The Academy Geniuses I Raised and Dressed

Meiling stood up without a word and calmly walked forward, a wooden staff in hand.

"Ready?"

She nodded.

"Begin!"

The eyes of the quadrupedal robots lit up red.

At the same moment, Meiling used her movement skill, Instant Acceleration, to put as much distance as possible between herself and the robots.

That’s right. That’s the correct approach.

I nodded to myself.

First, create distance to buy as much time as possible.

The next step was simple—activate the Dark Domain.

As expected, black aura began to spread from Meiling’s body.

With nothing but her basic combat uniform—offering no enhancements—it would take her five full seconds to fully deploy the Dark Domain.

The robots would close the gap she had made in about two seconds.

That left her short by three seconds before full deployment, but even in that time, the Dark Domain would spread out by at least several dozen centimeters.

And these small robots had less durability than the monsters on the first floor of a dungeon.

In other words, the moment they touched the Dark Domain, they wouldn’t be able to close that remaining distance—they’d be taken down instantly.

"Whoa!"

"No way!"

Gasps erupted around us.

The moment the robots touched the black space, they staggered, and as the Dark Domain fully expanded, all one hundred robots froze in place.

"Stop!"

Jo Miye called out.

"Chen Meiling—training robots, one hundred cleared. Time: eight seconds!"

The others stared at the record in stunned silence.

Meiling put her hands on her hips and looked straight at me.

Her face clearly said, Well? Think you can beat that record? You can’t, can you?

"…Next! Class B, Number 16—Lumina Cueva!"

"Yes!"

Lumina stepped forward with a tense expression, wooden daggers in both hands.

"Ready?"

"…Yes."

"Begin!!"

At Jo Miye’s signal, the others cried out in surprise.

Instead of creating distance, Lumina charged straight into the swarm of robots.

Dodging their attacks, she struck each one squarely on the head with precise blows from her wooden daggers.

"Unbelievable."

"Lumina could move like that?"

"It’s like she came from a completely different world than us…"

I could hear the murmurs around me.

It wasn’t just the students who were surprised. Even Jo Miye, the instructor overseeing the mock battle, gave a disbelieving chuckle and kept her eyes locked on Lumina.

Even if her physique aptitude is only D, Lumina’s already level 18.

The average level of these side characters here?

It was only April, so they’d be around level 5 to 10 at best.

And this was Gwangcheon—they didn’t have high aptitudes. Meiling and a few others were the exceptions.

So to them, Lumina’s combat style must have seemed like it was on a completely different level.

Still… she’s gotten pretty good.

Fighting the vicious monsters on the second floor of the dungeon must have honed her skills considerably.

Not once did the robots’ body slam attacks land a clean hit on her.

When things got too dangerous, she’d use Instant Acceleration to create space, then go back to cutting down the ones that rushed in first.

Each time her daggers traced an arc through the air, the robots’ shields vanished, and once exposed, they would retreat on their own.

Before long, there were more robots gathered farther away than there were near her.

"Stop!"

When Jo Miye finally gave the signal, every robot’s shield had been stripped away.

"Lumina Cueva—thirty-three seconds. All cleared."

"Yes, ma’am!"

She answered with a bright smile, wiping the sweat from her cheek with her sleeve.

Applause rippled through the outdoor training ground.

Though her time was much longer than Meiling’s, the others seemed more impressed by Lumina’s hands-on, physical fighting style than the instant finish of the Dark Domain, which was over before they could even follow what happened.

After a few more turns, it was finally my turn.

"Next, Class B, Number 20—Nam Yein."

I walked to the designated spot with a handful of skill icons ready.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

"Begin!"

The robots’ eyes lit up again as their shields reactivated. I immediately materialized a set of Spike Bombs and scattered them.

Then I used Instant Acceleration to create distance and dropped flat to the ground.

KWA-BOOM!!!

Multiple explosions went off at once, sending black spikes flying in every direction.

"Whoa!"

"That’s insane!!"

"He took out almost all of them in one go!"

