abcnovels
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Chapter 10: 2-Circle Archmage (3)
The moonlight slowly faded as the dawn breeze swept through the dimness of Mount Khaoto, filled with the unexpected sound of spirited shouts.
“One! Two!”
“Louder!”
“One! Two!”
“Good.”
The apprentices, in a crooked formation, ran while panting.
This was what training should feel like. After all, running was best enjoyed together.
Old memories surfaced.
In the past, Mount Khaoto would echo with the sound of hundreds of apprentices running.
Let’s get into the mood a bit more.
“Count off!”
“One! Two! Three! Four!”
“Stop.”
I halted the formation and glared at the apprentices.
They all looked at me with a somewhat weary expression.
“When counting off, it’s ‘sam,’ not ‘set.’”
“Huh?”
I kicked the shins of the most clueless-looking one.
“Use honorifics.”
It was Iron.
Rolling around while clutching his leg, Iron looked at me with a resentful gaze.
“Why should we use honorifics?! ……sir.”
“Shouldn’t subordinates use honorifics?”
“Why am I a subordinate? ……sir.”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t made a bet with anyone except Zion and Makan.
“That’s true.”
It was a shame, but it was my mistake, so I should give them a chance.
“How about whoever loses in a fight against me uses honorifics?”
“I’ll use honorifics, sir.”
“Good.”
I was such a reasonable person.
I reminded the apprentices about numbers once again and started running.
“It’s ‘sam,’ not ‘set.’ Don’t ask why. It just is. Count off again!”
“One! Two! Sam! Net!” (Sam and Net are the Korean words for three and four, respectively)
Counting off was done with ‘sam,’ not ‘set.’
It was a long-standing tradition and custom of Samael.
Even while beheading demons during expeditions, we always counted this way.
I didn’t know the reason.
Maybe it was to avoid confusing ‘set’ with ‘net,’ or something like that.
Running mindlessly, we soon circled the mountainside and arrived back at the training grounds.
The morning sun was gradually rising.
“Huff, huff. Oh, I’m exhausted.”
“Gasp, gasp. I feel like I’m dying, seriously.”
The apprentices, collapsing in exhaustion, took deep breaths.
“Your stamina is all pathetic. We’ll end the morning training here, so go inside and get ready, my subordinates.”
“…….”
The apprentices, seemingly too exhausted to respond, trudged back to their quarters one by one.
Meanwhile, two figures, Zion and Makan, remained on the training grounds, their eyes fixed on me.
Zion’s weary gaze held a hint of doubt.
Makan’s eyes, on the other hand, seemed strangely satisfied.
‘Hmm.’
Suddenly, I used [Mind’s Eye] to observe Zion.
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? Zion – Paranoid Patient
? Talents: Weapon Skills [Dagger (A)], Elemental Affinity [Fire (A), Wind (B)]
? Traits: Stamina [B], Mental Strength [A], Mana Resonance [B], Mana Core [2 Stars]
? Dispositions: [Vengeance], [Competitiveness], [Suspicion], [Perceptiveness], [Knight Contempt], [Pride], [Inferiority Complex]
? Overall Rating: Magic [B]
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“Wow.”
No wonder the kid was foul-mouthed; there was a reason.
He was a collection of unsavory dispositions, practically a mental patient.
‘I like it.’
If I could firmly put him in his place, he wouldn’t be a bad subordinate.
A bit of venom was essential for navigating this harsh world.
Next up, Makan.
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? Makan Tycoon – Charge! Charge! Charge!
? Talents: Weapon Skills [Swordsmanship (A), Spear Skills (SS)], Elemental Affinity [Earth (S)]
? Traits: Stamina [SS], Mental Strength [A], Mana Resonance [S], Mana Core [2 Stars]
? Dispositions: [Tenacity], [Steadfastness], [Aspiration], [Simple-mindedness], [Exercise Addiction], [Musclehead]
? Overall Rating: Spear Skills [SS]
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This one was even more peculiar.
Forget his simple-mindedness; his stamina was extraordinary. He possessed a physique perfectly suited for spearmanship.
Spear-wielding families would be drooling over him.
Wait a minute…
‘Tycoon? Could he be related to the 8-star mercenary, Gento Tycoon?’
The name of a mercenary who dominated battlefields with his unique spearmanship suddenly came to mind.
He was someone who survived for quite a while in the expedition.
‘Is this kid Gento Tycoon’s descendant?’
My instincts told me it was likely.
His simple-minded nature and overwhelming talent for spearmanship were strikingly similar to Gento Tycoon.
‘I think Gento was from Leon, near Khaoto.’
What a coincidence.
Gento’s descendant learning magic in Samael.
‘But there’s no rule that he has to master spearmanship first.’
Every apprentice in Samael was precious.
I didn’t have the generosity to simply tell him to leave Samael because he had a talent for spearmanship.
And most importantly,
I knew how to make Makan stronger.
The memory of Gento Tycoon incorporating seismic waves into his spearmanship was vividly etched in my mind.
‘Back then, I just thought it was strange. Now I understand why.’
* * *
After all the apprentices had gone back to the dormitory, I sat in meditation at one side of the training grounds and focused on the flow of mana around me.
Wiiing—
The mana of the atmosphere resonated intensely through my two circles.
‘It’s definitely different.’
Even though it was the same Second Circle, the feeling was completely different from the past.
In my previous life, it felt like pouring water into a narrow hose; there was a limit to the flow of mana resonating through the circles.
