Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 22

Lesson 6. The Teacher's Grace is Like Heaven - 1

Fortunately or unfortunately, the situation where elite monsters appeared consecutively after Room 1 did not occur.

Ban Yu-won sheathed his sword and retreated when he felt that no more monsters would appear, and as if sensing his intention, Eve transformed her body into iron chains and gathered up the remaining few monsters, binding them all together.

"Let's take a break then."

"Huh?"

"If we kill these, I think the shift will happen right away. So I'm saying we should rest while keeping them tied up without killing them."

"That's an interesting idea."

Ban Yu-won had simply observed the conditions for the shift when moving from Room 1 to Room 2.

When the presence of monsters completely disappears, the conditions are met, and the shift occurs immediately, moving to the next room.

If that's the case, any Korean person who's played games would naturally choose to rest while keeping the monsters tied up in a near-death state before the shift occurs!

"Indeed, when you hear it, it's an idea that a student familiar with the tower would likely come up with. I'm just surprised that you, a new student, thought of it."

"As I said before, the world I came from had all kinds of entertainment... People's cunning also developed to enjoy them comfortably."

Ban Yu-won took out a sports drink from his inventory and drank it.

It was one of the successful creations he made after experimenting with various things following the success of the elixir jam. Just one sip of this could restore his condition at an unimaginably fast rate.

Moreover, since it was just a concentration of pure energy like the elixir jam, there was no worry about side effects.

"......"

"Hmm...?"

But just as he was about to put the drink bottle back into his inventory after taking a sip, he detected gazes fixed on the bottle.

When he turned his head, he saw Luciel staring intently, Light glancing, and Dokgo Yeon pretending not to look while all eyeing his drink bottle.

He awkwardly made excuses to everyone.

"Uh... this isn't an elixir."

"But it has a fragrant smell."

"They sell similar things outside too."

"You might be able to go outside, Ban, but we can't."

Come to think of it, that was true.

Moreover, he had inadvertently publicized the matter of Ban Yu-won's 'permission to go out,' which everyone had probably been guessing but not mentioning openly until now!

While lamenting his own foolishness, Ban Yu-won firmly shook his head.

"This is for drinking when you're exhausted, so not now."

"When exhausted... Then I'll take on Room 3."

Dokgo Yeon, who openly showed her fondness for sweet things, rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward.

She seemed to have completely forgotten what she had said earlier to let Ban Yu-won hunt alone.

"Calm down, it's not even Friday afternoon yet. If I see that Room 3 can be handled alone, I want to hunt by myself."

"You're trying to hog all that sweetness!"

"That drink originally belongs to Ban, Dokgo Yeon."

"Eeeek!"

"What? Why me?!"

While Dokgo Yeon, feeling annoyed but unable to express it openly, was taking it out on Light, Ban Yu-won, who had finished resting perfectly, accessed his internal code.

[Life129

Body 72.8

Soul 350

Magic Power 101

Martial Arts 62 [Swordsmanship 36, Pierce 26]

Leadership 7

Riding 15

Resistance 2

All-Reading Eyes 115

All-Hearing Ears 105

All-Speaking Lips 107]

It was a parade of codes that made him wonder if he had gained enough for today even if he were to faint now.

'Am I crazy? This seems to be already at the academy's average level.'

Actually, that was a bit of an exaggeration. According to what Ban Yu-won had discreetly learned from interacting with students at the academy over the past week, the average Life of students was 140-150, Body was 70-80, and Magic Power was around 90-100.

Being from a higher dimension with abundant magic power, most tended to have higher magic power than body, but in Ban Yu-won's case, he had somehow managed to reach the bare minimum level of the academy in terms of body and magic power as a result of his collection in Rooms 1 and 2.

...Of course, if other students were to find out how his abilities had grown over the past 5 days, it would cause quite a stir.

'But more than that...'

Apart from the basic set that would naturally increase while hunting monsters, Ban Yu-won was more attached to the martial arts he had grown with his own strength.

To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that it had increased steadily as he kept swinging his sword in the correct posture.

At this rate, hadn't he already surpassed his sister's kendo skills, even excluding the Pierce he learned from Dokgo Yeon?

He thought that the outcome of the duel scheduled for next Tuesday would probably be determined by this martial arts skill.

'Erecto's Body was as high as 300. To be honest, no matter what I do, I can't reverse that difference over the weekend.'

On the other hand, his magic power was only about 120.

While that's high compared to the academy average, it feels somewhat lacking compared to his Life of 250 and Body of 300.

To defeat him, he would have to exploit that discrepancy.

The means to do so are martial arts and the sword.

