There were hundreds, thousands of kinds of magic, and people often modified them slightly to suit their own tastes.

Because of that, identifying a spell at a glance wasn’t easy even for another mage.

For people of other classes, it would be even more confusing.

Besides, [Pulverize Zone] had extremely low name recognition. Naturally so, since almost no one used it.

Not only did it activate with a delay, it even openly marked the location, so if you wanted it to hit, you absolutely had to chain it with some kind of control technique.

Most people chose a different spell rather than going to the trouble of twisting their whole build around it.

As expected, the other participants didn’t seem to have figured out what the blue circle really was.

Keeping serious expressions, they traded a few comments.

“Doesn’t seem like there’s any benefit in leaving it alone.”

“It’s most likely some kind of buff skill.”

“Just look at how he went out of his way to declare it a sanctuary.”

It looked like they had guessed it was a geas-type skill.

They seemed to think the whole “I declare this place a sanctuary” line was some kind of restriction.

A category that publicly disclosed its contents to the enemy in exchange for maximizing the effect—Blood Sword Commander was a good example.

I led them into that misunderstanding on purpose, though.

I’d added credibility with the solemn tone and the way I made it look like I was unfolding some kind of territory.

After all, lies didn’t really match the image of a paladin or a priest.

Soon, Orange, Purple, and Black slowly began closing the distance toward me.

Then they stopped right in front of the ring of mana and asked,

“And if we choose to enter?”

“You will taste bitterness.”

I answered while maintaining my serious-and-dignified concept.

Of course, these were future hero candidates who had spent a full year gaining experience at Dragonslayer Academy.

There was no way they’d back off over a few words.

To begin with, this was PvP. Their lives weren’t actually on the line.

“The more you tell me not to, the more I want to.”

“That depends on your choice. But you will have to pay the price.”

“You think you can stop the three of us by yourself?”

“That is not something you need concern yourselves with.”

“......”

At that arrogant reply, Orange glared at me for a moment, then clenched both fists and raised a boxer’s guard.

Purple and Black lowered their longswords into ready stances of their own. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

And the moment Orange took a step into the blue circle—

BOOM!

Compressed air exploded and blasted him backward.

Then I added one more line.

“That is the end of my warning.”

“......We’ll see whether you can protect that sanctuary to the very end.”

The instant Orange kicked off the ground, the two swordsmen also swung their blades at me.

SWISH—!

Dodging them, I counted inwardly.

31, 32, 33.......

[Pulverize Zone] required you to set both the range and the time when casting it.

So I had set the range wide enough for four people to engage in close-quarters combat, and the time limit to one minute.

And while we’d been playing this little mind game, more than half of it had already passed.

BOOM! BOOM!

Every time Wind Force detonated, the three of them were blown out of the circle in turns.

But they immediately rushed back in and resumed their attacks.

When I continued to avoid any real hits despite fighting three-on-one, a strange gleam entered Orange’s eyes.

“So you do have the skill to back up that big mouth. But how long can you keep it up?”

“......Shut up!”

Pretending I was starting to struggle, I put on the performance of my life.

Maybe it worked, because the three of them grew even more overbearing.

They started jeering one by one.

“What’s wrong? We’re violating your sanctuary.”

“Aren’t you supposed to hurry up and push us out?”

“Is that really all you can do?”

While pretending to barely dodge the barrage of fist strikes and sword energy, I let out a frustrated groan.

“Grrgh......!”

Of course, in my head I was still counting.

56, 57, 58.......

And the moment I counted 59, I cast ★Blink★ and moved far away from the blue circle.

At that, Orange, Purple, and Black all stopped moving at once.

“......!”

“......!”

They looked around in confusion, then spotted me standing some distance away.

If I’d been going on about a sanctuary and protecting it so desperately, why was I over there?

I dropped the serious, dignified act in an instant and flashed them a wicked grin.

“You Han Somi-like idiots.”

Did you really believe that?

The next moment, a formless force dropped down over the heads of the Han Somi Trio.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

All that remained there was the arena floor, crushed flat as if a giant seal had been stamped into it.

All three had been judged incapable of fighting and ejected.

If this had been a real battle, it probably would have left behind three flat pancakes.

Soon, the scoreboard displayed the result of the match.

[BLUE 1st]

[ORANGE 4th]

[PURPLE 4th]

[BLACK 4th]

Maybe because they had all collapsed simultaneously, they had all been given the same placement.

Apparently it didn’t divide them by tiny gaps like 0.01 seconds.

The reason it was a three-way tie for 4th instead of a three-way tie for 2nd seemed to be because the placement test had to reflect it properly.

Second place earned a fairly substantial amount of PvP points, but fourth got nothing.

After leaving the arena, I checked the notification message.

[Sub Quest: Week 1 Placement Test] (In Progress....)

▷Skills/Traits Disabled: Amplification, Distortion, Retrocovery

▷Objective 1: Place 1st in matches (2/3 times)

▷Objective 2: Defeat enemies (6/3 people)

▷Reward: Scaled based on completion rate

One match left now.

The difficulty would depend on who my last opponents were, but either way, I intended to finish this one in first place too.

And since I had already exceeded the second objective, I was planning to over-clear that one even further by defeating three more people.

Before long, the next match was set, and I stepped into the Circular Arena.

As I looked down at my body,

Green this time.

Gray, Yellow, and Red silhouettes appeared one after another around the arena.

[GREEN 100%]

vs

[GRAY 100%]

vs

[RED 100%]

vs

[YELLOW 100%]

But the atmosphere filling the arena was clearly different from the previous two matches.

All three silhouettes were staring straight at me.

