༺ The First Battle ༻
“Nice to meet you, students. As I introduced myself earlier, I am Park Ki-yeol, a professor of magic at this academy. I will be taking the role of proctor during the second exam, Thank you.”
With those formal words, the professor greeted the many students watching.
I couldn’t believe that this bastard, who was filled with glee after receiving a bag full of money, was being so formal. l,
It felt like I was going to burst out laughing at any moment.
In addition to that,
‘His actions are so vile.’
Is this just a coincidence or the work of fate?
In an amazing twist of fate,
The student who just gave him the bribe mere moments ago was my first opponent.
Looking at my opponent’s status window,
Name: Han Min-jun
Level: 11 (1st Stage Awakener)
Status: Expectant
[Strength: 11(+30)] [Stamina: 6(+30)] [Agility: 6(+30)] [Magic: 7(+30)] [Luck: 5]
(Remaining attribute points are 0.)
(This person is currently receiving a portion of an advanced buff skill)
Skills:
Magic Manipulation(E) Throw(E) Smite(D) Lesser Telekinesis(D)
…What an absurd status window.
With the aid of the professor’s advanced buff skill,
I could see that his stats had been ridiculously inflated
‘There should be a limit to how much you could cheat.’
His stats had been increased by at least 5 times of what they originally were.
In terms of pure stats, this was even beyond the likes of Ha-eun
In other words, it was no wonder why Ha-eun lost twice during the second exam in my previous life.
‘He really used his head. There’s no way to tell that he’s buffed.’
He had received several buff skills.
These skills show a skill effect on the recipient of the buffs.
It was common sense that, like an aura, the body of a buffed person shined in several colors.
But this guy was different.
There was no visual indicator that he had received a buff.
‘It’s probably because he’s only receiving a part of the buff.’
If it was an advanced-level buffing skill,
His stats would have definitely increased more than that.
It would probably be easier to tell the details if I used the skill myself, but they were probably using a trick that only activated a portion of the buff, thus making it invisible.
After all, it wouldn’t be too hard to pass the entrance exam with just that much.
“Hey, you fucking punk.”
Just as I roughly finished analyzing my opponent,
He spoke to me in an obviously provocative manner.
“Don’t think you’re a big shot just because you destroyed some orb. Someone like you is a piece of cake for me.”
And maybe because of the buff skill he had received,
He presented himself with a rather arrogant disposition.
He was clearing cheating yet he acted so high and mighty.
How could he be so shameless?
“Funny.”
I chuckled.
Talking to him would be like trying to talk to a brick wall anyway.
Just,
“You won’t be able to walk out on your two feet after the battle.”
I just briefly said what I needed to.
As soon as I was done speaking, I rushed towards him.
He’d probably never been buffed like that before anyway.
So he wouldn’t be used to his new power.
I needed to finish him quickly before he got used to the buff.
“Don’t bite your tongue, you fucker.”
So, I quickly approached him and threw a feint, pretending to punch him in the face.
And,
“…Ugh!”
To avoid my attack, he immediately began a counterattack.
I expected this.
Since his agility stat was much higher than mine right now.
It would be strange if he couldn’t react to my blow.
That was what I was aiming for in the first place,
I took advantage of the fact that this guy wasn’t used to his new power yet.
Using my feet, I swiftly kicked his leg and disrupted his center of gravity,
I then grabbed him by the arm and threw him away.
His power was concentrated on his arm, so it wasn’t too difficult.
And the direction where his body was thrown,
“Professor…?”
“Professor? Are you alright?”
That’s right, it was where the professor was.
There was a commotion around us when everyone saw this happen, but I didn’t really care.
Rather,
I used my skill to deal an additional blow to him.
Of course, I had been aiming at the professor from the very start.
‘He’s not going to be too damaged by this anyway…’
I knew that this wasn’t even close to enough.
There was an insurmountable hurdle between 2nd and 4th Stage Awakeners.
I didn’t know about that student, but to the professor, it was probably nothing more than a simple scratch.
“…”
And, as I expected, the professor, Park Ki-yeol, got up soon after.
It was quite an effective blow against my battle opponent,
But the professor didn’t even look scathed
“…You.”
He just looked quite angry.
Of course.
He hadn’t liked me ever since I broke the magic orb, and now I had even humiliated him.
If this was not an official event that was being streamed, he would have exploded in rage.
That was why,
“Ack! Professor, are you okay?”
I pretended that it was a simple mistake and acted as if I was worried about him.
As if I were truly sorry, I acted like I was checking on the professor’s body.
