The Duke's Son :Re-Chapter 52

“Ah, I hate Monday so much.”

“I’m so tired. I should’ve rested well on the weekend.”

The students of First Year Class B had been in a terrible state since the morning. It was the aftermath of honing their Skills and tactics nonstop over the weekend.

The trio of Lee Jin-Seong, Du Bae-Su, and Cheon Hye-Ji had the worst complexion. Over the weekend, they had entered a danger zone. It was only filled with E-class monsters, but it was a risky adventure for the three of them. Being surrounded by dozens of goblins sent shivers down their spines. They could’ve really died if they hadn’t run into a patrol team.

That said, entering a danger zone without permission from the school was a violation of the school rules.

Although our lives were spared, we were penalized...

Lion’s Castle was, at its core, an educational institution. Its slogan was 'a place to safely nurture the players who would contribute to South Korea's national interests and honor.'

Apart from encouraging competition among students, they tried to prevent accidents where students were killed by monsters.

Still, why patrol an E-class area?

Lee Jin-Seong and Cheon Hye-Ji resented being penalized after nearly dying in the E-class area. They continued to grumble next to Du Bae-Su while supplementing their strength by eating hotteok.

Just before first period started, Jae-Hyeok entered the classroom, looking radiant and confident.

“Good morning.”

“Hello, Jae-Hyeok.”

He looks like he rested over the weekend without lifting a single finger... Lee Jin-Seong and Cheon Hye-Ji’s expressions brightened.

Seeing the look in their eyes, Du Bae-Su said bluntly, “I’m pretty sure his aura’s always been like that.”

“Shut up,” they dismissed him in unison.

Lee Jin-Seong and Cheon Hye-Ji had sacrificed their precious weekend and suffered in a danger zone, precisely because of Kang Jae-Hyeok. They needed to level up to close the gap between their skills and Kang Jae-Hyeok’s. Only then would they be bullied less.

We will show him how much we’ve changed.

Apart from almost dying on the weekend, Lee Jin-Seong and Cheon Hye-Ji had bravely hunted many goblins and gained two whole levels.

The gap between them and Kang Jae-Hyeok, who’d only rested over the weekend, had definitely narrowed compared to last week.

It wasn’t just them. The other students were also studying Jae-Hyeok.

Training hard over the weekend will definitely be worth it.

***

Two hours later, Class B’s confidence was shattered.

"Aaaaaaack!"

“Hiik! Help me!”

“Kang Jae-Hyeeeeeeeok!!”

It was strange. They had been training hard and leveling up over the weekend, but Kang Jae-Hyeok somehow felt even stronger than last week.

They had no chance to prepare as he kicked their butts, making them fall into a nest of worms or in front of a group of monsters.

Kim Jin-Myeong watched them as they were kicked around like soccer balls.

Did everyone in Class B do special training over the weekend?

Up to last week, most of the students that Jae-Hyeok kicked fell on their butt or face-down in front of monsters. Unprepared for the monster’s attacks, they were thrust into battle at a disadvantage.

However, today was different. All the students changed their posture in the air and landed in a stance that allowed them to attack the monsters.

This resulted in their hunting speed doubling.

In addition, Jae-Hyeok stayed still today. Even when an elite monster appeared, he stood back and watched the others.

“Uwahhhh!”

The students succeeded in hunting the elite monster without Jae-Hyeok’s help and cheered with joy.

Kim Jin-Myeong couldn’t help smiling deeply. It’s time they graduate from the desert.

The students in Class B had perfectly adapted to the desert since last week. It had been to the point that four days after they’d started desert training, he had already started evaluating their performance in monster hunting.

During the swamp adaptation training, Class B’s pace had been similar to Class C, but now they closely followed the progress of Class A.

This is all thanks to Jae-Hyeok.

Of course, the efforts of the other students shouldn’t be overlooked.

As their teacher, Kim Jin-Myeong had been observing each of his students carefully. He was well aware that they had pushed themselves to the limit.

The crux was their strong desire to win.

