Chapter 38
Faculty Advisor System.
One of the systems that were unconditionally mentioned in the original story, Clouds on the Horizon, was the advisor system.
The reason why Orhe Academy employed more professors than necessary was because of this advisor system.
Professors take as few students as possible and guide them according to their individuality and talent so that they could hone their abilities more effectively.
That was the purpose of this advisor system.
Of course, the characters in the original story also had their own advisors, and from the second playthrough, you would be able to select the advisor of your choice.
By doing so, you would be able to capture the original story with different abilities and characteristics from the last time…… was one of the differentiated play strategies in the Clouds on the Horizon.
And once designated, unless a major problem or circumstance arises for either the advisor or the student, it would never be withdrawn.
In other words, I would unconditionally have to continue my education under the same advisor as Jin Ye-Seul.
Just imagining it made my stomach hurt.
Fortunately, Abel Grossman was a very capable professor.
“Ji-Hyuk, are you okay… ?”
“Huh, uh. Don’t worry about it.”
I waved my hand at Jin Ye-Seul, who was looking at me worriedly.
The only people in our class who had Abel Grossman as their advisor were me and Jin Ye-Seul, so we were both heading to the professor’s office together.
“But it’s only the two of us…… At least there should be three or four others.”
“I suppose that’s because some professors are known to take only a few students to class.”
There were certainly such cases, but Abel Grossman stood out among the professors in that category.
She never had more than five students when she received a student.
Two seniors.
Me.
Jin Ye-Seul.
And….
“Uh, what?”
Lee Yu-Na.
She found us from the other side of the hallway and approached us with a pleased look on her face.
“Long time no see. Both of you.”
She greeted us with a smile, and I also gave her a pleased smile.
“That’s right. It’s the first time we’ve been involved since the mock dungeon class.”
“Oh, please. Let’s not talk about that.”
She twisted her expression and muttered as if chewing.
“Ni Il-Joon or Ni Il-Jin, do you know that he is still out of his mind? But people around me are driving me like, why I couldn’t take care of him? I’m, huh? I’m exhausted and really…!”
“Uh, uh… You must have had a hard time.”
I couldn’t help but be flustered by her sudden attitude of complaining to me.
The Lee Yu-Na I know was the type of person who was as wary as Han Soo-Young.
“Did I throw him into a trap, or did he get hurt while fighting? No, after everything was over and he came out, and suddenly he lost his mind, how am I supposed to cover him! What am I, his mother? He’s the same student, but I have to take care of him… !”
After saying that much, she suddenly stopped speaking and looked at me and Jin Ye-Seul.
Then, she immediately made an embarrassing expression and murmured in a small voice.
“Um, I’m sorry. I unintentionally took my anger out on you.”
“No. I understand.”
“Oh, I’m fine too… .”
When I answered as if it was nothing, Lee Yu-Na looked a little relieved and asked us.
“Are you going to visit the advisor too? I’m the only one in my class.… But very few people come here.”
And she took a note out of her pocket.
“Abel Grossman…… I’ve never heard that name before. No, more importantly, isn’t Abel a man’s name? Professor said it is a woman.”
“Huh? She is our advisor, too.”
At Jin Ye-Seul’s words, Lee Yu-Na looked slightly surprised.
Then she smiled pleasantly.
“Oh, I’m glad. If it’s like this, it’s better to do it with people I’m comfortable with. I was so angry when I was in the dungeon class that I thought I was going to die.”
Even in the original story, Lee Yu-Na had a hard time because of her surroundings.….
‘I guess that’s the same here.’
The three of us headed straight to Professor Abel Grossman’s private room.
The professors could apply for their own private rooms wherever they wanted, but just by looking at the fact that we had to go to a remote and deserted place, I could tell how eccentric she was.
And the first meeting with her was shocking beyond my imagination.
“Hi.”
Blonde hair, which anyone could tell it was dyed, was literally like dog fur.
Black hair was rising from the root, and no matter how you looked at it, the loose and sloppy clothes, she didn’t even look like a professor.
Excessive tattoos covering the shoulders and neck were enough to make some people frown.
‘I know it’s the source and side effect of her abilities and strength, but….. .’
It wouldn’t look like that to other people.
Above all else, the inside of the private room was reminiscent of a pig cage.
The smell of alcohol and cigarettes, the so-called stinky smell, secretly pricked my nose, and it was hard to keep my expression on my face.
And her face was slightly pale, showing that she had a hangover.
In short, the first impression was the worst.
In fact, Lee Yu-Na, who had been dressed up and had a nervous expression earlier, now had a look of distrust on her face.
“I’m Abel Grossman.”
She sat back in her chair and held out her hand to us.
There were a lot of cookie crumbs on it as if she had just picked up a cookie and eaten.
“I’m Yoo Ji-Hyuk.”
“Ji, I’m Jin Ye-Seul. It’s nice to meet you.… .”
“… I’m Lee Yu-Na.”
Looking at the three of us, who bowed their heads without holding her hands, Grossman gently lowered her hand and rubbed it against her pants to wipe them clean.
“First of all, why did I choose you guys?”
Her words seemed light, but they were actually meaningful questions.
Of course, if you raised outstanding students, that fact alone would become a professor’s career.
Regardless of whether it was me or Jin Ye-Seul, who was in the lower ranks, and Lee Yu-Na, who was tied for first place, there must have had many professors who wanted to teach.
Just by defeating such prominent competitors and bringing in Lee Yu-Na showed how outstanding her skills were.
‘And then … .’
In fact, I vaguely knew what the three of us had in common.
Abel Grossman.
Contrary to her sloppy appearance, she was a hero who belonged to a considerable strength in the original story.
And such powerful heroes, whether they liked it or not, had their own nicknames called by the association or themselves.
