Why Did I Have to Enroll

Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 47

Lesson 11. Apprentice Mage Ban Yu-won - 2

Sure enough, on Monday morning, a notification arrived on every student's pendant, announcing the special activity for this week.

All the necessary information could be checked, and detailed information could be accessed through the school intranet via the mirror.

Ban Yu-won was shocked when he learned the true nature of this special activity.

"We're going to another dimension?!"

As Ban Yu-won exclaimed loudly while cutting into his pancake topped with fried chicken, Dokgo Yeon chided him.

"Why are you so surprised? You're a student who's studying abroad in the highest dimension right now."

"Now that you mention it, that's true..."

Ban Yu-won froze as he suddenly realized the surreal nature of his current environment.

Luciel, sitting close beside him, carefully cut the pancake for him.

Not only that, but as Luciel used her fork to pick up a piece of pancake along with some chicken and move it towards Ban Yu-won's mouth, she caught Dokgo Yeon's strange gaze and smiled brightly.

However, she absolutely refused to put down the fork.

"Yu-won. Say 'ah.'"

"Huh? Ah, aah."

"Beast, take it easy."

Dokgo Yeon said incredulously as Luciel finally achieved her goal.

But Luciel's reaction was quite a sight.

She tilted her head as if to say 'What are you talking about?' and replied:

"I am taking it easy..."

"Ban Yu-won, you said you were learning magic, but have you already mastered mind control? Just look at how boldly this beast is responding to me."

As Dokgo Yeon dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, feigning exaggerated emotion, Ban Yu-won, who had been chewing on the pancake, responded seriously:

"I didn't do anything."

In truth, Ban Yu-won also wanted to refuse Luciel's kindness, which felt somewhat burdensome.

However, when Luciel argued that to perfectly control her emotions, she needed to adjust her usual behavior patterns to fit their master-servant relationship, he had no choice but to go along with it.

"Look at that..."

"Those two, don't tell me."

"Wow, look at the weakest ones pairing up."

"That bastard is so damn lucky. I hope he just blows up."

"So what about the videos from now on...?"

Naturally, as the two were engaged in such cringeworthy behavior typically seen between lovers, the attention of other students in the cafeteria was drawn to them.

Among them, those who frequently watched 'Rebellion' videos even let out exclamations or shot envious glances at Ban Yu-won or Luciel.

But even this was welcome.

If they were still in a position to be despised for being from a lower dimension, they would have received qualitatively different looks than they did now.

"It says the goal of this special activity is to observe the lower dimensions and protect those poor souls without self-defense abilities from monster waves."

"Light?"

Meanwhile, Light had his nose buried in his mirror, reading the announcement for this special activity.

Ban Yu-won, glancing at him, didn't miss the twisted smile forming at the corners of Light's mouth.

Perhaps sensing Ban Yu-won's puzzled gaze, Light spoke without trying to hide his cynicism:

"Ban, look at how they're talking about the lower dimensions as if they couldn't be maintained without the care of the upper dimensions."

"You..."

As Ban Yu-won was momentarily at a loss for words, struck by the darkness in Light's voice, Dokgo Yeon spoke up instead:

"That level of arrogance is perfectly normal if you're aiming to become a god. Don't think about it too negatively, Light."

"Ha, right. So this is all just preliminary education for ascending to godhood..."

Light's bitter voice was deeply concerning.

Recalling how he had been particularly vocal in expressing his hostility towards the upper dimensions before, it wasn't difficult to realize that something must have happened to him in the past.

'Putting aside all this talk about seducing or whatever, I should try to get closer to him.'

After all, they were partners who would be living and working together for the next 5 years, for better or worse.

Ban Yu-won made a renewed resolution.

"Yu-won, say 'ah.'"

"Huh? Ah, aah."

However, for now, he had to obediently open his mouth and eat the pancake as Luciel instructed.

*

Everywhere in the academy, talk about this special activity could be heard.

Special activities had always been a thing, but it's said that special activities where all grades are required to participate only happen once a semester as an 'event'.

The first-year students were excited at the thought of seeing the skills of the upper-class students with their own eyes, while the upper-class students were thinking about finding promising individuals among the first-years.

At the center of all this commotion was, needless to say, Rebellion.

It was only natural, as they were the ones receiving the most attention among this year's first-years, even pushing aside the bloodline of Ortima, which is counted among the ten greatest families across all dimensions.

Especially after it was revealed in the exploration video uploaded last week that they had even eliminated an intruder in the tower, their fame grew in various ways.

This was also the case in Professor Xenon's lecture that they attended on Tuesday afternoon, because the elimination of intruders was an issue actively promoted within the academy and directly related to the safety of many students.

In particular, among the students attending Professor Xenon's lectures, there were quite a few who had contracts with constellations, and as such, they were likely to get involved with irregulars and were sensitive to the presence of intruders.

