Chapter 24.

Cube had a variety of artificial terrain created to allow for more efficient training: mountains, hills, limestone caves, volcanic caves, etc . Each environment had its unique puppet monsters, and naturally, there were also artificial Dungeons created with cutting-edge magic technology .

“Today’s combat training is a bit special . ”

Just like Kim Soohyuk said, there were two classes participating in today’s combat training . We were gathered outside of an eerie cave . The black tunnel-like entrance seemed to ooze ominous energy .

And indeed, the cave was full of traps and puppet monsters . Among them would be real monsters and lethal traps set up by Djinns .

I could already feel myself trembling .

“Today, you’ll be entering this cave with another class . As a joint training exercise, a team from each class will join together to form a single team . ”

The name of this training was Mock Dungeon Trial . Cadets would form a team of eight and experience an artificial Dungeon .

Two hundred cadets would be inside this massive grade artificial Dungeon, so one could only imagine just how large it was .

“Now, get in your usual teams . ”

I looked for Yoo Yeonha, who was staring at the cave entrance nervously . The fact that Yoo Yeonha was nervous showed how threatening the Dungeon’s entrance seemed .

“I’m shaking . ”

“Me too . Look, I have goosebumps on my arms . ”

Jin Hoseung and Hazuki approached, making a fuss . Other cadets also found their teams, and 200 cadets quickly formed into 50 groups .

“Next, we’ll announce your team pair . For the record, the cadet with the highest grade was chosen to be the team leader . ”

Kim Soohyuk pressed his smartwatch, projecting a hologram of the team list .

===

[Team 1]

Veritas class – Team Kim Suho

World class – Team Jo Yoon-Ah

===

Kim Suho became teams with a girl named Jo Yoon-Ah . On a side note, Jo Yoon-Ah was a generic filler character, whose sole role was to act haughty in front of Kim Suho before coming to realize his greatness .

But would the co-author allow it?

I approached Jo Yoon-Ah .

[Jo Yoon-Ah — Has a worse personality]

Thankfully, that was the only change . I prayed for Kim Suho who would suffer under her torment .

===

[Team 2]

Veritas class – Team Shin Jonghak

World class – Team Kaine

===

I didn’t know much about Team 2 . To be honest, I had never heard of Kaine .

===

[Team 3]

Veritas class – Team Chae Nayun

World class – Team Sven

===

“Hu…”

Team 3, which was formed just like in the novel’s scenario, was the team to watch out for .

‘Sven’ was a dangerous character . On the outside, he was an international student from Germany who had a crush on Chae Nayun .

Sven was a star student in his country, who had walked on the path of an elite since he was young . On his plane ride to Korea, he likely imagined himself to be on the top of Cube’s rankings .

But unfortunately, Cube was filled with heaven-defying characters . Sven couldn’t come close to their talents, and now he was struggling with an inferiority complex and a sense of defeat .

His pent-up frustration would explode during this Dungeon trial .

The result?

Sven would come to sell his soul to a Djinn .

But that wouldn’t happen today . He would only choose to form a contract after struggling with the decision for a day .

…At least, that was what was supposed to happen .

But my laptop was clearly alerting me of a change in his setting .

[Sven – Mental weakness intensified . Significantly increased chance of falling to a devil’s servant during the Mock Dungeon Trial . ]

The key word was ‘during’ . It meant that the incident would happen today .

This was a very serious problem .

I stared at Team 3 .

“H-Hello, Nayun . I saw you in the hunting club . ”

Coincidentally, Sven reached his hand out to Chae Nayun at that moment . His eyes were full of affection, but Chae Nayun replied with an apathetic look .

“Ah, yes, how old are you?”

“I, I’m the same age as you . ”

Other teams were being announced in the meanwhile, but my entire attention was concentrated on Sven . I wanted to advise Chae Nayun to not treat him so rudely like she normally did with others .

“Team 8 . Veritas class, Team Yoo Yeonha . World class, Team Jayden . ”

At that moment, Team 8 was announced .

I felt like I had heard of Jayden before . I immediately looked him up on my settings book . Because he didn’t play an important role in the story, there was only a quick summary of his character .

[Jayden]

A typical strong in front of weak, weak in front of the strong character . About 7 . 5/10 in potential . Strong enough to get scouted by Essence of the Strait .

“Hello~ Haha . ”

Jayden approached us with a hearty laugh . He had a generic Western look with deep brown eyes and a tall nose .

At the same time, an alert popped up on my laptop . Jayden’s setting had also been changed .

[Jayden – Potential increased from 7 . 5 to 8 . ]

His potential had increased by a whole 0 . 5 points . Potential was a number I assigned to characters to easily estimate their overall potential . It wasn’t a number that was a part of this world .

Obviously, Kim Suho’s potential was 10 as a main character’s potential should be, while Chae Nayun’s was 9 . 5 .

Even if one worked their entire life, it was impossible to catch up to this 0 . 5 point difference . This showed just how important the potential rating was . And now, Jayden’s potential had increased by a whole half a point .

“You must be Yoo Yeonha! It’s great meeting you . I’ve heard a lot about you!”

“Ah, yes, nice to meet you . ”

Jayden held out his hand . I wondered if Yoo Yeonha would shake someone’s hand in her first meeting . My question was answered in the next moment, as Yoo Yeonha readily took his hand .

“Next to me in order is Kim Jingyu, Oh Soojung, and Lee Shaung . ”

“This is Jin Hoseung, Hazuki, and Yi Hajin . ”

“…?”

