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Chapter 61

“Hmph!”

Right before his eyes was the recently admitted Se-Hoon, who was currently stretching out his body in a big “X” shape, with only one hand on the ground for support.

To an untrained eye, it would just look like a simple trick, but to Jung-Wan, it was something amazing since he had noticed one crucial fact.

To think he can perfectly maintain such a posture without using mana at all...

Since Se-Hoon was a student at Babel, it was expected that being able to support his body with one hand was something simple. However, doing so without using mana and still being stable was another story entirely. Such a thing was only possible if Se-Hoon’s sense of balance, understanding of his own body, and ability to perfectly control each muscle were all exceptional.

I knew he was extraordinary, but... I didn’t expect him to be this exceptional. He continued staring at Se-Hoon in amazement.

Meanwhile, Se-Hoon lightly pushed off the ground with his hand.

Twang-!

Soaring about one meter into the air, his body made an arc before landing cleanly back on the ground. Proud of his new physical abilities, Se-Hoon looked at Jung-Wan.

“How was it?”

“...It does seem certain that there’s no need for you to be treated further. I’ll arrange your discharge; you can pack up your stuff.”

Originally, Jung-Wan had dismissed it as nonsense when Se-Hoon asked to be discharged, but after seeing the proof with his own eyes, there was nothing more for him to say.

Hearing that he finally got permission, Se-Hoon nodded slightly to Jung-Wan.

“Thank you.”

“There’s no need to thank me for doing my job. But...”

Finishing one last examination of Se-Hoon’s body, he became curious.

“Did you say you were able to recover by using a healing skill and an elixir?”

“Yes.”

“Could you tell me what skill it was?”

If it was a skill that aided the user when consuming an elixir and left no side effects even when one was weakened, then it wouldn’t be an ordinary skill. Deeply interested, Jung-Wan patiently waited for Se-Hoon to finish thinking.

“It’s a B-tier skill called Mind and Body Refinement.”

Since Soul Honing was a skill unique to him and his master, he knew that revealing it now would likely lead to complications. As such, he decided to respond with a skill known to have a similar effect.

“The Mind and Body Refinement skill? You used that to consume the elixirs?” Jung-Wan asked, his eyes widening in surprise upon hearing what Se-Hoon said.

“That’s correct.”

“Huh...” The answer filled Jung-Wan with disbelief.

The B-tier skill, Mind and Body Refinement, was a physical manipulation skill focused on refining one’s body, just like the name implied. It aided the user when they used elixirs for healing purposes.

However, the catch was that it was very difficult to pull off. Unlike other skills, the user had to directly control the entire process when using Mind and Body Refinement.

He would need to have not only a perfect understanding of the body but mastery over the elixir—understanding its ingredients and how it works—as well. Having such a level of expertise is challenging even for a second-year student—no, even for the top-ranking third-year of the Department of Regenerative Medicine.

Thinking about the potential of the students he taught, Jung-Wan looked at Se-Hoon after an idea came to him.

“Have you ever considered taking the Physical Evolution course?”

“Excuse me?”

“I teach that course myself. I think it will be greatly beneficial if you want to master Mind and Body Refinement.”

Hearing the full offer, Se-Hoon instantly became uninterested.

I’ve already learned enough about that field of study because of Soul Honing...

He would have considered taking it if it were something he hadn’t dabbled in yet. However, on the flip side, if it was something he was already familiar with, then he saw no point in taking it.

He was about to decline the offer, but Jung-Wan caught on to his reluctance and proposed something else before Se-Hoon could.

“How about being a teaching assistant then?”

“A teaching assistant?”

It was already astonishing enough that he would entrust such a role to a first-year student, and yet he was entrusting it to a first-year who wasn’t even from the Department of Regenerative Medicine; Se-Hoon’s Department of Blacksmithing wasn’t even related at all.

However, Jung-Wan confirmed with a nod without hesitation.

“I’m planning to conduct a lesson on elixirs soon, and I want to show the students a good example. With your proficiency in Mind and Body Refinement, I think you could handle the role without any problems.”

He was basically asking Se-Hoon to consume elixirs in front of other students and demonstrate how they worked. Put nicely, he was asking for help with demonstrations; put cynically, he was asking Se-Hoon to be a lab rat.

It was a daunting request considering the risks associated with elixirs, even with precautionary measures in place.

“I plan on using five different types of Rare elixirs for the class. And if you accept, I’ll prepare materials of equivalent value as a token of gratitude. How does that sound?”

“Call me whenever.”

To Se-Hoon, who could handle elixirs with his eyes closed, it was an irresistible offer.

***

Having completed his discharge procedures, Se-Hoon arrived at a secluded spot in a small park near the dormitory of Borsippa. He sat down on a bench and recalled his conversation with Jung-Wan.

