noveldrama
Chapter 372
Chapter 372
Chapter 372
Riana’s change was inevitable. Although she had whiled away her time at the Temple so far, she was a very powerful supernatural being who grew stronger on her own.
She possessed strength, but never thought of using it. Now, though, Riana was grateful for the power she had accumulated during her idle time and was genuinely trying to hone it.
She wasn’t just training her supernatural abilities; she was also putting effort into physical training, which she had always disliked, and even Cliffman was helping her with that.
The fact that I was the target of Riana’s revenge was beyond my control.
Who was the appropriate target for Riana’s revenge? Owen de Getmora, who had betrayed the Revolutionary Forces at a critical moment? Shanapell and Sabioleen Tana, whom I presumed had carried out the operation? Vertus, who had planned all of it? Or the emperor, who had approved the plan? Or perhaps it came back to me, the catalyst for all these events?
I didn’t know in which direction Riana was supposed to point her sword of revenge. It seemed unfair for me to be the target, but when I thought about it carefully, it wasn’t entirely unjust, which made me feel resigned.
Riana pursued strength. She desired it more strongly than any of us.
The remaining days of the winter break would pass by, and I truly needed to prepare. I had to prepare to become everyone’s enemy.
That very moment was approaching with each passing second.
***
[Achievement Points: 17,730 points]
Seventeen thousand points I hadn’t had any particular use for them so far, and had kept them as a reserve in case something significant happened.
The most recent time I’d tapped into this reserve was during the festival, when I’d used Achievement Points to strengthen my Incantation and create a significant opening for myself in my fight against Leverier Lanche. I had used a thousand points to enhance the Incantation, binding his movements, and then pierced his heart with the corrupted Tiamata.
That event granted me true mastery over Tiamata, and I was now able to make it change form freely between a holy sword or a demonic sword according to my will.
Achievement Points had always been a powerful weapon in my arsenal, and could be used to create significant advantages.
There were quite a few things I could do with the remaining Achievement Points. I could spend eight thousand points to awaken a new talent.
So far, my talents were Self-Deception, Incantation, and Mana Domination.
[Swordsmanship - 8,000 points]
To become a Master, I needed a talent related to combat, but Self-Deception already functioned as a combat-related talent. However, acquiring a talent in swordsmanship wouldn’t be a bad thing, and obtaining swordsmanship would speed up my progress toward reaching the Master class.
If I used eight thousand points, I would have nine thousand points left. To awaken a fifth talent, I would need sixteen thousand points. If I wanted to awaken a fifth talent, I would need seven thousand more Achievement Points.
However, I was torn between two talents.
[Swordsmanship - 8,000 points]
[Supernatural Resistance - 8,000 points]
‘Resistance to supernatural powers... This might be necessary.’
With Divine Spirit, I was almost immune to mental-type magic, and anti-magic resistance could be trained.
However, neither of these protected me from supernatural attacks. If my identity was discovered, many of those around me would become my enemies. That would include Riana de Granz, who had awakened an immensely powerful form of her ability.
Of course, Mana Reinforcement afforded some protection against Riana’s abilities. However, with Supernatural Resistance, I would be more fully protected against Riana and others who wielded supernatural powers.
Besides, the real problem wasn’t Riana.
Scarlett... Scarlett’s immunity ability completely neutralized me. Her power nullified all supernatural powers in a radius around her, preventing me from using Self-Deception or Incantation.
People had already seen Scarlett’s ability render me powerless in the tournament. If my identity as the Demon King was revealed and a fight broke out, the truly dangerous enemy wouldn’t be Ellen, but Scarlett.
If Scarlett’s Immunity was classified as a supernatural power, could Supernatural Resistance counter it? Even if it wasn’t, I could make it possible.
[Add Setting]
I had never used this function before, but with it, I could add a setting that made it possible to resist Scarlett’s Immunity ability using Supernatural Resistance.
However, this had the downside of requiring a significant amount of Achievement Points just to counter Scarlett. It wasn’t as if I absolutely had to fight Scarlett, so it seemed like a waste of points. Achievement Points were meant to be saved for important things, not for things that provided such little value.
