Chapter 11C: Myths and Combat
Ruri shyly rubbed his hands together as he waits for everyone to pay attention again. Alex was still lost in thought, as usual. Kurt was in denial, and Nell…was doing Nell things.
Finally, when everyone realized they had a ten-minute time limit, they returned to focusing on Ruri.
“My skill is like Kurt’s a single skill with multiple sections. It’s just simply called Binary Magic.”
“Binary magic?” Alex asked.
“It is basically a skill that lets me cast spells through a binary code system. For example, it said here the code for Fire is 0001, Ice is 0011, and so on. So far it looks like I can cast only four spells.”
“Ohhh, you’re a mage!” Nell quickly got excited.
“Amazing! It’s real magic!” Kurt replied.
“Magic…this world is truly amazing,” Alex smiled.
With everyone’s sudden bursts, Ruri froze. But he couldn’t help but blush over everyone’s enthusiasm for his skill.
“OK MAGGOTS! HERE I COME!” Al suddenly busted into the room. “Now that you fools have gotten familiar with your skills! It is time for you to test them out in combat! Follow me out into the yard!”
The four quickly got up and marched along with the bearded Al.
In the vast courtyard of the Anton Training Academy were several animals. They looked like normal livestock, cows, pigs, and sheep. But when one gets close, they become aggressive and attack.
“These will be your playmates for today! Go out and beat the shit out of five of each!” Al yelled.
A quest notice appeared before the four.
[Kill 5 Bovine, Swine, and Sheep.]
“Let’s party up first,” Alex said after she remembered what she read up on about the ARK System.
“Ok!” The other three agreed and joined Alex’s party. Three names with their HP bar appeared in the corner of her eye.
“First, we need to isolate one of the beasts so we can test our skills.”
“I got this!” Nell said as she did a spin. As she performed a weird dance, a small mushroom with arms and legs popped out of the ground like a gopher. It performed a salute towards Nell and awaited orders.
“D-do you have to dance to summon it?” Ruri had to ask.
“Yep!” Nell said as she wiped her sweat. The dance didn’t take long, but the Mana drain took a toll on her. “Go lure one of the creatures!” She said to the mushroom as she pointed towards one of the cows.
The mushroom nodded and ran headfirst towards one of the cows. The cow felt aggression coming from the small creature and decided to attack. Two long horns sprouted from its head and it began charging at the mushroom.
The mushroom panicked and began running away, towards Alex and company.
“Get ready!” Kurt said as he got into a low stance.
Alex suddenly realized something.
“Guy…we are weaponless!”
They all turned to look at Ruri. Kurt won’t be able to stack the charging cow even with a boost in his strength. Ruri was the only one with a convenient attacking skill.
“I-I can’t aim when it’s running!”
“I’ll help!” Alex suddenly remembered her skill. She checked the level of the cow and realize it was two levels above her. She couldn’t stop it but should still be able to slow it down.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Phantom Boa!” Alex shouted as shadowy black snakes appeared from the cow’s shadow and wrapped around its legs. The cow didn’t stop, but its charge significantly slowed down.
“Go now!” Alex said as she tried to maintain the shadow snakes as long as she could. The duration will significantly improve if she puts her focus on it.
Ruri began to write out 0s and 1s in the air in front of him. A mystical blue glow appeared on the top of his index finger as he wrote. As soon as 0001 was written, it condensed into a red sphere that began to grow hotter and hotter. Soon it became a ball of fire the size of a baseball.
Carefully, aiming, Ruri threw the fireball at the slow-moving cow…and missed.
“Sorry! I don’t have the best throwing!” Ruri wanted to cry.
“Summon another one!” Alex commanded as she restrained the angry cow.
Ruri went for another spell this time. As 0011 appeared in the air, it condensed into a ball of ice.
“Give that to me,” Kurt said as he grabbed the ball of ice and tossed it at the cow.
“That’s…,” Alex suddenly realized that since they are in the same party, friendly fire was turned off, so Kurt wasn’t affected by the spell at all.
The ball of ice collided with the cow. It rapidly morphed into an icicle and penetrated the cow’s hide. Its power was shocking.
