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Chapter 8: A History Leason And Combat
I am sad to announce this...*wipes nonexistent tears* but one of your fellow readers has lost their shin privileges. Don't be like him, be better.
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[Korea, Cube, 08:37, 2025, January, 16]
For the first part of the Day, they would have "Post-Outcall History" where they would learn more about both the Outcall, Dungeons, and Towers. And for the latter part, it would be "Anti-Monster Combat Training", as the name suggested they would be fighting Monsters, even if the ones they would fight are significantly weaker due to being Mana Puppets.
C2 opened his textbook "A History Of The Post-Outcall By Dongha Ryu" and started reading as it would be faster than listening to their Instructor.
[Outcall - a Magic Power explosion of planetary scale occurred that shook the world. Animals started to mutate becoming Monsters, and Dungeons started to spawn and spew out even more Monsters, kinds that should have never come into existence. Then came 'Towers' a beacon of hope and despair for Humanity as with them came what we know as 'Gifts' today, allowing Humans to fight back against the Dungeons and Monsters.]
[However, with the advent of Towers, disasters also came, in the form of 'Djinns'. These Djinns are Humans who sold their Soul to 'Devils' for power. Djinns then started slaughtering humans for their Contract Devil, they have no rhyme or reason for their madness. But with this, the profession 'Hero' began to take its rise. Defeating not only Monsters and Djinns the Heroes also began conquering the Dungeons and Towers.]
[In 1983, 13 years after the Outcall, the first expedition to conquer a Tower happened, and it… failed. From this failure, we found out that there are consequences when we fail at conquering a tower. The Tower Of Ice was the one to teach us this as it not only sent out a burst of Magic Power that made Dungeons spawn more frequently in the area but also sent a 500-kilometer radius around it into a permanent winter. So now, even to this day the area where Norway, Finland, and Sweden border each other is a permanent winter. Even now The Tower Of Ice stands firm in its place as a reminder of our failure.]
[The currently known Towers and their locations are, The Tower Of Miracles in Korea, The Tower Of Earth in India, The Tower Of Fire in Brazil, The Tower Of Water in the Atlantic, The Tower Of Wind in China, The Tower Of Ice in Norway, The Tower Of Reflections in Canada, The Tower Of Wisdom in Australia, and The Tower Of Silence in Hawaii.]
[Now we move unto Dungeons. A Dungeon is believed to be caused by an excess amount of Magic Power saturating an area for a long time. Nowadays only a few Dungeons spawn due to the Magic Power Density being much lower compared to when the Outbreak just happened. Back then the MPD is believed to have been around 17.37 per square meter, but now it's only 5.68 per square meter. Some areas like Baekdu Mountain have a much higher density compared to city areas, but this still doesn't come close to the peak when the Outcall just happened.]
[When a Dungeon is cleared a reward is given only to 'Enlighten' people. These enlightened people are the ones who have access to the 'Status Board' and can more effectively grow as they can see their Gifts with it. Dungeons have nine total ranks, Ranging from Low-Low Rank to High-High Rank.] 'Hmmm… that was informative.' C2 thought humming slightly. The bell then rang indicating the end of the class.
"Make sure to go back and read the notes you took today. Otherwise, you'll cry on the exam." The grey-haired instructor announced while leaving the classroom.
"We're meeting at the Novice Field in 20 minutes!" C2 heard Yi Yeonghan shout. Kim Sookhyuk had decided on him as the class president due to the conflict between Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak.
Rising from his seat C2 decides to go to the field beforehand. Walking down to the door he exited the classroom and made his way through the halls. Now finding himself in an open field with nothing but dirt on it.
Tapping his foot on the ground a Magic Circle appeared and from it came a transmuted chair made of dirt. Sitting down and crossing his arms he starts mentally simulating the construction of the Quantum Mind Engine as he still hasn't found the proper amount of MPU he should use to not overload the machine. And that's just the first problem, he also hasn't figured out how to properly connect it to his brain without frying it in the process. Of course, he could just use it as a normal computer but this was meant to increase his processing power by a ton.
C2 had only recently been able to open a Fifth Room with「Memory Partition」giving him 3125 Thought Processes to work with, though there is one slight problem with「Memory Partition」which is that the Thought Processes can only work towards one goal, so it is not that useful in multitasking unless he wants to massively cut down the processing power, so if for example if he wanted to do two Processes at once with 3125 it would cut it down to 625 per process instead.
