The Support Ate it All-Chapter 350: After Graduation

Even though I said that, I wasn’t the type to sulk over something like this.

It didn’t seem like they did it on purpose, and even if they had, so what? It was just a joke.

So, I ended up taking a bite of both Dang Gyu-young and Hong Yeon-hwa’s ice cream, and we wandered around the city in an even more cheerful atmosphere.

It was a quiet countryside town, so there weren’t many things to do, but the two of them seemed happy just walking around and looking at different places.

At one point, Dang Gyu-young brought it up.

“Since we’re here, let’s do some shopping. Barbecue for dinner?”

“Let’s do it. It’s our day off. We should do everything we want.”

“What should we grill? When it comes to barbecue, meat’s a must, right?”

“Meat sounds great, but let’s get some seafood too.”

And while we were at it, I asked Hong Yeon-hwa as well.

“What do you want to eat?”

“M-Me? I’m fine with anything…”

“Anything spicy?”

“Mhmm.”

“She’s a consistent one.”

After shopping and thoroughly exploring the town, we headed back to the lodge and lazed around, doing absolutely nothing.

It wasn’t until the sun had begun to dip below the horizon that we finally started prepping the charcoal.

Whoosh!

Of course, it was Hong Yeon-hwa who lit the fire.

I’d noticed it since midterms, but maybe because she was a fire mage, her control over flames was second to none.

She seemed to enjoy it more than she let on, so I figured it was a win-win.

Eventually, we placed the ingredients we each wanted on the grill and started our barbecue.

Steak, sausages, shrimp, Hellfire spicy chicken…

Maybe it was because the ingredients were excellent, or maybe it was because Hong Yeon-hwa had lit the charcoal perfectly. But at first, all of us were completely focused on eating in silence.

As our stomachs began to fill, the conversation gradually picked up, and after we wrapped up the barbecue, we gathered around the fire and started to talk about deeper, more serious things.

Just then, a question came to mind, so I threw it out to Hong Yeon-hwa.

“I’m only asking now, but what’s your dream?”

“M-My… dream…?”

“You’re working hard for a reason, right? You came down to the underground floor with us, and you even took on that Hardship quest.”

If she was simply aiming to perform well as a promising student, she wouldn’t need to be that desperate.

It must have made sense to Dang Gyu-young too, because she also looked over at us with interest.

Hong Yeon-hwa seemed to be choosing her words for a while.

She looked down at her hands, glanced briefly at me, then looked down at her hands again before finally speaking.

“Promise… you won’t laugh…?”

“I won’t laugh. Just tell me.”

“I… want to become the Ruby Magic Tower Master.”

“Why would I laugh at that? So?”

“Huh…?”

Hong Yeon-hwa turned her eyes toward me in confusion, but I continued to ask with a serious face.

“Becoming the Ruby Tower Master isn’t the end, right? What do you want to do after that?”

“Well…”

“….…”

“….…”

“You haven’t thought that far, have you.”

“M-Mhmm…”

Her voice trailed off.

It seemed like she had vaguely aimed for the Ruby Tower Master role due to family legacy or just being swept up by her environment.

It wasn’t an easy goal, which explained her desperation.

Since it was something that could easily happen, I nodded again this time.

“There’s no need to decide right away. You and I…. we’re still first years. But it’s good to start thinking about it little by little.”

Whether it was training, dungeon clearing, or Hardhsip quests, things would only get tougher from here. To endure it all, the more concrete and earnest the goal, the better.

As if she understood, Hong Yeon-hwa nodded slowly, then turned the question back to me.

“Um… what about you…?”

“My goal?”

“Mhmm.”

“World peace.”

“???”

For a moment, Hong Yeon-hwa’s expression went blank, as if her brain had shut down.

It was probably because my goal was so ridiculously grand. And because I declared it so confidently.

“Seriously…?”

“Of course I’m serious.”

The goal of the EX-rank reincarnation quest was to prevent the end of the world.

Since the main culprits behind that destruction were 99.9% likely to be the Blood Cult and the Corpse Dragon, once we took them down, the world would basically become peaceful.

And if they weren’t the cause?

Then we just keep beating things down until peace comes.

By the time we were ready to face the Blood Cult and the Corpse Dragon, we’d be insanely powerful ourselves, so it wouldn’t be all that hard.

Dang Gyu-young chimed in from the side.

“I thought he was out of his mind at first too, but turns out he’s dead serious.”

“Ah…”

Even so, Hong Yeon-hwa still seemed to have a hard time accepting it, but she seemed to decide to let it slide for now.

Then, she asked a question similar to mine.

“Um, and after world peace…?”

“After that, I’ll just eat well and live well. Travel around. Go camping with this person here.”

“Hey, what’s with ‘this person’? ‘This person’, seriously?”

Dang Gyu-young smacked my forearm with a slap, but she was grinning like she was happy I remembered the camping talk.

She went on to say to Hong Yeon-hwa,

“That’s why I’m tagging along on this whole Hardship quest too. I’m throwing in a hand for this world peace thing or whatever. Gotta do that if I wanna wander around without any worries.”

“Ah…”

Hong Yeon-hwa seemed lost in thought and her mind was tangled up with all sorts of things. She sat off to the side with a blank look and her lips sealed.

