Wednesday came, and with it, a different type of class for everyone in Veritas class.

“Today’s combat training is Mock Artifact Scramble.” Shouted Kim Soohyuk as he stood in front of the cadets from Veritas class.

125 cadets and magicians from the class stood on the first floor of the Underground Plaza, a special place inside Cube that was like a building built underground, with 7 floors.

This mock training will take place in this Underground Plaza from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and will be the entirety of the classes today.

“Artifact Scrambles are something that most heroes will have to face at least once every year.” Continued Soohyuk as he looked at the entire group of cadets.

As the name suggests, Artifact Scrambles are fights where heroes must fight to get as many artifacts from ruins as they can. Normally, through agreements, they would be able to divide found artifacts between the Guilds involved in the excavation of the ruin.

The problem comes when Djinns enter the game. After all, real Artifact Scrambles usually happen in lawless zones. Places where no government has control, which means that heroes must be alert against Djinns that will most likely appear during the excavation of the ruins.

Back on Earth, it would be almost impossible to have many lawless zones, but here, after the outcall, multiple countries fell to monsters, and most of them stayed out of government control. These zones were now either full of monsters like Africa or controlled by Djinns like Central Asia.

“We separated you into Team White or Team Black.” Kim Soohyuk continued with his explanation. “Team White will be defenders, and Team Black will be attackers. Remember that the concept is ‘Brawl’! In addition, you can also shout ‘surrender’, and you will be considered eliminated.”

Everyone turned to look at each other, probably thinking who their enemies and allies will be.

“Now, we’ll take out your vision.” As Kim Soohyuk spoke, most of the cadets were robbed of their vision, which made a lot of them gasp or shriek in surprise. “It’s an instructor’s magic. Stay calm. You don’t need to try to disable it.”

The magic of a (High) Intermediate rank instructor is able to blind all the cadets present. Or at least most of them. 

From all 125 cadets, two of them were completely calm. They were Cristopher and Kim Hajin, who could both perfectly see through the magic of the instructor.

“We will now guide you to your designated location.” As Kim Soohyuk spoke, the other instructors started to guide everyone to their locations.

Cadets were divided from the first floor up to the sixth floor, leaving the seventh floor empty and out of reach for cadets, as it would be a watching room for instructors and other officials from Cube.

Inside the restroom on the seventh floor, there will be a special item waiting for Tomer to retrieve.

As everyone moved, they were slowly being placed on different floors, 15 on the first floor, 25 on the second floor, and so on.

While Rachel and Chae Nayun were placed on the third floor, Hajin and Yoo Yeonha were placed on the fourth floor.

Meanwhile, Shin Jonghak was placed on the fifth floor and Kim Suho and Cristopher all the way to the sixth floor along with thirteen more cadets.

{This is going to be problematic...} Hajin thought as he looked at the room next to his. In there stood Yoo Yeonha.

Normally, he would try to evade the fight, but if he wanted to get to the floor’s hall, he had to pass through Yoo Yeonha’s room. He was in Team Black, and Yoo Yeonha was in Team White. Fight was unavoidable.

[Artifacts are being kept or moved by NPCs. Team White must protect the artifacts, and Team Black must steal them. Now we will start the countdown.]

Just as Hajin was thinking about how to get out of his predicament, Kim Soohyuk’s voice sounded through the speakers. After he spoke, all doors closed and a countdown began.

And once the countdown finished, the blinding magic was lifted.

Hajin quickly checked out the magazines for his cadet-training issued handgun and the coordinates for the lowest floor, the B-3 zone, which would be the seventh floor of the Underground Plaza.

“I heard a sound next door...” As he checked the coordinates, he heard Yoo Yeonha speak from the other side of the door, which made him turn to look at it. 

It seems she started to walk towards the door, purposely making the steps sound loud as he could hear them. She then stood behind the door and knocked.

“I know you’re there.” She spoke. “Are you in Team Black or Team White? For the record, I’m in Team White.”

Hajin stayed silent.

After waiting for a little bit and not hearing an answer, Yoo Yeonha started to hum joyfully as she grabbed the doorknob.

“No answer? I assume that means that you’re in Team Black.” She said, and then turned the doorknob to open the door. “How unfortunate, you must have been looking forward to today’s class. Consider yourself unlucky...”