Five Rare elixirs, huh...

Though Rare elixirs couldn’t match up to the Hero-tier Yin-Yang Pill that he had recently consumed, the ones Jung-Wan was planning to use might be able to offer comparable benefits depending on their type.

To Se-Hoon, it was a good opportunity to fix his physical abilities which were still among the lower-to-mid tier among the students his year, so he eagerly accepted.

Still, a part of him couldn’t help but wonder, What is he really up to?

As a blacksmith who had met countless people before the regression, he was able to vaguely figure out what kind of person someone was from just a short conversation with them.

He was able to tell who was on his side despite their rudeness, who wasn’t on his side despite their politeness, who was thinking about becoming a potential client, and other such things.

Using that ability, he just now figured out that Jung-Wan was exuding the aura of a potential client.

Considering what Luize said, he seems to be quite the figure in Askus... so why is he entrusting the teaching assistant role to a student?

There were only two possibilities he could think of—either Jung-Wan held him in high regard, or it was a task that couldn’t be entrusted to an ordinary blacksmith.

He sat there pondering the difficult-to-guess reason.

Pzzzt!

Suddenly, the streetlight above him sparked and went out. Then, the surrounding lights also turned off, one by one, plunging the area around the bench into darkness.

Experiencing the sudden situation, Se-Hoon quickly squinted his eyes and began scanning the surroundings. At that moment, something swiftly flew out from the bushes in the distance toward him without any warning.

Thwack!

Missing him, a dark-colored dagger embedded itself in the tree behind the bench he was sitting on. It was hard to see it clearly in the dark due to its matte finish, but its size and sound were somewhat familiar.

Isn’t that...

The moment he figured out where it was that he had seen the dagger, more quickly began shooting toward him from beyond the bushes.

Thud, thud, thud!

In the blink of an eye, ten knives were embedded in the tree. Each impact had shaken the tree violently, causing leaves to fall. But right before those leaves were about to fall on his head, someone’s mana swiftly traveled the previously invisible thread tied to the handle of one of the daggers.

Soon after, white gear-like patterns began to shine on the knives with the influx of mana. The patterns, seemingly interlocking, swiftly circulated the mana, slowly changing the daggers’ properties. Now, they seemed sharp enough to cut with just a look.

Looking closely, the aura, which was being concentrated at the end of the thread, that was forming had a familiar white glow.

Shing!

As if proving its sharpness, every leaf that brushed past a dagger for even a second was sliced into dozens of pieces.

Flutter-

Feeling the cut leaves falling on his head, his eyes widened upon seeing the imbued sharpness that could make even ordinary threads cut through falling leaves.

Flash!

With a flicker, the streetlight turned back on and illuminated a girl who suddenly appeared in front of him.

She was wearing a lab coat that was stained and cluttered with leaves, and the braids that were tying up her brown hair were on the verge of being undone. Adding the dark circles under her eyes and her pale complexion, she looked as though she could collapse at any moment, but a confident smile was on her lips, void of any fatigue.

“Huhu..."

Lea Claudel, the girl who seemed somewhat out of her mind, was crossing her arms and looking at him with a triumphant smile.

“So, how was it!?”

Out of nowhere, she suddenly asked for his thoughts. Bewildered by the events that had occurred, he looked at her before turning his gaze to the daggers embedded behind him.

He had indeed seen them before. They were the daggers that were surrendered to him by Seitz, the third-year Department of Magic student and one of the frontmen of the Inoue family, as a token of reconciliation.

Originally, they had been inscribed with simple enchantments, including protective ones, but they had all been completely transformed into something else by Lea’s hand.

[White Light Dagger]

[Tier: Rare] [Quality: Awful]

[A black dagger imbued with a sharp, white aura.

Though an ordinary weapon on its own, with the White Light enchantment, it can produce a sharp aura.

However, the more the White Light enchantment is used, the faster the durability decreases.

*Inscribed with the White Light enchantment]

The double-layered White Light enchantment accelerated and compressed the mana infused within, perfectly reproducing the aura of White Light Surge, which he had previously demonstrated. Her ability to perfectly recreate what was shown to her as a demonstration through an enchantment slightly amazed him.

To raise a weapon that was barely above the cutoff for the Advanced tier to Rare... She’s definitely quite skilled.

Of course, the tier would fall again if the durability dropped and the inscribed enchantment wore out, but it was still relatively cost-effective since it had still increased the dagger by an entire tier level.

So this is the reason she was able to monopolize the enchantment industry in the future...

He had been somewhat unsure of her potential before, but now, there was no doubt.

“Ho, is it not good? I-I thought I did well...” she mumbled, her voice deflated, upon seeing Se-Hoon simply staring at the daggers without saying a word.

