Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Unexpected Resemblance
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Unable to stand it any longer, Kim Deok-hyun stepped forward.
"Ah, sorry about that. You know Kim Jin-woo, the wizard who took down the demon in the Han River last time, right? He looks just like him."
"Kim Jin-woo?"
Kim Deok-hyun's gaze turned toward me.
"He has a common face. That's why."
"......Yeah, I get that a lot."
It felt strangely like déjà vu, but I decided to ignore it for now.
At that moment, Kim Deok-hyun checked his watch and said to Lee Seo-jun,
"Anyway, nice meeting you. I have another appointment, so I'll be going."
"Yes, take care."
Lee Seo-jun bowed his head politely.
Kim Deok-hyun and Jeong Hyun-su's next schedule was a Special Forces team meeting.
It was a strategy meeting regarding the recent magical terrorist activities occurring around the world.
Some were saying it wasn't the infamous terrorist group disbanded 13 years ago resuming operations, making the atmosphere extremely serious.
As they walked down the hallway, Kim Deok-hyun suddenly remembered something and added,
"Oh, right, that student who looks like Kim Jin-woo from earlier."
"Ah, yes."
"Now that I think about it, I feel like I've seen that student's face somewhere before too."
"Huh? Really? Where?"
"On MyTube."
Jeong Hyun-su blinked in confusion at Kim Deok-hyun's unexpected words.
"MyTube?"
"You know that video you guys were watching last time. The Wizard Academy public test video."
"Ah, yes. The one from last week?"
"Yeah, the kid who had a mana discharge while doing compressed manifestation. Now that I think about it, it's that kid."
"Uh...... Huh? Really? Yeah, come to think of it, kinda."
"You're younger than me, how is your memory worse?"
"......Damn. Why are you nagging me again."
As Jeong Hyun-su grumbled in annoyance, Kim Deok-hyun ignored him and continued,
"Now that I think about it, it's kind of unusual."
"What's unusual?"
"In that video, that student manifested an attribute-less orb, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"People who handle attribute-less orbs aren't that common. Sure, people with good imagination might roughly manifest one, but most people go for attributes and shapes, right?"
"Yes, but why?"
What was he trying to say with such a long preamble?
"The Kim Jin-woo who took down the Han River demon handled an attribute-less orb too."
"Huh? Oh, right! You're right!"
Jeong Hyun-su responded in surprise.
"Wow! That's amazing. What kind of coincidence is this? Are they really connected somehow? Maybe lost brothers from childhood or something? Families usually have similar magic, right?"
"I wouldn't know. If you look into that student's family records later and find none, maybe help him find his family."
It was 6 p.m., after the special elective activity class ended.
Disguised(?) as Kim Jin-woo, I sat on a bench in front of a Seoul subway station, waiting for someone. Then a man approached me and spoke.
"Mr. Kim Jin-woo?"
"Ah, yes."
"Hello. I'm Jeong Chan-wook, working under Miss Han Se-yeon. She's busy with work today, so I came in her place."
"Yes. Nice to meet you."
As I bowed my head, the man pulled a small wrapped box from his pocket.
"Here's the item you requested."
It was 7 p.m.
Having finished all my schedules for the day, I returned to the dormitory.
Fatigue had built up tremendously over the past five days. The moment I got back, I zombie-walked to the sofa and collapsed onto it.
"Ahh, this feels good."
That wrapped up school classes for the week.
Tomorrow was Saturday. Two full days off.
What should I do tomorrow?
I didn't feel like doing anything physical.
I've been so busy lately that I just want to rest easy this weekend.
"Should I train?"
Come to think of it, I've been running around so much that I haven't trained properly. Using the weekend to catch up on mana meditation that I skipped might be a good choice.
Just then, my smart student notebook chimed with an alarm.
[Sun-woo, can you help me with training tomorrow?]
A message from Yoon Ha-young.
Training, huh. I had plenty of time tomorrow, so I could do it anytime.
Since I was her sparring partner anyway, it was a long-standing academy tradition to meet up once or twice a week for practice outside of regular sparring classes.
[Got it. See you at the training ground at 2 p.m. tomorrow.]
[Oh! Thanks!!! See you tomorrow!]
Her unique bright tone seemed to ring in my ears from the message. It made me smile involuntarily.
"Oh, right. I need to check the item."
I pulled out the small box I'd received at the coffee shop earlier.
Unwrapping it revealed an elegant small rectangular box inside.
Next to it was a letter.
[The item you requested. I wanted to deliver it personally, but I've been busy preparing a new business lately. I picked the design myself—hope that's okay? -Han Se-yeon]
Seeing her neatly handwritten pretty script made me chuckle.
Let's see what kind of spending this major corporation chairman's daughter does.
I folded the letter and opened the box.
Inside was a silver bracelet emitting a brilliant glow.
Mana Alloy Bracelet (B)
Category: Bracelet
Description: A very sturdy bracelet infused with mana.
[Passive Effect]
►Custom Fit
Changes to fit the user's wrist.
Durability: SS
"Oh, it even has a custom fit enchantment."
This was the item I'd requested last night when Han Se-yeon asked if I needed anything.
Mana Alloy Bracelet.
I wanted this bracelet for one simple reason.
Made of a special metal, it possessed exceptional durability that wouldn't break easily even under powerful attacks.
That's why I planned to apply the enchantment scroll from the Tower of Midnight reward to this bracelet.
High durability meant the enchanted magic wouldn't be wasted frivolously.
I took out the carefully stored enchantment scroll from my bag.
[Enchantment Scroll: Spell Barrier (B)]
Category: Enchantment
Description: Designate a tool to enchant it with magic.
