Chapter 7

Most players required only a minimal understanding of the basics. Ultimately, the crux of a player was power, not great knowledge.

Of course, if a natural talent appeared with the potential for both great strength and great knowledge, South Korea would greet them with cheers. But artificially cultivating this kind of talent in the classroom was costly—too costly—for the country.

Coincidentally, South Korea was a country that found itself greatly lacking in high-class players....

***

Rather than theory, Lion’s Castle emphasized a practical education for its students.

Jae-Hyeok’s lectures consisted of only one three-hour theory class in the morning, and most freshmen seemed to think even that was quite a lot.

After morning lectures and lunch, Jae-Hyeok visited the sixth training ground for his next class. But what he found left him speechless.

Why the fuck am I here?

“Yap!”

“Haap!”

It was a class on Skill training.

In contrast to Jae-Hyeok, who stood far away, the other students were enthusiastic about the class.All of them stood in front of various types of targets and repeatedly used physical, magic, healing, or auxiliary Skills.

As for the students with production Skills, they’d already gone to the research building by the faculty.

“Haa!”

Lee Jin-Seong unleashed a Force Palm Skill that passed through his target dummy’s defense and reached its insides. The dummy vibrated. Lee Jin-Seong grinned smugly at Jae-Hyeok; then he turned and spoke loudly to another student about how some newbies are just too cocky for their own good.

Well, he seems full of energy,

Jae-Hyeok thought. Earlier that day, Lee Jin-Seong, Cheon Hye-Ji, and Du Bae-Su had all eventually apologized to Jae-Hyeok. Specifically, they’d apologized for cursing a classmate’s parent. That wasn’t the same as apologizing for the curses themselves—which they clearly believed his father deserved. Still, Jae-Hyeok accepted their apology anyway.

The chairman’s words echoed in his mind.

The young students who grew up exposed to the media disparaging the Yaksha and the Kang family will be prejudiced against you and won’t hesitate to antagonize you.

Jae-Hyeok knew what he had to do.

I must restore my family’s honor.

In the past, when he’d locked himself in his house and swung his sword day and night, his desire was simple. He would survive, and he would get revenge.

He’d intended to return his father's pain a thousandfold before killing those responsible; to severely punish the Korean government and Association for forgetting what they owed; and to heal his father.

Only once he restored his father would he truly find peace.

However, after half a day at Lion’s Castle, Jae-Hyeok had changed his mind.

His revenge shouldn’t end with a simple stabbing. Rather, it should lead to the restoration of his family and father’s honor.

He thought about the strange girl from lunch. She’d scolded Jae-Hyeok quite harshly at the time, but it was also clear that she regarded his father highly. Jae-Hyeok clenched his fist.

That’s how I want everyone to see Father.

Jae-Hyeok couldn’t force it right now. He wanted people like Lee Jin-Seong to see the truth and willingly spit on the graves of those responsible for what happened to his family.

“What are you doing having a staring match with a training dummy?” The training instructor approached. He looked Jae-Hyeok over. “You’re certainly tall and well-developed. Are you the rumored transfer student?”

Jae-Hyeok was about to speak when the instructor waved his hand and cut him off.

“Don’t worry, I understand. It’s perfectly normal to feel a little awkward on your first day. Besides, you're probably also wondering what the point of this is.” He gestured toward a group of students. Those students shouted loudly before repeatedly smacking or pelting a training dummy with their Skills. “After all, hitting target dummies isn’t exactly the same as hitting a monster.... ”

The instructor allowed his words to hang in the air.

“But I don’t have any Sk...,” Jae-Hyeok began, but under the instructor’s expectant expression, he sighed. “Instructor, I want to know. Why use our Skill on training dummies, instead of monsters, then?”

“Good question! In fact, using Skills on a practice target

does

give you experience. Compared to battling monsters, it’s a small amount, but it’s not nothing. Even if you don’t enter a gate, all you have to do is train on a regular basis, and you will level up your Skill!”

Jae-Hyeok wasn’t moved by the instructor’s enthusiasm. He pointed to the same group of students that the instructor had gestured toward previously. At some point, those students had stopped attacking the dummies. Most of them had their hands on their knees, panting. One sweaty student was even spread out on the field like a starfish. “But at the rate they’re going, won’t it take a long time to level up their Skill?”

The Class B students were level 1. Their mana pool was low, so they could only use their Skill two to three times at most. After that, they would be completely drained. Using target dummies to grind levels this way seemed like a distant dream for the students.

Jae-Hyeok wondered, “Isn’t it better to use this time to hunt monsters and level up quickly? There are monsters in Lion’s Castle, right?”

“You do have a point. Hunting monsters would be faster, but monsters are more vicious and dangerous than you think. There are too many variables for a newly awakened player to deal with safely. I’m living proof of that.”

The instructor raised his arms. One of his sleeves was bound at the elbow, revealing a prosthetic limb.

“Before hunting, you need to familiarize yourself with this place's environments and with the tactics and abilities of the monsters specific to each place. You also need to train. You might look down on it, but hitting a practice target daily, even if only a handful of times, is more helpful than you think. It’ll familiarize you with your Skill—you’ll become more accurate, and you’ll learn unique ways to use it. These are things you can only learn through doing. They aren’t things anyone else can teach you.”

“Is that because everyone uses different Skills?” Jae-Hyeok asked.

