Why Did I Have to Enroll

Lesson 4. Rebellion – 3

Rumors quickly spread throughout the school. The match between Dok Go-yeon and Ortima was being broadcast on the intranet in real-time, so by lunchtime, no one in the academy didn’t know Dok Go-yeon’s name.

“It seems that Ortima was the most highly expected first-year student. But since she had a close match with him, her name’s worth is bound to go up.”

“No, there was at least one more worth watching in that class.”

As Ban Yu-won synthesized what students were saying on the free bulletin board, Dok Go-yeon, taking the seat next to Light, countered.

“I thought you could find the one.”

“I was focused on your fight.”

“Then there is nothing I can do.”

Dok Go-yeon and Ban Yu-won got closer after the morning class. Ban Yu-won wanted to secure an appropriate distance, but it was accurate to say that Dok Go-yeon ignored it and narrowed their distance. Thanks to that, only his distance from Ruchel grew further.

It was because Ruchel was now openly afraid of Dok Go-yeon. He couldn’t even imagine how the two of them were living in the same room.

“More importantly…they’re talking a lot about you too.”

“Yeah, they can’t say mean things about you, so I’m guessing it’s about me instead.”

One desperately fled from the fight, and the other pushed the most promising first-year student back. Since these two were the same lower-dimensional special archetypes, how much could people talk?!

“Indeed, many people here do not know how foolish it is to judge without seeing with their own eyes….”

“I’m grateful that you acknowledge me, but, indeed, I’m still a weakling. Tell them to see me in a week.”

Ban Yu-won didn’t say much and spread the jam he brought on the crispy baked bread. Dok Go-yeon’s gaze softened as she sniffed the air.

“It smells very sweet.”

“Want some?”

Instead of answering, Dok Go-yeon nudged the bread on her plate closer. As Ban Yu-won smiled and spread a spoonful of jam on it, Dok Go-yeon carefully took a bite.

“…!”

The moment she tasted the jam-coated bread, the crosses in her eyes turned round and round. It was scary at first, but after watching it a few times, he got used to it.

Dok Go-yeon held out the remaining bread and asked.

“Can you give me more?”

“Sure, it’s not very expensive.”

In fact, it was a concentrated extract of tens of thousands of fruits, so the price was higher than he could imagine, but it was cheap if it was to buy her favor. It was so sweet that even a teaspoon was enough to feel ecstatic.

“This is really…I’ve tried all kinds of sweets, but this one is especially…is it your ability?”

“Yes.”

“It’s interesting…very interesting.”

‘No, can’t you just simply say thank you? I can’t understand why every time you look at me with that kind of lion-like expression like I’m prey!’

But what was even funnier was Light and Ruchel, who were sneakily pushing their bread toward him from the other side.

“I’ll give you both some, so don’t look so desperate.”

“Sorry, it just smells so sweet.”

“Thanks…!”

As soon as they tried some, Light and Ruchel drooped their shoulders as if they had reached paradise simultaneously.

“What taste…!”

“Fruit, the essence of the fruit itself. The essence of an incredibly delicious fruit…!”

Ban Yu-won flinched at Ruchel’s unexpectedly sharp remarks. Of course, the jam he just took out and shared with his classmates was the elixir he made at his house. He already calculated that there was nothing wrong with giving some out to his classmates as they eventually had to grow with him.

“I feel like I got something too precious.”

“We’re a team, so we should share good things. You can see it as a reward for the kindness you showed me this morning.”

“Hmm, still, that’s too much….”

Ban Yu-won thought he should share the jam with his classmates daily. Even if it were just a beginner’s elixir, it would be helpful if they ate it steadily. More than anything else, he was able to leave when he wanted, so he thought he would be able to try making more here.

‘It might be possible to increase the effect by adding several other concepts. Shall I look around the market today and find a material with a good concept?’

With that thought in mind, he closed the jam and put it in his inventory, and Dok Go-yeon clapped her hands.

“Okay, let me teach you a lesson.”

“Huh?”

“I’m saying I will teach you a few martial arts in return for the elixir.”

“Elixir?!”

“Cough.”

Light started coughing, and Ruchel nearly jumped. As expected, did she notice? Even though he was surprised, Ban Yu-won refuted it.

“It’s not very valuable. The effect is negligible.”

“Of course, it’s insignificant. However, it is extremely rare to find an elixir that has no side effects and increases one’s potential. Of course…I won’t teach you for free, and can I get a little bit of that from now on?”

“That’s what I was going to do anyway.”

“I knew it. So, shall we start right away…it could be there.”

Dok Go-yeon, who stood up after emptying the plate, took her student ID and disappeared. She went away without even hearing an answer, so he couldn’t just make her wait.

Ban Yu-won wolfed down the remaining ham and hurriedly followed her to Yoo Mina’s classroom. Light and Ruchel suddenly left alone and went silent for a while as they looked at the plates they had left without cleaning. They sighed and took them when they remembered the elixir they had tried.

* * *

“There is no one here. It’s also wide enough to move your body.”

Dok Go-yeon, who arrived first, muttered with satisfaction, then looked back at Ban Yu-won and said:

“I know you are growing fast, maybe even in battle. I decided not to ask where the battle was held…was it your ability or talent to change your posture in one day?”

“It’s more the ability. Maybe talent…I don’t know if that’s a talent for you or not.”

