Becoming a Veteran of the Academy Novel
1. I Became a Veteran of the Academy Novel
I died in an unfortunate accident.
When I opened my eyes, I was in an unfamiliar cave.
You are a web novel veteran, and you have entered the world of a novel.
Enjoy your second life to the fullest while ravishing the heroines!
I frowned at the notification window that had appeared before my eyes.
What is this? A second life? Ravish the heroines?
The notification window disappeared. I had certainly believed I was dead — yet I was, without a doubt, alive.
"Ian, snap out of it."
A girl with a cute bob haircut was speaking to me.
"Huh?"
I looked around, blinking. She was dressed in an instructor's uniform, and she glared at me. Beside her, a long-haired girl who looked like a blonde mixed-race beauty crossed her arms and grumbled.
"Seriously, of all the times..."
She shot me a glance and shook her head. Even in the middle of all this, I couldn't help noticing the way her large breasts were propped up on her crossed arms.
But what on earth is going on?
You have entered I Became a Veteran of the Academy Novel.
Huh?
It was a web novel I'd read. Hailed as a masterpiece at first, the story went off the rails midway, got extended season after season, and finally wrapped up to reviews calling it a case of great start, garbage finish.
Please fix the distorted worldline caused by the dumbass protagonist of this god-awful novel, and save the heroines.
The notification window seemed to be showing quite a lot of emotion.
Okay, so I'm fixing a novel I loved — fine. But save the heroines? What's that about? A second ago you told me to ravish them.
Ravishing the heroines is the way to save them.
What?
Upon success, a reward♥ will be given.
What's with the heart?
Your plausibility has been partially adjusted so that your intervention feels natural.
No more notifications appeared. I decided to observe the situation for now.
It looked like a cave dungeon, with one wall completely collapsed.
-Seolha! Instructor Choi Jiyoon! Are you okay?!
A man's voice drifted faintly from beyond the collapsed wall.
I Became a Veteran of the Academy Novel. "So-A-Ka" for short. The blonde Yoo Seolha, called one of So-A-Ka's canonical heroines — and this one here must be Instructor Choi Jiyoon.
Both of them are way prettier than they were described in the novel.
Yoo Seolha came running toward the collapsed cave wall.
"Seonghyeok! Are you okay?"
Kim Seonghyeok? The protagonist?
Pounding on the wall did no good. One look told you it had caved in far too thickly. Yoo Seolha placed a hand on the rubble and began chanting a spell.
"Fire Str—"
Instructor Choi Jiyoon grabbed her wrist.
"Seolha, no. It'll collapse even more."
She was right. One wrong move and everything would blow sky-high. Despair settled into Yoo Seolha's eyes.
Choi Jiyoon calmly relayed the situation through the wall.
"Everyone, we're all fine over here. How about you?"
-We're safe too!
"The wall's completely collapsed. For now, don't stay in one place too long — move toward the safe zone. There might be a way to meet up."
-Yes, Instructor!
The sounds from beyond the wall quieted. They had apparently started moving.
Right. This was in the novel.
Midway through the story, there was a part where a dungeon appeared near the academy, and the protagonist Kim Seonghyeok and several cadets cleared it under the command of Choi Jiyoon, an instructor and former S-rank hunter. It was a five-person dungeon — three men including Kim Seonghyeok, plus Yoo Seolha and Choi Jiyoon — and this was the scene where the wall collapses.
When the wall fell, Kim Seonghyeok saved Yoo Seolha and Choi Jiyoon but got buried under the pile of rubble himself — whereupon he awakened, unlocked a new ability, and dug his way out on his own. It was the event that sent the steadily building affection meters of Yoo Seolha and Choi Jiyoon skyrocketing.
Yes. That was definitely how it went. But something had changed. Was it because of me?
"Let's move too," Instructor Choi Jiyoon said.
In this novel's dungeons, safe zones and monster-spawn areas were divided. The collapsed wall here was in a monster-spawn zone, so Choi Jiyoon's judgment as an instructor was to head for the safe zone first.
We walked down the path leading away from the collapse — the route the protagonist and his party never took in the novel. I gripped the spear in my hand tightly. Less than ten minutes into my second life, and I could already die again. It made me nervous.
