—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Underground at Crow Fey Guild Headquarters.
In this place where light barely reached, there was a red-haired man.
-Creak.
A moment later, when a heavy iron door opened and a stream of light leaked into this room,
the man muttered in a low voice without even turning around.
“…Is it over?”
“Yes.”
The woman who answered was Crow Fey’s manager, Sera.
-Tick, tick.
She lit a thin cigar with a magic tool that ignited fire.
-Hiss.
And after taking a puff of smoke,
she checked the man’s face.
Though he hadn’t been able to wash for quite some time here, his appearance was quite neat.
They say nobles have an aura or class about them.
‘I suppose there’s a reason why he gets attention.’
-Sigh.
Along with her sigh, thick smoke spread around.
Kaelan Hiss.
The first action he took after entering Crow Fey was renting the magic formula array constructed in the guild headquarters’ underground space.
Actually, Sara couldn’t know the reason for this.
She just occasionally came to check on his condition since Regillus had readily permitted it…
Anyway, there was no time to delay further.
Because it ended today.
“Put these on.”
-Swoosh.
What she handed over were casual clothes that fit his measurements.
And as if cautioning him, she added:
“I’ve roughly adjusted the schedule, so return to the Academy for the second semester.”
“Yes, I should.”
“…Remember that the guild has high expectations for you.”
“…”
From Sera’s perspective, the atmosphere she felt from him now was clearly different from right after recruiting him.
Unlike before when he knew his own worth but had a mixture of some despair and self-loathing,
now he seemed more composed than expected, as if he had accepted even those negative emotions.
No? Rather, like a demon… he was hiding his emotions in a somewhat chilling way.
-Sigh.
Sera took another puff of her cigar.
It was obvious where the depth of Kaelan’s emotions was directed.
“…”
Edwin Gwynne.
His only crime would have been… winning in a fair fight.
It was rather pitiful.
.
.
.
-Swoosh.
Kaelan began putting on the clothes Sera had brought, piece by piece.
-Won’t you die for me…?
-Wh-what are you saying…!
Yellody Latasia, who had asked if he would die for her.
That was the answer.
And she made Kaelan be reborn.
-But, we’ve already missed the timing… currently preserving your existing abilities is the best we can do…
-Still, wouldn’t the unknown curse have disappeared…?
-Crack…!
It didn’t matter.
If whatever was suppressing his growth had disappeared, that was enough.
‘Wait…’
It wasn’t over yet.
If he could just regain his sense in his current state,
he could even kill someone like Edwin, an inferior student, if he wanted to.
But still, something felt unsettling.
While repeatedly dwelling on the pain of defeat like licking his gallbladder,
his mind, which had rather become calmer, created new suspicions.
What he was thinking about now was indeed the background and timing of when the curse was placed.
And chronologically, falling into this curse happened after the duel with Lev Denec.
‘…’
Kaelan, now fully dressed, asked Sera.
“You.”
“…?”
“…Do you know Lev Denec?”
“Uh…. Lev Denec?”
At Kaelan’s sudden question, Sera’s hand unconsciously tensed.
-Crack.
Accordingly, her cigar was instantly crushed into a V-shape.
Sara also couldn’t help but know Lev Denec.
How much had she been beaten by Regillus because of that bastard.
“I know him. That bastard, despite his low rank, rejected Crow Fey’s recruitment offer.”
“He rejected it?”
“Why? You got a grudge against him too?”
“…”
The guy who wouldn’t show interest in anything except his own excellence was showing interest.
Sara smiled secretly without Kaelan noticing.
‘If I use this…?’
She might be able to get revenge on that youngster.
“He’s an interesting one? That Valantes woman from the circle you created was also trying to make contact with him, showing interest…”
“Aveline…?”
“Yeah. Well… the Academy’s semester has ended, and when the festival starts, isn’t it the age to get heated up? The genders match perfectly too.”
“…”
At Sera’s words tinged with laughter, Kaelan just maintained silence.
“Good luck~”
-Rustle
She stepped on her cigarette butt and disappeared leisurely.
With this, the fire was… set.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Claris Academy, Hall of Struggle.
During vacation periods and exam periods, since people crowded the training halls,
this place temporarily served as a free training ground where people could freely interact and train with whoever they wanted.
And for several days after returning from the Imperial Capital, I had been receiving magic training from Yeriel.
“Lev… wasn’t yesterday supposed to be reading Chapter 3 of the Circle Magic theory book?”
“Was it?”
“But you’re saying you can already cast magic…?”
“Yeah. That’s how it turned out.”
“…!”
Yeriel, who had her hair half-tied today, looked back and forth between me and the magic book.
“Lev… amazing…”
While magicians in this world would faint from the lack of fundamentals,
thanks to the ‘Gamer’ characteristic that had lost its supporting role restriction and had its reins loosened, my speed of learning magic became ridiculously fast.
As long as the stat requirements from the theory book were met, simply reading it allowed the information to be simplified and understood,
and the magical truths I realized at that time became automatically acquired as skills according to my standards.
