Monday…
I stopped by the teacher's office after our common classes for the day were over in the classroom building where we had our common classes.
"…What is this?"
"Well, this… It's a club application form… Yeah."
"I know that."
Mr. Epinhauser narrowed his eyes when he saw the piece of paper I had handed him. Even that guy, who rarely showed any emotions on his face, reacted to that.
"If my eyes aren't playing tricks on me, it says 'Magic Research Society'."
"That's right."
"And the president is Royal Class Year 1 Class A's Number 11, Reinhardt."
"Yes."
"However, as far as I know, you are a supernatural power user with an auxiliary ability called 'Self-Suggestion', and you are currently getting trained in close combat."
"Indeed."
The teacher lowered the application form for creating our new club, placed it on his desk, sat down on his chair, and looked up at me.
Mr. Epinhauser didn't say anything, and neither did I.
It was really scary when he just stared at me like that. After staring into Mr. Epinhauser's eyes, who was believed to be able to kill anyone with just his eyes, I felt kind of suffocated.
Mr. Epinhauser had helped me out with various things in my first semester because I hadn't really known what to do.
'I bet what he wants to say is something like "You even want to dabble in magic now? Are you crazy?"'
"Teacher, please just say something."
It was scarier if he just continued to stare at me.
"I hope you aren't out of your mind."
"I'm completely sane. Yes."
It seemed like Mr. Epinhauser's patience also had limits. He glared at me, pressed down on a corner of his eyes, and spoke his next words as if vomiting them out.
"Then explain."
If it had been a normal incident like before, he wouldn't have shown that kind of reaction.
No…
Actually, those incidents themselves were supposed to be unusual enough already. I guess they were normal for me, though.
If I couldn't give him a proper explanation, I felt like I would really get hit.
Did my hidden talent of making anyone pissed off finally succeed in making even that iron-faced Mr. Epinhauser mad?
No, but it wasn't that weird.
I was trying to create a magic research club without being able to use magic, after all.
"Well, It's…"
I began to explain everything.
* * *
"Oh, so it was like this?"
Fortunately, Mr. Epinhauser didn't react like "You little punk, did you take the wrong medicine or something?" after listening to my explanation. His eyes even seemed to soften a little, so I was about to breathe a sigh of relief.
"I didn't want to do it either, but I was basically forced to. Yeah."
"Why are you forcing yourself to do it if you don't want to?"
"Ah, well, the situation is kind of complicated, but…"
"Were you coerced?"
'Yes! I honestly think this could be called coercion! Why did I have to become the president?' I truly believed that it was quite the bombshell, but Mr. Epinhauser just shook his head instead.
"Hm, You're not the kind of guy who would just take a loss like that, so there must be some reason behind it."
Ah…
Yeah, I was used to it by then. That was the way I had lived, so I didn't think I could even deny it anymore.
"Indeed, it's quite impressive that you managed to gather quite a few people, and from both Class A and B at that. Do you already have a club room club advisor yet?"
"Not yet. I believe you are free to assign us a room and teacher."
"Okay, then I shall let you know if your club has been approved at a later date."
"Got it."
It certainly was strange that the president of the club wasn't a wizard, but almost all of the club members were either wizards or magi. Therefore, there was no reason to not permit the creation of the club.
"Number 11…"
I was about to leave Mr. Epinhauser's private office when he called out to me again.
"Yeah?"
He just stared at me without saying anything. After a short period of silence, he added something briefly.
"I'll give you one merit point."
"…Thank you."
Mr. Epinhauser didn't really seem to have a reason to give me a merit point.
However, even if he didn't tell me why, I had a feeling that I understood.
The merit point I'd received in the first semester disappeared when they calculated our final grades for the first semester. Quite frankly, I didn't really care much about my grades at Temple, so I wasn't that impressed.
However, merit points weren't only useful for grades.
If one were subject to disciplinary actions or received demerits, one could offset them with merit points. I didn't have to use them in that way in the first semester. Of course, I shouldn't cross certain lines, but I could offset small incidents with that merit point.
So…
In other words, I had just earned myself temporary disciplinary immunity or the ability to offset a demerit for my second semester.
* * *
"Did you do it?"
"Of course I did."
Harriet was waiting for me in the hallway, and that was the first thing she asked when I came out, her eyes sparkling. She'd followed me to the teacher's office because she'd thought I might bail in the middle because I hated the idea of becoming the club's president.
Did she really like it that much that I was made president of the club? Did she want me to get annoyed to death? Huh?
