Chapter 15 – Dungeon Practice (3)

{Read from Fuleim’s PoV for better understanding}

In the magic high school, practical training began in earnest.

There are many practical exercises, but, after all, the practical exercises that students look forward to the most were the actual ones.

Among them, the dungeon, in particular, was a place that any explorer dreamt of, where various phenomena occured, monsters infested, treasures and spirits abound.

Fuleim looked around the students of Class A and Class S gathered in ‘Stella Dome’.

‘A total of 141 people…’

Class A-1 and Class A-2 each had 50 students, and Class S had 41 students.

However, if it were the original version, the total number of students in class S would have been 39. I expected 40 people including myself, but I didn’t know one more person would be added here.

‘Where did Baek Yu come from?’

The total number of first-year students was 1,140 in the original version, and it became 1,141 students after adding herself.

In other words, the existence of Baek Yu-seol itself already existed in the ‘original Ropan’ in this academy…

The problem was that I had never even heard of his name.

‘I have to take it slow. I can figure it out.’

Because I was the only person in this world who knew the original version.

I stopped observing the students for a moment and looked around at the surrounding landscape. A truly realistic space.

A grass field blown by the wind. Far in the distance, the meadow was spread wide enough to see the horizon,  opening up even my stuffy heart.

However, this space, ‘Stella Dome’, was not real.

Stella Dome was a place similar to a subspace installed deep within the Stella Academy’s grounds, and it was possible to manipulate the space at will to expand it or change its structure.

Therefore, not only various sports and events, but also actual training such as dungeons, gates, and monsters were organised here.

In other words, most of what I saw and felt with my eyes were embodied fakes.

“Master Jeremy, have you completed the course registration?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Since you took the Soft Magic Source Exploration course, we also took it.” 

“Really? Let’s do our best together.”

Fuleim glanced back at the voice coming from the side.

Crown Prince Jeremy. In the original story, he was obsessed with Eisel, but in the end, he was abandoned without being loved.

‘…He is handsome.’

He was a handsome man in a very ideal form. I need to test him.He was tall, with a warm personality and a smile that never left his lips.

Competent, kind, innocent, well-mannered, witty, and even his talent was not far behind Mayu-seong, combined with his status as the crown prince of the Skalben Empire.

Those innocent eyes stimulated the protective instincts of many women, and the sloppyness he sometimes showed was one of his charm points.

However, they were all thoroughly calculated actions for one’s own image management.

‘You must not be deceived by this pretense.’

Jeremy was such a perfect man that my heart fluttered even though I knew it was a pretense… but I had no intention of ever getting close to him because I was Fuleim now who knew his inner self.

As I stared intently at him, Jeremy turned his head to make eye contact with me.

“ah.”

Jeremy, with a slightly surprised expression on his face, waved his hand toward me with a dazzling flower smile.

‘Ugh!’

He was really damn handsome. I quickly avoided the line of sight, but the afterglow of that brief eye contact did not go away easily.

If I am possessed like this, my life will end as it is. It should never be shaken.

‘I could understand the feelings of those kids wagging their tails next to Jeremy…’

Astonishingly, this school also had lines, or ‘factions’.

Even if their skill level were similar, the person who would eventually rise to a higher position was already determined. Even though they all seemed to be equal within school, after graduating, the difference in status would become prominent.

Students at prestigious schools have been feeling the fact since their first year, and they were already busy trying to hold the line well.

Among these ‘factions’, the most notable was the faction of Prince Jeremy.

Not only were high-ranking young masters gathered there, but so were students who boasted of their abilities that could not be missed wherever they went.

Whether male or female, Jeremy’s charm and his identity as they rushed to him resembled a fire moth.

Fuleim herself wasn’t part of any faction, but she was making as many connections as possible.

Anyway, she was reincarnated in this world with a new life, and she had to prepare for the future because she would live here until she died.

‘Then, Baek Yu-seol…’

I glanced over at him. Black hair, black eyes, a warm, pure white complexion, a face that suits the word cute rather than handsome, and a somewhat relaxed smile that didn’t suit such a youthful appearance at all.

