episode_0025

The morning at Elm Talent Development Academy starts very early.

Although it is not a regular policy, even at 5 a.m., playgrounds and parks are crowded with people going for morning jogs and physical training.

It may be because it has only been a few days since the semester started, so the new mindset that is unique to the new semester has not faded away, but it is probably a big reason why everyone has strengthened their resolve after the Gate incident that shook the whole world.

But just three days later, Elada had a very quiet morning.

The playground was empty, and only streetlights illuminated the sidewalk blocks along the Italic-style main street.

Occasionally, one or two people can be seen, but their steps are slow and they only show blank expressions as they sit on a bench on the street and look at the moon that has not yet set.

Has it already been three days?

‘But it’s worth it.’

Han Se-jun, who was lying on the bench, muttered in his mind as he looked at the moon in the sky setting below the horizon.

I turned off the alarm on my phone that I had set for 5 o’clock as usual, and with a tired body, I stepped out of the dormitory for a morning jog.

It’s the same day as usual. The early morning air was cold, and the halogen street lights outside the dormitory radiated daylight, welcoming him as he stood outside the door.

But there was something he didn’t expect: his physical condition was different from usual.

Just yesterday’s lecture. No, it’s not even a lecture. This is because I had to run as hard as I could, which was almost torture, during the required class, which should be called combat physical education or physical training class.

My whole body aches and I still feel like I’m burning inside. In the past, when I was working part-time jobs, the aftereffects were much worse than the day after I worked part-time loading and unloading rice bags and fruit crates at a logistics hub the day before a holiday.

It seemed like a huge explosion occurred on the top floor of the main building the moment I was half-asleep, but I didn’t have the energy to pay attention to it.

From what I heard, it looks like Northmund caused the explosion while researching magic, but the person involved seems to be safe, so I guess that’s a good thing.

‘Ugh, it hurts.’

Let’s just skip exercise this morning and go to the dormitory and get some rest. The first lecture starts at 9 o’clock, so if you go in now, you can lie down in bed and relax for two or three hours.

‘I need to get up.’

However, his exhausted body refuses to get up from the bench, and tremendous fatigue comes upon him.

There is a half moon in the sky. As the days go by, that moon will fade little by little, as if someone had bitten it, turning into an old moon.

What is your father doing? It’s only been three days since he came to Ellada, and he’s already worried about his father.

‘No, that person must be living well with the living expenses provided by GDO.’

You must be drinking by now. It’s stupid to think.

‘Let’s rest for a bit.’

Even though it’s March, it’s still cold. I’m tired, but if I fall asleep in a place like this, my facial muscles may stiffen and my mouth may turn.

So you have to wake up. Even if I sleep, I have to sleep on a bed in the dormitory.

therefore… .

.

.

.

.

“гей.”

“… .”

“ишь!”

“… .”

A voice coming from somewhere. Someone’s face looking down at you through dimly opened eyes.

Isn’t it like the cliché of the beginning of a fantasy game in another world? If the being who calls you is a goddess from another world, then it’s perfect… .

“… Huh?!”

Han Sejun quickly got up. As his face suddenly approached, the blond-haired male student, who almost hit his head, retreated with a straight face.

“Ты подходишь студентов?Сразу начинается урок.”

“What?”

For a moment, Han Se-jun was taken aback by the unknown language and stood up from the bench.

When I looked around, it had already become bright, and the moonlight that had greeted me as I lay down was nowhere to be found. The only thing I could hear was the unique scent of damp grass in the morning and the sound of chirping birds.

“У меня нет брюка.”

“What is it? What are you saying… .”

Confused by the blond boy’s untranslatable words, he realized that there was no dragon badge on his chest.

The badge with the translation function was attached to his coat and hung on a hanger on the wall of the dormitory.

The blonde male student also seemed to realize that Han Sejun did not have a badge.

I picked up my phone and checked the current time… .

“8:51?”

“Да.”

The blonde male student left a message to him and started running somewhere.

I was in big trouble. There were less than 10 minutes left until Principal Northmund’s lecture began. It was too late to go back to the dormitory to get my coat, get dressed, and come out.

But there is no translation badge… .

‘Eh, I don’t know.”

I have no choice but to just go. Please stop criticizing the dean for wearing sweats… .

“Go there together!”

I hurriedly chased after the blond male student who was ahead of me.

*

“Heo-eok, heo-eok… .”

I took a deep breath.

“I arrived 12 seconds before the lecture started. Plus, the outfit is pretty.”

Sejun Han shrugged his shoulders at the sight of Dean Northmund looking down at him as if he were a piece of dirty dirt, without hiding his disgusted expression.

Even so, he knew that it was impolite to attend a lecture wearing baggy sweats, so he avoided the harsh gaze.

It was obvious to anyone that Northmund did not like Han Se-jun’s appearance, but fortunately, he opened the door and let Han Se-jun and his group in.

