Chapter 29: Blood Soaked Battlefield
Meanwhile, in the control room of the Main Space warship;
"...What kind of Sword Art is that?"
"I haven't seen anything like that before."
"Hmmm… my system can't see anything. She had hidden almost everything in her status window."
"Quickly, ask EESOP!!! It might have recorded her voice shouting the name!!"
"EESOP says its name is [Colors Of The Spring]?"
"Never heard of it."
"But it looks decent!"
"I agree, it must be around A rank."
"Oh my, a mysterious sword art we haven't heard before? Did it come from the Monarch's Archives?"
"Of course it is! Where else could a powerful weapon art like that come from!"
The professors and dragons inside the warship were talking among themselves loudly, looking at the largest screen where a golden haired little girl was executing a massacre of monsters.
Some even cheered for her moves like they were watching some soccer game. They didn't realize their superiors were not saying anything at all.
Endymion and Elysium were just staring at the monitor without uttering a word like a cat got their tongue. The screen was replaying the scene where Kyriaki performed a strange stabbing technique that stabbed five bats at once at the speed of light.
They knew something was strange the moment they saw it.
"Hey, did you give her that sword art?"
"...If I did, I wouldn't be staring at it like a fool, father."
They both posed the same posture like twins, crossing their arms and looking at the screen with their face lowered but eyes straight. Even the poker face they maintained was exactly the same. Instead of Father and son, they looked like brothers that were only a few years apart.
"Right? I haven't seen that kind of sword art in the Monarch's Archives before either." Endymion whispered.
"Then was it from EESOP Armory?"
"As if. It doesn't have this type of unique sword art."
"...Where did she get that from then?"
"...How would I know?"
Both of them sighed at once.
"Hah…I'm not boasting or anything, but my eldest is a bit particular… She's really different from other hatchlings." Elysium said in a low tone.
"Mhm…you realize it now?" Endymion nonchalantly answered, not bothering to take his eyes off of Kyriaki on the screen. "I have stopped getting amazed by her actions ever since the day she created her own weapon art."
"..."
"Just let her be…Support her goals and dreams. Help her if it seems like she needs help. Comfort her if it seems like she's falling. Celibate her achievements and growth with her. That's all you need to do as the King as well as her father."
When Endymion patted Elysium on the back of his head as if comforting his son, a faint smile formed on Elysium's gorgeous lips.
"Alright." He nodded cheerfully.
"The first wave is ending. Your majesty, should we teleport the students back?"
"Good. Teleport everyone except for student number Z10100VQK-001." Elysium ordered in a commanding voice, his eyes now free of worries he carried for months.
"H-huh? Uh? Pardon me?"
"Didn't you hear my order?" When Ezekiel shuttered next to him, Elysium frowned.
"But that's—"
"Just do it before I reduce your salary, Ezekiel."
"On it, Boss!!!" As soon as Elysium held Ezekiel's salary hostage, His confused look disappeared like a line drawn on the water.
Ezekiel jumped up and pressed some buttons on the controller. Elysium heard the carefree laughter of Atlas from somewhere in the room as he once again focused all his nerves on his daughter.
∆ ∆ ∆
[You have Slayed a Pixie G+]
[Core energy +0.05]
[Sub-authority:
[Collecting the Pixie's skill;
[Prankster's Confusion
Rank: G+
Category: Monster ability
Type: Active Skill
Description: Once released, enemies under G+ rank will fall into confusion for three seconds.]
[You have Slayed a Bloody Fleshpecker G-]
[Core energy +0.01]
[You have Slayed a Giant Blood Beetle G]
[Core energy +0.02]
Meanwhile Kyriaki who was bathed in different colors of blood stopped moving as soon as she sensed the end of the first wave.
'Dammit I killed over a thousand and still haven't leveled up even one sub rank.' She looked around in a dejected expression.
Kyrios had reached F rank, Euclid had reached F+ rank, the same rank as her. That made her even more dejected. She let her guard down, thinking she was more powerful than Euclid but it turned out he finally catched up with her.
'Is this the punishment for being arrogant?' She frowned her fine brows as she glared at nothing in particular.
[To the First and Second Year EESOP Students]
The sound of EESOP's monotonous voice rang through the battlefield as each student glanced at their vibrating smartwatch.
[The first wave of monsters had ended]
[Please wait until you are teleported back into the spaceship]
Then, the giant space ship that was the size of a capital city of an empire opened the door at the bottom of the spaceship with a mechanical sound.
