Chapter 33:

Chapter 33:

Grade S.

It was given the modifier conditional, but even considering that; it was an incredible rank. Abel blinked for some seconds. Although extremely happy, he couldn’t help but feel that this was too much of a reward for his actions. No matter how nice Scarlett is, she wouldn’t have given him such a massive reward for no reason.

‘Let’s check out the content first,’

Abel thought as he shook his head, and then he looked up to see exactly what ‘conditional’ meant because it seemed like the only way to understand his current situation. As he stared at the message, a detailed explanation of conditional immediately came to mind.

[This breathing method is incomplete. You must acquire the Optirum Breathing method to get the full effect.]

[Individual grade is B.]

“Ah.”

Abel read the message and nodded in understanding. This was because he had experienced similar situations in games before.

“This must be the first half.”

Special visions and breathing methods often came in multiple volumes. Naturally, they could not be fully mastered by mastering just one book, but only when mastered, can it show its power. In other words, what Abel currently had in his hand was Volume 1, and what he needed to obtain was Volume 2. Abel thought for a moment and then spoke.

“Acquire.”

The moment he said it.

Woooossh-!

The book’s pages flipped frantically, and a blue light emanated. Abel felt unfamiliar knowledge flooding into his mind. It was similar and different to acquiring a skill, the awakening of previously unknown knowledge was identical, but the vastness of it was beyond comparison. It was like having an entire book literally slammed into your head.

“Arrgh...”

Abel shuddered and grabbed his head. His head felt hot like it was overloaded. At this rate, he wondered if his brain would melt. Part of him wanted to scream but couldn’t, so he just gritted his teeth and held on.

“Ugh...”

Abel had been holding on to this pain for a long time.

[Acquisition complete.]

As soon as the message appeared, his headache melted away as quickly as it had come. Abel blinked, dumbfounded by the temperature difference.

‘Is it over?’

He thought for a moment, remembered an easy way to check it, and tried it out. He thought of the book’s contents, and the results were immediately known. The contents of the book he hadn’t even read yet popped into his head.

“So this is how it works.”

Abel wiped his face; this wasn’t an experience he would want to repeat, but there was a good chance he would have to try the same thing in the future.

‘Let’s just check it out and then get some rest.’

Part of him wanted just to lie down and sleep. However, he needed to check how far the book’s content led. Abel dug into the knowledge of the book in his head and was able to conclude shortly after.

“It’s not completely out of context.”

The Optirum Breathing Technique Scarlett had handed him was a self-contained breathing technique, meaning that if he mastered this, he would have no problem building up and using mana.

‘Maybe the Count didn’t even know there was another volume,’

Which wasn’t so strange. The first volume of the Optirum Breathing method was rated a B. It looks very low compared to S, but B was not a low grade. If an S grade was considered unheard of in an entire continent, then a B grade was considered unheard of on a kingdom’s scale. Instead, it was even more strange that the breathing method used by the marquis families of some kingdoms was of the S rank.

‘Thinking about it, there’s a chance that they weren’t an ordinary Marquis family in the first place,’

Abel looked at the book again, determined to research the Marquis of Optirum later. After analyzing the knowledge in his head, he realized that Volume 1 felt more like a ‘foundation.’

“I don’t think I will be needing volume 2 right now.”

“Yeah. At the very least, they’ll make sure everyone is proficient at running before they start combat training.”

“Oh... Yeah. I guess so.”

Daniel nodded, admiring the plausibility of Abel’s words. It had to be done like that. That’s how the curriculum worked in the game, after all.

‘The initial challenge is to master the controls through running, while simultaneously increasing your operational time.’

There were a lot of cadets who had been training for weeks and still couldn’t hold a gigant for 30 minutes. Since it’s a special class, they are all cadets who are among the top three in their respective classes. So they were ahead of every other cadet and even had practical classes. The regular class would be stuck on running for a while. While having a conversation, the two eventually arrived at the field.

“May!”

As soon as they arrived, Daniel called out to May while waving his hands. May, who had dozed off in a corner, looked up at the sound of Daniel’s booming voice, then closed her eyes again. Daniel didn’t seem to mind being openly ignored as he ran over and started talking to May. Abel wondered if Daniel’s greatest weapon wasn’t his physical strength, but his mouth. Fortunately for May, it wasn’t long before Karl, the instructor that would be conducting the lesson arrived.

“Are all of you here?!”

Karl exclaimed loudly upon his arrival, drawing attention and scanning the cadets.

“...Eight, nine, ten. Good, you’re all here, then I’ll get right to the lesson. Do you all remember what I said last time?”

“Yes!”

“Good. It’s nice you still remember. Starting today, we’re going to start our operational training in earnest. Probably half of you will have to crawl around after today’s class.”

Karl smiled broadly and said vicious words without a care in the world, and it was only natural that the faces of the cadets turned paled, knowing fully well that he never minced words.

“Now, make sure you’re all ready before the gigant arrives!”

With that, Karl turned to look in the direction of the warehouse where the gigants were being brought out. In the previous classes, the gigant had been piloted one by one by seniors or teaching assistants, but now they were being transported separately. It made sense, since there were now a lot of personal gigants. One after another, gigants arrived, and were all ready for the number of cadets

“Now then, I’ll tell you about today’s training,” Karl said with an even more sinister grin than before.

‘He looks like a conspiring gorilla.’ Abel looked at Karl with that thought in his mind.

“The first exercise we’ll do will be running,”

Abel already knew that.

“But it wouldn’t be fun to go running on the first day, would it?”

The cadets didn’t answer because, in Karl’s view, anything fun was likely difficult for an average cadet. However, Karl, who was already excited, continued to speak.

“So I have a specially devised training for you! It’s called catch the tail!”

“Cath the tail?” One of the cadets asked impatiently at the unfamiliarity of the word, which made Karl even more excited to explain.

“The rules are simple. Three of the cadets start with a tail, and the other seven of you try to steal the tails of the three cadets. What do you think? Sounds like fun already, doesn’t it?”

This time there was no answer. Then Karl smirked and spoke the words of conversion.

“Of course, there is a reward. The three of you with the tails at the end will be taught a special technique I’ve devised. How about that?”

The words were ambitious, but he still didn’t get any response, until he continued.

“And it will be taught during the physical training session, which means you will be exempt from physical training while learning it!”

The moment he finished. The eyes of every cadet lit up.

[The quest ‘Karl’s disciple” will begin!]

[Captivate Karl’s heart with your overwhelming skill!”]

[As a reward, you will receive a physical skill of rank A or higher.]

And that was the same for Abel.

[To be continued.]