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"Now! Duck down!"
At Davian's shout, the swordsmen at the front quickly ducked.
It was the same old cooperative attack they had used several times already.
While the swordsmen, in charge of close combat, somehow held off the demons, Davian finished preparing to unleash a pillar of fire.
And at the signal, the moment the swordsmen ducked.
Kwaaaang!
Pillars of fire poured from Davian's arms, incinerating all the demons in front.
It was then.
Ripple.
Davian felt the space behind him distorting.
"Kyaa!"
Luna Pueri's scream from behind.
With a hot and terrible pain, Davian looked down.
He saw a small metal fragment protruding through the area near his heart.
A female student with her red hair tied up came running and swung her sword behind Davian.
"Davian! Are you okay?"
Bonita Fortis, the ace of the swordsmanship department, had to turn around again and face the onrushing demons without even having time to check Davian's condition.
Only then did Davian slowly turn around.
He saw a demon whose torso had been cut in half by Bonita's sword.
It wasn't a demon king, a legion commander, or even a centurion.
Just a low-ranking demon.
Those with no power, just playing the role of meat shields.
That kind of thing had broken through space and stabbed Davian in the back with a dagger.
A curse word burst from Davian's mouth.
"Ah... Fucking hell. This goddamn quest."
It couldn't even use spatial magic.
A legion commander-level demon from far away must have opened the space and sent it through.
Judging by how easily it penetrated his uniform, it wasn't an ordinary dagger.
A dark aura flickered at the end of the dagger that pierced through his body.
Cough.
With a sudden surge of cough, blood splattered out.
It wasn't a one-on-one fight with the Demon King.
Just a low-ranking demon.
Just a dagger.
"Kuh... Damn it."
Thud.
Soon, his legs gave way and Davian collapsed to the ground.
Luna hurriedly bent down and grabbed Davian's collapsing body.
"Davian! Just hold on! I'll heal you!"
Luna Pueri had been focusing solely on healing magic for over five years at Elton Academy.
It was to become a healer in the Royal Guard, following in her father's footsteps.
"It's no use..."
Davian's complexion had already turned pale.
The blood that gushed out repeatedly stained his gray lips red.
Davian was instinctively sensing death.
Davian barely waved his hand towards Luna, who was gathering magic power in both hands.
"...Healing is no use... There's a small... wooden box in my right pocket..."
"A box? Just a moment!"
Luna urgently rummaged through Davian's pocket and took out a small wooden box.
When she opened the box, she saw a small capsule pill.
"Davian! There's a pill in here!"
"Yeah... Feed it to me."
"If you eat this, you won't die?"
No, I'll die anyway.
"Just hurry up and feed it to me. I'm dying..."
Luna hastily picked up the capsule pill in the wooden box.
"Ah! It's cold!"
The pill was so cold that she almost dropped it.
"Hey, I'm dying..."
"Huh? Oh! Okay!"
Only then did Luna put the ice-cold pill into Davian's mouth.
A limited item obtained three times during the [Northern Ice Zone Subjugation] quest in the first playthrough after defeating the Gray Witch.
A pill contained in a non-melting ice capsule created by the Gray Witch.
The Gray Ice Pill.
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[Gray Ice Pill]
―Rarity: ★★★★★
―Usable Times: 1 / 3
―You can replay from the starting point while maintaining all of the user's mana points.
―The points before and after distribution are maintained.
=====
Gulp.
Davian swallowed the Gray Ice Pill with difficulty. Now, next is the 4th playthrough.
"Luna... take out the dagger stuck in my back and show it to me."
"If I take this out, you'll die!"
I'm going to die anyway.
"Quickly. I need to check the shape of the dagger. It's important."
"Huh? Oh. Okay!"
Luna pulled out the dagger stuck in Davian's back.
Bright red blood splattered everywhere.
"Here you go."
Davian struggled to look at the dagger that had pierced his body.
Feeling his heart stopping, Davian vowed.
This time, he would definitely graduate from this damn academy and escape from the quest.
And he would definitely kill the owner of this dagger.
"Young Master."
At the call of his attendant, Mons, Davian opened his eyes.
Inside the familiar carriage.
It was the starting point of the damn game 'Elton Academy'.
"Please wake up. We will be arriving in Elton City soon. There are tons of things to do before the entrance ceremony the day after tomorrow. First, we need to go to the bookstore..."
"Enough. I know everything."
"Yes?"
It was the fourth time he had heard the explanation.
"I looked into a lot of things before coming, so you don't have to tell me everything."
"Ah, yes. Young Master."
'He was going to say to buy the first-year textbooks at the bookstore.'
But Davian had something much more important to do.
First, he reached into his right pocket.
As expected, it wasn't there.
The limited item, the Gray Ice Pill.
At first, there were three capsules in the wooden box.
And every time he ate the Gray Ice Pill and returned to the starting point, one disappeared, and now the wooden box itself had disappeared.
Just in case, he tried to repeat the event of catching the Gray Witch, but the Gray Ice Pill was no longer given as a reward.
Then, this was the last chance to return to the starting point while maintaining his magic power.
Next, check the mana points.
Davian said 'Point Details' in his mind.
A status window for the item he said in his mind unfolded before his eyes.
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[Mana Point: 0]
―Magic Power: 298,832
―Internal Power: 0
―External Power: 0
=====
Fortunately, the magic power he had accumulated during the three playthroughs remained intact.
Magic power equivalent to a 6-star mage.
It would probably be the same, but Davian checked the final quest again.
'Final Quest.'
