The Support Ate it All

Booooom!

The ground tore apart, and a shockwave rippled outward.

Since we all dodged the moment we saw the hammer, no one got hit. But it seemed like it had been thrown more as a warning than an actual sneak attack.

"……"

Everyone's eyes turned toward the direction the hammer had come from. A dark silhouette pushed through the undergrowth and stepped into view.

As expected, it was the Disciplinary Committee President, Oh Se-hoon.

Dang Gyu-young frowned slightly.

"You got here fast."

"I was nearby when I got the call. Could've been another location, but lucky for me, it was this one."

Her tone implied, "What? You didn't trust Kwak Seung-jae enough to stick to the strategy?"

It also carried the meaning: "Is that all the trust you've got in your own vice president?"

Oh Se-hoon smiled mildly.

"I think it's a flawless plan. Looked to me like they could manage just fine without me."

"So you split off on your own?"

"No matter how perfect a plan is, things don't always go exactly as written. I figured it'd be wise to have some insurance."

Just as I thought.

The moment I heard they'd divided the temporary storage sites into four and guessed at Kwak Seung-jae's intention, I'd expected something like this.

Even with the powerful trump card of the wooden door, it would've been safer to station at least a few Disciplinary Committee members near each site.

I just hadn't expected the "insurance" to be the president himself.

Light began to gather in both of Oh Se-hoon's hands, shaping into a large shield and hammer.

They were the signature weapons of the Paladin-class variant, the Hammer Paladin.

"I'd prefer if you came quietly to the Disciplinary Committee room… but I'm guessing that's asking too much?"

"You know it. If you were me, would you go?"

Dang Gyu-young grinned.

Even if Oh Se-hoon was among the top few fighters in the third year, numbers couldn't be ignored.

On top of that, both Dang Gyu-young and Kim Gap-doo were at a level comparable to club presidents, and their skill gap with Oh Se-hoon wasn't massive.

In other words, it was a fight they could take on with decent odds.

Even from my perspective, the chances of winning looked pretty good.

The problem is time.

Right this moment, more Disciplinary Committee members were probably on their way here.

And if they linked up with Oh Se-hoon… that would be instant defeat.

Therefore, the condition was clear. Take him down quickly and get out.

But considering that Oh Se-hoon's class was a Paladin, that would be far from easy.

Paladins were naturally tanky and had great endurance, and on top of that, they came with plenty of utility.

In short, they had the cockroach-level survivability to keep going no matter what.

Not like we have a choice anyway.

It wasn't as if running would make him politely let us go.

One way or another, we'd have to fight and shake him off.

Just then, Kim Gap-doo stepped forward.

"You guys go on ahead."

Dang Gyu-young blinked, as if she hadn't heard right.

"…Go on ahead?"

"Yeah. We'll hold off Oh Se-hoon."

The third-year martial artist next to him immediately barked back.

"Hey, you damn toad, what do you mean we? Leave me out of it. I don't want penalty points."

"…Come on, just let me act cool for once."

"This is nuts. I joined the wrong club."

He grumbled the whole time, but still moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kim Gap-doo.

Kim Gap-doo looked back at Dang Gyu-young.

"Don't forget about the debt."

"Of course. We're square now."

"And quit swiping stuff from our clubroom."

"Sorry."

Oh Se-hoon watched all this silently with a faint smile on his face.

Then his gaze settled on me.

For some reason, it felt like he'd seen right through me. Just like the last time, when he'd recognized me at a glance.

Still, there was no reason for me to show anything first.

I met his eyes as if nothing was wrong, then looked away naturally.

The martial artists began advancing, one slow step at a time.

Meanwhile, the thieves spread out wide, inching sideways to slip away.

And then, at a certain moment, Kim Gap-doo kicked off the ground and charged straight at Oh Se-hoon.

A fist glowing with blue light slammed into a radiant shield.

Booooom! —

The two worked in perfect sync, attacking from both sides.

Kim Gap-doo hammered at the shield to limit Oh Se-hoon's movement, while the third-year martial artist came in from the other side with a swift kick.

Oh Se-hoon met that attack as well, swinging his hammer to block it without much difficulty.

The moment the fight began, the rest of the party members dove in all directions, bolting to escape.

Even then, I kept my eyes locked on Oh Se-hoon.

He'll use it soon, won't he?

Sure enough, in the midst of exchanging blows with the martial artists, he glanced this way.

Not missing that moment, I raised the Crow Tree forward and spoke the activation word.

"Caw?"

At that, Oh Se-hoon hesitated and, unusually, let one of Kim Gap-doo's strikes land.

Baaaaang!

It seemed he had defensive magic wrapped around him, because he didn't appear to take much damage.

The corners of his mouth curved into a faint smile.

"…Took one hit."

Whether he was saying that to Kim Gap-doo or to me, I couldn't tell.

In any case, since my ploy had worked, I turned and left the battlefield.

As we ran side by side, Dang Gyu-young looked at me with curious, shining eyes and asked,

"Used it again?"

"This way, he won't chase us."

Just now, Oh Se-hoon's plan had been to use Blink.

He probably intended to shake off the two slow-footed martial artists and then come after me and Dang Gyu-young.

But it didn't work.

