The Protagonist Already Knows

Heading into class on Tuesday, I sat down in my seat as usual, receiving a few odd gazes.

On Monday, I had skipped class to study in my dorm for my make-up Mana Theory exam, as thankfully Professor Sooyung didn’t question my make-up excuse of being sick.

My classmates were already discussing questions from the exam in the class group chat, so I knew exactly what to study prior to the exam.

Thus, I felt fairly satisfied with the test.

Snapping me back to reality, a voice suddenly sounded beside me as the chair beside mine was pulled out.

"Finally decided to grace us with your presence?"

Looking at Lily, who sat to my right, I couldn’t help but recall the image of her father in the hospital.

"Complete opposites..."

Clicking her tongue, Lily sat down and responded.

"Right, one of us is a genius, and the other is a dumbass who skips class."

*Ring~ring*

As the bell rang, Professor Sooyung entered the classroom as usual and stood before the lectern.

"As many of you know, every two years, there is an inter-academy tournament between the top 16 magical academies in the human realm."

"Students from each academy will compete against each other in a variety of games that require both intelligence and power to determine the rankings of each Academy."

"And this year, the Sunken Pearl has the honor of hosting this tournament as the first seed. If you would be interested in representing the first-years of the Sunken Pearl in this tournament, the first try-out session will be this Friday."

"I hope to see many of you there."

Instantly, the students in the classroom broke into whispers: a good performance on the Sunken Pearl Academy team could singlehandedly be enough for top guilds to recruit you.

"Additionally, next week, the selected representatives from other academies will be temporarily joining the Sunken Pearl classes, so please treat them with respect."

Clasping her hands together, Professor Sooyung turned around.

"With that announcement out of the way, I’ll begin with Dreg History."

...

...

...

In a familiar coliseum, under the blazing-hot sun, I glanced around at the six students who had yet to drop this class for Mana.

"Do you think he’ll show up today?"

Were they talking about me?

Perhaps noticing my confused gaze, one of my classmates sighed and said while approaching me.

"You haven’t been here, so you wouldn’t know...but Grandmaster Kim hasn’t shown up for a single class since our first one."

"..."

Confused, I looked at the black-haired boy.

"So...what do you guys do here?"

Shrugging his shoulders, the boy just pulled out the wooden replica of his weapon and tilted his head.

"I don’t know...just spar?"

Glancing at the wooden Dao in my hands, the boy continued.

"I’m Grey...I’ve already sparred everyone else and lost multiple times. Do you want to spar?"

As I nodded my head, the boy backed up a few steps and raised his sword.

But...as he dashed toward me with his sword already surging forward, I was more focused on the image standing behind him.

A withered and grey tree, surrounded by darkness, appeared behind him, seemingly sucking in all the light around it.

While the tip of his sword approached my chest, the tree sucked in even more light...to the point where I even lost a portion of my sight.

Dozens of blind spots appeared in my vision; even parts of Grey’s blade were shrouded in darkness, preventing me from seeing the full sword.

Ah...everyone here, still left in this class, had also developed a Weapon Art and become "A Loose Thread."

Parrying the jab with the side of my wooden Dao, I marked the point where my Dao had hit his blade.

Just like with the sandstone wall, if I hit the same spot over and over again, I instinctively knew it would crumble.

Retrieving his sword and stepping back, Grey attempted a horizontal slash at the side of my stomach.

However, instead of moving my Dao in between the sword and my stomach, I slashed downward at Grey’s sword, hitting the exact spot I had marked.

His sword almost falling out of his hands from my downward slash, Grey stepped backward, but as I continued looking at his body, I noticed...my vision started to deteriorate.

Even parts of the coliseum had turned pitch-black, the number of blind spots multiplying by the second as the scenery around me became more and more incomplete.

"ah..."

As I forced myself to look away from his body, my vision slowly stabilized, not getting better but also not getting worse.

The more I looked at him...the more light his tree sucked.

This guy...he was the weakest amongst the six other people still in this class?

Hearing his footsteps rapidly approaching me, I took a deep breath and calmly looked forward...not focusing on his arm or body’s stance but his sword.

That was all I needed to look at.

However...as he attempted a vertical slash at my kneecaps and I lowered my sword to parry it, I suddenly felt a pressure on my left shoulder.

But...when I looked to the left instinctively to check, the spot above my shoulder was pitch-black.

Then, before I could even react, my shoulder exploded in pain as my body was thrown to the right.

Barely managing to catch myself, I stumbled backward, avoiding his sword and pulling back my own.

As I clutched my left shoulder, Grey smiled and said.

"I punched you right in the blind spot, eh?"

He now knew I had a blind spot above my left shoulder.

Gritting my teeth, I looked down to avoid seeing his body.

I couldn’t let him keep controlling the tempo of the fight...he’d continue figuring out my blind spots.

Dashing forward, I jabbed my Dao at his neck; however, at the last second, I halted my sword and stepped to the right.

A feint.

Seeing his sword horizontally placed before his neck, I didn’t hesitate to jab my sword upward, the tip of my blade perfectly hitting my mark on his blade at full force

At that moment...

*CRACK*