Choi Jiyoon, who had been leading the way, stopped. Having scoped out the branching path ahead, she spoke to us in a low voice.
"Seolha. Two Nightmare Spiders. You and I take one each. Ian?"
"...Yes."
"There's a goblin next to the spiders too. Can you handle it?"
It wasn't as if I could say I couldn't manage a goblin while everyone else was taking on Nightmare Spiders. And I couldn't very well say, if it's no trouble, would you kindly catch a goblin for me while you're at it.
"Yes." I nodded.
"Go."
Choi Jiyoon led the charge, and Yoo Seolha sprinted after her. We rounded the corner to find two car-sized spiders and a single small goblin.
Ugh. Whatever happens, happens.
I attacked the goblin with my spear.
A short while later—
"Kuheck."
"G-got it..."
After five minutes of struggle, the goblin impaled on the end of my spear stopped moving. I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
Thwack!
"Ack—"
Something smacked the back of my head. It was Yoo Seolha.
"You're celebrating killing one goblin? Get a grip."
The two enormous spiders beside us had already been cut down. I silently rubbed my stinging skull.
Instructor Choi Jiyoon came over. "Ian, good work. You alright?"
"Yes."
Choi Jiyoon, twenty-one, gazed at me with concern. A genius since childhood, an S-rank assassin hunter only one year older than the twenty-year-old protagonist Kim Seonghyeok. Bob haircut, adorable face. Even just the outline beneath her form-fitting clothes told you everything about that figure — breasts and hips to rival Yoo Seolha's, and a sharply cinched waist. My eyes drifted to her of their own accord; I forced myself to look away, trying not to ogle.
Yoo Seolha needled me from the side. "I thought you'd be useful for grunt work, so we brought an F-class along. Hey. Don't even think about freeloading off this bus. Got it?"
Yoo Seolha — an angelic face when she smiles, and positively venomous when she's angry. Just like the novel.
"Got it. Don't worry."
The reason an F-class like me could survive at the academy wasn't a skill — it was the raw physical strength to endure grueling training. The body I'd started my second life with was unmistakably large-framed and packed with hard muscle.
"Shh."
Choi Jiyoon raised a finger to her lips. She seemed to have sensed something like killing intent. With a footwork that made no sound at all, she approached the adjoining chamber. Yoo Seolha and I silently followed behind her.
In the next room, a grotesquely shaped skull monster floated in midair.
Yoo Seolha spoke up. "What is that thing?"
Choi Jiyoon shook her head. "No idea. First time I've ever seen a monster like it. Give me a second — I need to check what it is."
Right. Choi Jiyoon could view status windows. No matter how much So-A-Ka readers screamed heroine, die! every time a female character appeared, they never said it about Choi Jiyoon — because her status-window ability was flatly broken.
But beside her, my mouth moved on its own.
"Skeletal Wraith."
"What? You know what that is?"
Yoo Seolha's eyes went wide.
"I don't know for sure either. I just remember glimpsing it in a bestiary at the library."
A lie. It was because something like a status window had appeared before my eyes.
Choi Jiyoon apparently confirmed her own status window right after, and nodded.
"Ian's right. It's a ghost with undead attributes."
"Then my elemental magic won't work on it..."
Yoo Seolha swallowed hard.
Choi Jiyoon spoke. "Ian and I are physical-attribute too, so it won't work for us either. Can we get past it without fighting...? No, its range is too wide. What do we do?"
Yoo Seolha muttered to herself. "If Seonghyeok were here, what would he have done..."
Just then, a troll appeared from the opposite side and was walking toward the Skeletal Wraith.
"Oh? A troll?"
My mouth moved before I knew it. Seeing a troll — something that only ever appeared in fiction — in the flesh was genuinely fascinating.
The Skeletal Wraith didn't even glance at the troll; it just idly swiped its bony hand through empty air. And then—
Kwek.
The troll was diced into cube-shaped chunks and died.
"Holy crap. A troll, in one hit."
I swallowed. A troll was a handful even for Yoo Seolha right now. Choi Jiyoon could barely take one on — and that thing had just one-shot the troll into oblivion.
