Chapter 22 - Midterm Exam (1)
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▶ Ergency Quest Complete! [Escape] ◀
[Details: Flee or Deal with all three attackers.]
[3/3]
[Difficulty: C ]
[Reward: 200 Points]
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‘200 Points…’
With the addition of the escape quest points, Soren was now sitting at 386 points.
This ant that he was nearly ready to purchase his next skill.
‘What should I get though?’
He had scrolled through the store window many tis at this point, and he was struggling to decide on what he should get.
Most of the skills that were 500 points or under were related to life skills or specific weapons; the only exceptions were ntal skills like [ntal Acceleration] or [Pain Tolerance], so Soren was at a loss.
‘I’ll think about it later, I guess..’
Currently, there were many more pressing matters to consider.
Soren looked down at the piece of paper in front of him.
[Midterm Exam Titable]
The midterms.
In TKS, they weren’t a key event, so it should be fairly simple, but now that this was reality, Soren couldn’t ignore even the smallest events.
‘What should I do?’
Soren’s original plan had been to just coast through his life in Ivansia, being a fairly average student, making a couple of friends here and there; overall, it was nothing special.
However, that plan seed increasingly difficult as ti passed.
Not only was there the brutal combat, but there were also Soren’s family circumstances; it was as if the world was refusing to let him have an easy life.
Of course, he was still planning to avoid the main story as much as possible, but now that he had experienced this world adequately, it was clear that he would have to get stronger, if only to survive.
‘But how?’
That was the tricky part for him.
He could keep doing as he had been doing—light physical training and constantly using magic to raise proficiencies—but with that thod, it would take forever for him to even be able to step outside of the academy city, never mind challenge dungeons.
Soren let out a sigh and called an all too familiar phrase.
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[Status Window]
Na: Soren Arden (1★)
Age: 18
Race: Human
◈ Titles
- Transmigrator (Year 1)
- Stella's Secrets
◈ Unique Skills
- Library of mories
- ???
◈ Stats
Stamina - 0.9 (F ) [Increased by 0.2]
Strength - 0.7 (F ) [Increased by 0.1]
Agility - 1.3 (E-) [Increased by 0.3]
Mana - 1.3 (E-) [Increased by 0.2]
Divine Power - 0.3 (F)
Charm - 8.7 (S-)
◈ Skills
- Life Magic
- Basic Magic
└ Ignition (D) [Increased by 4]
└ Shock (E ) [Increased by 4]
└ Gaia (E ) [Increased by 1]
└ Aqua (F )
└ Shield (F)
- Concentration (E-) [Increased by 2]
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“Hmm…”
It had been a while since Soren had last looked at his status window, and because of that, he was surprised by what he saw.
‘It’s starting to look pretty okay.’
All but one of his stats had crossed Alex’s starting stats of 0.5, and two of them had even crossed 1.0.
Then there was his magic.
‘D rank already?’
He had been using either [Shock] or [Ignition] almost nonstop when he had free ti to raise proficiencies, but he was still pleasantly surprised by the results.
‘It’s still not enough, though.’
It was the 2nd day of the Juniper Sun, aning there were roughly two weeks left until the midterms began.
He wasn’t at all worried about the writing section, thanks to his unique skill, but the practical, on the other hand, worried him.
“Hmm… Wait, can’t I just do that?”
As he rembered sothing he had pulled off in his mock duel against Yuli, he jumped up from his seat and rushed over to the library.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Thud
A pair of thick books was placed on the table in front of him.
[Introduction to Basic Magic] [By Stella Nocturnis]
And,
[Introduction to Divine Power] [By Gabriella Amorth]
They were books that, in reality, Soren should have read a lot sooner, but it was better late than never, he mused.
It was also part of his solution for imdiate strength.
Currently, Soren only knew a handful of basic spells, so of which he never used, like [Aqua], which was a problem for him since he only had a minimal selection of spells to choose from during combat.
During his mock duel, he had discovered that he could easily copy magic circles by simply seeing them, thanks to his unique skill, and that gave him the ability to cast both [Shock] and [Shield], both extrely useful spells.
So what was he going to do now?
‘I’m going to learn all the basic magic.’
On the surface, it might’ve seed like a strange idea to most magicians, as the majority of the ti, a magician will choose only a couple of elents and put all their focus into them instead of trying to learn every spell possible.
