Dojo Breaking?
Dojo Breaking?
Whether they want it or not, the doings of notable people turn into rumors. The same held true for Lee Ha-yul's activities at Siyoram.
First semester, first year.
Lee Ha-yul received specialized training from Atra Clyde, a top-grade hero brought in from outside.
Nothing was officially disclosed, but word had it the training focused heavily on physical development and combat technique.
The results were proven at the first Tower entry and the Sipnaha Incident.
At the time of that first Tower entry, far from being left behind by Siyoram's other prominent cadets, he had distinguished himself.
After being swept without warning into a Grade 4 Dungeon outbreak, he single-handedly subjugated numerous monsters and the Alpha Individual.
Second semester, first year.
Lee Ha-yul began to dabble in magic. He had handled it before, but it wasn't until the second semester that he started formally attending magic lectures.
Once again, the results spoke for themselves.
Starting from the definitive demonstration during the Birth Festival Tower entry, the magical rampage centered on a preposterously scaled Spell Workshop was still a topic that surfaced regularly in the community.
And so, the present. Second year, first semester.
"......."
The new professor this year: Tigreen.
Her eyelid twitched faintly as she gazed at Lee Ha-yul, who sat in the Craft Major lecture she had personally established.
A seat by the window where soft sunlight streamed in. Snow-white hair, gently closed eyes, and a winged garment caught the eye.
The overwhelming presence occupying her field of vision left no room for doubt.
'He really came...'
There had been signs. During the current free semester, Lee Ha-yul had already "broken" several other craft major lectures.
- What was it like...? Man, it was seriously nuts... What, you don't get it? Heh, you'll probably see for yourself soon.
Go see it firsthand, then.
The chuckling laughter of a professor she had grown rather friendly with in a short time lingered in her ears. He was also a craft major professor, like Tigreen, and he had been in charge of the lectures Lee Ha-yul had already passed through.
"Ahem, ahem!"
Tigreen cleared her throat with effort. The restless cadets' gazes converged on her.
The lecture room, broad and pleasant as expected of Siyoram. The cadets packed it more than she had anticipated.
The free semester's characteristic floating population, combined with interest in the course—and partly because they had followed a certain someone here.
"...Greetings to all cadets attending this lecture. I am Tigreen Wyler, a newly appointed professor of the 122nd Cohort, and I will be in charge of the 「Delicacy of Precision Crafting」 course."
- Clap, clap, clap, clap!
A polite round of applause answered the greeting that was meant to sound composed. Tigreen raised her head slightly and glanced up.
Lee Ha-yul was among those clapping. At the sight of him politely bringing his hands together, the stiff cast of Tigreen's expression eased a little.
They had playfully called Lee Ha-yul's streak a "break" or a "dojo challenge," but it was not meant negatively. If anything, his record was full of commendable stories, nothing else.
"...Thank you."
The applause died down. Tigreen lifted her head again and swept her gaze around the lecture room once.
"As you all already know, this course is a newly established one, only just now opening. It may be shorter in both history and depth compared to the long-standing flagship lectures."
Over a century had passed since Siyoram was founded. In all the flux of lectures appearing and disappearing, some had endured without vanishing.
Such long-standing lectures carried history with them. A few even traced their lineage all the way back to the Chaos Period itself, their accumulated materials and experience immense.
"However, I can at least offer a measure of novelty and unfamiliarity. I believe the cadets who sought out this lecture came for similar reasons."
The classic and the cutting-edge. You could not simply declare one superior, but each certainly had its own strengths and weaknesses.
"In this lecture, I aim to create a time where we actively share our accumulated insights and experience. I have heard that newly opened courses generally tend to run along such lines."
Novelty, unfamiliarity, the latest advances one is not yet used to. Elements that a classic course, so rich in history and experience, could not easily provide.
That was also the purpose Siyoram hoped for from new lectures.
- Clap, clap, clap, clap!
Another wave of applause broke out as soon as the opening introduction ended. The clapping carried more energy than before. The corner of Tigreen's mouth twitched.
All those days of racking her brain had been worth it. Praising herself inwardly for a smooth first run, Tigreen lifted up her prepared materials.
"Now! So, what we will be trying out in this first session is this!"
Thud! A sizable box landed on a nearby table. Tigreen rummaged inside and pulled out the prepared item. Cadets' eyes zeroed in on her hand.
"A Twisty Puzzle?"
"Yes, it is a puzzle."
The sort of puzzle commonly known as a 3x3x3 cube. Except this was not a perfect cube, and it had so many pieces that it was closer to a misshapen sphere.
"However, this is a training-purpose magic tool that I personally designed and created."
The cadets' eyes gleamed with heightened curiosity at those words. Tigreen accepted the interest with pleasure and nodded.