“I am truly sorry, professor. I will make sure this does not happen again.”
I didn’t know about any other situation, but this was the entrance exam. In other words, it was an official event with plenty of witnesses,
So he would never be able to touch me.
Harassing a student who was this apologetic?
Even if my actions may have looked intentional, most people would react much more harshly to a person with power harassing one without power.
In the long run, it really could have been an honest mistake, so he would be taken as a petty professor who got angry at an attack that may have just been a simple accident.
Public opinion was harsher the more power one had.
On top of that,
“Are you okay?”
With my signature bright smile,
It would be harder for him to get angry at me.
After all, they do say that you cannot spit on a smiling face.1Tl Note: This is a Korean saying similar in meaning to “A soft word turns away wrath.”
Attacking a smiling student would be fatal to his reputation.
…Well, actually, maybe it looked like I was teasing him in this situation.
Whatever, it doesn’t matter.
This smile and apology was just a play set up for the people watching, not for him.
And,
“…Okay, it is fine. Please be more careful from now on. We shall continue the battle.”
That bastard didn’t have a choice anyway.
He wasn’t stupid, so instead of getting mad at me, he put up a kind face to protect his reputation.
He was bound to have plenty of experience as a professor, so he would not do anything that could cause controversy.
Especially when he was cheating like this.
“You fucker…!”
I was so focused on the professor that I didn’t even realize that my opponent looked furious at the fact that I had beaten him up.
Hmm… did he think he could still win this?
“Die, you fucker!”
He ran towards me with a sword in hand.
Looking at the mana infused in the sword,
He had used Strong Attack, a D-rank skill, and approached me at high speeds.
‘Only D-rank?’
What was the point of buffing his stats?
His skill composition was trash in and of itself.
If it was skill at that level, just the skills I got from Seo-ah would suffice.
In other words,
I could easily stop it with Chaotic Slash, a B-rank skill.
Unlike his sword, which could only be swung once it was infused with mana,
My skill infused more and more mana into my sword the more I swung it.
He barely blocked my first few swings, but,
“Ack…!”
He was unable to keep up with my accelerating swings and allowed an attack.
He was about to go flying at the reaction of getting hit but…
‘Where are you going?’
I quickly grabbed him so he couldn’t fly away,
And threw him once again with all my might.
And this time…
“…!”
He flew towards the professor yet again.
He realized that my opponent was flying right towards him and tried to avoid it, but…
I deliberately used my skill to get him caught up in the attack.
“…YOU!”
Perhaps noticing it was intentional,
The professor’s voice roared with anger.
I-I’m sorry. I think we are too close to you, professor, and accidents keep on happening unintentionally. Could you perhaps move a little further…”
I pretended to be a little clueless,
And asked the professor if he could maybe move further away.
I acted as if it wasn’t intentional.
Like if it was obviously just the mistake of a dumb boy.
I didn’t need to worry about whether he believed it or not.
What was important was how it looked.
Anyway,
“…No, it is fine. You may continue.”
Even if he wanted to move away, the professor wouldn’t be able to.
He was paid to buff that fucker, after all.
If he got too far away, it would be impossible for him to apply the buff,
So he needed to keep his position as the proctor.
“Shall we continue, then?”
My body was perfectly warmed up after moving a bit.
So there was only one thing I could do right now.
I kept doing what I had been doing so far.
Batter this guy, throw him at the professor and repeat
Lastly, I haven’t forgotten to continue smiling and apologizing.
“…!!!”
The professor was unable to contain his anger as the student kept getting thrown at him.
He knew this was on purpose, after all.
And since he couldn’t react due to the number of people watching, I could hear him grinding his teeth.
‘Good, just like this.’
This was what I was aiming for.
Unlike me, that professor had quite the reputation to protect.
That was why he was wearing a mask, even at this moment…
But the more he lost his composure, the more likely my plan was to succeed.
“…I-I give up!”
If I continued this a little longer, I would have been able to get on the professor’s nerves, unfortunately, I had to stop.
Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to win no matter how hard he tried, the guy gave up on the battle.
With that,
He admitted defeat himself, so the system window told me I could select a skill to copy.
Unlike last time, I had the Eye of Greed artifact.
I could choose the skill I wanted to copy.
“…Hmm.”
However, this guy only had 4 skills.
So I couldn’t find a skill that particularly tickled my…
“…This, it could be quite useful.”
And as soon as I laid my eyes on a certain skill, a brilliant smile beamed on my lips as an idea came to my head.
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