The Instructors' Debate and the First Clue
The instructors' conference room inside the academy was in complete chaos after the entrance ceremony had ended. It was the kind of scene that could only be described as five minutes from total disaster.
“Adel Ifrit in Class S?! What happened to the academy’s reputation!”
“Exactly. If we put him in Class S, people will start saying we took bribes.”
No, it already was a disaster. The whole mess had started when Elena suggested placing Adel Ifrit—who had ranked 500th in the entrance exam—into Class S.
“Haa……”
Elena let out a loud, deliberate sigh. No one in the room dared say a word after that.
‘The chairman isn’t here either.’
He had mentioned urgent business and headed to the Northern Demon Border after saying he needed to check something.
“Didn’t you all see it? His talent.”
Elena spoke as if the entire discussion bored her. She had just finished summarizing the Illusory Ordeal—Adel’s entrance exam—and shown it to them.
“That’s something any of the thirty students in Class S could do,” one instructor replied.
He wasn’t wrong. If it was simply growing through combat, every student in the academy could probably manage it. But what Elena had seen was a talent far more special than that.
‘That technique.’
The final technique Adel had displayed was something she had never seen before.
‘A technique that refined and destructive should have been heard of somewhere.’
Even during her days operating in the Demon Border, she had never heard of or witnessed any technique that handled fire in such a way.
‘……He probably created it.’
Creating an original martial art at the age of twenty was unbelievable, but as a mage, she trusted both her thoughts and her eyes. She wasn’t the only one thinking this.
‘They must know it too.’
That was why they were staying neutral. Her gaze turned toward the two people sitting at the far end of the room—Swordsmanship Instructor Cain and Martial Arts Instructor Charles. Unlike her, they were true authorities on martial arts.
“Then let’s ask Class S’s homeroom instructor, Cain.”
When the opinions refused to narrow, one of the opposing instructors turned to Cain, who had remained neutral.
“Instructor Cain, does he have the qualifications to enter Class S?”
“……”
Cain narrowed his brows as if deep in thought. The conference room fell into complete silence until he answered. After a moment, his mouth finally opened.
“……Charles, did you see the same thing I did?”
It was practically a non-answer. But Charles replied immediately, as if she had expected it.
“Yeah. If your eyes weren’t mistaken, then we saw the same thing.”
The corners of Charles’s mouth were faintly lifted.
“I see. In that case, I believe he qualifies.”
A positive answer came from Cain’s lips. Before the other instructors could protest, Elena cut in first.
“Then we’ll consider Adel Ifrit’s placement in Class S approved and end this meeting here.”
The moment she finished speaking, only the faint scent of lavender remained where Elena had been sitting.
When I arrived at the male dormitory, I set out to find my room.
‘Let’s see…… Room 250…… Found it.’
It was the very last room on the first floor. That was my room.
Creak.
I opened the door with the key I had received upon arrival.
‘It’s just a normal studio apartment.’
That was my first impression. It wasn’t too big or too small. Not bad at all. If it were too spacious, cleaning it would have been a pain.
I flopped down onto the bed and thought to myself.
‘……Maybe I should organize my thoughts.’
I already understood perfectly well that after my computer exploded and I died, I had become Adel Ifrit. But I hadn’t had any time to sort out everything else.
‘Why me, of all people?’
The most important question—transmigration. Usually, it happened to players who had cleared a game hundreds of times, veteran players, or lunatics who wrote 5,700-character guides. But I had never cleared the game, nor had I ever written any guide. The only thing I did was create a character and then quit the game to rest. After that, the computer exploded and I died.
‘If that’s the reason, I’d feel pretty pathetic.’
The reason for my transmigration probably wasn’t quitting the game. Only whatever entity had sent me here would know the real answer.
‘Either way, I just have to work hard.’
Whether I knew nothing about this world or the difficulty was set to extreme, it didn’t matter. Since I was the protagonist in Custom Mode, I had to become strong. My companions would gather once I grew stronger. I could have just played around and enjoyed myself, but because my choices had set the difficulty to the highest level, I would become strong.
There was only one thing to do right now to make that happen.
I got up from the bed, still wearing my black martial arts uniform, and left the dormitory. My destination was a place to grow stronger—the training hall.
I walked toward the training hall I had seen on my way to the dormitory, feeling the chilly air against my skin.
‘Who are the main characters, I wonder?’
I knew absolutely nothing. The strategy guide I had glanced at only contained basic settings and how to start the game. I didn’t know a single thing about the story that took place at the academy.
‘……I don’t even know who the enemies are. Seriously.’
