Haroon

《A threat》

 It was the afternoon of 30th day of sword training.

"We are finishing the sword training now," said trainer Renny.

 She looked over the trainees with a mixture of emotions. She had all the attention from the trainees, with all their admiration.

  "As a Chief instructor of swordsmanship, I have never seen good trainees like you before. I"m proud of how you followed our training well, and it was worthwhile to lead you to the way of swordsmanship. But I also feel bad about not being able to be with you anymore. The other sword trainers probably feel the same," said Renny.

  The trainers" face was proving her words.

  "And now, your course is reaching the last stage as well. The efforts you made during sword training course will be rewarded with the free time of this afternoon, and the new training shall begin tomorrow. For the next month, you will be learning some knowledge that you will need to know as a mercenary, including various weapon skills. If you want, you can continue training swordsmanship as well. This month has the most course in schedule, but since you can choose which one to learn, this month would be both mentally and physically relaxing time."

  Trainees couldn"t hide smile on their face hearing her words. The training were very helpful, and they did try really hard, but they were exhausted from it. They would have give up already if they were training alone.

  "Magicians will be allowed to take your cuffs off soon, so you will be able to use your mana again. You"ve got only one month to absorb everything you learn, improve what you"ve got, and fill whatever it is needed, so play the time well. There won"t be any more course prepared for you until you become; a specialist, a leader of a mercenary group or a mercenary guild. So use this opportunity well. Again, It was my pleasure to be with you guys."

 The trainees responded with thunderous applause. It was a greeting of bittersweet parting with the training and trainers. The applause didn"t die down for some time, and it moved Renny and the other sword trainers" mind. Though they had to suffer the awkward time because the trainees weren"t allowed to leave their place before they hear detailed explanation of rest of the course.

 With relaxed minds, the trainees grouped themselves to chat. Haroon was sitting at some distance from them. Not because he couldn"t be part of a group, but he just missed the timing as Haroon tried to continue his training and he was stopped by the trainers and Nemion. They persuaded him that he should take a rest at least today.

  "By the way, Are you really not gonna tell us? What kind of magic have you learnt? I"m going nuts, because I can"t help being curious," Nemion asked.

She"s been asking him whenever she gets a chance, and Haroon didn"t try to hide that he was alarmed by it that he couldn"t say anything about it.

 "I see. You still want to be mysterious, don"t you?"
"I will tell you later. It is complicated story."
"Huh! You act like you"ve made an oath of mana."

  Nemion seemed to give up as if she felt sorry for Haroon being alarmed. Haroon felt urgent need of changing the subject. He knew she won"t give up so soon. Gally approached them just in time, because he was more interested in Nemion than Haroon.

 "Hey, Nemi, How did you become an elementalist? Is there a special way to do it?"
"Well, that"s…… a secret."

  Nemion did good job stopping her mouth, and stared at Gally with a strange look. Her face was clearly saying, "Don"t you magicians are famous for not revealing the method of learning unless you do have teacher-student relationship?".

  As soon as Gally mentioned elementalist, Haroon p.r.i.c.ked his ears up not to miss a word. In fact, he was under pressure because he heard The Quad w.a.n.kers are spreading the suspicion of Haroon that he is not a magician. Even though he was crazy about sword training, he could clearly hear those words spreading even in right front of him. So if he could, even if it he is going to use just one time, he wanted to learn at least a spell. So Gally mentioning elementalism, Haroon couldn"t tear his interest away.

  "I just want to know the general things about it, not details. You know, I do have a friend who is a famous elementalist, and I thought I should know about elementalism briefly so……."

  He realized he was being selfish because of the look she just made, and he just made it up to use it as an excuse. But somehow, it seemed to be worked on her. Suspicion was gone away from her face, and the pride rose up to the surface.

  "Hohoho! Why, Yes! And also if you are going to say that I was with you on the basic training course, indeed you"ve got to know more than the others about the elementalist, don"t you?"
"…E…Exactly! That"s what I mean."
"One need to be a born mana-sensitive to be a magician, right? It is same to the elementalists. One need to be born sensitive to at least one of the elements to be a elementalist. By the way, the elements are basically divided into four types.
"Yeah I know that; water, earth, fire and air. But what do you mean by being "sensitive" to those elements?"

