Chapter 122

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Translator: Ryuma

Chapter: 122

Chapter Title: Lesson 25. When You Grow Distant, You Miss It - 3

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Room 33 had a hidden element.

The moment they found a dead human body somewhere in the forest and the letter concealed in its embrace—
a shift occurred.

A chain room and a trick room at the same time.

That was why Room 34 was an escape scenario with just one trick given: "Don't let the letter be taken by anyone."

"Dokgo Yeon, are you sure you don't actually have talent for sorcery instead of martial arts? Give it some serious thought."

"Ban Yu-won, if you spout nonsense again, I'll use a spell to cut off your tongue."

"That's not sorcery. Spare me."

Strangely enough, the moment the shift happened, the group found themselves inside a carriage racing at full speed.

There had been dramatic spatial changes during previous shifts, but no one had expected such a drastic upheaval.

"But is this carriage just running on its own? If there's no coachman and it's moving by magic—"

—The moment As Light said that, sounds of whoosh, thud, and crunch came from outside, followed by something rolling off the carriage.

And suddenly, the carriage began shaking violently.

It seemed the thing that had just rolled off was the coachman (or what used to be one).

"……."

"Impressive. The power of sorcery, indeed."

Ban Yu-won sighed at Dokgo Yeon's oddly admiring tone and opened the carriage door to step outside.

"Kill them!"

"Kill them and take everything!"

—Hiiihiiing!

It was absolute chaos.

The forest environment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠remained the same, but the carriage they were in was barreling down a rugged path. The horses, now without a coachman, were bucking wildly as if ready to bolt from the road at any moment.

And to top it off, suspicious bandits with faces covered in masks or hoods were pursuing on horseback, their tongues lolling out madly.

'Good thing I've been riding Lilith around to build up my Riding concept.'

Ban Yu-won swiftly leaped to the coachman's seat and calmed the horses.

The bandits approaching on either side fired arrows and swung swords at him, but the Rainstorm Sword's blades, emerging one by one from his inventory, blocked them all.

"A sword?!"

"It moves on its own—and it's infused with magic power! Urk!"

With no time to worry about swordsmanship right now, he focused solely on driving the carriage while manipulating the Rainstorm Sword to fend off the attackers' blades and arrows!

"He's a telekinesis user?! A traitor after all!"

"Capture him and offer him to Lord Delphon!"

Telekinesis? They seemed to think Ban Yu-won was controlling the Rainstorm Sword with psychokinetic powers.

The resonance linking him and the Rainstorm Sword was far superior to mere telekinesis—but he made a mental note of their words for now.

This chain room's theme might involve telekinesis.

"Tike."

—Whiiiing!

While the twelve blades focused purely on defense, Tike, free to move, began intercepting the enemies instead.

Its Projection Art suppressed movements of targets in its capture range, pinpointed weaknesses, and ensured more powerful projectiles hit more easily!

The pursuers flinched, eyes widening as they felt the strain on their bodies.

"What overwhelming telekinesis is this!"

"Must've stolen some incredible secret technique... How dare you...!"

Trait ors, secret techniques—who knew what they'd heard, but their misconceptions kept deepening.

Not that it mattered to him.

—Boom!

"—What was that?!"

"Hey, Steve got one-shotted—!"

—KABOOM!

"Fooooool!!"

Tike, having locked onto all enemies, unleashed its barrage!

Tike's unique concept, Sevenfold Magic Cannon, had two major abilities.

One was firing seven magic bullets in the time it took to fire a single shot—rapid fire.

The other was combining those seven bullets' destructive power into one stacked shot!

"What the hell is that insane artifact?!"

"Did he steal that too? We have to take it back—!"

As the bandits reached for Tike, a fluid concept unlike any Ban Yu-won had seen before flowed from their hands.

Predictably, it was telekinesis.

But before it could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reach its target, a deathly aura spread from inside the carriage, skillfully dispersing only the telekinesis.

