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Chapter 9: Yeonha's Bad Day
PS: this chapter is written from Yeonha's PoV.
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Yeonha was having a bad day, a very bad day. Not only was Jonghak ignoring her in favor of that bitch Chae Nayun but she also got put on a team with the gunner(Kim Hajin). She had to stay on this team until the midterms, so her grades were going to be dragged down by him, her other two teammates she could tolerate since they could pull their weight, but the gunner could not. He was just a liability. The latter of her problems she could ignore for now because something interesting had happened once again with Special Admission Cadet C.C. This time, he had been put on his own without any teammates. She would have to see his footage later to analyze him more in-depth.
"There's no time for chitchat. You should have gotten the coordinates and information of the monster you'll need to kill on your smartwatch. Get going!" She heard their Instructor Kim Sookhyuk shout.
[Blackhump Octopus 37° 31' 32" N] She projected the coordinates from her smartwatch. However, as she did this she was watching Cadet C.C. to see what he would do, but what she saw truly surprised her. In less than 0.2 seconds he had cast three spells and started running at insane speeds for a cadet.
"Le- Let's get moving. We can talk while running." She fumbled her words due to her surprise at Cadet C.C.
The time it took them to get to the location was drastically reduced by the gunner's horrible stamina. It was a wonder how he was even in the top 1000 of cadets. They had been slowing down leading to them taking around 15 minutes just to get there and then they had to take a break because the gunner fell as soon as they arrived losing them even more time. While not showing how annoyed she was Yeonha checked the information on the monster they would be facing.
「Blackhump Octopus」
—low-intermediate rank monster
—Special features
*The main body isn't strong, but numerous baby octopuses pop out from the hump on its head. As dozens pop out at once, it isn't easy to deal with them. Baby octopuses can suck human blood and turn them into mummies in just one second. They are classified as low-rank monsters.
—Strategy
*Eliminate all baby octopuses. Alternatively, destroy the black hump where the main body's magic power is created.
—Weakness
*Black hump
—Strength
*Suction cups and baby octopuses
Turning to her two teammates Hazuki and Jin Haseung. "I'll take care of the baby octopuses while you two deal with the main body." She said turning off her watch.
"...Let's go now." The gunner said with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Are you sure?" Hazuki asked the gunner kindly."
"Yeah. I'll go first. Hup!" The gunner said running ahead but not even ten seconds later they had overtaken him.
They had been running for about 5 minutes before they found the Octopus. "There," Hazuki spoke while pointing at the Octopus.
"I'm ready," Yeonha spoke lowering her body into the thicket, while Hazuki and Haseung took out their Sword and Axe respectively.
"When we run at it, baby octopuses will pop out of its hump. When that happens, the two of you should fall back and be on standby until I kill them all. Warriors need to save their magic power as much as possible. Black hump octopuses have high regenerative power, so we need to remove its hump in a single blow…" Yeonha explained this to Hazuki and Heseung completely ignoring the gunner.
"Then let's start." As her words fell Hazuki and Haseung sprang into action.
"Kueeeeek!" After having closed some distance Haseung roared out to attract the Octopsues' attention. It then pointed its hump towards them and dozens of Baby Octopuses shot out of it with a deafening roar.
As planned Hazuki and Haseung stepped to the side and let Yeonha take care of the Baby Octopuses. But before she could do anything the gunner raised his gun and pointed it at the octopi.
"Hey, you don't have to…" Yeonha voiced out in shock but Gunner just ignored her and in just 2.78 seconds all 59 Baby Octopuses had disappeared completely.
"...Huh?" Yeonha said in confusion. All the Baby Octopuses just disappeared.
"C-come on. Let's go." Yeonha stammered.
"Ah, right," Haseung responds.
"HAI!" Hazuki responded cheerfully.
Quickly snapping out of her daze Yeonha rebuked Hazuki and Haseung. Only then did the two of them start targeting the Main Body of the Octopus. Yeonha then snapped her whip and wrapped it around the Octopus's Hump. But the moment her whip crushed the hump a mole cricket shot out from the ground.
