27

“Ugh, I’m gonna die. Why on earth are they doing this. Seriously.”

Patrolling the forest path behind the Eternity Academy’s student dormitories, agent Park Sangcheol grumbled.

Due to most agents being called to the arena for the inter-grade match, the outer boundaries of Eternity had somewhat loosened.

Therefore, Park Sangcheol was patrolling more areas than usual.

However, there were areas where patrolling seemed unnecessary.

For example, the forest path of the student dormitories he was currently patrolling was one of those areas. This place was a zone where magical barriers were set up, barring entry to anyone other than academy personnel.

But wasn’t it just his imagination? The sniper who had disappeared a while ago to relieve himself still hadn’t returned.

“This guy must be making a whole lot of pee.”

It was when Park Sangcheol, with a dry tongue, was sitting on the steps of a nearby outpost, staring at his watch, that a figure appeared on the forest path.

“Well, you’re here rather quickly.”

Park Sang-cheol, who had determined that the marksman had returned, stood up from his seat and froze in surprise.

“······Hm?”

The figure that appeared on the forest path was not the marksman.

It was a man emitting an inexplicable ominous aura with a dark complexion.

However, Park Sang-cheol’s astonishment was not due to the man’s eerie atmosphere.

‘···The smell of blood!’

A sharp scent of blood wafted through the air.

Sensing that the marksman had been killed, Park Sang-cheol reflexively fired his gun. Exactly three shots.

Although they were ordinary bullets without any magical charge, even such bullets can be deadly at close range.

But to his astonishment, the bullets passed straight through the man without causing any harm.

“Missed!”

As Park Sang-cheol’s eyes widened in shock, his gaze suddenly jerked. That was the end.

Park Sang-cheol’s severed head rolled off, and his headless body fell backward.

“······.”

The man emitting the ominous aura, Main Gun Jun-myeong, silently looked down at Park Sang-cheol’s corpse. Three more people appeared on the forest path.

Among them, Gun Jun-myeong patted the shoulder of Emerson, a disciple of Eternity.

“Thank you, things went smoothly thanks to you.”

Thanks to Emerson’s help, Gun Jun-myeong and his colleagues were able to enter Eternity without any hindrance.

It was the result of the influence of the Romano family name in the Academy.

And Emerson’s eyes trembled as he looked at the dead body of Park Sang-cheol.

A sense of something seriously wrong echoed in his mind, but Emerson quickly pushed it aside.

‘This is inevitable.’

For Emerson to survive, he had no choice but to do this.

Without Gun Jun-myeong, he would have died immediately. There was a reason for Emerson’s situation.

A year ago, Emerson had tasted the sensation of increasing magic power by swallowing the magic pills provided by Gun Jun-myeong.

At that time, Emerson could demonstrate superior skills compared to other disciples.

It was a whole new world for Emerson.

Although he tried to find magic pills elsewhere, he couldn’t feel the same sense of fulfillment as the one provided by Gun Jun-myeong’s magic pills.

Because of that, Emerson couldn’t stop himself from becoming dependent on Gun Jun-myeong’s magic pills.

However, at some point, Emerson began to feel his own magic power diminishing.

This terrible phenomenon could only be alleviated with the magic pills provided by Gun Jun-myeong.

As a result, despite knowing that Gun Jun-myeong was trying to use him, Emerson found himself in a position where he had no choice but to listen to him.

“You let me in, so give me the magic pills quickly.”

“Oh, of course, I will give them to you.”

Gun Jun-myeong took out a black herb from his pocket.

When Emerson reached out for it, Gun Jun-myeong pulled his hand back and said,

“Before that, I have one more request.”

“What is it?”

“Can you bring Amelia Romano here for me?”

“Oh, Amelia? She doesn’t listen to me······”

Emerson’s voice trembled in surprise, and Koo Junmyung reassured him, saying, “Don’t worry.”

“Then just hand over one item,” Koo Junmyung said.

When Koo Junmyung raised his hand, a giant figure lurking behind him handed a black pouch to Emerson.

