Chương 102: Chapter 101

The Headmaster looked at Vice Principal John, then back at the report the man had just brought him.

"Are you sure?"

"Headmaster, you know I wouldn't waste your time." The Headmaster- a man who went mostly without a name, for names were powerful, and he came from a time where magic wasn't just trapped in Skill Crystals- nodded slowly.

"Set up a Special Quest for them."

"Headmaster!" Vice Principal John's eyes widen.

"That would be a terrible idea. They're far too young and inexperienced!"

"John," the Headmaster says, "if there are hordes coming up from the depths of the earth, it means the Generation of Legends has already started awakening some of the real monsters of this world." The Vice Principal frowns in response.

"You can't be thinking that The Cult are starting to act?" While there are many cults scattered across the world, there's only one so terrible that anyone with real power knows who they're talking about when their name is mentioned.

"These monsters are one of the signs that precede their resurgence. At least we know that the Generation of Legends' effects are starting. We're facing a new, golden era. And this batch is… somewhat special compared to previous Generations. I have never seen so many Rainbow Skills in a first-year cohort as this."

"Headmaster," Vice Principal John inhales deeply, "I would like for you to wait. I don't want you to send them into a Dungeon Frenzy this early in their learning. I know it's just a Platinum Rank Dungeon, but it is in a Frenzy." Dungeon Frenzies are extremely rare, almost unique states where a Dungeon somehow starts absorbing too much mana, and monsters stronger than they should start spawning.

If the Dungeon is not thoroughly culled, it usually results in a spillage, which can precipitate into a monster horde, a veritable wave of famished, hungry monsters trying to destroy and eat everything in their path.

"Should we organize an Incursion into the Great Dungeons?" the Vice Principal continues.

"The Cathedral of Steel, and—" The Headmaster shakes his head and slowly gets up.

"I've made up my mind, John. I'm going to be away for a few days confirming the information. You're in charge for now." Vice Principal John almost freezes at that. The Headmaster leaving the Academy is a big deal. He very rarely deigns to check out something in the world personally. Plus, he carries so much power that his movements in the world always cause various kingdoms and empires to become anxious.

Few people are not monitoring him by any means possible to ensure that they're not going to be one of the Headmaster's next unfortunate victims.

"Are we sending all of the Champions?" Vice Principal John asks as he sees the Headmaster rifling through piles of priceless artifacts. The Headmaster casually leaves such powerful relics out in his office, as if they were just common junk to him. As he examines a wand that could probably blow half of the Citadel up if handled poorly, he shrugs and throws it back in a pile, making John shiver in response.

"John, can you remind me again of what the Generation of Legends is?" The Headmaster asks quietly, dangerously.

"A collection of ten Champions from the Academy who passed the test together and are bound by great karmic—""John. Is it the Generation of Legends, or is it merely Half of the Generation of Legends?" When the Headmaster turns from his relic sorting, a little smoke comes out of his nostrils.

"I'm very sorry, Headmaster. Sometimes, I fall into old habits of worrying about the wrong things. I apologize." The Headmaster nods and opens a window, pondering the best route to reach his destination.

"Headmaster," John coughs.

"Sir, may I ask, what about your chores? Are we adding these days you'll be away to the total? Because my bathroom has yet to be—" Before John can receive a reply, a strong gust of wind pushes him back, and when he opens his eyes, the Headmaster is nowhere to be seen.

"The old man really hates paying out his lost bets," John mutters and sits at the Headmaster's desk, looking at the enormous pile of paperwork he left behind.

"Of course, he left me an ungodly amount of work for me again." * Everyone in the classroom looks nervous on my behalf as I wipe the blood away from my hand and smile at Professor Veythra. From the murmured conversation I hear around the room, very few expect me to have any chance at winning this challenge. And I don't even blame them, honestly. Under normal conditions, I wouldn't bet on me either.

If I only had the Grimoire to rely on, I would already have doomed myself by accepting such a bet with a Royal Infernal. Fortunately, the Grimoire is only one of two aces that I have kept up my sleeve. Leveling up a Gold Skill as complex and intricate as Minor Enlightenment should have required months, even for me. It should have been hard, excruciating, and frustrating. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Instead, it was just extremely painful.

"You may begin. You can try as many times as you'd like for the next hour, Cloud," Professor Veythra says.

"Would you like me to repeat the instructions? You might have forgotten the circuit already."

"He's done for," I hear someone say from the back of the Class -Zibrek, the Goblin girl.

"It sure is a difficult one, I'm not going to lie," Boomgar turns toward her and nods.

"But ya shouldn't be this negative. It's going to make your face all ugly and wrinkly!"

"The mana schema the Professor crafted only seems easy to circulate," Asterion speaks for the first time today, making several people turn toward him.

"If she had waited a year, I don't have any doubt that Jacob could have won. But now, the Professor has seized her moment. It's still far too early for him to triumph."

"Jacob is very capable," Kai shoots back, "true, he may not be as talented as the rest of us, but he did pass the Champion's trial. I think you're massively underestimating him."

"He has no business even attempting something like this," Iskara comments, then smiles.

"That's why I believe he'll make it." When Professor Veythra hears her own niece supporting someone who had given such a grave insult to their race, she turns her sharp gaze on her Niece, making Iskara flinch. To be honest, they're not wrong. Even if they knew I had a Rainbow Skill, they would have never predicted me passing this test at all. If I didn't also have King Baalrek supporting me, I wouldn't feel even remotely as confident as I do now.

