The Novel’s Extra’s Extra

It is Monday already, and here I am, waiting for classes to start, again, I woke up really early, almost at 7:00 AM, not being the kind of person that works well in the morning, I almost fell asleep again while on the bed.

Thankfully, I always remember to put more than one alarm in the case I fall asleep again after waking up too early.

I did my normal morning routine, which consist in dragging my body out of bed, taking a shower and eating something after wearing some clothes. After all that, I went directly into the classroom. I know Kim Soohyuk told us to do morning trainings, but as I already explained, mana density being stronger on the morning is just bullshit, I’ll stay with night and after midnight trainings.

Sadly, for me, I forgot classes started at 8:30, so here I am, waiting for classes to start at 8:10…

 “Let’s just sleep a little more…”-I thought while going down on my arms. Or at least tried to.

Right at that moment, Hajin entered the classroom. And as he did the first time, he went to the middle desk and sat right beside me while giving a little nod, to which I respond with one of my own. By the way, it still amuses me how these three long desks can hold a hundred cadets, never been in a class so full.

Getting back on track, I thought about telling him right now, but thinking better, we still have classes, so it would be really inconvenient to tell him first thing in the morning. So, the talk with Hajin got postponed until after classes ended.

Just for the record, the first class was “Post-Outcall History”. Outcall was the name of the grand event that transformed this world in what it is right now, that’s when monsters, towers and dungeons started appearing for the first time, and well all hell broke loose. It happened approximately in 1971, maybe a little before, the novel doesn’t let it too explicit.

The Outcall brought a lot of changes, among them, the surge of heroes and magic was one of the most important. Along it, there was also the beginning of Magic Engineering and Magic Science. So, it was a really important factor in the growth of this world, leading it to a future my own world wouldn’t have imagined.

While thinking about the past of this world, I see the teacher entering through the front door.

“I know you all are really excited about the start of the combat training classes later, but let me get this straight. Theory is also an important part of your academic curriculum, so you all better pay attention to this and the other theory classes, and do pleas take notes. There’ll be tests.”-Said the teacher, a grey-haired professor with round eyeglasses.

Now that I think about, I do have a theory book, but do I really need it? After all, I have Observation and Reading, which I can easily use with my Eyes of the Dragon God. Theory classes will be too easy.

But I better not drag to much attention to myself. Maybe being third in class, or even a little lower is better than trying to get first or second position. After all, those are already reserved if I may phrase it like that.

As I was thinking about Hajin’s gift that now I share, the teacher started explaining a few things about the class, the history of this world after Outcall, what we have to take into consideration while attending to this course, and a few things more.

While all of this happened, I tried activating the Eyes of the Dragon God, that thankfully doesn’t have to shine or even change the way my eyes look if I just want to use a specific ability like Observation and Reading.

It was surprising, for saying the least. I just needed to see a few keywords or the holographic board and the gift would tell me everything I needed to know about it. And thanks to the modification made by my own authority, it was really specific when it came to choosing any theme I wanted to know. Really useful if I may say so.

After a few hours of classes, the teacher finally ended his lecture, and went out saying we should all read the notes we take today to not fall behind while also taking the combat training courses.

“Argh, so annoying, why do I have to learn all this? Written exams are so annoying.”

Said the girl that sits just in front of me, Chae Nayun. Who, for the record, is really bad in theory class, calling her a muscle brain would barely make her any justice. Though, it is still amusing how, even when bombing every theory test, she can keep second place among the female cadets.

And there she is, with a smile on the face, ready to start participating in the next class. Anti-monster Combat Training.

By the way, I’m not the only one looking at her, Hajin is also doing it. He must be thinking something along the line of what I was thinking. That, or he should be shitting his pants about the next class, well, can’t really blame him. He comes from a pacific world, without ever needing to fight against anything, even less seeing a true monster.

“We’re meeting at the field in 20 minutes”-Said Yi Yeonghan, another muscle head that’s friends with Kim Suho and also the representative of the class. Though, is funny, his face is really gentle, with an oval shape and small eyes that didn't gave him a look according to his really muscular body. Really contrasting.

With his words, everyone prepares to go out to the fields. I also take my book and notebook and put them inside my backpack which I bought yesterday, and start going to the field.

By the way, yesterday I didn’t only buy a backpack to bring to classes, I also tested a few things with the laptop. And learned that it indeed has an OS, just that it seems really simple, pretty much like a game-like interface, with a white screen and some icons on the corners. I could see my profile, where every gift and authority were listed, specific information about some monsters, and even a web navigator. It also has access to the annotations of Hajin’s original setting, so I could probably read everything he wrote on his settings.

Not that I did. It was boring, after all, I had the author himself right beside me to explain in case I needed to know something.

While thinking about this and that, I finally got to the field with all 100 cadets from the Novice’s Veritas class. Really, too much people for just one class. I won’t even remember half of their name. HA! I don’t even recognize more than 8 people, who happens to be the main cast and the girl from the training center, whose name I don’t even know. To better it up, I have talked to 0 people to the moment, excepting the little nods with Hajin. That’s a great start to a magnificent academic life, right?

Why would I be thinking about it? Well, because all the cadets are forming groups with their friends, while only I am left out, well, let me correct that, while only Hajin and I are left out. Man, I’m accustomed to be alone, but looking at Hajin’s face, it seems he isn’t in a good mood.

