“Na-me’s skills are so OP. Honestly, isn’t that cheating?”
“What’s wrong, Ji-hye? I bought you ice cream for a reason. Now cool it.”
“Huuuh… okay.”
Lunch was replaced with sandwiches instead of the usual cafeteria food.
I bit into a tuna sandwich while chatting with my classmates on the mat.
“Our class has won tug-of-war and running through the tunnel, but the White Team is still losing.”
“That doesn’t matter anyway. The match between the Blue Team and the White Team is decided in the final relay, right?”
“Oh right, I forgot. Just focusing on our class is enough.”
“NoName, how can I use Aura like you? Is there a special learning phase?”
Lee Ha-ru asked with interest.
“Phase? Phases…”
Unlike magic, which is structured as a systematic study, Aura doesn’t have phases.
It’s a rare case, but some like Adella just burst out with it.
Of course, she couldn’t bring forth her Aura in any other way.
I collected my thoughts and spoke up.
“First of all, the easiest thing is to stimulate the Aura Heart, right? You all can do that.”
“Yeah.”
It’s hard to even call this a talent; think of it as the difference between someone who can wiggle their ears and someone who can’t.
Research has shown there’s a strong correlation of over 0.8 between mana sensitivity and stimulating the Aura Heart.
Most students entering the academy could handle Aura to a certain extent.
“And then?”
“Next, like you all commonly do, you temporarily relieve muscular fatigue or enhance endurance. That one-dimensional will ‘I can do it’ is usually realized in such a way.”
“Like how Ji-hye is super fast?”
“Exactly. I think Ji-hye’s will is top-level even in our academy.”
I patted Ji-hye’s head and showered her with compliments.
If effort counts as talent, then Yuna and Ji-hye would probably race to the top.
Just then, Yuna and Si-hoo were happily holding hands, walking toward our class’s shaded tent.
“Oh, Yoon Si-hoo! Long time no see!”
Han Seori waved her hand to greet them.
“What do you mean long time? We saw each other this morning.”
“Hehe, I secretly brought Si-hoo over from 4th grade. By the way, what were you guys talking about?”
“We were just talking about the next step being about enhancing the surface of the body. Si-hoo, wanna shake hands with me for a moment?”
“A handshake?”
I grabbed Si-hoo’s hand from Yuna.
Focusing Aura into my hand, I squeezed it tightly.
“AAAH! NoName, it hurts! Let go! Aaahh!”
“How dare you act all lovey-dovey in front of an adult? Anyway, this is how you enhance specific body parts. If you strengthen your finger muscles, climbing in rough terrains would be a piece of cake, right?”
This stage is quite challenging.
However, those who are good at it can master it easily, so it’s just a matter of time.
The reason I dropped Klaus off a cliff was to awaken such abilities.
It’s absolutely not because I’m a psychopath.
“Aarg, I thought I was going to die…”
“Si-hoo, are you okay? Need a huh?”
“N-No! Seo Yu-na, let’s sit down quickly.”
“Na-me was giving a lecture on Aura.”
“Oh really? I want to hear it too!”
My friends sat in a circle around me.
Boys playing with a soccer ball came over one by one as rumors spread, and our circle grew bigger.
“In fact, if you break it down further, it could go on forever, but to put it roughly, awakening Aura involves the ‘I’ phase and the ‘You’ phase.”
“The ‘I’, ‘You’, and ‘We’ phases?”
“Yeah. And the last part of the ‘I’ phase is controlling the inside of your body. You could make yourself sweat or aid digestion. When you go even further, you can even stop your own heart.”
“Whoa! Stopping your heart means you die!”
“That’s a lie! How is that even possible?”
“Don’t believe me? Yuna, can you hand me your hand?”
As I reached for Yuna’s hand, Si-hoo cut in between.
“What are you trying to do to Yuna, NoName?”
“What’s the problem? I just wanted her to feel my heartbeat.”
“Ah… sorry, I misunderstood.”
Yuna placed her tiny hand near my chest.