Kieeek— the mole cricket cried out as it jumped on Yeonha not giving her enough time to react but the gunner fired his last bullet at it. Hitting it the bullet detonated sending blood a mucus flying, she had just enough time to create a barrier of Magic Power to not get covered in the blood and mucus. However, she could not cover everything and got sprayed with some of the blood. Sending the gunner a death stare, she started to support the two warriors sending out her whip when needed and taking four of the eight tentacles. In total, they took 9 minutes and 40 seconds to defeat the Octopus.
Now that the battle was over Yeonha closed her eyes briefly before taking out a handkerchief and started to wipe off the blood and mucus that had gotten on her. One of the things she hated was getting dirty and that gunner had gotten her dirty by killing that mole cricket she could've easily taken care of.
"Excuse me." She said with smiling eyes, but not a friendly tone. It was easy to tell she was pissed even if she didn't show it on the outside.
"You didn't need to kill that mole cricket. I could've taken care of it. Much more cleanly even." She said with clear venom in her voice. "Because of you, my clothes got dirty." With a clear hint of disdain in her voice, she said this. But before she could continue the two warriors got back.
"Whew, that was swift thanks to you. I saw it. You killed the baby octopuses, right? Guns have their advantage, huh." Said Haseung with some surprise in his voice.
"That was amazing!" Hazuki said excitedly in broken Korean.
Both of them were covered in blood and ink, Yeonha slowly stepped away from them not wanting to get it on her. They then hurried back to the field.
[Team 6 — Total time: 58 minutes 58 seconds. 17/101] Yeonha's expression was grim, although she finished in the upper half of the teams, she still lost to Chae Nayun's team.
"Drones filmed everything. They'll be sent to your smartwatches, so why you were quick or slow to hunt your monster, your team's compatibility with the monster, and how you could improve for next time. It'll be part of your grades." Instructor Sookhyuk announced. Yeonha looked behind seeing a dull-looking man yawning, because of him, what should've taken just 10 minutes took 50 minutes, all because of his lack of stamina. Although it was thanks to him that they could reach rank 17, she was still pissed off.
Yeonha held back her impulse to blame someone. But that only increased the unreasonable sense of jealousy and envy she felt towards Chae Nayun. She faced forward and glared at Chae Nayun's head. If she wouldn't be found out, she wanted to smack the back of her head.
Yeonha's hands trembled, reaching toward Chae Nayun's head.
But instead of taking such extreme action, she lightly touched Chae Nayun's shoulder.
"How did you do Nayun?" She asked in a friendly manner.
"Ah, as you can see I got 5th place. I wanted to beat Shin Jonghak and Rachel. What a shame. I would've gotten 4th if it wasn't for that C.C. guy." Nayun said with great disappointment while pointing towards a table where C2 and Kim Suho sat talking about something. "What about you?" She asked.
"I'm… 17th," Yeonha said with a hint of hesitation in her voice.
"Oh? You got 17th with that faux sharpshooter?" Nayun said with surprise in her voice.
"Yep. We got a Blackhump Octopus. We just had to remove the hump." Yeonha said with a slightly lighter tone.
"I'm guessing that's what you did?" Nayun asked with an amused tone.
"Yep!" Yeonha said with a bright smile decorating her face. She then walked a little closer to C2 and Suho's location to listen in on their conversation.
"How about I teach you a nifty spell while we wait for the rest of the Teams to arrive then?" She heard C2 say as she flinched slightly. She could swear she saw a glint in C2's eyes when she did it. Needless to say, she was shocked about the things C2 told to Suho. The only one who was properly as shocked as her about C2 Projecting(as he called it) THE Excalibur was Rachel as she was the Princess of England where it originated from. She would have to update her evaluation of him tonight when she was done analyzing the videos.
Later that day…
"At least he's quick…" Yeonha said while watching the footage of their fight. The more she watched it the more curious she got. The Blackhump Octopus had shot out a total of 59 Baby Octopuses and in just 2.78 seconds the sharpshooter had killed them all. Blackhump Octopuses usually reabsorb the Baby Octopuses they shoot out to recover stamina and shoot out more of them. Because of this trait, she was ready for a long and drawn-out battle, but because of the sharpshooter, it had taken less than 10 minutes.
"I don't recall ever seeing him at the Military Academy…" She muttered. The more she thought about the less sense it made. His stamina was abnormally lower than other cadets, and he had suddenly switched weapons from a sword to a gun. Her watch then vibrated indicating a message.
[What's up?] Said the message from Shin Jonghak. Smiling she replied.
