Chapter 25: Escaping Reality

Exams were just a day away now.

Aaand...I really don't feel like detailing the pain and suffering that I'd be going through over the next few days, so in the meantime, let's rewind a bit and go through a few random things that happened after the Brawl of Glory...

About a month and a half ago, we had a rare week where the topics we learnt during the theory classes were actually interesting. First off, an economic and political update.

Professor Rebo Tolsh's explanations were as boring as hell, so I'll summarize as usual.

You probably remember when I spoke about the non-aggression pacts that the countries formed between each other, and that the Rustlands didn't have such a pact with any of the other nations. Well, that was changing. Goldway, the second most prosperous country in this world, had reached out to and offered to form an alliance and non-aggression pact with the Rustlands.

Why?

Because their king had passed away, and the crown prince who had taken his place was very...whatever the opposite of corrupt was. In addition to forming a pact with this nation, he also wanted to do away with the class system and slavery in Goldway, making it into an equal society like the Rustlands was.

Though the actual forming of the pact wouldn't be likely to happen for at least a couple of months.

Professor Tolsh ended his explanation of the situation there, and the usually silent classroom began to fill with curious and intrigued whispers. No surprise there, this was a potentially historic moment for this world.

Though I had to say, if I'd learnt anything from the politics in my old world, is that this situation sounded like a recipe for disaster.

Goldway's new king was making seriously drastic changes, and while the majority of the population would likely be in favor of these changes, namely the middle class and peasant citizens, there was no way that the nobles of that country were all on board with it.

I certainly wouldn't be too optimistic about the changes being seamless, it was highly likely that factors like treason, coup-de-tats, assassination attempts and whatnot would arise in resistance to the change.

Society as a whole will always struggle to accept change, and that sentiment only gets amplified the more drastic the change is.

Then again, nothing is set in stone, I suppose only time will tell.

Alright then, onto the next surprisingly interesting topic. This one happened a couple of days later.

It was about certain areas on the map known as Forbidden Zones. I had previously come across them when I'd been studying this world's maps, but I wasn't able to find any information on them.

I've already explained what Death Zones are, they're basically small desert or wasteland-like areas that are teeming with monsters. They're high risk areas with no reward, unless your goal was to simply kill monsters, I guess.

The monsters in those areas are generally fairly weak, but it's their sheer numbers that can overwhelm you, but they're also territorial which means that almost never leave that area.

Forbidden Zones were a lot different. On maps, Death Zones are indicated using red circles, while Forbidden Zones are indicated using red Xs. As the name suggests, human entry was forbidden in these areas.

Why?

Because those areas contained powerful, complex sealed barriers. And within those barriers, were monsters that were so dangerous, that if they ever broke free from those barriers, they could literally bring humanity to extinction. The most dangerous Forbidden Zone was somewhere in the snowy plains between the Rustlands and Silvland.

The monsters that were sealed in that zone? Vampires.

They were said to be the strongest type of monster to ever exist in this world, an average Vampire could easily take on a couple of S-Ranked Adventurers, while the strongest ones could hold their own against more than half a dozen.

Oh, and they were also the only type of monster that had human-level intelligence, they were even able to talk, though there were unverified theories that they were actually even more intelligent than we were.

They'd been sealed away over two centuries ago, before which they'd nearly wiped out all the humans on the planet. But they weren't gone, and that's why the area they were trapped in was forbidden.

The barriers used in Forbidden Zones were extremely complex and powerful, so that fact that humans were so strictly prohibited from even approaching these areas, despite the near unbreakable barriers, was evidence of just how massive a threat these monsters would be if they broke free.

There were six Forbidden Zones in total, and the monsters that occupied each of them were typically monsters that were associated with apocalyptic settings in the fiction of my old world.

In addition to Vampires, the other Forbidden Zones held Demons, Zombies, Ghouls, Dragons and Krakens, respectively. Though, Zombies weren't quite considered to be similar to the other five sealed monster types, I didn't quite get the explanation, but to put it simply, they were the Pluto of sealed monsters.

I guess maybe it was because Zombies weren't necessarily strong, they're more like an infectious, incurable disease.

Another interesting fact was that of these six types of monsters, only Ghouls disappeared into dust and respawned when killed, the other five types do not come back after they're killed, they die normally...they just happen to be too strong to be killed easily.

This had probably been the most interesting topic ever taught in Professor Tolsh's classes, but his slow, deadpan delivery was still able to make it a pain to follow.

Well then, moving on.

This next topic came up the next day. It was a topic that had been deemed unnecessary, but due to recent events, was put back into the syllabus. At first, I'd been pretty apprehensive at having yet another chapter to study.

But then, it turned out to be really interesting.

