Time passed, and Lee Seo-jun and Lee Hyun-joo successfully conquered the dungeon.
After successfully clearing the dungeon and stepping out through the portal, a strange environment unfolded before their eyes.
A vast forest.
They were supposed to arrive back at the school, but instead, they had arrived at a completely unrelated place.
“Where are we?”
Lee Seo-jun hurriedly checked his smart student notebook.
Fortunately, there was a signal here.
Lee Seo-jun quickly used the GPS to check his location.
They were at Gwanak Mountain, a fair distance away from the Mage Academy.
It seemed that the demons had created an exit in a deserted place to facilitate their escape.
Lee Seo-jun quickly contacted the Association.
Once contact was made, special agents from the Association and officials from the Mage Academy arrived at Gwanak Mountain.
“Student Lee Seo-jun! Are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine. But more importantly, the students inside the dungeon…”
“Ah, yes!”
After that, mages affiliated with the Association, as well as dungeon and portal specialists, appeared.
Using the conquered portal, they managed to open the previously sealed exit of the dungeon.
Once the dungeon was opened, the incident was swiftly handled.
As they dismantled the dungeon stages, they found the students and were able to rescue all of them.
However, the members of the Association wore grim faces during the evacuation process.
Because they discovered students who had lost their lives inside the dungeon.
“…How tragic.”
“At such a young age. Tsk.”
Eight dead, two injured.
This incident would go down as the worst accident in the history of magic education, not just in Korea, but worldwide.
Thus, the Association’s investigation began, and they discovered a few oddities inside the dungeon.
Two demon corpses were found, but the demon disguised as ‘Kim Hye-chan’ seen in the footage was nowhere to be found.
And during the investigation, the Association discovered a mysterious site with only traces of battle.
“Something’s odd. Look at the traces of battle here. There’s only demon blood, and no signs where a body would’ve been.”
“Looks like the demon disguised as Kim Hye-chan fought here?”
“Yeah. But who did he fight? Judging by the traces, it seems there was a pretty intense battle.”
“Wasn’t it Lee Seo-jun?”
“No. Lee Seo-jun said earlier he only fought the demon whose corpse we found.”
The investigators deduced that the demon had been defeated by someone.
Naturally, because there were no traces of human blood.
“Whoever it was, they’re amazing. Considering the demon used darkening, it must have been at least an A-rank demon.”
“Hmm. By the way, doesn’t this remind you of the Park Minye incident?”
“Ah~ I thought the same thing.”
The investigators recalled the ‘Park Minye’ incident that happened half a year ago.
Someone eliminated a hidden demon at the school.
And despite achieving the major feat of slaying a demon, they never revealed themselves.
There were too many similarities.
“…Could it be the same person?”
Late at night.
I returned to the school with Yoon Hayoung.
It was already 10 PM.
Actually, we could have returned earlier, but we purposely took our time to avoid suspicion.
Despite the late hour, many people remained at the school.
Most of them were likely reporters covering the incident and the students’ families.
Wanting to avoid the hassle of being noticed by the reporters, we went through a quiet park.
“Maybe it’s safer here.”
At that moment, Yoon Hayoung, who had looked gloomy for a while, spoke to me.
“Sunwoo. Did you hear? They say eight people died today.”
“I heard.”
At my reply, Yoon Hayoung’s expression darkened again.
Knowing that the demons’ goal was her, it was inevitable that she would feel uncomfortable.
I gently patted her shoulder to comfort her.
“Once again, it’s not your fault.”
“…Yeah.”
Though she replied, the sadness in her voice remained.
Seeing her, usually so bright, now so dejected, made my own mood sink.
I lightly flicked her forehead to snap her out of it.
“Ow!”
Yoon Hayoung clutched her forehead and looked up at me with a confused, almost tearful gaze.
I barely tapped her though — such an overreaction.
“Stop being so gloomy.”
At my words, Yoon Hayoung stared at me silently, then tightly pressed her lips together.
Thinking she still hadn’t fully snapped out of it, I raised my hand to flick her forehead again, but she quickly backed away, startled.
“Ah! Seriously. I get it!”
Yoon Hayoung shouted at me.
The gloomy look from earlier had completely vanished.
I smirked and lowered my hand.
Yoon Hayoung and I sat down on a park bench.
She looked up at the night sky for a moment, then as if remembering something, turned to me and said,
“Oh, right. Sunwoo.”
“Yeah?”
“Today, your magic… I couldn’t feel any mana from it. How did you do that?”
So she finally asked.
She must have been holding back her curiosity about everything else but couldn’t resist asking about magic.
