Week 2 Conquest Battle (1)
Monday.
On the walk to school after breakfast with Seo Ye-in, the back of my neck prickled. I stole a glance over my shoulder and, sure enough, we'd picked up a tail — one boy, one girl. They weren't even attempting to follow on the sly; they tramped along behind me all but broadcasting that I was their target.
There was no chance I'd turned into a heartthrob overnight, so they had to have come because of the [Life Cube]. The bait I'd cast out for Park Nari was finally drawing its first nibbles. Still, for their attitude to be this shameless — apparently someone on the Emerald Magic Tower or Nature Club side had a famously short fuse.
People really shouldn't conduct their business this way.
If I simply went on to class as-is, they'd have no way to touch me. But that would only push the inevitable back until after school. Matters like this were cleanest settled on the spot — and besides, they were grating on my nerves.
"Seo Ye-in, go on ahead."
"...?"
"Something just came up."
Seo Ye-in tilted her head a fraction, then flicked a glance past my shoulder. She found the boy and girl, then turned back and stared at me dead-on — as if to ask, those two are the something?
"What could go wrong? I'll sweep this up and be right in."
"...Okay."
Seo Ye-in split off toward the classroom, and I headed for an alley where foot traffic thinned to nothing. By then one of the two presences behind me had dropped away — gone ahead, I figured — while the other kept trailing me at a fixed distance, glued to my back.
Just before the alley let me out the far side, the boy appeared and blocked my path, and the girl sealed off my retreat from behind. Boxed in, front and back.
"Coming here on your own two feet — you've spared us some trouble."
The boy struck as dignified a pose as he could manage and introduced himself; the girl gave nothing but her name, short and flat.
"Gwak Ji-cheol of the Emerald Magic Tower."
"Jeong Su-ji."
"Ah, I see. So what business brings you to such a humble corner of the world?"
Gwak Ji-cheol answered in a tone thick with arrogance.
"The club president wants to see you. Follow us to the clubroom."
"Don't feel like it."
"?"
Gwak Ji-cheol blinked for a moment, plainly never having imagined such a reply.
"...What?"
"Your president says come, so I have to come?"
"Was that not clear? We are the Emerald Magic Tower."
"And I'm not the Emerald Magic Tower. Don't hand me orders. Unless you're tired of living."
"...!"
Gwak Ji-cheol's mouth fell slowly open, as though he'd just absorbed the most outrageous slander of his young life — and a heartbeat later it curdled, undiluted, into fury. Behind him, Jeong Su-ji heaved a deep sigh and tried to talk me around.
"Just come along this once. Nothing bad will happen to you."
"That's enough, Jeong Su-ji."
Gwak Ji-cheol had evidently already resolved to demonstrate his power. The chunky emerald set into his staff began to drink in a green glow.
"Some people only listen once they've been beaten into it."
"Tell me about it. Say, mind if I ask you one thing?"
"What."
"The name Gwak rang a bell — you wouldn't happen to have an older brother? On the Disciplinary Committee."
"Gwak Seung-jae. A brother I respect and take pride in."
"Is that so."
I'd asked on a hunch — same stiff temperament, same Gwak face — and sure enough, they were brothers. But hey, did you know? Your brother ate one of my fists and dropped on the spot, punk.
Oblivious to my inner commentary, Gwak Ji-cheol puffed up all the more at the mere mention of his brother.
"Last chance. Come along quietly even now, and I'll spare you the pain."
"Last chance from me too."
"...?"
"Turn around and walk away right this second, and I'll let you off with a single smack on the head."
"You just keep pushing it—!"
KRA-KOOOM—!
The ground in front of Gwak Ji-cheol surged upward, and more than a dozen hands of packed earth lunged for me, straining earnestly to seize my limbs. I slipped into [Thief's Step] and drifted unhurried through the gaps between them — and when I also cleanly evaded the mud bullets streaming in from behind, Jeong Su-ji burst out with a cry of disbelief.
"That's impossible!"
