nashuaworldcup Chapter 26 Clubs
Chapter 26 Clubs
College life is more lively on weekdays than on weekends. Because students can leave the college on weekends, most of them either visit relatives, go to visit each other's homes, or go out to play.
Given the wide age range of the students, it's understandable that they want to interact with each other. However, this isn't the case on weekdays. Almost all students stay on campus unless they receive special permission to leave.
That's why the cafeteria is now filled with chatter. After entering the cafeteria and getting my food, I went to a table in the corner and began to eat alone.
I also started listening to the other students talking to each other.
"Have you decided which club you want to join?" At that moment, I heard an interesting question.
"Oh, right... I should sign up for a club now, and it's been exactly a month." I thought to myself.
Because Arcadia Hunter Academy allows students to participate in club activities after one month, some students forget about the existence of the club.
The college boasts a wide variety of clubs and societies. Considering the large number of students in each year, this abundance is understandable. After all, even among the lowest-ranked students, there are 2450 first-year students. Keep in mind that the college has five years of students; excluding fourth- and fifth-year interns, there are at least 1 students on campus.
"Yeah. What do you think? Which club are you planning to apply to?"
"I want to join the Tactics Club. I heard they focus on honing your strategic and tactical skills. That will be useful in the future."
"A tactical guild? That sounds great. I'm considering joining an elemental guild. Being able to control different elements in battle sounds really cool."
"You guys should check out the Adventure Club! They go on thrilling missions and explore mysterious places. As a second-year student, I really regret not choosing that club."
"Hmm... but I think the martial arts club is the way to go. I've met some of their members, and they're like martial arts masters. Plus, you can learn self-defense. They even say they invite a master-level hunter every year."
“But I prefer infiltrating a gang. Imagine being like a shadow, sneaking around undetected.”
Some clubs have prerequisites for joining, such as infiltrating clubs, which require certain skills or characteristics.
"A covert organization? That sounds good, but I'm more interested in a robotics organization. Making those gadgets sounds like fun."
The college encourages students to participate in these clubs because, statistically, they can see the progress of these organizations, which is perfectly reasonable. No matter how serious your studies are, every student needs time to unwind.
"If I remember correctly, Ethan should join the Adventurers' Guild and the Spear Guild." Although players can choose to join any guild in the game, there are two guilds that players must join no matter what.
One is the Spear Guild, where players can improve their spear skills and learn new moves; the other is the Adventure Guild, whose goal is to open the gates to the world and explore what may appear.
"But I don't know what else he might choose," I thought to myself. After all, no player is controlling him right now, and even if they were, I wouldn't know unless I got close to him.
In any case, the arrival of the club means one thing to me.
"The main storyline of the game is about to begin."
The first month at the academy is mostly tutorials, so there aren't many events that significantly impact the storyline. But from now on, things will gradually become more intense.
Although I don't care about the plot development or the main characters.
"But I will kill all the demons."
With that thought in mind, I stood up. There was still plenty of time before the club started recruiting, so all I needed to do now was train.
Just as I was about to leave the cafeteria, I felt a stinging gaze behind me. I saw a girl with fiery red hair looking at me angrily.
"Tsk." Irina pursed her lips when she saw me looking at her, but I ignored her and went on my way.
......
I walked into the shooting range I used to use for training and took out my weapon from my bag.
"Please set the target quantity."
The same robotic voice welcomed me.
“Twelve,” I murmured, increasing the number of enemies.
Please select the training difficulty.
"You can choose from stage 1 to stage 9."
“Phase 2,” I said, and soon the lights went out.
Immediately afterwards, a group of blue insect-like monsters appeared.
"So, all I have to do is train."
With this thought in mind, I recalled the posture of the mysterious man I saw in my dream, the one from which I acquired my special skill. It was deeply imprinted in my mind.
'咻咻咻'
When I use a compound bow, the arrows easily pierce their skin.
"Squeak!"
For some reason, the moles roared and attacked me with even greater force this time, but I did not stop shooting arrows.
