The disciplinary committee mber descended the stairs at a terrifying speed as she thrust her rapier toward us.
Swiiish!
At that mont, Han Gyeol-woo who had been silently following us all this ti spoke for the first ti.
“I’ll handle this.”
She stepped forward and instantly unleashed her magic.
[Ice Wall]
[Triple Layer Wall]
[Triple Layer Ice Wall]
Boom!
Three thick ice walls erupted, blocking the opponent’s path.
The disciplinary committee mber responded swiftly.
Flashes of light danced, accompanied by the sharp sound of sothing slicing through.
Shhk—Slash—Shhk!
One of the ice walls was reduced to pieces in an instant.
At this rate, the remaining walls wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.
But Han Gyeol-woo remained calm, as if she had anticipated this.
Without hesitation, she placed her hand on the ice wall and cast her next spell.
[Shatter]
Cha-ching!
The entire ice structure shattered into hundreds of shards. Each shard was the size of a fingernail as they scattered into the air.
Then, with a snap of her fingers—
[Ice Prison]
The shards in the air instantly converged toward the disciplinary committee mber before trapping her in ice.
She was trapped in re monts, frozen inside a sculpture of jagged shards.
Great skill synergy.
She erected walls of ice, shattered them, and then reassembled the shards to trap her opponent.
It was a seamless flow of magic, as natural as water running downstream.
Crackle.
However, judging by the fissures already spreading across the ice, it didn’t seem like it would hold for long.
Perhaps she was aware of this herself, Han Gyeol-woo murmured softly.
“Go on ahead.”
Her intention was clear. She would stay behind even after the ice shattered and buy everyone ti by holding off the disciplinary committee mber.
If we fought together, we could probably bring her down, but even that brief amount of ti felt too precious to waste.
After all, wasn’t she assigned to our group by the White Magic Club precisely for situations like this?
After exchanging brief glances with Han Gyeol-woo, everyone passed her and went up the stairs.
Still, I’ll take this with .
[Activated ‘Copy-Skil’.]
[The skill ‘Ice Wall (B)’ has been registered in your slot.]
▷ Copy – Skills [3/3]
1. Thief’s Step (B )
2. Overheat (C)
3. Ice Wall (B)
Ice Wall was a B-rank spell.
With my current C -rank core, its mana consumption was too high to be used frequently.
Still, it had its rits, and compared to the near-useless [Shadow Sanctuary] that had been taking up a slot, this was far more practical. So I copied it without hesitation. ṝἁ
As we hurried up the stairs and reached the fourth floor, another formation awaited us.
Just like before, I took the lead while Dang Gyu-young extended her shadow to tie the group together.
Although we entered the formation, there was no visible change to our surroundings. But that itself was the trap.
With both our vision and sense of direction distorted, continuing to walk aimlessly would only lead us to circle in place.
I reminded the group of what to do and gave them a simple instruction.
“Just follow the pull of the rope.”
Then, I sharply adjusted our direction and walked straight toward the wall.
Just as I was about to crash headlong into the wall, the hallway twisted on its own to align perfectly with my path.
In the end, nothing beats experience.
This was the stagnant water sense I had honed through countless encounters with such formations.
All the hard work from back then had paid off now. We were able to break through the formation with ease this ti as well.
anwhile, I had a thought.
I have a feeling they’ll be waiting right outside…
At the mont, the distorted view made it seem like there was nothing beyond the formation.
However, this area was the perfect spot for the disciplinary committee to lie in wait.
They could observe anyone breaking through the formation and easily launch an ambush.
They had even stationed soone on the staircase earlier. Would they really leave such a pri location unguarded?
Whoosh!
In anticipation of this, I had already set up a Wind Barrier and Choi Han-gil who had also noticed sothing covered the barrier with additional defensive magic.
Sure enough, the mont we stepped out of the formation—
Swish!
A piercing sound sliced through the air.
The sharp projectile which was likely a sword energy collided violently with the defensive spells before dissipating entirely.
Our group quickly scrambled out of the formation, and everyone’s faces hardened as they stared ahead.
A temporary storage facility was visible a little further away.
The problem was the two third-year disciplinary committee mbers standing guard in front of it.
It seed the sword energy had co from one of them.
More specifically, it wasn’t a sword energy but an axe energy slash.
It’s the Hell Axe senior.
I didn’t know his real na, but since he used an A-rank Hell Axe as his main weapon, I just referred to him that way. I’d seen him quite often, even during the black market event.
The other disciplinary committee mber seed to be a mage, judging by the two or three floating orbs hovering around them.
The Hell Axe senior’s eyes lit up with recognition when he saw Choi Han-gil.
“Fancy eting you here. What a surprise. Breaking school rules…isn’t this a first for you?”
From what I heard, Choi Han-gil was apparently known as a model student.
He responded in a calm tone.
“I’m part of a group too, you know. Sotis I have to do things I’d rather not.”
“If you don’t want to, then step away now. I’ll make sure you’re spared from punishnt.”
“After coming this far? Not a chance.”
Choi Han-gil said this with a sly smile.
His refusal was clear, and the two disciplinary committee mbers imdiately assud battle stances.
Still keeping his gaze fixed on them, Choi Han-gil threw a question to Dang Gyu-young.
“How much ti do you need?”
“Three minutes? Maybe five?”
“That’s too long…”
“Then hold out as long as you can.”
“Got it.”
Suddenly, Choi Han-gil bolted forward.
The two disciplinary committee mbers responded instantly, sending axe energy and spells flying his way.
Papapapat!
Sohow, Choi Han-gil blocked it all, using layers of defensive magic that he must have set up in advance.
In the next mont, a dagger appeared in his hand.
