The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 14: Orientation Week

I couldn’t even blame him: one of his best friends had died at the former Ash’s hands.

Of course, he would want to keep an eye on me to make sure it didn’t happen again.

*Ring~ring*

*Ring~ring*

As the bell rang, Ren finally looked away from me as the classroom’s sliding door opened, revealing a young woman in her twenties with short black hair.

The entire classroom went silent as everyone curiously watched the figure saunter onto the stage.

Standing before the lectern and facing the forty-person class, she began.

"It’s nice to meet you all. For your next four years at the Sunken Pearl, I will be your advisor. You may address me as Professor Sooyung."

"A bit about myself: My specialty is dream magic, and I am currently ranked 259 in the hero registry. I graduated from the Sunken Pearl about seven years ago, and I have returned this year to begin my teaching career."

"If any of you run into any academic-related trouble, I will be the person you come to. Alongside being your advisor, I will also be teaching Dreg History."

Pausing for a moment, Professor Sooyung glanced down at the paper on her podium before continuing.

"All of you should have read the school handbook, so we can move on from that....ah right, the First-Year event."

"Every year, Sunken Pearl hosts a week-long friendly... competition event during orientation week for first-years. Please note, your school rank will be affected by your participation and effort in this event."

At those words, students began anxiously glancing around at each other, but, ignoring them, Professor Sooyung continued.

"This year, the event will be "Virtual Castle Defense." All first-years will be split into teams based on their advisors, so everyone in this classroom will be on a team. Rest assured, though, your individual contributions will be tracked and accounted for."

"..."

Everyone, myself included, simultaneously glanced at Leon, Lily, and Ren, letting out a sigh of relief as Professor Sooyung explained.

"For a two-hour period, each day for this week, every first-year student will enter a virtual-reality world, where there are over 15 castles, each representing an advisory."

"Your task as an advisory is simple: defend your castle. The castle with the least amount of damage done to it by the end of the week will be the winner. Additionally, each castle contains a golden orb."

"You may not touch your caste’s own golden orb; however, you may steal another team’s golden orb. If your team’s golden orb reaches the inside of another castle, your entire team will be automatically eliminated, with everyone receiving an F on their team grade."

"If your team successfully retrieves a golden orb, your castle’s health will be reset entirely, putting you automatically in first place."

"Please note that, inside this virtual reality world, you can attack others and be eliminated when you are deemed to have been incapacitated."

"For those who have never entered virtual reality before, although you may feel pain inside the virtual world, any wounds or injuries you sustain within will not be transferred out to the real world."

As Professor Sooyung came to a pause, a hand instantly shot up.

"What is it...Rank #11, Evangel?"

Remaining neutral, Evangel simply asked.

"What happens if we are eliminated?"

A grin creeping onto her face, Professor Sooyung tilted her head and calmly answered.

"Ah, right! Students who are eliminated will automatically receive an F on their individual contribution grade. On the contrary, if you eliminate another student, your individual contribution grade will rise greatly."

Clasping her hands together, Professor Sooyung added.

"Your first virtual reality session will start tomorrow, but please keep in mind, classes will continue as usual during this period, and you will be expected to complete homework on time."

Turning around, Professor Sooyung said while leaving the room.

"Ponder on which weapon you’d like to use for the next year. I’ll be back in a few minutes for our weapon selection slot."

As the door slid shut, the classroom immediatly exploded as students began excitedly discussing the new challenge.

"We’ll definitely win: have you seen our class!?"

"Yeah, no way we’ll lose!"

Shaking my head, I opened my notebook.

Currently, the other advisories were all likely forming alliances, specifically to attack our castle and steal our golden orb on the first day.

Well, thankfully, due to his past memories, Ren was aware as well, so there was no need for me to do anything...not that I cared about my grades that much anyway.

Glancing at the white-haired girl beside me, who was clearly sleep-deprived and snapping in and out of consciousness, I paused.

Mechanical Magic.

The idea of using an external force that is not the human body to effectively channel mana particles and increase mana conservation.

When a beginner hero absorbs mana from the outside world into their body, they need to slowly circulate these mana particles through their bloodstream and into their hands to cast spells such as ice spears or fireballs.

However, the main problem they run into is elemental reactions.

For example, the mana particles I absorb from the outside world are of the death element, as that is my gift’s element

As a beginner, if I attempt to move these death-mana particles through my bloodstream, they will inevitably collide not only with other death-mana particles but also with red blood cells due to the small space, triggering an elemental reaction.

The death-mana particles and red blood cells that touch will immediatly implode, not only potentially harming my body permanently but also causing me to lose my focus on casting, fizzling the spell.

Even if the spell somehow succeeds, the power output will be significantly less as I have fewer death-mana particles to cast with, as many of them imploded.

Many mages have even lost the ability to control the mana within their body entirely, as their nerves were destroyed by too many elemental reaction implosions within their body.

Thus, properly controlling mana particles within your body’s bloodstream to avoid these elemental reactions is extremely difficult yet vital for all heroes.