Although her lack of confidence showed she hadn’t fully overcome her slump yet, it was no longer at a level where it would be a problem.

“No.”

He stood up and looked at her with a satisfied smile.

“It’s excellent. Honestly, I was a bit surprised since it exceeded my expectations.”

“...Really?”

“I never would have thought that you could perfectly recreate the example I showed you with an enchantment. Looking at the quality of this, I now understand why you haven’t contacted me for a while.”

“Cough... right? You know how hard it is to create that kind of aura. I broke over a hundred kitchen knives during experimenting.”

Heartened by his lavish praise, she shrugged her shoulders and shared her struggles, all while acting like she hadn’t been nervous at all. Energized by her spirited demeanor, he collected the daggers embedded in the tree and looked at her calmly.

“With enchantments of this level, we might even be able to attempt mass-producing sword auras. We could try it next time when we’re free.”

“Sure. That should be... wait, mass-producing sword auras? Is that even possible?”

The task of mass-producing sword auras was a long-standing challenge in the hero industry. Many companies and researchers had tried and bitterly failed, each accruing losses during the process. Thus, Lea couldn’t help but be surprised by the nonchalant tone of the underclassman in front of her.

“Why not? The process is already half completed,” he replied, still nonchalant.

“...What, this?”

“Yeah. This.”

She was unaware of the potential hidden in the enchantment she had created, but Se-Hoon had accurately assessed it.

There’s still a lot to fix, but if we compress it a bit further, we can start mass production right away.

Before the regression, the Starlight series—the first collection of mass-produced sword aura—had been introduced to the public by the Galaxy Company. And the White Light Dagger was practically a prototype of that legendary series—the series that once turned Lea, from an unknown enchanter, into the enchanter known as the Maestro.

“Mass-producing sword auras with my enchantments... if this goes commercial, the royalties would be...”

Although her mind wasn’t working well after several all-nighters in a row, she still knew that it was almost certain that she would earn astronomical sums of money if she succeeded.

Seeing her daydreaming about being buried under money, Se-Hoon clapped his hands in front of her.

Clap!

“Eek!”

“Snap out of it. We’re far from ready based on our current level.”

“Ah, yes. Right...”

The power of the White Light enchantment was far too petty to even call it a proper sword aura. Plus, there were too many shortcomings, like durability and vulnerabilities.

Belatedly realizing it was indeed too early for such discussions, she cleared her head of all distractions and calmed her mind.

“So, what’s the favor you mentioned in your message?”

Like flipping a switch, she switched gears cleanly. And upon seeing her switch gears, Se-Hoon got straight to the point.

“I’m planning to forge some equipment, and I need enchantments for it to achieve the performance I desire. Can you help?”

“I welcome that kind of project any time. But what materials and types of enchantments are you thinking about?”

Even if there were enchantments that looked the same, it was still likely that they varied greatly depending on the materials and intended effects. Knowing how eccentric Se-Hoon was, she knew that it was bound to be a challenging request.

The timing might be a bit tight because the Ivory Tower’s student selection contest is soon... but this will likely turn out very rewarding.

Having somewhat lifted her slump with the creation of the White Light enchantment, she felt that she could use this request as the momentum she needed to help her completely overcome it.

Now fired up with determination, she listened as Se-Hoon replied, “I’m planning to inscribe Corrosion Enchantment and the Mana Amplification enchantment on Dream Ivory.”

“Dream Ivory?”

Her eyes fluttered at his words.

Dream Ivory was infamous in the enchantment industry for its ability to contain the power of dreams making it a notoriously difficult material to handle. If the enchanter made even the slightest of mistakes or was distracted for even a moment, the enchantments inscribed up to that point could be erased entirely by the dream mana.

Yet he’s trying to add both Corrosion Enhancement and Mana Amplification.... It’ll be extremely tough to do both, let alone one.

The doubt that she would be unable to accomplish such a thing began to rise, but she immediately pushed those second thoughts back down.

No, I will make it happen!

She had no longer wanted to be dragged around by this dreadful slump. Determined to succeed no matter what, she looked at him.

“Alright, I’ll give it a—”

“And I\'ll also be using the Southern Flame Feather, which will need the Spatial Separation and Designated Inscription enchantments.”

“...Southern Flame Feather? You mean the Phoenix feather?”

The Southern Flame Feather was an ultra-rare material that was hard to acquire even with a hefty sum of money. It was also infamous, being known for how easily it burned up and resetting the entire enchanting process.

Yet he was asking her to inscribe such a notorious material with Spatial Separation and Designated Inscription, enchantments that took hours just to inscribe.

“Can you do it?”

Facing her underclassman’s confident smile, she hesitated.

“Can you look for someone else...?”