I know where that comes from, after all, not only he is in a world not of his own, or maybe not entirely his, he is here all alone. Let’s help him a little.

“Hey seatmate!”- I said while getting closer to the other loner apart from me.

“Hey…?”-He answers with a really confused face, it seems he is trying to look for any kind of clue to my identity, not that I put any fault in him when all we’ve ever done is nod to each other.

“The name you’re looking for is Lamas D. Cristopher, but please just call me Cristopher. You’re Kim Hajin, right?”

“Right, guess is not hard to know the only fool with a gun.”

“Not just the gun dude, you also like to space out a lot, so with like 5 to 6 calls from the instructor, it isn’t hard to learn a name. Even for someone like me who easily forgets names.”

“Hahaha… yeah, maybe you’re right. So, Cristopher, I take it that loners must be together?”

“Wow! How did you know? Actually yes, I came here after looking that you were left out, just like me. Thought maybe a little chat to know my seatmate better would be great to kill time while the instructor gets here.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, it also sucks to be left out among a group of hundred cadets, it really makes you feel like a sore thumb.”-Said Hajin while chuckling.

“I know, right? So, tell me about you man. Don’t worry, I won’t ask about the gun or why you chose it. Everyone has a secret or two.”

“Not that it matters right? But still, thanks for not asking. And nothing much, just an orphan with a huge debt to paid on my back. What about you?”

“Me? Pretty much the same, a huge debt, no parents, no clues to where the hell I come from, and being the weirdo with the white/dark brown hair.”-I said the last part noticing how every now and then Hajin would look at my hair.

“About your hair… Sorry, I never meant to be disrespectful, it’s just so weird, never saw anyone with a hair tinted like that before.”-Said Hajin with an apologetic face.

“Yeah, don’t worry man, I’ve learned to live with that. By the way, this isn’t fake, is my true hair color, just to let you know.”

“Wa-wait… For real!?”

“Yeah, is pretty chuuni, don’t you think?”

“That’s to say the least *chuckles*, I would never imagine it being real.”

“Of course not, I don’t even know the first person wanting to change their hair color to something like this. So, you can deduce how well is going my attempt to find someone else with the same hair color.”

Right when we were talking about my hair color, the instructor, Kim Soohyuk, gets to the field. Everyone started to form in front of him in ten columns of ten cadets each.

“I’m sure you all know what this lesson is about, so I’ll announce the teams without explanation. Unless something special happens, this team will be the same until after the midterms.”

Nice. I’ll get to met new friends! And without needing to make the effort! Just please don’t let me with the fatty of Kim Horak, that bastard is a sore pain in the ass, and the worst thing, he is just a lackey for Shin Jonghak. Everyone else is well received.

Each team will be composed of 5 cadets, two front-lanes or warriors, one sharpshooter, like Chae Nayun, a support, and temporally, a utility role cadet.

The warriors, as its name suggest, were in charge of the front lane, they usually deal de more damage per second or were in charge of tanking the enemies. Sharpshooter was in charge of long-distance damage, being as far as possible, dealing as much damage as possible.

Support players where really variable in role, they could do anything from supporting the main damager to deal damage by themselves, they could also be responsible for healing or buffing their party members. Finally, the utility player referred to the magicians, who would be coming later after first year ended.

This means that, including me, we would have a second warrior, one sharpshooter and one supporter in the team.

By the way, the position is selected based on your main weapon. And in case of the warriors, it stayed something like this:

[Warriors - Rank 1 Kim Suho, Rank 2 Shin Jonghak, Rank 3 Rachel… Rank 915 Cristopher, Rank 920 Yumiko, Rank 931 Lester, Rank 950 Lee Na-Hee…]

Seems like there’s much more warriors than other roles, which is why there’s always 2 of them in each party. Oh well. Not that bad really.

“Team members will be selected fairly. Lower ranked cadets will be paired with higher ranked cadets.”- Said Kim Soohyuk while looking at all cadets formed in front of him.

The team selection is made by a system, which was built by the Great Sage, one of the great heroes of the world, and someone whose intelligence could be considered as something above humanity. Even taking into account that everyone is basically a superhuman in this world.

The system is basically an artificial intelligence, which means it will select from the bottom and the topmost ranking in order to make balanced teams. It doesn’t allow for any kind of persuasion or corruption, which make it a truly random selection, only with the premise of high-ranking cadets being paired with low-ranking cadets.

[Team 1][Kim Suho / Kim Lang][Sung Seung-Un / Paine]

[Team 2][Demian / Rosen][Chun Lee / Chae Nayun]

…

…

[Team 5][Jin Hoseung / Hazuki][Kim Hajin / Yoo Yeonha]

…

…

…

[Team 9][Rachel / Cristopher][Park Min-Ho / Mark]

Would you look at that? Such a surprise. Seems like I ended up in team Rachel, who could say? Ending up with not just one of the most beautiful characters from the novel, but also one of the important ones.

Oh well, I’ll just have to play safe, and go at their pace. Though, I should probably help them end a little faster. I don’t even remember what place did Rachel took on this combat training, but it probably wasn’t further than 3^rd or 4^th place.