[ Proficiency increased.]
[Basic Swordsmanship - 0.23%]
[Daily Training complete. Reward granted.]
It had been a month since I fell into this place. And about three weeks since I started clinging to that damned Daily Training. That damned Daily Training now counted a sequence of movements as a single movement.
In other words, if I did a hundred downward slashes and then a hundred horizontal slashes, my Proficiency did not increase by 0.02%. It increased by 0.01%.
Think that's too much? So do I, fuck.
But there was no administrator I could complain to about this. All I could do was curse my ass off and keep going.
'I never want that Penalty again, even if it kills me.'
I had no memory of what happened when I received the Penalty, but the fear had been driven deep into me at the level of instinct.
My body had become incapable of refusing.
Still, there were a few things I had learned in depth about this Daily Training.
First, the completion reward worked exactly as I had initially thought. I could leave just one repetition unfinished, then complete it anytime within the same day to trigger the reward. That was a relief.
Second, I did not necessarily have to split the training into sets of a hundred. I could alternate between the two movements one at a time until I filled the quota. Or I could divide it however I wanted, like 50, 100, 50. As long as I completed the assigned amount, it counted. However, mixing in a different movement made it invalid.
Anyway, after doing this for nearly three weeks, I had gotten used to it. Now three hours was enough to complete all two hundred repetitions.
FLASH-
[Daily Training complete. Reward granted.]
I had finished today's training.
I no longer collapsed onto the floor in an unsightly heap.
After lightly wiping away my sweat, I saw a welcome notification.
[Favorites Change Notification]
[34->35]
[LIFE TIME : 34 months->35 months]
The number of Favorites that had once been racing toward zero had climbed back up to 35. In other words, one way or another, I could now survive until Grasco fell thirty-five months from now. I could feel that I had gained a fair amount of breathing room.
'If my Favorites keep increasing, will the fall be delayed too?'
Lucas's death was caused by the fall of Grasco. If that could be delayed, perhaps I could survive a little longer. I let myself hold on to that vague hope.
[Favorites Change Notification]
[35->36]
Right on cue, my number of Favorites increased again.
[Favorites count has exceeded the first event start date.]
But instead of the usual [LIFE TIME] notification, something unfamiliar appeared. I had no good memories associated with new notifications, so my wariness surged.
As if mocking my caution, another notification appeared.
[System overhaul begins.]
[23:59:59]
'Twenty-four hours.'
Watching the countdown fall one second at a time made me increasingly uneasy for no reason. I had a strong feeling that once that timer reached zero, I would somehow be the one forced to suffer.
***
"Dad! I want to go to school!"
"What? Where?"
"School!"
"No, what school would you even......"
The boy held out Grasco's admissions guidelines to his puzzled father.
"I want to try going here."
His finger was pointing directly at Lucas's new class.
"Hmm...... Eilon? That's part of the Combat Studies Department."
"Still!"
"Haaah......"
Eilon's father fell into deep thought.
It was not because he lacked the money to send his son to school. He was the head of the Dusk Family, the wealthiest family on the continent.
The problem was the department his son wanted to enter.
The new class Professor Lucas was said to be creating.
Since it was a course opened by the Hero of the Eastern Front, naturally it would belong to the Combat Studies Department.
"Eilon. That place will be extremely demanding physically. More than you can easily endure."
He spoke with difficulty as he held his son's bony hand.
Eilon suffered from an incurable congenital disease that prevented him from building muscle. Fortunately, it was not life-threatening, and he had never shown much interest in physical activity anyway. Since he loved magic engineering, the condition had not affected his daily life to any serious degree.
But this class would be different.
Physical activity would be at its core, and Eilon would inevitably taste frustration because of his physical limitations. Knowing the reality this positive child would eventually face weighed heavily on his father's heart.
"It's okay, Dad. I can handle all of it. Look here. It says there are no application requirements! Then maybe I'll be fine too, right?"
"Eilon......"
Yes. It was a reality the boy would have to run into at least once sooner or later.
He decided to support his son.
And Eilon would probably be filtered out during the interview anyway. Even the experience of failure would help make his son stronger.
"Very well. I permit it. But even if the result is not what you hope for, you must accept it."
"Okay!"
"And one extra kiss every day."
"Umm......"
He had deliberately made the condition the physical affection his son hated most, but after thinking for a moment, Eilon nodded.
"Fine. That's nothing. I'm going to Grasco!"
***
Ermel, the land of knights.
And Athlon, the prestigious family that represented Ermel.
Its first family head, Trion Athlon, had been the greatest contributor to turning the Duchy of Ermel into a kingdom. After him, the family continued producing Master-class knights generation after generation, firmly establishing itself as a prestigious house of swordsmanship.
And once again, a genius had been born into that family.
Jesse Athlon.
He had first gripped a sword at the age of five.
At eight, he defeated opponents twice his age.
He was the treasure of Ermel, a boy considered certain to reach the realm of a Master before turning thirty.
From a young age, he had grown under the full support of Kadein, Ermel's academy.
Naturally, everyone assumed he would enroll at Kadein, and no one doubted that he would one day bring glory to its name.
"I'm going to Grasco."
But the genius chose Grasco.
He had happened to hear about Lucas, the Hero of the Eastern Front.
And about the exclusive class that Lucas was supposedly creating.