Opening his eyes C2 sees that all the cadets have gathered around, and in front of a big hologram their Instructor Kim Sookhyuk was standing.
"Now I'm sure all of you know what this lesson is so I'll skip the explanation and go straight to the teams," Sookhyuk said and cleared his throat. "Now due to some special circumstance, we have 101 Cadets in this class so we've elected to have Special Admission Cadet C.C. be by himself. For the rest, you will all be put in a team of four, two warriors, one sharpshooter, and one supporter. These teams will remain as they are until the midterms unless special circumstances say otherwise."
[Team 1]
[C.C.]
[Team 2]
[Kim Suho / Kim Lang]
[Sung Seung-Un / Paine]
[Team 3]
[Demian / Rosen]
[Chun Lee / Chae Nayun]
[Team 6]
[Jin Hoseung / Hazuki]
[Kim Hajin / Yoo Yeonha]
Reading a few of the teams C2 yawned and waited.
"There's no time for chitchat. You should have gotten the coordinates and information of the monster you'll need to kill on your smartwatch. Get going!" Sookhyuk shouted at the Cadets.
[Lesser Water Wyvern. XX° XX' XX" N]
C2 stood up from his seat and three Magic Circles appeared beneath him with a 0.02 delay between each of them appearing making it look instantaneous. One circle was white, the second light green, and the third purple. The white one was the 'Acceleration' spell, the light green one was 'Slyph's Blessing' a spell that decreases wind resistance, and the final purple one was 'Reduce Gravity' which did as it said, reduce gravity. The cadets around him were surprised by how fast he activated these spells, especially Yeonha who looked like her eyes were about to jump out of their sockets.
Smirking C2 started sprinting reaching over 100km/h in less than 3 seconds with all these spells active. After having sprinted for just under 2 minutes C2 arrived at a spot very close to where Yeonha's team would have to go for her they're Monster. Golden reed decorated the landscape giving it a golden glow. Looking down at his watch he read the information on the Lesser Water Wyvern.
「Lesser Water Wyvern」
[Mid-Intermediate][Grade 7]
—Special Features
*The Wyvern has tough scales that are hard to penetrate, surrounding it is a thine film of water that negates most attacks on it. The tail and wings have spikes on them that can deliver a strong venom.
—Strategy
*Target and destroy the wings first then go for the eyes to get to the brain easier.
—Weakness
*Ice and Lightning Magic.
*Blunt attacks.
*The eyes and ears are not covered in the film, thus easier to destroy.
—Strengths
*Very resistant towards most forms of Magic.
*Very resistant to most forms of physical damage.
*Water Film covering most of the body.
"Alright let's go with this…" He said forming a spear with his wire infused with Lightning Attribute Magic Power. Spotting the Wyvern a little further ahead he winds up the spear a throws it directly into its eye. Upon entering the Wyvern's eye it let out a deafening roar and changed in C2's direction, at this C2 commanded the wire spear he just threw to disassemble itself a warp around the brain and heart of the Wyvern.
Clenching his fist the wire inside the Wyvern contracted around the Heart and Brain of it and sliced them to fine bits. The Wyvern falls to the ground dead, blueish blood flowing out the mouth.
[Time Elapsed: 24 Seconds.]
Recasting the spells that ran out C2 quickly sprints back to the field. The scenery blurring as he ran he made it back in 1 minute and 28 seconds.
[Total Time Elapsed: 3 Minutes and 29 Seconds. 1/101]
"Congratulations Cadet C.C.!" Sookhyuk shouted. "You've both killed your assigned monster and made it back before other teams have even made it to their monster. This is a huge achievement and you should be proud." He said while patting C2 on the back.
Giving Sookhyuk a small nod C2 made another chair since the last one collapsed because he wasn't close enough and sat down in it. Waiting for a while slowly the teams made their way back to the field one by one. The first team(after C2) that came back was Kim Suho's, then Shin Jonghak's team, then Rachel's team, and then Chae Nayun's team. Coming over to C2 was Kim Suho.
"Hey, C.C. how'd you do?" Kim Suho asked in a friendly manner. However, before C2 could respond a snaky remark came from Shin Jonghak. "Don't bother Kim Suho the guy properly failed in hunting his monster." Suho was about to jump to C2's defence but C2 was quicker.
