“Record: 8 seconds... Perfect clear.”
At Kim Sangsik’s words, I walked back toward the others.
Everyone, whether from Class A or Class B, stared at me with stunned expressions.
Even Jin Cheongwang’s lackeys had their eyes wide open, unable to look away from me.
“I’m back.”
I said, standing next to Lumina.
“A-A-Amazing...!” Lumina held her fists up to her chest as she spoke, “How on earth did you do that?”
Apparently curious, the other students also turned toward me and surrounded me.
“I just used the skill at the right timing.”
Their faces fell in disappointment, but I hadn’t lied or said anything incorrect.
I simply didn’t tell them when the right timing was, or how to use the skill properly.
When I showed no intention of explaining further, the others eventually gave up and backed off.
“Lumina.”
I whispered quietly once the others were gone.
“As soon as it starts, charge in with your movement skill and get behind the robot. Then aim for the round panel on its back, about the size of a soccer ball. That’s its weak spot.”
“!”
Lumina’s eyes widened.
“You have to rush in right away. Even a slight delay will get you hit by rubber bullets, and that’ll ruin your perfect clear. Also, if you don’t hit the panel precisely, the robot will counterattack while moving, so the clear time will be longer.”
“O-Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Though she was nervous, Lumina replied with a slightly brighter face.
Knowing the answer before you fight and going in blind are worlds apart.
The reason I knew the robot’s weak point was, of course, thanks to Latessai.
This whole class was essentially the tutorial from the game.
Specifically, it was the Skill Slot Tutorial.
In Gwangcheon, the first practical dungeon marked the beginning of the storyline, where players learned basic combat techniques.
Then, at the academy, they learned how to use Skill Slots and Skill Gems.
The exact sequence varied slightly by scenario, but one thing was always the same—the opponent was that big robot.
I had made over a hundred characters in Latessai and played through it with all of them.
In Hardcore Mode, some characters died before reaching the boss, but since you couldn’t skip the tutorial, I went through it every time.
That means I fought that robot over a hundred times.
So it was only natural that I knew its attack patterns and weak spots.
“Alright, the next challenger, raise your hand.”
Kim Sangsik’s voice rang out.
I gave Lumina a gentle push on the back. She nodded and raised her hand.
In the end, the top three were me, Lumina, and one student from Class A.
However, there was a huge 50-second gap between us and the Class A student.
Everyone tried to copy what I did, but their slow starts got them hit by rubber bullets or made them miss the weak spot, which delayed their clear times.
Still, most of them cleared it within the high end of one minute, and Jin Cheongwang’s lackeys finished within a minute.
The only one who took over two minutes was Jin Cheongwang himself.
Now dead last, Jin Cheongwang glared at me—but there was nothing he could do.
“The top three will each receive 20 shop points. Also, the Skill Slot you received today is yours to keep for the duration of your time at this school. The Skill Gems are part of your standard supply. Never take them off or treat them carelessly. However, using skills without permission on campus will result in a 100-point penalty. That’s all for today’s class.”
Kim Sangsik said as he picked up his tablet and walked back toward the main building.
“Thank you so much, Yein! Thanks to you, I got shop points too!”
Lumina smiled brightly.
“We’re in the same squad—it’s only natural to share intel. Well, it’s still unofficial for now.”
I smiled as I replied, then asked,
“The next class is Mental Strength Training, right?”
“Yeah. We have to go to the basement of the main building now.”
I reached into my memory from Latessai.
‘Honestly, I really don’t want to do this.’
Just remembering what Mental Strength Training was about made my body tense up.
Ten minutes later.
The Mental Strength Training class began in the indoor training room in the basement of the main building.
“Mental Power is...”
A man who looked over fifty and was leaning on crutches began to speak.
“It affects a hunter’s recovery and resistance. Recovery refers to how much HP and MP you regain over time. Resistance refers to your defense against physical or elemental damage—the higher it is, the less damage you take. In short, Mental Power is directly tied to survival. And the way to develop that Mental Power is...”
The slightly balding teacher grinned and pressed something on his tablet.
