Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Back to the Academy (5)

Week 13 of the first semester.

The first semester was slowly drawing to a close.

The freshmen who had seemed so green when I'd first met them had all become full-fledged aspiring Heroes.

"They've gotten pretty impressive."

We moved to the site of the fourth exam.

Giant Crab Wasp.

A dungeon that appeared on the tidal flats near the western coast.

The students looked around the area with curious eyes.

"Is this really near a dungeon?"

"There are so many people."

Every dungeon we'd visited before had been surrounded by ruins.

Invaded by monsters, destroyed beyond recognition, and left abandoned.

But this dungeon was different.

The tidal flats on the west coast were an active fishing ground.

Korean Heroes had painstakingly fought to reclaim these flats after they'd been seized by monsters.

Those who had led that charge came to greet us.

"Professor Cha, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

A woman in red leather armor approached.

Her outfit was suitably light while still offering protection — fitting for the tidal flats.

"Are you from the Najin Guild?"

"Ah, yes. I'm Yeon Huiju, Vice Guild Master."

Najin Guild.

A guild of considerable size that protected the entire western coastline.

Because they'd stayed on the west coast and dealt with dungeons immediately, these tidal flats had been able to return to their current peaceful state.

In recognition, the Korean Hero Association had officially granted Najin Guild ownership rights over every dungeon near the western coast.

The fact that we could use this location as an exam site was thanks to Najin Guild's cooperation.

"Hehe, seeing you in person makes all the fierce competition we went through worth it."

"Me?"

"All our executives are fans of yours, Professor. We watched your performance at the Pacific Dungeon."

I was a bit bewildered.

Fans of a professor who hadn't even fought directly and had only advised on tactics?

I had, admittedly, taken charge of the expedition's command, but the commander wasn't typically a popular position.

In sports terms, it was similar to how players get far more spotlight than coaches.

Just like how ordinary people all know Messi and Jordan but can't name most famous coaches.

Even so, it seemed I was fairly well-recognized among Heroes.

"My contribution to the Pacific Dungeon was hardly worth mentioning. It was all thanks to the exceptional S-rank Heroes."

"Oh my, how modest. Experts worldwide agreed that the expedition might have failed without you, Professor. So, could I get an autograph?"

All that flattery put me in such a good mood that I agreed easily.

"That's easy enough."

I took the paper Yeon Huiju shyly held out.

I was glad I'd practiced my signature in advance.

Between signing documents instead of stamping them as part of my professor duties, I'd developed a pretty decent signature.

I even took a photo with her before we moved to where the dungeon was.

After about a two-kilometer walk, we arrived at a large outpost.

Its primary function seemed to be detecting and reporting Gate appearances in the area.

"This area is a hot spot. A new dungeon pops up roughly every hour."

"Dealing with them must be exhausting."

"You bet. It's the assignment every guild member dreads. I used to be stationed here too... ugh! Let's just go inside."

At Yeon Huiju's guidance, we entered the outpost.

The first thing that caught my eye inside was a large radar on the wall.

On the radar, four blue dots glowed conspicuously.

They probably indicated the locations of the dungeons my students would enter.

Yeon Huiju spoke to the staff inside.

"Hey everyone, Professor Cha and the students are here."

The guild members inside the outpost stood to greet us.

"We've heard a lot about you."

"Professor, I'm a fan!"

With everyone recognizing me everywhere I went, I felt like a celebrity.

The students, too, seemed surprised that the professor they'd gotten used to seeing casually at the Academy was recognized by everyone on the outside, and they murmured among themselves.

One guild member asked.

"Are the students you brought graduating this year?"

"No. They're freshmen."

"...Pardon?"

The warm atmosphere froze for an instant.

The Najin guild members looked taken aback.

"Giant Crab Wasp is a place that gives even active Heroes trouble — isn't it too dangerous with just freshmen?"

"No matter how good Florian's students are......"

In exchange for being granted rights to all dungeons near the western coast, Najin Guild also bore the responsibility.

If an accident happened inside a dungeon, it would all fall on Najin Guild.

Giant Crab Wasp in particular was one of the most notoriously difficult dungeons among rookie Heroes.

It was understandable that they'd have reservations about Academy freshmen raiding the dungeon on their own.

"Um... I didn't know it would be only freshmen either......"

Even Yeon Huiju was caught off guard by the fact she hadn't been told.

I'd deliberately withheld the fact that they were freshmen, fearing a refusal if I told them beforehand.

"There's no need to worry. They're Florian's students."

Florian, the finest Academy in Korea.

At that name, the Najin guild members' expressions relaxed slightly.

And the one who'd taught them was me.

