I jolted awake.
Sitting up, I stretched my back. Maybe because I had been lying face down, my waist ached.
‘What the… When did I fall asleep?’
I stretched lightly and glanced around.
A familiar sight.
It was the 2nd-year Class A classroom that I saw almost every day.
“…So, Article 3, Clause 2 of the Magic Act. This will be on the test, so make sure to mark it…”
In front of me, an old teacher was conducting the class in a dull voice.
But something felt off.
Across from the teacher, nearly all the students were slumped over their desks, fast asleep. No matter how boring the class was, it seemed strange that so many students could fall asleep at once.
‘Ah, this must be that thing.’
I roughly grasped what was happening. This scene had been described in the original story too.
Glancing around, I noticed that, just like in the original, only Lee Seo-jun, Yoo Ara, and Shin Young-joon were awake and listening to the lecture.
It wasn’t a coincidence that the top three ranked students in the second year were still awake.
Later, it would be revealed that the teacher’s voice contained a unique magical trait that caused sleepiness.
“…And in this case, the law applies…”
This was a latent trait that appeared in a very small number of people.
Of course, latent traits have activation conditions. In this teacher’s case, the condition was probably “teaching knowledge.”
It wasn’t a big issue right now, but in the distant future, this latent trait would go out of control and cause a minor incident at the school.
I suddenly grew curious.
The teacher’s latent trait going berserk in the future—if I resolved that, would my causality rate increase?
After all, to return to my world, I needed to accumulate causality.
That meant I needed to think deeply about how to accumulate causality and the process of doing so.
“Hmmm.”
The morning classes ended, and the afternoon session began.
As announced yesterday, the afternoon class was a sparring session.
Each student moved to their designated private training rooms to begin.
Yoon Hayoung and I also headed to our assigned room.
Upon entering the training room, Yoon Hayoung spoke up.
“Shall we start sparring right away?”
“No, let’s save that for later. Today, we’ll focus on manifestation training.”
“Why? We do that during our specialty class.”
She looked at me, confused.
“It’s pointless to spar when your fundamentals are lacking. You need to master the basics first.”
“…I’ve been feeling this since yesterday, but you’re underestimating me, aren’t you? My grades are way higher than yours, you know?”
“Grades aside, your fundamentals are still weak.”
“You’re all talk for someone ranked last in the entire school.”
Yoon Hayoung pouted.
“Come on, let’s just have a match. We need to know where we stand, right?”
To check each other’s level, huh?
That didn’t sound too bad.
If she kept harping on me being last in school rankings, it would just get annoying.
“Alright, let’s do it.”
“Oh. For real? No backing out now.”
“Got it.”
Hearing my agreement, she happily stepped back, putting a suitable distance between us to begin.
Before starting, I made her an offer.
“Just fighting like this is boring. Let’s make a bet—the loser has to listen to whatever the winner says. How about it?”
“Heh. What confidence. Fine, I’m in.”
She accepted my challenge without hesitation.
And so, our unplanned sparring match began.
Both of us gathered mana and prepared for battle.
From the way she looked at me, I could tell she was brimming with confidence that she could win.
To be honest, no matter how lacking my mana was, I was confident I could defeat her easily. I knew exactly what weaknesses an inexperienced manifestation-type mage had.
Winning or losing didn’t matter here.
What mattered was winning so decisively that it changed how she viewed me.
“Start!”
At Yoon Hayoung’s shout, I channeled mana into my legs.
With my magically enhanced speed, I charged toward her.
Manifestation-type mages were generally weak against close-quarters combat, and the less experienced they were, the more apparent this weakness became.
Even though my specialty was manifestation magic, I decided it would be easier to subdue her using enhancement magic.
As expected, she was caught off guard by my sudden close-range approach.
She hastily manifested a chunk of ice, but it was too late—I had already closed the distance.
“Ah!”
In the end, Yoon Hayoung stumbled backward and fell.
I didn’t miss the opportunity and pointed a conjured magic orb at her.
She looked up at me with a dazed expression.
“Damn it!”
“Alright, I won, so no more complaining. Got it?”
“…You were really fast back there. Why are you ranked last in school?”
“Hey, stop with the useless questions and focus.”
“Ugh, fine. But do we really have to do this?”
Yoon Hayoung held a chunk of ice in each hand and foot.
She was biting her lips, enduring the cold.
“Shh. Focus and try to remember how the ice feels with your body.”
The training I assigned her was elemental adaptation training.
In magic manifestation, imagination played a huge role.
To improve imagination, mages usually focused on two aspects—element and form.
Rather than vaguely envisioning an attribute-less magic orb, it was easier to manifest spells accurately when you imagined both the element and form, like an ice spear or a fire arrow.
