A Private Interview
Mutual destruction.
Before he unfolded his Wood Art, Bihyung first cast the Fire Art he had already carried into the realm of mastery. The energy... about a four. He poured a six's worth back into the Wood Art.
The instant the vines rising from the earth touched the flames, the blaze lunged to devour the wood-qi. But the power he had driven in even harder swallowed the fire instead, and took root.
...This is hard.
He had succeeded. Even so, it demanded a fierce amount of concentration. Five-point-five... isn't that basically telling me to pour them in half and half? And they still opposed each other. For Bihyung, who had only ever met the arts through a game, it was baffling beyond words.
And yet a path seemed to be opening—perhaps because of Versatility, the gift he had gained from Mina. It's absurdly broken. SS-grade, no less. Measured in ranks, a bloodline on the level of the 8th Rank. Whatever miscellaneous training method she learned, she would have torn it apart and rebuilt it until she stood at the 8th Rank. And Bihyung shared that talent of hers.
Thanks to it, I'm starting to get a feel for this. What the professor had said—more precisely, the meaning folded inside it. He wasn't telling me to focus on governing the energy. He wanted me to use mutual destruction to study the effects of an art I'd already brought into mastery.
Fire Art. He raised the flames again. Unlike an ordinary fire, once it entered the realm of mastery he could see the current stirring within it. Bihyung seized on that current and bound it at once to the Wood Art.
Ghk—!
The vines charred. Even so he kept feeding them yang energy and stirring the wood-qi awake. At the end of it, he found the essence turning in a circle inside the vines.
...Got it!
The moment he perceived it, a pleasant chime rose before his eyes.
The basic five-element art, Wood Art, has reached the upper limit of its proficiency.
Derived Story, Researcher — you draw one step closer.
Yes! One step forward!
Riding that momentum, Bihyung threw himself into raising the proficiency of his Metal Art. With the essence of Wood Art already in hand, Metal Art climbed easily. Inside the ore. A feeling like energy ricocheting in there. As if it were only natural, Metal Art's proficiency struck master as well, and a hidden piece he had waited and waited for swung open.
With it, the Metal Art clenched in his grip grew a little harder. The hardness went up.
Hoo. This was it. I've got Researcher. Time to say goodbye to the basic arts! He would seize a higher art and, by the Researcher's effect, show a power greater than anything of the same grade.
He was still turning that thought over when a single notice brutally shattered the fantasy.
Confirmed: the basic yokai arts of the Five Greats have been acquired.
Race confirmed: Half-Yokai.
The event that had been prepared will be deleted.
...Excuse me? Deleted? What was being deleted?
No, what kind of— After all the misery he'd crawled through! He had clawed at nothing but the basics day and night, never even learning a higher-rank art, all for a single Researcher. And now, of all times, this?
He was glaring murder into empty air, boiling with the injustice of it, when the message chimed again, gentle as someone soothing a crying child.
A new story is being prepared.
It is a story above the existing story, Researcher.
Oh? Well. That did change things. What kind of story?
You draw one step closer to Inquirer.
Inquirer? A derived story even he hadn't known. The developers' comment... ugh. How many times was he saying that now? Those developer bastards deliberately cut anything tied to half-yokai, or to yokai. The very reason he had entered this world was that he had chosen to be half-yokai. That alone told him plenty.
All right, then. What do I have to do before you'll hand that Inquirer over?
He waited, calm, for the system's next message. A moment later, the long-awaited condition was revealed.
Yokai arts that have reached the realm of mastery: (0/5)
Bihyung couldn't hide his bewilderment. What? I've already learned Gongdan. Why is a condition like that showing up? If Inquirer continued on from Researcher, the conditions ought to continue as well. For Researcher, you were not allowed to learn arts of any other rank until you had mastered the basic-attribute arts.
Dueogsi. You know anything about this?
On the off chance, he put the question to Dueogsi, who had entered the Baekgwi, and got an answer.
"Hmm... It may be the difference between a technique and a yokai art, sir."
The difference?
"Yes. Gongdan, derived from the Horn Path, is strictly a technique. It belongs to the domain of skill."
Nothing more than a sharpening of the senses—a realm one could call physical ability.
"A yokai art, and spellcraft, are founded on wielding energy to command the subtle principles of the world. My Horn Path and Gongdan are not of that domain. I suspect that may be the difference."
Bihyung nodded. He couldn't quite accept it... and yet it wasn't that he failed to understand. An ambiguous feeling, exactly that far. What is this, the sense that they tacked the setting on after the fact.
