I got into school for nothing - Chapter 42
I got into school for nothing (42)
Lesson 10. You are my Master - 2
“It’s delicious...!”
“Phew, phew...”
“Ooh?! This is quite spicy, I like it. All the food here is so bland, and I was just missing Sichuan cuisine.”
The next day, the Rebellion members woke up at dawn and had a simple meal of instant cup noodles that Ban Yuwon had airlifted from Earth.
Ban Yuwon had realized, from observing the student cafeteria and various restaurants in Ronica, that even in Union, which boasted a diverse array of cuisines from countless dimensions, spicy flavors were notably scarce and unappreciated.
He had repeatedly tried to dissuade Dokgo Yeon, who was trying to choose a spicy ramen simply because its packaging was black and red, but she was now eating the cup noodles with a look of utter satisfaction.
“Aren’t you eating, Ban Yuwon?”
Ban Yuwon had placed the square container of instant noodles, which could evoke a travel mood anywhere, on his lap, but he was simply letting the noodles soak.
He was lost in thought, recalling the events of yesterday.
‘It must be that necklace.’
When Ban Yuwon, concentrating on his Hyunsingong, was mistakenly thought to be asleep by As Light, Light had carefully stripped off his clothes. Ban Yuwon, who happened to see his upper body, was aghast.
Aside from its excessive delicacy, it was unmistakably that of a man.
He had already understood that Light was manipulating his appearance, as a proper Adam’s apple had always been present.
The most crucial discovery was that even as Light removed all his clothes and wiped his body with a wet towel, he steadfastly wore a cross-shaped necklace around his neck.
‘That must be why Light can disguise himself as a man. Though it's superficial, it's strong enough to fool even my eyes, so it can't be underestimated.’
However, seeing Light still itching to wield his Holy Sword, it didn't seem like a problem that could be resolved in the short term.
Even now, Light was complaining to Dokgo Yeon about that very issue.
“I can’t go on without the Holy Sword anymore.”
“From my perspective, that’s not true. You seem to be getting used to fighting without the Holy Sword, even if it’s little by little.”
“But beyond this, I just don’t have the confidence...!”
“...Hoo.”
Light’s expression was almost tearful.
Ban Yuwon looked at him, recalling how he'd been rolling around on the ground throughout yesterday's battle.
Perhaps Dokgo Yeon was imagining the same thing.
Dokgo Yeon let out a deep sigh, then neatly drained the instant noodles' broth.
It was quite unexpected, as she had given the impression that she would only eat the noodles and discard the broth entirely.
She gently set down the neatly emptied cup noodle container and nodded, as if resigned.
“It seems you’ve reached your mental limit, so there’s nothing for it. We’ve confirmed your potential, so let’s call it good.”
“Really?!”
Light shouted, his face brightening, then suddenly turned to Ban Yuwon, gauging his reaction.
This behavior was due to his awareness that Ban Yuwon had influenced Dokgo Yeon’s decision to train him.
Ban Yuwon shrugged and gave him the answer he desired.
“If Dokgo Yeon has made that judgment, who am I to stop it? But once we leave the dungeon, you’ll still have to train without using the Holy Sword.”
“Of course. I was already thinking I needed to practice bare-handed combat techniques!”
Light, exhilarated, drew his Holy Sword (the way he plucked it from thin air was quite impressive) and began polishing the blade, which needed no polishing.
Meanwhile, Dokgo Yeon watched Light intently, then turned to Ban Yuwon and spoke.
“You, talk to me when we get out.”
“Alright, I understand.”
“Grrrrr.”
“Beast, just eat your noodles.”
He had half expected it, but even after a sound sleep, Rucell’s hair remained half-dyed black.
Perhaps it was because the tension never truly eased inside the dungeon, even during rest.
At least she still had enough reason left to twirl the ramen noodles with a fork, but her free hand was gripping Ban Yuwon’s waist tightly.
