NOVEL WEB Chapter 27: Novice Club
“Wait!”
The door to the Novice Club slammed open and a familiar voice called out to me. I began to walk faster, but it was too late. A hand fell on my shoulder and a disgustingly familiar voice reached my ears.
“If you want to join the Novice Club, then you came to the right place. I am the president of the club, Nick Demondo. Joining our club is the shortcut to developing your abilities as a Novice.”
I brushed Nick’s hand off my shoulder and looked at him warily. Now that I got a second look, I realized that this was the Demon that ambushed me with a confession after I left the Crystalline Caverns.
“Nick, the Strongest Novice? The Demon who has a contract with a Death Knight?”
“Yup, that is me.”
I couldn’t believe it. The man I admired and spent many hours researching to understand his skill combination was the pervert in front of me? I crossed my arms defensively in front of my nonexistent chest.
“What was that about a girl being the most beautiful when she is peeing herself?”
“Okay, look. I know that sounds really bad, but…”
I waited. Nick’s eyes swam left and right as he desperately tried to come up with an answer. There was no sign of the man called the Strongest Novice. I sighed and let him off the hook.
“Forget it. Keep your hands off of me and I’ll join your club.”
I was Fang, a beginner Beastman explorer. A Demon like him was not any danger to me as long as I didn’t reincarnate back into Ash. I followed Nick back into the club room and was met with a diverse set of races.
Angels and demons dominated the numbers as every member of those races were enrolled in Saint Mikhail Explorer Academy regardless of their talents, but there were a few of each of the six races.
“Everyone, we have a new member today. Please introduce yourself.”
“I am Fang. My goal is to become an intermediate explorer. It is nice to meet you.”
I had to admit that the pervert did a good job in leading the Novice Club. Despite being full of the lowest talents and the weakest races, each club member was lively and full of hope. Nick was quick to encourage me.
“Several of us have become intermediate explorers while still maintaining our Novice class. Our club has even had a few explorers gain the Adept class. Well, most of them leave the club once they reach that point.”
“The Adept class?”
I played the role of a clueless new recruit and asked for more information. An angel girl with glasses spoke up in excitement.
“The Adept class is an evolved version of the Novice class that raises the talent and level cap of the user. It has two skills, [Adept] and [Growth I]. The class allows the user to quickly master new things to the adept level and increases the amount of experience they gain from killing monsters.”
I was stunned at the new information. [Growth I] was far more useful than I expected. It was no wonder that Elder Humans grew so much faster than everyone else with their innate [Growth I] skill.
“How do I become an Adept?”
Nick took over when the angel girl struggled to answer my question.
“No one knows for sure. There have been less than 10,000 recorded Adepts. It doesn’t seem to depend on the number of skills you learn or the number of times you reincarnate. The leading theory is that becoming an Adept requires you to overcome your limits and experience living different kinds of lives. Of the 10,000 Adepts, there have been less than 10 that ever managed to reach the next class advancement, Expert.”
His words made me rethink my plans for Fang, the beginner explorer. I had two lives under my belt. Asta Ashford lived an ordinary life until he reincarnated. Ash overcame her limits and confronted her trauma. If I found something that would make my life as Fang meaningful, then would I be able to advance from Adept to Expert?
“Thanks for the explanation. This class has a lot more potential than I expected.”
I spent some time chatting and getting to know the other members of the Novice club. Apparently, their club meetings tended to start with a meet and greet, followed by Novices bringing up what new things they tried out since the last meeting. The club meeting usually ended with breakout discussions where everyone talked about what interested them.
The group of Novice Beastman warmly welcomed me when we split up to talk afterwards. Some of them had tails, but many of them were tailless like me. A rabbit-eared Beastman named Carl handed me a link to a website he had personally created.
“As you know, we Beastman can’t use magic like the other races. We make up for that by being incredibly skilled with Ki, or life energy. Most Beastman will eventually hit a hard limit in their [Ki] skill, but we can endlessly push this limit by reincarnating over and over again. That is our greatest strength.”
All Novices had a Common talent and three skill slots. Carl recommended I pick up the skills [Ki I], [Breathing I], and [Meditation I]. All three of them were rather self explanatory.
