The amplified heavy shotgun shells cost 50 SP each. Although I used ordinary bullets against the chrome wolves, I used five of these special bullets to break down the wall and kill the assassin. I had consumed 250 SP in less than a minute, but I didn’t regret it since I saved Rachel.

“Um…”

I reached out to Rachel on the ground. She blankly stared at me before standing up by herself. I awkwardly withdrew my hand and scratched my cheek.

“…”

Rachel stared at the broken wall to her right. My shotgun had destroyed the examination room’s reinforced wall.

“Oh, the mana barrier disappeared when the electricity went out.”

I made an excuse since her gaze looked suspicious. Rachel’s eyes landed on my shotgun as I hurriedly stuffed it into my bag, but it didn’t fit. I turned around and changed it into its handgun form before putting it away.

“R-Rather than that…”

I looked at Rachel’s body riddled with bleeding wounds. I should have been concerned, but I thought of Evandel’s seed first. Rachel’s blood would make the perfect nourishment.

“You’re hurt.”

I took off the fanny pack around my waist. It was an all-purpose emergency kit for all my fears and apprehensions. Antidotes, painkillers, tranquilizers, bandages, gauzes… all sorts of medicine and supplies. Of course, I also carried the external recovery potion. Although recovery potions were expensive, they were cheap compared to what Rachel’s blood was worth.

“Here, it’s an external recovery potion.”

When I gave her a glass bottle containing a red liquid, Rachel’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Before I apply it, I’ll wipe your blood first.”

I nervously licked my dry lips, “May I?”

“...”

Rachel nodded and permitted me. First, I wiped the blood from her left arm with some gauze. As I took out more gauze, I kept the used ones without throwing them away. Once I cleaned her arm, I wet a gauze with the potion before applying it to her skin.

Rachel clenched her teeth from the potion’s stinging sensation, similar to antiseptics. I planned to heal her left arm first, but Rachel suddenly grabbed me. Then she spoke for the first time since we met.

“… Here first.”

She showed me the severe wound on her right wrist. The cut was deep to her bone. Any deeper and her wrist would have been severed. Surprisingly, no blood came out since Rachel suppressed it with magic power.

“Ah! You should have told me earlier!”

I was genuinely shocked. I only focused on the light wounds and missed the one that needed immediate treatment.

“Any later and you would’ve had to give up the rapier forever.”

Despite costing 7 million won, external recovery potions weren’t omnipotent. Sensitive areas like a person's nerves had to be treated immediately. Otherwise, not even the authority of healing could do anything about it.

“It’s going to sting. A lot.”

I poured the rest of the potion over her wound and wrapped a bandage over it.

“Aaak.”

Rachel endured the immense pain with only a short groan. I wrapped three layers of bandages over the wound. When I let go of her arm, Rachel crouched in pain.

I put away the bloodied gauze into my cross bag. While I waited for Rachel to recover, I turned on my laptop. As expected, a settings change had occurred.

[Alex Lancaster] [Attachment to his lost family has worsened. His rage has also deepened. Has an increased chance of attacking Rachel whenever given the chance.] [His potential has risen from 7.5 to 8.5 and now poses a greater threat.]

“Hmm…”

I had created Alex Lancaster as an antagonist related to England. He appeared in the middle stage of the story and wanted to topple England’s government. Such a dangerous antagonist became stronger and appeared earlier than anticipated. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything about it.

I would have created more righteous characters if I knew this would happen. Of course, plenty of righteous characters did exist. For example, a secret service agent from MI6 named James Jone would later serve Rachel. Based on the agent that everyone knew, his love and loyalty for his country were unshakable.

“… Hua.”

Rachel faintly exhaled. Sweat covered her body, but she must have overcome the pain since she looked much better. She staggered up slowly and bowed to me.

“Thank you.”

“Ah…”

Suddenly, the electricity returned along with the lights and interrupted our conversation. Rachel and I checked the locked door, but it easily opened this time.

After leaving, I stared at the examination rooms through the other side of the walls. Unfortunately, the other two cadets couldn’t escape as their corpses lay on the ground. I felt mixed feelings, but I knew I couldn’t have done anything. I led Rachel back with me and saw the chaotic waiting room up ahead.

Tap, tap. Someone walked towards us, and Rachel put up her guard. I simply smiled at her.

“Thankfully, we restored the electricity…”

Kim Soohyuk walked down the hallway while communicating with someone on a transceiver.

“Both of you, what are you doing here? No, why did you come back here?”

“Come back?”

“Didn’t both of you…”

Kim Soohyuk paused as though he’d realized something. From his reaction, I could guess what happened. Djinns who could create human illusions also existed.

“The other two are still inside.”

“Ah, shoot! You two, wait here. No, run to the infirmary!”

Kim Soohyuk ran to the examination rooms. As his back disappeared from view, I turned towards Rachel. Then I whispered, “Um, I may have to lie soon, so please match words with me when the time comes. I’ll be expelled if they find out I brought in my personal weapon.”

Rachel nodded at my request.

***

After the huge disturbance, a silent shadow in the empty waiting room suddenly sprung up into a human figure. The figure formed a short cute boy with a big smile.

“Boss, Boss! I just saw something amazing!”

The boy, Droon, came to observe Kim Hajin as per Boss’ orders. He couldn’t hide his excitement over what he saw. He finally understood why Boss was so interested in that guy.