How should I answer?
After a brief thought, I spoke.
“It’s my trait.”
“Trait?”
“Yeah. Just like how you can use the power of Demon Eradication, I also have my own unique power.”
Yoon Hayoung looked at me with a slightly surprised expression.
There was no suspicion in her gaze.
Traits weren’t all that rare in the first place.
And if you looked hard enough, there were plenty of people who had unique, special powers.
“That’s amazing. I’ve never heard of a trait like that.”
“It’s not very common.”
“Then what about that beam of light earlier? It looked like a support-type magic spell, and a pretty high-level one at that.”
“You’re right. It’s support magic.”
Yoon Hayoung looked at me with wide, astonished eyes.
“I knew it. From the way you dismantled the barrier so quickly, I thought something was strange. If you’re that good at breaking barriers, it makes sense that you’re good with other support magic too.”
Then, with a serious expression, she continued,
“But for a secondary specialty, your binding magic was incredibly powerful… Wait, no way.”
She suddenly spun to face me, working her theory out aloud.
I grew tense, wondering what crazy idea she’d come up with next.
“Your main specialty is actually support magic, isn’t it!”
“Huh?”
“Come on, with your barrier dismantling skills and the binding magic you showed today, there’s no other explanation. You’re practically S-rank level.”
I gave a wry smile.
Her imagination was so wild, I didn’t know how to respond.
“Your face says I nailed it.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Wow. Seriously though, you’re amazing. Even your secondary specialty, manifestation magic, you handle that perfectly. And you’re good at reinforcement magic too.”
Yoon Hayoung looked at me with eyes full of admiration.
I could only stare back at her, dumbfounded.
Just like that, manifestation magic became my supposed secondary specialty.
After parting ways with Yoon Hayoung, I remained alone at the park.
I thought about returning to the dormitory but decided to stay a little longer to clear my head.
Looking around, I could see students gradually returning to the school.
Among them were students wiping away tears.
Even though I saved more people than I did before my regression, it was inevitable to feel heavy-hearted at the news of deaths.
If it had been someone close to me who died…
I would have been just as devastated.
As the story progresses, the situations will only get worse.
It wouldn’t be strange if someone died accidentally along the way.
I have to do everything I can to prevent that.
Letting out a deep sigh, I pulled out my smart student notebook.
Several messages had arrived.
From Lee Seo-jun, Yoo Ara, Shin Young-joon, and others.
Even quite a few from Choi Seo-yoon, along with numerous missed calls.
Since she didn’t know what had happened inside the dungeon, she must have been worried.
[I’m alive.]
I sent a rough survival report message and connected to the internet.
After that, I got a reply from Choi Seo-yoon right away, but I decided to check it later.
There was something I wanted to confirm immediately.
As soon as I connected to the internet, it was exactly as expected — the terrorist incident from today was all over the news.
While skimming through the portal site’s contents, I selected an article.
「The terrorist attack at the Korean Mage Academy has been successfully suppressed. However, the mages disguised as Chris and Kim Hye-chan have not been found. The Association is experiencing difficulties in their search.」
It was an article stating that Chris — meaning Jung Hyun— had not been found.
But there was another detail that felt a bit odd.
It said they couldn’t find Won Hyuk either. Something was off.
If it was Won Hyuk, I had taken care of him myself, so his corpse should have been left behind.
“……Could it be that Jung Hyun took the corpse?”
It’s possible.
He might have taken Won Hyuk’s body to uncover the truth of the incident.
In this world, ‘autopsies’ could reveal a surprising amount of information.
“Should I start burning corpses too?”
I had been careless. In the original work, ‘autopsies’ weren’t given much focus, so I hadn’t paid attention.
Especially since there had never been a scene where villains conducted autopsies.
Somehow, it feels like villains are doing more unexpected things as time goes on.
“……It shouldn’t matter too much.”
In any case, the existence of the Child of Prophecy was something the mages learned about even in the original story.
I put the smart student ID back into my pocket.
Now, it’s time to check the messages that popped up after taking care of Won Hyuk earlier.
[Activating unique trait, ‘Outsider’s Privilege.’]
[Reviewing previous messages.]
At the same time, the causality points and points earned today floated before my eyes.
As expected from defeating an S-rank villain, the rewards were substantial.
1.8 causality points and 15,000 points.
It was a decent outcome, but I didn’t feel like I made a huge profit.
That’s because for today’s event, I had bought two Demon Detection Compasses and one Advanced Concealment Elixir.
Since I spent 40,000 points, that left me with a loss of 25,000 points.
