Chapter 742: Week 9–10 Midterms (19)

Soon, we returned to the campsite.

The moment we did, gazes stabbed in from every direction.

Even if they were pretending not to know and pretending not to have seen anything on the outside, they must have been inwardly curious about how it would turn out.

About whether “that” was true too.

When they saw Song Cheonhye’s flushed face and the way she kept fanning herself with her hand as if she were hot, exclamation marks popped over everyone’s heads without exception.

—...They did it.

—They really did it.

Among them, Hong Yeonhwa seemed especially shocked.

Apparently she had been thinking, No way. Surely not...

But the evidence before her eyes was far too clear for her to keep denying it.

“...”

The slightly wounded look she sent me made her look like a puppy whose snack had been cut in half.

Seo Ye-in and mirror-image Seo Ye-in, who had been rolling around on their sleeping bags, stopped and looked up at me too.

“...Womanizer.”

—Greedy.

“Bus driver.”

—Gunning for the Number Four angle.

At that, I felt pointlessly spiteful, so I covered Seo Ye-in’s face with the pot lying beside her.

“This covers all of it. Your face is small too.”

“Mmfmmf...”

“Sure, sure. I understand perfectly.”

And so the sloth rebellion was suppressed.

Meanwhile, Song Cheonhye quietly approached and whispered into my ear.

“Am I... the fourth? On that... bus?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“The bus is still a long way off.”

“...?!”

At my merciless answer, Song Cheonhye raised her eyes.

She stared blankly for a while, then continued whispering in a stammer.

“W-why? We just did that a moment ago...”

“That was the mini wish coupon.”

Even that should originally have been settled the moment I played along with her lie.

I had only indulged the peck because she looked too curious, and because she seemed at least somewhat sincere.

I added a casual comment.

“If anything, I think it would be stranger if we suddenly got that much closer.”

“...!”

“I’m not that easy, you know.”

Just because it was called Kim Ho Bus did not mean I let anyone ride.

There was already more than one person in the queue right now.

At that, Song Cheonhye seemed to feel something like disappointment and betrayal, but also seemed to think it made sense in its own way.

She repeated what I had just said.

“You said it’s far off ‘for now,’ right?”

“For now.”

“That means there’s a possibility.”

“I’d say it’s pretty high.”

“...!”

Then Song Cheonhye’s complexion brightened as if she had never been disappointed at all.

Only belatedly realizing she had smiled far too quickly, she cleared her throat a few times for no reason.

“You could have said that from the start. Why do you keep lifting people up and dropping them?”

“I answered exactly what you asked. Honestly.”

“Understood. I’ll think about it carefully.”

Song Cheonhye’s expression turned as if she had made some kind of resolution.

*****

The next day.

As we had been doing so far, we resumed the “A-zone hit-and-run strategy.”

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Fireballs embroidered the air as they fell.

The monkeys, thrown into panic, went wild.

“Kikiki! Kikikiki!”

“Ooh! Ooh! Kiiik!”

Some rolled across the ground to put out the flames clinging to their bodies, while others, excited, swung their weapons around at random.

Of course, either way, [N O V E L I G H T] the end result was no different.

RUMBLE, KRA-BOOM!

In that they were struck by lightning all the same and turned into crystals and cards.

Perhaps because Song Cheonhye had also risen to A-rank the previous day, her share of the battle had increased quite a lot.

As she fired off lightning magic in rapid succession, she suddenly turned her head and exchanged looks with Hong Yeonhwa.

“...!”

“...!”

It was as if sparks were flying through the air.

They had already been rivals, but now the competitive heat between them felt even hotter.

It seemed yesterday’s events had played a major part.

Then they both whipped their heads away at the same time and resumed battle.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

RUMBLE!

They competed to burn the monkeys and fry them with electricity.

On the other hand, Seo Ye-in acted as if their competition had nothing to do with her and simply did her own work.

After spraying the monkey in front of her with mana-gun fire, she picked up a crystal and said,

“The composure of first place.”

—The dignity of first place.

“On a different level.”

—Unapproachable.

Perhaps they heard that, because Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa both flinched at the same time.

But instead of looking at Seo Ye-in, they glared at each other again. Their psychology was probably something like this.

—First, I have to beat her.

It was truly a dogfight and a hedgehog fight all at once, but as long as they fought well, that was enough, wasn’t it?

After watching the battle situation for a while, I gave the group an order.

“It’s coming. Pull out.”

Because a crown had started moving toward us.

We had experienced this countless times already, so everyone quickly wrapped up the fight and left the area.

Then we returned to the lower zone again and took time to reorganize and rest.

Go Hyeonwoo gathered the [Empty Crystal] cards together and said,

“This haul is considerable as well. At this rate, Miss Han should rise in rank soon too.”

“Me too, A!”

As he said, Han Somi’s current rank was B+.

If we repeated the hit-and-run a couple more times, she should be able to cross the wall.

Maybe that was why she seemed even more filled with motivation than usual as she said,

“Let’s gooo! Charge them!”

“Let us do that.”

But before we had gone far, we saw a crowd gathering in the distance.

Even by eye, there were more than twenty people.

However, we did not bother assuming combat stances, because most of them were familiar faces.

Park Nari waved timidly but happily.

“We’re here...!”

“Piiieeeng—”

Chaemi the eagle flew in from the sky as well and landed on my shoulder.