Maybe Jae-Hyeok was too good at beating them up, but they were developing at a tremendous pace out of a determination to get revenge on Jae-Hyeok one day.

Actually, I feel like they are hoping to be beaten less rather than thinking they can get revenge.

Is it really okay to allow Jae-Hyeok’s behaviour? Kim Jin-Myeong tried to shake off his new doubts by looking through the notebook containing the students’ characteristics. Let’s speed up the schedule.

***

On Tuesday, Kim Jin-Myeong showed up with twenty instructors.

“We will be starting new training today.”

“Ohh!”

None of the students were surprised or afraid that they were already moving into the next stage. The students of Class B had perfectly adapted to the desert and were full of confidence.

The instructors gave all of them a coat. It was a long black coat accented with gold epaulettes on both shoulders and a lion symbol on the chest.

It had a nice design and was made of luxurious materials.

It was a great uniform, but it was the end of spring, and the fabric was uncharacteristically thick.

“This is the school's winter uniform. There are various protective spells on it as well as a function to protect from the cold.”

Why were they wearing such clothes already? The students were feeling doubts when Lee Jin-Seong sighed.

“Is the next terrain training going to be on the snowfield?”

The snowfield was the fourth most notorious terrain in Lion’s Castle. There was a blizzard twenty-four hours a day, and the ground was icy. If they slipped while their vision was blocked, they could fall into a crevasse and die.

I thought there were a lot of instructors that I had never seen before. So they were here to protect us.

They were each to be accompanied by guardians for this training. Just how dangerous was this place? The confident students couldn’t help gulping nervously.

“Class A has been training in the snowfield since last week.”

The students had been about to argue that the snowfield adaptation training was scheduled for the second semester but fell silent after hearing this.

“In fact, they’ve begun hunting yetis without supervision by now.”

“......”

The atmosphere quickly froze.

Was Jae-Hyeok the only reason why the students of Class B worked so hard? No, they’d entered Lion’s Castle because they wanted to become the best players. They wanted to catch up with Class A and widen the gap with Class C.

“Why can’t we do the same as Class A? What’s the big deal about a blizzard when we’ve experienced swamps and deserts?”

“Speaking of yetis, those without a mane are only E-class. We can hunt them if we work together.”

The students’ eyes had changed.

Kim Jin-Myeong nodded in satisfaction. Then, he set off for the snowfield with the students.

***

Isn’t it too early?

The instructors had come at Kim Jin-Myeong’s request, but they couldn’t help frowning. When they arrived at the snowfield, the students of Class B were busy shivering and sniffing.

Their Stamina and Magic stats were still low, so they couldn’t adapt to the sudden change in temperature.

Aren’t they going to freeze to death if they go ahead with the training?

It was standard to start the snowfield terrain training in the second semester of the first year.

Class A had an average level of over 20 at the time of admission, so it was understandable for them to progress quickly. However, they wondered what Kim Jin-Myeong was thinking to accelerate Class B’s schedule.

“Could it be that Teacher Kim Jin-Myeong is paying too much attention to Class A?”

“He’s gotten ahead of himself. It isn’t that he’s unaware how far ahead Class A is; he’s just downright crazy.”

“I heard his wife suffers from a magic stone disease. It’s understandable for him to be obsessed with his performance evaluation to some extent. The problem is that he might sacrifice the students.”

The blizzard intensified as the instructors whispered to each other. The surroundings were so hazy that they couldn’t see an inch ahead of them.

This was only the edge of the snowfield.

Class B had arrived at their destination.

Tremble tremble.

Clack clack clack.

The sound of the students shaking and their teeth chattering echoed nonstop.

“I-I can’t feel my skin.”

“My...my runny nose is frozen. The snot turned to icicles. ”

“Uh? Du Bae-Su! Where are your eyebrows?”

Some students—the ones who’d been prodding their frozen eyebrows—began screaming when they broke clean off their faces.

“Be quiet. It’s just your eyebrows. You can grow them back, so why all the fuss?”