"Seonghyeok wouldn't have helped either, honestly."
Choi Jiyoon gave a cold-eyed assessment. Then—
Ding.
A skill window appeared before my eyes.
"Shit. Here it comes."
Yoo Seolha backed away. The Skeletal Wraith had noticed our presence and began drifting slowly toward us like it was swimming through the air.
"Get behind me, everyone."
Choi Jiyoon stepped in front of us. I checked the newly added skills in my window.
Holy Explosion?
"Instructor! More coming from the other side!"
Yoo Seolha shouted from where she'd retreated. From the chamber where we'd killed the spiders, another Skeletal Wraith had appeared out of nowhere and was approaching us.
I did not want to be sliced into cubes like that troll. I'd only just died, for crying out loud. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. My hand moved on instinct.
Snap.
I flicked my fingers.
Golden light rained down upon the Skeletal Wraith.
And then—
Pop.
The skull shattered, and the remains crumbled to the floor as bone dust.
I did it!
I swiftly aimed at the Skeletal Wraith on the opposite side and used the skill again.
Snap. Pop.
Silence fell over the dungeon.
I... I had killed the Skeletal Wraiths.
Yoo Seolha and Choi Jiyoon were staring at me.
"Wh-what? Ian, was that you?"
Yoo Seolha could barely contain her excitement. Choi Jiyoon came closer. She stared intently into my eyes, then broke into a smile.
"Ian, you awakened!"
She had apparently used her status-window skill.
"Looks like it."
"Hold on — just a sec. Let me see... There it is, a Holy Explosion skill. S+ rank with holy-attribute damage on top — that must be how you got them in one hit."
Yoo Seolha smiled at me. "Oho? Guess you'll be somewhat useful now?"
"Wait."
Choi Jiyoon furrowed her brow.
"Your max mana is 2?"
The moment I thought about checking my mana, the status window popped up.
"I used it twice, so I'm at zero — looks like each cast costs one."
I scratched my head.
"Then we just wait for your mana to refill and go. Once we deal with that one last Skeletal Wraith, the safe zone is right there."
Yoo Seolha said it like it was nothing.
Choi Jiyoon shook her head. "No, no. Ian — you can't regenerate mana."
"Oh. Right. That's why he was stuck doing spear drills. Argh!"
Yoo Seolha clutched her head.
She's right. I can't regenerate mana.
"Hold on. Along with Holy Explosion, it looks like a Mana Absorption skill awakened too."
Choi Jiyoon studied me closely. Yoo Seolha's head snapped up.
Choi Jiyoon took my hand and placed it on her own shoulder.
"Ian, want to try absorbing my mana? Let's just kill that one over there, get to the safe zone, and rest a bit. Seolha's worn out, and honestly, so am I."
"Yes."
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
Mana Absorption.
"Huh?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Why isn't it working?"
"Here, let me take a look."
Choi Jiyoon looked into my eyes. I checked the Mana Absorption skill in my skill window again. A detailed description of the skill appeared.
Mana Absorption [A]
You can absorb mana through sexual intercourse with the target. Mana is absorbed upon ejaculating inside the target's body.
Choi Jiyoon flinched and stumbled backward. A look of despair fell over her face.
"Ahh. It's no good."
"Why? Why not?"
Yoo Seolha wore a worried expression beside her.
Choi Jiyoon shared the information as calmly as she could manage.
"It's a skill that only absorbs mana through sexual intercourse."
"What?"
Yoo Seolha looked at me with contempt.
"What do we do?"
I rubbed my forehead. Yoo Seolha scowled.
"Instructor, let's just go back to where the wall collapsed."
"Think rationally, Seolha. That's not a safe zone. Once night falls, stronger monsters will come out. And like just now, a Skeletal Wraith could appear out of nowhere."
"But if we dawdle around here, everything this guy just killed is going to respawn."
Caught between a rock and a hard place. We had to destroy the one remaining Skeletal Wraith and reach the safe zone before our recent kills respawned. Thirty minutes until respawn.
Instructor Choi Jiyoon looked at me with resolute eyes. She grabbed my wrist.
"Ian. Come here for a second."