I got into school for nothing - Chapter 38
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I got into school for nothing (38)
Lesson 9. Learning Martial Arts - 3
Ban Yuwon continuously circulated his Hyungi even as he washed and changed his clothes.
Each time it circulated through his body, he grew warm, and some of the Hyungi would evaporate. However, the natural recovery rate was about the same, so as long as he maintained his focus, it was possible to circulate it indefinitely.
‘I feel like I could increase the amount of Hyungi circulating, but if I did, I might lack mana when I truly needed it, so I should stop.’
However, circulating Hyungi like this had several additional effects beyond merely expending mana to temper his physique.
The most prominent among these was its significant advantage in strengthening his body far more than simply activating mana.
‘And... my five senses seem much more acute.’
He had previously felt that his senses sharpened when mana was activated, but Hyungi was special.
No... it was almost as if this, rather than permanently tempering or temporarily strengthening his body, was Hyungi's primary ability.
In particular, the amplification effects of his innate all-seeing eye and all-hearing ear, part of his Babylonia Code authority, were truly immense.
Things he couldn't hear before became audible, and even things he couldn't see before became visible in intricate detail.
‘Did she even anticipate this when she taught me Hyunsingong...?’
If so, Ban Yuwon had indeed received a debt of gratitude from Dokgo Yeon that he couldn't repay with any ordinary gift.
He looked at Dokgo Yeon with a suspicious gaze, but all he received in return was a mysterious smile.
Meanwhile, Light and Rucell, who had been watching Ban Yuwon's training, gulping nervously, finally greeted him, pretending to be nonchalant, once he had cleaned himself and dressed again.
"Are you going to upload this video?"
"Are you crazy?"
"I bet it would get a lot of views..."
Why does Rucell's hair look even darker, even though she didn't fight?
Ban Yuwon had many things he wanted to scold Rucell about, who spoke with a flushed face, but Dokgo Yeon stepped in for him.
"Even if they watch it, they wouldn't understand, but you should hide the fact that you received martial arts training. ...Why are you looking at me like that, beast?"
"Nothing, at all."
"It'd be great if you got stronger, Ban."
Rucell, who instinctively realized that the martial art Ban Yuwon received was far from ordinary and eyed Dokgo Yeon warily. And Light, who, as evidenced by his slip of the tongue during the entrance ceremony, didn't hold martial arts in high regard, simply dismissed it as "some beneficial technique for the body."
Dokgo Yeon chuckled at their contrasting attitudes and urged Ban Yuwon.
"Then, let's start looking for the way to Room 6. Even if we decided to take our time with this exploration, staying in Room 5 all day doesn't sit well with me."
"Speaking of which, it's almost lunchtime, isn't it?"
"Don't even dream of it until we've moved on to Room 6."
"Seriously, this isn't the military; why are we having our meals restricted like this?"
Urged by his companions, Ban Yuwon earnestly began searching for the final destination of this labyrinth.
Right away, his improved eyesight proved effective.
With the ability to take in more at a glance and distinguish finer details, he naturally became quicker at discovering and analyzing language concepts...
"Hmm...?"
Sure enough, Ban Yuwon quickly found the path to Room 6 and paused just as he was about to lead his companions there.
While the concept of the path (路) leading from their current common area to Room 6 was clearly visible, he also saw another faint concept embedded in the opposite wall.
Whether by chance or fate, he wouldn't have found it if not for the enhanced vision provided by his Hyungi.
"Covert path?"
Adding the character for "fast" (捷) before "path" (路) means "shortcut."
When Ban Yuwon approached the wall to inspect it, he found a tiny crack. Within that fissure, illusory images were densely packed, camouflaging it as a normal wall.
He could unequivocally state that no one else would have discovered this without his presence.
"Alright."
He absorbed all the strings of illusory images.
The concepts initially showed some resistance, but the moment he exerted a strong will, they were instantly pulled out and absorbed.
[You have absorbed 50 Illusory Images.]
"50?! Are you serious?"
Of course, he had extracted them from an entire massive wall, but even so, to obtain a depth of 50 in one go...
It meant the covert path had been meticulously hidden.
Ban Yuwon was about to put them into his Code Core when Eve gnawed on his forearm, and he shrugged.