She had probably growled at Dokgo Yeon just now because she thought Dokgo Yeon was bothering Ban Yuwon.
He had even grown accustomed to her overly protective behavior.
Adaptation is truly frightening, he thought anew.
“...Dokgo Yeon, can we do this?”
“Don’t ask me; it just makes me uneasy.”
Ban Yuwon pressed a hand to his forehead, thinking that this expedition would surely end with Dokgo Yeon giving him a severe dressing down.
* * *
“Hah! Hyaa!”
“Kuaack!”
With his Holy Sword returned, Light literally soared through Room 15.
With wings of light attached, moving freely in all directions and sweeping away monsters with his sword of light, he truly looked like an angel descended from the heavens.
The Light who had struggled bare-handed was nowhere to be seen.
There was no elaborate technique, no skill.
Only an angel of destruction, crushing all foes with overwhelming power of light, existed in that place.
“Is Light’s fighting level for real? This is truly the battle of the world’s strongest... Is that really the same Light who looked like a loser up until Room 14?”
“Krrk?”
Rucell looked back at Ban Yuwon with an expression that said, ‘What nonsense is our child spouting now?’
Should he be relieved that she still possessed enough intelligence to understand speech? Ban Yuwon shook his head and focused on the target before him.
“Kweee! I’ll tear you all to shreds!”
The monsters in Room 15 were none other than Orcs, creatures renowned on Earth for various reasons.
These monstrous warriors possessed pig-like heads, muscular builds, were draped in coarse rags, and armed with axes or glaives.
Fundamentally possessing physical abilities superior to humans, these monsters were civilized and treated as intelligent races in some dimensions, yet in most cases, they were treated as mere monsters due to their inherent love for destruction and slaughter.
Naturally, the Orcs appearing inside the Tower were no different... The problem, however, was that their strength was also unpredictable.
Weak ones could be dealt with easily even by a novice entering the Tower for the first time, but strong ones could be even more powerful than the full professors at Union Academy, who boasted the strongest combat capabilities.
And in the case of the Orcs they encountered...
—Clang!
“Kweeee! Qunox of the proud Rusty Halberd Legion will judge you!”
“Tsk, seriously...!”
These were formidable foes, capable of pushing Ban Yuwon into a corner even in a one-on-one fight.
It seemed there were many named individuals among them, but they didn’t appear to be elite monsters in particular.
‘If I hadn’t given Light his sword of light, we would’ve really been done for here, wouldn’t we?’
Ban Yuwon gritted his teeth, parrying the Orc’s long axe-glaive with the exquisite mystery of his Flow (流) to deflect it as much as possible.
Room 15 was a cavern large enough for a company-sized force to engage in battle, and the horde of Orcs emerging side-by-side from the darkness, pressing forward, was sheer terror itself.
If Light and Dokgo Yeon hadn’t each taken on nearly half of them, it would have been impossible for Ban Yuwon to even fight one Orc in a one-on-one match right now.
“Judgement! I will execute it!”
It must have displeased the Orc that its opponent, clearly smaller and weaker, kept deftly dodging its attacks.
The axe-glaive had been repelled several times, and as the Orc’s eyes reddened with fury, its muscles swelled throughout its body as it raised its halberd high.
‘Isn’t this Tower’s structure too unreasonable? I’m clearly growing at an absurdly fast rate, so why is there no easy opponent? At this rate, I’ll have to squeeze out every last bit of what I have.’
Ban Yuwon, muttering inwardly, activated an active concept.
It was the ‘Supernatural Strength (怪力)’ he had plundered from Irekto’s arm earlier.
“Hup!”
The moment he awakened the string of ‘Supernatural Strength’ dormant within his body and injected it with black flames, the Executioner’s Longsword, surging with immense power, slammed the Orc’s axe-glaive high into the air, forcing it to retreat (反).
Its two arms, still clutching the axe-glaive, were thrust up into the air, looking comically like it was cheering.