So they couldn't help but pay attention to the fact that it wasn't even 4th or 5th-year students competing with them, but 1st-year freshmen who encountered an intruder on a 'qualification hunt', and even managed to kill him.

"Maybe they're not just lucky after all."

"Well, not just anyone can attend Professor Xenon's lectures."

"Hmph, they're still just lowborns."

"There was so much fuss, so I watched the video, but the intruder was just a bottom-feeder from the lowest level of Exodus. It doesn't make sense to make such a big deal out of catching something like that."

"But didn't they receive support from a constellation?"

"It must have been a low-ranking constellation."

However, since it was mainly composed of upper-class special classes, favorable public opinion wasn't formed in the first place.

It was understandable, as the special classes were being beaten up on the intranet, with Rebellion as the starting point.

...Of course, this was because they had made discriminatory remarks first.

In fact, Ban Yu-won and his group, who had become the hot topic, didn't have time to pay attention to such things.

Dokgo Yeon was never the type to care about others' gazes in the first place.

Light was too busy learning spear techniques from Dokgo Yeon (in a somewhat aggressive manner).

Even Luciel, who had been conscious of people's gazes, was now only paying attention to Ban Yu-won.

This was because Ban Yu-won had to focus on the two tasks assigned to him.

[The depth of the Body stimulated by the Mysterious Qi decreases to 240. The change in the concept of the Body is in progress. You feel the accumulation of an unknown concept, but it cannot be defined yet.]

[Due to the practice of Mysterious Body Technique, some negative concepts within the Body have been eliminated. A positive surplus of Life is generated. The surplus potential will promote the growth of other concepts.]

"Phew......"

Wednesday evening.

Ban Yu-won, who had been practicing Mysterious Body Technique non-stop since receiving it from Dokgo Yeon last week, was reading the ability guide that appeared before his eyes and realizing that he still had a long way to go.

'I think I can say I've achieved something only when the concept of the body is completely transformed.'

Originally, the depth of Ban Yu-won's Body had purely reached the point of surpassing 300, but it was gradually decreasing as he practiced Mysterious Body Technique.

However, this wasn't disappearance, but a process of changing into something that corresponded to a concept higher than the body.

In fact, he could feel that his body shape, muscle structure, and bone structure were becoming stronger, more robust, and more ideal, and when all the concepts changed, the basic performance of his body would be different.

At first, he thought he wanted to complete this transformation work before this special activity... but now he was realizing how arrogant that thought had been.

'There's no way a major operation to completely overhaul my body from head to toe could be done in just a week. It'll take at least a few months from now on. I wonder if I can finish it before the end of the first semester.'

Considering that he would continue to face monsters and repeatedly steal body concepts, it could take even longer.

If Dokgo Yeon knew about his physical changes, he would be amazed at the ridiculous speed, but unfortunately, he only knew that his own development speed was slow.

"Sigh, then......"

Anyway, the certain fact was that he couldn't achieve results in a short period with Mysterious Body Technique.

Having realized this, he had no choice but to focus more on the 'other path' now.

"If I fail again today, I'm going to break this thing."

At Ban Yu-won's muttering, the magic wand... the staff in front of his eyes trembled.

He was having trouble extracting the concept of 'magic language' from this staff.

Probably because the staff's ego was too firm, it was being treated as a quasi-living being, not an object from which Ban Yu-won could easily extract concepts as usual.

Still, he had stubbornly tried to extract the concept for three days from Sunday to Tuesday, considering it as practicing his ability, but it was ultimately impossible.

"Are you listening? I'm telling you, big bro is out of time now."

Maybe if he got a little more used to infusing Mysterious Qi into his ability, it might be possible to extract it like this, but the problem was that tomorrow was Thursday, the day of Yumina's magic combat studies lecture.

He couldn't just run away saying 'It was impossible after all!' after deciding to attend her lecture, saying he had obtained an artifact that would make him a mage.

So Ban Yu-won decided to implement Plan B, which he had been hesitating about.

That was to threaten the staff's ego.

"I was going to watch how long you'd throw a tantrum... but you've gone too far. If you're going to hold on to it so desperately, I have no choice but to break this and absorb the concept from the fragments......"

If the artifact's function is damaged, it would probably be impossible for the soul to fully grasp the concept.

Yumina, who examined the staff, said it was such a good artifact that it was hard to believe it came from the lower levels, so he had decided to use the staff despite its embarrassingly shaped appearance, but if the soul guy was going to be this boring, he had no choice.

"So, if this staff breaks, it's not my fault but yours. Got it? Well then, goodbye—"

—Who are you to try and break me!

The moment Ban Yu-won really tried to grasp both ends of the staff and break it, the staff violently vibrated and a young girl's voice flew into his mind.

