Preparation (2)
Preparation (2)
Nothing special happened during the fifth week at Siyoram after the Tower entry ended.
Dungeon Raid still had time left, and the next Tower entry wouldn't be for another month or two.
The only event left in the first semester, really, was the midterm evaluation coming at the tail end of the free semester.
After the midterm evaluation, the free semester would end and regular semesters would begin, reorganizing the curriculum around majors.
From that point on, cadets would finally be able to select and take the lectures they wanted.
Total instructional hours would also decrease. You could think of it as cutting quantity while increasing density. The extra free time would be filled with stress-relief activities like clubs.
In short, things would get more relaxed than now. Of course, just messing around would be insane—cadets had to manage their own condition and pursue personal training.
Otherwise, they'd get caught up by the cadets who put in the work, and their grades would plummet straight to the bottom.
In the original story, sub-stories came pouring out once regular semesters started.
Just joining one club spawned plenty of quests from it, and getting tangled up with various people in the process led to even more quests.
And if you built up affection with a main-cast character, you could even get entangled with their faction.
During the 1st Iteration, I spent most of my time just chasing after sub-stories like that. That's why it all went wrong.
'Everyone's working hard.'
At the old training ground where I'd reported as always, I lay on the parched dirt, blankly recalling the atmosphere around campus these days.
I suppose you'd call it fervor. The fire of ambition was flaring in the cadets' eyes, spurring them on in training and academics.
The energy was markedly different from before.
Not that the cadets had been lazy before.
Whenever I visited the training rooms or the library after lectures, they'd always been bustling with cadets.
But lately... to be precise, starting this week, the energy had been extraordinary.
'The effect really was incredible.'
There was only one reason.
They'd properly tasted growth through the amplified blessings from the Tower entry. Even to me, that made sense.
Lee Ha-yul before the Tower entry and Lee Ha-yul now were entirely different beings. It might sound exaggerated, but it was true.
The performance of the Blessing of Growth I'd experienced in the Tower was tremendous.
The sheer stat increase was one thing, but I'd also shown major strides in skill. Professor Atra had vouched for it, so it was probably objective fact.
To make a direct comparison: the Aiden from back when we sparred—I could overwhelm him in one strike now.
Of course, Aiden would have kept growing without pause too... but that was the gist of it.
The results I'd earned in the Tower proved it as well.
Points gained by eliminating other cadets, points gained by subjugating monsters inside, plus miscellaneous extras.
When all the points were totaled and announced, I'd actually managed to land a rank within the top ten.
Granted, there'd been a lot of luck involved.
No main-cast cadets among the ones who chased me on days one and two. Getting healed by Ellia right before I'd have been eliminated. Being practically escorted by the top seat and the second seat after that, avoiding elimination and taking no point loss.
...I'd had a fair bit of luck, but regardless, that was my rank.
The total score was around 1,200 points, wasn't it?
The points I'd personally earned were barely over 900, and the 300 points fairly distributed among party members including Baek A-rin made up the rest.
I needed to distribute the value of the Origin Egg soon too, but... it still hadn't hatched, which was a problem.
Once it hatched and its value could be assessed, then I could decide how to divide things up.
'Should I just cover it with my points for now...'
I ran mental calculations. Just in case, I'd already set aside the 300 points I'd need to pay out as a debt.
So, with the remaining 1,000 points, what could I get?
I skimmed through the catalog Siyoram had sent.
To stoke cadet ambition, Siyoram awarded these points based on academic performance, which could be exchanged for rewards the academy had posted.
'Hmm...'
1,000 points was enough to secure a decent artifact and still have points left over. If I compromised a bit, I could even pick up a few solid pieces of equipment, if not an artifact outright.
Considering how difficult it was to obtain a usable artifact through ordinary channels, this was an encouraging result.
After all, most of the hidden pieces I'd go out and find on the weekend were artifacts.
Maybe I should pick up an artifact before stopping by the dungeon...
Going outside.
'Ah.'
I didn't want to go. The thought surfaced before I could stop it. A sigh slipped out on its own.
Come to think of it, calling it "before I could stop it" was even a little ridiculous. Every time I thought about going off-campus, the thought of not wanting to go came right along with it.
The Confession Necklace. An artifact that would bypass the Curse of Silence.
In my current situation, it was a necessary artifact. Going to get it was the right call. That was clear, but...
'I'm scared.'
I couldn't shake the thought.
In the original story, the Confession Necklace was an artifact obtainable from a dungeon.
A dungeon. A place filled with threats.
My skills were improving by leaps and bounds.
I gauged my own level. In the Tower of Growth, I'd been able to go toe-to-toe with cadets in the upper ranks—I'd even been able to push them back and defeat them.
So what.
This place was a Cradle. An institution designed to nurture new sprouts that hadn't yet matured.
Nothing I'd experienced here had been real combat.
Dungeon Practice had safety measures put in place by the Vice Headmaster, and even with those, I'd been on edge throughout the entire dungeon raid.
The Tower entry had only let me feel a fraction of the pain. It was something like a virtual reality where even death wasn't real death to begin with.
