CH 28

Chapter 28 – The birth of an arcane warrior… Lol

Once the meeting ended, I returned to my usual spot, the 3rd class of the 3rd grade. I sat down on a desk, heaved a sigh, then decided to forget all my problems for the time being.

For now, it’s time to choose my skills! Please give me some cheaty overpowered skill, Auditory Hallucination!

–Choose the reward for the ‘Terminator’ achievement.

Oh yeah, there was this thing. The achievement I got when I killed a bunch of zombies with the ‘Song of the Death God’… What is available for it?

–Level Booster

–Skill Booster (Fighting)

–Skill Booster (Magic)

I don’t really know what they do by looking, but they seem interesting… Description, please.

–Level Booster is a small glass ball that you may break to instantly gain a level.

–Skill Booster (Fighting) is a small glass ball that you may break to gain the effects of the ‘Martial Arts (Advanced)’ skill and of the ‘Special Move I’ skill for five minutes.

–Skill Booster (Magic) is a small glass ball that you may break to gain the effects of the ‘Fire Magic V’ skill, of the ‘Water Magic V’ skill and of the ‘Thunder Magic IV’ skill for 5 minutes.

Wait a minute… Magic? D-did I just hear the word ‘Magic’?

“Re-repeat it please!” I told the Auditory Hallucination.

–Level Booster is a…

“N-no! Just the last one!” I exclaimed.

–Skill Booster (Magic) is a small glass ball that you may break to gain the effects of the ‘Fire Magic V’ skill, of the ‘Water Magic V’ skill and of the ‘Thunder Magic IV’ skill for 5 minutes.

It really is magic… “Hey, uhn… Is Fire Magic like… That you’d say ‘Fire’ and then a fireball would come out!?” I asked, but there was no reply…

Still, this really is magic… I started running and jumping around the classroom in joy! It’s magic! It’s really magic!

Sure, the skills are amazing alright, but this is magic that we’re talking about! I’ve always loved being an arcane warrior in games, even if they tend to be less efficient than pure fighters or pure mages, there’s just something special about them… And now the Auditory Hallucination is saying that I can become one too!? This is amazing!

I can imagine meeting the giant pig mentioned by Mr. Norio and just burning him to a crisp with a gigantic fireball, and then making a barbecue with it later on… That would be so cool!

It’s decided! I can’t turn back now! Arcane Warrior is the only way to go!

That said… How do I get magic skills? I should definitely be able to use them without the consumable, since there were even multiple tiers for it shown.

Let’s think carefully about this… I took out a notebook and a pen, then started scribbling the skill tree I know of, and what would be the possible ways it would branch out.

_Sword Technique:

__Known Skills:

___Beginner, Intermediated and Advanced levels.

___Auto Maintenance, Super Maintenance and Perfect Maintenance.

__Future Skills: Unknown.

_Martial Arts:

__Known Skills:

___Beginner level.

__Future Skills:

___Intermediate, Advanced levels.

___Special Move I, Special Move II, etc.

____As the skill booster mentioned ‘Special Move I’, it’s safe to assume that there will be more levels of it as I increase this skill.

_Hunger Resistance:

__Known Skills:

___Weak Level.

__Future Skills:

___Medium, Strong Levels.

_Healing:

__Known Skills:

___Natural Healing on Weak, Medium and Strong levels.

___Skin Strengthening.

__Future Skills: Unknown.

I filled my notebook with this information while being far more enthusiastic about writing something than I had ever been back when I was going to classes.

So well… Which of those skills would be more likely to branch out to the Magic Path?

I made more scribbles and theorycrafted for a while, until I eventually decided on what will I choose for now.

I can’t be sure that I made the right choice, so I might end up getting a skill that won’t get me to my goal… However, all skills are useful in one way or another, so even if I don’t get the Magic just yet, the skills points I spend won’t be wasted.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to move forward, “Please give me the Level Booster.” I said.

–Item is being supplied.

A golden glass ball appeared in my hand.

Ignoring it for now, I focused on the next things that the Auditory Hallucination said.

–Please choose the skill you want to acquire.

–Sword Technique (Advanced)

–Perfect Maintenance

–Martial Arts (Beginner)

–Hunger Resistance (Weak)

–Natural Healing (Strong)

–Skin Strengthening

As expected, ‘Sword Technique (Advanced)’ really was there. I don’t plan on taking it just yet, but I decided to check its effect regardless.

–Sword Technique Advanced will make you as good with a sword as someone that spent their whole life training in a kendo dojo.

My whole life? That would be eighteen years… I suppose it can’t be helped that the number is this high when considering that the ‘Sword Technique (Intermediate)’ skill made me as good as someone that trained for ten years.

