Chapter 135
The summoning practice did not end until midnight.
Just as Kim Seulhee intended, I tried every material related to the earth attribute, but as with the sand I used first, the material collapsed during the detailed shaping stage.
In the end, only after I simplified the image I had been shaping and returned to the sand floor, the foundational earth material, was I able to summon a proper golem.
“A sand golem that really looks like sothing that would appear as a basic monster.”
Kim Seulhee watched my summoning from start to finish and praised for having overwhelming talent.
Although I failed, she said that handling mixed-attribute materials like mud or crystal in itself was rare, and more importantly, summoning a golem on the very first day of training was proof of talent.
“Being able to handle mixed materials is probably thanks to the fact that I do not have a counteracting attribute.”
As an aside, the wind attribute, which stands at the opposite pole from the earth attribute, was a representative attribute that could not summon golems.
We decided to continue summoning training only until the second sester began.
Roughly one hour after having lunch with Do Minyeong.
I had secretly worried she might keep all day, but Kim Seulhee drew the line herself, saying there was nothing more she could teach .
“Since I have the theory and the technique, all that remains is to practice on my own.”
In any case, if my abilities had not disappeared, I would not have been able to learn summoning.
It had been a change I did not welco, because it made think harder opponents might appear, but while learning summoning, I realized it was actually a change that benefited .
Because there was no one who could develop faster than , the only person with agility 20.
“If I go all the way, I win in the end.”
On that assumption, I was considering paying attention to orthodox magic as well.
Kim Seulhee recomnded summoning precisely because my earth affinity was low.
But my primary attribute was ninety percent dark, so learning orthodox magic would be wise in many ways.
If I could use shadow more diversely, I would be able to display overwhelming prowess against Demonic Beings who used the sa dark attribute.
For that reason, I decided to keep in steady contact with Kim Seulhee.
In a world where growth limits had vanished, a character who pursued theory would be an invaluable asset.
“Did the avid reader erase abilities in the first place to remove my growth limits?”
I set aside that uncertain speculation.
Before heading out to train with An Hwigom, I turned off every light in the dormitory living room.
I wanted to apply what I had learned.
“Would it be called a Shadow Golem? Or a Phantom Golem?”
I intended to summon a golem using shadow as the material.
The basic thod was not much different from the sand golem.
You resonated with the mana that would beco the material, ford the image, and breathed life into it so it could move.
“……”
Before long, shadows gathered across the floor.
They soon took on a three-dinsional shape, and like the sand earlier, began to swell.
The difference from using sand was that there was no sense of mana discord, and that because I was using ninety percent dark affinity, my mana was consud faster.
But in exchange, the form manifested more quickly.
In an instant it grew to nearly my height, and only stopped expanding when it reached the dormitory ceiling.
“Now cos the shaping.”
Earlier, I had brought every material to this stage as well.
Then it collapsed when I tried to shape it in detail.
But this ti was different.
I drank a mana potion and began shaping with calm focus.
The traces of shadow carved away without resistance.
So this was what it ant to have a true primary attribute.
A short while later, I finished the shaping without causing the golem to collapse.
It did not perfectly match the image in my head, but it possessed an appeal not inferior to Monica’s Knight Golem.
Like an agile killer that would plunge into the vanguard and annihilate the enemy.
“This is it… If I could walk around with thousands of these, I would cause havoc whether it is a Demonic Being or anything else.”
Satisfied, I stared at my work, then, driven by curiosity, touched the golem’s black arm.
In that instant, the golem failed to maintain its form and lted back into shadow.
A warning sign of mana depletion surged through , and dizziness followed.
“…Ah, mana.”
With magical power at 5.2, I had created a golem corresponding to intelligence 16.6. This was the natural result.
To properly use even one golem, I would likely need to raise my magical power to at least 8.
Since stats produced higher efficiency as the numbers increased, if my magical power reached around 14, could I operate about a hundred?
“Or would it be only half of that?”
The problem was where I would obtain magical power imdiately.
Because the original story’s protagonist was a mage, fortuitous opportunities for intelligence and magical power were rare.
Still, there was no need to rush.
For now, summoning was a side branch, and I still had swordsmanship.