A bright pale-yellow light pillar was shot from the spaceship an instant, sucking up students like a vacuum cleaner.
"Woah! I'm flying!!"
"This is called getting sucked up, idiot"
"Don't care…I'm just happy I finally leveled up to F-."
"Hey I feel like I'm in a lucid dream, haha."
"I wonder what the warship looks like from inside."
As all the students around Kyriaki were sucked up, only she remained standing as if all the laws of gravity were only applied to her.
"Huh? Ria?" Kyrios made a flabbergasted expression as he too started to float.
"...!!! RIAAAAAAAAAAAA..…" With a loud protest and a desperate cry, Kyrios was sucked up along with his classmates.
His pitiful expression as if he lost his limbs on the battlefield was really entertaining that Kyriaki momentarily forgot that she was the only one who wasn't affected by the teleporting light.
"... What's going on?" Euclid glanced at her with bewildered ocean blue eyes from far away. However before he questioned it any further, he too was sucked up in a flashy manner.
Only Kyriaki remained, bathed in monster blood from head to toe.
'…Something feels strange.' She cautiously glanced around at newly teleported 3rd and 4th year students with an aloof expression.
'But that's not the feeling I require right now.' Her lips curled up into a beautiful smile. Even with blood all over her face, the beautiful features of her adorable face cannot be hidden.
She took a basic stance with her sword held high, eyes glittering with brilliant stars.
[The second wave of monsters is starting]
[Good luck, students]
Yes this, this is the feeling she needed the most.
The second wave where E to F rank monsters appear, a paradise for core energy farming. It was enough to give her so much joy.
Just then, she detected her first opponent.
Slash!
Kyriaki kicked the ground and spun in a circle, aiming her blade at her own shadow.
Clang!
A dull sound resonated in the air, followed by Kyriaki's swift sword attacks. All of them were aimed at her shadow.
"KEEEKKK!!"
Within shadows, a blurry figure leaped out, its displeasure evidence in its shrieks.
[Ding!]
[Shadow Goblin
Category: Monster
Variant: Shadow
Rank: E+
Description: A very rare monster variant from the Goblin family. The most dangerous trait of this variant is its' assassin skills due to its shadow magic manipulation and high intelligence]
An E+ rank under the crimson moon is at least considered a D. To Kyriaki who's still F+, this is more than enough.
Kyriaki scanned the monster before her.
Black dots over green skin as if a leaf fell under a strange illness, red eyes from the crimson miasma, two crude bronze daggers and shoulder armor. For a mere goblin, it was luxury. But for Kyriaki, it was nothing but ugly accessories.
"Come." Kyriaki lifted her chin arrogantly.
"KEEEEHHHKKK!!" The goblin, unable to reason due to crimson miasma, only shrieked louder before charging towards her.
The moment they clashed, The shadow goblin swung one of its daggers down. The force behind it might have been overwhelming for an ordinary F+ rank. However, a dragon hatchling with average B stats was anything but ordinary.
Kyriaki blocked the attack with Cadmus' Dragon Slayer, deflecting the blow with practice ease. Startled, The Shadow goblin stumbled, but quickly recovered.
"KEEAAAAAKKKKKKHHHH!!"
It seems the monster had gotten irritated by failing to finish this little human-like future meal of it. With frenzied eyes, it melted into its own shadow, vanishing completely.
Narrowing her eyes, Kyriaki focused on her shadows once again.
'There.' She nonchalantly swung her sword.
Clang!
Again.
Clang!
And again.
This continued for a while. Seeing Kyriaki engaged in a fight, the second year students formed a defense formation around her and silently protected her from outside harms after getting direct orders from The King.
Meanwhile, seeing no signs of the monster getting out of the shadows, Kyriaki began to slowly lay a trap.
A misstepped here, a delay of attack delivery there, a motion with opening lightly here. Nothing too noticeable. Only things that even an assassin would recognize with time.
Then, it happened.
"KRRRRR!!!" The impatient shadow goblin leaped out from behind her, seeing the opening that looked like Honey to a child.
'Gochcha!' A wicked smile bloomed on Kyrios' lips as she spun around.
A light burst out from her whole body as a small arcane circle formed under her feet.
There's a saying that goes like; Light is the enemy of darkness.
True to those words, all the shadows around them vanished, and the shadow goblin winced in fear, tightly shutting its eyes.
