I got into school for nothing - 36
I got into school for nothing (36)
Lesson 9. Learning Martial Arts - 1
When the party entered the Tower, they found themselves in Room 0.
However, the moment they took a few more steps, filled with tension, the surrounding environment suddenly warped. The numbers on their pendants rapidly climbed, one by one, until they settled on 5.
"Room 5."
As Light whispered, his voice low. He wasn't carrying his dazzling sword today, which meant he was finally dressed suitably for a stealth operation.
"I was involved in such a strange incident, I thought we might have to start from Room 1 again. Thankfully, that's not the case."
"But this is..."
Ban Yuwon narrowed his eyes, perceiving a corridor wide enough for only two people to walk abreast, a fork in the path visible further ahead, and, most importantly, not the slightest trace of a monster. Last week, it had simply been a matter of comfortably hunting monsters, but this time, it seemed to be an exploration-type room.
"A maze."
"I think I saw something like this in the handbook."
"This way."
Upon reaching the fork, Rucell unhesitatingly pointed left.
Ban Yuwon looked at her, wondering if she had a basis for her decision, and Rucell nodded confidently.
But as they followed her lead, they quickly encountered a dead end.
Feeling the party's gaze on her, Rucell offered a clear explanation.
"I smelled a monster."
"You were looking for monsters, not a path?"
—Squeak, squee-squeak
At least, at that moment, Ban Yuwon couldn't detect any monster traces either, so Rucell's search ability was, in a way, truly remarkable... No sooner had he thought this than something black and sticky began to drip from the shadows of the wall.
At first glance, it resembled the Cloth Eater they had encountered in Room 1, but its body was stickier, gleamed with an unpleasant sheen, and, most notably, constantly spewed out disgusting noises.
"Glitch."
Ban Yuwon instinctively uttered the monster's name.
"Why is such a creature here already..."
"It's nothing new."
Like every room they had experienced so far, this monster was not one that should appear in merely Room 5.
The sounds it emitted distorted all human senses, and its erratic flashing lights caused mental aberrations.
—Click, click-click
Sometimes, when playing a console game with a cartridge, the screen would glitch, causing both graphics and sound to go haywire, wouldn't it?
A phenomenon where everything that should be normal is inverted, delivering a bizarre sense of horror.
The monster was precisely such a creature, as if that phenomenon had been brought to life.
"Kyaang!"
—Squee-squeak
And the best way to avoid being affected by it was to crush it before it could do anything.
Just as Rucell had just demonstrated.
[You have plundered Life 0.1, Fiend 0.2, Flash 0.1, Noise 0.1, Malfunction 0.05, Reversal 0.01. Flash, Noise, Malfunction, and Reversal are concepts that humans cannot possess.]
Perhaps because it was a completely different type from the monsters he had faced so far, he acquired many new concepts.
However, what Ban Yuwon focused on were the concepts of Malfunction and Reversal.
Malfunction could be somewhat associated with the idea of a person's body malfunctioning, but what about the concept of Reversal, meaning things being turned upside down?
It wasn't a concept everyone would immediately think of when seeing a Glitch.
This meant that these were additional concepts that appeared because Ban Yuwon was aware of the phenomenon called "Glitch" in modern Earth.
'Like those concepts usually do, these are just tiny scraps... but if I keep gathering them here, will I be able to fill up to 1?'
Based on Ban Yuwon's experience, a concept only truly forms when at least 1 unit of its depth has been accumulated.
100 Glitches... this would mean there's a need to deliberately wander through Room 5.
"What are we going to do? Since it's a maze, we can't just blindly rush forward."
"Well, for now, we'll just have to try to move while remembering all the paths..."
"Ban, don't you have a clever idea?"
The expected question came, as predicted.
Ban Yuwon replied with an ambiguous smile.
"I'll try to figure something out now. Let's keep moving for a start."
"Alright."
Ban Yuwon deliberately ignored the countless concepts of Walls and Paths visible to his eyes.
After all, the goal of this expedition wasn't to clear the Tower quickly, but to adapt to it!
Three hours passed like that.
"This is strange,"
Dokgo Yeon said, after single-handedly smashing the Glitch at the end of a dead end.
"I was remembering every path until we reached this point, but..."
"The shape of the path is different, but it feels like we've been here before,"
Dokgo Yeon nodded, as if she had been waiting for As Light's addition.
"Exactly. It's not a simple maze; the paths are changing in real-time."
"According to the handbook, that's definitely something that should only happen in Room 100 or higher..."
"That damn handbook! Just forget about it!"
Since the party entered the Tower, the only thing that matched that accursed handbook was the names of the monsters that appeared!
"Step aside. If I smash everything, something will surely appear."
The stress that had accumulated, subtly or not, over the past three hours, pushed Dokgo Yeon to the forefront.
Her sleeves began to flutter ominously, indicating she was truly preparing to unleash a proper attack.