For a moment, I doubted my ears . Who’s Yi Hajin? Was she doing this on purpose? I’m Kim Hajin .

In any case, Yoo Yeonha talked to Jayden affectionately while his teammates also listened in . I had no way of knowing whether she had already determined Jayden to be someone with potential and was managing her image, but it was an interesting sight nonetheless .

“I’m a sharpshooter . My main weapon is a bow . ”

“Mine’s my fist . ”

“Mine is a shield . ”

Kim Jingyu, Oh Soojung, and Lee Shaung introduced themselves . Hazuki, Jin Hoseung, and I then introduced ourselves .

“Swordsman . Typical, right?”

“I use an axe . ”

“…I use this . ”

I held up the training handgun .

Although I had my Desert Eagle, which was a much better weapon, cadets were prohibited from using personal weapons in exams to test their pure abilities .

Of course, I had my Desert Eagle stored in a convenient place – inside Stigma .

Since I could use Stigma’s magic power as I willed, creating an extradimensional space to store the Desert Eagle wasn’t hard to do .

“Ah, you’re that guy . The guy who chose a gun . I heard about you . ”

“It feels strange seeing you in person . ”

The three people’s eyes kindled with interest, but as the target of their interest, I couldn’t say it was a pleasant feeling, as their eyes seemed to say, “I’m at least better than this guy” .

“Are you wasting your Gift? Or is your Gift not good enough?”

…But that was still better than brute honesty . I turned towards the source of the voice . As expected, Jayden was smiling slyly .

No one in my team, if it was only in name, defended me . I didn’t expect much from Yoo Yeonha, but Jin Hoseung and Hazuki didn’t say anything either .

It was a bit disappointing, but I understood why . The rumors about me going around Veritas class wasn’t at a joking level .

Things like using my position as Cube’s cadet to blackmail or rape a girl, all the while staying quiet at Cube since everyone else was stronger, and going to Seoul every weekend enjoy women and drink alcohol…

I was practically a societal evil .

And after today, these rumors would surely spread to other classes . I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry . Well, at least my SP would go up a lot .

“Everyone, get ready . ”

Team assignment had ended before I noticed, and cadets quickly began to move at Kim Soohyuk’s words .

“Go in one by one starting from Team 1 . ”

“Let’s go!”

Kim Suho shouted valiantly and took lead . Jo Yoon-Ah followed after him with an annoyed face .

“Yoo Yeonha-ssi, I heard you were number one among this year’s supporters . ”

“Haha, really? I heard a lot about Jayden-ssi . I think the instructors balanced the teams wrong . We’re too much at an advantage . ”

“No, that’s just how teams are . When there’s one exceptional person… I’m sure you know the rest . It’s easy to see that Yoo Yeonha-ssi has a baggage to carry . ”

Meanwhile, Yoo Yeonha and Jayden chatted . Even from my perspective, Jayden did a good job not going too far and keeping Yoo Yeonha pleased . He was a good talker unbefitting of a high schooler . Maybe I should have approached Yoo Yeonha the same way .

“Team 8, enter . ”

Kim Soohyuk signaled our team’s turn .

**

The eight of us walked through the cave . The formation was perfect . Three warriors in the front, supporters in the second row, sharpshooters in the third, and a single warrior in the final row .

After walking for a while, we arrived at a fork . There were eight paths to choose from .

“Which path should we take?”

Yoo Yeonha spoke to me for the first time today .

“Jingyu, what do you think?”

Jayden also asked his sharpshooter . Once again, sharpshooters often acted as pathfinders .

“I don’t know . ”

“Take the sixth path . ”

I walked up and stood in front of the sixth path . However, the sixth path would likely be difficult . In truth, the difficulty of the paths was in order .

In other words, the sixth path had a level 6 difficulty .

But Chae Nayun should have chosen this path, so I had no other choice . If Sven contracts a Djinn here today, Chae Nayun wouldn’t be able to handle him alone .

“Let’s take the sixth path . ”

No matter what, I couldn’t lose a righteous character with a 9 . 5 potential . Not only would the future story become a mess, it would also be a huge loss for this world .

“Huh? Who are you to tell us where to—”

“Just do as he says . ”

Yoo Yeonha interrupted Jayden . It was nice to know I was trusted as a pathfinder .

“He might look like that, but his eyes are exceptional . ”

“Look like what? Do you have to put it that way?”

“…I’m praising you . ”

In any case, our team walked into the sixth path .

The path was completely silent with only dry wind from the entrance hitting our back . After ten minutes of walking in high tension…

We finally discovered a target .

“In front, there’s a monster . ”

Flashing its terrifying eyes and flickering its tongue was a monster known as the Salamander . By the size of its body, it seemed to be low-intermediate rank at best . But monsters that could wield the four elements (water, wind, earth, fire) were tricky to deal with, and Salamanders used the most destructive element, fire .

“You can see it?”

Yoo Yeonha asked .

“It’s a Salamander . That should be the switch . ”

Once we defeat the Salamander, the scenery should change . A Dungeon was an extradimensional space created with magic power . It might look like a cave at first, but once the switch was pulled, the interior could change completely . More often than not, a Dungeon’s switch was a specific monster .

“…You can really see? I don’t believe you . ”

Jayden muttered in doubt .

“I’m telling you about it because I can see it . Just listen to me, jackass . ”

He was starting to get on my nerves .

“What did you say?”

“…Tsk . Quiet, both of you . Get ready for battle . ”

Yoo Yeonha sighed audibly as she held up her whip .

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