"You want this too?"
"Shhh."
"Alright, eat well and grow big."
He tried to bestow all the concepts, but Eve could only absorb up to 20.
It seemed her current level was still insufficient, and the amount of concepts she could absorb was slowly reaching its limit.
‘Well, it's not surprising. I fed Eve the concept I got from the elite I caught last time... "Fission," too.’
Realizing that her own abilities were insufficient to devour all the illusory concepts, Eve let out frustrated hisses, burning with fighting spirit.
Ban Yuwon smiled wryly, foreseeing that Eve would likely play a more significant role than himself in the next room, when Rucell tugged at the arm Eve wasn't coiled around.
"Ban, this...!"
What appeared after the illusory images crumbled was an upward-leading staircase.
The Tower typically didn't have clear divisions between rooms; progression was usually determined only by 'shifts.' Thus, finding a structure that so explicitly implied an ascent was rare.
However, they weren't entirely nonexistent.
The textbook mentioned that it was possible to skip multiple rooms under specific conditions.
"It looks like a shortcut. Is it because the difficulty was that much harder?"
"I thought this last week, but our exploration seems very different from a typical one."
"Thanks to that, the video is popular even among Academy students."
Honestly, if they just recorded a normal exploration that any Academy student would experience, only outsiders would find it entertaining. Who among the Academy students would enjoy it?
The video featured a freshman confronting monsters, traps, and elite monsters at a level unbelievable for the Tower's initial stages, which is why it was receiving such a good response.
More than half of them were probably thinking, "Oh, the video editing is amazing!"
"So, what are we going to do?"
Ban Yuwon turned to his companions, facing the stairs, and asked an obvious question.
Of course, the answer he received was equally obvious.
"We have to go, of course."
"The difficulty increasing is nothing new anyway."
"Let's go."
It was a unanimous decision.
Just in case, with Eve transformed into a shield at the front, the group bravely began ascending the stairs.
There were minor attacks during the ascent, but they were limited to bats clinging to the back of the stairs, swooping down.
"Aaaah!"
"Light, you're going to fall."
"That's truly pathetic. You can't even react to that one thing?"
And Light, without his Holy Sword, was finally perceived as even less capable than Ban Yuwon.
He had clearly moved well enough without the Holy Sword yesterday, but once inside the Tower, his movements seemed to grow sluggish the further they went!
"I've always fought with a sword. It's only natural to be a little nervous!"
"A little?"
"Ah, Room 6."
Just as Dokgo Yeon was about to retort to Light's excuse, Rucell suddenly murmured.
The surroundings had grown dark, and nothing could be seen with the naked eye except for the stairs they were climbing.
"It doesn't look like a shift has occurred?"
"Perhaps these stairs themselves are the shift. What are you doing, Light? Aren't you going to hurry up?"
"I'm not scared!"
"Who said you were?"
Since the stairs continued, the group kept moving without stopping.
Now, not even bats appeared.
It was as if they were crawling into the darkness.
"Room 7."
This time, it was Light's voice.
Although they had wasted a lot of time in Room 5, to skip two rooms at once...
But more importantly, the stairs still hadn't ended.
"Skipping three rooms at once...?"
"It might not just be three."
To Light's shocked murmur, Dokgo Yeon raised her head, looked up the continuously extending stairs, and replied as if to herself.
Her slender, deer-like neck was emphasized, and Ban Yuwon, who had inadvertently looked at it, hastily averted his gaze.
"What kind of shortcut did you find, Ban Yuwon?"
"Even I didn't know it would be such an enormous shortcut."
In truth, he had suspected it would be an extraordinary path when the illusory images concealing this covert path had a depth of 50.
"Didn't the textbook say that while shortcuts are certainly immense luck, the difficulty of the next room increases proportionally to the number of rooms skipped?"
"I think I also read that the rewards are more likely to be better as well."
"Our exploration's difficulty is already high. But if the penalty for skipping three rooms is added on top of that..."
"Then the rewards will be even better, won't they?"
Dokgo Yeon scoffed at Light's indirect plea to be allowed to use his Holy Sword.
Ban Yuwon, too, smiled kindly and supported her.
"It's alright, Light. As long as an Irregular isn't involved, dying isn't a huge problem."
