Chapter 4

However, the difficulty was so high that students without the relevant talent rarely chose firearms.

Among them, Juyeong chose a pair of dual swords. Of course, thanks to his cheat characteristic, Juyeong could handle any weapon well, but he chose the one that fit him best.

Hwang Jae-bin chose a greatsword, a weapon befitting a brute who always charges at the opponent.

Yoon Hee-jin chose a shield. Although it might seem odd given her appearance, Yoon Hee-jin has used a shield since elementary school because she admires a certain hero.

As the main characters and other students in Class A finished choosing their weapons, I still hadn't made a choice.

Among them, I couldn't find the weapon I was looking for.

Finally, I cautiously asked the grumpy old master.

"Where are the weapons used by fighters?"

"Fighters? I didn't think there would be many... So you're aiming to be a fighter."

Fighter (拳士).

In this world, it refers to a hero who fights using their fists and legs.

Fighters were not a popular style of hero.

One reason is their short range compared to swordsmen and spear wielders, and they often get hit by archers and gunners.

Most importantly, due to their nature, they often take the most damage from monsters.

But I had been a fighter since middle school, and I had experience as a kickboxer in high school, so there was no reason or need to choose a different path.

"Is there no one left who will choose a sword or a blade?"

The students remained silent.

The master looked around for a few seconds, nodded a few times, and then said to me,

"Wait a moment."

The master took a remote from his pocket and pressed a button.

The wall displaying swords rotated, revealing another display behind it.

"Here, pick one."

The weapons that appeared were all excellent and would be very helpful to a fighter, from gauntlets made of mana stone and orichalcum to leg guards and adamantium claws.

It might seem like a good thing to choose any of them, but...

No way. I have no intention of choosing just any weapon.

'Find the weapon I'm thinking of.'

As I thought this, the substitute wiki took control of my body to guide me.

However, I didn't resist and stayed still.

The weapon the substitute wiki finds will greatly influence my growth.

After a few dozen seconds, the substitute wiki quickly found the weapon.

A crude-looking, incredibly light weapon with a surface darkened by dust.

Even though some students were still choosing their weapons, my choice was firm.

Knuckle.

This weapon in my hand is a treasure that contains the skills I need.

To be continued

Episode 2: Adapting

Immediately after all the students finished choosing their weapons.

The master pointed to a few of us and called us over.

Everyone else was ordered to wait outside the forge, leaving only three of us, including me, and the master inside.

"Baeg-snow, Juyeong, Daeyong..."

The master, with an interested look, said to us in a friendly tone,

"You all have a good eye. Why did you choose those weapons instead of others?"

In response, Juyeong, who had chosen two very ordinary-looking steel swords, spoke first.

"I felt an unusual aura."

"Oh, really?"

The master nodded approvingly.

Seeing this reaction, Baeg-snow, who had chosen an old steel staff, spoke solemnly to the master.

"I felt the weapon's experience. I could tell it was cherished by seniors."

"Hehe. Excellent!"

Perhaps these two saw the 'memory of the weapon' clearly.

However, I am different from them.

My talent found the weapon for me, but I can't see such things.

So I answered very honestly.

"Because it looked easy to detach."

"Hmm..."

If I had confidently said, "I saw the memory of the weapon," it would have made the other two students suspicious.

I didn't want to make enemies at this school, so I thought it was better to make my choice seem like a coincidence.

Of course, the reason I chose the knuckle is not just because it's easy to detach.

This knuckle is an item that will be chosen by a character who will cause a major incident in SHA, so I preemptively chose it.

That character will also choose this knuckle after recognizing its true value, making it one of the best treasures among the weapons provided by the school, and perhaps even hard to find outside.

For such a weapon to be made by that grumpy old man...

Is he really a master?

"Alright. If your weapons break, come to me. I'll fix them for free."

The memory of a weapon refers to a weapon made of engraved iron that literally 'remembers' the user's skills or talents.

The memory engraved on the weapon can be passed on to the next user, who can use it to make the previous user's skills or talents their own.