In the case of Lee Myung-Joon, it was Thunder God.
And in her case, it was Weapon Master.
‘She was obviously the best teacher for Lee Yu-Na.’
In addition, due to her innate eye, she had an excellent talent in grasping the approximate skills or which combat method would be suitable just by looking at their movements.
Therefore, she was almost the only one in the academy to notice Jin Ye-Seul’s acting and anxiously brings her to be her protégé/disciple.
‘Did she bring me because she thought I was acting like Jin Ye-Seul?’
I pretended to be worried and shook my head and replied that I didn’t know.
Jin Ye-Seul just shook her head in a timid manner.
“I don’t know.”
Finally, as Lee Yu-Na answered bluntly, Grossman brushed her hair aside.
“The reason is simple. The three of you are half-baked. And so do I.”
“What?”
“Well, first let’s go out and talk.”
She groaned and got up from her seat.
Then she staggered past us.
The three of us exchanged silent glances, looking at each other as if we had made a promise.
* * *
Abel Grossman, who had an appearance that even the concept was considered excessive, was a gluttonous person in many ways.
Her appearance was frankly unique, even in a world full of people with unique appearances.
I thought that if such a person had actually wandered around in the original world, attention would have been focused in many ways.
“Well, let’s start with a few quick words then.”
Abel Grossman, who brought us to the small indoor training ground, took a look around us.
“It’s the continuation of what I talked about earlier…… The reason I chose you guys is simple. It was because I thought that you had a half-baked direction and that the only person who could get it right was me, who was in the same half-baked position.”
“What the hell you mean by half-baked?”
At Lee Yu-Na’s slightly sharp question, she pointed at us one by one.
“You first.”
When she pointed out with her finger, Lee Yu-Na slightly flinched and trembled.
“Your ability is to squeeze out mana and turn it into weapons to fight, right? Of course, with an ability like that, the more familiar you are with different weapons, the more ways you can take them. However, you only wielded three of them directly in your hands at most: a spear, a sword, and an axe, while the rest were just ejected like bullets….. .”
Grossman continued her speech in a quiet voice.
“You don’t seem to know how to fight according to the situation to the extent that you overshadow the amount of mana you have more than usual and the ability to control compliance with mana.”
Next, she pointed to Jin Ye-Seul.
“And you… In the first place, you are sticking to the sword and shield, even though you’re not familiar with them.”
Abel Grossman looked straight into Jin Ye-Seul’s eyes and said.
“If you keep doing that, you will eventually have to get out of here. From now on, the trick of being at the bottom of the school and just barely getting above a failing grade won’t work.”
Perhaps it was my imagination, but Jin Ye-Seul’s eyes seemed to glow a little at those words.
As she said, Jin Ye-Seul’s main weapon was not a sword or a shield.
Her weapon was her body itself.
Occasionally, she would use something like a dagger or a knife, but it was an auxiliary role.
Abel Grossman discovered the fact that Jin Ye-Seul had been hiding for years.
“And you… .”
She looked at me for a moment and then tilted her head.
“Honestly, you’ve been really vague. What exactly is it? No matter how much I look at it, the specs on your body are different from the diagnosed results, and I can tell even by glancing at you that you are a novice who has never held a weapon before. And normally you wouldn’t be able to win at all.”
As she was saying this, she quickly shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, we’ll know more in time. So let’s cut the small talk and get on with the lesson.”
She looked at the clock on the wall.
If we have classes from now on, we can do it for at least two hours.
Mumbling, she nodded.
“I’ll just give you each a direction. If you just hold on to that, I’ll do everything I need to do.”
* * *
“Well, you better start with the basics.”
She approached me first, and at some point, she pulled out two daggers from her pocket.
She then handed me one of them.
“The biggest characteristics of daggers are that they are elastic and that they chase the opponent.”
“Yes.”
I listened to her, holding the dagger.
In fact, she was right, I am nothing more than a novice in direct combat.
So far I had covered myself with fraudulent skills, but I knew very well that there were a lot of guys who could easily beat me with their experience and skills even in the midst of it.
That fact alone was overflowing with reasons for me to concentrate on her class.
“Do you want to try to block one of them? Don’t worry, we don’t have all day.”
Saying so, she turned to face me and began swinging her dagger.
She was moving at a speed that I could see and react.
Her dagger, which I had defended against, seemed to recoil as if it were about to be flung out, and then it lunged toward my abdomen, piercing me like a snake.
As I reflexively moved my body in response, she continued to press me, swinging the dagger as if she had expected it.
It was as if a beast was chasing after me.
“What do you think? Do you get it?”
She repeated it several times and told me.
“As with any weapon, especially a dagger, once it’s attached, it’s annoying to deal with. When the opponent swings once, you can stab at least twice or three times. You can study the vital parts of people or monsters, appearing to only attack them, and then attack them anomalously. It means that you can somehow keep hitting your opponent. Do you understand this far?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a little dirty, but it’s good to apply poison on the blade. To be honest, once you confront someone, as long as their skills are not too different, they will get scratches on their body. So, in case you are fighting against someone, keep in mind the fact that even a dagger can be enough to inflict a fatal wound on your opponent.”
While giving the advice to use poison calmly, she continued to teach me the basics and fundamentals of dagger art.
To be honest, it was a fact that she was an excellent teacher, a fact that had been mentioned many times in the original story.
However…….
‘She teaches really well.’
I couldn’t help but marvel at her.
I was in the middle of taking a class, not knowing that my whole body was sweating from her guidance.
[Through repetitive training under the guidance of a master, your body learns new art!]
[‘Dagger Mastery’ has been newly learned!]
“… Whoo.”
I took a small breath at the encouraging notification that appeared in front of me.