The instructor nodded. “That’s right. Now, go ahead and try your Skill.”

“Skill... ”

“What is it?”

“I...Uh...Well, I’ll warm up first.”

Jae-Hyeok gave up on trying to explain that he hadn’t awakened. No one seemed to believe him, and he didn’t want a repeat of what happened in the morning.

Contrary to what Kim Jin-Myeong thought, Jae-Hyeok didn’t enjoy repeating the same words over and over.

I should go to the chairman and ask her to change my class.

He’d heard that classes A to C were the awakener classes. Classes D to F were the non-awakened classes, which focused on developing a student’s Initial Skill.

Wait... Class B’s level is already like this... Won’t the level be even worse if I go to Class D?

Jae-Hyeok thought better of it. Besides, he didn’t believe that his Class B status was an accident on the director’s part. She definitely had her reasons.

Jae-Hyeok stood facing the training dummy, his sheathed sword held in one hand.

If he thought about it, there was no reason to be disappointed about being in this class. It didn’t matter that he lacked a Skill.

Just think of it as more practice.

One could train anywhere. The environment didn’t matter.

What mattered was the mindset.

Lowering his stance, Jae-Hyeok took a deep breath; his leg slid back, and his hand grasped the hilt of his sword. The sword-drawing technique he practiced more than ten thousand times a day was about to be displayed.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

There was a flash of light.

“......”

The instructor’s eyes almost popped out.

Jae-Hyeok was preparing for the next blow when the training dummy suddenly screamed. He tilted his head.

Huh?

The students—who just before had been making a fuss while shouting exaggerated Skill names like Meteor Excalibur—became silent.

“O-oh my god... ” It was the instructor who broke the silence. “It reminds me of His Excellency Yaksha, who I met when I was younger,” he said with admiration.

Jae-Hyeok’s swordsmanship reminded the instructor of Jae-Hyeok’s father?

Jae-Hyeok immediately smiled after receiving such high praise. “Oh, so you know my father? Hehe.” He was convinced that this instructor was a good man.

The instructor rambled, “Lightning? Wait, no. Judging by the form, that was a wind-type Skill, right?”

“......?”

“Such power... This must be one of those rumored Skills passed down through a family’s bloodline. Truly amazing... ”

What was he saying all of a sudden?

Does the sword-drawing technique look like a Skill? Well, I suppose that’s a good thing.

This way, at least he had something to do in class. Jae-Hyeok resumed his stance, but before he could attack again, he was interrupted.

“I-Instructor! The training dummy isn’t recovering!” One of the students shouted while pointing a trembling finger at the dummy.

It was true. The dummy was half destroyed, full of cracks and fissures.

Other students began to gasp.

“T-those training dummies are magically engineered to handle even a C-class player’s Skills hundreds of times!”

“R-really?” It was Jae-Hyeok’s turn to be surprised. This sudden revelation sent Jae-Hyeok’s mind reeling in excitement.

I’m that strong? C-class strength!?

Another student said, “Wait. Come to think of it, that dummy has been used for around ten years. It must’ve run out of durability. Jae-Hyeok, don’t use that one. Use the one next to you.”

Jae-Hyeok’s mood plummeted back down. He’d gotten excited for nothing. Grumbling to himself, he walked over to the other training dummy.

This time, all the students were paying rapt attention.

Jae-Hyeok attacked, and there was another flash of light.

“Wow, I couldn’t even see it. Was that the Wind Blade Skill?”

“No way... Isn’t that the same Skill that the B-class Idol, Sin Su-Zi, uses?”

“Oh my god. There are two Wind Blade users in South Korea!”

There was a commotion among the students.

Some even clapped.

On the other hand, the expression of the training instructor became serious. “This is absolutely not Wind Blade.”

Jae-Hyeok looked at him. Oh,

did he finally realize it wasn’t a Skill?

The instructor was indeed insightful.

The instructor continued, “This is definitely a light attribute combat Skill. It is so fast and powerful that it’s like a flash of light... ”

“T-the legendary light element!” One student sighed.

“Well the light element isn’t legendary per se...,” another student grumbled.

Dammit

. Jae-Hyeok pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in disappointment.

Whatever, I’m just going to focus on training.

Perhaps it was because all the other training dummies were old, but none of them could withstand being hit more than twice by his sword-drawing technique.

The instructor was soon busy replacing the training dummies, while the students were busy losing their minds over Jae-Hyeok.

“How the hell is he spamming his Skill like that?”

“Its mana consumption is low despite that power?”

“Maybe he has a high Magic stat? ...Wow, he called other people idiots, but isn’t his close-combat Initial Skill incompatible with his stats?”

“......”

From Jae-Hyeok’s perspective, the students’ comments were utterly ridiculous.

The cause of the instructor and the students' misunderstanding wasn’t stupidity. A level 1 player’s power was supposed to be comparable to that of an E-class monster. An E-class monster was many times more powerful than an ordinary person, but it was nowhere near the level of power that Jae-Hyeok displayed.

In other words, Jae-Hyeok broke common sense.

Jae-Hyeok, on the other hand, had no way of understanding the feelings of the other students. He completely failed to empathize with his weakling peers.

They’re so weak. Much worse than that intruder.

Jae-Hyeok lamented as he silently compared the newly awakened students of Class B to the B-class intruder who’d infiltrated his estate a few days ago.

Well, they were in the same class... in a sense.