“Kuaack?!”
The Orc let out a suppressed groan, its eyes widening.
Ban Yuwon thrust his sword straight into the creature’s empty chest.
A swift thrust (貫) imbued with Blood Poison (血毒).
A crimson line brilliantly streaked across the air!
—Thwack!
The sword, carrying the full force of Supernatural Strength, pierced straight through the Orc’s chest in an unwavering line, emerging from the other side.
Ban Yuwon pulled the sword out with a strong tug.
Immediately afterward, the creature’s body crumbled to pieces, and a golden string of characters flowed into him, making a confirmation kill unnecessary.
[Life (生) 1.4, Devil (魔鬼) 0.7, Body (肉體) 0.7, Wildness (野性) 0.2, Supernatural Strength (怪力) 0.1 are plundered.]
As each individual creature was strong, the rewards were quite substantial.
He particularly liked that the Orcs also possessed at least a little of the ‘Supernatural Strength’ concept that he had just utilized.
Even with the 16 points of Supernatural Strength Ban Yuwon currently possessed (which had grown slightly through practice after he obtained it from Irekto), he could wield such power; if it increased further, wouldn’t he become much stronger?
That last strike had consumed about 15% of the Hyungi he possessed, but if the numerical value of Supernatural Strength itself increased, he would be able to unleash even greater destructive power while consuming less Hyungi.
‘So, monsters born with Supernatural Strength. That explains why they’re pushing us so hard. The difficulty here is far more intense than Rooms 11 through 14 combined.’
He lifted his head to scan his surroundings: Light, with his wings of light, was raging above, while Dokgo Yeon below used her Fists (拳), Palms (掌), and Kicks (脚) to block the Orcs’ charges.
And Rucell? Rucell was tearing apart and stomping to death, one by one, the Orcs that managed to bypass Dokgo Yeon and Light’s attacks and approach Ban Yuwon with her claws and kicks.
He had noticed it before, but whenever she began to lose her reason, her primary instinct was to protect Ban Yuwon.
Most likely because Ban Yuwon was the weakest in the group.
“Grrrrrr!”
The problem was that once instinct completely overwhelmed reason, the distinction between friend and foe would cleanly disappear, making it highly probable she would attack Ban Yuwon instead.
He agonized, watching Rucell’s hair gradually turn black.
He couldn’t stop her from fighting just to prevent her from losing reason, and with Eve asleep for her evolution, he had no means to restore Rucell’s sanity. So, sooner or later, her rampage was inevitable.
‘When that time comes, I’ll have no choice but to try again what I failed to do last time...’
Ban Yuwon resolved firmly, then raised his sword again.
There was no time to get lost in deep thought.
The more he fought with his sword, the faster Rucell would lose her reason.
He couldn’t rely solely on his companions and leave everything to them, as he had when he first entered the Tower.
Only a week had passed, but everything was different from back then.
The gap between him and his companions was rapidly closing, and he needed to close it even faster moving forward.
“You look like the weakest one!”
“Perfect timing!”
At the very least, he vowed to grow to a level where he could deflect (流) all of these guys’ attacks and counter (反) them to kill them without expending any mana.
With that resolve, Ban Yuwon confronted an Orc charging at him, swinging its axe.
[The proficiency of Flow (流) has reached 35.]
[The proficiency of Counter (反) has reached 27.5.]
[Due to the activation of Hyunsingong, a portion of the Body’s (肉體) proficiency is being converted into an unknown concept. The concept will be definable once the conversion is complete.]
How much time had passed, clashing weapons with Orcs and growling back and forth?
Whenever he failed to counter, he had to use the concepts of ‘Supernatural Strength (怪力)’ and ‘Wave (波)’ to cope, causing his mana to rapidly deplete. Just then, as he was gritting his teeth, gripping his sword, and thinking he’d need a rest after the battle...
“Haaah-aaah-ap!”
“Ah, wait!”
