The Support Ate it All

Chapter 150: Hong Yeon-hwa Is Worried

Quicksand.

It was a summoning magic that had two main uses.

The first was to turn the surrounding environment into a desert, breaking down hard rocks into sand to link with earth-element magic.

“Grrr—!”

As the ogre charged at Kwak Ji-cheol, a large wall of sand rose between them.

When the club struck it, it easily crumbled and the sand scattered.

However, the scattered sand gathered again to form a new wall.

The ogre continued to break through the sand walls, smashing them as it advanced.

“Grr?”

Because the area had turned into a sand pit and its legs were sinking deeply.

The start is good.

Flexible defense and trapping through sand magic.

The only downside was,

The rank of the skill is too low.

Although he had remembered an appropriate spell thanks to his training at the Emerald Magic Tower, he had only learned it and lacked proficiency.

The area affected by the spell was small, and the depth at which the ogre’s legs sank was shallow.

But sand is still useful.

The sand gathered to form a wall in front of the ogre that had escaped from the sand pit.

The ogre brushed it aside like swatting a fly and swung its club.

Whoosh!

“Ugh…”

Kwak Ji-cheol barely dodged and manipulated the sand again.

So I offered advice to him again.

“You’re only trying to block it again. You won’t get any leeway that way. Don’t block, deflect.”

“How am I supposed to do that—ugh!”

Thud!

I kicked Kwak Ji-cheol away, and in the next instant, the club smashed into the spot where he had been.

Kwak Ji-cheol rolled and scrambled to get back to his feet.

The ogre tried to continue its attack, but I intervened.

“This is how you deflect.”

“Goaaaa—!”

As the ogre swung its arm in annoyance, I combined Wind Force and Twister,

Thump—!

And its arm veered off course.

This was a move I had demonstrated against Mok Jong-hwa’s wood golem.

Having done this, I stepped aside to give them time alone again.

“Now, try to follow.”

“No, how am I supposed to do that?”

Regardless of whether Kwak Ji-cheol thought it was possible, the ogre wouldn’t stop attacking him.

Kwak Ji-cheol jumped to avoid the club sweeping the ground and pointed his staff at the ogre.

The sand tried to gather in the air to deflect its attack, but it was still too clumsy.

Just before Kwak Ji-cheol got hit, I kicked him away again.

“Ugh.”

“Again.”

“Can you stop kicking me?”

“Would you rather get hit by the ogre or by me?”

Kwak Ji-cheol’s eyes flicked between the ogre and me.

“…Let’s just continue like this.”

He concluded that getting kicked was better than being struck by the club.

I could have gone easy on him, but I intentionally didn’t.

If I go easy, how will he ever learn?

If it were Seo Ye-in, she would have watched once and followed along, but Kwak Ji-cheol couldn’t get the hang of it even after several attempts.

I didn’t know how much more time it would take here if I were to use conventional methods.

Even though I had been asked and there was a reward at stake, I didn’t plan to spend a lot of time on Kwak Ji-cheol.

So the conclusion I came to was:

I’ll teach him through intense training.

The traditional and effective method for intense training was to induce pain that twisted the whole body.

Thud,

“Ugh.”

Kwak Ji-cheol was kicked again and rolled on the ground.

“Get up. We’re continuing.”

But he quickly got up and faced the ogre again.

His eyes were now filled with venom.

The request from the Kwak brothers was secondary.

Since it was the last week of mentoring, my top priority was to develop my skills.

So while I kept kicking Kwak Ji-cheol, I also kept harassing the ogre with wind magic and one point explosions,

[The rank of “Twister” has increased. D+ -> C+]

[The rank of “One Point Explosion” has increased. E -> D]

I managed to raise the rank of my new skills by one level each.

Although Wind Force and Twister had hit a wall at C-rank, I continued the rank training diligently, knowing it would help me reach B rank faster.

And so, rank training was set to continue throughout the week.

However, Dang Gyu-young’s time to watch over us was limited.

As a third-year student and a club president, she had a busy personal schedule.

She also had to pay attention to the black market.

Ending the mentoring session for the day meant that I would not receive the event bonus, so I immediately moved on to the next training.

I planned to complete my interrupted mana training to absorb the energy of the elixir.

As I walked leisurely to the training center,

I feel someone following me.

I sensed a presence behind me.

At first, I thought the swordsmanship club might have started moving but that didn’t seem to be the case.

If it was a tail, no matter how careless they were, they wouldn’t follow so closely right behind me.

The footsteps trailed me, and whenever they got too close, they hesitated and slowed down.

Then when the distance grew, they would follow again.

Before checking behind me, I thought of a few people.

Seo Ye-in would come straight up to me and tug at my sleeve.

Dang Gyu-young would also come close, put a hand on my shoulder and ask, “Hey, where are you going?”

Song Cheon-hye would speed up to walk beside me, and if I kept ignoring her, she’d call out, “Hey!”

The footsteps behind me didn’t match any of these, so by process of elimination, the conclusion was,

It must be Hong Yeon-hwa.

That would explain the hesitant behavior.

She probably wanted to talk but was scared and hesitant for some reason.

I have no choice.

I had to make the first move.

I pretended not to notice her and kept walking.

Then, I suddenly turned around and shouted,

“Boo!”