In fact, they weren’t the only ones who were late. Behind them, several students came panting and followed by the dean’s scolding.

“Still, I was lucky.”

Hearing Han Sejun’s words, the blonde who ran with him narrowed his eyes, tapped his shoulder, and raised his thumb.

In fact, I was heartbroken because I was prepared to get my butt kicked and kicked out for being a bastard who doesn’t even know manners.

Seeing that no one is coming in behind them, it seems like they won’t let latecomers in here.

‘By the way, it’s a strange place.’

It was a dome-shaped greenhouse made of glass, or a place that looked like a botanical garden. The entrance was sealed off with something like plastic, and it looked like it had been built to isolate or contain specially infected people.

They rolled back the plastic and entered the lecture hall along the long entrance.

And the moment I entered there.

“Ой!”

“Wow!”

Did he suddenly fall into the water? I felt like my body was floating in the air, as if I was swimming in space.

A sparkling blue air current filled the space, and when I waved my hand, it gave a strange feeling as if I could catch it in my hand.

It felt like my whole body was surrounded by fluorogel.

“… and. It’s like underwater.”

The sight of blue air currents creating convection currents, occasionally creating whirlwinds, reflecting off the lamps on the ceiling, and emitting a radiance like aquamarine fragments, left Sejun Han dazed and paralyzed on the spot as if he were mesmerized, and the blonde man who was with him seemed to be no different.

The huge igloo-like glass dome-shaped greenhouse becomes a planetarium, with blue aurora rippling from the ceiling.

The instructor guided the two people, who were mesmerized by the sight, to their seats.

Seeing that I was guided to the back, it seemed like seats were assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

That moment,

Han Sejun suddenly felt his lower abdomen getting hot. Right below my belly button, somewhere inside I couldn’t explain, it was getting hot.

Looking around, I saw that all the students who had settled down first were pressing their stomachs, and it seemed like Han Sejun was not the only one who felt that unknown heat.

‘what? Suddenly, a strange feeling appeared in my stomach… .”

I suddenly felt short of breath. He closed his eyes, pressing his heated stomach as he sank into the blue convection current.

I felt something stirring inside me. Although it was clearly not a living thing, it had a will, and it continued to wriggle in its lower abdomen, showing off its vitality.

He closed his eyes due to the pain in his stomach. He tried desperately to control the heat in his stomach, but it chugged against his will.

‘please!’

He closed his eyes and blanked his mind. I wanted to control this energy. No, if possible, he wanted to expel this foreign substance that had suddenly invaded his body.

I couldn’t stand, so I sat down with my legs crossed and started fighting against the energy inside me.

A thunder roared from my lower abdomen and a stabbing pain hit my internal organs. A sensation that made my whole body tremble came rushing in, as if I had accidentally hit my forearm joint.

I wish someone could help me. Please help me in my struggle with this thing.

Cold sweat drips from my forehead and I hear heavy, uncontrollable breathing.

Then, the sound gradually diminished. As the sounds of the world decrease, the pain in my lower abdomen gradually disappears.

When the heavy breathing of the students around him gradually subsided and only his own pounding heart could be heard, he finally quietly opened his eyes.

“Gasp!”

Light enters the eyeball that has been closed for a long time, and the optic nerve screams.

Two burning eyes mixed with that intense light stare at him.

“Gyo… Professor!”

“Interesting.”

I hear dry words.

“Taking the first step in mana control without any advice or help.”

“?”

When I looked around, there was no one left around. Inside an empty glass cavity.

The countless students were gone, and only Dean Northmund was standing there in the dark.

Although it was a dark space, the unknown energy flowing through the space still remained. But something was different.

The wave-like resistance I felt when I waved my hand was no longer there, and I felt very comfortable. It felt like I was walking on fluffy clouds.

“How do you feel?”

Han Se-jun seemed troubled by the sudden question. This is because it was a feeling that was difficult to express verbally.

How can I express in words the feeling of running around on this soft cotton candy?

It felt like lying on a trampoline and bouncing a little, or it felt like lying on a fleece sofa and looking at the sky.

If I had to express this feeling in words… .

“That… Something soft… Dreamy and dreamy? Fluffy? that… That feeling… ”

“… My vocabulary is poor. If you have time, read a book.”

Negative emotions bloom on the expressionless face of the dean, and he spits out coldly.

Han Se-jun, who cringed at the sudden sale, avoided his gaze with a red face.

Looking like a kicked puppy, Enosmund let out a small sigh, pulled out a large staff out of the air, and slammed it on the floor.

Then, the blue energy that was fluctuating in space began to be sucked into the wand.

A strange sight as the prevailing blue air current disappears into a large cane.

As Han Se-jun looked at the scene, he remembered a villain from the World Masterpiece Theater whom he had seen every weekend morning as a child.

The villain, whose body was made of a gas-like gas, met his end by being sucked into the protagonist’s vacuum cleaner.