The ceiling opened, and dozens of iron balls, each a different size, descended on chains.
“Getting used to pain.”
The students’ faces twisted in despair. If I were to look in a mirror, I’m sure mine would’ve looked the same.
“The characters etched on the iron balls match the aptitude rating they’re suited for. Follow those.”
The teacher said this, then walked to the door and took a seat.
Lumina and I each found an iron ball labeled B and C, respectively.
“Good luck, Yein.”
Lumina gave a wry smile.
“You too.”
I held back a sigh and stood in front of the ball.
As soon as I placed my foot on the red line on the ground, a green light lit up and the iron ball began to move.
Boom!
“!!”
A wave of heat swept through my whole body, followed by a deep ache that spread from my stomach outward.
I clenched my teeth to keep from screaming.
Thud
“Guhh!!”
Thud
“Gyaahh!”
BOOM
“Kyaaah!”
The training room became a hellish chorus of crashing iron balls and screams.
It might seem like torture, but this was actually the exact training method used in Latessai to build physical resistance.
According to the lore, when a hunter is struck, their body instinctively floods with mana to absorb the impact—allowing them to survive intense combat.
And sure enough, even though I kept taking those iron balls to the stomach, my HP hadn’t dropped at all.
And getting hit didn’t use up any MP either.
CLANG!
“Ugh!”
Still, the rush of mana across my body came with intense heat and pain left behind by the iron balls.
“Aagh...”
I looked to the side and saw Lumina barely holding it together as she took hits from an even larger ball than mine.
For reference, in Latessai, Physical Resistance Training was done through a rhythm game.
If you timed your body to intercept the iron ball perfectly, your resistance would rise faster.
‘Maybe I should try that...’
Clenching my jaw until it felt like it might shatter, I forced myself to endure the pain and synced my movements to the rhythm.
Thud
“Gehk.”
Thud
“Gnnngh.”
Thud
“Uuurrgh.”
That was my limit.
Even though my HP wasn’t dropping and I wasn’t dying, it still felt like my brain and nerves were being shredded.
‘So this is the difference between a game and reality...’
In the end, I withstood about ten hits before stepping back to rest.
[WOOOOOAAAH!]
Suddenly, the roar of students erupted.
Turning around, I saw Jin Cheongwang and his two lackeys standing in front of a massive A-rank iron ball, taking its swings head-on.
Each impact seemed to make the air in the room tremble.
And yet, the three of them didn’t flinch. In fact, they were laughing as they took the blows to the body.
“......”
I caught Jin Cheongwang sneaking a smirk at me.
His expression said, There’s no way someone like you could ever do this.
“Freaking masochistic perverts.”
“Huh? Yein, what did you just say?”
Lumina tilted her head in confusion.
“Nothing.”
I shook my head.
Compared to the other hunter trainees, my body was basically paper-thin.
But that didn’t really matter.
I wasn’t planning to fight on the frontlines anyway. And building resistance wasn’t something that could only be done through Mental Strength Training.
The joint class with Class A ended after Mental Strength Training.
We changed back into our school uniforms and returned to the classroom.
Only one class remained—Demonology.
I sat down and rubbed my aching stomach from all the iron ball hits.
I’d checked while changing clothes, but probably thanks to mana, I didn’t even have a bruise.
“Hey, everyone~!”
The classroom door opened, and our homeroom teacher, Jung Yeongyeong, walked in.
“I know you’re all tired after training, but let’s power through just a bit more.”
Just hearing her gentle voice seemed to ease some of the lingering pain.
“Now, let’s do a quick reminder of where we left off last time.”
She tapped on her tablet, and the blackboard turned into a screen, displaying a linked visual.
A simple timeline appeared.
“Last time, we began exploring the history behind Demonology by looking at the early stages of the Human-Demon War.”
The left side of the screen zoomed in.
The label read: Early Human-Demon War.
“In 2052, portals—back then they were called ‘gates’—suddenly appeared all over Earth. From them emerged hordes of monsters, and humanity was utterly helpless. Modern weapons didn’t work on the monsters, and over the course of the war, nearly nine billion humans died.”