As you know, every person's internal Mana in this world has an Elemental attribute, but that wasn't the full story. In rare, and I mean EXTREMELY RARE, cases, a person's Mana wouldn't have an Elemental type, but instead, something known as Light Magic.

It worked a lot differently to any type of Elemental Magic, it was quite versatile and could be used to heal wounds as well as to fire powerful attacking blasts, among other things.

So why had this been added back to the syllabus?

Because the current king of Goldway, the same one that wanted to change his country along with form an alliance with us, had revealed himself to be a Light Magic user. To put it into perspective, he was now the first confirmed person in over seventy years to have that power.

It piqued my interest, so I brought up a question...

"Uh, sir? If Light Magic is something that exists, does that mean there's also something called Dark Magic?"

"Ahh...that is a...good question, young man. You see, Light Magic...was first discovered over..."

Yeah, fuck this, I'll summarize.

To cut to the chase, Dark Magic did exist, but unlike Elemental Magic and Light Magic, it wasn't natural, not something humans could be born with.

Dark Magic is the energy that fuels the existence of monsters, and if a human tried to take that energy into his or her own body...well, more often than not, their bodies would be unable to handle it and they would die painful deaths.

Alright then, back to the present...

"Come on, Kuro! Have you still not studied this topic!? The written exam is tomorrow!"

"I know enough to just about scrape by and pass, I don't care about scoring any more beyond that! Give me a break, Cat Girl!"

"All you've done is take breaks-!"

...

...

...on second thought, let's not get back to the present just yet.

Oh, I know. We had a pretty informative Elemental Magic class a few weeks ago, let's recap that, shall we? It went a little something like this...

"Alright, first years. Pay attention! Today we'll be conducting this session a bit differently," Announced Instructor Tabbs.

Our usual Elemental Magic classes involved stuff like control over output, Mana and just pretty basic stuff in general, and then we'd individually work on building on those basics, for which we could ask the designated instructor for advice.

And of course, the class was split up by Elemental types, since each Elemental Magic requires different approaches to training and practice methods.

This session, however, wasn't going to split us up. Each instructor was going to take turns explaining the advanced techniques that come with each Elemental type to all of us.

It was important to know as much as you could about your own Elemental Magic, but it would also be very useful to have at least a basic amount of knowledge about the other Elemental types, you never knew what could happen, after all.

Instructor Tabbs went first, she was the Instructor in charge of Wind Magic.

"Wind Magic does not have many specific techniques, with the effectiveness of both offense and defense dependant on your degree of control and level of output. There are two main techniques of Wind Magic, and it's almost impossible to master both of them. Flight and Propulsion. Whichever one a person chooses to master will heavily influence their fighting style. Flight requires precise, delicate control, to be able to manipulate the air currents all around you. Propulsion requires a strong level of output, and to be able to control that output, it focuses on discharging wind from a single point, drastically boosting speed, though it lacks the maneuverability of Flight. To help you visualize the difference between the two techniques and how they can affect a person's fighting style, picture it this way, you can expect powerful strikes and blasts from someone using Propulsion, while someone with Flight can control the wind around them, spin it and conjure up something like a tornado. The technique known as Stream can also be used with Wind Magic, where you run your Mana through your weapon and engulf it with, in this case, wind. Wind Magic does not have a sensory technique, it may be possible in theory, but no one has managed to successfully pull it off yet."

Next up was Earth Magic, which Instructor Tear Tones was in charge of. In case you forgot, she had been in the infirmary during the Brawl of Glory.

"Ahem, right then. There are two basic aspects to mastering Earth Magic, degree of control, and range of control, which is basically how long the radius of your control over the earth beneath you is. Earth Magic is the only Elemental Magic that cannot be purely conjured using Mana, it can only use and control earth that already exists, which is also why it's the only Elemental Magic for which the Stream technique isn't compatible. The most advanced Earth Magic technique is known as Earth Levitation, which instead of just controlling and reshaping the earth below you, it allows the user to raise the earth into the air, which can then be used as projectiles or a shield. Earth Magic has one technique that works as a speed boost, known as Slide, where the user moves the ground he or she is standing on. Many have tried to combine Slide with Levitation, in other words, to float and move around on a levitated rock or chunk of earth while they're standing on top of it. However, for some unknown reason, the Levitation technique does not work on any earth that the user is physically touching. As for a sensory technique, it's the same as with Wind Magic, it's possible in theory, but no one has quite figured it out just yet."

Up next was the Instructor in charge of Fire Magic, Falm Burays. She didn't have any noticeable physical mutations, so I couldn't tell what her Anima was. She was short and a bit on the chubby side, with medium length neatly combed blonde hair and grayish-green eyes. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties.