“W-wow,” Nell exclaimed.
“T-that’s amazing,” Kurt added, still in the throwing position.
“That’s my spell?” Ruri stared at the icicle that impaled the cow on the side with awe.
“Good work!” Alex said, “But it still isn’t dead!”
They all looked at the HP bar now displayed above the cow’s head. It took a good 75% from that single attack, but it still was alive, even with the icicle impaled on its sides.
“Ruri, hurry and dispel the ice! It may bleed to death from its wounds!” Alex explained
“I-I don’t know how!”
Alex realized that everyone still doesn’t know the full extent of their abilities yet.
“Try something, we have to take this chance to learn our new skills!” Alex finally said.
Ruri nodded and tried to imagine the ice vanishing.
The cow was now seriously pissed off at Kurt who threw the ball of ice. It charged slowly towards Kurt. With Alex’s snakes still slowing it down, it could barely manage to move.
Kurt took this chance to activate his skill to increase agility. His quick jumps and leaps around the cow left it disoriented and confused.
Ruri was still panicking over how to dispel the icicle.
Alex suddenly remembered Nell’s summon.
“Nell! Move your mushroom under the cow and detonate it!”
“What?!” Nell replied, “Oh, right!” She suddenly remembered about the mushroom standing next to her cowering in fear.
She kicked it in the ass as it flew under the cow.
“EXPLOSION!” Nell yelled as the small mushroom looked up in relief that its short life is ending. It glowed bright white and exploded right under the cow. Kurt quickly jumped away and manage to barely exit the explosion radius.
“Good job!” He gave Nell a thumbs up.
The dust cleared revealing a mangled corpse of a cow with an icicle still stabbed in its side. Amazingly, the fiery explosion didn’t even damage the icicle in the slightest.
The quest notice updated.
[Kill 5 Bovine, Swine, and Sheep. Progress 1/5 Bovine, 0/5 Swine, 0/5 Sheep.]
Alex breathed a sigh of relief.
Al walked up to them after the battle.
“Good job! Most beginners would shit their pants from their first kill!” He laughed.
“Now, Mr. Ruri. You have realized what you lacked? You need more control over your spells. You are what we call a Binary Mage. Any class that has the ‘mage’ attachment must have control. Remember this word. Control, Control, Control. Without Control, you are a worthless mage.”
Ruri nodded with a depressed look on his face.
“You, Mr. Kurt. You are trained in the military. How do you NOT know that you need a weapon to confront an enemy? You are unarmed. Unarmed means you WILL die when the enemy is stronger than you. Regardless of your level, you will do no damage with just your bare hands. Learn to improvise if you have nothing.”
Kurt nodded solemnly. The excitement of new skills and the fact that he was with his friends made him too loose. He forgot to apply his military training. Perhaps it was also a bit of his arrogance that played a part too.
“You, Ms. Nell. Good job, but remember your skills. That stupid shroom of yours was utterly useless until the end. Learn to give out proper commands. Be specific. The Ai controlling your summons are stupid mindless clones. They have distinct personalities that will serve a purpose until their mission is done. Learn to lead.”
Nell fidgeted as her happiness over the battle was cut short by Albert’s words.
“And lastly, you. Ms. Alex. You seem to be the leader of this ragtag team. You must help them cover for their inadequacy. It is a good thing you remembered Ms. Nell’s mushroom, but you could have done better with Mr. Ruri’s situation.”
Alex nodded.
“Now that you maggots have killed your first cow let’s have a meal before you continue!” Al smiled as he took out camping gear.
“W-what? We are cooking out in the courtyard?” Ruri panicked.
“Don’t worry, they won’t mind a small fire!” Al laughed as he walked over to the cow corpse and started to strip edible parts off and let them hang on a nearby tree to drain.
“The blood helps the grass grow!”
“What kind of grass are those!” Nell complained.
“We grow blood grass here. They are used to make healing potions.” Al explained.
“T-that’s…”
The group fell silent as Al started a campfire. Little did they realize, the only time the instructors get to eat meat is when the trainees kill a creature. So he was a little bit…enthusiastic with his preparation.
“No more godforsaken salad for me today!” He whispered to himself while snickering.