'......'
There was an enormous gap between the me from my original world and the me right now.
Without exaggeration—if I flicked my original-world self on the forehead even once, his head might burst and kill him on the spot.
Even so, I was still me.
The people around me looked at me like I was something impressive and talked me up, but in the end, the cowardly nature rooted at my core hadn't gone anywhere.
The body's performance might change, but the rotten spirit just refused to change at all.
The body had changed, but the mind was the same as ever.
When I thought about the main story... what would become of the world?
Would the world be destroyed? In the 1st Iteration it wasn't as though every last person was annihilated, but a situation comparable to the Dark Age had definitely arrived.
'Haa...'
Not a single countermeasure came to mind.
I lay in the middle of the old training ground and waited until Professor Atra arrived.
I understood the heart of a puppy waiting for its owner, just a little.
.
.
.
Superhumans possess mana through an organ called the core.
They absorb mana from the environment and natural world, guide it along their circuits, and accumulate it in the core.
In that process, unavoidable impurities inevitably mix in.
Though it's broadly called natural mana, if you break it down finely, its properties split into countless varieties.
You're taking in mana of innumerable properties and semi-permanently making it your own. Contamination is unavoidable.
- Wooong...
The mana within his body stirred. Riding the circuits from the core, it circulated throughout his entire body.
From fingertips to the tips of his toes, there was no hesitation in the mana's movement as it visited every part, leaving nothing out.
Atra, who had placed her hand on Lee Ha-yul's back and was sensing the flow of mana, felt each of those movements one after another.
This was the process of settling one's mana after sparring.
It meant smoothing out the momentum of mana disrupted during combat, filling in the emptied spaces, and training one's mana.
At the same time, Atra herself was manipulating mana. She drew up dormant mana and circulated it through her body.
It was a measure for Lee Ha-yul, who could easily read the flow of mana with his Detection ability.
The circulation of mana within Lee Ha-yul's body shifted minutely.
Watching the mana Atra demonstrated, he'd immediately refined his own method on the spot.
'Nothing to point out here.'
Watching mana flow like a gentle stream, she found herself almost impressed. His control of mana had no minor hitches whatsoever.
His manipulation was as natural as moving your own hands and feet. No one teaches you how to move your hands and feet. You just know how to do it.
Lee Ha-yul's mana manipulation had reached that level.
She'd been feeling it all throughout their lessons, but his innate aptitude for mana exceeded a certain threshold.
Even more conspicuous than that was his mana purity.
Considering the process of mana accumulation, a superhuman's mana inevitably contains unavoidable impurities.
Lee Ha-yul's mana defied that common knowledge.
Clean and pure. The very nature of his mana was simply like that.
Even as he accumulated mana, that purity didn't vanish.
Because of that, even when his raw output lagged, the power of his Aura and spells operated on a different plane entirely.
The time she'd been mentally counting elapsed. Atra removed her hand from Lee Ha-yul's back.
"That will do."
Pwoohoo—Lee Ha-yul let out a long breath and stirred his body. It was a breath that felt almost refreshing.
After settling his mana one last time, Lee Ha-yul tilted his head back.
Atra, who'd been down on one knee, had her field of view filled with Lee Ha-yul's round, soft face.
Atra's gaze swept over his face. The minor marks left from their sparring earlier were recovering in real time.
'...His adaptation is quick.'
The recovery training Atra had recommended.
A training method that wouldn't have been very efficient without a body just beginning its growth spurt and the Blessing of Growth.
Atra herself had done it without the Blessing of Growth, but most ordinary superhumans recoiled and refused.
She'd planned to gradually imprint it on his body throughout enrollment at Siyoram and draw out his natural recovery, but Lee Ha-yul's body was already pushing past the first threshold.
It was abnormal.
His mana control was the same. His mana purity was even more so, but the source of this regenerative power defied understanding.
A healing-type Unique Ability... it was different from that. As far as Atra's eyes could judge, this was simply the body's innate capability.
[Professor]
Eyes gently shut. And yet, Atra felt certain that Lee Ha-yul was observing her.
"Yes."
It had gotten late.
Before she'd noticed, the sun had sunk past the horizon, and the hour had come when an orange glow spread across the sky.
Professor Atra replied to the hologram that had appeared and rose to her feet.
[I plan to visit an external dungeon sometime this weekend.]
- gonna head to a dungeon this weekend~
For an instant, her body went rigid.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Quest "8th-Rank Monster Subjugation" Completed]
[Quest "Multiple 8th-Rank Monster Subjugation" Completed]
[Quest "7th-Rank Monster Subjugation" Completed]
[Quest "5th-Rank Alpha Monster Subjugation" Completed]
...
[Quest "Tower of Growth Entry" Completed]
...
[Quest "Siyoram Academic Points: 100" Completed]
[Quest "Siyoram Academic Points: 200" Completed]
[Quest "Siyoram Academic Points: 300" Completed]
...
[Quest "Origin Egg" Completed]
...
[Remaining points are accumulating.]