I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

For Midterms... (2)

'I really have no idea what any of this means.'

He knew the midterm exam was supposed to be difficult, but honestly, he hadn't expected it to be this hard.

'I honestly thought I'd be able to solve at least a couple of questions.'

Kim Dojun stopped trying as he looked at the problems that made his head spin just by reading them.

Anyway, even if he didn't try to solve the questions himself, his answer sheet was filled with answers thanks to the "help" of Yagrath.

Though the answers he had written with his own pen, he couldn't understand them at all.

Kim Dojun glanced around.

In the silence, the students were all screaming silent screams with their expressions.

He thought they must know much more than he did, yet when he confirmed that even they wore ashen faces, he recalled the setting from the game.

'Was the difficulty of the exam like this... because there're no more written tests after the first semester midterm?'

Remembering that all the major tests after this were practicals, Kim Dojun nodded.

'There seemed to be some other reason too...'

He tried to recall another reason, but soon shrugged his shoulders.

'Well, it's not important.'

What mattered to him was that after this exam, there would be no more written tests, so Kim Dojun gave a slight laugh, then rested his head on his desk and closed his eyes for a nap.

"..."

The instructor, Kim Younghan, who was overseeing the exam, stared blankly at Kim Dojun, who had buried his head and was napping only eight minutes into the midterm.

'He's already finished?'

Kim Younghan stared blankly at him for a while, then checked the clock.

"..."

No matter how many times he looked, only eight minutes had passed.

But Kim Dojun lay slumped across the desk as if he had nothing more to do with the test sheet, leaving Kim Younghan just staring at him in disbelief.

'... Is this even possible?'

Had it been another student who acted like this so soon after the exam started, Kim Younghan wouldn't even have bothered with a sigh.

It was simply impossible to solve this exam in eight minutes, so that would mean the student just gave up.

But if the one burying his head was none other than Kim Dojun, it was a different story.

Of course, Kim Dojun was simply writing down the answers as told by Yagrath of Ambition and, unable to read the Sorcerer King's book, just gave up and lay down.

Since Kim Younghan had no way of knowing that, he looked at Kim Dojun with genuine admiration.

Time passed like that.

"Time's up."

Whoosh-!

As the test ended, all the students' answer sheets disappeared at once, signaling the start of the midterm that would last about five days.

Time flew by, and when the fifth day since the start of the exams arrived—

― Whoosh!

With a blue flame, the last test paper of the midterm vanished, marking the end of the Sorcery Institute's midterm.

"It's over... It's really over...."

"I thought I was going to die...."

"I'm really glad the midterm is finished... I'd rather take practicals any day than do this again...."

All moaning their deaths, the students with their heads slumped on their desks had dark circles under their eyes.

"Well done, everyone, on getting through the exam. Go back to the dorms and rest."

With those words and upon seeing the students in such a state, the exam proctor left the classroom, but not a single student, including Kim Dojun, got up.

The reason was simple: the scores would be posted soon.

For some reason unknown, at the Sorcery Institute, you could check your midterm grade just an hour or two after finishing, so everyone waited to see their ranking.

"Oh, right, by the way, this time the scores will be posted in a week, so you should all go."

"... Ah."

At the instructor's words after he came back in a few minutes, the students let out low sighs and looked at him with questioning eyes.

"It's because, due to the recent Divine Descent of Gatura of Salvation, some sorcery formations haven't been restored yet."

Receiving their gazes, he gave this explanation and then added, "So go and rest," before leaving the classroom.

"Ugh, I waited for nothing."

"Yeah."

"I just wanted to get the pain over with quickly if I failed anyway."

The sighs of regret at the instructor's announcement were short-lived.

"Well, I'm still in an 8-person room anyway~"

"There's at least some charm to 8-person rooms."

"Please, let me get a 4-person room... Please, just let me get a 4-person room...!!"

Students began filing out one by one after the instructor.

And then—

'Was it changed because of Gatura of Salvation?'

Wiping away his earlier suspicious look, Kim Dojun nodded in understanding and looked ahead.

Shin Se-yeon, walking out with a zombie-like stagger as if she'd burned up all her spirit.

'I was going to ask her to train with me starting today...'

Watching her shamble off like a true zombie, Kim Dojun decided to give up on getting training from Shin Se-yeon today.

Right now, she looked like she might collapse at the slightest touch.

'Well, I have plans anyway.'

So, after watching Shin Se-yeon leave, Kim Dojun got up as soon as she was gone and headed for the trail outside.

Before long, he met Dan on the trail.

"Been a while."

"Yeah."

