As the students' desire for the 3rd Stage deepened, so was their gratitude for number 1. They were extremely grateful to him especially after experiencing repeated battles together. 

Whenever monstrous geniuses appeared in the military academy, they would either look down on others or fall out and pursue their own path all on their own. 

Number 2 was a prime example of this. She might seem close to others but once they started on training, she would leave them all behind and thread her path on her own. Even number 3 was the same. He was even more arrogant than number 2.

But number 1 was different.

He would train like numbers 2 and 3,but he would also try to grow together with everyone else. He willingly shared his practical and tactical knowledge with his peers and helped them grow stronger.

And this small gesture of his had stolen all the hearts of the children that surrounded him. Their sole desire to chase after and stay beside him had become the children's reason to do their very best. And as a result, their hard work became their strength. 

“Number 1, there’s no way we can respond to the gremlins’ acid saliva. Right?” 

“Well… there’s really nothing else except for holding a shield.” 

“Haaaa…” 

“But you can use a rifle instead. Monsters like that have terribly weak defenses so they can easily be killed with just a rifle.”

“Hoo… But it’s hard to hit it with a rifle since it’s too fast…”

Jaiden smiled bitterly. He knew that fact too well. 

Those monsters only had a slight grasp on magic but they used their acid saliva as their main weapon. Adding that to their obnoxiously fast flight speed, they could easily harass the soldiers. 

In fact, strong monsters like harpies and dire wolves were easier to deal with. They might be clever but they were only clever to the point that they would attack their enemies' glaring weak spot.

But there were monsters that were much more clever than that. Just like goblins and gremlins.These monsters were ranked in the top 3 for their slyness, shrewdness and intelligence. This was also the reason why these monsters could also use their own alchemy and magic.

“If you use a lot of bombs then you can deal with them in one go…” 

“Bombs?” 

“Yeah. When the gremlins appear, throw a few flame bombs and cast amplifying magic on them to increase the area that will be swept away by the flames. That way, they can be cleaned up in one go. Even wizards won’t be burdened by just a simple amplifying magic.” 

“Sounds okay.” 

“The only disadvantage is it’s shitty cost-effectiveness.” 

The student sitting next to Jaiden nodded his head in agreement. 

Bombs were currently expensive. It’s price was not as expensive as the price that it had during the monster war in his previous life but it wasn’t that cheap either. Since the bombs were mass produced during the war, their initial expenses had been reduced a lot which in turn lowered the prices. However, they were currently not experiencing any massive war so the current price was still a bit expensive to push through with that method.

The gremlins certainly posed a problem to the soldiers but the iron bulls, cows that wore thick armor, posed a bigger threat to them.

Thanks to their bullish strength, cracks had started to appear on the walls as they rammed against it. They had tried to deal with them with magic and bombs but it was extremely hard to deal a single scratch on their tough bodies. They could easily be compared to tanks with how monstrously tough their skin were.

In the end, the knights had to come forward and deal with them since they weren’t easy to kill with the students’ strengths.

‘In modern times, those guys will definitely be flattened into a paste once they get bombed from the air but…’ 

Jaiden felt that it was a shame that he couldn’t experience tanks running away from a single attack from a helicopter.

He heard that the other players tried to make something similar back in his previous life. But from what he had heard, they had died even before they completed the project.

“This place is strange.” 

“What?” 

When one of his contemporaries looked at him in confusion, Jaiden just shook his head bitterly.

For him, this place was completely different to his real world. It looked like it had developed to some extent but there were a lot of parts where the scientific advancement and development couldn’t keep up with. Even areas like the political, financial and industrial system were showing glaring signs of inexperience and underdevelopment. For some reason, he felt like someone had forcefully placed the things that were needed in this world. It was like they did not advance methodically and built their foundations from the ground up. Something that was completely contrary to his real world.

‘If the overall engineering system had risen systematically together with scientific development then the weapon system of this world would have advanced well. If that was what happened, then I would probably be able to kill these monsters in more diverse ways. But, it’s a pity…’ 

“Northeast…” 

Jaiden stood on top of the walls that had been covered by blood from the fierce battle that they had just finished and looked over the horizon. He could see countless monsters prowling around the nearby mountain range.

