The Support Ate it All

The Kang Huichan bubble rolled and rolled until it vanished somewhere out of sight.

Not long after, the quest details updated.

▷Objective 2: Defeat competitors (2/20)

I had specially spared him for the fun of rolling him, but it seemed he had ended up in some monster colony or dangerous terrain.

What a miserably unlucky guy.

Before long, Jeong Jinmyeong’s friend asked us,

“Do you know who I am?”

“Sorry, no idea.”

“I’m Ahn Hyeongi.”

There was no need for us to introduce ourselves.

He had come knowing who we were in the first place.

Ahn Hyeongi continued,

“During last year’s finals, we were in a different group from you, right?”

“Yeah.”

“He told me to ask what you think about joining forces this time.”

“I don’t see why not.”

I shrugged.

Scores were counted by party, but that did not mean you absolutely had to compete with or antagonize other parties.

Depending on the situation, cooperation could be more profitable instead.

Just field bosses alone would be much easier to defeat if multiple parties attacked together.

At my positive response, Ahn Hyeongi’s expression brightened a little.

“That’s a relief. I was wondering what I’d do if you said no.”

“I figured I should at least hear the whole thing first.”

“Right. Then this is the real point. You’re pretty far behind, so we were thinking of giving you some support.”

“How?”

“However we can. We could fight together for a while, or we could give you this.”

As he said that, he rummaged through his clothes and showed us a shining lump.

It was a fully charged [Crystal].

If we received that, then instead of going through the trouble of treasure hunting and running around to charge it, we could head straight to an altar and rank up.

As much time as we saved, the gap between us and the other participants would narrow.

But I threw out another question.

“What does Jeong Jinmyeong want?”

There was no such thing as free in this world.

No matter how favorable they were toward us, if they poured resources into us recklessly, they would be short on things they needed for themselves.

They had to know that too, so they would demand some kind of payment.

As expected, Ahn Hyeongi answered in a subtle tone.

“You know how during last year’s finals, you went around getting all those cards nobody knew about and using them?”

“So you’re asking if there’s a way to get something similar.”

“We’d like to trade for them if there is, even if we pay later. Just telling us how to obtain them works too.”

The main rule of the second-semester finals had been [Three-Way Battle], where the entire year was divided into three groups and fought.

I had monopolized all kinds of hidden pieces and item cards to gain an advantage.

Representative examples were [Transfer], which could change someone’s affiliation and pull over members of another group, and [Freeze], which froze a large number of enemies in front.

For Jeong Jinmyeong, the memory of getting hit by those had been so intense that he wanted to get a foot in the door this time.

It was understandable enough, so I jerked my chin.

“Of course there are ways to get them.”

“Then......?”

“I can tell you about a few.”

It was impossible to sweep up every hidden piece in this Great Forest anyway.

The place was too wide, and there was a strict time limit.

There was no harm in sharing some of them.

I held out a hand to Ahn Hyeongi.

“We can decide the details after I see the goods.”

“Uh, sure.”

Whether I shared two hidden pieces or three would depend on how many [Crystals] and item cards I received.

Before long, Ahn Hyeongi picked up the things rolling around on the ground and handed them straight to us.

They were the items Sagong Uk’s lackey A had dropped when he was rendered unable to fight.

“Take these first.”

“Much obliged.”

[Empty Crystal(F)]

[Map(F)]

▷Displays your current location and nearby terrain.

Needless to say, an item’s performance was proportional to its grade.

For example, if you offered an E-rank [Crystal] at an altar, you would gain more experience than with an F-rank one.

[Map] also provided more information the higher its grade was.

Should I try using it once as a test?

A hologram immediately spread wide in front of my eyes.

Two red dots blinked in the exact center. Obviously, they were Seo Ye-in and me.

The terrain within a certain radius around us was revealed in fairly high detail, but the farther it was from us, the simpler and blurrier it became.

In any case, I had seen what I needed, so I folded it back up.

Soon after, Ahn Hyeongi rummaged through his clothes and took out shining [Crystals] and cards.

“I’ll give you almost everything I brought. I just need to return right away.”

[Crystal(F)]

[Crystal(E)]

[Map(F)]

[Ejection(D)]

▷Blows three D-rank or lower targets in front of you to random locations.

He added,

“This much should let both of you climb to E-rank right away. You’ll be able to avoid a situation like earlier at least once too.”

“Not bad.”

“I wanted to bring more, but our people had to split up.”

There were multiple starting points.

Just as Cha Hyeonju and Sagong Uk had placed their lackeys evenly, Jeong Jinmyeong must have split several people up and placed them too.

That meant the trade items each individual carried would also have been divided by N.

And they could get robbed if things went wrong.

If they met another party or monsters while acting alone, they would definitely lose.

Since the risk was high, Jeong Jinmyeong could not have loaded them down with piles of items.

In the first place, sending his party members to the starting points was already a bold investment on Jeong Jinmyeong’s part.

I could feel a certain level of sincerity there, so I nodded.

“This is enough. We’ll make the trade.”

“Great! For how many hidden pieces?”

“Two should be appropriate.”

The [Crystals] and cards on the negotiation table were low in both rank and rarity.

Compared to the “special cards” Jeong Jinmyeong would soon obtain, they were practically dust.

