Ch. 292 - League of Spirits (8)

The League of Spirits team at Stella Academy trained in a state-of-the-art environment, received guidance from professional coaches, strategic analysts, and a comprehensive medical system.

Given that Stella consistently produced the world’s top players, this level of support was to be expected, but few teams in the world had access to such a system.

Perhaps only the royal family’s ‘Team Phoenix’ of Adolevit’s or the ‘Emperor Goldens’ of the Skalven Empire could be considered comparable.

“Have you gathered the information?”

Stella’s LOS professional track freshman.

2nd-year professional LOS student, Ga Yu-Rin.

Unlike the magic warriors who were ranked from classes F to S, other magic users didn’t have clear classes because they didn’t need to be categorized in the same way. However, if the LOS division had class rankings, Ga Yu-Rin would undoubtedly be at the top of the Class S.

Just as Ma Yu-Seong and Eisel were called geniuses among magic warriors, Ga Yu-Rin held that title among the LOS players.

“The Flame team?”

The coach, who had just returned, looked tired as he put down the chart.

“I’ve analyzed them.”

“Tell me.”

Ga Yu-Rin's tone was curt, and the coach frowned slightly but kept his composure.

“Well, they’re unusual. Very unique and interesting to watch.”

“Are they a threat to me?”

Ga Yu-Rin narrowed her eyes as the coach slid the chart over.

“No. Not at all. They’re just unique, but they’re not a match for you. Want to see for yourself?”

“Of course. My judgment is always more accurate than yours.”

The chart contained detailed notes on Flame’s team’s strategies, combat power, movement routes, styles, magic trees, item builds, and metas.

"Hmm..."

Ga Yu-Rin first checked Flame’s profile.

Her magic tree focused on light and plant-based magic. It was somewhat unconventional, but not particularly remarkable. There were other players in LOS who used even stranger forms of magic.

“Baek Yu-Seol is a bit strange, though…”

“The strategy team is already working on a counter. They said they could develop a complete item build to neutralize him in 30 minutes. He’s that easy to deal with.”

This made sense because Baek Yu-Seol always relied on monsters around him to activate his items. His item effect required him to land ten hits with his sword, but no enemy would stand still and let that happen.

Additionally, Baek Yu-Seol lacked any magic to restrict enemy movements and relied entirely on his items. If his Flash ability was neutralized by area control magic, he could easily be countered.

“Baek Yu-Seol isn’t really a concern. The real problem, as you might expect, is Ma Yu-Seong.”

“Hm…”

Ma Yu-Seong, who dominated the mid lane with impenetrable defense and fiery offense, was certainly impressive, even on an amateur level. His item build was standard, and his tactics seemed to have been borrowed from current players, though he had adapted them into his own more refined style.

But that was it.

While Ma Yu-Seong had the potential to grow into a great player, for now, he was still just a rookie.

Even their victory against the level 12 AI was thanks to Baek Yu-Seol’s suicidal gambit.

It was almost laughable.

“They're nothing but trash, not worth worrying about.”

“But don’t let your guard down. Something about these kids feels off. Especially this Baek Yu-Seol…”

"I’ll judge that for myself."

Ga Yu-Rin cut off the coach’s words before heading to her practice room.

“Ha…”

The coach sighed, running his hand over his forehead and shaking his head.

“I’d rather see Flame’s team beat Ga Yu-Rin…”

The undefeated prodigy.

Ga Yu-Rin was a genius who had never experienced a single defeat and dominated in every match. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that no one among the teenage amateur players could challenge her.

That’s why the coach was concerned.

She didn’t know fear because she had never lost.

‘Ha, good grief.’

The idea of Flame’s team defeating Ga Yu-Rin?

That was absurd, beyond team dynamics.

Flame’s team wasn’t even on the same level as her.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

The coach shook his head again, tossing the chart aside. He didn’t think he’d ever need to look at it again.

On Saturday, Flame’s team finished their practice after a total of five matches.

Against the level 12 AI, they had 2 wins and 3 losses.

Although they won two consecutive matches, the last three were spent experimenting with different item builds and strategies, so no proper team fights occurred, and they ended in defeat.

In truth, their first win came from Ma Yu-Seong's solo play, and the second from Baek Yu-Seol’s self-sacrifice. It would be fair to say they were lucky to win two out of five matches.

Sunday passed, and Monday arrived.

They didn’t practice on Sunday.

The reason?

Baek Yu-Seol strongly insisted that they take a break on weekends. After all, they weren’t professional players living and breathing LOS, so Flame immediately agreed. She, too, wanted to lie down and take a nap on Sunday.

“Do you know how humans move? They move through muscles. For muscles to contract and relax, they need oxygen and nutrients.”

The professor’s obvious question was excruciatingly dull to Baek Yu-Seol. He absentmindedly scribbled in his notebook. He had given up on studying a long time ago anyway.

In his notebook, he had written down LOS strategies and item builds from past Korean players he had read about, along with details of upcoming episodes and the Twelve Divine Moons.

“Humans breathe to supply oxygen and consume food, which is digested and converted into energy that circulates through the bloodstream to the entire body. This is why you feel weak when you're hungry and why you get out of breath after doing something strenuous.”

