33
The reason I chose ‘Advanced Magic Exploration’ as my special subject, abbreviated as ‘AME,’ was very simple.
It was because Kim Joo-hyuk was the professor for AME, and it was a subject I had played in the game.
In fact, Kim Joo-hyuk wasn’t a significant villain.
But in Act 1 of the game, he was more crucial than other prominent villains.
It was as easy to manipulate as Nikolai, forming a “perfect pair.”
If Nikolai was “betting,” Kim Joo-hyuk was the “reward for assignments.”
Equipped with his unique passive, Kim Joo-hyuk’s “exaggerated showiness” spewed out various useful items under the guise of “assignment rewards” every time the cooldown reset, subtly effective.
Perhaps he wasn’t a villain, but a character with a twist of being a “helper pretending to be a villain.”
Anyway, Kim Joo-hyuk’s passive ability manifested even in the first class, “Mana Stone Detection.”
Especially when retrieving mana stones, Kim Joo-hyuk’s words were absurd.
“It was brought by a novice, so it already belongs to the novice,” he’d say, handing back the mana stone.
And not just for the first place, but up to the third place.
Being a “5-circle wizard” with a background in the “Magic Clan,” it was an event made possible by Kim Joo-hyuk, who had money coming in from all directions.
The mana stones obtained through this were basic ingredients usable anywhere mana was involved, such as magical tools, potions, etc., ensuring they would be needed sooner or later.
Even if sold, it was profitable.
The issue was that I, who couldn’t even sense the energy of mana, let alone mana stones, was easily resolved.
“I saw the mana stones on my way here and picked them up.”
Amelia, who had disappeared saying she had something to attend to, reappeared holding three mana stones in her hands.
Judging by her tone, it was as if she had picked up a stone on the roadside.
“Kim Joo-hyuk, this person, was lying about hiding mana stones, wasn’t he?”
That couldn’t be it. They weren’t visible even when I looked closely.
It was always intriguing where she managed to bring mana stones hidden like needles in a haystack in this vast forest.
Well, if Amelia possessed “pure mana,” it was somewhat natural.
Pure mana was almost omnipotent when it came to magic combinations, detection, control, and anything related to mana.
“That’s why the mages are going crazy and even invading the novice village.”
If Cheon Woo-jin rode on the “Blessing of the Sword,” Amelia rode on the “Blessing of Mana.”
Because of that, she became a target for mages, more like a curse than a blessing to herself.
“We have plenty of time, let’s take a break and search a bit.”
“It hasn’t even been an hour yet?”
Without a word, I took out a “Melon Bread” from my bag.
“Come to think of it, my legs feel a bit numb. Should we take a break?”
Amelia, who had quickly changed her attitude, took the melon bread from me. The expression on her face as she took a bite looked genuinely happy.
She had a weak spot for these types of pastries. Especially, if it was melon bread, she would happily devour it.
She seemed unaware of her relaxed demeanor…
Clang!
Leaning against a tree stump, I opened a can of cola I had brought. And that’s how the two of us enjoyed a brief rest.
“Wow, we’re really lucky. How did mana stones come out from there?”
“hahahaha! That’s right, we’re definitely in first place, right?”
A series of novices chattered.
From their conversation, it seemed like they had found a pile of mana stones somewhere.
Amelia, who had been savoring the melon bread, got up from her seat with a puzzled expression.
As our eyes met, I nodded, and both of us moved towards the direction of the noise.
And there, between the trees, two novices were seen carrying a handful of mana stones.
“They already have so many mana stones…”
Amelia gasped in surprise at the sight of what seemed to be around 20 magic stones. Then, in a firm voice, she asked me,
From Noble mtl dot com
“Are you planning to steal them?”
Though her words were in the form of a question, her tone was filled with a determination to somehow take them away.
While she might not shine in practical skills like Cheon Woojin and Nicolai, or in theory like Han Seyeon, Amelia was extremely sensitive when it came to rankings. That’s why she was under so much stress, despite being a top student.
Being the person she was, Amelia naturally didn’t want to fall behind even in the Special Abilities class. Her worries were unfounded, though.
“It’s fine, those are all fakes.”
“···What?”
Amelia’s eyes widened at my words.
“Fake?”
“Well, logically speaking, it’s impossible to find that many magic stones in just an hour.”
In truth, there were traps in this magic stone hunt, with ‘fake magic stones’ scattered all around.
If you took a fake one, Kim Juhyeok would simply say, ‘Bring it back.’ without explaining why, leaving you feeling cheated.
I knew this all too well because I had heard him say ‘Bring it back’ more than ten times in the game.
If it’s fake, you should say so. But without giving a reason for the rejection, Kim Juhyeok’s ‘Magic Stone Hunt’ became a stage that frustrated players, making them scour the internet for solutions.
Even visually, it was impossible to tell, and you had to touch them yourself to determine their authenticity.
Even then, it was hard to distinguish, almost like trying to appraise gemstones.
The reason those two students were fooled wasn’t because they were dumb but because it was difficult to discern.
Did they really think they could find that many magic stones in just an hour?
“If you don’t believe me, try checking.”
Amelia, hesitant at first, immediately used magic at my suggestion.
“Ah!”
One of the students who was carrying a magic stone suddenly stumbled and fell. As a result, the magic stones he was holding scattered everywhere.
“Ah, they’re rolling everywhere, hurry and pick them up!”
Amidst the chaos, one magic stone flew into the air and landed neatly in Amelia’s hand.