Tch. Clicking his tongue, he looked again at the system floating before his eyes. Fine. If they had set a condition like that, it meant, at the very least, that it could be completed. ...Hah. Still a long road. Training yokai arts at the Exorcist Academy. He would have to do it where no one else could see, and that meant time, inevitably. By the time I'm a second-year, could I finish that? He drew a breath through his teeth. Two of them, if he was lucky.
I've decided. I'll see the ending—and I'll be sure to get a look at the back of those developers' heads.
He was grinding his teeth, forcing the anger down, when a voice called out.
"Bihyung!"
Mina, of the Baekgwi, came trotting up and spread her hand before him.
"Look at this! Ta-dah!"
For all the daintiness of that little shout, what burst from her palm was something else entirely.
"...Water?"
It was an art that governed water, among the five elements. The stream itself was plainly a basic art. But the power...
"...A primary attribute?"
At his murmur, Mina broke into a brilliant smile.
"Yeah! This thing I got just now, and that training method you and I picked up before. Thanks to those, it bloomed completely."
Bihyung slipped at once into the Baekgwi Yahaeng tab. He opened the member list, checked Mina's system, and found this.
Bihyung's eyes went blank. Five Qi Converge at the Origin. A constitution that appears only in someone with an aptitude for every attribute of the five elements—or in someone who has forged that aptitude after the fact. The latter was easy to say and filthy hard to do. To create a primary attribute after birth, you needed at least a minimum of aptitude. Not enough to call it primary, but not without talent either. That degree of aptitude. You stimulate it with an elixir and wake it. That's how an acquired blooming works. And Mina had walked that difficult road. From here on, the power of every art tied to the five elements will rise.
The one snag was how her nature as a half-yokai would answer it. ...Still, she was different from him, wasn't she? Right. She already killed her ancestor. She'll be fine.
He had just settled, ready to congratulate her, when it came.
A new constitutional possibility sprouts in Baekgwi Yahaeng member Hwang Mina.
Race confirmed: Half-Yokai.
Member Hwang Mina is granted the possibility of Great Vessel, Yokai Forged.
Huh? What?
Great Vessel, Yokai Forged? He'd heard of a great vessel maturing late. What was this?
Seeking an answer, he turned his awareness toward the Baekgwi Yahaeng, and the two of them answered.
"I've heard of it, Lord, I have! They say it's the constitution of a yokai with an aptitude for every yokai art!"
"Yes. Those who achieved Great Vessel, Yokai Forged became, from ancient times, yokai whose names rang far and wide."
Eodugi and Dueogsi. So it's the yokai version of Five Qi Converge at the Origin. A constitution like that existed. News to him. And if Mina achieves it, will Five Qi Converge at the Origin and Great Vessel, Yokai Forged exist together? Or would she, like him, germinate some new possibility and become a different constitution entirely?
He was turning it over when another thought rose. A body with an aptitude for yokai arts. Then later we could talk through the crossing point of yin and yang... Hm? Wait. The body. Yokai arts... huh?
Why hadn't he thought of this until now? When you get down to it, I've been using the arts with my body all along. Folded into Roots, or into his Ghost-War Qi. Which meant that if he folded yokai arts into those two as well, couldn't he train them without anyone else ever noticing? If I bury the presence of yokai power completely inside Roots?
It would be rough work, and tiring. But at least reaching Inquirer wouldn't take long years. ...And since it continues from Researcher, the reward ought to be even higher.
Bihyung's eyes lit. A path was beginning to show. Now I only need to prove, to some extent, that this direction is the right one. Once class ended he would spar with Dueogsi and see whether he could truly hide his yokai power.
He had just found his bearings and opened his eyes.
Hm? That guy?
A familiar face. Affable eyes, and clothes marked with the sigil of a house—the classic look of a scholar. Someone he had seen often enough in the game's illustrations. A villain who tried to turn the dream inside the mirror to his own profit. Someone, in other words, whom Bihyung had been planning to clear away before long. Looks like he's been sweating. Sitting in on class from the very first day of regular lessons.
Even now the man was asking the professor's leave and passing instruction on to the cadets. There was no sanction. He, too, belonged to the academy and was obliged to teach, and for the professor in charge, refusing that help would have been a loss.
Hmm. Perfect timing. Shall he manufacture a clash while he was at it? In the game, exposing him as a villain meant making contact first.
He was holding that intention, just about to step forward, when a voice caught him.
"Cadet Bihyung."
He turned at the call of the professor in charge and found the man beckoning.
"I told you earlier, didn't I? Come with me for a moment."
The professor gestured, a somewhat chilly smile on his lips.
"It's time for your private interview. Let's go."