Hell Difficulty Tutorial
Chapter 606 – Helping

Today is my sixth day in the Academy, and so far it’s been uneventful. There is nothing on my schedule, and I don’t even know what Assistant Professors generally do in their free time. I bet it is something like socializing.

Losers.

Anyway, locking myself in my room and checking the Community every so often turns out to be a fun way to pass the time. Even though I almost went to the library with Min-Jae, who’s been spending his free time locked up there. I just hope he’s not just reading some spicy novels instead of gathering knowledge that could be useful to him.

Well, it’s not as if he’s not old enough to do whatever he wants. He’ll just have to deal with the consequences if Tess or I decide that he’s gotten too weak. In that case, we’d have to put him through some extra training to get him caught up.

An interesting event is scheduled to occur on the seventh day, which is tomorrow. That is when one of this planet’s Champions will visit the Academy to give a short lesson.

Apparently, he’s an alumnus of this Academy, so he does it once in a while, whenever he feels like it. Normally, if you wanted to entice anyone even close to the rank of Champion, you’d actually have to be able to offer them something truly tempting. Cool items, knowledge, connections. So it’s pretty strange for him to be doing this all for free.

So, of course, I intend to go tomorrow if only to check him out. His lesson is set to take place approximately six hours before my third session of helping Elian with his lessons, so I should have plenty of free time.

Annoyingly enough, though, I don’t think I’m the only one interested, and it is highly likely that most of the Academy will try to attend.

Damn, maybe getting personalized lessons from Sandra the Cockroach was actually pretty valuable. Just from hearing the other Assistant Professors talk, I bet they would sell their Mana Hearts just for a chance to talk with the Champion, “only” for a few minutes.

They talk like the Champion walks on molten gold. You’d think the guy cured mana poisoning with his tears or something. One Assistant Professor even got misty eyed describing a battle he’d never seen but swore was “life-changing.” It’s honestly kind of creepy. There’s the desperate reverence in their tone, like they’d auction off their lineage just to shake the guy’s hand. Some of them probably would.

Or as Dennis has said in the Community, “They would sell their own balls just to be able to sniff the air in a room the Champion farted in.”

Where did it go wrong with the twins, and why on earth did Izzy laugh so much at that? Has she reached the age where she appreciates lame jokes? Sophie should be worried enough to do something about that. I will observe the results of her attempts and take inspiration for how to deal with my minion when she reaches that age.

But as odd as it sounds, Dennis isn’t really wrong. Champions here are treated as the highest grade celebrities, the best athletes, the richest people, and God knows what else, all combined into one to demonstrate the prestige of these titles.

Then there’s the fact that they represent the greatest tactical weapons in each country’s arsenal. A weapon that can, in hours, or even minutes, be anywhere on the planet and cause incredible damage, while even attempting to stop them will only cause more damage.

The others talk about it a lot in the Community, that if a weapon that is a Champion were to be used to its full potential, millions would die at the very least, either in the attempts to stop them or in some desperate act of revenge.

There’s only one being on this planet capable of reigning them in: an Absolute, capable of shutting down any given Champion and punishing the nation they came from. There are rules that even Champions obey, and the Absolute is the undisputed top dog here.

Though I think a powerful Champion could cause plenty of damage in just a few seconds or minutes, even before the Absolute reacts. A powerful Champion might even cause some damage to the Absolute, but the current consensus is that this planet’s Absolute is way too strong for any such attempt to be worth it.

I also wonder: what would happen if multiple Champions joined forces? What if a Champion challenged the Absolute for the spot? What advantage does having the title of Absolute give you? Tess has a few theories, based on the knowledge we’ve collected over the last six days, that the title of Absolute brings an assortment of benefits, but this information is not freely available. So, of course, we don't know what they may be.

Their overall strategy for avoiding a constant state of war seems to be focused on balancing power and culling any Champions who could pose a threat: those who are too maniacal or unwilling to follow the stated rules are therefore killed by the others to prevent greater trouble, sometimes even before they officially become Champions. Along with the constant displays of power, there’s also no end of careful politicking, and saber rattling rather than open combat, with Champions as the primary deterrents.

It is fun to think about all these scenarios and imagine how I would react in different roles: as a chump from a country whose Champion nuked a neighboring city, as a Champion plotting to kill the Absolute, or as the Absolute trying to slack off while being annoyed by these pests.

There is also a bit more information about some kind of weapon the Absolute left behind for someone. Apparently, it could’ve easily fallen into the hands of a Champion, but it could just as easily have ended up with some random servant. Min-Jae, it would seem, discovered this in the library. Apparently, the weapon has been passed around for the past 100 years. There have apparently been several wars waged over it, and it’s already killed two Champions: one 30 years ago and another 45 years ago.

Its description is nowhere to be found; just a rumor that there’s a set of rules that must be followed when it comes to its use and that it’s connected to some kind of web or array that the Absolute placed around the entire planet.