"—Ah!"

—Boom! KABOOM!

Tike, instantly freed, fired off furious shots in succession, blasting massive holes through the enemies' heads and abdomens.

Shouts from horseback pursuers still echoed from behind, but for now, those close to the carriage were wiped out.

"As expected of Teacher."

Ban Yu-won stuck out his tongue in admiration at Dokgo Yeon's ghostly precise control, releasing her energy at the perfect moment to neutralize threats without even looking outside. He then harvested concepts from the corpses.

"Oh. Murder... It's been a while, but more importantly."

He'd successfully acquired the Telekinesis concept he'd been curious about.

Ban Yu-won instructed Tike to snipe the pursuers from behind while he delved into analyzing the newly gained concept.

And soon enough, he reached a conclusion.

'This... isn't it an energy produced by a mind technique based on the brain?'

It felt extremely alien, but his analysis of Telekinesis's mechanism confirmed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it.

By accumulating magic power in the brain through a unique method, causing mutation, one could influence the external world through thought-induced special mana effects.

Hence, the power of the mind—Telekinesis.

It seemed like an amazing, tremendous power, but in truth, Ban Yu-won was already handling a form of it: his divine authority, the Babylonia Code.

'The Telekinesis Cantone used felt intuitive, quick to activate, and powerful. But thinking about it, that was probably the result of repeatedly training and mastering Telekinesis to instantly use specific techniques.'

The conclusion was straightforward.

Telekinesis was a degraded version of his Babylonia Code, separated and infinitely simplified—but in terms of speed and power for specific phenomena, it could surpass the Code.

'Even then, with practice, I could outdo it.'

Thus, he had no need to learn Telekinesis deliberately.

However, the fully formed Telekinesis concept held significant value. As a power that stimulated the brain, it positively influenced his divine authority.

Ban Yu-won absorbed the full 3 units of Telekinesis without converting it to magic power, observing how it stimulated and activated his brain.

Could researching this mechanism be applied to future martial arts I create?

'As expected.'

Telekinesis was a jackpot!

His divine authority concepts grew slowly even when he pushed them hard, despite seeming to level up easily at times.

In this situation, a concept that grew his authority one-for-one appeared—how could he not rejoice?

Of course, efficiency would drop with repetition, but even accounting for that, it was excellent!

"Ban, how do we clear this room? Do we just keep fleeing in the carriage?"

Right on cue, As Light poked his head out the window and asked.

Ban Yu-won thought the same.

So he stopped the carriage.

"Ban...?"

"Think about it. We're stronger than them anyway. Do we really need to put up with the hassle of fleeing in this carriage? What if we just kill them all until no more come, and the shift triggers automatically?"

"A fairly persuasive argument."

Dokgo Yeon opened the stopped carriage door and stepped out.

"But I can read your underlying intent. You expect to gain something from these pursuers, don't you?"

"Dokgo Yeon... You know me too well."

"Don't you think you're just too easy to read?"

Ban Yu-won felt deeply wronged, but he approached her and handed over the letter.

The very letter found in Room 33 that had triggered the shift.

"If they take this, it'll get complicated. Hold onto it."

"Did you read it?"

"No time for that."

And now that they'd stopped, there was even less time.

Ban Yu-won smacked his lips as pursuers began appearing in droves.

"They use telekinesis. It's fast to activate, but as long as their mana-generated force doesn't touch us, it won't work. Keep that in mind."

"So just kill them quick."

Lucelle leaned forward slightly, her hair instantly turning black.

Her body swelled over twice its size in a moment, beast ears and a tail sprouting, blue sparks crackling across her form.

With Half-Beast Transformation from Heartfire and Giant Strength, plus Thunder Beast, she became a literal monster outputting two to three times her original power!

Watching her sometimes reminded him of a transformation Pokémon, but he held it in.

"Telekinesis... It's just magic power, right? So I can cancel it with my own."

"Exactly."

As Light and Ban Yu-won each readied their weapons, preparing to fight.

