A Side Villain…

At the same time when Akira was selecting his weapon Richard too was doing the same in the spear room. The spear room was as much decorated as the others and had almost all the various types and kinds of spear you could want.

 

There was one with a short handle, long handle, long blade, thicker and thinner blade, protruding ones which were made of different metals and also had special runes enchanted on them. But those were the regular types that could be purchased anywhere in the continent, the enchanted ones were most costly but nothing a prince couldn’t afford.

 

Richard, who had been using a spear all his life could distinguish the good from bad and there were a lot of good ones here, but nothing that tingled his senses or made him turn his head. His innate skill of ‘Spear God’ had already made a spear as his extended body part.

 

And by training with a spear for so many years there was not a single type he had not tried and tested but none of them could make the mark. He always felt that something was amiss while using them. There's this feeling of a part missing in the puzzle and maybe that was the main reason that despite the talent his gains have started to slow down.

 

There’s always a method to change that but it was top classified and only the current king, his father knows about it and when he asked him the answer was,

 

“You would know when the time is right.”

 

Six years, eight months, fourteen days, eleven hours, twenty four minutes and forty six seconds had passed since that but ‘that time’ had not come and with the progressing day it was becoming difficult to hold it inside. He wanted to know that secret to increase his strength.

 

The secret that was related to the ancestor of the Von Astrom family but he didn’t know the exact details, well not right now. This was going through his mind when suddenly his mana burst from his body and targeted a corner of the room. His vision was getting blurred as the sudden mana burst had illuminated the entire room with a dark golden hue.

 

Everyone present in the room could feel that dense mana and the soaring spear intent and in under one minute it became unbearable for them to stay inside so they fled the room and by now this phenomenon was seen by all the students present there.

 

“So beautiful..” Laura said unconsciously.

 

“It’s so pure, I can feel the mana twirling and twisting around him.” Aurora, who was also there, commented.

 

“But is he gonna be okay? Should I head inside?” Lily was the first to go outside after the mana burst.

 

“No you would only disturb it.” Alexandra said in her uncaring voice.

 

When everyone’s focus was on Richard, a similar incident occurred with Drake who went inside the sword room after Akira exited it. While going through the swords present in the room suddenly wild beastly mana began leaking from his mana cores and just like Richard’s his vision was also getting blurry.

 

“Two of them? That’s impossible.” Laura shouted with her facial expressions having the exact disbelief.

 

“These two..” Aurora shook his head while sighing.

 

“Interesting, for a man to have this.” Alexandra muttered under her breath.

 

Soon the bright golden light enveloping the two rooms began to fade and when they completely vanished the two of them could be seen holding two very ordinary looking weapons in their hands, a wooden spear in Richard’s hands and a slightly curved twig in his hand.

 

Both the ordinary looking weapons had a golden hue around them but it faded soon away when they came out of the room. Everyone was looking at them in shock and reverence, it was as if they had seen a miracle happening in front of them.

Martha knew what this was, Weapon God innate skill which could be of any weapon but how lucky are those two to have the greatest ones like Sword and Spear God skill? Her head was spinning. She clearly needed a raise and a long vacation after this year.

 

“Hey are you okay?” Lily ran upto Richard and asked him, worry quite evident in her voice.

 

“Are you fine?” Aurora asked but had no emotions on her face.

 

“Hehe, what do you guys think?” Richard showed his stupid smile.

 

“Thank God that you are alright but what really happened inside there?” Lily asked curiously and honestly that was the question everyone wanted an answer to.

 

“Oh I honestly don’t know, mana started leaking out of my cores and somehow my mind was overwhelmed by an unknown force and while I was thinking what was going on this wooden spear came flying in my hand.” He explained.

 

Drake gave a similar explanation to Lana and the rest of his group who were very tense and worried about his safety. Shin who was looking at the twig in his hand couldn't help but ask,

 

“Hey do you feel something different with that twig?”

“Hmm? I can’t really describe this feeling in words but somehow I feel a whole lot stronger and confident with this thing in my hands.” Drake replied.

 

“I see, this is going to be something amusing.” Shin said while adjusting his glasses.

 

“Drake, are you really alright or do you want me to head back to our empire?” Lana was still concerned about his health so asked.

 

“No we can’t do that and I feel perfectly fine with this so don’t worry about anything Lana.” He said.

 

Lana couldn’t say anything after this so quietly nodded and stood back, she had chosen a naginata as she had been trained in that for a long time and was feeling quite comfortable with it.