***
A few days later, on a campus holiday.
Quite unusually, a summons ssage arrived from the Mystery Club.
The sender was Yun Jeongseop, the club’s advisor.
The location, unlike usual, was the Mystery Club’s investigation room in the Third Annex.
“…In a situation where we are debating whether to disband the club, you secured a club room in the annex?”
Perhaps an empty room had opened due to a club disbanding at the end of the term, but it was absurd that he had secured it without even asking the club president.
Then again, considering Yun Jeongseop’s personality, it was not exactly surprising…
“Still, why secure a club room at all?”
It would have been better to et in an empty classroom in the Hall of Justice as usual.
On a campus holiday, there were no cadets in the main building.
But having a club room in the annex ant sharing corridors and running into cadets from other clubs.
I was already receiving needless attention, and with Cha Yeri, a figure admired by many female cadets, involved, I had a bad feeling I would get dragged into sothing annoying.
“Whatever. We are disbanding the club anyway.”
With that optimistic thought, I headed for the Third Annex and stepped into the Mystery Club room on the top floor, in the farthest corner.
As expected, Cha Yeri had claid one side of the room with a group of female cadets.
Whether she had called them herself or they had gathered around her like the Pied Piper, I could not tell.
The mont our eyes t, the group began to leave.
One by one, each of them ca all the way to and offered a polite greeting.
Approaching Cha Yeri, I said,
“You are popular.”
“Oh my, that is not sothing I should hear from a Special Affairs Division investigator. I heard you even caught a Demonic Being.”
Was that sarcasm or praise?
In monts like this, it was easier to assu the better interpretation.
Trying to read the expressions of a fourth-generation chaebol heir only gave a headache.
“Thank you. I finally achieved sothing that resembles a result, so I feel much more at ease.”
“That is a relief.”
“……”
Was she deliberately speaking formally?
“Is the outpost construction going well?”
“Yes, thanks to your help.”
“…I heard the Bureau delayed the construction for a while while investigating mural records.”
“Are you worried about ? Fortunately, it resud not long ago.”
“Then why are you acting like this?”
“What?”
Her expression was perfectly natural.
As though she genuinely did not understand what I ant.
Watching her made feel guilty, as if I were the one in the wrong.
Cha Yeri spoke as though she had just rembered sothing.
“More importantly, did you have fun in District 10?”
“Why that all of a sudden?”
“I was wondering just how much fun you had, since you are even using a Fireworks Festival case. And as a matching pair, at that.”
“……”
Ah. Now I understood.
She was pointing out that Do Minyeong and I were using the sa smartphone case.
Of course, Cha Yeri, who joined the seasonal term late because of the outpost project, could not have noticed it on her own so quickly.
The cadets from earlier must have seen our cases and guessed.
“It was a gift, so I am using it out of basic courtesy.”
“I did not ask that, though.”
“Are you going to keep speaking formally like this?”
“I wonder. What should I do…?”
So she wanted to play?
“All right, you are going to be like that? Then you do not seem curious about what happened with Do Minyeong in District 10.”
When I dangled the bait, Cha Yeri bit at once.
“…W-What happened?”
“Well, sothing or other.”
“And what exactly was that…?”
“I do not know. I will decide whether to tell you depending on how you behave.”
I had no intention of talking about the Night of Wishes.
I simply wanted to tease her.
“N-No, I an…!”
Just as Cha Yeri furrowed her brow, Yun Jeongseop entered the club room.
As always, his heavy eyelids hung low.
“Ah, you are already here.”
A student followed behind him.
Not a Hero Prep cadet, and that uniform was… General Ability Academy?
After the alliance clubs began, students from other academies could enter Hero Prep on campus holidays.
But only buildings for club activity, like the annexes.
Still, why would an advisor bring another student into a club room that was discussing disbandnt?
“Introduce yourselves. This is Jeong Soyun. And those two are… Ji Seokhyeon and Cha Yeri.”
“Hello, I am Jeong Soyun from the General Ability Academy.”
Her na stuck in my mory.
During the Spring Scholastic War, she had been the last victim of the Catch the Thief incident.
I greeted her and motioned for her to sit nearby.
