Activity Funds (2)
The brief moment of respite I had finally found didn’t last long.
Having now wrapped up the massive tide that was Episode 1, there was a lingering concern taking root in one corner of my mind.
“Senior. This time, we really need to get a good evaluation…”
“Winter.”
“Yes?”
“How do you pay your tuition?”
“Ah, there are scholarships… for people like me. I also took out a student loan.”
Winter was organizing the expected evaluation draft for the first-half assessment from the Order. She was explaining it point by point, but I had no idea what she was talking about, so I was letting it go in one ear and out the other.
At my sudden question, Winter seemed to quiet down a bit. Knowing her lonely past, I chose my words carefully.
“Hm.”
Money, no matter how much you gathered, was never enough. Even for me, the Duhein Family’s support had been cut off, so I was barely scraping by.
How would I pay next year’s tuition? The smaller expenses piling up wouldn’t be easy to handle either. The same went for Winter.
Winter had no hobbies. No favorite foods. In her life, defined by extreme self-restraint, only a burning desire to study remained. That was what barely brought her this far.
“They did say the Order supports believers financially, right?”
“Yes? They do, but… you don’t need to go that far for me…”
“No.”
She was a founding member of the Anaye Order. On top of that, a rare talent with excellent management skills. If not me, then who else would look after Winter?
I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled my memories. Carefully, I went over the information I had saved while playing the game.
Most of the data focused on how to strengthen characters. Then something interesting came to mind.
“Winter. Do you know anything about the Forbidden Forest?”
“N-not really… No, I don’t!”
This cunning little girl seemed to catch on to my intent right away. She averted her gaze in a very obvious way and mumbled her answer.
She was clearly trying to avoid being sent somewhere she knew would inevitably result in an accident or serious injury. I let out a rough laugh.
“Ah, then I guess I’ll just have to go in without knowing anything and come back hurt.”
“Aaagh! Why are you going to such a dangerous place again!”
Winter shrieked in protest. I chuckled and kept teasing her for a while.
It had become a habit without me even realizing it, because the reaction was just too satisfying. The one at fault here was the one who reacted too well.
She huffed and puffed, fuming with frustration.
“Hoo… You know about the magic of the sea, right?”
“Yeah.”
Eventually giving in, Winter took a short breath and began to explain.
The sea possessed a strange magic that lured life toward it. Legends like the [Siren Legend] and [Ghost Ship Legend] were related to this power.
“The Forbidden Forest exists because of those kinds of magical properties. Do you know about the [Black Moon] in the southern forest?”
“Of course I do. But go ahead and explain it anyway.”
“...Museion Island is such an ancient island that it’s one of the areas most affected by the sea’s magic. Among them, the [Black Moon] is a rare phenomenon that appears on the cliff in the southern forest—just like the name says, the moon turns black.”
“Oh. And then?”
“Well, there are a few things. But the main story is that everyone who saw it ended up dropping out of the academy? From what I’ve heard, a spirit of the moon wearing a black mask appears and torments them.”
“That’s it?”
“...Of course you’d think that.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
Only after I twitched an eyebrow did Winter come to her senses. She glanced at me cautiously, then continued the conversation.
“Anyway, don’t go to the Forbidden Forest. If you can help it. The [Black Moon], the [Screaming Valley], the [Laboratory of Perdikaf]—they’re all dangerous places.”
“Right. That’s what it was called.”
The last one she mentioned. [Laboratory of Perdikaf]. Hearing that name, I clapped my hands.
It was a hidden area that could only be accessed after obtaining a reward item from clearing Episode 9. That place had some pretty valuable stuff.
Originally, it was designed as a bonus reward for overcoming a difficult episode and to provide useful items for tackling future episodes more easily.
The funny thing was, with the right method, you could enter that area early in the game.
‘It was ridiculous.’
I remembered that time—while grinding after clearing a mid-game episode, I had fallen off a cliff and ended up in the [Laboratory of Perdikaf] by accident.
Getting in was easy, but I couldn’t go further due to not meeting the requirements. There were a few such mechanics scattered throughout the game. When I looked up guides just in case, I found that there was actually a method to get in early, but only for mages.
Even in this world, there was a route similar to what speedrunners in the game used.
“I’m going to make some money.”
“Huh? What? All of a sudden?”
The Order’s operations were barely sustained through support from the Imperial Knight Order. But anything beyond that was impossible.
The Imperial Knight Order wasn’t stupid. They claimed they were doing everything they could—but that was a lie.
They maintained a delicate balance: not so little that it would be interpreted as dismissive, but not so much that the Order could grow freely.
If you thought about the Vice-Commander, it was obvious that this setup was her doing. There wasn’t much I needed to prepare. I grabbed a shovel and left the chapel.
***
“This should be about the place.”
A cliff where the cold wind cut through. I had arrived at the [Screaming Valley] in the southern forest and glanced around.
―Kyaaahhh!
What sounded like a chilling scream was actually just the wind passing through small gaps between the strange rock formations.
The atmosphere was certainly eerie. It felt unnerving and creepy, like the kind of place no one would want to be near.
If I had stumbled in here by accident, I’d be desperate to find my way out.
“It’s not a valley, it’s just a damn cliff.”
Though it had been given the nickname “valley,” it was really just a well-carved cliff. I had no idea why it was called that, but in reality, it was nothing more than a natural sculpture shaped by time.
Fear comes from the unknown. The students feared this southern forest. Simply because they knew nothing about it.
