Academy's Drunk Fighter-Chapter 22: Magic (1)

"Oh."

Somehow, the room feels colder.

Shivering a little at the sudden drop in temperature, I got up off the floor.

And beyond the slightly open window—snow was falling.

“...Is this some kind of event?”

Well, I guess global warming could be considered a kind of event if you stretch the definition.

Still, snow in freaking March? That couldn’t be a normal occurrence.

“Ugh... cold.”

It wasn’t cold enough to see my breath, but the temperature had clearly dropped hard, so I layered up in two sets of clothes before heading out.

Seriously, what the hell is happening to this world.

People like me—bottom-tier trash who can’t even afford to turn on the boiler—are finding it harder and harder just to survive.

Even so, I arrived at the Academy way earlier than the other kids. Despite the darkness, the insulation must’ve been decent because I actually slept well.

“Let me just nap a little and then get up...”

It was warm, and I’d eaten some of the liquor-filled chocolate, so my mood had mellowed out. I closed my eyes for just a moment—and when I opened them, the place was packed with students.

“Felt like I didn’t even sleep that long. Already?”

Why is it that good sleep never lasts?

Like when your parents wake you up right at the crucial scene in a dream—that same exact feeling hit me as I rubbed my eyes and pulled myself together.

“Nggh...”

Then I checked today’s schedule.

Thankfully, there were no physical-based subjects today, so I wouldn’t have to worry about Professor Philia.

Looking it over quickly, I had stuff like [Understanding Mysteries and Magic], [Ecological Analysis of the Otherworld], and [Mana Stones and Ideal Power].

All of them, honestly, were the kinds of classes I’d always wanted to try if I ever found myself in a fantasy world.

I mean, seriously, how could anyone get tired of learning magic? It’s fun as hell. I don’t get why people complain about it.

The ability to lift distant objects without touching them. To teleport instantly.

To shoot fire and water from your bare hands.

If I could actually do that stuff? Just imagining it gets my heart racing.

And maybe—just maybe—I might have a talent for magic too.

Something outside the traits I selected when I started. Maybe some hidden talent that was just naturally embedded in me.

“If that’s the case, I’m ditching Drunken Fist on the spot...!”

I’ve never liked martial arts styles where you get hurt easily.

If there were a way to fight without getting hit, great—but I’m not even strong enough to manage that.

But... it didn’t take long for me to realize I had zero talent.

****

“Now then, today we’ll be exploring the concept of Mysteries and Magic.”

A tired-looking woman in glasses stood in front of the class.

She wore a lab coat long enough to drag on the floor—like something out of a science lab manga—as she moved slowly.

Her drawling voice filled the room as she began sketching a line across the massive blackboard.

“Before we begin understanding this subject, let me ask you all: what do you think a Mystery is?”

One student raised a hand and answered.

“It’s when you borrow power from another being.”

“Then are you saying that abilities used by gifted individuals or the inherited powers passed down through family lines aren’t Mysteries?”

“Ah—n-no, that’s not what I meant...”

“Mysteries, to put it simply, refer to the act of borrowing power by connecting with beings from other realms that we wouldn’t normally even perceive.”

She drew a white line on the board.

That line spread and branched out, forming dozens of spheres—each varying in size and floating independently.

“As far as our research has uncovered, the number of ‘realms’—dimensions connected to ours—is estimated to be about twelve.”

“Dimensions...”

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“Some of the commonly known ones would be the Spirit Realm and the Stellar Realm. Others... well, a few families here might know more, but knowing won’t help you much.”

I already knew a little about this from the game’s lore.

Depending on what difficulty the player selects, more dimensions get added—and the odds of them being hostile ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) goes up, too.

One of the most basic ones that always appears no matter what is the Gate.

A staple of any Academy-themed VRMMO: the foundational hostile dimension that starts appearing even in Easy Mode.

That’s where demonic beasts and monsters come from—and the Academy exists to train students to stop them.

If the difficulty goes up from there, even more enemy factions and hostile forces start showing up.

The problem is—and I’ve thought this before—I have no idea what difficulty I actually picked.

But maybe, just maybe, I could figure it out based on the number of hostile realms they mention in this class. So I focused in.

