Chapter 314
The technology inside the Academy’s virtual battle room is beyond imagination.
Buildings and monsters made of mana. But they’re not just an illusion, they can deal direct damage to you.
Each monster’s features, attributes, and even personality have been calculated to create a kind of artificial doppelganger.
Of course, the equipment was geared towards gaining ‘experience’, and for the sake of the stability of the equipment and the user, its power is only about 70% of what it should be.
In a word.
“Not for me.”
This means that if you’ve already gained enough experience, it’s just a hunting ground.
‘I just fought real spirits not too long ago.’
Crackle──!
With one hand, I crush an approaching low-level fire spirit and smash it to pieces.
“Ugh……boss, that reminds me of the old days.”
“Old times?”
Throwing the spirit that oxidizes into light and laughing, Jin-woo replied.
“When we first went to catch goblins with the boss, remember? Back then, seeing you smash those goblins, I thought it was no joke. I was impressed twice over.”
“Cut the crap and get in position. Act like you’re in the real world. If there are spirits in the city center, there’s got to be a crack somewhere.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll cut the crap and check it out!”
Just as I was looking at Jin-woo, who was climbing a building and checking the heights.
Kuung──!
Jin-woo, who was climbing up the wall, was smashed into the wall.
The bird that crashed into him was a whirling bird, an Intermediate Wind Spirit.
“Ji-Hyun, is this really…….?”
So far, there were three types of spirits: fire, earth, and wind.
Considering that only one type of spirit usually appeared in a dungeon, it was clear that Ji-hyun had copied it with the Spirit Kingdom in mind.
So, you’re going to give me the experience of fighting real spirits?
“Uh, what should I do?”
“Jin-woo, I will take care of it, you just stay in formation and keep moving forward, smashing anything that comes your way.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Jin-woo burst out of the wall and grabbed the creature that had pinned him down by the throat.
Then, using the spirit’s power in reverse, he shoots up the building at high speed.
Jin-woo’s control is stronger than the spirit’s.
For a wind spirit, he was the perfect predator.
“Boss, I see a hole up ahead on the boulevard where the spirits are coming out!”
Jin-woo’s voice came from overhead, and it wasn’t hard to act once I knew the location.
“Marie, sweep it out.”
“Yes!”
Following Marie’s command, countless golems began to rush forward.
No matter how strong the opponent is against physical attacks, they can’t help but be blown away by the asphalt golems’ physical attacks.
After a storm of massive mass sweeps through
–! –! — –! –! –!
I slip through the gap between the disintegrated golems and begin to close in on them.
My Tommy gun breathed fire for the first time in a long time, and with each breath, the remaining spirits were cleared away.
The other children drew their own weapons, energizing them as they moved forward.
I turned my head to look in the direction of Young-jae’s team.
Another point of this battle was to keep the commoners unscathed.
His team was composed mostly of mages, with a wide range of abilities to match his command and enemy attacks were intercepted, and gaps were pierced with quick spears.
His buildup was methodical and uncomplicated.
This allowed them to protect the general population from the Elementals’ attacks, while also controlling their own extensive attacks so as not to cause too much damage to the surrounding area.
Truly, a future Elemental Conductor.
“Eugene, there are too many spirits!”
Marie’s voice came from behind.
The golems that were acting as tanks in front of them began to crack one by one, and their speed began to decrease.
“Isn’t there something wrong with this difficulty?!”
“Seriously. If we do anything wrong, we’ll all be eliminated!”
Even I thought it was a bit of a weird difficulty level, it’s too much for even the heroes in the field.
What the hell is going on?
-Ah, microphone test! Microphone test! Are you all playing hard enough? You seem to be having a hard time, so this angel instructor is going to help you out a bit.
A voice came from the sky.
-Time to pass on some tips from the instructor! Spirits are pretty mean, especially if there’s a single intelligent entity in the group, and they like to let the lesser spirits run amok.
-What’s the best way to deal with them, especially if there’s an intelligent entity around? Immobilize them or blow up the being that controls them.
That’s pretty much it.
That’s why, in the past, I’d planned my way through the Etna volcano by ignoring all the lower-level entities.
-But what do I mean, “immobilize them”?
-It’s not a tip you’ll hear everywhere, so take it to heart. Even if they’re low-level, they’re still spirits. They’re affected by the magic around them, so what happens if all the magic around them suddenly disappears? That’s it for today’s hints, everyone!
Ji-hyun’s voice breaks off.
“It’s all going to fall apart soon!”
Marie controls the golems with a scowl on her face as if she didn’t care about the broadcast. The other children are furiously slicing through the spirits trying to escape through the gaps in the golems.
As the formation is gradually being breached, I try to think as hard as I can and recall Ji-hyun’s words from earlier.
What would happen if all the magic around me suddenly disappeared……
“Jang Hyuk, use the most powerful magic you have at your disposal right now. Do you think you can do it?”
“……What, suddenly?”
“We’ll stand guard while you get ready. Can you do it?”
“No, if you ask me if I can, of course I can, but……the strongest?”
“The strongest.”
“As long as it doesn’t harm the general population.”
“I can’t guarantee it, but……I’ll try.”
With that, he moved to Marie’s side and began to chant, raising his sword, which he used as a substitute for a staff, high in the air.
And then.
-Creek──?!
The spirits’ movements began to change as they realized that the magic around them was unusual.
The atmosphere was shaking from the sheer magnitude of the magic being sucked in.
And as if that wasn’t enough aggro, the spirits all began to rush towards this direction.
“Eugene, something doesn’t seem right.”
“Is this it?!”