"Now, if you channel mana into it like this..."
Oooong! Infused with mana, the puzzle emitted light. Its drab gray surface took on a blue hue.
"The color changes. It generally dyes itself blue, which is the standard mana hue. But it is not uniform."
Not uniform. True to her words, some pieces were a bright blue, while others were a murky blue.
"The saturation changes exponentially according to mana density. Pieces with more mana are bright, and areas with less are dark."
That was not the only function. This magic tool was, by all rights, a puzzle.
- Click
The complex puzzle rotated once. The pieces mixed. Simultaneously, the blue hue across its surface rippled. The color churned into chaos, like a wave crashing through.
"Like this, when you scramble the puzzle, the mana gets scrambled along with it."
"Ah, so it's one of those..."
"You have probably guessed it correctly. Now you see why it's called a training tool?"
Most cadets grasped how to use the magic tool from that function alone. Tigreen shook the puzzle, its colors now turbidly blended.
"You channel mana in, and then you match the saturation on each face to be exactly the same. Meaning, you equalize the mana density."
"Ohh..."
Murmurs of admiration rippled from all around once the explanation ended.
Admiration—from the cadets impressed by the complexity and precision of the magic tool.
"Ah..."
Lament—from the cadets now imagining just how much of a pain it would be to match it. Tigreen gave a wry smile at that reaction.
"These days, 'crafting' does not mean you just bang away mindlessly with a hammer. Mana is actually more essential, and there is plenty of mass-produced armaments churned out entirely by machines."
No one uses purely the classical method anymore—standing beside a roaring furnace, pounding iron on an anvil clang-clang.
Even Tigreen, who specialized in that very classical method, could not deny that fact.
For products at the level of standard-issue gear, machinery was far faster and more efficient.
"But we are not the sort to be satisfied with common mass-produced goods, are we? Masterpieces, great works, works of genius, century-defining inventions. Those are the things I want to make."
Tigreen grinned and shrugged her shoulders.
"And that is why I established this course: 'Delicacy of Precision Crafting.' To create masterpieces, you naturally need that level of skill. Now, everyone."
Tigreen placed the box on the table with a thud!
"All right, I will hand one out to each of you first, so go ahead and get your hands on it. Do not worry, this is not the only thing I will have you do."
The contents that spilled out heavily onto the table were all identical puzzles.
A magic tool that Tigreen had personally crafted. Producing them in such quantities was generally difficult, but thanks to Siyoram's cooperation, they had been mass-produced with relative ease.
- Click, click, click...
"The fluidity is way too high... The more you twist, the more it turns into a total mess..."
"I guess that is the difficulty scaling. You just adjust your own speed to suit your level as you get better."
"Oh, definitely. If you do not bother matching anything and only manipulate the mana, it is easy, huh? Ohh... So the difficulty adjustment works like this. The mechanism and the spell inside must be insanely complex."
"They would not be a professor at Siyoram for nothing, right?"
'Heh...'
From all around came the sound of puzzle-solving. Mixed in with the occasional exclamations of admiration and praise, the corners of Tigreen's mouth twitched.
She had made it herself, but she had done a good job.
That magic tool required a complex set of production skills.
Each piece had a different stiffness, so even turning the pieces demanded precision, and the mana manipulation required was, if anything, even greater.
On top of that, the artificial mana wave disturbance that occurred every time a piece was turned messed up the mana she had painstakingly adjusted.
"Argh...! It got all mixed up again...!"
"Hey, you dumbass. I told you not to rush, do it slowly. If you are all temper and no patience..."
The occasional wails that could be heard were proof of that.
'It is difficult, all right...'
Even for Tigreen, quickly turning and solving the puzzle was hard. If she slowed her pace a bit... maybe she could solve it in three minutes?
'......'
Around the time she thought that far, a sudden thought crossed her mind and Tigreen subtly shifted her gaze.
In the corner of the lecture room. That was the spot where Lee Ha-yul had settled.
It was not just Tigreen; everyone was the same. Even as they focused on their puzzles, the cadets stole sidelong glances at Lee Ha-yul.
Lee Ha-yul held the puzzle in both hands and remained still.
'Was not his left arm a prosthetic? He regenerated it after removing the prosthetic...'
Tigreen, who had been interested in that pure white prosthetic, swallowed a small pang of disappointment.
'But what is he doing?'
Instead, she tilted her head. It had not even been a few minutes since the puzzles were handed out, but Lee Ha-yul was not doing anything, just keeping still.
His eyes were closed, so it was hard to guess what he was thinking.
- Tap, tap
Just then, Lee Ha-yul showed some movement.
His fingers wriggled slightly, then he touched the puzzle. He even rubbed its surface as if checking its texture.