That was all she needed.
Slash!
[You have Slayed a Shadow Goblin E+]
[Core energy +1.5]
The shadow goblin's head flew away as its body collapsed on the ground. Kyriaki looked towards the rest of the monsters running around on the battlefield, barely forcing down her wicked smile.
Then she leaped up.
[You have Slayed a Kobold F+]
[Core energy +0.3]
[You have Slayed a Hobgoblin F-]
[Core energy +0.1]
[You have Slayed a Gremlin E-]
[Core energy +0.5]
[You have Slayed a Frogman E+]
[Core energy +1.5]
The sound of her system announcing each of her victories rang inside her mind for a while.
∆ ∆ ∆
[You've been leveled up!]
[You rank has been upgraded to F+ > E+]
[Your Holy power stat has upgrade to F+> E+]
[Your job(s) had been registered as
"Nice." Kyriaki sat over a pile of monster corpses like she was an arrogant King sitting on his throne, gazing at her semi-transparent screen.
It seemed either she had no chance of knowing her appearance was broadcasted live in the warship control room and waiting room where all the professors and students were gathered, or she just didn't care.
The people in the controlling room were also watching her throughout the entire battle with their eyes wide open. To them, it was awe-inspiring as well as fear-instilling.
Just as they were about to announce the end of the second wave, Kyriaki suddenly looked up, made eye contact with the camera and smiled proudly.
"Oh, that scared me…" an elf behind Elysium muttered to himself, looking down as if he was shivering in fear.
"Wow, she's amazing! I wish she'd have used magic other than those low level light attribute spells." Atlas applauded with a carefree and excited voice, getting a disapproving look from the person with droopy pastel yellow eyes beside him.
"But how did she use Pixie's
"I think it was
"Ah! True! I almost forgot."
"But Professor Atlas said she used only light attribute spells though?"
"I thought she made all those bombs for this moment but she didn't even touch them." While everyone was focused on analysing Kyriaki's fighting style, Acacia muttered in a dejected voice, still maintaining her poker face.
"Teleport them back." Elysium on the other hand, held back his sigh and ordered in his usual authoritative tone.
Everyone around him fell silent at his stern voice. He secretly vowed to himself to give his beloved daughter a lesson about how to hold back her excitement in killing.
Meanwhile Kyriaki was teleported to a spacious waiting room that could hold thousands within the spaceship. As soon as she was teleported she found herself cleaned up of all monster blood as if it were all a lie that she had been on a blood soaking battlefield. It seemed to be one of the functions of a warship.
'Wow…I was just checking if my neck muscles were strained, but they suddenly teleported me back?' Kyriaki, who didn't know she was smiling a bit creepyly while unintentionally making eye contact with the camera when she checked the condition of her body, let out a quiet chuckle.
"RIAAAAAA!!!" Suddenly, something fast flew towards her at an unbelievable speed, knocking her down right on the spot. She had no time to even be surprised.
Thud!
"Damn my reaction speed!" Kyriaki hissed, holding Kyrios protectively so as not to hurt him as she fell on the floor.
Yes, it was none other than Kyrios who'd dare to act this way with her.
"Ahh…I was so surprised! They said it was dad's orders! I'm not forgiving him for this! He's bad!!!"
"I see."
"If it was really necessary, he should have let me be with you too!"
"That's dangerous."
"That's what I'm talking about!! It was really dangerous! Those monsters have the strength of two to three sub ranks above their own!!"
"Mhm…"
"I feel so wronged!"
"There there.." Kyriaki patted her twin brother on the back, holding back her laughter.
She repeatedly told herself it wasn't good to laugh in the face of her brother, who was truly worried about her. She had already forgotten she was cursing her poor reaction speed a little while ago.
"It's your fault too! I also heard you applied for the second wave yourself! Don't expect me to forgive you!" Kyrios complained out loud in a very childish voice.
But Kyriaki couldn't dismiss it as mere childish behavior, the faint red glow of his earrings prevented her from doing so.
She had to do something to stop that terrible red light that clung to her twin brother at all cost. And the first method that came to her mind was…
"Ahem…how about I give you milk pudding?" The moment Kyriaki said the 'M' in milk pudding, Kyrios' upset noises vanished. Then in a very small voice, he voiced his thoughts;
"... bribing me with snacks is unfair."
"Then should I give it to Netzer?"