An example of this was Felix prioritising earth, plant and barrier magic.
Still, for Soren, who could instantly learn these spells without wasting any ti, there were only benefits in doing so.
It also helped that he was the type of mage who didn’t need to rely on strong spells, so even minor utility spells could find their uses in his arsenal.
As he flipped through the book, though, Soren couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointnt.
“Is that it..?”
In ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱, there were a total of fifteen different elents that magic could be based around, which were: Water, Ice, Fire, Earth, Wind, Plant, Lightning, Gravity, Sound, Barrier, Light, Dark, Blood, Ti and Space.
There was also an exception to the elents called [Pure Mana], but that was such a rare occurrence that it’s not even ntioned at Stellaris Academy.
Ti and space were the domains of the gods, so almost no person in the world could wield them outside of both the Hero, Alex, and the Demon Lord.
Then, blood magic was almost exclusively used by vampires thanks to their natural affinity and the dangers involved for any other species that attempted it.
But the book in Soren’s hands only covered nine of the fifteen elents; even outside of the special elents, it was still missing ones such as light, dark, and gravity.
‘At least there’s sothing new to learn, I guess…’
Though he thought that he still couldn’t help but sigh at the missed opportunities.
If one were asked what the most helpful elent was when exploring, the top answer without a doubt would be light magic.
The reason for this was that monsters were not only naturally nocturnal, leading to most fights taking place at night, but also because the vast majority of monsters, especially undead, were afraid of light, which ant that light magic helped create safe zones for resting.
‘Well, I can just learn it in the future.’
Soren still had no plans to go dungeon diving or exploring as of yet, so he wasn’t too worried.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Thud
Upon finishing the first book and morising the remaining magic circles he had left to learn, Soren brought his attention to the second book.
[Introduction to Divine Power] [By Gabriella Amorth]
Truthfully, it was a book that was sowhat useless for Soren as of now.
The reason for that was, of course, his stats.
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Divine Power - 0.3 (F)
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With a divine power stat of F, it would be stupid to expect anything useful from it, but still, Soren felt that he should at the very least learn all of the basic knowledge for all skill trees since it was well within his abilities.
Even if he struggled to properly heal a wound or cast simple blessings right now, he knew that just having the knowledge to do so would help him down the line.
With that in mind, he started flipping through the pages only to grimace imdiately.
‘Of course…’ He thought as he let out a sigh.
There was sothing Soren had overlooked.
Unlike magic or weapon techniques, where you could easily morise a magic circle or stance, divine power was different; it was power given by the goddesses, and as such, when you wanted to use such a power, you had to pray and, of course, have faith.
The problem was that Soren, soone who had co from a world where gods weren’t proven existences, had little faith. In fact, he had no faith at all as he was an atheist.
Obviously, he was aware that Ivansia had gods, as it had been essentially proven; not only that, but they were also frequently ntioned in the story, and one of them even had official artwork, so he believed they existed.
The problem, however, was that it didn't directly translate to faith in the gods, which left Soren stumped.
“What am I ant to do?”
It was unthinkable for him to suddenly beco religious and start praying daily.
‘Should I just give up on it?’
The only reason he had even thought of learning how to utilise divine power was because of the few stat points given by [Stella’s Apple], but now even that seed useless.
Fwaaa!
“Huh?”
Or so he thought.
It was only for a mont, but a purplish-silver glow emanated from his left hand as he thought about giving up.
“What was that?”
He thought he was seeing things for a mont, but…
Wooonggg
…It happened again.
‘Divine power?’
He couldn’t understand why divine power had suddenly manifested in his hand; he hadn’t prayed or even had any faith in the ability to use it, and yet the light clearly appeared.
Not only that, but unlike regular divine power, which was pure silver, Soren’s also held a hint of purple within it.
‘Should I try using it?’
He looked back at the book for a prayer and started reading it aloud, pointing his palm at himself.
“I call to you, goddess, hear my na and help thy champion. 「Minor Blessing of Mana」”
Woooongg…
The light appeared in Soren’s hands once more, proving his theory of it being divine power correct, however…
Fwoosh.
The light dissipated before the blessing activated.
“Hm… is it a success?”