But the value of an item changed depending on the situation.

Just as a sip of water was more precious than a diamond ring to someone struggling with dehydration, right now, we had to gather even low-tier items without being picky.

We had to raise our specs and regroup with our allies as quickly as possible.

Of course, Ahn Hyeongi lit up.

“Two is great! You’re generous.”

“Where are you guys?”

I asked for Jeong Jinmyeong’s location because I wanted to make it convenient for them.

If possible, I should tell them about hidden pieces nearby so it would be easier to go get them.

Ahn Hyeongi seemed to notice that as well, because he unfolded the map and drew a circle around a spot quite far from our current location.

“We’ve set up around here and have been moving in and out.”

“But how did you get all the way here?”

“He told me to go, so what choice did I have? I had some trouble on the way, but thanks to that, I got to meet you like this, so it was worth it.”

“That’s true.”

Soon after, I told him the locations of the hidden pieces and how to obtain them, and Ahn Hyeongi listened with shining eyes.

Then he slowly nodded.

“I memorized it all. Thanks.”

“You heading back now?”

“I should.”

He had met me at the starting point and completed the trade, so from his perspective, he had accomplished all his objectives.

From now on, he planned to focus on the midterms again.

Before long, he took out one more item card.

It was one that had appeared like a regular in the first-year midterms and finals, so it was familiar by now.

[Exit(1 Person)]

▷Leave the battlefield and regroup with your allies.

Since he had come out alone, the moment he used it, he would return to where his party members were.

I asked him,

“Do you happen to have any spares of that?”

“I only managed to bring one. Like I said earlier, our people were split up.”

“That’s a shame. It’s what we need most.”

If we used that, we could regroup with our allies in the blink of an eye too.

The problem was that we needed two in total.

Then Ahn Hyeongi thought for a moment and returned an offer.

“I can trade it for something extra. I’ll just walk back or something.”

He would have to repeat all the hardship he had gone through on the way here, but he seemed to have judged that securing one more hidden piece would make it worth the cost.

I asked Seo Ye-in,

“Want to go ahead?”

Shake, shake.

Seo Ye-in shook her head, then grabbed my sleeve as if to show him and said to Ahn Hyeongi,

“One body, one heart.”

“I did hear you two were close.”

“Planning to marry.”

“Mar......!?”

Even this guy, who had been fairly calm, seemed to lose his words at that.

He looked at us with a gaze mixed with shock and admiration.

I lightly flicked Seo Ye-in on the forehead, then continued the conversation as if perfectly calm.

“She says she doesn’t want to go first.”

And it made even less sense for me to leave the sloth behind and go alone.

Ahn Hyeongi nodded as if he understood everything.

“You two should move together. Still, if you want to secure one in advance, we can trade.”

“No, it’s fine. You need to get back quickly too.”

“Honestly, I do.”

Only once he informed Jeong Jinmyeong that he had met me would Jeong Jinmyeong call back the people sent to the other starting points too.

Before long, Ahn Hyeongi used [Exit].

FLASH—

“See you later.”

“Yeah. Good work.”

Then his whole body was wrapped in a bright cluster of light, floated high into the sky, and shot away at a frightening speed.

FLASH—!

Glancing at that sight, I exchanged looks with Seo Ye-in.

“Shall we get going too?”

“Shall we?”

But before that, we needed to decide on a direction, so I took out the maps.

I had obtained one F-rank map by defeating Sagong Uk’s lackey, and another through the trade with Ahn Hyeongi.

Combine them, and the rank goes up.

[Map(E)]

▷Displays your current location and nearby terrain.

→Displays your current location and the grades of nearby fixed zones.

Once again, a hologram spread wide in front of my eyes, and two red dots indicating us blinked.

The differences were that the clearly displayed radius had widened, and grades appeared over each zone.

For reference, the place we were standing in was a D-rank fixed zone.

At least make the area near the starting point F-rank.

There was not a speck of consideration for newbies.

Of course, this was a highly intentional setup.

It was meant to create an unreasonable situation like the one we had just experienced and force us to overcome it.

And if you could not overcome it?

Then die.

Could someone with no luck at the starting point and not enough skill really become a hero?

Dragonslayer Academy was always raising its students to be strong.

While I felt my affection for the place steadily dropping away, I kept looking over the map.

A D-rank fixed zone continued to the north.

To the southeast was a C-rank fixed zone, and to the west was a B-rank fixed zone.

The common-sense choice here was, of course—

“We should go D, right?”

If we used the [Crystals] and raised our ranks to E, then even if we ran into enemies, the gap would be only one rank at most, so it would be manageable.

In an emergency, we could also blow them away with [Ejection(D)].

On the other hand, in the higher fixed zones, the gap between us and the enemies would be even larger, and [Ejection] would be practically useless.

For now, avoiding them was the right call.

“......”

But Seo Ye-in had been staring west ever since I opened the map.

Eventually, she even started tugging at the hem of my clothes.

“Let’s go there.”

“That’s B-rank, you know?”

Doesn’t that make no sense?

Even so, Seo Ye-in stubbornly pulled at me.

Her gray eyes shone brightly, and at the same time, she let a familiar sound effect flow from her mouth.

“Vrrr—”

“Lucky Charm Radar is reacting?”

“Vrrr—”