She spoke as she opened the door and finally entered the room with a bright face. At least until she met Hajin’s eyes.

“!” She froze in place. Her eyes widened while her smile froze, only the corner of her lip trembling.

She gulped hard as she looked at Kim Hajin.

Looking at the expression of the seemingly terrified Yoo Yeonha, Hajin smiled awkwardly and tried to move to scratch the itch that he suddenly felt on the back of his neck.

“St-Stay away!” But his simple movement made Yoo Yeonha react exaggeratedly.

“...What?” He tilted his head.

Seeing his relaxed attitude, Yoo Yeonha couldn’t help but feel even more nervous.

She was hoping to find some simple cadet she could deal with, but she was now in front of one of the worst opponents she could get.

Hajin lowered his hand, and Yeonha noted that he already had his training gun in hand. She knew it wasn’t the more powerful Desert Eagle she gave him. But he was still able to break Kim Horak’s qi reinforcement with that simple training gun.

After staring at each other for a little while, Hajin slowly raised his gun.

At his movement, Yoo Yeonha could feel the beads of sweat slowly flowing down her face.

{I only have two choices… Fight or be beaten.} She thought.

The narrow space behind her wasn’t wide enough for her to escape the range of his bullets safely, it was, after all, a narrow, straight hallway.

{Perhaps, this is the best chance for me to confirm his skills. My current estimate of his strength only comes from observation. If I fight him now, I should be able to see a glimpse of his real power...} She thought as she gripped her whip strongly.

Her brain was on overdrive right now, thinking of multiple choices and alternatives. But no matter what she did, she couldn’t take out of her mind the probable fact of losing against him.

{If I fight Kim Hajin and lose, I’ll likely be the first one to be eliminated. I don’t want that to happen, but struggling for my life doesn’t suit my style either. It’s definitely not because I hate pain.} She finally thought, before letting out a deep sigh.

There was no other choice for her. Closing her eyes, she calmed herself as much as she could, before letting out a deep breath and opening her eyes sharply.

She looked at him with a sharp glare, and with a quick and strong movement of her wrist, her whip flew towards his gun-holding hand. The whip flew fluidly, in an instant it grabbed the gun in Hajin’s hand.

The next moment, his gun was already out of his hand, and in Yoo Yeonha’s hand.

She stared blankly at the gun that fell on her hands before she smiled brightly.

“I, I did it! Ha, haha!” She started to laugh as she held the gun.

{I never thought I’d succeed!} She thought as she laughed proudly. {Maybe this person isn’t that amazing after all.}

As she thought that, she turned to look at him with a smirk.

“Even if it’s you, without a weapon-” She started to speak, but was quickly interrupted.

The gun that was on her hand, flew seemingly by itself back to Hajin’s hand.

“Ah, ah!” She got flustered. “W-Where are y-you going!”

She tried to catch it back, but it was impossible.

Aether’s invisible thread quickly pulled the gun from her hands back into Hajin’s hand. Without her even noticing when the thread was connected to the gun.

It wasn’t as if she would be able to see it after all. Aether’s abilities highly increased after the runesmithing Cristopher did. And it would be almost impossible for a cadet to even perceive it if Hajin didn’t want to, or if he didn’t put a lot of Magic Power on it.

Thanks to this, Yoo Yeonha couldn’t think of any option other than him using his Magic Power to simply retrieve his weapon.

Her smile disappeared, and she looked at him even more nervously than before.

She swallowed hard. Thinking that the only choice left was to be eliminated. After all, she was the first one to attack.

“Ha...” Hajin let out a deep breath and pointed the gun at her.

She froze. Her head once again went into overdrive with multiple thoughts. Would it hurt? That was the last thing she thought before her mind blanked out.

She waited for the impact of the bullet. But surprisingly, it didn’t come.

“Ha…” Hajin let out another sigh, before smirking at her and putting the gun back in its holster.

He then walked towards her and patted her shoulder.

“It’s still early, so let’s take it easy.” He said as he walked past her.

She just stood there, frozen. Only a question was present in her mind.

{...What?} She thought as she watched him walk outside without any care.

***

Meanwhile, on the sixth floor, two people stood in front of each other.

One of them held his sword in front. A stern look was present on his face.

The other one was just looking at the first one with an amused grin.