After that, if registered in the skill window, I could use magic without particularly needing to chant or concentrate.
Of course, since these skill registration slots were limited and I couldn’t use all magic,
I could be considered a half-baked magician.
Well, it didn’t matter.
My main purpose was just to increase my mana amount to maintain two transformations together.
▶Acquire 10 or more 2nd Circle skills (Achieved)
▶Magic Power Requirement: 3.0 or higher (Achieved)
▶Mana Requirement: 3.0 or higher (Achieved)
Therefore, it was enough to just painfully learn one skill at a time according to the grade and raise the circle.
-Ding.
Thanks to the luck stat, magic power and mana had accumulated over time, so meeting the conditions wasn’t difficult either.
“Lev. You’re too fast…”
Yeriel seemed shocked by my growth speed and was looking at me with somewhat reverent eyes.
Finding that cute, I wanted to tease her.
“Yeriel.”
“Yes?”
“Hand here.”
What I pointed to with my index finger was the back of my head.
She put her hand in an awkward position where my hair tips touched.
“…Wh-what is it?!”
“I was wondering if you weren’t going to praise me today.”
“……Huh?”
“During the written test, you patted my head saying ‘well done.'”
“……Hah!”
At the words “pat pat,” Yeriel quickly withdrew her hand with a start and began looking around.
“……L-Lev! Shh! And that time was…!”
Her reaction was perfect.
Why was she so fun to tease?
Her blush was working hard today too.
“That time I did it without thinking…!”
Actually, after the misunderstanding in the Imperial Capital, she seemed to have become somewhat uncomfortable with me,
occasionally keeping her gaze on the floor at just one word from me, or extremely avoiding physical contact.
“I just wanted to praise you somehow…! Though I really did think it was amazing too…!”
Probably, being teased then had been more embarrassing than expected.
“I know. It’s a joke. A joke. I got this far thanks to my capable teacher.”
“……”
I packed my things and got up from my seat.
“Same time tomorrow? No, was today the last day…”
“Ah…”
Yeriel had said it would take at least two weeks of training.
Well, I was learning faster than expected so the end was being brought forward.
“Wait…!”
Yeriel quickly held out a magic book along with her answer.
“It’s until to-tomorrow, so you must come… read this first, same time, same place.”
“Aren’t you going?”
“Go… first.”
“Okay, thanks for your hard work.”
I left the Hall of Struggle, leaving behind Yeriel who was speaking like a robot.
.
.
.
A day was short. There was much to do.
My next destination was the Evolution Chamber.
The reason was…
‘Kaelan…’
It had been about two weeks since he went into seclusion at Crow Fey.
By now I could roughly predict his movements.
Actually, the bug I used.
The curse using parasitism had a solution.
It was what I saw from Tobiel when I went to Black Tower to save Yeriel,
a technique that high-ranking demons possessed:
Using the ‘Spring of Souls’.
To activate the Spring of Souls, death must precede it.
In other words, death meant returning to nothingness.
One reset here.
Afterwards, the demon’s cradle prepared in Pandemonium would reconstruct the soul considering the injected magic power or practitioner’s qualities.
Probably at this point, if reconstruction succeeded, the parasitism skill wouldn’t follow.
After all, it was a technique that utilized a bug.
So I wanted to keep this point in mind to some extent.
Crow Fey was a large guild with connections to demons,
so there was a possibility they might have taken that method.
Of course, it didn’t matter.
First, when checked with demon eyes, Kaelan had already lost his copy skill so it couldn’t be recalled even with the Spring of Souls.
He had crossed a river of no return.
Second, using the Spring of Souls meant he had become either a demon or a demonkin.
This could be seen simply as ‘powering up!’ with shounen manga sensibilities,
but naturally since the Academy was hostile to demons, he couldn’t fully use his power,
and even in the worst situation, my characteristic ‘Hermit’ activated against demons so it was rather thank you.
‘Next is… Information, Demonkin Transformation, Fallen Angel Transformation.’
-Ding!
-Ding!
The maintenance time for both skills had increased.
And both techniques consumed the same amount of mana.
In simple arithmetic, using both together should halve the duration,
but probably when using Fallen Angel Transformation, since it reduced the consumption values of skills used during that time, the final maintenance time would be a bit longer.
The most core cheat aspect of these two skills was the black magic power that gushed out.
At first, I couldn’t control this so it was meaningless but…
As my weapon, Ash Dispersion, accumulated this as possession rate and could utilize it as magic power, its applications became endless.
In other words, at this strengthened point, there was no problem with me challenging Trial 3.
Although I couldn’t use Ash Dispersion in the chamber since I had to use Academy-issued weapons…
Since I needed the Evolution Chamber and Sinatis’s awakening gland to acquire wind archery next anyway.
It couldn’t be avoided.
‘Let’s get a new skill.’
After a long time, I knocked on the chamber’s door.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
So even with all that planning and revenge the goblins are still going to be castrated
He really said “let’s just grab a skill, eh?”