Chapter 3

Theodore Wither.

The bastard son who is like the only blemish on the Wither family.

And the protagonist of .

‘Something feels strange…’

Is it because he’s the real thing?

His appearance settings come to mind, but actually seeing a face that matches those settings felt odd.

But I must have been staring too intently.

Theodore awkwardly rolled his eyes and then spoke.

“Um, hello…?”

Wow, he even talks.

I blinked in surprise, then remembered that he had greeted me.

“Ah, yeah, right. Uh… hello.”

When I stammered out a greeting, the protagonist gave a slight smile.

I must have looked ridiculous.

“You’re taking this year’s entrance exam, right?”

If we parted like this, I felt I’d be branded as just some weird kid, so I deliberately continued the conversation.

He gave a small nod.

Pretending to react to even his tiny movements, I checked the sudden quest window.

!Sudden Quest!

: Cheer on Theodore Wither’s challenge!

Success Reward: Item Draw Ticket / On failure, Affection –5

Cheer on his challenge?

Could it be the entrance exam?

“S, so you came to practice now?”

Theodore nodded again at my question.

That settled it.

I had to cheer on the protagonist’s entrance exam right now.

‘System, I’m about to fail right now!’

The protagonist will manage to pass somehow, but not me!

Theodore Wither originally had the cheat-like spec of infinite mana.

The rest were all E or F, but he still passed the entrance exam with his unique sense.

I envy that sense.

Lucy here lacks that damn sense, so she’s stuck wondering whether she’ll hit an arrow or not.

“I see. Work hard at practicing!”

Envy aside, I offered words of encouragement for the quest.

But no quest success notification appeared.

“We can both pass the entrance exam!”

I tried cheering again.

But again, no success notification.

No, for people who just met, this should be enough cheering.

You’re saying it’s not enough?

I felt a bit stubborn.

“You can do it!”

“……”

“Cheer up! You can definitely do it! I believe in you! I’ll cheer on your challenge!”

At my continuing cheer relay, Theodore’s expression turned strange.

I know, I know it’s weird.

But I had to succeed at the quest somehow.

I didn’t care about the failure penalty, but I needed the success reward.

How precious is a single item in a situation like this!

“You will become the hero of this world.”

At this point, it was no longer cheering but just saying anything.

But at these last words, Theodore’s purple eyes widened.

And at the same time—

!Sudden Quest Success!

: Your encouragement reached Theodore Wither!

Check your success reward. (Click!)

Success!

I almost screamed without realizing it.

I barely suppressed the surge of emotion and said goodbye to Theodore.

“Well, bye!”

Thanks, protagonist.

I couldn’t hide my grin as I waved my hand.

Theodore had an even stranger face than before.

“Why…?”

I thought I heard that from behind, but I pretended not to.

I soon found Practice Room 36 and slipped inside.

As I entered and closed the door, the lights turned on automatically.

Finally, my first time entering a practice room.

“Reward first!”

Excited about my first reward, I opened the quest window.

The quest window still showed the notification to check the success reward.

I clicked the part that said (Click!).

Item Draw Ticket (D)

: Can randomly draw an item of D-rank or higher. (Use)

Ah, right, draws have ranks too.

I had forgotten for a moment because the protagonist always drew only good things regardless of rank.

Still, D-rank is better than nothing, so I immediately pressed Use.

Whoosh—

Then dozens of white cards appeared and swirled around me.

The implementation was better than I imagined, and I stared in a daze.

“Wow…”

The rapidly spinning cards stopped in an instant.

And one card floated before my eyes.

The other cards had long since disappeared.

A single brightly shining card.

It sparkled as if telling me to choose it.

As if possessed, I clicked the card.

• Lucky Four-Leaf Clover (D): Luck slightly increases for one day. Single use.

“Damn it.”

You showed me this spectacular effect just to give me an item like this?

I was truly speechless.

The protagonist, even when receiving a D-rank draw ticket, would break through the probability of getting struck by lightning and pull out S-rank items one after another.

No matter how I thought about it, this was discrimination.

