“…What’s flying at me?”
“Your fist.”
I gently nudged the golem next to me, and it prepared to activate, emitting a blue light.
The academy has various educational tools, one of which is the ‘educational mana golem.’
Designed more for education than protection or attack, this golem seems no different from others at first glance, but it has a very ‘special’ hidden function.
“Do I just break it?!”
“If you’re using a weapon, then yes.”
“I’ll go first!”
Excited, Leo shot his hand up and jumped up.
There had never been an easy class until now, but he seemed pretty confident this time.
It could be due to his youthful mentality, but it wasn’t just Leo; the other students, the users, felt the same way.
These were seasoned knights, having hunted countless bosses and wielded outstanding weapons and abilities.
No matter how prepared Lily was for the class, a golem could be smashed with their bare hands.
[Golems aren’t that tough, are they?]
[How many rankers are there? Golems should be easy.]
[Lololololol]
[Golem?]
[Confident Leo]
[Honestly, with Leo’s skills, he could break it even without a weapon.]
[Won’t he drop dead with just one punch? lol]
Leo looked up at the golem, which was several times his size.
Though the golem was big, it made him feel like he was looking at a giant from a mini-tribe.
“Alright.”
Leo’s weapon was an old tree staff.
He could take on any position, but as a Spirit Sorcerer, he was more specialized in magic.
He infused mana into the staff and used the spirit technique.
“Frost Icicle!”
Crackle! The ice magic swiftly shot out from the staff, striking the golem.
The ice magic, effective against the golem, seemed to deal a fair amount of damage.
“Yay! Passed— Gyaa!”
Boom!!!
Leo flew back after getting hit by an icy fist.
[?]
[?]
[Why isn’t he dead?]
[????]
[Wait, are we saying Leo’s attack didn’t break it?]
[Where’s that?]
[Did Leo just fly away?]
[Lolololololololol]
[King Rem;;]
[Is King Golem being treated like garbage?]
[Oh, lol]
[Golems can’t be beaten, right?]
Apart from being slightly frosted, the golem looked entirely fine.
Moreover, the speed at which it swung its fist was so fast that even Leo couldn’t react, despite being caught off guard.
Leo, stuck in a wall barrier, stared at me with wide eyes.
“Uh?”
“First, go inside. I’ll explain.”
“U, unbelievable…”
Leo trudged inside.
It seemed everyone’s expressions had finally changed a bit.
Now your gaze has finally changed a bit.
“First, let’s clear up a misunderstanding. This golem is just an ordinary golem. Its level is about that of a 40-level boss. It’s not some special hidden piece or an item made from mana stones worth hundreds of gold.”
“Still, it seems way too strong, though, Teacher.”
“That’s right, Yena. It’s too strong. Peculiarly so.”
Leo is a ranker so strong that he’s called the strongest user, aside from the Sword Saint.
And this strong ranker was taken down without even lifting a finger.
To be precise, he was caught off guard, and technically, he didn’t even take any damage, but being tossed away holds meaning in itself.
I created a spear of light.
“The secret lies in the weapon.”
The spear spins.
The spinning spear enveloped the golem like a dragon’s breath.
Nothing happened.
“Huh.”
“…?”
“You too, Professor?”
“Oh! That’s fascinating!”
“Can you keep it down?”
Suddenly, a fierce punch comes flying in.
After dodging the dragon-like flying punch, I halted its motion.
[Lily dodges.]
[Is that a copied skill?]
[Why isn’t it breaking?]
[What??]
[Lily can’t break it either?]
[How come the creator can’t break it?]
[???]
[Group panic, lol.]
“First of all, the weapons I distributed are made solely from mana, without any special focal point. Naturally, over 99% of the weapon consists of my mana.”
Creak.
“The conduction rate is extremely high, so even with those stats, the golem’s made the same way.”
The pure white golem quickly recovered from the ice-related damage, nodding its head up and down.
In the meantime, Yena is working hard to hit it.
I should give her a compliment later.
“This golem possesses the property of absorbing and sucking in ‘the same power.’ Additionally, it has the ability to copy any techniques it gets hit by and replicate them.”
“Ah…!”
“The weapon is a crystal made from my mana. Since the golem is also made from the same mana, it can’t take damage from it.”
No matter how much strong power you force into it, in the end, it’s a technique used with a weapon containing my mana.
The damage can’t help but be extremely minimal.