But there was no need for that.
"Dokgo Yeon, wait."
Ban Yuwon, who had gathered concepts from the shattered Glitch, finally confirmed that the concept of Reversal had reached 1. He nodded and stepped forward.
"Actually, I just figured something out."
"Just now?"
"Yeah. So..."
Ban Yuwon walked past Dokgo Yeon and pressed a certain point on the wall.
His hand seemed to sink right into the wall, and then, starting from that point, the wall crumbled, revealing a new path before their eyes.
[You have plundered Illusion 0.5. A concept that humans cannot possess.]
Instead of a wall where it should have been, the concept of Illusion was embedded there.
When Ban Yuwon retrieved it, the actual wall crumbled, revealing the path.
In other words, it was impossible to find the way without precisely identifying the parts that were illusions.
The reason why Dokgo Yeon, sensitive to Ki perception, couldn't find this was probably because both the illusion and the wall were made of the same mana.
From the outset, it was questionable whether anyone other than Ban Yuwon could even distinguish between the two.
"Ta-da."
"...Are you really sure you just figured that out?"
Dokgo Yeon's suspicious gaze fixed on Ban Yuwon as he turned back with a smile.
If he confessed frankly, their exploration for the week might end here, so Ban Yuwon merely shrugged, feigning ignorance.
"I don't like wasting time either, you know? I just discovered a flaw while continuously researching and poked at it."
"Hmm."
"We found the path, so that's what matters. Let's go now. I'm sick of mazes."
"You'll encounter them countless times as you climb the Tower from now on."
"What are you talking about? Now that Ban has figured out the trick, he'll just dismantle them all."
As Light's eyes shone with infinite trust.
Indeed, Ban Yuwon had eliminated most of the traps they had encountered in the previous Room 3, and now he was even breaking through mazes, so it was understandable that he would receive such gazes.
And that was the correct answer.
In fact, Ban Yuwon was slowly beginning to feel that everything in this Tower, apart from the monsters, was a task as easy as pie for him.
'Well, it's only natural, since it's the Tower I'm going to inherit.'
Ban Yuwon, thinking such a brazen thought, took the lead of the party.
Once they escaped the maze's traps and found the proper path, Glitches began to attack them from all directions. However, Glitches, despite their overly superior special abilities, had defenses like paper armor, unable to withstand even a single strike from Ban Yuwon, the weakest among the party.
"Over there."
—CRUNCH
Moreover, they had Rucell, who could sniff out monsters.
All they had to do was attack in the direction she indicated, and the Glitches were dealt with before they could even flash once.
"Beast, are you alright?"
"Yes. Because Ban is here."
As she focused on the Glitches, ready to appear at any moment, and sniffed with her nose, Rucell's hair was faintly turning black.
However, it was also true that the speed of the change was slower than before, and Rucell herself seemed stable, perhaps due to her strong trust in Ban Yuwon.
Dokgo Yeon nodded leisurely and spoke to Ban Yuwon.
"Ban Yuwon, do you remember what I told you earlier?"
"Well, I don't know."
Ban Yuwon replied weakly to Dokgo Yeon's words, clearing away another illusion.
At that moment.
"Gah?!"
"Ban!"
"Oh no, ahead...!"
Suddenly, the surroundings collapsed, and the passage greatly expanded. An absurdly giant Glitch appeared before the party's eyes.
It was utterly astounding how Ban Yuwon's party encountered elite monsters seemingly every other room, monsters that others couldn't even dream of meeting.
Furthermore, the path they had just been on was narrow, and Ban Yuwon was at the forefront, meaning he was the only one who could immediately deal with the creature.
—Click
"Tch...!"
The moment the Giant Glitch began to emit light along with its noise, Ban Yuwon, without thinking deeply, pulled out all the accumulated concepts of Reversal.
Since it was a concept humans couldn't possess, he couldn't directly wield its power.
Therefore, he would release the concept itself, as he had once envisioned!
Just as he would wield the active concept of Wave, he poured all his mana into the string of characters for Reversal, making it explode!
—Squee-squeak-squeak
The effect was dramatic.
The golden string of characters, shot directly at the Giant Glitch, shone with a brilliant light, and at that moment, everything that originated from the Glitch was reversed and engulfed it.
What would happen when an attack that caused massive aberrations in all senses and mind struck the Glitch's main body, which was almost a spiritual entity?
Like a computer screen flickering, cracks rippled across its entire body in waves.
"Hmph!"
Ban Yuwon took a step forward in that gap and swung his sword fiercely.
[Incisive Slash]
A wave imbued with the power of severing instantly split the elite monster's body, already riddled with cracks, in half!
[You have plundered Life 5, Fiend 7, Flash 5, Noise 5, Malfunction 2, Reversal 1, Resistance 0.5.]
Ban Yuwon sheathed his sword and let out a faint sigh.
Frankly, directly releasing and wielding language concepts was a method he had conceived of before, but was reluctant to use.