Light, who had flown in with a flashy flap of his wings of light, severed the neck of the Orc right before Ban Yuwon.
Upon seeing this, Ban Yuwon momentarily thought, ‘He really does have a talent for swordsmanship,’ but recalling Dokgo Yeon’s urgent voice that same instant, a chill ran down his spine anew.
Why had she tried to stop Light?
“You idiot! What do we do if you kill them all?!”
“Huh? Oh, crap...!”
Indeed, the Orc whose neck Light had just so splendidly severed was the last Orc in this room!
This room was already difficult, and the party was considerably fatigued, making Light’s mistake a painful one.
[Life (生), Devil (魔鬼), Body (肉體), Supernatural Strength (怪力), Wildness (野性) are plundered from the Orcs’ corpses.]
Ban Yuwon urgently reached out, plundering all the concepts from the dead Orcs and catching his breath, but naturally, he was far from being in peak condition.
“Fool! I gave you an opportunity, and you do this!”
“Tsk... Fine, I’ll take care of Room 16, alright!”
Dokgo Yeon, already feeling fatigued, reacted to Light’s mistake with an almost excessive sensitivity, and Light, full of confidence with his sword of light, did not respond politely after being rebuked.
To make matters worse, Rucell... was panting, staring directly at Ban Yuwon.
She had already completely lost her reason, appearing to be merely biding her time until she could pounce on him.
“Haaak, haaak...!”
“Ah, damn it.”
Ban Yuwon instantly realized that this expedition had just plummeted into hell.
And what’s more...
—Thump
—CRAAASH!
The space instantly warped, and the party was simultaneously confined within grid-patterned squares.
It was as if they had become pieces on a chessboard.
Naturally, pieces appeared on the opposite side as well.
“I am Kuroth, Centurion of the great Rusty Halberd Legion! Are you the humans who slaughtered my subordinates?”
With a body more than twice as massive as the Orcs they’d faced in Room 15, and an overwhelming height of three meters.
This colossal monster, making one wonder if it wasn’t a Troll rather than an Orc, was positioned directly opposite them.
‘And it’s connected to Room 15? I think it was mentioned in the textbook...’
Linked (連繫), or ‘Chain’ as described in the textbook.
It signifies a structure where two or more rooms are connected, naturally increasing the difficulty.
Moreover, Room 16, where they currently were, even had a special rule in addition to that...
—The weakest soldier charges first.
An artificial voice echoed in Ban Yuwon’s ears.
Seeing the others touching their ears and grimacing, it seemed they had all heard the same message.
“Trick Room.”
Ban Yuwon whispered, lifting his head.
Since it said the weakest soldier charges first, it naturally meant he had to act first.
He didn’t know what he was supposed to do against that brutish monster, all by himself.
But he had no choice but to try...
“Ban, don’t worry about that. I’ll do it.”
“What? No, wait, hey—.”
The sword of light flashed brilliantly.
Light ignored the message in his ear and, leaving his square, soared into the sky!
“I’ll kill you!”
“Are you the weakest human? —No, you’re not!”
The Orc narrowed its eyes as if to confirm something, then the next moment, it grinned and stepped forward.
The halberd it wielded, imbued with destructive energy, flew toward Light—and in that instant, its speed and power suddenly doubled, engulfing Light with no time to evade.
“Hyaaaah!”
Light’s eyes shot open wide, and he swung his sword of light to meet the attack.
However, for some reason, his movements were incredibly sluggish, and before his sword could strike the monster’s neck, the halberd’s blade sliced through Light’s torso.
“Light!”
Ban Yuwon cried out in shock.
Light did not release his sword until the moment he lost his life, and the sword of light, finally swung, cut through about half of the Orc’s forearm.
And then, he completely vanished from the Tower.
“Hah.”
Light, status Lost.
At this point, Ban Yuwon’s party’s first two-week-long expedition could be considered a failure.
That damn Troll bastard!
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