I had been training for hours in that training room to the point I even skipped lunch.
"So this is my limit."
I was exhausted on the floor, but I still wanted to keep going.
"I may have asked for Vergil's power, but that doesn't mean I can use it 100%."
I remembered many of Vergil's moves, but his most iconic one, Judgment Cut, was impossible for me to use no matter how hard I tried.
"Maybe it's because the Gift isn't high enough yet... I should've brought something to drink too."
Thanks to the training, I checked and noticed my Stamina and Vitality stats had increased a bit, along with the progress of Dimensional Edge.
I wanted to keep training, but I was too tired, so I left the training room a bit sweaty.
"There should be a vending machine around here."
I had trained up to Stage 4, where the monsters started coordinating their attacks and didn't just charge mindlessly. That gave me a bit of trouble, but just swinging my sword was enough to kill them.
"This Gift really is unfair."
I found a vending machine and grabbed a bottle of water.
I heard several notifications come to my smart watch, so I checked—there were a bunch of messages from Minjae starting from hours ago.
[Hey, where are you?]
[You there?]
[If you're training, tell me where.]
[You think you're hot stuff now just 'cause you're rank 200?]
"What's his deal? He sounds like a clingy girlfriend."
I ignored him and started drinking the water, which tasted different—fresher.
"Even the water in this world tastes different. Is it because of the magic power?"
That's when I remembered something.
"Can I do it?"
*****
The next few days I kept training and testing my Gift until Monday arrived.
One of the things I tried was seeing if I could create Mirage Edge using magic power since it was also quite powerful in the game, but I wasn't able to form it.
When Monday came, the first class was History after the Outcall.
The professor explained what happened when magic power shook the entire world. After that event, mysterious entities such as Towers, Dungeons, and Monsters began to appear.
The world turned into a hellscape because of the monsters that devoured humans, while the Towers and Dungeons produced them endlessly.
In the midst of all that chaos, the Heroes appeared.
With their powers, they corrected the disorder—and the rest is history.
Eventually, Towers, Dungeons, and Monsters were designated for extermination.
Towers required many people and a long time to conquer. On the other hand, depending on the difficulty, Dungeons could be conquered by a single person—as long as they knew its location.
From what I knew, Towers offered better rewards, containing treasures that humans could've never imagined.
"Minor questions like this won't come up often, but you still need to know about Tower and Dungeon conquests."
Everything the professor explained came from a roughly 400-page book that we'd be studying throughout the year—and maybe even the next.
Not only would there be standard classes like in a normal curriculum, but there would also be classes related to this world.
"This will be worse than university…"
I whispered to myself, already stressed just thinking about the upcoming years at Cube before they'd even properly started.
The lecture continued with an explanation of those who had conquered towers, and I kept taking notes.
Despite my Intelligence stat being 5 out of 10, there hadn't been any significant changes—but I didn't know whether that was average or exceptional.
The person beside me kept coughing, which I found irritating, but I held back.
Two hours passed like that until class finally ended.
"Make sure you go back and review today's notes. Otherwise, you'll be crying on the exam."
The professor left after saying that.
"This is going to be tough..."
I stretched a little, feeling a bit stiff from sitting so long, like my body was itching to move.
"Ugh, this is so annoying. Why do we have to learn all this? Written exams are the worst..."
Chae Nayun complained—loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear, I was sure.
"WE'LL MEET AT THE FIELD IN 20 MINUTES!"
A loud voice rang through the classroom. I turned to see who it was.
Yi Yeonghan—Kim Suho's friend, classmate, and the class president.
And finally, it was about to begin: Anti-Monster Combat Training.
*****
After a 20-minute break, all of Class Veritas gathered at the Beginner's Field. There were 100 of us in total, so it looked packed.
I saw many worried faces, though being with their friends seemed to help.
"The only person I know is Minjae… and he's not even in this class."
At that moment, the instructor, Kim Soohyuk, appeared, and we all lined up in ten columns in front of him.
"I'm sure you all know what this lesson is about, so I'll announce the teams without further explanation. Unless something unusual happens, this team will remain the same until after the midterm exams."
Team formation was important—some people might be nervous, others excited. It didn't matter if you'd been with someone in Military Academy; you had to adapt to whoever ended up in your team.
Each team would consist of five members: two Warriors, one Marksman, one Support, and one Utility. For now, it would only be four, since the Utility role, normally filled by a Mage, was excluded temporarily.
I was assigned as a Warrior—one of the most common roles in class.
"Team members will be selected fairly. Lower-ranked cadets will be paired with higher-ranked ones,"
Kim Soohyuk announced.
"You may now view your team!"
The list of all teams appeared in front of me, and I saw something I didn't expect.
[Team 1]
[Kim Suho / Kim Lang]
[Sung Seung-Un / Paine]
[Team 2]
[Lucien Cross / Demian Walker]
[Agnes Schneider / Chae Nayun]
...
...
[Team 5]
[Jin Hoseung / Hazuki]
[Kim Hajin / Yoo Yeonha]
"That… changed."
Originally, Chae Nayun's team had someone named Rosen and someone named Chun Lee. I didn't know what they looked like, since they never appeared in the manhwa, but the fact that they weren't listed among the rest of the teams made me uneasy.
The only explanation I could think of was that it was my presence that caused this—but Lucien Cross existed before I took over his body, so maybe the being who sent me here changed things intentionally.
I walked over to Chae Nayun, who was with someone that looked familiar.
"No way. You're that gunslinger sympathizer."
The same pink-haired girl was next to Nayun, making me question the change even more.
"Nice to see you too. I'm Lucien Cross."
"I'm Agnes Schneider."
We greeted each other briefly, as was customary.
"I didn't think I'd end up on the same team as the gunslinger sympathizer."
"Maybe they saw us talking and decided we'd work well together."
The atmosphere felt a little awkward—like she resented me just for not badmouthing Hajin.
"And you must be the famous Chae Nayun. With you on the team, this class should be a breeze."
I tried to steer the conversation toward Chae Nayun.
"Hehe, that's true"
Chae Nayun was pretty simple—just a compliment like that and she was happy, though she quickly composed herself.
"So, a swordsman, an archer, and a martial artist. That's a solid team foundation."
There were three out of four of us present, meaning only one member was missing—the only original member of Nayun's team.
"Where's the last one?"
Chae Nayun started to get impatient since the last member hadn't arrived yet—but soon a black-haired boy approached us.
"Sorry, I didn't know who you were. I'm Demian Walker."
He introduced himself nervously, probably because Nayun looked a bit annoyed, but the important thing was that we were all here. Before we could talk more, the instructor spoke.
"There's no time for chatting. You should have received the coordinates and information of the monster you need to hunt on your smartwatches. Move out!"
There were a total of 25 teams. Including the other classes, that made about 100 participants.
–Wiing–
As soon as the instructor's voice rang out, the mission details came in.
My smartwatch lit up, showing the monster and its location.
[Ivory Rhinoceros – 40° 39' 20" S]
"You've got to be kidding. We got that one?"
Demian looked pessimistic, and Agnes wasn't any better.
"And why is that?"
When I asked, all three of them turned to stare at me.
"...What?"