jdhmnovel Chapter 137 : Chapter 137
Chapter 137 : Chapter 137
Chapter 137 : Choice
Navigating through the students filling the amphitheater was like a nightmare for Sal.
He tried to leave as quickly as possible, but his path was blocked by students gathered in small groups here and there, whispering.
The Silver Cohort was no exception.
Sal spotted Josh Mitchell arguing fiercely with Anderson Royce.
Jack was just watching from the side, while Blanid was trying to stop the two from fighting.
As Sal got closer, he could catch a few words and soon grasped the situation.
Josh was trying to open a student-wide vote to overturn the changes Quest had made.
His argument was simple.
Since there were so many Support Class students, they could win if they just gathered the votes.
Sal didn't want to get involved at all, so he signaled Blanid and Jack with his eyes that it wasn't worth listening to.
Blanid smiled, shook her head, then jumped straight into the group and pulled Josh away, who was grabbing Anderson by the collar.
"By any chance... do you know who the Crafter is that cleared a dungeon alone?"
Jack asked playfully from behind.
Sal blinked and winked as if giving a hint.
Jack immediately beamed and clapped his hands.
"As expected, I guessed right! ...But, this means only I should know, right?"
Sal nodded slightly.
Jack gave a playful salute and then jumped back into the fight between Blanid and Josh as if nothing happened.
Sal tried to move forward, but every few steps, other groups blocked the way chattering, preventing him from getting far.
Just as he was considering pushing through people, he heard a whistle from his left.
Wheeet-
Looking back, Barry was waving his hand.
He was climbing up stepping on the seats, ignoring the stairs completely.
Sal laughed, squeezed into the aisle, and followed Barry up towards the top as if it were the path to freedom.
Barry panted as he asked.
"So, what weapon did you decide on?"
Sal almost tripped catching his foot on a seat, but managed to regain his balance stumbling.
Looking up, Barry was so distracted catching his breath that he didn't even notice Sal stumbling.
"Made a gun like you said. A revolver. The functions are quite decent."
Sal paused for a moment before stepping onto the next seat.
Not because it was hard, but because it felt like there must be a more efficient way.
"Don't rack your brain uselessly and just jump over. And you know the gun idea is thanks to me, right? If it weren't for me, you probably wouldn't have even made it. Should I claim a commission?"
Barry panted as he jumped over four more rows at once.
Sal gritted his teeth and started jumping over the seat rows one by one following Barry's advice.
He wasn't keen on climbing up the slope, but a competitive spirit boiled up wanting to catch up to Barry somehow.
Barry looked down, saw Sal had caught up quite a bit, raised the corner of his mouth, and hastened his pace further.
"Not a chance. You can't catch me."
Sal continued to jump up the steps.
At his noisy movements, some students looked at him with absurd expressions.
Barry glanced back and turned his head twice.
"Hey, what's up? Since when did your stamina get so good? Don't tell me you stole someone's skill or something?"
As they neared the top, Barry grumbled and nagged, but Sal didn't pay any attention and held on while regulating his breathing.
Then finally, with three rows left, he overtook Barry.
"Aack!"
Hearing a desperate cry from behind, Sal grinned and turned his head.
But there were only empty seats there.
Looking around, Barry was nowhere to be seen.
Lifting his head, he saw Barry already standing at the top.
"Sorry, Sal. You were so slow I tried to spur you on a bit. Don't tell me you didn't develop an ability to see through optical illusions?"
At Barry's mischievous laugh, Sal sent a look mixed with emptiness and annoyance.
"But... why did you make such a stupid illusion? I just ended up panting for nothing."
As Sal jumped over the last row with drooping shoulders, Barry patted his back encouragingly.
"Honestly, seeing you struggle so much made me feel sorry for you. So I just gave you a little stimulation. Anyway, isn't it freedom now! By the way, about your gun, tell me more details. It's surprisingly interesting."
Sal sighed with resignation.
Barry was helping in his own bizarre way as always.
Walking towards the armory, Sal pointed at his eyes and said.
"I made a pretty cool visor too. It links with the revolver so it was quite useful in the dungeon. I should test if it can penetrate your illusions too."
Barry nodded and said.
"Sounds fun. But what should I choose? I thought about a gun too, but it's not my style... and swords don't really appeal to me either."
The moment Barry twisted his fingers, green runes flashed and a sword appeared in his hand.
He swung it a few times then erased it indifferently.
Sal admired his control over his ability anew.
Seeing Barry looking at him with expectant eyes, Sal shrugged.
"You said you wanted to learn espionage and stealth. Then how about going with an assassin concept and trying something like a dagger?"
When Barry twisted his hand again, a dagger appeared in his hand.
After swinging it for a moment, he soon shook his head.
"Fighting too close up doesn't suit me. I like versatile ones that cover everything from long range to close range."
As if something flashed in his mind, Barry straightened his back and smiled.
The dagger in his hand instantly transformed into a knife.
"Here, how about this?"