 Gally asked again tilting his head. For Haroon, being sensitive to mana was understandable, but being sensitive to the "elements" was very hard description to him as he doesn"t know anything about magic.

  "You don"t need to think it hard, Gally. It is just about understanding the nature, and being a friend with it," answered Nemion.

  She is making it to be seemed easy, but she did know how hard it is. They say mana-sensitive people are born just one or two in a thousand. And it was one in a hundred thousand for being born element-sensitive, so clearly, it wasn"t an easy task.

  "Nature?"
"Yes, THE nature that"s surrounding us. And among those, the most things you could feel the most is the four elements. When you understand them, and be familiar with them, that"s when you become an elementalist."
"You are making it even more complicated."

 They continued chatting about the elemental spirits, and Haroon listen to them watching the ground. They say one will need to be born with spirit force, as known as elemental affinity, but there were some method to identify it.

 One of it is to put four different object that represents each element, and feeling the properties of it, and if one has elemental affinity, they will be able to feel some kind of force, which is not mana, is flowing around the object.

 If one doesn"t have high affinity like Nemion does, there is another method, but it was the harder one. It is contracting with the elemental spirits. To do that, they need to draw a magic circle, but they say if your affinity isn"t high enough, the spirits refuses to contract with them.

 "Good to know." Haroon thought.

 Even though they were just chatting about what they know, those were still very precious information to Haroon. Suddenly, a girl trainee approached to them. She suddenly mocked at Haroon, who was still looking around to see who she came for.

 "Hey 123! Well, I guess I can call you Fake now. You are in a big trouble, aren"t you?" Said the girl.
"Hey, What do you supposed to mean?" Nemion viciously asked back for Haroon.

 The girl turned to Nemion and said,

 "I"m just amazed to see how calm he is, despite that everyone will find out that he is not a magician when he takes his cuffs off. Well, I guess it still will be revealed on the last day anyway, even if he hides it until the end. Then the despicable one who recommended him will be punished too."

 Those words made Haroon have sudden sinking feeling at heart. But Nemion shook her fingers at the girl, snorting with the anger. The gentle Gally seemed to be very angry at her rude words too.

 "Hah, NON-Sense……. Sevona, you haven"t been burned your fingers yet, huh?"
"Hey, calm down and think straight. What if I am saying the truth, and he is revealed to be a fake? I don"t want to see you ruin yourself."

 Nemion couldn"t say anything. Her face went gloomy. She also haven"t heard anything from Haroon too. Speaking of which, it suddenly felt suspicious that Haroon was not fighting back hearing all those conspiracy. Of course, fighting is prohibited, but there was no reason not to fight back. The girl who was called Sevona had high-handed att.i.tude. No one will be able to make that kind of att.i.tude unless they were certain about it.

 Nemion retreated saying nothing.

 Haroon looked at the Sevona. She had impressively strong gaze, and firmly closed mouth. As far as he remember, she was one of the striver. She was always near the top of the trainees in every training. But it was not understandable to see her being hostile to him so suddenly. He and she never talked, nor even greet before. He couldn"t say anything in surprise. Sevona seemed to be more confident of Haroon"s silence.

 "Oh. Are the other trainees seems easy on you now because you got the all the attention, aren"t we? Or am I talking to the wall? Why aren"t you answering?"
"Huh, funny."

 Haroon answered, but he couldn"t say anything more, only smirking.

 "See? I called it."
"Yeah, I did look into his record, but the recommender isn"t recorded clearly. Someone scanned him, and he didn"t have enough mana to be a magician.
"Hohoho, and see how he is muted to Sevona. That makes things certain."
"Funny how he ignored us, and he petrifies in front of Sevona."

 It was The Quad w.a.n.kers.

 These chaps and b.i.t.c.hes probably encouraged Sevona, who had both skills and fame, since they couldn"t do anything to Haroon and Nemion who"s been ignoring them at all.

 Sevona was the daughter of the leader of Bloodmoon mercenary guild. And that guild was the one of the top 10 mercenary guild of The Empire. The Quad w.a.n.kers are also the sons and daughters of the guild leaders, but Sevona was on the another level.

 Eventually, the jealousy and envy that went down to the deep sea of training started floating on the surface as soon as the training finished. This was all because Haroon had improved too much that no one could compare him on the others.