“As you all know, the Spirit Realm and Stellar Realm provide various forms of assistance—through spirit arts, stellar rites, and so on. But on the other hand, realms like the Chaotic Realm cause us tremendous harm.”

Outside the white lines, vivid spirits and radiant light shimmered—as if they might burst into the room at any moment.

And standing in contrast to that: twisted forms, some grotesque fusion of beasts and demons.

“The unfortunate thing is—we don’t fully understand any of them. Because we don’t know our enemy, we don’t know when they might start attacking us.”

“Is there any kind of connection point to those realms?”

“That too, we don’t know. Spirits hardly speak to us, and the stars look down on us like we’re beneath them. Unless the offering is absurdly great, they won’t even respond.”

The female professor spoke with a note of regret in her voice as she continued her explanation.

“That’s why we had to create a self-defense mechanism for ourselves.”

“Is that... magic?”

“Yes. In case the friendly realms can’t—or won’t—help us, we needed a way to protect ourselves.”

All the circles on the board vanished—except for the one at the center.

“The first magic that humans created was downright crude. Just a basic sphere, a weak imitation of the powers we used to borrow from nature or other realms.”

But over time, lines began to appear over the circle—drawn and redrawn, layered again and again.

“So then we asked ourselves—how do we achieve the best possible result... with the lowest possible cost and highest efficiency?”

Letters were erased and rewritten over and over again in endless configurations.

Among them, a few characters started to glow faintly, slowly finding their places.

“Location and transformation... higher dimensions beyond our perception... time and space, cause and effect. We were trying to control it all, align it all... It was like watching a child try to walk without a mother.”

The endlessly shifting sphere lost its light and slowly faded—

“But in the end, we succeeded.”

And then—

Whoosh!!

The characters on the screen flared, and a bright flame burst into the air above them.

“A rule crafted by us alone, to stand against demons and ma—magic, in other words.”

“Um...”

“Yes? What is it?”

“The origin of magic I learned is... kind of different from this.”

“That’s possible. Honestly, the origin of magic itself isn’t very clear. Some say a god descended and gifted it to us. Others say a wanderer from another world passed it down. I’m just giving the version that seems most plausible.”

“Then...”

The professor wrapped up her explanation, her tired eyes half-lidded.

“What matters is that you now have the power to defend yourselves. Sure, hand-to-hand combat’s great—but isn’t it better to launch a massive bombardment from a distance?”

“I mean... yeah, I guess.”

All the symbols on the board disappeared.

“That’s why I intend to teach everyone equally, whether you’re talented or not. Unless you’re ridiculously untalented, there’s no way you won’t learn at least the basics of magic.”

She handed out papers to everyone—on them were rough versions of the symbols from earlier, along with a large circle.

“And now, your homework for this week: decode the magic formula written here. You’re free to use any book or document as reference.”

“......”

There’s a saying that when a professor allows open-book tests, it usually means the questions are impossible—and yeah, this looked like one of those. Just glancing at the magic circle made my head spin.

“You’re students of Central Academy—I believe you’ll manage just fine. Yaaawn... Oh, and for reference, this is the example submitted right after I handed out the assignment last period.”

She casually pulled a single paper from a thick pile and pinned it to the front of the board.

And then I saw the tiny name written on it:

[Andre Hellicia]

I stared blankly.

...Are you serious?

That’s the name of the youngest-ever candidate for Tower Master.

And I know for a fact—because I’ve seen the future—that she does become the Tower Master someday.

And she’s what we’re being compared to?

“Alright, that’s it for today. You’re dismissed.”

Even so, I dragged myself up and took a closer look. The magic circle posted on the board was packed with crooked, swirling lines—just looking at it gave me a headache.

Did it really need to be this damn complicated?

Like—are we even supposed to be able to do this?

No matter how many times I read through it, I still had no clue how it was supposed to work.

I mean, come on—we haven’t even properly learned what magic is yet, and you want us to solve this?

“Ah, and just so you know, that’s a beginner-level problem. Like, entry-level beginner. Super easy.”

“This...?”

She said that, yawned again, and left.

Lines and characters, stacked like a pile of worms.

Back in high school, I saw those hellish question #30s on the college entrance exams—but even those didn’t require this many lines to answer.

And this is supposed to be entry-level beginner?

“Shit.”

And just like that, I gave up on magic.