'If Dokgo Yeon could teach me one more technique... No, no.'

Discovering himself trying to rely on Dokgo Yeon, he shook his head, suddenly coming to his senses.

Of course, she is an overwhelming powerhouse, but that doesn't mean he should unconditionally depend on her.

He must maintain an equal relationship with her at all costs.

If the scales were to tip in her favor, even by mistake, nothing good would come of it for Ban Yu-won.

"So, are you satisfied with your growth?"

"As I said earlier, it's not enough."

Dokgo Yeon, speaking up with ghostly timing as if reading his mind.

Ban Yu-won replied firmly as he stood up.

"Let's move on to Room 3 now."

"We're ready."

After confirming that even Luciel nodded, Ban Yu-won signaled to Eve, and she tightened the chains in one breath, dispatching all the demon spirits.

The shift began at that moment.

First, the ceiling and floor flipped upside down.

"Eve!"

Anyway, except for Ban Yu-won, the others wouldn't be in big trouble just from the ceiling flipping.

Without Ban Yu-won needing to call, Eve, who was already wrapped around his body, hugged him and floated into the air to protect him from injury.

But while Dokgo Yeon remained motionless with her feet stuck to the floor (meaning she was hanging upside down from the ceiling) and Light spread some kind of cool light wings to float in the air, only Luciel was being thrown helplessly.

The moment Ban Yu-won observed this, Eve, reading his thoughts, shot out a strand of chain to catch Luciel.

"Eek! Th-thank you..."

"No, you really..."

Despite taking down the elite monster in Room 1 so easily that even Dokgo Yeon didn't have time to react, she's helpless in this situation.

He wanted to say something, but seeing Luciel's innocent expression right in front of him, words failed him.

"If you stay there, you'll die."

Just as the two were caught in a strange atmosphere, Dokgo Yeon, who was hanging from the ceiling (he couldn't understand why her hair wasn't falling down), spoke nonchalantly.

At that moment, Ban Yu-won felt the right and left walls switching places and simultaneously saw golden strings of text falling towards his head.

[Decapitation (斬首)]

"Ha...!"

Eve's power wasn't fast enough to match the speed.

Eve quickly unraveled her chains and threw them into the air, and Ban Yu-won had no choice but to pull out his secret weapon.

—Vroooom!

"Iron... flying through the sky?"

"What is that! What on earth is that!"

Lilith started with a refreshing exhaust sound.

Right after, he felt the chilling sensation of a blade grazing just above his head.

Luciel clung tightly to his waist, hanging on behind him with her mouth agape.

"Alright, Room 3 seems to be a trap section. Let's all stay calm and handle this as Professor Yumina taught us."

"That's not the important thing! I'm curious about what you're riding right now!"

"Haven't you seen a hover bike before?"

"I've never even heard of such a thing!"

The group continued this conversation while dodging the traps raging all around them.

No, usually traps wait silently for people to approach, but in this twisted Room 3, it was as if someone was deliberately activating traps, with spear tips, poison arrows, giant blades, and poison gas pouring out from all directions.

They were all nonsensical traps with physical force but seemingly no substance.

"Ban, poison!"

"It's fine!"

He couldn't absorb the blade that had fallen earlier.

But the poison gas spraying into the air seemed okay; as soon as he became aware of it, it transformed into golden strings of text and was sucked into his hand.

"Ha!"

"I can't make heads or tails of this."

In fact, Ban Yu-won riding Lilith was practically invincible in this trap section.

With Ban Yu-won's ability to observe language concepts before traps manifested, and Lilith's ability to read his thoughts and move quickly, they were unstoppable.

If he could even absorb some of the traps, then this was practically over.

"But how does this end?"

"According to the manual, we need to endure for a certain amount of time. So, how is that hunk of metal really floating?"

Good heavens, was he really asking for an explanation of how the hover bike flies?

If he started analyzing the concept now, forsaking food and drink, he might be able to give an answer, but it was too troublesome, so he decided to brush it off with the word 'magic'.

"Magic, you say."

"Oh, wow..."

Meanwhile, Luciel seemed to like the hover bike; she was now properly seated, leaning against Ban Yu-won's back.

Light, who was watching Luciel's behavior with a dumbfounded expression (he was effortlessly avoiding traps while flapping his wings of light, as if out for a casual stroll), suddenly frowned and asked Ban Yu-won.

"Ban, was there any mention of trap sections appearing this early?"

"The tower's environment changes every time, so what's the point in worrying about that?"

"But didn't they say that the absolute difficulty based on room depth doesn't change much?"

"That's true."

Ban Yu-won nodded in agreement with Light's words.

