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Demon Legacy
Chapter 18 - Weapons of the Future

Chapter 18 - Weapons of the Future

After the final lesson ended, Derrik booked one of the training rooms.

Kaden and Gavin both came along to watch, but Finlay had said he had more important matters to attend to.

After stepping inside of the gray room and shutting the door behind them, it was like they were in their own little bubble, with all contact to the outside world cut off.

This was due to all the academy’s training rooms having been reinforced with some special metal alloy, which also had the side effect of sound proofing the rooms.

The reinforcement was necessary because the older students were high level and therefore also very powerful. If they sparred in some regular room, the walls would be destroyed.

As the minimum level required for graduation was 30, most of the sixth year students were getting quite close to that level.

The vast majority of them had already gone through their first class change, which was offered at level 25. Each time you switched class, which happened every 25th level, the amount of attributes you got per level would double. Therefore, the difference between someone who had changed class, and someone who hadn’t, was immense.

Inside of the room, Gavin and Kaden stood off to the side, leaning against the walls so that they were out of the way.

Derrik was already bursting with excitement and didn’t waste any time, quickly getting ready. On the other hand, Ewan took his time.

As soon as they began, it was clear who had the upper hand. Ewan was on the back foot as Derrik easily blocked Ewan’s ranged attack. With only one chakram left, Ewan didn’t dare throw it, and was forced to use it to try and block the war hammer coming at him.

Of course, the small flimsy weapon just wasn’t designed to do that, and was sent flying out of Ewan’s hand from the impact of the strike.

Stopping his attack, Derrik picked it up and humiliatingly used it to brand Ewan with a mark of his own.

Watching on the sidelines, Kaden felt a little pity for Ewan. Not only had he been marked, but it had even been done with his very own weapon.

It wasn’t really that surprising of a duel, though. Anyone with a bit of skill could see that the gap between the two fighters was big. If he had to be honest, Kaden would say that Ewan was likely to be one of the worst students accepted this year.

The combat part of the academy’s entrance examination wasn’t that strict, as the focus was mainly on whether the student’s potential was good enough. After all, the academy knew that it could always teach people how to fight, but it couldn’t change their innate potential.

With the fight now over, Derrik immediately began eying the next prey on his list.

As Derrik had already defeated Ewan, fulfilling the requirements Kaden had set, he didn’t have any valid reason to refuse. Not that he would in any case, as he was never one to back down from a challenge.

Picking up a random training spear from the weapons rack in the room, Kaden just signaled for Derrik to come at him.

And the results were just as predictable as the fight before. After having observed him fighting several times now, Kaden had already noticed that Derrik primarily relied on using his high strength to overpower his opponents.

But that was a strategy that didn’t work against him at all, as Kaden’s strength attribute was quite a bit higher.

Since Derrik had lost out on his most important advantage, he was mostly harmless. It still took some time, though, before Kaden finally disarmed Derrik and tapped him with his spear to signal the end of the duel.

Just one loss hadn’t been enough to convince Derrik, however, and it had taken a further four losses before he finally gave up. For now.

Kaden was sure that the boy would come back before long, something he welcomed as he needed a sparring partner, anyway.

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***

As the days passed by at the academy, Kaden settled into a rhythm.

He would wake up early in the morning, eat breakfast, and attend the courses on his schedule.

As for him and his roommates, they were slowly bonding, becoming a close-knit group. After some pestering, Kaden had even borrowed Finlay’s notes from his essence manipulation course. It was almost as good as attending the course himself, as the notes were rather detailed. And even if there was something missing, he could just ask Finlay about it.

The last day of the weekend soon passed, and then Kaden once again sat in the auditorium for a lesson on weapons history, listening to their instructor, Artur Lien, talk about the progression of human technology.

On the stage where the instructor was speaking, two tables had been placed and covered by a cloth.

Pulling off one of these cloths and revealing an object, the instructor said, “So then…. can anyone tell me what this is?”

Watching the object, Kaden tried to figure out what it was. It kind of looked like one of those rifles he had seen before, but the barrel was longer, and the muzzle was wide and rectangular instead of round.