“Fancy meeting you here.” Cristopher smirked at Kim Suho, his hands kept in his pockets. “Why are you so anxious to fight me, man? I mean. I get it. We’re from different teams and all that. But seriously. Things just started. Let’s play a little bit more.”

“...” Suho silently stared at the enemy in front with a stern face, sword drawn and ready to attack.

“Oh, come on. We’ll have more time to do this.” Cristopher, who was in Team Black, rolled his eyes as he turned around to walk towards the stairs leading to the upper floors.

“!” With a sharp glance, Kim Suho rushed towards him.

“Ha...” Letting out a sigh, Cristopher tilted his body slightly, letting the blade slide over his arm.

Kim Suho quickly changed the direction of his attack, trying to connect it with Cristopher’s arm.

In his mind, it would be impossible to evade the attack, it was too close to the target, less than 5 centimeters apart.

But contrary to his expectation, the sword failed to land on its target.

“What…?” Suho opened his eyes wide. His target simply disappeared, even when he was right in front of him.

“I just told you to relax, man. Why the hell are you in such a hurry?” A voice came from behind him.

Without answering, Kim Suho quickly turned around with a sweeping cut. But once again, the target that was just behind him disappeared.

“Just...” He tried to ask, but then the same voice spoke again. This time from the stairs.

“Forget it, I’ll just leave. You’re not fun, dude.” Cristopher said as he walked up the stairs.

Suho quickly tried to run after him, but once he got to the rest of the stairs and turned to keep running up, Cristopher was already gone.

“It’s like he’s some kind of ghost...” Kim Suho muttered with a frown.

***

Back on the fourth floor, Kim Hajin was looking at his smartwatch. He hacked into the GPS system for this Mock Scramble and was currently looking at the people found on the fourth floor.

“Mm? There are only eleven people on this floor, even when it’s quite a big floor...” He thought for a moment before someone tapped his shoulder.

“Yo.”

“!” Scared, Hajin jumped forwards as he turned with his gun out, pointing at the one that just tapped his shoulder.

Only to stop dead in his tracks.

“What the hell man… You scared me...” Hajin said as he let out a deep sigh.

“Oh, come on. I just tapped your shoulder and called to you.” Cristopher said as he rolled his eyes. “Anyways, it seems we’re both on the same team, huh.”

“Yeah…” Hajin nodded as he patted his chest. “I’m… oddly comforted by that.”

“Mm? Whatever you mean, dude.” Cristopher shrugged. “Anyways, are you going to look for that thing?”

“Mm?” Hajin tilted his head, before realizing what he meant. “Right… Yeah, I’ll go look for it. What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Nothing much.” Cristopher shrugged. “I’ll look around, maybe look for an artifact or two.”

“Right.” Hajin nodded, looking at his smartwatch again. “I’ll go. It seems I have the way cleared.”

He could see that Tomer was currently sitting in one of the stalls in the restroom on the seventh floor, she was probably making time until it was time for her to retrieve the artifact.

“Okay, good luck with that.” Cristopher said as he walked away with his hands in his pockets, whistling the rhythm of a song.

***

At the same time, on the third floor, Chae Nayun just finished eliminating a cadet.

“Huff… Easy.” She let out a sigh and looked at the sword in her hands. “It’s only been three months since I switched to a sword and I’m already this strong. I must really be talented with the sword.”

“Nayun!” Just as Chae Nayun looked at her sword with confidence, a shout came from behind her.

Turning around, she could see someone quickly running towards her. It was Yi Jiyoon, a supporter, who was wearing a white-colored cadet uniform. Meaning that she was also from Team White.

“Whew, thank god!” Yi Jiyoon said as she hugged Nayun tightly, letting out a relieved sigh.

She was a support-type cadet, and not even a combat-oriented one like Yoo Yeonha, so she had it hard on this kind of brawl where she also had to fight.

“Were you hiding this entire time?” Knowing the predicament Yi Jiyoon had, Chae Nayun asked.

“No.” Contrary to her expectation Jiyoon actually shook her head. “I managed to defeat one with my weakening debuff.”

“Oh, really? That’s good. Anyways, it’s nice to see you.”

Yi Jiyoon’s support would be an amazing asset in this scramble, after all, she had a lot of buffs, debuffs, and even healing abilities that would help Chae Nayun and their team to fight better.

