?
Life in the Academy was more lively on weekdays than on weekends. Since the students are allowed the leave academy grounds on weekends, most students would either visit their families or would hang out with each other.
After all, considering the range of ages for the students, it made sense that they wanted to socialize with each other. But that was not the case for the weekdays. Almost all of the students would stay on the academy grounds unless special permission to leave were granted to them.
CHATTER CHATTER
That was the reason why the cafeteria was filled with the sounds of chatters. After stepping up into the cafeteria and grabbing a meal, I made my way to the corner table and started eating all alone.
Though at the same time, I was listening to other students talk with each other.
“Hey, have you guys decided which club you’re going to apply for?” At that moment, I heard an interesting topic.
‘Ah, right… Now it is time for the clubs…’ I thought to myself.
“Clubs? Right, one month has passed, hasn’t it?”
Since the Arcadia Hunter Academy allowed cadets to participate in club activities after one month had passed, some cadets would forget about their existence.
“Yeah. What do you think? Which club are you going to apply for?”
Clubs in this academy have a huge variety of ranges. Considering the number of students for each year, it made sense that there were huge numbers of clubs. After all, as the last ranked student, I was ranked 2450, and knowing there were five grades for the academy, there are at least 10k students on this campus, excluding the 4th and 5th rank interns.
“I’m thinking of joining the Combat Tactics Club. They say they focus on honing your strategy and tactical skills. It could be useful in the future.”
Starting from the Combat Tactics Club, strategist monster takedown, there were several theoretical and combat-related clubs out there.
“Combat Tactics Club? That sounds pretty intense. I was considering joining the Elemental Mastery Club. Being able to harness different elements in battle sounds cool.”
“You guys should check out the Adventure Explorers Club! They go on exciting quests and explore mysterious places. It’s like living in an action-packed fantasy world. As a sophomore, I am really regretful that I didn’t choose that club.”
“Hmm…. But I think the Martial Arts Club is the way to go. I’ve seen some of their members in action, and they’re like martial arts masters. Plus, you get to learn self-defense techniques. They even said there was a Master Level Hunter that would come every year.”
“Oh, I’ve heard good things about the Elemental Mastery Club! But I’m leaning toward the Stealth and Infiltration Club. Imagine being like a shadow, sneaking around undetected.”
Then, there were clubs that required more practical skills, just like these.
“Stealth and Infiltration? That’s intriguing, but I’m more interested in the Robotics and Gadgets Club. Building cool gadgets and machines sounds like much fun.”
But that was not all. There were some clubs formed by the engineering department of the academy, magicians, and many others.
The academy encouraged students to join the clubs since, from the statistics alone, they could see the improvement, and that made sense. No matter how serious your education is, every student needs time to refresh themselves, after all.
‘If I am correct, Ethan should be joining the Adventure Explorers Club and Spear Legacy Club.’ Even though in the game the option to join any of the clubs of the player’s choice was given, there were two exact choices in the game player would have to join no matter what.
One was the Spear Legacy Club, where the player would increase their Spear Skills and learn new Movements on their arsenal, and the other one would be Adventure Explorers Club for the sake of opening into the open world and exploring the things that could be shown.
‘But I don’t know what he will choose aside from those.’ I thought. After all, there was no player that was controlling him right now, and even if there was, I had no way of knowing without getting close to him, which I wasn’t planning to do.
A hero-like person was not something I liked.
In any case, the time for the clubs coming meant one simple thing to me.
‘The main events of the game will start soon.’
That was the appearance of the main events. The first month of the academy was basically the tutorial, so there weren’t many events that affected the storyline. But after this moment, things would slowly be turning hectic. 𝑂𝒱xt.𝗇t
Though I didn’t care about what the storyline was about, neither did I care about the main characters.
‘I am going to kill every demon that will appear; that’s it.’
With that thought, I stood up, finishing my meal. There was still quite a lot of time until the clubs started their work, so I only needed to train.
Just as I was about to leave the cafeteria, I felt a stinging gaze on my back, only to see a girl with fiery red hair looking at me with an irritated expression on her face.
“Tch.” Seeing me looking at her, Irina clicked her tongue, though I just ignored her and went my own way.
********
Entering the same shooting range I had used to train before, I grabbed my weapon from the bag.
<Please set the number of targets.>
And the same robotic voice welcomed me.
“Twelve,” I mumbled, increasing the number of enemies.
<Choose your training difficulty.>
<You can choose from stage 1 to stage 9.>
“Stage 2,” I spoke, and soon the lighting went off.
And following that, a bunch of blue-colored insect-type monsters appeared.
‘Then, the only thing left for me is to train.’
With that thought, I recalled the posture of that enigmatic man I had seen in that dream when I got my art. It was imprinted on my brain, and knowing how my trait worked, it didn’t seem abnormal.