 Trainees are humans too, so it is natural to be grouped by their basis and feel compet.i.tive to the others. The trainees of Building A – the magicians – was the group of people who agreed with their physical incapabilities so they had expectation and supports to Haroon, but this wasn"t the case to the trainees of other buildings.

 Even if he was into the training and labor, Haroon habitually listened carefully on the others talking about different affairs. That"s how he learnt how things work in the mercenary world. If the fact, that he isn"t a magician, is revealed, there were several people who will get in trouble. Even to repay their kindness, he had to hide his ident.i.ty desperately.

 "I don"t see why that"s a concern to you, and I don"t see why I have to answer it because it is too obvious. Just as you said, it will be revealed all later on and why are you so curious about it now?"
"Yikes."
"If you do have time for this, train more and get over me. I think that"s more honorable act. Isn"t it?"

 Sevona cringed her eyes and snorted. Sevona seemed to be upset about that Haroon is maintaining to be calm. But soon, her expression changed into somewhat ambiguous.

 "Bluff all you want, but that doesn"t make you a magician. There is no magician having mana just about a normal people does. Moreover, it is more strange to see a magician with that much physical ability. I ain"t sure who"s recommendation you"ve got, but we have our eyes on you so act well. No mercenary guilds are kind enough to accept people hiding their ident.i.ty."

 Leaving those words, she turned back smiling and went to the group who were waiting for her. The Quad w.a.n.kers surrounded her as if they became her subordinates, and walked away bossing around.

 "Haroon, never mind them. The are just jealous of your magnificent improvement. Well, there was not a magician showing that much physical ability. Also, there is a rumour that the trainers already have decided to give you the t.i.tle of the top trainee, so having a few trainees being jealous of you cannot be avoided. But really, where are you from? Why are you not telling us? I"m curious of it too."
"I…… promised not to tell anyone about it."

 Haroon couldn"t help but to lie. Well, it was not a lie to be precise. He promised with McKin to maintain silence about his ident.i.ty. Fortunately, Gally didn"t even doubt Haroon"s ident.i.ty as a magician, unlike Nemion who couldn"t stop watching Sevona heading her room.

"You didn"t swear an Oath of Mana, right?"
"How did you……."

 He didn"t even know what that was, but Nemion has once mentioned it, so he raised his voice as if he was surprised.

 "Oh G.o.d! You did. For what reason did you do that for that minor thing? Don"t tell me you didn"t know you will lose all of your mana if you break it. You should have thought before you do it."

"So that"s why……."

 Gally"s word brightened Nemion"s face a bit. Haroon could see Nemion was making "I"m sorry" face. Seeing those eyes, he let a sigh of relief in his mind. It was fortunate that Gally jumped to a quick conclusion, which prevented the worst scenario, but it was impending. If the truth is revealed, it would be a giant scar to both Gally and Nemion, who both were pure and kind.

 "Well, you can always show your real magical ability on the talent show scheduled on the last day, so don"t mind the rumors. I can"t wait to see what kind of face they will make seeing your magic."
"Su, Sure, yeah."

 Haroon couldn"t feel more guilty saying that.

 He thought all he will do is training, but he couldn"t avoid being a member of group and making relationships. As soon as the truth comes out to the surface, Elser and McKin will get in trouble for expediently admitting him in.

"And it is too late to say he was able to join only because there was only one room available in building A"

 Only if that cornered room wasn"t famous for decades for being haunted. Only if that room wasn"t available that McKin and Elser wasn"t able to put him in the course.

"d.a.m.n it!" he couldn"t help but to curse.

 As soon as the the labor was done, he came back to his room and locked the door to logout. He was free at that time, so he was going to learn the basic of magic with Bell"s help.

 When he came back to the real life, twin-tailed Bell welcomed him. The cute face brightened as if she felt longing for the reunion. He was careless not being back for a month, though it was a game time.

"Bell, how has it been?"
– "Nothing much, Captain!"

 Nothing much, no doubt. Haroon didn"t have any friend after all, except Jinsoo living in the next door, but he is probably busy with Beyond as well.

 "Maybe I should pay him a visit," he thought.

 Jinsoo was seeking to find a career as a dark gamer, so he might be a great help giving him user"s info that Bell might not be able to find. But he was too shy to bother him in the middle of gaming. Haroon thought for a moment, and went back into the capsule again.

