Due to yesterday’s incident, the ‘second midterm exam’ was canceled.
The Mage Academy, which had vowed to prevent a terror attack, faced enormous criticism as another incident broke out.
The Mage Academy was often unfairly blamed, but this time, there really was an element of bad luck.
Teacher Chris was a globally recognized consultant in magical education.
From the Academy’s perspective, they had hired a verified educator, but it would be more accurate to say their luck was just incredibly bad.
And today, a memorial ceremony for the students who tragically lost their lives began in the main auditorium.
In the somber atmosphere, not a single student was absent.
Amid numerous cameras and reporters, the student speeches continued.
─We are in shock. Eight of our friends have lost their lives, and two have been injured. We, the students of the Mage Academy, for the friends who have been sacrificed……
As the long speech went on, the students listened intently with wide-open, clear eyes.
Next, a mage from the Mage Association delivered a speech.
─The demons have already taken deep root in human society. Their methods are becoming increasingly brutal and intelligent. Also……
To summarize the long speech: they would strengthen security to prevent such incidents from happening again, and they would thoroughly investigate the case to ensure the demons responsible were punished.
……Thus, time passed, and the memorial ceremony came to an end.
The students poured out of the auditorium.
“Sigh. What a mess.”
“Yeah, really.”
Normally cheerful students could not be seen smiling today.
Just as the students began to disperse—
“Second year, Class A, gather up.”
Shin Young-joon started calling the Class A students together.
Once Class A was gathered, Shin Young-joon forced a smile and made a suggestion.
“Let’s stop being gloomy and go have lunch together, what do you say?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
“I’m in too.”
Everyone seemed to agree.
Since I had time to spare, I decided to join as well.
Time passed, and we arrived at a restaurant.
It was the same barbecue place Class A had visited together before.
Six people could sit at one table.
At my table were Lee Seo-jun, Yoon Hayoung, Shin Young-joon, Lee Hyun-joo, and Yoo Ara.
It was a table full of major characters.
“Not feeling great, huh.”
“Yeah. Don’t stress about it too much. Oh, right, what’s happening with the exam?”
“They’ll probably replace it with something else, like they did in the first semester. Plus, we get three days off for memorial events.”
Shin Young-joon and Lee Hyun-joo chatted.
Meanwhile, meat was placed onto the grill.
Sizzle……
The sound of meat cooking made my mouth water.
At that moment, Lee Seo-jun reached for the tongs to grill the meat.
But I quickly snatched them away.
“I’ll do it.”
“Why? I can do it too.”
“No thanks. You’re terrible at grilling meat.”
“Ahem……”
Lee Seo-jun closed his mouth, unable to argue.
Instead, he awkwardly poured water into an empty cup and placed it on the table.
Maybe he felt pressured to do something.
That’s a kind of sickness too.
While I was diligently grilling the meat, I heard a voice from somewhere.
“I heard one of the demons who infiltrated disappeared.”
“Yeah, I heard one of the demon corpses went missing. Supposedly, it was a pretty high-ranking demon.”
“Hey, what if someone among us actually took down a demon?”
Voices from the next table seeped through the walls.
Glancing over, I saw Yoon Hayoung clamping her mouth shut and desperately trying to keep a straight face.
But it was obvious.
She was practically advertising, I’m suspicious.
To help her relax, I placed the most well-cooked piece of meat onto Yoon Hayoung’s plate.
“Eat.”
“Huh? Uh?”
Yoon Hayoung snapped back to attention and looked at me.
Then she nodded.
“Uh-huh. Thanks.”
She popped the meat into her mouth, chewing carefully and swallowing, then smiled brightly.
“It’s delicious.”
Finally, her expression looked natural again.
I smirked and went back to grilling more meat.
At that moment, Shin Young-joon, sitting across from me, gave me a strange look.
“……Why are you looking after Yoon Hayoung first?”
At those words, I placed the next piece of meat onto Shin Young-joon’s plate.
“Sorry for not taking care of you first.”
“Too late.”
Shin Young-joon muttered in a hurt tone.
“……”
“Oh, right. Kim Sunwoo. I saw you moving in a rush after defeating that demon yesterday. Where were you off to?”
Yoo Ara, sitting diagonally from me, suddenly chimed in.
She must be referring to when I defeated the B-ranked mage in front of her.
Then Shin Young-joon reacted.
