Strategy battle class.
Teacher Seo Cheong-yong entered the classroom with his usual affable smile.
He then pulled a stack of papers from his inventory.
“Grading’s all done. I’ll be handing these back.”
4th Week’s [Clearance] Strategy Battle.
The focus was on meticulously observing every nook and cranny of the dungeon and eliminating the lurking monsters.
The assignment was to review the replays, draw maps, and mark the ambush points, and now, the grading was complete.
When Seo Cheong-yong placed the stack on the desk, the papers seemed to come to life on their own before fluttering back to their rightful owners.
A buzz grew among the students as they checked their scores and compared them with their peers.
– Out of 100, how many did you get?
– I got 92, what about you?
– What? I thought you said you didn’t do any of it last time.
– Of course, that was a bluff.
Due to the atmosphere, I naturally ended up comparing scores with Seo Ye-in and Go Hyeon-woo sitting next to me.
Curiosity must have gotten the better of Go Hyeon-woo since he leaned in my direction first.
“What is Kim-hyung’s score?”
Instead of answering, I held up my map.
It was a meticulously detailed and flawlessly recorded map of the dungeon’s interior.
The score was, of course, perfect.
Falling short in a written exam would be a disgrace for a stagnant water.
Go Hyeon-woo exclaimed in admiration as he examined the map closely.
“As expected from Kim-hyung. There’s always something to learn from you.”
“So, how did you two score?”
This assignment had been relatively straightforward.
Merely sketching a rough outline while watching the replay was enough to secure a basic score.
I had assumed everyone would do reasonably well, but I still wondered how the actual results would have turned out.
At my inquiry, Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in, as if on cue, simultaneously revealed their maps.
[Go Hyeon-woo 86/100]
One unexpected thing.
Seo Ye-in’s score was slightly higher.
Another unexpected thing.
Seo Ye-in’s map was in pretty good shape.
I had wondered if her poor aesthetic sense which was often evident in her cookie baking would carry over, but the map had all the necessary components.
Though it was heavily angular, as if she had used a ruler for every line, what mattered was the ability to identify the monster ambush points.
It seemed teacher Seo Cheong-yong thought the same and graded her generously.
Turning my attention to Go Hyeon-woo’s map… Thıs text ıs hosted at 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝘯𝘦𝘵
It held more artistic value and looked more like a traditional ink painting than a practical guide.
The issue was its readability.
It looked less like a dungeon map and more like…
…a landscape painting?
And a heavily encoded one at that.
Considering that it was meant to mark monster ambush points, its cryptic quality would hardly warrant a high score from teacher Seo Cheong-yong.
After comparing the scores, the two people showed different reactions.
“Oooh, that’s surprising.”
Go Hyeon-woo, who had perhaps expected his score to be slightly better, seemed taken aback.
Seo Ye-in slowly raised her hand and flashed a V-sign.
Where in the world had she picked that up?
Go Hyeon-woo’s lips curled into a wry smile.
“It’s my loss. However, Miss Seo, next time won’t be as easy.”
Despite the cliché of a third-rate villain’s line, his handsome features made it rather charming.
Seo Ye-in simply nodded her head without a word and slumped back over her desk, half lying down, and half sprawling.
Just then, the sound of Seo Cheong-yong’s clapping echoed.
Although soft, the clapping had a peculiar power that quieted the murmur of the classroom and got everyone’s attention.
“Have we all taken note? Generally, in dungeons, it’s beneficial to keep a wide field of vision, but paying attention to these minor details can surely be of help. We’ll return to this topic later.”
Seo Cheong-yong wrote a single word on the blackboard.
“Today’s topic is a word everyone has probably heard at least once, ‘Guardian.’ What is a Guardian? Would anyone like to answer?”
Two students offered different answers at the same time.
They then looked at each other as if to say, “What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
Their glances exchanged silent claims of “My answer is right, yours is wrong.”
Seo Cheong-yong smiled gently.
“You’re both correct. Depending on their role, they can either be a mid-boss or the final boss. Each boss monster has its own unique characteristics. Bosses who command minions naturally are mid-boss level Guardians, while those who guard the dungeon alone are essentially final boss-level Guardians. So, what is the role of a Guardian?”
The answer to this question was so obvious that it took a moment for anyone to respond.
Everyone suspected there might be a hidden catch in the question though.
So everyone hesitated and looked around and no one dared to speak up before finally a girl in the front row hesitantly raised her hand.
“To protect… something?”
“That’s right. A Guardian’s role is literally to protect something, be it a mid-level gate, a boss monster, or even the dungeon itself. One thing is for sure: to conquer the dungeon, you must break through whatever is being guarded.”
“And the more efficiently you can overcome that guardian, the easier the dungeon conquest will become, right?” Seo Cheong-yong added this at the end.
“Now, for this week’s strategy battle, to better understand the role of a Guardian—”
MAP: [Ancient Temple]
RULE: [Defense] [Double] [Random Rules]
“You will take on the roles of Guardians yourselves.”
To learn how to attack properly, it’s better to get hit once than to repeat the attack many times.
Unpleasant experiences tend to leave a stronger imprint on the memory.
The idea is to remember the challenging aspects while you’re on the defense and later use them to your advantage in reverse roles.
After Seo Cheong-yong waved his hand, a simple drawing appeared on the blackboard.