“Give this to Amelia, but do not open it until then.”

“Th-this is a Mana Seed…”

Seeing Emerson’s anxious expression, Koo Junmyung chuckled and tossed a black herb to him.

Emerson, who hastily caught it, buried his nose in the Mana Seed.

As Emerson’s eyes darkened, he left with the pouch, and the mage behind Koo Junmyung spoke, seemingly puzzled.

“To capture a disciple, using a Bloodstone… Is Amelia truly worth that much?”

The Bloodstone in the pouch that Emerson carried was a valuable item, too precious for a mere first-year disciple of Eternity. However, Koo Junmyung’s perspective differed.

“She’s a child born with pure mana. If she can be captured, a Bloodstone is nothing to spare.”

“······!”

At the mention of pure mana, astonishment flickered across the faces of the two mages behind them.

Indeed, Pure Mana is a type of mana that allows one to master all magic of the Five Elemental Schools to the extreme.

An extremely rare mana, possessing Pure Mana meant having an existence akin to a potion that could drastically boost one’s magical abilities in an instant if a mage were to harness it.

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“Indeed, if it’s Pure Mana, a Bloodstone is not too much to spare.”

“It might even be more important than the main goal.”

Their aim was to terrorize the headquarters and plunder mana from the disciples of Eternity.

Eternity’s disciples, all possessing pure mana, were often targeted by mages. And Pure Mana was undoubtedly the most superior among them.

“We should divide our forces.”

“I’ll take care of the headquarters.”

“I’ll head towards the headquarters as well.”

After a brief discussion, the mages concealed their traces on the forest path.

It hadn’t been long since the explosion at Eternity’s headquarters.

***

The Inter-Grade Tournament was a festival where all students of Eternity participated. Some students spent up to six months, while others as short as three months, preparing for this one day, making it a significant event with considerable prestige.

However, even with such interesting spectacles, many students would leave the arena once their turn was over.

Reasons varied from catching up on assignments, club activities, or simply wanting to rest.

Amelia was one of the students who left the arena.

However, her reasons were different from the others.

As a student, but also responsible for one of the pillars of the Star’s Seat, a superhuman guild, she had a mountain of things to learn.

Checking the flow of funds coming in and out daily, recording what happened within the guild, and devising improvements.

These were tasks she had been doing diligently every day since childhood, even if no one asked her to.

And just because it was the day of the Inter-Grade Tournament festival, it was no different. If anything, she needed to finish even faster on a day like this.

That way, she could spend time getting to know other students, allocate time in the evening for catching up on assignments and magical training.

“Yawn!”

Amelia, who had finished her tasks over a long three hours with her laptop on, stretched.

Glancing at the clock, it was already 2 p.m. It was the perfect time to return to the arena and interact with the students.

“By the way, defeating Yuscal, how strong could he be?”

Amelia, recalling the sparring between Ihaesol and Yuscal from earlier, tilted her head in wonder.

She, like Jeonghaejoong, judged that Yihaesol had built a magical wall and escaped from Yuskal’s magical field as planned.

Of course, building a magical wall was not a remarkable feat for her, given that she could build it as much as she wanted. However, the fact that she made such a judgment in that situation was surprising.

While building the magical wall, she was vulnerable to being exposed, making her susceptible to defeat even by a light attack.

And Amelia knew that Yihaesol was not the type to enjoy gambling.

She was someone who moved with confidence and evidence.

So, if there was a conviction that Yuskal would not attack, what was the basis of that conviction?

Amelia, rolling her pen, pondered repeatedly on the matter. In the end, she shook her head.

“…Hmm, I don’t know.”

Amelia, recharged with a piece of cookie for energy, closed her laptop and got up.

Regarding Yihaesol, she had come to realize over the past few weeks that thinking alone wouldn’t lead to a solution. It would only be a loss for her to delve deeply into it.

“Shall we move?”

Mumbling to herself, Amelia rose from her seat. Suddenly, the dormitory shook as if it had encountered an earthquake.