Then it began grooming its feathers as comfortably as if this were its own home.

After that, I exchanged nods with Gwak Jicheol and the other party members, then looked at the rest of the crowd.

Among them was a face I had seen at the starting point when the midterms first began.

Ahn Hyeongi.

He belonged to the White Magic Club, and he had come to us both to help us and to trade for hidden pieces.

We had managed to make a deal that was fairly beneficial to both sides.

When our eyes met, he grinned and said,

“Fancy seeing you here. I knew you’d come, obviously.”

“We have to farm the A-rank zone.”

“When did you get here?”

“Yesterday.”

“That early? You grew incredibly fast.”

Ahn Hyeongi nodded as if he had known this would happen.

After all, arriving yesterday meant we had reached specs capable of challenging A-rank that much sooner.

Soon, he subtly stepped aside, and Jeong Jinmyeong came forward instead.

“Been a while. Feels like almost two weeks.”

“Probably close to that.”

“Thanks to you, we found hidden pieces and used them well.”

As he said that, he took out one card and showed it to me.

[Refiner(C+)]

▷Consumes [Item Card] cards to create crystals.

▷The higher the card’s rarity and rank, the better the result obtained.

Another method of processing surplus cards.

The exchange rate was rather poor, but if it raised experience even a little, it was not a bad deal.

Especially since Jeong Jinmyeong led the White Magic Club and probably had many mouths to feed.

I lightly looked them over and estimated their ranks.

“You did raise everyone evenly.”

“In exchange, we’re completely out of cards.”

Jeong Jinmyeong answered with a bitter smile.

Apparently, they had given up all their attack cards like [Plunder] and [Ejection], or utility cards like [Exit].

Instead of raising ranks even more, they had minimized clashes with other participants.

Though for that, they had sent Sagong Uk’s Back Guy packing at the starting point.

Anyway, I grinned and said,

“You brought this at the perfect time. We’ve got cards to spare.”

Then, when I pulled out not just a bundle of cards but an entire pile, the White Magic Club group was shocked.

“What did you do to stack up this many?”

“A whole lot happened.”

To name the biggest ones, we clashed with Sagong Uk and Cha Hyeonju’s groups, then ran perpetual motion using two [Payback] cards and Lucky Charm’s luck.

I showed him [Sacrifice] as well and explained.

“If we use this to raise [Refiner]’s rank, the exchange rate should improve quite a bit too.”

On top of that, [Payback] would activate whenever we ground cards down.

Naturally, Jeong Jinmyeong brightened and handed the card over to us.

“Then it’s better for you guys to use it. Just distribute the results properly.”

“Of course we should.”

Soon, Jeong Jinmyeong glanced toward the A zone.

“If you arrived yesterday, you must have tried going in there too.”

“We’ve been going in and out.”

“It must be tough to stay in there continuously. Are you going to try taking down a boss too?”

“If the conditions are right.”

By conditions, I of course meant the number of people and their ranks.

Now that White Magic and the Nature Club had joined us, and now that we had obtained [Refiner], the possibility had grown larger.

Jeong Jinmyeong asked again.

“When are you planning to challenge it?”

“I’m thinking of waiting for Mo Yongjun too, if possible.”

“Well, they’ll probably show up soon enough.”

The other zones were practically depleted of monsters anyway.

If they did not want to settle for B or C-rank scores and wanted higher grades, and if they had the ability to do so, then they had no choice but to move toward the higher zone.

There was only one A zone in the Great Forest.

Soon, Jeong Jinmyeong looked over the faces of our group and suggested in a subtle tone,

“...I think we could do it with just us. If we raise our ranks a little more.”

White Magic, Nature, and Emerald alone were powerful forces.

On top of that, with top-tier powerhouses like Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa, plus the Discipline Committee, he was thinking we should be able to take down one A-rank boss.

He probably wants to go without Mo Yongjun if possible.

Normally, they maintained a fairly amicable relationship, but since they belonged to different forces, competition was unavoidable.

The Swordsmanship Club and White Magic Club had always competed for first and second place, after all.

If we took down an A-rank field boss ourselves, that would put us that much further ahead, so of course he would be tempted.

I understood that mindset, but I slowly shook my head.

“It won’t be as easy as you think.”

I figured it would be better to explain by showing him, so I unfolded the map.

There were two crowns in the A zone.

One was stopped in place, while the other was moving quickly even as we watched.

If it looked that fast on the map, then in reality, that meant it was absurdly fast.

The crown seemed to head toward the place where the other crown was, and soon, the two overlapped as one.

Then, not long afterward, they separated again, and the moving one continued on its way.

Seeing that, a strange light appeared in Jeong Jinmyeong’s eyes.

“What? They’re not fighting?”

The Great Forest was nature itself, and field bosses were like the local rulers of that place.

If a competitor entered their territory, especially if one came that close, there was no way they would not fight.

But on the map, there was no sign of any real clash. It looked like they had simply met, exchanged a few light words, and parted.

I added an explanation.

“Those two are close.”

Unlike ordinary field bosses, they shared territory and sometimes cooperated.

If one of them was in danger, the other would come flying.

Judging from its movement speed, it would not take long either.

For us right now, taking down even one A-rank boss was a gamble. Facing two at once was out of the question.

Jeong Jinmyeong seemed to think the same, because he said in an uncomfortable tone,

“...Let’s wait for Mo Yongjun.”