The Support Ate it All

I just stood there blankly and watched the Hong sisters grow distant.

Judging by the cold look Hong Ye-hwa had given her younger sister, it was clear that a full-blown sibling quarrel would break out once they returned to the club room.

“……!”

Hong Yeon-hwa kept looking over her shoulder with pitiful eyes, but I had no reason to get involved in the fight between sisters.

I didn’t even know exactly why they were arguing.

So this was something Hong Yeon-hwa had to resolve on her own.

But was it comfortable or not in the end?

I had offered up my shoulder to test the comfort of Kim Ho’s pillow, but with Hong Ye-hwa’s sudden appearance, I didn’t get to hear her review.

She did bury her head into it quite comfortably, but I would have to hear from her directly to know for sure.

I recalled the notification message I had just received.

[Side Quest: 10th Week Duel Battles] (Completed)

▷ Objective: Complete 2 duel matches (2/2)

▷ Reward: Rank Up (E)

I finished both matches in first place and thus achieved the highest completion of this side quest.

I already had a plan for how to use the E Rank Up I earned.

I’ll use it for [Enchantment].

Copy, Amplification, Monarch, Enchantment.

These were skills and traits that were very difficult to rank up since they were powerful.

In fact, the effort to obtain a Rank Up was less taxing than trying to raise the rank of these skills and traits directly.

So, using it here was the best option.

But I can’t use it yet.

The Rank Up (E) I had just received was an item that raises an “E-rank” skill to D.

In other words, I would first need to raise the current F-rank of Enchantment before I could use it.

Come to think of it, Miss Seo is in a similar situation.

Seo Ye-in also acquired [Bullet Time] in the downtown area, putting her at F-rank, and then earned an E-rank Rank Up at the game center.

Likewise, she needed to break out of F-rank before using her Rank Up.

This works out perfectly.

Since we both had similar conditions, it seemed like a good idea to train together.

We’d need a “special device” for the training, but I could go get that now.

Maybe it’s time to use the butler card again.

***

I met Seo Ye-in again after the sun had set.

She looked disheveled overall, with a stray lock of hair sticking out like an antenna.

“Did you sleep at the dorm?”

“Mhmm…”

Seo Ye-in replied with a small yawn.

I had wondered if she’d slept in the classroom all this time, but it seemed she had at least made it to the dorm.

“Have you rested enough now?”

“Not enough …”

“Still? What percent are you at?”

“Forty…”

Even though she had been sleeping since the weekend, she still hadn’t recharged halfway.

It seemed Seo Ye-in’s sloth battery was seriously low on efficiency.

Seo Ye-in slowly tugged at my sleeve.

“Pillow…”

“You can finish sleeping later. Let’s go see the butler together.”

“Butler?”

“Yeah, for our skill training. Is that okay?”

“Mhmm.”

Seo Ye-in’s head slowly nodded up and down.

We moved to a quiet place.

As soon as we sat down side by side, Seo Ye-in quietly leaned her head on my shoulder.

I watched her eyelids gradually droop and then I spoke in a firm tone.

“You can lean on me, but if you fall asleep, you get up right away.”

“No…”

Seo Ye-in who seemed to have been thinking of using me as a pillow looked a bit sullen.

She had to stay awake at least while I contacted Ahn Jeong-mi.

I had already gotten Ahn Jeong-mi’s personal contact info in advance during the mentoring period.

As I manipulated the communication crystal, the signal rang a few times, and soon, Ahn Jeong-mi’s figure appeared.

Judging by the office in the background,

Looks like she’s working late.

“Kim Ho-nim, young miss, how have you been?”

“Good, it’s been a while.”

Ahn Jeong-mi and I exchanged formal greetings, while Seo Ye-in who was still resting her head on my shoulder lazily waved her hand.

When she saw this, Ahn Jeong-mi’s face lit up with a pleased expression.

But she quickly composed herself in a professional manner and spoke.

“I heard there was an unfortunate incident during the midterms. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Thankfully, we got through it without any issues.”

I reported everything that had happened during the midterms in detail.

From the moment I mentioned that Seo Ye-in and I had paired up, Ahn Jeong-mi’s satisfaction seemed to grow.

She was especially pleased to hear about the various experiences we had such as the supply boxes, gathering crystals, and camping.

And when I told her that we had scored a total of 2,250 points, with four crystals and an extra, her face broke into a full smile.

“You both worked really hard. I will leave anything concerning the young miss entirely in your hands from now on, Kim Ho-nim. If you need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“As a matter of fact, the reason I contacted you now is because of that.”

“What should I prepare for you?”

I pointed to Seo Ye-in with a glance and got to the point.

“As I mentioned before, she has learned [Bullet Time].”

“…Yes, you did mention that.”

[Bullet Time] was an incredibly rare skill, one that even Ahn Jeong-mi herself had yet to master.

But the lucky Seo Ye-in had learned it effortlessly from a random skill book.

Ahn Jeong-mi had been quite surprised when she first heard the news, but as a butler, it was pleasing to see her young miss’s abilities greatly improved.

