Knight Order Entrance Exam – 3

While we were moving to the Training Ground, Rije truly didn’t stop talking to me for a single moment. I wondered what one had to do to live so actively and energetically.

In particular, she tried to intensively dig into why I was under the Witch’s Curse, but I vaguely brushed off all her leading questions, saying I couldn’t remember due to the curse or that I didn’t know much.

Then, as if she’d grasped my intention, she completely changed the questions later.

Unable to endure the barrage of questions, I tried sending Iris and Erica a look asking for help, but it was no use.

Iris shook her head as if exasperated, saying that Rije wasn’t the type of person who could be stopped just because she tried, so I should just accept it.

Erica pointed out every single word and action, telling her to please maintain some dignity, but eventually, as if she’d given up on pointing things out, she apologized to me, saying she was sorry. Rije’s proud smile was a bonus.

In the end, bearing all the attention was entirely my burden.

After being tormented by Rije, who was clinging right next to me and chattering incessantly, Iris stopped walking.

“This is the Training Ground.”

‘What the, why is it so big?’

Before me stretched a vast flatland that looked at least three or four times larger than the Training Ground in the game. Was this also a consequence of the Knight Order’s dormitory changing from an ordinary building to a large castle?

I slowly looked around. The size had become much larger, but the overall scenery hadn’t changed. It was closer to simply stretching the game’s location horizontally.

A warehouse was visible in the distance, and wooden swords were lined up along one wall. The ground didn’t seem particularly well-maintained, as dust flew up in clouds every time the wind blew.

Rije, who had been whispering something to Erica just moments before, subtly opened her mouth as she approached my side at some point.

“How is it, rookie? Do you like it?”

“It just feels ordinary-wait, rookie?”

“Yeah, rookie. Why? Is there a problem or something?”

“Of course there is. I haven’t even taken the entrance exam yet.”

“There’s no way Iris would have misjudged someone. And didn’t you hear her confidently say earlier that there’s no need to worry? If you can say something like that, then passing is a foregone conclusion, so you’re a rookie. Don’t worry too much, I’ll go easy on you too. Ah, but not *too* easy, of course.”

Rije gave a wink. If Enemy Reinforcement Mode hadn’t been installed, I would have accepted it, but since it wasn’t, I barely managed to pull up the corners of my mouth, letting that serve as my answer.

“The exam method is a 1-on-1 duel, and you pass if a majority of the Knight Order Captains, excluding Captain-nim Iris, agree to your admission. Captain-nim Claudia is absent, so if just one of us, me or my older sister, agrees, it should be fine. It’s not a majority, but it can’t be helped, right?”

“Claudia isn’t here?”

At Erica’s explanation, Iris expressed doubt.

It was the same for me. In my memories, there wasn’t even a character named Claudia. It seemed more accurate to think that all the main NPCs had simply been changed to women.

I’ll have to research how much of this matches the game and where it starts to differ.

“Claudia? She went to catch a monster. She left shortly after you did, under the Lord’s orders, so it’s understandable you wouldn’t know. She’ll probably be back in two days?”

A monster subjugation quest from the Lord, huh. That was enough to figure out who the original NPC was.

Iris already knew, and Claudia had figured it out too. Now it was just Rije and Erica left, huh. I felt like the outlines of the characters were roughly forming.

I’d have to keep it a secret from those three, but the Knight Order Captain-nim named Claudia would probably fail the subjugation and return severely injured. That’s how the game’s story went.

Of course, the player could also beat it.

From then on, the real beginning started. The tutorial area was merely a place to show BraDk 4’s goals and direction, and this entrance exam also felt like a basic combat tutorial explaining the game’s system.

The only problem was that if Enemy Reinforcement Mode was installed, it wouldn’t be a basic combat tutorial, but rather a half-boss battle.

“Is that so.”

Iris gave a brief nod.

“Your sparring opponent is-“

“Me me me me me! I’ll do it! It has to be me!”

Rije raised her hand with a flourish. With that motion, her chest, encased in a thin sleeveless top, greatly swayed. Iris looked at me with eyes that seemed to ask if it was still alright.

Seeing how much she wanted to fight me, I probably had no choice, did I? I nodded. As soon as I accepted her request, Rije beamed and bounced up and down.

Erica approached Rije from behind.