In that case, was it better to secure a talent in weapon skills to reach the Master class more quickly? Or would it be better to acquire Supernatural Resistance to offer more stability?
I did not take too long to deliberate.
[You have used 8,000 Achievement Points.]
[Talent - ‘Swordsmanship’ acquired.]
There was no urgent need yet, so I pursued versatility instead.
My talents now included Swordsmanship, Mana Domination, Self-Deception, and Incantation. The optimal conditions for becoming a Master were now in place.
I had 9,730 Achievement Points remaining. I wanted to keep that in reserve for emergencies.
[Supernatural Resistance - 16,000 points]
I also wanted to ensure I was ready for any unlikely situations by acquiring the Supernatural Resistance talent. I had been holding back thus far, believing that developing too many talents might arouse suspicion.
‘Was Supernatural Resistance the better choice after all...?’
Once a talent was acquired, it couldn’t be undone. I had spent a generous amount of Achievement Points, and I now needed to accumulate them again.
I wasn’t sure if it was the right time to pursue that, but ultimately, Achievement Points were a currency more important than money to me.
Achievement Points were the only thing I had that could interfere with the world itself. So far, the only way to earn Achievement Points was through challenges. Naturally, the list of challenges was updated periodically.
[List of Challenges]
[Identify Akasha’s Identity - 50,000 points]
[Find Cantus Magna - 30,000 points]
The top two challenges aligned with my goals, and neither would disappear anytime soon. Initially, ridiculous challenges like slapping the emperor had been at the top, but this time, the serious ones were at the top, and offered massive Achievement Points as rewards for their completion. It seemed like it was no longer a time for jokes.
[Come Out to Classmates (Cross-dressing Contest) - 5000 points]
[Date Vertus in Cross-dress - 4000 points]
[Date Connor Lint in Cross-dress - 4000 points]
[Date Anyone in Cross-dress - 2000 points]
[Cross-dress...]
.
.
.
[Cross-dress! - 500 points]
“... Damn it.”
‘Of course, this damn thing would appear. Are they going to milk this until I die?’
***
I decided to forget about Achievement Points for the time being. After all, having entered the cross-dressing contest after being blinded by the prospect of acquiring Achievement Points, and having seen how that had snowballed into something ridiculous, I had no intention of having anything more to do with that particular activity.
I might run into problems beyond embarrassment, and in fact, I actually had.
Acquiring the Swordsmanship talent would not miraculously improve my skill at the sword right away. Thus far, I had mostly relied on my specs to push through.
Purely speaking, there was an absolute difference in skill, and I lagged behind Cliffman, Scarlett, and Ludwig in swordsmanship alone. Ellen was a no-brainer; I was outmatched by her even when using everything I had.
What allowed me to gain an edge over them was Self-Deception and the ability to use Mana Reinforcement. Thus far, I had been able to bridge the skill gap with sheer physical prowess.
Now, though, by acquiring the talent in swordsmanship, I had opened up a future where my pure skill itself would also advance, allowing me to accelerate my improvement instead of offering a sudden dramatic change. With that in mind, I intensified my training.
On one of those days, Ellen, Cliffman, and I were huddled together at the training grounds.
Cliffman, looking serious, was seeking advice from Ellen and I.
“... You think you’re too weak?”
“Yeah.”
“I said I’d help her, but... as you can see, it’s hard to say this, but... Riana’s supernatural power was already strong...” Cliffman said.
“And now it’s even stronger.”
“Exactly.”
The sudden and unwanted tragedy had caused Riana’s supernatural to awaken further, unlocking an extremely powerful new form while continuing to grow stronger. It was unfortunate that the catalyst for that had been her father’s death and her anger and regret around it, but the result was that Riana had indeed become stronger.
Cliffman wanted to assist Riana in getting her revenge. However...
“If we got into a real fight... I feel like I wouldn’t be of any help...”
Cliffman saw himself as useless.
‘This guy... Why can’t he escape this kind of insecurity?’
On general strength alone, Cliffman was classified among the monsters.
However, he was seeking advice from Ellen and myself.
Mere words could not describe Ellen, and I had already surpassed the realm of normality and even the realm of monsters.
