The Support Ate it All

While Hong Yeon-hwa focused on Hydra and I concentrated on Wind Armor and Wind Barrier, Dang Gyu-young was also nearing the final phase of her Stage 5 Hardship.

In the first half, she had become quite adept at maintaining her shadow magic in complex forms like butterflies or daggers.

The latter half was about sustaining that focus even during combat.

I had considered helping her with a gust of wind, but since she had warned me with a “Don’t you dare blow wind at me again!”, I decided to hold back.

Still, she seemed more than motivated. Dang Gyu-young gradually began increasing her activity level.

Holding a shadow dagger in one hand and a butterfly in the other, she slowly walked around the training ground.

After repeating this for a while, she appeared to have gotten used to it, and her pace started to pick up.

This feels like watching a rehab session.

After a few more days, she was able to run alongside her flying shadow butterflies and lightly swing her dagger—

Before long, she clenched her fist and flashed a confident grin.

“I’m ready. Time for the test.”

“Sounds good. But are you okay with a C-rank?”

The goal for Stage 5 was to defeat a D-rank or higher monster using shadow magic.

However, since all the crystals the guild had provided were C-rank and above, she would unintentionally have to take on a tougher opponent.

Dang Gyu-young responded with a casual shrug.

“Eh, who cares? D and C—same difference.”

It was the kind of confidence you’d expect from a third-year club president.

As soon as she shattered the C-rank crystal, the summoning gate rippled once.

Then, with a flutter of wings, something took to the sky.

A monster that looked like a cross between a bird and a human.

A harpy.

It was a rare flying-type monster that also wielded various wind spells, often driving countless players to frustration and hatred.

Dang Gyu-young’s reaction was no different.

She frowned as she looked up at the harpy.

“Why do I always get stuff like this? This is ridiculous.”

“Guess today’s just one of those days.”

Luck always had its ups and downs.

After seeing her scam her way through everything like a charm all the time, it was almost refreshing to see her run into something ordinary.

Dang Gyu-young pouted a few times, but there was no way to unsummon a monster once it had already appeared.

Like it or not, she had no choice but to fight it.

So she gripped her shadow daggers tightly in both hands and locked eyes with the harpy. The harpy too flapped its wings fiercely, revealing its hostility.

Whooooosh—!

Wind rushed in from all directions.

Dang Gyu-young nimbly dodged to the side as the gusts scraped along the ground.

Crack-crack-crack!

It seemed the harpy had mixed in the attack spell [Wind Blade].

While continuing to evade, Dang Gyu-young hurled both of her shadow daggers in quick succession.

But the harpy quickly flew to the side, and the blades missed by mere inches.

It seemed the distance was still considerable, and since she was focusing on maintaining the shadow forms, her accuracy had taken a hit.

Whoooosh—

The harpy began casting another spell.

The swirling wind closed in on Dang Gyu-young.

It must have been a combo using [Twister].

Her movement options were narrowing fast, but she still didn’t seem particularly fazed.

There was, after all, a significant rank difference between them.

Even so, as her shadow daggers continued to miss or just graze the harpy, her frustration was starting to show.

On the other hand, the harpy who was noticing how poorly its opponent was aiming let out a mocking giggle.

“Kikiki.”

To top it off, it began flying left and right in a ridiculous, taunting manner.

Dang Gyu-young’s lips twitched menacingly.

“That little fly? You’re dead.”

Crack-crack-crack!

Dang Gyu-young evaded the wind blades and whirlwinds as she launched one, then two shadow butterflies into the air.

Since the harpy was slightly faster than the butterflies, it wasn’t easy to close the distance, but the creature was still bound to the summoning circle.

No matter how much it tried to flee, it was still inside the training grounds. Eventually, it was bound to be caught.

Soon after, Dang Gyu-young reached the space just below the harpy, then kicked off the ground and leaped upward.

Using the shadow butterflies as stepping stones, she charged at the harpy.

At some point, a thick shadow bat had appeared in her hand.

“Pulling that attitude—”

Wham—!

The shadow bat struck the harpy’s head with full force.

“—is something you save for after the fight!”

“……!”

The harpy wobbled like a fly hit with bug spray and plummeted, then scattered into particles of light.

“Hmph.”

Meanwhile, Dang Gyu-young landed softly from several stories high and casually began walking toward me.

The shadow bat hung loosely at her side.

I threw her a comment, half-joking.

“Good work. You must be tired. How about putting the bat away now?”

“Tch, it actually feels kind of nice in the hand.”

Bat Gyu-young swung it threateningly through the air and gave it a few menacing whooshes.

The pot earlier, and now this…. why were all the people around me so violent?

It was beyond me.

Then Dang Gyu-young spoke.

“Hey, your cooldown’s over, right? No need for chit-chat.”

“I’m glad to see you’re motivated. Let’s go right away.”

[Activated ‘Hardship’.]

[‘Stage 6 Hardship’ has been granted to the target.]

Dang Gyu-young read through the quest details much faster than usual.

It must have been something nearly identical to what she’d gotten before.

But at the final part, she paused and asked,

“Hey, Kim Ho.”

“Yes, noona?”

“……Isn’t it usually C after D?”

“Normally, yes.”

“Take a look at this.”

As she shared the quest details,

▷Objective: Defeat a B-rank or higher monster using shadow magic

“It looks like you skipped one because you just took down a harpy.”

“What? How does that make sense?”

“Isn’t it actually a good thing?”