“Here, unnie.”

She had twin daggers in both hands, though I didn’t know when she’d brought them. As Rije took them, a chilling cold permeated the surroundings. One blade of the twin daggers turned blue, and frost formed on it.

Ah, so the original NPC for that one is *that* guy, of all people.

‘Tsk.’

I clicked my tongue inwardly. So, she has ice attributes because of her blue hair, after all.

I had been hoping for a twist, like her hair being blue because she used blue flames, or her hair being red because she used red ice.

“You can use that weapon, so there’s no particular need to give you another one, right? If by any chance you want to use something else, just say so. I’ll lend it to you.”

Iris pointed at the blood-stained sword hanging at my waist.

Just as it was naturally accepted that women wore modern clothing as game and reality blended, the fact that the entrance exam had to be fought with real weapons was also naturally accepted.

Not only Rije, but even Iris and Erica only told me to control my strength properly, and didn’t seem to think that the match itself was wrong at all.

The only mercy was the fact that it was a clear if I only reduced their health by half, not completely.

‘And of all things, the opponent’s original is *that* guy too.’

The NPC that Rije was modeled after was a boss in BraDk 4 who inflicted ‘Freezing,’ which would proudly be ranked first if you had to pick the dirtiest, most unfair, and most annoying status effect.

When the Freezing gauge fills up, the player character freezes for 4 seconds, unable to perform any actions. Even after being unfrozen, for 30 seconds, not only are movement speed, natural stamina recovery, and natural combat fatigue recovery greatly reduced, but also dodge speed, evasion distance, and invincibility frames are cut by three-quarters.

Freezing alone had over five of these utterly filthy debuffs plastered onto it, even though other status effects only had one, or at most two.

It could only be seen as the developers having deliberately intended it.

What was even more annoying was the fact that such elemental attacks couldn’t be perfectly covered by parrying. To perfectly parry an elemental attack, one needed a Greatshield or an Ultra Greatshield that matched it.

Although the accumulation was very slight, the mere fact that the gauge would slowly build up even if an attack was perfectly parried without a shield was already stressful.

“What’s that weapon? Its blade is red, isn’t it?”

As I drew the blood-stained sword, Rije, who had been swinging her dagger around, enveloped in cold air, asked curiously.

“It’s a weapon I obtained after defeating a monster in the prison.”

“Huh? A monster? There was a monster in the prison too? And you said you caught it, who? You, Iris?”

Rije’s eyes widened. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t explained what happened in the prison yet.

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you after the duel. I also have to write a report to submit to that Lord.”

“Ah, that’s right. I had to report to that pig bastard too, didn’t I?”

“I’ll probably go see him around this evening. Though I’d rather not.”

The Lord of this city seemed to have the exact same personality as in the game; not only did the usually blunt Iris openly show her dislike, but even the amiable Rije was calling him a pig bastard.

Even Erica, upon hearing that, bit her lip with a tired expression.

“Enough with the useless talk. Both of you, prepare.”

As if she didn’t want to think about the Lord anymore, Iris forcibly proceeded with the duel. Rije and I faced each other, and the two who weren’t participating in the duel retreated far back.

Cold air swirled from the twin daggers, slowly beginning to emit a white mist. It was a mist composed of ice and frost. A chill mixed with the blowing wind.

‘To think I’d see that directly before my eyes.’

I’d seen it a lot on the monitor, though.

I gripped the blood-stained sword with both hands, slightly tilting its tip to the right, and lowered my stance. As I inhaled, the cold air penetrated deep into my lungs. Surely, even this wouldn’t build up the Freezing gauge, would it?

Unlike me, who was tense from having to worry about all sorts of trivial things, Rije began to approach slowly with a relaxed expression.

“Why are you so tense, rookie? Are you perhaps worried I might kill you? That will absolutely never happen, so you can relax your shoulders a bit.”

‘But in the game, she killed me just fine.’

I quietly swallowed the words I wanted to say. Recalling how I died countless times trying to clear this when I first installed DarkRa Mode, her words weren’t particularly reassuring.

“Instead…”

The surrounding cold air rapidly swirled. It seemed she was preparing to lunge forward. I also prepared to counterattack.

“It’s going to hurt quite a bit!”

Kwang, as soon as she finished speaking, the distance closed.