Although it does not match the situation in front of him now, it is a similar atmosphere that brings back memories of his childhood.

How many minutes have passed? The energy containing the starlight completely disappeared inside Northmund’s staff, and the fluffy cloud-like sensation that swirled around Han Sejun also disappeared along with the blue energy.

And Northmund’s sharp gaze replaced the blue energy.

“What are you doing? The lecture ended a long time ago. Get out.”

Go away quickly. Han Se-jun was startled by the silent gaze and ran to the door and disappeared.

The dean’s stinging gaze continued to stare behind him.

When I came out of the glass dome and looked at the sky, it seemed like it was already deep at night and the moon was floating in the sky.

Looking at the streetlights turned on at night, he felt a sense of déjà vu as if it were this morning.

What is different is that students and employees who came out to enjoy the evening entertainment are walking around in groups.

“Ha.”

It is a unique and strange day.

Today was the shortest day of all the days Han Sejun has lived so far.

Surely today is just one day out of 365 days a year, but the time he felt today was only about an hour.

I fell asleep briefly at dawn, opened my eyes, hurriedly went to lecture, closed my eyes due to a strange feeling, opened them, and was kicked out by the dean.

When you think about it… .

‘What is that energy? Is that mana?’

Han Sejun briefly raised his hand and tried to activate his supernatural ability.

A flicker of flame covers my hands and tickles them gently.

‘Oh wait. ‘What does this feel like?’

This feeling is similar to the feeling of blue energy that filled the classroom earlier.

Additionally, he felt as if the energy used to generate the flames of his supernatural ability was connected to his lower abdomen.

In the past, energy drained from my body and I easily became tired, so it was true that I was worried that I might be using up my vitality.

But now, I could clearly feel the energy coming from my lower abdomen and connecting to my red, glowing hands.

I urgently touched the area with my hand and felt that there were very small grains, the size of grains of rice, that you couldn’t even feel unless you concentrated your senses.

‘Are you okay? ‘The dean didn’t say anything, so it’s okay, right?’

No matter how loud and cold a dean may be, if something goes wrong with the body of a student he or she is educating, there is no way he would just ignore it.

It’s probably okay. Yeah, maybe.

“… It feels like a Danjeon from a martial arts magazine.”

Feeling proud, I put my hand inside my sweatpants and smoothed my lower abdomen.

If that fluctuating blue energy is called mana, it would be different from the energy in martial arts, so it would not be the same concept of dantian.

Could it be that the same energy is called mana in the West and energy in the East?

‘Now that I think about it, I guess not. ‘That doesn’t make sense.’

Thinking about it again, Han Se-jun gave up his reasoning because the energy called Mana came from another world with Northmund.

Still, I feel proud of the tightening of my lower abdomen. If you press that part firmly, mana comes out as if you were pressing a small water balloon.

When you let go, it pushes back into that small space and fills the inside.

Han Sejun, who was stroking his lower abdomen covered in sweatpants for a moment, came to his senses when he heard someone calling him.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Ha, what a pervert you have been since the beginning of the school… .”

Before his eyes, a man wearing a security hat and a uniform with the same mark was staring at him with a puzzled expression.

At first glance, a large man radiating energy as if he were an Ellada security guard was standing in front of him.

Although he was wearing a long-sleeved uniform, he had rugged muscles that could be felt even underneath it, and a grim-looking man with a natural frown.

“No… I am.”

“You know this is a misdemeanor, right? First of all, please take your hands away from kneading that object.”

“No, that’s not what this is… .”

Han Se-jun took his hand away from smoothing the hem in his pants.

Looking around, several groups of people were looking at him with different expressions.

When he saw them with mixed expressions, Han Se-jun’s head felt like it was going to explode.

Only three days have passed since this academy opened. I have to go for another 3 years… .

At that moment, Han Sejun felt that the rest of his school life was very… . okay. I realized that, to put it bluntly, I was very screwed.

“I came here after receiving a report that an outsider was trespassing and engaging in perverted behavior on the main street. Huh, indeed.”

“No… excuse me. I’m a student here.”

“You want me to believe that without even having a badge?”

“… .”

As he was thinking of a solution to the situation, something cold touched his wrist.

Sejun Han. Although he had done many things so far, he was an upright young man who had never once committed an illegal act.

But today, for something truly absurd, he was handcuffed for the first time.

“Your hands are dirty, so don’t touch this side and just follow along. If you resist, you’ll have to be prepared to break one or two places.”

Although he was speaking quite gentlemanly, his expression said “I’m going to punch you in the stomach right now”.

Unfortunately, as a self-proclaimed timid man, he had no choice but to lower his head and follow his words.

“YOU HYPE!”

A man watching him narrowed his eyes at Han Se-jun and raised his thumb.

Although there was no badge on his chest, Han Sejun seemed to be able to understand what he was saying.