"Is there even anything for me to learn at Kadein? Everyone there is far below me. I want to learn from the best. Professor Lucas is qualified."
The confident young genius's choice was entirely rational.
He had already mastered Kadein's curriculum from a young age, and by now even Kadein's graduating students could not reach the tips of his feet.
Jesse pursued strength, and Kadein could no longer contain him.
Perhaps Lucas could.
Naturally, Kadein protested fiercely, but all the support they had given him had only ever been a matter of 'goodwill.' They had never signed a contract. They had simply volunteered their support while dreaming of what they had assumed was an inevitable future.
It was as though they had cooked the porridge only to feed it to a dog, but what could they do? Jesse Athlon was no child of an ordinary family. He was the direct heir of the Athlon Family.
They had no choice but to watch their finest talent be taken away before their very eyes.
"Hey, Torres. You're coming too."
"Eh...... m-me too?"
"There won't be anyone there to wait on me! If you fail...... want to die?"
"B-but......"
"Talking back? Hah. Looks like our training has been seriously lacking all this time. Right? Grab a wooden sword and follow me."
"Y-Young Master...... I-I'm sorry. M-mercy......"
"Y-Young Master...... Ugh. Stuttering bastard."
And so his punching bag headed for Grasco as well.
***
"Hmm......"
Ronald had expected it, but Lucas's name had become an enormous advertisement.
Not even two days had passed since applications opened, yet the number of prospective students had already surpassed three times the usual amount.
It had certainly created more work, but he could not deny that the thought of separating the gems from the stones already filled him with satisfaction.
'Let's see. The heir to the Magic Tower? Oh, how novel. Next is...... oh, someone from the Athlon Family applied too! Wait, Jesse Athlon? Isn't that the prodigy?!'
The applicants were remarkable.
There was an heir to the Magic Tower, and even the prodigy of neighboring Ermel had come knocking on Grasco's doors.
Ronald forgot his dignity and laughed heartily.
The thought of raising these treasures under Grasco's name brought a smile to his face.
Among them, the child of the Dusk Family, the greatest merchant house on the continent, also stood out.
"My, my. I need to be careful with this one. I should make it perfectly clear."
Applicants of this sort had to be handled carefully.
They might be aiming for admission through donations.
Grasco had to remain a cradle of talent above all else.
No one unworthy of Grasco's name could be allowed to use money to stand behind that name.
"I'll set this child aside separately......"
In cases like this, they set the applications aside and replied to them all at once.
It was to make perfectly clear that there would be no donation-based admissions.
Ordinarily, this type of applicant was uncommon, but this year there were far too many. The Dusk Family was the most prominent example, and there were countless children from other wealthy merchant houses as well. Enough that Ronald needed a separate pile for them.
Ronald's hands moved busily as he sorted the applications.
Yet he did not treat a single one carelessly.
Then, when he picked up one particular application, his expression briefly turned distant.
Like someone caught in a hallucination.
The name of the 'shadow' was clearly written on the application.
***
[00:00:01]
[System overhaul complete.]
'Something big's coming.'
After waiting an entire day, the so-called system overhaul was finally finished.
I had been so tense that I could barely sleep...... Ah, I was already bad at sleeping in the first place.
Anyway, I still could not sleep properly.
I had killed some time with Daily Training while I waited, but that had not come close to filling the whole day.
In any case, the long, long wait was finally over.
I intended to watch closely and see exactly how much the system had changed after making such a huge fuss about it.
[Favorites beyond the first event's start date, along with Recommendations and Comments, will be combined and awarded as 'Points'.]
['Points' can be used in the Gold Shop.]
[Settlement begins.]
[Favorites Increase +5]
[New Recommendations +12]
[New Comments +2]
Right. I had expected that Grasco's fall would not actually be delayed.
But the appearance of a new currency was somewhat unexpected.
The only way to obtain the main currency used in the Gold Shop was through reader support.
To be frank, getting support was much harder than increasing Favorites, receiving Recommendations, or getting Comments. Naturally, Gold was difficult to obtain, and the prices were so insanely high that I could hardly even consider making proper use of the shop.
But with this newly introduced concept of 'Points,' the burden should be reduced somewhat.
Of course, Points would not be easy to earn either, but surely they would be better than Gold.
......I repent for having been so naive.
Gold and Points were completely different things.
Different enough to be classified into entirely separate categories.
I had reasonably expected to be able to exchange them at something like a 10:1 ratio.
But that was not how it worked at all.
The things I could buy with Points and the things I could buy with Gold were completely different.
'Still, maybe this isn't bad......?'
The reason I could not quite decide was-
-Strength +1 10P
-Agility +1 10P
-Intelligence +1 10P
.
.
.
Points could only be used to buy Stats.
And the damn things charged a whole 10P each.
In other words, if I wanted to raise Strength by 1, I needed my Favorites to increase by ten, or receive ten Comments, or get ten Recommendations.
I have never received those kinds of Comment or Recommendation numbers in my life.
Ah, excluding the hate comments on my completion notices, of course.
Anyway, aside from basic Stats like those, I could also buy all sorts of minor Stats such as Cleanliness, Elegance, and Dignity, as well as height, weight, and even penis size.
"No, why the hell do they even sell something like this?"
[Purchased Girth Increase +1.]
Thanks.