The countless legends circulating among them were nothing more than exaggerated rumors layered on top of the academy’s official ban on entry.
The truly dangerous things—those never even made it into stories. That way, it helped maintain safety, and the academy deliberately kept it that way.
“Found it.”
I had been walking for quite a while with the [Screaming Valley] to my left. Despite the sun hanging high in the sky, the forest atmosphere was dark and gloomy.
So spotting a solitary cabin standing tall in such a place was a welcome sight. It looked like it could collapse at any moment, which left a strong impression.
Without hesitation, I headed straight for the cabin.
“The smell, though.”
This used to be my go-to base camp back when I was grinding nonstop in the game. It was the only place in the southern forest that could be set as a return point.
Think of the southern forest as a kind of dungeon. In specific areas, there were high-level monsters that only appeared there.
This cabin served as a midpoint, connected with the shortest routes to most monster respawn zones.
The five-pyeong cabin had only a table and a bed. I opened the window despite the dust and musty smell of old earth—better to let in the ominous wind of the southern forest than to breathe that in.
“Northeast, huh.”
I plopped down onto the bed. Dust scattered, but I didn’t care. Since I couldn’t register it as a return point, the cabin now served only as a compass to guide my way.
In the game, due to the strange magical power here, the cardinal directions would vanish from the minimap. Even if you moved using the map, at some point you'd end up lost.
That’s when this cabin came in handy.
“Damn that magic.”
I clicked my tongue at the all-powerful magic system. This game slightly favored mages. Honestly, real combat was all about rolling, slashing, rolling, and slashing—that tension is what made it fun.
Of course, now that this had become reality, easy wins were best.
After grumbling for a while, I finally took out the compass. It had been spinning aimlessly, but now it finally pointed in a single direction.
With the compass as reference, the target was at 1 o'clock. If I walked nearly a kilometer from the cabin, I would arrive at the long-awaited entrance. I set off quickly.
“Well, would you look at that?”
When I reached the entrance, I was met with something unusual. Draped in loose, dark fabric and wearing a black mask, the figure emitted a cold, eerie light.
It was perched on the trunk of a black tree deep in the gloomy forest, staring directly at me. The very creature behind the rumors that gave rise to the legend of the [Black Moon].
“Not that scary, honestly.”
I knew what it was. It wasn’t some ghostly creature—it was more like a scout created by the guardian of this island.
Now, it had lost its original function and was nothing more than a spirit aimlessly wandering the southern forest. Even in the game, it was treated as part of the background, barely noticed.
It was smaller than Winter. No hostility whatsoever could be felt from it. No matter how I looked at it, there was nothing about it that would make someone consider dropping out of the academy.
“The [Black Moon] is on the complete opposite side, though.”
There was one odd thing. The [Black Moon] appeared on the complete other side from where I was headed now.
At this point—after the tutorial had ended—it was impossible to know what these creatures were doing. That kind of detail lay outside the game’s system.
‘Could it become a variable?’
There are countless variables in the world, but I preferred to minimize them as much as possible.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with an answer. I shrugged and dismissed it. If it didn’t bring harm, there was no need to pay it any mind.
I resumed walking.
“Almost missed it.”
A round stone plate. Covered in moss, I nearly walked past it without noticing.
If not for the faint hardness I felt through the sole of my foot, I would have missed it entirely. Irritated, I brushed the moss away.
Strange symbols filled the border. This was the entrance. Using the key earned as a reward for clearing an episode, this entrance could be activated.
‘Though this changes things.’
I bit my finger and held it to the edge, now revealed with symbols. A drop of blood formed at my fingertip and dripped onto the glyphs.
This wasn’t some precisely engineered mechanism. It was a product of magitech, created with magic. In the game, the entrance could be opened by deciphering and manipulating the runes.
Of course, being a multi-run veteran, I knew exactly what needed to be altered. But since I wasn’t a mage, I couldn’t use that method.
“Episode 1 went smoothly thanks to this.”
Back when I hunted the Mana Stone Spider, I had already begun to suspect that my blood wasn’t just normal blood.
After several tests, I’d confirmed it was quite useful. Piercing Coco’s shield so easily in Episode 1 had finalized the conclusion.
The blood of someone with the trait [Ancient Magic] completely nullifies magic upon contact with a surface.
When my blood had soaked half the runes, something unusual occurred.
“Ah. Right.”
With a faint vibration and the sound of grinding stone, the ground beneath my feet gave way.
What was supposed to slowly descend like an elevator had its magic cut off and simply stopped functioning—collapsing instead.
In an instant, I was swept up and falling into a pit of total darkness, unable to see a thing. Originally, I had planned to drop the elevator and descend later using a rope.
I hadn’t expected it to break down so suddenly. But I didn’t have time to panic. I extended a finger and thrust it toward the wall with all my strength.
Normally, that should’ve shattered my finger on impact. But my Adaptive Body endured. Instead, my finger punctured a hole into the stone wall.
“It stings a bit.”
The hand that should’ve been mangled from the friction was in surprisingly decent shape. In the pitch-darkness, I summoned the Holy Scripture and used its glow to inspect the wound—it wasn’t too bad.
And seeing it slowly mend on its own was the truly unsettling part. If you used the key properly, lights would automatically turn on.
But since I had forced my way in with a shortcut, all that greeted me was darkness. I began to walk forward slowly. There was only one path, anyway.