"This is actually quite fun?" Whether it was because of the bow or the feeling of being skilled and daring, I felt more and more accomplished as I shot.
And so I kept shooting arrows, shooting arrows, shooting arrows... until I got tired.
'咻咻咻'
As training time was drawing to a close, I found myself still surrounded by the remaining few blue insect-like monsters. Adrenaline surged through my veins, urging me to sprint forward and test the limits of my new stunt.
I drew another arrow from my quiver and nocked it to the bowstring. The monsters were closing in. Their eyes, gleaming blue, were fixed on me. I took a deep breath and focused on the lesson from my dream.
【Keen Eyes】—at my command, the skill activated, revealing the enemy's weaknesses. Without reinforcing the arrow, I released the bowstring.
'Whoosh...bang'
Time seemed to slow down as I released the arrow. The arrow flew out accurately, hitting the target squarely between the eyebrows and killing the mole.
But the remaining monsters were agile and swift, swarming forward and surrounding me.
[Powerful Foot] Activating another skill, I felt my speed increase.
I skillfully dodged their attacks. With each arrow I fired, an enemy fell, but more enemies kept pouring in.
I moved nimbly, weaving through their attacks and firing arrows at incredible speed. The monsters fell one after another, and my arms ached from nearly three hours of continuous training.
'咻咻咻'
With each arrow I fired, I could feel my confidence growing stronger. It was as if the essence of the mysterious figure in my dream was guiding my actions.
Finally, the last monster fell, and the shooting range fell silent. I was panting heavily, covered in sweat, but a feeling of victory welled up inside me.
"Ding! Second phase of shooting training complete. New record: 1 minute 20 seconds."
As the training session ended, I looked at my score and smiled with satisfaction. The number of enemies had increased, but the time taken was short, especially considering I had pushed myself to my limits.
"Let's stop for now." With that thought in mind, I left the training ground and returned to my room. It was already getting dark, and there weren't many people left on the training ground, which was understandable considering the time.
It's 11 p.m. now. I should go to rest.
I returned to my room and, under the influence of the potion, completed a series of painful body-refining exercises before finally lying on my bed.
“Oh right… there’s this book…” The book I borrowed from the library caught my attention.
This book is located in the Arcane Zone.
Convergence of the Moon: The Legend of the Moon's Power
Let me first talk about these arcane arts. As everyone knows, this world is set in the modern era. There are cars, guns, computers, and so on.
The reason for this is that the original inhabitants of this world acquired magical power later than the other races after the Nexus's integration. Therefore, they needed to develop themselves to be comparable to them, since all other races had their own methods of using magical power.
One of these is called "Arcane," which uses mana in a unique and ancient way. Unlike modern methods of using mana through status windows and skills, Arcane handles mana in a distinctive manner.
It is more about conveying its will to the world and relying on a deep connection with the natural flow of magical power in the world. However, this also has its own limitations.
For example, at the start of the game, on the character creation page, you cannot use arcane magic unless you allocate a significant number of points to your innate magic affinity trait.
This is similar to how a person needs to have talent in order to use magical power according to their own will.
In modern methods, you simply learn how to form spells from a mage by following the steps shown in the records. But in arcane magic, you will, to some extent, develop your own steps; you will use magic autonomously without pre-defined paths. This gives you more freedom, but also increases the difficulty.
This requires a high affinity with magic and a great deal of practice to master, which ultimately led people to abandon this method.
Regardless, I was curious about this unique and ancient art of arcane magic. With nothing else to do besides sleep, I picked up the book "The Gathering of the Moon: The Legend of the Moon's Power."
The pages were filled with exquisite illustrations and intricate diagrams depicting the moon's movements and its relationship to magic, while piles of text began to appear.
I don't know why, but these words look very familiar.
Some of the strange characters don't belong to the writing system used in modern times, but I feel like I've seen them somewhere before, though I can't remember where.
This feels strange, considering my memory is quite good.
However, I decided to put those thoughts aside and continue reading until I finally felt the urge to sleep...