"Fire Magic has no specific techniques besides Stream, other than that, it's purely just about output, intensity, which refers to heat, and control. For instance, if those three factors are at an average level, the user might be able to shoot out a fireball in a straight line for a few meters. If they are at a high level of mastery, well for those of you who watched the Brawl of Glory, you would have seen third year student, and the eventual winner, Ekai Zabel conjuring a flaming tornado."

I noticed Persia's expression sour a bit at the mention of the attack that had knocked her out of the tournament.

"That technique had an obviously high output, and a significant level of control is required to be able to spin that much fire around you without burning yourself, and when the barrier shattered, I'm sure those of you who were there felt the heat that burst forth from it...that would only happen with a high level of intensity. Of course, not everyone has the same capacity for those three factors, so it's about figuring out your aptitude for each of them and then molding that foundation into something that works for you. Overall, Fire Magic is not the most versatile, it has no sensory or speed boosting techniques for one thing...but that doesn't make it any less powerful than the other types."

When I was in the process of reincarnating, I had narrowed my Elemental Magic choices down to Fire and Lightning. Fire Magic certainly was pretty appealing, but I'm glad I went with Lightning Magic. I definitely have no regrets with that choice.

Had I picked one of the other four options, and then later learnt about Lightning Boost, I would have definitely regretted not picking lightning.

Speaking of lightning, next up was Instructor Paark Trocuelo. He looked to be the youngest of the Elemental Magic instructors, in his early or mid-twenties, with brown hair, dark brown eyes, he was on the short side with an average build, and had two twisted horns growing out of his head.

I'd heard that his Anima was a ram, which explained those demonic looking horns.

"Lightning Magic is probably the hardest Elemental Magic to master in terms of risk, especially when you consider that training with it could cripple you if you do it wrong. However, it may be high risk, but it's also high reward. To emphasize that point, there's the fact that nearly a third of this entire world's S-Ranked Adventurers are Lightning Magic users. And that is largely due to the technique known as Lightning Boost. Only a fraction of Lightning Magic users can use this technique, let alone master it. But those that do, will almost inevitably rise to the top."

Hey, nice. Rising to the top, huh? I wasn't particularly after fame and attention, but I wasn't exactly against it either.

"Most Lightning Magic users do not even attempt this technique, while many have been forced to give up on their dreams as Adventurers after they permanently scarred themselves to drastic extents as a result of failing to keep the technique stable. However, those that are able to master it will be able to reach speeds that are unrivaled by any of the other Elemental speed boost techniques, especially for a user who has mastered Lightning Boost at a x3 or even higher level of boost. Moving on to the other lightning techniques. Like the other Elemental types besides Earth Magic, Lightning Magic is also compatible with Stream. Then there's the Lightning Sensory Field, which as the name suggests, is a sensory technique. It involves spreading out weak lightning currents all around your body as far as you can, like an extension of your nerves, creating an invisible field around yourself, and if someone enters that field, you'll be able to feel all their movements within it. It's important to make this field as weak as possible, if it's too strong, then anyone who enters it will feel a slight shock and realize that there's someone nearby using this technique. The average range for the field is generally a radius of around 250 meters. The highest range ever recorded was a radius of a little over 800 meters. Uh...'kay then, I believe I've just about covered everything...alrighty then students, that's about it from me, I think-."

"Instructor Trocuelo, you may be the least experienced of us as an instructor, but please try to end your lectures a bit more...professionally," Stated Instructor Tabbs, with a polite, yet cold, smile.

"Y-yes, ma'am," He gulped in reply.

So, to end the session, was the instructor in charge of Water Magic, Lidui Uensh. She was a bit tall, was in pretty good shape, had long, straight dark blonde hair, light blue eyes, and her expression always seemed to be...irritated. As in, she looked kinda annoyed and like she didn't really want to be here. Her physical mutations were pointy sharp teeth, and gills on either side of her neck. If I had to guess what her Anima was, I'd go with some type of shark, though I couldn't get any more specific regarding the exact species.

"Alright, let's get this over with. Water Magic has more specific techniques than the other types. For starters, there's Ice Magic. It's...well, it's pretty self explanatory. Then there's the speed boost technique, which is an extention of Ice Magic, known as Skate. Basically, you form water under your feet, turn it into ice, and then form ice blades along the length of the bottom of your feet, and use those to glide along the underfoot ice. Getting the hang of it is tough though, you'll probably fall over a lot initially."

That...was literally just ice-skating. But the ice-skating that I knew in my old world, as in skating rinks, didn't exist in this world, which means someone here either came up with the exact same idea but with magic, or maybe...someone from my world or a similar world reincarnated here and adapted water magic so that they could ice-skate.

"When was the Skate technique invented?" I inquired curiously.

Oh wow, she did not look too thrilled at having to answer a question. She was glaring daggers at me, but trying to be subtle about it, as in she was trying to make sure that the other instructors didn't notice her glare.