Its black blade shimred like the night sky and it was dotted with tiny stars.
Everyone froze in shock at the sight.
He has that?
An A rank dagger, Night of Severance.
Its cutting power and durability were only slightly better than those of an ordinary dagger.
Even so, it earned an A rank because of its overwhelmingly powerful magic enchantnts.
To the disciplinary committee mbers, it was a weapon they absolutely couldn’t afford to face, and they hastily tried to put distance between themselves and Choi Han-gil.
But the dagger thrust forward faster than they could retreat.
[Dinsional Severance.]
The night sky that ford the dagger expanded at a terrifying speed, swallowing everything within its range before vanishing completely.
In the next mont, Choi Han-gil and the two mbers of the disciplinary committee were nowhere to be seen.
As expected, third-years always carry at least one trump card.
Dinsional Severance.
It was a spell that created an isolated space and dragged everything within its range into it.
To escape, one either had to use spatial magic or wait for Dinsional Severance to be dispelled.
Dispelling it isn’t too hard, though.
The greatest weakness of Dinsional Severance was its large mana consumption.
Since it was a space-ti magic spell, even casting it consud an enormous amount of mana.
On top of that, maintaining it continuously drained both mana and concentration. This made it a considerable handicap for Choi Han-gil.
For the two disciplinary committee mbers, escaping was as simple as overpowering their handicapped opponent.
In other words, the ti he could hold out was the ti we had been given.
And that ti would certainly be short.
Dang Gyu-young seed to have co to the sa conclusion and quickly gave instructions to the team.
“Let’s go, there’s no ti.”
“Yes, noonim!”
Everyone rushed into the temporary storage.
Another second-year disciplinary committee mber was waiting inside, but Dang Gyu-young and the other thieves quickly overwheld him with a coordinated attack.
After tying up the mber and tossing him into a corner, Dang Gyu-young gave another order.
“Grab everything, fast.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
The thieves moved swiftly through the storage area and started sweeping up prohibited items indiscriminately.
On the other hand, Dang Gyu-young and I were the ones who carefully picked them out one by one, because the Cube of Life had a limited capacity.
Prioritize high-value and low-volu items.
Dang Gyu-young darted to one side, grabbed a prohibited item, scurried back, and dropped it neatly into the Cube.
“This one~.”
Then, she dashed to another spot, picked up another item, and slipped it into the Cube.
“And this one too~.”
She ran again to another place again and repeated the process.
Each item was undoubtedly a high-risk prohibited item, yet her deanor made it feel oddly like she was grocery shopping.
In the middle of filling her taphorical shopping cart, she suddenly exclaid,
“Found it.”
She returned holding a thick, hardcover book.
Its dark purple cover was worn, with a few pages torn out.
[The Book of Chaos (A)]
It was the very item requested by the White Magic Club.
When she casually flipped it open, it was clear that only a few pages were missing. This ant that the book had likely been recently acquired.
It was confiscated before they could even use it properly, so it was no wonder they wanted it back.
After carefully tucking the Book of Chaos into a corner of the cube, she resud her “shopping”.
I should pick out so things for myself too.
Back at the first temporary storage and the black market, I had focused on items that negated elental penalties while relying on my S-rank Elental Resistance.
Now, though, there was a new category added to my list.
Poison.
With poison resistance to minimize damage and the Hoodie of the Hidden Master to remove harmful effects, I could handle poisons with relative ease.
Plus, to fully achieve Thousand Poisons Immunity, I needed to consu every poison I could find, whether it was mild or deadly.
So I filled the cube with all kinds of poisonous items. From poison vials, pills, herbs. Anything I could get my hands on.
[Regicide Toxin (B )]
[Blue Hemlock (C )]
[Cute Deadly Poison (C)]
[Fruit of Condemnation (B)]
……
I had no idea what soone had been planning with all these before they were confiscated, but the stash turned out to be far more impressive than I had anticipated.
On the other hand, I looked around with the intention of picking up any useful elental penalty items.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything this ti that caught my eye.
I supposed it wasn’t realistic to expect sothing on the level of the Inferno Fist or the Mysterious Yin Jade Demon Finger every ti.
This ti, I’ll settle for poison.
Besides, the items currently stored in the cube couldn’t exactly be called mine yet.
Infiltrating the temporary storage was only half the battle; escaping safely was still ahead of us.
When Dang Gyu-young added yet another prohibited item to the cube, I closed the lid and said,
“That’s enough for now.”
“Just one more.”
“It’s already full, and we’re out of ti.”
Though she seed a bit reluctant, she appeared to agree that ti wasn’t on our side.
We imdiately connected to Jeong Chong-myeong.
“We’ve got everything.”
– The book?
“Of course, we secured it. Now get us out of here.”
– Lock in the coordinates.
“I already did.”
A device resembling a cara tripod had already been set up in one corner of the temporary storage room.
It was a coordinate stabilizer. That was an item that made using spatial magic much easier.
Dang Gyu-young turned to and asked,
“Do you know how to use this?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then you go first.”
Since I was holding the Cube of Life, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say I was the key to this operation.
I waited with the coordinate stabilizer clenched tightly in my hand.
Fzzzzzzzzzt.
Monts later, the mana began to ripple more violently, and soon it started to pull sowhere.
This was the activation of a dium-to-long-distance teleportation spell for a single user.
However, just as my vision was about to shift, a space resembling the night sky opened outside the temporary storage room.
The Dinsional Severance had been undone.
“Ugh!”
Choi Han-gil let out a pained groan and collapsed to the floor.
He hadn’t even been inside for a few minutes, yet his entire body was covered in minor wounds.
Right after that, two third-year disciplinary mbers trudged out and fixed their gazes on us.
Ti’s up.
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