“Ha… I thought I was dead.” Yi Jiyoon said as she finally let go of Chae Nayun. “Oh right, Rachel’s also on this floor.”

“Rachel?” Chae Nayun’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, I was so surprised! I barely managed to escape because I ran away the moment I saw her.”

Just as Yi Jiyoon finished speaking, both of them heard hurried steps running up the stairway.

Both of them turned to look at the stairs, ready to attack at any moment, only to let go of their alert. The one running up the stairs was none other than Yoo Yeonha who looked as if she was running away.

Just as she made her way up the stairs and looked at both Chae Nayun and Yi Jiyoon, Yoo Yeonha sighed in relief.

Looking at her, Chae Nayun tilted her head.

“Yoo Yeonha, why are you sweating so much?”

“Huh?” Yoo Yeonha turned to look at her. “Uh, it’s nothing.”

Both Yeonha and Jiyoon didn’t believe her, as she looked quite haggard, unlike her usual self.

“Who was downstairs?” Chae Nayun asked.

“...Kim Hajin.” Yoo Yeonha answered softly.

““Kim Hajin?”” Both Chae Nayun and Yi Jiyoon asked at the same time.

“Mhm...” Yeonha simply nodded.

“Oh, then Kim Hajin must be eliminated.” Yi Jiyoon said with a smile.

“No, he didn’t get eliminated.” Yoo Yeonha shook her head with a bitter smile, not saying out loud that she almost did.

“Really?” Chae Nayun asked as she scratched her cheek, pretending to be unconcerned. “So, uh, what was he doing?”

“I don’t know.” Yoo Yeonha replied half-heartedly.

“Maybe he’s looking for Rachel.” Yi Jiyoon said with a strange smile.

“Eh?” Chae Nayun tilted her head. “Why Rachel?”

“Because Kim Hajin likes Rachel.”

“...Huh?” Both Yoo Yeonha and Chae Nayun asked.

“Eh? You guys don’t know?”

“If it’s about those baseless rumors, then you’re mistaken.” Yoo Yeonha said with a frown. “Everyone’s saying that because they’re in the same team.”

“You should stop spreading those rumors.” Chae Nayun also said with a frown.

“E-Eh? But it’s true!”

“No, it’s not.” Yoo Yeonha said. “Anyways, did you locate the artifacts?”

“Ah, yeah.” Yi Jiyoon took out a box. “I have one on me. I ran into an NPC on my way here.”

Yoo Yeonha’s expression quickly brightened.

“I’m glad. First, let’s transport this back to the first floor.” She said as she took the box.

“Yeah.” Chae Nayun nodded.

Just as they decided to move towards the first floor, arrows suddenly rained down.

Yeonha quickly swung her whip to smack the arrows away.

“Who is it!?” Chae Nayun shouted in rage. Her enraged eyes looked around for the ones responsible.

The three of them turned to look at the balcony that was half a floor over them, half the way to the second floor. There stood Rachel with a few more cadets from Team Black.

“Rachel! How can you ambush us like a coward!?” Chae Nayun shouted at her, trembling in rage.

Rachel just calmly looked down at them. She slowly pulled out her rapier.

“I’m going in.” At her soft voice, the members of Team Black reacted in unison.

Two archers stayed at the balcony to shoot arrows down at the trio from Team White, while three warriors charged alongside Rachel.

She entrusted Yoo Yeonha and Yi Jiyoon to the other three warriors while she charged directly towards Chae Nayun.

Rachel quickly reached Chae Nayun, and both of them started to exchange attacks.

{Damn it…!} Chae Nayun thought.

After a few exchanges, Chae Nayun was being overwhelmed by Rachel. Not only was her technique with the rapier amazing, but she was also even using other attacks that don’t only depend on her swords.

What’s worse, is that Chae Nayun could feel that from time to time, the handle of her sword would heat up, while her body would get suddenly cold, making it hard for her to move as she would normally do.

Rage burned inside Chae Nayun. She didn’t like to lose. And she surely didn’t want to lose to Rachel of all the people in this competition.

“Goddamn it!”

Rage turned into power, as her immense pool of Magic Power rose inside her, flowing towards her sword.

From the blade, a new blade made from Magic Power rose, it wasn’t only far longer than before, but it was now a lot wider.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” With a shout, she swung her sword down towards Rachel, who opened her eyes wide for a second, before sharpening her senses.

