The Support Ate it All

From what I've observed so far, Seo Ye-in's interpersonal relationships were extremely polarized.

They could be broadly categorized into three types.

First was the very small group of "close people".

This included her family, the Underworld Dragon King, and apparently me as well. A few Hye-seong Group employees like Ahn Jeong-mi seemed to barely make the cut too.

Altogether, does that make over ten people?

Maybe not.

In any case, in this category, she at least treated people like human beings.

Though her reactions still vary depending on the level of intimacy.

Second was the overwhelming majority: the "not close" people.

To them, she offered about as much attention as she would to air, fallen leaves, or rocks on the street. Even when they were in the same space.

The third category was the intersection of the first two: "friends of friends".

Here, she made a half-hearted attempt to treat them like people.

She might exchange a word or two but still shows little genuine interest.

Examples would be Go Hyeon-woo, Hong Yeon-hwa, and Shin Byeong-cheol.

Dang Gyu-young falls into this group too.

They've seen each other a few times in passing, and she knows that Dang Gyu-young is close to me. But the thought of actually getting closer seems too bothersome.

Still, Seo Ye-in gave at least a minimal show of courtesy, bowing her head to the senior.

"Hello."

"Yeah, hi."

And Dang Gyu-young, being the senior and club president, responded in a warm tone.

That was the end of their conversation.

"……"

Seo Ye-in's interest faded rapidly, and as usual, she leaned her head on the Kim Ho Shoulder Pillow.

At that sight, Dang Gyu-young's brow twitched slightly for a moment, but she quickly composed herself and sat down on the opposite side as if nothing was wrong.

Then, as if to flaunt how close we were, she leaned in and rested her arm on my shoulder.

"What did you call me out for?"

Only, her voice was a notch lower than usual.

A sign she wasn't in the best of moods.

Of course, that didn't mean I had any intention of putting things off.

I asked in a calm tone.

"The auction item list is out, right?"

"It is, technically."

Dang Gyu-young narrowed her eyes and looked at me.

"You didn't call me out just to ask that, did you? Because if you did, that wouldn't be good for your health."

"Of course not."

If it were just about checking the auction list, a simple message exchange would've been enough.

There was something else I needed to talk about.

"Still, since I'm here anyway, show me."

"That much is fine. Here."

Dang Gyu-young pulled a thin booklet from her inventory and handed it to me, and I skimmed through it.

Seo Ye-in peeked at it as well with half-closed eyes.

As I flipped through one page, then another, and neared the last page, Dang Gyu-young casually asked in passing,

"Oh, our Senior who graduated a lot~ See anything you like~?"

"This one's definitely my top pick."

I flipped the list back to the front and pointed to an entry.

[Skill Book – Wise Armor]

Dang Gyu-young nodded right away.

"Knew it. Typical mage pick."

"This one's impossible to resist."

"Honestly, even I was a little tempted."

Dang Gyu-young, being a shadow caster herself, had a foot in the mage class too.

But since it was clear the competition would be brutal, she'd given up early on.

Wise Armor was a spell that granted defense based on the user's [Core] rank.

Its raw defense was comparable to the countless other defensive spells out there, but several elements made this one stand out.

It's convenient.

Not just convenient. It was ridiculously so.

Most magic required mental focus and a complex formula, but Wise Armor protected the caster automatically, as long as their mana allowed it.

Even when the defense broke, its restoration speed was significantly faster.

Since it handled defense almost entirely on its own, the user could focus on casting other spells.

Its versatility is insane, too.

No matter what kind of spell you paired it with, it fit like a glove.

As if it had always been part of that spell to begin with.

Of course, the wind spells I already have and the ones I'll learn later would pair perfectly with it.

For that reason, [Wise Armor] was a spell every mage wanted to learn. But since the skill book itself was so rare, even graduates could barely get their hands on it.

And now, that kind of rare item had shown up at auction?

Every mage will be scrambling for it.

I was ready to pour all my points into winning it.

Next on my list was:

[Herb Selection (A)]

An item that lets you choose any herb you want.

The first thing that came to mind, naturally, was a spiritual herb.

If it was an A-rank spiritual herb, I could expect effects similar to the Gongcheong Oil I'd recently acquired.

And not all spiritual herbs were just for boosting internal energy.

Some could increase poison resistance or elemental resistance, while others might remove penalties or even correct unusual constitutions.

The possibilities were endless.

Especially since it was A-rank.

And the use I had in mind was,

A crafting material.

I could use this to obtain the final ingredient for crafting [Crow Branch].

Since it's A-rank, I'd have to take a few extra steps to upgrade it, but that was something to worry about after securing the selection item.

There were a few other items that caught my eye too.

"But my top priorities are still those two."

"Yeah, makes sense. You never know how much you'll end up using. Better to decide once we see how many points are left."

Nodding as if she agreed, Dang Gyu-young gave a small jerk of her chin.

Then, motioning with her eyes toward Seo Ye-in, she asked,

"Speaking of the auction, you're going with her, right?"

"That's the plan."

"And you'll check out the downtown area together too?"

"Probably."

"Take me with you."

"No."

Maybe because my refusal was firmer than she expected, Dang Gyu-young was left speechless, blinking in surprise.

She let out a deep sigh, then stared off into the distance and muttered,

"…That stings. It's not like I asked to go alone. I just said the three of us could go together, and even that's a no?"