“Just how much is this ‘slightly’…”

Enough for Lucy to pass the entrance exam with flying colors?

—Of course not.

Damn it.

I wasn’t shameless enough to expect that much from a D-rank item.

In this world, the only shameless thing was the system.

“So passing thanks to items is out.”

I had to use another method.

As I pondered, a method suddenly came to mind.

‘But will this work?’

It was a method only someone who could see the status window would think of.

It was a bit of crazy grinding, but…

“Let’s try it.”

I activated the skill.

* * *

The day of the entrance exam.

My dark circles had reached my cheekbones.

“Um, unnie. Are you okay?”

Perhaps because I looked obviously unwell, Sophia asked in a worried voice.

I kept blinking my dry eyes but said I was fine.

“I’ll be fine. Once the exam is over…”

“Ah, right…”

At the word “exam,” Sophia’s shoulders slumped.

A gloomy atmosphere hung over the dormitory.

But we had to prepare for the upcoming exam, so we decided to leave the dormitory for now.

“There are… so many people. A lot.”

Tell me about it.

As soon as we left the dormitory, awakened individuals taking the exam were swarming everywhere.

To think there were this many applicants for an academy exam that only awakened individuals could take.

This made it certain.

There was no variable where Lucy would get in due to a lack of applicants this year.

Now all that was left was corrupt admission and lucky admission.

‘I’m going with lucky admission.’

I bet on the latter.

I had drawn an item for exactly that, after all.

It had a time limit, so I hadn’t used it yet.

I planned to subtly use it once the ranged shooting test began.

“Which test do you have first, unnie?”

“Close combat for me.”

At my words, Sophia drooped her already sagging eyebrows and muttered.

She said she had the ranged shooting test first.

Sophia was already nervous, and perhaps finding it hard to go to the exam site without anyone she knew, she kept looking at me.

Hey, even if you look at me like that, there’s nothing this unnie can do for you.

“You’ll do well.”

I at least cheered her on.

I had cheered for the protagonist who was sure to pass, so there was no reason I couldn’t do the same for cute Sophia.

Sophia pressed her lips together at my encouragement, then disappeared after telling me to do my best too.

“Yeah, I’m the bigger problem…”

My miserable status window briefly came to mind, but I tried to forget it by recalling the two days of special training.

In the meantime, my mana and senses stats had risen slightly from practicing.

Status Window

▸ Mana: E → E+

▸ Senses: F → E

It seemed to rise quickly, but that was because Lucy’s stats were low-level.

Normally, experience points fill quickly at low levels.

Probably even at D, leveling up wouldn’t be easy.

‘For now, let’s focus on the exam.’

I headed to the close combat exam site.

I saw kids who looked like archers heading to one place, so I followed them and arrived.

“I’m so nervous!”

“How many skills do you have?”

“Please let me pass, ancestors…”

“Haa, I must have practiced too much yesterday. I’m dizzy.”

The exam site was noisy.

Only archers and mages—classes whose main focus is ranged attack—were here.

Even if everyone takes all the tests, you can’t have warriors or swordsmen taking the close combat test with them.

The Krangbuiyer Academy entrance exam consisted of three main categories.

Close combat, ranged shooting, and combat support.

These are taken in rotation among awakened individuals of similar class groups.

One category per day, over three days—it sounds relaxed, but it’s not at all.

With so many applicants, the schedule was tightly packed and ran quickly.

Moreover, the test related to one’s own awakened class was important enough to almost determine pass or fail.

Of course, for Lucy’s body, that test was the biggest problem.

‘Let’s focus on this exam first.’

Close combat test.

I had worked hard for two days for this.

Originally, I was a person far removed from combat like this, but Lucy’s body—whether due to the awakening buff or natural talent—quickly became accustomed to these movements.

Thanks to that, the results of practicing based only on skills exceeded expectations.

‘I can do this.’

I clenched my fist.

After all, everyone here is from the same class group, so most would be terrible at close combat.

That was exactly what I was aiming for.

Thus began the first exam.

“Kgh—!”

“…G-Get him to the infirmary immediately!”

I failed to control my strength.