“So, are you planning to have the young miss train in [Bullet Time]?”

“Yes. The timing of my skill training aligns well with it, so I’m planning to run both simultaneously. The only issue is the long cooldown.”

“You need a cooldown reduction device, huh?”

Ahn Jeong-mi’s eyes lit up as if she had already figured out what I was going to ask for.

I nodded my head to confirm her guess.

“Yes, I need a special training room pass.”

Just as there’s an advanced version of the mana cultivation room, called the special cultivation room,

There’s also an advanced version of the regular training room and it was called the special training room.

It was a place where you could twist some of the system’s established rules to allow for unique forms of training.

And the effect I was aiming for there was cooldown reduction.

The shorter the cooldown, the more frequently you could use a skill, and the more you used it, the faster its rank would increase.

However, much like the special cultivation room, the special training room wasn’t just accessible to anyone.

It required powerful magical devices to manipulate the rules, and as such, access to it was highly restricted.

What I was asking Ahn Jeong-mi for was essentially a season pass to this facility.

She seemed to understand everything up to this point, but a question crossed her mind.

“It’s not difficult to get that for you… but wouldn’t it be better to use an F-rank Rank Up instead of the special training room?”

The question she was really asking was why not just use consecutive F-rank and E-rank Rank Ups to skip straight to D-rank without needing to train at all?

It was a reasonable suggestion, but I shook my head.

“While it’s the easier route, it’s a waste of Rank Ups in the long run. The skill proficiency remains the same.”

“…I see. That was shortsighted of me.”

Ahn Jeong-mi readily admitted her mistake.

Although the power of skills and traits increases as the rank goes up, proficiency is a separate issue. The best way is for the user to become familiar with it through repeated practice.

In particular, [Bullet Time] requires catching fleeting moments of just one or two seconds during battle, so proficiency plays a huge role.

For example, if you were to activate [Bullet Time] when an opponent is about to shoot an arrow,

Using it either before the arrow leaves the string or right as it’s about to hit wouldn’t be very effective.

In the first case, the trajectory wouldn’t even be visible, and in the latter, there wouldn’t be enough time to dodge.

Maximizing efficiency depends on catching the precise timing between those two points.

So, for ranks between F and E, it’s better to use the special training room.

Ahn Jeong-mi asked,

“How long are you thinking for the training period?”

“A week should be enough.”

In about a week, reaching E-rank would be more than possible. This week, I had extra time since my duel battles had ended on the first day.

Besides, both Seo Ye-in and I weren’t exactly lacking in talent.

Ahn Jeong-mi immediately took action.

“I’ll send someone right away. Please tell me your current location.”

“Right here.”

As soon as I shared the location, Ahn Jeong-mi contacted someone without delay.

And with a soft smile on her lips, she bowed politely.

“I’ll leave the young miss in your care.”

“Of course. I’ll contact you again soon.”

Not long after the communication ended, a female student came to see us.

Judging by the tie pin, she was a third-year senior.

“Kim Ho?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

She really came right away.

I looked at the senior and was impressed by Ahn Jeong-mi’s efficiency.

Although there wasn’t a club directly associated with the Hye-seong Group at Dragon Slayer Academy, students known as “scholarship students” who received support from the Hye-seong Group, were spread across various clubs.

Even if they avoided acting against the interests of their affiliated clubs, handing over favors like this temporarily was no issue.

Any losses incurred would be fully compensated by the Hye-seong Group.

With that, the scholarship senior casually handed me the special training room pass.

“Return it by next week.”

“Yes, senior.”

I bowed my head as I accepted the card.

Once her task was complete, the senior gave us a brief glance before turning and leaving.

I showed the card to Seo Ye-in and said,

“Shall we go?”

“Special magic bullet lecture?”

“No.”

I lightly shook my head and corrected Seo Ye-in’s words.

“Kim Ho’s special Bullet Time lecture.”

***

The training center.

At first glance, the special training room didn’t seem much different from the regular one where I used to beat up wooden and iron dummies.

However, after operating the terminal, features that weren’t available in the regular training rooms appeared.

Among them, the one I was looking for was:

[Cooldown Reduction %]

It was the cooldown reduction function.

Depending on the setting, the cooldown time for the skills and traits that Seo Ye-in and I possessed would decrease.

Without hesitation, I set it to the maximum.

[Cooldown Reduction 5%]

[Cooldown Reduction 20%]

……

[Cooldown Reduction 90%]

The cooldown for an F-rank Bullet Time was five minutes.

With a 90% reduction, she could use it again every 30 seconds.

On top of that, with occasional amplification boosts, it could be reduced even further.

With this, we had all the conditions necessary for our training.

“Now, let’s begin the ‘Return’ of Kim Ho’s special Bullet Time lecture.”

Clap, clap, clap—

Seo Ye-in gave a silent round of applause with her fingers.

I took out the items I had prepared one by one.

Then I set up a small folding table in the middle of the training room and placed a pot on top of it.

Pop!

I picked up a toy hammer.

“This time, the training event will be a toy hammer game.”