It was like skipping ahead by a week instead of climbing up one step at a time in order.

Dang Gyu-young thought for a few seconds, then her eyebrows perked up with a glint.

“Now that you mention it, that’s true. I’m feeling a bit better now.”

“Let’s all take down the B-rank monster together.”

“Okay, just let me train a little more first.”

Even in her normal state, B-rank monsters weren’t easy opponents for Dang Gyu-young.

And now, with the Hardship penalty in effect, she meant to push her skills further until her cooldown ended.

For Hong Yeon-hwa and me as well, the more time we had, the more we could build up our strength.

So we all continued our training just as before.

***

Time passed with repeated training.

There was now just over a week left in the mentoring program.

In that time, Hong Yeon-hwa cleared Stage 3 of the Hardship and succeeded in growing the hydra’s head count to two.

And now, she was on Stage 4.

Judging from the similarity in the quest details, it seemed she was aiming for a three-headed hydra.

While sparring with her and intentionally taking hits, I steadily built up my own stats as well.

[The rank of ‘Wind Armor’ has increased. (E+ → D+)]

Naturally, there was also progress in the mentoring quest.

[Event: Second Mentoring] (In Progress…)

[Time remaining: 9 days]

▷Grow faster with the help of a mentor.

▷D-rank monsters defeated: 52

▷C-rank monsters defeated: 23

▷B-rank monsters defeated: 0

▷Rewards given for defeating a set number of monsters

Second reward at 100 stacks.

Although the number was actually lower than before, thanks to gaining 2 to 3 stacks per C-rank monster, the goal was reached more quickly.

▷ Reward: Rank Up (C)

Now, what should I upgrade this time?

At the moment, there were three skills stuck at C-rank that could only grow further with the help of a rank-up:

[Enchantment], [Chillwind], and [Time Share].

Time Share could probably be upgraded without a rank-up if the Underworld Dragon King helped, but there was no telling when that might happen.

If I followed Dang Gyu-young to her family’s home during winter break, I probably wouldn’t see it until the summer of second year.

Still, it’s a low priority.

[Time Share (C)]

▷ Share Ratio: 20%

▷ Cooldown Reduction: 5%

The skill’s efficiency increased sharply at C, A, and S ranks, where the “cooldown reduction rate” improved.

In other words, reaching B-rank wasn’t an immediate necessity.

It would be better to level it up all at once when I eventually received Rank Up (B).

That left two options, and in truth, [Chill Wind] was lacking compared to the other two.

While powerful, it fell short in terms of versatility and utility.

Because of that, the decision didn’t take long.

[Activated ‘Rank Up (C)’…]

[The rank of ‘Enchantment’ has increased. (C → B)]

▷ Rank of granted skill/trait: -2 → -1

▷ Duration: 15 minutes → 20 minutes

▷ Cooldown: 30 minutes → 25 minutes

Previously, the rank of any skill or trait granted would drop by two levels, so to perform at full strength, pairing it with [Amplification] was practically essential.

But now that the penalty had been reduced to just one rank, it seemed safe enough to use as it was in most situations.

The increased duration and reduced cooldown were also reassuring.

Next, it was Dang Gyu-young’s turn again as the rotation came back around.

With the cooldown for the Stage 6 Hardship almost up, she was planning to take on a B-rank monster.

She had spent the past week pushing her limits for that very purpose.

Before long, the three of us approached the summoning gate.

But just as Dang Gyu-young pulled out the crystal, she seemed to have a sudden thought and spoke in a soft, overly polite tone.

“Oh, our senior who graduated a lot~”

“Yes~”

“I have a little question I’ve been wondering about. Would you be so kind as to share your wisdom~?”

“Ask me anything~”

Then, with a chuckle, Dang Gyu-young got to the point.

“You remember when we went up against Oh Se-hoon last time?”

“I do.”

Back during the second raid on the temporary storage facility, we had nearly escaped, but Oh Se-hoon had intercepted us, kicking off a full-blown chase.

In the end, since I didn’t have Blink, I was the only one who got dragged off to the disciplinary committee club room.

Dang Gyu-young asked,

“If I keep doing the Hardships, do you think I could beat that guy?”

“Before the semester ends?”

“Mhmm. I mean, helping world peace and all after graduation is fine and all, but what’s the point of getting strong if I don’t get to dish out a little justice before then? Oh Se-hoon’s first on the list. Next up is Song Cheon-gi.”

“I’m not too sure about Song Cheonki’s skills myself.”

Student Council President, Song Cheon-gi.

During the first infiltration of the temporary storage, he had temporarily lent a hand to the disciplinary committee and subdued Dang Gyu-young.

However, at the time, I had been too busy running away to witness the fight myself.

Then Dang Gyu-young paused for a moment before speaking.

“Oh Se-hoon’s got light-type abilities, so he’s a bad match-up for me. But in duel battle scores, Song Cheon-gi’s slightly higher.”

“So you’re saying there’s not a huge difference in skill?”

“Probably not.”

I briefly compared Oh Se-hoon’s abilities with Dang Gyu-young’s progress after undergoing the Hardship Quests.

And I came to a conclusion without much difficulty.

“It looks totally doable before graduation. Even against Song Cheon-gi.”

“Huhum, is that so? Now I’m feeling fired up.”

“Let’s get started.”

“Alright, here I go.”

With that, Dang Gyu-young shattered a B-rank crystal.

Then the summoning gate began to ripple….far more violently than anything we’d seen before.