It would be great if that were enough to be convincing.

"Let us talk amongst ourselves for just a moment."

Yeon Huiju gathered the guild members and hastily began an internal meeting.

Come on, they wouldn't send us away after we'd come all this way, right?

I even gave them an autograph.

The short meeting concluded, and Yeon Huiju spoke.

"We'll let them in, but on one condition."

"A condition?"

"If there's even the slightest problem inside, we halt the raid and deploy our guild members. If you can't agree to this condition, we can't let them in."

"Understood."

At that, the Najin guild members finally relaxed.

After the Pacific Dungeon expedition, Video Magic and Communication Magic had been rapidly distributed worldwide.

In just a few weeks, it had become standard for every guild to film and monitor their raids, enabling immediate response if something went wrong inside a dungeon.

Many guilds predicted that specialized commanders — people who only issued orders, like I had — would increase in the near future.

Since the same trend had emerged in the game after Lee Yeeun invented the spells, it probably wasn't an inaccurate prediction.

"Head out."

"Yes!"

At my command, the students departed.

Each team entered a dungeon one by one.

***

The Najin guild members were shitting themselves.

Giant Crab Wasp.

They'd sent students into a death trap that claimed even active Heroes' lives.

The guild members whispered among themselves.

"Damn, shouldn't we pull them out now?"

"Those kids must be in danger......"

"Enough."

The one who stopped them was Yeon Huiju.

"You all don't trust Professor Cha?"

Cha Eunwoo.

Currently the most sought-after Hero in Korea, bar none.

Officially, he was a professor rather than a Hero, but in people's minds, there was no difference.

The Supreme Commander who had led the Pacific Dungeon expedition to success.

If a national-level crisis ever struck Korea, it was obvious who would lead its Heroes.

There was no reason to get on his bad side.

Yeon Huiju conveyed her message to the staff through her eyes.

'Just shut up and sit tight! Ruining the Professor's mood is way harder to clean up after!'

Half the reason Yeon Huiju had come here was to prevent her guild members from making a blunder.

The other half was the genuine fandom she'd mentioned to Cha Eunwoo.

Cowed by the Vice Guild Master's fierce intensity, the guild members decided to sit tight.

Watching the Najin guild members, Cha Eunwoo smiled.

"It seems you have reservations about my students."

"Oh, n-no, that's not it......"

"I understand. If anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility, so please don't worry too much."

Of course, there was no way any problems would arise.

Cha Eunwoo swallowed those words.

The students entered the dungeons.

The Najin staff whispered as they watched the monitors.

"How many parties do you think will clear it?"

"Even one clearing it would be impressive. This is no place for kids fresh out of the Academy."

Giant Crab Wasp's first stage.

Like every dungeon exam before, this one too was packed with trash mobs on the first stage.

True to the name Giant Crab Wasp, massive crabs poured out en masse.

"Ugh, just looking at them pisses me off."

"How are their shells so tough? It'll take the kids' firepower ages."

The key to raiding Giant Crab Wasp was firepower.

Every monster had high defenses, making it impossible to deal significant damage with ordinary attacks.

On top of that, their regeneration was so potent that wounds healed almost immediately, driving attackers mad.

To hunt the giant crabs efficiently, you needed to concentrate burst damage and finish them off one at a time.

First, A-team.

─Start from the left. I'll herd them.

Park Seohu drew the monsters' aggro and lured them around, easily creating openings for the rear line to focus their fire.

The mages battered the giant crab's shell, and Na Jinsu delivered the finishing blow.

A-team was steadily whittling down the giant crabs' numbers.

The Najin guild members were stunned.

"What's with that kid?"

"Is that level of playmaking possible for a freshman?"

Next, B-team.

Baek Seolhwa fought the giant crabs at the very front like Park Seohu, but she wasn't the playmaker.

She pulled strings to maneuver her teammates into position, then shattered the crabs' shells herself.

─One at a time, starting with this one!

Baek Seolhwa's sword sliced through the tough crab shell as easily as tofu.

The combination of overwhelming specs and the Eruption talent was staggering.

"Clean cut."

"How does a sword... move like that?"

And then, C-team.

Befitting the most balanced party, they took turns dealing damage.

The moment one person attacked, the next was already following up.

The cycle An Seri had built elevated C-team's polish even further.

─Abraham, give the buff to Dayun this time.

─I'll cover that side.

An Seri's calls had a precision that no other team leader could replicate.

She controlled her party members with pinpoint accuracy while perfectly fulfilling her own role.

"Her ability to read the field is incredible."

"Every shot hits. She's not missing a single one."

Even the guild members who had eyed them with suspicion had to acknowledge it.