From a third person’s point of view, he was quite likable, and quite a few students seemed to have approached him to create a ‘Baek Yu-seol faction’, but I know that he kicked them all out.

Thanks to this, there was no one around him.

‘Why do you have to be alone?’

Someone approached Fulehim, who was observing Baek Yu-seol absent-mindedly.

“Fuleim. Do you always go alone during this practice?”

It was Jecky. Recently, while hanging out with commoners, we often met at the same gatherings… Still, she was a child who felt awkward and distant when she was alone. 

“Sorry. I was going to move alone during this practice.” 

“Ah, indeed. In this practice, the scores must be distributed among team members, so what can we do about it?”

“Is that so?”

It was Jecky who said the obvious, but somehow it sounded like she was saying, ‘You’re doing it alone because we’re a stumbling block.’ ‘No way.’

Thinking it was her grandiose delusion, Fuleim tapped Jecky on the shoulder. 

“Let’s do it together next time.”

“Yes.”

At Fuleim’s words, Jecky led the group to another place. She looked at Jecky for a long time. Even the way she was smiling while leading her friends seemed to resemble herself, feeling a little strange.

‘Heh. It’s puberty. It’s puberty. It’s the age where you want to follow.’

I struggled to get rid of my thoughts.

“Attention.”

Tuck! The sound of raucous chatter stopped at once.

A single word from the instructor in charge of S class, Hanwol Lee, calmed the hall. Next to him were the professors, instructors, and teaching assistants of Class A, and among them, Lee Han-wol’s spirit was the most clear.

“Before starting the full-scale class, we have to conduct a brief training. It could be seen as a kind of test. We need to know how low your level is so that we can properly educate you. Isn’t that so?”

“That’s right!”

“I don’t like the sound of your voice. I heard there are promising young people, but it appears to be a false rumour.”

The lips of some nobles pout out. Whatever Lee Han-wol’s reputation, he was still a commoner. However, no one came forward because the students in class S did not respond much.

“The training is conducted at the discretion of the instructor. If there is a student who does not like it.”

He glanced around the crowd and said with a smile on his face.

“Keep it quietly in your heart. The instructor has no intention of listening to your grievances.”

Of course, it was not easy to express dissatisfaction with the professor even if it was not Hanwol Lee.

Each semester, each student was assigned a ‘total score’ because professors had the authority to assign or reduce the score at their discretion. A student was expelled if he or she lost more than a certain number of points. You will have to bow your head in shame if you are expelled from Stella, even if you are the son of a prominent family, and there would be no time to complain.

‘Eisel used these points to drive Hong Bi-yeon into the abyss…….’ 

After taking a look at the students once, Hanwol Lee opened his mouth quickly.

“Then, I’ll give you a short explanation of the training from now on.”

In fact, Fuleim was familiar with what the training was.

Various anomalies, traps, and monsters that occur in actual dungeons were materialised as ‘similar dungeon practise’ to present difficulties to students.

4 points for killing a Risk-1 monster.

8 points for killing a Risk-2 monster.

And, if you acquire a ‘Point Stick’, you get 20 points.

“Students securing the first to fifth places with the most points will be awarded stores and small rewards, and points will be deducted from students who scored zero points or those who failed.”

A small reward. The students’ eyes changed. Stella academy used to reward students all the time, and most of them it were pretty good magic tools. 

“If you are afraid of dropping out or you are not confident about working alone, you can form a ‘team’. However, make sure you are aware of the fact that points will be distributed when you form a team.”

As soon as those words were finished, the appearances of the instructors, including Lee Han-wol, became blurred. It wasn’t just that.

Dedede!!

“Uh, huh?”

“What? What’s going on?”

The floor, it started to rise.

Fuleim understood this phenomenon right away.

‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ <T/N: a children fairytale >

The dungeon to practice this time looked similar to a giant bean tree.

The floor, which rose high enough to reach the clouds, took the form of a bean tree, and green branches and grass leaves spread everywhere.