"Baaan..."
"Don't cling, my friend."
Light's obsession with the Holy Sword was truly akin to Gollum's craving for the Absolute Ring.
At this point, not only Ban Yuwon but also the other members of Class 11 instinctively sensed that there was something wrong with his contract with the Holy Sword.
"Wouldn't it be better if we just broke it? His foundation clearly isn't that rotten."
"Don't say such nonsense...!"
Light flinched at the suggestion of breaking it and covered his chest.
Ban Yuwon perceived that this was him covering the necklace he was wearing.
‘As expected, the core must be that necklace.’
Not yet, but a day would come soon when he would discover all of Light's secrets.
He resolved to deal with it decisively when the time came and turned his head, suddenly realizing that the number on the pendant had gone up by one more.
"Room 8."
"As expected, it continues."
"No way, skipping four rooms?!"
Light trembled.
When he wasn't holding his Holy Sword, his mental stats also seemed to decline overall!
Ban Yuwon was about to tease him, calling him cute like a newborn fawn, when Rucell suddenly grabbed his arm tightly.
"Rucell, you don't really have to use my arm as a communication device..."
"Right next, enemy."
Her voice was rigid.
Her hair, which was now almost half black, hinted at her condition.
What's more, she clung so tightly to his body that it felt like heaven and hell were descending upon him simultaneously!
"Rucell, wait..."
"Enemy, Irregular...! It's the same as last time!"
"Just calm down, alright, I understand!"
"Grrrk, grrr-rr-rrk...!"
Trying to calm her with words was futile.
Ultimately, Ban Yuwon resorted to a somewhat forceful method: he wrapped Eve, who had transformed into chains, tightly around Rucell's body, which was clinging to him as if to rip his arm off.
"Grrrk... Huh, haaaaaa."
Soon, Rucell, drained of energy, slumped against Ban Yuwon's shoulder, resting her cheek there.
Ban Yuwon merely shook his head, facing Light and Dokgo Yeon, who were looking at him as if he were a criminal.
"No, I didn't do anything wrong. She really attacked first, I swear."
"You're mistaken, Ban Yuwon. I wasn't glaring at you; I was disgusted by that beast's courtship ritual."
"Me too... I know Ban isn't the kind of guy who would do something so rude first."
He felt like crying at the trust his classmates showed him!
"Anyway, it's Room 9, you say. Well, it's only natural, I suppose."
"Indeed."
Light nodded in agreement with Dokgo Yeon's words.
"Because Room 10 is a resting zone."
"Right. It didn't seem likely we'd go straight to a resting zone."
There were several rules within the Tower.
Among them, the most absolute rule was that "a resting zone exists every 10 rooms."
These resting zones also had several patterns, ranging from busts to jackpots, but the crucial point was that monsters never appeared.
Therefore, parties of students challenging the Tower often used these Room 10s as units of difficulty.
"And it said elite monsters were highly likely to appear in Room 9."
"Based on what we've experienced so far, it's practically a certainty."
"No, no."
Rucell, who was leaning against Ban Yuwon and panting, shook her head.
"Irregular. It's an Irregular."
"If it's the same kind of Irregular as last time, then... a Constellation...?"
Again?
But it wasn't too surprising, as he had heard something similar in Professor Zenon's class this past Tuesday.
Hadn't he said that once a human had been approached by one Constellation, the probability of other Constellations approaching them increased?
In other words, from the moment Ban Yuwon's group encountered a Constellation, they were destined to become entangled with others.
"Even so, being harassed by a Constellation every time we enter is a bit much..."
"Hmph."
Dokgo Yeon let out a grand sigh and spoke.
"Shall we eat first?"
"Yeah, that sounds better."
To react like that upon realizing an urgent battle awaited them – Dokgo Yeon was truly no ordinary person.
Ban Yuwon opened his inventory with a wry smile, hearing Dokgo Yeon turn to Light and speak.
"Light, take out your sword when we enter the room."
"Alright...! You can leave everything to me now!"
"That sudden change in attitude is quite unsettling."
Ban Yuwon had a similar thought to Dokgo Yeon, but seeing Light visibly deflate, he decided not to deliver the finishing blow.
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