This planet’s Absolute seems like a total weirdo, and we’re still not sure how much we can trust the rumors circulating around the Academy. Teenagers are not exactly the most reliable source of information, in my opinion.

Sitting at my new spot, since Ari has found my previous one, and Izzy finds me anyway. I’ll have to check again later how she’s able to trace people by the "emotional wavelength" they give off, since I haven’t sensed anything myself.

This spot is also in one of the smaller gardens, between a set of trees that emit a pleasant scent and have a kind of exotic look to them, not unlike the so-called dragon trees we have on Earth.

As Izzy sits next to me, and Noodle slithers out of her sleeve and moves towards me, expanding until he’s about as thick as my arm, then politely waits. He even nods in greeting.

Biting into my sandwich again, which this time tastes like it has chicken meat, I create two mana orbs made of a mix I know Noodle enjoys and send them to him.

“Did you know that before being let into the Academy, you have to pass tests and prove you can control your powers enough not to kill students by mistake?” Izzy asks out of nowhere.

“First time hearing it.”

“It’s true. And we, the attendees, are the only people in the Academy who entered without those tests. Some attendees could easily end up there, kill a bunch of students by mistake, and spend the rest of the tutorial in prison on this floor or fail the quest to locate and protect the Candidate,” she says seriously.

“If you’re that bad at controlling your powers, you kind of deserve it.”

Izzy seems to contemplate this and then nods once. “Maybe. By the way, my class will be getting a transfer student in a few days.”

“Why are you telling me? Do you suspect it’s going to be the Ruler Candidate?”

“I don’t know. They say she’s incredibly talented and that she’s almost level 350 at only ten years old.”

"That is surprising. Reaching such a high level... For us, it is possible because of the tutorial and everything, but for a random girl?"

“I know, right? I have noticed that some of my professors seem to be scared of her anytime she’s mentioned. It’s hard to explain; it wasn’t even that they thought she might kill them, it’s something else, perhaps her potential, or something about her background? The Professors might know more than we do, and Sophie’s been looking into it.”

“Sounds good. Found anything on Ari, Kays, or Tyven?”

“Not that much. Tess and Sophie did manage to dig up a bit, but Ari is possibly one of the best talents here at the moment, and no one knows what family she’s from or how she got in here. Kays is from a family closely tied to a Champion and has a rare skill, and Tyven is also unknown but spends a lot of time in the library. Min-Jae says he’s seen him around a few times and even talked to him. He seems like a quiet guy. Why didn’t you ask the others in the Community and instead asked someone to meet you and share the information in person?”

“I barely have any time left for today and am almost out of my Community daily limit.”

“Didn’t our daily limit go up when we completed the 7th floor? What did you do?”

“What do you mean, what did I do? I, just out of curiosity, joined the Hard difficulty Community, and there are some guys also on their version of the 8th floor, so I spoke to them a bit.”

“It’s pretty unusual for you to talk to people. Let me check!” Izzy looks at the screen in front of her and takes a moment to, I assume, read through the Community. She does this for exactly one minute before she stops and turns to me.

“What?” I ask. “Why are you giving me that look?”

“Nat, did you spend most of your daily limit going over the history of conversation they had about their floor and their version of the Academy, picking apart what they wrote, and trashing their use of "mana sciency bullshit terms"?’”

“Yup.”

“But why?”

“I was helping.”

Izzy looks at the screen and reads again, directly quoting what I wrote, “I’ve read cult manifestos that made more sense than what you just wrote.”

She glances at me again, and I remain silent.

Izzy continues to quote me, “You wrote a 12-paragraph post to say ‘I think magic goes boom and then it goes boom.’”

She gives me another look, and I keep silent.

“Just say you don’t know how it works instead of inventing the ‘Mana Thermal Rebound Loop.’”

This time I say, “That one was really egregious; even Elian wouldn’t say such nonsense.”

“If I had a mana point for every time someone used the word ‘resonance’ without knowing what it means, I’d be a Champion by now,” she reads.

“It’s true,” I defend myself.

“I’m convinced some of you are just rearranging words until they sound magical.” She gives me another look. “Wasn’t that harsh?”

“I’m helping.”

“Sure you are. So what is this: ‘This isn’t a mana hypothesis. It’s fanfiction with equations.’”

“Okay, that one may have actually been rude, but I apologized and offered the guy some advice when we meet during the third tournament. He was very happy and even thanked me.”

Izzy sighs, “And this one? ‘Here’s my feedback: Don’t.’”

“Oh! Here, I strongly disagree with you! That crazy girl wanted to make a permanent modification to her mana flow after saying she thought I had done something similar. I saved her life.”

Izzy eventually stops reading and just says with a big smile, “Just don’t get banned,” before heading off with Noodle after she gives me a quick hug.

I finish what’s left of my sandwich and glance at the timer for a moment before closing the window.

The wind moves through the garden, and I close my eyes for a moment to enjoy the scents it carries.

Maybe tomorrow will offer something less idiotic than the “Mana Thermal Rebound Loop”. Maybe not.