Royal Road couldn’t be understood from it's cover.
It depends on how many monsters you've slayed and how much time one spends in a dungeon.
Although Bak SoonJo looked like the quiet type, because he had competitive nature, he caught monsters while almost living in a dungeon.
Lastly, Min Sura looked at Lee Hyun.
“Lee Hyun, what’s your job and level?”
He didn’t really want to hide it.
But he didn’t want to show off either.
To those who who simply enjoy virtual reality, level may be something to show off, but to dark gamers, it was just exposing their cards.
‘They wouldn’t ask in detail anyway.’
Looking at the experience until now, they probably wouldn’t.
Expecting what would happen, Lee Hyun slowly opened his mouth.
“Sculptor.”
“Hm?”
“My job is sculptor.”
“Oh my.”
It was only a split of a second for people’s eyes to be full of pity.
Choi SangJoon beat Lee Hyun’s shoulder in encouragement.
“Try hard. I heard people choose sculptor a lot nowadays.”
“Yeah.”
Chatting from time to time like this, they listened to the briefing.
Lee Hyun wrote down important details in a notebook he prepared separately.
They were mostly subjects that would be helpful to study before school life, information about studying abroad and financial aid.
He parted with studying after dropping out of high school.
Although he passed the GED test, it’s impossible to get financial aid in the middle of university life.
Still, he wrote them down just in case.
When the briefing session ended, the friends stood up.
***
“Ah, it’s over. I’m hungry.”
“Let’s go eat something.”
“Yeah. Let’s eat at the school cafeteria.”
Lee Hyun followed his friends.
‘It wouldn’t be so bad to experience what the school cafeteria is like.’
The cafeteria was within the campus.
Korean and Western style food came out depending on the days of the week.
The girls chose Korean and the boys chose Western style.
“Looks delicious.”
“Let’s eat.”
In case of Korean style, there was rice, soup, and about five types of Banchan.
In case of Western style, there was fried pork or fish with salad and noodles.
Min Sura smiled after trying rice and Banchan.
“Good enough.”
Choi SangJoon and Bak SoonJo sliced fried pork and put it in their mouth to savor the taste.
“School lunch isn’t bad at all.”
“It’ll be fun to go to school.”
When everyone was enjoying it, Lee Hyun alone ate with his expression wrinkled.
‘Food materials are terrible.’
It may be obvious, but the fried pork wasn’t made there.
Frozen product!
Additionally, because it’s been long since it has been cooked, the freshness was very low.
‘If it’ll be like this, it’s better to bring lunch.’
The price was 2500 won, it wasn’t very cheap. [$2.5]
It’ll be much healthier to make lunch with freshly bought ingredients from the street market and bring it with you.
Lee Hyun finished lunch thinking of packing the best lunch.
At that moment, bulky men gathered in the student cafeteria.
They were martial art major students.
The man with great built and sweat came to eat and found Lee Hyun.
Then they bowed.
“We greet hyung-nim!”
When a student in the front bowed, other tens of students bowed as well.
“We greet hyung-nim!”
Lee Hyung sat still with an expressionless face.
He turned his face the other way as well.
He was using the ignoring-by-doing-other-stuff skill learned from Seoyoon.
But the martial art major students did not leave and stayed bowed.
Friends next to him were surprised and sat with their mouth dropped open.
A fly could’ve flew into Choi SangJoon’s mouth.
Since martial art major students with healthy body build bowed, they could do nothing else but become confused and surprised.
And although it seemed like Lee Hyun didn’t like it, he was taking their bow very naturally.
The four people there were so surprised, they took turns to look at Lee Hyun and then at the martial art students.
Lee Hyun responded to the bow as he sighed.
Lee Hyun and his friends relationship changed. Since an upperclassman bowed to him, he had to be the same age or older. Not 20 like he had claimed.
Finally the martial art students walked away from Lee Hyun.
“SangChual Hyung, who is he? Just who was he, for you to bow like that?”
Truthfully, most of the students bowed without knowing why. Since their senior Han SangChual suddenly bowed, they bowed along with him.
Han SangChual had sweat running down his forehead.
“I told you before.”
“Huh?”
“I told you which dojang I go to right?”
“Yes. Don’t you go to that one?”
The one they were talking about was the dojang where Ahn Hyun Do was working as the master.
The famous dojang that produced world swordfight competition winners.
It was a place where monsters that had nothing to be afraid of with a sword gathered. Not counting the official trainees, just the beginner trainees numbered over 5000.
Han SangChual was one of the beginner trainees.
“He is the place’s trainee, no, he´s master’s official best disciple.”
“Gasp! The best disciple?”
“Probably. Almost sure. Mostly the instructors teach him, but sometimes he fights against the master, so it should be.”
“But he looks younger or similar to our age, there shouldn’t be any need to be as formal as you were, is there?”
The students tilted their heads.
Those who train the martial art have a very strong sense of pride.
Even if someone was higher in status in a dojang, there was no need to bow one’s head to him.
Han SangChual shook as if he felt a sudden chill.
“You should’ve seen it. You think I treated him like this from the beginning? In the beginning I didn’t admit his strength. Just one year. It felt very unfair for a person who only learned sword for a year to become master’s best disciple. Even I, who went to Kumdo dojang for over 3 years, couldn’t become an official trainee. I thought he was an arrogant bastard.”
“Then shouldn’t you have beat him up to put some sense into him?”
“I was going to! Seeing how a newcomer was pushing aside all original trainees. But I saw him fighting with a wooden sword.”
“Just what was it like....”
“He fought, fought, and fought. Even in front of the wooden sword that could easily break his bones, he showed no fear. And the sword he swung had life stored inside.”
“Is it that great? Isn’t it normal to not be afraid of a sword when swinging and to bet one’s life on it?”
“It’s great. It’s very great. I realized then. Although physical strength could be build up by training, mental strength you have to be born with. Truthfully, just how many would really fight with their life on the line in a world like this?”
"........"
“A person who can throw one’s life away for a belief. A mentally strong person. Leaving physical conditions behind, I then realized that his heart was the strongest in the world. After that, my sword skill became much stronger.”
Han SangChual’s freshman finally understood.
A sword swung with sincerity.
If it was a person who could swing such a sword, leaving the time spent for learning aside, they could bow to him.
‘A ridiculously strong minded person.’
‘Memorize the face and never touch him.’
Han SangChual told the freshman to pledge to him.
“There has been word from the dojang’s Sahyung. From now on, if you meet him, bow to him. If you don’t, I’ll be killed.”
“Yes, sir.”