These kids were no ordinary freshmen.

Even against a high-difficulty dungeon, they had the capability to raid it.

But they weren't fully convinced yet.

"No matter how talented they are, those kids lack experience."

"Right, the next stage won't be easy."

What mattered most for a Hero was ability, but ability alone couldn't solve everything.

The countless variables that appeared in real combat.

If you failed to handle those variables properly, you could stumble even in an appropriately leveled dungeon — or even an easy one.

This was especially common among inexperienced Heroes.

That's why rookies often chose dungeons well below their proper level.

"Even Heroes always make mistakes once they're actually inside a dungeon."

"Academy kids, needless to say."

There had been a time when they'd thought that way.

─Stage 2 clear.

─Nothing much here.

But Cha Eunwoo's students were abnormally stable.

They advanced to the boss room with an ease utterly unbefitting Academy students.

"Huh?"

"How is this......"

Teams A, B, and C entered the boss stage almost simultaneously.

D-team was slightly behind, but their raid was progressing without any crises.

"Already the boss stage?"

The Najin guild members were astonished when they checked the time.

Even Hero-composed parties rarely reached the boss stage this quickly.

Even D-team, the slowest, was outpacing Najin Guild's average raid speed.

"What in the world......"

These were undeniably outstanding students, but they weren't more skilled than Najin's active Heroes individually.

Excluding what appeared to be the leader in each team, the remaining students' skills fell far short of Hero level.

Yet the results were saying they rivaled Heroes, and nobody could make sense of it.

The one who figured out the secret was Yeon Huiju.

"...The raid strategy."

The strategies honed through Cha Eunwoo's course.

They were far more efficient than anything Najin Guild employed.

'Decades of data Najin has accumulated protecting the western coast... is worse than what Academy students visiting for the first time have?'

This was a fundamentally different issue from the kids simply being strong.

The strategy that Najin Guild had built over decades of defending these tidal flats and accumulating data — inferior to that of first-time visitors?

It was impossible to accept.

Of course, refusing to accept it didn't change reality.

So Yeon Huiju made her peace with the unbelievable reality.

In a voice as small as an ant's, Yeon Huiju spoke to Cha Eunwoo.

"Professor, I... I'll compensate you generously, so would it be possible for us to use today's footage as reference material?"

It was a request that stung her pride, but that didn't matter.

If she could distribute Cha Eunwoo's strategies across the entire Najin Guild, future Giant Crab Wasp expeditions would become far easier.

Cha Eunwoo answered with a good-natured smile.

"Let's call us even for lending us the dungeon."

"Ah... thank you!"

Yeon Huiju and Najin Guild had reaped an unexpected harvest.

***

The students wrapped up the boss stage without difficulty and returned to the outpost.

In the end, a remarkable three teams — A-team, B-team, and C-team — earned A+, while D-team pulled an A.

Every team at A or above.

It was an unexpectedly excellent showing.

"Great work, everyone."

I applauded the returning students.

When I'd first opened the course, I never imagined they'd all perform this well.

Lee Yeeun asked.

"So who placed first?"

On cue, piercing stares converged on me.

Teams A, B, and C all seemed to secretly expect that they had taken first.

An Seri and Baek Seolhwa's faces already showed conviction that they'd won, while Park Seohu looked outwardly nonchalant but was clearly hopeful underneath.

What was I going to do about this?

The three teams' times were nearly identical. Rankings were separated by the slimmest of margins.

With expectations this high, the teams that didn't get first would be deeply disappointed.

"First place goes to......"

Ding—♪

Just then, a text message arrived.

The sender was Chancellor Ryu Jeonga.

"One moment."

The kids made no effort to hide their disappointment.

I felt a little bad for pulling something reminiscent of a mid-show commercial break on a certain audio program.

But the message's contents were shocking enough to blow all such feelings away.

My mind went blank for an instant.

─The omens are bad today. Something terrible may be coming, so watch yourself.

The message was from Chancellor Ryu Jeonga.

At a glance, it seemed like ordinary content.

But what the message implied was chilling.

This was a message you'd see no matter which character you played or how you progressed.

The sender was always Chancellor Ryu Jeonga.

The timing was always right before a specific event.

'The Academy Collapse Event has begun.'

Right, of course.

This goddamn timeline had long since veered off the original trajectory.

So an event that shouldn't have appeared for at least three more years had started.

Goddammit. Goddammit!

'Until the event itself... there's still time.'

Yes.

Think positive.

Maybe this was actually a good thing.

As always, an Evil God's arrival coming early meant its difficulty was lowered.

It might be the perfect chance to deal with one of the game's most troublesome events ahead of schedule.