Chapter 309 308. Hellish Mode.

Two days later.

The first two days of the week were spent exercising under the gravitational field; the next two days were the same, except that time they were asked to wear a pair of mana-suppressing wristbands and a pair of anklets.

Today was the start of sparring sessions, with their mana suppressors on. The combat training professors, Grace, Neal, and Reynolds, said that the next two days would be devoted to the sparring sessions, with the remaining day being a rest day before the academic event officially starting.

"You can train, go into the gravity room or illusion room, exercise, or spar with the opponents of your choice; we'll be watching over all the programmes you want to take part in, so you can go all out without worrying about the dangers you might face or the mental and physical overload you'll feel at the end of your training, because we have healers on standby!" Grace announced in her alluring voice, clapping her hands. She wore a set of training outfits that accentuated her perfectly endowed, lustrous figure.

"Hm? What's it, Eeshwar?" Grace asked, looking at my raised hand and finding it slightly hard to pronounce my name.

"Esh-war. It's Eshwar. I'll go to the illusion room." I said it without a change in my expression and glanced at Isha, who stood next to me.

"Join me, so that we can improve our switch." I said and walked out of the crowd, wearing a skin-tight, black-coloured training outfit. I had given my baggy hoodie to Isha because she too was wearing the same set of clothes. I definitely didn't want anybody looking at her with their eyes ogling. There was one thing I had yet found hard to believe, and that was the fact that how did my baggy hoodie that's thigh length when I wear it become almost knee length when Isha wears it? Even though she is taller than me?

"What? Don't look at me like that." Isha mumbled in a buzz-like tone, with slightly flushed cheeks and ears; only then did I realise that I was the one who was looking at her with my eyes ogling.

"Don't get all flirty here; you can do anything in the room assigned to you guys." Grace said with a meaningful smile, that didn't really hide what she meant by that. With a simple glance at her, I looked away without replying to her sarcasm.

"Booo, can't you smile a little at me too?" Grace complained and walked back towards the cadets with a pout after handing something to Isha, whose face had now turned scarlet.

"Let's go." With a bright smile, I offered my hand with a slight bow.

"W-what?" Noticing how Isha yelped at the slightest call, I figured Grace had handed her something weird.

"Oh! O-ok!" But before I could open my mouth to ask, she grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the illusion room.

*

In a 200-foot-wide room, we stood completely silent in front of the closed door, without a single peep coming out of our mouths. Nothing sounded except for our subtly loud yet rhythmical breathing.

"..... What did she hand you?" Unable to bear the curiosity, I asked Isha, noticing the violent blush on her face. I couldn't help but get more curious.

"A-a, a cond*m." Isha said, and with that, my mind blanked.

'A what?' I thought, thinking I heard it wrong, I glanced at Isha.

"Huh?"

"A cond*m!" Isha yelled with a bright blush on her face.

".... Why?" I barely managed to get those words out of my dried-up throat.

"I don't know? She said there weren't any cameras here, and I already checked..." She mumbled, her blush turning more and more bright.

'She already checked?'

"C-calm down. You'll pass out from a nosebleed if you blush so much. Calm down and..." I spoke and tried to calm her down with my hands on her shoulders.

"There weren't any?" I asked, unable to understand where our training session was going.

"N-no, no, I, I mean, y-yes, n-no? N-no, there were." She said it with confusion clearly visible on her face, not knowing how to answer.

"There were cameras?" I asked, noticing Isha nod her head in agreement.

"Should we kill Grace?" I asked.

"NO! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT TO KILL ME? I JUST WANTED TO TEASE HER!" Grace's loud voice resounded throughout the room from a speaker.

"Maybe I wanted to watch you both do it, BUT STILL! YOU CAN'T JUST KILL ME!!" Grace yelled again, and hearing those words, I was now seriously considering whether to kill her or not, with the possibility of my answer being yes being extremely high.

"Haaaa.... Let's just train, and please check for cameras in our room once we return; I can't trust that pervert." I said it in a loud enough voice.

"I'M NOT A PERVERT!!" Grace yelled, but ignoring her, I walked towards the line that was a few steps ahead of the door.

DING

[Two PSs detected.]

(AN: PS= pocket system)

[Initializing illusion room....]

[Rookie, Advanced, Expert]

"Is there an option where the level of monsters continues to increase the more I kill them?" I asked Grace.

"There is, call out "Hellish."" Grace informed.

"Be careful, the levels continue to increase until you yell to stop or give up." Grace warned, and with a nod, "Hellish." I called out.

[Initializing...]

[WARING! HELLISH, ACTIVE GROWTH MODE ACTIVATING...]

[Hope you throw away your pride and ego.]

'Heh, just those words added here are enough to wound one's pride, enticing their arrogance.... maybe it was added for that purpose?' I thought.

[Level 1, Goblin created]

SLASH!

I saw its head slide off of its body as soon as it spawned. I glanced back at Isha, who was walking towards me with a bright smile and a sly cat's smirk on her face.

"Let's see who'll kill more; the winner is going to have their way with the other, for today." She said, and though subtle, I could hear Grace coughing.

"Though an unfair challenge, I'll accept it since both of us have nothing to lose." I said, looking down at my pocket system.

WRIIING---

With hundreds of small triangles forming a small sphere, I saw a translucent blue sphere pop up on my wrist band, placing my hand into it as it expanded wide enough to fit my arm.

CLICK-CLICK

With a satisfying wave of clicking sounds, the translucent broad sword in my hand materialised into a real, physical sword.

"I already killed two." Isha's voice sounded next to me. Glancing at her from the corner of my eyes, I smirked.

"Well, I'm just waiting for the monsters to get stronger; you can kill them now since you won't be getting another chance to kill them later."

"Hahahaha, we'll see."