Because using it this way completely consumed the concepts.
Although he had just fully recovered 1 unit of Reversal from the elite monster he hunted...
'It was certainly effective. But perhaps that was precisely *because* I used it in a consumable way.'
He tested the newly acquired 1 unit of Reversal by imbuing it into his sword, and it applied correctly.
Wielding the sword with this wouldn't produce the same dramatic effect as before, but wouldn't it be better to keep using it rather than consume it meaninglessly?
He swung his sword a few times in the air, then nodded in satisfaction and organized the remaining concepts.
The problem was the Fiend concept, specifically the 3.5 units of Demonic power extracted from it.
[Mana 199.999]
'It's not increasing.'
Despite absorbing more than enough, his Mana wasn't rising above 200.
He had felt uneasy before entering the Tower, and that unease had proven correct.
In the case of Life, there had been no such hurdle, and for the Physical Body... he might have overlooked it because it instantly broke past 200 after absorbing Irekto's body concept.
"What's wrong? Are there more enemies left?"
Dokgo Yeon, who had been speechless at the small miracle Ban Yuwon had just shown, tilted her head and asked when she saw him hesitating.
"No, it's not that. It's just that my mana isn't growing."
"Mana? Growing... Ah, you've hit a wall."
She couldn't be talking about the maze walls, so Ban Yuwon waited for Dokgo Yeon's next words.
"You're accumulating Gi so quickly, almost as if you're forcibly sucking it in from your surroundings. It's like constantly pouring water into a vessel without giving it time to expand, so it's inevitable you'd feel a limit soon..."
"A vessel... Then what should I do?"
"Blindly trying to increase Gi as you're doing now isn't a good method. There are various ways, but... yes, the best way is to release a lot of Gi and allow your body to adapt to it."
"Body, adapting to Gi."
Hearing that, it was true that Ban Yuwon could hardly be said to be actively wielding mana yet.
Although he always kept his body activated since gaining mana, that was merely like boiling water and warming his hands with the resulting heat.
Only when he wielded the concept of Wave, or completely consumed Reversal as he just did, could he be said to have meaningfully expended mana.
'It would be good to get more active concepts. Or should I research how to actively use passive concepts?'
For the past week, he had paid more attention to Rucell than to developing his own abilities, and now it was coming back to bite him.
As he looked troubled, Dokgo Yeon offered with a faint smile.
"I know a good method. Shall I teach you?"
"No thanks?"
"Do you take me for some malicious con artist? It's nothing grand, so there's no need to feel pressured. Though if you truly feel grateful, I won't stop you from repaying me as you see fit."
Ban Yuwon didn't miss how Dokgo Yeon's gaze briefly shifted towards Rucell before returning as she said this.
If Ban Yuwon hadn't possessed the All-Seeing Eye, he wouldn't have noticed at all.
But this meant that she genuinely envied Rucell for receiving clothes as a gift from Ban Yuwon.
In that case.
"If you teach me, I'll gladly learn. And you can look forward to a gift."
"Excellent."
A few articles of clothing for advice on how to handle Gi from Dokgo Yeon, an unfathomable master, was a cheap price to pay.
As Ban Yuwon instantly changed his attitude, Dokgo Yeon also wore a satisfied smile.
"Wait a minute, Ban. We even caught an elite monster, but there's no shift. Don't just chatter with Dokgo Yeon."
"It's actually a good thing. You've all walked for a long time, haven't you? Get some rest. I'll be teaching Ban Yuwon the basics of Hyunsingong."
Learning to make a black body?
Ban Yuwon unconsciously translated it literally and, as he conjured extremely prejudiced and racist images in his mind, Dokgo Yeon glared at him with white eyes, as if she had read his thoughts.
"The 'Hyun' in Hyunsingong is the 'Hyun' as in 'profound' or 'subtle.' Whatever you're thinking, it's not that."
"My apologies, Teacher."
"It's fine as long as you understand. Despite its grand name, it's actually just a basic martial art, so it won't be too difficult."
"But it's still a martial art... Don't I have to do some kind of formal bowing ceremony or something?"
He had received a lot of help from Dokgo Yeon in various ways, but this was his first time truly being taught a martial art, so he asked. Unexpectedly, Dokgo Yeon chuckled.
"It's a basic mental cultivation technique that even children learn, so why be so grand? Furthermore, this isn't even for accumulating Gi. It's simply a basic technique for conditioning the body with one's inherent Gi. Where on earth did you get your knowledge of Murim?"
From martial arts novels.
He was sure he'd get hit if he answered that way, so Ban Yuwon quietly decided to do as she said.
Ban Yuwon didn't know, but Hyunsingong was actually the very first martial art Dokgo Yeon had ever learned.
If he had known this, he would have understood the magnitude of her decision, but unfortunately, in these situations, he was always as oblivious as As Light, whom he often teased, and simply accepted it.
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