SWOOSH SWOOSH
The arrows passed through their skins as I made use of the compound bow’s strength.
“CREEK!”
This time for some reason, the moles shrieked and attacked me with more strength, but I didn’t stop firing the arrows.
‘This is quite fun?’ I didn’t know if it was the bow or it was the feeling of my art, but the more I fired the arrows, the more I felt satisfied.
Just like that, I kept firing arrows, and firing and firing….Until I got tired. After all, it was the time for the training.
SWOOSH SWOOSH
As the training time was about to reach its end, I found myself still surrounded by a few remaining blue insect-type monsters. The adrenaline coursing through my veins urged me to push a little further, to test the limits of my newfound skills.
I drew another arrow from my quiver and nocked it on the bowstring. The monsters were closing in; their glowing blue eyes fixated on me. I took a deep breath, focusing my mind on the lessons from my dream.
‘Keen Eye.’ With my command, the skill activated, showing the weak points of the enemies. And without enhancing my arrow, I released the string.
SWOOSH THUD
Time seemed to slow as I released the arrow, and it flew with deadly accuracy, hitting its target right between the eyes and killing the mole.
But the remaining monsters were quick and agile, swarming around me.
‘Dash.’ Activating my other skill, I felt my speed increase.
I deftly dodged their attacks, my body moving with newfound grace and precision. With each arrow I released, another enemy fell, but more kept coming.
I moved gracefully, weaving through their attacks and firing arrows with incredible speed. The monsters seemed relentless, and my arms were hurting slightly from the constant training I had been doing for almost 3 hours, but I refused to back down. This was something necessary, after all.
SWOOSH SWOOSH
With every arrow that struck its mark, I could feel my confidence growing. It was as if the essence of the enigmatic figure from my dream was guiding my movements.
Finally, the last monster fell, and the shooting range fell silent. My breathing was heavy, and I was covered in sweat, but a sense of triumph washed over me.
<Ding! Stage two shooting training completed. New record: 1 minute 20 seconds.>
The moment the training time reached its end, I looked at my score with a satisfied smile. The number of enemies increased, but the time wasn’t much, even after I was close to reaching my limit.
‘Let’s stop for now.’ With that thought, I left the training grounds, returning to my room since the sky was dark and not many people were on the training grounds anymore, and considering the time, it was normal.
’11 PM. I should get a rest.’
With that thought, I reached my room and completed another painful sequence of body tempering by my potions, and returned to my bed.
‘Right…. There was this book…’ On the bed, the book I borrowed from the library got my attention.
It was the book that was inside the Arcane Arts section.
‘Moonstruck Convergence: A Tale of Celestial Mana.’
Let me talk about these Arcane Arts for a bit first. As you all know, this world has the setting of modern times. There are cars out there, guns out there, computers, and many other things.
The reason for that was the fact that the citizens of this world accessed the mana later than any other race that came after the day of Nexus Convergence. Therefore, they used needed to develop themselves to hold a candle to them since all other races had their own way of using the mana they had developed.
And one of them was named Arcane Arts, where the mana was harnessed in a unique and ancient way. Unlike the modern approach of using mana, thanks to the status window and skills, the Arcane Arts approached the mana differently.
It was more about conveying one’s will to the world and relying on a deep connection with the natural flow of mana in the world. But, this had its own restrictions.
For instance, at the start of the game, while forming your character, if you haven’t allocated quite a lot of points into the innate mana affinity trait, you wouldn’t be able to use Arcane Arts.
It was like, one needed to be talented at using mana at their own will, or at least a type of mana which they had an affinity with.
In the modern approach, you could just learn how to form a spell from a magician by doing the required steps shown on records, but in terms of Arcane Arts, you would be forming your own steps in a way. You would be using the mana on your own accord without a predetermined path, giving you more freedom but at the same time making it a lot harder.
And that required a good connection with mana and a lot of practice to master, which in the end, made the world abandon this disciple. After all, the more people came into the world, the more systematic everything became.
Wasn’t that the definition of Modernity?
In any case, I was intrigued by the unique and ancient approach of Arcane Arts for some reason. And I had nothing to lose aside from some sleeping time, so I opened the book “Moonstruck Convergence: A Tale of Celestial Mana.”
The pages were filled with beautiful illustrations and intricate diagrams that depicted the movements of celestial bodies and their relation to mana, as a bunch of texts started appearing one and another.
‘For some reason, those characters look familiar.’
There were some weird characters that didn’t belong to the alphabet that was used, but I felt like I had seen them somewhere, though I couldn’t remember where.
‘It is strange.’ And it was strange, considering my memory was quite good.
Though, I decided to let these thoughts go as I kept reading the book until the urge to sleep finally came….
———————–A/N————————
Hope you liked the chapter. I am going to post illustrations on the discord soon; you can see the link below.
/XJEgBRM3C