Mana was rampant in this area since this was a place where a dimensional crack had appeared. This meant that there were plenty of mutated monsters that roamed around the area making this place extremely dangerous compared to other areas. As a result, the people that lived and fought in this place had become tight-knit. They were amiable and lived with a sense of camaraderie. They had no choice but to do so. After all, they were at risk of dying each time they fought a battle. And if they died, one of their colleagues would definitely fill the empty spot that they had left behind. But thanks to the camaraderie and companionship that these people had built after fighting for decades together, this place had become much stronger than in his previous life. 

Jaiden was even unknowingly influenced as he continued to watch and fight with them. 

When he first stepped foot on this place, he mainly wanted to get discharged as soon as possible. However, the longer he stayed here, the more he realized that he wanted to do something that would be helpful to the Northeast. He was even willing to stay in the military just to do so. Perhaps it was because the Northeast was instrumental for his future and safety, he wanted to make them stronger so they could hold out just a bit longer in the future.

“Should I share with them all of my future knowledge?” 

If he gave the Northeast all of his future knowledge, then they would probably have an easier time dealing with monsters. He believed that this was the best that he could do as of the moment. 

While Jaiden was busy thinking about the things that he would do in the Northeast, the military units in the Northeast were all busy fighting a fierce struggle behind the scenes as they tried to take the graduating students’ to their camp.

“You take 128. We’ll take 131.” 

“Hey. You dog, he’s going to be a knight.” 

“So you want to take both of them? Do you not have any conscience at all?” 

“Then we’ll give 140 to the rangers wholeheartedly.” 

“Shut up. We’ll take one from 128 and 131 no matter what.” 

The knights and rangers stationed in the Black Mountain Corps located at the end of the Northeast frontlines were busy fighting against each other to take the graduates that they wanted in their troops. 

If the new students that they wanted were the same, they usually settled it through a lottery. But they heard rumors that the level of the graduates this time was good so they were trying their very best to wrestle one more student away from the other’s grasp.

Thanks to the students’ stellar performances, the entire Northern Corps of the Northeast Army was submerged in deep and turbid water as they waged a war of recruitment against each other. It was a bit untimely since the children were yet to graduate but the fighting was already extremely fierce. The biggest fight for recruitment was for number 1 and number 2.

“He wants 1 in the frontlines?” 

“He’ll take 2 too. He’ll use her strength right away…” 

“So he’s not going to leave a person with the Command?” 

“He’s willing to give you 3 and 7…” 

The commander of the Northeast Army, Crimson, couldn’t help but frown when he heard the officer’s report. 

“This punk. Did he get too greedy after seeing my good temper? Hey. Bring those kids here. Don’t give that bastard a single one. Understand?” 

“I understand!” 

Number 1 could immediately give them a sense of power while number 2 could cover her lack of experience with her overwhelming skills. Both of them were talented individuals who could pay for their meals. If he considered their pace of growth, he was sure that they were likely going to become their unit’s heroes in ten years time. 

The Command found it annoying. They knew that it would be a waste to bring those two to the frontlines.

Although people often deemed the Command as an organization or group that only shared tactics and strategies while playing the role of commander, they were actually the ones in charge of dispatching special personnel to the most dangerous areas. They were also the ones involved in sending out teams that would investigate and identify all the causes of problems in the most dangerous areas in the Northeast thereby preventing large-scale risks from happening.

And because of that, the command was also suffering from a shortage of talented personnel. So the appearance of numbers 1 and 2 were like a welcome sprinkle of rain during a drought for the Command. Number 3 was also a great talent but his talent was something that could easily appear every two or three years in the gathering of monsters at the Northeast Academy. But numbers 1 and 2 were different. So, the commander stationed at Command found it unpleasant to hear that they would like to take numbers 1 and 2 in exchange for 3 and 7. 

“Tell Caeden that I will show him what happens when a bastard who hasn’t eaten much jjambap becomes greedy.” 

“Yes! General!” 