“Don’t just feel that it’s cold or heavy. Try to understand what ice truly is so you can imagine it clearly even with your eyes closed.”
“Ugh…”
“How does it feel?”
“…It’s hard… and slippery.”
“…Right, and it’s cold too.”
“Yeah.”
The ice in her hands melted from her warmth and dripped onto the floor.
“Open your hands again.”
When she opened them, I noticed they had turned red from the cold.
I took another chunk of ice from the bag and placed it back in her hands.
“Ugh.”
“Memorize the sensation of ice so you can imagine it even when it’s not there.”
After about an hour, I told her she could stop.
“Huh? I can stop now?”
“Yeah, there’s only about ten minutes left of class anyway.”
Surprised, Yoon Hayoung checked the clock.
“Wow, really? Time flew by so fast.”
“Before you forget the sensation of ice, try manifesting it quickly.”
“Got it.”
She stretched out her hand, closed her eyes, and focused her mana.
A pure white chunk of ice began to form in her palm. It was more detailed and vivid than usual, appearing more refined.
“Now, open your eyes and see how well you did.”
At my words, she opened her eyes.
“Huh? Whoa! Did I really create this?”
A chunk of ice filled with strong mana.
Yoon Hayoung looked at it in astonishment.
I was a bit surprised too.
To think that just a brief adaptation training could yield such results. She’s definitely got incredible talent.
“Remember this sensation well. Since you just did the adaptation training, it turned out this well. But by tomorrow, you’ll probably forget and go back to your usual level.”
“Wow! Teacher Kim Sun-woo!”
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at me.
[Character ‘Yoon Ha-young’ now trusts you.]
[You have earned 500 points as a reward.]
Wednesday morning.
After finishing my shower, I walked back to my room. As I dried my wet hair with a towel, my phone alarm rang from the desk.
[The potion you requested is ready. Can we meet around 3 PM today?]
Of course, the sender was Han Se-yeon.
As diligent as always, she’s been busy since early morning.
She suggested 3 PM, but with school on weekdays, I couldn’t meet her.
I quickly replied:
[Sorry, I’m busy, and I can’t meet before 7 PM on weekdays.]
Message sent.
Just as I put my phone down and started putting on my uniform—
Ding!
[What keeps you so busy?]
“Wow… she replies so fast.”
Isn’t she super busy? How does she always answer immediately?
I set my curiosity aside and thought about how to respond.
I couldn’t just say, I’m a student, so I needed something more convincing.
After about a minute of consideration, I decided to stick with my usual mysterious persona.
[If I told you, you’d be in danger.]
[That’s seriously not funny, so I suggest you drop it.]
“……”
Feeling awkward, I quickly changed the subject.
[By the way, did you manage to get the underground arena entry pass?]
[Yes, I found out it can be used together with the underground auction membership. We can enter together tonight.]
“Huh?”
She wants to go in together?
[Wait, are you coming in with me?]
[Of course. The underground auction membership is non-transferable.]
At the Mage Academy, there’s a special elective activity every week.
This program offers students various real-world experiences through practice, lectures, tours, and more.
In simple terms, it’s like a field trip every week.
“For tomorrow’s special elective activity, there are three options. Log into the student portal on your smart notebook and make your selection by midnight tonight.”
During the homeroom session after Wednesday’s classes, Jang Ancheol explained tomorrow’s schedule to the 50 students in class.
“You can check the departure time and location in your student notebook.”
Once the brief homeroom session ended, Jang Ancheol left the classroom.
At the same time, students began chatting as they packed their things.
“Where are you going?”
“What options are available this week?”
“There’s Demon Safety Training, Cave Exploration, and a tour of the Seoul Alchemy Association.”
“I’m avoiding anything physical. I’ll probably go for the alchemy tour.”
Normally, students would have packed up and returned to the dorms immediately after homeroom, but today they were discussing tomorrow’s special elective activity.
I sat at my desk, thinking.
Where should I go?
I needed to choose carefully.
The special elective activities were closely linked to the original story’s main plot.
Some villains even took advantage of these outings to launch surprise attacks.
Fortunately, this week didn’t involve any major threats—at least not unless my intervention had altered the original story’s timeline too much.
I opened my smart notebook and accessed the school’s system.
The special elective activity selection page popped up right away.
━━
- Demon Safety Training
- Cave Exploration
- Seoul Alchemy Association Tour
━━
In the original story, Lee Seo-jun had chosen Demon Safety Training on the first day.
Since none of the options particularly interested me, following his choice seemed like the safest bet.
‘1. Demon Safety Training selected.’
[Selection complete.]
“Done.”
With that, all school-related tasks were finished.
I packed my things and stood up.
Time to go meet Han Se-yeon.
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