“Now, here’s the question: Do skeletons and zombies experience the same metabolic processes?”

Skeletons and zombies are undead—bodies that no longer function yet move. It’s quite the paradox.

How do they move without muscles?

“In response to that, dark mages have used dark magic to replicate muscles and the nervous system. They used dark magic to simulate the body's complex systems, which is quite impressive. But as mages, we must never praise them.”

As he looked around the room, the professor lowered his voice.

“However, their techniques were valuable enough to copy. The idea of replicating the body’s structure with magic was something unimaginable to the mages of that time.”

This was all too boring for Baek Yu-Seol, who let out a loud yawn.

Dark magic could do things that typical magic couldn't. There had been efforts to steal that knowledge, but they had failed, leading to the development of other new techniques. That was the gist of it.

“The dark mages had advanced magic that we couldn’t take, but we mages weren’t far behind. We learned to replicate muscles with mana…”

From the professor’s tone, it was obvious that he was praising the dark mages. Anyone could tell—this professor was a dark mage himself.

He was also relatively new, having only recently infiltrated Stella Academy.

The fact that he was so blatant about it was surprising. It was only a matter of time before Flame or Eisel caught him, beat him up, and Elthman Elwin appeared to finish him off and turn him to dust.

Ding-dong!

Soon, the bell signaling the end of class rang, and Baek Yu-Seol stood up immediately, packing his notebook and books before quickly leaving the classroom.

“Uh, um. Please summarize this topic for next time!”

Once most of the students had left, the professor hurriedly packed his books and rushed out of the front door, chasing after Baek Yu-Seol, who was already far ahead.

“Wait, Cadet Baek Yu-Seol. I need to talk to you.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Baek Yu-Seol’s tone was sharp, knowing that the professor was a dark mage.

“Ahem, well… Professor Raiden asked me to pass along a request to you.”

“Oh…”

Baek Yu-Seol remembered. Not long ago, he had agreed to do Professor Raiden a favor in exchange for helping Anella transfer to Stella.

It was a formal agreement, bound by a ‘Legal Oath,’ which, while one step below a ‘Mana Oath,’ couldn’t be broken.

What’s a legal oath, you ask?

It’s similar to a contract in the real world. If broken, a mage would face the dishonor of being arrested or fined.

Though it seemed like a trivial matter, Raiden held the prestigious position of a professor at Stella, and breaking a legal oath was not an option for him.

Violating it would mean resigning from his position as a professor at Stella.

The same applied to Baek Yu-Seol. If he broke the agreement, he would be expelled, so it was necessary to keep his promise.

“Sure, but you know I won’t accept unreasonable requests. I’m not about to do something crazy for a mere student’s transfer.”

“Professor Raiden understands that. You're not doubting his judgment, are you?”

The professor seemed to have great faith in Raiden, but Baek Yu-Seol couldn’t care less.

“Yeah. I totally doubt it.”

The professor’s face briefly hardened, but he quickly cleared his throat and regained his composure.

“Anyway, this is the ‘request.’ Please make sure you fulfill it.”

He handed Baek Yu-Seol a note and quickly disappeared down the hallway.

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Baek Yu-Seol unfolded the note.

“In the League of Spirits intramural preliminaries, promote the ‘Maorun White Team’ to represent the academy.”

Normally, asking a student to do something like this would be absurd, but Raiden clearly had a different perspective.

Raiden believed Baek Yu-Seol wasn’t just an ordinary student, and that if he wanted, he could manipulate the tournament results in any way he pleased.

“Maorun White… I’ve heard of them.”

If he recalled correctly, they were a team made up of dark mages. In the original story, they were defeated by Flame’s team. As for the exact details, he couldn’t remember how or where it happened.

“This won’t be difficult.”

If the request had been more complicated, he might have refused. But since this was a team destined to lose to Flame’s team anyway, he didn’t mind promoting them.

Besides, match-fixing was something Baek Yu-Seol had a lot of confidence in, having grown up in an era of manipulation. He was 99% sure he could pull it off, as long as some lawyer specializing in gaming didn’t randomly get involved.

“It’s uncomfortable to help dark mages… But.”

There was no choice.

Fulfilling Raiden’s request perfectly was important.

This wasn’t just about Anella’s transfer.

Baek Yu-Seol didn’t fully believe that Raiden could guarantee Anella’s transfer to Stella.

In the original story, Raiden had managed to transfer students, but only because those students were dark mages.

Still, if Raiden failed, that would work in Baek Yu-Seol’s favor. He would have done the favor, and Raiden would owe him compensation but would find himself unable to deliver.

In other words, Raiden intended to put Baek Yu-Seol in his debt, but it could easily be the other way around.

‘I feel bad for Anella, but…’

For now, she could stay under the protection of Jeliel’s Starcloud Trading Company or ‘Skyflower Cradle’.

‘Since she looks so young, she can just enter next year as a new student anyway.’

Imagining how happy Aunt Anella would be, excited to be a year younger, Baek Yu-Seol couldn’t help but feel pleased himself.

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