 "Bell, would you gather some info about magic?"
– "Yes, Captain."
"Focus on how Beyond magicians learn the magic."
– "Yes, Captain, but…"

 Bell hesitated for some reason. She made weird expression on her face.

 "Why? Is something wrong?"
– "Well……. Are you… really the Captain? More than that…… you st…stink."

After looking up and down at him, Bell held her nose with her hands.

"What about me? And what do you mean I stink? I don"t smell anyth-ugh! What on….Union!"

 He found his body was covered in pile of dirt, and then he could smell the foul smell. It could be compared to the garbage dump he go every day. As soon as he sense the smell, he held his nose with his hands without realizing he was.

 – "Take a shower first. I will get the information ready."
"Thanks."

 Haroon charged to the gap between the capsule and the cover which just started opening. Haroon couldn"t face Bell directly.

"d.a.m.n it!"

 Even though she isn"t a human being, it was still an embarra.s.sing moment. Being naked didn"t matter much as he thought she is very young, but this was completely different affair. He was too embarra.s.sed to notice that Bell can smell things. He sat in the bathtub which just started filling. He did take shower every day, but he wasn"t him when he came back to his room after the hard training. So he"s been washing his body briefly with water, and this was the result. He took an hour in the bathtub washing the dirts away to be confident enough to stand in front of mirror.

"Oh……Oh? Who are you?"

 There was stranger in the mirror. He was numbed for moment. Who am I and what am I was the only the words he could think of. He paid close attention to the face. Cold eyes, double eyelids only on one eye, high nose….

"Oh, it"s me!"

 It was.

 The man in the mirror was himself. His skeleton-like body has changed so much. His cheekbones still stood out a bit, but he gained some weight enough to be considered handsome-ish. Also, he saw his body was covered with small but dense muscles. It was very unfamiliar look, but it was clearly him. He couldn"t believe how such a tall, thin skeleton can changed into the man in the mirror just in 2 months in game time. This was the result of training day and night.

"Huhuhu, That"s pretty cool."

 Haroon liked himself reflected on the mirror. He hasn"t been caring much about his outlook. He actually gave up making a good image of him since he thought his look was too bad to be improved. But the present look of him was quite manly, even to his own eyes.

 "So my in-game character"s change does work on my actual body. Then how about strength?"

 As soon as he gets out of the bathroom, he looked for a heaviest object in his house. That was the refrigerator. Even with Human"s technology, they couldn"t make it more compact or any lighter, so the fridge was still too heavy for an average man to lift alone. Moreover, the fridge was 2.5 m high. Lifting it with bare hands was nowhere near enough for a normal man.

 Haroon, however, smiled after bending his arms. He was confident of being able to lift it. He even lifted the boulder as big as his entire body before. There were some boulders that was too heavy, but he was able to lift them all at the end.

 Haroon hugged the fridge and put strength on the muscles. It wasn"t light, but it was easily lifted. The weight he could feel with his arms were so different now than before he play the game.

 "Huh…..Huh….." He lost word, but soon, he laughed with joy so hard that he could blew the house away.
"Ahahaha! HAHAHA!"

 He couldn"t believe even after he checked his own body. It only has been 20 days in real life, and his body gained unbelievable strength. After leaving the fridge alone, he looked for a heavier object, and he found one. It was Bell, the capsule that two healthy workers barely carried in. It might be too heavy for him as well.

 When he put his strength on his arms, the arm muscle got big as if it was going to burst. The longer side of capsule started lifting even though he didn"t put much strength. When he put more strength, the capsule lifted up high in the air. And he still had more strength to spare. As some evidences, he wasn"t sweating, nor his veins were popping out of his neck. He didn"t even have any problem moving it around.

 "YEEESSSS!!" He joyfully screamed, carefully moving the capsule down to the ground.

 He was so glad that he couldn"t help but to whistle, and he rushed into the capsule.

 – "Oh my, who is this?" Bell asked with surprised look as if she never met him before.
"Haha! Come on, forget what you saw earlier, blow it all the way to the Andromeda."
– "I must say you became so handsome, Captain."

 Bell"s eyes were in dreamy mood. It was quite same to those girls falling to the handsome boy group band. Haroon recalled Bell saying she would learn a lot of the world when he isn"t around. She probably watched too much TV drama shows.