Of course, Blink is also a spatial magic, which means it can be blocked with a Caw?

It's just that timing it is much trickier.

This time, I'd been anticipating Oh Se-hoon's move and was ready, so it had been relatively easy.

Bang! Bang-bang!

Behind us, the sounds of repeated impacts and flashes of light rang out.

It seemed Kim Gap-doo and his partner had fully engaged Oh Se-hoon.

We pushed our speed even harder and finally managed to get clear of the battlefield.

Heading straight back to the hideout now would be stupid.

If the Disciplinary Committee came charging in, they'd seize all the prohibited items we'd stolen and drag us away.

Gathering together in one spot now was also a bad idea.

We'd risk being completely wiped out in one go.

So our plan was to each kill time somewhere else, then regroup later.

Soon, Dang Gyu-young and I turned toward the downtown area and slipped into a secluded café.

It wasn't exactly stylish, but it was open 24 hours, so we could sit even at this late hour.

After ordering a cup of coffee each and sitting down across from me, Dang Gyu-young immediately started firing off messages.

She was checking on the status of our members.

Whatever news she was getting must have been good, because the corners of her mouth kept rising until she finally let out a foolish-sounding giggle.

"Pffthh… hhht."

"What? What happened?"

"They said they looted everything but one."

Apparently, at one of the temporary storage sites, the Disciplinary Committee stationed there had held out surprisingly well, and reinforcements had arrived quickly to capture them.

But the rest had been stripped bare. Meaning we'd secured about 75% of the massive stash of prohibited items seized in the ban wave.

Once we sorted all that out, we'd be sitting on an enormous fortune, so it was no wonder she was grinning.

"Oh, this is great~"

Dang Gyu-young even started doing a little seated dance.

I asked her,

"Don't you think we might've taken too much? Won't it cause trouble?"

"Oh, it will. Probably."

Since we'd shown up at the scene and even attacked the Disciplinary Committee members, there was no way this would just be swept under the rug.

The matter of the missing prohibited items was a bit more ambiguous in terms of responsibility, though.

After thinking for a moment, Dang Gyu-young added,

"And since things have blown up quite a bit, there's a good chance it'll get bumped up to the teachers' level."

The academy was fully aware of the temporary storage sites, as well as the fact that the Thieves' Club and the Disciplinary Committee clashed during every ban wave.

Even so, they usually refrained from stepping in, preferring to watch from the sidelines. Mainly to toughen up the students.

After all, it created scenarios that were much closer to real combat than duels or raid battles.

The Disciplinary Committee could hone their skills in guarding objectives, detecting enemies, and tracking them, while the Thieves' Club could develop a wide range of intelligence-gathering techniques.

All of those were valuable abilities for dungeon expeditions.

But there's a limit to that, too.

Another reason the academy stayed out of it was that most infiltration attempts on the storage sites ended with a win for the Disciplinary Committee.

Some prohibited items might go missing in the process, but compared to the whole, the amount was negligible.

But nights like tonight where nearly three-quarters of the stockpile was cleaned out were practically unheard of.

Once the report reached the higher-ups, they'd be in an uproar over there too.

After another moment's thought, Dang Gyu-young said,

"Next time, they might even assign guards."

Faculty members stationed on Dungeon Island for defense purposes.

The students just called them "security guards".

If they got involved especially when even the Disciplinary Committee had trouble holding us off we'd probably all be caught before we could even try anything.

"So what are you going to do then?"

"What else? We hit it big, so it's time to lay low."

Dang Gyu-young answered without a hint of concern.

In fact, the prohibited items we'd scored tonight were probably worth more than everything we'd taken in the entire first semester.

We could afford to take a break and still keep the club running without any problems.

Besides, with the next ban wave, there wouldn't be much point in hitting the storage sites again anyway, so she was saying we'd call it quits for the year.

I nodded.

"Good idea. Have you thought about what to do with it all?"

"I'll contribute to world peace, of course."

Dang Gyu-young grinned as she said it.

Her dream was to travel all over and go camping, but the atmosphere in this area was a little too dangerous for that.

Running into monsters on the street was nothing unusual, and near hazardous zones, a dragon might suddenly swoop in and unleash its breath before flying off again.

I nodded again.

"Sounds good. But for the most part, you should spend it on upgrading yourself. In the long run, that'll end up helping me too."

"Mhmm, got it."

Dang Gyu-young smiled happily, then seemed to remember something and began rummaging through her inventory.

"Speaking of upgrading, remember that thing we grabbed earlier?"

What she pulled out was a book with an entirely pitch-black cover.

It was a Necromancer skill book we'd taken from the temporary storage site.

We didn't have exact information on it, but it looked useful enough to keep.

"How do you use it?"

"Try channeling mana into it."

"Really?"

It seemed like the kind of book that reacted to the user's mana affinity, allowing them to learn a compatible skill.

After all, Necromancers had all sorts of branches. Like curses, poison, flesh, bone, and so on.

If the Shadow Lord used it, there was a good chance it would produce a skill tailored for an Umbramancer.

So, without hesitation, Dang Gyu-young set the skill book on the table and placed her hand on it.

As she focused, shadows began to seep upward from beneath her feet, slowly swirling toward the book and being drawn inside.

Sssssss…