[Analyzing the videos from today~]
[Why are you doing that?] Jonghak replied.
[I'm going to inherit a guild in the future, so I have to look for promising talents~] She sent in return a smile on her face.
[There's none in your team or most for that matter. They're all trash.] Yeonha snickered at this. He was right but also arrogant. Had it been said by anyone else she would've found it repulsive. Yet none of this mattered to her as he was 'Shin Jonghak' and her affection towards him was illogical to begin with.
[How was that gun guy?] Jonghak asked her to which she laughed a little finding this behavior cute.
[He's okay, exactly what you would expect from rank 934.] She replied to Jonghak.
2.78 seconds. In that amount of time, that man had pulled the trigger 59 times and hit every single Baby Octopus. Yeonha made a pulling motion with her fingers. Was it even possible to pull a trigger 20 times a second or did that handgun have an automatic firing function?
Ding dong~ a bell rang sending her out of her musings.
[Ah, my room service is here.] She sent a quick message to Jongahak before going to the door and opening it, on the other side of the door she found her elegantly dressed butler with a silver platter in hand.
"Thank you Sechan-ssi." She said and the butler gave her a bow before walking away again. She then took her food back to her table and sat down again.
[I'm back. Were you waiting?] She messaged Jonghak.
[No.] He responds. Opening the silver platter she found a hamburger, french fries on the side, and a coke. Taking a fry from the platter she opened C2's video and noticed how long it was, only 3 minutes and 29 seconds. This was insane as the time recorded was from when the Cadets left to when they returned, if it was only the fight she could somewhat understand.
[What did you order?] She saw a message from Jonghak.
[Just the usual. A little bit of foie gras entier.] She replied.
[I see. Goodnight.] Jonghak responds.
[Goodnight~] Yeonha responds before turning to C2's video. Skipping forward to when the battle began she saw him read through all the information he was given about the Lesser Water Wyvern he had to fight in 1.72 seconds. In 5.36 seconds he had formed a spear made of wire. In 6.98 seconds he had infused the wire spear with lightning attribute Magic Power. In 1.94 seconds he had aimed and thrown the spear piercing the Wyvern's eye. Then the spear disassembled and the wire entered the Wyvern frying it with lightning in the process, this took just 4 seconds. Finally, he clenched his hand into a fist as the Wyvern charged him and the Wyvern just fell over blood spilling out its mouth, in 4 seconds. In total, it took 24 seconds from reading the information on the Wyvern to it being killed.
Yeonha was shellshocked. This has to be some sort of joke. This guy has the skill and power to be Rank 1 among the cadets yet he's only Rank 5. Pulling up the file she had made for him she updated with the new information she had about.
[C.C.]
[Physical] ★★★★★
[Intelligence] ★★★★★
[Utility] ★★★★★
[Potential] ★★★★★
[Gift] ???(possible five-star)
Evaluation - Grade 1
—His real name is unknown. He is simply listed as C.C. on all papers. He goes by either C.C. or C2.
—Has shown great knowledge in what he calls 'Magecraft'. Further research is required. It's somehow different from traditional Magic.
—Appears to be fond of riddles. The reasons are unknown at the moment.
—Gift is unknown, but it's speculated to be related to his Magecraft.
—Has shown great skill with his Magecraft using what he called 'Projection Magic' or 'Gradation Air'. Being able to project even Excalibur.
—He has also shown great mental capacity, being able to read all the information on the Lesser Water Wyvern he was provided by Cube in just 1.72 seconds.
—On a lesser note he has used 330 Million Won to win a Limited Edition Cheese-kun(Pizza Huts Mascot). He has a great love for Pizza and this Cheese-kun.
—Further interaction is required.
Yeonha finished writing out all the information she could find.
"He really is an enigma…" She muttered leaning back in her chair.
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So, you guys might not notice this but in around 10 hours I've written the last chapter and this chapter. Both of which have close to 2.5k words. And damn I'm tired now. There will still be a chapter Wednesday don't worry. I could take a whole week off right now and still have a day to write a chapter for Wednesday. Please praise me I'm sacrificing my sleep(not really I barely sleep to begin with lol.).
So come! Give your sleep-deprived Author all the praise he deserves! My pen name is a lie lol. I don't sleep enough to dream. Anyway, CIAO!
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