At that, the shadow at Dang Gyu-young's feet squirmed and scribbled out some words visible only to me:

[Sulking] [Sulking]

[Feeling seriously left out]

[If you don't make it up to me soon]

[I'll be sulking for a whole month]

I could fully understand how she felt.

So I answered in a calm voice.

"I'd be fine with the three of us going, but there's another reason."

"…What is it?"

She sounded like she was at least willing to hear me out.

Judging by how her lips were sticking out, she already seemed thoroughly sulky. But depending on my answer, there was a chance she might sulk a little less.

So I got straight to the point.

This was also the reason I'd gone out of my way to call Dang Gyu-young here.

"I heard you've finished Stage 8."

"Why does it always come back to hardship and suffering?"

"Because it's important. Just hear me out."

"…Yeah, I did finish it."

"Then I'll go ahead."

['Stage 9 Trial' has been granted to the target.]

Dang Gyu-young glanced at the quest window with a grumpy expression.

I asked her,

"Do you think you can finish Stage 9 during the next strategy battle week?"

"……"

She started counting on her fingers and doing the math.

It was still early in the strategy battle week.

And the next strategy battle week was scheduled to span two weeks.

That gave her about two and a half weeks total.

"It'll be tight, but I think I can make it. Why?"

"As I mentioned before, Stage 10 is a class-change quest."

"Yeah, so?"

"If I'm right, you'll be doing it in a specific dungeon and that place is pretty tough."

"Tough? How tough?"

"A-rank."

Dang Gyu-young furrowed her brow slightly.

"Not even B-rank? A? That might be pushing it."

"That's why I've already lined up a supporter."

"Who? Someone I know?"

"You do. It's Teacher Seo Cheong-yong."

"…Huh?"

Dang Gyu-young froze for a few seconds before snapping back to herself.

Then she bombarded me with questions.

"Wait, why him? He's helping? You mean he's sneaking down there?"

"No, it's not under the radar anymore. We made a deal."

Technically, I made a deal with the principal. But the ones helping would be Seo Cheong-yong and a few other staff members.

I'd just gotten confirmation yesterday that they were willing to help.

I continued.

"The issue is, they all have their own schedules."

"So that's why you asked when I would finish Stage 9."

"The more leeway we have, the easier it'll be to line things up."

What if Dang Gyu-young only finishes Stage 9 near the end of the strategy battle week?

Seo Cheong-yong might get tied up with other matters, and the Dungeon Building could end up closing.

Then we'd have to postpone Stage 10 until the next strategy battle week.

But if she wraps up with plenty of time left in the strategy battle week period, we could match schedules and enter whenever we want.

Dang Gyu-young asked again.

"Is that why you said you couldn't come to the auction with me?"

"That's a big part of it."

"Well, yeah, I guess there's no time to play around like this."

She must know it too—

That this was a rare opportunity for her.

And that she has to do everything she can to seize it.

She would probably be holed up in the training center all week. And over the weekend, too.

Soon, Dang Gyu-young leaned in close enough to almost touch me and whispered in my ear.

"Kim Ho, I really do appreciate you helping me like this. But still, this and that are separate things, right? What you said just now… kind of stung."

"I know."

"All the fun I'm missing now? You're going to make up for it later."

"Of course. You can look forward to it."

"Look forward to what? Seriously, I have no idea."

She suddenly turned her head and held her ear out toward me.

Her ear twitched with curiosity and expectation.

I leaned in and whispered a few keywords.

"Food tour, couple items, camping."

"…You've been remembering well. Don't you dare forget from now on."

Only then did Gyu-young completely let go of her sulking and flash a satisfied smile.

Meanwhile, Seo Ye-in had apparently been eavesdropping on our conversation with growing interest.

Her gray pupils sparkled brightly.

"A-rank dungeon."

"No."

Since I could already guess that the next thing out of her mouth would be "I wanna go too", I gave her a firm answer, just like I did with Gyu-young.

Seo Ye-in stared at me.

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous."

"I've got a super ultimate move."

"Even with a super ultimate move, no."

"…A shame."

Watching from the side, Dang Gyu-young slightly lifted the corner of her mouth, as if struck by a thought.

Then she stood up and said, almost in passing,

"Ah~ all that talking's made my throat dry. Want something to drink?"

Right after, she used Shadow Leap—whoosh—to a nearby vending machine, grabbed a few drinks, and then—whoosh—returned with another Shadow Leap.

With a relaxed smile, she handed us each a canned drink.

Roughly interpreted, it probably meant something like this:

– With your skills, an A-rank? Yeah, right~

– You don't even have Blink. Don't be cocky~

Whatever Seo Ye-in made of that, she started tugging on my sleeve.

"Training center."

"You want to go train?"

"Gotta get stronger."

"That's a great mindset."

Looks like after Cha Hyeon-joo, even Dang Gyu-young managed to stir up Seo Ye-in's competitive spirit.

And the sloth's demands didn't stop there.

"Hardship."

"Now that's a surprise coming from you. But I just used it. Cooldown is three days."

"Reservation."

"Seriously?"

She actually wanted to reserve Hardship.

When she was this motivated, I couldn't help but be thankful.

Although, there was one thing I decided not to tell her for now.

Even if you train, you still can't learn Blink.

She wasn't a mage; she was a gunslinger.