At times like this, it was probably best to give someone their space.

Just in time, I remembered there was something I wanted to ask Dang Gyu-young.

“Speaking of helping out, now that I think about it, you’ve only got one semester left until graduation.”

“Mhmm, that’s right.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do after?”

“I was originally planning to join the Thieves Guild and take charge of one of the branches. That’s why I became a club president too. But…”

“But?”

Dang Gyu-young leaned in toward me.

“…The plan changed. Because of someone.”

“Whoever that is sounds like a real piece of work.”

“Right? Playing with people’s feelings like that. Could’ve just been nice about it.”

“If you have something to say to them, I’ll pass the message along.”

Dang Gyu-young leaned even closer toward me.

“Going back home with me for winter break?”

“I’ll decide that later.”

“Oh, come on! You could at least do that much!”

“I’ll consider it positively.”

“Consider it very positively. I mean it.”

She emphasized it again, then shifted to a more serious expression.

“Anyway, I’m thinking of putting the plan to take charge of the guild branch on hold after graduation. I figured it’d be better to stick around if I want to help out.”

“Not a bad point. What matters is what you do while staying nearby… It’d be a waste to just let time slip by.”

“How about opening a shop in the downtown area? If we clean out everything we’ve got, it’s doable.”

“That’s way too much of a stretch. Let’s focus on progressing with [Hardship] for now.”

“Why Hardship all of a sudden?”

Dang Gyu-young tilted her head in confusion.

I calmly explained.

“We’re finally starting to see a direction. Just five or six more stages and things will really start to come together.”

“Five or six more? So like stage 11? 12? That feels way out of reach.”

“It’s faster than you think.”

“Easy for you to say when it’s not your problem, huh?”

She reached out again, looking ready to pinch my cheek, but I shook my body back and forth and kept talking.

“Once your direction’s clear, you’ll know whether it’s better to stay on Dungeon Island or head outside.”

“So after all that, it’s still Hardship. Ugh, what a life.”

Dang Gyu-young let out a deep sigh.

***

Since we had replenished our crystals and taken the entire day to rest, everyone resumed training without a word starting the next day.

After a few days like that, Dang Gyu-young had gotten fairly used to maintaining the complex form.

A shadow butterfly fluttered above her hand.

Watching it, I asked,

“Looks like I can start interfering now.”

“Hey, no. I told you not to.”

Whoosh—

A gust of wind charged with physical force pushed Gyu-young backward, and the shadow butterfly scattered in an instant.

“Hey!!”

She came charging at me and caught my face with an iron claw.

With my cheeks squished, I mumbled,

“Ip yoo don’ geh in’erup’ed, how’re yoo shupposhed to twain (If you don’t get interrupted, how are you supposed to train)?”

“I said. Don’t. Do. That.”

It seemed she still needed more training to maintain the shadow even during battle.

Meanwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa had cleared the second stage of her Hardship and completed her Fire Pillar combo skill.

Kwooooosh—!

A pillar of fire surged fiercely into the air.

Moments later, the flames writhed violently, and a serpent made of fire flicked its tongue.

Then it puffed up its cheeks and spat out a fireball the size of its own head.

Boom!

Hydra.

It was a spell that fell somewhere between a battery-type spell and a summon.

Though it didn’t possess the intelligence or autonomy of spirits, it could at least recognize enemies and launch fireballs at them.

Even that alone significantly reduced the burden of controlling it.

Moreover, as the spell’s level increased, it evolved beyond its current form and would gain the ability to use other fire-type spells or even grow multiple heads, for example.

“Nice work. Your attack power must’ve gone up a lot.”

“Mhmm…!”

Hong Yeon-hwa’s face lit up brightly.

As a battery-type mage, she had effectively learned a far more useful main skill than Fire Pillar.

“The cooldown’s reset. Let me know when you’re ready.”

“I’ll go right away.”

There was hardly any sign of fatigue on Hong Yeon-hwa’s face.

It seemed to be thanks to the sense of accomplishment from creating a new skill and the anticipation of moving on to the next stage.

[Activated ‘Hardship’.]

[The target has been granted ‘Stage 3 Hardship’.]

“You said it’s something similar, right?”

“Mhmm, but this time… it says… to split it into two…?”

Hong Yeon-hwa answered with a slightly puzzled look, but it wasn’t hard for me to guess.

So, it wants her to increase the number of heads.

Two-headed, three-headed, or even more.

As the number of heads increased, so did the number of fireballs she could launch.

Of course, since she had done well on her own up until now, I decided not to give her any advice this time either.

I should just focus on my own rank-up.

Soon after, a summoned monster granted me a rank boost buff, and the moment the sparring began, I found myself surrounded by serpents of flame.

Then, in the next instant, they all spewed fireballs at once.

Boom-boom-boom-boom!

A relentless barrage of fiery explosions followed.

With both power and firing speed enhanced, my Wind Barrier and Armor were quickly shattered, and flames engulfed my body.

It was too much for my elemental resistance to handle.

Still, because I had to frequently reapply my defensive spells, the efficiency of my rank-up training had noticeably improved.

[The rank of ‘Wind Barrier’ has increased. (C+ → B+)]

[The rank of ‘Wind Armor’ has increased. (F+ → E+)]