 "Where did this little girl learned that kind of thing……." he thought.
– "By the way, Captain, I sensed the hardware was lifted by some kind of force. What was it?"

 Bell wasn"t asking because she didn"t knew. She is the capsule after all. She was flattering.

"Hahaha! You sneaky, you are so cute."

 Haroon felt special bond with her even though she is just an image. He thought it would be really happy to have a sister like her.

"Bell, call me Oppa instead of Captain or Haroon. Got it, Bell?"
– ""Oppa", you said?"

 Bell has been popping out her cheeks, and his sudden request widen her eyes.

 "You know I"m an orphan, right? I want you to be my little sister from now on."
– "But Captain…. Is Captain…."
"What does the t.i.tle matter? Anyway, call me Oppa from now on."
– "Why……. Yes!"

 She hesitated for a bit, but she answered with most loud voice she ever made. She was blushing too.

"What an amazing A.I she is, I really cannot tell a difference from a human being.

 Seeing how Bell acts, Haroon never could admit that she is the capsule. Rather than suffering from the confusion, he thought it would be better to think her as a younger sister instead.

"And show me what you"ve collected."
– "OK, Oppa."

 Bell"s ability was really amazing. It didn"t take long for her to collect and a.n.a.lyze thousands of information. What she has collected were thicker than his finger.

 "Amazing!" he thought.

 – "Oppa, Do you want me to read it for you or do you want me to tell you the summary of it?", Bell asked with silly smile on her face.

 "Huh? You can even summarize that? That much information?"
– "Sure. I might look young to you but I am hyperconscious A.I, remember?"

 He didn"t know much about her ability, but he could tell that she had great confidence. As Haroon remained silence, Bell a.s.sumed it to be "yes", and started briefing about being a magician.

 – "You have to be at least level 10 to be a magician, which is the level you can get into a cla.s.s. If you gain enough Soul Point, you may be friend with NPC magicians including Elfs, or grant access to a spell book of one of the tower of magic you want. Note that any type of magic would learn same spell until you reach 3 circle.
"Which means I can be a magician!"

 Haroon was glad to hear that he can be a magician. Which means he won"t trouble Elser and McKin.

 – "Theoretically, Yes. But you are in the middle of training course, and Metropolis doesn"t have a place for cla.s.s advancement."
"Right, d.a.m.n it."

 He didn"t think of it. To get into a cla.s.s, he needed to go to certain places. It was the "kind" rule that Necomwall intended to allow users to gain enough Soul Point and ability on the way to the job advancement site.

 – "Well, you may learn a spell using a spell book but there are some problems. Number one, you are not allowed to leave the academy. Two, even if you ask someone to get it for you, you don"t have any money to buy a spell book."
"Spell book? How much does it cost?
– "1 Circle spell book costs 10 to 50 gold."
"In h.e.l.l!"

 He didn"t thought that just a book would cost that much.

"How about the exchange rate, Bell?"

 He didn"t have much money too, as it was an emergency situation, he even considered using his real money.

– "It just went over $100 per one gold."
"So one silver is one dollar. And even the cheapest spell book would be $1000."
– "Right, and no. Even if you want to buy money, it is impossible to collect that much. The average user"s level are too low for hunting or cla.s.s advancement, which is the basic source of learning money."

 She may be right. Thinking how the top player was only level 9, and the fact that it takes about 2 to 3 weeks to the job advancement cities by walking, according to the announcement made once ago, not many players would have get a cla.s.s yet.

– "There are still more problems even they did. Since Beyond seek for the another reality, item drop rate or quest success rate is good to be called "none" compared to other games."

 Haroon smacked his lips feeling unfortunate. But that was the also the reason why Beyond suited more gamer"s taste. Unlike the ordinary games where one could master in few month, or few years, the real fun of levelling up with putting incomparably much more effort has pressed down the complains and unkindness of the game system.

 – "Not many items are released yet, and most of the users started in remote village, so economy hasn"t been active yet. So the exchange rate became $100 per 1 gold, $1 per 1 silver, but trading isn"t really active yet."
"What should I do then? This is driving me nuts."

 The point is that there isn"t much money available. It wouldn"t much matter if he could buy gold from the NPC society, whereas the levelling speed was too slow that user"s were not capable of earning any money yet.