"I don't think I'll need that many attempts," I say innocently.

"You showed a really easy pattern, Professor. I take back what I said earlier, you must like me if you're going to dote on me like this. I am so thankful for the opportunity to receive such a precious Skill Crystal and private Tutoring from you." Now, even those who personally like Jacob stare at him as if he has lost his mind.

"Maybe he ingested something poisonous? Someone speculates""Something poisonous? Maybe it actually replaced his brain. We should open his head up after he loses; we might find some rare mushrooms up there."

"You think we'll find mushrooms? I think there's only sawdust between his ears. Just look at him. How can he be so sure that he'll win? I wouldn't even be that sure—" Before the spectators can continue, I start circulating my mana. The mana pathways are redundant, from the specific veins they hit, I can feel they're somehow going through the same veins I use for my Class and Infernal Skills.

With the room darkening and my body's veins lighting up under Professor Veythra's Skill effect, I can feel a satisfied smirk growing on the woman's face.

"Well, well, well. You've made progress since I last saw you, Cloud. I can see that Minor Enlightenment is really showing its value if you can already channel like this. It's impressive, really."

"Thank you, Professor," I say, breathing deeply as I finish the first part of the mana circulation pattern and start moving onto the second.

"But you should know that it becomes exponentially harder as you proceed. You've only completed one of the five sub-channels. It's impressive you could do it this fast, but the pressure it exerts is not even a tenth of what you're about to—" Professor Veythra cuts herself off midway through her speech when she sees that the mana has already reached my spine and is smoothly gliding back and forth through my veins without stopping for even a second.

"Huh, you must have practiced longer than I gave you credit for. You have completed the second sub-channel, but just know that the third—" I exert more control over my mana and start speeding up, feeling pressure building in my veins. I crush the third movement without the slightest trouble. In fact, I've improved my speed and control compared to the second and the first, which shouldn't have been possible unless I was holding back. Which I was, I think to myself as I look at the Professor.

"How did you do that?!" Professor Veythra's red skin pales.

"The third movement is much harder to complete than the previous two. It generates the kind of pressure that—""My master left me a few exercises, Professor," I say.

"His guidance may not be as precise as yours, but his knowledge is truly boundless. Among Infernals, I don't know many that would be able to rival his theoretical knowledge around Skill pathways. And it just so happens that he had already instructed me to practice roughly the same veins and pathways you're having me use now." That is all true. King Baalrek had me practice the veins that Infernals use the most, not just random ones. And while his patterns weren't as smooth as Veythra's, there were similarities.

I have to admit, though, I can already feel the mana hitting my veins differently by following Professor Veythra's schema. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I already feel capable of getting a few levels in my Class and Infernal Skills.

"Your schema is honestly amazing," I tell Professor Veythra.

"Your knowledge of mana veins and how to train them is truly otherworldly, Professor." Professor Veythra, despite having her abilities praised, doesn't feel happy. Instead, she looks like she's about to attack me, piercing the space between my eyes with one of her claws. To be completely honest, I can't really blame her.

"Well, this has been a more than impressive display. I'm happy you could feel the extent of my Tutoring capabilities in this exchange, Cloud. Sadly, the fourth and fifth movements are far too complex. Unless you had a Platinum Rank body already, it would take nothing short of perfect control to run through them."

"Oh, how do you know I can't?" I ask innocently.

"Because you don't have the golden glow that comes with reaching the max level of Minor Enlightenment," Professor Veythra says.

"I can see that you've mastered the Skill profoundly enough that you can maintain your focus on the outer world while in a meditative state, but when Minor Enlightenment reaches max level, your skin exudes a golden glow while you circulate mana through it."

"I had heard that," I nod wisely, and then I push my Mana even further, stretching it to the limits of my control, "but you're forgetting another scenario where I could have extremely good control even if I didn't currently have Minor Enlightenment at its max level."

"No, Cloud," Professor Veythra says smugly.

"There's not."

"Technically," Princess Iskara pipes up from the front row.

"If Jacob had evolved the Skill already into a Platinum Skill, that would be one such scenario."

"The true effect of Minor Enlightenment is only reached by having it reach Level 100 before evolving it into a Platinum Skill. If he was so foolish as to not wait for Level 100 before doing that, he wasted one of the rarest Gold Skills that not even money can buy."

"Or," I say, "I did that and I'm currently not even using my Skill." After saying that, I take a long, deep breath, and the air around me changes. Small particles of golden dust appear in my vicinity and start swirling around my arms. When I trained with King Baalrek, Lancelot, and the three Elves from my Monster Felling 201 class, I not only maxed out Minor Enlightenment, but I also evolved it using the Crystal Focus Skill that I received from The Crucible, the Elite Dungeon I cleared back in Clearwater.

And since Minor Enlightenment is an Evolution Skill, I now have something that is entirely other than typical meditation skills. King Baalrek said that I was extremely lucky to find a Skill like Crystal Focus, because it merges with Minor Enlightenment perfectly. As more golden dust accumulates around me, I feel with perfect clarity every single vein in my body. My mana, which had started churning under the added pressure from the final movements, becomes as smooth as a heavenly river.

"This is a new Skill of mine, Professor, it's called..."