"No! …No." Kyrios hurriedly moved away from her with tear filled eyes. He then cleared his throat, looking away with reddened cheeks. "Ahem…wh-what kind of milk was used?"
"Hera's"
"You are forgiven!"
"Heramen!" Both of them bumped their fists, nodding in understanding as if they were Italian gangsters making a secret deal with each other. Kyriaki felt relief seeing the red glow of Kyrios' earrings vanish alongside his sadness.
"Wow…aren't you two the weirdest twins I had ever seen?" Euclid sighed from the side.
"Get it right, Eucee. Except for your Twin swords, we are the only twins you have ever seen in your hopeless 170 years of life." Kyriaki smiled politely and said it also politely, giving goosebumps to Euclid. He opened his mouth to say something but was blocked by Kyriaki's words.
"Your mask is cracking, be careful."
Euclid's eyes slightly widened. Kyriaki smirked like a child who had successfully stolen the sugar jar from the kitchen.
The method to hint that she won't get manipulated by his fake acting was simple. Just don't get caught up in his pace and make him mentally confused, and he'll fall apart on his own.
She's going to take his mask off someday so that she could properly use him with everything he got, these little hints are just her way of paving the path.
Kyriaki glanced at the podium where all the professors were gradually appearing with a faint smile, thinking of her plans.
Including Atlas and Acacia, all the professors appeared on the podium with each wearing a different expression. With Endymion's appearance, the hall where only first years were present fell into a deep silence.
Endymion cleared his throat.
"Today, Dragons calendar 1,001,100 Meta Anax, Sophocles (May) 02nd, we successfully handled yet another Crimson Moon with the help of our next generation. You have proven yourself worthy of the name of EESOP, but don't be too proud, you punks…" As the speech that started with so much elegance slowly got tainted with Endymion's usually haughty tone and shame-on-you way of speaking, the students rolled their eyes and showed their dissatisfaction with their whole bodies.
"...Anyway, those who yield halfway will get 100 penalty points, good luck cleaning bathrooms. Those who got severely injured on duty will receive 100 achievement points. Those who stood tall until the end will receive 250 achievement points. And finally, Student Kyriaki, who also participated in the second wave of monsters and finished it until the end will receive 500 achievement points."
[Ding!]
[You've been received 500 achievement points from EESOP]
Kyriaki glanced at the holographic notification she received with satisfaction.
'Now I can use a personal training ground for a full year with this.'
She could use the private training ground in the Crown Princess' wing. But the distance between two palaces consumed her precious time, making her almost late for classes. Even using smart boots to fly wasn't enough to save time. Buying a personal training ground with her achievement points in Ochros Palace was the safest option.
"That's it for point disturbance. Now to the next important discussion…" Endymion, without any change in his expression, swapped his gaze over the students.
"Our next agenda…Group missions." As soon as Kyriaki heard Endymion's voice, she snapped back from her thoughts faster than lightning.
Group missions were something she couldn't miss.
"As you already know, EESOP's tradition is to send our students to the planet down below with assigned group missions when they reach a certain level in their core rank. Thankfully, our first years reached that criteria three months early thanks to The Crimson Moon. Starting from tomorrow you'll be randomly assigned to a group of five students and will be sent to places that have sent distress signals to our GDC."
The students listen to Endymion with focus. None of them even dare to move a finger. The importance of group missions wasn't seen by Kyriaki alone. Everyone there knew how valuable this chance is.
"It might be a dungeon clearance, or it might be just a monster hunt or a rescue mission. The difficulty will be based on the average core rank of the team. We have already put you on a team and assigned you a mission. Check it on the public notice app after my speech."
The students nodded all at once, their minds were already occupied by the thoughts about their first mission. Endymion let his words settle inside their minds and again parted his lips to speak.
"Falling a mission will result in penalties so be sure to do your best. If you ask for my personal beliefs, just die if you can't even do that much. Anyway, I hope you won't shame our names with your pathetic abilities. Class dismissed!"
Endymion blurted out everything like a machine gun and teleported away in a blink of an eye after thoroughly roasting all the students once again.
Atlas laughed delightfully, looking at the place where Endymion stood.
"Ah! He's one of the reasons why I applied as a professor. This is really fun~" laughing heartly, he teleported away with the professor of Advanced Time Element and Prophecy.
Kyriaki failed to notice how his droopy pale yellow eyes glanced at her before disappearing as she was paying attention to the map of Primal Plane.
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