"Was Yein’s ability always that powerful?"

Still lying flat, I launched another wave of Spike Bombs at the dozen or so robots that were left.

Just in case, I activated my Mana Shield.

From behind the faintly glowing barrier, I watched the remaining small robots topple one after another.

"Stop!"

At Jo Miye’s shout, I stood up.

"Nam Yein—fourteen seconds! All cleared!"

"Wow!"

"Second place!"

"Only six seconds slower than Meiling!"

Six seconds.

The Spike Bombs had a slight delay before detonation, and I couldn’t wipe them all out in one strike—so my time was inevitably slower.

"Heh."

A smug, unpleasant laugh reached my ears from somewhere, but I ignored it.

That smugness wouldn’t last long anyway.

One hour later—

"……."

Meiling glared at me, fists clenched and body trembling.

I could feel the heat in her stare, so I answered with a deliberately mocking smirk.

The second mock battle exam was one we’d seen before during Physical Strength Training: facing four large robots.

Just like the first round, the goal was to use wooden weapons to disable their shields.

Unlike the small robots, however, these big ones didn’t approach. They kept their distance, pelting us with rubber bullets from their ranged weapons.

This attack pattern was essentially Meiling’s natural enemy.

Sure, if there was only one, she could suppress it by continuously firing mana bolts—but against four, if she targeted one, the others would snipe her from afar.

The result was that her plan to wipe out their shields with the Dark Domain failed as the robots kept retreating.

In the end, she had to dodge or block the incoming rubber bullets with her Mana Shield, then fire mana bolts in a straightforward, methodical way. It took her a full minute to bring them all down.

As for me, I already knew all their patterns from the game, and I even knew their weak points. Forty seconds was more than enough.

By the end of both the first and second rounds, Meiling’s total all-clear time was 1 minute and 8 seconds.

Mine was 54 seconds.

"Don’t get cocky! I haven’t lost yet!"

"Pfft."

"Graaaah!!"

Meiling couldn’t hold back her frustration and let out a scream, making the nearby students flinch and cast her wary glances.

"C-Calm down, Meiling…"

Just as Lumina carefully tried to speak—

"Urgh…!!"

Meiling bit down hard on her lip, glared at Lumina, then abruptly turned her head away.

Without another word, she strode off toward the dorms.

"Ah! M-Meiling!"

"Don’t follow me!"

She shouted over her shoulder without even looking back and kept going.

"Y-Yein…"

Lumina looked at me with a face that was on the verge of tears.

"It’s fine. She’ll probably talk to you tomorrow like nothing happened. And Lumina, you didn’t do anything wrong. The one at fault is Meiling."

The reason for Meiling’s temper was Lumina’s record.

After setting a time of 33 seconds in the first test, Lumina had achieved a stunning 7-second record in the second.

Using Stealth, she had rushed at the large robots—though her footsteps hadn’t been visible at all, so that was the only way to explain it—and struck at a stationary robot’s weak point with a stealth attack.

At the same time, she fired a mana bolt, taking down two robots in just three seconds.

Of the remaining two, she used a movement skill to get behind one before it could fire its rubber bullets, and for the last one, she displayed remarkable skill by throwing her dagger straight into its weak point.

The result—her combined record for both rounds was an all-clear in 40 seconds.

She had taken first place, surpassing both Meiling and me.

Meiling must have underestimated Lumina. That’s why she’s this furious.

But by now, she was probably burning with self-loathing—because Lumina was her only real friend, and she’d lashed out at her just for doing better on the test.

"Let’s head back too."

"Ah… yeah…"

I walked to the dorms with Lumina.

"B-But… is it really okay like this?"

"Hmm?"

She glanced around, then lowered her voice to a whisper.

"If Meiling doesn’t take first place in the year, won’t that cause trouble for you?"

"Ah, that."

I had explained some of the situation to Lumina.

Of course, I hadn’t mentioned that I was blackmailing Kai with a recording, but she knew I was currently trying to help Meiling secure first place.