“It is often said that ‘A word is enough to the wise’ is a talent, but those who want to practice martial arts need only the talent of remembering what they see. There’s too much education that needs to be preceded to teach martial arts with a fixed type and formality….”

Dok Go-yeon raised her index finger and poked toward Ban Yu-won.

“First of all, this one.”

Slowly, softly. However, as her powerful fingers cut through the air and reached his eyes, Ban Yu-won dared not move and just watched.

[Sewing]

A movement focused on passing through a single point. He could be sure his head would be pierced if they continued forward.

Ban Yu-won was so immersed in the depth of the concept derived from human motion that he couldn’t come to his senses.

“Liar.”

She pulled back and smiled.

“Are you going to underestimate yourself when you have the talent to understand the Martial Arts Control that I’ve only shown you once?”

“…All right, I’ll start bragging from now on.”

Ban Yu-won, who had barely come to his senses thanks to her talking, retorted with a joke. Dok Go-yeon chuckled and continued to explain.

“Stabbing. It doesn’t matter if you do it with a sword, a dagger, or a spear, but what I just showed you is the most basic and ultimate ‘meaning’ of stabbing. There may be countless applications, such as how many times to stab, where to start, and what kind of energy to use, but this is the ultimate in basics. Do not forget it.”

“Ultimate in basics….”

Maybe that was a concept? The concepts Ban Yu-won dealt with also started with one central meaning, but mixing or adding other things to it could create many others. However, ironically, in Dok Go-yeon’s movements, the ultimate in basics, that is, only one concept trained to the extreme, he felt a much deeper power rather than a concept created by mixing many things.

‘It means I can’t just focus on mixing concepts too much.’

Of course, what shouldn’t be misunderstood was that the move that Dok Go-yeon just showed wasn’t a general technique but one specialized to her. There were many Chinese characters with the meaning of stab, but why did Ban Yu-won capture the term Sewing in her movements? That must be because, for her, stabbing was a fatal move that pierced through her target.

‘This is better for me. Being strong is the best.’

Ban Yu-won pulled out his sword and took a stance. Dok Go-yeon nodded her head and stepped aside, beckoning at him and again showing the movement of Sewing. It gave him another flash of realization to see the attack approach.

“You can do it now, right?”

“I don’t think I can do it completely.”

“If you could follow me completely, the years I had accumulated would be meaningless.”

Dok Go-yeon smiled as if she was making a funny joke. When she smiled quietly, she looked so beautiful that he didn’t even care that her pupils were crosses.

“Whew.”

Next to her, Ban Yu-won raised his sword, took a deep breath, and thrust it at a point in the air. Once again, and again and again. At first, it was at such a disastrous level that he couldn’t even feel the fragments of the true meaning, but the second time he suddenly felt the force of stabbing, and by the third, he could clearly feel the concept of Sewing.

―Whoosh!

And on the fourth, the air ripped open. However, compared to what Dok Go-yeon showed him, Ban Yu-won thought it was just a drop in the ocean. He frantically drew his sword again…!

“Stop. You can’t control the strength yet, so you will hurt the room like this.”

Before he could, Dok Go-yeon grabbed his arm. Seeing the cross in her eyes grow and shrink repeatedly was very strange.

Dok Go-yeon asked Ban Yu-won as she took his sword away.

“You remember what I showed you? Try the rest later in a wider area or against enemies you can kill.”

“Okay.”

Ban Yu-won frantically nodded. Then, before his eyes, several notifications from the Babylonian Code appeared.

[You have succeeded in observing and understanding the concept of movement and are getting used to it. The depth of the Complete Sight has become 110.]

[You recognized and acquired the concept of Martial Arts. Swordsmanship was absorbed as a sub-concept of Martial Arts.]

[You recognized and acquired the concept of Sewing. The depth of Sewing has been increased to 16.]

‘16?’

Ban Yu-won hurriedly perused his body code.

Martial Arts: 36 [Swordsmanship: 20, Sewing: 16]]

He groaned. Sewing became a separate concept from Swordsmanship, and the two combined to form a martial art. It was surprising that Swordsmanship had grown close to six more, but…to put it bluntly, his combat skills had more than doubled at this moment.

However, unlike Ban Yu-won, who was very happy, Dok Go-yeon seemed to have mixed feelings.

“I never imagined that you would show from the beginning the True Meaning of not being swayed by the shape of a weapon.”

“Ah, so that’s why.”

Ban Yu-won, who realized the reason why Swordsmanship and Sewing were separated by the words of Dok Go-yeon, nodded with admiration. But she was still puzzled.

“Hmm?”

“No, nothing. I think I could accept it as it is because you showed a movement independent of weapons.”

“You didn’t only fully understand that just because I showed it, you’re even starting to use it yourself. You took my soul out of me two days after we met.”

“It was a really good lesson. Leave the elixir to me.”

“It was an unexpected loss.”

She groaned and backed away. Then.

“So, I will make up for that loss in the future. Be prepared.”

“Eh.”

She left those fearsome words and vanished.

Ban Yu-won realized their lunch break was ending and hurriedly left the classroom with his student ID.

‘We’re going to the same classroom anyway, so she could’ve waited for me…hmm, the afternoon lectures seem to be focused on writing. I’ll be just sitting and listening to the Professor’s lectures, so there won’t be any quarrels like in the morning.’

Of course, Ban Yu-won knew well that things would happen only when he thought they wouldn’t, so he decided to make some minimal preparations for now.