Club [Illustration]
A new week had begun.
Afternoon classes would be held starting today.
In other words, academy life at Geumgang Academy was about to begin in earnest.
“You said you don’t have classes during fourth and fifth period, right? Then let’s go eat.”
“I don’t have any plans, so sure. But you’re not thinking of walking somewhere far again, are you? Since we’re at it, why don’t we go somewhere close?”
“Ask Haneul about that.”
Since afternoon classes were taken at the students’ discretion, everyone’s lunch hours differed.
So Min Arin and I decided to have lunch with whoever was free at the same time.
Only, since our class ended early, it seemed we would have to go to the cafeteria first, grab seats, and wait for them.
“That damn Haneul, Haneul…. Do you like living under her thumb? If you’re a member of the Divine Sword Dao Family in name, shouldn’t you show some dignity?”
“You only say that because you don’t know. Life is originally give and take.”
“If you give something, you receive something? Is there something like that between you and her?”
“You don’t know yet, but Haneul looks out for me in ways you don’t notice.”
“Hmmm, how exactly does she look out for you?”
“If you’re curious, pay up.”
“What?”
“There’s this series I’ve been reading lately. If you buy a hundred permanent-access passes for me, I might think about it.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“You don’t read webtoons or web novels?”
“Why would I read that crap?”
“This is why honors students are…. Arin, let’s try living with a little culture in our lives.”
“God, I’m about to swear. Why do I have to hear that from you?”
“Well, you don’t have any friends, so….”
“…!”
“It’s okay. I’ll be your friend.”
“…Apologize. Right now. Otherwise, I’ll consider that an insult against Min Arin.”
“Then do you have friends?”
“….”
“If you do, I’ll apologize.”
“I-I do!? You must not know, but I have tons of friends!?”
“Arin.”
“What! What is it! Why!”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. Happy? I’m really jealous that you have so many friends. I don’t have many.”
“Kh…. A-as long as you know!”
Perhaps she hadn’t expected me to apologize right away, because Min Arin looked flustered.
She also seemed somehow deflated.
But because of her pride, she couldn’t press the matter any further and let it pass while pretending to be cool.
Then she huffed and strode past me.
I quickly caught up to her and lightly nudged her side with my elbow.
“Are you sulking?”
“Hmph, why would I sulk?”
“You’re sulking.”
“I’m not sulking.”
“I guess I went too far with the joke. I’m sorry. So don’t be mad.”
“I said I’m not sulking!”
“Should we go where you want today?”
“….”
She stopped dead.
Min Arin halted her brisk strides.
Blinking her yellow eyes, she cautiously looked up at me.
Her eyes seemed filled with anticipation.
“R-really?”
“Of course. Where do you want to eat?”
“Ahem! I don’t care at all about your childish jokes, but…. If you absolutely must do that to feel better, fine. You may follow my lead.”
“Sure, sure.”
Min Arin really was fun to tease.
It was moments like this that made it clear why, in my previous life, players had called Min Arin “actually the weakest member of the party.”
I followed after her as she, now looking instantly better, tossed her red hair with a huff.
Given her personality, she would probably head for the nearby cafeteria.
Sure enough, my guess was right.
Before long, the building that housed the cafeteria came into view.
And around the entrance, I could also see booths and students gathered in clusters.
“Why are they crowded like that?”
“Ah, I hate crowds….”
To enter the cafeteria, we had no choice but to pass through them.
From the looks of it, they were trying to draw in passing students.
Once we moved closer, we were able to grasp the situation.
‘So they’re promoting clubs.’
Come to think of it, there had been club promotion around this time in the game too.
I listened to the students shouting as they handed out flyers.
“A life without chicken is unacceptable! Chicken is my life and my light! We are Chicks, a club that loves chicken, that has devoted its life to chicken, and that loves chicken! Anyone here who likes bone-in chicken, boneless chicken, Golden Olive, seasoned, soy sauce, Bburinkle, and any other kind of chicken!?”
“Anyone who likes alpacas, gather here! Anyone want to go see alpacas every week!? As for our club, we maintain a one-to-one gender ratio and are made up only of handsome men and beautiful women….”
“Have you ever thought about marrying an oil prince and living a wealthy life? We are a club that discusses how one might marry an oil prince…. Ah, of course men can join too! Tastes are diverse, after all!”
“Hit cardio hard! Hit anaerobic hard! Anyone want to build muscle!?”
“The next generation is you! If you want to become a Hunter, you must learn to adapt even to murder cases! Anyone here want to become a detective!? If you join, we’ll give you a tranquilizer gun and location-tracking glasses!”