However, swamps and rivers, soil floors and rocks, etc., all remained in the topography, making it look like ordinary land at first glance.

Beanstalk Field was not an open terrain, but instead had a wide topography at the top and bottom, making it a little more advantageous for students who learned straight-line magic with a long range compared to those with wide-area magic.

But such a nuisance was meaningless. You can’t always have an advantageous field, so you have to overcome those disadvantages yourself.

Ded Ded Ded!!!

When the bean tree finally stopped growing, Hanwol Lee’s voice echoed in the air.

“For your information, if you drop another student, you get all the points for that student. Now, let me wish you all good luck.”

It was better to form a team for this dungeon practice for many reasons. It would be a big deal if you go alone and run into students who have teamed up.

So most of the students would team up with nearby students right away.

Fuleim had a bishop position, which was a difficult position to walk alone, but because the magic she possessed was so diverse, this dungeon practise was not a major issue.

* * *

I didn’t encounter any monster along the way.

Since the monsters were originally implemented as a phantom magic, their intelligence was far lower than the actual level, so they could only perform certain motions.

Flying monsters could be shot down by blowing them down with spheres of light, and monsters on the ground could be easily defeated by binding them with natural magic.

Because I was good at bondage and destruction, defense and healing, this practice was not too difficult by myself.

Ever since middle school academy, I’ve been trained to listen to the actual tour guide.

“Whoa, I’m so tired.”

After about an hour, the score was 18 points thanks to the fact that I had killed quite a few small and medium-sized monsters.

This level of score, however, could be achieved with just one point stick. It was too dangerous to go around looking for a point stick, but if you happen to find one by accident, take it quickly.

“Whoa, whoa!”

A scream came from afar. It was a common occurrence.

No matter how elite class A was in the school, it was often impossible to respond to unexpected pitfalls because it was the first time in a real battle.

The floor would suddenly go out, wooden whips would come flying in and trying to snatch from you, thunderbolts falling, thorns flying in all directions, etc…

It was an outdated and an old-fashioned trap. Just tailored to the freshman level.

Most of the traps were of little use to Fuleim. She had quite a bit of wits on her side, so it was enough for her to spread the veil of light from time to time.

‘Well?’

Something was captured in my sense as I walked slowly. At first, I thought it was a monster, but it turned out to be a human being.

‘A student can hide his presence so much?’

It was quite a strange thing, but I was also hiding a miracle. Thanks to nature’s beloved trait [Natural One], in these forests, my movement was agile and it was easy to hide my presence. 

So, if the opponent was alone, it would be okay to surprise and steal points.

As I slowly approached through the grass, someone’s silhouette was revealed.

A boy with black hair and black eyes.

‘…Baek Yu-seol? Why is he here?’

He put one hand in his robe pocket and tapped on his shoulder with the other. The stick in his hand, on the other hand, was familiar.

‘Point stick? He already got it?’

The ’20’ number, clearly floating above his head, slightly exceeded Fuleim’s score, on which she had worked hard for an hour.

He was still walking leisurely, looking for something, as if he had not noticed her.

‘It’s all right. I need to test him.”

What the hell is he? What kind of magic does he use? I have to get even a simple clue.

In addition to that, if I could take away the point stick, it would be hitting two birds with one stone.

‘Glow.’

A yellow-colored magic circle glowed at the end of Fuleim’s staff. It was a ‘radiance’ type of magic used by the angels of heaven.

She used the magic, humanly and very aggressive.

‘Light Bullet!’

A class 2 light bullet was fired. The distance was approximately 15m. It was a distance where he wouldn’t be able to use a defensive technique, meaning he would take a lot of heavy damage and get eliminated.

Meanwhile. 

“…!” 

Baek Yu-seol abruptly turned his head to meet Fuleim’s gaze as soon as the magic was cast.

“Huh, Huh…?”

How? Before she could finish her sentence, his figure vanished like a mirage.

The light bullet crashed into a pitiful tree and disappeared, and Fuleim sank to the floor with a ghostly look on her face.

Not even a trace remained of Baek Yu-seol’s presence.