Because the manipulation of magic was so subtle, the two students didn’t even realize that Amelia was the one who had used magic.
After examining the magic stone, Amelia’s brow furrowed.
“···It’s really a fake.”
The magic contained in the stone wasn’t naturally accumulated but artificially placed by someone. Probably by Kim Juhyeok.
By the way, fake magic stones lose their magic over time, turning back into ordinary rocks.
“If you understand, go ahead and eat your melon bread.”
“Really?”
We once again entered a state of rest.
***
Meanwhile, Kim Juhyeok, who had assigned the task, sat down and indiscriminately sent the returning students away.
“Bring them back.”
“Yes? If you could at least give a reason······”
The student, who was already submitting their third fake magic stone, looked unfairly treated, but Kim Juhyeok calmly shook his head.
“The students should identify them and bring them back themselves.”
“······.”
If I could, I’d impulsively chop off Kim Joo-hyuk’s head with a magic stone, but shaking his fist, the student just sighed and headed back into the woods.
“It seems we won’t have many successful students this time.”
Watching the student leave, Matam and the assistant professor put on a bright(?) expression. Of course, this wasn’t due to the assistant professor’s poor personality.
Apart from the students, there was also a performance evaluation for the assistants and professors at Eternity.
One of the criteria for this evaluation was how well the students defended their grades.
To excel in “grade defense” was to imply the professor’s exceptional ability.
Of course, it was all for the purpose of improving the students’ level, so the ability lay in adjusting the difficulty level while maintaining discernment and fairness.
Just making it unreasonably difficult would lead to a flood of complaints from the students.
And from the perspective of this “balancing act,” Kim Joo-hyuk could be considered a perfectly balanced professor.
Even the assistant professor who prepared the class together hadn’t imagined that the students would be spun around in this manner.
“This way, we might not see a student scoring full marks.”
Gathering more than 10 magic stones, excluding fake ones, was a challenge, and even the assistant professor doubted if it was possible.
“Go get them again.”
Kim Joo-hyuk seemed to have a recorder playing all day, repeating the same words like a broken record…
The assistant professor inwardly shook his head at Kim Joo-hyuk’s seemingly joyful demeanor.
***
…Two hours into the woods.
We, or rather, Amelia, had found a total of 13 magic stones during that time.
Honestly, in terms of the number found, it had easily surpassed 40. The issue was that most of them were ‘fake.’
“There are too many fake magic stones.”
Once again, Amelia, deceived by fake magic stones, narrowed her eyes.
At a glance, it was hard to distinguish between real and fake.
To put it simply, a magic stone was a rock imbued with magic, but Kim Joo-hyuk had scattered magic onto regular rocks all over the place.
Therefore, unless you physically touched and confirmed each one to differentiate between naturally occurring magic stones and artificially imbued ones, there was no way to know.
Even if you touched them to confirm, if you lacked expertise in magic, it would take a considerable amount of time to discern between fake and real.
Amelia, being able to detect it roughly just by touching, was skilled in this regard.
Anyway, the task was to find the magic stones and classify them by grade, and without saying a word, Amelia diligently sorted the magic stones and handed half of them to me.
“Here. One high-grade, two mid-grade, and three low-grade.”
“No need to split it in half.”
Feeling like I was being taken advantage of too blatantly, I tried to show some conscience, and Amelia nodded.
“You would have found them even without me. It’s only fair to split them.”
She added.
“I think you might actually be better at this than me, don’t you think?”
Yeah. Not really.
Perhaps due to being labeled as a “Master of Magic,” Amelia tended to overestimate me.
After the incident at the student dorms, her evaluation of me had skyrocketed even more, to the point where she might not believe me if I said I was actually a grand sorcerer.
Of course, Amelia didn’t just split the magic stones equally with me based on the assumption that I would do better. I had my role to play as well.
“I think we’ve searched this area thoroughly. Where should we go now?”
“If we go up for about ten minutes from here, we should come out.”
“It’s amazing. How do you find things so well?”
Amelia looked at me with a slightly uncomfortable expression.
It’s true that Amelia is the one searching for the magic stones, but I’m the one who sets the range where these stones exist.
The forest of Sengdodong was larger than expected, and the magic stones were scattered like needles in a haystack. To find them, you needed to have a rough idea of the range, which I had completely mapped out.
Having wandered through the forest several times in the game, getting lost like this, it was an easy task to deduce the approximate range.
As for the exact locations, it was a simple task to have Amelia scan the entire range once around like a radar.
…Saying it like this makes me feel really trashy.
“Shall we take a break?”
“Sure.”
Sharing melon bread and coffee from the thermos, it didn’t feel like trash.
Or maybe it did.
Where else in the world would you find a bread shuttle like this?
***
As time passed, it was evening when the “Magic Detection” class ended.
The sun had set, and the Sengdos gathered in the field like lifeless bodies.
Kim Joo-hyuk, who had been resting after delegating his role to an assistant professor, stood up from his seat.
Walking towards the field, he saw the assistant professor with a bewildered expression. Kim Joo-hyuk approached, took the result list from the professor’s hand, and read it.
– List of Passers for Magic Stone Detection –
——–
Ihaesol 【24 magic stones】
Amelia 【24 magic stones】
Elaine 【3 magic stones】
Oh Deokseong 【1 magic stone】
——–
Subject: Advanced Magic Detection
Instructor: Kim Joo-hyuk
“…”