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[Final Quest: Elton Academy Graduation]
―Reward: End of all quest generation
―Failure: Death during the quest
=====
If he succeeded in graduating, he would be completely free from this damn quest.
Then he could go to a peaceful place and live comfortably.
Or he could use the abilities he gained at the academy to enter the royal palace or the magic tower and live the high life.
But if he failed to graduate, he would die.
Of course, this didn't mean that if he failed a graduation exam, he would suddenly suffocate and die.
Since the failure penalties for major quests were often 'death', it meant that if he didn't clear all the major quests leading to graduation, he would die along the way anyway.
Davian closed his eyes in the rumbling carriage and reviewed one by one what he had to do.
What were the causes of failure in the past 1st, 2nd, and 3rd playthroughs?
What should he do to overcome them?
And how should he prepare for the quests he had not yet experienced?
So, the first thing he had to do now was...
"Instead of the bookstore, let's go to the alley where the shops are gathered."
"Ah, Young Master. Are you going to buy magic materials first? Then let's go there first."
Elton City during the entrance season was in a great boom.
This was because the incoming students and their parties who came from all over the continent ate, slept, and prepared for enrollment.
Fastidious incoming students had been here a month in advance.
However, Davian Nao-Ne, the third son of the Nao-Ne family, arrived in this Elton City just two days before enrollment.
But it was no use cursing why he was possessed by such a guy.
Because Davian Nao-Ne was the character that Kang Eun-Seong personally created when he pre-ordered the game 'Elton Academy'.
Davian Nao-Ne's original name was Kang Eun-Seong.
He was an ordinary Korean young professional.
Kang Eun-Seong pre-ordered the newly released game 'Elton Academy'.
He just wanted to get the free laptop that was being offered as a prize.
And since he heard that the odds of winning would increase, he entered the official site and decided on the character's appearance and name.
That was it.
For some reason, Kang Eun-Seong was possessed by a game he had never even played.
The character name he had given haphazardly became his real name here.
He had been under a lot of stress at work, so he had named the company 'Davian Nao-Ne' because he thought there was no hope for the company.
Kang Eun-Seong had been called that name for over ten years already.
"We have arrived."
When he got out of the carriage, there was a main street full of various shops.
Davian looked around and just passed by several magic material stores.
"Young Master, weren't you going to buy magic materials first?"
Davian turned toward what seemed to be a familiar alley without saying anything in particular.
'I think it was around here.'
Then, a hurried voice was heard from the other side of the alley.
"Argh! Thief!"
When he turned to look, he saw a man with half of his face covered with a handkerchief running with a large bag snatched away.
Tring.
A small notification sound was heard in Davian's ear.
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[Event: Help Luna Pueri]
―Reward: Healing Potion
―Failure: No penalty
―Accept: Y / N
=====
'There it is. The tutorial.'
He confirmed after repeated regressions, but the first event and quest are always conducted as a tutorial.
In the 3rd playthrough, he deliberately skipped the trivial tutorial, and the quest with a pretty good reward was changed to a tutorial.
The reward disappeared as well as the level of difficulty dropped to an almost non-existent level.
'In that case, it's better to finish the tutorial quickly. If possible, with something that can clear even the hidden quest at once.'
Davian slightly rolled his eyes to the left, and a blue light came on next to the Y button next to the acceptance status. Event accepted.
The story of the game 'Elton Academy' proceeds with [Events] and [Quests].
Events usually have no or insignificant penalties and you can choose whether to accept them or not.
However, quests do not ask whether to accept them and proceed unconditionally, and failure penalties often include 'death', so they are often dangerous.
Davian, who was staring blankly at the running thief, kicked the bottom of the ladder that was standing against the wall of the next building.
The thief was hit by the falling ladder and tumbled to the ground.
Mons, who briefly looked at the young master with surprised eyes, approached the thief and snatched the bag.
The girl who belatedly ran up bowed her head repeatedly to express her gratitude.
The girl Davian already knew well.
It was Luna Pueri, who had given Davian the Gray Ice Pill at the last moment of the 3rd playthrough.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Meanwhile, the thief quickly got up and started running away.
"Young Master, shall I catch him?"
"Let him go. He'll show up again later."
"Yes?"
"Anyway, leave him alone."
"Yes, Young Master."
While Mons was puzzled by the young master's reaction, Luna thanked him again.
"Thank you. I was able to keep the bag thanks to you. It would be a big problem if I lost this."
Davian asked slyly, knowing everything.
"Are you an incoming student at the academy?"
"Yes? Ah, yes! Perhaps you are too...?"
"Yeah, that's right. My name is Davian. Davian Nao-Ne."
"Ah! Hello! I'm Luna. Luna Pueri. It's a bag with all the supplies I bought before the entrance ceremony, but I almost lost it. Thank you so much."
Luna rummaged through her bag and took out a few healing potions.
They were quite high-grade potions at a glance.
"It's not much, but this is the reward for helping me."
"I don't need something like that. And if you're an incoming student, we're the same age, so feel free to talk casually."
Luna's big eyes couldn't look directly at Davian and kept scanning around.
"Ah? Ah. I'm a little shy. I'm sorry. But I'm so grateful. I really want to reward you, so please accept this potion. It's pretty top-notch..."
"I said I don't need it. Then, in return, grant me one request on the entrance ceremony day."
"Yes?"
"I won't ask for anything too difficult, so just grant me one request. You said you really want to reward me."
"Ah... Yes, yes. I understand."
Okay, with this, I've secured a healer to take the entrance exam with me.
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