It was a sensation he had already experienced through Dokgo-yeon's telepathy.

Sighing that he should have done this earlier instead of wasting time, Ban Yu-won said,

"You're finally opening your mouth."

—You! Human! How dare you think you can casually talk to me after trying to ruin the insides of a precious artifact?

Perhaps because it was on the verge of breaking, its voice was extremely hysterical.

Originally, the more excited the other party gets, the calmer one should be.

Ban Yu-won replied nonchalantly,

"The artifact's insides? Are you talking about concept retrieval?"

—Yes, that brutal force! Why should I acknowledge someone who wields such a vicious power? You're not a mage, the path of magic (魔道) is a road walked by truth-seekers who follow noble, elegant, and absolute principles!

"We won't know until we try it. So, hand over the concept quickly."

If it said it was impossible, this time he would really break the staff.

Faced with Ban Yu-won's serious attitude conveying such determination, the Soul residing in the staff ended up bursting into tears.

—How did I end up with such an ignorant guy... Sob sob, if I allow your outrageous act, I'll be completely ruined. I'll lose all my functions as an artifact.

"I guarantee it won't happen, so don't worry."

It's not like he had only used his power once or twice.

Not just extracting concepts from artifacts, but even adding, mixing, and synthesizing concepts had left them intact.

As Ban Yu-won snorted and retorted, the soul's crying grew louder.

—What do you know! What do you know about this delicate and complex artifact structure! All the information and functions of the artifact are intricately connected, so if even one is missing, the entire structure will become tangled, and then even I, who am talking like this now, might not be able to maintain my sanity...

"Shut up, if you don't want to break, hand it over."

—Waaaaaah!

Although he knew for certain that it wouldn't turn out that way, Ban Yu-won somehow felt like he had become trash.

—Take it, you damned bastard! I thought I'd come into the world to nurture a mage who would shake heaven and earth, but to meet such a miserable end in the hands of this scoundrel... Ah, my pitiful life...

What life are you talking about when you're not even human?

Ban Yu-won realized that as the thick defensive mechanism that the artifact had been constantly emitting disappeared, he could easily extract the concept with the power of his ability.

Given this situation, there was no need to hesitate.

He extracted all the concepts of magic language with a depth of 100 at once and bestowed them upon himself.

As a bonus, he also extracted and absorbed 50 points of elemental magic.

[Absorbing 100 points of Magic Language. By fully understanding and accepting the concept of magic language, your soul's depth has become 500. Your Life depth has become 360. The depth of All-Reading Eyes, All-Hearing Ears, and All-Speaking Lips has become 165. Complete conversion of magic language into Chinese characters is now possible.]

[Absorbing 50 points of Elemental Magic. Your soul's depth has become 510. You can now artificially create or amplify and manipulate the power of various elements such as fire, water, wind, earth, and so on.]

The moment he absorbed these two concepts, lightning struck Ban Yu-won's mind.

How could it not be marvelous to finally be able to accept as his own law the language system that had been so incomprehensible until now!

The concept of magic language, having fulfilled its role the moment it was acquired, dissolved and disappeared within his body, but that knowledge did not perish at all; rather, it was all engraved in his mind and even had a profound impact on his soul and his power.

'Now I can fully decode the student ID. No, not just that, I might even be able to adjust it if I do well.'

Now that he could accept all kinds of magic language as Chinese characters and express them as such, no one could say anything if he proudly called himself a mage!

Even the elemental magic he absorbed along with it was not to be taken lightly.

A depth of 50 was second only to his swordsmanship, which had a depth of 78 as a single skill.

And he had absorbed it intact without any degradation in depth!

"Phew, now I can attend sis... Professor Yumina's lecture without any worries."

How delighted Yumina had been when she found out she could have him attend her lecture!

He felt relieved that he wouldn't disappoint her expectations, but at the same time worried that, in reality, there might not be much left for him to learn from her now.

—What... is this.

But somehow, the artifact's reaction was strange.

The artifact itself was also trembling, emitting a peculiar light.

"What? Surprised that it's more intact than you thought?"

Ban Yu-won teased with a mischievous tone, but the artifact apparently had no time to play along with him.

—It can't be, why, why would they do this to me...

"...Huh?"

The artifact showed signs of emotional instability, as if suddenly recalling memories it had forgotten for hundreds of years.

—Yes, that's right, I wasn't originally the ego of this, this kind of weapon...

"Hey, don't say the rest of that, just wait a moment."

Ban Yu-won realized something was wrong and immediately called for a timeout.

His head was already complicated trying to organize the knowledge he had just gained, and he had a feeling that this guy was about to start spilling out a grand story like 'The Inside Story of a Heavy Artifact ~How a Promising Young Female mage Became a Mere Ego Trapped in a Staff~'!

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!