"Yes...er, good question," She responded through gritted teeth, "About two decades ago, I believe, it's a fairly new technique. Anyway, getting back to the rest of my lecture. Next is what's commonly known as the opposite of Ice Magic, Steam Magic. In the past, steam attacks would be created by combining Water and Fire Magic, but not long after Ice magic was discovered to be a possibility, Steam Magic was also proven to be possible with just Water Magic, without the addition of Fire Magic. It's best used as a close or mid-range surprise attack, it's not very effective at a long range, as the heat quickly cools down. Okay, let's see, next is...the Water Magic sensory technique known as Water Mapping. This is widely considered to be the most effective sensory technique, it involves spreading out small streams of water throughout your surroundings. By running Mana through these streams, you'll be able to tell when something comes into contact with them. With a high enough level of mastery, the user will even be able to tell exactly what their water streams comes into contact with. Of course, if you're using this technique to find an enemy, it's useless if your location is in a desert or some other place where water is scarce, it'll be pretty suspicious to see thin lines of water spreading out in an area where water is hard to find. And, I'm done."

She always had this kind of attitude, but she never got called out for it. Well, she was certainly unenthusiastic and unfriendly, but still, from what I had seen over the last few months during these Elemental Magic classes, she seemed to be fairly decent at her job, even if she wasn't actually trying to be.

"Keep all the knowledge you've learnt today in mind, not just the facts about your own Elemental Magic type, but the others as well. Adventurers typically have to fight monsters, but it's not uncommon for them to come up against other Adventurers and have to fight them. The more you know about your opponent and what kind of abilities to expect from them, the better your chances will be. That'll be all for today, dismissed!"

That about covers that day.

Come on...think. What else can I recap, I didn't want to face reality in the present just yet! Studying sucks so much. Oh! There was something else I could recap...

This had happened about three weeks ago, it was towards the end of our combat training classes.

"Kuro, I am curious about something, where did you learn that fighting style of yours? I am not familiar with it, I have just never quite seen anything like it," Instructor Dile inquired, walking up to me.

Oh, boy. There was no way my fighting style existed in this world, considering that it had been invented by the assassin who had raised me, and as far as I knew, I was the only person he'd ever taught it to.

It wasn't completely original, having taken and combined a lot of inspiration and moves from a bunch of different martial art techniques, but it emphasized instinct over discipline, making it very unorthodox and difficult to read.

"Oh, uh...I'm self-taught, it's a mix of different styles I've mimicked, it doesn't have a specific name or anything," I replied, trying not to say anything that would make him dig into my non-existent backstory.

"Hmm, interesting. Though it is a bit hard to believe...well, you do seem to have a natural aptitude and talent for hand-to-hand combat, I suppose."

Whew, he bought it.

"Uh, thanks, I guess. Actually, mind if I ask you something, Instructor?"

"Hmm? Very well, it's the job of an educator to answer the questions of his students, after all."

"O...kay. Well, anyway, I was wondering about your Anima. During the entrance exam, you were able to make your physical mutations more prominent at will. Is that something that can be learnt, or something that you either can or can't do?"

"Oh, I would have expected this to have been taught in Professor Tolsh's classes? Well, it is called a Retractable Anima, it used to be known as Anima Evolution, but that was soon considered to be an inaccurate description. And it is not something that can be learnt or taught, a very small fraction of people are able to retract their Animas at will. And let me clarify one thing, it is not that I'm making my Anima stronger, I'm just returning it to its original state. See, in my current state, I'm actually suppressing my Anima's physical mutations. Instructor Tabbs also has a Retractable Anima, her arms can turn from a normal humanoid shape to bat wings. Retractable Animas are quite rare, I would say no more than five percent of people in the world have them...historically they are more likely to develop in females than males. Besides that, it seems to develop at complete random, though there are cases where some have developed Retractable Animas when put under high levels of stress. Does that answer your question?"

That was pretty interesting, and if I'd known about it before, I'd have asked for a Retractable Anima. Damn, not-God really left out a lot of details before reincarnating me. Though, I don't know if I'd had gone for it if it meant that I'd have to pick between it and my Healing Factor.

"Oh...yes, sir. I appreciate the detailed explanation."

That ends that recap.

...

...

"Hey...wake up! Seriously, you're left alone for five minutes and you go to sleep!?"

I blinked groggily and opened my eyes.

...wait, what had happened?

Had I just fallen asleep after getting overwhelmed by studying and then dream-recapped some random events?

"Are you listening, Kuro!?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening...alright fine, I'll study, I guess. You're being way too loud, by the way."

Well unfortunately, I was awake now, and I had run out of events worth recapping. The next time we meet, it'll be after my exams are over.

It had been nice to escape reality for a bit, but now...I had to fucking study.

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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.