In other words…
“You’re essentially fighting with a weapon that inflicts ‘-99.99% damage’ on the golem.”
In that respect, it’s impressive that Leo even managed to inflict ‘damage’ on the golem at a level below 0.001%.
[Is that even possible?]
[?]
[But why did Leo take a hit?]
[Isn’t that broken?]
[Hmm.]
[If you can seal skills, then damage reduction seems pretty reasonable.]
[Wow, lol.]
[Are we even playing the same game?]
“Are we really playing a game?”
“The professor is going too fast!”
Everyone looks like they’re spaced out.
It’s clear they’re feeling overwhelmed; they must be rankers.
But not knowing this is an even stranger problem.
Take Yena, for example. The Sword Master of the past was a level of knight that could simply obliterate the competition.
Even if they grew according to the system’s rules, they should fundamentally understand ‘the invasion and protection of mana.’
This is the most basic thing one must learn to master mana.
Redberry raised her hand.
“Yes, Redberry student.”
“So if we lower the mana levels, will the damage be normal?”
“That’s right. You just need to push out my mana imbued in the weapon and fill it with your own mana. Then the damage will be normal.”
Everyone flinched for a moment.
Pushing out Lily’s mana and filling it with their own—could that really be done?
I smiled while rhythmically tapping the chalk on the blackboard with some floating chalk.
“Don’t worry! We haven’t set the protection too difficult.”
The golem is set at a level that the academy students would barely be able to break through after six months of training.
If you go all out, it might be 10%.
At the very least, it should be around 2%.
Just 2% should be enough to break the golem.
“Then let’s get started. If you have any questions or need help, feel free to ask. You can challenge freely.”
■
Yikes! No way, this is too much…
Ugh! I just want to unleash my ultimate!
Haha! Bring it on, tin can!!
‘…This is hard.’
The platform is chaotic, with users diligently pouring mana into their weapons.
Users are lined up at the platform to take on the challenge, while a few are seated, clenching their weapons tightly.
Redberry is holding her staff, engaging in an invisible battle.
It didn’t seem like much at first, but finding the ‘gap’ in the mana is a different story.
I had learned enough beforehand about teleportation, so the class wasn’t a big issue, but this was genuinely difficult.
‘The cost is too high…’
As I observed on the broadcast, I was trying to detach and infuse the mana.
But after dozens of attempts, it feels as if I’ve taken up barely 0.01% of the staff.
Instead, the staff is fiercely emitting Lily’s mana.
I really want to take the challenge, but seeing all the users flying away makes me hesitant.
Oh, Yena’s flying off in the distance now.
Was that her seventh attempt?
Watching her fly that far and persistently challenge is really impressive.
It’s impressive to see someone who flies and persistently takes on challenges.
Drrrk.
“It seems difficult.”
“…Quite a bit.”
Lily came over to sit next to me.
Honestly, what is with this person?
How do they even know about this stuff and teach it too?
She tapped her staff lightly.
“Don’t try to find gaps, try to understand mana.”
“Understand?”
“Understand what this mana is composed of, how the weapon is designed with magic. If you understand, it will naturally reveal itself without having to dig for it.”
A pretty serious piece of advice.
‘…..’
How is it composed…
“…I don’t understand.”
“You need to reflect on your own mana. Then, it will make sense.”
Before I could even ask something, Lily’s fingertips were moving.
Her fingertips touched Redberry’s hand, and in an instant, a part of Redberry’s mana was pulled away to Lily.
“Ugh…!”
“Feels weird, right? Just bear with it.”
“No. Suddenly…”
In that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of detachment.
It felt like a part of me was being ripped away.
No, it wasn’t just a feeling; it really was happening.
She smiled and wrapped the mana in a white light, gifting a sphere of red, blazing mana.
“What do you think?”
“…It feels somewhat familiar.”
“Of course, it’s Miss Redberry’s mana.”
Go ahead, grab it.
Redberry grabbed the sphere of mana.
It felt both familiar and strange.
It was definitely similar to the part of mana I summoned every time, but something was definitely different.
My mana has the property of spewing fire just by existing, but it becomes infinitely gentle towards its master.
In that moment, Redberry felt like she had caught onto something.
“Do you get it now?”
“…Something’s there, definitely.”
“Would you like to give it a try?”
I grabbed the staff as instructed.
Still, Lily’s mana was seamless.
Understanding mana… understanding…
Tsut…
“Oh. Amazing.”
A tiny part of the weapon turned red.
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