Shit…
She'd gotten ahold of my weakness. I just wanted to join in name only and show up whenever I felt like it like I did with Grace. However, as the president, I had to be present all the time. If I didn't show up, I'm sure they'd be furious.
"The results will be announced later. It'll take a few days."
"Yes, yes."
I really loved seeing her mad, but it sure was upsetting seeing her so happy about all of that.
No…
Wasn't that kinda bad?
Why were my insides churning just by seeing her in a good mood? How far gone was I?
"I didn't mean this when I said that I wanted to be in charge of the chores…"
While it was true that a club president's job included various miscellaneous things, I didn't want to do something of that scale! Seeing the rotten expression on my face, Harriet just grinned widely, covering her mouth with one hand.
"You know that you have to come to the club room all the time now because you're the president, right? You can't skip even once, okay?"
"Are you that happy about this?"
"Of course, I…!"
As Harriet was about to say something, she quickly covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide open, and shook her head wildly.
"No! I'm not! I-I'm only happy because I was thinking about how annoyed you would get by all the things you would have to do as the president! That's what I think is good about all this! Serves you right!"
"…Hey, you brat. This is something I did for you, something I don't gain anything from, okay? Is it that difficult to say thank you?"
"Hmph! You're always like this as well! Every time you are nice to me, you just irritate me in the end! So I'll do that as well!"
"No, you weren't even nice to me first. It's more than clear. Didn't you try to irritate me from start to finish?"
"Oh, what did you saaay-? All the luck for the future, Mr. President!"
Harriet just said, "Serves you right!", then covered her ears and ran out of the hallway.
What "Mr. President"?
Did she completely forget that the word was supposed to be used as an honorific?
My original plan was to bring the magic major students of both classes to the next level, which would have happened a lot later originally, so that they could become stronger just a bit faster.
So I made the proposition that they could research magic and hang out together like that, but then I got caught up in it, and in the end, I became their club president as well.
Of course, it wasn't like I could make time for them at all. No matter how much I trained with Ellen every day, I would be able to make some extra time somehow.
The location of our classroom as well as the identity of our club advisor would be announced with the discussion results by Mr. Epinhauser.
Safe to say, it wasn't just a matter of getting permission to create the club.
It wasn't a regular club, but a club focused on magic research.
We didn't only need a club room, but facilities in which we could actually perform magical research, and there had to be enough space.
It wasn't something that could be solved by having a meeting, sitting around a table, and chatting.
We could use the equipment already present in Temple, but if there was a need to acquire new equipment or anything like that, they would have to report it to the school so that they could buy what they needed within the assigned budget and if their usage was permitted.
But wouldn't I have to do all those things as the class president?
I felt depressed…
Anyway, after that was done with…
Club-related problems wouldn't crop up for some time, and before that, there were only a few things I had to do which were related to it.
Harriet was rather excited and was talking to Adelia about what kind of research she would do when they got permission. Of course, since I was the president, I had to be part of that discussion, but honestly, I had no idea what they were talking about.
In the end, it was a quiet day, even though I was a little busy.
Of course, just because the day was quiet didn't mean it was uneventful. I had to keep up with my tight everyday schedule of training.
And I had made a big decision.
My total achievement points were more than 6000. I'd deliberately saved up my achievement points in case of an emergency because I didn't know what might happen.
Also, my talent-acquiring speed was much too fast. The Royal Class was a place where people who already had talents gathered, and only a few people would manage to awaken new talents.
However, I'd managed to awaken two such rare talents in less than a year. As I grew too quickly, I was afraid that people would get suspicious of me, so I'd decided to not awaken a new talent.
However, there would be no major crisis in the near future as far as I knew, so it was time for me to gradually awaken my third talent rather than continuing to save up and regretting it later.
There was no time like the present.
[Mana Control – 4000 Points]
The time to bloom my third talent had finally come.
Self-suggestion, mana sensitivity, and mana control.
I was thinking of slowly starting my mana control training.
[Achievement Points have been used.]
My new talent, mana control, had been awakened.
There were no major changes within my body. While mana sensitivity had also accelerated the pace of my mana growth, the only way I could make use of it was by using the Flame of Tuesday, which directly used mana, until I managed to use magic body strengthening.
Valier
Age : 17
Race :Archdemon
Current Status
[Strength 8.5(C-)]
[Agility 8.8(C-)]
[Dexterity 9.9(C-)]
[Magical Power 13(C+)]
[Stamina 13.2(C+)]
Talents
Supernatural – Self-Suggestion
Mana Sensitivity
Mana Control
Characteristics
[Sacred Spirit] – Increases resistance towards mind magic
[Hero's Blood] – Growth limit has increased dramatically. Increase in growth rate.
