Chapter 39

< Chapter 39: Falling into the Trap (2) >

I acquired the trait ‘Flame of the Spirit’ by wielding the ‘Whisper of the Fire Spirit’ this time.

It was a trait that represented the fire spirit, and it didn’t take long to figure that out.

The flames that the fire spirit handles are different from the ordinary flames made of magic.

There are many differences, but if I had to pick one big difference, it would be

The range of what they can burn is different.

The concept itself is different.

The flame of the spirit can burn everything.

[3, 2, 1]

Whooosh-

As the count went along, a translucent flame flickered around me.

The color represents the pure flame of the spirit race.

[Virtual combat begins.]

“Krrr…”

As soon as the count was over, the sun lion started to move.

It seemed to smile as it saw the flame flickering around me.

Of course, it would.

The sun lion is a special monster that feeds on fire.

My flame of the spirit must look like a strange food, to it.

“Don’t laugh. Shush. I’m serious.”

In terms of cuteness or dignity, you can’t even catch up to Godie’s toes.

I’m loyal to Goldie.

I lowered my posture.

At the same time, I felt a slight pain in my right shoulder and the wind path opened up.

The sun lion’s strength is its durability and stamina.

And its near-perfect resistance to fire.

It’s a great advantage, but on the other hand, it means that it has no other advantages.

It’s slow and not very powerful, unlike its name as a lion.

Whooosh-

I checked the path that the red wind pointed out.

Was it because of the training I’ve done so far? The wind path offered a variety of routes.

I chose the shortest route to approach it.

At that moment, the wind path read my mind and erased all other routes from the choices.

The only wind path I could see was one.

“Hoo…”

With a short breath, I flew my body.

As I approached, I bent my upper body down.

Whooong-

I felt his front paw brush past my head and

Moved exactly half a step further forward.

“Krrr!”

Again, six red lines came into my sight.

I moved my body six times along that path.

Whooosh-!

Was it really a wind path?

It was accurate detection and an accurate evasion route.

“Kuk!”

But maybe because I only focused on approaching as fast as possible,

I succeeded in approaching,

But my body balance was messed up.

It was natural since I did quite an acrobatic movement.

“Kwaaang!”

A fierce roar of a beast rang out from close by.

Now there was only one wind path in my sight.

A short route where I could stab my short sword in.

It was impossible to avoid this distance and posture.

I couldn’t use The Predator’s Killing Intent either.

The opponent was a virtual monster made of magic.

A mana doll that moves by the system’s settings wouldn’t flinch at my momentum.

So, the only choice left for me was to attack.

I stabbed my short sword right away.

Peeing!

There was a sound of collision that couldn’t be called leather hitting leather.

It sounded like metal hitting metal.

Of course, it would be.

There was no way with my weak strength, I could pierce through the skin of the sun lion ,

Which had durability as its strength, and near-perfect resistance to fire at that.

Not to mention that my body balance was broken,

It was all over.

But,

If the attack hit, that was enough.

Whooooosh-!

The translucent flame that flickered on my short sword

Thump, thump,

Pulsed like a heart. And then

Peiing-!

With a very short flash

“Krr…r, r.”

The sun lion’s body began to scatter as it turned into magic.

“Hoo…”

Looking at the sun lion that was disappearing while emitting magic light,

I took a small breath. I succeeded.

[Sun lion disappearance confirmed!]

[Training over.]

[Battle time 12 seconds 03.]

With that, the door of the facility opened. I walked out with a limp.

As I stepped outside,

I saw cadets looking at me with their mouths open.

“What just happened?”

“He shattered the sun lion with one stab from that posture?”

“Crazy.”

They all looked very confused.

Of course, they would be.

I sent off the sun lion in one shot.

With fire at that.

“Instructor. Aren’t you going to let the next person in?”

“Ah, ahem.”

Pi Jin-ho, who also had a blank expression on his face, seemed to come to his senses and coughed.

“Next. Cadet Go Hak-cheon. Go ahead.”

