The Support Ate it All

The White Magic Club.

The club president’s office.

The seated Jeong Chong-myeong was facing two guests.

Those guests, of course, were Dang Gyu-young and Hong Ye-hwa.

Although they had all received disciplinary action for their recent infiltration of the temporary storage, the atmosphere between the three club presidents was unexpectedly cheerful.

This was because the rewards they gained far outweighed the consequences.

Jeong Chong-myeong and Hong Ye-hwa had managed to recover most of the prohibited items that had been confiscated from their members, including The Book of Chaos.

Dang Gyu-young had received ample compensation for getting involved, and the profits from selling the remaining prohibited items would surely be substantial.

Of course, if Kim Ho and Dang Gyu-young hadn’t smuggled out the prohibited items through some undisclosed method, they would have been left with nothing but disciplinary actions.

“I thought it was all over when I saw you two getting caught.”

“Same here. I’d half given up, but you held on to the end.”

Hong Ye-hwa chimed in as well.

As a club president, she had her pride to maintain, so she hadn’t shown it outwardly, but when Song Cheon-hye had aimed the prohibited item detector at the two of them, her heart had been pounding nervously.

When the magnifying glass came out after that, she’d thought it was truly over.

But then, shortly after putting on the magnifying glass and returning, Kwak Seung-jae had only uttered a single sentence.

“We’ve decided to let it go.”

Even Song Cheon-hye’s expression had turned pale by that point.

What exactly had happened beyond that door?

The curiosity in the eyes of the two presidents gleamed brightly.

“How did you pull it off?”

“It’s a secret. We have to keep some tricks up our sleeves, don’t we?”

Dang Gyu-young brushed it off with a calm demeanor.

Though inwardly, she was actually thinking the same thing.

I’m the one who wants to know that the most.

Even if the prohibited item detector had been beaten by the Cube of Life, how did he deal with the magnifying glass?

She was curious, so she had asked Kim Ho directly.

– Young Monarch, how did you manage it?

– I used a cheat skill.

– How many cheat skills do you even have?

Her questions only grew, leaving her even more perplexed.

Still, believing that she would find out someday, Dang Gyu-young decided to set her curiosity aside for now.

The two club presidents also seemed to think it was rude to keep prying about his skills, so they let the matter drop.

Of course, even if it wasn’t about prohibited items, there was still plenty to say about Kim Ho.

“He’s a real piece of work.”

“The more I look, the more it feels like he’s someone who had been held back a year.”

“Right? I’m not the only one who thought that, am I?”

For once, all three club presidents were in complete agreement.

In particular, Jeong Chong-myeong seemed almost excessive in his praise.

“The kid’s composed. He’s got guts too.”

Even in the middle of a crisis, he had shown no signs of nervousness.

He’d been dragged into the Room of Truth, confronted with the magnifying glass, yet he hadn’t been scared in the slightest. Instead, he had calmly turned the situation around by making a bet and winning.

Hong Ye-hwa added her own comment as if to agree.

“He seems like he’d be perfect to excel as a mage.”

“Right? Right, right.”

Jeong Chong-myeong nodded enthusiastically.

Dang Gyu-young too found herself nodding in satisfaction.

It was clearly Kim Ho receiving all the praise, but somehow, she couldn’t help feeling pleased as well.

In the midst of it all, Jeong Chong-myeong adjusted his glasses and spoke up.

“So, Dang Gyu-young.”

“What?”

“Kim Ho’s main focus is wind magic, right?”

“…Probably?”

Dang Gyu-young answered in a somewhat uncertain tone.

Based on what she had observed so far, it seemed like he dabbled in various skills but his main focus was definitely wind magic.

Jeong Chong-myeong nodded his head knowingly as if he had expected that.

“So, it’s safe to say he’s not into dark magic.”

“…Hey, wait a minute. You…”

Surely, he wasn’t about to bring that up?

Sensing an ominous turn to the conversation, Dang Gyu-young narrowed her eyes.

