The Support Ate it All

It was late at night.

Song Cheon-hye comfortably settled on the chair in her room with her pajamas.

She browsed the student store while slowly spinning left and then right on the rotating chair.

She paid 200 points and two of her replay crystal orbs landed in her hands.

[Kim Ho 300 Yang Ji-hong 300_Duel Battle_1st Week.replay]

[Kim Ho 330 Yang Ji-hong 270_Due Battle_1st Week.replay]

Song Cheon-hye had watched Kim Ho’s placement test.

And throughout, he had endured the magical onslaught of Hong Yeon-hwa, only to release a single hummingbird in the end.

[Hummingbird] was a spell not exclusive to the Topaz Magic Tower affiliates and could be learned by outsiders.

The reason why the Topaz Magic Tower overlooked this is because although it was easy to learn, it was extremely difficult to master.

It was, after all, a low-rank spell that was unlikely to be useful even if mastered. So it was left as a challenge by the Topaz Magic Towe as if to say, “Go ahead, try it”.

Thus, Kim Ho’s adept handling of the hummingbird naturally piqued her curiosity.

Coincidentally, he was to be her next opponent in the placement test, and she had intended to experience his skills firsthand.

– I forfeit.

– Let’s say you won.

But the man had excused himself with the lame excuse that he wasn’t feeling well.

She tried to persuade him, but he seemed disinterested in both victory and score.

Regardless of the criticism that he lacked the mindset of a hero, her curiosity about the hummingbird spell still lingered.

However, there was not even the slightest chance that Kim Ho, who had a score of 300, and she, who had a score of 900, would be matched to fight in a duel battle against each other, so she resorted to watching replays like these.

His opponent in the replay was Yang Ji-hong who was a warrior spearman.

She remembered him as her second opponent in the placement test.

It was right after Kim Ho had rejected her challenge, and perhaps, in a bit of a rage, she had exerted more force than necessary.

Her memories of Yang Ji-hong ended there.

Now, it was time to examine the content of the match between Kim Ho and the other guy.

With a fluttering heart, Song Cheon-hye fixed her gaze on the crystal orb.

As she started playing the replay and began to focus,

“Uh?”

…the match was already over.

The moment it began, Yang Ji-hong charged, got hit by a hummingbird, and fell into paralysis.

Unable to move, Yang Ji-hong was mercilessly beaten by Kim Ho, and that was it.

The second match followed the same pattern.

There was a brief attempt by Yang Ji-hong to dodge, but he quickly got hit by a hummingbird in the back and it ended.

The two replays combined didn’t even last a minute.

Too short, and ridiculously so.

My 200 points…

She felt as if she’d been duped by false advertising.

To think he took 200 points for just showing this! How could he have no conscience?

It was like a bag of chips filled with more air than actual chips!

While Kim Ho, who had done nothing wrong except save the replay, was being criticized, the crystal orb continued to replay it over and over again.

“……?”

Song Cheon-hye who had been watching with a blank expression on her face slowly began to show a flicker of interest in her eyes.

At first, the spell seemed no different from her own hummingbird, but the more she watched the battle, the more she felt a mystery about it that was difficult to express in words.

What was it?

She held the crystal orb for a long time, replaying it dozens of times with focus, but still couldn’t pinpoint the essence of this mystery.

It was like a novice admiring a master’s technique, sensing its greatness but unable to grasp what exactly made it remarkable.

In fact, she started to feel a mental strain; each time she read the trajectory of the hummingbird, her mind seemed to grow more numb.

Yet she felt she was on the verge of understanding and couldn’t stop herself.

Around the time her mind was about 80% numb,

Can I do it like that too…?

Song Cheon-hye cast a spell almost unconsciously.

Structural formulas appeared in the air, electric currents converged, and a hummingbird was formed.

The hummingbird flew across the room.

Unbeknownst to Song Cheon-hye, the hummingbird was replicating the trajectory she had been intently observing just moments ago.

Crash!

Until all the items in the room had fallen over.

Song Cheon-hye came to her senses and rushed out of her room.

***

At this time, Song Cheon-hye was not the only one watching the replay repeatedly.

There were also two replay crystal balls in front of Lee Soo-dok.

Images appeared on a large screen.

These were continuous shots of the few seconds it took for the hummingbird to fly towards Yang Ji-hong and hit him squarely.

Lee Soo-dok’s face as he gazed at the images was extremely serious.

His control has reached its pinnacle.

The direction of the hummingbird in each frame of the replay was different.

This was proof that he manipulated the spell dozens of times in that brief interval.

Regardless of how Yang Ji-hong had responded, the outcome would have remained the same.

That guy probably didn’t even realize the magnitude of the sophisticated technique he had fallen victim to.

The second match was no different.

Yang Ji-hong might have thought he dodged the hummingbird, but in reality, the hummingbird had already changed direction before he even leaped to the side.

From the beginning, the plan had been to let the spell pass by his opponent and then strike him from behind.

He played him like a fiddle.

The execution was immaculate.

The sight of a mage preferring to strike with a staff rather than casting a spell, especially when the weapon in question was the lowly “Earth Staff”, seemed almost comical at first glance.