“Me? Ah, yes, yes, yes!”

I moved to Jia’s seat next to me, receiving everyone’s gaze as if nothing had happened.

“What did you do?”

Jia asked me with her eyes wide open as if she was surprised.

“I just burned it.”

“Burned, you say? The sun lion?”

“Yeah.”

“How high is your firepower to do such an absurd thing?”

“I don’t know.”

It’s true that the sun lion has an absolute resistance to fire.

But what I faced was not a real sun lion, but a fake one made of magic.

In other words, a mana construct.

So, what I did was simple.

I burned some of the ‘mana’ that made up the sun lion.

As a result, the sun lion couldn’t maintain its shape,

And shattered.

This is what I meant by the range of what they can burn is different.

The flame of the spirit that burns everything in the world can burn not only objects but also mana.

Of course, this was taking advantage of the loophole in the training facility.

Strictly speaking, I didn’t defeat the sun lion.

If I get caught, the special points will be nullified.

But I won’t get caught.

I’m the only one who did such a crazy thing as breaking down the structure of a mana doll.

No one else would notice.

He didn’t seem to notice it either, so I don’t have to worry about getting caught.

That’s why people should use their brains well.

By the way, this flame of the spirit thing.

I expected it, but it’s really hard.

I only used it properly for 1 second, and the strength of my whole body is drained.

The cost-effectiveness is too bad.

Of course, compared to the performance, the mana consumption is low.

It’s just that my mana is so low that it looks like the worst cost-effectiveness.

Anyway, it seems hard to use unless it’s a really important moment.

But it’s good enough as a trump card. That’s enough for now.

* * *

That night.

The SNS inside the superhuman cadet school was on fire with talk about Kang Seo-yul.

[Kang Seo-yul sent the sun lion in 12 seconds, is that true?]

[True. I saw it and was amazed.]

[Wow, shit. Who would have thought that the sun lion would shatter with one stab from that posture, with one foot hanging in the air and the upper body completely tilted.]

He had been a topic of conversation from time to time as the rebellion of the last place, but never as hot as today.

[You know, on the entrance ceremony day. Kang Seo-yul’s ability manipulation incident. Isn’t that true?]

[Ah. He wrote a growth scenario? To get attention?]

[I think he has a king potential.]

Due to his excessively fast growth, conspiracy theories began to emerge.

[Ability manipulation is not possible, right? You can see his movements clearly. Kang Seo-yul is really slow.]

[Ah, I agree. My 7-year-old younger sister would be faster.]

[Kang Seo-yul is just that. He has fast reaction speed? He has fast sense? He has an amazing ability to dodge precisely at the right place and time.]

Of course, conspiracy theories were just conspiracy theories.

Most of the cadets had confirmed Kang Seo-yul’s weak physical abilities with their own eyes.

There was no doubt about Kang Seo-yul’s abilities.

[In my opinion, there’s something in that transparent flame.]

[Wow, this guy is saying something obvious.]

[Who doesn’t know that? So what is that transparent flame?]

The SNS was not only for cadets.

There were a few outsiders who had accounts in the school.

One of them was Yu Hwa, the guild master of the Bihon Guild.

“Hmm. You did something again today.”

She wondered what the transparent flame was.

She had heard of black flames or blue flames, but never of translucent flames.

“What are you trying to get attention for?”

Yu Hwa’s curiosity grew more and more.

She felt like she was thinking about Kang Seo-yul every break time these days.

“Is this why girls are attracted to mysterious men?”

He turned off the SNS and turned on the simulator.

Special flames usually have high firepower. ‘Dark Flame’, ranked 31st in the world ranking, is the representative of that.

Then Kang Seo-yul’s transparent flame must also have a special firepower.

“Hmm. If I set the firepower value to match shattering the sun lion in one hit…”

Yu Hwa entered the values with his graceful hand movements.

[Simulator starts.]

The result came out soon.

“Error?”

It couldn’t give an answer.