The fact that he wasn’t a dark mage meant he met the requirements to join the White Magic Club.

And just as she feared, Jeong Chong-myeong’s lips curved into a sly smile.

“I’m thinking of throwing him a recruitment offer. What do you think—”

“No way!”

Dang Gyu-young cut him off firmly, leaving Jeong Chong-myeong surprised enough to ask again.

“Why not?”

“He’s mine.”

“…Yours?”

The two club presidents gave her a peculiar look.

When she thought about her own words, Dang Gyu-young quickly realized that her wording was far from ideal.

However, she calmly corrected herself in a matter-of-fact tone.

“No, I mean we’ve already claimed him. We’ve been working on this for a while now, so it wouldn’t be right for you to just swoop in and steal him.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jeong Chong-myeong could have argued against her reasoning, but he decided to hold back. He saw no need to ruin the good atmosphere unnecessarily.

Instead, he subtly reminded her of one small fact.

“We allow dual memberships, though.”

“Even so, no.”

“And why’s that?”

“It feels wrong.”

It might have seemed trivial at first glance, but it was actually a critical issue.

There was a significant difference between Kim Ho joining the White Magic Club first and then the Thieves’ Club versus joining the Thieves’ Club first and then the White Magic Club.

In most cases, even with dual memberships, people tended to feel more attached to the club they joined first and became more actively involved there.

Jeong Chong-myeong understood this point as well, but he couldn’t help thinking, “Still, her reaction seems a bit extreme.”

Was there something going on between the two of them that he didn’t know about?

If that were the case, how could he explain the fact that Kim Ho was still unaffiliated with any club?

Jeong Chong-myeong fell silent for a moment and started considering various hypotheses.

Eventually, he reached a conclusion.

“Alright, fine. I’ll put the recruitment offer on hold for now.”

For the time being, he decided to step back and observe the situation.

Of course, his decision wasn’t just to accommodate Dang Gyu-young’s feelings.

There’s no reason to gamble on a losing bet.

Kim Ho was undoubtedly aware of the White Magic Club and the fact that dual memberships were allowed.

If he were interested, he would have already submitted a membership application.

In other words, making a recruitment offer now would likely be a futile effort.

If the odds were so slim, was it worth clashing with the Thieves’ Club just to push forward?

Jeong Chong-myeong had weighed all these factors and decided to step back for now.

Still, he added one last comment.

“At least make sure he knows we’re keeping a close eye on him.”

How their evaluation of Kim Ho might change in the future, or whether the judgment Jeong Chong-myeong made now would hold true later, was something only time could tell.

***

Even after absorbing the cute deadly poison, I continued the cycle of consuming poison, cultivating mana, consuming poison, and cultivating mana.

Just as I was about to consume the next dose of poison, I noticed a notification message pop up.

I must have missed it while I was immersed in my cultivation.

[The rank of your ‘Core’ has increased. (C+ → B+)]

At last, the core had broken through its stagnant phase and reached B-rank.

I figured it was about time.

While it was an unexpected achievement, it wasn’t entirely out of the blue.

I consumed elixirs as if they were daily meals and practically lived in the mana cultivation room.

On top of that, I absorbed the energy contained in various poisons and effectively consumed even more elixirs in the process.

My body feels lighter.

I could clearly sense that my mana capacity had significantly increased.

Along with this came a surge of confidence, as if I could accomplish anything.

This wasn’t just a feeling. My actual capabilities had expanded as well.

I could now learn more advanced magic and handle spells with much less strain on my mana.

For example, the [Ice Wall] spell I recently copied was a B-rank spell with high mana consumption, so I had planned to reserve it for crucial moments.

But now, there was no need to hold back; I could use it freely whenever I needed.

If I could push my core to the next level and reach A-rank,

Advanced magic will unlock.

A simple example was space-time magic.

The [Blink] spell that Oh Se-hoon had used during the chase fell under this category.

Of course, achieving an A-rank core would be exponentially harder than reaching B-rank, so I still had a long road ahead of me.

