it was, and Hong Yeon-hwa had a whole pile of other skills and traits to grow. Neither of us was in any hurry, in other words.

"Anything else? I'm off."

"W-wait!"

Hong Yeon-hwa called me back just as I turned to go.

"Hm? What?"

"It's……. Cof!!"

"Cof?"

For a second I wondered what was supposed to be big, but it seemed her voice had simply caught from rushing the word out. Hong Yeon-hwa took a deep breath and tried again.

"C-coffee! Do you like it?"

"I drink it when it's around. You buying?"

She nodded rapidly. Then she stammered on.

"I-I'm thankful too……."

When it came to gratitude over Bukgung Han-seol's defeat, Hong Yeon-hwa herself had the biggest stake of anyone. So she was offering to buy me coffee as her thanks. That wasn't the sort of offer you refuse, so I nodded without hesitation.

"Sure. I'll enjoy it."

"……!"

Hong Yeon-hwa's face lit up like a lamp.

And so the two of us headed for the campus store. I picked my usual iced coffee, while Hong Yeon-hwa ordered an americano with—I lost count of how many extra espresso shots—something pitch-black and thick as tar…….

'Kerosene?'

One touch of that stuff and my tongue wouldn't survive, yet Hong Yeon-hwa drank it as casually as water. Clearly a regular habit of hers. It was her palate, so I let it be, and we settled side by side on a bench near the store, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sipping our coffee in silence.

"……."

All the while, Hong Yeon-hwa kept sneaking sidelong glances at me. The instant our eyes met, she would hastily drop her gaze and pretend to be engrossed in her cup. But a thread of worry had crept into her expression, so once again, I asked first.

"Something on your mind?"

"N-no? Nothing at all?"

"Seems like there is."

Under my probing look, Hong Yeon-hwa slid her eyes away and admitted it.

"……Maybe a little?"

"The dungeon run not going well?"

"No, the run's fine."

On the first day, she and Song Cheon-hye had tried to turn it into a damage-dealing contest, but with the ogre refusing to die, that had gone nowhere. After that, I'd advised them to drill their fundamentals first, and the two had taken the advice to heart, steering their runs toward charging the Crystal. And since both Hong Yeon-hwa and Song Cheon-hye were more than capable of dodging the ogre's attacks without their partners' help, the top score for the run was all but locked in.

"Then what's the problem?"

"Well……."

Hong Yeon-hwa fiddled with her coffee cup for a long moment before she finally spoke.

[Next Chapter — 151: The Support Eats It All]