Ilsung woke up at 6 AM, after finishing his bath he browsed various forums and sites and gathered a lot of information about the dungeons and their locations, he was sure this would be revealed to them in the class. After finishing his breakfast, he headed to the Academy building.
When he entered the auditorium, it was nearly empty. He sat in the first row, selecting the seat that has the best view. The seats in the Auditorium were being slowly filled, Ilsung was looking at the students coming in, with read magic.
Most of these people couldn't be described as strong, but the mana pools look decent....for humans, that is
Ilsung quickly lost interest, and before he could turn his eyes, he saw Mr. X, Ban Yongsun, and Cheon Ji walking in.
"Hey guys" Ilsung raised his arm and waved.
They waved back and sat beside Ilsung.
"Thanks for saving us some front-row seats." Cheon Ji said with a faint smile.
"No problem" Ilsung replied.
Mr. X started to talk about the information he acquired. Ilsung joined in the conversation. Before long, a beep rang in the Auditorium and several men and women who were dressed in suits arrived in the Auditorium and went up the stage.
After observing the seated people for a while, a strong-looking man began to speak into the mic.
"Welcome to Academy 1. We will be your instructors during your time here. For convenience and security, trainees and instructors will not be referred to by names. Instead, you will be assigned numbers, it will be based on your current seating order, starting from left to right and from the first row to the last stand up say your number out loud and sit down."
He pointed at the person sitting in the leftmost seat of the 1st row "Begin"
The person stood up and yelled "ONE"
The people in the 1st row gradually stood up one after the other, and it was soon Ilsung's turn "NINE".
Mr. X, Cheon Ji, and Ban Yongsun were assigned 10, 11, and 12 respectively. After a long time, it was the last person's turn "TWO HUNDRED TWENTY"
"Ok, now that's settled, I'm instructor Zero. The other instructors will introduce themselves as and when required". He nodded at the rest of the instructors. They walked down the stage and left the Auditorium.
"Some of you may know, all the trainees here are those who elicited the green light from the test orb. Academy 1 is the only one set up solely for people with excellent mana aptitude. The rest of the 8 academies will have some people like you but the majority will be those who elicited yellow light from the test orb."
"Nonetheless, you shouldn't be conceited, the orb could only test for your current compatibility and not for future potential. You will be trained in various combat techniques, cold weapons, battle strategies, and team play. All for a single purpose."
"Dungeons. You will be trained so you can defeat the monsters in the dungeons"
The trainees started whispering to each other, the Auditorium was turning noisy.
"Settle down. I'm not done talking. As you know The Arken, who call themselves to be descendants of Angels, have schemed against humanity. We suspect they are an alien species who have conquered or come into contact with another alien civilization, which might have once contacted humanity long ago."
"The Arken might have gathered information regarding earth and the human civilization from them, but we're unsure of their motives. Besides being able to achieve Interstellar travel, they seem to be very technologically advanced. The status screens being the primary example, it seems they have planted a networked virtual system in human consciousness and they could do it on a global scale."
"They seem to be responsible for a new type of energy coursing through the earth, this can be absorbed and used by living creatures to increase their strength and probably also to cast something similar to magic, but we are currently unaware of its proper usage."
The instructor turned on the projector. A large cave-like structure could be seen on the screen. There was a blue transparent barrier in front of the cave and there was a floating countdown timer ticking away on the barrier.
"As you can see, we have roughly 3 months before this training dungeon turns into a real one. Irrespective of the type of dungeon, there are monsters inside. In a training dungeon, the monsters don't kill humans, they can be used to train people. According to special information, once these training dungeons turn into real ones, a 15-day countdown timer starts, before which it needs to be cleared, once a dungeon is cleared, the timer will reset. If the dungeon isn't cleared in time, a break will occur and the monsters inside will come out and wreak havoc."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Listening to this detailed explanation, the trainees were shocked, first, it was aliens, next was powerful monsters that kill humans, then it was the dungeon breaks.
"Before you are worried to death, let me say, there is a silver lining here. Dungeons have various ranks. The S rank is the most dangerous, followed by A, B, C, and D ranks. The dungeons have a strong concentration of mana proportional to their ranks, this mana leaks out of the entrance and can be measured with a special tool. The dungeon you see is right here in the Academy's backyard, and it's a B-rank dungeon, right now it's the most dangerous one in Korea, the other dungeons are either C-rank or lower."
"There are 8 dungeons right now in Korea, and as you can guess, the various Academies were constructed around these dungeons. All Countries of the world are facing a similar situation. All of this information isn't yet released to the public, it's confidential, don't speak about this to anyone outside."
"After lunch, head to the field in front and gather in groups of 40 according to your assigned numbers. You will have classes at 8 AM and 4 PM, daily. Alright, dismissed."