The other children, including Marie, panicked as the spirits became even more ferocious than before.
“If you’re scared, get behind me.”
I step forward, Tommy gun and shotgun in hand, and the others slowly follow suit.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to lose with Eugene.”
“Uh, I’m counting on you, Eugene……!”
After all, I have to be a good person, and even if I don’t say anything, everyone believes in me.
-Krah-rah-rah-rah!
-Kwaang──!
Eventually, the golems are defeated and I take a shotgun blast at the one that came inside, and it bursts into flames and disappears.
“Let’s go.”
Spirits begin to swarm in from all directions.
Fire spirits, earth spirits, wind spirits, they were all pushing in from the sky and the ground, and the sheer volume was terrifying.
The only reason we were able to hold out was because Marie had completely sealed off one side with her new puppets, while my firepower pulverized the rest of the area.
“Jang Hyuk! How much longer?!”
“Thirty seconds!!”
The more the magic in the air raged, the more aggressive the spirits became.
And finally.
-Crunch?
All the spirits stood still.
“Get down!”
Jang Hyuk’s sword glowed red and bright as he swung it downward.
Boom───
It was a huge ball of magic power that was too big to be a sword.
I haven’t seen that in a long time.
It was the technique that would later become Jang Hyuk’s trademark.
‘Hack and Slash’.
Originally, the term means to cut and slash, but in his technique, has another meaning.
It’s a nuclear bomb.
It’s a tactical unit skill that absorbs all the magic in the atmosphere, so its power is beyond imagination.
────Kaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
As its name implied, a huge explosion erupted along the trajectory it had cut, and even the aftermath of the explosion swept away all the spirits in the vicinity.
“Mass exodus! Hold on!”
All the spirits paused for a moment, then raced forward along the still-scorching floor.
“Boss, this way!”
Jin-woo, still on the building, points in one direction and waves his hand as hard as he can.
“You found it.”
Among the pausing Lesser Spirits, a figure looks around, panicking.
A pure white veil wrapped around its body and a faint breeze swirling around it, it was an advanced wind elemental.
This must be the entity commanding these guys.
……What kind of crazy person would summon an advanced wind spirit against students?!
“Jin-woo, come down and join us!”
“Okay!”
Jin-woo immediately leaped off the building and glided towards the creature.
In response, the guy stretched out his hand to stop him.
Kwaang──!
The creature’s body shook as I fired a shotgun full of aura at it.
……I was going to give him a good shot, but I didn’t expect the surrounding wind to reduce the impact.
Even if it’s only 70% implemented, it’s still an advanced spirit and it would be hard to catch it from a distance.
“RATCHA!!!”
Jin-woo made contact with the creature before I did.
Kiiiiiiiing──!
His attack was unfortunately blocked by the wind shield that the creature had spread, but Jin-woo used his bloodline ability to slowly push his dagger in.
The dagger slowly pierced through the wind barrier.
“Boss!! Emergency, super emergency!!”
He suddenly yells at me.
“She’s so pretty! What am I going to do?!”
……what a fucking asshole.
He must have seen the spirit’s face, because he starts blurting out nonsense.
“Shut up and hold on tight!”
While she’s blocking Jin-woo’s attack, I gather aura in my fist and stomp towards her.
Kuung───!
As if sensing me, a strong wind blows from the front.
Deciding that it would be too difficult to approach the creature on the ground, I activated my spirit energy, slipped into the shadows, and jumped on its back.
“Jin-woo. Get out of here.”
Jin-woo’s expression turned to horror as he saw the lightning bolt from my hand.
“Bo, boss, you can’t be──”
I say.
“Black Heaven Thunderbolt.”
If she’s wrapped her entire body in wind, I’ll just have to use an attack that can pierce through it.
My aura, in the form of a lightning bolt, begins to dig into the creature’s entire body, as if to tear it to shreds.
-───!!!
The creature lets out a soundless scream and flails about.
It doesn’t disappear immediately, but it’s still a high-level spirit.
“That hurt like hell!”
It was Jin-woo who delivered the decisive blow.
Despite being told to run away for fear of being caught in the force of the Black Heaven Thunderbolt, he was still holding out his arms at a distance.
“Boss deliberately used it against me!”
He activated his Bloodline ability, scattering the creature’s shields as much as possible.
It worked, and the high-level spirit fell to her knees and disappeared.
At the same time, a mechanical voice comes from the sky.
-Announcement. The boss has been captured. Announcement. The boss has been captured. We will end the simulation.
Suddenly, the spirits covering the area disappear and the buildings begin to glow.
“Hiya! It’s our class! I was counting on our class to do it!”
Ji-hyun is running toward us, clapping her hands.
What’s with this sudden change in difficulty from the first class?
The kids approached to protest and she pointed to a giant monitor on one of the walls and said.
“I bet our class is going to be number one for a while.”
Where she pointed was a record of the battle.
[Story: Elemental Invasion]
[First place overall. Class A]
[Time: 23 minutes 51.021 seconds / Normal casualties: 0 / Monsters defeated: 324 / Elite mobs defeated: 1]
Not only the time, but also the number of monsters killed.
Even to me, that’s an overwhelming number.
“I heard that the academy gives out a special prize for first place. Are you thanking this instructor?”
At that moment, the faces of the kids who were approaching the instructor with anger changed in an instant.
“Oh, if there’s such a thing, why didn’t you tell us?”
“What’s the prize, huh?”
“Money or elixirs?”
Public opinion changed in an instant.
I nodded my head in agreement.
…First place deserves recognition. Ah.
As expected, our instructor is the best.