And this knuckle has the skills and talents of 'that man' engraved on it.

It will undoubtedly be the best addition for Daeyong, a fighter.

"Thank you."

In any case, this weapon is now mine.

I smiled and walked out of the weapon storage with a light step.

***

When the three students who chose engraved iron weapons came out, many people's attention turned to them.

Among them, the top student, Juyeong, and the fourth-ranked student, Baeg-snow, attracted the most attention.

Amid the commotion, Baeg-snow noticed Daeyong calmly slipping away among the students, drawing their attention to himself and Juyeong.

Seeing his brazen behavior, Baeg-snow clenched her lips and thought,

'That kid can see engraved iron.'

Her brother, a SHA graduate, had trained her for three months to recognize the aura of engraved iron, which was mixed among the weapons.

Not many people know about engraved iron.

It's a rare mineral that only those who have directly acquired abilities from engraved iron or those who mine and process it can recognize.

Yet, this student chose an engraved iron weapon without hesitation and told the master a ridiculous excuse, "Because it's easy to detach."

As if hiding his true strength.

With this, Baeg-snow sighed deeply, thinking that she needed to add another student to her 'key figures list.'

At that moment, Im Mansu called the students with a sharp voice.

"Alright! Since everyone has chosen, let's go back to the classroom. Line up in two rows."

Under Im Mansu's control, the students lined up, and Juyeong stood next to Daeyong.

"What's with them?"

"Why isn't Juyeong standing with Hwang Jae-bin and instead with Daeyong?"

Many students were puzzled by the relationship between these two.

Why would a genius student, often in the news, want to be close to a seemingly ordinary, skinny student like us?

"Did you choose a good weapon?"

"Yeah, I chose the best-looking one. You seemed to have chosen a good one too?"

"Sure... I just chose what looked convenient."

Juyeong asked Daeyong casually, and Daeyong responded warmly.

The students' question marks only grew larger as they watched.

Of course, what most students overlooked was...

Juyeong was not trying to be close to Daeyong but was wary of him.

He forced a smile, pretended to be considerate of Daeyong, and activated his skill.

'Failure.'

However, the skill 'Seer of Truth,' which can see through the essence of a target, could not read Daeyong at all.

Juyeong had felt something was off since the morning.

He couldn't remember anything about Daeyong.

It was as if he was meeting this person for the first time in this life, and he couldn't remember who he was when they met in the morning.

But he realized Daeyong was in the same class as him.

This guy was definitely a character who had been with him in all 11 of his previous lives.

However, he couldn't remember any narrative or information about this character.

'That woman. I must have done something to the law of causality when I regressed.'

This wasn't the first time this had happened.

Usually, a character he couldn't remember or see through was either someone who would greatly help him or a worst-case enemy blocking his path.

The conclusion was that he couldn't rashly deal with Daeyong and needed to observe him closely for a while.

Juyeong, who didn't like this, secretly gritted his teeth.

***

The first day at SHA passed quickly.

There were no practical classes, and the theoretical classes were just introductions by the teachers about what they would teach.

For lunch, the school cafeteria, which sells all kinds of food, offered a 'bulk-up diet' consisting of chicken breast salad, rolled eggs, and white rice.

The price was 6,000 won, which was quite expensive considering the regular school lunch was 3,000 won.

However, since I received 600,000 won monthly on a 'basic living support card' until graduation, I decided to indulge a bit for lunch.

After lunch, I completed the 5th, 6th, and 7th periods and, at 5 PM, followed Im Mansu to the dormitory.

The dormitory, located 10 minutes south of the main building in the center of the campus, had a path that split into three directions halfway.

Im Mansu accompanied us to this point and then dismissed us, saying we could find our way since the signs were clear.

I naturally headed to the boys' dormitory with the other male students.

The dormitory, as described in the novel, consisted of three 30-story buildings.

The first-year dormitory, where eight students could stay per floor, resembled a seven-star hotel, and the second and third-year dormitories were also excellent.

"Daeyong, which floor are you on? I'm on the 3rd floor."

"Oh, I'm on the 1st floor."

