Week One PvP (3)

I split the night between crafting the cube and meditation, working right up to the first hints of dawn.

The mana left over from absorbing the Dark Ice Crystal, combined with the two spirit pills Yang Jihong had paid me as tuition, was finally enough to push my [Core] up to D-rank.

I hadn't said anything about it, but casting Amplification on Magic Engineering or Hummingbird had always drained my mana pool alarmingly fast. Things would breathe a little easier now.

Work on the Life Cube had also come a long way. The green light seeping out of it had grown noticeably denser, and in one corner, tiny sprouts were peeking their heads up—almost. I was well past the halfway point. One more day of investment and it would be finished.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Once the urgent business was settled, my thoughts drifted to Seo Ye-in—specifically, to what she was up to. When I was focused on the cube or meditation, I tended to slip half into a trance, and there was no way she'd have grasped 'Distribution' overnight, so I hadn't been checking in as often as I might have.

Then I flipped over my student ID and found a message waiting.

Done? She didn't mean she'd gotten bored and quit, surely. There was a good chance she'd actually learned 'Distribution'.

But when I went to the Mana Cultivation Room she'd been using, it was empty. My reply had come far too late—she must have just gone home.

I sent a few messages, but nothing came back. She must be asleep.

She'd been pouring mana into that glass box nonstop the whole time she practiced 'Distribution', so she'd earned a rest. The thing to do now was stay patient. I was genuinely curious whether she'd finished ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my homework already, but getting antsy about it wouldn't make it happen any faster. I'd just verify when I saw her at school.

My guess had been right—Seo Ye-in had gone to sleep. And a very deep, very thorough sleep at that.

How did I know? Because her reply didn't arrive until lunch was nearly upon us. Every class before that, she had naturally skipped entirely.

— Creeeak,

The moment the classroom door opened, every pair of eyes in Class 3 swung toward Seo Ye-in. She passed through the stares without a flicker of reaction and shuffled toward her seat—and then,

"Seo Ye-in."

Lee Su-dok's cold voice stopped her in her tracks. His piercing gaze bored into her as he demanded,

"Why are you late."

"Slept innn," she answered, punctuating the excuse with a tiny yawn.

She herself seemed perfectly unbothered by Lee Su-dok's glare, but it was the students watching the exchange who went pale. Pulling an attitude like that in front of the Human Butcher—people figured they'd be cleaning up one corpse today. Or possibly never finding the corpse at all.

"What kept you up that you overslept."

"Mana training."

"What training."

"Bestowing Magic Bullet, sir—"

On that trailing —sir, her eyes flicked unconsciously toward me, and Lee Su-dok seemed to catch it. His gaze snapped my way, and if anything, it burned even hotter.

This is getting uncomfortable…

I had no idea why he glared at me every single time we locked eyes. No matter how I turned it over in my head, this man and I had zero points of contact.

Lee Su-dok glowered back and forth between me and Seo Ye-in, clearly mulling something over, before finally withdrawing his gaze. "Manage your condition better. Be late again and it's a penalty."

"Okay."

Class resumed, in an atmosphere grown even heavier than before. It was a small mercy that lunch arrived quickly.

"You mastered 'Distribution'?"

"Mm."

"Let's see it."

Seo Ye-in held out one hand. In the blink of an eye, a cube of mana materialized above it. Without a glass box at all, she was using exactly the quantity of mana required for an F-rank [Magic Bullet], and the mana inside was distributing itself with perfect evenness.

I nodded. "Flawless."

It was 'Distribution' with not a single flaw to pick at. And her learning speed had been faster than mine. I'd spent an entire full day on it—the shortest record in Dragon Slayer Academy history—and Seo Ye-in had just shattered it by doing it in half a day. It was nothing short of demonic talent.

This is what makes teaching worth it.

"Shall we practice Magic Bullet again today?"

"Okay."

She accepted my suggestion instantly, as though she'd been waiting for it. We claimed one of the Mana Cultivation Rooms, just like yesterday.

"The second Magic Bullet masterclass begins now."

"Wow—"

Seo Ye-in clapped her hands soundlessly once again. I floated the finished mana cube above my palm.

"Magic Bullet is half 'Distribution', and the other half is 'Compression'."

The cube shrank to half its size in a single breath. The shrunken cube compressed again, then again, shrinking without pause until at last it was the size of a bullet.

"Start by practicing it this way, bit by bit."

"Okay."

Seo Ye-in formed her own mana cube. Then she focused her mind—and dents began bulging in and out all over its surface. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Before long, one side caved in entirely, and the mana leaked out like a balloon with a hole in it.

She stole a glance at me, but there was nothing surprising to me about any of this. Everyone starts out that way.

"Again."

The cube flattened under pressure, top and bottom, then snapped back into shape. Then it stretched tall and thin, then snapped back again. After several rounds of this, it collapsed once more like a punctured balloon.

"Again."

Seo Ye-in kept attempting the compression, and kept ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠failing, every single time. Again, again, again.

As the count climbed, a nagging doubt grew in the back of my mind. This shouldn't be taking her this long.

Seo Ye-in looked at me, the crumbling mana cube still cupped in her hand. Expressionless as always—but somehow her eyes looked like they were asking for help. Ideally she'd break through on her own, but I figured I could at least give her a hint of direction.

"Mana."

She immediately formed a fresh cube. I gathered a very small grain of mana at the tip of my index finger and poked it into the cube's center.

— Pomf.