“Guns, it’s a gift related to guns. It’s not just anti-magic…”

— For now, return. I’ll listen to you later.

However, Boss coldly cut him off.

“… Okay.”

Boss is no fun. Droon grumbled inwardly as he disappeared into the shadows once again. Next, he messaged another troupe member.

— Jungyeong, how was the serpent dragon? Did you kill it?

***

Oh Junhyuk sat cross-legged on a rock facing the clear ocean breeze. He tried to comprehend what he just witnessed. A serpent dragon popped out of the sea, but…

“Oh Junhyuk!”

Seo Youngji arrived after everything had calmed down. Oh Junhyuk turned towards her.

“What’s going on? Didn’t you say a serpent dragon appeared?”

“You knew that and you’re this late?”

“I ran into a problem on the way. Monsters suddenly escaped from the laboratory, so I had to take care of them. Where’s the serpent dragon?”

“It was chased away, deep into the ocean.”

“… Huh?”

Serpent dragons belonged to the dragon family, but they weren’t terrifyingly strong compared to a high rank hero. They ranged from high-intermediate rank, grade 1 to high rank, grade 7. Serpent dragons didn’t know how to fight and feared pain because of their high intelligence. Of course, it would be a different story if a serpent dragon found a Cintamani. [1]

Even so, what Oh Junhyuk witnessed still shocked him.

“Someone provoked the serpent dragon.”

“Provoked?”

“Yep. It was enraged with red eyes.”

Hurling down from the sky with its gigantic mouth, the serpent dragon felt oppressing.

“How did you chase away an enraged serpent dragon?”

“Well…”

Oh Junhyuk didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he thought back to what happened.

“Apparently, you just have to beat it until it regains its sanity.”

He recalled what he saw just ten minutes ago. The giant man with gauntlets stood before the serpent dragon and punched it. He used a simple straight punch, but the shockwave was tremendous. The ground shook, and trees lost all their leaves. The force tore through the serpent dragon’s tough scales, broke through its bones, and struck its muscles. The serpent dragon’s bloodshot eyes instantly cleared up.

“… You want me to believe that?”

“If you don’t want to, don’t. Oh, by the way, I need you to put someone on the wanted list. I filmed him on my smartwatch. He’s the suspect behind yesterday’s murder case.”

Oh Junhyuk sent Seo Youngji the video of the giant man. Seo Youngji tilted her head as she checked it.

“Tell them to contact me if he’s found.”

“… Why?”

“Nothing. It’s been a while, but I found someone I want to fight.”

Oh Junhyuk grinned.

***

The Cube monster incident became a hot topic across the world. They hid the fact that djinns orchestrated it, but because a serpent dragon and several other monsters critically injured two cadets (I thought they died, but were just unconscious), Cube received huge global backlash.

Cube decided to postpone the rest of the combat exams. They would keep the results of the duels, but another monster war would take place later. Finally, the group rescue mission on Friday was also canceled. In addition, classes wouldn’t resume until the Thursday in two weeks.

In other words, we had no classes for the next ten days.

With the sudden holiday, cadets returned home or went on vacation with the compensation they received from Cube. Cadets filled Cube’s official community forum with posts asking for good places to visit in Japan or America. Some people snarkily commented about how they could go on vacation when other cadets were injured.

None of these problems mattered to me. Even now, I simply sat in my dorm room.

“… Oh, did it just eat?”

Evandel’s seed, which I had obtained from the Gari Mountain’s hidden stage, sucked on Rachel’s blood. The bloodied gauze returned to its white color. Once three months passed, a kind witch would be born and become my trusted helper…

A sudden pain from my upper arm overcame me. I felt it once before as I pulled up my sleeve. Another streak of stigma appeared.

Calm down and be patient, Kim Hajin. You’ve felt this pain before. You can do a lot more with another streak of stigma. For example, you can put more magic power… into bullets…

I couldn’t continue my encouraging train of thoughts as it felt like someone had stabbed my brain. My thoughts cut off, and I clenched my teeth, unable to scream.

In front of this tremendous pain, my consciousness slowly faded.

***

“Wow, it’s been so long.”

Chae Nayun returned home to a traditional Korean house with tiled roofs and eaves. However, that was only the exterior. The interior was no different from a European castle.

“Welcome back, young lady.”

A butler greeted Chae Nayun with a warm smile.

“Long time no see, gramps.”

“I’ve been worried sick. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Only two people were hurt. None of the ordinary visitors were injured either.”

Chae Nayun bowed to the butler who had protected her home for thirty years.

“Oh right, is the item I ordered here yet?”

“It arrived yesterday.”

“Yes!”

“Oh, and Cube sent some documents.”

“Documents?”

The butler nodded.

“Yes, they’re exam reports, 24 of them.”

“Oh that. Send it back to my dorm. I don’t want to think about school when I’m… No, wait.”

Chae Nayun recalled her might as she fought the thousand-mile horse. Other cadets must have been extremely impressed since she received 24 reports. That meant close to 25% of the class wrote about her feat.

“Huhu, send it to my room. I want to read it.”

Chase Nayun wondered what sort of praises she would receive.

“Yes, understood.”

The butler bowed respectfully.

1. A wish-fulfilling jewel in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Wingless dragons would seek this object to gain wings and ascend the heavens. ☜