"How about you look at the scoreboard dumbass," C2 said pointing at the hologram behind Sookhyuk all while looking Shin Jonghak directly in the eyes. Before Jonghak could even respond C2 looked at Suho.
"Right, Suho you can just call me C2 instead of C.C., it's way easier to pronounce after all." He said with a smile.
"I'll be doing that then C2," Suho responded with a small smile. They then spent some time chatting with each other while ignoring Jonghak. After just under an hour had passed since the start of the class Yoo Yeonha's team returned scoring 17th out of 101.
"Do you know anything about magic Suho?" C2 threw out of left field at Suho since he saw Yeonha doing her bad habit of eavesdropping.
"Ummm, no I wouldn't say I do…" Suho answered honestly.
"How about I teach you a nifty spell while we wait for the rest of the Teams to arrive then?" C2 asked Suho closely watching Yeonha's reaction, and much to his delight he got a little twitch out of her.
"Would you?" Suho sheepishly asks.
"Yeah, that's why I'm asking dude. Now give me your hand I need to test your affinities." C2 says while holding out his right hand. At this, Suho nods and places his hand in C2s. "Hmmm… You have a strong affinity for Metal, Light, and Sword affinities." C2 said raising an eyebrow, but Suho was just confused.
"Sword can be an affinity?" He asked C2.
"Yep. Practically anything can be an affinity. But now that I know you have Sword Affinity I'm going to teach you another spell that's better suited for you." C2 said snapping his fingers as a Magic Circle appeared on the table(he created it while they were talking). Out of the circle appeared a piece of paper and a pen.
"You see Suho I was going to teach you the normal version of Projection Magic but now that I know you have the same Affinity as 'The Red-Haired Hero Of Justice' I'm going to teach you the Trace Version," C2 said drawing an egg on the paper. "This egg here represents Projection Magic in Magecraft as it's one of the basics of it. Projection Magic works by shaping Magic Power into the desired shape, thus it relies heavily on the imagination of the user to work. However, the item is not everlasting and will be erased by the world as it's considered a phantasm that doesn't belong in the natural world, so the better the image you have of the item the longer it will stay." Looking around he saw that not only Yeonha was eavesdropping but also Kim Hajin, Kim Sookhyuk, Rachel, and some Cadets.
"While Projection Magic otherwise called Gradation Air is a more complex version of Reinforcement, it is ultimately inferior and less cost-effective in comparison. If a Magus were to recreate a sword while using 10 Magic Power Units in the process, they would only get a sword with an overall strength of 3-4. Meanwhile, if they used the same amount on Reinforcement with an already existing sword, it would be an overall strength of 20-30." C2 explained to Suho, giving him a sword he made with Gradation Air as an example. "Do you understand so far?" He asked Suho.
"I think I do yes," Suho answered him simply.
"Good because now we get to the hard part. You see the version I want to teach you is called Tracing and is even harder because you also have to understand the History of an object to project it. This includes stuff like, how it was made, how it was used, and other such things that make that object what it is. Let's take Excalibur as an example as I've personally seen it before." Saying the last part he projected a sword with a blue handle, a gold guard, and a silverish-gold blade. "This is Excalibur the sword wielded by King Arthur himself(herself)," C2 said handing the sword to Suho, shocking him in the process as Suho extremely carefully took the sword.
"With enough understanding and Magic Power, you can project any object in existence just not living things," C2 explained. "Now would you allow me to transfer the information on how to use this Trace Version of Projection Magic into your mind for faster learning than it would take to manually teach you this?" He asked seriously looking Suho in the eyes.
"Yes. I trust you with this." Suho said giving a firm nod. Reaching out his hand and placing it on Suho's head he transferred the relevant knowledge head.
"Now, I'll be going since class is over. See you tomorrow Suho" C2 said with a smile and walked away.
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2449 words in this chapter… I don't know what happened. One moment I was writing and the next I had written around 1k more words than I planned to… I swear if I hear any of you complain about the chapter being too short I'll send the Cat In A Hat with a Bat after you to take away your breathing privileges.
I don't know what to say… but I think I did a good job with this chapter. CIAO!
Also quick note: The next chapter is kinda filler but is necessary from my perspective, so don't go complaining.
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