[Usage Effect]
►Spell Barrier
Deploys a barrier that blocks one spell.
*Cooldown: 12 hours
"Alright, let's do it."
I gripped the enchantment scroll and injected mana.
At the same time, the scroll paper emitted a bright light, and the special characters engraved on it began floating into the air.
Using mana, I injected those special characters into the bracelet one by one.
True to its mana alloy make, the magic-laden characters were absorbed cleanly without resistance.
About a minute passed.
The enchantment completed successfully.
"Whew."
I checked the bracelet's effects again.
Mana Alloy Bracelet (B)
Category: Bracelet
Description: A very sturdy bracelet infused with mana.
[Passive Effect]
►Custom Fit
Changes to fit the user's wrist.
[Usage Effect]
►Spell Barrier
Deploys a barrier that blocks one spell.
*Cooldown: 12 hours
Durability: SS
"Nice, it worked."
A new usage effect, Spell Barrier, had been added to the bracelet.
Now I could use Spell Barrier via the bracelet.
I wanted to test the usage effect, though.
I wasn't going outside the academy grounds tomorrow anyway, and with a 12-hour cooldown, testing it now should be fine.
"Yeah, will I even need to use it within 12 hours?"
I acted immediately.
I gathered mana in my hand and injected it into the bracelet. As the bracelet absorbed the mana, a blue translucent membrane formed over my palm.
It was about half the size of my body. This size should block most spells entirely.
After about 5 seconds, the translucent membrane vanished.
"Duration is 5 seconds, huh."
Well, 5 seconds is plenty to block one spell.
I smiled in satisfaction.
"......Oh, right."
I forgot to send Han Se-yeon a thank-you message.
I grabbed my smartphone and typed a message.
[Received the bracelet. It's top quality. I'll put it to good use.]
Sent.
About 10 seconds later, her usual sharp reply came.
[Yes, use it well—]
Saturday, 2 p.m.
I headed to the magic training ground, the meeting spot with Yoon Ha-young.
Even on a holiday without classes, quite a few students had gathered for magic training. Half of them were paired up in twos, training. They were probably doing sessions with their sparring partners too.
Ignoring them, I entered a private room inside the magic training ground.
It was the room whose location Yoon Ha-young had told me in advance before I left the dormitory.
Opening the door, I saw Yoon Ha-young manifesting magic.
"Huh? Kim Sun-woo!"
As I entered, Yoon Ha-young smiled and greeted me happily.
"Hey."
"Yeah, hey."
After exchanging greetings, we dove straight into training.
I laid out weapons borrowed from the reinforcement training ground on the floor.
Sword, spear, arrows...... and so on. Pointing to them, I said to her,
"Pick one."
Yoon Ha-young tilted her head at my words.
"Why these?"
"We did attribute training last time, so now it's shape training. You can't keep manifesting weird ice lumps forever."
"Ah, yeah. Shape training, got it."
Yoon Ha-young nodded as if understanding.
Shape training.
Like attribute training, it meant getting familiar with the shape you wanted to manifest.
"Hmm, what to pick."
"Anything. Something you're most familiar with."
At my words, Yoon Ha-young rested her chin on her hand and examined the weapons carefully.
She looked just like a baby grabbing an item at a doljanchi.
Then, having decided, Yoon Ha-young reached out and picked up a weapon.
"I'll take this one."
An arrow was in Yoon Ha-young's hand.
"Good choice. Arrows have low volume, so manifesting them is easy, but their destructive power is weak as a result."
"Yeah, I'll go with this. I like it."
"Alright, then we'll use that."
In the original story, Yoon Ha-young's specialty was firing hundreds of sky-shattering ice arrows. Picking an arrow meant the current flow wasn't deviating much from the original. Even better.
"Yeah, from now on, think of arrows when manifesting. So you need to memorize the arrow's shape, right?"
"Yeah. Like attribute training, just by touching it?"
"No. You need to memorize the arrow's structure first."
"Arrow's structure?"
Yoon Ha-young blinked, surprised by the unexpected answer.
I chuckled at her and pulled out my smart student notebook.
I searched for something and showed it to her.
"Here, it explains everything about arrows and how they're made, right?"
"......"
"Copy this all down and memorize it."
In shape training, understanding of the form you want to create is most important.
It was essential work to build the imagination needed for manifestation, of course.
"Y-You want me to memorize all this?"
"Yeah, and draw it exactly like the pictures. Also study how arrows fly and the principles behind it."
"......"
Yoon Ha-young made a pouty face at my words.
I chuckled at her.
"Do that back at the dormitory. For now, let's start with the regular attribute manifestation training. Go ahead, manifest."
Choi Seo-yoon was witnessing an unusual scene in the magic training ground.
Kim Sun-woo, known as the bottom of the 2nd-year rankings, was teaching basic magic training to a female student.
That student was probably Yoon Ha-young, a senior around 80th in the 2nd-year rankings.
She remembered her face because she'd memorized everyone who used ice-attribute magic like her.
At first, she'd just been casually watching a familiar face.
But at some point, Choi Seo-yoon was captivated and couldn't look away.
Kim Sun-woo's magic instruction skills were surprisingly clean and solid.
It was like textbook-level fundamentals, or something.
Choi Seo-yoon tilted her head.
'Wasn't Senior Kim Sun-woo the bottom of the class?'
How could a bottom-ranker have such high magic comprehension?
With that level, he'd at least be mid-tier.
Something was off.
No, hadn't Senior Kim Sun-woo been reinforcement-type just a few months ago? It hadn't been long since he'd seriously started learning manifestation-type.
She was lost in thought like that when...