“Wow, I can feel it! Na-me’s heart is going thump-thump!”
“See? Now I’m going to stop my heart for a moment.”
You can’t just block the flow to your heart all at once.
Slowly surrounding my heart with Aura, I began to reduce my heartbeat.
Yuna’s face turned pale as she shook my shoulder frantically.
“Your heart stopped! Na-me, quickly make it beat again! You’re going to get in real trouble!”
“Is this better?”
“Is it beating again? Phew, thank goodness… This feels way too dangerous.”
“At first, it might hurt a little if you don’t know the trick. But you won’t die from it. Yuna, want to try holding your breath?”
“Holding my breath? Like this?”
“Right. Now what happens?”
“… Phew. I can’t hold it anymore.”
“You see? In the end, you end up breathing again, right? The force that moves Aura is will. A human’s will can’t overcome the instinct to survive.”
Choking holds are always like suicide in that regard.
Even if you press down on your own neck, consciousness fades before you can continue the pressure, making suicide impossible.
The same goes if you substitute Aura for a hand.
The children exchanged gloomy glances and whispered among themselves.
“This is really hard. I really don’t think I’ll be able to do the final stage…”
I corrected Yuna’s misunderstanding.
“Who said it’s the final stage? This is just the beginning.”
“This is just the beginning?”
“Yeah. In my personal opinion, I think the difficulty of external manifestation is way harder than this.”
I glossed over the explanation of the ‘You’ phase.
From here on, concepts from logical positivism, existentialism, and theological and philosophical ideas would come in, making it hard to understand without background knowledge.
“The important thing is to make your thoughts believable to the other person. Once the other believes it, you must also reaffirm it. You can only realize external manifestation through ongoing contemplation of infinite series-like problems.”
It’s actually a tough concept for middle and high school students too.
The kids, overloaded with thoughts, gradually lay down on the mat.
“So, did Jo Soo-yeon from Altair Academy also go through this process?”
“Who? The cardinal’s niece who makes halos above her head?”
“Yeah. Na-me, there was that 9th grader you faced off with.”
“That’s highly likely. But while this might be difficult, it’s honestly not as remarkable as you’d think. Instead of practicing this, it would be better to learn another spell.”
I was an extreme pragmatist.
I mean, what good is succeeding at external manifestation after 80 years of training?
With a three-circle polar coordinate system, I could just use my swordsmanship instead.
The world isn’t so nice that it rewards effort generously.
[All 16 participants of the 3rd-grade trampoline competition, please gather at the Central Lawn.]
“Let’s go! If not now, when? I’m going to show you a double jump in the air!”
“Whoa! Guys, Na-me is going to show a triple jump!”
“What’s this? A quintuple jump?”
“Na-me’s legendary tenfold jump?”
“Ahh haha, let’s go!”
They hurriedly rushed off, excited, even though I wasn’t even ready.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the twist of truth.
Quickly slipping on my shoes, I raced toward where the kids were heading.
This is why I can’t quit the academy.
“I clearly said it was a double jump! Don’t get your hopes up and then be disappointed!”
*
Sixth-grade broadcasting students from Sephiron Academy captured footage as they moved from event to event.
“We absolutely need to capture Na-me’s performance!”
When I first heard she would participate in the trampoline, I was somewhat confused.
Because I couldn’t find a reason to leave the significant two-legged competition alone.
But once Na-me flew up to 10 meters in the air with the drone capturing it, no explanation was needed.
With red Aura in both hands and blue Aura on her feet, she spun five times.
Everyone was entranced, reminiscent of a human fire juggling act.
And it didn’t stop there.
Normally, the more you use your techniques, the more energy you lose, resulting in a drop in height.
Yet in the last moment, she created giant bat wings with golden Aura and flapped powerfully at her peak.
Whoooooosh!
With the sharp wind scattering across the synthetic grass, Na-me soared higher.
“For a moment, I flew!”
“Wow, that’s incredible!”
She curled up like a hedgehog to increase her rotational speed.
Safely landing in the center of the trampoline, Na-me gathered her Aura and burst into laughter.