 Money exchange can be made at Necomwall"s official exchange site. But they don"t trade real money to gold, they only trade gold into money. This is mainly because Necomwall concerned real life"s economy affecting the game, so they decided to offer one-direction exchange. Trading item didn"t matter. Although there just wasn"t so many resources to make trade between users just yet. If it was the other games, the active movements of Dark Gamers would have made the trade very active, but the system preventing real money to interfere the game didn"t allow that to happen so fast. Instead, Dark Gamers were focusing on levelling up.

 – "There is another problem, Oppa. In beyond, reading a spell book doesn"t grant you an ability to use magic. There is a system called "Magic Experience". This means you won"t be able to use the spell properly if you don"t gain enough experience by training it. Moreover, just like advanced sword skill books, spell books that has skills over 3 circle cannot be acquired from the tower of magic. It is set to be only obtained from the hunting. It won"t matter if you are lucky enough to meet a great sorcerer as your teacher. Also, note that the statistics so far say that magicians are the most hardest cla.s.s to level up. What it makes even harder is that every gamers are going to train sword skill at low level, and they will still have to go to the cla.s.s advancement site.
"Hmm, Is that so?"

  In Beyond, it would be more weird to see gamers suddenly being able to use a spell right after they get a cla.s.s. That point was very likeable. Beyond was keeping the natural law that nothing can be earned without sweat and effort.

– "Of course, there are some spells that can be learned without any source."
"Really? What is it?"

 Haroon jumped up where he sat. He didn"t have any money to boost him, nor he could leave the academy yet. If he had chance, what Bell will say will be only the chance.

– "Even though not every cla.s.s has been revealed yet, the world of Beyond"s outline is still visible. It is the fantasy world. The almost every common elements of the famous fantasy novels written before the time of Human Calendar is implemented in Beyond. Of course, there is Elementalism."
"Yes, you may be right."

 He didn"t need to look far. His friend Nemion is Elemental magician, as known as Elementalist.

 "But how do I learn it?"
-"That could not be found anywhere. No users has advanced to the Elementalist, at least not in official record. Some people suggests that it might be a hidden cla.s.s, but nothing is revealed yet. If there is a way to be an Elementalist, there is only one way to find it out; your effort."

 Haroon felt miserable at Bell"s word. He recalled the words what Nemion said before he logout, but nothing really could help him.

 "I don"t think I can make it. But for now, please gather the information about the popular fantasy or fusion novels of the Ages of Doom, and a.n.a.lyze the part about the elemental magic."
– "Got it."

 The base of the world of Beyond is probably inspired by the novels he is looking for. Then the method of learning elemental magic, and other kinds of magic would exist in the novel too. He couldn"t think of better move than reading the corresponding part of the novels. It was fortunate to have Bell since he didn"t need to buy e-books or go to library to check it out himself.

 Most of the novels were lost in the war of Doom. So there weren"t so many novels available to him. The first novel Haroon chose was "The War of G.o.ddesses, then and the after" published in 2022.

 The common theme of the novels of that time is that it is easy to read, vicarious, sensationally detailed visual description of the other world. He has read this kind of novel many times, so he looked for the part where elementalism is described. With Bell"s help, he checked several books, but they were not so different. He couldn"t find any more detail than what Nemion said. But he coulnd"t give up there, so he decided to see even minor parts.

 "According to what you a.n.a.lyzed, what is "Affinity with Elemental Spirits"?"
– "It is hard to define what it is. Every author defines it differently, so it is hard to describe, but if I must, It would be the ability or sensing which elemental spirit an object has."
"Which cannot be artificially trained, and needed to be born with it?" Which was what Nemion said. But he needed to confirm.
– "That"s right. Most of the Elementalists presented in Fantasy novels are usually borned to be, like Elfs"
"So, Elementalism might not be related to me, who is an user?" Haroon asked, giving a sigh.
"I…I guess that"s very likely."

 Haroon felt his inner body twitching on Bell"s word. He give a deep sigh and shut his eyes. Another possibility was gone away.

 He looked for more books, but no answers was there. He wasn"t surprised, since "Fantasy" only exists in the human’s imagination.

Haroon logged back into Beyond to get enough sleep.

TL Notes:

I lately realized that Renny is a male character. G.o.d d.a.m.n it I a.s.sumed his gender by his name. Good thing is that, we are not going to see him anymore.