“Uh!”

Amelia, who was halfway up, staggered. Holding onto the desk, she steadied herself and moved towards the window.

“…Explosion?”

Looking out the window, dark smoke was billowing from the direction of the Iternity headquarters. Startled, she widened her eyes.

Tap, tap.

– Amelia, it’s me.

“Emerson?”

The voice coming from beyond the door was her cousin, Emerson Romano.

He rarely visited, so what was happening all of a sudden? Feeling puzzled, Amelia opened the door.

“What’s going on?”

“This.”

“…?”

Amelia narrowed her eyes at Emerson, who handed her a black pouch.

“What is this… oh!”

Amelia, who absentmindedly opened the pouch, staggered for a moment. Dizziness set in, making it difficult to contain her magic. It was from the moment she saw the red gem inside the pouch, the Bloodstone.

As if inhaling poisonous fumes, the energy of the Bloodstone seeped into her body.

“…Dangerous!”

Instinct sounded the alarm. It was an extremely dangerous situation right now.

Forcing her unresponsive body to move, Amelia made her way to the window.

Unable to trust Emerson, she was determined to somehow get away from the window.

Although it was the second floor of the dormitory, she jumped without hesitation.

Fortunately, since her magic was still somewhat operational, the impact of the landing was less severe than expected.

“…Ugh.”

As Amelia, who had fallen onto the grass, tried to get up frowning, a black figure loomed over her head.

“Amelia Romano.”

“…!”

Amelia slowly raised her head.

“I found you.”

A man with a dull expression was looking down at her with a greedy look.

***

It didn’t take long for the fact that there was a terror incident at the main building of Eternity to be known to the disciples as well.

“Smoke is rising from the main building.”

“Is it really a terror attack?”

“This seems dangerous.”

The rising smoke and the approaching magi from the main building signaled the invasion of enemies.

“Everyone, stay quiet!”

“Don’t leave the training ground, stay put and wait!”

While the disciples were in turmoil, the instructors took charge and led them to wait inside the training ground.

Of course, I couldn’t just wait quietly inside the training ground.

Since Amelia’s death sentence appeared, staying still was impossible.

Having been the first to notice the situation, even before the instructors’ control began, I was already making my way out of the training ground.

There was no need to be cautious of my surroundings.

<Conceal Presence> Lv.1

Thanks to the ability I gained by defeating Uscal, no one paid attention to me.

As I made my way out of the training ground, I noticed agents running towards the main building.

But I knew that the main building was not the only target of the terror.

‘The dormitory.’

While attention was drawn to the main building, the disciples’ dormitory was also exposed to the threat of terror.

Amelia, along with many disciples, was in the dormitory.

And I knew the identity of the magi appearing in Amelia’s death sentence.

‘Hogwi Gu Junmyeong.’

A magus who, under certain conditions, ignores external attacks.

‘Then the main building must be under attack by the Cruits.’

Modified magi created to confront the magus. They are collectively known as Cruits.

These Cruits boast formidable vitality when facing magi.

‘Although it seems like it will be taken care of on its own…’

Currently, not only instructors and agents but also magi from external guilds were waiting in Eternity. It would take a little time, but the terror in the main building would soon be suppressed.

However, considering the damage that could occur in the meantime, there was a need to shorten the time.

“There! What are you doing here instead of going into the training ground!”

As I released my presence, a man who seemed to be an agent noticed me and approached.

Coincidentally, he seemed to be a man with some authority judging by the insignia on his shoulder.

“The Cruits that appeared in the main building have a weakness in the lower abdomen.”

“…What? What do you mean by that?”

“I mean they have a weakness in the lower abdomen. Attack them there.”

<Conceal Presence> Lv.1

The man, who was about to ask a question, suddenly saw me disappear, looked around in confusion, then quickly ran towards the main building.

“I’ve said enough, they should understand.”

Watching his reaction for a moment, I headed towards the disciples’ dormitory. There was no hesitation in my steps.

In the territory of Saengdo-dong, I was sufficient on my own.

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