 

Lily had chosen a sword because of her innate skill of ‘sword saint’ though it was inferior to ‘sword god’ of Drake but even then it was quite rare in this world and only a few people were born with it. Oh and she had also talked with Richard regarding this.

 

Aurora was special; she was one of the few that had chosen dual weapons, a rare feat to master given that a user is not really that talented and it would take a long time. She had chosen the bow, the bread and butter of the Elven race and two enchanted daggers one with the fire element and other with the water element to go with them.

 

She had always been a hardworking individual and now that she knows that she is competing with the likes of Richard and Drake something extra had to be done. These two monsters would leave her in dust if she doesn’t ups her game.

 

And if Aurora was special then Alexandra was exceptional, being an amazonian she was taught the art of ‘all weapon wielding’ and given her extraordinary talent and grasping power it was quite easy for her to absorb this art and learn it to the perfection. She had chosen the usual for an amazonian, a short sword, a solid shield, a long spear and a whip.

 

The rest of them had also chosen their weapons, the sword and spear were in overwhelming majority but in the rest there was some good diversity among them. They had chosen lances, halberds, axes, maces, crossbows for a few to speak.

 

Laura seeing that initiation was completed announced,

 

“Now that you are already in groups and have a weapon let’s head to the simulation room and begin the real thing.” 

 

Akira who was standing quite far away from the crowd had been seeing all the events transpired so far took a sigh and said,

 

“So this is how a side character really feels after seeing op moments of the protagonist and cast.”

 

“This was so much better when the player had the option to play as Richard, Drake or anyone from the main cast but now it’s getting annoying, they are getting the best things without doing anything.” 

 

He had thoroughly checked the entire room for that twig of a sword but could’t find it, he even used his mana search for something unusual there but to his luck there was nothing and just when Drake entered everything appeared out of thin air.

 

 “These guys and their luck is just too good, well it’s not that I am jealous, yes I am definitely not jealous. Aaahh I am kinda, just a little.”

 

He was definitely jealous and who wouldn’t, those ordinary looking spear and sword were in top five weapons of the world and anyone in their sane mind would want them in his arsenal. The sword was Excalibur, one of the legends back on earth and the spear was of course Gungnir.

 

The developers wanted to combine real world’s legends into the story so they chose to do it in forms of weapons, artifacts, some characters and some names of the cities. Excalibur and Gungnir were too great to be left by them so why not give them to the two main characters?

 

But why were they displayed not in their usual elegant form but in some wooden like form? The thing was that they were currently locked and would grow stronger with time, these were not ordinary weapons but weapons which could cause mass destruction if in wrong hands.

 

So to not let that happen they were sealed and put in the world as normal looking and only someone like the protagonist could have awakened them and used them to their full capacity, hence the reason Akira was not able to find them.

 

Back to the place now everyone had gathered outside a large dome made out of glass. The entrance was a semicircle with some intricate carvings made on it. Laura cleared the confusion,

 

“This is our biggest pride, the greatest thing we have ever built. A mana simulation room, in this room not only could we control everything from the climate to atmosphere to the scenery but also the strength of people and monsters inside this.”

 

“Yes there are monsters present inside it along with mana beasts and generally the task is to kill as many as you could and also find the hidden treasures, there are thirty of them and for each monster slayed there would be one point and for each treasure five points.”

“But since it is your first time going in and many of you have basic combat training you are required to find only the hidden treasures as all the monsters have been deleted and oh your strength will be regulated inside.”

 

“You would be randomly transported inside as a group and the time limit is about one hour so good luck.”

 

She was asking for water after saying all these and yeah that was a lot to say in one go but for someone like her, she is just acting lazy.

 

This was the hidden treasure which every new batch goes through, they judge every individual by his abilities and skills and form a list on who to focus on. There were some dangers present there even when the monsters and mana beasts had been deleted but the students didn’t know that.

 

About this hidden treasure thing Akira had no problem finding every single of them as he remembered the exact location of each of them but would he?

 

“Wait, how do I even remember that?” Akira asked himself before getting transported inside the mana simulation room.

 

In the principal’s room

 

Alcatraz was the house butler of the Maddock family. Well, butler would be the most appropriate word to describe him. He had devoted himself to the service of his master Mr. Maddock and the little misses Evelyn Maddock and Ichinose Miyamoto, currently he was standing in front of Mr. Maddock and the principal of this academy.

 

“Any leads?” Mr. Maddock, who had his face resting on his hand asked, his voice was quite deep and had an unquestionable authority.

 

“We have searched the entire city and the neighboring areas but there wasn’t much to be found out and we had also checked the dungeon’s record book but it looks like they managed to bypass it.” 