This had cleverly served as a smokescreen, so much so that even Lee Soo-dok had initially overlooked it when reviewing the replay.

But when he examined his movements closely, he found out that there was not a single superfluous movement in Kim Ho’s posture or in the way he swung the staff.

Even if Yang Ji-hong managed to break free from the paralysis early and launched a surprise counterattack, he would have been promptly crushed head-on.

The magic seemed like a mere illusion and the fight raised suspicions that perhaps Kim Ho’s real expertise lay in staff martial arts.

But his hummingbird’s skill level was too high to just think that way.

And there was more to it.

With a light gesture, Lee Soo-dok brought up new images on the screen. These were close-up shots of Seo Ye-in’s magic bullets.

First, he brought the images from her placement test battles.

At that time, her magic bullets were nothing more than clumsily clustered lumps of mana.

But considering Seo Ye-in was a freshman, this slow progress wasn’t particularly surprising.

In stark contrast were the images taken just two days later, during her duel battle with Kwak Ji-cheol.

Her new magic bullets were perfectly formed.

Could someone really improve so dramatically in just two days?

A genius.

Cases where heroes’ latent potential exploded after entering Dragon Slayer Academy were quite common.

Seo Ye-in likely fell under a similar category.

However, the one who triggered this transformation was most likely,

– Imbuing magic bullets, I guess.

When she said that to Lee Soo-dok, Seo Ye-in had unconsciously glanced at Kim Ho.

Which meant that Kim Ho had some degree of contribution, big or small, in shaping those magic bullets.

This fact made Lee Su-dok’s already perplexed mind even more tangled.

What exactly is he up to?

It is no exaggeration to say that magic, martial arts, and shooting are actually separate fields.

It was rare to find someone proficient in all three.

Lee Soo-dok couldn’t think of anyone who fits this description, not among criminals, active heroes, or even humanoid named monsters.

A part of the hidden puzzle was solved, but the piece that came to light was strikingly unfamiliar.

Frustration began to build in Lee Soo-dok as he furrowed his brow.

If I approach this forcefully…

He pondered if probing further might reveal something.

But Lee Soo-dok quickly dismissed this thought.

It wasn’t appropriate to treat a student of Dragon Slayer Academy carelessly, and probing without clear evidence was the exact opposite of his style.

So the conclusion came full circle and back to the starting point.

At the moment, Lee Soo-dok had no choice but to continue observing.

To complete a puzzle whose outline was still not fully revealed, more pieces needed to be collected.

The replay analysis seemed set to continue for the foreseeable future.

“Tsk.”

Since he wasn’t particularly thrilled about it, Lee Soo-dok clicked his tongue briefly.

Why was he making life difficult for himself this year?

Involving himself in an ill-fitting role as a teacher, and he was even diligently watching replays because of a suspicious student.

It seems all the human butchers in the world are dead.

Sudog Lee thought about that and turned off the screen.

The replay crystal orbs were also removed.

***

[Activate ‘Amplification’]

[The ‘Magical Engineering’ rank increased. (B->S)]

[Duration 00:01:13]

[Cooldown 00:49:13]

Chwalalalalak—

A glowing blue hand moved at incredible speed as it touched different parts of the cube.

With each touch, the arrangement of the thousands of tiny cubes shifted ceaselessly.

Click, click

Gradually, the hand manipulating the cube began to slow down.

Instead, each movement became more deliberate and precise.

Carefully scanning the cube,

And at the moment when the final piece was placed.

Whoom—

The cube trembled and resonated.

Even as I stopped my hand, the cube continued to assemble itself, its interior emptying out, ultimately transforming into a small box with a lid that could be opened and closed.

After the box was completed, an intense green light began to surge from inside and various plants sprouted and bloomed through the small gaps.

The plants quickly covered the entire cube and it now looked as if it had been made from interwoven tree branches from the start.

It’s complete.

[Cube of Life (B)]

The Cube of Life had only one effect.

It amplified the effects of “life” type items stored inside it by 1.3 times.

For example, if the basic effect of [Healing Totem] was “heal allies within range every 10 seconds”,

placing the totem inside the cube would reduce the time to 7 seconds and increase the healing amount.

[Processed Emerald] had the effect of increasing wood-type magic,

and storing it in the cube would apply a 1.3 times multiplier to the increase.

So, a 20% increase would become 26%.

Furthermore, as long as the box’s capacity allowed, multiple items could be stored, making it an almost cheat-like item.

Even this was somewhat inferior to the “S-rank” Cube of Life obtained by taking the normal route and clearing all of the chain quests.

The S-rank increased the multiplier to a whopping 2 times.

The cube I created was a forced completion of a prototype design, which is why both its rank and effects were somewhat inferior.

But even that was sufficient.

Even 1.3 times is huge.

It was an item potent enough to cause a stir at Dragon Slayer Academy.

In particular, it would make the four major powers drool in desire.

Whichever club I took it to would likely easily offer a season pass in exchange.

Fulfilling my promise to Go Hyeon-woo would be no issue with this approach, but,

That’s not enough.

I had no intention of being content with exchanging it for just one season pass.