Chapter 26: 1st Week Duel Battles (4)

Chapter 26: 1st Week Duel Battles (4)

It was late at night.

Song Cheon-hye comfortably settled on the chair in her room with her pajamas.

She browsed the student store while slowly spinning left and then right on the rotating chair.

She paid 200 points and two of her replay crystal orbs landed in her hands.

[Kim Ho 300 Yang Ji-hong 300_Duel Battle_1st Week.replay]

[Kim Ho 330 Yang Ji-hong 270_Due Battle_1st Week.replay]

Song Cheon-hye had watched Kim Hos placement test.

And throughout, he had endured the magical onslaught of Hong Yeon-hwa, only to release a single hummingbird in the end.

[Hummingbird] was a spell not exclusive to the Topaz Magic Tower affiliates and could be learned by outsiders.

The reason why the Topaz Magic Tower overlooked this is because although it was easy to learn, it was extremely difficult to master.

It was, after all, a low-rank spell that was unlikely to be useful even if mastered. So it was left as a challenge by the Topaz Magic Towe as if to say, Go ahead, try it.

Thus, Kim Hos adept handling of the hummingbird naturally piqued her curiosity.

Coincidentally, he was to be her next opponent in the placement test, and she had intended to experience his skills firsthand.

I forfeit.

Lets say you won.

But the man had excused himself with the lame excuse that he wasnt feeling well.

She tried to persuade him, but he seemed disinterested in both victory and score.

Regardless of the criticism that he lacked the mindset of a hero, her curiosity about the hummingbird spell still lingered.

However, there was not even the slightest chance that Kim Ho, who had a score of 300, and she, who had a score of 900, would be matched to fight in a duel battle against each other, so she resorted to watching replays like these.

His opponent in the replay was Yang Ji-hong who was a warrior spearman.

She remembered him as her second opponent in the placement test.

It was right after Kim Ho had rejected her challenge, and perhaps, in a bit of a rage, she had exerted more force than necessary.

Her memories of Yang Ji-hong ended there.

Now, it was time to examine the content of the match between Kim Ho and the other guy.

With a fluttering heart, Song Cheon-hye fixed her gaze on the crystal orb.

As she started playing the replay and began to focus,

Uh?

the match was already over.

The moment it began, Yang Ji-hong charged, got hit by a hummingbird, and fell into paralysis.

Unable to move, Yang Ji-hong was mercilessly beaten by Kim Ho, and that was it.

The second match followed the same pattern.

There was a brief attempt by Yang Ji-hong to dodge, but he quickly got hit by a hummingbird in the back and it ended.

The two replays combined didnt even last a minute.

Too short, and ridiculously so.

My 200 points

She felt as if shed been duped by false advertising.

To think he took 200 points for just showing this! How could he have no conscience?

It was like a bag of chips filled with more air than actual chips!

While Kim Ho, who had done nothing wrong except save the replay, was being criticized, the crystal orb continued to replay it over and over again.

?

Song Cheon-hye who had been watching with a blank expression on her face slowly began to show a flicker of interest in her eyes.

At first, the spell seemed no different from her own hummingbird, but the more she watched the battle, the more she felt a mystery about it that was difficult to express in words.

What was it?

She held the crystal orb for a long time, replaying it dozens of times with focus, but still couldnt pinpoint the essence of this mystery.

It was like a novice admiring a masters technique, sensing its greatness but unable to grasp what exactly made it remarkable.

In fact, she started to feel a mental strain; each time she read the trajectory of the hummingbird, her mind seemed to grow more numb.

Yet she felt she was on the verge of understanding and couldnt stop herself.

Around the time her mind was about 80% numb,

Can I do it like that too?

Song Cheon-hye cast a spell almost unconsciously.

Structural formulas appeared in the air, electric currents converged, and a hummingbird was formed.

It wasnt appropriate to treat a student of Dragon Slayer Academy carelessly, and probing without clear evidence was the exact opposite of his style.

So the conclusion came full circle and back to the starting point.

At the moment, Lee Soo-dok had no choice but to continue observing.

To complete a puzzle whose outline was still not fully revealed, more pieces needed to be collected.

The replay analysis seemed set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Tsk.

Since he wasnt particularly thrilled about it, Lee Soo-dok clicked his tongue briefly.

Why was he making life difficult for himself this year?

Involving himself in an ill-fitting role as a teacher, and he was even diligently watching replays because of a suspicious student.

It seems all the human butchers in the world are dead.

Sudog Lee thought about that and turned off the screen.

The replay crystal orbs were also removed.

***

[Activate Amplification]

[The Magical Engineering rank increased. (B->S)]

[Duration 00:01:13]

[Cooldown 00:49:13]

Chwalalalalak

A glowing blue hand moved at incredible speed as it touched different parts of the cube.

With each touch, the arrangement of the thousands of tiny cubes shifted ceaselessly.

Click, click

Gradually, the hand manipulating the cube began to slow down.

Instead, each movement became more deliberate and precise.

Carefully scanning the cube,

And at the moment when the final piece was placed.

Whoom

The cube trembled and resonated.

Even as I stopped my hand, the cube continued to assemble itself, its interior emptying out, ultimately transforming into a small box with a lid that could be opened and closed.

After the box was completed, an intense green light began to surge from inside and various plants sprouted and bloomed through the small gaps.

The plants quickly covered the entire cube and it now looked as if it had been made from interwoven tree branches from the start.

Its complete.

[Cube of Life (B)]

The Cube of Life had only one effect.

It amplified the effects of life type items stored inside it by 1.3 times.

For example, if the basic effect of [Healing Totem] was heal allies within range every 10 seconds,

placing the totem inside the cube would reduce the time to 7 seconds and increase the healing amount.

[Processed Emerald] had the effect of increasing wood-type magic,

and storing it in the cube would apply a 1.3 times multiplier to the increase.

So, a 20% increase would become 26%.

Furthermore, as long as the boxs capacity allowed, multiple items could be stored, making it an almost cheat-like item.

Even this was somewhat inferior to the S-rank Cube of Life obtained by taking the normal route and clearing all of the chain quests.

The S-rank increased the multiplier to a whopping 2 times.

The cube I created was a forced completion of a prototype design, which is why both its rank and effects were somewhat inferior.

But even that was sufficient.

Even 1.3 times is huge.

It was an item potent enough to cause a stir at Dragon Slayer Academy.

In particular, it would make the four major powers drool in desire.

Whichever club I took it to would likely easily offer a season pass in exchange.

Fulfilling my promise to Go Hyeon-woo would be no issue with this approach, but,

Thats not enough.

I had no intention of being content with exchanging it for just one season pass.