The grain burrowed in and settled at the exact core. "Treat that as the anchor. Picture it like this: you're pushing in from the outside, pulling in from the inside."

"…"

Seo Ye-in gave a slight nod and concentrated. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the cube began, slowly, to shrink. Smaller and smaller it went, until at last it was a single compact bullet.

I let out an exasperated little laugh. She nails it in one try.

Give a genius nothing but a direction, and she seizes the concept instantly. That's what being a genius means, apparently.

Seo Ye-in looked faintly buoyant, as though she'd just cracked a hard problem. "Now practice it like yesterday. Until you can do it in a single breath."

— Snap!

The instant I snapped my fingers, a Magic Bullet was pinched between my thumb and forefinger. When 'Distribution' and 'Compression' happen in a blink, the formation and compression of the cube vanish from sight entirely, leaving only the bullet behind. Reach that level, and only then is the [Magic Bullet] skill granted.

It was only because my class was Support that I hadn't specialized in it—if I'd been a Gunslinger, my Magic Bullet would have been at least C-rank by now.

"I'll be in the next room over. Message me when you get the skill."

"Okay."

I waited, fiddling with the Life Cube. I had a strong feeling she'd finish quickly, so I didn't sink deep into concentration. Sure enough, after only two casts of [Amplification] on her part, the message came.

When I stepped into the Mana Cultivation Room, Seo Ye-in held her hand out to me with unmistakable showmanship. Resting on her palm was a bullet gleaming faintly blue—a perfectly sculpted F-rank Magic Bullet.

I laughed despite myself. I'm watching it happen and I still can't believe it.

Distribution, compression, and acquiring the [Magic Bullet] skill all together in under half a day—if I told anyone, who on earth would believe me? Even I had watched every step and still didn't believe it.

A greedy thought crept in unbidden. We'd saved a whole pile of time; there was no reason we couldn't push the curriculum one step further.

"Want to go for E-rank while we're at it?"

"Mm."

We borrowed an even larger glass box from the Training Center. E-rank compressed more than three times the mana, so the required quantity itself was far greater than F-rank's—which meant starting over from Distribution. But with the feel already cemented at F-rank, E-rank would consume far less time.

That day, Seo Ye-in succeeded in raising her [Magic Bullet] by a full rank.

Sand whipped on the wind. The sun was already beating down mercilessly, and now and then scorching grains came flying in to stick to her skin—anyone would want out of this place as fast as possible.

But Seo Ye-in settled herself on the searing sand without a care in the world. In her hands was a long, thick rifle with a black sheen, her whole silhouette rendered invisible by the Optical Camouflage Ghillie Suit.

Her opponent, Gwak Ji-cheol, was equally impossible to see—though not because of a ghillie suit. He was simply buried inside a squat mound of sand.

An earth mage of the Emerald Magic Tower. In desert terrain like this, he was the absolute worst possible matchup for her. Then again, from a mage's point of view, a Gunslinger was hardly a welcome opponent either—people always said the class matchup favored the gun, and there were reasons for that.

But he had spectated Seo Ye-in and Song Cheon-hye's placement exam. He'd watched how Song Cheon-hye dealt with a stealthed Gunslinger, and he was copying her playbook to the letter. His mana reserves weren't overwhelming like Song Cheon-hye's, but earth magic was his specialty, and in pure defense he had even more confidence.

First, Gwak Ji-cheol wrapped his mana around his body like armor. Then he dragged the surrounding sand up into a mound, infusing it with mana until it hardened solid.

Seo Ye-in read every bit of that information through her Eyes.

Having cemented his defenses like a turtle, Gwak Ji-cheol cast yet another spell.

Hands of sand groped their way across the ground, wandering in widening circles. The instant they located Seo Ye-in, they would seize her all at once and pin her down. And ending a Gunslinger who couldn't move would be trivially easy.

The sand hands kept expanding their search radius. It was only a matter of time before she was found. Even if the hands missed her, the footprints her steps left in the sand would give her away with near certainty the moment she moved.

"…"

Yet not a trace of danger could be read on Seo Ye-in's face. She opened one hand. Over her white palm, mana coalesced and compressed itself firmly into the shape of a bullet.

She pressed the finished Magic Bullet to the rifle, and it seeped smoothly inside. Through her scope, Seo Ye-in studied the sand mound where Gwak Ji-cheol hid. Her eyes traced the flow of mana sustaining the mound—flow that broke, unnaturally, in little fits and starts.

There was always a weak point in a place like that.

She took calm aim and pulled the trigger.

— KWA-BOOM!

The Magic Bullet tore through the air and shattered not only Gwak Ji-cheol's hardened sand mound, but even the thin layer of mana armor he wore. The mound collapsed inward, exposing him to the open air.

Caught off guard by the sudden visibility, Gwak Ji-cheol failed to process the situation for a heartbeat—and then his face flooded with astonishment.

"No—th—that's—"

What kind of absurdity was this? He hadn't been able to breach Song Cheon-hye's barrier, yet his own barrier—stronger in defense—had been smashed this effortlessly?

But there was no time to stand there reeling. I have to block it! He scrambled to gather sand and repair his Earth Barrier—but before he could, a second bullet came screaming in and slammed into his face.

— CRACK!

"…"

Gwak Ji-cheol crumpled backward, out cold.

Seo Ye-in gazed at the scoreboard for a long moment—then tilted her head, puzzled. And raised a finger to poke at the corners of her mouth.

It had felt like they'd been creeping upward, just a little.