“Some sort of gun?” Said one of the students sitting somewhere behind Kaden.

“Yes, exactly. To be more precise, it is a third generation energy rifle, and this model is a prototype currently being developed by the military.” The instructor looked around the auditorium, watching their bored faces. “I can see that most of you don’t look too impressed. Well, let’s see what you think about this instead then,” The instructor said, pulling the cloth off of the other table on stage.

Sharp intakes of breath were audible in the auditorium, as the students all lay eyes on what was hidden underneath.

The relic sword’s white blade twinkled in the light, almost shining as it drew everyone’s admiration.

Of course Kaden wasn’t too impressed. From what he could tell, it was just a low-grade relic sword. Compared to his father’s spear, which was a high-grade relic, it didn’t look nearly as impressive.

If he had the ability to move his essence outside of his body, he would’ve been able to sense the weapon and know for sure. Unfortunately, Finlay had said it would take some time before the essence manipulation course moved on to the practicals.

“I see that’s more your speed.” The instructor nodded, smiling. “So… which one would you pick?”

“The sword, of course,” Said a brave student sitting in the front.

Kaden recognized the boy from his course on footwork. The boy’s name was Ley, or something like that.

“Who said that?” The instructor asked, looking at the group of students in the front row.

“I did.” Ley raised his hand.

“Okay, why did you pick the sword?”

“Well sir, with all due respect, since the rifle can’t be empowered, I don’t really see much use for it. And I doubt it’s a relic since…” Ley paused, struggling to word it.

The instructor finished his train of thought, “Since technology does not mesh with the essence crafting process, you’re completely right. On both accounts, of course. But…” The instructor held up a finger, “what if I told you that this prototype energy rifle, is capable of inflicting fatal damage onto a level 50 target?”

“That's… not possible.” Ley frowned, shaking his heads like he didn’t believe the instructor at all. Most of the students seemed to agree with him.

“Oh, it’s true alright, and this is assuming that the target is wearing medium-grade relic armor. If not, the limit is a little higher.”

It was like a bombshell had gone off in the auditorium, with all the students shook by the implications of such a weapon existing.

Anyone that reached level 50, would have just undergone their second class change, and be considered a very important asset. Of the five hundred students gathered in this auditorium, maybe only 20% of them would ever reach that point.

The bodies of those who had reached that level were incredibly tough, and if they wore relic armor, they were considered near indestructible. To take them down, you needed either another person on their level, or one of those weapons systems that were only found on planet defense bases and interstellar warships.

It was unthinkable that a rifle, which was incredibly tiny compared to those other weapons, was capable of such damage. It was also scary as the weapon took little to no prior training to learn how to use and only took a single person to operate.

Guns were naturally a cornerstone of the nation’s military, and it was the primary weapon of the vast majority of soldiers. But it was common knowledge that if used against a target that was beyond level 25, guns wouldn’t have much of an effect and were considered mostly useless.

Unlike other ranged weapons like bows where you could empower the shaft and string with essence, the firing mechanism of a gun could not. As artisans didn’t have the capability of crafting relics that used advanced technology either, a gun was only as strong as human technology could make it.

Of course humanity had been trying to bridge that gap in strength for a long time, but that didn’t mean it was any less surprising that they were getting so close. If a weapon like that energy rifle could be mass produced, it would change the entire way wars were fought.

“Now, it’s still just a prototype at this moment, and obviously it’s not the real thing I'm showing you here, but a model version provided by the military. But, development is progressing rapidly, and the energy rifle is expected to enter production within the next ten years,” The instructor said, shocking the students once again.

Kaden, however, wasn’t too fazed. While just attaining the rare resources to increase your max level to 50 was considered tough or impossible for most, his father had already used the necessary awakening crystals on him when he was just a baby.

Since birth he had been destined to at least get that far, anything less would make him incompetent.

While that energy rifle would have giant ramifications for those less ambitious students here, he set his sights far beyond that. The universe was vast and boundless, only with enough strength could you freely explore all of it.