CH 13

C13: Strange Student (1)

The next day Seo-joon got up early in the morning and left home.

He would usually be in a hurry but today Seo-joon’s steps were relaxed for two reasons.

The first one is that he is not going to work today and the second one is that he wanted to have the luxury of taking a taxi.

“Please go to Dream Academy.”

Seo-joon said so and boarded the taxi.

“What? Where?”

But the taxi driver didn’t seem to know where Dream Academy was.

Seo-joon smiled awkwardly and corrected his words.

“Please go to Building D in Eunpyeong-gu.”

In the taxi to Eunpyeong-gu···No, Dream Academy, Seo-joon was spending his time listening to the lectures of Transcendence Academy.

“Ring ring.”

Suddenly, the smartphone rang and the screen changed. The one who called was none other than Man-cheol.

‘What’s going on?’

Seo-joon couldn’t hide his wonder because he told Man-cheol in advance after talking to Seo-yoon yesterday.

Man-cheol liked it, saying it was a good thing, and even joked, “Don’t break your promise to let me play soccer with a lich skull.”

Seo-joon answered the phone with curiosity.

“Yes.”

“What the hell did you do yesterday?”

Man-cheol’s sudden question  came over the phone.

“What do you mean all of a sudden? What did I do?”

“Team leader Kim was suddenly changed. Isn’t that what you did?”

“Ah…”

And Seo-joon was able to understand the situation after Man-cheol’s spoke.

‘I didn’t think he would get fired right away.’

I didn’t know what Seo-yoon said, but Seo-joon didn’t care much.

“What did I do? I guess he just quit because of the incident yesterday.”

“Is Kim Tae-soo someone who would quit for something like that? Well, it’s good that he isn’t there anymore and everyone likes it but you really didn’t do it?”

“I didn’t.”

Park Seo-yoon did it.

Seo-joon smiled slightly and swallowed his words.

“…I see. By the way, are you on your way there?”

“Yes, I think I’m almost there”

“Sir, we’re here.”

The taxi driver’s voice came just in time.

Man-cheol also answered immediately as he heard the voice of the taxi driver.

“Work hard but don’t hurt yourself again.”

“Don’t worry. Please contact me if anything happens.”

Seo-joon hung up the phone, paid the fare, got out of the taxi and soon found the building with the Dream Academy.

“Seo-joon! Over here!”

He heard a voice calling him from somewhere.

As he turned his head, Seo-joon saw Seo-yoon waving her hand high and calling him.

Seo-joon moved and approached Seo-yoon.

“I didn’t expect you to come and meet me.”

“Just in case you can’t find it.”

Seo-joon looked at the building behind Seo-yoon.

It was a small three-story building located in a little corner, so she thought he would have had a hard time finding it.

“Is this the Dream Academy you run?”

“Yes.”

In response to Seo-yoon’s answer, Seo-joon looked at the building once again. Although it was not very large, considering that it was a building in Seoul, it could not be said to be small. However, it was true that it was relatively unreasonable to call it a Hunter Academy.

“I’m covering the operating expenses myself…”

Seo-yoon blushed slightly and continued.

“We have everything so you take your time to look around the facilities.”

However, Seo-joon shook his head firmly.

“No, I’ll look around later.”

“What? But…”

“Have you been issued my temporary license?”

“···”

Seo-yoon looked at Seo-joon with a strange expression then she took out a small license from her arms and handed it to Seo-joon.

[Temporary Hunter License – Kim Seo-joon]

It had Seo-joon’s resident registration number and contents proving that he was a temporary hunter.

‘I was wondering if it was possible, but it was issued.’

Looking at the certificate, Seo-joon felt something overwhelming.

‘I haven’t become a professional hunter yet, but I feel like I’ve taken the first step toward that dream and this is just the beginning.’

Seo-joon kept the license in his arms and told Seo-yoon.

“Rather than introducing the academy, can you tell me how to do a dungeon raid?”

“Anyway…”

Seo-yoon shook his head and said.

“There is no need for that.”

“Yes?”

Seo-joon was surprised but Seo-yoon immediately continued and her following words made Seo-joon realize what kind of person Seo-yoon was.

“I thought so, so I reserved a dungeon in advance.”

She was a very quick-witted woman.

The dungeon reserved by Seo-yoon is a dungeon located in Incheon. It was a dungeon featuring a two-star monster, the kobold.

The monster was two stars lower than the four-star manticore that Seo-joon caught yesterday but Seo-joon was not disappointed.

Seo-joon had no experience fighting monsters. To be exact, yesterday was his first time. No matter how effective the lectures were, Seo-joon had no standard to objectively judge his skills.

Above all, Seo-joon was still unable to use Mana. What if what happened yesterday was just a coincidence?

The reason why Seo-joon told Seo-yoon that he would do a raid first was to experiment with the questions he currently had and Seo-joon thought that the subject of the experiment would be just right if it was a two-star kobold.

