-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Student cafeteria.
As Davian returned, a large number of students flocked to him.
Of course, at the center were Nubes, Luna, Bellum, and Bonita.
Davian was still scattering pure white snowflakes.
"Beautiful... so this is a spirit's aura. You said it was an ice spirit, right? Can I touch these snowflakes, Davian?"
Bellum scolded Luna, who was staring blankly at the snowflakes.
"Hey, Luna. Is the spirit's aura being pretty the problem right now? Davian made a contract with a high-level spirit! Seriously. Is there anything you can't do, Davian?"
Having said that, Bellum snapped his fingers as if he had remembered something.
"Ah. You're terrible at swordsmanship, that's right. Okay. There is something you can't do, Davian."
Davian ignored Bellum's last words and asked, "Guys, does anyone know anything about the first king of Erium?"
At that moment, a male student's voice came from behind Davian's group.
"Erium Alcancia. The first king of the Alcancia Kingdom. A hero among heroes who unified the entire continent and founded the Alcancia Kingdom in an era when the continent was divided into many factions and wars never ceased."
After speaking, the student naturally stepped into the middle of Davian's group.
Bellum asked, "Who are you?"
Davian thought, 'So there are still kids Bellum doesn't know...'
"Me? I'm Liber. Liber Specula. As my surname suggests, I am from the Specula family, which owns the best intelligence agency on the continent. My motto is 'Information is power.' Do you know why Emperor Mariano was able to win the continental war? It's information, information."
Bellum spread his hands upward and shook his head.
"What's this guy talking about again? What a unique character. I asked who you were, and suddenly you're talking about Emperor Mariano?"
"Haha. Let's get back to the story of the first king. The best storyteller in the academy, Liber, will tell you the story of Erium Alcancia. Ta-da!"
Liber hunched his shoulders and deepened his voice.
"It's already a thing of the distant past, but when he appeared on the battlefield, ice rain fell from the sky. Pitter-patter. The sound of the ice rain hitting the ground alone was enough to make the enemies tremble in fear."
It was indeed an introduction that would arouse curiosity in the listener.
Davian's group was gradually drawn into Liber's words.
"Erium Alcancia used a long, transparent sword. The sword was so sharp and hard that it could cut through knights and horses in full plate armor like slicing meat. Unless it was a particularly good sword, no one would even think of clashing with Erium's sword. It could cut through even the thickest and heaviest two-handed longswords like cutting tree branches."
Bonita interjected for a moment.
"I've heard about that sword too. But isn't that just a legend? It's already been over a thousand years."
"What are you talking about? If that's all legend, then what about the Alcancia Kingdom we live in now? What about the history we've learned? It's not a legend. It's all true."
Liber hunched his shoulders again and deepened his voice, switching to storyteller mode.
"But war was not so easy. Even Erium, who was called invincible, was sometimes on the defensive. Ta-da! And every time, the ice spirit Glacie appeared with the blizzard."
Luna blinked her big eyes and asked, "Glacie! Is that the spirit Davian contracted with earlier? The one Professor Shirims bowed to."
"Probably? You saw the professor's expression earlier. Anyway, the ice spirit always appeared whenever Erium was on the defensive. When Glacie appeared on the battlefield..."
"Appeared?"
Liber's hunched neck straightened again. His voice also became lighter.
"They won. The army led by Erium."
"What! Is that it?"
"Yeah."
Nubes barely stopped Bellum from grabbing Liber by the collar.
"You! You made us all curious!"
"What can I do if I don't know? For some reason, it's hard to find books that describe the battles after that. It only says, 'Glacie, the close friend of the first king of Erium Alcancia, appeared with the blizzard. When she appeared, the tide of the battle was reversed in an instant.'"
"I thought he was just a boastful guy, but he's just a bland boastful guy?"
"What? A bland boastful guy? What do you think of my information network? Okay, wait. I'll definitely find a document that records what happened when the spirit Glacie appeared. There must be relevant materials in the Elton Academy's library."
Bellum patted Liber on the shoulder.
"Okay. I'm counting on you, boaster."
Two days later. Saturday morning.
Before they knew it, the first week at Elton Academy had passed and the weekend had arrived.
Weekends at Elton Academy are relatively free.
On weekends, students can freely leave the academy without a special outing permit.
Some students use the weekend to go out to Elton City and enjoy free time such as shopping, while others devote themselves to personal training within the academy.
"Bonita! Welcome."
Bellum greeted Bonita with a bright face.
With Bonita's arrival, Davian's group was complete.
Davian, Nubes, Luna, Bellum, and Bonita. The five of them gathered early in the morning on a secluded hill inside the academy.
The four who had arrived earlier were carrying large backpacks, and Bellum picked up the remaining backpack on the ground and handed it to Bonita.
"Why are you so late, Bonita?"
"I came exactly on time. You guys came early."
Bellum took out a magical pocket watch.
The clock showed exactly 7 o'clock.