Her explanation was something I knew by heart—it was straight out of Latessai's setting.
“In the midst of that chaos, people like us—hunters—began to appear. At the time, we were called Awakened. With the emergence of these Awakened individuals who possessed mana and supernatural abilities, humanity finally had a means to fight back. Battles raged across the major cities that had not yet been destroyed. The ones who led those battles were called the Seven Pioneers, and most of the SS-rank monsters were defeated by them. Now, here’s a question.”
Our homeroom teacher, Jung Yeongyeong, raised a finger with a smile.
“Who remembers the two biggest turning points that marked the transition from the early to middle stages of the Human-Demon War?”
The classroom fell silent.
“There are 5 shop points on the line~.”
I immediately raised my hand. If I wanted to trade for materials or equipment, I had to steadily collect shop points.
“Oh, Yein.”
She pointed to me.
“The disappearance of the Pioneers and the appearance of dungeons.”
“Correct. That’s 5 points for Yein.”
The class let out a collective “Wow.” Lumina turned toward me with a face that said, “I knew it.”
“If you can explain it in more detail, I’ll give you 10 extra points.”
I nodded and began to explain.
“In 2061, the Pioneers planned to enter the gates themselves to uncover the cause of the monsters and the gate phenomena. Five of the seven led other Awakened into the gate. But none of those who entered ever came back. Not long after, all the existing gates vanished, and a new type of spatial phenomenon occurred. That’s what we now call dungeons.”
Many players never bothered reading the in-game lore or story, but I was the type who enjoyed that kind of thing.
“These newly transformed gates—what we now call dungeons—started appearing in densely populated metropolitan areas. Inside those dungeons, a completely different ecosystem from Earth was discovered. Eventually, people began referring to the world within the dungeons as the Demon Realm.”
When I finished, the class gasped in awe.
Even the teacher looked surprised, probably not expecting such a thorough answer.
“Perfect. That’s not just 10 points... I’ll give you 15. Well done.”
The students let out another wave of amazement.
“Woooow...”
Lumina looked like her face might split from grinning so wide.
Jung Yeongyeong tapped her tablet again, and a photo appeared on the screen. It was the entrance to the Seawater Cavern we had visited recently.
“As Yein just explained, the disappearance of the Pioneers and the transformation of the gates into dungeons marked the beginning of the middle phase of the Human-Demon War.”
From there, the lecture continued in earnest.
After the dungeons appeared, monsters stopped emerging from the portals.
Awakened individuals began entering the Demon Realm directly to hunt monsters and retrieve resources and artifacts, leading to a shift in terminology—from Awakened to Hunter.
As the remaining monsters from the gates were gradually eliminated, humanity began efforts to rebuild civilization. All of this was presented alongside visual materials.
“Hunter academies designed for professional training began to emerge during the mid-war period. Right now, humanity is rapidly recovering its civilization around a few large cities. However, most researchers agree that the Human-Demon War isn’t over—it’s simply in a state of ceasefire. No one knows when gates or dungeons might change again and let monsters pour back into the world. There are still countless dungeons and monsters we haven’t fully investigated. Alright, that’s it for today’s class. Great work, everyone. There are no announcements, so we’ll skip the closing session. You’re free to go.”
The students cheered.
Finally over.
I felt completely drained, but I still had one more thing to do.
After returning to the dorms, I ate dinner, took a shower, and holed up in my room.
I spread a bunch of materials across the floor. They were cheap, lowest-grade items I had bought from the Hunter Market.
I checked the stats of my supernatural ability—Craftsman.
[Craftsman]
Lv. 2
EXP: 38/200 (19%)
After crafting gear back on the Path of Crimson Flame, my skill level hadn’t increased since.
Items that had given me generous EXP at earlier levels now only gave a trickle.
But I still can’t get low- or mid-grade materials, so I’ll have to grind.
If I was going to grind, I needed to make it count.
It’s time to decide my combat style.
I looked down at the materials scattered across the floor and muttered to myself.
(End of Chapter)