Dokgo Yeon alone didn't draw her sword, arms crossed, standing watch. This was partly because she had to guard the letter, but also because in their usual party, one member holding back to watch the flanks boosted combat efficiency.

"—Ha, fearless fools."

Thud—.

A man appeared, wearing bracelets carved from glowing blue gemstones on both wrists.

Dreadfully dense magic power swirled around the glowing jewels.

By the Tower's standards, a clear elite monster.

Perhaps stopping the escape had triggered something.

"Hand over what you stole. You still don't grasp its value—"

—Crackle!

Lucelle's spear-like kick smashed into his face.

His bracelets flashed at the impact, erecting a massive barrier, but her lightning-cloaked claws shattered it—and his face besides.

"Boss!"

"That bitch hit our boss!"

"...Light, Lucelle just blew off the big guy's face without a word. Is that okay?"

"What are you talking about, Ban? Why listen to guys charging with swords?"

Ah, right.

He'd worried about treating NPCs like people, but their home dimension treated people like monsters anyway.

"You bastards—Boss!"

"Urk, you shameless bi—Graaaah!"

Lucelle's power with Thunder Beast had long surpassed first-year levels.

Ban Yu-won launched the twelve blades in sequence at the charging enemies and leaped into the fray.

As Light infused his spear with magic power and went wild; fighting together, Ban Yu-won could tell his movements had grown far more natural.

"Oh, so this is telekinesis... Grah!"

"Dispelling telekinesis with sheer grit!"

"W-We messed with the wrong ones. How are they this strong—Gaaaah!"

"Damn beast, a beast dares touch me, grraaaah?!"

While Lucelle pummeled the boss, Ban Yu-won and As Light slaughtered the endlessly spawning extra telekinesis users.

Of course, not all were fools; some fired telekinesis-enhanced arrows at the idly crossed-arms Dokgo Yeon—but they all collapsed, blood spurting from seven orifices before anyone noticed their deaths.

"They all use the same type of power. Probably deeply tied to this chain room's setting."

"Who knows... Ah, no more coming."

Ban Yu-won's hunch was spot on.

After gleefully wiping out enemies for about 30 minutes, no more pursuers appeared.

"Ah, can I kill them now?"

"Y-You bastards, Lord Yu rgel will never forgive—"

Splat. Lucelle's full-force kick crushed the elite's neck.

The noisy forest road fell silent in an instant. Ban Yu-won scanned around for changes, but no shift occurred.

"Looks like we need to move after all."

"No pursuers now, so we can take it easy. Ban, I'm getting hungry."

"Light, sometimes you treat me like Pooh. ...Hmm."

Ban Yu-won felt a vague inkling but first absorbed concepts from the scattered corpses.

Life, Body, and such were trivial even combined, but Telekinesis overflowed—especially from the elite Lucelle killed: a whopping 20! And Star Mark at 1!

"Moving..."

Of course, repeated use slightly reduced conversion efficiency, but the depth gained was still immense.

And his divine authority's growth had even boosted Soul!

Ban Yu-won shed emotional tears, feeling his core grow for the first time in ages.

"Wow, Yu-won. An artifact dropped!"

"Oh, nice?"

The elite's gemstone bracelets remained intact on his arms.

Apparently sentient items; Lucelle and As Light admired them upon confirmation.

"Seems like support gear. Reacts to danger by creating barriers or strengthening weapons on attack."

"What a convenience-fest."

Ban Yu-won chuckled incredulously but didn't pick it up.

"Lucelle, toss it."

"Yes."

Unlike As Light once upon a time, Lucelle dropped it immediately.

Ban Yu-won drew his quill, circled it, engraved the Seal rune inside, and activated language magic.

"But why? Our read on it showed no issues."

"It's a Portkey."

The group tilted their heads in unison.

Ban Yu-won translated for the poor muggles unfamiliar with Harry Potter.

"A forced teleportation device."