"Did you bring the mask?"

"I did."

The reason Kim Dojun was meeting Dan today—

It was to finally visit Pantheon, which he'd been putting off.

'I was supposed to go the Saturday after the midterms originally.'

But Gatura of Salvation incident pushed back the schedule roughly a week, and it didn't seem worth waiting until Saturday, so he arranged to go with Dan right away.

'I need to save money, but at this point there are also some things I need.'

So Kim Dojun mentally started making a checklist of things to do at Pantheon.

While deep in thought, Dan spoke up.

"Before we go to Pantheon, there's something I want to discuss."

"What is it?"

"It's about Tam (貪)."

"Tam?"

Kim Dojun repeated and thought for a moment, then let out an "Ah."

'That's right, it did evolve weirdly.'

Recalling how Tam had evolved strangely after being beaten up(?) last time, Kim Dojun asked:
"What's up? Is Tam being noisy again?"

"That's not it."

"Then what? Did it evolve weirdly again?"

Kim Dojun followed up.

Dan hesitated, seeming unsure how to explain.

"... It'd probably be better for you to see for yourself."

Then he reached into his shadow and pulled out Tam.

When Kim Dojun saw Tam walk out of the shadow, he couldn't help but look confused.

"... What is this?"

What came out of the shadow was something that took a human form.

"... It's Tam."

"This is?"

Kim Dojun stared at Tam in disbelief.

Tam, standing before him, looked human.

Well, not so much that you couldn't recognize it was Tam—

Tam's skin was black, and although the appearance now was close to a human's, there were definitely differences.

'First, the ears are cat ears. There's even a tail attached.'

It reminded him of a character from an otaku game he'd played before, so Kim Dojun couldn't help but look at Tam with a strange expression.

He'd talked about it once before, but he'd never seen Tam look like this.

In the game, Tam always appeared as a monster.

As Dan's partner spirit, destined to become a boss character, Tam had always looked hideous from the player's perspective—a frighteningly evil appearance.

But Tam now was very different from what he remembered from the game.

[Hello! Master!]

The moment Tam looked at Kim Dojun, it spread its hands wide and greeted him.

"...??"

Kim Dojun's strange expression turned to complete bafflement.

[Hello! Master!]

Not seeming to notice Kim Dojun's confusion, Tam raised its hand above its head and repeated itself.

"...??"

Kim Dojun silently stared.

"...."

He looked at Dan.

"...?"

Switching between Dan's confused face and Tam, who still had its hand raised in greeting, Kim Dojun suddenly said:
"Ah."

He wore an expression of sudden understanding, then clicked his tongue toward Dan.

"... So that's how it is...."

He muttered quietly.

"...? Did you figure something out?"

As Dan asked, puzzled by Kim Dojun's seemingly knowing look,

Kim Dojun stared at Dan for a long time.

"So this is your thing, huh."

He scrunched his brows as if seeing something he shouldn't.

"?"

Dan didn't get what he meant at first.

"!?"

Then, understanding hit, and Dan frowned too.

"What are you talking about! I'm not into that at all!"

"Sure."

"I'm really not—I swear!"

"I bet you aren't."

"I said I'm really not!!"

Dan protested, sounding truly aggrieved.

But in Kim Dojun's mind, Dan was already branded as "tricky to deal with."

'As expected, even if the game didn't show it, the ones fit to be maglignant spirits all have their own twisted sides.'

So with that thought, Kim Dojun just stared back.

"Ughhh!"

Dan seemed to scream just to prove his innocence, but in Kim Dojun's mind everything was settled.

'He said himself before that Tam evolves in response to its environment.'

Frankly, the first time Tam turned into a weird cat-fox(?) thing was probably Kim Dojun's fault.

In the game, Tam looked like a grotesque hybrid by the time the player met Dan.

So Tam's cat-fox form was probably due to him.

'But this is different.'

Kim Dojun looked at Tam.

Tam looked about elementary-schooler height.

Had Kim Dojun ever met Tam in this cat-fox form?

No, he hadn't.

In other words, Tam's changing into this was 100% due to Dan's influence.

"...."

Watching Tam standing there with an innocent smile and its hand raised, Kim Dojun couldn't help but feel sorry for it.

"You poor thing...."

[Me, poor?]
"Yes...."

Honestly, while this was way better than Tam's in-game appearance, seeing Tam transformed like this because of Dan's bizarre desire made Kim Dojun pat Tam's head without realizing it.

[Me, poor!]

"What part of this is supposed to be pitiful?!"

Dan's frustrated cry rang out.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
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