[Ki] allowed the user to manipulate the ki in their body as a weapon. [Breathing] helped the user accumulate ki through special breathing techniques. [Meditation] would allow me to continue refining ki throughout the night without needing to sleep.
Under the guidance of the veteran martial artist, I sat down in a corner of the room and began the ki refinement process. I breathed in deeply and exhaled in a specific pattern, listening to the sound of my heart beating and feeling the overwhelming heat my body emitted.
Now that I thought about it, the sensation I took to be heat was actually the ki that Carl and the others were talking about. It reminded me of the burning heat I experienced as Ash while I was massacring the Crystalline Colossus.
Ki refinement was the process of accumulating ki via [Breathing] and then condensing it as much as possible with the [Ki] skill. Each stage of the [Ki] skill corresponded to a different step in the ki refinement process. [Ki I] involved gathering and refining ki, [Ki II] laid a kit network in the body, and [Ki III] refined ki into a core.
These three steps were known as Ki Refininement, Foundation Building, and Core Formation. Most Novices would never advance past [Ki I]. Because my class had risen to Adept, it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to reach [Ki II]. Gathering and refining ki was like injecting molten lava into my veins.
“Good work, Fang! We will make a martial artist out of you yet.”
Carl’s loud, happy voice rang throughout the empty club. He didn’t need to, but he had stayed a whole hour after the usual club meeting ended to help me with the [Ki] skill.
I was only a new member that joined today, but the camaraderie the Novice Club showed was something special. As Carl put it, we all wanted to overcome the talent we were born with. Helping each other out was the best way to do that.
“Follow me. There is one last place I must take you before I let you go for the day.”
I followed Carl to one of the dungeons I had considered entering as Ash before ultimately turning it down. It was called Beast Den and it consisted of a large plain that was the home to numerous different beast type monsters.
“As martial artists, your every movement should be empowered by your ki. There is no better teacher on how to do this than beast type monsters. Observe them closely while you are fighting them and try to copy their natural ki manipulation. The Novice class should handle the rest.”
“Understood.”
Carl lured over a horned rabbit, the weakest monster in Beast Den. It leapt at me as soon as it laid eyes on me. A horned rabbit was much faster than a slime. I shifted to the side and its body whizzed past me. I barely got out of the way in time.
“Don’t just dodge. Observe!”
My instructor yelled at me. The caring rabbit Beastman who spent an hour teaching me the ropes was nowhere to be seen. Trying to observe the rabbit’s ki, dodge its attacks, and manipulate my own ki all at once was too much.
It was like I was trying to paint with my left hand and write an essay with my right hand. My mind didn’t function that way. My unforgiving instructor yelled at my clumsiness.
“You are thinking too much. Use your instincts!”
Instincts? [Instinct]! I finally remembered the Beastman racial skill that had been collecting dust in my status. I emptied my mind of all my distracting thoughts and simply focused on dodging and observing the horned rabbit.
It was useless. My noisy mind kept trying to figure things out rather than leaving it to my body to handle.
The horned rabbit leapt at me. I sidestepped. The rabbit lowered its horn and charged. I skirted around it. These same actions repeated over and over again without any noticeable improvement. Eventually, I just gave up and wacked the monster with my fist. It only took a single blow to end its life.
I shook my head sadly at my lack of progress. It pained me that Carl had wasted his time trying to help me.
“Excellent work! You used some ki in that last punch!”
“No way. I didn’t notice anything different than usual.”
“You only used a tiny amount when you thought about gathering power in your fist. Novice and our racial skill took care of the rest.”
I looked at my hands in wonder. [Instinct] didn’t have the immediate uses that a demon’s [Contract] did, but it was no less useful in serving as my strength. Carl and I exited the dungeon together.
“Thank you for helping me today, Carl. That was too kind of you.”
“Think nothing of it. Those of us at the bottom have to look out for each other.”
“Of course. If you ever run into any trouble, let me know and I will come running to help.”
Carl’s hearty laughter filled the building. We parted with big smiles on our faces. I made my way home, satisfied with my gains on my first day of classes.