“The Strange Tales Club is recruiting members. If you participate for three years, we’ll give you one billion won in cash.”
“We’re looking for people to join the Bento War! Every evening, in order to eat cheap and delicious boxed lunches, we take part in the discount bento war at the nearby mart….”
“The Dark Gourmet Society is recruiting! We go around exploring famous restaurants, and when we find a bad place, we commit acts of terror….”
Did one have to be that distinctive to survive the competition for promotion?
Or was it because the academy was so large that all kinds of clubs existed?
As we passed by the club booths, we encountered all sorts of unusual promotions.
“A protein club…. That one’s tempting. The bodybuilding club is tempting too.”
“…Are you serious?”
“I’m always serious.”
With every step I took,
more promotional flyers handed out by students piled up in my hands.
Having somehow accepted whatever they gave me, I looked through the flyers one by one.
There were some clubs that seemed quite interesting.
Though Min Arin looked troubled.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of joining that club of muscle monsters who walk around wearing nothing but underwear.”
“Muscle monsters? Did you not see how ideally developed those muscles are?”
“They just look disgusting to me.”
“Seriously, Arin.”
“What.”
“Don’t just study. Go outside, enjoy some culture, and live a little. How can you not recognize those muscles?”
“Do I have to recognize that crap? So. Are you joining?”
“No.”
At Min Arin’s interrogating air, I shook my head.
If I followed my heart, I would have liked to join, but it would be difficult to make the time, and more importantly, I had to give it up for the sake of the game’s story.
There was a club I had already decided I needed to join.
‘It should be somewhere around here….’
A club that served as the place where one formed connections with Gang Hanbyeol, Go Eunbi, Do Gyeonu, Yong Haerang, and a few other junior party members in the game.
I was planning to join a club that was involved in the story to some extent.
‘The Mystery Exploration Club….’
A club that researched mysterious phenomena in Academy City and, under that pretext, explored Academy City. In short, the Mystery Club.
I searched around for the club booth.
Then, not long after—
‘There it is.’
I spotted a club booth that the students were showing no interest in.
At a glance, it was a shabby booth that looked like it wouldn’t be popular.
I approached it.
“The cafeteria is over there. Where are you suddenly going?”
“There’s a club I want to look into.”
“That Mystery Exploration one? Just from the name, it doesn’t sound fun….”
“Only the name is boring. I’m thinking of joining that one. How about you join with me?”
“Hmm…. Clubs can become part of your portfolio when you’re getting a job as a Hunter, so a club like that is a bit….”
“The others will probably join too.”
“….”
“Then we’ll end up going out to have fun every weekend without you.”
“I-I’ll just listen to the club promotion first and think about it slowly. Let me make this clear, I’m not doing this because I think I’ll end up alone, okay? I’m looking into it because it might help with my portfolio. So even if I join that club, it won’t be because of you guys. It will be solely for my own future….”
“Okay, okay.”
Min Arin kept prattling on.
I gave her a perfunctory reply and spoke to the person at the booth.
“I’m interested in the club. Could I hear an explanation?”
* * *
Monday, eighth and ninth period.
Understanding Light Elemental Magic (Second Tier).
After finding the lecture room, I sat down and waited for class to begin.
A short while later, Hong Yena, who was in charge of the lecture, opened the door and entered.
“….”
Amid the students’ attention,
Hong Yena headed haughtily toward the lectern, the sound of her heels clicking.
Then, after placing the attendance book on the lectern, she swept her gaze around the lecture room.
Her eyes met mine.
“Tch.”
It was only for a moment,
but I caught Hong Yena clicking her tongue in displeasure when she saw me.
‘Seeing me again after this morning, are you, Witch?’
Apparently, she was so happy to see me that her eyebrow even trembled.
I nodded at her in acknowledgment.
At that, she sharply turned her gaze away and called attendance.
“…Did the people who didn’t come drop the class or something? Well, fine. Then I’ll begin the lesson. I’m Hong Yena, and I’ll be teaching you Second-Tier light elemental magic this semester.”
Sweeping back her chestnut-brown hair,
Hong Yena continued in a cautioning tone.
“Those of you who read the syllabus already know this, but I will be teaching magic under the assumption that you have reached the Second Tier. So if anyone here has not reached the Second Tier, leave the lecture room now. You won’t be able to keep up with the class, so I recommend taking another one. And if you thought I would go out of my way to help raise your tier, give up on that idea. I’m sorry, but I don’t have the leisure to worry about that.”
“….”
They say the blood vessels spread throughout the human body measure roughly one hundred thousand kilometers.