“Oh, right. You said Kim Sunwoo took down a demon, didn’t you?”
It was already known throughout the school that I had defeated a B-rank mage.
I had personally reported it to the Association investigators.
Because of that, in a few days, both Lee Seo-jun and I would be receiving commendations.
“I was trying to see if I could help others. The situation was really dire back then.”
“I see.”
Yoo Ara nodded at my answer.
Then, I felt someone’s gaze.
Lee Seo-jun was looking at me with a meaningful expression.
After finishing the meal, I parted ways with the others.
There was somewhere I needed to go—the land I had purchased two months ago.
After teleporting to Gangwon-do, I hiked a rugged mountain path for about 30 minutes.
And finally, I arrived at my destination.
“Whoa.”
Upon reaching the site, I was left speechless at the changed scenery.
Where there used to be empty land, a massive cave had formed.
This was the Golden Dungeon, where a large amount of natural magic stones were buried.
“Hehehe.”
I entered the dungeon, grinning from ear to ear.
[You have achieved the ‘Master of the Dungeon’ title.]
[You have received 3,000 points as a reward.]
Like all dungeons, it had a dark, eerie atmosphere.
I wanted to start mining the natural magic stones right away, but first, I had to complete the dungeon conquest.
“Hm.”
Maybe I’ll take a quick look around.
As I ventured deeper inside, I heard the cries of monsters.
A chill filled the air, and the dense mana pressure of the dungeon weighed heavily on me.
If memory served, this dungeon’s difficulty was at least A-rank.
It would be a little dangerous to attempt a solo conquest.
But it wasn’t at an impossible level either—having just one assistant would make it manageable.
“Hm. But who should I tackle this with?”
If the owner of this land wasn’t ‘Kim Jinwoo’, I could have simply called Lee Seo-jun to conquer it together.
“Maybe I should hire a mercenary.”
But a mercenary I could fully trust…
And I’d have to share the rewards, too.
Who would be worth it?
While I was deep in thought—
“Oh?”
Suddenly, someone’s face came to mind.
When I returned to the dormitory, Gretel, with a sausage in her mouth, greeted me.
“Ngyaa.”
“Gretel~”
I picked Gretel up and hugged her tightly.
At my affectionate behaviour, Gretel looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“You’ve been living comfortably these days, right?”
Gretel tilted her head. She looked like she didn’t understand what I meant.
I took the sausage out of Gretel’s mouth. Gretel stared at the sausage with a regretful look.
“Gretel.”
Gretel’s gaze moved from the sausage to me.
“It’s about time you earned your keep.”
“Ngyaa?”
Gretel wasn’t a pet. She was a summoned creature.
And she even had combat abilities, like summoning tree trunks.
Now it was about time she started fulfilling her role as a summon.
I placed Gretel down on the floor and fell into thought again.
The biggest reason I couldn’t properly use Gretel in battle, despite her being my summon, was that I couldn’t handle summoning magic properly.
Normally, a contract summon would return to its original place when the supply of mana was cut off, but for some reason, Gretel couldn’t be unsummoned.
“Hmm.”
A sudden thought crossed my mind.
Maybe there was a way to solve this through the point shop.
I opened the shop and browsed through it, and something caught my eye.
━━
[Special Contract Summoning Magic (???)]
Description: Designates a summon and a location.
Consumes mana to summon the contracted creature.
Price: 20,000 points
━━
“Is this it?”
Judging by the description, it did seem to be the kind of summoning magic I had in mind.
It was a bit surprising that its grade was ??? and that it wasn’t a trait or a skill.
“20,000 points, huh.”
After a moment of hesitation, I made up my mind.
Let’s buy it. Points could always be earned again, and learning summoning magic would definitely be useful in the long run.
[You have purchased Special Contract Summoning Magic (B).]
A pure white light seeped into my body. At the same time, the knowledge of how to use the ability was imprinted into my mind.
“It’s done.”
At that moment, a message popped up in front of me.
[Confirming the contracted summon to use summoning magic.]
[‘Immortal Hell-Demonic Tree Gretel’ has been automatically designated.]
[Would you like to designate your current location as the place Gretel will be reverse summoned to?]
[The location can be changed later.]
My current location was the dormitory.
‘Designate current location.’
[Designation complete.]
“Is it done?”
I had acted so quickly that I wasn’t even sure if I had done it properly.
“I’ll know once I try.”