When Caeden Wall, the commander of the army located at the Northeast’s forefront, a place where only the elites had gathered and Crimson Halo, the commander of the entire Northeast collided to recruit the geniuses of this batch, the atmosphere surrounding the Northeast Army also started to heat up.

“Ha… I also want to take 1… he’s just too perfect for our unit…”

“Me, I want 2.” 

“To be honest, 3 is also not that bad. We can roll him in our unit and make him into one of us. Ah! I’m just greedy for all three people.” 

The three division leaders all gathered at Command for the first time in a long time because of their great desire to get these talents.

They were the leaders to the three divisions under the direct control of Command. Their divisions were famous for being the units that faced the hardest and most dangerous situations in the Northeast. Of course, the frontline was not included in their repertoire. The three divisions were as follows:

The Ranger Division that housed the elites among the elites of all rangers.

The Knight Division that nurtured the best knights in the Northeast.

And the Iron Wall Division that was in charge of guarding the Northeast’s final bastion, the Command.

These three divisions were as famous as the Vanguard Corps for their elites. Even the level of the division leaders was high. All of the leaders were at the 6th Stage and were veterans who had rolled around in the Northeast for decades. 

The three of them were also thinking of taking a shot at recruiting 1 and 2 even though the commander and the second highest in command, the leader of the frontline army, were fighting for them. After all, anyone would be greedy for these talents.

But they weren’t only paying attention to numbers 1 and 2. They were also paying attention to the other students in the graduating class. After hearing that the students were comparable to the elites in quality, all of them hoped that they could bring as many students as they could to their units.

Even the Mountain Corps and the Fog Corps, the two other corps aside from the Vanguard Corps that protected the frontlines, were greedy for them. Just being able to thrive and grow in the Northeast meant that they were elite groups. Sophisticated and strong people gathered together to fight against monsters. However, all of these elite groups were fighting to get new recruits.

Even the leaders of the troops under the jurisdiction of Command were also drooling to recruit at least one student. They were even willing to get one from the rest of the 300 students since they realized that the crème de la crème was already out of the options.

Since all the superiors of the units showed interest in the graduating students of the military academy, plenty of members of the Northeast started to pay attention to them too. 

Meanwhile, some of the troops at the frontline started to spread rumors. 

“I heard that the graduating students have a lot of hands-on experience?” 

“They’re hunting more monsters than us veterans. Is it because we’re only at the 2nd Stage?” 

“I know. We also awakened our mana but…” 

The elite soldiers in the frontline chatted and talked about the children’s performance on the battlefield.

Usually, these graduating students would often make mistakes in the frontlines when they fought for the first time. Some mistakes were due to nervousness while some were due to their arrogance. Some would even look down on the soldiers and turn the atmosphere dull and ugly.

But the graduating students this time were different.

The soldiers and the non-commissioned officers shared the same fear and illusion that these students would step on them since they would become commissioned officers. At the same time, they also thought that these students would cower in fear even though they were hunting in a safer place since they did not have much practical experience. 

But they did not do any of these two. 

Rather, there were a lot of students who asked the soldiers about what they should do to hunt the monsters well. At first, the soldiers looked at the children wondering if there was something wrong with them. But they could immediately see the reason why they were doing this after experiencing an actual battle with them.

The person involved in the students’ strange behavior was number 1.

“Number 1, that friend… I don’t know what to say about him.” 

“I know. Doesn’t he look like he’s outshining the sergeant?” 

Hearing the soldier’s words, another soldier approached him and spoke out. It seemed like he wasn’t the only one who thought that way.

“What about number 2? In fact, I’m really scared of that girl. She cuts monsters like a piece of cake. What kind of 3rd Stage is that? Even the knights can’t do that much.” 

“Number 3 is also an elite.” 

“I know. It’s because he’s being compared to the two. But his skills are more than good enough.” 

Due to the soldiers’ testimonies, the expectations for the graduating students started to rise. 

Then, something happened that raised their interests and expectations to the peak.

***

Notes

[Pay for their meals] – 밥값, someone who earns their keep. Basically, they could do well