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Chapter 35: Club (2)
“Wow! They're generous.”
Back at the dormitory, Baek Yu-Seol took out the check tucked inside the certificate, and his mouth instantly dropped open. He hadn't expected a reward of a whopping five million credits.
"It's been a while since I've eaten beef."
It wouldn’t mean much to rich people like Hong Bi-Yeon or Hae Won-Ryang, but it was a great reward for poor people like Eisel and him.
‘How many chickens can this buy?’
He had been earning a decent allowance through weekend hunting, but it wasn’t enough. This sweet bonus significantly lifted his spirits.
In addition, that was not the end of the stream of rewards for this incident.
'The necromancer's force vessel.’
Force vessels, also known as a second heart, were objects every necromancer created. Only magicians who dealt with spiritual forms could create it, and with necromancers’ recent rarity, it was a difficult item to come by. Baek Yu-Seol had received a completely mana-drained force vessel.
He had planned to demand it even if they didn’t give it to him. The 12 other students who participated in the battle were most willing to give him the lion's share of the rewards.
He found that unnecessary, so the spoils were distributed among them.
‘This is enough for me.'
The most important thing in this world was how to carry items. Baek Yu-Seol planned to equip many items in the future, and he couldn’t afford to be weighed down.
Therefore, he intended to create a subspace with this force vessel. Although he currently lacked the materials and technology, in the near future, with Alterisha’s abilities, it would be more than possible. Of course, to achieve that, he would have to solve the unsolved problem eventually.
‘I'll deal with that soon enough.’
Next, it was the reward received from the System.
[Episode 4 'Attack of the Necromancer' has been completed.]
[You have acquired a large amount of experience!]
[Due to your unique development of the story, Constellation Project promises additional rewards.]
In the game, Ma Yu-Seong single-handedly defeated all the necromancer's skeleton soldiers.
After destroying the soldiers, he even took down the main body on his own.
Baek Yu-Seol hadn’t done that. Instead, he had teamed up with the other students present to repel the necromancer with minimal damage. It was quite an achievement, even by his own standards.
‘It’s not surprising that the constellation or whatever is offering additional rewards.’
[List of rewards]
[1. Downgraded version of an item used in the game.]
[2. Downgraded version of a skill acquired in the game]
[3. EXP]
“The same rewards again?”
He wasn’t complaining. He was starting to realize his lack of strength, so these rewards were exactly what he needed.
'What should I get?'
Even if he chose downgraded items or skills, they would eventually recover to their original power as he cleared more episodes and accumulated narrative power. However, that would take too much time.
Most importantly, he had just realized how weak he was. It would be too late if he relied exclusively on time. He needed strength now.
‘I am too weak.’
That was one thing he realized anew while dealing with the necromancer.
It was a necromancer who was exhausted from forcibly summoning six elite skeletons. If it was Hong Bi-Yeon or Eisel at that time, they wouldn’t have dragged the battle for so long.
What if it was Ma Yu-Seong? He might have knocked down the necromancer in a single blow.
However, that wasn’t the case for Baek Yu-Seol. He had struggled all day against a weakened opponent.
'It's no use trying to be the same as everyone else. I have to get ahead as much as possible with the knowledge I have.’
It was still too early to receive the item. Right now, his priority was Mana Leakage Delay and Flash.
Strengthening Magic Leakage Delay would enhance his raw stats and attack power and extend his limited lifespan, which could result in his death before graduating from high school.
But he had a few ideas on how to strengthen Magic Leakage Delay, so he could pass on that for now.
What was left was…
“Use the EXP to upgrade Flash.”
[Reward processing.]
[The EXP required for the skill [Flash] is met, and the rank is raised.]
[Flash]
[Class: 2]
[Maximum range: 12m]
[Maximum number of charges: 3]
[Cooldown: 3 seconds]
The maximum number of charges had increased to three. The distance didn't increase, but that was enough for him.
‘It doesn’t matter much anyway.’
'Can I use Flash more freely now…?'
Just as there was a big difference between one and two charges, with the effect of three, tremendous synergy could be created.
He had been worried that the skill wouldn’t rank up as a reward, but fortunately, the experience for Flash was almost full.
'This is enough.’
With this new flexibility, he turned his thoughts to the next issue.
‘Eisel wasn’t in a good state.’
Originally, Eisel grew up through all sorts of hardships and adversities, but it seemed that the necromancer incident had shocked her significantly.
As he never read the original work, Baek Yu-Seol wasn’t sure how Eisel overcame such events. In his memory, things were just as bad, if not worse, in the original story.
But he had no intention of leaving Eisel alone.
'Now that the charge has reached three, I can put my ideas into motion.'
To find a way to increase Eisel’s low self-esteem.
The way to do it was surprisingly simple. All he had to do was give her a little bit of help so that the terrifying talent she didn’t know existed in her could bloom.
And that time was to come sooner than she thought.
Early morning.
Eisel swam in the dreamy world.
She seemed to be hovering in the air.
It didn't feel too bad. A cold wind blew and brushed past her cheeks. As she tried to hold the tip of the wind with her fingertips, it became entwined one by one like a skein of thread.
'Something is wrong.'
It felt as if something was stuck inside her. Eisel subconsciously tried to force it out again and again.
The feeling of being stuffy was letting up.
Eisel continued to struggle until the very end.
‘Eisel, wake up!’
