001. Prologue: The Last Hoebinghwan
* * *
“Now! Duck!”
At Dabian’s shout, the swordsmen in the front line urgently ducked.
A combination attack they had already used who knew how many times.
While the swordsmen tasked with close-range combat somehow held back the demons, Dabian finished preparing to unleash a pillar of fire.
And the moment the swordsmen ducked at the signal.
Kwagwagwagwa!
Pillars of fire poured from both Dabian’s arms, incinerating all the demons in front of him.
That was when it happened.
A ripple.
Dabian felt the space behind him distort.
“Kyaaaa!”
A scream from Luna Pueri, who had been behind him.
Scorching, terrible pain. Dabian looked down.
He saw a small metal shard protruding from near his heart.
A red-haired girl student with her hair tied tightly ran over and swung her sword behind Dabian’s back.
“Dabian! Are you okay?”
Bonita Fortis, the ace of the swordsmanship department, had no time to check Dabian’s condition before turning to face the surging demons again.
Only then did Dabian slowly turn around.
He saw a demon cut in half at the torso by Bonita’s single slash.
It wasn’t a Demon King, a Legion Commander, or even a centurion.
A lesser demon.
Things with no power whatsoever, nothing but meat shields.
One such thing had forced its way through space and plunged a dagger into Dabian’s back.
A curse flew from Dabian’s mouth.
“Ah… Fuck. This shitty quest.”
A thing that probably didn’t even know how to use spatial movement magic.
Some legion commander–level demon off in the distance must have opened a rift and sent it.
Seeing how it had easily pierced his uniform, it clearly wasn’t an ordinary dagger.
Black energy flickered at the tip of the dagger that had pierced straight through his body and stuck out.
*Keugh.*
Blood burst out with the sudden fit of coughing.
It wasn’t even a one-on-one showdown with the Demon King.
Just a lesser demon.
Just a dagger.
“Ugh… Damn it all.”
*Thud.*
His legs finally gave out, and Dabian collapsed right then and there.
Luna hurriedly bent down and caught Dabian’s falling body.
“Dabian! Wait! I’ll heal you!”
Luna Pueri had spent over five years at Elton Academy focusing solely on healing magic.
To follow in her father’s footsteps and become a healer for the Royal Guard.
“It’s… no use.”
Dabian’s complexion had already gone pale.
Surging blood repeatedly dyed his ashen lips red.
Dabian instinctively sensed death approaching.
Dabian weakly waved his hand at Luna, who was gathering magic power in both hands.
“…Forget healing. In my right pocket… there’s a small… wooden box….”
“A box? Just a moment!”
Luna desperately rummaged through Dabian’s pocket and pulled out a small wooden box.
When she opened it, a small capsule pill was visible.
“Dabian! There’s a pill in here!”
“Yeah… Feed it to me.”
“Does this mean you won’t die if you take it?”
No, he was going to die either way.
“Just hurry and feed it to me. I’m dying….”
Luna quickly picked up the capsule pill inside the wooden box.
“Ack! It’s cold!”
The pill was so cold she nearly dropped it.
“Hey, I’m dying here….”
“Huh? Oh! Got it!”
Only then did Luna place the ice-cold pill into Dabian’s mouth.
A limited-use item obtained by defeating the Grey Witch during the [Northern Ice Land Subjugation] quest in his first playthrough, usable only three times.
A pill contained within an unmelting ice capsule created by the Grey Witch.
Hoebinghwan.
=====
[Hoebinghwan (灰氷丸)]
—Rarity: ★★★★★
—Uses Remaining: 1/3
—Allows the user to return to the starting point and replay while retaining all Mana Points.
—Points distributed before and after are both retained.
=====
*Gulp.*
Dabian swallowed the Hoebinghwan with difficulty.
Now came the fourth playthrough.
“Luna… Pull the dagger out of my back and show me.”
“I-I-If I pull this out, you’ll die!”
I’m dying anyway.
“Hurry. I need to check the dagger’s shape. It’s important.”
“Huh? Oh. Ah, okay!”
Luna pulled the dagger lodged in Dabian’s back out with a sharp tug.
Bright red blood spurted everywhere.
“Here.”
Dabian stared with effort at the dagger that had pierced his body.
Feeling his heart stop, Dabian vowed.
This time, he would definitely graduate from this damned academy and escape the quests no matter what.
And he would kill the owner of this dagger without fail.
* * *
“Young master.”
At the call of his attendant, Mons, Dabian opened his eyes.
Inside the familiar carriage.
It was the starting point of the damned game, *Elton Academy*.
“Please wake up. We will arrive in Elton City soon. There is a mountain of things to do before the entrance ceremony the day after tomorrow. First, we must go to the bookstore….”
“That’s enough. I know everything.”
“Pardon?”
It was the fourth time he had heard this explanation.
“I looked into many things before coming, so you don’t have to recite everything one by one.”
“Ah, yes. Young master.”
*You were probably about to say we need to go to the bookstore and buy the first-year textbooks.*
But Dabian had something far more important to do than that.
First, he reached into his right pocket.
As expected, it wasn’t there.
The limited-three-uses item, Hoebinghwan.
At first, there had been three capsules inside the wooden box.
And each time he consumed a Hoebinghwan and regressed to the starting point, one disappeared; now, the wooden box itself was gone entirely.
Just in case, he had replayed the Grey Witch capture event, but Hoebinghwan no longer appeared as a reward.
That meant this was his last chance to regress to the starting point while retaining his magic power.
Next, checking his mana points.
Dabian shouted *Point Details* internally.
A status window for the item he called out internally unfolded before his eyes.
=====
[Mana Points: 0]
—Magic Power: 298,832
—Internal Energy: 0
—External Energy: 0
=====
Fortunately, the magic power he had accumulated throughout his third playthrough remained intact.