That inexplicable behavior did not last long.
- Vwoooom...!
The puzzle, having absorbed mana, gave off a vibration.
The puzzle's surface turned pure white according to the user's mana. Soon, its saturation divided based on mana density.
- Click!
The puzzle moved once. The pieces mixed, and the colors mixed as well. White and gray swirled together, rippling.
It was a normal operation.
Tigreen gulped. In her ears, the laughter of a professor she was close to and the rumors both echoed.
- Click, click
The pieces mixed a few more times. Tigreen tilted her head. Unlike her tension, it seemed like perfectly normal behavior.
'...Am I overreacting?'
The process was so quiet that she had that thought. Maybe because the rumors were so extreme, she had gotten overly tense from the start.
To begin with, had he not just picked it up for the first time? Come to think of it, not much time had passed, so there was no way he would already do something strange—
- Click-click-click-click-click...!
...Or so she thought.
That judgment was cut off by the furious clicking pounding in her ears.
The eyes of those watching Lee Ha-yul went wide.
It was fast. So fast that even afterimages seemed to stretch as the puzzle mixed.
That was not what they were surprised by.
'What the hell is that?'
The puzzle mixed. Naturally, the mana should mix as well. Mana wave disturbances should burst out continuously, and the mana should ripple.
...It was stable. The surface glimpsed showed no change in color.
That was the wrong expression. There was certainly change, but it was all uniform—the saturation sorted and concentrated onto each face.
'Crazy.'
At that ridiculous behavior, Tigreen's mouth fell open.
Tigreen, who knew the puzzle better than anyone else here.
She was its designer, after all. That was why she knew exactly how absurd it was to handle the puzzle like that.
- Click!
Before the shock that had just begun could end, the puzzle's rotation came to an end first.
Tigreen, who had been gawking with her mouth agape, blinked.
A puzzle set down on the desk.
It was a completely solved puzzle, each face filled with uniform saturation.
Tigreen pressed her lips shut and glanced at the time.
'Not even a minute had passed?'
The minute hand had not moved either. Her pupils shook at that preposterous fact.
- How was it... Hey, I am telling you, it was utterly ridiculous...
The words of the chuckling professor echoed in her dazed mind.
'...No words. For real.'
Exactly as he said. No words came out.
Is that even possible? The question arose, but she had just witnessed it with her own eyes, so there was nothing to say.
- Vwoooom...!
- Vwoooom...!
"Huh...?"
It was just as she was swallowing her shock. The humming of a puzzle reached her ears again.
A normal humming sound. If there was something off, it was that it sounded twice.
Tigreen, who had been shaking her head to herself, looked up.
Still the place where all eyes were drawn. The corner seat where Lee Ha-yul was sitting.
In his hands was the puzzle from just before.
...And beside him, another puzzle was floating in the air. A puzzle dyed pure white.
- Click-click-click...!
- Click-click-click...!
One in his hand, the other in the air, began to turn.
At a high speed similar to before.
"Crazy..."
This time, she could not keep her admiration inside.
With her mouth wide open, Tigreen sent him the highest praise.
* * *
'Feels like training.'
On the way out of the lecture room, leaving behind the astonished gazes.
He wiggled his fingers at the lingering sensation in his hand.
'So you can make something like that in puzzle form. This kind of thing definitely requires more creativity.'
The new lecture. Objectively, it lacked the depth and experience of the long-standing traditional lectures.
But when it came to broadening one's horizons, the new lecture was just right.
It is usually hard to gain enlightenment from the familiar. By feeling and accepting new things like this, there was sure to be a clear gain.
That was why he had been sampling various lectures recently. Mostly in the craft major, since there was so much to make this semester.
Thanks to it being the free semester, he could come and go freely.
'Like Senior Daera's gift... I would like to finish everything before we gather for the Three Great Families matter.'
The Three Great Families meeting. Due to each family's circumstances, it had not happened immediately, but it would inevitably take place.
The subject of that meeting was me.
'It would be good to have some gifts ready before the meeting.'
There probably would not be any threatening matters like I am worried about, but I am hoping things will go well.
Should I call it a kind of bribe? Honestly, I just want to slip them some gifts and leave a better impression.
'To do that...'
He ran the mental calculations. Checking his schedule and looking around with Observation, there was plenty of time.
He immediately tapped his smartwatch.
[Text Message]
[Contact: Baek A-rin]
[Contact: Lee Ji-yeon]
[Me▶: Could we meet for a moment?]
[Me▶: (A dog peeking its head out from around a corner emoticon)]
* * *
[Player Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Sub-quest 「Dojo Challenge」 completed]
[Points accumulated]
...
[Unique Ability 「Mana Affinity」 increases]
[Unique Ability 「All-Rounder」 increases]