Gray was the first to speak.

It was a very familiar tone, and full of dissatisfaction.

“......Bad Kim Ho.”

At that, Yellow and Red both flinched, then added a line each.

“So it really was you.”

“How...... did we all end up here......?”

To be fair, I was just as dumbfounded.

Our soft-reset score ranges had been similar, sure, but could matchmaking really line up like this?

“And why are you all so good at noticing?”

If everybody figured it out this easily, what was the point of anonymity?

Even the scoreboard looked different.

[Kim Ho 100%]

vs

[Seo Ye-in 100%]

vs

[Hong Yeonhwa 100%]

vs

[Song Cheonhye 100%]

Soon, Song Cheonhye slipped gloves onto both hands and said,

“This actually works out well. You forfeited the placement test last year. Let’s treat this as a continuation—and I’ll show you how much I’ve improved.”

“By that logic, shouldn’t you be fighting her instead?”

I asked back, pointing at Seo Ye-in.

The two of them had fought one-on-one in last year’s placement test.

It was about time to see how much their abilities had changed since then.

Song Cheonhye must have had a similar thought too, because she glanced toward Seo Ye-in, but soon fixed her gaze back on me.

“Later. Right now, I want to fight you more.”

“I see. And what does my lady think?”

Seo Ye-in answered by pointing her pot at me.

“......Bad Kim Ho.”

“Because I sent you off for adoption?”

“I’m angry.......”

“You’re saying that just because I told you the class couldn’t be changed.”

“Full of complaints.......”

Apparently understanding the situation and being angry about it were two separate things.

So she had formed a temporary alliance with Song Cheonhye to teach me a lesson.

Lastly, I looked at Hong Yeonhwa.

“Want to go two-on-two? Headcount lines up perfectly.”

“......!”

Hong Yeonhwa looked intrigued.

But then, as if another thought had occurred to them, they looked back and forth between the gray and yellow silhouettes before speaking in a cautious tone.

“I also...... want to try fighting together.”

“You too? You’re betraying me now?”

“Just...... this one time......?”

“Well, would you look at these insolent little beasts.”

After everything I’d done for them, they were really going to gang up on me three-on-one.

There was an old saying that black-haired beasts weren’t worth raising, and apparently it wasn’t wrong at all.

Though in this case, I was the only one here with black hair.

Soon, I slowly nodded.

“Very well. Let’s have ourselves a little discipline-correction session today.”

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Start!]

The instant the match began, Seo Ye-in aimed her mana gun.

Blue fire poured continuously from the barrel.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Song Cheonhye wrapped electricity around her whole body and kicked off the ground.

In response, I stepped through several beats of [Featherstep] while dodging the mana bullets, then cast ★Blink★.

The place I appeared was directly behind Hong Yeonhwa.

“......!”

Hong Yeonhwa, who had been in the middle of chanting a spell, flinched and twisted around, but by then a streak of cold had already shot from my fingertip.

[‘Diamond Freeze’ will be used.]

[Duration 00:00:19]

[Cooldown 00:07:59]

[Ice Hundred Shot]

[‘Chain Explosion’ is activated.]

[Cooldown 00:04:59]

BOOM!

The same combo I had used on Cha Hyeonju in the first match.

Hong Yeonhwa’s legs ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) froze solid.

Then a blue circle spread out, centered beneath their feet.

“[Pulverize Zone]......!”

They had watched the copying process from right beside me. There was no way they wouldn’t recognize it.

And in a little while, that thing would be coming down on top of their head.

The color gradually drained from Hong Yeonhwa’s face.

They desperately tried to escape the blue circle, but with their legs bound, all they could do was struggle in place.

And then I casually added,

“For the record, I set it to twenty seconds. So now it’s 15, 14, 13—”

“......!”

Since I had set the area small, even twenty seconds would produce power that couldn’t be ignored.

Hong Yeonhwa must have reached the same conclusion, because their face turned even paler.

They hurriedly cast flame magic, but—

FWOOOOSH,

even within the blazing fire, their legs remained frozen solid.

They even had [Aqua Flame], so ordinary ice usually melted away just from getting close.

But now [Diamond Freeze] had been applied, so it wasn’t affected in the slightest.

The cannot-be-dispelled effect lasts twenty seconds.

By the time it wore off, [Pulverize Zone] would already be dropping.

I had lined the timing up on purpose.

RAT-TAT-TAT!

KRAK-KRAK-KRAK!

Mana bullets and lightning came flying in as if to pressure me, but I slipped around them lightly, and every now and then I even used Hong Yeonhwa as a shield.

Then, in the most urgent tone possible, I pressed them.

“There’s no time, no time! Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock—”

“......!”

Hong Yeonhwa kept looking up over and over, trembling.

Soon they tried to steady themselves and began chanting a spell, but it was obvious what they were thinking.

Trying to escape with ★Blink★, huh.

But was I really going to let that happen?

I grabbed Hong Yeonhwa by the shoulders and started shaking them wildly.

“Where do you think you’re going?! Where do you think you’re going?!”

“S-stop shaking me......!”

Space magic was already tricky enough as it was. There was no way they could maintain concentration with interference on top of that.

Naturally, the ★Blink★ was canceled, and Hong Yeonhwa lost their final chance.

With half a tearful expression, they lifted their gaze upward.

“No—”

The next moment, the [Pulverize Zone] forehead flick exploded.

CRACK!

“Gyaek.”

With a tiny scream, Hong Yeonhwa sprawled onto the floor and was immediately ejected.

After glancing once at that sight, I turned toward the two remaining opponents.

“Next.”