He assud the reason for the light disappearing was due to his lack of divine power stat, but he still hadn’t seen an incantation activate, so he was unsure of whether to call it a success or not.
At the very least, he was confident that he had the ability to use divine power, which led him to morise the entire book in front of him, even if all the fanatic god talk gave him a bit of a headache.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Since his ti in the library, about a week and a half had passed, during which Soren had been focusing on raising the proficiency of the spells he had learned to a usable level.
Thanks to that…
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[Status Window]
Na: Soren Arden (1★)
- Basic Magic
└ Ignition (D ) [Increased by 1]
└ Shock (D-) [Increased by 1]
└ Gaia (E )
└ Shockwave (E-) [Increased by 2]
└ Shield (E-) [Increased by 2]
└ Bloom (F ) [Increased by 1]
└ Aqua (F )
└ Freeze (F)
└ Breeze (F)
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While not entirely satisfactory, it was a significant amount of progress for such a short period.
Through experintation, he had quickly discovered that both [Breeze] and [Freeze], much like [Aqua], were essentially useless, so he dropped them quickly.
On the other hand, both [Bloom] and [Shockwave] were surprisingly good, especially [Shockwave], as it finally gave Soren the mid-range attack he had been desperately needing.
Kwaaanggg–!
He looked over at the target dummy, sitting roughly twenty tres away, which had a dent in its chest.
‘It’s perfect.’
Not only was it powerful for its proficiency level, but it was also basically invisible thanks to its being sound magic.
It did have a drawback, which was that it was deafeningly loud, but an invisible ranged attack was priceless for Soren right now.
‘[Shock] is also at D- now too.’
Both of Soren’s main offensive spells had crossed the barrier into D rank, aning they were now viable threats even to so of the stronger students; obviously, that didn’t include class A, though, as they were monsters.
“Hahhhh…”
He finally felt sowhat ready to tackle the midterms.
Ting-♪
Hearing that sound, however, Soren’s confidence completely vanished.
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▶ Main Quest Received! ◀
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▶ Main Quest: First Steps (2) ◀
[Details: Place within the top 10 in the midterm practical.]
[Difficulty: A-]
[Rewards: Random Magic Talent, 150 Points]
[Penalty: None]
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“Shit…”
He had only just gained confidence in his ability to pass the practical, then all of a sudden, a quest appeared and told him that just passing wasn’t good enough.
‘At least the rewards are good.’
A rare magic skill was a fantastic reward for Soren’s current situation, where he didn’t have access to the few rare magical elents.
In the store, a rare magic skill itself costs well over 1000 points, aning this would give him a fairly significant boost in power.
Then there were the points the quest gave; if he obtained those, he would finally cross the 500-point threshold for obtaining a decent skill.
The problem was, of course, the contents of the quest.
“Top 10…”
With his knowledge of the ga, he knew why it was telling him to get top 10, but he still didn’t like it.
Ignoring the fact that it would be almost impossible to get into the top 10, the real problem was that it would make him stand out with no escape.
The midterm practical was a battle royale-type event where each participant would have to collect mana beads, and whoever had the most mana beads at the end would win.
The issue lies in the fact that throughout the entire exam, the locations of the top 10 students would be broadcast to every other student in the exam.
Their na.
Their placent.
Their location.
Everything.
This ant that even if Soren got lucky enough to get within the top 10 with how weak he was, it was unlikely he would be able to last until the end anyway.
‘But I really want that reward…’
He knew the location of every mana bead, so if he was left alone, he could get within the top 10, but once again, it was a lack of strength that held him back.
‘At least there’s no penalty this ti.’
During his first main quest, there was a penalty of -0.5 to all stats if he didn’t win all the mock duels, but this ti, as if acknowledging how unrealistic a quest this was, whoever was behind the status window didn’t bother.
He tried to think of a plan of action, but…
“Ughh…”
It was useless.
Soren wasn’t a scher in the first place, but he felt genuinely lost by his current situation.
Was there any way for him to complete the quest?
After a few minutes of thought, he raised his head from his hands and spoke.
“Whatever, I’ll figure it out later.”
Instead of overworking his brain, he decided to wait and see how it goes; if given a chance, he would take it.
Until then, he will continue doing what he’s been doing and just raise his proficiencies to the best of his abilities.
There were 4 days left until the midterms.
————「❤︎」————
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