“Why did you follow me?”

For some reason, Seo-yoon followed Seo-joon, saying she would go in with him.

When asked by Seo-joon, Seo-yoon said to Seo-joon as if it were natural.

“You’re the only student in my academy and you want me to just leave you alone?”

Seo-joon nodded as if it were natural.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t going to bother me?”

“I won’t but if you’re in danger I can help, right?”

Seo-joon tilted his head and said in response to Seo-yoon’s calm answer.

“Aren’t you busy?”

“I’m busy.”

“Then go do your work…”

“I’m working right now.”

Seo-joon had nothing to say.

“Think of it as one-on-one care that only promising academy students receive.”

“That is such an honor.”

Seo-joon smiled and checked his physical condition. In fact, as long as Seo-yoon followed, there would be nothing wrong with Seo-joon.

Seo-yoon was a B-class hunter. No matter what anyone said, she was stronger than Seo Jun right now.

When Seo-joon was about to enter the dungeon.

“Wait a minute. Are you going to fight with that?”

Suddenly, Seo-yoon stopped Seo-joon.

He wondered why and when he turned around, Seo-yoon was looking at the iron bar that Seo-joon was holding with a strange expression.

It was the same iron bar that he wielded yesterday when he fought the manticore.

“Oh, I don’t have a weapon right now.”

“Then you should have told me in advance. There are training weapons in the academy.”

Seo-joon was a little disappointed, but he couldn’t go back now.

“I’ll use one next time. For now this will be enough.”

Seo-joon pushed himself into the dungeon, ignoring Seo-yoon’s strangely distorted expression.

His vision distorted and he heard a strange sound as he entered. The first thing he saw inside was a deep and dark cave. Like a rat-type monster, they seemed to have set up their habitat in a dark and humid place.

Then, the sound of Seo-yoon following in came, and Seo-joon moved while gripping the iron bar.

After walking for a while he suddenly felt something strange. It was something subtle that he would normally have ignored before however, Seo-joon no longer doubted his senses.

“Why all of a sudden…”

Seo-yoon expressed doubts about Seo-joon’s behavior for a moment but hurriedly closed her mouth at the sudden sound of a kobold.

‘What…? He felt something I couldn’t feel? No way. It must be a coincidence.’

Seo-yoon thought so and watched Seo-joon’s next move.

Seo-joon slightly closed his eyes and focused on his senses.

‘Front. I think there’s only one…’

And he hasn’t discovered him yet.

It was a perfect situation for a surprise attack.

‘I check if my attacks work even though I can’t use mana.’

Seo-joon, who concluded so, ran toward the kobold without hesitation.

“Uh??”

The kobold tilted his head at Seo-joon’s appearance, but it was too late to react to his attack.

The swinging iron bar hit the kobold’s head and Seo-joon felt the sensation of something breaking with his fingertips.

The kobold stopped moving so Seo-joon approached it and checked the body that had a broken skull.

‘I broke the mana barrier.’

Seo-joon was able to confirm that his attack worked against monsters.

Originally, it was normal for an attack that did not contain mana to be blocked by a translucent membrane. The so-called mana barrier could only be pierced by the power of mana and the monsters would not be harmed by any attack that didn’t contain mana.

So even at the beginning of the Cataclysm, it was impossible to deal with monsters unless you were an Awakened.

Now that research has been actively conducted and mana could be infused into modern weapons the army could also deal with monsters. There were also professional hunters who specialized in modern firearms.

Anyway, monsters couldn’t be caught without mana.

‘But my attack works…’

When he was about to move after confirming the fact he felt a sudden chill.

“Danger···!”

Seo-yoon’s cry followed, but Seo-joon had already instinctively leaned over and a sharp kobold claw passed by his nose.

“Hmm?”

The kobold was bewildered as he didn’t expect his attack to miss.

Seo-joon was surprised by the kobold sudden attack, but he calmed down quickly and swung his iron bar quickly.

Swish!

He felt the sensation of something breaking once again.

<Chiron lecture progress +0.6% (22.5%)>

<Shakyamuni lecture progress +0% (5.1%)>

<Xiang Yu lecture progress +0.4% (20.1%)>

‘As expected, the progress of the lectures is increasing.’

Seo-joon was able to check the rising progress of his lectures and at the same time he felt his senses being renewed but the increase wasn’t as great as when he killed the manticore yesterday.

Compared to the previous time, Chiron’s lecture increased by 0.6%, Xiang Yu’s lecture by 0.4%, and Shakyamuni’s lecture unfortunately did not increase.

‘Still, this is enough for just two kobolds…’

There was no comparison to the time when he simply listened to the lectures repeatedly.

Above all else, he can also make money from raids!

‘It’s like raising my level in a game.’

Seo-joon smiled and moved again.