Well, let’s finish what I was doing.

Although I had been momentarily distracted, my original goal wasn’t the core.

I resumed my training by swallowing the next dose of poisons and focusing on cultivating mana once again.

Who knows how much time passed as I remained in this state?

By the time the poisons I had stored in my inventory were nearly depleted, another notification message appeared.

[You have acquired the ‘Thousand Poisons Immunity (B)’]

Thousand Poisons Immunity.

I had now reached a level where I wouldn’t even suffer poisoning from most types of poison.

This alone would give me a fair chance against the Witch of Corruption.

If her difficulty level had once been hell mode, it now felt more like normal mode.

However, some of the witch’s spells were A-rank, so the danger hadn’t disappeared entirely.

To lower the difficulty to easy mode,

I’ll need to prepare for Poison Immunity.

Fortunately, I was only one step away from completing it.

Once I secured the pin to fix my poison resistance permanently, it would be done.

Now, where could I acquire that important pin?

[Main Quest 2-3] (In Progress…)

▷Objective: Collect the sample.

▷Reward: Rewards will vary based on achievement level.

As I progressed steadily through the chain quests, I knew the reward would eventually come.

I pulled out a small test tube from my inventory.

It had been provided along with the quest, and I needed to defeat the Dark Oobleck to collect a sample in it.

To defeat the Dark Oobleck, I would first need to search through dungeon after dungeon to track them down.

Perfect. The disciplinary punishment will fit the task.

Honestly, I didn’t mind it at all.

This disciplinary punishment was unusual in several ways, particularly because it required “entering a dungeon”.

No matter how severely a student violated the school rules, it wouldn’t make sense to throw them into a life-or-death dungeon without any preparation.

Since there was a significant chance I’d encounter the Dark Oobleck during the search, I needed to prepare thoroughly.

For this reason, even the disciplinary committee showed some flexibility, and coordinated the schedule rather than simply ordering, “You’re going to the dungeon starting tomorrow, no exceptions!”

I had chosen to begin my punishment today, Friday.

***

After school.

While the other students poured out of the classroom in droves, I leisurely walked over to Song Cheon-hye.

At that moment, Song Cheon-hye who had just risen from her seat turned to look at me after she seemed to have noticed my gaze.

Her expression was anything but pleasant, but I asked her casually,

“Who’s on the team?”

“It’s a four-person group. You, me, and two others.”

I was about to ask who the other two were when a familiar voice came from behind me.

“Well, well, look who we have here!”

It was none other than Shin Byeong-cheol, a disciplinary committee regular.

Not only had he recently had a pile of prohibited items confiscated during the latest ban wave, but he’d also brazenly broken into the temporary storage area without showing a hint of remorse.

It’s a wonder he hasn’t been expelled yet.

I didn’t know the details, but it was safe to assume he’d take disciplinary actions for the rest of the semester.

Despite his bleak future, Shin Byeong-cheol grinned from ear to ear and said,

“You should’ve told me we’d be carrying out punishment together!”

“I just found out myself.”

“Fair enough. Anyway, let’s get along, right?”

“Don’t ‘get along’ with me. Just pull your weight.”

“Oh, of course! I’ll definitely pull my weight.”

Song Cheon-hye watched the two of us with a disapproving look on her face before cutting into the conversation.

“This isn’t a day off. Take it seriously, please.”

Shin Byeong-cheol and I, as if on cue, immediately hardened our expressions with exaggerated seriousness.

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Don’t we already look serious?”

“Wow, man, why does your face look so serious?”

“You’re no different.”

With a common enemy, we were perfectly in sync.

Song Cheon-hye sighed and started shaking her head as though giving up on the conversation.

At that moment, I threw the same question back at her.

“So, who’s the last one?”

“That’d be me!”

This time, the answer came from somewhere else.

Han So-mi appeared with a bright cheerful voice.

It was as if the sound effect of “Ta-daa!” was echoing.