Instructor Zero left the Auditorium.
After discussing the information revealed to them, the trainees began to leave the Auditorium. Ilsung left for his room. He ate a few protein bars and laid down on the bed, he opened his laptop and after connecting to a secure VPN, and using several other tools to remain anonymous, he registered a website 'Moonlight-Guild.com'. He wanted to set up the first Korean organization, dedicated to the purpose of running a business around the dungeons. He thought of registering the website as being owned by Black Matter, but since he planned to publish confidential information, he decided not to reveal the connection yet.
He used a web design tool to make a modern and elegant homepage.
Welcome to Moonlight Guild, the first private organization of its kind. Set up for the express purpose of recruiting extraordinary individuals in the bid to fight monsters and clear dungeons. We intend to be a profitable venture by realizing the economic and technological potential that dwells within the dungeons.
Ilsung made a clickable text at the bottom of the homepage.
Analysis of The Events So Far
Ilsung created a new page linked to the text. He made a timeline of events, from the appearance of Arken to the current day. He also published information about the working theory various governments have. The possibility of the Arken being an alien species, the existence of other alien races, one of which might have been in contact with humanity in the past, and the possibility of the Arken acquiring information about humanity from this race of aliens.
Ilsung described the current state of dungeons being in the training period, their future state, and the classification of dungeons. He also theorized that the Arken have not only provided special information but also special tools to the various heads of state and leaders of the countries of the world.
Ilsung, with the knowledge of mana from his world, provided a detailed analysis of mana being an invisible energy and its concentration being higher in the dungeons, he theorized that higher concentrations of mana could have proportionally better effects.
He theorized that the concentration of mana in the environment isn't strong enough to affect various animals, and the requirement of intelligence, sentience, and sensitivity for utilizing mana. He further elaborated that the monsters inside the dungeons are sentient and could likely be able to use magic.
He described magic to likely be a system of skills, that could be used in conjunction with what the Arken has called the Seers Eye, the computer-like interface that the Arken has implanted into the human consciousness. He theorized that these skills could be used to transform mana into other forms of energy and manipulate them.
He finished the long analytical piece with Sometimes Fiction turns into reality, and we at Moonlight, hope to be pioneers in this new reality of ours. Stay tuned for further announcements and new analysis of emerging information.
When Ilsung was done, it was already nearing 4 PM, he missed whatever happened in the field. He didn't want to miss the late afternoon class. He made a post with an excerpt from his analysis and linked it to his site, he posted it on several national and international forums and also forwarded it anonymously to various international and national news websites.
He washed his face and left for Auditorium, He sat down in his seat, which now had the number 9 written on it. As he looked around, all seats now had numbers embossed on them. In a few minutes, people began to stream into the Auditorium, before long it was filled and a beep rang, indicating it was 4 PM.
~~
Mr. X looked at Ilsung "Where were you? You missed the hand-to-hand combat class, the instructor noted your number, and she said you will be sparring with one of the instructors tomorrow".
Ilsung was surprised "Wow, I wanted to take a short nap and ended up not waking till now. Will there be sparring sessions from tomorrow?"
"Yes, she said the only way to get better is to practice, we will be sparring with the person next to us, and the instructors will oversee us and guide us." Mr. X replied.
Cheon Ji turned to Ilsung "We were shown the basics of combat, the correct form for punching, kicking, and so on. We can show you later if you want".
Ilsung smiled "Thank you for your offer, I don't want to take up your time, besides, I can hold my own in combat."
Cheon Ji laughed "Suit yourself"
Mr. X interjected, "Are you sure?"
Ilsung smiled and whispered to X "I'm stronger than everyone here, including the instructors, don't worry."
Mr. X laughed hysterically "I thought I was the most overconfident one here, seems you got me beat".
Instructor Zero entered the Auditorium and walked onto the stage. He talked about mana and instructed the students on a meditation exercise to improve the mana flow in their bodies. He also talked about conscious control of mana and being able to direct it into external objects, to make them stronger.
It seems the Academy, through its instructors, has acquired an elementary insight into the use of mana. These instructors are pretty talented
After an hour of discussion and demonstration of the meditative exercise, the class came to an end.
Instructor Zero left the Auditorium. The students too began to leave. Ilsung hurriedly followed the instructor. The instructors had a large common office on the second floor, and Instructor Zero, as head instructor, had his own office. As he was opening the door to his office, Ilsung spoke "Instructor Zero, can I speak with you?"
Instructor Zero smiled This kid might have trouble understanding the mana exercise and was too embarrassed to ask in class. I'll help him.
"Sure, come in"
After they were seated, Ilsung said something Zero didn't expect.
"I wanted to know what the requirements for graduating are, if possible I would like to graduate early."
~~
END OF CHAPTER 12