Nonetheless, this is not my goal for now. I don’t want a sword skill, I want magic! Let’s choose a skill which will hopefully open a path to a brighter future!

“Give me ‘Hunger Resistance (Weak)’!” I exclaimed.

–Skill effect is being applied.

–Please choose the skill you want to acquire.

–Sword Technique (Advanced)

–Perfect Maintenance

–Martial Arts (Beginner)

–Hunger Resistance (Medium)

–Select a Magic Skill

–Natural Healing (Strong)

–Skin Strengthening

I started laughing out loud. I did it! I did it! I can’t believe I got it right on the first try! Even though I’m usually calm, I just couldn’t stop laughing!

After a few seconds like that, I took a deep breath to calm down.

To think that choosing Hunger Resistance by elimination was the right choice, that was quite lucky.

I quickly disconsidered the Sword Technique and Martial Arts paths because they seemed to be the very opposite of magic, so I looked at the other options.

The Healing tree was a likely candidate, but I already had two levels in it and didn’t unlock anything related to magic, so… Hunger Resistance was the last option.

I didn’t expect it to lead me to magic right away though. I first thought I’d get some survival-related skills, like learning how to make fire, or extract water, and even eventually generate electricity, but… I got something much better than that.

This is definitely my lucky day, “I’ll select a magic skill.” I happily said.

–Please choose which magic skill you wish to acquire.

–Fire Magic I

–Water Magic I

Oh my? Just fire and water? The Skill Booster was also going to give Thunder though?

Well, Thunder was of a lower level in the Skill Booster, so maybe it has an extra unlock requirement for it.

For now, let’s check the effect of each magic skill.

–Fire Magic I: Allows you to use magic by casting a spell.

–Water Magic I: Allows you to use magic by casting a spell.

That’s disappointing. I was hoping to learn how powerful they were… Guess there is no choice other than acquiring it and finding out then.

“Give me Fire Magic I, please.”

–Applying Skill Effect.

“Wait a minute! I want more!” As I exclaimed this, I threw the Level Booster on the ground. I’m not going to keep the strong items with me until I reach the final boss, let’s keep those strategies for games only.

As the glass ball broke, a white smoke rose and enveloped me.

–Congratulations! Your level has risen!

–Please choose the skill…

“Fire Magic II!” I exclaimed, not waiting until the Auditory Hallucination finished speaking.

–Applying skill effect.

Huh? I don’t feel as big of a change as I felt when I got the Sword Technique skills… Well, I did get some knowledge on how the magic worked though.

For now, I just whispered, “Fire Magic I.” a small flame appeared on the tip of my finger, “Whoa!” It’s really magic! Real genuine magic!

I don’t care if the output is smaller than what I thought it would be! This isn’t a trick, but actual magic!

I happily ran around the classroom while turning the fire on and off, playing with the magic a bit. By doing this, I ended up finding out that I can actually decide on a keyword to active the spell. There are no restrictions for the keyword, so for Fire Magic I, I decided on the English word, ‘Fire’.

And now… “Fire Magic II” I exclaimed. A fist-sized fireball appeared on the palm of my hand, “Wh-whoa-whoa!”

It was a bit scary to see it suddenly appear like that. I didn’t know how to manage a fireball that big, and I was worried that I might start a fire if I lose control of it, so I ended up throwing it out of the window, towards the ground.

It instantly disappeared when hitting the soil, but it left a burn mark there… Amazing.

… A bit too dangerous to use indoors though. Let’s practice at a safer place later on, somewhere that nobody would see.

As for the keyword, I’ll go with the English word, ‘Fireball’.

And just as I finished deciding that, I heard a knock on the door. I quickly recomposed myself, since I didn’t want people to see me look as flustered as I was just now, then told whoever was outside to come in.

The ones behind the door were Rintarou, Ritsuko and Asuka.

“We’re gonna go eat dinner now. You coming?” Rintarou asked.

“Yes, gladly.” I answered.

However, just as we were about to leave the room, Rintarou suddenly sniffed, then asked, “Senpai, did you burn something here?”

“No, how would I!?” I instantly replied. My voice was way louder than I wanted it to be though.

“Well, I’m just smelling something burnt.” He said.

“I think you’re just imagining things!” I wanted to say it calmly, but I was still panicking so much, that I couldn’t help exclaiming it… Guess I’ll just be glad I didn’t stutter.

“Well, I guess that’s fine then. Let’s go eat then! I’m not giving up my shrimps to anyone!” Rintarou exclaimed, then we left the classroom.

That was scary. Rintarou truly has a terrifying sense of smell.