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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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-Whoosh
I heard the sound of the wind. It was the moment Yuseora turned her head. An arrow grazed past her and lodged itself in a tree.
‘An archer?’
She quickly checked her surroundings, but the archer was nowhere to be seen. They seemed to be hiding at a considerable distance.
She wanted to go and check on them right away, but she had a more important task at hand.
‘First, I need to crush these guys.’
A spearman and two mages were right in front of her. She didn’t know what kind of magic the mages used.
But if they had managed to enter the combat magic class of the Hero Academy, she couldn’t let her guard down. The competition for the combat magic class in the magic department was as fierce as that of the martial arts department.
‘I need to finish this quickly.’
Magic had what was commonly called ‘casting.’
Casting was the act of concretizing the contract with the god assigned to one’s bloodline, called mana.
The method differed depending on the contracted god and the Magic Tower, but they all required considerable concentration and time.
‘That’s a weakness that not even Stella, the 4th ranked hero, can avoid.’
Unless one directly wielded the power of a god, the standard tactic was to take out a mage before they could finish casting.
To do that, she needed to break through the spearman protecting them. Of course, there was one more obstacle besides the spearman…
Ping
The second arrow also missed her and lodged itself in a tree on the other side. This confirmed it.
She didn’t know how far away the archer was, but it was clear that they were at a distance where accuracy couldn’t be guaranteed.
‘Overload.’
Then there was no reason to delay. A dark aura began to envelop her sword.
She didn’t know how long the battle would last, so she adjusted the intensity of the overload so that the sword wouldn’t break in one go.
At the same time, a third arrow flew. This time, the arrow’s trajectory was quite accurate, but she was no longer where she had been standing. It was almost impossible to hit a moving target with the accuracy of someone who couldn’t even hit a stationary target.
So, she didn’t need to worry about the archer.
“Kuh-ugh!”
The spearman who blocked her sword with his spear groaned. Her sword, enveloped in a black aura, was incredibly heavy. But it wasn’t without its penalties.
‘About 9 strikes left, I think.’
After 9 strikes, the sword would break, unable to withstand the overload.
She had to end it before then.
She swung her sword cautiously. Each of her strikes was powerful, but that made them all the more important. She couldn’t afford to waste them.
But fortunately, perhaps due to the difference in strength, she had the initiative in the attack. 2 strikes, 3 strikes, 4 strikes… 5 strikes.
Finally, the solid opening she had been waiting for appeared. She raised her sword to deliver the final blow.
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“Damn it.”
I tried to snipe with pure skill, using all my Power of Wind for defense. But my proficiency wasn’t there yet.
Besides, the fight was practically decided the moment the first two arrows missed. No matter how close I got, I didn’t have the skill to accurately snipe one of two people entangled in a fight.
And if I withdrew the Power of Wind, Wilhelm’s attacks would continue. I wasn’t talented in rapid-fire, and if I briefly withdrew the Power of Wind to shoot, an arrow would pierce my neck.
I needed to find another way instead of just pulling the bow.
‘Using swordsmanship here would be crazy.’
I had to solve it somehow without swordsmanship. I was agonizing over the method when an arrow struck the tree next to me.
‘Huh?’
That wasn’t deflected by my Power of Wind. That meant the arrow had missed me in the first place.
‘He’s not hitting every shot?’
It was true that Wilhelm’s holy mark had the trait of increasing shooting accuracy to the extreme, but he was still human, so he couldn’t be without mistakes.
‘Perhaps…’
The next shot might miss too. It was a gamble. But it was also the only method available at the moment. There was no time to waste.
I didn’t know when the next arrow would fly, and Yuseora was already overwhelming the spearman. If I hesitated any longer, the chance would be gone.
‘Overload.’
I imbued the arrow nocked on the fully drawn string with Overload. A black aura began to envelop the arrow. I had to think of it as only having one chance. I carefully aimed at Yuseora.
‘Power of Wind.’
The wind wrapped around the arrow. At this moment, there was no Power of Wind allocated to defense. I poured all my Power of Wind solely to hit Yuseora.
‘Please hit.’
It was at that moment.
“Kuh-ugh!”
The guy’s arrow didn’t miss this time. The arrow flew on an accurate trajectory and pierced my neck. Fortunately, thanks to the consideration of the mock battle, I didn’t feel any pain.
But the result was the same. It was instant death. The moment the arrow pierced my neck, I was judged as instantly dead. My consciousness faded, and I felt myself being moved somewhere.
But it was okay. It was a bit disappointing, but I had achieved what I had set out to do. I had almost finished assessing the guys from Team A and Team B. And I had already done my part.
Before Wilhelm’s arrow pierced my neck, I had already released the bowstring. The arrow was already shot towards Yuseora.