 

“Well that would only mean that they sent an ascended to attack this time.”

 

“Yes Sir from the attack power of the assailant he must be above tier 1 most probably around tier F+ or E-.”

 

“Anything else which I should know about?”

“Yes Sir.” Alcatraz replied in a courteous manner.

 

“Oh?” He lifted his face and now his full visage could be seen.

 

His face was perfect, it had no blemishes, no scars, nothing that could put a dent in his handsomeness. His crimson red hair looked almost unnatural and his dragon slit golden eyes made him even better and if not for the fact that he had a seventeen year old daughter you would never be able to guess he’s that old. 

 

He was wearing a white suit which had patterns going around it in a zigzag manner and it looked professional for the setting, his entire room was made out of solid wood and had various things inside it.

 

“We had asked the princess and her two attendants and from their description it looks like a heretic organization.” 

 

“Are the three of them doing okay?” He said and began doing something on his watch.

 

Alcatraz waited for him to finish and then continued.

 

“Yes sir, the princess was affected by the poison of the Globtopus but she is doing well under our care.”

 

‘Sigh’

 

Mr. Maddock sighed and relaxed back on the comfortable looking chair, this incident had proved to be quite a cumbersome event not only was a royalty involved but someone had actually tried to kill her and leave no clue behind.

 

Heretic organizations were made out of the outcasts of the society and all of them had one common factor that they were neglected and ostracized by the society, they were left to die and no one came forward to help hence creating the hatred against the established government and it’s policies.

 

It was rapidly gaining a foothold in the continent and despite the empires coming together and trying to stop them it was futile, everyday many new recruits joined the organizations and swelled up the already large numbers.

 

The most prominent heretic organization which had also attacked the princess was called Apocalypse and its goal was the reunification of two continents and the revival of the Great War.

 

Mr. Maddock rubbed his forehead and began scribbling down something in the air, his brush moved beautifully creating some weird runes and when it all ended a swish sound came and the magic ended.

 

KNOCK KNOCK

 

“Hmm, Alcatraz if you will.”

 

“Certainly Sir.”

 

Alcatraz moved forward and opened the door, there was a flying letter outside it and the moment he grabbed it it became a normal looking one. This was one of the ways through which messages were sent inside of the academy, the other being a message spell which was not used that often.

 

“Sir Miss. Laura had sent this.”

 

“Now what does that girl want?” Mr. Maddock was doing his paper job and took the letter without even looking at his butler.

 

He stopped his work then opened the letter which had a red seal mark indicating the urgentness of it, he took out the crisp and sharp paper and began reading it.

 

Alcatraz was watching all this and maybe this was the first time in centuries that he had seen so many emotions emerge on his master’s face at once, first it was slight annoyance then it became that of mild interest and lastly it was full concentration.

 

And when he thought it was more than enough his master began laughing,

 

“Hahahaha….” Alcatraz had not seen him laughing like this for a long time so he took some time to adjust his surprised look.

 

“Haha, this is interesting, very interesting.” He said and threw the letter to his butler who read it and had the same dance of emotions on his face.

 

“Sir… thi-this is incredible.”

 

“Yes, these two have found the mythical weapons which have been hiding for millennia.”

 

“What should we do now sir?” 

 

“Nothing, let them grow at their own pace and oh send someone to monitor them. I want all the details.”

 

“Yes Sir.”

 

Alcatraz said and turned around to leave the room but when he reached the door he was stopped by,

 

“Oh and Alcatraz, what about the one who saved the princess and her attendants?”

 

“My apologies sir but we have absolutely zero intel about that unknown helper.”

 

“Anything that we could work upon?” Mr. Maddock asked.

 

“The attendants know the mana signal of the helper but currently they are not in a state to do anything.”

 

“Well then it’s only a matter of time before they show themselves.”

 

“Yes sir but maybe they are someone from our academy too as the attendants have reported saying that maybe they saw his apparel or something.”

 

Mr. Maddock closed his eyes and put his eyes on his back and began thinking about something, Alcatraz knew that it was an old habit of his master and when he does it something is going to happen.

 

“The future looks promising, isn’t it Alcatraz?”

 

“Certainly sir and I hope that it brings the best for you and little misses.”

 

“And oh the little misses are going to be mad at you if you miss lunch with them.”

 

Mr. Maddock who was acting all high and mighty was now thrown into panic, his daughters were his only weakness and them getting mad at him is the absolute worst thing, so he rushed the things and quickly left the room to meet the two cute girls.