I got dressed again and left the dormitory.
I headed toward the school’s private training ground.
This place would allow me to test my ability quietly, without attracting attention.
“Let’s try it right away.”
I took a deep breath and gathered my mana.
Since the usage method was already imprinted in my mind, I could use it immediately.
However, the way I handled mana felt a little different from usual, making it feel awkward.
Vmmm─
A summoning magic circle formed on the ground.
Then, flash! A burst of light appeared, and Gretel popped out.
“Oh. It worked!”
I called out to Gretel with joy. Gretel seemed puzzled by the sudden change in surroundings.
At that moment, I felt mana slowly draining from my body.
This probably meant that it wasn’t just a successful summon, but that my mana was maintaining Gretel’s presence here.
In other words, I was using my mana to temporarily bring her here.
Fortunately, it didn’t consume a huge amount of mana, so I could probably maintain her for more than thirty minutes.
“Gretel, do you feel anything strange with your body?”
At my question, Gretel just looked at me.
She seemed fine.
“That’s a relief.”
Since the summoning succeeded, I should also try reverse summoning.
“Alright, go back for now.”
I cut off the mana link connected to Gretel.
Immediately, there was another flash of light, and Gretel’s body vanished.
From that day on, I began raising Gretel.
Having learned summoning magic meant I now had a reliable ally, but Gretel’s abilities were still lacking, so she wasn’t a huge help yet.
That would be solved with time.
Meanwhile, I completed the ownership registration of the dungeon that had appeared on my land.
Now, legally, the dungeon belonged to me.
I also spent a large sum installing several magical security systems to prevent any possible grave robbing.
I decided to postpone dungeon exploration until Gretel grew stronger.
……And so, a week passed.
The painful incidents at the school were gradually being forgotten, and the students regained their smiles.
The empty spots left by the deceased students would be filled by transfer students next spring.
Also, the second midterm exam was replaced with a combination of other tests and ongoing assessment scores.
Since I had always maintained top-tier performance in assessments, this situation worked in my favor.
[You have achieved the ‘Top 10 Final Grades’ achievement.]
[You have earned 15,000 points as a reward.]
My final combined ranking rose from 13th place to 9th place.
Finally, top 10.
I now only had four ranks left to qualify for the Sacred Martial Festival next year.
It might seem like there were only four spots left, but from the top 10 onward, the accumulated scores were thick like concrete, meaning I would have to rank at least second in the final exam to climb up.
And today, I was climbing the stairs of the main building for the special class.
The location was Room 503 in the main building.
As I reached the fifth floor and turned into a side hallway, someone suddenly jumped out.
“Woof!”
“Ah!”
Startled, I stumbled back.
A female student with bright brown hair was smiling mischievously.
She raised her hands as if she were a ghost.
“Ah. You scared me. What are you doing?”
At my reaction, Choi Seo-yoon giggled.
“I saw you coming from the window and waited for you.”
It took quite a while to come up here, and yet she had just been waiting around.
I ended up chuckling. It felt like the school’s peaceful atmosphere had returned. And honestly, I didn’t dislike childish pranks like this.
“Oh? You’re smiling. You secretly like this kind of thing.”
“Shut up.”
Ignoring her, I walked toward Room 503, where the special class was gathering.
Choi Seo-yoon walked alongside me. By the way, just like in the first semester, Choi Seo-yoon and I were in the same group.
We entered the classroom together.
As soon as I sat down, Lee Seo-jun, Shin Young-joon, and Lee Hyun-joo came in, followed by Yoon Hayoung and Yoo Ara.
Once all the seats were filled, clack. The front door opened, and the special class teacher, Park Jungwan, appeared.
“Nice to see you. We haven’t met for two weeks because last week’s memorial events canceled classes.”
Park Jungwan looked around at the students and continued.
“Today’s special class will end quickly. Instead, we’ll make up for last week’s canceled class next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.”
At his words, I felt a sense of doubt. Makeup classes next weekend?
Then Park Jungwan glanced at his wristwatch and spoke.
“The notice should have arrived by now. The additional class notice for next weekend should be in your smart student notebooks. Please check.”
At his words, everyone hurried to turn on their smart student notebooks.
[Special Class Announcement]
[Anti-Terrorism Joint Training between Korea, UK, and US Mage Academies]
“……What is this?”
An event that wasn’t in the original story had appeared.
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