Sweeping the Academy with a Wooden Sword

Thud-

Someone entered the area for Group 12.
It was two people. It seemed Choi Bit-na and Kim Ji-hoon from Class 10 had entered.

“…Huh, a face I’ve seen a lot somewhere? The name too.”

The man who saw me tilted his head.
The woman beside him said in a low voice.

“It’s him, the freshman representative.”

Kim Ji-hoon let out an exclamation.

“Ah, ah! That’s right! So an elite among elites has become part of our group. Wow, nice to meet you.”

Kim Ji-hoon held out his right hand with exaggerated friendliness.
I grasped that right hand.

“Yeah.”

The woman also stepped forward.

“As you’ll know from the Iroaz Watch, I’m Choi Bit-na, and this is Kim Ji-hoon.”

I said my name, and then Ryu Jia stepped forward.

“I’m Ryu Jia.”

The two couldn’t easily open their mouths seeing Ryu Jia with her eyes closed.

“I’m blind.”

“I… see.”

Kim Ji-hoon trailed off, seeming flustered, but didn’t say anything directly rude.

Choi Bit-na chuckled.

“If they’re from Class 1, they must have swept away everyone in the entrance exam. Who’s worrying about whom?”

Kim Ji-hoon nodded at Choi Bit-na’s words.

“Well, I guess so.”

Ryu Jia smiled.

“Yes, I’ll do my part.”

I examined the group members. I needed to check their positions. Because the mock dungeon special exam would start right away on Monday after the weekend.

“What are the positions of you two?”

Kim Ji-hoon picked up a bow.

“Archer.”

Choi Bit-na pulled out a spear from her spatial pocket.

“I use a spear.”

No tank, huh.
Well, there’s no way they would have deliberately balanced the teams. Iroaz Academy preferred fairness over balance.

There was a high probability that the groups were randomly assigned.

“The freshman representative should be the team leader.”

Kim Ji-hoon said, looking at me.
The other two didn’t step forward either, and coincidentally, it seemed I had to take on the role of team leader.

“It’s a bit awkward today. Let’s meet tomorrow and make a plan.”

I needed to gauge their levels roughly.

“Tomorrow at 10 AM, at the training ground. Is that possible?”

All three nodded.

Instructor Park Cheol-ung, who was on the platform, took the microphone again.

Park Cheol-ung slowly looked at the listed groups and continued speaking.

“The rules for the mock special exam are simple. The group that gets the most points wins. The scoring criteria is the total number of beads that drop when monsters are killed. The group that acquires the most becomes first place.”

Park Cheol-ung continued.

“The form and type of dungeon will be revealed on the day. The exam time is 6 hours in total.”

It was quite long.

“Here’s the final rule. When there’s 1 hour of remaining time, you can steal beads from other group members through person-to-person combat.”

After the last rule echoed through the auditorium, all groups started buzzing.

“Wasn’t there no such rule last year?”

“I’ve never heard of it from seniors either.”

Park Cheol-ung picked up the microphone again.

“That’s right. The last rule is being applied for the first time this year. It’s been added as part of training to respond to villains that have been rapidly increasing recently.”

The students buzzed, seeming quite flustered.
Park Cheol-ung added more words.
“Whether you kill or subdue, the method of stealing beads is free. During the final hour, that is. Before that, killing others is strictly prohibited. You can use force to demonstrate who will get a monster, but that’s about it.”
Choi Bit-na’s shoulders in front of me trembled.

Class 1, the most excellent class in the combat division.
And Class 10, which inevitably receives relatively inferior evaluations.

What had the biggest influence on class assignments was the entrance exam.
Class 10 is where the students who got the lowest scores in the survival-style entrance exam gathered.

‘There must be a reason.’

Lee Dojin intended to find out why the two were assigned to Class 10.

As befitting a combat division training ground, various weapons were lined up.
Of course, the two took out their own personal weapons.

Kim Ji-hoon was holding a compound bow that looked expensive even at a glance.

“It’s a magic bow set made to hold mana. I even took out a loan for it.”

Kim Ji-hoon smiled bitterly as he nocked an arrow on the bowstring.

Twang!

And he shot.

The arrow flew towards the front with a sound of tearing through the air.
Thud!

The arrow flew towards the target.
Lee Dojin moved his steps to stare at the arrow stuck precisely in the center of the target.

It wasn’t exactly the center, but in archery terms, it would be 10 points, a decent skill for a perfect score.

‘Why is a kid like this in Class 10?’

Lee Dojin was genuinely puzzled.

“You look like you don’t understand why I’m in Class 10, leader.”

Kim Ji-hoon chuckled and continued speaking.

“…I have a rather fatal flaw, you see.”

Kim Ji-hoon utilized mana.
The magic power that flowed through the arrow concentrated on the arrowhead.

A moment later, Lee Dojin couldn’t help but tilt his head.