I slid in close to Gwak Ji-cheol and drove a kick into his face. He hoisted his staff to block, but the guard was imperfect, and the blow landed anyway. Your brother blocked this one without any trouble, you know.
"Ngh...!"
Rrrrumble...
As I kept pressing in, Gwak Ji-cheol recalled every earthen hand and fused them into one colossal fist of dirt. He swung it straight at me; I gave ground just enough to slip past, then stepped lightly left and right to dodge the mud bullets whistling in at my back.
A Hummingbird took wing from my hand. The instant the little bird banked sharply toward Gwak Ji-cheol's flank, he reshaped the earthen fist into a broad shield and slammed it down.
"Cute little trick!"
"Eyes on me."
WHAM!
My driving kick buried itself deep in his stomach. He'd poured every ounce of focus into stopping the Hummingbird, and the rest of his defense had gone begging.
"Kah... hck!"
Bent double, he reeled backward in a panic, flailing the earthen fist as if to warn me off. I sidestepped it with ease, seized Gwak Ji-cheol by the head, and hurled him with everything I had into the alley wall.
CRASH!
Gwak Ji-cheol hugged the wall and slid gently down it, only the whites of his eyes showing — out cold, by the look of him. With the academy uniform's protective magic on top, he wouldn't be injured. A touch of trauma might linger, though.
"!!"
Jeong Su-ji, who had been diligently backing up Gwak Ji-cheol, abruptly found herself alone. Her eyes met mine; she flinched and cast [Earth Gatling] all over again. Fat lot of good it did her — I'd dodged those without even looking a moment ago, so dodging them face-to-face was no work at all. I closed the distance in a heartbeat, gave her staff a sharp yank, and it left her hands with almost pathetic ease.
So she hadn't prepared for close quarters at all.
Jeong Su-ji wore a hollow look for a breath, then tried to chant a spell bare-handed —
CRACK!
— and the staff cracked down on the crown of her head. To Jeong Su-ji, cradling her smarting skull, I delivered the message:
"Go tell your president: if she has business with me, she comes herself. She doesn't send people to fetch me."
"...Understood. Sorry."
Jeong Su-ji began slinking away, and I called her straight back.
"Hey."
"Wh-what?"
"You're leaving alone? What about that?"
'That' being Gwak Ji-cheol, currently at one with the alley wall. A person ought to have some loyalty, no?
Jeong Su-ji hoisted Gwak Ji-cheol onto her back as instructed and wheezed and groaned, but her stamina was so abysmal that even dredging up every drop of mana she had didn't budge him an inch. Close-combat training truly did look urgent for her.
"He's not hurt, so wake him and get to class. I'm off."
"Uh, okay..."
"Hey, get up already. If we don't go now, we'll be late."
"Uuugh..."
Gwak Ji-cheol came to a short while after Kim Ho had gone. His skull throbbed; he clutched his head in both hands and groaned. Once he'd gathered his wits a little, resentment got the better of him and he began trembling from head to toe.
"To think I fell for such a filthy trick..."
"He fought pretty well, didn't he? Maybe it's just a gap in skill."
"Gap in skill, my foot! He used dirty tricks and landed one lucky punch!"
Gwak Ji-cheol exploded. He simply could not accept that a coward had outclassed him on pure ability; only by rationalizing it this way, it seemed, could he keep his peace of mind. Gritting his teeth, he promised himself a rematch.
"Next time, for sure!"
THWACK!
A Magic Bullet came flying from somewhere and smashed into his temple. He toppled over backward once again, eyes rolling white.
"Sniper!?"
Jeong Su-ji hastily swept their surroundings, but the alley remained as deserted as ever — nothing in sight anywhere.
THWACK!
The next instant, a Magic Bullet streaked in and struck her square in the forehead. Through the fog of fading consciousness, Jeong Su-ji thought:
Why me too...?
And she flopped down cozily beside Gwak Ji-cheol. They were both late to class.
"Why'd you go on ahead if you were going to show up after me?"
"..."
"...Are you asleep?"
"..."
How could a person fall asleep that fast?