Yu Hwa was stunned.

“Wow. This is the first time I’ve seen a simulator says there’s no answer.”

He’s really like an onion.

The more you peel, the more new things come out.

She really wanted to tease him for some reason.

“It’s really a secret.”

“Uh? Will you tell me?”

His eyes widened.

“Why wouldn’t I tell you then?”

“Please tell me! I’ll take it to my grave!”

He reacted strongly.

His reaction was alive.

He felt like teasing him for no reason.

“But you can’t tell anyone else.”

“Okay!”

But for now, she decided to restrain himself. She could tease him later when she had more time.

“I didn’t burn the sun lion. I burned the frame of the mana doll that made up the sun lion. The frame of mana.”

“Burn mana?”

His eyes widened even more.

“Is that possible?”

“It’s possible because I did it.”

“Wow. Amazing. Then magic is useless against you?”

“Hmm.”

That’s not wrong.

If I had enough mana, I could burn all magic.

Yeah.

If I had enough mana, that is.

…Ah. I want to see the status window that I’ve never seen before.

“Ah. Right now it’s hard because of the seal. Your mana is lower than my nephew’s.”

“…”

That damn nephew.

Let me see your face someday.

I’m starting to feel resentment that I didn’t have before.

“But Seo-yul, how do you burn mana?”

“Huh? Um…”

I roughly organized my thoughts.

“First of all, you have to be aware that there is mana in the elements that make up the world.”

“Okay.”

I blabbered whatever came to my mind as usual.

It was a feeling-like feeling as usual.

Normally, Ha Si-yeon would say “Ah! I see!” and gain a new insight by herself.

“Too hard.”

But this time, even Ha Si-yeon, who was a genius, couldn’t understand it.

That makes sense.

It’s not easy to use the secret of the spirit.

“If it was easy, everyone would use it.”

“That’s true.”

Ha Si-yeon closed her eyes and immersed herself in thought. She must be chewing on my words.

…Is she going to freeze mana later?

Nah, no way.

Woong-

Suddenly, the smartphone in Ha Si-yeon’s pocket vibrated.

She looked at the phone and her eyes twitched slightly.

“Uh. I have to go. I forgot I didn’t do my homework…”

It was already 10 o’clock.

“Ah. Okay. Go ahead. You worked hard today.”

“Yup! Seo-yul, you worked hard too! See you tomorrow!”

Ha Si-yeon smiled brightly and walked away quickly.

I was left alone in the park and looked up at the sky.

The clear night sky was clearly visible, unlike the original world.

I was wondering what would happen when I first fell into this world,

But I feel like things are getting better.

At this rate, participating in the regional war, which is my immediate goal, shouldn’t be too hard.

Ah. Speaking of the regional war, I remembered.

The Saviors of Truth’s terror attack that will happen in the regional war.

Saviors of Truth prepared a lot for this attack.

One of the key items they prepared was an ancient relic stored in the core of this cadet school, ‘The Root of the World’.

This is why the doppelganger tried to infiltrate the cadet school.

He moved Hermit because his plan failed.

It was such an important plan.

What if Hermit fails to get ‘The Root of the World’ in this situation?

Most likely, other officers will move as well.

There is a low chance, but Unknown might move himself.

That must be avoided.

Then the best thing to do is to hand over ‘The Root of the World’ to Hermit.

It’s going to end up in their hands anyway, so it’s better to give it to Hermit obediently.

I have a way to disable ‘The Root of the World’ anyway. It doesn’t matter if I give it or not.

And while handing it over to Hermit, I can subtly grab the ancient relic, ‘The Root of the World’ and get one more racial trait of the elf race.

It was a perfect plan that couldn’t be better.

The problem is that I told Hermit to come back in a month.

How can I contact him?

“Hermit.”

That’s when I muttered.

“You knew it all along.”

Wow. That startled me!

I heard a man’s voice behind me.

I slowly turned my head.

“Hello, sir.”

Hermit bowed politely to me.

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