Then Yun Jeongseop quietly drifted toward the door, said the thing I feared he would, and vanished.
“Handle things among yourselves. I have matters to attend to.”
That man, honestly.
“Um… I hope I am not being a nuisance…”
“Not at all. But more importantly, why did you co?”
“Ah! I just visited Hero Prep for club activity, and while I was here, there was a cadet I really wanted to et. I asked an instructor I ran into nearby, and he brought here…”
“……”
This was not an episode from the original story.
“Which cadet are you looking for?”
“It is soone from the Investigation Division. Gwon Chihun.”
Now the situation made sense.
Gwon Chihun, who did not participate in club activities, always shut himself away sowhere on campus holidays.
Like the hideout we visited during the Broadcasting Club incident.
Even if you summoned him through a smartwatch, it was pointless, and of course an instructor calling him would not make a difference.
So Yun Jeongseop had left her here with the implication that we should take her to him.
And he probably planned to let us know about the club room assignnt at the sa ti.
Well, at least he did not bring us another strange request.
Since Gwon Chihun’s location was always in the palm of my hand, I could find him quickly and then go about my own business.
Just as I was about to leave to find him, Cha Yeri suddenly cut in.
“May I ask why you wish to et Cadet Gwon Chihun?”
It was an abrupt question.
But Jeong Soyun reacted even more abruptly, her ears turning red as she lowered her head slightly.
“Ah, it is because I want to get to know him. So… I suppose it is interest.”
“……”
“……”
Cha Yeri and I fell silent at the sa ti.
Then we spoke at the sa ti as well.
“Do not tell you are interested in him.”
“Are you saying you feel romantic attraction toward Cadet Gwon Chihun?”
“I… if I get the chance, I want to et him and talk!”
Good heavens.
Sothing like this could happen to Gwon Chihun?
“I heard from the instructor earlier that the two of you do various things to help people… Could you introduce to Gwon Chihun? Even just a chance to greet him…”
I had no words and could only blink.
But for so reason, Cha Yeri showed an unusually lively reaction.
“Of course! Not only can I introduce you, I can actively help you! It is only natural to take interest in soone of the opposite sex your age! …Though soone I know seems not to understand that.”
As she finished, she cast a sidelong glance at .
Pretending not to notice, I spoke.
“I am sorry, but we are the Mystery Club. Moving for a reason unrelated to the club’s the is a bit…”
“Ah, then was the instructor earlier not an advisor?”
“He was. He is. It is just… complicated.”
At that mont, a ssage arrived on my smartphone.
-Combat Division Cha Yeri: Is it not mysterious in itself that sothing like this happened to Cadet Gwon Chihun, President?
She wore a faint, deliberate eye-smile along with the ssage.
The kind of eye-smile she used to apply silent pressure.
In the end, I decided to yield a step.
“Understood. I only need to create an opportunity for you to beco close with him, correct?”
“Ah! Yes!”
“But what do we do about this? I have been extrely busy with Special Affairs Division work. I think Cadet Cha Yeri here will have to take charge.”
It was a clear statent that I did not want to get involved.
Yet Cha Yeri replied confidently, as though she did not mind at all.
“It cannot be helped. I will have to carry out this noble request on my own. Jeong Soyun, could you give your phone number?”
“Yes!”
There was no scent of an episode in this matter.
It was surprising that soone existed who liked Gwon Chihun, but I could already see the bleak outco.
Because Gwon Chihun, a third-year in the Investigation Division and the student council president, had feelings for Yu Hyeonjeong.
Given his personality, once he set his mind, there would be no major twist.
Cha Yeri spoke again.
“May I ask one more thing?”
“Of course.”
“What is it about Cadet Gwon Chihun that draws your interest so strongly?”
That was an important question.
I pricked up my ears.
Jeong Soyun scratched her cheek as though embarrassed.
“Well… it started during the Spring Scholastic War. I heard that the one who deduced that incident so clearly was Gwon Chihun. Ever since then, he has looked so gallant to , and unlike his appearance, he seems so brilliant… Honestly, even I cannot express my feelings precisely. It is just that even thinking of him makes my heart race.”
“……”
“……”
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