That must have been the reason why I couldn’t surpass the Second Circle even after years of hard work.
Now, the mana of the atmosphere flowed into the circles without any restrictions, like a waterfall cascading down.
It was as if a blocked vein had been opened.
‘I’ll surpass the Second Circle soon.’
Around the time the sun rose brightly, I sensed someone approaching from afar.
I squinted and saw Instructor Dyke appearing in the training grounds.
Dyke glanced at me, clicked his tongue with a “Tsk,” and blew his whistle.
Peeeiiiik—
Soon after, the apprentices rushed out of the dormitory and lined up in front of Dyke.
“We’ll start the training… Did everyone eat something wrong? Why do you all look so pale?”
Dyke looked at the apprentices with a puzzled expression.
Unlike usual, the children looked exceptionally haggard today. They started glancing at me.
‘What are you looking at?’
I glared at them, and they quickly looked away in surprise.
The instructor looked at the apprentices with a questioning gaze for a moment but didn’t inquire further.
As expected, he didn’t care about it much huh!!
“We’ll start the training. Everyone, Activate your mana!”
“…Activate our mana!”
Even as the training progressed, I could still feel the apprentices’ furtive glances.
“Where are you all looking! Focus on the hand signs.”
“Yes, yes!”
I didn’t even glance at Dyke, focusing solely on my own training.
“Alright, stop!”
At Dyke’s shout, the apprentices, who had been waving their hands around awkwardly, stopped.
“Everyone, listen up. From now on, we’ll practice the hand signs for the 2-Star Fire Spear. As I’ve emphasized numerous times, incantations become increasingly difficult as the star level increases. You need to be able to draw the correct hand sign even in extreme situations to use it in actual combat.”
“Instructor! I have a question. Is that impossible with incantation?”
Dyke glared at Zion and said,
“What kind of nonsense is that all of a sudden?”
“It’s just a question.”
“Have you been drinking strange water or something, Zion? The foundation of magic is the mana core and hand signs. All great mages say the same thing. Mana circles and incantation cannot be used in actual combat. So focus on the hand sign. Understand?”
“Then what’s that?”
Following Zion’s finger, Dyke’s gaze slowly turned towards me.
Thud, thud—
I had already wrapped Wind Barriers around both arms and was pummeling the face of a scarecrow placed in the corner.
“Hmm?”
I didn’t miss the subtle shift in Dyke’s expression.
What clearly surfaced was a sense of doubt.
He must have noticed the simplification of the Second Circle Wind Barrier and the mana waves converging precisely on one point.
“Ahem.”
Clearing his throat, Dyke looked at Zion once again.
“Stop paying attention to useless things and focus on my teachings. I’ll say it again, incantation has no practical use. It has clear limitations.”
“Are you saying it’s truly impossible?”
“Yes. It’s impossible.”
The quick-witted Zion understood that this was the limit of what Dyke could tolerate.
So he didn’t ask any further questions.
He just tilted his head with a puzzled expression.
* * *
Late afternoon.
“Hey!”
As soon as the training ended and the instructor left, the chubby guy approached me.
I felt a heavy sensation in my front pocket.
“You worked hard today!”
“….”
I suddenly noticed that the chubby guy’s shoes were yellow. He made a strange gesture and quickly disappeared somewhere.
I checked my front pocket.
Half-eaten jerky.
It wasn’t really a problem…
But why did I feel so annoyed?
It was a strange feeling I had never experienced before, both in my past and present life.
Come to think of it, this chubby guy was the only one who wasn’t part of the group I beat up yesterday. He didn’t seem particularly impressed when he saw my incantations today either.
I took a bite of the half-eaten jerky, and a salty sweetness spread in my mouth.
I hadn’t eaten anything since morning, so I immediately felt hungry.
The chubby guy was kind enough to give me jerky, but I didn’t understand why I felt so annoyed.
Ah, wait a minute…
“Hey, subordinates!”
I shouted, and the apprentices rushed out of the dormitory.
“How do you guys eat?”
“Eat?”
“There’s nothing here, right? You haven’t been eating only jerky, have you? How do you get your meals?”
The apprentices asked back with puzzled expressions.
“We go down to eat… sir?”
“You climb down the cliff every time? That’s a bit horrifying.”
“What cliff, sir?”
The apprentices looked even more confused.
Then they started to go down, saying they needed to eat. They went in the opposite direction from the cliff I had climbed up.
“What? Is there another way down there?”
My anxiety became a reality. After only about 30 minutes of descent, the mountainside ended.
“….”
…How did I not know about this place until now?
Thinking back, it made sense that I wouldn’t have known. Mount Khaoto’s terrain was so rugged that I had never ventured in this direction before.
After a while, I noticed local residents coming and going along the mountainside.
The outskirts of Khaoto.
As soon as the smell of steaming soup and savory stew filled my nostrils, rage surged within me.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me there was another way? I even climbed the cliff!”
“You didn’t ask, sir.”
My subordinates stopped in front of a shabby restaurant.
As I squeezed through the narrow door…
I was once again taken aback.
The plump figure sitting there, wolfing down stew with bread in both hands…
“Hey.”
The chubby guy turned around and slowly waved.
The last shred of gratitude I had in my heart vanished.
So…
The reason the chubby guy gave me jerky was…
‘This cheeky bastard was getting rid of leftovers?’
No wonder he always gave it to me right around mealtime.
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