“!!!”

As expected, Hong Yeon-hwa was standing behind me.

She was so startled; her eyes widened like a rabbit’s and her whole body stiffened.

Hong Yeon-hwa then tried to retreat in a panic and she almost fell backward.

But just before she fell, I used wind force to support her.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I’m okay……”

“Why were you following me from behind? And so suspiciously?”

“Sorry…”

“You don’t have to be sorry. Is something wrong?”

Hong Yeon-hwa hesitated before answering.

“Well, it’s just… my sister wanted to thank you and asked if you could stop by the club room when you have time…”

It wasn’t hard to guess why Hong Ye-hwa was grateful.

It was likely because Hong Yeon-hwa defeated Bukgong Han-seol in the four-on-four match.

Since entering the Dragon Slayer Academy, Hong Yeon-hwa didn’t have any notable achievements. The main reason was that she started with a loss in the placement test and began with 600 points.

Compared to other promising students who were rapidly defeating 900-point opponents, it was inevitable that she would be seen as the weakest among the promising students. I imagine there were even rumors that she was the lowest of the promising students.

As the president of the Ruby Magic Tower, Hong Ye-hwa (the older sister) must have been furious every time she heard such talk.

But in the recent duel, Hong Yeon-hwa easily defeated Bukgong Han-seol.

It was a perfect game against a 900-point opponent.

It was like rain in a drought, no, more like a refreshing soda.

I could almost see Hong Ye-hwa’s beaming smile.

And the person who made a significant contribution to that was,

It’s me.

We cooperated to melt the Millennium Iron alloy, and as a result, Hong Yeon-hwa’s Aqua Flame rank had indeed risen.

If it hadn’t been C-rank, she wouldn’t have held such an overwhelming advantage against Bukgong Han-seol.

In addition, Hong Yeon-hwa had spent the entire last week sparring with me. She improved her mastery of the modified Fire Pillar and became very proficient in the use of magic circles.

Her ability to toy with Bukgong Han-seol throughout the match owed much to this.

For these reasons, Hong Ye-hwa couldn’t help but express her gratitude to me.

“And also… there’s something she wants to discuss.”

What she wanted to discuss was very obvious.

Hong Yeon-hwa’s Aqua Flame was now stuck at C-rank.

For further growth, I hinted that she would need to “enter a dungeon with many ice attribute monsters”, which would naturally be an underground dungeon.

So she would want to hear the details of that.

However, I slowly shook my head.

“Sorry, but I won’t have time for a while. Please tell her I’ll visit soon.”

“Mhmm, got it.”

Regarding the underground dungeon, I now had to focus on dealing with the swordsmanship club.

So even if we discussed Aqua Flame, finding and entering an underground dungeon would have to be postponed.

Moreover, Aqua Flame was already strong at C-rank and Hong Yeon-hwa had plenty of other skills and traits to develop.

This meant that there was no need for me or them to be in a hurry.

“Do you have anything else to say? I’m leaving.”

“W-wait!”

As I was about to turn away, Hong Yeon-hwa called out to me again.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Well… Co!!”

“Co?”

I wondered what she meant by “Co,” but it seemed she had choked on her words.

Hong Yeon-hwa took a deep breath and continued.

“Co-Coffee! Do you like it?”

“I drink it when it’s available; are you offering to buy some?”

Hong Yeon-hwa quickly nodded her head.

Then she added while stammering,

“I, I wanted to thank you…”

No one would be more grateful than Hong Yeon-hwa herself for defeating Bukgong Han-seol.

So she wanted to buy me coffee as a thank you.

This wasn’t something to refuse, so I nodded readily.

“Sure. I’ll enjoy it.”

“……!”

Hong Yeon-hwa’s face brightened up.

So we headed to the cafeteria.

I chose my usual iced coffee.

I didn’t know how many espresso shots Hong Yeon-hwa added to her Americano, but it was very dark and thick…

Looks like oil now?

It looked like my tongue wouldn’t survive if I tasted that, but Hong Yeon-hwa drank it as naturally as if it were water.

I could infer that she enjoyed this combination regularly.

It was her preference, so I let it be,

We sat on a bench near the cafeteria and sipped our coffee in silence.

“…”

Even then, Hong Yeon-hwa kept glancing at me and checking my reaction out of the corner of her eye.

When our eyes met, she quickly looked down and focused on her coffee.

However, I could see a hint of worry on her face, so I asked her first again this time.

“Is something bothering you?”

“N-No, why would there be?”

“It seems like there is.”

When I gave her a probing look, Hong Yeon-hwa averted her gaze and answered softly.

“…A little?”

“Is the strategy battle not working out?”

“No, the strategy battle is fine.”

On the first day, Hong Yeon-hwa and Song Cheon-hye tried to compete to see who could deal more damage, but it became meaningless as the ogre didn’t go down.

After that, I advised them to focus on mastering the basics, and the two accepted the advice and were now focusing on charging the crystals as their main strategy.

Both Hong Yeon-hwa and Song Cheon-hye had the skill to dodge the ogre’s attacks without their partner’s help, so they should surely get the highest score in the strategy battle.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Well…”

Hong Yeon-hwa fiddled with her coffee cup for a moment before speaking.