Although the form and abilities of the monsters that appear may change, the absolute level of strength remains similar; that was the rule of this tower.

If such a basic premise were to be off, climbing the Babel Tower would be no different from playing the lottery.

"But according to the manual, traps shouldn't start appearing in the tower until at least Room 20."

"A section completely made up of traps like this?"

Unless you were someone with ridiculous power like Dokgo Yeon (who was still casually deflecting all sorts of blades flying at her), had wings like Light, or could ride a hover bike in a dungeon like Ban Yu-won, an ordinary freshman would never be able to survive a trap section.

"It should be at least Room 50... Damn! They won't even let me speak!"

It seems Light has changed a lot in just a few days.

Ban Yu-won was thinking this as he drove Lilith into the air to avoid a wave that rose up as if to swallow him when...

"Swish!"

"Ah, right, right. It was acid."

He reached out towards the wave that was about to seep back into the floor after failing to secure its prey.

The black wave instantly vanished, and he gained over 10 units of acid, plus an equal amount of wave (波) as a bonus.

'Wave? As in ripple...'

An unexpected gain.

He thought it would be water (水) at most, but he clearly realized that the concept can vary drastically depending on the state at the moment of absorption.

Perhaps this is an important realization for him in creating and handling all sorts of language concepts in the future...

"Ban, above!"

At that moment, Light shouted urgently.

As Ban Yu-won looked up, perhaps because he had risen quite high to avoid the wave, he saw the ceiling closer than expected, and.

[Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut]

Beyond it, densely sprouting golden strings of text.

Appeared.

"Really, you need to break that habit of getting distracted!"

"Ban, I'll destroy them, so quickly move back as far as you can...!"

"Kyaaaaa!"

In the moment he sensed death, Ban Yu-won couldn't hear anything.

Rationally, he knew he wouldn't die now.

Dokgo Yeon had already promised to help him, and the light beams shot from Light's sword would have enough power to destroy the blades.

Above all, he was certain that Luciel, who was clinging tightly to his back, would use her ability if things truly became dangerous.

'What can I do? What... Ah!'

But when death is right before your eyes, it's impossible to calmly review the situation like that.

Ban Yu-won focused only on the flow of text strings before his eyes.

He suddenly realized that even if he couldn't absorb the text strings, he could still move them.

[Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut]

He reached out to overlap some of the densely packed 'cut' text strings on the ceiling with others.

The group of concepts about to attack him might wonder what he was doing, but right now, he was being controlled by instinct and emotion, not reason.

[Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut]

Each string of text becomes larger, but the number itself decreases.

Along with that, fragments scatter.

Although they have physical force, they don't include concrete concepts like sword (刀) or blade (劍), so merely mixing the concept of 'cut' causes their form to collapse.

[Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut]

"What the?!"

"Directly on the trap..."

"Kya, kyaaaa...!"

Someone was making a noisy fuss around him, but he didn't listen.

He only focused on guiding and combining the concepts more quickly.

[Cut][Cut][Cut][Cut]

[Cut][Cut]

Weaving concepts over and over.

Finally, when he combines the two concepts that have grown so large they could cut this entire room in half.

[The overlapping concepts are synthesized into the higher concept Slash (斬截)!]

At last, 'all' the blades scattered into fragments and disappeared, leaving only one synthesized concept in their place.

The concept, now perfectly mutated, no longer functioned as a trap and simply floated there docilely.

Now confident that he could seize it.

Ban Yu-won reached out and secured it.

[By interfering with external concepts, you have created a newly synthesized language concept. The depth of All-Reading Eyes has become 120. The depth of Soul has become 360. The depth of Magic Power has become 105.]

[Absorbing 20 Slice (斬截). This is a concept that humans cannot possess.]

Every time he uses his ability to create a new achievement, both his soul and magic power grow together.

That must mean those two core concepts are influencing it.

As Ban Yu-won safely absorbed the concept and lifted his head with a sigh of relief, he saw Dokgo Yeon looking at him with an astonished expression.

He could tell that she was just about to make a move, with one hand stretched out towards him, or rather, towards the ceiling.

"If you could do that, you should have done it earlier. You made me tired for nothing."

"That's really too much, saying that to someone who just escaped death."

"That was way too close, Ban. I guess you've newly awakened to your ability, but..."

Although both Dokgo Yeon and Light were grumbling, Ban Yu-won just smiled gently, knowing it stemmed from their concern for him.

Now that the team seemed to be running quite smoothly, he felt proud as the leader.

"It was an opportunity to taste that sweetness."

"The space is changing again. In Room 4, we'll have more chances to shine."

...They were worried about him, right?