“We are men, dammit!”

“Is there a law that men can’t draw on their eyebrows? Hillbillies.”

Cheon Hye-Ji scolded the others.

She was still wearing full makeup today. She always wore makeup, even when rolling in the swamp. In a way, she was scarier than Kang Jae-Hyeok.

“Cycle the Yin-Yang Technique. The circulation of mana will help to keep you warm,” Kim Jin-Myeong advised.

However, moving the mana in the dantian wasn't easy when the cold had numbed all their senses.

Nearly half the students failed to operate the Yin-Yang Technique and continued shivering.

Kim Jin-Myeong checked the time and glanced at the instructors. Then the instructors placed their hands on the students’ backs and helped them circulate mana.

“......”

The atmosphere finally calmed down.

The level of the Class B students was slightly higher than the instructors had expected. In addition to the cold protection function of the winter coat, the students gradually got used to the cold with the help of the Yin-Yang Technique.

The students regained themselves and finally had time to look over at Jae-Hyeok.

They worried that he would nag them and call them stupid.

Surprisingly, Jae-Hyeok was quiet.

I feel guilty.

In truth, Jae-Hyeok was feeling rather embarrassed. He didn’t feel the cold at all. Seemingly, the reason was his knight’s ability to resist status conditions.

Is coldness considered a status condition by the System?

Jae-Hyeok was convinced.

A status condition was any phenomenon that interfered with the player. It made sense that coldness would be included when it reached the level of causing frostbite and deterioration to the physical condition.

That also explains why I was cool even in the desert.

Looking worried, Du Bae-Su couldn’t help but ask, “Jae-Hyeok, are you vulnerable to the cold?”

His face looked even more moon-like after his eyebrows were gone, making Jae-Hyeok flinch.

“Ah? Uh. A bit?”

“If you find it hard to adapt, should I give you my clothes? It feels like the mood of the whole class sinks when you’re so quiet. It makes me uneasy.”

“What are you going to do if you give me your clothes?”

“I’ve adapted to the cold. I guess I’m just less affected by the cold because I have more fat to keep me warm.”

Uh, that’s impossible.

If fat could prevent a person from getting cold, then Jae-Hyeok would have put on weight every winter.

Perhaps Du Bae-Su’s mana had an affinity for ice, so he was resistant to the cold.

“Forget it. I will just accept your good intentions.”

A person who lost his eyebrows from the cold is worrying about Kang Jae-Hyeok? A senior instructor watched closely as Jae-Hyeok sweated out of embarrassment. And why is he sweating in the cold? Is he sick?

Good.

It just so happened that a new Troll Lord was being born at this time. All the monsters in the vicinity would leave their nests until it safely grew into an adult. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

The timing was good in many ways to capture Kang Jae-Hyeok.

Luck is on my side.

***

At the mouth of a deep cave on the outskirts of the snowfield, a team of scouts emerged and quickly left the area.

They’d just witnessed the Troll Lord respawn; there was no time to relax since a large army of monsters would soon arrive to protect the newborn Troll Lord.

“You said it takes over a month for a Troll Lord to reach adulthood?”

“Yes. We’ll have to protect it until then to get a bigger reward from the raid.”

“We should be grateful to the monsters for their protection.”

The team leader replied honestly to the newcomer on the team. “Normally, I would agree, but the ones charged with hunting the Troll Lord are the Second and Fifth Squads this time. So I would rather the monsters abandon their instincts and neglect the Troll Lord this once.”

The Second and Fifth Attack Squads were on the side of the Association, so the scouts who served Seol Su-Ah couldn’t help feeling regret about the situation.

“If the monsters are left unchecked, won’t a third party be able to target the Troll Lord?”

“The newborn Troll Lord is level 59. It is only C-class, so the raid itself isn’t difficult. However, is there an idiot in Lion’s Castle who would go against the security forces just to kill a C-class boss?”

“It is a high-risk, low-profit situation.”

“It is a sure-fire way to kill themselves.”