Deciding not to receive that attack head-on with her rapier, Rachel quickly moved her magic power, and the next instant she disappeared from the spot, reappearing meters away from Chae Nayun.

BOOM!

The moment Chae Nayun’s sword impacted the ground, a thunderous sound spread through the hall, while the floor in front of the sword crumbled and fell down to the fourth floor.

“Huh?” Chae Nayun looked in front, but she couldn’t find Rachel anywhere. “Where the hell did you go-” She started to shout but had to quickly turn around and defend with her sword.

A few meters beside her, Rachel already recovered her stance and was now doing ranged attacks with her sword.

Slashes of fire flew towards Chae Nayun in succession from afar her sword’s range.

“W-Wait!? What’s this!?” Chae Nayun shouted as she tried her best to defend against the barrage of whip-like fire that kept coming for her.

“Tch.” Yoo Yeonha, who just finished deflecting a sword with her whip clicked her tongue as she looked at Chae Nayun and Rachel.

She may have some combat capability, but without Chae Nayun’s support, it would be hard for her and Yi Jiyoon, two supporters, to fight against three warriors and two archers.

{Think, Yoo Yeonha, think!} She looked around, but couldn’t find anything. 

“Ha!” It was when she was starting to think that they would lose that someone flew past her towards the member of Team Black that she was fighting against.

With a half-moon slash, Shin Jonghak quickly took care of the warrior in front of her, while a barrage of magic attacks flew towards the sharpshooters that were still in the balcony, forcing them to move down to the hall, where a swordsman, Kim Suho, waited for them.

In seconds, potential defeat turned into a definitive victory.

“Jonghak!” Yoo Yeonha’s face brightened, as she looked at Shin Jonghak who was finishing the fight against the last one of the three warriors. “When did you get here?”

“Just now. We heard the sound of the fight and rushed here.” Jonghak said with a frown.

“Huh?” It was then that Yoo Yeonha finally noticed that he wasn’t alone.

There were two magicians and another warrior. But what was more interesting was that Kim Suho was also here with him.

“Are you two… Forming a team...?” Yoo Yeonha asked with genuine surprise.

“Tch.” Shin Jongahk clicked his tongue as he averted his eyes. “It’s just a temporary thing for this class.”

“Hehe...” Suho smiled awkwardly as he approached them. “Anyways, we’re not done yet.”

As he spoke, everyone turned to look at one spot, where the last remaining cadet from Team Black stood with clenched teeth.

Rachel looked at the members of Team White in front of her and knew that her only option was to escape.

{But how...} She thought.

She was completely surrounded, with Chae Nayun at one side, covering the stairs and even the hole she made when her giant sword impacted the floor, and the rest of the members at the other side.

{They even have two magicians...}

Her chances to escape were reduced to 0. The moment she tried to turn around and run away, spells would fly right towards her back.

“Just surrender.” Yoo Yeonha smirked. It wasn’t out of her expectations to find such reliable teammates right when she was about to lose the fight, but it was surely a really good surprise.

“...” Rachel stood silently. Looking around for a way to escape.

“Let’s just finish with this. We must keep looking for those damned artifacts.” Shin Jonghak said as he spun his spear and walked towards Rachel, who had to take a step back while gripping her rapier harder.

Everyone strengthened the grip on their weapon and prepared to attack.

But before anyone could even move a finger against Rachel. A slow and calm clapping sound resounded in the otherwise silent hall.

“That was a nice show you put there, guys.”

At the sudden voice, everyone turned to look at the balcony.

“But… Don’t you think this is a little bit too much? I mean, fighting eight against one is quite a dirty move if you ask me.” Cristopher said with a smirk as he sat on the railing of the balcony with his legs crossed, looking down at them.

“...You.” Shin Jonghak glared at him, while most of the others just stood there in surprise.

Kim Suho strengthened the grip on his sword and lowered his stance to move at any moment, while Yoo Yeonha’s face paled at the sight of Cristopher sitting there.

On the contrary, Rachel’s face brightened. She wasn’t alone in the fight anymore, and she sure got the best reinforcement she could get.

“Say, why don’t you guys play with me instead? I sure wouldn’t mind entertaining you all.” Cristopher said with a smirk.

As everyone stared at him, a loud gulping sound could be heard from the cadets in the hall.