The continent was going to be destroyed. But I had no idea by what, or by whom.
“……Haha.”
A dry laugh escaped me.
‘……Sigh. If I just get stronger, it’ll work out somehow.’
In academy stories, enemies usually attacked at least once anyway. All I had to do was become strong enough to prepare for that.
‘Still, I am curious.’
I had only trained for seven days and forty-five days. The other students must have trained for much longer than me. I wanted to know their levels and how big the gap was.
‘I’d like to meet the characters who are considered the leads, if possible.’
Before I knew it, I had arrived at the first-year training hall.
‘It’s small. Did they use spatial expansion magic or something?’
Up close, the exterior wasn’t as large as I had thought. With five hundred first-years, it seemed far too small for everyone to use.
Creak.
“……”
Adel’s mouth fell open. Unlike the outside, the interior was at least the size of a soccer field, and there were exactly eleven doors along the walls. They appeared to be personal training rooms, likely reserved for the top eleven students of the year.
At the far end were a simple sparring area and a wide open space that resembled a modern gym.
‘……Well, I’ll be.’
I wondered why there were weight training machines, but decided to let it slide. Since this was a world created from a modern game, it wasn’t impossible.
Step. Step.
After roughly looking around, I headed toward the wide open space.
There were students handling lightning, students thrusting spears, students swinging swords, students sparring—various kinds of students filled the hall. A few of them seemed to sense me and stopped their training to stare.
“Long dark red hair and handsome…… Is that the Adel Ifrit guy?”
“They said he’s the worst dullard in history……”
“He’s going to get expelled anyway. Let’s not pay him any attention.”
“Still, he is good-looking.”
The rumors must have spread like wildfire, because the first-year students all seemed to know who I was. While watching me carefully, they freely threw out everything from ignoring me to insults and comments about my appearance.
‘Just ignore them.’
None of the main characters were here. Their levels didn’t seem all that different from mine. The 500th place ranking would disappear in the next exam anyway. Rather than waste time on people like them, I would rather focus on advancing my martial arts.
‘It would’ve been convenient if I had the Heavenly Eye trait.’
With that trait, I would have been able to see through the traits and skills of those students. Through the status window, of course.
For that reason, I had no intention of using the status window. It only seemed to show names, traits, and skills anyway.
‘There aren’t even any quests. So unfriendly.’
There was no need to use a status window that wouldn’t change anyway. It was only useful for grasping reality.
I reached a wide open space a short distance away and sat down in a lotus position. Closing my eyes, I began to sense the mana around me.
‘……There’s a lot.’
Aside from spatial expansion magic, they must have used some other spell, because the amount of mana was far greater than outside. I naturally absorbed the mana, converted it into fire energy, and recalled the fight against the doppelganger where I had unconsciously manifested a formless technique.
‘It was stronger than me.’
It hadn’t been weaker. In fact, it had been much stronger.
‘Why?’
There shouldn’t have been any errors in the headmaster’s magic. If there had been, the academy would have collapsed long ago.
‘There must be a reason.’
A reason why the doppelganger had been far stronger than me.
I had fought the doppelganger for a full week. Only after devouring his combat style, his use of the body, and his use of fire energy over the course of that week did I finally become equal to it. Even after absorbing everything, I still wasn’t stronger than it.
There was only one way to become stronger than it.
‘Grandmaster.’
The talent to create and modify martial arts. If I had martial arts, the premise that I was stronger than the doppelganger—which could only use fire energy—would hold true.
In the final battle, I had unconsciously manifested a formless technique and won. Maybe the system was restricting me from using it even though I could.
Fwoosh.
Fire energy unconsciously manifested. I recalled the first day I had arrived in this world. The time when I had organized every rising flame ability and tried to make them my own.
‘Can I really not use them?’
Even if they couldn’t be exactly the same, even though I had taken the inspiration and made it mine—could I truly not use them?
‘No.’
I could say it with certainty. In fact, I would be stronger than them.
‘Because I have Grandmaster (EX).’
It felt like lightning had struck inside my head.
‘Does that mean I can already create martial arts?’
No—maybe I had already created them……
“Huu……”
Realizing that no amount of further pondering would yield an answer, I opened my eyes.
‘Still, I found a clue.’
I had a feeling I would be able to use it in the near future.
I checked the clock on the wall.
[9 : 50]
It was ten minutes before dormitory curfew.
‘No wonder there was no one around.’
I stood up and headed back to the dormitory. I had meditated for a long time, and my body was drenched in sweat from the unconscious manifestation. The air around me was hot and humid, but my steps remained unhindered.