In other words, among the monsters of the Royal Class, if there was something like a martial arts “Heaven Beyond Heaven,” Ellen and I were the two who had reached it, at least in terms of our rate of growth, rather than actual skill.
Moreover, the person he’d vowed to fight alongside was already an extraordinary supernatural being, and her abilities had undergone a sudden and explosive growth.
Cliffman, who was not quite in the realm of “Heaven Beyond Heaven” but had at least reached “Heaven,” found himself overshadowed by his peers, which made his own capabilities seem insignificant.
The guy who believed his timid days were over was still mumbling, still timid.
“Shouldn’t I be able to do Mana Reinforcement too...?”
‘Hey, that’s not something you’re supposed to awaken in the first year. Even Ellen here wasn’t supposed to do it in her first year. She just happened to awaken it early because she’d been thrown into a very specific situation. She actually coughed up blood when it happened, and I lost consciousness for a few days as well, you know?’
Cliffman thought he was a sparrow when he was actually a stork, because the achievements of those around him dwarfed his own abilities.
Given all of this, he probably believed that he would be a hindrance to Riana when it really came time for a fight, and it would be better for him to stay out of the way. And indeed, if a battle were to happen right that moment, there was a high chance that would be the case.
Ellen, as always, looked at Cliffman without any expression. “Don’t be too hasty. There’s no need to be in such a rush.”
Her calmness was reassuring, and was one of Ellen’s strengths.
“You never know when something might happen. The Demon King might attack the Temple as a way to threaten the future of the empire,” Cliffman said.
‘Uh... That could happen if the Demon King truly desired human extinction and desired a second Great War, but I’m not like that! I’m here with you guys!
‘This must be what it feels like to be frustrated to death, right?’
“... That’s true.”
Unfortunately, it was a credible statement.
The recent incident, which had been disguised as a demon attack, had led to various misunderstandings about the demon forces.
People had come to believe that the Demon King not only commanded the few powerful demons that had been active so far, but orcs, ogres and others as well.
The idea that the Demon King had already raised a considerable army was now within the general consciousness of the people.
Questions had begun to arise about why the demons had attacked that particular place, but, as Vertus had intended, people were engulfed by a general fear of demons and were not trying to uncover the true reason behind that attack.
Most believed that the demons had been attempting to assault the capital of the small nation of Levaina, Raziern, and the attack on the Merchants’ Guild branch located on the outskirts of that city had been an unfortunate result of that.
The fear that the Demon King’s reach could extend anywhere at any time had taken root in everyone’s hearts, and Cliffman was no exception.
In addition to that, it seemed logical that the Temple, where the top talents deemed to be the future of the empire resided, would be considered the top priority for any attack. If the Demon King was truly dreaming of a grand plan to shatter the empire’s future, an attack on the Temple, and on the Royal Class in particular, was surely a serious consideration.
This potential danger, regardless of my actual intentions, was fuel for Cliffman’s anxiety that he was still too weak. More precisely, he felt he was too weak compared to Riana.
“So, I thought I’d focus on Mana Reinforcement training for now, and I was hoping you could help.”
“You’ve already been doing that.”
“Yeah... It just hasn’t been effective.”
“Still...”
Cliffman seemed to think that if he couldn’t succeed in achieving Mana Reinforcement, he couldn’t even start. However, Ellen and I had been instructing Cliffman in Mana Reinforcement whenever we could. I had managed to grasp it somehow, but Cliffman was still at square one.
Since he hadn’t undergone the structured training for it, just focusing on it wouldn’t miraculously lead to awakening Mana Reinforcement. Such a thing just wouldn’t happen.
“I understand what you’re thinking, but among the first year students, only she and I can activate Mana Reinforcement. And, not to brag, but we’re special cases. There are still seniors in their fifth and sixth years who haven’t grasped it yet. If you rush, your mana circuits might get damaged, leading to severe aftereffects—”
“There’s one more now,” Cliffman said, interrupting me mid-sentence.
“What do you mean by one more?”
“Someone else who can do Mana Reinforcement.”
Cliffman pointed behind him with his thumb, in the direction of the Class B dormitory.
“Ludwig,” he said.
‘What? This punk protagonist! Where did he manage to get a free ride without me knowing?’