“Haah, that was so much fun!”
At that moment, capturing Na-me’s smile, which was said to require three generations to witness, was magic.
“This is going to go viral…!”
“Don’t edit it; just post it right away on the Insta V-tube account!”
“Quick, quick! We need to upload before anyone else!”
[Sephiron Academy Trampoline Legend (3rd Grade NoName)]
[Comments]
– What is this 1 minute ago uploaded video? Algorithm ㄷㄷ
– (2:43) NoName’s laughter sound
└ Who are you watching this 2 minutes in already?
└ Wow, legendary legendary legendaryㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ V-tube algorithm, is he a god?
– NoName laughs like a babyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Listening to this, I thought I was having a heart attack
└ Someone make a 24-hour version already!
– Why does this have to end…?
└ Give me more! If you don’t have more, make it!
– Human Mario NoName
└ The double jump is creatively doneㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
– (1:39) Taegeukgi
└ Ooooh
└ Wowwwww~
– Can I see Na-me if I go to the academy now? Pleaseㅠㅠㅠ
└ Yeah, they say they’re having a meeting at the police station~
– Turn on the live feed with NoName immediately. This is blackmail.
└ By all graduates of Altair Academy
└ They still haven’t come to their sensesㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Sephiron Academy Elementary Division Sports Day Relay Live][872 viewers online]
[Real-time chat]
– Whoa, what’s going on?
– You said you’d turn it on, and you really turned it on?
– Students’ council having a great time, haha.
– (Manager): This is the teacher’s account from the academy.
– Oh
– Teacher, hurry up and show us Na-me! I’m getting dizzy from waiting!
– I bet Na-me’s super excited to crush the relay raceㅋㅋ
The black screen faded.
Under the bright sunlight, hundreds of students were gathered in a circle around the track.
In the middle were the participants in the relay race.
Six grades, 24 classes.
The Blue Team had 12 members, and the White Team had 12, competing in a 5km race across the sports field with 12 laps.
They showed the serious expressions of elementary students warming up one by one.
In particular, the last member of the Blue Team, a 6th-grade male student, looked one head taller than the teacher.
“Wow, that physical… drool”
“How is this a 6th grader…?”
“Is he nearly 190 cm tall? Isn’t that imbalanced?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ”
“When others take two or three steps, he probably leaps in one stepㅋㅋㅋ”
The much-anticipated White Team was determined for victory as much as the Blue Team.
After various competitions, the scores were closely matched.
In the end, this relay race would determine the outcome.
Clack!
Clank!
The golden bracelets and anklets rattled with every jump the higher grade students took.
“What are those?”
“Looks like magical tools.”
“Weights?”
Hearing their questions, the teacher behind the camera answered.
“These are magical tools with built-in parachute shapes. Each time you use Aura, a small parachute opens behind you. Like this.”
As the teacher shook a golden ring from his pocket, a transparent parachute fluttered open.
Being an academy, they didn’t ban the use of Aura but intended to impose a slight penalty.
Thus, each participant had to strategize when and where to use their Aura.
“If you wear too many, wouldn’t it be a penalty by its weight? It’s already heavy enough.”
“Why isn’t the mana zeroing out? Is it broken?”
Na-me’s voice could be heard from behind the camera.
Finally, the academy’s superstar came into view.
“If you total it, those 50g rings end up being 2kg. That’s already a tenth of my weight.”
“I see. Since it’s a delicate product, I hope you don’t break it.”
“Yes, yes.”
Na-me wore 10 rings on both arms and legs, coming out with a total of 40 rings.
– Is she Cleopatra?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
– NoName is a new skin!
– At first, I thought it was some arm sleevesㅋㅋ
– This is outrageous, teachers!
– NoName discrimination ban!
– Just running looks tough enough!
– So many internal sabotage forces ㄷㄷ
– Well done, Kim NoName, bring the academy to ruin with your hands.
She was the ace of the White Team, competing as the final runner.
The meaningful smile that hung on her lips disappeared like spring breeze.