At the sound of a voice in her head, she suddenly opened her eyes.
She hurriedly looked around her and saw the students sitting in a cross-legged position and meditating just like her.
And in the middle of it, the professor of Meditation to the Abyss, Farhel, was staring at her.
'Ah... Did I fall asleep?’
Since the meditation subject started in the morning, sometimes she dozed off like this. However, the professor often remarked that meditation was never about sleeping.
A translucent butterfly flew past Eisel's ear, conveying Professor Farhel’s voice.
“Student Eisel. How could you use magic during meditation?”
‘... Uh?'
With that said, she raised her eyes upward.
Indeed, a lone icicle hovered in the air, not far away from her.
She had cast magic without even knowing it.
'Oh, when...?'
It was the first time she had witnessed something like this. Moreover, it was even stranger that the other students didn't notice it in the first place.
“Eisel…?” Professor Farhel urged through her familiar. “If I hadn't woken up and discovered it, we would’ve been in big trouble. Come on, undo the magic.”
At those words, Eisel hurriedly canceled the magic.
Suddenly, she realized the implication behind the professor’s words.
'Even the professor didn't know I was casting magic...?'
Mages would react sensitively to even the slightest wave of mana. In the first place, there was always a loud commotion when creating a magic circle.
For some reason, goosebumps ran through her body.
No mage had ever experienced anything like that before.
'Could it be... Is this also the effect of meditation?'
Baek Yu-Seol had recommended it, so she was curious about it. She was initially doubtful, but to her surprise, the effect wasn’t only good; it was amazing.
The other students may have appeared to be asleep or lost in thought, but whenever they emptied their minds and meditated, their concentration power rose at amazing speeds and their casting speed rose correspondingly.
Today was even more surprising. She just imagined the magic and didn't even calculate the magic formula, yet the outcome was a complete magic circle.
In this case, it was possible because she had a perfect understanding of the magic skill in question and was only using simple Class 1 magic, but…
‘Amazing.’
No, it wasn’t just amazing, it was groundbreaking. Magic progressed at a faster rate if one didn’t sit beside a desk from dusk till dawn and memorized magic formulas.
If she had studied normally, would she have been able to witness this level of achievement? No, it was absolutely impossible. There was a limit to growth through study.
Suddenly, she remembered Baek Yu-Seol, who had recommended this subject.
Could it be that he knew this fact and recommended meditation? But didn't he believe that the ancient way of fighting was better?
'... I don't know.’
Eisel’s mind was a mess, and she couldn’t even concentrate on meditation anymore.
Ding! Dong!
When the lecture was over, the students rushed out in groups.
Eisel was alone.
“What do you want for lunch? I heard a new lunch menu is coming out today.”
“Ah, cheesecake and pasta with lots of red sauce.”
“I’ll have that too.”
"Let's go!"
Lunch hour.
Eisel did not head to the lunch room. She found that the menu didn’t provide value for money.
Also, she was very poor.
The canteen, on the other hand, was cheap and inexpensive. Her favorite food was mini-cup noodles, which only cost 990 credits.
Sometimes, when she felt depressed or happy, she treated herself to red bean buns which cost 1,200 credits.
Today was a better day than usual. She caressed her thick purse, and her cheeks turned red.
Five million credits. For some students at this school, it was possibly the price of one meal, but it was a very precious and reliable sum to her.
Eisel couldn’t believe she was holding five million credits. She remembered the days when she starved while picking corn stalks to pay for her entrance fee. At least she didn't have to worry about the cost of food now.
For that reason, she would have a very special lunch.
“...”
As she lingered for a while in the frozen section of the store, Easel found what she just wanted to eat.
Red bean cream bun. It was an expensive item costing 1,500 credits each.
Rumble!
She grabbed it and her hand shook as she tried to place it on the counter. She supported her trembling hand with the other, and after forcing herself to do a quick calculation, she hurried out to an outdoor table and ripped open the wrapping paper.
‘How long has it been since I’ve experienced this kind of extravagance?’
Eisel gulped down her saliva and was about to open her mouth wide, but someone suddenly came to her mind.
From being able to achieve a breakthrough with her meditation to surviving the evil clutches of a necromancer to being able to defeat a dark demon as a first-year student and receiving 5 million credits as prize money…
It was all thanks to Baek Yu-Seol.
With that thought in her mind, she stopped holding back. She took a big bite of the bread into her mouth.
In an instant, all anxiety evaporated.
'It’s sweet...!'
She mixed the sweet red bean with creamy paste, and the feeling of happiness instantly doubled.
'I have to do my best in the afternoon too!'
Having devoured the red bean bun with almost military efficiency, she stood up vigorously and stretched herself.
Suddenly, a voice came from beside her.
“How are you, Eisel?”
Eisel stifled her yawn in surprise and jumped back. "Wh-Wha-What's wrong?!"
Jeremy Skalven laughed lightly as if he was having fun.
His sparkling smile was not masculine, and it had a hint of pureness and cuteness that made her heart flutter.
'Eh, Prince Jeremy...?'
He came one step closer. “Eisel. Have you joined any club?”
“No, I don't have one.”
"Really? That’s just about right.”
‘Hmm? What?’
Her head wasn't working properly, and as Eisel stood still in a panic, Jeremy said with a refreshing smile, “Then why don’t you join our club?”
It was a pretty—no, incredibly—tempting proposition to Eisel.