The time they had agreed to meet.
"I guess so. Ugh, you're so inhumane. Bonita, why do you keep time so precisely?"
"Isn't it that you guys are wasting time? I'm on my way from finishing my early morning training."
Bonita was using every minute of her life at the academy.
"Amazing... anyway."
Davian said as he took out a pre-made scroll from his pocket.
"Come closer. Let's go."
Bonita looked at the scroll and asked, "Where did you get that?"
"I made it."
"Made it? A warp magic circle scroll? You?"
"Yeah."
"I guess there's a reason you became the representative of the male students. You're pretty good at magic, huh?"
Davian didn't answer and just chuckled as he tore the scroll.
A magic circle made of light was drawn under Davian's group's feet.
The white light emanating from the completed magic circle enveloped the five of them.
A moment later.
The five of them moved to the Alsace Forest where they had taken the entrance exam.
The place where Davian and Luna defeated the Hydra.
Perhaps reminded of the shock of that day, Luna unconsciously grabbed Davian's arm next to her.
"Eek!"
Nubes let out a short scream and curled up his large frame, clinging to Davian's back.
Bellum looked at Nubes with a dumbfounded expression.
"Hey, big guy. Are you hiding behind Davian right now? You can't even hide right now."
"It actually looks so big and scary."
"Its heads are all cut off already, what's so scary about it?"
"I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat... and I'm not good with grotesque things."
Bonita crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.
"What's with this big guy who can't even live up to his size?"
A spectacle unfolded before Davian's group's eyes.
The huge body of the Hydra and the two hundred and fifty or so heads scattered in all directions.
Five days had passed since the entrance exam, but the Hydra's corpse had not decayed at all.
Bellum asked, "Is this the Hydra you guys defeated? It's huge. But why is it in such good condition? The blood spilled on the ground has already dried up."
Davian answered, "The Hydra's corpse doesn't rot even after a month. And the regeneration stems connecting the heads and necks remain in the same condition for nearly a year."
Bonita showed an interested expression for the first time in a while.
"Regeneration stems?"
"Yeah. They're the stem tissues extending from the regeneration glands below the main body's neck. The core organs that instantly regenerate heads into two."
"Hoo."
Looking interested, Bonita approached a Hydra's head nearby and looked at the cut surface.
"It's big, but it looks like a normal snake's head section. Even if you cut it, it keeps popping out?"
Luna, who was clinging to Davian's side, answered in a trembling voice.
"Yeah, it's super scary. Two of them pop out at a time and spew out breath with a 'krrraaa' sound."
"It's quite amazing."
Meanwhile, Davian drew his rapier.
A rapier is a sword with a thin and long blade suitable for thrusting attacks.
However, it wasn't that the blade was completely absent.
Although it was much thinner compared to a longsword, it was the same in that there were sharpened edges on both sides.
"I'll give you a demonstration, so watch carefully. Bonita, Bellum, Nubes. This is what you guys will be doing today."
Davian plunged his rapier into somewhere in the center of the Hydra head section that Bonita was looking into.
"See here? Right in front of the neck bone. Stab the sword deep into here. And then..."
Davian moved the rapier, cutting out the center in a circle.
"Okay, did you see? Cut it in a circle with this depth and thickness."
He grabbed the center of the circularly cut part and pulled it out with force in one go.
A pillar-shaped piece of flesh that he had cut out with the rapier was pulled out.
This time, he took out a dagger and carefully split the center of the pulled-out flesh.
Then, a green, long tissue that was inside revealed its shape.
Davian completely separated the green tissue from the flesh and lifted it up.
"This is the regeneration stem."
As Davian shook it, the regeneration stem, which was not limp but had elasticity, moved languidly.
"Luna and I will make elixirs with this. Top-grade tonics. One pill per stem."
Bonita, who had been carefully observing Davian's actions, straightened her back and looked around.
"You were really planning to make 250 of them."
"That's right."
"We need to hurry."
Although she didn't know as much as Davian, Bonita had heard about the elixir made from the Hydra's corpse.
A high-end elixir that is said to show a huge increase in stamina with long-term use.
Bonita drew the rapier she was wearing on her waist.
She flew her body as it was and plunged the sword into the Hydra head section next to her.
Concise and uncluttered movements.
Following her, Bellum also drew his sword and moved towards the head he was going to work on.
Only then did Nubes reluctantly step forward and draw his sword.
Holding a rapier with that size made it look like he was holding a thin skewer instead of a sword.
The three swordsmen began the regeneration stem extraction work, and Davian headed to Luna with the first stem he had extracted.
He took out a wide and thick steel tray from the backpack he had placed on the ground.
It was a tray that he had specially asked an assistant in the magic material production practice room to borrow, and it had fire-attribute-limited protection magic cast on it.
Whoosh!
A red flame burst out from Davian's hand and covered the tray.
It was a flame equivalent to a 4-star mage.
Comments
Post a Comment