The arrow that should have been shot right away was still on the bowstring.

“Aren’t you going to shoot?”

Kim Ji-hoon broke out in a cold sweat.

“This is my fatal flaw. When I imbue mana into the arrow, I can’t release the bowstring until the magic power is fully concentrated on the arrowhead.”

“…”

What kind of nonsense…
Lee Dojin swallowed his words.

Even if he wanted to give some advice, he didn’t know how an archer’s magic power was applied, so he had nothing to say.

About 5 minutes passed.

Twang!

With a terrible noise, the arrow that was finally shot hit the wall.

Magic power ripples spread on the wall.

“The attack power is usable.”

Lee Dojin could gauge how to use Kim Ji-hoon’s power.

‘I’ll have to make him take a position and act as a sniper.’

For now, that was the only utilization method that came to mind.

“Choi Bit-na.”

“Y-Yes.”

Choi Bit-na awkwardly nodded at Lee Dojin’s words.

“I want to check your strength.”

As the team leader, there was no reason to refuse his desire to check the team members’ combat power.

“Alright.”

Choi Bit-na, who tied her long straight hair into a ponytail using a hair tie, picked up her spear.

Whoosh!

The spear whirled, sweeping the front.
It was a decent movement. Again, he wondered why she was in Class 10.

“Magic power?”

Choi Bit-na nodded at Lee Dojin’s words and utilized mana.

A purple aura rose from the spearhead.

‘It’s uniform.’

The aura that uniformly enveloped the spearhead.
And then she aimed at the front and thrust.

Whoosh!

The purple aura concentrated on the spearhead swept the front without dispersing.

Choi Bit-na’s feet and spear didn’t stop.
An upward attack that flowed naturally from the thrust. The spear rose sharply upwards as if to pierce the sky.

And then it fell back down neatly.

The purple energy flow endlessly traced trajectories, endlessly embroidering the space.

It was even harder to believe that Choi Bit-na was in Class 10 than Kim Ji-hoon.
She handled magic power so skillfully, and her spear technique also looked powerful, so why couldn’t she use her strength in the entrance exam?

‘Could it be.’

Choi Bit-na’s face, tinged with bewilderment, flashed in Lee Dojin’s mind.

Clearly, as soon as the 1-hour person-to-person combat that hadn’t existed before was confirmed from Park Cheol-ung’s mouth, her face quickly hardened.

‘Is there a problem with person-to-person combat?’

If it was an issue like not being able to point a spear at a person, it was a bigger problem than Kim Ji-hoon’s.

Because it meant she had to be completely excluded from combat power in the last hour.

“Choi Bit-na.”

Lee Dojin stood in front of Choi Bit-na.
He was holding a wooden sword in his hand.

“Let’s spar. Sparring in preparation for the last hour.”

Lee Dojin intended to confirm right away if his guess was correct.

Choi Bit-na gulped.
Her arms holding the spear trembled for some reason.

“Will a wooden sword… be okay? We should use real swords, or no. I should use a staff, a staff would be better.”

Choi Bit-na tried to pick up a staff, but Lee Dojin shook his head.

“You know that spear techniques and staff techniques are fundamentally different, right? Especially in the world of hunters who use auras.”

While spears mainly concentrate aura only on the spearhead, staves are swung with aura all over to easily kill monsters.

It wasn’t easy for a hunter who only used spears to suddenly adapt to a staff.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be injured by your spear.”

Lee Dojin said words that could seem arrogant.
But it wasn’t arrogance, it was confidence.

From Lee Dojin’s perspective, who was sparring with Fist King Hwangbo Seryeong every night, the movements of a first-year academy student didn’t look threatening at all.
Whether they were from Class 1 or Class 10.

Choi Bit-na bit her lip hard.
The spearhead was aimed at Lee Dojin.

Tremble…

But the spearhead still shook helplessly.
Not finding its bearings at all.

Choi Bit-na’s arms trembled.
Lee Dojin was certain.
Choi Bit-na couldn’t thrust her spear at a person.

Ryu Jia and Kim Ji-hoon kept silent.

Lee Dojin put down his wooden sword and approached Choi Bit-na.

“It seems my guess is right. Can you talk about this situation?”

“…The story might be a bit long.”

“We can go to a cafe and talk then.”

Lee Dojin took out a handkerchief and wiped the cold sweat on Choi Bit-na’s forehead.

“You two train individually here. It won’t take long.”

Lee Dojin took Choi Bit-na to a cafe inside the academy.

Choi Bit-na sipped her warm latte.
Lee Dojin moistened his throat with an iced Americano and looked at Choi Bit-na.

And he opened his mouth and said in a low voice.

“You can’t stab people with a spear. Right?”

Choi Bit-na nodded obediently.
Her brow was slightly furrowed.

“Yes, that’s right.”