It had been comparatively recent that Instructor Seo Cheong-yong first made a name for himself as a grandmaster of dungeon clearing. He had appeared out of nowhere one day, demolished one supposedly unconquerable dungeon after another, and rocketed to fame — whereupon Dragon Slayer Academy invited him aboard as its Conquest instructor. With his genial face and a personality without a single sharp edge, he put students at ease, and his Conquest classes ran in a far gentler atmosphere than any other subject.
"Let's think about it: what were dungeons made for?"
A map of some nameless dungeon rose onto the blackboard — an adventurer party entering through the gate, boring through a tangled maze toward the center, where a boss monster crouched hugging a treasure chest to its body.
"Why doesn't the boss room simply appear right away? Why must a dungeon be as convoluted as a maze? Anyone care to answer?"
A girl in the very front row raised her hand. Called on by Seo Cheong-yong, she spoke.
"...Because that way the intruders suffer."
"Correct."
Monsters and traps sprang up scattered across the dungeon map. A place that was already a labyrinth now bristled with obstacles on top; the clear would only grow harder.
"A dungeon is complex for one reason: to grind you down as much as possible before you ever reach its core. Every resource you carry — equipment, potions, mana, stamina, even your party members — can be spent along the way. And if everything runs dry before you reach your destination..."
On the blackboard, the adventurer party buckled under the monsters' assault and dropped flat.
"Clear failed. You retreat — or, in the worst case, the party is wiped out. Yes?"
"...!"
"How efficiently you use the resources you have, and how much of them you conserve — that is the heart of dungeon clearing. And so! The resource you'll be conserving this week is..."
MAP: [Goblin Swamp]
RULE: [Time Attack] [5-Minute Limit]
[1-Person / 2-Person Dungeon] [Formidable Foe]
"Time. Nothing lays bare how efficient your actions were more starkly than the time left on the clock when you clear the dungeon."
The map on the blackboard wiped itself away, and in its place appeared a goblin figurine crudely whittled from a log — a symbol known as the Goblin Totem.
"Reach the destination within five minutes and destroy the totem — that's a clear. Of course, the road there won't exactly be smooth. Take a wrong turn and you'll sink into the swamp; every monster you fight stretches your clear time that much longer. Be careful."
"I have a question."
A student raised a hand. Seo Cheong-yong dipped his head with a smile, and the student spoke.
"Um... what does [Formidable Foe] mean, exactly?"
"There was a hint in Instructor Jo Oksoon's class. You've reviewed your notes thoroughly, I trust?"
"Of... course..."
The hand slunk quietly back down. So he'd been dozing through that class.
Seo Cheong-yong flashed a grin and carried on.
"Now, and this is the important part: the surface-floor dungeons can be attempted as many times as you like in 'practice mode.'"
They consisted entirely of artificial dungeons, so entry was unrestricted and retries were unrestricted.
"But you get exactly one chance to post a score. So find the most efficient route you can imagine, practice it until it's second nature, and only then go in for the real thing. That's all for today! Everyone, enjoy your lunch!"
The moment Seo Cheong-yong stepped out of the classroom, Shin Byung-cheol came scrambling up to Go Hyeon-woo.
"Hey hey hey! Go Hyeon-woo! Do the two-person dungeon with me!"
This week's Conquest was split into one-person and two-person dungeons, each scored separately. If you wanted a high score in the two-person dungeon, choosing your partner well was only common sense. Hence Shin Byung-cheol, ever quick to read the room, had latched onto Go Hyeon-woo, first place in the Conquest.
"Hmm..."
Go Hyeon-woo hummed, stealing a glance my way — clearly angling for my blessing. When I gestured for him to go ahead, he gave a nod. In the Goblin Swamp, those two's combination would work out decently well.
"Very well. This time, let us see how Brother Shin and I mesh."
"Shall we head over right after lunch?"
"That would be for the best."
Even if they weren't posting a score right away, practice mode was the sort of thing where the more runs, the better.
And my partner was...
Seo Ye-in, gently tugging at my sleeve.
"Come with me."
"Let's do that."