When he threw the knife made of illusion, panicked screams erupted successively from the crowd.
"Kyaa-"
"What is it!"
At the unexpected screams, Barry hurriedly came to his senses and withdrew the illusion.
Sal struggled to suppress his laughter seeing students looking around in a flurry.
Barry quickly covered the two of them with an illusion barrier and gritted his teeth.
"Okay, I admit that was a mistake just now. But still, knives seem like a pretty good choice. Can throw them, can fight up close. What do you think?"
After confirming students looking around for the culprit, Barry felt sure they weren't caught and withdrew the barrier.
Sal finally burst into laughter.
"What does my opinion matter. In the end, what's important is what you want."
Barry stiffened his expression, glared at Sal, and spat out.
"Hearing you talk, it sounds like you're saying you won't make the knife I'll use."
Sal cleared his throat and mimicked Barry.
"My name is Barry, master of illusions. Equipment? Don't need it. I'm perfect on my own."
Sal grinned and added.
"If I remember correctly, you really said this."
Barry rolled his eyes and moved towards the armory.
"I never said that. Weapons are essential. So I should have a proper one. The ones you make are the most reliable. Besides, you said you'd make me one before. Why change your tune now? Perhaps... is our friendship not very precious to you?"
Barry put a hand on his chest and made a hurt expression.
Sal chuckled and followed behind him.
That building was one of the five main towers of Quest Academy, but to get to the armory, they had to go down twenty more floors below the Workshop.
Sal glanced at the elevator line and signaled Barry to follow.
Barry, puzzled and tilting his head, only realized the intention when Sal headed towards the freight elevator that transported equipment.
"Hey, are we allowed to use this?"
Barry whispered and hesitated for a moment.
Sal grinned and tapped his Q-Card on the terminal, immediately calling the elevator.
Curious, Barry tried his card too, but only a red light blinked signaling unauthorized access.
Barry stared piercingly at the terminal, then whipped his head around to glare at Sal.
"This is all Mythos Crafter cheating, right?"
Sal smiled seeing the wide elevator revealed as the large panels lifted.
There was no one inside.
It was the perfect situation for Sal.
"Are you going to stand there blankly, or get in?"
At Sal's question, some students noticed he had suddenly called the large elevator and were glancing over.
Barry also followed that gaze and realized the students waiting for the elevator were puzzled.
Far from stepping back gracefully, he abruptly flipped the bird at the students and jumped into the elevator shouting.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Sal finally burst into laughter and pressed the internal terminal to set the destination to the armory.
The panel closed the moment a rush of students' feet gathered on the other side.
Clearly they were intending to get on this elevator too.
"What kind of knife do you want?"
Barry raised his hand creating a new illusion and frowned.
"The picture in my head is clear, but explaining it is ambiguous. Roughly like this."
He created a knife with illusion and threw it.
It lost speed in the air, curved its trajectory, and stuck into the wall.
A moment later, the knife fell from the wall and returned to Barry's palm.
"Is there a skill like this?"
Sal narrowed his brow and asked Barry to demonstrate again.
Watching the scene carefully, he recalled if there was anything similar in his skillset.
The closest was Vila's ability to pull knives out of thin air.
The image of her throwing the Ethos Blade while fighting the Commander variant flashed in his mind.
The problem was he didn't know if that was part of her ability or all of it.
Controlling blade trajectory would be interesting, but Vila seemed to possess abilities beyond that.
Sal sighed and shook his head.
"As far as I know, I can't make a knife like that directly. The most likely guess would be mimicking Vila's ability, but if not, need a Voider Heart as material. That grants manifestation and retrieval abilities. As long as it's within sight, you should be able to pull it out of subspace and call it back to hand."
Sal thought a bit more and shook his head.
"I don't know a way to make the trajectory curve instead of going straight. Unless it's simply correcting accuracy to hit the target."
Barry stared at Sal intently.
"I just showed it as an illusion, and you already calculated the materials needed for implementation? And how do you know what a Voider Heart is?"
Sal shrugged and pointed to his head.
"Years of Appraisal experience, and now have Mythos Crafter ability too. Material and function info is all stored in my head. Chatfield showed me a box full of rare parts. Now I can simulate how it would work if added to the design. Voider Heart was one of the core parts of Vila's Ethos Blade, giving manifestation and retrieval abilities. Though it might be the influence of Gloomhusk Fangs. That was probably for piercing defenses."
Barry whistled and said.
"One thing's for sure, I'm absolutely not using the crappy weapons they give here. You have to make my knife. Doesn't matter if it costs a bit. Sounds pretty cool?"
Sal snorted.
As the door opened revealing the armory, a few students already there looked at them with surprised eyes.
Seeing Divinity standing at the front of the line was a natural sight.
Sal turned to Barry and laughed.
"I'll make your knife. But I'll give it to you right before the Mounted Battle. It would be troublesome if you get too advantageous when teams face off."
Barry burst into laughter stepping out of the elevator.
"You called me the worst, but the real hypocrite was someone else."