"As I told you before, just do your best. And knowing Meiling’s personality, if you held back for her, she’d probably get angry at that too."

"Ah…"

Lumina’s face showed she understood.

"So, you don’t need to worry about that. I’ll take care of it."

"Mm. If you say so, then I’ll believe you. Got it!"

Lumina’s face brightened again.

The next day.

Sitting alone on the school bus, I glanced at the seat next to me.

Meiling was sitting side by side with Lumina.

As I expected, Meiling spoke to her as if nothing had happened the day before, and Lumina welcomed her with a smile.

It was fortunate Lumina was by her side—there weren’t many who could put up with such a prickly personality.

We were on the school bus because we were headed to the next exam location.

The third day of the midterms was the Dungeon Practicum.

After passing through the checkpoint, everyone got off the bus. The instructor for dungeon practice cleared his throat and looked at us.

Replacing the dismissed Jeong Jooil was a large, middle-aged man with ash-brown hair and sun-bronzed skin.

I thought his name was Allen, or something like that.

He wasn’t an NPC I’d seen in the game, but since there were no further dungeon practicum events in the Gwangcheon scenario, it didn’t matter.

"Your task for today’s dungeon practicum is material gathering. Hunters don’t enter dungeons just to hunt monsters for money. It’s also their job to explore the Demon Domain and bring back materials or relics that benefit people. Take one of these."

He handed out printed sheets listing the required materials.

"You’ll be collecting eight materials from the Spirit Forest—six from the first floor, and two from the second."

At the mention of the second floor, I saw the students’ faces pale.

"You’ll have six hours to complete the task. Since this is an open-world dungeon where time flows differently, I’ll be going in with you to track the time. Turn on the drones you received before—we’ll start the test with them on, and you can’t turn them off until the test is over. If your drone turns off before you return to me, you’ll either lose points or be disqualified, depending on the situation."

The mention of point deductions and disqualification—unlike the monthly assignments—made their expressions grow darker still.

"Since this is a test, there’s no cooperating with others. And if you steal materials that someone else hunted or gathered, you’ll be disqualified. If an unexpected emergency arises and you need rescue, press the emergency button on your drone. Just know that if you do, your score will immediately drop to zero."

With that, the instructor led us through the portal.

"Turn on your drones."

I pressed the switch, and just like before, it floated up over my head.

"Oh, and one more thing. Finishing early doesn’t get you extra points. You can go straight back to the dorms if you finish quickly—but you’ll have to pay for the bus or taxi yourself. Begin!"

At the sudden start signal, the others bolted forward.

In an open-world dungeon, monsters and resources respawn constantly, and six hours was plenty of time for dozens of respawns.

Since there was no bonus for finishing quickly, there was no point in rushing.

In fact, moving slowly was safer—it reduced the risk of, say, accidentally running into a boss.

You could just avoid trouble by watching which way the early runners went.

Meiling must have come to the same conclusion, because she stayed put at the starting point.

Lumina stood nearby, glancing at me.

"Since cooperation’s not allowed, we’ll each go our own way. I’ll head out first."

"Ah, o-okay. Yein… be careful."

"You too, Lumina."

Honestly, neither Lumina nor Meiling had much to worry about.

In the dungeon practicum, you could use the gear you brought with you.

There was no way they’d be taken out on the first floor.

The second floor might be trickier, but according to the list, the materials from there were gathered—not hunted.

That meant they could just move carefully and collect what they needed.

If they drew aggro, they could just use Instant Acceleration or run for their lives until the monsters gave up.

Looks like the three of us will end up with the same score.

In that case, the written test results would decide the rankings.

…Or so I thought, until thirty minutes later, I realized I was wrong.

"Hmm."

Surrounded by the earthy smell of the forest, I stood holding my drone in both hands, deep in thought.

"I’m telling you now—I’m not pressing it."

Meiling stood there with her arms crossed, glaring at me.

Her drone hovered above her twin tails of black hair.

"Then our only choice is to die here."

I looked around.

We were currently on the seventh floor of the Spirit Forest.

(End of Chapter)