“Click.”
Still, resolving the most worrying event properly made me feel satisfied.
Not to mention, I gained an unexpected reward while dealing with the target.
It was the Hyper Regeneration ability.
━━
[Hyper Regeneration (B)] [Grade: 1 (0%)]
Category: Trait
[Passive Effect]
▶ Tough Vitality
Lost body parts gradually regenerate over time.
[Active Effect]
▶ Life Force Overdrive
Rapidly regenerates body parts using a large amount of mana.
The regeneration speed is proportional to the amount of mana used.
*Duration: 3 minutes
*Cooldown: 3 days
━━
It’s literally a trait that grants regenerative ability.
This power isn’t limited to demons but is also found in certain monsters and mages, which is why Hyper Regeneration is classified as a ‘trait’ rather than a ‘skill.’
However, since it’s not the authentic version, it’s not as powerful as the original.
That’s evident from the presence of a limited duration and cooldown.
Still, it’s an incredibly useful ability, so I was quite pleased.
“I do want to test it out.”
But I’m reluctant to try. I’d have to cut off part of my own body, and how many people could do that while sober?
Of course, I had experience self-harming to acquire traits, but cutting off a body part was on a whole different level.
“Click.”
There will be a chance to test it someday — in an actual battle.
“Right.”
There was another harvest.
The Inpi Mask.
A Class-1 illegal magic tool — the root of all evil in this world — had fallen into my hands.
The ways to use it are endless.
Now, how should I put it to use?
“Hmmmmm.”
I fell into deep thought.
Late at night.
Jung Hyun returned to the Ten Demon Council’s hideout after completing the autopsy on Won Hyuk’s corpse.
As he entered, many demons were gathered in the darkness.
They had gathered without being summoned to hear the full story of today’s incident.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
Someone spoke from within the shadows.
“Jung Hyun, what exactly happened?”
Amidst the many S-rank mages surrounding him, Jung Hyun calmly opened his mouth.
“The plan was disrupted due to Lord Won Hyuk’s unexpected actions.”
Jung Hyun explained everything he had experienced with composure.
Won Hyuk’s impulsive actions, and how that caused the students to scatter and the plan to collapse.
Since Jung Hyun had some grounds for complaint, he even showed the video of Won Hyuk’s behaviour.
Perhaps because Won Hyuk’s reputation wasn’t great even within the Ten Demon Council, the anger initially directed at Jung Hyun quickly shifted toward Won Hyuk.
“Click. That old man finally messed up.”
“I saw it coming.”
“Serves him right.”
Even though a fellow demon had died, there wasn’t a trace of sadness in their voices.
In fact, quite a few of them sounded relieved. As the noise among the demons grew, a low voice echoed from the darkness.
“Silence.”
At once, everyone fell silent. The owner of the voice was the King of the Demons.
Jung Hyun immediately knelt before the King.
“Jung Hyun. I have many questions for you. Was Won Hyuk killed by the Child of Prophecy?”
“During the autopsy, I found traces of unfamiliar magic. I assume it’s the Demon Eradication Power the Child of Prophecy possesses.”
“……I see.”
The King spoke with a sigh. Following Seong jin, another critical power of the demons was lost.
Moreover, Won Hyuk was the eldest of the Ten Demons and could be called its living history.
“The situation is dire. Even if the Child of Prophecy wields Demon Eradication Power, I didn’t expect an 18-year-old human to defeat Won Hyuk.”
At those words, everyone nodded. They too found the situation shocking.
Won Hyuk’s strength was among the top ranks within the Ten Demon Council.
“No wonder they are called the ‘Child of Prophecy.’ The prophecy of the former king wasn’t wrong……”
The King sighed again.
The Child of Prophecy was still an unbloomed seed.
And yet, they had already slain an S-rank demon. It was impossible to imagine how threatening they would become after growing further.
“Was there any other trace left?”
“There was.”
“What was it?”
“Besides the Demon Eradication Power, I found traces of various other types of magic.”
“Various types of magic? That’s good news. It might give us clues about what kind of mage the Child of Prophecy is.”
“Yes, that’s correct. According to the investigation, the Child of Prophecy appears to use light-attribute manifestation magic.”
“So that’s his specialty?”
“Not exactly. From what I can tell, his true specialty seems to lie elsewhere.”
Handling light-attribute manifestation magic, but having a different main specialty — truly not an ordinary being, befitting the Child of Prophecy.
“What is it?”
“Support magic. And… it seems he is quite an outstanding support-type mage.”
Leave a Reply