It depicted a ruined temple with a statue of a goddess in the middle.
And then monsters swarmed from all directions towards the goddess statue.
As the attacks concentrated, cracks spread across the statue until it eventually crumbled to pieces.
The blackboard was wiped clean and the same scene reappeared.
Monsters surged towards the statue once more.
However, this time, a warrior armed with a sword and shield stopped the monsters and prevented them from getting close.
“The objective of this [Defense] is to ensure the goddess statue remains intact for the duration of the time limit.”
The less damage the statue sustained, the higher the score awarded, and the monsters slain in the process of defense were also included in the scoring.
“Just like last week’s duel battle, this week will also feature [Random Rules]. If you don’t attend the mentoring session, the rules will be random; if you do, the mentor can tailor them to a desired direction.”
This announcement caused most students who participated in the mentoring to grimace. They all had a rough experience the previous week with their mentors.
In our group for example, our mentor made the mages go through all kinds of trouble by setting a rule that they had to remove stickers through close combat.
Who would look forward to a similar ordeal repeating this week?
There seems to be one, though.
Amid the generally darkening faces, Go Hyeon-woo alone appeared genuinely excited.
“I’m looking forward to it. A new challenge is always fun.”
Go Hyeon-woo was the embodiment of positivity, a beacon of optimism, like the half-full part of the glass.
On the other hand, if you check Seo Ye-in’s side, it was the complete opposite.
Whether it was strategy battles, mentoring, or the Random Rule, everything seemed to be a nuisance to her.
I bet the butler is going to have a hard time.
I sent my silent support to Ahn Jeong-mi wherever she might be.
Stay strong, Butler-nim.
I made my way to the dungeon area, the agreed-upon spot for mentoring.
While I was walking aimlessly, I caught sight of a familiar figure in the distance.
Red medium-length hair that goes down to the shoulder, and a ruby embedded in a short staff.
It was Hong Yeon-hwa.
As if she suddenly sensed something ominous, Hong Yeon-hwa slowed her pace and looked around.
Then she spotted me and her whole body tensed up instantly.
Given how she usually treated me, I half expected her to bolt toward the dungeon area, but instead, she approached hesitantly and cautiously offered a greeting.
Perhaps working together during last week’s duel battle had somewhat helped her overcome her fear of me.
Considering she had never properly greeted me or even made eye contact before, this was a step forward.
Since we were slowly finding common ground through my deal with the Ruby Magic Tower and attending the same mentoring sessions, improving our relationship could only be beneficial.
And since it’s not like me to ignore a greeting, I responded with a light one of my own.
Hong Yeon-hwa’s face lit up brightly.
It seemed excessive to be so happy just from receiving a greeting, but if it made her happy, then so be it.
However, she didn’t seem to have the courage to go beyond that.
Perhaps even mustering the courage for a greeting had been a challenge for her.
As we walked, she kept fidgeting and glancing around, so I decided to break the ice.
“Do you have something to say?”
“Uh? Something to say? No, I, um, don’t have anything! Ha, haha…”
Hong Yeon-hwa stammered in response before becoming even more withdrawn.
Perhaps it was still too soon for more than this.
I decided to give her plenty of time.
If we greeted each other regularly, maybe she would gradually become more talkative.
In the midst of an awkward silence, we arrived at the upper floors of the dungeon building to find Dang Gyu-young, Song Cheon-hye, and Kwak Ji-cheol already waiting for us.
“Everyone’s here. Let’s get started.”
Dang Gyu-young positioned the four of us in front of her and displayed the environment and rules.
RULE: [Defense][Double][Random Rule]
“Since you’ve all probably heard the basic explanation from your strategy battle teacher, let’s move straight to the additional rules. Is that okay?”
Having just heard it, everyone silently conveyed their agreement.
Dang Gyu-young snapped her fingers, and the display updated.
RULE: [Defense][Double][Close Combat][Random Rule]
The new rule added was [Close Combat].
Everyone seemed to think it was only natural that this came up.
All of last week had been devoted to close combat training, and there had even been comments about how “there are still a lot of areas to improve,” so it only made sense that something similar would come up.
Dang Gyu-young lightly pulled me aside and positioned me at a specific spot before taking a couple of steps back.
From where I stood to where Dang Gyu-young was
“This is considered a “close” distance. Within this distance, the skill’s power is 100% unleashed.”
As Dang Gyu-young slowly stepped back, she continued,
“And the further you are from your opponent, the more the power of your skills will decrease. If you hit your target from the safe distance you usually use for casting magic, the power will be less than half.”
If the power was reduced to less than half, it would often be better not to use the skill at all.
In other words, [Close Combat] meant this.
Use any skill you have but make sure to do it up close.
Though it was a difficult restriction, the expressions around didn’t seem too gloomy.
The first reason is that it was less shocking because everyone expected something similar to come out.
The second reason was that thanks to enduring the tough last week, everyone became somewhat more disciplined in close combat.
The third reason was that everyone believed that close combat would be easier, especially since their opponents would be monsters, not Dang Gyu-young.
However, the [Random Rule] in the Map and Rule window hadn’t disappeared yet. This meant that there were more additions to come.
With another snap of her fingers, Dang Gyu-young introduced a new element.
RULE: [Defense][Double][Close Combat][Commander]
“I’ll be commanding the monsters.”