Fortunately, my room in the luxurious dormitory was on the 1st floor, and I quickly unpacked and went with Juyeong to have dinner.

"Why is he eating with us?"

"Ah, why not, Jae-bin? We're in the same class now."

At the cafeteria, we joined Juyeong's group.

However, the looks from Hwang Jae-bin, Yoon Hee-jin, and Baeg-snow were not friendly.

Especially Baeg-snow's gaze was the most uncomfortable, as she had a cat-like face similar to a girl I had a crush on in school.

They were proud of their high admission ranks and their friendship with Juyeong.

So, the fact that a seemingly ordinary student, ranked 150th out of 300 first-year students, was eating with them was probably annoying.

"I'll go first."

"Hey, Daeyong! See you at the training ground later."

Dinner with Juyeong's group was very uncomfortable due to their looks, and I resolved to eat alone next time.

After dinner, I headed to the training ground, located 5 minutes north of the boys' dormitory.

There, I bought a 50,000 won protein supplement recommended by the staff and did the same exercises I used to do at the gym.

'What? I can lift this weight?'

I expected my skinny body to struggle, but thanks to my talent, 'This body can't be broken by that,' I could lift 30 kg more than my usual weight in all exercises.

Daeyong's strength and stamina were 120, which was quite high, but it seemed the ability values had a greater impact than my physical condition.

With everything going smoothly from the weapon selection, I felt a bit overconfident about this world.

However, a problem arose during the training with the dummy.

"Damn... It's too fast."

The difficulty of the training dummy was higher than I imagined.

I couldn't land a single punch on the humanoid training dummy, let alone the quadruped reptilian monster dummy.

My confidence from learning boxing was a mistake.

Daeyong's agility was only 70, which was far below the 130 of Baeg-snow, a mage who barely needed agility.

I had overlooked the fact that Daeyong's agility was not enough to even catch the training dummy.

"I need to awaken my characteristic quickly."

I was certain that without increasing Daeyong's agility to an average level, I wouldn't be able to touch even a hair of the enemies I would face.

So, I changed the training dummy to a slow-moving plant-type monster and decided to start learning how to control mana.

"Phew!"

I focused all my mind on the tip of my index finger, as described in the novel.

I imagined a flame appearing in my hand and resolved to ignite it.

...After standing there for 40 minutes, getting beaten by the plant-type monster.

My patience reached its limit, and I was sweating and trembling.

'It's not easy.'

My confidence suddenly dropped.

I started to worry that I might spend a thousand days on mana sensing training, get the lowest score in the practical test, and end up eating combat rations.

And that I might spend my life in this novel world as a third-rate hero working for a government agency.

But perhaps the saying that perseverance leads to success was true.

Suddenly, a message appeared next to me, and I felt a faint but warm mana from my index finger.

And my third talent was revealed.

To be continued

Episode 2: Adapting (2)

The training ground where students at SHA, a jungle, train their bodies and abilities.

There, Juyeong, preparing meticulously for his 12th life, was warming up.

300 kg.

Juyeong, the strongest among the students, was easily bench pressing this weight.

"Hey, Juyeong."

"Hmm?"

Just as he finished his third set, Juyeong stood up at the sharp voice calling him.

The owner of the voice, Baeg-snow, was looking at him with a clearly displeased expression.

"Hey, Snow. You're here to work out too?"

"I told you not to call me that."

"Sorry. I'll call you by your last name from now on. ...What's up?"

"About that guy who was left when we chose our weapons, Daeyong, right?"

At the mention of Daeyong's name, Juyeong perked up.

Had that guy shown any suspicious behavior?

"Yeah. What about Daeyong?"

"What's he doing hanging around with you? I did some research... His grades are poor, his ability values are at rock bottom except for strength and stamina, and his body management is a mess."

"So what?"

"You always choose to be around promising students. Like me, Hee-jin, and Hwang Jae-bin. So why are you suddenly hanging out with a loser?"

Baeg-snow didn't like Daeyong being close to Juyeong. No, it wasn't dislike; it was a sense