Abilities
[Demon Domination C] (Archdemon's unique ability)
(Cannot be used in current state.)
[Self-Suggestion C]
[Swordsmanship C]
Comprehensive Ability Assessment – Low-ranking Demon
Combat Level Assessment – B-
Compared to my stats at the beginning of the semester, there were some slight improvements in my physical stats, even though not much time had passed yet.
My growth rate seemed to be a lot faster than before. It should have slowed by then, but it instead grew even faster.
The reason for that was probably the effect of "Hero's Blood". Due to the characteristics I shared with Ellen, my growth rate had been dramatically boosted.
At that rate, some of my stats might reach B rank by the end of the semester. If I wanted to reach the B- Rank, I would have to get 14 points in a state. That was quite possible.
I then had two magic-related talents, but my magical power was still quite low.
It was just an investment for my future, after all.
However, that wasn't the end of it.
[Talent – Mana Sensitivity] [Talent – Mana Control]
[Sub-talents have been acquired.]
[When Magical Power reaches A Rank, 'Mana Sensitivity' and 'Mana Control' will evolve into 'Mana Mastery'.]
What did that mean?
Talent evolution…
That concept didn't exist before.
I'd set up comprehensive talents, but for two talents to combine to evolve into one… What the hell was that?
Anyway, it was a good thing. There was a possibility that I would receive something rather than nothing. There were a total of four students in the Royal Class who had comprehensive talents.
Ellen's 'Mana Mastery' and 'Weapon Mastery'
Cliffman's 'Combat'
Harriet's 'Magic'
Louis Ancton's 'Studying'
Furthermore, Dettomolian's 'Sorcery' could be added to this. Anyway, comprehensive talents had overwhelming advantages. When I bought my first talent it cost me 1000 points, after that, when I got my first magic talent, it only cost me 2000 points.
But what about now?
[Swordsmanship – 8000 Points]
Far beyond the 1000, 2000 and 4000 Points I needed before, I needed 8000 achievement points to awaken my fourth talent. I didn't even know what I had to do to earn that many points.
So what about comprehensive talents?
[Magic – 50000 points]
[Combat – 50000 points]
[Weapon Mastery – 30000 points]
[Studying – 30000 points]
It wasn't just twice as expensive, all of them had gotten a lot more expensive than what they used to cost. I couldn't even dream of spending or earning that many achievement points to buy a comprehensive talent.
And suddenly I had the possibility of receiving one.
Mana Mastery, one of Ellen's talents, was a combination of Mana Control and Mana Sensitivity.
[Mana Mastery – 50000 points]
Among the comprehensive talents, it was the priciest second only to Magic and Combat.
They were necessary talents for wizards as well as close combat fighters who were dreaming of reaching the Master Class.
And then the talent above these two, Mana Mastery. While it wasn't at the level of Magic Body Strengthening, one would definitely be able to reach the Master Class using it, while not as easily.
However, its acquisition conditions were rather strict.
'A' rank in Magical Power…
In other words, the concept behind it seemed to be that my talents would be forced to evolve as my understanding and control over magic itself would become a lot stronger after I reached Rank A in my Magical Power stat.
Bertus also had Mana Sensitivity and Mana Control, however, his rank in Magical Power wasn't A, so if he were to reach Rank A in that stat, would he also acquire Mana Mastery?
Actually, Ellen's Magical Power Rank had been A ever since I'd first seen her. Ellen's magical power was on the level of a monster, too.
So that meant that Mana Mastery wasn't an innate talent, but one that could be acquired if certain conditions were satisfied.
My Magical Power was 13 at Rank C+ at the moment.
Rank specifications were as follows.
14~15(B-) 16~17(B) 18~19(B+) 20~22() 23~25(A) 26~30()
My magical power had to go up by 10 points to reach Rank A.
My initial magical power stat was 9.9.
So far, it had risen by 3.1 points, and according to that Yoga Master, that was pretty fast.
It had risen by 3 in half a year, but if it kept growing at that rate, I would take me more than a year to go up by 10 more. Of course, it would be a different story if I completely focused on my magical power growth rather than anything else.
In any case, a new goal had appeared like a bolt from the blue and it was also different from anything I had expected as well.
A new talent…
And talent evolution…
Mana Mastery was the talent I needed most at that moment.