Magic power equivalent to that of a 6-star magician.
Though it was probably the same, Dabian checked his final quest again.
*Final Quest.*
=====
[Final Quest: Graduate from Elton Academy]
—Reward: Complete cessation of all quest occurrences
—Failure: Death during the quest
=====
If he succeeded in graduating, he would be completely freed from these damned quests.
Then he could go somewhere peaceful and live comfortably.
Or he could take the abilities he obtained at the academy and enter the royal palace or the Magic Tower, living the high life.
But if he failed to graduate, he would die.
Of course, it didn’t mean he would suddenly suffocate and die just for failing a graduation exam.
Many main quests had “death” as their failure penalty, meaning if he couldn’t clear all the main quests leading to graduation, he would end up dying along the way anyway.
Dabian closed his eyes inside the rattling carriage and began going through the things he had to do, one by one.
What had been the causes of failure in his first, second, and third playthroughs.
What he needed to do to overcome them.
And how to prepare for quests he hadn’t yet experienced.
And so, the very first thing he needed to do right now was….
“Not the bookstore. Let’s go to the alley where the shops are gathered.”
“Ah, young master. Are you planning to buy magic materials first? Then let us go there first.”
* * *
Elton City during enrollment season was truly booming.
Because students and their entourages from all across the continent came to eat, sleep, and prepare for admission.
Some particularly zealous students had been here since a month ago.
Yet Dabian Naone, the third son of House Naone, arrived in Elton City only two days before the entrance ceremony.
But he couldn’t even curse his luck for possessing such a guy.
Because Dabian was a character Kang Eun-seong had personally created during the pre-registration for the game *Elton Academy*.
Dabian Naone’s original name was Kang Eun-seong.
He had been an ordinary young office worker in South Korea.
Kang Eun-seong had pre-registered for the newly launching game *Elton Academy*.
He simply wanted to receive the free laptop offered as a prize.
And hearing that the chances of winning would increase, he went to the official website and set the character’s appearance and name.
That was all.
For some reason, Kang Eun-seong ended up possessing a game he had never even played.
The character name he had chosen carelessly became his actual name in this place.
During a time when he was stressed at the company, he had named the character “Dabian Naone” because it sounded like the phrase *nothing’s working out*.
It had already been over ten years since Kang Eun-seong had been called by that name.
“We have arrived.”
When he stepped out of the carriage, a main street lined with various shops appeared.
Dabian looked around and passed by several magic reagent stores without entering.
“Young master, weren’t you going to buy magic materials first?”
Without much reply, Dabian turned toward a familiar-looking alley.
*It should be around here.*
Just then, an urgent voice rang out from the other side of the alley.
“Kyah! A thief!”
Turning toward the sound, they saw a man with half his face covered by a handkerchief running toward them, having snatched a large bag.
*Ding.*
A small notification sound rang in Dabian’s ear.
=====
[Event: Help Luna Pueri]
—Reward: Healing Potion
—Failure: No penalty
—Accept: Y / N
=====
*There it is. The tutorial.*
He had confirmed through repeated regressions: the first event and quest were unconditionally processed as tutorials.
In his third playthrough, he had deliberately skipped the boring tutorial, only for a quest with quite good rewards to turn into the tutorial instead.
Its difficulty had dropped to near nothing, and of course, its rewards had vanished as well.
*Then it’s more profitable to finish the tutorial quickly. Might as well clear a hidden quest while I’m at it.*
Dabian rolled his eyes slightly to the left, and a blue light lit up on the Y button next to the acceptance option.
Event accepted.
The story of the game *Elton Academy* progressed through [Events] and [Quests].
Events usually had no penalties or only minor ones, and acceptance was optional.
But quests proceeded unconditionally without asking for consent, and their failure penalties were often so dangerous that “death” was the norm.
Dabian stared blankly at the running thief and kicked the bottom of a ladder propped against the wall of the building beside him.
The thief crashed into the falling ladder and rolled across the ground.
Mons looked at the young master with surprised eyes for a moment, then approached the thief and snatched the bag back.
A girl who arrived late repeatedly bowed her head in gratitude.
A girl Dabian already knew well.
It was Luna Pueri, who had fed Dabian the Hoebinghwan at the final moment of his third playthrough.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
In the meantime, the thief quickly got up and started running away.
“Young master, shall I catch him?”
“Leave him. He’ll show up again later.”
“Pardon?”
“Just leave him be.”
“Yes, young master.”
While Mons puzzled over the young master’s reaction, Luna expressed her thanks again.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to protect my bag. It would have been terrible if I had lost this.”
Knowing everything, Dabian asked shamelessly.
“Are you an academy freshman?”
“Yes? Ah, yes! Are you also…?”
“Yeah, that’s right. My name is Dabian. Dabian Naone.”
“Ah! Hello! I’m Luna. Luna Pueri. It’s a bag with all the supplies I bought before the entrance ceremony; I almost lost it. Thank you so much.”
Luna rummaged through her bag and took out several healing potions.
Even at a glance, they were quite high-grade potions.
“It’s not much, but please take this… as a reward for helping me.”
“I don’t need this kind of thing. And if you’re a freshman, we’re the same age, so speak comfortably.”
Luna’s large eyes couldn’t look straight at Dabian and darted around repeatedly.
“Ah? Ah. I’m just… very shy around strangers. I’m sorry. But I’m just so grateful. I really want to repay you, so please take this potion. It’s top-grade….”
“I told you I don’t need it. Then instead, do me a favor on the day of the entrance ceremony.”
“Yes?”
“I won’t ask anything too difficult. Just do me one favor. You said you really wanted to repay me, didn’t you?”
“Ah… Y-yes. I understand.”
And just like that, he had secured a healer to take the entrance exam with.