‘The rest is up to them.’
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‘Now’s the time.’
A solid opening created through the recent exchange. If she struck now, she could definitely eliminate the spearman. But there was still a lingering uneasiness.
‘What is it?’
But she couldn’t figure out the reason for that uneasiness. Not only could she not figure it out, but she also couldn’t afford to hesitate any longer. If she missed this chance, she didn’t know if another would come within the remaining four strikes.
‘Overload.’
Her sword became even darker. And the moment she was about to swing her sword, she heard the sound of wind being cut. It was an arrow shot by the archer she had been aware of but had ignored because he wasn’t a threat. So, this time was different.
‘It’s fast?’
Earlier, the sound of the arrow flying was heard, and then it struck a little later, but not this time. Naturally, it was already too late when she realized it.
“Kuh…!”
The fast-flying arrow pierced her neck. The wind swirling around the arrow and the black aura around it fluttered like feathers. It was something she was also familiar with.
‘This is?’
Her consciousness quickly faded.
‘I hoped they would do well on their own.’
The first mock battle ended in defeat for Team B, the team I was on. The cause was that the swordsmen had clustered together and were eventually wiped out by a single mage.
Of course, I didn’t place much importance on the win or loss. This was just a mock battle that wasn’t even part of the evaluation, and a simple team deathmatch like this was meaningless anyway. But seeing our team’s swordsmen made me feel a little frustrated.
‘It’s a good thing I have Seo Yoo-rang’s memories.’
If I hadn’t had memories of playing team battle games, I might have started politicking right away. I could hold back because I knew that politics could have the negative effect of dividing the team. And there was no guarantee that this team would stay together.
‘There was quite a difference in strength.’
In particular, just having Yuseora and Wilhelm on the same team made Team A’s strength excessively strong.
Fortunately, the instructors of the tactics class seemed to have made the same judgment.
“We will swap Candidate Wilhelm Rosemound of Team A and Candidate Seo Yoo-rang of Team B.”
Wilhelm also accepted the decision without a word. Apart from that, it seemed like he had something to say to me for some reason.
‘If he has something to say, he’ll say it.’
A few other team members were swapped besides me, and now the real Team 2-A, not a temporary one, was born.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible for members to be swapped after evaluations, but it was safe to assume that it would stay like this for the first semester. For the next semester, I would have to compete against the other seven teams with these guys.
‘Now it’s important.’
Of course, I didn’t mean that I would risk my life for the evaluation.
From the moment I entered the academy with archery, the evaluation was just a secondary concern. However, even though the purpose of entering was to obtain the hero status easily and quickly, I didn’t want to just play around for a year.
‘Growth through actual combat.’
No matter where you went in the world, there was no other place where you could freely use the virtual reality called ‘trials’ like this.
The only place where you could build up your skills through experiences extremely close to actual combat was the Hero Academy. I had no intention of just going through the motions of the practical training that would take place here for a year.
‘Let’s try this and that.’
I didn’t have any particular attachment to grades anyway.
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After a few more mock battles, the league that would be included in the evaluation finally began.
Through the mock battles, I was able to understand the members of Team 2-A. There was no need to explain Yuseora, who had the Overload trait.
The other three swordsmen were Dalton, a tanker type who used a sword and shield; Rick, a standard swordsman type; and Jake, a unique trickster type who specialized in throwing swords.
The one spearmanship student wasn’t particularly outstanding, but he had good synergy with Dalton, who used a sword and shield. It was safe to say that all of them were at a much better level than I was before going through the second trial.
And as for the two members of the magic department… honestly, there was almost nothing I could understand.
It wasn’t that there were no mages among the playable heroes, but the game never gave specific information about magic.
Besides, I had so little mana that I had never even thought about learning magic.
As a result, the only magic I had learned as a skill, Optical Modulation, was limited to my head.
But mages were also an important force, so it was important to understand them.
“So, the only attack magic you can use is Fireball? You don’t have any other magic?”
The combat mage was quite angry at me after hearing that. Apparently, Fireball was a much more difficult spell to manifest than I thought.
Since mages weren’t that common, and I had rarely encountered them, there was no way for me to know that.
‘I thought all high-ranking mages were just constantly dropping meteors from the sky.’
But after a few mock battles, I realized that Fireball was also a sufficiently powerful spell. It just took a considerable amount of time to cast.
And I roughly finished understanding the support mage as well. It seemed that support magic basically consisted of Magic Guard and Heal, and various debuff spells could be used depending on the situation. I thought it was quite versatile.
…The tactical meeting for the first evaluation, which was to take place the next day, ended like that.
“Seo Yoo-rang.”
Someone called me as I was about to leave the multipurpose meeting room called the community room. It was Yuseora.
‘What is it?’
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