If you pulled out all the blood vessels inside the body and laid them out in a straight line, they would be long enough to circle the Earth two and a half times.
In a way, one could say that humans contained a world far larger than Earth within their bodies.
‘And mana circulates in a form similar to those blood vessels.’
That was called the mana circuit.
A being could use magic by activating this circuit.
Therefore, in order to pursue magic, one had to strive to use the circuits as extensively, diversely, and precisely as possible.
However, the circuits one could activate were finite, and thus there were limits.
One could not ascend to a higher realm.
The concept of tiers appeared at this point.
‘You could call them CPU cores, maybe.’
Mana originated from the heart.
In other words, for mana to pass through the circuits, it had to pass through the heart first.
The limits of magic could be expressed by the formula: one heart × mana circuits.
Then what if one created another heart?
It would become two hearts × mana circuits, and the limit would double.
Three hearts would triple it, four hearts would quadruple it….
If the number of hearts became infinite, then the concept of a limit would also become infinite and meaningless.
Of course, creating a heart was impossible.
But creating a virtual circuit inside the heart, a circuit that could be woven in the form of a ring, was not impossible.
‘It’s just incredibly difficult.’
A tier referred to the realm of magic achieved by activating that ring and circuit.
That was why, if one wished to make magic one’s profession, one had to have a ring around the heart.
For reference, one generally had to reach the Fifth Tier and become proficient in the magic of that realm’s field to be acknowledged as a proper mage.
This was exactly why Hong Yena was respected by people as the Seven-Colored Witch.
Handling each element was difficult enough, but she had mastered them up to the Fifth Tier.
‘Is that why her personality is so prickly? She must have gone through so much trouble….’
Perhaps that was the case.
I listened to the explanation while thinking that.
Meanwhile, since I had already reached the Second Tier, I was not particularly worried.
Then Hong Yena changed the subject.
“Then today, I’ll check how well you understand the light element. Everyone, manifest Light.”
A sphere of light rose above Hong Yena’s outstretched palm.
It was Light, a 1st-rank elemental spell of light that illuminated the darkness.
It was the first spell one learned upon beginning light elemental magic.
The other students and I cast the Light spell without much difficulty.
Spheres of light similar to the one Hong Yena had manifested appeared above our palms.
I maintained the manifestation of Light as I listened to her instruction.
“Most of the time, when you activate the Light spell, you end up forming a sphere like this. But have you ever thought about why it becomes a sphere? The formula itself has nothing to do with Light’s shape.”
“…”
“It’s because, conceptually, you think of light’s form as a luminous sphere, like the sun. It’s also because manifesting it in the shape of a sphere is easy.”
“…”
“But if you’re going to use magic, you need to break free from that concept. And that doesn’t apply only to magic; it applies to every process that uses mana. You need to know how to break the mold. Especially if you want to master the 2nd rank.”
The moment Hong Yena finished speaking—
The form of the Light floating above her palm changed.
The sphere of light became a tetrahedron, then a star, and finally an umbrella.
“Like this. You need to be able to change Light into various forms.”
“…”
“Just as I showed you, try changing your Light’s shape in order: tetrahedron, star, and umbrella. I’ll let those who succeed perfectly leave first.”
Holding an umbrella that emitted light, Hong Yena gave us our assignment.
From that point on, the students had to study Light in order to complete the task.
“Ugh…”
“Damn, this is really hard.”
“Why does it look like poop…”
Thanks to Hong Yena’s teaching method, which forced us to shift our perspective and deepen our understanding,
the students who had likely come simply intending to learn 2nd-rank magic had no choice but to struggle.
They had to put in all sorts of effort to change the form of Light.
But not me.
“Instructor.”
“What is it?”
“I’d like to be checked.”
“All right, then stand up and show me.”
“…”
While no other student had yet succeeded,
I rose from my seat.
The students’ gazes converged on me.
Without feeling burdened by their stares,
I easily floated Light into the air.
Soon, just as Hong Yena had done, the sphere of light changed into a tetrahedron, then a star, and then an umbrella.
“I’m done, so I can go now, right?”
“…”
Twisting the umbrella as it scattered particles of light,
I asked Hong Yena for confirmation.
At that, she snorted.
“I don’t know who taught you, but that was excellent. Not a single flaw to point out. Fine, Gyeonu, you may go. You’re leaving only thirty minutes after class started.”
Who else would have taught me?
I chuckled.
“Class isn’t anything special, huh?”
“You’d better not get too full of yourself. Because of you, I’m thinking of raising the difficulty of this class quickly.”
“…”
At that very moment,
the sound of students groaning could be heard from all around.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss